primitive christian worship or, the evidence of holy scripture and the church, against the invocation of saints and angels, and the blessed virgin mary. * * * * * by j. endell tyler, b.d. rector of st. giles-in-the-fields, and canon residentiary of st. paul's. * * * * * speaking the truth in love.--eph. iv. prove all things; hold fast that which is good.-- thess. v. . second edition london printed for the society for promoting christian knowledge; sold at the depository, great queen street, lincoln's inn fields, no. , royal exchange; and by all booksellers. * * * * * . to the one holy, catholic, and apostolic church, as a tribute of veneration and love, this work is dedicated, by her devoted servant and son. nov. , . * * * * * preface. members of the church of rome, and members of the church of england, have too long entertained towards each other feelings of hostility. instead of being drawn together as brethren by the cords of that one faith which all catholics hold dear, their sentiments of sympathy and affection have been absorbed by the abhorrence with which each body has regarded the characteristic tenets of its adversary; whilst the terms "heretic" on the one side, and "idolater" on the opposite, have rendered any attempt to bring about a free and friendly discussion of each other's views almost hopeless. every christian must wish that such animosities, always ill-becoming the servants and children of the god of love, should cease for ever. truth indeed must never be sacrificed to secure peace; nor must we be tempted by the seductiveness of a liberality, falsely so called, to soften down and make light of those differences which keep the churches of england and rome asunder. but surely the points at issue may be examined without exasperation and rancour; and the results of inquiries carried on with a singleness of mind, in search only for the truth, may be offered on the one side without insult or offence, and should be received and examined without contempt and scorn on the other. the writer of this address is not one in whom early associations would foster sentiments of evil will against members of the church of rome; or encourage any feeling, incompatible with regard and kindness, towards the conscientious defenders of her creed. from his boyhood he has lived on terms of friendly intercourse and intimacy with individuals among her laity and of her priesthood. in his theological pursuits, he has often studied her ritual, consulted her commentators, and perused the homilies of her divines; and, withal, he has mourned over her errors and misdoings, as he would have sighed over the faults of a friend, who, with many good qualities still to endear him, had unhappily swerved from the straight path of rectitude and integrity. in preparing these pages, the author is not conscious of having been influenced by any motive in the least degree inconsistent with sentiments of charity and respect; at all events, he would hope that no single expression may have escaped from his pen tending to hurt unnecessarily the feelings of any sincere christian. he has been prompted by a hope that he may perhaps induce some individuals to investigate with candour, and freedom, and with a genuine desire of arriving at the truth, the subjects here discussed; and that whilst some, even of those who may have hitherto acquiesced in erroneous doctrines and practices, may be convinced of their departure from christian verity; others, if tempted to desert the straight path of primitive worship, may be somewhat strengthened and armed by the views presented to them here, against the captivating allurements of religious error. whether the present work may, by the divine favour, be made in some degree instrumental in forwarding these results, or in effecting any good, the author presumes not to anticipate; but he will hope for the best. he believes that the honest pursuit of the truth, undertaken with an humble zeal for god's glory, and in dependence on his guidance and light, is often made successful beyond our own sanguine expectations. with these views the following pages are offered, as the result of an inquiry into the doctrine and practice of the invocation of saints and angels, and of the blessed virgin mary. to prevent misconception as to the nature of this work, the author would observe, that since the single subject here proposed to be investigated is, "the invocation of saints and angels and the blessed virgin mary," he has scrupulously avoided the discussion of many important and interesting questions usually considered to be connected with it. he has not, for example, discussed the practice of praying for the dead; he has investigated no theory relating to the soul's intermediate state between our dissolution and the final judgment; he has canvassed no opinion as to any power in the saints and the faithful departed to succour either by their prayers or by any other offices, those who are still on earth, and on their way to god. from these and such like topics he has abstained, not because he thinks lightly of their importance, nor because his own mind is perplexed by doubts concerning them; but because the introduction of such points would tend to distract the thoughts from the exclusive contemplation of the one distinct question to be investigated. he is also induced to apprise the reader, that in his work, as he originally prepared it, a far wider field, even on the single subject of the present inquiry, was contemplated than this volume now embraces. his intention was to present an historical survey of the doctrine and practice of the invocation of saints and angels, and the virgin, tracing it from the first intimation of any thing of the kind through its various progressive stages, till it had reached its widest prevalence in christendom. when, however, he had arranged and filled up the results of the inquiries which he made into the sentiments and habits of those later writers of the church, whose works he considered it necessary to examine with this specific object in view, he found that the bulk of the work would be swollen far beyond the limits which he had prescribed to himself; he felt also that the protracted investigation would materially interfere with the solution of that one independent question which he trusts now is kept unmixed with any other. he has, consequently, in the present address limited the range of his researches on the nature of primitive christian worship, to the writers of the church catholic who lived before the nicene council, or were members of it. in one department, however, he has been under the necessity of making, to a certain extent, an exception to this rule. having found no allusion to the doctrine of the assumption of the virgin, on which much of the religious worship now paid to her seems to be founded, in any work written before the middle of the fifth century, he has been induced, in his examination of the grounds on which that doctrine professes to be built, to cite authors who flourished subsequently to the nicene council. the author would also mention, that although in substance he has prepared this work for the examination of all christians equally, and trusts that it will be found not less interesting or profitable to the members of his own church than to any other, yet he has throughout adopted the form of an address to his roman catholic countrymen. such a mode of conveying his sentiments he considered to be less controversial, while the facts and the arguments would remain the same. his object is not to condemn, but to convince: not to hold up to obloquy those who are in error, but, as far as he may be allowed, to diminish an evil where it already exists, and to check its further prevalence. * * * * * contents. part i.--chapter i. introduction--the duty of examining the grounds of our faith--principles of conducting that examination--errors to be avoided--proposed plan of the present work. chapter ii. § . evidence of holy scripture, how to be ascertained . direct evidence of the old testament . evidence of the old testament, continued . ------ new testament chapter iii. § . evidence of primitive writers . ------ apostolic fathers chapter iv. § . evidence of justin martyr see also appendix . evidence of irenæus . ------ clement of alexandria . ------ tertullian ------ methodius . ------ origen see also appendix . supplementary section on origen see also appendix . evidence of st. cyprian see also appendix . evidence of lactantius . ------ eusebius see also appendix . apostolical canons and constitutions . evidence of st. athanasius see also appendix part ii.--chapter i. state of worship at the time of the reformation § . "hours of the virgin" . service of thomas becket chapter ii. council of trent see also appendix chapter iii. present service in the church of rome part iii. worship of the virgin mary. chapter i. § . introductory remarks . evidence of holy scripture chapter ii. evidence of primitive writers chapter iii. assumption of the virgin mary chapter iv. councils of constantinople, ephesus, and chalcedon chapter v. § . present authorized worship of the virgin . worship of the virgin, continued . bonaventura . biel, damianus, bernardinus de bustis, bernardinus senensis,&c. see also appendix . modern works of devotion see also appendix conclusion * * * * * { } part i. chapter i. the duty of private judgment. fellow christians, whilst i invite you to accompany me in a free and full investigation of one of those tenets and practices which keep asunder the roman and the anglican church, i am conscious in how thankless an undertaking i have engaged, and how unwelcome to some is the task in which i call upon you to join. many among the celebrated doctors of the roman church have taught their disciples to acquiesce in a view of their religious obligation widely different from the laborious and delicate office of ascertaining for themselves the soundness of the principles in which they have been brought up. it has been with many accredited teachers a favourite maxim, that individuals will most acceptably fulfil their duty by abstaining { } from active and personal inquiries into the foundations of their faith; and by giving an implicit credence to whatever the roman church pronounces to be the truth[ ]. should this book fall into the hands of any who have adopted that maxim for the rule of their own conduct as believers, its pages will of course afford them no help; nor can they take any interest in our pursuit, or its results. whilst, however, i am aware, that until the previous question (involving the grounds on which the church of rome builds her claim to be the sole, exclusive, and infallible teacher of christians in all the doctrines of religion,) shall have been solved, many members of her body would throw aside, as preposterous, any treatise which professed to review the soundness of her instructions; i have been at the same time assured, that with many of her communion the case is far otherwise; and that instead of their being averse to all investigation, a calm, candid, and friendly, but still a free and unreserved inquiry into the disputed articles of their creed, is an object of their sincere desire. on this ground i trust some preliminary reflections upon the duty of proving all things, with a view of holding the more fast { } and sure what is good, may be considered as neither superfluous nor out of place. [footnote : it is sometimes curious to observe the language in which the teachers and doctors themselves profess their entire, unlimited, and implicit submission of all their doctrines, even in the most minute particulars, to the judgment and will of the authorities of rome. instances are of very frequent occurrence. thus joannes de carthagena, a very voluminous writer of homilies, closes different parts of his work in these words, "these and all mine i willingly subject to the judgment of the catholic roman church, ready, if there be written any thing in any way in the very least point contrary to her doctrine, to correct, amend, erase, and utterly abolish it." hom. cath. de sacris arcanis deiparæ et josephi. paris, . page .] but just as it would belong to another and a separate province to examine, at such length as its importance demands, the claims of the church of rome to be acknowledged as that universal interpreter of the word and will of god, from whose decisions there is no appeal; so would it evidently be incompatible with the nature of the present address, to dwell in any way corresponding with the magnitude and delicacy of the subject, on the duty, the responsibility, and the privilege of private judgment; on the dangers to which an unchastened exercise of it may expose both an individual, and the cause of christian truth; or on the rules which sound wisdom and the analogy of faith may prescribe to us in the government of ourselves with respect to it. my remarks, therefore, on this subject will be as few and brief as i believe to be consistent with an acknowledgment of the principles upon which this work has been conducted. the foundation, then, on which, to be safe and beneficial, the duty of private judgment, as we maintain, must be built, is very far indeed removed from that common and mischievous notion of it which would encourage us to draw immediate and crude deductions from holy scripture, subject only to the control and the colouring of our own minds, responsible for nothing further than our own consciousness of an honest intention. whilst we claim a release from that degrading yoke which neither are we nor were our fathers able to bear, we deprecate for ourselves and for our fellow-believers that licentiousness which in doctrine and practice tempts a man to follow merely what is right in his own eyes, uninfluenced by the example, the precepts, { } and the authority of others, and owning no submissive allegiance to those laws which the wise and good have established for the benefit of the whole body. the freedom which we ask for ourselves, and desire to see imparted to all, is a rational liberty, tending to the good, not operating to the bane of its possessors; ministering to the general welfare, not to disorder and confusion. in the enjoyment of this liberty, or rather in the discharge of the duties and trusts which this liberty brings with it, we feel ourselves under an obligation to examine the foundations of our faith, to the very best of our abilities, according to our opportunities, and with the most faithful use of all the means afforded to us by its divine author and finisher. among those means, whilst we regard the holy scriptures as paramount and supreme, we appeal to the witness and mind of the church as secondary and subsidiary; a witness not at all competing with scripture, never to be balanced against it; but competing with our own less able and less pure apprehension of scripture. in ascertaining the testimony of this witness, we examine the sentiments and practice of the ancient teachers of the church; not as infallible guides, not as uniformly holding all of them the same opinions, but as most valuable helps in our examination of the evidence of the church, who is, after all, our appointed instructor in the truths of the gospel,--fallible in her individual members and branches, yet the sure witness and keeper of holy writ, and our safest guide on earth to the mind and will of god. when we have once satisfied ourselves that a doctrine is founded on scripture, we receive it with implicit faith, and maintain it as a sacred deposit, entrusted to our keeping, to be delivered down whole and entire without our adding { } thereto what to us may seem needful, or taking away what we may think superfluous. the state of the christian thus employed, in acting for himself in a work peculiarly his own, is very far removed from the condition of one who labours in bondage, without any sense of liberty and responsibility, unconscious of the dignity of a free and accountable agent, and surrendering himself wholly to the control of a task-master. equally is it distant from the conduct of one who indignantly casting off all regard for authority, and all deference to the opinions of others, boldly and proudly sets up his own will and pleasure as the only standard to which he will submit. for the model which we would adopt, as members of the church, in our pursuit of christian truth, we find a parallel and analogous case in a well-principled and well-disciplined son, with his way of life before him, exercising a large and liberal discretion in the choice of his pursuits; not fettered by peremptory paternal mandates, but ever voluntarily referring to those principles of moral obligation and of practical wisdom with which his mind has been imbued; shaping his course with modest diffidence in himself, and habitual deference to others older and wiser than himself, yet acting with the firmness and intrepidity of conscious rectitude of principle, and integrity of purpose; and under a constant sense of his responsibility, as well for his principles as for his conduct. against the cogency of these maxims various objections have been urged from time to time. we have been told, that the exercise of private judgment in matters of religion, tends to foster errors of every diversity of character, and leads to heresy, scepticism, and infidelity: it is represented as rending the church of christ, and totally { } subverting christian unity, and snapping asunder at once the bond of peace. so also it has been often maintained, that the same cause robs individual christians of that freedom from all disquietude and perplexity and anxious responsibility, that peace of mind, satisfaction, and content, which those personally enjoy, who surrender themselves implicitly to a guide, whom they believe to be unerring and infallible. for a moment let us pause to ascertain the soundness of such objections. and here anticipating, for argument's sake, the worst result, let us suppose that the exercise of individual inquiry and judgment (such as the best teachers in the anglican church are wont to inculcate) may lead in some cases even to professed infidelity; is it right and wise and justifiable to be driven by an abuse of god's gifts to denounce the legitimate and faithful employment of them? what human faculty--which among the most precious of the almighty's blessings is not liable to perversion? what unquestionable moral duty can be found, which has not been transformed by man's waywardness into an instrument of evil? nay, what doctrine of our holy faith has not the wickedness or the folly of unworthy men employed as a cloke for unrighteousness, and a vehicle for blasphemy? but by a consciousness of this liability in all things human, must we be tempted to suppress the truth? to disparage those moral duties? or to discountenance the cultivation of those gifts and faculties? rather would not sound philosophy and christian wisdom jointly enforce the necessity of improving the gifts zealously, of discharging the moral obligation to the full, and of maintaining the doctrine in all its integrity; but guarding withal, to the utmost of our power and watchfulness, against the abuses to which { } any of these things may be exposed? and we may trust in humble but assured confidence, that as it is the duty of a rational being, alive to his own responsibility, to inquire and judge for himself in things concerning the soul, with the most faithful exercise of his abilities and means; so the wise and merciful ruler of our destinies will provide us with a sure way of escaping from all evils incident to the discharge of that duty, if, in reliance on his blessing, we honestly seek the truth, and perseveringly adhere to that way in which he will be our guide. it is a question very generally and very reasonably entertained among us, whether the implicit submission and unreserved surrender of ourselves to any human authority in matters of faith, (though whilst it lasts, it of course affords an effectual check to open scepticism,) does not ultimately and in very deed prove a far more prolific source of disguised infidelity. doubts repressed as they arise, but not solved, silenced but not satisfied, gradually accumulate in spite of all external precaution; and at length (like streams pent back by some temporary barrier) break forth at once to an utter discarding of all authority, and an irrecoverable rejection of the christian faith. from unlimited acquiescence in a guide whom our associations have invested with infallibility, the step is very short, and frequently taken, to entire apostasy and the renunciation of all belief. the state of undisturbed tranquillity and repose in one, who has divested himself of all responsibility in matters of religious belief and practice, enjoying an entire immunity from the anxious and painful labour of trying for himself the purity and soundness of his faith, is often painted in strong contrast with the { } lamentable condition of those who are driven about by every wind of novelty. the condition of such a man may doubtless be far more enviable than theirs, who have no settled fixed principles, and who wander from creed to creed, and from sect to sect, just as their fickle and roving minds suggest some transitory preference. but the believer must not be driven by the evils of one extreme to take refuge in the opposite. the whirlpool may be the more perilous, but the christian mariner must avoid the rock also, or he will equally make shipwreck of his faith. he must with all his skill, and all his might, keep to the middle course, shunning that presumptuous confidence which scorns all authority, and boldly constitutes itself sole judge and legislator; but equally rescuing his mind from the thraldom which prostrates his reason, and paralyzes all the faculties of his judgment in a matter of indefeasible and awful responsibility. here, too, it is questioned, and not without cause, whether the satisfaction and comfort so often represented in warm and fascinating colours, be really a spiritual blessing; or whether it be not a deception and fallacy, frequently ending in lamentable perplexity and confusion; like guarantees in secular concerns, which as long as they maintain unsuspected credit afford a most pleasing and happy security to any one who depends upon them; but which, when adverse fortune puts their responsibility to the test, may prove utterly worthless, and be traced only by losses and disappointments. such a blind reliance on authority may doubtless be more easy and more free from care, than it is to gird up the loins of our mind, and engage in toilsome spiritual labour. but with a view to our own ultimate safety, wisdom bids us look to our foundations in time, and assure ourselves { } of them; admonishing us that if they are unsound, the spiritual edifice reared upon them, however pleasing to the eye, or abounding in present enjoyments, will at length fall, and bury our hopes in its ruin. on these and similar principles, we maintain that it well becomes christians, when the soundness of their faith, and the rectitude of their acts of worship, are called in question, "to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." thus, when the unbeliever charges us with credulity in receiving as a divine revelation what he scornfully rejects, it behoves us all (every one to the extent of his means and opportunities) to possess ourselves of the accumulated evidences of our holy faith, so that we may be able to give to our own minds, and to those who ask it of us, a reason for our hope. the result can assuredly be only the comfort of a still more unshaken conviction. thus, too, when the misbeliever charges us with an undue and an unauthorized ascription of the divine attributes to our redeemer and to our sanctifier, which he would confine to the father of our lord jesus christ, exclusively of the eternal son and the blessed spirit, it well becomes every catholic christian to assure himself of the evidence borne by the scriptures to the divinity of the son and of the holy ghost, together with the inseparable doctrines of redemption by the blood of christ, and sanctification by the spirit of grace; appealing also in this investigation to the tradition of the church, and the testimony of her individual members from the earliest times, as under god his surest and best guides. in both these cases, i can say for myself that i have acted upon my own principles, and to the very utmost of my faculties have scrutinized the foundations { } of my faith, and from each of those inquiries and researches i have risen with a satisfaction increased far beyond my first anticipations. what i had taken up in my youth on authority, i have been long assured of by a moral demonstration, which nothing can shake; and i cling to it with an affection, which, guarded by god's good providence, nothing in this world can dissolve or weaken. it is to engage in a similar investigation that i now most earnestly but affectionately invite the members of the church of rome, in order to ascertain for themselves the ground of their faith and practice in a matter of vast moment, and which, with other points, involves the principle of separation between the roman and anglican branches of the universal church. were the subjects of minor importance, or what the ancient writers were wont to call "things indifferent," reason and charity would prescribe that we should bear with each other, allowing a free and large discretion in any body of christians, and not severing ourselves from them because we deemed our views preferable to theirs. in such a case we might well walk in the house of god as friends, without any interruption of the harmony which should exist between those who worship the true god with one heart and one mind, ever striving to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. but when the points at issue are of so vast moment; when two persons agreeing in the general principles of belief in the gospel and its chief characteristic doctrines, yet find it impossible to join conscientiously in the same prayer, or the same acts of faith and worship, then the necessity is imperative on all who would not be parties to the utter breaking up of christian unity, nor assist in propagating error, to make sure of their { } foundations; and satisfy themselves by an honest inquiry and upright judgment, that the fault does not rest with them. such appear to me both the doctrine and the practice of the invocation of saints. i have endeavoured to conjecture in what light this doctrine and this practice would have presented itself to my mind, after a full and free inquiry into the nature and history and circumstances of the case, had i been brought up in communion with the church of rome; the question to be solved being, "could i continue in her communion?" and the result of my inquiry is, that i must have either discarded that doctrine at once and for ever, or have joined with my lips and my knees in a worship which my reason condemned, and from which my heart shrunk. i must have either left the communion of rome, or have continued to offer prayers to angels, and the spirits of departed mortals. unless i had resolved at once to shut my eyes upon my own personal responsibility, and to surrender myself, mind and reason, soul and body, to the sovereign and undisputed control of others, never presuming to inquire into the foundation of what the church of rome taught; i must have sought some purer portion of the catholic church, in which her members addressed the one supreme being exclusively, without contemplating any other in the act of religious invocation. the distinction invented in comparatively late years, of the three kinds of worship; one for god, the second for the virgin mary, the third for angels and saints;--the distinction, too, between praying to a saint to give us good things, and praying to that saint to procure them for us at god's hand, (or, as the distinction { } is sometimes made, into prayer direct, absolute, final, sovereign, confined to the supreme being on the one hand; and prayer oblique, relative, transitory, subordinate, offered to saints on the other,) would have appeared to me the ingenious and finely-drawn inventions of an advocate, not such a sound process of christian simplicity as the mind could rest upon, with an undoubting persuasion that all was right. this, however, involves the very point at issue; and i now invite you, my christian brethren, to join with me, step by step, in a review of those several positions which have left on my mind the indelible conviction that i could never have passed my life in communion with that church whose articles of fellowship maintained the duty of invoking saints and angels; and whose public offices were inseparably interwoven with addresses in prayer to other beings, than the holy and undivided trinity, the one only god. in pursuing this inquiry i have thought the most convenient and satisfactory division of our work would be-- first, to ascertain what inference an unprejudiced study of the revealed will of god would lead us to make; both in the times of the elder covenant, when "holy men of old spake as they were moved by the holy ghost," and in that "fulness of time" when god spoke to us by his son. secondly, to examine into the belief and practice of the primitive church, beginning with the inspired apostles of our lord. thirdly, to compare the results of those inquiries with the tenets and practice of the church of rome, with reference to three periods; the first immediately { } preceding the reformation; the second comprising the reformation, and the proceedings of the council of trent; the third embracing the belief and practice of the present day. in this investigation, i purpose to reserve the worship of the virgin mary, called by roman catholic writers "hyperdulia," and for various reasons the most important and interesting portion of the whole inquiry, for separate and distinct examination; except only so far as our review of any of the primitive writers may occasion some incidental departure from that rule. may god guide us to his truth! { } * * * * * chapter ii. section i.--the evidence of the holy scriptures. here, christian brethren, bear with me if i briefly, but freely, recall to our thoughts on this first entrance upon a review of the inspired volume, the principles, and tone of mind, the temper and feelings, in a word, the frame both of the understanding and of the heart, with which we should study the sacred pages, on whatever subject we would try all things, and hold fast what should prove itself to be most in accordance with the will of god. whether we would regard the two great parts into which the holy scriptures are divided, as the old and the new covenants; or whether we would prefer to call them the old and the new testaments, it matters not. although different ideas and associations are suggested by those different names, yet, under either view, the same honest and good heart, the same patience of investigation, the same upright and unprejudiced judgment, the same exercise of our mental faculties, and the same enlightened conscience, must be brought to the investigation. in the one case we must endeavour to ascertain for ourselves the true intent and { } meaning of the inspired word of god, on the very same principles with those on which we would interpret a covenant between ourselves, and a person who had made it in full and unreserved reliance on our integrity, and on our high sense of equity, justice, and honour. in the other case we must bring the selfsame principles and feelings to bear on our inquiry, as we should apply in the interpretation of the last will and testament of a kind father, who with implicit confidence in our uprightness and straightforward dealing and affectionate anxiety to fulfil his intentions to the very utmost, had assigned to us the sacred duty of executor or trustee. under the former supposition, our sincere solicitude would be to ascertain the true intent and meaning of the contracting parties, not to seek out plausible excuses for departing from it; not to cull out and exaggerate beyond their simple and natural bearing, such expressions in the deed of agreement, as might seem to justify us in adopting the view of the contract most agreeable to our present wishes and most favourable to our own interests. rather it would be our fixed and hearty resolution, at whatever cost of time, or labour, or pecuniary sacrifice, or personal discomfort, to apply to the instrument our unbiassed powers of upright and honest interpretation. or adopting the latter analogy, we should sincerely strive to ascertain the chief and leading objects of our parent's will; what were his intentions generally; what ruling principles seemed to pervade his views in framing the testament; and in all cases of obscurity and doubt, in every thing approaching an appearance of inconsistency, we should refer to that paramount principle as our test and guide. we should not for a moment { } suffer ourselves to be tempted to seek for ambiguous expressions, which ingenuity might interpret so as to countenance our departure from the general drift of our parent's will, in cases where it was at variance with our own inclination, and where we could have wished that he had made another disposition of his property, or given to us a different direction, or trusted us with larger discretion. moreover, in any points of difficulty, we should apply for assistance, in solving our doubts, to such persons as were most likely to have the power of judging correctly, and whose judgment would be least biassed by partiality and prejudice;--not to those whose credit was staked on the maintenance of those principles which best accorded with our own inclination. especially if in either case some strong feeling should have been raised and spread abroad on any point, we should seek the judgment and counsel of those who had been familiar with the testator's intentions, or with the views of the covenanting party, before such points had become matter of discussion. now only let us act upon these principles in the interpretation of that covenant in which the almighty has vouchsafed to make himself one of the contracting parties, and man, the creature of his hand, is the other: only let us act on these principles in the interpretation of that testament of which the saviour of the world is the testator; and with god's blessing on our labours (a blessing never denied to sincere prayer and faithful exertions) we need not fear the result. any other principle of interpretation will only confirm us in our prejudices, and involve us more inextricably in error. { } * * * * * section ii.--direct evidence of the old testament. the first step in our proposed inquiry is to ascertain what evidence on the doctrine and practice of the invocation of saints and angels can be fairly drawn from the revealed word of god in the old testament. now, let us suppose that a person of a cultivated and enlightened mind, and of a sound and clear judgment, but hitherto a stranger to revelation, were required to study the ancient scriptures with the single view of ascertaining what one object more than any other, subordinate to the great end of preparing the world for the advent of messiah, seemed to be proposed by the wisdom of the almighty in imparting to mankind that revelation; could he fix upon any other point as the one paramount and pervading principle with so much reason, as upon this, the preservation in the world of a practical belief in the perfect unity of god, and the fencing of his worship against the admixture of any other, of whatever character or form; the announcement that the creator and governor of the universe is the sole giver of every temporal and spiritual blessing; the one only being to whom, his rational creatures on earth should pay any religious service whatever; the one only being to whom mortals must seek by prayer and invocation for the supply of any of their wants? through the entire volume the inquirer would find that the unity of god is announced in every variety of expression; and that the exclusive worship { } of him alone is insisted upon and guarded with the utmost jealousy by assurances, by threats, and by promises, as the god who heareth prayer, alone to be called upon, alone to be invoked, alone to be adored. so to speak, he would find that recourse was had to every expedient for the express purpose of protecting god's people from the fatal error of embracing in their worship any other being or name whatever; not reserving supreme adoration for the supreme being, and admitting a sort of secondary honour and inferior mode of invocation to his exalted saints and servants; but banishing at once and for ever the most distant approximation towards religious honour--the veriest shadow of spiritual invocation to any other being than jehovah himself alone. in process of time, the heathen began to deify those mortals who had conferred signal benefits on the human race, or had distinguished themselves by their power and skill above their fellow-countrymen. male and female divinities were multiplying on every side. together with jupiter, the fabled father of gods and men, worshipped under different names among the various tribes, were associated those "gods many and lords many," which ignorance and superstition, or policy and craft, had invented; and which shared some a greater, some a less portion of popular veneration and religious worship. to the people of god, the worshippers of jehovah, it was again and again most solemnly and awfully denounced, that no such thing should be. "thou shalt worship the lord thy god, and him only shalt thou serve," is a mandate repeated in every variety of language, and under every diversity of circumstance. in some passages, indeed, together with the most clear assurances, { } that mankind need apply to no other dispenser of good, and can want no other as saviour, advocate, or intercessor, that same truth is announced with such superabundance of repetition, that in the productions of any human writer the style would be chargeable with tautology. in the bible, this repetition only the more forces upon the mind, and fixes there, that same principle as an eternal verity never to be questioned; never to be dispensed with; never to be diluted or qualified; never to be invaded by any service, worship, prayer, invocation, or adoration of any other being whatever. let us take, for example, the forty-fifth chapter of isaiah, in which the principle is most strongly and clearly illustrated. "i am the lord, and there is none else: there is no god beside me; i girded thee, though thou hast not known me; that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none beside me: i am the lord, and there is none else. they shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them; they shall go to confusion together, that are makers of idols. but israel shall be saved in the lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end: i am the lord, and there is none else. i said not unto the seed of jacob, seek ye me in vain. they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. there is no god beside me; a just god and a saviour; there is none beside me. look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for i am god, and there is none else." but it is needless to multiply these passages; and members of the church of rome will say, that they themselves acknowledge, as fully as members of the anglican church can do, that there is but one supreme { } god and lord, to whom alone they intend to offer the worship due to god; and that the appeals which they offer by way of invocation to saints and angels for their services and intercession, do not militate against this principle. but here let us ask ourselves these few questions:-- first, if it had been intended by the almighty to forbid any religious application, such as is now professedly the invocation of saints and angels, to any other being than himself alone, what words could have been employed more stringently prohibitory? secondly, had such an address to saints and angels, as the church of rome now confessedly makes, been contemplated by our heavenly lawgiver as an exception to the general rule, would not some saving clause, some expressions indicative of such an intended exception, have been discovered in some page or other of his revealed will? thirdly, if such an appeal to the angels of heaven, or to the spirits of the just in heaven, had been sanctioned under the elder covenant, would not some example, some solitary instance, have been recorded of a faithful servant of jehovah offering such a prayer with the divine approbation? lastly, when such strong and repeated declarations and injunctions interspersed through the entire volume of the old testament, unequivocally show the will of god to be, that no other object of religious worship should have place in the heart or on the tongue of his own true sons and daughters, can it become a faithful child of our heavenly father to be seeking for excuses and palliations, and to invent distinctions between one kind of worship and another? god himself includes all in one universal prohibitory { } mandate, "thou shalt worship the lord thy god, and him only shalt thou serve." so far from according with those general rules for the interpretation of the revealed will of god, which we have already stated, and from which, in the abstract, probably few would dissent, an anxiety to force the word of god into at least an acquiescence in the invocation of saints and angels, indicates a disposition to comply with his injunctions, wherever they seem to clash with our own view, only so far as we cannot avoid compliance; and to seek how we may with any show of propriety evade the spirit of those commands. instead of that full, free, and unstinted submission of our own inclinations and propensities to the almighty's will wherever we can discover it, which those entertain whom the lord seeketh to worship him; to look for exceptions and to act upon them, bears upon it the stamp of a reserved and grudging service. after so many positive warnings, enactments, and denunciations, against seeking by prayer the aid of any other being whatever, surely a positive command would have been absolutely necessary to justify a mortal man in preferring any prayer to any being, saint, angel, or archangel, save only the supreme deity alone. instead of any such command or even permission appearing, not one single word occurs, from the first syllable in the book of genesis to the last of the prophet malachi, which could even by implication be brought to countenance the practice of approaching any created being in prayer. but let us now look to the examples on this subject afforded in the old testament. many, very many a prayer is recorded of holy men, of inspired men, of men, to whose holiness and integrity and acceptance { } the holy spirit bears witness; yet among these prayers there is not found one invocation addressed to saint or angel. i will not here anticipate the observations which it will be necessary to make in consequence of the extraordinary argument which has been devised, to account for the absence of invocations to saints before the resurrection of christ, namely, that before that event the saints were not admitted into heaven. although pressed forward with such unhesitating confidence in its validity, that argument is so singular in its nature, and so important in its consequences, and withal so utterly groundless, as to call for a separate examination, on which we will shortly enter: meanwhile, we are now inquiring into the matter of fact. the whole book of psalms is a manual of devotion, consisting alternately, or rather intermixedly, of prayers and praises, composed some by moses, some by other inspired israelites of less note, but the greater part by david himself; and what is the force and tendency of their example? words are spoken in collaudation of "moses and aaron among the saints of the lord," and of "samuel among such as called upon his name;" and mention is made with becoming reverence of the holy angels; but not one word ever falls from the pen of the psalmist, addressed, by way of invocation, to saint or angel. in the roman ritual supplication is made to abel and abraham as well as to michael and all angels. if it is now lawful, if it is now the duty of the worshippers of the true god to seek his aid through the mediation of those holy men, can we avoid asking, why the inspired patriarchs did not appeal to abel for his mediation? why did not the inspired david invoke the father of the faithful to intercede for him with god? if the departed spirits { } of faithful men may be safely addressed in prayer; if those who in their lifetime have, to their fellow-mortals, (who can judge only from outward actions, and cannot penetrate the heart,) appeared accepted servants and honoured saints of our creator, may now be invoked by an act of religious supplication either to grant us aid, or to intercede with god for aid in our behalf, why did not men whom god declared to be partakers of his spirit of truth, offer the same supplication to those departed spirits, who, before and after their decease, had this testimony from omniscience itself, that they pleased god? why is no intimation given in the later books of the old testament that such supplications were offered to moses, or aaron, or abraham, or noah? when wrath was gone out from the presence of the lord, and the plague was begun among the people, aaron took a censer in his hand, and stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed. if the soul of aaron was therefore to be regarded as a spirit influential with god, one whose intercession could avail, one who ought to be approached in prayer, were it only for his intercession, could a stronger motive be conceived for suggesting that invocation, than david must have felt, when the pestilence was destroying its thousands around him, and all his glory and strength, and his very life too, were threatened by its resistless ravages? but no! neither abel, nor abraham, nor moses, nor aaron, must be petitioned to intercede with god, and to pray that god would stay his hand. to god and god alone, for his own mercy's sake, must his afflicted servant turn in supplication. we find among his prayers no "holy abraham, pray for us,"--"holy abel, pray for us." his own psalm of thanksgiving describes full well the object and the nature of his { } prayer: "when the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid, the sorrows of hell compassed me about, the snares of death prevented me; in my distress i called upon the lord, and cried to my god; and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears." [ sam. ( kings vulg.) xxii. . or ps. xviii.] abraham, when on earth, prayed god to spare the offending-people; but he invoked neither noah, nor abel, nor any of the faithful departed, to join their intercessions with his own. isaac prayed to god for his son jacob, but he did not ask the mediation of his father abraham in his behalf; and when jacob in his turn supplicated an especial blessing upon his grandsons ephraim and manasseh, though he called with gratitude to his mind, and expressed with his tongue, the devotedness both of abraham and of isaac to the almighty, yet we do not find him appealing to them, or invoking their intercession with jehovah. when the conscience-struck israelites felt that they had exposed themselves to the wrath of almighty god, whose sovereign power, put forth at the prayer of samuel, they then witnessed, distrusting the efficacy of their own supplication, and confiding in the intercession of that man of god, they implored him to intercede for them; and samuel emphatically responded to their appeal, with an assurance of his earnestly undertaking to plead their cause with heaven: "and all the people said unto samuel, pray for thy servants unto the lord thy god, that we die not. and samuel said unto the people, fear not.... the lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's { } sake.... moreover, god forbid that i should sin against the lord in ceasing to pray for you." [ sam. ( kings vulg.) xii. .] samuel is one whom the holy spirit numbers among those "who called upon god's name;" and when samuel died, all israel gathered together to lament and to bury him,--but we read of no petition being offered to him to carry on the same intercessory office, when he was once removed from them. as long as he was entabernacled in the flesh and sojourned on earth with his brethren, they besought him to pray for them, to intercede with their god and his god for blessings at his hand, (just as among ourselves one christian asks another to pray for him,) but when samuel's body had been buried in peace, and his soul had returned to god who gave it, the bible never records any further application to him; we no where read, "holy samuel, pray for us." again, what announcement could god himself make more expressive of his acceptance of the persons of any, than he actually and repeatedly made to moses with regard to abraham, isaac, and jacob? how could he more clearly intimate that if the spirits of the faithful departed could exercise intercessory or mediatorial influence with him, those three holy patriarchs would possess such power above all others who had ever lived on the earth? "i am the god of your fathers; the god of abraham, the god of isaac, the god of jacob: and moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon god." "thus shalt thou say unto the children of israel, the god of thy fathers, the god of abraham, the god of isaac, the god of jacob, hath sent me unto you. this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial throughout all generations." [exod. iii. . .] did moses in his alarm and dread, when he was afraid { } to look upon god, call upon those holy and accepted servants to aid him in his perplexity, and intercede for him and his people with the awful eternal being on whose majesty he dared not to look? did he teach his people to invoke abraham? that was far from him. when moses, that saint of the lord, was himself called hence and was buried, (though no mortal man was allowed to know the place of his sepulture,) did the surviving faithful pray to him for his help and intercession with god? he had wrought so many and great miracles as never had been before witnessed on earth; whilst in the tabernacle of the flesh he had talked with god as a man talketh with his friend; and yet the sacred page records no invocation ever breathed to his departed spirit. the same is the result of our inquiry throughout. i will specify only one more example--hezekiah, who "trusted in the lord god of israel, and clave to the lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments," when he and his people were in great peril, addressed his prayer only to god. he offered no invocation to holy david to intercede with the almighty for his own jerusalem; he made his supplication directly and exclusively to jehovah; and, yet, the very answer made to that prayer would surely have seemed to justify hezekiah in seeking holy david's mediation, if prayer for the intercession of any departed mortal could ever have been sanctioned by heaven: "thus saith the lord, the god of david thy father; i have heard thy prayer, i have seen thy tears; _i_ will heal thee. i will save this city for mine own sake, and for my servant david's sake." [ kings (vulg. kings) xix. . and xx. .] of what saint in the calendar was ever such a thing as this spoken? { } i have already intimated my intention of referring, with somewhat more than a cursory remark, to the position assumed, and the argument built upon it by writers in communion with rome, for the purpose of nullifying or escaping from the evidence borne by the examples of the old testament against the invocation of saints. the writers to whom i refer, with bellarmin at their head, openly confess that the pages of the old testament afford no instance of invocation being offered to the spirits of departed mortals; and the reason which they allege is this, no one can be invoked who is not admitted to the presence of god in heaven; but before christ went down to hell[ ] and released the spirits from prison, no mortal was admitted into heaven; consequently, before the resurrection of christ the spirit of no mortal was invoked. the following are the words of bellarmin at the close of the preface to his "church triumphant:"--"the spirits of the patriarchs and prophets before the coming of christ were for this reason not worshipped and invoked, as we now worship and invoke the apostles and martyrs, because they were yet shut up and detained in prisons below[ ]." again, he says, "because before { } the coming of christ the saints who died did not enter heaven and saw not god, nor could ordinarily know the prayers of suppliants, therefore, it was not customary in the old testament to say, 'holy abraham, pray for me,' &c.; but the men of that time prayed to god only, and alleged the merits of the saints who had already departed, that their own prayers might be aided by them." [footnote : the word hell, signifying, in saxon, a hidden-place, altogether corresponding in its etymology with "hades," is now used for the place of torment called by the hebrews "gehennah;" and we must perhaps regret that the same saxon word is employed to signify also the unseen region of departed spirits. this circumstance has been the source of much difficulty and confusion.] [footnote : "nam idcirco ante christi adventum non ita colebantur neque invocabantur spiritus patriarcharum atque prophetarum, quemadmodum nunc apostolos et martyres colimus et invocamus, quod illi adhuc infernis carceribus clausi detinebantur."--ingolstadii, . vol. ii. p. . "the last edition, enlarged and corrected by the author."] now let us inquire into this statement thus broadly made, and ascertain for ourselves whether the point assumed and the argument built upon it can stand the test of examination. is this argument such as ought to satisfy the mind of one, who would humbly but honestly follow the apostolic rule, "prove all things: hold fast that which is good?" is this such an exposition as that the reason of a cultivated mind, and the faith of an enlightened christian, can acquiesce in it? let it be examined neither with prejudice in its favour, nor with any undue suspicion of its soundness, but with candour and impartiality throughout. it is not necessary to dwell at any length on the inconsistencies and perplexities involved in this assumed abstract theory with regard to the souls of the faithful who died before the resurrection of christ, and which require to be cleared away before its advocates can reasonably expect to obtain for it any general acceptance among thinking men. i do not wish to contravene the theory, far less to substitute another in its stead. on the contrary, i am fully content, in company with some of the most valuable among roman catholic writers, following the example of augustin [aug. de pecc. orig. c. . tom. vii. p. .--quoted by de sacy. kings (vulg. kings) ii.], to leave the subject where scripture has left it. to the arguments { } alleged, i would wish to reply independently of any opinion, as a matter of christian belief, with regard to the place, the condition, and the circumstances of the souls of the patriarchs and prophets before our blessed lord's resurrection. it may, nevertheless, materially facilitate an inquiry into the soundness of the reasons alleged for the total absence of invocation to those souls, if we briefly contemplate some of the difficulties which surround this novel theory. at all events, such a process will incline us to abstain from bold assumptions on a point upon which the almighty has been pleased to throw so little light in his holy word, or at least avoid all severity of condemnation towards those who may differ from our views. it is very easy to assert, that all the souls of the faithful departed were kept in the prison-house of hades, and to allege in its behalf an obscure passage of st. peter, to which many of the most learned and unprejudiced christian teachers assign a meaning totally unconnected with the subject of departed spirits. but surely the case of enoch's translation from this life to heaven, making, as it has been beautifully expressed, but one step from earth to glory, which st. paul, in his epistle to the hebrews, cites with a most important comment of his own, requires to be well and patiently weighed. he was taken from the earth by an immediate act of providence, that he should not see death; and before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased god. surely the case of elijah too, when we would ascertain the soundness of this theory, must not be dismissed summarily from our thoughts, of whom the book of eternal truth declares, that jehovah took him { } in a whirlwind into heaven; his ascent being made visible to mortal eyes, as was afterwards the ascension of the blessed saviour himself. indeed the accounts of elijah's translation, and of our lord's ascension, whether in the septuagint and greek testament, the vulgate, or our own authorized version, present a similarity of expression very striking and remarkable. on this subject we are strongly reminded, first, with what care and candour and patience the language of holy scripture should be weighed, which so positively declares, that moses and elijah, both in glory, appeared visibly to the apostles at the transfiguration of our blessed saviour, and conversed with him on the holy mount: "and behold there talked with him two men, who were moses and elias, who appeared in glory (in majesty, as the vulgate renders the word), and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at jerusalem;" [luke ix. .]--and, secondly, how unwise it is to dogmatize on such subjects beyond the plain declaration of the sacred narrative. moreover, how very unsatisfactory is the theory which we are examining as to the state of the souls of the faithful who died before christ, even the words of jerome himself prove, who, commenting on the transfiguration of the blessed jesus, is unhappily led to represent the almighty as having summoned elijah to descend from heaven, and moses to ascend from hades, to meet our lord in the mount[ ]. [footnote : "elia inde descendente quo conscenderat, et moyse ab inferis resurgente."--hieron. in matt. xvii. . paris, . vol. iv. p. .] strange and startling as is this sentiment of jerome, it is, you will observe, utterly irreconcileable with the theory, that the reason why the ancient church did not { } pray to the saints departed, was because they were not yet in heaven. on this point, among roman catholic writers themselves, there prevails a very great diversity of opinion, arising probably from the difficulty which they have experienced in their endeavours to make all facts and doctrines square with the present tenets and practices of their church[ ]. thus, whilst some maintain that elijah was translated to the terrestrial paradise in which adam had been placed, not enjoying the immediate divine presence; others cite the passage as justifying the belief that the saints departed pray for us[ ]. but not only are different authors at variance with each other on very many points here; the same writer in his zeal is betrayed into great and palpable inconsistency. bellarmin, anxious to enlist the account given by our lord of the rich man and lazarus, to countenance the invocation of saints by the example of the rich man appealing to abraham, maintains that section of holy writ to be not a parable, but a true history of a matter of fact which took place between two real individuals; and of his assertion he adduces this proof, that "the church worships that lazarus as verily a holy man[ ];" and yet he denies that any of the holy men were in heaven before the { } death of christ. either abraham was in heaven in the presence of god, or not; if he was in heaven, why did not his descendants invoke his aid? if he was not in heaven, the whole argument drawn from the rich man's supplication falls to the ground. [footnote : see de sacy on kings i. . see also estius, . p. . pope gregory's exposition; rome, . p. . stephen's bible in loc. , &c. the vulgate ed. antwerp, , cites a note, "thy prayers are stronger than chariots and horsemen."] [footnote : gaspar sanctius, antwerp, . p. , considers the fable not improbable, that elijah, living in the terrestrial paradise, wrote there the letters to joram (mentioned chron. xxi. ), and sent them by angels.] [footnote : colit lazarum ilium ut vere sanctum hominem.--bellarm. de ecd. triumph, p. .] another very extraordinary inconsistency, arising from the same solicitude, forces itself upon our notice, when the same author urges a passage in leviticus [levit. xix. .] to prove, that the saints are now admitted at once into the enjoyment of the presence of god in heaven, without waiting for the day of final judgment. [bell vol. ii. p. .] "god (such are his words) commanded it to be written, 'the work of the hireling shall not remain with thee till the morning;' therefore, unless god would appear inconsistent with himself, he will not keep back the reward of his saints to the end of the world." how strange, that in the same treatise [ibid. p. .] this author should expressly maintain, that the reward of abel and abraham, and the holy prophet and lawgiver moses, the very man who was commanded to write that law in leviticus, was kept back,--the last for a longer period than a thousand years; the first well nigh four thousand years. i mention these particulars merely to point out how very unsatisfactory and unsound is the attempted solution of the difficulties which surround on every side the theory of those who maintain, that the reason why we have no instance of the righteous departed being invoked in the times of the elder covenant is, that they were not as yet admitted into heaven, but were kept in prison till the resurrection of christ. i would also observe, even at the risk { } of repetition, that i am here not maintaining any opinion as to the appointed abiding-place, the condition, and circumstances, the powers of consciousness, volition or enjoyment of the departed, before christ's resurrection; on the contrary, i am rather urging the consideration of the great and serious caution requisite before we espouse, as an article of faith, any opinion which rests on so questionable a foundation, and which involves such interminable difficulties. but while we need not dwell longer on this immediate point, yet there are two considerations which appear to be altogether decisive as to the evidence borne against the invocation of saints by the writers of the old testament. if the spirits of the saints departed were not invoked before the resurrection of christ, purely because they were not then admitted into heaven; the first consideration i would suggest is this: why did the faithful and inspired servants of jehovah not invoke the angels and archangels who were in heaven? the second is this: why did not the inspired apostles and faithful disciples of our lord invoke the spirits of those saints after his resurrection; that is (according to the theory before us), after those saints had been taken by christ with him into his father's presence? i wish not to anticipate here our inquiry into the testimony borne by the writers of the new testament as to the doctrine and practice of the roman church in this particular; and i will only add, that whatever be the cause of the absence from the old testament of all worship and invocation of abel and abraham, whom the roman church now invokes, the alleged reason that it was because they were not in heaven till after christ's resurrection, is utterly set aside by the conduct of the apostles and disciples of our lord recorded in the new { } testament, for more than half a century after his return to his father's glory. this, however, seems to be the proper place for entertaining the first consideration, why did not the holy men of old, under the elder covenant, invoke angels and archangels, as the roman church now does? writers, indeed, who have declared themselves the defenders of that doctrine and practice, refer us to passages, which they cite, as affording examples of the worship of angels; and we will not knowingly allow any one of those sections of holy writ to remain unexamined. we must first endeavour to ascertain the testimony borne by the books of the old testament: and that presents to us such a body of evidence as greatly increases our surprise at the perseverance with which the invocation of angels has been maintained by any community of men acknowledging the inspiration of the sacred volume. the inspired writers of the old testament, and those to whom through their mouth and pen the divine word was addressed, were as fully as ourselves acquainted with the existence of angelic beings. they were aware of the station of those angels in the court of heaven, of their power as god's ambassadors, and agents for good. either their own eyes had seen the mighty operations of god by the hands of those celestial messengers; or their ears had heard their fathers tell what he had done by their instrumentality in times of old. why then did not god's chosen people offer to the angels the same worship and invocation which the church of rome now addresses to them in common with the patriarchs and prophets of the elder covenant, and with saints and martyrs under the new? in the condition of the holy angels no one ever suggests that { } any change, affecting the argument, has taken place since the time when man was created and made. and as the angels of heaven were in themselves the same, equally in the presence of god, and equally able to succour men through that long space of four thousand years, which intervened between adam's creation and the birth of him who was son of adam and son of god, so was man in the same dependent state, needing the guidance and protection of a power above his own. nay, surely, if there was in man any difference affecting the argument, it would all add weight to the reason against the invocation of angels by christians. the israelites of old had no clear knowledge, as we have, of one great mediator, who is ever making intercession for us; and yet they sought not the mediation and intercession and good offices of those superhuman beings, of whose existence and power, and employment in works of blessing to man, they had no doubt[ ]. this is a point of great importance to our argument, and i will refer to a few passages in support of it. [footnote : a small section indeed of their countrymen in our saviour's time denied the reality of a future state, and the existence of angels and spirits; but the sect was of then recent origin, and the overwhelming majority believed as their fathers had believed.] when david, who had, as we know [ chron. xxi. .], visible demonstration afforded him of the existence and ministration of the angels, called upon them to unite with his own soul, and with all the works of creation through all places of god's dominion, in praising their merciful, glorious, and powerful creator, he thus conveys to us the exalted ideas with which he had been filled of their nature, their excellence, and their ministration. "the lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his { } kingdom ruleth over all: bless the lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. bless ye the lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure." [ps. ciii. - .] david knew moreover that one of the offices, in the execution of which the angels do god's pleasure, is that of succouring and defending us on earth. for example, in one of the psalms used by the church of rome at complin, and with the rest repeated in the church of england, and prophetic of the redeemer, david, to whom this psalm is probably to be ascribed, declares of the man who had made the most high his refuge and strength, "there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling; for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." [ps. xci. - .] and again, with exquisitely beautiful imagery, he represents those same blessed servants of heaven as an army, as a host of god's spiritual soldiers keeping watch and ward over the poorest of the children of men, who would take refuge in his mercy: "the angel of the lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them[ ]." and yet david, the prophet of the lord, never addresses to these beings, high and glorious though they are, one single invocation: he neither asks them to assist him, nor to pray for him, nor to pray with him in his behalf. [footnote : ps. xxxiv. . (vulg. xxxiii. .) "immittet angelus domini in circuitu timentium eum, et eripiet eos." in the vulgate the beauty of the figure is lost; which, however, roman catholic writers restore in their comments. basil makes a beautiful use of the metaphor. see de sacy in loc.] { } isaiah was admitted by the holy spirit to witness in the fulness of its glory the court and the throne of heaven; and he heard the voices of the seraphim proclaiming their maker's praise; he experienced also personally the effect of their ministration, when one of them said, "lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." [isaiah vi. .] still, though isaiah must have regarded this angel as his benefactor under god, yet neither to this seraph, nor to any of the host of heaven, does he offer one prayer for their good offices, even by their intercession. he ever ascribes all to god alone; and never joins any other name with his either in supplication or in praise. let us also take the case of daniel. he acknowledges not only that the lord's omnipotent hand had rescued him from the jaws of the lions, but that the deliverance was brought about by the ministration of an angel. "my god hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." [dan. vi. .] yet when we look through daniel's prayers, we find no allusion to any of the highest angels. he had seen gabriel before his prayer; he had heard the voice and felt the hand of that heavenly messenger who was commissioned to reveal to him what should be done in the latter end; and immediately after the offering of his prayer, the same gabriel announces himself as one who was come forth to give the prophet skill and understanding. and yet neither towards gabriel, nor any other of the angels of god, does one word of invocation fall from the lips of daniel. in the supplications of that holy, intrepid, and blessed servant and child of god, we search in vain for any thing approaching in spirit to the invocation, "sancte gabriel, ora pro nobis." { } * * * * * section iii.--evidence of the old testament (continued) we must now briefly refer to those passages, by which roman catholic writers have endeavoured to maintain that religious adoration was paid to angels by the faithful sons of god. the two principal instances cited are, first, the case of abraham bowing down before three men, whom he recognizes as messengers from heaven; and, secondly, the words of jacob when he gave his benediction to his grandsons. with regard to the first instance, how very far the prostration of abraham was in itself from implying an act of religious worship, being as it was the ordinary mode of paying respect to a fellow mortal, is evident from the very words of scripture. the hebrew word, which we translate by "bowed himself," and which the vulgate unhappily renders "adoravit" ("adored"), is, letter for letter, the same in the case of abraham saluting his three heavenly visitors, and in the case of jacob saluting his brother esau. the parallelism of the two passages is very striking. gen. xviii. . gen. xxxiii. and . and he [abraham] lift up his and jacob lifted up his eyes, eyes, and lo! three men stood and looked, and behold! esau by him; and when he saw them, came ... and he passed over, and he ran to meet them from the _bowed himself to the ground_ seven tent door; and _bowed himself_ times until he came near to his _toward the ground_. brother. { } by rendering the hebrew word[ ], which means to "bow or bend oneself," by the word "adoravit," which is literally "to pray to," the latin vulgate has laid the foundation for much unsound and misleading criticism. but suppose the word had meant, what it does not mean, an act of solemn religious worship; and let it be granted (as i am not only ready to grant, but prepared to maintain) that abraham paid religious adoration at that time, what inference can fairly and honestly be drawn from that circumstance in favour of the invocation of angels? the ancient writers of the christian church, and those whom the church of rome habitually holds in great respect, are full and clear in maintaining that the person whom abraham then addressed, was no created being, neither angel nor seraph; but the angel of the covenant; the word, the eternal son of god, himself god[ ]. before the visible and miraculous presence of the god of heaven, who for his own glory and in carrying on the work of man's salvation, sometimes deigned so to reveal himself, the patriarchs of old bowed themselves to the earth. can this, with any shadow of { } reason, be employed to sanction the invocation of michael and all the myriads of angels who fill the court of heaven? [footnote : not only is the hebrew word precisely the same, letter for letter, and point for point, [hebrew: shahah], but the septuagint in each case employs the same, [greek: prosekunaesen]; and the vulgate in each case renders it by the same word, "adoravit." the roman catholic commentator de sacy renders it in each case, "se prosternavit," which corresponds exactly with our english version. the douay bible in each case renders it "adored."] [footnote : many early christian writers may be cited to the same purpose: it is enough, however, to refer to justin martyr and to athanasius; who are very full and elaborate in maintaining, that the angel here mentioned was no created being, but was the angel of the covenant, god, in the fulness of time manifested in the flesh. the passage from athanasius will be quoted at some length, when we come to examine that father's testimony. for justin martyr, see dial. cum tryph. ch. , &c. p. , &c. (paris, .)] the only other instance to which it will be necessary to call your attention, occurs in the forty-eighth chapter of genesis. the passage, however, is so palpably and on the very face of it inapplicable, that its examination needs not detain us long. "and he [jacob] blessed joseph, and said, god, before whom my fathers abraham and isaac did walk, the god who fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." [gen. xlviii. .] here the patriarch speaks of god as the angel, and the angel as god: being the angel or messenger of the covenant--god manifested to man. he speaks not of michael or gabriel, or archangel or seraph, or any created being; but of the lord himself, who appeared to him, agreeably to the revelation of god himself recorded in a previous chapter, and thus communicated by the patriarch to rachel and leah: "and the angel of god spake unto me in a dream, saying, jacob; and i said, here am i. and he said ... _i_ am the god of bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and vowedst a vow unto me." [gen. xxxi. .] the angel whose blessing he desired for the lads was the god[ ], to whom he had vowed a vow in bethel, the lord himself. [footnote : it may not be superfluous to add, that this is the interpretation of the passage adopted by primitive writers, among others see eusebius demonstr. evan. lib. v. ch. : who declares that the angel spoken of by jacob was god the son.] independently, however, of this conclusive consideration, if the latter member of this sentence had merely expressed a wish, that an angel might be employed as { } an instrument of good in behalf of ephraim and manasseh, i could readily offer such a prayer for a blessing on my own children. my prayer would be addressed to the angel neither immediately nor transitively, but exclusively to god alone, supplicating him graciously to employ the service of those ministering spirits for our good. such a prayer every catholic in communion with the church of england is taught and directed to offer. such a prayer is primitive and scriptural; and such is offered in the church on the anniversary of saint michael and all angels: "o everlasting god, who hast ordained and constituted the services of angels and men in a wonderful order, mercifully grant that as thy holy angels alway do thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth; through jesus christ our lord. amen." such is the prayer of the church catholic, whether of the roman or the anglican branch; it is in spirit and in truth a christian prayer, fit for faithful mortals to offer on earth to the lord of men and of angels in heaven. would that the church of rome, preserving, as she has preserved, this prayer in all its original purity, had never been successfully tempted to mingle in the same service, supplications, which rob the one only god of his exclusive honour and glory, as the god "who heareth prayer;" and to rob christ of his exclusive honour and glory, as our only mediator and advocate! here, though unwilling, by departing from the order of our argument, to anticipate our examination in its place of the roman ritual, i cannot refrain from contrasting this prayer, the genuine offspring of christian faith, with some forms of invocation contained in { } the roman service on st. michael's day, in which i could not join, and the adoption of which i deeply lament. the first is appointed to be said at the part of the mass called "the secret:" "we offer to thee, o lord, the sacrifice of praise, humbly beseeching thee, that by the intervention of the prayers of the angels for us, thou, being appeased, mayest both accept the same, and make them profitable for our salvation. through ..." the second is offered at the post communion: "supported [propped up, suffulti] by the intercession of thy blessed archangel michael, we humbly beseech thee, o lord, that what with honour we follow[ ], we may obtain also in mind. through ..." [footnote : i do not understand the exact meaning of these words, which however contain no portion of that sentiment, the presence of which in this prayer i deplore. the original is this: "beati archangeli tui michaelis intercessione suffulti, supplices te domine deprecamur, ut quod honore prosequimur, contingamus et in mente. per ..." probably the general sense is, that what we reverently seek we may actually realize.] still, though here the christian seems to be taught to rest on a broken reed, to support and prop himself up by a staff which must bend and break; yet i acknowledge that so much violence is not done to my christian principles, nor do my feelings, as a believer in god and his ever-blessed son, meet with so severe a shock by either of these prayers, as by the invocation addressed to the archangel himself in the "gradual" on that same day: "o holy michael, o archangel, defend us in battle, that we perish not in the dreadful judgment." christians of the church of rome! for one moment meditate, i beseech you, on this prayer. it is not addressed to god; in it there is no mention made of { } christ: having called upon the angels, and on your own soul in the words of the psalmist, to praise the lord, you address your supplication to michael himself; not even invoking him for his intercession, but imploring of him his protection. if it be said, that his intercession is all that is meant, with most unfeigned sincerity i request you to judge for yourselves, whether any prayer from poor sinful man, putting his whole trust in the lord and imploring his help, could be addressed to our god and saviour more immediate and direct than this? in the place of the name of his servant michael, substitute the highest and the holiest name ever uttered in heaven or on earth, and can words form a prayer more direct to god? "o lord god almighty, o lord jesus our only saviour, defend us in battle, that we perish not in the dreadful judgment. hallelujah!"--can this be right? were the archangel allowed now, by his lord and ours, to make his voice heard upon earth by christians offering to him this prayer, would he utter any other words, than the angel, his fellow-servant and ours, once addressed to saint john, when he fell down to worship before him, "see thou do it not; for i am thy fellow-servant: worship god." such then is the evidence borne by the writers of the old testament. no prayer to angel or beatified spirit occurs from its first to its last page. the theory which would have us account for the absence of all prayer to the saints before the advent of messiah, by reason of their not having been then admitted into their everlasting habitations, and the immediate presence of god proves to be utterly groundless. the holy angels were confessedly in heaven [matt. xviii. .], beholding the face of { } god; but no invocation was ever addressed to them, by patriarch, or prophet, or people, as mediators or intercessors. god, and god alone, the one eternal jehovah, is proclaimed by himself throughout, and is acknowledged throughout to be the only object of any kind of spiritual worship; the only being who heareth prayer, to whom alone therefore all mankind should approach with the words and with the spirit of invocation. it has been argued by some writers, that in the times of the old testament, prayer was not offered to god through a mediator at all; and that as the one mediator was not then revealed in his person and his offices, the subsidiary intercessors could not of course act; and therefore could not be invoked by man. the answer to this remark is conclusive. that mediator has been revealed in his person and his offices; and has been expressly declared to be the one mediator between god and man: we therefore seek god's covenanted mercies through him. those subsidiary intercessors have never been revealed; and therefore we do not seek their aid. to assure us that it was the mind and will of our heavenly father that we should approach him by secondary and subsidiary mediators and intercessors, the same clear and unquestionable revelation of their persons and their offices as mediators would have been required, as he has vouchsafed of the mediation of his son. had god willed that the faithful should approach him by the intercessions of the saints and martyrs, is it conceivable that he would not have given some intimation of his will in this respect? if believers in the gospel were to have unnumbered mediators of intercession in heaven, as well as the one mediator of redemption, would not the { } gospel itself have announced it? could such declarations as these have remained on record without any qualifying or limiting expression, "he[ ] is able also to save to the uttermost them who come unto god by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." "there is one god, and one mediator between god and men, the man christ jesus." but this involves the question to which the next section must be devoted. all i would anticipate here is, that if the irresistible argument from the old testament is sought to be evaded on the ground that no mediator at all was then revealed, we must require a distinct revelation of the existence and offices of other mediators and intercessors, before we can be justified in applying to them for their intervention in our behalf. and the question now is. are they so revealed? [footnote : heb. vii. . i tim. ii. .--unde et salvare in perpetuum potest accedentes per semetipsum ad deum, semper vivens ad interpellandum pro nobis.--_vulg._] * * * * * section iv.--evidence of the new testament. though such is the evidence borne against the invocation of saints and angels by the old testament, yet it has been said that we are living neither under the patriarchal, nor the mosaic dispensation, but under the gospel, to whom therefore as christians neither the precepts nor the examples of those ancient times are applicable: { } the injunctions consequently given of old to preserve the chosen people from idolatry and paganism, cannot be held to prohibit christians from seeking the aid of those departed saints who are now reigning with christ. but, surely, those precepts, and denunciations, and commands, are still most strictly applicable, as conveying to us a knowledge of the will of our heavenly father, that his sons and daughters on earth should associate no name, however exalted among the principalities and powers in heavenly places, with his own holy name in prayer, and spiritual invocation. i am throughout this address supposing myself to be speaking to those whose heart's desire is to fulfil the will of god in all things; not those who are contented to depart from the spirit of that will, whenever they can devise plausible arguments to countenance such departure. the cases both of precept and example through the old testament affording so stringent and so universal a rule against the association of any name with the name of the almighty in our prayers; before we can conclude that christians have a liberty denied to believers under the former dispensations, we must surely produce a declaration to that effect, clear, unequivocal, and precisely in point. nothing short of an enactment, rescinding in terms the former prohibitory law, and positively sanctioning supplications and prayers to saints and angels, seems capable of satisfying any christian bent on discovering the will of god, and resolved to worship him agreeably to the spirit of that will as it has been revealed. but let us read the new testament from its first to its very last word, and we shall find, that the doctrines, the precepts, and the examples, the pervading reigning spirit of the entire { } volume, combine in addressing us with voices loud and clear. pray to god almighty solely in the name and for the sake of his dear and only son jesus christ our lord, and offer no prayer, no supplication, no intreaty, to any other being or power, saint or angel, though it be only to ask for their intercession with the great god. but this involves the whole question, and must be sifted thoroughly. let us then review the entire volume with close and minute scrutiny, and ask ourselves, is there a single passage, interpreted to the best of our skill, with the aid of those on whose integrity and learning we can rely, which directly and unequivocally sanctions any religious invocation of whatever kind to any being except god alone? and then let us calmly and deliberately resolve this point: in a matter of so vital importance, of so immense interest, and of so sacred a character as the worship of the supreme being, who declares himself to be a jealous god, ought we to suffer any refinements of casuistry to entice us from the broad, clear light of revelation? if it were god's good pleasure to make exceptions to his rule--a rule so repeatedly, and so positively enacted and enforced--surely the analogy of his gracious dealings with mankind would have taught us to look for an announcement of the exceptions in terms equally forcible and explicit. instead, however, of this, we find no single act, no single word, nothing which even by implication can be forced to sanction any prayer or religious invocation, of whatever kind, to any other being save to god alone. let us first look to the language and conduct of our blessed lord, whose prayers to his father are upon record for our instruction and comfort, and whose precepts and example form the best rule of a christian's { } life. so far from repealing the ancient law, he repeats in his own person its solemn announcement, "hear, o israel, the lord our god is one lord." [mark xii. .] while the same heavenly teacher commands us with authority, "when thou prayest, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." [matt. vi. .] no allusion in any word of his do we find to any prayer from a mortal on this earth to an angel or saint in heaven. and yet occasions were multiplied on which a reference to the invocation of angels would have been natural, and apparently called for. he again and again places beyond all doubt the reality of their good services towards mankind, but it is as god's servants, and at god's bidding; not in answer to any supplication or invoking of ours. the parable of the rich man and lazarus has been cited [bellarmin, p. .] to bear contrary evidence; but, in the first place, that parable does not offer a case in point; in the second place, were it in point, it might be fairly and strongly urged against the practice of invoking the spirit of any departed mortal, even the father of the faithful himself. for what are the circumstances of the parabolic representation? a lost spirit in the regions of torment prays to abraham in the regions of the blessed, and the spirit of the departed patriarch professes himself to have no power to grant the request of the departed and condemned spirit. [luke xvi. .] the practice indeed of our roman catholic brethren would have been exemplified, had our blessed lord represented the rich man's five brethren still on earth as pious men, and as supplicating abraham in heaven to pray for themselves, or to mitigate { } their lost brother's punishment and his woes. but then it would have afforded christians little encouragement to follow their example, when they found abraham declaring himself unable to aid them in attaining the object of their prayer, or in any way to assist them at all. without one single exception, we find our blessed lord's example, precepts, and doctrines to be decidedly against the practice of invoking saint or angel; whilst not one solitary act or word of his can be cited to countenance or palliate it. next it follows, that we inquire into the conduct and the writings of christ's apostles and immediate followers, to whom he graciously promised that the holy spirit should guide them into all truth. in the acts of the apostles, various instances of prayer attract our notice, but not one ejaculation is found there to any other being save god alone. neither angel nor saint is invoked. the apostles prayed for guidance in the government of christ's infant church, but it was, "thou, lord, who knowest the hearts of all men." [acts i. .] they prayed for their own acceptance, but it was "lord jesus, receive my spirit." [acts vii. .] they prayed for each other, as in behalf of st. peter when in prison; but we are expressly told, that the prayer which was made without ceasing by the church for him was addressed to god. [acts xii. .] to deliver st. peter from his chains, an angel was sent on an especial mission from heaven; but though st. peter saw him, and heard his voice, and followed him, and knew of a surety that the almighty had employed the ministration of an angel to liberate him from his bonds, yet we do not hear thereafter of { } peter having himself prayed to an angel to secure his good offices, and his intercession with god, nor has he once indirectly intimated to others that such supplications would be of avail, or were even allowable. he exhorts his fellow-christians to pray, "watch unto prayer," but it is because "the eyes of the lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers." [ pet. iv. ; iii. .] he himself prays for them, but it is, that the god of all grace might make them perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle them. he suggests no invocation of saint or angel to intercede with god for them. he bids them cast all their care upon god, on the assurance that god himself careth for them. precisely the same result issues from a contemplation of the acts and exhortation of st. paul. he too experienced in his own person the comfort of an angel's ministration, bidding him cast off all fear when in the extreme of imminent peril. [acts xxvii. , .] many a prayer of that holy apostle is upon record; many an earnest exhortation to prayer was made by him; we find many a declaration relative to his own habits of prayer. but with him god and god alone is the object of prayer throughout: by him no saint or angel or archangel is alluded to, as one whose intercession might be sought by himself or by us. he could speak in glowing language of patriarchs, prophets, and angels, but unto none of these would he turn. "be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto god." [phil. iv. .] and let any one receive, in the plain meaning of his words, his prohibitory monition [col. ii. .], and say, could st. paul have { } uttered these words without any qualifying expression, had he worshipped angels by invocation, even asking them only to aid him by their prayers. "let no one beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels; not holding the head," which head he had in the first chapter (v. ) declared to be the dear son of god, "in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of our sins." the author of the epistle to the hebrews could bring before our minds with most fervent uplifting eloquence abel and abraham and david,--that goodly fellowship of the prophets, that holy army of martyrs; he could speak as though he were an eye-witness of what he describes, of the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. and, surely, had the thought of seeking the support or intercession of saint or angel by invocation addressed to them, been familiar to him; had the thought even occurred to his mind with approbation, he would not have allowed such an occasion to pass by, without even alluding to any benefit that might arise from our invoking such friends of god. so far from that allusion, the utmost which he says at the close of his eulogy is this, "these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; god having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." [heb. xi. , .] the beloved apostle who could look forward in full assurance of faith to the day of christ's second coming, and knew that "when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is," has left us this record of his sentiments concerning prayer: { } "this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." [ john v. , .] st. john alludes to no intercessor, to no advocate, save only that "advocate with the father, jesus christ the righteous, who is also the propitiation for our sins." [ john ii. .] st. john never suggests to us the advocacy or intercession of saint or angel; with him god in christ is all in all. i will only refer to one more example, that of st. james: the instance is equally to the point, and is strongly illustrative of the truth. this apostle is anxious to impress on his fellow-christians a due sense of the efficacy of our intercessions: "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." [james v. .] he instances its power with god by the case of elijah, a man so holy, that the almighty suffered him not to pass through the regions of death and the grave, but translated him at once from this life to glory: "elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months; and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." [james v. , .] and yet st. james is very far from suggesting the lawfulness or efficacy of any invocation to the hallowed spirit of this man, to whose prayer the elements and natural powers of the sky and the earth had been made obedient. he exhorts all men to pray, but it must be to god alone, and directly to god, without applying for the intervention of any mediators or intercessors from among angels or men. { } "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of god, who giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him; but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." [james i. , .] like the writer to the hebrews, he would have us come ourselves "boldly" and directly "to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." surely, these apostles, chosen vessels for conveying the truths of salvation throughout the world, knew well how the almighty could best be approached by his children on earth; and had the invocation of saint or angel found a place in their creed, they would not have kept so important a truth from us. before leaving this part of our inquiry, i would propose the patient and unprejudiced weighing of the import of two passages in the new testament, often quoted on this subject; one in the acts of the apostles, the other in the apocalypse. the holy apostles barnabas and paul, by the performance of a striking miracle, had excited feelings of religious reverence and devotion among the people of lystra, who prepared to offer sacrifice to them as two of their fabled deities. [acts xiv. - .] the indignant zeal with which these two holy men rushed forward to prevent such an act of impiety, however admirable and affecting, does not constitute the chief point for which reference is here made to this incident. they were men, still clothed with the tabernacle of the flesh, and the weakness of human nature; and the priests and people were ready to offer to them the wonted victims, the abomination of the heathen. now, i am fully aware of the wide difference, in many { } particulars, between such an act and the act of a christian praying to their spirits after their departure hence, and supplicating them to intercede with the true god in his behalf: and on this difference roman catholic writers have maintained the total inapplicability of this incident to the present state of things. but, surely, if any such prayer to departed saints had been familiar to their minds, instead of repelling the religious address of the inhabitants of lystra at once and for ever, they would have altered the tone of their remonstrance, and not have suppressed the truth when a good opportunity offered itself for imparting it. and, supposing that it was part of their commission to announce and explain the invocation of saints at all, on what occasion could an explanation of the just and proper invocation of angels and saints departed have been more appropriate in the apostles, than when they were denouncing the unjustifiable offering of sacrifice to themselves while living? but whether the more appropriate place for such an announcement were at lystra, in corinth, at athens, or at rome, it matters not; nor whether it would have been more advantageously communicated by their oral teaching, or in their epistles. doubtless, had the apostles, by their example or teaching, sanctioned the invocation of saints and angels, in the course of fifty years or more after our blessed saviour's resurrection, it would infallibly have appeared in some page or other of the new testament. instead of this the whole tenor of the holy volume breathes in perfect accordance with the spirit of the apostolical remonstrance at lystra, to the fullest and utmost extent of its meaning, "we preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities to serve the living god." { } of the other instance, it well becomes every catholic christian to ponder on the weight and cogency. john, the beloved disciple of our lord, when admitted to view with his own eyes and hear with his mortal ears the things of heaven, rapt in amazement and awe, fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed him these things. [rev. xxii. , .] if the adoration of angels were ever justifiable, surely it was then; and what a testimony to the end of the world would have been put upon record, had the adoration of an angel by the blessed john at such a moment, when he had the mysteries and the glories of heaven before him, been received and sanctioned. but what is the fact? "then saith he to me, see thou do it not. i am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them who keep the sayings of this book. worship god." i cannot understand the criticism by which the conclusiveness of this direct renouncement of all religious adoration and worship is attempted to be set aside. to my mind these words, uttered without any qualification at such a time, by such a being, to such a man, are conclusive beyond gainsaying. the interpretation put upon this transaction, and the words in which it is recorded, and the inference drawn from them by a series of the best divines, with st. athanasius at their head, presents so entirely the plain common-sense view of the case to our minds, that all the subtilty of casuists, and all the ingenuity of modern refinements, will never be able to substitute any other in its stead. "the angel (such are the words of that ancient defender of the true faith), in the apocalypse, forbids john, when desiring to worship him, saying, 'see thou { } do it not; i am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them who keep the sayings of this book. worship god.' therefore, to be the object of worship belongs to god only; and this even the angels themselves know: though they surpass others in glory, but they are all creatures, and are not among objects of worship, but among those who worship the sovereign lord." [athan. orat. . cont. ar. vol. i. p. .] to say that st. john was too fully illuminated by the holy spirit to do, especially a second time, what was wrong; and thence to infer that what he did was right, is as untenable as to maintain, that st. peter could not, especially thrice, have done wrong in denying our lord. he did wrong, or the angel would not have chided and warned him. and to say that the angel here forbade john personally to worship him, because he was a fellow-servant and one of the prophets; and thus that the prohibition only tended to exalt the prophetic character, not to condemn the worship of angels, is proved to be also a groundless assumption, from the angel's own words, who reckons himself as a fellow-servant with not st. john only, but all those also who keep the words of the book of god,--thus equally forbidding every faithful christian to worship their fellow-servants the angels. they are almost the last words in the volume of inspired truth, and to me, together with those last words, they seem with "the voice of a great multitude, and of many waters, and of mighty thunderings," from the very throne itself of the most high, to proclaim to every inhabiter of the earth, fall down before no created being; adore no created being; pray to, invoke, call upon no created being, whether saint or angel: worship { } and adore god only; pray to god only. trust to his mercy; seek no other mediator or intercessor than his own only and blessed son. "he who testifieth these things saith, surely, i come quickly. amen. even so, come, lord jesus. the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you all. amen." [rev. xxii. , .] thus the new testament, so far from mitigating the stringency of the former law, so far from countenancing any departure from the obligation of that code which limits religious worship to god alone, so far from suggesting to us invocation to sainted men, and to angels as intercessors with the eternal giver of all good, reiterates the injunction, and declares, that invocation in order to be christian must be addressed to god alone; and that there is one and only one mediator between god and men, the man jesus christ, who is at the right hand of his father, a merciful high priest sympathizing with us in our infirmities, ever making intercession for us, able to save to the uttermost those who come unto god through him. the present seems to be a convenient place for observing, that however the distinction is strongly insisted upon, or rather implicitly acquiesced in by many, which would admit of a worship or service called dulia (the greek [greek: douleia]) to saints and angels, and would limit the worship or service called latria ([greek: latreia]) to the supreme god only, yet that such distinction has no ground whatever to rest upon beyond the will and the imagination of those who draw it. the two words are used in the septuagint translation of the old testament, and in the original greek of the { } new promiscuously, without any such distinction whatever. the word which this distinction would limit to the supreme worship of the most high, is used to express the bodily service paid by the vanquished to their conquerors, as well as the religious service paid by idolaters to their fabled deities, and by the true worshippers to the most high. the word which this distinction would reserve for the secondary worship paid to saints and angels, is employed to express not only the service paid by man to man, but also the service and worship paid to god alone, even when mentioned in contradistinction to other worship. it will be necessary to establish this by one or two instances; and first as to "latria." one single chapter in the book of deuteronomy supplies us with instances of the word used in the three senses, of service to men, service to idols, and service to god, xxviii. . , : "because thou servedst [greek: elatreusas] not the lord thy god with joyfulness and gladness of heart; therefore thou shalt serve [greek: latreuseis] thine enemies which the lord shall send against thee in hunger and in thirst and nakedness." "the lord shall bring thee unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve [greek: latreuseis] other gods, wood and stone." next as to the word "dulia." the first book of samuel (called also the first of kings) alone supplies us with instances of this word being used in each of the same three senses of service from man to man, from man to idols, and from man to his maker and god. sam. xvii. . "ye shall be our servants and serve [greek: douleusite haemin] us." xii. . "only fear the lord, and serve [greek: douleusate] him in truth with all your heart." xxvi. . { } "they have driven me out from the inheritance of the lord, saying, go, serve[ ] other gods." [footnote : [greek: douleue]. in this case also the vulgate translates all the three passages alike by the same verb, "servire."] it is worthy of remark, that the same word "dulia[ ]" is employed, when the lord by his prophet speaks of the most solemn acts of religious worship; not in general obedience only, but in the offerings and oblations of their holy things. ezek. xx. . "in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of israel, saith the lord god, there shall all the house of israel, all of them in the land, serve me [greek: douleusousi. vulg: serviet.]; there will i accept them, and there will i require your offerings, and the first-fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things." st. matthew also uses the same word when he records the saying of our blessed lord, "ye cannot serve god and mammon." [matt. vi. .; greek: douleuein. vulg: servire.] [footnote : it is also remarkable that in all these cases, whether the septuagint employs the word "dulia," or "latria," the word in the hebrew is precisely the same, [hebrew: avad]. that in the fifth century the words were synonymous is evident from theodoret. i. . see edit. halle.--index.] i will only detain you by one more example, drawn from two passages, which seems the more striking because each of the two words "dulia" and "latria" is used to imply the true worship of god in a person, who was changed from a state of alienation to a state of holiness. the first is in st. paul's st epistle to the thessalonians, i. . "how ye turned to god from idols, to serve [greek: douleuein theo zonti] the living and true god." the second is in heb. ix. . "how much more shall the blood of christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself { } without spot to god, purge your conscience from dead works to serve[ ] the living god." [footnote : [greek: latoeuein theo zonti.] in each of these two cases the vulgate uses "servire."] the word "hyperdulia," now used to signify the worship proper to the virgin mary, as being a worship of a more exalted character than the worship offered to saints and angels, archangels, and cherubim and seraphim, will not require a similar examination. the word was invented in later times, and has been used chiefly to signify the worship of the virgin, and is of course found neither in the scriptures, nor in any ancient classical or ecclesiastical author. { } * * * * * chapter iii. section i.--the evidence of primitive writers. before we enter upon the next branch of our proposed inquiry, allow me to premise that i am induced to examine into the evidence of christian antiquity not by any misgiving, lest the testimony of scripture might appear defective or doubtful; far less by any unworthy notion that god's word needs the additional support of the suffrages of man[ ]. on the contrary, the voice of god in his revealed word is clear, certain, and indisputable, commanding the invocation of himself alone in acts of religious worship, and condemning any such departure from that singleness of adoration, as they are { } seduced into, who invoke saints and angels. and it is a fixed principle in our creed, that where god's written word is clear and certain, human evidence cannot be weighed against it in the balance of the sanctuary. when the lord hath spoken, well does it become the whole earth to be silent before him; when the eternal judge himself hath decided, the witness of man bears on its very face the stamp of incompetency and presumption. [footnote : while some authors seem to go far towards the substitution of the fathers for the written word of god, others in their abhorrence of that excess have run into the opposite, fancying, as it would seem, that they exalt the divine oracles just in the same proportion as they disparage the uninspired writers of the church. the great body of the church of england adhere to a middle course, and adopt that golden mean, which ascribes to the written word its paramount authority, from which is no appeal, and yet honours catholic tradition as the handmaid of the truth.] for myself i can say (what i have good hope these pages will of themselves evince) that no one can value the testimony of christian tradition within its own legitimate sphere more sincerely, or more highly, than the individual who is now soliciting your attention to the conclusions which he has himself drawn from it. when scripture is silent, or where its meaning is doubtful, catholic tradition is to me a guide, which i feel myself bound to follow with watchful care and submissive reverence. now let it be for the present supposed, that instead of the oracles of god having spoken, as we believe them to have spoken, with a voice clear, strong, and uniform against the doctrine and practice of the invocation of saints and angels, their voices had been weak, doubtful, and vague; in other words, suppose in this case the question had been left by the holy scriptures an open question, then what evidence would have been deducible from the writings of the primitive church? what testimony do the first years and the first ages after the canon of scripture was closed, bear upon this point? and here i would repeat the principle of inquiry, proposed above for our adoption in the more important and solemn examination of the holy volume itself.--we ought to endeavour to ascertain what may { } fairly and honestly be regarded as the real bearing of each author's remains, and not suffer the general tone and spirit of a writer to be counterbalanced by single expressions, which may be so interpreted as to convey an opposite meaning. rather we should endeavour to reconcile with that general spirit and pervading tendency of a writer's sentiments any casual expressions which may admit of two acceptations. we adopt this principle in our researches into the remains of classical antiquity; we adopt the same principle in estimating the testimony of a living witness. in the latter case, indeed, the ingenuity of the adverse advocate is often exercised in magnifying the discrepancies between some minor facts or incidental expressions with the broad and leading assertions of the witness, with a view to invalidate his testimony altogether, or at least to weaken the impression made by it. but then a wise and upright judge, assured of the truth of the evidence in the main, and of the integrity of the individual, will not suffer unessential, apparent inconsistencies to stifle and bury the body of testimony at large, but will either extract from the witness what may account for them, or show them to be immaterial. inviting, therefore, your best thoughts to this branch of our subject, i ask you to ascertain, by a full and candid process of induction, this important and interesting point,--whether we of the anglican church, by religiously abstaining from the presentation, in word or in thought, of any thing approaching prayer or supplication, entreaty, request, or any invocation whatever, to any other being except god alone, do or do not tread in the steps of the first christians, and adhere to the very pattern which they set; and whether members of the church of rome by addressing angel or saint in any form of invocation seeking { } their aid, either by their intercession or otherwise, have not unhappily swerved decidedly and far from those same footsteps, and departed widely from that pattern? in one point of view it might perhaps be preferable to enter at once upon our investigation, without previously stating the conclusions to which my own inquiries have led; but, on the whole, i think it more fair to make that statement, in order, that having the inferences already drawn placed before the mind, the inquirer may in each case weigh the several items of evidence bearing upon them separately, and more justly estimate its whole weight collectively at the last. after then having examined the passages collected by the most celebrated roman catholic writers, and after having searched the undisputed original works of the primitive writers of the greek and latin churches, the conclusion to which i came, and in which every day of further inquiry and deliberation confirms me more and more in this:-- in the first place, negatively, that the christian writers, through the first three centuries and more, never refer to the invocation of saints and angels as a practice with which they were familiar: that they have not recorded or alluded to any forms of invocation of the kind used by themselves or by the church in their days; and that no services of the earliest times contain hymns, litanies, or collects to angels, or to the spirits of the faithful departed. in the second place, positively, that the principles which they habitually maintain and advocate are irreconcileable with such a practice. in tracing the history of the worship of saints and angels, we proceed (gradually, indeed, though by no { } means at all periods, and through every stage, with equal rapidity,) from the earliest custom established and practised in the church,--of addressing prayers to almighty god alone for the sake of the merits of his blessed son, the only mediator and intercessor between god and man,--to the lamentable innovation both of praying to god for the sake of the merits, and through the mediation of departed mortals, and of invoking those mortals themselves as the actual dispensers of the spiritual blessings which the suppliant seeks from above. it is not only a necessary part of our inquiry for ascertaining the very truth of the case; it is also curious and painfully interesting, to trace the several steps, one after another, beginning with the doctrine maintained by various early writers, both greek and latin, that the souls of the saints are not yet reigning with christ in heaven, and ending with the anathema of the council of trent, against all who should maintain that doctrine; beginning with prayer and thanksgiving to almighty god alone, and ending with daily prayers both to saints and angels; one deviation from the strict line of religious duty, and the pure singleness of christian worship, successively gliding into another, till at length the whole of christendom, with a few remarkable exceptions, was seen to acquiesce in public and private devotions, which, if proposed, the whole of christendom would once with unanimity have rejected. before i offer to you the result of my inquiries as to the progressive stages of degeneracy and innovation in the worship of almighty god, i would premise two considerations: first, i would observe, that the soundness of my conclusion on the general points at issue does not depend at all on the accuracy of the arrangement of those stages { } which i have adopted. should any one, for example, think there is evidence that two or more of those progressive steps, which i have regarded as consecutive, were simultaneous changes, or that any one which i have ranked as subsequent took rather the lead in order of time, such an opinion would not tend in the least to invalidate my argument; the substantial and essential point at issue being this: is the invocation of saints and angels, as now practised in the church of rome, agreeable to the primitive usage of the earliest christians? secondly, i would observe, that the places and occasions most favourable for witnessing and correctly estimating the changes and gradual innovations in the worship of those early times, are the tombs of the martyrs, and the churches in which their remains were deposited; and at the periods of the annual celebration of their martyrdom, or in some instances at what was called their translation,--the removal, that is, of their mortal remains from their former resting-place to a church, for the most part dedicated to their memory. on these occasions the most extraordinary enthusiasm prevailed; sometimes the ardour of the worshippers, as st. chrysostom [st. chrys. paris, . vol. xii. p. .] tells us, approaching madness. but even at times of less excitement, by contemplating, immediately after his death, the acts and sufferings of the martyr, and recalling his words, and looks, and stedfast bearing, and exhorting each other to picture to themselves his holy countenance then fixed on them, his tongue addressing them, his sufferings before their eyes, encouraging all to follow his example, they began habitually to consider him as actually himself one of the faithful assembled round { } his tomb. hence they believed that he was praying with them as well as for them; that he heard their eulogy on his merits, and was pleased with the honours paid to his memory: hence they felt sure of his goodwill towards them, and his ability, as when on earth, to promote their welfare. hence they proceeded, by a fatal step, first, to implore him to give them bodily relief from some present sufferings; then invoking him to plead their cause with god, and to intercede for the supply of their spiritual wants, and the ultimate salvation of their souls; and, lastly, they prayed to him generally as himself the dispenser of temporal and spiritual blessings. the following then is the order in which the innovations in christian worship seem to have taken place, being chiefly introduced at the annual celebrations of the martyrs:-- st. in the first ages confession and prayer and praise were offered to the supreme being alone, and that for the sake of his son our only saviour and advocate: when mention was made of saint or martyr, it was to thank god for the graces bestowed on his departed holy ones when on earth, and to pray to god for grace that we might follow their good examples, and attain, through christ, to the same end and crown of our earthly struggles. this act of worship was usually accompanied by a homily setting forth the christian excellences of the saint, and encouraging the survivors so to follow him, as he followed christ. nd. the second stage seems to have been a prayer to almighty god, that he would suffer the supplications and intercessions[ ] of angels and saints to prevail { } with him, and bring down a blessing on their fellow-petitioners on earth; the idea having spread among enthusiastic worshippers, as i have already observed, that the spirits of the saints were suffered to be present around their tombs, and to join with the faithful in their addresses to the throne of grace. [footnote : the greek word [greek: presbeia], "embassy," employed on such occasions, is still used in some eastern churches in the same sense.] rd. the third stage seems to have owed its origin to orators constantly dwelling upon the excellences of the saints in the panegyrics delivered over their remains, representing their constancy and christian virtues as superhuman and divine, and as having conferred lasting benefits on the church. by these benefits at first was meant the comfort and encouragement of their good example, and the honour procured to the religion of the cross by their bearing witness to its truth even unto death; but in process of time the habit grew of attaching a sort of mysterious efficacy to their merits; hence this third gradation in religious worship, namely, prayers to god that "he would hear his suppliants, and grant their requests for the sake of his martyred servant, and by the efficacy of that martyr's merits." th. hitherto, unauthorized and objectionable as the two last forms of prayer are, still the petitions in each case were directed to god alone. the next step swerved lamentably from that principle of worship, and the petitioners addressed their requests to angels and sainted men in heaven; at first, however, confining their petitions to the asking for their prayers and intercessions with almighty god. th. the last stage in this progressive degeneracy of christian worship was to petition the saints and angels, directly and immediately themselves, at first for the temporal, and afterwards for the spiritual benefits which the petitioners desired to obtain from heaven. for it { } is very curious, but not more curious than evident, that the worshippers seem for some time to have petitioned their saints for temporal and bodily benefits, before they proceeded to ask for spiritual blessings at their hands, or by their prayers. (see basil. oral. in mamanta martyrem.) of these several gradations and stages we find traces in the records of christian antiquity, after superstition and corruption had spread through christian worship, and leavened the whole. of all of them we have lamentable instances in the present ritual of the church of rome, as we shall see somewhat at large when we reach that division of our inquiry. but from the beginning it was not so. in the earliest ages we find only the first of these forms of worship exemplified, and it is the only form now retained in the anglican ritual; of which, among other examples, the following passage in the prayer for christ's church militant on earth supplies a beautiful specimen: "we bless thy holy name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear; beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom: grant this, o father, for jesus christ's sake, our only mediator and advocate. amen." we now proceed to examine the invaluable remains of christian antiquity, not for the purpose of testing the accuracy of the above catalogue of gradations _seriatim_ and in order of time; but to satisfy ourselves on the question, whether the invocation of saints and angels prevailed from the first in the christian church; or whether it was an innovation introduced after pagan superstition had begun to mingle its poisonous corruptions with the pure worship of { } almighty god. and here, i conceive, few persons will be disposed to doubt, that if the primitive believers were taught by the apostles to address the saints reigning in heaven and the holy angels, and the virgin mother of our lord, with adoration and prayers, the earliest christian records must have contained clear and indisputable references to the fact, and that undesigned allusions to the custom would inevitably be found offering themselves to our notice here and there. i do not mean that we should expect to meet with full and explicit statements either of the doctrine or the practice of the primitive church in this particular; much less such apologies and elaborate defences of the practice as abound to the overflow in later times. but, what is more satisfactory in proof of the general and established prevalence of any opinions or customs, we should surely find expressions incidentally occurring, which implied an habitual familiarity with such opinions or customs. in every record, for example, of primitive antiquity, from the very earliest of all, expressions are constantly meeting us which involve the doctrine of the ever-blessed trinity, the atoning sacrifice of christ's death, the influences of the holy spirit; habitual prayer and praise offered to the saviour of the world, as very and eternal god; the holy sacraments of baptism and the lord's supper; with other tenets and practices of the apostolic church. it is impossible to study the remains of christian antiquity without being assured beyond the reach of doubt, that such were the doctrines and practice of the universal church from the days of the apostles. is the invocation of saints and angels and the blessed virgin to be made an exception to this rule? can it stand this test? the great anxiety and labour of roman catholic { } writers to press the authors of every age to bear witness on their side in this behalf, proves that in their judgment no such exception is admissible. it is clearly beyond gainsaying, that if the present doctrine of the church of rome, with respect to the worship of angels and saints, as propounded by the council of trent; and if her present practice as set forth in her authorized liturgies and devotional services, and professed by her popes, bishops, clergy, and people, had been the doctrine and practice of the primitive church, we should have found evident and indisputable traces of it in the earliest works of primitive antiquity, in the earliest liturgies, and in the forms of prayer and exhortations to prayer with which those works abound. it by no means follows that if some such allusions were partially discoverable, therefore the doctrines and practice must forthwith be pronounced to be apostolical; but if no such traces can be found, their absence bears witness that neither did those doctrines nor that practice exist. if, for example, through the remains of the first three centuries we could have discovered no trace of the doctrine or practice of holy baptism and the eucharist, we must have concluded that the doctrine and the practice were the offspring of later years. but when we read every where, in those remains, exhortations to approach those holy mysteries with a pure heart and faith unfeigned; when we find rules prescribed for the more orderly administration of the rites; in a word, when we perceive throughout as familiar references to these ordinances as could be now made by catholics either of rome or of england, while this would not of itself necessarily prove their divine origin, we should with equal plausibility question the existence of jerusalem or constantinople, or of david or constantine, as we { } should doubt the prevalence both of the doctrine and practice of the church in these particulars, even from the apostles' days. with these principles present to our minds, i now invite you to accompany me in a review of the testimonies of primitive christian antiquity with regard to supplications and invocations of saints and angels, and of the blessed virgin mary. * * * * * section ii--century i.--the evidence of the apostolic fathers. it will be necessary for the satisfaction of all parties, that we examine, in the first place, those ancient writings which are ascribed to an apostle, or to fellow-labourers of the apostles; familiarly known as the writings of the apostolic fathers. they are five in number, barnabas, clement, hermas, ignatius, and polycarp. many able writers, as well of the roman as of the anglican communion, have discussed at large the genuineness of these writings; and have come to very different results. some critics are of opposite and extreme opinions, others ranging between them with every degree and shade of variation. some of these works have been considered spurious; others have been pronounced genuine; though, even these have been thought to be, in many parts, interpolated. the question, however, of their genuineness, though deeply interesting in itself, will not affect their testimony with { } regard to the subject before us[ ]. they were all in existence before the council of nicæa; and we shall probably not be wrong in assigning to the first two a date at the very lowest computation not less remote than the middle of the second century; somewhere, it may be, at the furthest, about one hundred years after the death of our lord. (a.d. - .) with all their errors and blemishes and interpolations taken at the worst, after every reasonable deduction for defects in matter, taste, and style, the writings which are ascribed to the apostolic fathers are too venerable for their antiquity, too often quoted with reverence and affection by some who have been the brightest ornaments of the christian church, and possess too copious a store of genuine evangelical truth, sound principle, primitive simplicity, and pious sentiment, to be passed over with neglect by any catholic christian. the few extracts { } made here will, i am assured, be not unacceptable to any one, who holds dear the religion of christ[ ]. [footnote : i do not think it suitable in this address to enter upon the difficult field of inquiry, whether all or which of these works were the genuine productions of those whose names they bear; and whether the barnabas, clement, and hermas to which three of them are ascribed, were the barnabas, clement, and hermas of whom express mention is made in the pages of holy scripture. i have determined, in conducting my argument, to affix to them in each case the lowest proposed antiquity. the edition of archbishop wake, (who maintains the highest antiquity for these works, though i have not here adopted his translation,) may be consulted with much profit. did the question before us relate to the genuineness and dates of these works, they could not, with any approach to fairness, be all five placed without distinction under the same category. the evidence for the genuineness of clement, ignatius in the shorter copy, and polycarp, is too valuable to be confounded with that of the others, which are indisputably subject to much greater doubt. but this question has only an incidental bearing on our present inquiry, and will be well spared.] [footnote : the edition of the works of these apostolic fathers used here is that of cotelerius as revised by le clerc, antwerp, .] * * * * * the epistle of st. barnabas. in the work entitled the catholic epistle of barnabas, which was written probably by a jew converted to the christian faith, about the close of the first century, or certainly before the middle of the second[ ], i have searched in vain for any thing like the faintest trace of the invocation of saint or angel. the writer gives directions on the subject of prayer; he speaks of angels as the ministers of god; he speaks of the reward of the righteous at the day of judgment; but he suggests not the shadow of a supposition, that he either held the doctrine himself which the church of rome now holds, or was aware of its existence among christians. in his very beautiful but incomplete summary of christian duty [sect. , . p. , , .], which he calls "the way of light," we perceive more than one most natural opening for reference to that doctrine, had it been familiar to his mind. in the midst indeed of his brief precepts of religious and moral obligation, he directs the christian to seek out every day "the persons of the saints," but they are our fellow-believers on earth; those saints or holy ones, for administering to whose necessities, the scripture assures us that god will not forget our work and labour of love [heb. vi. .]: these the author bids the christians { } search out daily, for the purposes of religious intercourse, and of encouragement by the word. [footnote : archbishop wake considers this epistle to have been written by st. barnabas to the jews, soon after the destruction of jerusalem.] the following interesting extracts shall conclude our reference to this work:-- "there are two ways of doctrine and authority, one of light, the other of darkness; and the difference between the two ways is great. over the one are appointed angels of god, conductors of the light; over the other, angels of satan: and the one (god) is lord from everlasting to everlasting; the other (satan) is ruler of the age of iniquity. the way of light is this ... thou shalt love him that made thee; thou shalt glorify him that redeemed thee from death. thou shalt be single in heart, and rich in spirit. thou shalt not join thyself to those who are walking in the path of death. thou shalt hate to do what is displeasing to god; thou shalt hate all hypocrisy. thou shalt entertain no evil counsel against thy neighbour. thou shalt not take away thy hand from thy son or thy daughter, but shalt teach them the fear of the lord from their youth. thou shalt communicate with thy neighbour in all things, and call not things thine own. thou shalt not be of a froward tongue, for the mouth is the snare of death. to the very utmost of thy power keep thy soul chaste. do not open thine hand to receive, and close it against giving. thou shalt love as the apple of thine eye every one who speaketh to thee the word of the lord. call to remembrance the day of judgment, night and day. thou shalt search out every day the persons of the saints [ ]; both meditating by the word, { } and proceeding to exhort them, and anxiously caring to save a soul by the word. thou shalt preserve what thou hast received, neither adding thereto, nor taking therefrom. thou shalt not come with a bad conscience to thy prayer." [footnote : there is much obscurity in the phraseology of this passage: [greek: ekzaetaeseis kath hekastaen haemeran ta prosopa ton hagion kai dia logou skopion kai poreuomenos eis to parakalesai, kai meleton eis sosai psuchaen to logo]. in the corresponding exhortation among the apostolical constitutions (book vii. ch. ), the expression is, "thou shalt seek the person ([greek: prosopon]) of the saints, that thou mayest find rest (or find refreshment, or refresh thyself) ([greek: in epanapanae tois logois auton]) in their words." the author seems evidently to allude to the reciprocal advantage derived by christians from religious intercourse.] the closing sentences contain this blessing: "now god, who is the lord of all the world, give to you wisdom, skill, understanding, knowledge of his judgments, with patience. and be ye taught of god; seeking what the lord requires of you, and do it, that ye may be saved in the day of judgment.... the lord of glory and of all grace be with your spirit. amen." * * * * * the shepherd of hermas. this work, which derives its title from the circumstance of an angelic teacher being represented as a shepherd, is now considered by many to have been the production of hermas, a brother of pius, bishop of rome[ ] though others are persuaded that the work is of a much earlier date[ ]. the author speaks of guardian angels and of evil angels, and he speaks much of prayer; but not the faintest hint shows itself throughout the three books, of which the work consists, that he had { } any idea of prayer being addressed to any created being, whether saint or angel. on the evidence of this writer i will not detain you much longer than by the translation of a passage as it is found in the greek quotation from hermas, made by antiochus (homil. ), on a point the most nearly, of all that i can find, connected with the immediate subject of our inquiry. the latin is found in the second book, ninth mandate. it contains sound spiritual advice, of universal application. [footnote : ecclesiastical writers refer the appointment of pius, as bishop of rome, to the year .] [footnote : archbishop wake thinks it not improbable that this book was written by the same hermas, of whom mention is made by st. paul.] "let us then remove from us double-heartedness and faint-heartedness, and never at all doubt of supplicating any thing from god; saying within ourselves, 'how can i, who have been guilty of so many sins against him, ask of the lord and receive?' but with thine whole heart turn to the lord, and ask of him without doubting; and thou shalt know his great mercy, that he will not forsake thee, but will fulfil the desire of thy soul. for god is not as men are, a rememberer of evil, but is himself one who remembers not evil, and is moved with compassion towards his creature. do thou, therefore, cleanse thy heart of doubt, and ask of him, and thou shalt receive thy request. but when thou doubtest, thou shalt not receive. for they who doubt towards god are the double-hearted, and shall receive nothing whatever of their desires. for those who are whole in the faith, ask every thing, trusting in the lord, and they receive because they ask nothing doubting. [see st. james i. .] and if thou shouldest be tardy in receiving, do not doubt in thy mind because thou dost not receive soon the request of thy soul. for the cause of the tardiness of thy receiving is some trial, or some transgression which thou knowest not of. do thou then { } not cease to offer the request of thy soul, and thou shalt receive it. but if thou grow faint in asking, accuse thyself, and not the giver. for double-heartedness is a daughter of the devil, and works much mischief towards the servants of god. do thou, therefore, take to thyself the faith that is strong." in the twelfth section of the ninth similitude, in the third book, in the midst of much to the same import, and of much, too, which is strange and altogether unworthy of the pen from which the previous quotation proceeded, he thus writes, as the latin records his words, the greek of this passage having been lost. "these all are messengers to be reverenced for their dignity. by these, therefore, as it were by a wall, the lord is girded round. but the gate is the son of god, who is the only way to god. for no one shall enter in to god except by his son." [book iii. simil. .] on the subject of prayer, i cannot refrain from referring you to a beautiful similitude, illustrative of the powerful and beneficial effects of the intercession of christians for each other. the author compares a rich man, abounding in deeds of charity, to a vine full of fruit supported by an elm. the elm seems not to bear fruit at all; but by supporting the vine, which, without that support, would bear no fruit to perfection, it may be said to bear fruit itself. so the poor man, who has nothing to give in return for the rich man's fruits of charity, beyond the support which his prayers and praises ascending to god in his behalf will obtain, confers a far more substantial benefit on the rich man than the most liberal outpouring of alms from the rich can confer on the poor. [ibid.] yet the writer, who { } had formed such strong notions of the benefits mutually obtained by the prayers of christians for each other, says not a word about the intercession of saints and angels, nor of our invoking them. he will not suffer us to be deterred by any consciousness of our own transgressions from approaching god himself, directly and immediately ourselves; but he bids us draw near ourselves to the throne and mercy seat of our heavenly father. * * * * * st. clement, bishop of rome. it is impossible to read the testimony borne by eusebius, and other most ancient writers, to the character and circumstances of clement, without feeling a deep interest in whatever production of his pen may have escaped the ravages of time. "third from the apostles," says eusebius, "clement obtained the bishopric of rome; one who had seen the apostles and conversed with them, and had still the sound of their preaching in his ears, and their tradition before his eyes;--and not he alone, for many others[ ] at that time were still living, who had been taught by the apostles. in the time of this clement, no small schism having arisen among the brethren in corinth, the church in rome sent a most important letter to the corinthians, urging them to return to peace, renewing { } their faith, and [reminding them of] the tradition which had been so lately received from the apostles." [euseb. eccl. hist. v. c. .] [footnote : see st. paul to the philippians, iv. . "and i entreat thee also, true yoke-fellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with clement also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life."] of the many works which have been attributed to clement, it is now generally agreed, that one, and only one, can be safely received as genuine, whilst some maintain that even that one is not altogether free from interpolations, if not itself spurious[ ]. but though we must believe the other works to have been assigned improperly to clement; yet i have not thought it safe to pass them by unexamined, both because some of them are held in high estimation by writers of the church of rome, and especially because whatever pen first composed them, of their very great antiquity there can be entertained no reasonable doubt. indeed, the apostolical canons, and the apostolical constitutions, both ascribed to clement as their author, acting under the direction of the apostolic council, stand first among the records of the councils received by the church of rome. [footnote : archbishop wake concludes that this first epistle was written shortly after the end of nero's persecution, and before a.d. .] to clement's first epistle to the corinthians, now regarded by many as the only genuine work of that primitive writer, the date of which is considered by many to be about a.d. , jerome bears this very interesting testimony in his book on illustrious men: "he, clement, wrote in the person of the church of rome, to the church in corinth, a very useful epistle, which is publicly read in some places; in its character agreeing with st. paul's epistle to the hebrews, not only in the sense, but even in the words: and indeed the resemblance is very striking in each." [catalogus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum, jeron., vol. iv, part ii. p. , edit. benedict. paris, .] { } it is impossible to read this epistle of one of the earliest bishops of christ's flock in the proper frame of mind, without spiritual edification. a tone of primitive simplicity pervades it, which is quite delightful. his witness to the redemption by the atoning sacrifice of christ's death, and to the life-giving influences of the spirit of grace, is clear, repeated, and direct. his familiar acquaintance with the ancient scriptures is very remarkable; though we might not always acquiesce in the critical accuracy of his application. his reference to the epistles written by st. paul to the same church at corinth that he was then addressing, affords one of those unobtrusive and undesigned collateral evidences to the holy scriptures, which are as abundant in the primitive writings, as they are invaluable. no one can read this epistle of clement, without acquiescing in the expression of jerome, that it is "very admirable." perhaps in the present work the epistle of clement becomes even more interesting from the circumstance of his having been a bishop of the church founded by the apostles themselves in the very place where that church exists, to whose members this inquiry is more especially addressed. in his writings i have searched diligently for every expression which might throw light upon the opinions and practice either of the author or of the church in whose name he wrote; of the church which he addressed, or of the catholic church at large to which he refers, on the subject of our inquiry. so far, however, from any word occurring, which could be brought to bear in favour of the adoration of saints and angels, or of any supplication to them for their succour or their prayers, the peculiar turn and character of his epistle in many parts seems to supply { } more than negative evidence against the prevalence of any such belief or practice. clement speaks of angels; he speaks of the holy men of old, who pleased god, and were blessed, and were taken to their reward; he speaks of prayer; he urges to prayer; he specifies the object of our prayers; he particularizes the subjects of our prayers; but there is not the most distant allusion to the saints and angels as persons to whom supplications could be addressed. pray for yourselves (such are the sentiments of this holy man); pray for your brethren who have fallen from their integrity; pray to god almighty, for the sake of his son, and your prayer will be heard and granted. of any other intercessor or advocate, angel, saint, or virgin mother; of any other being to whom the invocations of the faithful should be offered, clement seems to have had no knowledge. could this have been so, if those who received the gospel from the very fountain-head had been accustomed to pray to those holy men who had finished their course on earth, and were gone to their reward in heaven? clement invites us to contemplate enoch, and abraham, and david, and elijah, and job, with many of their brethren in faith and holiness; he bids us look to them with reverence and gratitude, but it is only to imitate their good examples. he tells us to think of st. paul and st. peter and their brethren in faith and holiness; but it is in order to listen to their godly admonitions, and to follow them in all pious obedience to the will of our heavenly father, as they followed christ. i must content myself with a very few brief extracts from this epistle[ ]: [footnote : i am induced to mention here that two epistles, ascribed to st. clement, written in arabic, and now appended to wetstein's greek testament (amsterdam, ), are believed by many to be genuine, whilst others say they are spurious. at all events they are productions of the earliest times. the manuscript was procured at constantinople. i have examined the latin translation carefully, and in some points submitted my doubts to a very learned syriac scholar. the general subject is the conduct of those who have professed celibacy, whilst of the invocation of saints no trace whatever is to be found. the passages most closely bearing on the point before us are to the following effect: the writer urges christians to be careful to maintain good works, especially in the cause of charity, visiting the sick and afflicted, praying with them, and praying for them, and persevering always in prayer; asking and seeking of god in joy and watchfulness, without hatred or malice. in the lord's husbandry, he says, it well becomes us to be good workmen, who are like the apostles, imitating the father, the son, and the holy ghost, who are ever anxious for the salvation of men. "therefore (he adds, at the close of the first of these epistles) let us look to and imitate those faithful ones, that we may behave ourselves as is meet in the lord. so shall we serve the lord, and please him, in righteousness and justice without a stain. finally, farewell in the lord, and rejoice in the lord, all ye holy ones. peace and joy be with you from god the father, by jesus christ our lord."] { } ch. . "take heed, beloved, lest the many loving-kindnesses of the lord prove our condemnation, if we do not live as is worthy of him, nor do with one accord what is good and well-pleasing in his sight.... let us consider how nigh to us he is, and that nothing of our thoughts or reasonings is concealed from him. justice it is that we should not become deserters from his will.... let us venerate the lord jesus, whose blood was given for us." ch. . "let us then approach him in holiness of soul, lifting up holy and undefiled hands towards him; loving our merciful and tender father who hath made us a portion of his elect." { } ch. . "this is the way, beloved, in which we find jesus christ our salvation, the chief-priest of our offerings, our protector, and the succourer of our weakness. by him let us look stedfastly to the heights of heaven; by him let us behold his most high and spotless face: by him the eyes of our heart are opened; by him our ignorant and darkened minds shoot forth into his marvellous light; by him the supreme governor willed that we should taste immortal knowledge: who, being the brightness of his magnificence, is so much greater than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." ch. . "he who hath love in christ, let him keep the commandments of christ. who can tell of the bond of the love of god? the greatness of his goodness who can adequately express?... love unites us to god.... by love the lord took us; by the love which he had for us christ our lord gave his blood for us by the will of god, and his flesh for our flesh, and his life for our lives." ch. . "let us pray for those who are in any transgression, that meekness and humility may be granted to them; that they may submit, not to us, but to the will of god; for thus to them will the remembrance towards god and the saints, with mercies, be fruitful and perfect[ ]." [footnote : the original is obscure, and has been variously rendered, [greek: outos gar estai autois egkarpos kai teleia hae pros ton theon kai tous hagious met oiktirmon mneia.] the editor refers his readers to rom. xii. . "distributing to the necessity of saints." the received translation is this, "sic enim erit ipsis fructuosa et perfecta quæ est apud deum et sanctos cum misericordia recordatio."] ch. . "the all-seeing god, the sovereign ruler { } of spirits, and the lord of all flesh, who hath chosen the lord jesus, and us through him, to be a peculiar people; grant to every soul that calleth on his glorious and holy name, faith, fear, peace, patience, long-suffering, self-control, purity, and temperance, to the good pleasure of his name, through our high-priest and protector jesus christ; through whom to him be glory and majesty, dominion and honour, now and for ever and ever, world without end. amen." * * * * * saint ignatius. this martyr to the truth as it is in jesus sealed that truth with his blood about seventy years after the death of our lord. from antioch in syria, of which place he was bishop, he was sent to the imperial city, rome; and there he ended his mortal career by a death which he had long expected, and which he was prepared to meet not only with resignation to the divine will, but even with joy and gladness. his epistles are written with much of the florid colouring of asiatic eloquence; but they have all the raciness of originality, and they glow with that christian fervour and charity which compels us to love him as a father and a friend, a father and friend in christ. the remains of this apostolic father i have carefully studied, with the single view of ascertaining whether any vestige, however faint, might be traced in him of the invocation of saints and angels; but i can find none. neither here, nor in the case of any of the apostolical fathers, whose remains we are examining, have i contented myself with merely ascertaining that they bear no direct and palpable evidence; i have always endeavoured to find, and then thoroughly to sift, any expressions which might with { } the slightest plea of justification be urged in testimony of primitive belief and practice sanctioning the invocation of saints. i find none. brethren of the church of rome, search diligently for yourselves; "i speak as to wise men: judge ye what i say." the remains of ignatius offer to us many a passage on which a christian pastor would delight to dwell: but my province here is not to recommend his works to the notice of christians; i am only to report the result of my inquiries touching the matter in question; and as bearing on that question, the following extracts will not be deemed burdensome in this place:-- in his epistle to the ephesians, exhorting christians to united prayer, he says, "for if the prayer of one or two possesses such strength, how much more shall the prayer both of the bishop and of the whole church?" [page . § - .] "for there is one physician of a corporeal and a spiritual nature, begotten and not begotten; become god in the flesh, true life in death, both from mary and from god; first liable to suffering, and then incapable of suffering." [in the majority of the manuscripts the reading is, "in an immortal true life."] here we must observe that these epistles of ignatius have come down to us also in an interpolated form, abounding indeed with substitutions and additions, but generally resembling paraphrases of the original text. of the general character of that supposititious work, two passages corresponding with our quotations from the genuine productions of ignatius may give a sufficiently accurate idea. the first passage above quoted is thus paraphrased: "for if the prayer of one or two possesses { } such strength that christ stands among them, how much more shall the prayer both of the bishop and of the whole church, ascending with one voice to god, induce him to grant all their requests made in jesus christ?" [page . c. .] the paraphrase of the second is more full: "our physician is the only true god, ungenerated and unapproachable; the lord of all things, but the father and generator of the only-begotten son. we have also as our physician our lord god, jesus christ, who was before the world, the only-begotten son and the word, but also afterwards man of the virgin mary; 'for the word was made flesh.' he who was incorporeal, now in a body; he who could not suffer, now in a body capable of suffering; he who was immortal in a mortal body, life in corruption--in order that he might free our immortal souls from death and corruption, and heal them, diseased with ungodliness and evil desires as they were." [page . c. .] it must here be observed, that though these are indisputably not the genuine works of ignatius, but were the productions of a later age, yet no trace is to be found in them of the doctrine, or practice, of the invocation of saints. in this point of view their testimony is nothing more nor less than that of an anonymous paraphrast, who certainly had many opportunities of referring to that doctrine and practice; but who by his total silence seems to have been as ignorant of them as the author himself whose works he is paraphrasing. to return to his genuine works: in his epistle to the magnesians we find these expressions: "for as the lord did nothing without the father, being one with { } him, neither by himself, nor by his apostles; so neither do ye any thing without the bishop and priests, nor attempt to make any thing appear reasonable to yourselves individually. but at one place be there one prayer, and one supplication, one mind, one hope in love, in blameless rejoicing: jesus christ is one; than which nothing is better. all, then, throng as to one temple, as to one altar, as to one jesus christ, who proceeded from one father, and is in one, and returned to one." [page . § .] again he says, "remember me in your prayers, that i may attain to god. i am in need of your united prayer in god, and of your love." in his epistle to the trallians, he expresses himself in words to which no anglican catholic would hesitate to respond: "ye ought to comfort the bishop, to the honour of god, and of jesus christ, and of the apostles." [page . § .] he speaks in this epistle with humility and reverence of the powers and hosts of heaven; but he makes no allusion to any religious worship or invocation of them. the following extract is from his epistle to the philadelphians: "my brethren, i am altogether poured forth in love for you; and in exceeding joy i make you secure; yet not i, but jesus christ, bound in whom i am the more afraid, as being already seized[ ]; but your prayer to god will perfect me, that i may obtain the lot mercifully assigned to me. betaking myself to the gospel as to the flesh of jesus, and to the apostles as the presbytery of the church; let us also love the prophets, because they also have proclaimed the gospel, and hoped in him, and waited for him; in whom also { } trusting, they were saved in the unity of jesus christ, being holy ones worthy of love and admiration, who have received testimony from jesus christ, and are numbered together in the gospel of our common hope." [page . § .] [footnote : this clause is very obscure, and perhaps imperfect.] i am induced to add the paraphrase on this passage also. "my brethren, i am very much poured out in loving you, and with exceeding joy i make you secure; not i, but by me, jesus christ, in whom bound i am the more afraid. for i am yet not perfected, but your prayer to god will perfect me; so that i may obtain that to which i was called, flying to the gospel as the flesh of jesus christ, and to the apostles as the presbytery of the church. and the prophets also i love, as persons who announce christ, as partaking of the same spirit with the apostles. for just as the false prophets and false apostles have drawn one and the same wicked and deceitful and seducing spirit, so also the prophets and the apostles, one and the same holy spirit, good, leading, true, and instructing. for one is the god of the old and the new testament. one is mediator between god and man, for the production of the creatures endued with reason and perception, and for the provision of what is useful, and adapted to them: and one is the comforter who wrought in moses and the prophets and the apostles. all the saints therefore were saved in christ, hoping in him, and waiting for him; and through him they obtained salvation, being saints worthy of love and of admiration, having obtained a testimony from jesus christ in the gospel of our common hope." [page . § .] in his epistle to the romans he speaks to them of his own prayer to god, and repeatedly implores them { } to pray for him. "pray to christ for me, that by these instruments [the teeth of the wild beasts] i may become a sacrifice of god. i do not, as peter and paul, command you: they were apostles, i am a condemned man. they were free; but i am still a servant. yet if i suffer, i shall become the freedman of jesus christ, and shall rise again free: and now in my bonds i learn to covet nothing." [page . § .] again he says, "remember the church in syria in your prayers." [page . § .] he prays for his fellow-labourers in the lord: he implores them to approach the throne of grace with supplications for mercy on his own soul. of prayer to saint or angel he says nothing. of any invocation offered to them by himself or his fellow-believers, ignatius appears entirely ignorant. * * * * * saint polycarp. the only remaining name among those, whom the church has reverenced as apostolical fathers, is the venerable polycarp. he suffered martyrdom by fire, at a very advanced age, in smyrna, about one hundred and thirty years after his saviour's death. of polycarp, the apostolical bishop of the catholic church of smyrna, only one epistle has survived. it is addressed to the philippians. in it he speaks to his brother christians of prayer, constant, incessant prayer; but the prayer of which he speaks is supplication addressed only to god [ ]. he marks out for our imitation the good example of st. paul and the other apostles; assuring us that they had not run in vain, { } but were gone to the place prepared for them by the lord, as the reward of their labours. but not one word does he utter bearing upon the invocation of saints in prayer; he makes no allusion to the virgin mary. [footnote : [greek: deaesesin aitoumenoi ton pantepoptaen theon]. sect. .] before we close our examination of the recorded sentiments of the apostolical fathers on the immediate subject of our inquiry, we must refer, though briefly, to the epistle generally received as the genuine letter from the church of smyrna to the neighbouring churches, narrating the martyrdom of polycarp. it belongs, perhaps, more strictly to this place than to the remains of eusebius, because, together with the sentiments of his contemporaries who witnessed his death and dictated the letter, it purports to contain the very words of the martyr himself in the last prayer which he ever offered upon earth. with some variations from the copy generally circulated, this letter is preserved in the works of eusebius. [euseb. paris, , dedicated to the archbishop by franciscus vigerus.] on the subject of our present research the evidence of this letter is not merely negative. so far from countenancing any invocation of saint or martyr, it contains a remarkable and very interesting passage, the plain common-sense rendering of which bears decidedly against all exaltation of mortals into objects of religious worship. the letter, however, is too well known to need any further preliminary remarks; and we must content ourselves with such references and extracts as may appear to bear most directly on our subject. "the church of god, which is in smyrna, to the church in philomela, and to all the branches [greek: paroikais] { } of the holy catholic church dwelling in any place, mercy, peace, and love of god the father, and our lord jesus christ be multiplied." [book i. hist. iv. c. xv. p. .] "the proconsul, in astonishment, caused it to be proclaimed thrice, polycarp has confessed himself to be a christian. on this they all shouted, that the proconsul should let a lion loose on polycarp. but the games were over, and that could not be done: they then with one accord insisted on his being burnt alive." polycarp, before his death, offered this prayer, or rather perhaps we should call it this thanksgiving, to god for his mercy in thus deeming him worthy to suffer death for the truth, "father of thy beloved and blessed son jesus christ, by whom we have received our knowledge concerning thee, the god of angels and power, and of the whole creation, and of the whole family of the just, who live before thee; i bless thee because thou hast deemed me worthy of this day and this hour to receive my portion among the number of the martyrs, in the cup of christ, to the resurrection both of soul and body in the incorruption of the holy ghost; among whom may i be received before thee this day in a rich and acceptable sacrifice, even as thou, the true god, who canst not lie, foreshowing and fulfilling, hast beforehand prepared. for this, and for all i praise thee, i bless thee; i glorify thee, through the eternal high-priest jesus christ thy beloved son, through whom to thee, with him in the holy ghost, be glory both now and for future ages. amen." (i cannot help suggesting a comparison between the prayer of this primitive martyr bound to the stake, with the prayer of thomas becket, of canterbury, as stated in the ancient services for his day, when he was murdered in his own cathedral, to which we shall hereafter refer at length. the comparison will impress us with the difference between religion and superstition, between the purity of primitive christian worship, and the unhappy corruptions of a degenerate age. "to god and the blessed mary, and saint dionysius, and the holy patrons of this church, i commend myself and the church.") { } after his death, the narrative proceeds, "but the envious adversary of the just observed the honour put upon the greatness of his testimony, [or of his martyrdom [greek: to megethos autou taes marturias],] and his blameless life from the first, and knowing that he was now crowned with immortality, and the prize of undoubted victory, resisted, though many of us desired to take his body, and have fellowship with his holy flesh. some then suggested to nicetes, the father of herod, and brother of dalce, to entreat the governor not to give his body, 'lest,' said he, 'leaving the crucified one they should begin to worship this man [greek: sebein];' and this they said at the suggestion and importunity of the jews, who also watched us when we would take the body from the fire. this they did, not knowing that we can never either leave christ, who suffered for the salvation of all who will be saved in all the world, or worship any other." [the paris translation adds "ut deum."] "for him being the son of god we worship [greek: proskunumen], but the martyrs, as disciples and imitators of our lord, we worthily love[ ], because of their pre-eminent [greek: anuperblaeton] good-will towards their { } own king and teacher, with whom may we become partakers and fellow-disciples." [footnote : [greek: axios agapomen]. ruffinus translates it by "diligimus et veneramur," and it is so quoted by bellarmin.] "the centurion, seeing the determination of the jews, placed him in the midst, and burnt him as their manner is. and thus we collecting his bones, more valuable than precious stones, and more esteemed than gold, we deposited them where it was meet. there, as we are able, collecting ourselves together in rejoicing and gladness, the lord will grant to us to observe the birth-day of his martyrdom, for the remembrance of those who have before undergone the conflict, and for exercise and preparation of those who are to come." [greek: hos dunaton haemin sunagomenois en agalliasei kai chara parexei ho kurios epitelein taen tou martyriou autou haemeran genethlion, eis te ton proaethlaekoton mnaemaen, kai ton mellonton askaesin te kai hetoimasian.] in this relic of primitive antiquity, we have the prayer of a holy martyr, at his last hour, offered to god alone, through christ alone. here we find no allusion to any other intercessor; no commending of the dying christian's soul to saint or angel. here also we find an explicit declaration, that christians offered religious worship to no one but christ, whilst they loved the martyrs, and kept their names in grateful remembrance, and honoured even their ashes when the spirit had fled. polycarp pleads no other merits; he seeks no intercession; he prays for no aid, save only his redeemer's. here too we find, that the place of a martyr's burial was the place which the early christians loved to frequent; but then we are expressly told with what intent they met there,--not, as in later times, to invoke the departed spirit of the martyr, but to call to mind, in grateful remembrance, the sufferings of those who had already endured the awful struggle; and by { } their example to encourage and prepare other soldiers of the cross thereafter to fight the good fight of faith; assured that they would be more than conquerors through him who loved them. * * * * * we have now examined those works which are regarded by us all, whether of the roman or anglican church, as the remains of apostolical fathers,--christians who, at the very lowest calculation, lived close upon the apostles' time, and who, according to the firm conviction of many, had all of them conversed with the apostles, and heard the word of truth from their mouths. i do from my heart rejoice with you, that these holy men bear direct, clear, and irrefragable testimony to those fundamental truths which the church of rome and the church of england both hold inviolate--the doctrine of the ever-blessed trinity, with its essential and inseparable concomitants, the atonement by the blood of a crucified redeemer, and the vivifying and sanctifying influences of the holy spirit. supposing for a moment no trace of such fundamental doctrines could be discovered in these writings, would not the absence of such vestige have been urged by those who differ from us, as a strong argument that the doctrine of the ever-blessed trinity was an innovation of a later date; and would not such an argument have been urged with reason? how, in plain honesty, can we avoid coming to the same conclusion on the subject of the invocation of saints? if the doctrine and the practice of praying to saints, or to angels, for their succour, or even their intercession, had been known { } and recognised, and approved and acted upon by the apostles, and those who were the very disciples of the apostles, not only deriving the truth from their written works, but having heard it from their own living tongue,--in the nature of things would not some plain, palpable, intelligible, and unequivocal indications of it have appeared in such writings as these; writings in which much is said of prayer, of intercessory prayer, of the one object of prayer, of the subjects of prayer, of the nature of prayer, the time and place of prayer, the spirit in which we are to offer prayer, and the persons for whom we ought to pray? does it accord with common sense, and common experience, with what we should expect in other cases, with the analogy of history, and the analogy of faith, that we should find a profound and total silence on the subject of any prayer or invocation to saints and angels, if prayer or invocation of saints and angels had been recognised, approved, and practised by the primitive church? at the risk of repetition, or surplusage, i would beg to call your attention to one point in this argument. i am far from saying that no practice is apostolical which cannot be proved from the writings of these apostolical fathers: that would be a fallacy of an opposite kind. i ground my inference specifically and directly on the fact, that these writers are full, and copious, and explicit, and cogent on the nature and duty of prayer and supplications, as well for public as for private blessings; and of intercessions by one christian for another, and for the whole race of mankind no less than for mercy on himself; and yet though openings of every kind palpably offered themselves for a natural introduction of the subject, there is in no one single instance any reference or allusion to the { } invocation of saint or angel, as a practice either approved or even known. when indeed i call to mind the general tendency of the natural man to multiply to himself the objects of religious worship, and to create, by the help of superstition, and the delusive workings of the imagination, a variety of unearthly beings whose wrath he must appease, or whose favour he may conciliate; when i reflect how great is the temptation in unenlightened or fraudulent teachers to accommodate the dictates of truth to the prejudices and desires of those whom they instruct, my wonder is rather that christianity was so long preserved pure and uncontaminated in this respect, than that corruptions should gradually and stealthily have mingled themselves with the simplicity of gospel worship. that tendency is plainly evinced by the history of every nation under heaven: greek and barbarian, egyptian and scythian, would have their gods many, and their lords many. from one they would look for one good; on another they would depend for a different benefit, in mind, body, and estate. some were of the highest grade, and to be worshipped with supreme honours; others were of a lower rank, to whom an inferior homage was addressed; whilst a third class held a sort of middle place, and were approached with reverence as much above the least, as it fell short of the greatest. in the heathen world you will find exact types of the dulia, the hyperdulia, and the latria, with which unhappily the practical theology of modern christian rome is burdened. indeed, my wonder is, that under the christian dispensation, when the household and local gods, the heathen's tutelary deities, and the genii, had been dislodged by the light of the gospel, saints and angels had not at a much { } earlier period been forced by superstition to occupy their room. we shall be led to refer to some passages in the earliest christian writers, especially in origen, which bear immediately on this point, representing in strong but true colours the futility of deeming a multitude of inferior divinities necessary for the dispensation of benefits throughout the universe, whose good offices we must secure by acts of attention and worship. i anticipate the circumstance in this place merely to show that the tendency of the human mind, clinging to a variety of preternatural protectors and benefactors, was among the obstacles with which the first preachers of the gospel had to struggle. in the proper place i shall beg you to observe how hardly possible it would have been for those early christian writers, to whom i have referred above, to express themselves in so strong, so sweeping, and so unqualified a manner, had the practice of applying by invocation to saints and angels then been prevalent among the disciples of the cross. we may, i believe, safely conclude, that in these primitive writings, which are called the works of the apostolical fathers, there is no intimation that the present belief and practice of the church of rome were received, or even known by christians. the evidence is all the other way. indeed, bellarmin, though he appeals to these remains for other purposes, and boldly asserts that "all the fathers, greek and latin, with unanimous consent, sanction and teach the adoration of saints and angels," yet does not refer to a single passage in any one of these remains for establishing this point. he cites a clause from the spurious work strangely ascribed to dionysius the areopagite, which was the forged production, as the learned are all { } agreed, of some centuries later; and he cites a pious sentiment of ignatius, expressing his hope that by martyrdom he might go to christ, and thence he infers that ignatius believed in the immediate transfer of the soul from this life to glory and happiness in heaven, though ignatius refers there distinctly to the resurrection. [epist. ad rom. c. iv. see above, p. .] but bellarmin cites no passage whatever from these remains to countenance the doctrine and practice of the adoration of saints and angels. { } * * * * * chapter iv. section i.--the evidence of justin martyr. justin, who flourished about the year , was trained from his early youth in all the learning of greece and of egypt. he was born in palestine, of heathen parents; and after a patient examination of the evidences of christianity, and a close comparison of them with the systems of philosophy with which he had long been familiar, he became a disciple of the cross. in those systems he found nothing solid, or satisfactory; nothing on which his mind could rest. in the gospel he gained all that his soul yearned for, as a being destined for immortal life, conscious of that destiny, and longing for its accomplishment. his understanding was convinced, and his heart was touched; and regardless of every worldly consideration, and devoted to the cause of truth, he openly embraced christianity; and before kings and people, jews and gentiles, he pleaded the religion of the crucified one with unquenchable zeal and astonishing power. the evidence of such a man on any doctrine { } connected with our christian faith must be looked to with great interest. in the volumes which contain justin's works we find "books of questions," in which many inquiries, doubts, and objections, as well of jews as of gentiles, are stated and answered. it is agreed on all sides that these are not the genuine productions of justin, but the work of a later hand. bellarmin appeals to them, acknowledging at the same time their less remote origin. the evidence, indeed, appears very strong, which would lead us to regard them as the composition of a syrian christian, and assign to them the date of the fifth century; and as offering indications of the opinions of christians at the time of their being put together, they are certainly interesting documents. when fairly quoted, the passages alleged in defence of the invocation of saints, so far from countenancing the practice, assail irresistibly that principle, which, with other writers, bellarmin himself confesses to be the foundation of that doctrine. for these books of questions assert that the souls of the faithful are not yet in glory with god, but are reserved in a separate state, apart from the wicked, awaiting the great day of final and universal doom. in answer to question , the author distinctly says:--"before the resurrection the recompense is not made for the things done in this life by each individual." [quæstiones et responsiones ad orthodoxos, p. .] in reply to the th question, inquiring into the condition of man after death, this very remarkable answer is returned:-- "the same relative condition which souls have with the body now, they have not after the departure from the body. for here all the circumstances of the union { } are in common to the just and the unjust, and no difference is in them in this respect,--as to be born and to die, to be in health and to be in sickness, to be rich and to be poor, and the other points of this nature. but after the departure from the body, forthwith takes place the distinction of the just and the unjust: for they are conducted by the angels to places corresponding with their deserts: the souls of the just to paradise, where is the company and the sight of angels and archangels, and also, by vision, of the saviour christ, according to what is said, 'being absent from the body, and present with the lord;' and the souls of the unjust to the places in hades, according to what is said of nebucodonosor king of babylon, 'hades from beneath hath been embittered, meeting thee.'--and in the places corresponding with their deserts they are kept in ward unto the day of the resurrection and of retribution." [page .] i much regret to observe that bellarmin omits to quote the latter part of this passage, stopping short with an "&c." at the words _hades_, or _inferorum loca_, although the whole of the writer's testimony in it turns upon the very last clause. [bellarmin, c. iv. p. . "improborum autem ad inferorum loca."] the next question ( ) runs thus: "if the retribution of our deeds does not take place before the resurrection, what advantage accrued to the thief that his soul was introduced into paradise; especially since paradise is an object of sense, and the substance of the soul is not an object of sense? "answer. it was an advantage to the thief entering into paradise to learn by fact the benefits of the faith by which he was deemed worthy of the assembly of the { } saints, in which he is kept till the day of judgment and restitution; and he has the perception of paradise by that which is called intellectual perception, by which souls see both themselves and the things under them, and moreover also the angels and demons. for a soul doth not perceive or see a soul, nor an angel an angel, nor a demon a demon; except that according to the said intellectual perception they see both themselves and each other, and moreover also all corporeal objects." [page .] on this same point i must here subjoin a passage from one of justin's own undisputed works. in his dialogue with trypho the jew, sect. , he says, "nevertheless i do not say that souls all die; for that were in truth a boon to the wicked. but what? that the souls of the pious remain somewhere in a better place, and the unjust and wicked in a worse, waiting for the time of judgment, when it shall be: thus the one appearing worthy of god do not die any more; and the others are punished as long as god wills them both to exist and to be punished." [page .] not only so; justin classes among renouncers of the faith those who maintain the doctrine which is now acknowledged to be the doctrine of the church of rome, and to be indispensable as the groundwork of the adoration of saints. in his trypho, sect. , he states his sentiment thus strongly: "if you should meet with any persons called christians, who confess not this, but dare to blaspheme the god of abraham, the god of isaac, and the god of jacob, and say there is no resurrection of the dead ([greek: nekron]), but that their souls, at the very time of their death, are taken up into heaven; do not regard them as christians." [page .] { } this, according to bellarmin's own principle, is fatal evidence: if the redeemed and the saints departed are not in glory with god already, they cannot intercede with him for men. on the subject, however, of worship and prayer, justin martyr has left us some testimonies as to the primitive practice, full of interest in themselves, independently of their bearing on the points at issue. at the same time i am not aware of a single expression which can be so construed as to imply the doctrine or practice among christians of invoking the souls of the faithful. he speaks of public and private prayer; he offers prayer, but the prayer of which he speaks, and the prayer which he offers are to god alone; and he alludes to no advocate or intercessor in heaven, except only the eternal son of god himself. in his first apologia (or defence addressed to the emperor antoninus pius) he thus describes the proceedings at the baptism of a convert:-- "now, we will explain to you how we dedicate ourselves to god, being made new by christ.... as many as are persuaded, and believe the things which by us are taught and declared to be true, and who promise that they can so live, are taught to pray and implore, with fasting, forgiveness of god for their former sins, we ourselves joining with them in fasting and prayer; and then they are taken by us to a place where there is water, and by the same manner of regeneration as we ourselves were regenerated, they are regenerated; for they undergo this washing in the water in the name of god the father and lord of all, and of our saviour jesus christ, and of the holy ghost." [apol. i. sect , page .] the following is his description of the christian { } eucharist, subsequently to the baptism of a convert: "afterwards we conduct him to those who are called brethren, where they are assembled together to offer earnestly our united prayers for ourselves and for the enlightened one [the newly baptized convert], and for all others every where, that we, having learned the truth, may be thought worthy to be found in our deeds good livers, and keepers of the commandments, that we may be saved with the everlasting salvation. having ceased from prayers, we salute each other with a kiss; and then bread is brought to him who presides over the brethren, and a cup of water and wine; and he taking it, sends up prayer and praise to the father of all, through the name of the son and the holy spirit; and offers much thanksgiving for our being thought by him worthy of these things. when he has finished the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present respond, saying, 'amen.' now, amen in the hebrew tongue means, 'so be it.' and when the presider has given thanks, and all the people have responded, those who are called deacons among us give to every one present to partake of the bread and wine and water that has been blessed, and take some away for those who were not present." [sect. . p. .] the following is justin's account of their worship on the lord's day: "in all our oblations we bless the creator of all things, through his son jesus christ, and through the holy spirit. and upon the day called sunday, there is an assembly of all who dwell in the several cities or in the country, in one place where the records of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets are read, as time allows. when the reader has ceased, { } the presider makes a discourse for the edification of the people, and to animate them to the practice of such excellent things [or the imitation of such excellent persons]. at the conclusion we all rise up together and pray; and, as we have said, when we have ceased from prayer, the bread and wine and water are brought forward, and the presider sends up prayer and thanksgiving alike, to the utmost of his power. and the people respond, saying, amen. and then is made to each the distribution and participation of the consecrated elements ([greek: eucharistauthenton]). and of those who have the means and will, each according to his disposition gives what he will; and the collected sum is deposited with the presider, and he aids the orphans and widows, and those who through sickness or other cause are in need, and those in bonds, and strangers; and, in a word, he becomes the reliever of all who are in want." [sect. . p. .] * * * * * in justin martyr i am unable to find even a single vestige of the invocation of saints. with regard to angels, however, there is a very celebrated passage, to which bellarmin and others appeal, as conclusive evidence that the worship of them prevailed among christians in his time, and was professed by justin himself. justin, in his first apology, having stated that the christians could never be induced to worship the demons, whom the heathen worshipped and invoked, proceeds thus[ ]: "whence also we are called atheists, { } [men without god]; and we confess that with regard to such supposed gods we are atheists, but not so with regard to the most true god, the father of justice and temperance, and of the other virtues without any mixture of evil. but both him and the son, who came from him, and taught these things to us, and the host of the other good angels accompanying and made like, and the prophetic spirit, we reverence and worship, honouring them in reason and truth; and without grudging, delivering the doctrine to every one who is willing to learn as we were taught." [page .] governing the words "the host of the other good angels," as much as the words "him" and "his son," and "the prophetic spirit," by the verbs "we reverence and worship," bellarmin and others[ ] maintain, that justin bears testimony in this passage to the worship of angels. that this cannot be the true interpretation of justin's words will be acknowledged, i think, by every catholic, whether anglican or roman, when he contemplates it in all its naked plainness; all will revolt from it as impious and contrary to the principles professed by the most celebrated and honoured among roman catholic writers. this interpretation of the passage, when analysed, implies the awful thought, that we christians pay to the host of angels, god's ministers and our own fellow-servants, the same reverence, worship, and honour which we pay to the supreme father, and his ever-blessed son, and the holy spirit, without any difference or inequality. no principles of interpretation can avoid that inference. [footnote : the genuineness of this passage has been doubted. but i see no ground for suspicion that it is spurious. it is found in the manuscripts of justin's works; of which the most ancient perhaps are in the king's library in paris. i examined one there of a remote date.] [footnote : the benedictine editor puts this note in the margin, "justin teaches that angels following the son are worshipped by christians."--preface, p. xxi.] { } "him the most true father of righteousness we reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and truth." "the son who came from him, and taught us these things, we reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and truth." "the army of the other good angels accompanying and assimilated, we reverence and worship, honouring them in reason and truth." "the prophetic spirit we reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and truth." is it possible to conceive that any christian would thus ascribe the same religious worship to a host of god's creatures, which he would ascribe to god, as god? "we are accused," said justin, "of being atheists, of having no god. how can this be? we do not worship your false gods, but we have our own most true god. we are not without a god. we have the father, and the son, and the good angels, and the holy spirit." if justin meant that they honoured the good angels, but not as god, that would be no answer to those who called the christians atheists. the charge was, that "they had no god." the answer is, "we have a god;" and then justin describes the god of christians. can the army of angels be included in that description? if they are, then they are made to share in the adoration, worship, homage, and reverence of the one only god most high; if they are not, then justin does not answer the objectors[ ]. [footnote : and surely if justin had intended to represent the holy angels as objects of religious worship, he would not so violently have thrust the mention of them among the persons of the ever-blessed trinity, assigning to them a place between the second and third persons of the eternal hypostatic union.] { } to evade this charge of impiety, some writers (among others, m. maran, the benedictine editor of justin,) have attempted to draw a distinction between the two verbs in this passage, alleging that the lower degree of reverence expressed by the latter applies to the angels; whilst the former verb, implying the higher degree of worship, alone relates to the godhead. but this distinction rests on a false assumption; the two words being used equally to convey the idea, of the highest religious worship[ ]. [footnote : for example, the first word ([greek: sebometha]), "we reverence," is used to mean the whole of religious worship, as well with regard to the true god, as with reference to diana [acts xviii. . ; xix. .]; whilst the second word ([greek: proskunoumen]), "we worship," is constantly employed in the same sense of divine worship, throughout the septuagint [exod. xxxiv. . ps. xciv. (xcv.) . i sam. ( kings) xv. . kings ( kings) xvii. . heb. i. .], (with which justin was most familiar,) and is used in the epistle to the hebrews to signify the worship due from the angels themselves to god, "let all the angels of god worship him." the very same word is also soon after employed by justin himself (sect. xvi. p. ) to mean the whole entire worship of the most high god: "that we ought to worship ([greek: proskumein]) god alone, christ thus proves," &c. moreover, the word which justin uses at the close of the sentence, "honouring them" ([greek: timontes]), is the identical word four times employed by st. john [john v. .], in the same verse, to record our saviour's saying, "that all men might honour the son, even as they honour the father; he that honoureth not the son, honoureth not the father, who hath sent him."] but in determining the true meaning of an obscure passage, grammatically susceptible of different acceptations, the author himself is often his own best interpreter. if he has expressed in another place the same leading sentiment, yet without the same obscurity, and free from all doubt, the light borrowed from that passage { } will frequently fix the sense of the ambiguous expression, and establish the author's consistency. on this acknowledged principle of criticism, i would call your attention to a passage in the very same treatise of justin, a few pages further on, in which he again defends the christians against the same charge of being atheists, and on the self-same ground, "that they worship the father who is maker of all; secondly, the son proceeding from him; and thirdly, the holy spirit." in both cases he refers to the same attributes of the son as the teacher of christian truth, and of the holy ghost, as the prophetic spirit. his language throughout the two passages is remarkably similar, and in the expressions on the true meaning of which we have already dwelt, it is most strikingly identical; but by omitting all allusion to the angels after the son, his own words proving that the introduction of them could have no place there, (for he specifies that the third in order was the holy spirit,) justin has left us a comment on the passage under consideration conclusive as to the object of religious worship in his creed. the whole passage is well worth the attention of the reader. the following extracts are the only parts necessary for our present purpose:-- "who of sound mind will not confess that we are not atheists, reverencing as we do the maker of the universe.... and him, who taught us these things, and who was born for this purpose, jesus christ, crucified under pontius pilate.... instructed, as we are, that he is the son of the true god, and holding him in the second place; and the prophetic spirit in the third order, we with reason honour." [sect. xiii. p. .] { } the impiety apparently inseparable from bellarmin's interpretation has induced many, even among roman catholic writers, to discard that acceptation altogether, and to substitute others, which, though involving no grammatical inaccuracy, are still not free from difficulty.[ ] after weighing the passage with all the means in my power, and after testing the various interpretations offered by writers, whether of the church of rome or not, by the sentiments of justin himself, and others of the same early age, i am fully persuaded that the following is the only true rendering of justin's words: "honouring in reason and truth, we reverence and worship him, the father of righteousness, and the son (who proceeded from him, and instructed in these things both ourselves and the host of the other good angels following him and being made like unto him), and the prophetic spirit." [footnote : le nourry (apparatus ad bibliothecam maximam veterum patrum. paris, . vol. ii. p. ), himself a benedictine, rejects bellarmin's and his brother benedictine maran's interpretation, and conceives justin to mean, that the son of god not only taught us those truths to which he was referring, with regard to the being and attributes of god, but also taught us that there were hosts of spiritual beings, called angels; good beings, opposed to the demons of paganism. bishop kaye, in his excellent work on justin martyr, which the reader will do well to consult (p. ), tells us he was sometimes inclined to think that justin referred to the host of good angels who should surround the son of god when he should come to judge the world. the view adopted by myself here was recommended by grabe and by langus, called the interpreter of justin; whilst petavius, a jesuit, though he does not adopt it, yet acknowledges that the greek admits of our interpretation. any one who would pursue the subject further may with advantage consult the preface to the benedictine edition referred to in this work. lumper hist. part ii. p. . augustæ vindelicorum, . petavius, theologicorum dogmatum tom. vi. p. . lib. xv. c. v. s. . antwerp, . the whole passage is thus rendered by langus (as read in lumper), "verum hunc ipsum, et qui ab eo venit, atque ista nos et aliorum obsequentium exæquatorumque ad ejus voluntatem bonorum angelorum exercitura docuit, filium, et spiritum ejus propheticum, colimus et adoramus."] this interpretation is strongly confirmed by the professed sentiments both of justin and of his contemporaries, { } with regard to the son of god and the holy angels. it was a principle generally received among the early christians, that whatever the almighty did, either by creation or by the communication of his will, on earth or in heaven, was done by the eternal word. it was god the son, the logos, who created the angels[ ], as well as ourselves; it was he who spoke to moses, to abraham, and to lot; and it was he who conveyed the supreme will, and the knowledge of the only true god, to the inhabitants of the world of spirits. agreeably to this principle, in the passage under consideration, justin affirms (not that christians revered and worshipped the angels, but), that god the son, whom christians worshipped as the eternal prophet, angel, and apostle, of the most high, instructed not only us men on earth, but also the host of heavenly angels[ ], in these eternal verities, { } which embrace god's nature and the duty of his creatures. [trypho, § . p. .] [footnote : thus tatian (p. in the same edition of justin), "before men were prepared, the word was the maker of angels."] [footnote : "the other good angels." justin (apol. i. sect. lxiii. p. .) reminds us that christ, the first-begotten of the father, himself god, was also an angel (or messenger), and an apostle; and here christ, as the angel of the covenant and the chief apostle, is represented as instructing the other angels in the truths of the economy of grace, just as he instructed his apostles on earth,--"as my father hath sent me, even so send i you."] it is evident that justin himself considered the host of angels to be equally with ourselves in a state of probation, requiring divine instruction, and partaking of it. it is also evident that many of his contemporaries entertained the same views; among others, irenæus and origen. [irenæus, book ii. c. . p. . origen, hom. xxxii. in joann. § . vol. iv. p. .] i will not swell this dissertation by quoting the passages at length; though the passages referred to in the margin will well repay any one's careful examination. but i cannot refrain from extracting the words in which each of those writers confirms the view here taken of justin's sentiments. irenæus, for example, says distinctly, "the son ever, anciently and from the beginning co-existing with the father, always reveals the father both to angels and archangels, and powers, and excellencies, and to all to whom god wishes to make a revelation[ ]." and not less distinctly does origen assert the same thing,--"our saviour therefore teaches, and the holy spirit, { } who spake in the prophets, teaches not only men, but also angels and invisible excellencies." [footnote : so far did some of the early christians include the hosts of angels within the covenant of the gospel, that ignatius (epist. ad smyrn. § . p. .) does not hesitate to pronounce that the angels incur the divine judgment, if they do not receive the doctrine of the atonement: "let no one be deceived. the things in heaven, and the glory of angels, and the powers visible and invisible, if they do not believe on the blood of christ--for them is judgment." they seem to have founded their opinion on the declaration of st. paul (eph. iii. ): "that now to the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of god."] i will only add one more ancient authority, in confirmation of the view here taken of justin's words. the passage is from athenagoras[ ] and seems to be the exact counterpart of justin's paragraph. [footnote : athenagoras presented his defence, in which these words occur, to the emperor marcus aurelius, and his son commodus, in the year .] "who would not wonder on hearing us called atheists? we who call the father god, and the son god, and the holy ghost, showing both their power in the unity, and their distinction in order. nor does our theology rest here; but we say, moreover, that there is a multitude of angels and ministers whom god, the maker and creator of the world, by the word proceeding from him, distributed and appointed, both about the elements, and the heavens, and the world, and the things therein, and the good order thereof." [sect. . p. . edit. just. mart.] i have already stated my inability to discover a single word in justin martyr which could be brought to sanction the invocation of saints; but his testimony is far from being merely negative. he admonishes us strongly against our looking to any other being for help or assistance, than to god only. even when speaking of those who confide in their own strength, and fortune, and other sources of good, he says, in perfect unison with the pervading principles and associations of his whole mind, as far as we can read them in his works, without any modification or any exception in favour of saint or angel: "in that christ { } said, 'thou art my god, go not far from me,' he at the same time taught, that all persons ought to hope in god, who made all things, and seek for safety and health from him alone" [trypho, § , p. .] * * * * * section ii.--irenÆus. justin sealed his faith by his blood about the year ; and next to him, in the noble army of martyrs, we must examine the evidence of irenæus, bishop of lyons. of this writer's works a very small proportion survives in the original greek; but that little is such as might well make every scholar and divine lament the calamity which theology and literature have sustained by the loss of the author's own language. it is not perhaps beyond the range of hope that future researches may yet recover at least some part of the treasure. meanwhile we must avail ourselves with thankfulness of the nervous though inelegant copy of that original, which the latin translation affords; imperfect and corrupt in many parts, as that copy evidently is. this, however, is not the place for recommending a study of the remains of irenæus; and every one at all acquainted with the literature of the early church, knows well how valuable a store of ancient christian learning is preserved even in the wreck of his works. on the subject of the invocation of saints, an appeal { } has been made only to a few passages in irenæus. with regard, indeed, to one section, i would gladly have been spared the duty of commenting upon the unjustifiable mode of citing his evidence adopted by bellarmin. it forces upon our notice an example either of such inaccuracy of quotation as would shake our confidence in him as an author, or of such misrepresentation as must lower him in our estimation as a man of integrity. bellarmin asserts, building upon it as the very foundation-stone of his argument for the invocation of saints, that the souls of the saints are removed immediately on their dissolution by death, without waiting for the day of judgment, into the presence of god, and the enjoyment of him in heaven. this point, he says, must first be established; for if they are not already in the presence of god, they cannot pray for us, and prayer to them would be preposterous. [bell. lib. i. c. . vol. ii. p. .] among the authorities cited by him to establish this point is the evidence of irenæus (book i. c. ). [see benedictine ed, paris, . book i. c. . p. .] bellarmin quotes that passage in these words: "to the just and righteous, and to those who keep his commandments, and persevere in his love, some indeed from the beginning but some from repentance, he giving life confers by way of gift incorruption, and clothes them with eternal glory." to the quotation he appends this note "mark '_to some_' that is, to those who presently after baptism die, or who lay down their life for christ; or finally to the perfect is given immediately life and eternal glory; to others not, except after repentance, that is, satisfaction made in another world[ ]." [footnote : agreeably to the principles laid down in my preface, i will not here allude to the doctrine of purgatory, on which bellarmin considers this passage to bear; nor will i say one word on the intermediate state of the soul between death and the resurrection, on which i am now showing that the words of irenæus cannot at all be made to bear.] { } here i am compelled to confess that i never found a more palpable misquotation of an author than this. i will readily grant that bellarmin may have quoted from memory, or have borrowed from some corrupt version of the passage; and that he has unintentionally changed the moods of two verbs from the subjunctive to the indicative, and inadvertently changed the entire construction and the sense of the passage. but then what becomes of his authority as a writer citing testimony? irenæus in this passage is speaking not of what our lord does now, but what he will do at the last day; he refers only to the second coming of christ to judgment at the final consummation of all things, not using a single expression which can be made by fair criticism to have any reference whatever to the condition of souls on their separation from the body. i have consulted the old editions, some at least published before the date of bellarmin's work; the suggestion offering itself to my mind, that perhaps the ancient translation was in error, from which he might have quoted. but i cannot find that to have been the case. the old latin version of this passage agreeing very closely with the greek still preserved in epiphanius, and quoted by roman catholic writers as authentic, conveys this magnificent though brief summary of the christian faith: "the church spread throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, received both from the apostles and their disciples that faith which is in one { } god omnipotent, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things therein, and in one jesus christ, the son of god, for our salvation made flesh, and in the holy ghost, who by the prophets announced the dispensations (of god[ ]), and the advent, and the being born of a virgin, and the suffering, and the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved jesus christ our lord, and his coming from heaven in the glory of the father for the consummation of all things, and for raising again all flesh of the human race, that, in order that ([greek: ina]), to christ jesus our lord and god, and saviour and king, according to the good pleasure of the invisible father, every knee should bow of things in heaven and in earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess to him, and that he should execute just judgment on all: that he should send the spirits of wickedness, and the transgressing and rebel angels, and the impious and unjust, and wicked and blaspheming men into eternal fire; but to the just and righteous, and to those who keep his commandments, and persevere in his love,--some indeed from the beginning, and some from their repentance,--he granting life, by way of gift, should confer incorruption, and should clothe them with eternal glory." [hæres. xxxi. c. .] [footnote : the words "of god" are in the latin, but not in the greek.] the words, "some from the beginning," "others from their repentance," can refer only to the two conditions of believers; some of whom have grace to keep the commandments, and persevere in the love of god from the beginning of their christian course, whilst others, for a time, transgress and wax cold in love, but by repentance, through god's grace, are renewed and { } restored to their former state of obedience and love. on both these classes of christians, according to the faith as here summed up by irenæus, our lord and saviour jesus christ, when he comes in glory for the consummation of all things, and for the resurrection of the dead, will confer glory and immortality. no ingenuity of criticism can extract from this passage any allusion to the intercession of saints, or to their being with god before the end of the world[ ]. but i am not { } here condemning bellarmin's untenable criticism: what i lament is the negligence or the disingenuousness with which he misquotes the words of irenæus, and makes him say what he never did say. to extract from an author's words, correctly reported, a meaning which he did not intend to convey, however reprehensible and unworthy a follower of truth, is one act of injustice: to report him, whether wilfully or carelessly, as using words which he never did use, is far worse. [footnote : it will be well to see the words of bellarmin and those of the translation side by side: (transcriber's note: they are shown here one after the other.) _bellarmin_ lib. i. c. iv. p. . "quartus irenæus, lib. i. c. . 'justis, inquit, et æquis, et præcepta ejus servantibus et in dilectione perseverantibus, quibusdam quidem ab initio, quibusdam autem ex poenitentia, vitam donans, incorruptelam loco muneris confert, et claritatem æternam circumdat.' nota '_quibusdam_,' id est, iis qui mox a baptismo moriuntur, vel qui pro christo vitam ponunt; vel denique perfectis statim donari vitam et claritatem æternam; aliis non nisi post poenitentiam, id est, satisfactionem in futuro sæculo actam." _latin translation_. "et de coelis in gloria patris adventum ejus ad recapitulanda universa et resuscitandam omnem carnem humani generis, ut christo jesu domino nostro et deo, et salvatori, et regi, secundum placitum patris invisibilis, 'omne genu curvet coelestium, et terrestrium, et infernorum, et omnis lingua confiteatur ei,' et judicium justum in omnibus faciat; spiritalia quidem nequitiæ, et angelos transgresses, atque apostatas factos, et impios et injustos et iniquos, et blasphemos homines in æternum ignem mittat;--justis autem et æquis et præcepta ejus servantibus et in dilectione ejus perseverantibus, quibusdam quidem ab initio, quibusdam autem ex poenitentia, vitam donans, incorruptelam loco muneris conferat, et claritatem æternam circumdet."--irenæi liber i. cap. x. p. . interpretatio vetus.] another expression of irenæus is appealed to by bellarmin, and continues to be cited at the present day in defence of the invocation of saints; the precise bearing of which upon the subject i confess myself unable to see, whilst i am very far from understanding the passage from which it is an extract. bellarmin cites the passage not to show that the saints in glory pray for us,--that argument he had dismissed before,--but to prove that they are to be invoked by us. the insulated passage as quoted by him is this: "and as she (eve) was induced to fly from god, so she (mary) was persuaded to obey god, that of the virgin eve the virgin mary might become the advocate." after the quotation he says, "what can be clearer?" [benedict, lib. v. cap. xix. p. .] in whatever sense we may suppose irenæus to have employed the word here translated "advocata," it is difficult to see how the circumstance of mary becoming the advocate of eve, who lived so many generations before her, can bear upon the question, is it lawful and right for us, now dwelling on the earth, to invoke those saints whom we believe to be in heaven? i will not dwell on the argument urged very cogently by some critics on this passage, that the word "advocata," found { } in the latin version of irenæus, is the translation of the original word, now lost [[greek: paraklaetos]--paraclete], which, by the early writers, was used for "comforter and consoler," or "restorer;" because, as i have above intimated, whatever may have been the word employed by irenæus, the passage proves nothing as to the lawfulness of our praying to the saints. if the angels at god's bidding minister unto the heirs of salvation; or further, if they plead our cause with god, that would be no reason why we should invoke them and pray to them. this distinction between what they may do for us, and what we ought to do with regard to them, is an essential distinction, and must not be lost sight of. we shall have occasion hereafter to refer to it repeatedly, especially in the instances of origen and cyprian. i will now do no more than copy in a note the entire passage from which the sentence now under consideration has been extracted, that the reader may judge whether on such a passage, the original of which, in whatever words irenæus may have expressed himself, is utterly lost, any reliance can satisfactorily be placed. ("manifeste itaque in sua propria venientem dominum et sua propria eum bajulantem conditione quæ bajulatur ab ipso, et recapitulationem ejus quæ in ligno fuit inobedientiæ per eam quæ in ligno est obedientiam facientem, et seductionem illam solutam qua seducta est male illa, quæ jam viro destinata erat virgo eva, per veritatem evangelizata est bene ab angelo jam sub viro virgo maria. quemadmodum enim illa per angeli sermonem seducta est ut effugeret deum prævaricata verbum ejus, ita et hæc per angelicum sermonem evangelizata est ut portaret deum obediens ejus verbo. et si ea inobedierat deo, sed hæc suasa est obedire deo, uti virginis evæ virgo maria fieret advocata. et quemadmodum astrictum est morti genus humanum per virginem, salvatur per virginem, æqua lance disposita virginalis inobedientia per virginalem obedientiam. adhuc enim protoplasti peccatum per correptionem primogeniti emendationem accipiens, et serpentis prudentia devicta in columbæ simplicitate, vinculis autem illis resolutis, per quæ alligati eramus morti." st. augustin (paris, . vol. x. p. .) refers to the latter part of this passage, as implying the doctrine of original sin; but since his quotation does not embrace any portion of the clause at present under our consideration, no additional light from him is thrown on the meaning of irenæus.) { } but passages occur in irenæus, which seem to leave doubt, that neither in faith nor in practice would he countenance in the very lowest degree the adoration of saints and angels, or any invocation of them. for example, in one part of his works we read, "nor does it [the church] do any thing by invocations of angels, nor by incantations, nor other depraved and curious means, but with cleanliness, purity, and openness, directing prayers to the lord who made all things, and calling upon the name of jesus christ our lord, it exercises its powers for the benefit, and not for the seducing, of mankind." [benedictine ed. lib. ii. c. . § . p. .] it has been said that, by angelic invocations, irenæus means the addresses to evil angels and genii, such as the heathen superstitiously made. be it so; though that is a mere assumption, not warranted by the passage or its context. but, surely, had irenæus known that christians prayed to angels, as well as to their maker and their saviour, he would not have used such an unguarded expression; he would have cautioned his readers against so serious, but so natural, a misapprehension of his meaning. with one more reference, we must bring our inquiry into the testimony of irenæus to a close. the passage occurs in the fifth book, chapter . [benedict. lib. v. c. . § . p, .] the principal and most important, though not the longest, part of { } the passage is happily still found in the original greek, preserved in the "parallels" of damascenus. in its plain, natural, and unforced sense, this passage is so decidedly conclusive on the question at issue, that various attempts have been made to explain away its meaning, so as not to represent irenæus as believing that the souls of departed saints, between their death and the day of judgment, exist otherwise than in bliss and glory in heaven. but those attempts have been altogether unsuccessful. i believe the view here presented to us by the plain and obvious sense of the words of irenæus, is the view at present acquiesced in by a large proportion of our fellow-believers. the anglican church has made no article of faith whatever on the subject. the clause within brackets is found both in the latin and the greek. "since the lord[ ] in the midst of the shadow of death went where the souls of the dead were, and then afterwards rose bodily, and after his resurrection was taken up, it is evident that of his disciples also, for whom the lord wrought these things, [the souls go into the unseen[ ] place assigned to them by god, and there remain till the resurrection, waiting for the resurrection; afterwards receiving again their bodies and rising perfectly [[greek: holoklaeros], perfecte], that is, bodily, even as the lord also rose again, so will they come into the presence of god.] { } for no disciple is above his master; but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. as, therefore, our master did not immediately flee away and depart, but waited for the time of his resurrection appointed by his father (which is evident, even by the case of jonah); after the third day, rising again, he was taken up; so we too must wait for the time of our resurrection appointed by god, and fore-announced by the prophets; and thus rising again, be taken up, as many as the lord shall have deemed worthy of this." [footnote : bellarmin, rather than allow the testimony of irenæus to weigh at all against the doctrine which he is defending, seems determined to combat and challenge that father himself. "non ausus est dicere," "he has not dared to say, that the souls go to the regions below," &c.] [footnote : there is no word in the greek copy corresponding with the latin "invisibilem."] * * * * * section iii.--clement of alexandria--about the year . contemporary with irenæus, and probably less than twenty years his junior, was clement, the celebrated christian philosopher of alexandria. i am not aware that any roman catholic writer has appealed to the testimony of clement in favour of the invocation of saints, nor have i found a single passage which the defenders of that practice would be likely to quote; and yet there are many passages which no one, anxious to trace the catholic faith, would willingly neglect. the tendency of clement's mind to blend with the simplicity of the gospel of christ the philosophy in which he so fully abounded, renders him far less valuable as a christian teacher; but his evidence as to the matter of fact, is even rendered more cogent and pointed by this tendency of his mind. i would { } willingly have transferred to these pages whole passages of clement, but the very nature of my address forbids it. some sentences bearing on the subject immediately before us, we must not omit. clement has left on record many of his meditations upon the efficacy, the duty, and the blessed comfort of prayer. when he speaks of god, and of the christian in prayer, (for prayer he defines to be "communion or intercourse with god,") his language becomes often exquisitely beautiful, and sometimes sublime. it is impossible by a few detached passages to convey an adequate estimate of the original; and yet a few sentences may show that clement is a man whose testimony should not be slighted. "therefore, keeping the whole of our life as a feast every where, and on every part persuaded that god is present, we praise him as we till our lands; we sing hymns as we are sailing. the christian is persuaded that god hears every thing; not the voice only, but the thoughts.... suppose any one should say, that the voice does not reach god, revolving as it does in the air below; yet the thoughts of the saints cut not only through the air, but the whole world. and the divine power like the light is beforehand in seeing through the soul.... he" (the christian whom he speaks of throughout as the man of divine knowledge) "prays for things essentially good. "wherefore it best becomes those to pray who have an adequate knowledge of god, and possess virtue in accordance with him--who know what are real goods, and what we should petition for, and when, and how in each case. but it is the extreme of ignorance to ask { } from those who are not gods as though they were gods.... whence since there is one only good god, both we ourselves and the angels supplicate from him alone, that some good things might be given to us, and others might remain with us. in this way he (the christian) is always in a state of purity fit for prayer. he prays with angels, as being himself equal with angels; and as one who is never beyond the holy protecting guard. and if he pray alone he has the whole choir of angels with him." [stromata, lib. vii. § . p. , &c.; section xii. p. .] clement has alluded to instances alleged by the greeks of the effects of prayer, and he adds, "our whole scripture is full of instances of god hearing and granting every request according to the prayers of the just." [lib. vi. § iii. p. .] having in the same section referred to the opinion of some greeks as to the power of demons over the affairs of mortals, he adds, "but they think it matters nothing whether we speak of these as gods or as angels, calling the spirits of such 'demons,' and teaching that they should be worshipped by men, as having, by divine providence, on account of the purity of their lives, received authority to be conversant about earthly places, in order that they may minister to mortals." [lib. vi. § iii. p. .] is it possible to suppose that this teacher in christ's school had any idea of a christian praying to saints or angels? in the last passage, the language in which he quotes the errors of heathen superstition to refute them, so nearly approaches the language of the church of rome when speaking of the powers of saints and angels to assist the suppliant, that if clement had entertained { } any thought whatever of a christian praying for aid and intercession to saint or angel, he must have mentioned it, especially after the previous passage on the absurdity and gross ignorance of praying for any good at the hands of any other than the one true god. in common with his contemporaries, clement considered the angels to be, as we mortals are, in a state requiring all the protection and help to be obtained by prayer; he believed that the angels pray with us, and carry our prayers to god: but the thought of addressing them by invocation does not appear to have occurred to his mind. at the close of his pædagogus he has left on record a form of prayer to god alone very peculiar and interesting. he closes it by an ascription of glory to the blessed trinity. but there is no allusion to saint, or angel, or virgin mother. * * * * * section iv.--tertullian. tertullian, of carthage, was a contemporary of clement of alexandria, and so nearly of the same age, that doubts have existed, which of the two should take priority in point of time. there is a very wide difference in the character and tone of their works, as there was in the frame and constitution of their minds. the lenient and liberal views of the erudite and accomplished master of the school of alexandria, stand out in prominent and broad contrast with the harsh and austere doctrines of tertullian. tertullian fell into errors of a very serious kind by joining himself to the heretic montanus; still on his { } mind is discoverable the working of that spirit which animated the early converts of christianity; and his whole soul seems to have been filled with a desire to promote the practical influence of the gospel. jerome, the oracle on such subjects, from whom the roman catholic church is unwilling to allow any appeal, expressly tells us that cyprian[ ], who called tertullian the master, never passed a single day without studying his works; and that after tertullian had remained a presbyter of the church to middle age, he was driven, by the envy and revilings of the members of the roman church, to fall from its unity, and espouse montanism. bellarmin calls him a heretic, and says he is the first heretic who denied that the saints went at once and forthwith to glory. [hieron. edit. . tom. i. p. .] [footnote : the words of jerome, who refers to the circumstance more than once, are very striking: "i saw one paulus, who said that he had seen the secretary (notarium) of cyprian at rome, who used to tell him that cyprian never passed a single day without reading tertullian; and that he often said to him, 'give me the master,' meaning tertullian."--hieron. vol. iv. part ii. p. .] a decided line of distinction is drawn by roman catholic writers between the works of tertullian written before he espoused the errors of montanus, and his works written after that unhappy step. the former they hold in great estimation, the latter are by many considered of far less authority. i do not see how such a distinction ought to affect his testimony on the historical point immediately before us. if indeed he had held the doctrine of the invocation of saints whilst he continued in the full communion of the church, and rejected it afterwards, no honest and sensible writer would quote his later opinions against the practice. but we are only seeking in his works for evidence of the { } matter of fact,--is there any proof in the works of tertullian that the invocation of saints formed a part of the doctrine and practice of the catholic church in his time[ ]? his works will be found in the note, arranged under those two heads, as nearly as i can ascertain the preponderating sentiments of critics[ ]. [footnote : the reader, who may be induced to consult the work of the present bishop of lincoln, entitled, "the ecclesiastical history of the second and third centuries, illustrated from the writings of tertullian," will there find, in the examination and application of tertullian's remains, the union of sound judgment, diligence in research, clearness of perception, acuteness in discovery, and great erudition mingled with charity.] [footnote : works of tertullian before he became a montanist:-- adversus judæos. the tract ad martyres. the two books ad nationes. the apology, and the tract de præscriptione hæreticorum. the tract de testimonio animæ. the tracts de patientia, de oratione, de baptismo, de poenitentia. the two books ad uxorem. works written after he espoused montanism:-- the tracts de spectaculis and de idololatria, though others say these should be ranked among the first class. the tracts de corona, and de fuga in persecutione, scorpiace, and ad scapulam. the tracts de exhortatione castitatis, de monogamia, de pudicitia, de jejuniis, de virginibus velandis, de pallio, the five books against marcion, the tracts adversus valentinianos, de carne christi, de resurrectione carnis, adversus hermogenem, de anima, adversus praxeam, de cultu foeminarum.] i will detain you only by a very few quotations from this father. in his apology, sect. , we read this very remarkable passage, "we invoke the eternal god, the true god, the living god, for the safety of the emperor.... { } thither (heavenward) looking up, with hands extended, because they are innocent; with our head bare, because we are not ashamed; in fine, without a prompter, because it is from the heart; we christians pray for all rulers a long life, a secure government, a safe home, brave armies, a faithful senate, a good people, a quiet world.... for these things i cannot ask in prayer from any other except him from whom i know that i shall obtain; because both he is the one who alone grants, and i am the one whom it behoveth to obtain by prayer;--his servant, who looks to him alone, who for the sake of his religion am put to death, who offer to him a rich and a greater victim, which he has commanded; prayer from a chaste frame, from a harmless soul, from a holy spirit.... so, let hoofs dig into us, thus stretched forward to god, let crosses suspend us, let fires embrace us, let swords sever our necks from the body, let beasts rush upon us,--the very frame of mind of a praying christian is prepared for every torment. this do, ye good presidents; tear ye away the soul that is praying for the emperor." [page .] in the opening of his reflections on the lord's prayer, he says,-- "let us consider therefore, beloved, in the first place, the heavenly wisdom in the precept of praying in secret, by which he required, in a man, faith to believe that both the sight and the hearing of the omnipotent god is present under our roofs and in our secret places; and desired the lowliness of faith, that to him alone, whom he believed to hear and to see every where, he would offer his worship." [page .] the only other reference which i will make, is to { } the solemn declaration of tertullian's creed; the last clause of which, though in perfect accordance with the sentiments of his contemporaries, seems to have been regarded with hostile eyes by modern writers of the church of rome, because it decidedly bids us look to the day of judgment for the saints being taken to the enjoyment of heaven; and consequently implies that they cannot be properly invoked now. "to profess now what we defend: by the rule of our faith we believe that god is altogether one, and no other than the creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing by his word first of all sent down. that that word, called his son, was variously seen by the patriarchs in the name of god; was always heard in the prophets; at length, borne by the spirit and power of god the father into the virgin mary, was made flesh in her womb, was born of her, and was jesus christ. afterwards he preached a new law and a new promise of the kingdom of heaven; wrought miracles, was crucified, rose again the third day, and, being taken up into heaven, sat on the right hand of the father; and he sent in his own stead the power of the holy ghost, to guide believers; that he shall come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment of eternal life and the heavenly promises, and to condemn the impious to eternal fire, making a reviving of both classes with the restoration of the body." [de præscriptione hæreticorum, § . p. .] * * * * * some notice must here be taken of methodius, a pious christian, of the third century. a work (methodius, gl. combes. paris, ) { } formerly attributed to him has been quoted in proof of the early invocation of saints; but the work, among many others, has been long ago allowed by the best roman catholic critics to be the production of a later age. (fabricius, vol. vii. p. , and vol. x. p. .) many homilies, purporting to have been delivered on the festival of our lord's presentation in the temple, at so early a period, must be received as the works of a later age, because that feast began to be observed in the church so late as the fifteenth year of justinian, in the sixth century. evidently, moreover, the theological language of the homily is of a period long subsequent to the date assigned to methodius. in speaking of our blessed saviour, for example, he employs expressions to guard against the arian heresy, and makes extracts apparently from the nicene creed, "god of himself, and not by grace," "very god of very god, very light of very light, who for us men and our salvation, &c." the general opinion indeed seems to be that this, and many other writings formerly ascribed to the first methodius, were written by persons of a subsequent age, who either were of the same name or assumed his. even were the work genuine, it would afford just as strong a demonstration that methodius believed that the city of jerusalem could hear his salutation, as that the saints could hear his prayer; for he addresses the same "hail" to mary, symeon, and the holy city alike, calling it the "earthly heaven." [greek: chairois hae polis, ho epigeios ouranos.] { } * * * * * section v.--the evidence of origen. jerome informs us that tertullian, whose remains we have last examined, lived to a very advanced age. long, therefore, before his death flourished origen, one of the most celebrated lights of the primitive church. he was educated a christian. indeed his father is said to have suffered martyrdom about the year . origen was a pupil of clement of alexandria. his virtues and his labours have called forth the admiration of all ages; and though he cannot be implicitly followed as a teacher, what still remains of his works will be delivered down as a rich treasure to succeeding times. he was a most voluminous writer; and jerome asked the members of his church, "who is there among us that can read as many books as origen has composed?" [vol. iv. epist. xli. p. .] a large proportion of his works are lost; and of those which remain, few are preserved in the original greek. we are often obliged to study origen through the medium of a translation, the accuracy of which we have no means of verifying. a difficult and delicate duty also devolves upon the theological student to determine which of the works attributed to origen are genuine and which are spurious; and what parts, moreover, of the works received on the whole as genuine came from his pen. of { } the spurious works, some are so palpably written in a much later age, and by authors of different religious views, that no one, after weighing the evidence, can be at a loss what decision to make concerning them; in the case of others, claims and objections may appear to be more evenly balanced. i trust on the one hand to refer to no works for origen's testimony which are not confessedly his, nor on the other to exclude any passage which is not decidedly spurious; whilst in one particular case more immediately connected with our subject, i am induced to enter further in detail into a critical examination of the genuineness and value of a passage than the character of this work generally requires. the great importance attached to the testimony of that passage by some defenders of the worship paid to angels, may be admitted to justify the fulness of the criticism. lest, however, its insertion in the body of the work might seem inconveniently to interfere with the reader's progress in our argument, i have thought it best to include it in a supplementary section at the close of our inquiry into the evidence of origen. coccius, in his elaborate work, quotes the two following passages as origen's, without expressing any hesitation or doubt respecting their genuineness, in which he is followed by writers of the present day. the passages are alleged in proof that origen held and put in practice the doctrine of the invocation of saints; and they form the first quotations made by coccius under the section headed by this title: "that the saints are to be invoked, proved by the testimony of the greek fathers." the first passage is couched in these words: "i will { } begin to throw myself upon my knees, and pray to all the saints to come to my aid; for i do not dare, in consequence of my excess of wickedness, to call upon god. o saints of god, you i pray with weeping full of grief, that ye would propitiate his mercies for me miserable. alas me! father abraham, pray for me, that i be not driven from thy bosom, which i greatly long for, and yet not worthily, because of the greatness of my sins." coccius cites this passage as from "origen in lament," and it has been recently appealed to under the title of "origen on the lamentations." here, however, is a very great mistake. origen's work on the lamentations, called also "selecta in threnos," and inserted in the benedictine edition (vol. iii. p. .), is entirely a different production from the work which contains the above extract. this apocryphal work, on the other hand, does not profess to be the comment of origen on the lamentations, but the lament or wailing of origen himself; or, as it used to be called, the penitence of origen. (in the paris edition of it is called "planctus, seu lamentum origenis." pope gelasius refers to it as "poenitentia origenis.") that this work has no pretensions whatever to be regarded as origen's, has been long placed beyond doubt. even in the edition of , this treatise is prefaced by erasmus in these words, "this lamentation was neither written by origen nor translated by jerome, but is the fiction of some unlearned man, who attempted, under colour of this, to throw disgrace upon origen." [basil, . vol. i. p. .] in the benedictine edition (paris, .) no trace of this work is to be found. they do not admit it among the doubtful, or even the spurious works; they do not so { } much as give room for it in the appendix; on the contrary, they drop it altogether as utterly unworthy of being any longer preserved. instead, however, of admitting the work itself, these editors have supplied abundant reason for its exclusion, by inserting the sentiments of huetius, or huet, the very learned bishop of avranches. he tells us, that formerly to origen's work on principles used to be appended a treatise called, the lament of origen, the latin translation of which guido referred to jerome. after quoting the passage of erasmus (as above cited from the edition of ) in proof of its having been "neither written by origen nor translated by jerome, but the fabrication of some unlearned man, who attempted, under colour of this, to throw disgrace on origen, just as they forged a letter in jerome's name, lamenting that he had ever thought with origen," huet proceeds thus: "and gelasius in the roman council writes, 'the book which is called the repentance of origen, apocryphal.' it is wonderful, therefore, that without any mark of its false character, it should be sometimes cited by some theologians in evidence. here we may smile at the supineness of a certain heterodox man of the present age, who thought the 'lament,' ascribed to origen, to be something different from the book of repentance." [vol. iv. part ii. p. .] the decree here referred to of pope gelasius, made in the roman council, a.d. , by that pontiff, in conjunction with seventy bishops, contains these strong expressions, before enumerating some few of the books then condemned: "other works written by heretics and schismatics, the catholic and apostolic church by { } no means receives; of them we think it right to subjoin a few which have occurred to our memory, and are to be avoided by catholics." [conc. labb. vol. iv. p. .] then follows a list of prohibited works, among which we read, "the book called the repentance of origen, apocryphal," the very book which huet identifies with the "lament of origen," still cited as evidence even in the present day. (see appendix a.) the second passage cited by coccius, and also by writers of the present time, as origen's, without any allusion to its spurious and apocryphal character, is from the second book of the work called origen on job. the words cited run thus: "o blessed job, who art living for ever with god, and remainest conqueror in the sight of the lord the king, pray for us wretched, that the mercy of the terrible god may protect us in all our afflictions, and deliver us from all oppressions of the wicked one; and number us with the just, and enrol us among those who are saved, and make us rest with them in his kingdom, where for ever with the saints we may magnify him." this work, like the former, has no claim whatever to be regarded as origen's. it has long been discarded by the learned. indeed so far back as , erasmus, in his censura, proved that it was written long after the time of origen by an arian. (basil, . vol. i. p. ; and "censura.") by the benedictine editors it is transferred to an appendix as the commentary of an anonymous writer on job; and they thus express their judgment as to its being a forgery: "the commentary of an anonymous writer on job, in previous editions, is ascribed to origen; { } but that it is not his, huet proves by unconquerable arguments. this translation is assigned to hilary, the bishop; but although it is clear from various proofs of jerome, that st. hilary translated the tracts or homilies of origen on job, yet there is no reason why that man who wrote with the highest praise against the arians, should be considered as the translator of this work, which is infected with the corruption of arianism, and which is not origen's." [vol. ii. p. .] erasmus calls the prologue to this treatise on job "the production of a silly talkative man, neither learned nor modest." it is impossible not to feel, with regard to these two works, the sentiments which, as we have already seen, the bishop of avranches has so strongly expressed on one. "it is wonderful, that they should be sometimes cited in evidence by some theologians, without any mark of their being forgeries." proceeding with our examination of the sentiments of origen, i would here premise, that not the smallest doubt can be entertained that origen believed the angels to be ministering spirits, real, active, zealous workmen and fellow-labourers with us in the momentous and awful business of our eternal salvation. he represents the angels as members of the same family with ourselves, as worshippers of the same god, as servants of the same master, as children of the same father, as disciples of the same heavenly teacher, as learners of one and the same heavenly doctrine. he contemplates them as members of our christian congregations, as joining with us in prayer to our heavenly benefactor, as taking pleasure when they hear in our { } assemblies what is agreeable to the will of god, and as being present too not only generally in the christian church, but also with individual members of it[ ]. but does origen, therefore, countenance any invocation of them? let us appeal to himself. [footnote : one or two references will supply abundant proof of this: "i do not doubt that in our congregation angels are present, not only in general to the whole church, but also individually with those of whom it is said, 'their angels do always behold the face of my father who is in heaven.' a twofold church is here: one of men, the other of angels. if we say any thing agreeably to reason and the mind of scripture, the angels rejoice to pray with us." and a little above, "our saviour, therefore, as well as the holy spirit, who spoke by the prophets, instructs not only men, but angels and invisible powers."--hom, xxiii. in luc. vol. iii. p. . "whoever, therefore, confessing his sins, repents, or confesses christ before men in persecutions, is applauded by his brethren. for there is joy and gladness to the angels in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. by them, therefore, as by brethren (for both men and angels are sons of the same creator and father) they are praised."--in genes. hom. xvii. p. .] celsus accused the christians of being atheists, godless, men without god, because they would not worship those gods many and lords many, and those secondary, subordinate, auxiliary, and ministering divinities with which the heathen mythology abounded: origen answers, we are not godless, we are not without an object of our prayer; we pray to god almighty alone through the mediation only of his son. "we must pray to god alone ([greek: mono gar proseukteon to epi pasi theo]), who is over all things; and we must pray also to the only-begotten and first-born of every creature, the word of god; and we must implore him as our high priest to carry our prayer, first coming to him, to his god and our { } god, to his father and the father of those who live agreeably to the word of god." [cont. cels. § . c. xxvi. vol. i. p. .] but celsus, in this well representing the weakness and failings of human nature, still urged on the christian the necessity, or at all events the expediency, of conciliating those intermediate beings who executed the will of the supreme being, and might haply have much left at their own will and discretion to give or to withhold; and therefore the desirableness of securing their good offices by prayer. to this origen answers: "the one god ([greek: hena oun ton epi pasi theon haemin exenmenisteon])--the god who is over all, is to be propitiated by us, and to be appeased by prayer; the god who is rendered favourable by piety and all virtue. but if he (celsus) is desirous, after the supreme god, to propitiate some others also, let him bear in mind, that just as a body in motion is accompanied by the motion of its shadow, so also by rendering the supreme god favourable, it follows that the person has all his (god's) friends, angels, souls, spirits, favourable also; for they sympathize with those who are worthy of god's favour; and not only do they become kindly affected towards the worthy, but they also join in their work with those who desire to worship the supreme god; and they propitiate him, and they pray with us, and supplicate with us; so that we boldly say, that together with men who on principle prefer the better part, and pray to god, ten thousands of holy powers join in prayer unasked ([greek: aklaetoi])," [unbidden, uncalled upon.] [cont. cels. lib. viii. § . vol. i. p. .] what an opportunity was here for origen to have stated, that though christians do not call upon demons and the subordinate divinities of heathenism to aid { } them, yet that they do call upon the ministering spirits, the true holy angels, messengers and servants of the most high god! but whilst speaking of them, and magnifying the blessings derived to man through their ministry, so far from encouraging us to ask them for their good offices, his testimony on the contrary is not merely negative; he positively asserts that when they assist mankind, it is without any request or prayer from man. could this come from one who invoked angels? another passage, although it adds little to the evidence of the above extract, i am unwilling to pass by, because it beautifully illustrates by the doctrine and practice of origen the prayer, the only one adopted by the anglican church, offered by the church to god for the succour and defence of the holy angels. speaking of the unsatisfactory slippery road which they tread, who either depend upon the agency of demons for good, or are distressed by the fear of evil from them, origen adds, "how far better ([greek: poso beltion]) were it to commit oneself to god who is over all, through him who instructed us in this doctrine, jesus christ, and of him to ask for every aid from the holy angels and the just, that they may rescue us from the earthly demons." [cont. cels. lib. viii. § . vol. i. p. .] in the following passage origen answers the question of celsus: "if you christians admit the existence of angels, tell us what you consider their nature to be?" [cont. cels. lib. v. § . p. .] "come," replies origen, "let us consider these points. now we confessedly say, that the angels are ministering spirits, and sent to minister on account of those who are to be heirs of salvation; that they ascend, bearing with them the supplications of men into the most pure { } heavenly places of the world; and that they again descend from thence, bearing to each in proportion to what is appointed by god for them to minister to the well-doers. and learning that these are, from their work, called angels ([greek: aggeloi], messengers, ministers sent to execute some commission), we find them, because they are divine, sometimes called even gods in the holy scriptures; but not so, as for any injunction to be given to us to worship and adore, instead of god, those who minister, and bring to us the things of god. for every request and prayer, and supplication and thanksgiving, must be sent up to him who is god above all, through the high priest, who is above all angels, even the living word of god. and we also make our requests to the word, and supplicate him, and moreover offer our prayer to him; if we can understand the difference between the right use and the abuse of prayer. for it is not reasonable for us to call upon angels, without receiving a knowledge concerning them which is above man. but supposing the knowledge concerning them, wonderful and unutterable as it is, had been received; that very knowledge describing their nature, and those to whom they are respectively assigned, would not give confidence in praying to any other than to him who is sufficient for every thing, god who is above all, through our saviour, the son of god, who is the word, and wisdom, and the truth, and whatsoever else the writings of the prophets of god, and the apostles of jesus say concerning him. but for the angels of god to be favourable to us, and to do all things for us, our disposition towards god is sufficient; we copy them to the utmost of human strength, { } as they copy god. and our conception concerning his son, the word, according to what is come to us, is not opposed to the more clear conception of the holy angels concerning him, but is daily approximating towards it in clearness and perspicuity." again, he thus writes: "but celsus wishes us to dedicate the first-fruits unto the demons; but we to him who said, let the earth bring forth grass, &c. but to whom we give the first-fruits, to him we send up also our prayers; having a great high priest who is entered into the heavens, jesus the son of god; and this confession we hold fast as long as we live, having god favourable unto us, and his only-begotten son being manifested among us, jesus christ. but if we wish to have a multitude favourable unto us, we learn that thousand thousands stand by him, and ten thousand thousands minister unto him; who, regarding those as kinsfolks and friends who imitate their piety to god, work together for the salvation of them who call upon god and pray sincerely; appearing also, and thinking that they ought to listen to them, and as if upon one watchword to go forth for the benefit and salvation of those who pray to god, to whom they also pray." [cont. cels. lib. viii. § . (benedict, p. .)] after these multiplied declarations of origen, not only confessing that christians did not pray to the angels, but vindicating them from the charge of impiety brought against them by their enemies for their neglect of the worship of angels, is it possible to regard him as a witness in favour of prayer to angels? but it has been said that origen in another passage (cont. cels. lib. viii. § . p. .) { } plainly implies, that he would not be unwilling to discuss the question of some worship being due to angels and archangels, provided the idea of that worship, and the acts of the worshippers, were first cleared of all misapprehension. and i would not that any catholic, whether in communion with the church of england or of rome, should make any other answer than origen here gave to celsus. let me speak freely on this point. i should not respect the memory of origen as i do, had he taught differently. the word which he uses is the greek word "therapeusis," precisely the same word with that which the learned in medicine now use to describe the means of healing diseases. it is a word of very wide import. it signifies the care which a physician takes of his patient; the service paid to a master; the attention given to a superior; the affectionate attendance of a friend; the allegiance of a subject; the worship of the supreme being. origen says, provided celsus will specify what kind of "therapeusis" he would wish to be paid to those angels and archangels whose existence we acknowledge, i am ready to enter upon the subject with him. this is all he says. and we of the anglican church are ready from our hearts to join him. call it by what name we may, we are never backward in acknowledging ourselves bound to render it. we pay to the angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, the homage of respect, and veneration, and love. they are indeed our fellow-servants; they are, like ourselves, creatures of god's hand; but they are exalted far above us in nature and in office. by the grace of god, we would daily endeavour to become less distant from { } them in purity, in zeal, in obedience. origen here speaks not one word of adoration, of invocation, of prayer. he speaks of a feeling and a behaviour, which the greeks called "therapeusis," and which we best render by "respect, veneration, and love." far from us be the thought of lowering the holy angels in the eyes of our fellow-creatures; equally far from us be the thought of invoking them, of asking them even for their prayers. they are holy creatures and holy messengers: we will think and speak of them with reverence, and gratitude, and affection; but they are creatures and messengers still, and when we think or speak of the object of prayer, we think and speak solely and exclusively of god. with regard to origen's opinion, as to the invocation of the souls of saints departed, a very few words will suffice. he clearly records his opinion that the faithful are still waiting for us, and that till we all rejoice together, their joy will not be full: he leaves among the mysteries not to be solved now the question whether the departed can benefit the human race at all; and he has added reflections, full of edifying and solemn admonition, which would dissuade his fellow-believers from placing their confidence in any virtues, or intercessions, or merits of saints, and in any thing except the mere mercy of god, through jesus christ, and our own individual labour in the work of the lord. in his seventh homily on leviticus, in a passage partly quoted by bellarmin, we read[ ]--"not even the apostles have yet received their joy, but even they are waiting, in order that i also may become a partaker of { } their joy. for the saints departing hence do not immediately receive all the rewards of their deserts; but they wait even for us, though we be delaying and dilatory[ ]. for they have not perfect joy as long as they grieve for our errors, and mourn for our sins." then, having quoted the epistle to the hebrews, he proceeds,--"you see, therefore, that abraham is yet waiting to obtain those things that are perfect; so is isaac and jacob; and so all the prophets are waiting for us, that they might obtain eternal blessedness with us. wherefore, even this mystery is kept, to the last day of delayed judgment." [footnote : vol. ii. p. . nondum enim receperunt lætitiam suam, ne apostoli quidem, &c. but see huetius on origen, lib. ii. q. . no. .] [footnote : he thinks it probable, that the saints departed feel an interest in the welfare of men on earth. see vol. iv. p. .] modern roman catholic writers tell us, that we must consider origen here as only referring to the reunion of the soul with the body; but his words cannot be so interpreted. the cause of the saints still waiting for their consummation of bliss, is stated to be the will of god, that all the faithful should enter upon their full enjoyment of blessedness together. again: it may be asked, whether the following passage could have come from the pen of one who prayed to the saints, as already reigning with christ in heaven. "but now whether the saints who are removed from the body and are with christ, act at all, and labour for us, like the angels who minister to our salvation; or whether, again, the wicked removed from the body act at all according to the purpose of their own mind, like the bad angels, with whom, it is said by christ, that they will be sent into eternal fires;--let this too be { } considered among the secret things of god, mysteries not to be committed to writing." [epist. ad rom. lib. ii. (benedict. vol. iv. p. .) "jam vero si etiam," &c.] in a passage found in origen's comment on ezekiel's text, "though noah, daniel, and job, were in it, they should deliver neither son nor daughter, they should deliver only their own souls by their righteousness," [hom. iii. vol. iii. p. .] independently of the testimony borne to the point before us, we read a very interesting and awakening lesson of general application:-- "first, let us expound the passage agreeably to its plain sense, in consequence of the ignorance of some who maintain the ideas of their own mind to be the truth of god, and often say, 'every one of us will be able by his prayers to snatch whomsoever he will from hell,' and introduce iniquity to the lord; not seeing that the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him; so that each shall die in his own sin, and each live in his own person. my father being a martyr profits me nothing, if i shall not live well, and adorn the nobleness of my race,--that is, his testimony and confession, by which he was glorified in christ. it profiteth not the jews to say, 'we were not born of fornication, we have one father, the lord;' and, a little after, 'abraham is our father.' whatever they may say, whatever they will assume, if they have not the faith of abraham they make their boast in vain; for they will not be saved on account of their being children of abraham. since, therefore, some have formed incorrect notions, we have necessarily brought in the plain sense of the passage as to the letter, saying, noah, daniel, and job will not rescue sons or daughters; they only will be saved. let no { } one of us put his trust in a just father, a holy mother, chaste brethren. blessed is the man who hath his hope in himself, and in the right way. but to those who place confident trust in the saints, we bring forward no improper example,--'cursed is the man whose hope is in man;' and again, 'trust ye not in man.' and this also, 'it is good to trust in the lord rather than in princes[ ].' if we must hope in some object, leaving all others, let us hope in the lord, saying, 'though a host of men were set against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid.'" [footnote : these observations may perhaps refer more especially to the saints still on earth; but they apply to all helpers, save god alone.] he finishes the homily thus: "the righteous see three periods; the present, the period of change when the lord will judge, and that which will be after the resurrection,--that is, the eternity of life in heaven in jesus christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. amen." can this confessor of the christian faith have ever taught his fellow-believers to plead the merits of the saints, or to pray for their intercessions? how strongly are the above sentiments contrasted with a passage in the third of the spurious homilies called in diversos; the first clause of which is referred to by bellarmin, as containing origen's approbation of giving honour to the saints[ ]. [footnote : i hardly need detain the reader by any proof of the spuriousness of this passage; the whole work from which it is taken is rejected altogether by the benedictine editors: "reliqua ejusmodi spuria omittenda censuimus, qualia sunt ... homiliæ in diversos;" and they have not allowed a single line of it to appear in their volumes, not even in the small character.--vol. iv. p. .] "the memory of these (the innocents) is always { } celebrated, as is right, in the churches. these, therefore, since they were unjustly or impiously put to death in peace and rest, having suffered much for the name of the lord, were taken from this world, to remain in the eternal church for ever in christ. but their parents for the merits of their suffering will receive a worthy recompense of reward from the just and eternal lord god." here we have strongly marked indeed the difference between origen himself, and the errors fastened upon him by the design or ignorance of subsequent times. were not his testimony a subject of great moment, i should plead guilty to having detained my readers too long on origen; and yet i cannot dismiss him without first refreshing our minds with the remembrance of some of his beautiful reflections on a christian's prayer. we need not read them with a controversial eye, and they may be profitable to us all. "i think, then, (says this early teacher in christ's school) that when proceeding to prayer, a christian will be more readily disposed, and be in a better tone for the general work of prayer, if he will first tarry a little, and put himself into the right frame, casting off every distracting and disturbing thought, and with his best endeavour recalling to mind the vastness of him to whom he is drawing near, and how unholy a thing it is to approach him with a carelessness and indifference, and, as it were, contempt; laying aside also every thing foreign to the subject;--so to come to prayer as one who stretcheth forth his soul first, before his hands; and lifts up his mind first, before his eyes, to god; and before he stands up, raising from the ground the leading [ } principle of his nature, and lifting that up to the lord of all. so far casting away all remembrance of evil towards any of those who may seem to have injured him, as he wishes god not to remember evil against him, who has himself been guilty, and has trespassed against many of his neighbours, or in whatever he is conscious to have done contrary to right reason." [de oratione, vol. i. § . p. .] "having divided prayer into its several parts" (he continues), "i may bring my work to a close. there are then four parts of prayer requiring description, which i have found scattered in the scriptures, all of which every one should embody in his prayer:-- "first, we must offer glory (doxologies) to the best of our ability in the opening and commencement of our prayer, to god through christ who is glorified with him in the holy spirit, who is praised together. after this each person should offer general thanksgivings both for the blessings granted to all, and for those which he has individually obtained from god. after the thanksgiving, it appears to me right, that becoming, as it were, a bitter accuser of his own sins to god, he should petition first of all for a remedy to release him from the habit which impels him to transgress, and then for remission of the past. and after the confession, i think he ought in the fourth place, to add a supplication for great and heavenly things, both individual and universal, and for his relations and friends. after all, he should close his prayer with an ascription of glory to god through christ in the holy ghost." [sect. . p. .] { } * * * * * section vi.--supplementary section on origen. i have above intimated my intention of reserving for a separate section our examination of a passage ascribed to origen, in which he is represented as having invoked an angel to come down from heaven, to succour him and his fellow-creatures on earth. the passage purports to be part of origen's comment on the opening verse of the prophecy of ezekiel, "the heavens were opened." after the fullest investigation, and patient weighing of the whole section, i am fully persuaded, first, that the passage is an interpolation, never having come from the pen of origen; and secondly, that, whoever were its author, it can be regarded only as an instance of those impassioned apostrophes, which are found in great variety in the addresses of ancient christian orators. but since some of the most respected writers of the church of rome have regarded it as genuine, and deemed it worthy of being cited in evidence, i feel it incumbent to state at length, for those readers who may desire to enter at once fully into the question, the reasons on which my judgment is founded; whilst others, who may perhaps consider the discussion of the several points here as too great an interruption to the general argument, may for the present pass this section, and reserve it for subsequent inquiry. it will be, in the first place, necessary to quote the whole passage entire, however long; for the mere extract of that portion which is cited as origen's prayer to an { } angel, might leave a false impression as to the real merits of the case. "the heavens are opened. the heavens were closed, and at the coming of christ they were opened, in order that they being laid open the holy ghost might come upon him in the appearance of a dove. for he could not come to us unless he had first descended on one who partook of his own nature. jesus ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, he received gifts for men. he who descended is the same who ascended above all heavens, that he might fill all things; and he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and masters, for the perfecting of the saints." [vol. iii. p. . hom. i. in ezek.] "[the heavens were opened. it is not enough for one heaven to be opened: very many are opened, that not from one, but from all, angels may descend to those who are to be saved; angels who ascended and descended upon the son of man, and came to him, and ministered to him. now the angels descended because christ first descended, fearing to descend before the lord of all powers and things commanded. but when they saw the chieftain of the army of heaven dwelling in earthly places, then they entered through the opened road, following their lord, and obeying his will, who distributes them as guardians of those that believe on his name. thou yesterday wast under a devil, to-day thou art under an angel. do not ye, saith the lord, despise one of the least of those who are in the church? verily, i say unto you, that their angels through all things see the face of the father who is in heaven. the angels attend on thy salvation; they were granted for the ministry of the son of god, and { } they say among themselves, if he descended, and descended into a body, if he is clothed in mortal flesh, and endured the cross, and died for man, why are we resting idle? why do we spare ourselves? haste away! let all of us angels descend from heaven! thus also was there a multitude of the heavenly host praising and blessing god when christ was born. all things are full of angels. come, angel, take up one who by the word is converted from former error, from the doctrine of demons, from iniquity speaking on high, and taking him up like a good physician, cherish him, and instruct him. he is a little child, to-day he is born, an old man again growing young; and undertake him, granting him the baptism of the second regeneration; and summon to thyself other companions of thy ministry, that you all may together train for the faith those who have been sometime deceived. for there is greater joy in heaven over one sinner repenting, than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance. every creature exults, rejoices with, and with applause addresses those who are to be saved; for the expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of god. and although those who have interpolated the apostolical writings are unwilling that such passages should be in their books as may prove christ to be the creator, yet every creature waiteth for the sons of god when they shall be freed from sin, when they shall be taken away from the hand of zabulon[ ], when they shall be regenerated by christ. but now it is time that we touch somewhat on the present place. the prophet sees not a vision, but visions of god. { } why did he see not one, but many visions? hear the lord promising and saying, i have multiplied visions. . 'the fifth month.' this was the fifth year of the captivity of king joachim. in the thirtieth year of ezekiel's age, and the fifth of the captivity of joachim, the prophet is sent to the jews. the most merciful father did not despise the people, nor leave them a long time unadmonished. it is the fifth year. how much time intervened? five years elapsed since they were captives in bondage.] (the portion between brackets is what i regard as an interpolation.) [footnote : this word is frequently used for "diabolum." thus in a hymn used in the roman ritual on michaelmas-day we read, "michaelem in virtute conterentem zabulum."] "immediately the holy spirit descends. he opened the heavens, that they who were oppressed by the yoke of bondage might see those things which were seen by the prophet. for when he says, the heavens were opened, in some measure they see with the eyes of their heart what he had seen even with the eyes of his flesh." now the question is, can this apostrophe to an angel be admitted as evidence that origen held, and in his own person acted upon the doctrine of the invocation of angels? the nature of the present work precludes us from entering at length on the broad question, how far we can with safety regard the several writings which now purport to be translations of origen's compositions, as on the whole the works of that early christian writer. a multitude of those works which, until almost the middle of the sixteenth century, were circulated as origen's, have long been by common consent excluded from the catalogue of his works[ ]. on this subject i { } would refer any one, who desires to enter upon the inquiry, to the several prefaces of the benedictine editors, who point out many sources of information, as well from among their friends as from those with whom they differ. our inquiry must be limited within far narrower bounds, though i trust our arguments may assist somewhat in establishing the principles on which the student may at first guide himself in the wider range of investigation. [footnote : see preface to vol. iv. of the benedictine edition.] we will first look to the external evidence bearing on the passage in question, and then to the internal character of the passage itself. origen's commentaries on ezekiel were divided into no fewer than twenty-five volumes, which he is said to have begun in cæsarea of palestine, and to have finished in athens. of these only one single fragment remains, namely, part of the twenty-first volume[ ]. jerome says that he translated fourteen of origen's homilies on ezekiel. of these not one passage in the original language of origen is known to be in existence. we must now, therefore, either receive the existing translations generally as origen's, (whether they are jerome's translations or not,) or we must consider origen's homilies on ezekiel as altogether lost to us. but supposing that we receive these works as containing, on the whole, traditionary translations of origen, the genuineness of any one passage may yet become the subject of fair criticism. and whilst some persons reject whole masses of them altogether, the history of his works cannot but suggest some very perplexing points of suspicion and doubt. [footnote : see benedictine edition, vol. iii. p. . and eusebius, eccl. hist. lib. vi. c. . there referred to.] { } the great body of his homilies, origen probably delivered extempore in the early part of his ministry to the christians of cæsarea. eusebius tells us, that not before origen had reached his sixtieth year did he sanction the notaries (persons well known to history and corresponding to the short-hand writers[ ] of the present day) in publishing any of his homilies. [eccles. hist. lib. vi. c. .] but the benedictine editor, de la rue, conceives that those men might surreptitiously and against the preacher's wishes have published some of origen's homilies. be this as it may. suppose that the homilies on ezekiel were published by origen himself, and were translated by jerome himself, our doubts are not removed even by that supposition. the same editor in the same preface tells us, "it is known to the learned that it was jerome's habit, in translating greek, sometimes to insert some things of his own[ ]." not that i for a moment conceive the passage under consideration to have come in its latin dress from the pen of jerome; for my conviction being that it is an interpolation of a much later date, i mention the circumstance to show, that even when jerome, with his professed accuracy, is the translator, we can in no case feel sure that we are reading the exact and precise sentiments of origen. [footnote : the latin word "notarius" (notary) does not come so near as our own english expression, "short-hand writer," to the greek word used by eusebius,--"tachygraphus," "quick-writer." the report of eusebius as to the homilies of origen having been delivered extempore, and taken down by these "quick-writers," is confirmed by pamphilus the martyr, as quoted by valesius, in the annotations on this passage of eusebius.--apol. orig. lib. i.] [footnote : cui in vertendis græcis sciunt eruditi solemne esse nonnulla interdum de suo inserere.] { } ruffinus, his celebrated contemporary, accused jerome of many inaccuracies in his translations; and yet what were the principles of translation adopted by ruffinus himself, as his own, we are not left to infer; for we learn it from his own pen. his voluntary acknowledgment in the peroration which he added to origen's comment on the epistle of st. paul to the romans, strongly and painfully exhibits to us how little dependence can safely be placed on such translations whenever the original is lost; how utterly insufficient and unsatisfactory is any evidence drawn from them, as to the real genuine sentiments and expressions of the author. ruffinus informs us, that with regard to many of the various works of origen, he changed the preacher's extemporary addresses, as delivered in the church, into a more explanatory form, "adding, supplying, filling up what he thought wanting[ ]." [footnote : dum supplere cupimus ea quæ ab origene in auditorio ecclesiæ extempore (non tam explanationis quam ædificationis intentione) perorata sunt.... si addere quod videar, et explere quæ desunt.--orig. vol. iv. p. .] moreover, he proceeds so far as to tell us[ ] that his false { } friends had remonstrated with him for not publishing the works under his own name, instead of retaining origen's, his changes having been so great; a point, which he was far from unwilling to acknowledge. this must appear to every one unsatisfactory in the extreme, and to shake one's confidence in any evidence drawn from such a source. indeed, the benedictine editor, with great cause and candour, laments this course of proceeding on the part of ruffinus, as throwing a doubt and uncertainty, and suspicion, over all the works so tampered with. "this one thing (observes that honest editor) would the learned desire, that ruffinus had spared himself the labour of filling up what he thought deficient. for since the greek text has perished, it can scarcely with certainty be distinguished, where origen himself speaks, or where ruffinus obtrudes his own merchandise upon us." this is more than enough to justify our remarks. i must, however, refer to the conduct of another editor and translator of origen, of a similar tendency. it unhappily shows the disposition to sacrifice every thing to the received opinions of the church of rome, rather than place the whole evidence of antiquity before the world, and abide by the result. how many works this principle, in worse hands, may have mutilated, or utterly buried in oblivion, and left to perish, it is impossible to conjecture; that the principle is unworthy the spirit of christianity will not now be questioned. that editor and translator, in his advertisement on the commentary upon st. john, thus professes the principles which he had adopted: "know, moreover, that i have found nothing in this book which { } seemed to be inconsistent with the decrees of holy mother church: for had i found any, i would not have translated the book, or would have marked the suspected place." [quoted by the benedictine, vol. iv. p. viii.] the benedictine proceeds to say, that the writer had not kept his word, but had allowed many heterodox passages to escape, whilst he had deliberately withdrawn others. [footnote : his words, as indicative of his principles of translation, and bearing immediately on the question, as to the degree of authority which should be assigned to the remains of origen, when the original is lost, deserve a place here: "i am exposed to a new sort of charge at their hands; for thus they address me,--in your writings, since very many parts in them (plurima in eis) are considered to be of your own production, give the title of your own name, and write, for example, the books of explanations of ruffinus on the epistle to the romans,--but the whole of this they offer me, not from any love of me, but from hatred to the author. but i, who consult my conscience more than my fame, even if i am seen to add some things, and to fill up what are wanting, or to shorten what are too long, yet i do not think it right to steal the title of him, who laid the foundations of the works, and supplied the materials for the buildings. yet, in truth, it may be at the option of the reader, when he shall have approved of the work, to ascribe the merits to whom he will."] many works probably, of the earliest ages, have been wholly or in part lost to us from the working of the same principle in its excess. rather than perpetuate any sentiments at variance with the received doctrines of the church, it was considered the duty of the faithful to let works, in themselves valuable, but containing such sentiments, altogether perish, or to exclude the objectionable passages. i would now invite you to examine the passage itself, and determine whether it does not bear within it internal evidence of its having been altogether interpolated. in the first place, on the words upon which it professes to be a comment, the author had already given his comment, and assigned to them another meaning. "the heavens were opened," he says: "before the time of christ the heavens were shut; but at his advent they were opened, that the holy spirit might descend first on him;" quoting also among others the passage which speaks of christ taking captivity captive. and then after the passage in question, in which he assigns a totally different reason for the opening of the heavens; without any allusion to the intervening ideas, he carries on, and concludes the comment which he had begun,--in words which fit on well with the close of that comment, but which, as they stand now at the close of the intervening passage about the angels, are abrupt and incoherent--"forthwith the holy spirit { } descended;" recurring also again to the idea which he had before introduced of christ benefiting those who were in captivity. a passage which affixes to the words commented upon, a different interpretation from one already given in the same paragraph; and which forces itself abruptly and incoherently in the middle of a brief comment, must offer itself to our examination under strong grounds of suspicion, that it has been interpolated. but when we examine the substance of the passage, its sentiments, the ideas conveyed, and the associations suggested, and then think of the author to whom it is ascribed, few probably will be disposed to regard it as a faithful mirror in which to contemplate the real sentiments of origen. how utterly unworthy of the sublime burst of christian eloquence which now delights us in undoubted works of origen, is this strange and degrading fiction! the true origen there represents the tens of thousands of angelic spirits ten thousand times told, as ever surrounding the throne of god, and ministering for the blessing of those in whose behalf god himself wills them to serve. [vol. i. p. . contr. cels. viii. .] here he represents the revelation of the holiest of holies as a throwing open of the various divisions or compartments of the celestial kingdom for all the angels to hasten forth together, from their several places of indolence and carelessness and self-indulgence, (for such he represents their state to have been,) to visit this earth. surely such a comment would better suit the mythology of the cave and dens of Æolus and his imprisoned winds (velut agmine facto qua data porta ruunt) than the awfully sublime revelation vouchsafed to the prophet ezekiel. and how unworthy and degrading is that representation of the { } heavenly host, resting inactive, and sparing themselves from toil, until they witnessed christ's descent and humiliation; and then when chid and put to shame and rebuke, and mutually roused to action by their fellows, coming down to visit this earth, and rushing through the opened portals of heaven. again, we see how incoherent is the whole section which contains the alleged prayer to angels: "thou wast yesterday under a demon, to-day thou art under an angel: the angels minister to thy salvation; they are granted for the ministry of the son of god, &c. all things are full of angels. come, angel, take up one who is converted from his ancient error, &c. and call to thee other companions of thy ministry, that all of you alike may train up to the faith those who were once deceived." indeed the passage seems to carry within itself its own condemnation so entirely, that what we have before alleged, both of internal and external evidence, may appear superfluous. surely the conceit of a preacher of god's word addressing an angel, (which of them he thus individually addresses does not appear; for he says not "my angel," as though he were appealing to one whom he regarded as his guardian, the view gratuitously suggested in the marginal note of the benedictine editor, "the invocation of a guardian angel,") and bidding some one angel, as a sort of summoner, to go and call to himself all the angels of heaven to come in one body, and instruct those who are in error, is, even as a rhetorical apostrophe, as unworthy the mind of a christian philosopher, as it is in the light of a prayer totally inconsistent with the plain sentiments of origen on the very subject of angelic invocation. even had origen not left us his deliberate opinions in works of undoubted genuineness, such a { } strange, incoherent, and childish rhapsody could never be relied upon by sober and upright men as a precedent sanctioning a christian's prayer to angels; no one would rely upon such evidence in points of far less moment, even were it uncontradicted by the same witness. * * * * * section vii.--st. cyprian. in the middle of the third century, cyprian [jerom, vol. iv. p. .], a man of substance and a rhetorician of carthage, was converted to christianity. he was then fifty years of age; and his learning, virtues, and devotedness to the cause which he had espoused, very soon raised him to the dignity, the responsibility, and, in those days, the great danger, of the episcopate. (cyprian is said to have been converted about a.d. , to have been consecrated a.d. , and to have suffered martyrdom a.d. .) many of his writings of undoubted genuineness are preserved, and they have been appealed to in every age as the works of a faithful son of the catholic church. on the subject of prayer he has written very powerfully and affectingly; but i find no expression which can by possibility imply that he practised or countenanced the invocation of saints and angels. i have carefully examined every sentence alleged by its most strenuous defenders, and i cannot extract from them one single grain of evidence which can bear the test of inquiry. even did the passages quoted require to be taken in the sense affixed to them { } by those advocates, they prove nothing; they do not bear even remotely upon the subject, whilst i am persuaded that to every unprejudiced mind a meaning will appear to have been attached to them which the author did not intend to convey. the first quotation to which our attention is called is from the close of his treatise de habitu virginum, which contains some very edifying reflections. in the last clause of that treatise the advocates for the invocation of saints represent cyprian as requesting the virgins to remember him in their prayers at the throne of grace when they shall have been taken to heaven. "as we have borne the image of him who is of the earth, let us also bear the image of him who is from heaven. this image the virgin-state bears,--integrity bears it, holiness and truth bear it; rules of discipline mindful of god bear it, retaining justice with religion, firm in the faith, humble in fear, strong to endure all things, gentle to receive an injury, readily disposed to pity, with one mind and with one heart in brotherly peace. all which ye ought, o good virgins, to observe, to love and fulfil; ye who, retired for the service of god and christ, with your greater and better part are going before towards the lord to whom you have devoted yourselves. let those who are advanced in age exercise rule over the younger; ye younger, offer to your equals a stimulus; encourage yourselves by mutual exhortations; by examples emulous of virtue invite each other to glory; remain firm; conduct yourselves spiritually; gain the end happily. only remember us then, when your virgin-state shall begin to be honoured." [tantum mementote tunc nostri, cum incipiet in vobis virginitas honorari.--page .] { } the second instance, from the close of his letter to cornelius, puts before us a beautiful act of friendship and brotherly affection worthy of every christian brother's and friend's imitation. but how it can be applied in supporting the cause of the invocation of saints, i cannot see. the supporters of that doctrine say that cyprian suggests to his friend, still living on earth, that whichever of the two should be first called away, he should continue when in heaven to pray for the survivor on earth. suppose it to be so. that has not any approximation to our praying to one who is already dead and gone to his reward. but cyprian surely intended to convey a very different meaning, namely this, that the two friends should continue to pray, each in his place, mutually for each other and for their friends, and relieve each other's wants and necessities whilst both survived; and whenever death should remove the one from earth to happiness, the survivor should not forget their bond of friendship, but should still continue to pray to god for their brothers and sisters. the passage translated to the letter, runs thus: "let us be mutually mindful of each other, with one mind and one heart. on both sides, let us always pray for each other; let us by mutual love relieve each other's pressures and distresses; and if either of us from hence, by the speed of the divine favour, go on before the { } other, let our love persevere before the lord; for our brothers and sisters with the father's mercy let not prayer cease. my desire, most dear brother, is that you may always prosper." [epist. . benedict, p. .--memores nostri invicem simus concordes atque unanimes: utrobique pro nobis semper oremus, pressuras et angustias mutua caritate relevemus, et si quis istinc nostrum prior divinæ dignationis celeritate præcesserit, perseveret apud dominum nostra dilectio; pro fratribus et sororibus nostris apud misericordiam patris non cesset oratio. opto te, frater carissime, semper bene valere.--this epistle is by some editors numbered as the th, by others as the st, the th, and the th, &c.] whether the above view of this passage be founded in reason or not, it matters little to the point at issue. let both these passages be accepted in the sense assigned to them by some roman catholic writers, yet there is not a shadow of analogy between the language and conduct of cyprian, and the language and conduct of those who now invoke saints departed. in each case cyprian, still in the body, was addressing fellow-creatures still sojourning on earth. the very utmost which these passages could be forced to countenance would be, that the righteous, when in heaven, may be mindful in their prayers of their friends, who are still exposed to the dangers from which they have themselves finally escaped, and who, when both were on earth, requested them to remember the survivors in their prayers. but this is a question totally different from our addressing them in supplication and prayer; a difference which i am most anxious that both myself and my readers should keep in mind throughout. in the extract from cyprian's letter, a modern author having rendered the single word "utrobique," by the words "in this world and the next" i am induced to add a few further observations on the passage. (the latin original and the version here referred to, will be placed side by side in the appendix.) it will, i think, appear to most readers on a careful examination of the passage, that the expression "utrobique[ ]" "on both sides," or "on both parts," whatever be its precise { } meaning, so far from referring to "this world and the next," must evidently be confined to the condition of both parties now in this life, because it stands in direct contradistinction to what follows, the supposed case of the death of either of the two; and because it applies no less to the mutual relief of each other's sufferings and afflictions during their joint lives, than to their mutual prayers: it cannot mean that all the mutual benefits to be derived from their mutual remembrance of each other, were to come solely through the means of their prayers. they were doubtless mutually to pray for each other; but, in addition to their prayers, they were also to relieve each other's pressures and difficulties with mutual love, and that too before the event afterwards contemplated, namely, the removal of one of them by death. [footnote : utrobique is rendered by facciolati [greek: hekaterothi]--"in utraque parte, utrimque."] bishop fell thus comments on the passage: "the sense seems to be, when either of us shall die; whether i, who preside at carthage, or you, who are presiding at rome, shall be the survivor, let the prayer to god of him whose lot shall be to remain the longest among the living, persevere, and continue." "meanwhile," continues the bishop[ ], "we by no means doubt that souls admitted into heaven apply to god, the best and greatest of beings, that he would have compassion on those who are dwelling on the earth. but it does not thence follow, that prayers should be offered to the saints. the man who petitions them makes them gods (deos qui rogat ille facit)." [oxford, , p. .] rigaltius, himself { } a roman catholic, doubts whether, when cyprian wrote this letter, he had any idea before his mind of saints departed praying for the living. he translates "utrobique" very much as i have done, "with reciprocal love, with mutual charity." his last observations on this passage are very remarkable. after having confessed the sentiments to be worthy of a christian, that the saints pray for us, and having argued that cyprian could not have thought it necessary to ask a saint to retain his brotherly kindness in heaven, for he could not be a saint if he did not continue to love his brethren, he thus concludes: "in truth it is a pious and faithful saying, that of those who having already put off mortality are made joint-heirs with christ, and of those who surviving on earth will hereafter be joint-heirs with christ, the church is one, and is by the holy spirit so well joined together as not to be torn asunder by the dissolution of the body. they pray to god for us, and we praise god for them, and thus with mutual affection (utrobique) we always pray for each other." [paris, . p. .] [footnote : see the note of the benedictine editors on this passage (p. ), in which they refer to the sentiments of rigaltius, pamelius, and bishop fell, whom they call "the most illustrious bishop of oxford."] i will detain you only by one or two more extracts from cyprian; one forming part of the introduction to his comment on the lord's prayer, which is fitted for the edification of christians in every age; the other closing his treatise on mortality, one of those beautiful productions by which, during the plague which raged at carthage in the year , he comforted and exhorted the christians, that they might meet death without fear or amazement, in sure and certain hope of eternal blessedness in heaven. the sentiments in the latter passage will be responded to by every good catholic, whether in communion with the church of rome or { } with the church of england; whilst in the former we are reminded, that to pray as cyprian prayed, we must address ourselves to god alone in the name and trusting to the merits only of his blessed son. "he who caused us to live, taught us also to pray, with that kindness evidently by which he deigns to give and confer on us every other blessing; that when we speak to the father in the prayer and supplication which his son taught, we might the more readily be heard. he had already foretold, that the hour was coming when the true worshippers should worship the father in spirit and in truth; and he fulfilled what he before promised, that we, who have received the spirit and truth from his sanctification, may from his instruction offer adoration truly and spiritually. for what prayer can be more spiritual than that which is given to us by christ, by whom even the holy spirit is sent to us? what can be a more true prayer with the father than that which came from the lips of the son, who is truth? so that to pray otherwise than he taught, is not only ignorance, but a fault; since he has himself laid it down and said, ye reject the commandment of god to establish your own traditions. let us pray then, most beloved brethren, as our teacher, god, has instructed us. it is a welcome and friendly prayer to petition god from his own, to mount up to his ears by the prayer of christ. let the father recognize the words of his son. when we offer a prayer let him who dwelleth inwardly in our breast, himself be in our voice; and since we have him as our advocate with the father for our sins, when as sinners we are petitioning for our sins let us put forth the words of our advocate." [de orat. dom. p. .] "we must consider, (he says at the close of his { } treatise on the mortality [page .],) most beloved brethren, and frequently reflect that we have renounced the world, and are meanwhile living here as strangers and pilgrims. let us embrace the day which assigns each to his own home ... which restores us to paradise and the kingdom of heaven, snatched from hence and liberated from the entanglements of the world. what man, when he is in a foreign country, would not hasten to return to his native land?... we regard paradise as our country.... we have begun already to have the patriarchs for our parents. why do we not hasten and run that we may see our country, and salute our parents? there a large number of dear ones are waiting for us, of parents, brothers, children; a numerous and full crowd are longing for us; already secure of their own immortality, and still anxious for our safety. to come to the sight and the embrace of these, how great will be the mutual joy to them and to us! what a pleasure of the kingdom of heaven is there without the fear of dying, and with an eternity of living! how consummate and never-ending a happiness! there is the glorious company of the apostles; there is the assembly of exulting prophets; there is the unnumbered family of martyrs crowned for the victory of their struggles and suffering; there are virgins triumphing, who, by the power of chastity, have subdued the lusts of the flesh and the body; there are the merciful recompensed, who with food and bounty to the poor have done the works of righteousness, who keeping the lord's commands have transferred their earthly inheritance into heavenly treasures. to these, o most dearly beloved brethren, let us hasten with most eager longing; { } let us desire that our lot may be to be with these speedily; to come speedily to christ. let god see this to be our thought; let our lord christ behold this to be the purpose of our mind and faith, who will give more abundant rewards of his glory to them, whose desires for himself have been the greater." such is the evidence of st. cyprian. * * * * * section viii.--lactantius. cyprian suffered martyrdom about the year . towards the close of this century, and at the beginning of the fourth, flourished lactantius. he was deeply imbued with classical learning and philosophy. before he became a writer (as jerome informs us [jerom, vol. iv. part ii. p. . paris, ]) he taught rhetoric at nicomedia; and afterwards in extreme old age he was the tutor of cæsar crispus, son of constantine, in gaul. among many other writings which jerome enumerates, he specifies the book, "on the anger of god," as a most beautiful work. bellarmin, however, speaks of him disparagingly, as one who had fallen into many errors, and was better versed in cicero than in the holy scriptures. his testimony is allowed by the supporters of the adoration of spirits and angels to be decidedly against them; they do not refer to a single passage likely to aid their cause; and they are chiefly anxious to depreciate his evidence. i will call your attention only to two passages in his works. the { } one is in his first book on false religion: "god hath created ministers, whom we call messengers (angels);... but neither are these gods, nor do they wish to be called gods, nor to be worshipped, as being those who do nothing beyond the command and will of god." [vol. i. p. .] the other passage is from his work on a happy life: "nor let any one think that souls are judged immediately after death. for all are kept in one common place of guard, until the time come when the great judge will institute an inquiry into their deserts. then those whose righteousness shall be approved, will receive the reward of immortality; and those whose sins and crimes are laid open shall not rise again, but shall be hidden in the same darkness with the wicked--appointed to fixed punishments." [chap. xxi. p. .] this composition is generally believed to have been written about the year . * * * * * section ix.--eusebius. the evidence of eusebius, on any subject connected with primitive faith and practice, cannot be looked to without feelings of deep interest. he flourished about the beginning of the fourth century, and was bishop of caesarea, in palestine. his testimony has always been appealed to in the catholic church, as an authority not likely to be gainsaid. he was a voluminous writer, and his writings were very diversified in their character. { } whatever be our previous sentiments we cannot too carefully examine the remains of this learned man. but in his writings, historical, biographical, controversial, or by whatever name they may be called, overflowing as they are with learning, philosophical and scriptural, i can find no one single passage which countenances the decrees of the council of trent; not one passage which would encourage me to hope that i prayed as the primitive church was wont to pray, if by invocation i requested an angel or a saint to procure me any favour, or to pray for me. the testimony of eusebius has a directly contrary tendency. among the authorities quoted by the champions of the invocation of saints, i can find only three from eusebius; and i sincerely lament the observations which truth and justice require me to make here, in consequence of the manner in which his evidence has been cited. the first passage to which i refer is quoted by bellarmin from the history of eusebius, to prove that the spirit of a holy one goes direct from earth to heaven. this passage is not from the pen of eusebius; and if it were, it would not bear on our inquiry. the second is quoted by the same author, from the evangelica præparatio, to prove that the primitive christians offered prayers to the saints. neither is this from the pen of eusebius. the third extract, from the account of the martyrdom of polycarp, is intended to prove that the martyrs were worshipped. even this, one of the most beautiful passages in ancient history, as it is represented by bellarmin and others, is interpolated. the first passage, which follows a description of the { } martyr potamiæna's sufferings, is thus quoted by bellarmin: "in this manner the blessed virgin, potamniæna, emigrated from earth to heaven." [hoc modo beata virgo emigravit e terris ad coelum. vol. ii. p. .] and such, doubtless, is the passage in the translation of eusebius, ascribed to ruffinus [basil, . p. ]; but the original is, "and such a struggle was thus accomplished by this celebrated virgin;" ([greek: kai ho men taes aoidimou koraes toioutos kataegoisisto athlos]; tale certamen ab hac percelebri et gloriosa virgine confectum fait.); and such is the parisian translation of . the second misquotation is far more serious. bellarmin thus quotes eusebius: "these things we do daily, who honouring the soldiers of true religion as the friends of god, approach to their respective monuments, and make our prayers to them, as holy men, by whose intercession to god, we profess to be not a little aided." [hæc nos, inquit, quotidie factitamus qui veras pietatis milites ut dei amicos honorantes, ad monumenta quoque eorum accedimus, votaque ipsis facimus tanquam viris sanctis quorum intercessione ad deum non parum juvari profitemur.--p. . he quotes it as c. .] by one who has not by experience become familiar with these things it would scarcely be believed, that whilst the readers of bellarmin have been taught to regard these as the words of eusebius, in the original there is no mention whatever made of the intercession of the saints; that there is no allusion to prayer to them; that there is no admission even of any benefit derived from them at all. this quotation bellarmin makes from the latin version, published in paris in , or from some common source: it is word for word the same. we must either allow him to be ignorant of the truth, or to have designedly preferred error. { } the copy which i have before me of the "evangelica præparatio," in greek and latin, was printed in , and dedicated by viger franciscus, a priest of the order of jesuits, to the archbishop of paris. eusebius, marking the resemblance in many points between plato's doctrine and the tenets of christianity, on the reverence which, according to plato, ought to be paid to the good departed, makes this observation: "and this corresponds with what takes place on the death of those lovers of god, whom you would not be wrong in calling the soldiers of the true religion. whence also it is our custom to proceed to their tombs, and at them [the tombs] to make our prayers, and to honour their blessed souls, inasmuch as these things are with reason done by us." [greek: kai tauta de armozei epi tae ton theophilon teleutae ous stratiotas taes alaethous eusebeius ouk an hamartois eipon paralambanesthai othen kai epi tas thaekas auton ethos haemin parienai kai tas euchas para tautais poieisthai, timan te tas makarias auton psychas, os eulogos kai touton uph haemon giguomenon.] this translation agrees to a certain extent with the latin of viger's edition ("quæ quidem in hominum deo carissimorum obitus egregie conveniunt, quos veræ pietatis milites jure appellaris. nam et eorum sepulchra celebrare et preces ibi votaque nuncupare et beatas illorum animas venerari consuevimus, idque a nobis merito fieri statuimus"); though the translator there has employed words more favourable to the doctrine of the saints' adoration, than he could in strictness justify. the celebrated letter from the church of smyrna (euseb. cantab. . vol. i. p. ), relating the martyrdom of polycarp, one of the most precious relics of christian antiquity, has already been examined by us, when we were inquiring into the recorded { } sentiments of polycarp; and to our reflections in that place we have little to add. the interpolations to which we have now referred, are intended to take off the edge of the evidence borne by this passage of eusebius against the invocation of saints. first, whereas the christians of smyrna are recorded by eusebius to have declared, without any limitation or qualification whatever, that they could never worship any fellow-mortal however honoured and beloved, the parisian edition limits and qualifies their declaration by interpolating the word "as god," implying that they would offer a secondary worship to a saint. again, whereas eusebius in contrasting the worship paid to christ, with the feelings of the christians towards a martyr, employs only the word "love," bellarmin, following ruffinus, interpolates the word "veneramur" after "diligimus," a word which may be innocently used with reference to the holy saints and servants of god, though it is often in ancient writers employed to mean the religious worship of man to god. still how lamentable is it to attempt by such tampering with ancient documents to maintain a cause, whatever be our feelings with regard to it! with two more brief quotations we will close our report of eusebius. they occur in the third chapter of the third book of his demonstratio evangelica, and give the same view of the feelings and sentiments of the primitive christians towards the holy angels, which we have found origen and all the other fathers to have acknowledged. "in the doctrine of his word we have learned that there exists, after the most high god, certain powers, { } in their nature incorporeal and intellectual, rational and purely virtuous, who ([greek: choreuousas]) keep their station around the sovereign king,--the greater part of whom, by certain dispensations of salvation, are sent at the will of the father even as far as to men; whom, indeed, we have been taught to know and to honour, according to the measure of their dignity, rendering to god alone, the sovereign king, the honour of worship." ([greek: gnorizein kai timain kata to metron taes axias edidachthaemen, mono toi pambasilei theoi taen sebasmion timaen aponemontes]) again: "knowing the divine, the serving and ministering powers of the sovereign god, and honouring them to the extent of propriety; but confessing god alone, and him alone worshipping." ([greek: theias men dynameis hypaeretikas tou pambasileos theou kai leitourgikas eidotes, kai kata to prosaekon timontes monon de theon homologountes, kai monon ekeinon sebontes]) [demonst. evang. paris, . p. .; præpar. evang. lib. vii. c. . p. .] * * * * * section x.--apostolical canons and constitutions. the works known by the name of the apostolical constitutions and apostolical canons, though confessedly not the genuine productions of the apostles, or of their age, have been always held in much veneration by the church of rome. the most learned writers fix their date at a period not more remote than the beginning of the fourth century. (see cotelerius; vol. i. p. and . beveridge, in the same vol. p. . conc. gen. florence, , tom. i. p. and .) i invite the reader { } to examine both these documents, but especially the constitutions, and to decide whether they do not contain strong and convincing evidence, that the invocation of saints was not practised or known in the church when they were written. minute rules are given for the conducting of public worship; forms of prayer are prescribed to be used in the church, by the bishops and clergy, and by the people; forms of prayer and of thanksgiving are recommended for the use of the faithful in private, in the morning, at night, and at their meals; forms, too, there are of creeds and confessions;--but not one single allusion to any religious address to angel or saint; whilst occasions most opportune for the introduction of such doctrine and practice repeatedly occur, and are uniformly passed by. again and again prayer is directed to be made to the one only living and true god, exclusively through the mediation and intercession of the one only saviour jesus christ. honourable mention is made of the saints of the old testament, and the apostles and martyrs of the new; directions are also given for the observance of their festivals [book viii. p. ]; but not the shadow of a thought appears that their good offices could benefit us; much less the most distant intimation that christians might invoke them for their prayers and intercessions. there is indeed very much in these early productions of the christian world to interest every catholic christian; and although a general admiration of the principles for the most part pervading them does not involve an entire approbation of them all, yet perhaps few would think the time misapplied which they should devote to the examination of these documents. { } in book v. c. . of the constitutions, the martyr is represented as "trusting in the one only true god and father, through jesus christ, the great high priest, the redeemer of souls, the dispenser of rewards; to whom be glory for ever and ever. amen." [cotel. vol. i. p. .] in the same book and in the following chapter we find an exceedingly interesting dissertation on the general resurrection, but not one word of saint or martyr being beforehand admitted to glory; on the contrary, the declaration is distinct, that not the martyrs only, but all men will rise. surely such an opportunity would not have been lost of stating the doctrine of martyrs being now reigning with christ, had such been the doctrine of the church at that early period. in the eighth chapter is contained an injunction to honour the martyrs in these words: "we say that they should be in all honour with you, as the blessed james the bishop and our holy fellow-minister stephen were honoured with us. for they are blessed by god and honoured by holy men, pure from all blame, never bent towards sins, never turned away from good,--undoubtedly to be praised. of whom david spake, 'honourable before god is the death of his saints;' and solomon, 'the memory of the just is with praise.' of whom the prophet also said, 'just men are taken away.'" [p. .] and in book viii. c. . we read this exhortation,--"let us remember the holy martyrs, that we may be counted worthy to be partakers of their conflict." [p. .] does this sound any thing at all like adoration or invocation? the word which is used in the above { } passage, _honour_ [[greek: timê] p. ], is employed when (book ii. c. .) the respect is prescribed which the laity ought to show to the clergy. to the very marked silence as to any invocation or honour, to be shown to the virgin mary, i shall call your attention in our separate dissertation on the worship now offered to her. * * * * * section xi.--saint athanasius. the renowned and undaunted defender of the catholic faith against the errors which in his day threatened to overwhelm gospel-truth, athanasius (the last of those ante-nicene writers into whose testimony we have instituted this inquiry), was born about the year , and, after having presided in the church as bishop for more than forty-six years, died in , on the verge of his eightieth year. it is impossible for any one interested in the question of primitive truth to look upon the belief and practice of this christian champion with indifference. when i first read bellarmin's quotations from athanasius, in justification of the roman catholic worship in the adoration of saints, i was made not a little anxious to ascertain the accuracy of his allegations. the inquiry amply repaid me for my anxiety and the labour of research; not merely by proving the unsoundness of bellarmin's representation, but also by directing my thoughts more especially, as my acquaintance with his { } works increased, to the true and scriptural views taken by athanasius of the christian's hope and confidence in god alone; the glowing fervour of his piety centering only in the lord; his sure and certain hope in life and in death anchored only in the mercies of god, through the merits and mediation of jesus christ alone. bellarmin, in his appeal to athanasius as a witness in behalf of the invocation of saints, cites two passages; the one of which, though appearing in the edition of the benedictines, amongst the works called doubtful, has been adjudged by those editors [vol. ii. p. and ] to be not genuine; the other is placed by them among the confessedly spurious works, and is treated as a forgery. the first passage is from a treatise called de virginitate, and even were that work the genuine production of athanasius, would make against the religious worship of the saints rather than in its favour, for it would show, that the respect which the author intended to be paid to them, was precisely the same with what he would have us pay to holy men in this life, who might come to visit us. "if a just man enter into thine house, thou shalt meet him with fear and trembling, and shalt worship before his feet to the ground: for thou wilt not worship him, but god who sent him." the other passage would have been decisive as to the belief of athanasius, had it come from his pen. "incline thine ear, o mary, to our prayers, and forget not thy people. we cry to thee. remember us, o holy virgin. intercede for us, o mistress, lady, queen, and mother of god." [vol. ii. p. - .] had bellarmin been the only writer, or the last who cited this passage as the testimony of st. athanasius, { } it would have been enough for us to refer to the judgment of the benedictine editors, who have classed the homily containing these words among the spurious works ascribed to athanasius; or rather we might have appealed to bellarmin himself. for it is very remarkable, that though in his anxiety to enlist every able writer to defend the cause of the invocation of saints, he has cited this passage in his church triumphant as containing the words of athanasius, without any allusion to its decided spuriousness, or even to its suspicious character; yet when he is pronouncing his judgment on the different works assigned to athanasius, declaring the evidence against this treatise to be irresistible, he condemns it as a forgery. [bellarm. de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, cologne, , vol. vii. p. .] since, however, this passage has been cited in different roman catholic writers of our own time as containing the words of athanasius, and in evidence of his genuine belief and practice, and that without an allusion even to any thing doubtful and questionable in its character, it becomes necessary to enter more in detail into the circumstances under which the passage is offered to our notice. the passage is found in a homily called the annunciation of the mother of god. how long this homily has been discarded as spurious, or how long its genuineness had been suspected before the time of baronius, i have not discovered; but certainly two centuries and a half ago, and repeatedly since, it has been condemned as totally and indisputably spurious, and has been excluded from the works of athanasius as a forgery, not by members of the reformed church, but { } by most zealous and steady adherents to the church of rome, and the most strenuous defenders of her doctrines and practice. the benedictine editors[ ], who published the remains of st. athanasius in , class the works contained in the second volume under two heads, the doubtful and the spurious; and the homily under consideration is ranked, without hesitation, among the spurious. in the middle of that volume they not only declare the work to be unquestionably a forgery, assigning the reasons for their decision, but they fortify their judgment by quoting at length the letter written by the celebrated baronius, more than a century before, to our countryman, stapleton. both these documents are very interesting. [footnote : here i would observe, that though the benedictine editors differ widely from each other in talent, and learning, and candour, yet, as a body, they have conferred on christendom, and on literature, benefits for which every impartial and right-minded man will feel gratitude. in the works of some of these editors, far more than in others, we perceive the same reigning principle--a principle which some will regard as an uncompromising adherence to the faith of the church; but which others can regard only in the light of a prejudice, and a rooted habit of viewing all things through the eyes of rome.] the benedictine editors begin their preface thus: "that this discourse is spurious, there is no learned man who does not now adjudge ... the style proves itself more clear than the sun, to be different from that of athanasius. besides this, very many trifles show themselves here unworthy of any sensible man whatever, not to say athanasius ... and a great number of expressions unknown to athanasius ... so that it savours of inferior greek. and truly his subtle disputation { } on the hypostasis of christ, and on the two natures in christ, persuades us, that he lived after the councils of ephesus and chalcedon; of which councils moreover he uses the identical words, whereas his dissertation on the two wills in christ seems to argue, that he lived after the spreading of the error of the monothelites. but (continue these benedictine editors) we would add here the dissertation of baronius on this subject, sent to us by our brethren from rome. that illustrious annotator, indeed, having read only the latin version of nannius, which is clearer than the greek, did not observe the astonishing perplexity of the style[ ]." [footnote : even in the bibliotheca patrum concionatoria the homily is declared to be not the work of athanasius, but to have been written after the sixth general council. "it is evident," say the editors, "that it is the monument of a very learned man, though he has his own blemishes, on which, for the most part, we have remarked in the margin." paris, . p. .] the dissertation which the benedictine editors append, was contained in a letter written by baronius to stapleton, in consequence of some animadversions which stapleton had communicated to cardinal allen on the judgment of baronius. the letter is dated rome, november, . the judgment of baronius on the spurious character of this homily had been published to the world some time previously; for after some preliminary words of kindness and respect to his correspondent, baronius proceeds to say, that when he previously published his sentiments on this homily, it was only cursorily and by the way, his work then being on another subject. nevertheless he conceived, { } that the little he had then stated would be sufficient to show, that the homily was not the production of athanasius, and that all persons of learning, who were desirous of the truth, would freely agree with him; nor was he in this expectation disappointed; for very many persons expressed their agreement with him, congratulating him on separating legitimate from spurious children. he then states the arguments which the benedictine editors adopted after him, and which we need not repeat. but he also urges this fact, that though cyril had the works of athanasius in his custody, and though both the disputing parties ransacked every place for sentiments of athanasius countenancing their tenets, yet neither at ephesus nor at chalcedon was this homily quoted, though it must have altogether driven eutyches and nestorius from the field, so exact are its definitions and statements on the points then at issue. baronius then adds, that so far from reversing the judgment which he had before passed against the genuineness of this homily, he was compelled in justice to declare his conviction, that it could not have been written till after the heresy of the monothelites had been spread abroad. this we know would fix its date, at the very earliest, subsequently to the commencement of the seventh century, three hundred years after athanasius attended the council of nice. among the last sentiments of baronius in this letter, is one which implies a principle worthy of christian wisdom, and which can never be neglected without injury to the cause of truth. "these sentiments concerning athanasius i do not think are affirmed with any detriment to the church; for the church does not suffer a loss on this account; who being the pillar { } and ground of the truth, very far shrinks from seeking, like Æsop's jackdaw, helps and ornaments which are not her own: the bare truth shines more beautiful in her own naked simplicity." were this principle acted upon uniformly in our discussions on religious points of faith or practice, controversy would soon be drawn within far narrower limits; and would gradually be softened into a friendly interchange of sentiments, and would well-nigh be banished from the world. no person does the cause of truth so much injury, as one who attempts to support it by arguments which will not bear the test of full and enlightened investigation. and however an unsound principle may be for a while maintained by unsound arguments, the momentary triumph must ultimately end in disappointment. coccius also cites two passages as conveying the evidence of athanasius on this same point; one from the spurious letter addressed to felix, the pope; the other from the treatise to marcellus, on the interpretation of the psalms. on the former, i need not detain you by any observation; it would be fighting with a shadow. the latter, which only recognises what i have never affirmed or denied here,--the interest in our welfare taken by holy souls departed, and their co-operation with us when we are working out our own salvation,--contains a valuable suggestion on the principles of devotion. "let no one, however, set about to adorn these psalms for the sake of effect with words from without, [artificial and secular phrases,] nor transpose, nor alter the expressions. but let every one inartificially read and repeat what is written, that those holy persons who employed themselves in their production, recognising their own works, may join with us in prayer; or { } rather that the holy spirit, who spake in those holy men, observing the words with which his voice inspired them, may assist us. for just as much as the life of those holy men is more pure than ours, so far are their words preferable to any production of our own." but whilst there is not found a single passage in athanasius to give the faintest countenance to the invocation of saints, there are various arguments and expressions which go far to demonstrate that such a belief and such practices as are now acknowledged and insisted upon by the church of rome, were neither adopted nor sanctioned by him. had he adopted that belief and practice for his own, he would scarcely have spoken, as he repeatedly has, of the exclusion of angels and men from any share in the work of man's restoration, without any expressions to qualify it, and to protect his assertions from being misunderstood. again, he bids us look to the holy men and holy fathers as our examples, in whose footsteps we should tread, if we would be safe; but not a hint escapes him that they are to be invoked. i must detain you by rather a long quotation from this father, and will, therefore, now do nothing more than refer you to two passages expressive of those sentiments to which i have above alluded. in the thirteenth section of his treatise on the incarnation of the word of god, he argues, that neither could men restore us to the image of god, nor could angels, but the word of god, jesus christ, &c. [vol. i. part i. p. .] in his epistle to dracontius, he says, "we ought to conduct ourselves agreeably to the principles of the saints and fathers, and to imitate them,--assured that if we { } swerve from them, we become alienated also from their communion." [vol. i. part i, p. .] the passage, however, to which i would invite the reader's patient and impartial thoughts, occurs in the third oration against the arians, when he is proving the unity of the father and the son, from the expression of st. paul in the eleventh verse of the third chapter of his first epistle to the thessalonians. "thus then again ([greek: outo g' oun palin]), when he is praying for the thessalonians, and saying, 'now our god and father himself and the lord jesus christ direct our way to you,' he preserves the unity of the father and the son. for he says not 'may they direct ([greek: kateuthunoien]),' as though a twofold grace were given from him and him, but 'may he direct ([greek: katenthunai]),' to show that the father giveth this through the son. for if there was not an unity, and the word was not the proper offspring of the father's substance, as the eradiation of the light, but the son was distinct in nature from the father,--it had sufficed for the father alone to have made the gift, no generated being partaking with the maker in the gifts. but now such a giving proves the unity of the father and the son. consequently, no one would pray to receive any thing from god and the angels, or from any other created being; nor would any one say 'may god and the angels give it thee;' but from the father and the son, because of their unity and the oneness of the gift. for whatever is given, is given through the son,--nor is there any thing which the father works except through the son; for thus the receiver has the gracious favour without fail. but if the patriarch jacob, blessing his descendants ephraim and manasseh, said, 'the god who nourished { } me from my youth unto this day, the angel who delivered me from all the evils, bless these lads;' he does not join one of created beings, and by nature angels, with god who created them; nor dismissing him who nourished him, god, does he ask the blessing for his descendants from an angel, but by saying 'he who delivered me from all the evils,' he showed that it was not one of created angels, but the word of god; and joining him with the father, he supplicated him through whom also god delivers whom he will. for he used the expression, knowing him who is called the messenger of the great counsel of the father to be no other than the very one who blessed and delivered from evil. for surely he did not aspire to be blessed himself by god, and was willing for his descendants to be blessed by an angel. but the same whom he addressed, saying, i will not let thee go, except thou bless me (and this was god, as he says, 'i saw god face to face'), him he prayed to bless the sons of joseph. the peculiar office of an angel is to minister at the appointment of god; and often he went onwards to cast out the amorite, and is sent to guard the people in the way; but these are not the doings of him, but of god, who appointed him and sent him,--whose also it is to deliver whom he will." [vol i. p. .] "for this cause david addressed no other on the subject of deliverance but god himself. but if it belongs to no other than god to bless and deliver, and it was no other who delivered jacob than the lord himself, and the patriarch invoked for his descendants him who delivered him, it is evident that he connected no one in his prayer except his word, whom for this reason he called an angel, because he alone reveals the father." { } "but this no one would say of beings produced and created; for neither when the father worketh does any one of the angels, or any other of created beings, work the things; for no one of such beings is an effective cause, but they themselves belong to things produced. the angels then, as it is written, are ministering spirits sent to minister; and the gifts given by him through the word they announce to those who receive them." now if the invocation of angels had been practised by the church at that time, can it be for a moment believed, that a man of such a mind as was the mind of athanasius, a mind strong, clear, logical, cultivated with ardent zeal for the doctrines of the church, and fervent piety, would have suffered such passages as these to fall from him, without one saving clause in favour of the invocation of angels? he tells us in the most unqualified manner, that they act merely as ministers; ready indeed, and rejoicing to be employed on errands of mercy, but not going one step without the commands of the lord, or doing one thing beyond his word. had the idea been familiar to the mind of athanasius, of the lawfulness, the duty, the privilege, the benefit of invoking them, would he have avoided the introduction of some words to prevent his expressions from being misunderstood and misapplied, as subsequent writers did long before the time when the denial of the doctrine might seem to have made such precaution more necessary? i close then the catalogue of our witnesses before the council of nicæa with the testimony of st. athanasius; whose genuine and acknowledged works afford not one jot or tittle in support of the doctrine and practice of the invocation of angels and saints, as now insisted upon by the church of rome; and the direct { } tendency of whose evidence is decidedly hostile both to that doctrine and that practice. i have seen it observed by some who are satisfied, that the records of primitive antiquity do not contain such references to the invocation of saints and angels, as we might have expected to find had the custom then prevailed, that the earliest christians kept back the doctrine and concealed it, though they held it; fearing lest their heathen neighbours should upbraid them with being as much polytheists as themselves[ ]. this is altogether a gratuitous assumption, directly contrary to evidence, and totally inconsistent with their conduct. had those first christians acted upon such a debasing principle, they would have kept back and concealed their worship of the son and of the holy ghost, as exposing them to a similar charge. they were constantly upbraided with worshipping a crucified { } mortal; but instead of either meeting that charge by denying that they worshipped jesus as their god, or of concealing the worship of him, lest they should expose themselves again to such upbraidings, they publicly professed, that he whom the jews had murdered, they believed in as the son of god, himself their god. they gloried in the doctrine of the ever-blessed trinity, and did not fear what men might do to them, or say of them in consequence. had they believed in the duty of invoking saints and angels, the high principle of christian integrity would not have suffered them to be ashamed to confess it, or to practise openly what they believed. [footnote : bishop morley, (london, ,) in a letter written whilst he was in exile at breda, to j. ulitius, refers to cardinal perron, "réplique à la resp. du roy de la grande bret." p. and , for this sentiment: "the fathers do not always speak what they think, but conceal their real sentiments, and say that which best serves the cause which they sustain, so as to protect it against the objections of the gentiles. the fathers, as much as in them lies, and as far as they can, avoid and decline all occasions of speaking about the invocation of saints then practised in the church, fearing lest to the gentiles there might appear a sort of similarity, although untrue and equivocal, between the worship paid to the saints by the church, and by the pagans to their false divinities; and lest the pagans might thence seize a handle, however unfair, of retorting upon them that custom of the church." had a member of the anglican church thus spoken of the fathers, and thus pleaded in their name guilty of subterfuge and duplicity, he would have been immediately charged with irreverence and wanton insult, and that with good reason. these sentiments of the cardinal are in p. of the paris edition of .] { } * * * * * part ii. chapter i. state of worship at the time of the reformation. one of the points proposed for our inquiry was the state of religious worship, with reference to the invocation of saints, at the time immediately preceding the reformation. very far from entertaining a wish to fasten upon the church of rome now, what then deformed religion among us, in any department where that church has practically reformed her services, i would most thankfully have found her ritual in a more purified state than it is. my more especial object in referring to this period is twofold: first, to show, that consistently with catholic and primitive principles, the catholic christians of england ought not to have continued to participate in the worship which at that time prevailed in our country; and, secondly, by that example both to illustrate the great danger of allowing ourselves to countenance the very first stages of superstition, and also to impress upon our minds the duty of checking in its germ any the least deviation from the primitive principles of faith and worship; convinced that by the general tendency of human nature, one wrong step will, though imperceptibly, yet almost inevitably lead to another; and that only whilst we adhere with uncompromising steadiness { } to the scripture as our foundation, and to the primitive church, under god, as a guide, can we be saved from the danger of making shipwreck of our faith. on this branch of our subject i propose to do no more than to lay before my readers the witness borne to the state of religion in england at that time, by two works, which have been in an especial manner forced upon my notice. many other testimonies of a similar tendency might readily be adduced; but these will probably appear sufficient for the purposes above mentioned; and to dwell longer than is necessary on this point would be neither pleasant nor profitable. * * * * * section i. the first book to which i shall refer is called the hours of the most blessed virgin mary, according to the legitimate use of the church of salisbury. this book was printed in paris in the year . the prayers in this volume relate chiefly to the virgin: and i should, under other circumstances, have reserved all allusion to it for our separate inquiry into the faith and practice of the church of rome with regard to her. but its historical position and general character seemed to recommend our reference to it here. without anticipating, therefore, the facts or the arguments, which will hereafter be submitted to the reader's consideration on the worship of the virgin, i refer to this work now solely as illustrative of the lamentable state of superstition which three centuries ago overran our country. the volume abounds with forms of prayer to the virgin, many of them prefaced by extraordinary notifications of indulgences promised to those who duly utter { } the prayers. these indulgences are granted by popes and by bishops; some on their own mere motion, others at the request of influential persons. they guarantee remission of punishment for different spaces of time, varying from forty days to ninety thousand years; they undertake to secure freedom from hell; they promise pardon for deadly sins, and for venial sins to the same person for the same act; they assure to those who comply with their directions a change of the pain of eternal damnation into the pain of purgatory, and the pain of purgatory into a free and full pardon. it may be said that the church of rome is not responsible for all these things. but we need not tarry here to discuss the question how far it was then competent for a church or nation to have any service-book or manual of devotion for the faithful, without first obtaining the papal sanction. for clear it is beyond all question, that such frightful corruptions as these, of which we are now to give instances, were spread throughout the land; that such was the religion then imposed on the people of england; and it was from such dreadful enormities, that our reformation, to whatever secondary cause that reformation is to be attributed--by the providence of almighty god rescued us. no one laments more than i do, the extremes into which many opponents of papal rome have allowed themselves to run; but no one can feel a more anxious desire than myself to preserve our church and people from a return of such spiritual degradation and wretchedness; and to keep far from us the most distant approaches of such lamentable and ensnaring superstitions. in this feeling moreover i am assured that i am joined by many of the most respected and influential members of the roman catholic church among us. { } still what has been may be; and it is the bounden duty of all members of christ's catholic church, to whatever branch of it they belong, to join in guarding his sanctuary against such enemies to the truth as it is in him. at the same time it would not be honest and candid in me, were i to abstain from urging those, who, with ourselves, deprecate these excesses, to carry their reflections further; and determine whether the spirit of the gospel does not require a total rejection, even in its less startling forms, of every departure from the principle of invoking god alone; and of looking for acceptance with him solely to the mediation of his son, without the intervention of any other merits. as we regard it, it is not a question of degree; it is a question of principle: one degree may be less revolting to our sense of right than another, but it is not on that account justifiable. the following specimens, a few selected from an overabundant supply, will justify the several particulars in the summary which i have above given: . "the right reverend father in god, laurence[ ], bishop of assaven, hath granted forty days of pardon to all them that devoutly say this prayer in the worship of our blessed lady, being penitent, and truly confessed of all their sins. oratio, 'gaude virgo, mater christi,' &c. rejoice, virgin, mother of christ. [fol. .] [footnote : this was laurence child, who, by papal provision, was made bishop of st. asaph, june , . he is called also penitentiary to the pope. le neve, p. . beatson, vol. i. p. .] . "to all them that be in the state of grace, that daily say devoutly this prayer before our blessed lady of pity, she will show them her blessed visage, and warn them the day and the hour of death; and in their last { } end the angels of god shall yield their souls to heaven; and[ ] he shall obtain five hundred years, and so many lents of pardon, granted by five holy fathers, popes of rome. [fol. .] [footnote : the language in many of these passages is very imperfect; but i have thought it right to copy them verbatim.] . "this prayer showed our lady to a devout person, saying, that this golden prayer is the most sweetest and acceptablest to me: and in her appearing she had this salutation and prayer written with letters of gold in her breast, 'ave rosa sine spinis'--hail rose without thorns. [fol. .] . "our holy father, sixtus the fourth, pope, hath granted to all them that devoutly say this prayer before the image of our lady the sum of xi.m. [eleven thousand] years of pardon. 'ave sanctissima maria, mater dei, regina coeli,' &c. hail most holy mary, mother of god, queen of heaven. [fol. .] . "our holy father, pope sixtus, hath granted at the instance of the highmost and excellent princess elizabeth, late queen of england, and wife to our sovereign liege lord, king henry the seventh, (god have mercy on her sweet soul, and on all christian souls,) that every day in the morning, after three tollings of the ave bell, say three times the whole salutation of our lady ave maria gratia; that is to say, at the clock in the morning ave maria, at the clock at noon ave m., and at the clock at even, for every time so doing is granted of the spiritual treasure of holy church days of pardon totiens quotiens; and also our holy father, the archbishop of canterbury and york, with other nine bishops of this realm, have { } granted times in the day days of pardon to all them that be in the state of grace able to receive pardon: the which begun the th day of march, anno mccccxcii. anno henrici vii.[ ] and the sum of the indulgence and pardon for every ave maria viii hondred days an lx totiens quotiens, this prayer shall be said at the tolling of the ave bell, 'suscipe,' &c. receive the word, o virgin mary, which was sent to thee from the lord by an angel. hail, mary, full of grace: the lord with thee, &c. say this times, &c. [fol. .] [footnote : henry vii. began to reign in .] . "this prayer was showed to st. bernard by the messenger of god, saying, that as gold is the most precious of all other metals, so exceedeth this prayer all other prayers, and who that devoutly sayeth it shall have a singular reward of our blessed lady, and her sweet son jesus. 'ave,' &c. hail, mary, most humble handmaid of the trinity, &c. hail, mary, most prompt comforter of the living and the dead. be thou with me in all my tribulations and distresses with maternal pity, and at the hour of my death take my soul, and offer it to thy most beloved son jesus, with all them who have commended themselves to our prayers. [fol. .] . "our holy father, the pope bonifacius, hath granted to all them that devoutly say this lamentable contemplation of our blessed lady, standing under the cross weeping, and having compassion with her sweet son jesus, years of pardon and forty lents, and also pope john the hath granted three hondred days of pardon. 'stabat mater dolorosa.' [fol. .] . "to all them that before this image of pity devoutly say pat. nos., and aves, and a credo, piteously beholding these arms of christ's passion, are { } granted xxxii.m.vii hondred, and lv ( ) years of pardon; and sixtus the th, pope of rome hath made the and the prayer, and hath doubled his aforesaid pardon. [fol. .] . "our holy father the pope john hath granted to all them that devoutly say this prayer, after the elevation of our lord jesu christ, days of pardon for deadly sins. [fol. .] . "this prayer was showed to saint augustine by revelation of the holy ghost, and who that devoutly say this prayer, or hear read, or beareth about them, shall not perish in fire or water, nother in battle or judgment, and he shall not die of sudden death, and no venom shall poison him that day, and what he asketh of god he shall obtain if it be to the salvation of his soul; and when thy soul shall depart from thy body it shall not enter hell." this prayer ends with three invocations of the cross, thus: "o cross of christ [cross] save us, o cross of christ [cross] protect us, o cross of christ [cross] defend us. in the name of the [cross] father, [cross] son, and holy [cross] ghost. amen." [fol. .] . "our holy father pope innocent iii. hath granted to all them that say these iii prayers following devoutly, remission of all their sins confessed and contrite. [fol. .] . "these prayers be written in the chapel of the holy cross, in rome, otherwise called sacellum sanctæ crucis septem romanorum; who that devoutly say them shall obtain x.c.m. [ninety thousand] years of pardon for deadly sins granted of our holy father, john , pope of rome. [fol. .] . "who that devoutly beholdeth these arms of { } our lord jesus christ, shall obtain six thousand years of pardon of our holy father saint peter, the first pope of rome, and of xxx [thirty] other popes of the church of rome, successors after him; and our holy father, pope john , hath granted unto all them very contrite and truly confessed, that say these devout prayers following in the commemoration of the bitter passion of our lord jesus christ, years of pardon for deadly sins, and other for venial sins." [fol. .] i will only add one more instance. the following announcement accompanies a prayer of st. bernard: "who that devoutly with a contrite heart daily say this orison, if he be that day in a state of eternal damnation, then this eternal pain shall be changed him in temporal pain of purgatory; then if he hath deserved the pain of purgatory it shall be forgotten and forgiven through the infinite mercy of god." it is indeed very melancholy to reflect that our country has witnessed the time, when the bread of life had been taken from the children, and such husks as these substituted in its stead. accredited ministers of the roman catholic church have lately assured us that the pardons and indulgences granted now, relate only to the remission of the penances imposed by the church in this life, and presume not to interfere with the province of the most high in the rewards and punishments of the next. but, i repeat it, what has been in former days may be again; and whenever christians depart from the doctrine and practice of prayer to god alone, through christ alone, a door is opened to superstitions and abuses of every kind; and we cannot too anxiously and too jealously guard and fence about, with all our power and skill, the fundamental principle, one god and one mediator. { } * * * * * section ii.--service of thomas becket, on the anniversary of his martyrdom, dec. . the other instance by which i propose to illustrate the state of religion in england before the reformation, is the service of thomas becket, archbishop of canterbury, a canonized saint and martyr of the church of rome. the interest attaching to so remarkable a period in ecclesiastical history, and to an event so intimately interwoven with the former state of our native land, appears to justify the introduction of the entire service, rather than extracts from it, in this place. whilst it bears throughout immediately on the subject of our present inquiry, it supplies us at the same time with the strong views entertained by the authors of the service, on points which gave rise to great and repeated discussion, not only in england, but in various parts also of continental europe, with regard to the moral and spiritual merits or demerits of becket, as a subject of the realm and a christian minister. it is, moreover, only by becoming familiar in all their details with some such remains of past times, that we can form any adequate idea of the great and deplorable extent to which the legends had banished the reading and expounding of holy scriptures from our churches; and also how much the praises of mortal man had encroached upon those hours of public worship, which should be devoted to meditations on our maker, redeemer, and sanctifier; to the exclusive praises of his holy name; and to supplications { } to him alone for blessings at his hand, and for his mercy through christ. there is much obscurity in the few first paragraphs. the historical or biographical part begins at lesson the first, and continues throughout, only interspersed with canticles in general referring to the incidents in the narrative preceding each. * * * * * the service of thomas becket[ ]. [footnote : the copies which i have chiefly consulted for the purposes of the present inquiry, are two large folio manuscripts, in good preservation, no. and no. of the harleian mss. in the british museum. the service commences about the th page, b. of no. . this ms. is considered to be of a date somewhere about . the first parts of the service are preserved also in a breviary printed in paris in , with some variations and omissions. there are various other copies in the british museum, as well printed as in manuscript.] let them without change of vestments and without tapers in their hands, proceed to the altar of st. thomas the martyr, chanting the requiem, the chanter beginning, _req._ the grain lies buried beneath the straw; the just man is slain by the spear of the wicked; the guardian of the vine falls in the vineyard, the chieftain in the camp, the husbandman in the threshing-floor. then the prose is said by all who choose, in surplices before the altar. "let the shepherd sound his trumpet of horn." let the choir respond to the chant of the prose after every verse, upon the letter [super litteram]. { } that the vineyard of christ might be free, which he assumed under a robe of flesh, he liberated it by the purple cross. the adversary, the erring sheep, becomes bloodstained by the slaughter of the shepherd. the marble pavements of christ are wetted, ruddy with sacred gore; the martyr presented with the laurel of life. like a grain cleansed from the straw, is translated to the divine garners. but whilst the prose is being sung, let the priest incense the altar, and then the image of the blessed thomas the martyr; and afterwards shall be said with an humble voice: pray for us, blessed thomas. _the prayer[ ]._ o god for whose church the glorious { } high-priest and martyr thomas fell beneath the swords of the wicked, grant, we beseech thee, that all who implore his aid may obtain the salutary effect of their petition, through christ. [footnote : this collect is still preserved in the roman ritual, and is offered on the anniversary of becket's death. in a very ancient pontifical, preserved in the chapter-house of bangor, and which belonged to anianus, who was bishop of that see ( ), among the "proper benedictions for the circuit of the year," are two relating to thomas becket; one on the anniversary of his death, the other on the day of his translation. the former is couched in these words: "o god, who hast not without reason mingled the birthday of the glorious high-priest, thomas, with the joys of thy nativity, by the intervention of his merits" (ipsius mentis intervenientibus), "make these thy servants venerate thy majesty with the reverence of due honour. amen. and as he, according to the rule of a good shepherd, gave his life for his sheep, so grant thou to thy faithful ones, to fear no tyrannical madness to the prejudice of catholic truth. amen. we ask that they, by his example, for obedience to the holy laws, may learn to despise persons, and by suffering manfully to triumph over tyrannical madness. amen." the latter runs thus: "may god, by whose pity the bodies of saints rest in the sabbath of peace, turn your hearts to the desire of the resurrection to come. amen. and may he who orders us to bury with honour due the members of the saints whose death is precious, by the merits of the glorious martyr, thomas, vouchsafe to raise you from the dust of vanity. amen. where at length by the power of his benediction ye may be clothed with doubled festive robes of body and soul. amen."] the shepherd slain in the midst of the flock, purchased peace at the price of his blood. o joyous grief, in mournful gladness! the flock breathes when the shepherd is dead; the mother wailing, sings for joy in her son, because he lives under the sword a conqueror. the solemnities of thomas the martyr are come. let the virgin mother, the church, rejoice; thomas being raised to the highest priesthood, is suddenly changed into another man. a monk, under [the garb of?] a clerk, secretly clothed with haircloth, more strong than the flesh subdues the attempts of the flesh; whilst the tiller of the lord's field pulls up the thistles, and drives away and banishes the foxes from the vineyard. _the first lesson._ dearest brethren, celebrating now the birth-day of the martyr thomas, because we have not power to recount his whole life and conversation, let our brief discourse run through the manner and cause of his passion. the blessed thomas, therefore, as in the office of chancellor, or archdeacon, he proved incomparably strenuous { } in the conduct of affairs, so after he had undertaken the office of pastor, he became devoted to god beyond man's estimation. for, when consecrated, he suddenly is changed into another man: he secretly put on the hair shirt, and wore also hair drawers down to the knee. and under the respectable appearance of the clerical garb, concealing the monk's dress, he entirely compelled the flesh to obey the spirit; studying by the exercise of every virtue without intermission to please god. knowing, therefore, that he was placed a husbandman in the field of the lord, a shepherd in the fold, he carefully discharged the ministry entrusted to him. the rights and dignities of the church, which the public authority had usurped, he deemed it right to restore, and to recall to their proper state. whence a grave question on the ecclesiastical law and the customs of the realm, having arisen between him and the king of the english, a council being convened, those customs were proposed which the king pertinaciously required to be confirmed by the signatures as well of the archbishop as of his suffragans. the archbishop with constancy refused, asserting that in them was manifest the subversion of the freedom of the church. he was in consequence treated with immense insults, oppressed with severe losses, and provoked with innumerable injuries. at length, being threatened with death, (because the case of the church had not yet become fully known, and the persecution seemed to be personal,) he determined that he ought to give place to malice. being driven, therefore, into exile, he was honourably received by our lord the pope alexander[ ] at senon, and recommended { } with especial care to the monastery of pontinea (pontigny). [footnote : pope alexander iii. was at this time residing as a refugee at sens, having been driven from italy a few years before by frederick barbarossa.] malice, bent on the punishment of thomas, condemns to banishment the race of thomas. the whole family goes forth together. no order, sex, age, or condition here enjoys any privilege. _lesson the second._ meanwhile in england all the revenues of the archbishop are confiscated, his estates are laid waste, his possessions are plundered, and by the invention of a new kind of punishment, the whole kin of thomas is proscribed together. for all his friends or acquaintance, or whoever was connected with him, by whatever title, without distinction of state or fortune, dignity or rank, age or sex, were alike exiled. for as well the old and decrepit, as infants in the cradle and women lying in childbirth, were driven into banishment; whilst as many as had reached the years of discretion were compelled to swear upon the holy [gospels][ ] that immediately on crossing the sea they would present themselves to the archbishop of canterbury; in order that being so oftentimes pierced even by the sword of sympathy, he would bend his strength of mind to the king's pleasure. but the man of god, putting his hand to deeds of fortitude, with constancy bore exile, reproaches, insults, the proscription of parents and friends, for the name of christ; he was never, by any injury, at all broken or changed. for so great was the firmness of this confessor of christ, that he seemed to teach all his fellow exiles, that every soil is the brave man's country. [footnote : tactis sacrosanctis. it may mean reliques, or other sacred things.] { } thomas put his hands to deeds of fortitude, he despised losses, he despised reproaches, no injury breaks down thomas: the firmness of thomas exclaimed to all, "every soil is the brave man's country." _third lesson._ the king therefore hearing of his immoveable constancy, having directed commendatory letters by some abbots of the cistertian order to the general chapter, caused him to be driven from pontinea. but the blessed thomas fearing that, by occasion of his right, injury would befal the saints, retired of his own accord. yet before he set out from thence he was comforted by a divine revelation: a declaration being made to him from heaven, that he should return to his church with glory, and by the palm of martyrdom depart to the lord. when he was disturbed and sent from his retreat at pontinea, louis, the most christian king of the french, received him with the greatest honour, and supported him most courteously till peace was restored. but even he too was often, though in vain, urged not to show any grace of kindness towards a traitor to the king of england. the hand of fury proceeded further, and a cruelty dreadful for pious ears to hear. for whereas the catholic church prays even for heretics, and schismatics, and faithless jews, it was forbidden that any one should assist him by the supplications of prayer. exiled, then, for six continuous years, afflicted with varied and unnumbered injuries, and like a living stone squared by various cuttings and pressures for the building of the heavenly edifice, the more he was thrust at that he might fall, the more firm and immoveable was he enabled to stand. { } for neither could gold so carefully tried be burned away, nor a house, founded on a firm rock, be torn down. neither does he suffer the wolves to rage against the lambs, nor the vineyard to pass into a garden of herbs. the best of men, holy, and renowned is banished, lest the dignity of the church should yield to the unworthy. the estates of the exiled man are the spoil of the malignant, but when placed in the fire, the fire burns him not. _fourth lesson._ at length by the exertions, as well of the aforesaid pontiff as of the king of the french, many days were appointed for re-establishing peace: and because the servant of god would not accept of peace, unless with safety to the honour of god, and the character of the church, they departed in discord from each other. at length the supreme pontiff, pitying the desolation of the anglican church, with difficulty at the last extorted by threatening measures, that peace should be restored to the church. the realms indeed rejoiced, that the king had been reconciled to the archbishop, whilst some believed that the affair was carried on in good faith, and others formed different conjectures. consequently in the seventh year of his exile the noble pastor returned into england, that he might either rescue the sheep of christ from the jaws of the wolves, or sacrifice himself for the flock intrusted to his care. he is received by the clergy and the people with incalculable joy; all shedding tears, and saying, blessed is he who cometh in the name of the lord. but after a few days he was again afflicted by losses and miseries beyond measure and number. whoever offered to him, { } or to any one connected with him, a cheerful countenance was reckoned a public enemy. in all these things his mind was unbroken; but his hand was still stretched out for the liberation of the church. for this he incessantly sighed; for this he persevered in watchings, fastings, and prayers; to obtain this he ardently desired to sacrifice himself. from the greatest joy of affairs, the greatest wailing is in the church, for the absence of so great a patron. but when the miracles return, joy to the people returns. the crowd of sick flock together, and obtain the grace of benefits. _fifth lesson._ now on the fifth day after the birth-day of our lord, four persons of the palace came to canterbury, men indeed of high birth, but famous for their wicked deeds; and having entered, they attack the archbishop with reproachful words, provoke him with insults, and at length assail him with threats. the man of god modestly answered, to every thing, whatever reason required, adding that many injuries had been inflicted upon him and the church of god, since the re-establishment of peace, and there was no one to correct what was wrong; that he neither could nor would dissemble thereafter, so as not to exercise the duties of his function. the men, foolish in heart, were disturbed by this, and having loudly given utterance to their iniquity they forthwith went out. on their retiring, the prelate proceeded to the church, to offer the evening praises to christ. the mail-clad satellites of satan followed him from behind with drawn swords, a { } large band of armed men accompanying them. on the monks barring the entrance to the church, the priest of god, destined soon to become a victim of christ, running up re-opened the door to the enemy; "for," said he, "a church must not be barricaded like a castle." as they burst in, and some shouted with a voice of phrenzy, "where is the traitor?" others, "where is the archbishop?" the fearless confessor of christ went to meet them. when they pressed on to murder him, he said, "for myself i cheerfully meet death for the church of god; but on the part of god i charge you to do no hurt to any of mine"--imitating christ in his passion, when he said, "if ye seek me, let these go their way." then rush the ravening wolves on the pious shepherd, degenerate sons on their own father, cruel lictors on the victim of christ, and with fatal swords cut off the consecrated crown of his head; and hurling down to the ground the christ [the anointed] of the lord, in savage manner, horrible to be said, scattered the brains with the blood over the pavement. thus does the straw press down the grain of corn; thus is slain the guard of the vineyard in the vineyard; thus the general in the camp, the shepherd in the fold, the husbandman in the threshing-floor. thus the just, slain by the unjust, has changed his house of clay for a heavenly palace. rachel, weeping, now cease thou to mourn that the flower of the world is bruised by the world. when the slain thomas is borne to his funeral, a new abel succeeds to the old. the voice of blood, the voice of his scattered brains, fills heaven with a marvellous cry. { } _sixth lesson._ but the last words of the martyr, which from the confused clamour could scarcely be distinguished, according to the testimony of those who stood near, were these,--"to god, and the blessed mary, and saint dionysius, and the holy patrons of this church, i commend myself and the cause of the church[ ]." moreover, in all the torments which this unvanquished champion of god endured, he sent forth no cry, he uttered no groan, he opposed neither his arm nor his garment to the man who struck him, but held his head, which he had bent towards the swords, unmoved till the consummation came; prostrated as if for prayer, he fell asleep in the lord. the perpetrators of the crime, returning into the palace of the holy prelate, that they might make the passion of the servant more fully resemble the passion of his lord, divided among them his garments, the gold and silver and precious vessels, choice horses, and whatever of value they could find, allotting what each should take. these things therefore the soldiers did. who, without weeping, can relate the rest? so great was the sorrow of all, so great the laments of each, that you would think the prophecy were a second time fulfilled, "a voice is heard in rama, lamentation and great mourning." nevertheless the divine mercy, when temptation was multiplied, made a way to escape; and by certain visions, giving as it were a prelude to the future miracles, [declared that] the martyr was thereafter to be glorified by wonders, that joy would return after sorrow, { } and a crowd of sick would obtain the grace of benefits. [footnote : i have already suggested a comparison between this prayer and the commendatory prayer of the martyr polycarp, page .] o christ jesus[ ], by the wounds of thomas, loosen the sins which bind us; lest the enemy, the world, or the works of the flesh. bear us captive to hell. by[ ] thee, o thomas ... let the right hand of god embrace us. the satellites of satan rushing into the temple perpetrate an unexampled, unheard-of, crime. thomas proceeds to meet their drawn swords: he yields not to threats, to swords, nor even to death. happy place! happy church, in which the memory of thomas lives! happy the land which gave the prelate! happy the land which supported him in exile! happy father! succour us miserable, that we may be happy, and joined with those above! [footnote : christe jesu per thomæ vulnera, quæ nos ligant relaxa scelera ne captivos ferant ad infera hostis, mundus, vel carnis opera. ] [footnote : per te, thoma, post lævæ munera amplexetur nos dei dextera. ] _seventh lesson._ jesus said unto his disciples, i am the good shepherd. the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. the homily of s. gregory, pope. ye have heard, most dear brethren, from the reading of the gospel, your instruction; ye have heard also { } your danger. for behold! he who is not from any gift happening to him, but who is essentially good, says, i am the good shepherd; and he adds the character of the same goodness, which we may imitate, saying, the good shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep. he did what he taught; he showed what he commanded. the good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep; that in our sacrament he might change his body and blood, and satisfy, by the nourishment of his flesh, the sheep which he had redeemed. here is shown to us the way, concerning the contempt of death, which we should follow; the character is placed before us to which we should conform. [in the first place, we should of our pity sacrifice our external good for his sheep; and at last, if it be necessary, give up our own life for the same sheep. from that smallest point we proceed to this last and greater. but since the soul by which we live is incomparably better than the earthly substance which we outwardly possess, who would not give for the sheep his substance, when he would give his life for them? and there are some who, whilst they love their earthly substance more than the sheep, deservedly lose the name of shepherd: of whom it is immediately added, but the hireling who is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth. he is called not a shepherd, but a hireling, who feeds the lord's sheep not for inward love, but with a view to temporal wages. he is a mercenary who seeks indeed the place of shepherd, but seeks not the gain of souls.] (the sentences between brackets are not in ms. no. .) to thomas all things yield and are obedient: plagues, diseases, death, and devils, { } fire, air, land, and seas. thomas filled the world with glory. the world offers obeisance to thomas[ ]. [footnote : thomæ cedunt et parent omnia: pestes, morbi, mors, et dæmonia, ignis, aer, tellus, et maria. thomas mundum replevit gloria. thomæ mundus præstat obsequia. ] _eighth lesson._ in good truth, the holy thomas, the precious champion of god, was to be worthily glorified. for if the cause, yea, forasmuch as the cause makes the martyr, did ever a title of holy martyrs exist more glorious? contending for the church, in the church he suffered; in a holy place, at the holy time of the lord's nativity, in the midst of his fellow-priests and the companies of the religious: since in the agony of the prelate all the circumstances seemed so to concur, as perpetually to illustrate the title of the sufferer, and reveal the wickedness of his persecutors, and stain their name with never-ending infamy. but so did the divine vengeance rage against the persecutors of the martyr, that in a short time, being carried away from the midst, they nowhere appeared. and some, without confession, or the viaticum, were suddenly snatched away; others tearing piecemeal their own fingers or tongues; others pining with hunger, and corrupting in their whole body, and racked with unheard-of tortures before their death, and broken up by paralysis; others bereft of their intellects; others expiring with madness;--left manifest proofs that they were suffering the penalty of unjust persecution and premeditated murder. let, therefore, the virgin mother, the church, rejoice that the new martyr has borne away the triumph over the { } enemies. let her rejoice that a new zacharias has been for her freedom sacrificed in the temple. let her rejoice that a new abel's blood hath cried unto god for her against the men of blood. for the voice of his blood shed, the-voice of his brain scattered by the swords of those deadly satellites, hath filled heaven at once and the world with its far-famed cry. thomas shines with new miracles; he adorns with sight those who had lost their eyes; he cleanses those who were stained with the spots of leprosy; he looses those that were bound with the bonds of death. _ninth lesson._ for at the cry of this blood the earth was moved and trembled. nay, moreover, the powers of the heavens were moved; so that, as if for the avenging of innocent blood, nation rose against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; nay, a kingdom was divided against itself, and terrors from heaven and great signs took place. yet, from the first period of his martyrdom, the martyr began to shine forth with miracles, restoring sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, language to the dumb. afterwards, cleansing the lepers, making the paralytic sound, healing the dropsy, and all kinds of incurable diseases; restoring the dead to life; in a wonderful manner commanding the devils and all the elements: he also put forth his hand to unwonted and unheard-of signs of his own power; for persons deprived of their eyes merited by his merits to obtain new members. but some { } who presumed to disparage his miracles, struck on a sudden, were compelled to publish them even unwillingly. at length, against all his enemies the martyr so far prevailed, that almost every day you might see that to be repeated in the servant which is read of the only-begotten: "they who spoke evil of thee shall come unto thee, and adore the traces of thy feet." now the celebrated champion and martyr of god, thomas, suffered in the year from the incarnation of the lord, according to dionysius, , on the fourth of the kalends of january, on the third day of the week, about the eleventh hour, that the birth-day of the lord might be for labour, and his for rest; to which rest the same our god and lord jesus christ vouchsafe to bring us; who with the father and the holy spirit liveth and reigneth god, for ever and ever. amen. o good jesus, by the merits of thomas, forgive us our debts; visit the house, the gate, the grave; and raise us from the threefold death. what has been lost by act, in mind, or use, restore with thy wonted pity. pray for us, o blessed thomas. n.b. this appears to be the end of the first service in honour of thomas becket[ ]; and at this point { } another service seems to commence, with a kind of new heading, "in the commemoration of st. thomas[ ]." [footnote : all the lessons between this passage and "in lauds," are wanting in ms. .] [footnote : another feast was kept in honour of his translation, on the th of july.] _the first lesson._ when archbishop theobald, of happy memory, in a good old age, slept with his fathers, thomas, archdeacon of the church of canterbury, is solemnly chosen, in the name of the holy trinity, to be archbishop and primate of all england, and afterwards is consecrated. then pious minds entertained firm hope and confidence in the lord[ ]. [footnote : there is much of obscurity in the next paragraph. reference seems to be made to his twofold character of a regular and a secular clergyman, and to his improved state morally. the latin is this: "erat autem piis mentibus spes firma et fiducia in domino, quod idem consecratus utriusque hominis, habitu mutato moribus melioratus præsideret. probatissimum siquidem tenebatur sedem illam sedem sanctorum esse sanctam recipere aut facere, vel citius et facile indignum abicere, quod et in beato thoma martyre misericorditer impletum est."] _second lesson._ therefore the chosen prelate of god being elected, and anointed with the sanctifying of the sacred oil, immediately obtained a most hallowed thing, and was filled with manifold grace of the holy spirit. for walking in newness of life, a new man, he was changed into another man, all things belonging to whom were changed for the better; and with so great grace did he consecrate the commencement of his bishopric, that clothing himself with a monk's form secretly, he fulfilled the work and merit of a monk. { } _third lesson._ but he, who after the example of the baptist, with constancy had conceived in a perfect heart that the zeal of righteousness should be purified, studied also to imitate him in the garb of penitence. for casting off the fine linen which hitherto he had been accustomed to use, whilst the soft delicacies of kings pleased him, he was clothed on his naked body with a most rough hair shirt. he added, moreover, hair drawers, that he might the more effectually mortify the flesh, and make the spirit live. but these, as also the other exercises of his spiritual life, very few indeed being aware of it, he removed from the eyes and knowledge of men by superadding other garments, because he sought glory not from man, but from god. even then the man of virtue entering upon the justifications of god, began to be more complete in abstinence, more frequent in watching, longer in prayer, more anxious in preaching. the pastoral office intrusted to him by god, he executed with so great diligence, as to suffer the rights neither of the clergy nor of the church to be in any degree curtailed. * * * * * there seems here also to be another commencement, for the next lesson is called the first. _lesson first._ so large a grace of compunction was he wont to possess, between the secrets of prayer or the solemnities of masses, that with eyes trained to weeping he would be wholly dissolved in tears; and in the office { } of the altar his appearance was as though he was witnessing the lord's passion in the flesh. knowing also that mercy softens justice, and that pity hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, therefore towards the poor and the afflicted did he bear the bowels of mercy piteously, and was anxious to reach the poor by the blessings of his alms. _lesson second._ the more humble of those whom a character for religion raised high, he made his acquaintance and intimates; and that he might learn from them to hunger and thirst after righteousness, he enjoyed more frequently their secret conversation. towards such servants and soldiers of christ this merciful man preferred to be liberal and abundant in food and raiment, he who determined in himself to be moderate and sparing. for what would he deny to christ, who for christ was about to shed his blood? he who owed his coat or cloak to one who asked it, desired to add, moreover, his own flesh. for he knew that the man would never freely give his own flesh, who showed himself greedy of any temporal thing. _lesson third._ hitherto the merciful lord, who maketh poor and enricheth, bringeth low and lifteth up, wished to load his servant with riches, and exalt him with honours; and afterwards he was pleased to try him with adversity. by trying whether he loved him, he proved it the more certainly; but he supplied grace more abundantly. for with the temptation he made a way to escape, that he might be able to bear it. therefore, the envious enemy, considering that the new prelate { } and the new man was flourishing with so manifold a grace of virtues, devised to send a burning blight of temptation, which might suffocate the germ of his merits already put forth. nor was there any delay. he who severs a man from his god, and one friend from his neighbour, sowed irreconcileable quarrels between the king and the archbishop. pray for us, o blessed thomas. _in lauds._ a grain falls and gives birth to an abundance of corn. the alabaster-box is broken, and the odour of the ointment is powerful. the whole world vies in love to the martyr, whose wonderful signs strike all with astonishment. the water for thomas five times changing colour, once was turned into milk, four times into blood. at the shrine[ ] of thomas four times the light came down, and to the glory of the saint kindled the wax-tapers. do thou by the blood of thomas, which he[ ] shed for thee; make us, o christ, ascend, whither thomas has ascended. extend[ ] succour to us, o thomas, guide those who stand, { } raise up those who fall, correct our morals, actions, and life; and guide us into the way of peace. [footnote : ad thomæ memoriam.] [footnote : tu per thomæ sanguinem quem pro te impendit, fac nos, christe, scandere, quo thomas ascendit.] [footnote : opem nobis, o thoma, porrige, rege stantes, jacentes erige, mores, actus, et vitam corrige, et in pacis nos viam dirige. ] _final anthem._ hail, o thomas, the rod of justice;[ ] the brightness of the world; the strength of the church; the love of the people; the delight of the clergy. hail, glorious guardian of the flock; save those who rejoice in thy glory. [footnote : salve, thomas, virga justitiæ, mundi jubar, robur ecclesiæ, plebis amor, cleri delicia. salve gregis tutor egregie, salva tuæ gaudentes gloriæ.] the end of the service of thomas of canterbury. * * * * * now for a few moments only let us meditate on this service. i have already referred to the lamentable practice of substituting biographical legends for the word of god. and what is the tendency of this service? what impression was it likely to make, and to leave on minds of ordinary powers and instruction? must it not, of necessity, tend to withdraw them from contemplating christ, and to fix their thoughts on the powers, the glory, the exaltation, the merits of a fellow-sinner? it will be said, that they will look beyond the martyr, and trace the blessings, here enumerated, to christ, as their primary cause, and will think of the merits of thomas as efficacious only through the merits of their saviour; that in their invocation of thomas they will implore him only to pray for them. but can this be so? does not the ascription of miracles to him { } and to his power; does not the very form of enumerating those miracles tend much to exalt the servant to an equality with the master? whilst thomas by being thus, in words at least, presented to the people as working those miracles by his own power, (for there is throughout a lamentable absence of immediate ascription of glory to god,) is raised to an equality with christ our lord; many passages in this service have the tendency also of withdrawing the minds of the worshippers from an implicit and exclusive dependence on the merits of christ alone, and of tempting them to admit the merits of thomas to share at least with christ in the work of grace and salvation. let us place some texts of scripture and some passages of this service side by side. [transcriber's note: they are shown here one after the other.] _scripture._ but after that the kindness and love of god towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.--titus iii. , . he who spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?--rom. viii. . the blood of jesus christ cleanseth us from all sin.-- john i. . one mediator.-- tim. ii. . who also maketh intercession for us.--rom. viii. . he ever liveth to make intercession for them.--heb. vii. . _service of thomas becket._ o christ jesus, by the wounds of thomas loosen the sins which bind us. o blessed jesus, by the merits of thomas, forgive us our debts, raise us from the threefold death, and restore what has been lost with thy accustomed pity. do thou, o christ, by the blood of thomas, which he shed for thee, make us ascend whither thomas has ascended. holy thomas, pray for us. and if this service thus seems to mingle the merits of christ, the merits of his blood and of his death, with { } the merits of a mortal man, the immediate address to that mortal as the giver of good things temporal and spiritual, very awfully trespasses on that high, exclusive, and incommunicable prerogative of the one lord god omnipotent, which his spirit hath proclaimed solemnly and repeatedly, and which he has fenced around against all invasion with so many warnings and denunciations. _scripture._ _service of becket_ . o thou that hearest prayer, . for they sake, o thomas, unto thee shall all flesh come.-- let the right hand of god embrace ps. lxv. [vulg. lxiv.] . us. by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto god.--phil. iv. . . lord, be thou my helper.-- . send help to us, o thomas; ps. xxx. [xxix.] . . thou shalt guide me by thy . guide thou those who stand; counsel.--ps. lxxiii. [lxxii.] . he, the holy spirit, shall guide you into all truth.--john xvi. . . the lord upholdeth all that . raise up those who fall; fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.--psalm cxlv. [cxliv.] . . create in me a clean heart, . correct our morals, actions o god.--ps. li. [l.] . and life; . the steps of a good man are . and guide us into the way ordered by the lord. though of peace. he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the lord upholdeth him.--ps. xxxvii. [xxxvi.] . the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to guide our feet into the way of peace.--luke i. , . and then again, in celebrating the praises of a mortal { } man, recourse is had to language which can fitly be used only in our hymns and praises to the supreme lord of our destinies, the eternal creator, redeemer, and comforter, the only wise god our saviour. _address to thomas._ _language of scripture._ . hail, thomas, rod of justice! . there shall come a rod out of the stem of jesse. ye denied the holy one, and the just--isaiah xi. . acts iii. . . the brightness of the world. . the brightness of his glory. i am the light of the world--heb. i. . john viii. . . the strength of the church. . i can do all things through christ, that strengthened me. christ loved the church, and gave himself for it.--phil. iv. . eph. v. . . the love of the people: the . grace be with all them that delight of the clergy. love our lord jesus christ in sincerity. delight thyself in the lord.--eph. vi. . ps. xxxvii. . . hail, glorious guardian of . our lord jesus, that great the flock. save those who rejoice shepherd of the sheep. give ear, in thy glory. o shepherd of israel; come and save us. he that glorieth, let him glory in the lord.--heb. xiii. . psalm lxxx. [lxxix.] . cor. i. . can that worship become the disciples of the gospel and the cross, which addresses such prayers and such praises to the spirit of a mortal man? every prayer, and every form of praise here used in honour of thomas becket, it would well become christians to offer to the giver of all good, trusting solely and exclusively to the mediation of christ jesus our lord for acceptance; and pleading-only the merits of his most precious blood. { } and yet i am bound to confess, that in principle, in spirit, and in fact, i can find no substantial difference between this service of thomas of canterbury, and the service which all in communion with the church of rome are under an obligation to use even at the present hour. this point remains next for our inquiry, and we will draw from the well-head. i would, however, first suggest the application of a general test for ascertaining the real _bona-fide_ nature of these prayers and praises. the test i would apply is, to try with the change only of the name, substituting the holiest name ever named in heaven or in earth for the name of thomas of canterbury--whether these prayers and praises should not be offered to the supreme being alone through the atoning merits of his blessed son; whether they are not exclusively appropriate to him. to (thomas/god almighty) all things bow and are obedient. plagues, diseases, death, and devils, fire, air, land, and sea. (thomas/the almighty) fills the world with glory. the world offers obeisance to (thomas/almighty god). (the martyr thomas/our lord and saviour jesus christ) began to shine forth with miracles [john ii. ]; restoring sight to the blind [luke vii. ]; walking to the lame; hearing to the deaf; speech to the dumb; cleansing to the lepers [matt. xi. ]; making the paralytic sound [matt. iv. ]; healing the dropsy [luke xiv. ]; and all kinds of incurable diseases [luke iv. ]; restoring the dead to { } life [luke viii. . ]; in a wonderful manner commanding the devils [matt. viii. ], and all the elements [luke viii. ]. he put forth his hand to unwonted and unheard-of signs of his own power [mark ii. . john ix. ]. do thou, o lord, by the blood of (thomas/christ) cause us to ascend whither (thomas/christ) has ascended. (o thomas/o god), send help to us. guide those who stand; raise up those who fall; correct our morals, actions, and life; and guide us into the way of peace. hail, (thomas!/jesus!) rod of justice, the brightness of the world, the strength of the church, the love of the people, the delight of the clergy. hail, glorious guardian of the flock! save thou those who delight in thy glory. * * * * * we shall apply this same test to many of the collects and prayers used, and of necessity to be used, because they are authorized and appointed, even at the present day, in the ministrations of the church of rome. the impiety in many of those instances is not couched in such startling language; but it is not the less real. god forbid that we should charge our fellow-creatures with idolatry, who declare that they offer divine worship to the supreme being only; or that we should pronounce any professed christian to have cast off his { } dependence on the merits of christ alone, who assures us that he looks for mercy only through those merits. but i know and feel, that according to the standard of christian truth, and of the pure worship of almighty god, which the scriptures and primitive antiquity compel me to adopt, i should stain my own soul with the guilt of idolatry, and with the sin of relying on other merits than christ's, were i myself to offer those prayers. that this service excited much disgust among the early reformers, we learn from various writers[ ]. on the merits of the struggle between becket and his king; on the question of becket's moral and religious worth, (a question long and often discussed among the exercises of the masters of paris in the full assembly of the sorbonne[ ],) or on the motives which influenced henry the eighth, i intend not to say one word: those points belong not to our present inquiry. it may not, however, be thought irrelevant here to quote a passage { } from the ordinance of this latter monarch for erasing becket's service out of the books, and his name from the calendar of the saints. [footnote : see mornay "de la messe," saumur, . p. . becon, in his "new year's gift," london, , p. , thus speaks: "what saint at any time thought himself so pure, immaculate, and without all spot of sin, that he durst presume to die for us, and to avouch his death to be an oblation and sacrifice for our lives to god the father, except peradventure we will admit for good payment these and such like blasphemies, which were wont full solemnly to be sung in the temples unto the great ignominy of the glorious name of god, and the dishonour of christ's most precious blood." then quoting the lines from the service of thomas becket, on which we have above commented, he adds, "i will let pass many more which are easy to be searched and found out." becon preached and wrote in the reign of henry viii. and was then persecuted for his religion, as he was afterwards in the reign of mary.] [footnote : we are told that forty-eight years after his death, the masters of paris disputed whether thomas was a condemned sinner, or admitted into heaven.] in henry the eighth's proclamation, dated westminster, th november, in the thirtieth year of his reign, printed by bertholet, is the following very curious passage:-- "item, for as moche as it appereth now clerely, that thomas becket, sometyme archbyshop of canterburie, stubburnly to withstand the holsome lawes establyshed agaynste the enormities of the clergie, by the kynges highness mooste noble progenitour, kynge henry the seconde, for the common welthe, reste, and tranquillitie of this realme, of his frowarde mynde fledde the realme into fraunce, and to the bishop of rome, mayntenour of those enormities, to procure the abrogation of the sayd lawes, whereby arose moch trouble in this said realme, and that his dethe, which they untruely called martyrdome, happened upon a reskewe by him made, and that, as it is written, he gave opprobrious wordes to the gentyllmen, whiche than counsayled hym to leave his stubbernesse, and to avoyde the commocion of the people, rysen up for that rescue. and he not only callyd the one of them bawde, but also toke tracy by the bosome, and violently shoke and plucked hym in suche maner, that he had almoste overthrowen hym to the pavement of the churche; so that upon this fray one of their company, perceivynge the same, strake hym, and so in the thronge becket was slayne. and further that his canonization was made onely by the bysshop of rome, bycause he had ben a champion of maynteyne his usurped auctoritie, and a bearer of the iniquitie of the clergie, for these and for other great and urgent causes, longe to recyte, the kynge's { } maiestie, by the advyse of his counsayle, hath thought expedient to declare to his lovynge subjectes, that notwithstandynge the sayde canonization, there appereth nothynge in his lyfe and exteriour conversation, wherby he shuld be callyd a sainct, but rather estemed to have ben a rebell and traytour to his prynce. therefore his grace strayghtly chargeth and commandeth that from henseforth the sayde thomas becket shall not be estemed, named, reputed, nor called a sayncte, but bysshop becket; and that his ymages and pictures, through the hole realme, shall be putte downe, and avoyded out of all churches, chapelles, and other places; and that from henseforthe, the dayes used to be festivall in his name shall not be observed, nor the service, office, antiphoners, colletes, and prayers, in his name redde, but rased and put out of all the bokes[ ]." [footnote : in the roman breviary, adapted to england, several biographical lessons are appointed for the anniversary of "st. thomas, bishop and martyr," interspersed with canticles. in one of these we read, "this is truly a martyr, who, for the name of christ, shed blood; who feared not the threats of judges, nor sought the glory of earthly dignity. but he reached the heavenly kingdom."--norwich, . hiem. p. .] { } * * * * * chapter ii. council of trent. in the process of ascertaining the real state of doctrine and practice in the worship of the church of rome at the present day, we must first gain as clear and accurate a knowledge of the decree of the council of trent, as its words will enable us to form. into the character of that council, and of those who constituted it, our present investigation does not lead us to inquire. it is now, i believe, generally understood, that its decrees are binding on all who profess allegiance to the sovereign roman pontiff; and that the man would be considered to have renounced the roman catholic communion, who should professedly withhold his assent from the doctrines there promulgated as vital, or against the oppugners of which the council itself pronounced an anathema. ecclesiastical writers[ ] assure us, that the wording of the decrees of that council was in many cases on purpose framed ambiguously and vaguely. the latitude, however, of the expressions employed, does not in itself { } of necessity imply any of those sinister and unworthy motives to which it has been usual with many writers to attribute it. in charity, and without any improbable assumption, it may be referred to an honest and laudable desire of making the terms of communion as wide as might be, with a view of comprehending within what was regarded the pale of the catholic church, the greatest number of those who professed and called themselves christians. be this as it may, the vagueness and uncertainty of the terms employed, compel us in many instances to have recourse to the actual practice of the church of rome, as the best interpreter of doubtful expressions in the articles of that council. the decree which bears on the subject of this volume is drawn up in the following words:-- [footnote : see mosheim, xvi. cent. c. i. vol. iv. p. . london, .] "session xxv.[ ] "on the invocation, veneration, and reliques of saints, and of sacred images. "the holy council commands all bishops and others bearing the office and care of instruction, that according to the usage of the catholic and apostolic church, received from the primitive times of the christian religion, and the consent of holy fathers, and decrees of sacred councils, they in the first place should instruct the faithful concerning the intercession and invocation of saints, the honour of reliques, and the lawful use of images, teaching them, that the saints reigning together with christ, offer their own { } prayers for men to god: that it is good and profitable suppliantly to invoke them: and to fly to their prayers, help, and assistance, for obtaining benefits from god, by his son jesus christ our lord, who is our only redeemer and saviour. but that those who deny that the saints, enjoying everlasting happiness in heaven, are to be invoked; or who assert either that they do not pray for us; or that the invocation of them to pray for us even as individuals is idolatry, or is repugnant to the word of god, and is opposed to the honour of the one mediator of god and man, jesus christ; or that it is folly, by voice or mentally, to supplicate those who reign in heaven, hold impious sentiments. "that the bodies also of the holy martyrs and others living with christ, which were living members of christ, and a temple of the holy ghost to be raised by him to eternal life, and to be glorified, are to be worshipped by the faithful; by means of which many benefits are conferred on men by god; so that those who affirm that worship and honour are not due to the reliques of the saints, or that they and other sacred monuments are unprofitably honoured by the faithful; and that the shrines of the saints are frequented in vain for the purpose of obtaining their succour, are altogether to be condemned, as the church has long ago condemned them, and now also condemns them." [footnote : the latin, which will be found in the appendix, is a transcript from a printed copy of the acts of the council of trent, preserved in the british museum, to which are annexed the autograph signatures of the secretaries (notarii), and their seals.] an examination of this decree, in comparison with the form and language of other decrees of the same council, forces the remark upon us, that the council does not assert that the practice of invoking saints has any foundation in holy scripture. the absence of all such declaration is the more striking and important, because in the very decree immediately preceding this, { } which establishes purgatory as a doctrine of the church of rome, the council declares that doctrine to be drawn from the holy scriptures. in the present instance the council proceeds no further than to charge with impiety those who maintain the invocation of saints to be contrary to the word of god. many a doctrine or practice, not found in scripture, may nevertheless be not contrary to the word of god; but here the council abstains from affirming any thing whatever as to the scriptural origin of the doctrine and practice which it authoritatively enforces. in this respect the framers of the decree acted with far more caution and wisdom than they had shown in wording the decree on purgatory; and with far more caution and wisdom too than they exercised in this decree, when they affirmed that the doctrine of the invocation of saints was to be taught the people according to the usage of the catholic and apostolic church, received from the primitive times of the christian religion, and the consent of the holy fathers. i have good hope that these pages have already proved beyond gainsaying, that the invocation of saints is a manifest departure from the usage of the primitive church, and contrary to the testimony of "the holy fathers." however, the fact of the council not having professed to trace the doctrine, or its promulgation, to any authority of holy scripture, is of very serious import, and deserves to be well weighed in all its bearings. with regard to the condemnatory clauses of this decree, i would for myself observe, that i should never have engaged in preparing this volume, had i not believed, "that it was neither good nor profitable to invoke the saints, or to fly to their prayers, their assistance, and succour." i am bound, with this decree { } before me, to pronounce, that it is a vain thing to offer supplications, either by the voice or in the mind, to the saints, even if they be reigning in heaven; and that it is also in vain for christians to frequent the shrines of the saints for the purpose of obtaining their succour. i am, moreover, under a deep conviction, that the invocation of them is both at variance with the word of god, and contrary to the honour of the one mediator between god and man, jesus christ. on this last point, indeed, i am aware of an anxious desire prevailing on the part of many roman catholics, to establish a distinction between a mediation of redemption, and a mediation of intercession: and thus by limiting the mediation of the saints and angels to intercession, and reserving the mediation of redemption to christ only, to avoid the setting up of another to share the office of mediator with him, who is so solemnly declared in scripture to be the one mediator between god and man. but this distinction has no foundation in the revealed will of god; on the contrary, it is directly at variance with the words and with the spirit of many portions of the sacred volume. there we find the two offices of redemption and mediation joined together in christ. "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, jesus christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." [ john ii. , . heb. ix. . vii. .] in the epistle to the hebrews, the same saviour who is declared "by his own blood to have obtained eternal redemption," is announced also as the mediator of intercession. "wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost who come unto god through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." the { } redemption wrought by christ, and the intercession still made in our behalf by christ, are both equally declared to us by the most sure warrant of holy scripture; of any other intercession by saints in glory, by angels, or virgin, to be sought by our suppliant invocations to them, the covenant of god speaks not. it may be observed, that the enactment of this decree by the council of trent, has been chiefly lamented by some persons on the ground of its presenting the most formidable barrier against any reconciliation between the church of rome, and those who hold the unlawfulness of the invocation of saints. indeed persons of erudition, judgment, piety, and charity, in communion with rome, have not been wanting to express openly their regret, that decrees so positive, peremptory, and exclusive, should have been adopted. they would have been better satisfied with the terms of communion in the church to which they still adhered, had individuals been left to their own responsibility on questions of disputable origin and doubtful antiquity, involving rather the subtilty of metaphysical disquisitions, than agreeable to the simplicity of gospel truth, and essential christian doctrine. on this point i would content myself with quoting the sentiments of a roman catholic author. many of the facts alleged in his interesting comments deserve the patient consideration of every christian. here (observes the commentator on paoli sarpi's history of the council of trent[ ]) the council makes it a duty to pray to saints, though the ancient church never regarded it as necessary. the practice cannot be proved to be introduced into public worship { } before the sixth century; and it is certain, that in the ancient liturgies and sacramentaries no direct invocation is found. even in our modern missals, being those of our ecclesiastical books in which the ancient form has been longest retained, scarcely is there a collect [those he means in which mention is made of the saints] where the address is not offered directly to god, imploring him to hear the prayers of the saints for us; and this is the ancient form of invocation. it is true, that in the breviaries and other ecclesiastical books, direct prayers to the saints have been subsequently introduced, as in litanies, hymns, and even some collects. but the usage is more modern, and cannot be evidence for ancient tradition. for this [ancient tradition] only some invocations addressed to saints in public harangues are alleged, but which ought to be regarded as figures of rhetoric, _apostrophes_, rather than real invocations; though at the same time some fathers laid the foundation for such a practice by asserting that one could address himself to the saints, and hope for succour from them. [footnote : histoire du conc. de trent, par fra. paoli sarpi, traduit par pierre françois de courayer. amsterdam, note . . vol. iii. p. .] we have already alluded to the very great latitude of interpretation which the words of this council admit. the expressions indeed are most remarkably elastic; capable of being expanded widely enough to justify those of the church of rome who allow themselves in the practice of asking for aid and assistance, temporal and spiritual, to be expected from the saints themselves; and at the same time, the words of the decree admit of being so far contracted as not in appearance palpably to contradict those who allege, that the church of rome never addresses a saint with any other petition, than purely and simply that the saint would by prayer intercede for the worshippers. the words "suppliantly { } to invoke them," and "to fly to their prayers, help, and succour," are sufficiently comprehensive to cover all kinds of prayer for all kinds of benefits, whilst "the invocation of them to pray for us even individually," will countenance those who would restrict the faithful to an entreaty for their prayers only. whatever may be the advantage of this latitude of interpretation, in one point of view it must be a subject of regret. complaints had long been made in christendom, that other prayers were offered to the saints, besides those which petitioned only for their intercession; and if the council of trent had intended it to be a rule of universal application, that in whatever words the invocations of the saints might be couched, they should be taken to mean only requests for their prayers, it may be lamented, that no declaration to that effect was given. the manner in which writers of the church of rome have attempted to reconcile the prayers actually offered in her ritual, with the principle of invoking the saints only for their prayers, is indeed most unsatisfactory. whilst to some minds the expedient to which those writers have had recourse carries with it the stamp of mental reservation, and spiritual subterfuge, and moral obliquity; others under the influence of the purest charity will regret in it the absence of that simplicity, and direct openness in word and deed, which we regard as characteristic of the religion of the gospel; and will deprecate its adoption as tending, in many cases inevitably, to become a most dangerous snare to the conscience. i will here refer only to the profession of that principle as made by bellarmin. subsequent writers seem to have adopted his sentiments, and to have expressed themselves very much in his words. { } bellarmin unreservedly asserts that christians are to invoke the saints solely and exclusively for their prayers, and not for any benefits as from the saints themselves. but then he seems to paralyse that declaration by this refinement: "it must nevertheless be observed that we have not to do with words, but with the meaning of words; for as far as concerns the words, it is lawful to say, 'saint peter, have mercy on me! save me! open to me the entrance of heaven!' so also, 'give to me health of body, give me patience, give me fortitude!' whilst only we understand 'save me, and have mercy upon me by praying for me: give me this and that, by thy prayers and merits.' for thus gregory of nazianzen, in his oratio in cyprianum; and the universal church, when in the hymn to the virgin she says, mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, do thou protect us from the enemy, and take us in the hour of death. "and in that of the apostles, 'to whose command is subject' the health and weakness of all: heal us who are morally diseased; restore us to virtue. "and as the apostle says of himself 'that i might save some,' [rom. xi.] and 'that he might save all,' [i cor. ix.] not as god, but thy prayer and counsel." i wish not to enter upon the question how far this distinction is consistent with that openness and straightforward undisguised dealing which is alone allowable when we are contending for the truth; nor how far the { } charge of moral obliquity and double dealing, often brought against it, can be satisfactorily met. but suppose for a moment that we grant (what is not the case) that in the metaphysical disquisitions of the experienced casuist such a distinction might be maintained, how can we expect it to be recognized, and felt, and acted upon by the large body of christians? abstractedly considered, such an interpretation in a religious act of daily recurrence by the mass of unlearned believers would, i conceive, appear to reflecting minds most improbable, if not utterly impossible. and as to its actual _bona-fide_ result in practice, a very brief sojourn in countries where the religion of rome is dominant, will suffice to convince us, that such subtilties of the casuist are neither received nor understood by the great body of worshippers; and that the large majority of them, when they pray to an individual saint to deliver them from any evil, or to put them in possession of some good, do in very deed look to the saint himself for the fulfilment of their wishes. it is a snare to the conscience only too evidently successful. and i regret to add, that in the errors into which such language of their prayers may unhappily betray them, they cannot be otherwise than confirmed as well by the recorded sentiments of men in past years, whom they have been taught to reverence, as by the sentiments which are circulated through the world now, even by what they are accustomed to regard as the highest authority on earth[ ]. [footnote : see in subsequent parts of this work the references to bonaventura, bernardin sen., bernardin de bust., &c.; and also the encyclical letter of the present (a.d. ) reigning pontiff.] to this point, however, we must repeatedly revert { } hereafter; at present, i will only add one further consideration. if, as we are now repeatedly told, the utmost sought by the invocation of saints is that they would intercede for the supplicants; that no more is meant than we of the anglican church mean when we earnestly entreat our fellow-christians on earth to pray for us,--why should not the prayers to the saints be confined exclusively to that form of words which would convey the meaning intended? why should other forms of supplicating them be adopted, whose obvious and direct meaning implies a different thing? if we request a christian friend to pray for us, that we may be strengthened and supported under a trial and struggle in our spiritual warfare, we do not say, "friend, strengthen me; friend, support me." that entreaty would imply our desire to be, that he would visit us himself, and comfort and strengthen us by his own kind words and cheering offices of consolation and encouragement. to convey our meaning, our words would be, "pray for me; remember me in your supplications to the throne of grace. implore god, of his mercy, to give me the strength and comfort of his holy spirit." if nothing more is ever intended to be conveyed, than a similar request for their prayers, when the saints are "suppliantly invoked," in a case of such delicacy, and where there is so much danger of words misleading, why have other expressions of every variety been employed in the roman liturgies, as well as in the devotions of individuals, which in words appeal to the saints, not for their prayers, but for their own immediate exertion in our behalf, their assistance, succour, defence, and comfort,--"protect us from our enemies--heal the diseases of our minds--release us from our sin--receive us at the hour of death?" { } in the present work, however, were it not for the example and warning set us by this still greater departure from scripture and the primitive church, we need not have dwelt on this immediate point; because we maintain that any invocation of saint or angel, even if it were confined to a petitioning for their prayers and intercessions, is contrary both to god's word and to the faith and practice of the primitive, catholic, and apostolic church. we now proceed to the next portion of our proposed inquiry,--the present state of roman catholic worship, with respect to the invocation of saints and angels. { } * * * * * chapter iii. section i.--present service in the church of rome. in submitting to the reader's consideration the actual state of roman catholic worship at the present hour, i disclaim all desire to fasten upon the church of rome any of the follies and extravagancies of individual superstition. probably many english roman catholics have been themselves shocked and scandalized by the scenes which their own eyes have witnessed in various parts of continental europe. it would be no less unfair in us to represent the excesses of superstition there forced on our notice as the genuine legitimate fruits of the religion of rome, than it would be in roman catholics to affiliate on the catholics of the anglican church the wild theories and revolting tenets of all who assume the name of opponents to rome. well indeed does it become us of both churches to watch jealously and adversely as against ourselves the errors into which our doctrines, if not preserved and guarded in their purity and simplicity, might have a tendency to seduce the unwary. and whilst i am fully alive to the necessity of us anglican catholics prescribing to ourselves a { } practical application of the same rule in various points of faith and discipline, i would with all delicacy and respect invite roman catholics to do likewise. especially would i entreat them to reflect with more than ordinary scrutiny and solicitude on the vast evils into which the practice of praying to saints and angels, and of pleading their merits at the throne of grace, has a tendency to betray those who are unenlightened and off their guard; and unless my eyes and my ears and my powers of discernment have altogether often deceived and failed me, i must add, actually betrays thousands. often when i have witnessed abroad multitudes of pilgrims prostrate before an image of the virgin, their arms extended, their eyes fixed on her countenance, their words in their native language pouring forth her praises and imploring her aid, i have asked myself, if this be not religious worship, what is? if i could transport myself into the midst of pagans in some distant part of the world at the present day; or could i have mingled with the crowd of worshippers surrounding the image of minerva in athens, or of diana in ephesus, when the servants of the only god called their fellow-creatures from such vanities, should i have seen or heard more unequivocal proofs that the worshippers were addressing their prayers to the idols as representations of their deities? would any difference have appeared in their external worship? when the ephesians worshipped their "great goddess diana and the image which fell down from jupiter," could their attitude, their eyes, or their words more clearly have indicated an assurance in the worshipper, that the spirit of the deity was especially present in that image, than the attitude, the eyes, the words of the pilgrims at einsiedlin for example, are indications of the same { } belief and assurance with regard to the statue of the virgin mary? these thoughts would force themselves again and again on my mind; and though since i first witnessed such things many years have intervened, chequered with various events of life, yet whilst i am writing, the scenes are brought again fresh to my remembrance; the same train of thought is awakened; and the lapse of time has not in the least diminished the estimate then formed of the danger, the awful peril, to which the practice of addressing saints and angels in prayer, even in its most modified and mitigated form, exposes those who are in communion with rome. i am unwilling to dwell on this point longer, or to paint in deeper or more vivid colours the scenes which i have witnessed, than the necessity of the case requires. but it would have been the fruit of a morbid delicacy rather than of brotherly love, had i disguised, in this part of my address, the full extent of the awful dread with which i contemplate any approximation to prayers, of whatever kind, uttered by the lips or mentally conceived, to any spiritual existence in heaven above, save only to the one god exclusively. it is indeed a dread suggested by the highest and purest feelings of which i believe my frame of mind to be susceptible; it is sanctioned and enforced by my reason; and it is confirmed and strengthened more and more by every year's additional reflection and experience. ardently as i long and pray for christian unity, i could not join in communion with a church, one of whose fundamental articles accuses of impiety those who deny the lawfulness of the invocations of saints. but i return from this digression on the peril of idolatry, to which as well the theory as the practice of { } the roman catholic church exposes her members; and willingly repeat my disclaimer of any wish or intention whatever to fasten and filiate upon the church of rome the doctrines or the practice of individuals, or even of different sections of her communion. still, in the same manner as i have referred to the extravagancies which offend us in many parts of christendom now, i would recall some of the excesses into which renowned and approved authors of her communion have been betrayed. i seek not to fix on those members of the roman church who disclaim any participation in such excesses, the folly or guilt of others; but when we find many of the most celebrated among her sons tempted into such lamentable departures from primitive christian worship, we are naturally led to ascertain whether the doctrine be not itself the genuine cause and source of the mischief;--whether the malady be not the immediate and natural effect of the tenet and practice operating generally, and not to be referred to the idiosyncrasy of the patient. a voice seems to address us from every side, when such excesses are witnessed, firmly resist the beginnings of the evil; oppose its very commencement; it is not a question of degree, exclude the principle itself from your worship; give utterance to no invocation; mentally conceive no prayer to any being, save god alone; plead no other merits with him than the merits of his only son. then, and then only, are you safe. then, and then only, is your prayer catholic, primitive, apostolic, and scriptural. the[ ] most satisfactory method of conducting this { } branch of our inquiry seems to be, that we should examine the roman ritual with reference to those several and progressive stages to which i have before generally referred; from the mere rhetorical apostrophe to the direct prayer for spiritual blessings petitioned for immediately from the person addressed. i am neither anxious to establish the progress historically, nor do i wish to tie myself down in all cases to the exact order of those successive stages, in my present citation of testimonies from the roman ritual. my anxiety is to give a fair view of what is now the real character of roman catholic worship, rather than to draw fine distinctions. i shall therefore survey within the same field of view the two fatal errors by which, as we believe, the worship of the church of rome is rendered unfit for the family of christ to acknowledge it generally as their own: i mean the adoration of saints, and the pleading of their merits at the throne of grace, instead of trusting to the alone exclusive merits of the one only mediator jesus christ our lord, and addressing god almighty alone. [footnote : i believe the method best calculated to supply us with the very truth is, as i have before observed, to trace the conduct of christians at the shrines of the martyrs, and follow them in their successive departures further and further from primitive purity and simplicity, on the anniversaries of those servants of god. what was hailed there first in the full warmth of admiration and zeal for the honour and glory of a national or favourite martyr, crept stealthily, and step by step, into the regular and stated services of the church.] i. in the original form of those prayers in which mention was made of the saints departed, christians addressed the supreme being alone, either in praise for the mercies shown to the saints themselves, and to the church through their means; or else in supplication, that the worshippers might have grace to follow their example, and profit by their instruction. such, for instance, is the prayer in the roman ritual[ ] on st. { } john's day[ ] which is evidently the foundation of the beautiful collect now used in the anglican church,--"merciful lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of thy apostle and evangelist st. john, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life, through jesus our lord. amen." such too is the close of the prayer for the whole state of christ's church militant here on earth, offered in our anglican service,--"we bless thy holy name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear, beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom. grant this, o father, for the sake of jesus christ our only mediator and advocate. amen." [footnote : the references will generally be given to the roman breviary as edited by f.c. husenbeth, norwich, . that work consists of four volumes, corresponding with the four quarters of the ecclesiastical year--winter, hiem.; spring, vern.; summer, _Æstiv_.; autumn, aut.; and the volumes will be designated by the corresponding initials, h. v. Æ. a.] [footnote : "ecclesiam, tuam, domine, benignus illustra, ut beati johannis apostoli tui et evangelistæ illuminata doctrinis, ad dona perveniat sempiterna. per dominum."--husen. h. p. .] ii. the second stage supplies examples of a kind of rhetorical apostrophe; the speaker addressing one who was departed as though he had ears to hear. were not this the foundation stone on which the rest of the edifice seems to have been built, we might have passed it by unnoticed. of this we have an instance in the address to the shepherds on christmas-day. "whom have ye seen, ye shepherds? say ye, tell ye, who hath appeared on the earth? say ye, what saw ye? announce to us the nativity of christ[ ]." [footnote : quem vidistis, pastores? dicite, annunciate nobis. in terris quis apparuit? dicite quidnam vidistis? et annunciate christi nativitatem.--h. .] { } another instance is seen in that beautiful song ascribed to prudentius and used on the day of holy innocents: "hail! ye flowers of martyrs." [salvete flores martyrum. h. .] it is of the same character with other songs, said to be from the same pen, in which the town of bethlehem is addressed, and even the cross. "o thou of mighty cities." [o sola magnarum urbium. h. .] "bend thy boughs, thou lofty tree...." [flecte ramos arbor alta, &c. aut. .] "worthy wast thou alone to bear the victim of the world." thus, on the feast of the exaltation of the cross, this anthem is sung,--"o blessed cross, who wast alone worthy to bear the king of the heavens and the lord." [o crux benedicta, quæ sola fuisti digna portare regem coelorum et dominum. alleluia. a. .] though unhappily, in an anthem on st. andrew's day, this apostrophe becomes painful and distressing, in which not only is the cross thus apostrophised, but it is prayed to, as though it had ears to hear, and a mind to understand, and power to act,--"hail, precious cross! do thou receive the disciple of him who hung upon thee, my master, christ." [salve, crux pretiosa suscipe discipulum ejus, qui pependit in te, magister meus christus. a. .] the church of rome, in this instance, gives us a vivid example of the ease with which exclamations and apostrophes are made the ground-work of invocations. in the legend of the day similar, though not the same, words form a part of the salutation, which st. andrew is there said to have addressed { } to the cross of wood prepared for his own martyrdom, and then bodily before his eyes. there are many such addresses to the cross, in various parts of the roman ritual. (see a. .) in such apostrophes the whole of the song of the three children abounds; and we meet with many such in the early writers. iii. the third stage supplies instances of prayer to god, imploring him to allow the supplication of his saints to be offered for us. of this we find examples in the collects for st. andrew's eve and anniversary, for the feast of st. anthony, and various others. "we beseech thee, almighty god, that he whose feast we are about to celebrate may implore thy aid for us," &c. [quæsumus omnipotens deus, ut beatus andreas apostolus cujus prævenimus festivitatem, tuum pro nobis imploret auxilium. a. .] "that he may be for us a perpetual intercessor." [ut apud te sit pro nobis perpetuus intercessor. a. .] "we beseech thee, o lord, let the intercession of the blessed anthony the abbot commend us, that what we cannot effect by our own merits, we may obtain by his patronage [ejus patrocinio assequamur. h. .]: through the lord." these prayers i could not offer in faith. i am taught in the written word to look for no other intercessor in heaven, than one who is eternal and divine, therefore i can need no other. had god, by his revealed word, told me that the intercessions of his servants departed should prevail with him, provided i sought that benefit by prayer, i should, without any misgiving, have implored him to receive their { } prayers in my behalf; but i can find no such an intimation in the covenant. in that covenant the word of the god of truth and mercy is pledged to receive those, and to grant the prayers of those who come to him through his blessed son. in that covenant, i am strictly commanded and most lovingly invited to approach boldly the supreme giver of all good things myself, and to ask in faith nothing wavering, with an assurance that he who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, will, with him, also freely give us all things. in this assurance i place implicit trust; and as long as i have my being in this earthly tabernacle, i will, by his gracious permission and help, pray for whatever is needful for the soul and the body; i will pray not for myself only, but for all, individually and collectively, who are near and dear to me, and all who are far from me; for my friends, and for those who wish me ill; for my fellow christians, and for those who are walking still in darkness and sin;--i will pray for mercy on all mankind. and i will, as occasion offers, desire others among the faithful on earth to pray for me; and will take comfort and encouragement and holy hope from the reflection that their prayers are presented to god in my behalf, and that they will continue to pray for me when my own strength shall fail and the hour of my departure shall draw nigh. but for the acceptance of my own prayers and of theirs i can depend on no other mediator in the world of spirits, than on him, whom his own word declares to be the one mediator between god and men, who prayed for me when he was on earth, who is ever making intercession for me in heaven. i know of no other in the unseen world, by whom i can have access to the father; i find no other offered to me, i seek no { } other, i want no other. i trust my cause,--the cause of my present life, the cause of my soul's eternal happiness,--to him and to his intercession. i thank god for the blessing. i am satisfied; and in the assurance of the omnipotence of his intercession, and the perfect fulness of his mediation, i am happy. on this point it were well to compare two prayers both offered to god; the one pleading with him the intercession of the passion of his only son, the other pleading the prayers of a mortal man. the first prayer is a collect in holy week, the second is a collect on st. gregory's day. we beseech thee, almighty god, that we who among so many adversities from our own infirmity fail, the passion of thy only begotten son interceding for us, may revive. v. . o god, who hast granted the rewards of eternal blessedness[ ] to the soul of thy servant gregory, mercifully grant that we who are pressed down by the weight of our sins, may, by his prayers with thee, be raised up. v. . [footnote : i can never read this, and such passages as this, without asking myself, can such an assertion be in accordance with the inspired teaching?--"judge nothing before the time, until the lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of god." i cor. iv. .] iv. the next form of prayer to which i would invite your serious attention, is one from which my judgment and my feelings revolt far more decidedly even than from the last-mentioned; and i have the most clear denouncement of my conscience, that by offering it i should do a wrong to my saviour, and ungratefully disparage his inestimable merits, and the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction of his omnipotent { } atonement: i mean those prayers, still addressed to god, which supplicate that our present and future good may be advanced by the merits of departed mortals, that by their merits our sins may be forgiven, and our salvation secured; that by their merits our souls may be made fit for celestial joys, and be finally admitted into heaven. of these prayers the roman breviary contains a great variety of examples, some exceeding others very much in their apparent forgetfulness and disregard of the merits of the only saviour, and consequently far more shocking to the reason and affections of us who hold it a point of conscience to make the merits of christ alone, all in all, exclusive of any other to be joined with them, the only ground of our acceptance with god. we find an example of this prayer in the collect on the day of st. saturnine. "o god, who grantest us to enjoy the birth-day of the blessed saturnine, thy martyr, grant that we may be aided by his merits, through the lord." [ejus nos tribue meritis adjuvari per dominum. a. .] another example, in which the supplicants plead for deliverance from hell, to be obtained by the merits and prayers of the saint together, is the collect for december th, the day of st. nicolas. "o god, who didst adorn the blessed pontiff nicolas with unnumbered miracles, grant, we beseech thee, that by his merits and prayers we may be set free from the fires of hell, through," &c. [ut ejus meritis et precibus à gehennæ incendiis liberemur. h. .] another example, in like manner specifying both the merits and intercession of the departed saint, contains { } expressions very unacceptable to many of those who are accustomed to make the bible their study. it is a prayer to joseph, the espoused husband of the virgin mary. of him mention is made by name in the gospel just before and just after the birth of christ, as an upright, merciful man, to whom god on three several occasions made a direct revelation of his will, by the medium of a dream, with reference to the incarnate saviour. again, on the holy family visiting jerusalem, when our lord was twelve years of age, mary, his mother, in her remonstrance with her son, speaks to him of joseph thus: "why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold thy father and i have sought thee sorrowing." upon which not one word was uttered by our saviour that would enable us to form an opinion as to his own will with regard to joseph. our lord seems purposely to have drawn their thoughts from his earthly connexion with them, and to have raised their minds to a contemplation of his unearthly, his heavenly, and eternal origin. "how is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that i must be about my father's business?" after this time, though the writings of the holy book, either historical, doctrinal, or prophetic, at the lowest calculation embrace a period of fourscore years, no allusion is made to joseph as a man still living, or to his memory as one already dead. and yet he is one of those for the benefit of whose intercession the church of rome teaches her members to pray to god, and from whose merits they are taught to hope for succour. on the th of march the following collect is offered to the saviour of the world:-- "we beseech thee, o lord, that we may be succoured by the merits of the husband of thy most holy mother, { } so that what we cannot obtain by our own power, may be granted to us by his intercession. who livest," &c. [v. .] it is anticipating our instances of the different stages observable in the invocation of saints, to quote here direct addresses to joseph himself; still it may be well to bring at once to a close our remarks with regard to the worship paid to him. we find that in the litany of the saints, "st. joseph, pray for us," is one of the supplications; but on his day (march ) there are three hymns addressed to joseph, which appear to be full of lamentable superstition, assigning, as they do, to him a share at least in the work of our salvation, and solemnly stating, as a truth, what, whether true or not, depends upon a groundless tradition, namely, that our blessed lord and mary watched by him at his death; ascribing to joseph also that honour and praise, which the church was wont to offer to god alone. the following are extracts from those hymns: first hymn. "thee, joseph, let the companies of heaven celebrate; thee let all the choirs of christian people resound; who, bright in merits, wast joined in chaste covenant with the renowned virgin. others their pious death consecrates after death; and glory awaits those who deserve the palm. thou alive, equal to those above, enjoyest god, more blessed by wondrous lot. o trinity, most high, spare us who pray; grant us to reach heaven [to scale the stars] by the merits of joseph, that at length we may perpetually offer to thee a grateful song." [te joseph celebrent agmina coelitum. v. .] second hymn. "o, joseph, the glory of those in heaven, and the sure hope of our life, and the safeguard { } of the world, benignly accept the praises which we joyfully sing to thee.... perpetual praise to the most high trinity, who granting to thee honours on high, give to us, by thy merits, the joys of a blessed life." [coelitum, joseph, decus. v. .] third hymn. "he whom we, the faithful, worship with joy, whose exalted triumphs we celebrate, joseph, on this day obtained by merit the joys of eternal life. o too happy! o too blessed! at whose last hour christ and the virgin together, with serene countenance, stood watching. hence, conqueror of hell, freed from the bands of the flesh, he removes in placid sleep to the everlasting seats, and binds his temples with bright chaplets. him, therefore, reigning, let us all importune, that he would be present with us, and that he obtaining pardon for our transgressions, would assign to us the rewards of peace on high. be praises to thee, be honours to thee, o trine god, who reignest, and assignest golden crowns to thy faithful servant for ever. amen." [iste, quem læti colimus fideles. v. .] it is painful to remark, that in these last clauses the very same word is employed when the church of rome applies to joseph to assign to the faithful the rewards of peace, and when she ascribes glory to god for assigning to his faithful servants crowns of gold. indeed these hymns contain many expressions which ought to be addressed to the saviour alone, whose "glory is in the heavens," who is "the hope of us on earth," and "the safeguard of the world." * * * * * under this fourth head i will add only one more specimen. would it were not to be found in the roman { } liturgies since the council of trent: god grant it may ere long be wiped out of the book of christian worship! it is a collect in which the church of rome offers this prayer to god the son:-- "o god, whose right hand raised the blessed peter when walking on the waves, that he sank not; and rescued his fellow-apostle paul, for the third time suffering shipwreck, from the depth of the sea; mercifully hear us, and grant that by the merits of both we may obtain the glory of eternity." [h. .] now suppose for a moment it had been intended in any one prayer negatively to exclude the merits of christ from the great work of our eternal salvation, and to limit our hopes of everlasting glory to the merits of st. peter and st. paul, could that object have been more effectually and fully secured than by this prayer? not one word alluding to the redemption which is in christ can be found in this prayer. the sentiment in the first member of the prayer refers us to the power exercised by the son of god, and son of man, when he was intabernacled in our flesh; and the second expression teaches us to contemplate the providence of our almighty saviour in his deeds of beneficence. but no reference, even by allusion, is here made to the merits of christ's death--none to his merits as our great redeemer; none to his merits as our never-ceasing and never-failing intercessor. we are led to approach the throne of grace only with the merits of the two apostles on our tongue. if those who offer it hope for acceptance through the mediation of jesus christ, and for the sake of his merits, that hope is neither suggested nor fostered by this prayer. the truth, as it is in jesus, would compel us in addressing { } him, the saviour of the world, to think of the merits of neither peter nor paul, of neither angel nor spirit. instead of praying to him that we may obtain the glories of eternity for their merits, true faith in christ would bid us throw ourselves implicitly on his omnipotent merits alone, and implore so great a blessing for his own mercy's sake. if we receive the whole truth, can it appear otherwise than a disparagement of his perfect and omnipotent merits, to plead with him the merits of one, whom the saviour himself rebuked with as severe a sentence as ever fell from his lips, "get thee behind me, satan, thou art an offence to me; for thou savourest not the things that be of god, but those that be of men;" [matt. xvi. .] and of another who after his conversion, when speaking of the salvation wrought by christ, in profound humility confesses himself to be a chief of those sinners for whom the saviour died, "this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom i am chief?" [ tim. i. .] we feel, indeed, a sure and certain hope that these two fellow-creatures, once sinners, but by god's grace afterwards saints, have found mercy with god, and will live with christ for ever; but to pray for the same mercy at his gracious hands for the sake of their merits is repugnant to our first principles of christian faith. when we think of merits, for which to plead for mercy, we can think of christ's, and of christ's alone. v. our thoughts are next invited to that class of prayers which the church of rome authorizes and directs to be addressed immediately to the saints themselves. { } of these there are different kinds, some far more objectionable than others, though all are directly at variance with that one single and simple principle, to which, as we believe, a disciple of the cross can alone safely adhere--prayer to god, and only to god. the words of the council of trent are, as we have already observed, very comprehensive on this subject. they not only declare it to be a good and useful thing supplicantly to invoke the saints reigning with christ: but also for the obtaining of benefits from god, through jesus christ our lord, who is our only redeemer and saviour, to fly to their prayers, help, and assistance. whether these last words can be interpreted as merely words of surplusage, or whether they must be understood to mean that the faithful must have recourse to some help and assistance of the saints beyond their intercession, is a question to which we need not again revert. if it had been intended to embrace other kinds of beneficial succour, and other help and assistance, perhaps it would be difficult to find words more expressive of such general aid and support as a human being might hope to derive, in answer to prayer from the giver of all good. and certainly they are words employed by the church, when addressing prayers directly to god. be this as it may, the public service-books of the church of rome unquestionably, by no means adhere exclusively to such addresses to the saints, as supplicate them to pray for the faithful on earth. many a prayer is couched in language which can be interpreted only as conveying a petition to them immediately for their assistance, temporal and spiritual. but let us calmly review some of the prayers, supplications, invocations, or by whatever name religious addresses now offered to the saints may be called; and { } first, we will examine that class in which the petitioners ask merely for the intercession of the saints. we have an example of this class in an invocation addressed to st. ambrose on his day, december ; the very servant of christ in whose hymns and prayers no address of prayer or invocation to any saint or martyr can be found. "o thou most excellent teacher, the light of the holy church, o blessed ambrose, thou lover of the divine law, deprecate for us [or intercede for us with] the son of god[ ]." [footnote : h. . "deprecare pro nobis filium dei." this invocation to ambrose is instantly followed by this prayer to god: "o god, who didst assign to thy people the blessed ambrose as a minister of eternal salvation, grant, we beseech thee, that we may deserve to have him as our intercessor in heaven, whom we had as a teacher of life on earth."] the church of rome has wisely availed herself of the pious labours of ambrose, bishop of milan; and has introduced into her public worship many of the hymns usually ascribed to him. would she had followed his example, and addressed her invocations to no one but our creator, our redeemer, and our sanctifier! could that holy man hear the supplications now offered to him, and could be make his voice heard in return among those who now invoke him, that voice, we believe, would only convey a prohibitory monition like that of the angel to st. john when he fell down before him, see thou do it not; i am thy fellow-servant; worship god. it is needless to multiply instances of this fifth kind of invocation. in the "litany of the saints" more than fifty different saints are enumerated by name, and are invoked to pray and intercede for those who join in { } it. among the persons invoked are raphael [Æ. cxcii.], gervasius, protasius, and mary magdalene; whilst in the litany [Æ. cxcvi.] for the recommendation of the soul of the sick and dying, the names of abel, and abraham, are specified. under this head i will call your attention only to one more example. indeed i scarcely know whether this hymn would more properly be classed under this head, or reserved for the next; since it appears to partake of the nature of each. it supplicates the martyr to obtain by his prayers spiritual blessings, and yet addresses him as the person who is to grant those blessings. it implores him to liberate us by the love of christ; but so should we implore the father of mercies himself. still, as the more safe course, i would regard it as a prayer to st. stephen only to intercede for us. but it may be well to derive from it a lesson on this point; how easily the transition glides from one false step to a worse; how infinitely wiser and safer it is to avoid evil in its very lowest and least noxious appearance: "martyr of god [or unconquered martyr], who, by following the only son of the father, triumphest over thy conquered enemies, and, as conqueror, enjoyest heavenly things; by the office of thy prayer wash out our guilt; driving away the contagion of evil; removing the weariness of life. the bands of thy hallowed body are already loosed; loose thou us from the bands of the world, by the love of the son of god [or by the gift of god most high]." [h. .] in the above hymn the words included within brackets are the readings adopted in the last english edition of the roman breviary; and in this place, when we are about to refer to many hymns now in use, it may be well to observe, that in the present day we find { } various readings in the hymns as they are still printed for the use of roman catholics in different countries. in some instances the changes are curious and striking. grancolas, in his historical commentary on the roman breviary (venice, , p. ), furnishes us with interesting information as to the chief cause of this diversity. he tells us that pope urban viii., who filled the papal throne from to , a man well versed in literature, especially in latin poetry, and himself one of the distinguished poets of his time, took measures for the emendation of the hymns in the roman breviary. he was offended by the many defects in their metrical composition, and it is said that upwards of nine hundred and fifty faults in metre were corrected, which gave to urban occasion to say that the fathers had begun rather than completed the hymns. these, as corrected, he caused to be inserted in the breviary. grancolas proceeds to tell us that many complained of these changes, alleging that the primitive simplicity and piety which breathed in the hymns had been sacrificed to the niceties of poetry. "accessit latinitas, et recessit pietas." the verse was neater, but the thought was chilled. vi. but the roman church by no means limits herself to this kind of invocation; prayers are addressed to saints, imploring them to hear, and, as of themselves, to grant the prayers of the faithful on earth, and to release them from the bands of sin, without any allusion to prayers to be made by those saints. it grieves me to copy out the invocation made to st. peter on the th of january, called the anniversary of the chair of st. peter at rome; the words of our blessed lord himself, and of his beloved and inspired apostle, seem to rise up in judgment against that prayer, and condemn it. it { } will be well to place that hymn addressed to st. peter, side by side with the very word of god, and then ask, can this prayer be safe? . now, o good shepherd, . jesus saith, i am the good merciful peter, shepherd. john x. . . accept the prayers of us . whatsoever ye shall ask in who supplicate, my name, that will i do. that whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name, he may give it you. john xiv. ; xv. . . and loose the bands of our . the blood of jesus christ sins, by the power committed to his son cleanseth us from all sin. thee, john i. . . by which thou shuttest . these things saith he that heaven against all by a word, is holy, he that is true, he that and openest it[ ]. openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. rev. iii. . i am he that liveth and was dead, and am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death. rev. i. . [footnote : this hymn is variously read. in the edition of mr. husenbeth (h. .) it is: "o peter, blessed shepherd, of thy mercy receive the prayers of us who supplicate, and loose by thy word the bands of our sins, thou to whom is given the power of opening heaven to the earth, and of shutting it when open."--"beate pastor, petre, clemens accipe voces precantum, criminumque vincula verbo resolve, cui potestas tradita aperire terris coelum, apertum claudere." h. .] let it not be answered that many a christian minister is now called a good shepherd. let it not be said that the very words of our ordination imply the conveyance of the power of loosing and binding, of opening and shutting the gates of heaven. when prayer is contemplated, we can think only of one, him, who has appropriated the title of good shepherd to { } himself. and we must see that peter cannot, by any latitude of interpretation, be reckoned now among those to whom the awful duty is assigned of binding and loosing upon earth. the same unsatisfactory associations must be excited in the mind of every one who takes a similar view of christian worship with myself, by the following supplication to various saints on st. john's day: "let the heaven exult with praises[ ], let the earth resound with joy; { } the sacred solemnities sing the glory of the apostles. o ye just judges of the age, and true lights of the world, we pray you with the vows of our hearts, hear the prayers of your suppliants. ye who shut the heaven by a word, and loose its bars, loose us by command, we beseech you, from all our sins. ye to whose word is subject the health and weakness of all, cure us who are diseased in morals, restore us to virtues. so that when christ shall come, the judge at the end of the world, he may make us partakers of eternal joy. to god the father be glory, and to his only son, with the spirit the comforter, now and for ever. amen[ ]." [footnote : having inserted in the text a translation of this hymn from a copy with which i had been long familiar, i think it right to insert here the two forms side by side. they supply an example of the changes to which we have already alluded. _lille_, . _norwich_, . old version. pope urban's version. exultet coelum laudibus, exultet orbis gaudiis, resultet terra gaudiis, coelum resultet laudibus, apostolorum gloriam apostolorum gloriam sacra canunt solemnia. tellus et astra concinunt. vos sæcli justi judices vos sæculorum judices et vera mundi lamina, et vera mundi lumina, votis precamur cordium votis precamur cordium audite preces supplicum. audite voces supplicum. qui coelum verbo clauditis qui templa coeli clauditis serasque ejus solvitis, serasque verbo solvitis, nos a peccatis omnibus nos a reatu noxios solvite jussu, quæsumus. solvi jubete quæsumus. quorum præcepto subditur præcepta quorum protinus salus et languor omnium, languor salusque sentiunt, sanate ægros moribus, sanate mentes languidas, nos reddentes virtutibus. augete nos virtutibus. ut cum judex advenerit ut cum redibit arbiter christus in fine sæculi, in fine christus sæculi, nos sempiterni gaudii nos sempiterni gaudii faciat esse compotes. concedat esse compotes. deo patri sit gloria, jesu, tibi sit gloria ejusque soli filio, qui natus es de virgine, cum spiritu paracleto, cum patre et almo spiritu, et nunc et in perpetuum. in sempiterna sæcula. amen. amen. (h. .) ] [footnote : or as in the present roman breviary:-- let the world exult with joy, let the heaven resound with praise; the earth and stars sing together the glory of the apostles. ye judges of the ages and true lights of the world, with the prayers of our hearts we implore, hear the voices of your suppliants. ye who shut the temples of heaven, and loose its bars by a word, command ye us, who are guilty, to be released from our sins; we pray. ye whose commands forthwith sickness and health feel, heal our languid minds, increase us in virtues, that when christ, the judge, shall return, in the end of the world, he may grant us to be partakers of eternal joy. jesus, to thee be glory, who wast born of a virgin, with the father and the benign spirit, through eternal ages. amen. { } ] many a pious and humble catholic of the roman communion, i have no doubt, would regard these prayers as little more than an application to peter and the rest of the apostles for absolution, and would interpret its several clauses as an acknowledgment only of that power, which christ himself delegated to them of binding and loosing sins on earth. but the gulf fixed between these prayers, and the lawful use of the power given to christ's ordained ministers on earth, is great indeed. to satisfy the mind of this, it is not necessary to enter upon even the confines of the wide field of controversy, as to what was really conveyed by christ to his apostles. i would ask only two questions. could any of us address these same words to one of christ's ministers on earth? and could we address our blessed saviour himself in stronger or more appropriate language, as the lord of our destinies--the god who heareth prayer--the physician of our souls? suppose for example we were celebrating the anniversary of christ's nativity, of his resurrection, or his ascension, what word in this hymn, expressive of { } power, and honour, and justice, and mercy, would not be appropriate? what word would not apply to him, in most perfect accordance with scripture language? and can we without offence, without doing wrong to his great name, address the same to our fellow-servants, even though we may believe them to be with him in glory? let the heaven exult with praises-- let the earth resound with joy; the sacred solemnities sing the glory of the lord. o thou just judge of the age, and true light of the world, we pray thee with the supplications of our hearts hear the prayers of thy suppliants, thou who shuttest the heavens by a word, and loosest its bars. loose us by command, we beseech thee, from all our sins. thou to whose word is subject the health and weakness of all, cure us who are diseased in morals, restoring us to virtue. so that when thou shalt come, the judge at the end of the world, thou mayest make us partakers of eternal joy. glory to thee, o lord, who wast born of a virgin, with the father and the holy spirit, for ever and ever. amen. only for a moment let us see how peculiarly all these expressions are fitting in a hymn of prayer and praise { } to our god and saviour, recalling to our minds the words of inspiration; and then again let us put the question to our conscience, is this language fit for us to use to a fellow-creature? let the heaven exult with praises, let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth resound with joy: let the earth be glad ... (exultet is the very word used in the vulgate translation of the psalm)--before the lord, for he cometh to judge the earth.--ps. xcvi (xcv). . the holy solemnities sing ye shall have a song, as in the the glory of the lord. night when a holy solemnity is kept ... and the lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard. isa. xxx. . let the heaven and earth praise him. ps. lxix (lxviii). . thou just judge of mankind, all judgment is committed and true light of the world, unto the son. john v. . that was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. john i. . with the prayers of our hearts we with my whole heart have i pray thee, sought thee. ps. cxix (cxviii). hear the prayers of thy suppliants. . hear my prayer, o god. ps. lxi (lx). . whom have i in heaven but thee? ps. lxxiii (lxxii). . and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. john v. . thou who shuttest heaven by i have the keys of death and of thy word, hell. these things saith he that and loosest its bars, is holy, he that is true: he that hath the key of david. he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man { } openeth. i have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. rev. i. ; iii. , release us by command, we pray thy sins be forgiven thee. thee, matt. ix. . bless the lord, o from all our sins. my soul ... who forgiveth all thine iniquities. ps. ciii. . this is your blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. matt. xxvi. . have mercy upon me, o god ... according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. ps. li (l). thou to whose word is subject bless the lord, o my soul ... the health and weakness of all, who healeth all thy diseases. ps. ciii (cii). , . do thou heal us who are morally create in me a clean heart, o diseased, god, and renew a right spirit restoring us to virtue; within me. ps. li. ( .) that when thou, the judge, shalt appear in the end of the world, thou mayest grant us to be partakers of eternal joy. this would be a christian prayer, a primitive prayer, a scriptural prayer, a prayer well fitting mortal man to utter by his tongue and from his heart, to the god who heareth prayer; and him who shall in sincere faith offer such a prayer, christ will never send empty away. but if this prayer, fitted as it seems only to be addressed to god, be offered to the soul of a departed saint--i will not talk of blasphemy, and deadly sin, and idolatry,--i will only ask members of the church of rome to weigh all these things well, one by one. these are not subjects for crimination and recrimination. { } we have had far too much of those unholy weapons on both sides. speaking the truth in love, i should be verily guilty of a sin in my own conscience were i, with my views of christian worship, to offer this prayer to the soul of a man however holy, however blessed, however exalted. the next part of our work will be given exclusively to the worship of the blessed virgin mary. { } * * * * * part iii. chapter i. section i.--the virgin mary. the worship of the blessed virgin mary is so highly exalted in the church of rome, as to require the formation of a new name to express its high character. neither could the latin language provide a word which would give an adequate idea of its excellence, nor could any word previously employed by the writers in greek, meet the case satisfactorily. the newly invented term hyperdulia, meaning "a service above others," seems to place the service of the virgin on a footing peculiarly its own, as raised above the worship of the saints departed, and of the angels of god, cherubim and seraphim, with all the hosts of principalities and powers in heavenly places. the service of the virgin mary thus appears not only to justify, but even to require a separate and distinct examination in this volume. the general principles, however, which we have already endeavoured to establish and illustrate with regard as well to the study of the holy scriptures as to the evidence of primitive antiquity, are equally applicable here; and with those principles present to our minds, { } we will endeavour now to ascertain the truth with regard to the worship of the virgin as now witnessed in the roman catholic church. of the virgin mary, think not, brethren of the church of rome, that a true member of the anglican branch of the catholic church will speak disparagingly or irreverently. were such an one found among us, we should say of him, he knows not what spirit he is of. our church, in her liturgy, her homilies, her articles, in the works too of the best and most approved among her divines and teachers, ever speaks of saint mary, the blessed virgin, in the language of reverence, affection, and gratitude. she was a holy virgin and a holy mother. she was highly favoured, blessed among women. the lord was with her, and she was the mother of our only saviour. she was herself blessed, and blessed was the fruit of her womb. we delight in the language of our ancestors, in which they were used to call her "mary, the blissful maid." should any one of those who profess and call themselves christians and catholics, entertain a wish to interrupt the testimony of every succeeding age, and to interpose a check to the fulfilment of her own recorded prophecy, "all generations shall call me blessed," certainly the anglican catholic church will never acknowledge that wish to be the genuine desire of one of her own sons. the lord hath blessed her; yea, and she shall be blessed. but when we are required either to address our supplications to her, or else to sever ourselves from the communion of a large portion of our fellow-christians, we have no room for hesitation; the case offers us no alternative. our love of unity must yield to our love { } of truth; we cannot join in that worship which in our conscience we believe to be a sin against god. whether we are right or wrong in this matter, god will himself judge: and, compared with his acquittal and approval, the severity of man's judgment cannot turn us aside from our purpose. but before any one pronounces a sentence of condemnation against us, or of approval on himself, it well becomes him patiently and dispassionately to weigh the evidence; lest his decision may not be consistent with justice and truth. in addition to what has been already said on the general subject of addressing our invocation to any created being--to any one among the principalities and thrones, dominions, powers, angels, archangels, and all the hosts of heaven, to any one among the saints, martyrs, confessors, and holy men departed hence in the lord--i would submit to my brethren of the roman catholic church some considerations specifically applicable to the case of the blessed virgin, and to the practice of the church of rome in the religious worship paid to her. first, it will be well for us to possess ourselves afresh of whatever light is thrown on this subject by the scriptures themselves. * * * * * section ii.--evidence of holy scripture. the first intimation given to us that a woman was in the providence of god appointed to be the instrument, or channel by which the saviour of mankind should be brought into the world, was made immediately after the fall, and at the very first dawn of the day of salvation. { } i am fully aware how the various criticisms on the words in which that first promise of a saviour is couched, have been the well-spring of angry controversy. i will not enter upon that field. the authorized english version thus renders the passage: "i will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." [gen. iii. .] the roman vulgate, instead of the word "it," reads "she." surely such a point as this should be made a subject of calm and enlightened criticism, without warmth or heart-burnings on either side. but for our present purpose, it matters little what turn that controversy may take. i believe our own to be the true rendering: but whether the word dictated here by the holy spirit to moses should be so translated as to refer to the seed of the woman generally, as in our authorized version, or to the male child, the descendant of the woman, as the septuagint renders it, or to the word "woman" itself; and if the latter, whether it refer to eve, the mother of every child of a mortal parent, or to mary, the immediate mother of our saviour: whatever view of that hebrew word be taken, no christian can doubt, that before the foundations of the world were laid, it was foreordained in the counsels of the eternal godhead, that the future messiah, the redeemer of mankind, should be of the seed of eve, and in the fulness of time be born of a virgin of the name of mary, and that in the mystery of that incarnation should the serpent's head be bruised. i wish not to dwell on this, because it bears but remotely and incidentally on the question at issue. i will, therefore, pass on, quoting { } only the words of one of the most laborious among roman catholic commentators, de sacy. "the sense is the same in the one and in the other, though the expression varies. the sense of the hebrew is, the son of the woman, jesus christ, son of god, and son of a virgin, shall bruise thy head, and by establishing the kingdom of god on earth, destroy thine. the sense of the vulgate is, the woman, by whom thou hast conquered man, shall bruise thy head, not by herself, but by jesus christ." [vol. i. p. .] the only other passage in which reference appears to be made in the old testament to the mother of our lord, contains that celebrated prophecy in the seventh chapter of isaiah, about which i am not aware that any difference exists between the anglican and the roman churches. "a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name immanuel." [isaiah vii. .] i find no passage in the old testament which can by any inferential application be brought to bear on the question of mary's being a proper object of invocation. * * * * * in the new testament, mention by name is made of the virgin mary by st. matthew, st. mark, and st. luke, and by st. john in his gospel, as the mother of our lord, but not by name; and by no other writer. neither st. paul in any one of his many epistles, though he mentions the names of many of our lord's disciples, nor st. james, nor st. peter, who must often have seen her during our lord's ministry, nor st. jude, nor st. john in any of his three epistles, or in the { } revelation (though, as we learn from his own gospel, she had of especial trust been committed to his care)--no one of these either mentions her as living, or alludes to her memory as dead. the first occasion on which any reference is made in the new testament to the virgin mary is the salutation of the angel, as recorded by st. luke in the opening chapter of his gospel. the last occasion is when she is mentioned by the same evangelist, as "mary the mother of jesus," in conjunction with his brethren and with the apostles and the women all continuing in prayer and supplication, immediately after the ascension of our blessed lord. between these two occasions the name of mary occurs under a variety of circumstances, on every one of which we shall do well to reflect. the first occasion, we have already said, is the salutation of mary by the angel, announcing to her that she should be the mother of the son of god. surely no daughter of eve was ever so distinguished among women; and well does it become us to cherish her memory with affectionate reverence. the words addressed to her when on earth by the angel in that announcement, with a little variation of expression, are daily addressed to her by the roman catholic church, now that she is no longer seen, but is removed to the invisible world. "hail, thou that art highly favoured!" (or as the vulgate reads it, "full of grace") "the lord is with thee. blessed art thou among women." [luke i. .] on the substitution of the expression, "full of grace," for "highly favoured," or, as our margin suggests, "graciously accepted, or much graced," i am not desirous { } of troubling you with any lengthened remark. i could have wished that since the greek is different in this passage, and in the first chapter of st. john, where the words "full of grace" are applied to our saviour, a similar distinction had been observed in the roman translation. but the variation is unessential. the other expression, "blessed art thou among women," is precisely and identically the same with the ascription of blessedness made by an inspired tongue, under the elder covenant, to another daughter of eve. "blessed above women," or (as both the septuagint and the vulgate render the word) "blessed among women shall jael the wife of heber the kenite be." [judges v. .] we can see no ground in such ascription of blessedness for any posthumous adoration of the virgin mary. the same observation applies with at least equal strictness to that affecting interview between mary and elizabeth, when, enlightened doubtless by an especial revelation, elizabeth returned the salutation of her cousin by addressing her as the mother of her lord, and hailing her visit as an instance of most welcome and condescending kindness, "whence is this to me, that the mother of my lord should come unto me?" [luke i. .] members of the anglican church are taught to refer to this event in mary's life with feelings of delight and gratitude. on this occasion she uttered that beautiful hymn, "the song of the blessed virgin mary," which our church has selected for daily use at evening prayer. these incidents bring before our minds the image of a spotless virgin, humble, pious, obedient, holy: a chosen servant of god--an exalted pattern for her fellow-creatures; but still a fellow-creature, and a fellow-servant: { } a virgin pronounced by an angel blessed on earth. but further than this we cannot go. we read of no power, no authority, neither the power and influence of intercession, nor the authority or right of command being ever, even by implication, committed to her; and we dare not of our own minds venture to take for granted a statement of so vast magnitude, involving associations so awful. we reverence her memory as a blessed woman, the virgin mother of our lord. we cannot supplicate any blessing at her hand; we cannot pray to her for her intercession. the angel's announcement to joseph, whether before or after the birth of christ, the visit of the magi, the flight into egypt, and the return thence, in the record of all of which events by st. matthew the name of mary occurs, however interesting and important in themselves, seem to require no especial attention with reference to the immediate subject of our inquiry. to joseph the angel speaks of the blessed virgin as "mary thy wife." [matt. i. .] in every other instance she is called "the young child's mother," or "his mother." in relating the circumstances of christ's birth the evangelist employs no words which seem to invite any particular examination. joseph went up into the city of david to be taxed with mary his espoused wife; and there she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. and the shepherds found mary and joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. and mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. [luke ii. .] between the birth of christ, and the flight into egypt, st. luke records an event to have happened by no means unimportant--the presentation of christ in { } the temple. "and when the days of her purification according to the law of moses were accomplished, they brought him to jerusalem to present him to the lord. and he (simeon) came by the spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed god, and said, lord, &c. and joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. and simeon blessed them, and said unto mary his mother, behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in israel; and for a sign that shall be spoken against, (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." [luke ii. .] in this incident it is worthy of remark, that joseph and mary are both mentioned by name, that they are both called the parents of the young child; that both are equally blessed by simeon; and that the good old israelite, illumined by the spirit of prophecy, when he addresses himself immediately to mary, speaks only of her future sorrow, and does not even most remotely or faintly allude to any exaltation of her above the other daughters of abraham. "a sword shall pass through thine own soul also," a prophecy, as st. augustine interprets it, accomplished when she witnessed the sufferings and death of her son. (see de sacy, vol. xxxii. p. .) the next occasion on which the name of the virgin mary is found in scripture, is the memorable visit of herself, her husband, and her son, to jerusalem, when he was twelve years old. and the manner in which this incident is related by the inspired evangelist, so far from intimating that mary was destined to be an object of worship to the believers in her son, affords { } evidence which exhibits strongly a bearing the direct contrary. here again joseph and mary are both called his parents: joseph is once mentioned by name, and so is mary. if the language had been so framed as on purpose to take away all distinction of preference or superiority, it could not more successfully have effected its purpose. but not only so, of the three addresses recorded as having been made by our blessed lord to his beloved mother (and only three are recorded in the new testament), the first occurs during this visit to jerusalem. it was in answer to the remonstrance made by mary, "son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and i have sought thee sorrowing." [luke ii. .] "how is it that ye sought me? knew ye not that i must be about my father's business?"--[or in my father's house, as some render it.] he lifts up their minds from earth to heaven, from his human to his eternal origin. he makes no distinction here,--"wist ye not." again, i would appeal to any dispassionate person to pronounce, whether this reproof, couched in these words, countenances the idea that our blessed lord intended his human mother to receive such divine honour from his followers to the end of time as the church of rome now pays? and whether st. luke, whose pen wrote this account, could have been made cognizant of any such right invested in the virgin? the next passage calling for our consideration is that which records the first miracle: "and the third day there was a marriage in cana of galilee, and the mother of jesus was there, and both jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. and when they wanted wine (when the wine failed), the mother of { } jesus saith unto him, they have no wine. jesus saith unto her, woman, what have i to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." [john ii. .] i have carefully read the comments on this passage, which different writers of the roman catholic communion have recommended for the adoption of the faithful, and i desire not to make any remarks upon them. let the passage be interpreted in any way which enlightened criticism and the analogy of scripture will sanction, and i would ask, after a careful weighing of this incident, the facts, and the words in all their bearings, would any unprejudiced mind expect that the holy and beloved person, towards whom the meek and tender and loving jesus employed this address, was destined by that omniscient and omnipotent saviour to be an object of those religious acts with which, as we shall soon be reminded, the church of rome now daily approaches her? it is pain and grief to me thus to extract and to comment upon these passages of holy writ. the feelings of affection and of reverence approaching awe, with which i hold the memory of that blessed virgin mother of my lord, raise in me a sincere repugnance against dwelling on this branch of our subject, beyond what the cause of the truth as it is in jesus absolutely requires; and very little more of the same irksome task awaits us. you will of course expect me to refer to an incident recorded with little variety of expression, and with no essential difference, by the first three evangelists. st. matthew's is the most full account, and is this,--"while he yet talked to the people, behold his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with him. then one said unto him, { } behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. but he answered and said unto him that told him, who is my mother, and who are my brethren? and he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, behold my mother and my brethren. for whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother." [matt. xii. .] or, as st. luke expresses it,--"and he answered and said unto them, my mother and my brethren are these, who hear the word of god and do it." [luke viii. .] humanly speaking, could a more favourable opportunity have presented itself to our blessed lord of referring to his beloved mother, in such a manner as to exalt her above her fellow daughters of eve,--in such a manner too, as that christians in after days, when the saviour's bodily presence should have been taken away from them, and the extraordinary communications of the spirit of truth should have been withdrawn, might have remembered that he had spoken these things, and have been countenanced by his words in doing her homage? but so far is this from the plain and natural tendency of the words of her blessed son, that, had he of acknowledged purpose (and he has condescended to announce to us, in another place (john xiii. , &c.), the purpose of his words) wished to guard his disciples, whilst the world should last, against being seduced by any reverence and love which they might feel towards himself into a belief that they ought to exalt his mother above all other created beings, and pay her holy worship, we know not what words he could have adopted more fitted for that purpose. there was nothing in the communication which seemed to call for { } such a remark. a plain message announces to him as a matter of fact one of the most common occurrences of daily life. and yet he fixes upon the circumstance as the groundwork not only of declaring the close union which it was his good pleasure should exist between obedient and true believers and himself, but of cautioning all against any superstitious feelings towards those who were nearly allied to him by the ties of his human nature. with reverence i would say, it is as though he desired to record his foreknowledge of the errors into which his disciples were likely to be seduced, and warned them beforehand to shun and resist the temptation. the evidence borne by this passage against our offering any religious worship to the virgin, on the ground of her having been the mother of our lord, seems clear, strong, direct, and inevitable. she was the mother of the redeemer of the world, and blessed is she among women; but that very redeemer himself, with his own lips, assures us that every faithful servant of his heavenly father shall be equally honoured with her, and possess all the privileges which so near and dear a relationship with himself might be supposed to convey.--who is my mother? or, who are my brethren? behold my mother and my brethren! whosoever shall do the will of my father in heaven, the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother. no less should we be expected in this place to take notice of that most remarkable passage of holy scripture, [luke xi. .] in which our blessed lord is recorded under different circumstances to have expressed the same sentiments, but in words which will appear to many even more strongly indicative of his desire to prevent any { } undue exaltation of his mother. "as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked." on the truth or wisdom of that exclamation our lord makes no remark; he refers not to his mother at all, not even to assure them (as st. augustine in after-ages taught, see de sacy, vol. xxxii. p. .), that however blessed mary was in her corporeal conception of the saviour, yet far more blessed was she because she had fully borne him spiritually in her heart. he alludes not to his mother except for the purpose of instantly drawing the minds of his hearers from contemplating any supposed blessedness in her, and of fixing them on the sure and greater blessedness of his true, humble, faithful, and obedient disciples, to the end of time. "but he said, yea, rather [or, as some prefer, yea, verily, and] blessed are they that hear the word of god, and keep it." again, it must be asked, could such an exclamation have been met by such a reply, had our lord's will been to exalt his mother, as she is now exalted by the church of rome? rather, we would reverently ask, would he have given this turn to such an address, had he not desired to check any such feeling towards her? that most truly affecting and edifying incident recorded by st. john as having taken place whilst jesus was hanging in his agony on the cross, an incident which speaks to every one who has a mind to understand and a heart to feel, presents to us the last occasion on which the name of the virgin mother of our lord occurs in the gospels. no paraphrase could add force, or clearness, or beauty to the simple narrative of the evangelist; no exposition could bring out its parts more prominently or { } affectingly. the calmness and authority of our blessed lord, his tenderness and affection, his filial love in the very midst of his agony, it is impossible to describe with more heart-stirring and heart-soothing pathos than is conveyed in the simple language of him whom the saviour at that awful hour addressed, as he committed his mother to him of especial trust. but not one syllable falls from the lips of christ, or from the pen of the beloved disciple, who records this act of his blessed master's filial piety, which can by possibility be construed to imply, that our blessed lord intended mary to be held in such honour by his disciples, as would be shown in the offering of prayer and praise to her after her dissolution. he who could by a word, rather by the mere motion of his will, have bidden the whole course of nature and of providence, so to proceed as that all its operations should provide for the health and safety, the support and comfort of his mother--he, when he was on the cross, and when he was on the point of committing his soul into the hands of his father, leaves her to the care of one whom he loved, and whose sincerity and devotedness to him he had, humanly speaking, long experienced. he bids him treat mary as his own mother, he bids mary look to john as to her own son for support and solace: "now there stood by the cross of jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, mary the wife of cleophas, and mary magdalene. when jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, woman, behold thy son; then saith he to the disciple, behold thy mother." [john xix. .] and he added no more. if christ willed that his beloved mother should end her days in peace, removed equally { } from want and the desolation of widowhood on the one hand, and from splendour and notoriety on the other, nothing could be more natural than such conduct in such a being at such a time. but if his purpose was to exalt her into an object of religious adoration, that nations should kneel before her, and all people do her homage, then the words and the conduct of our lord at this hour seem altogether unaccountable: and so would the words of the evangelist also be, "and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." after this not another word falls from the pen of st. john which can be made to bear on the station, the character, the person, or circumstances of mary. after his resurrection our saviour remained on earth forty days before he finally ascended into heaven. many of his interviews and conversations with his disciples during that interval are recorded in the gospel. every one of the four evangelists relates some act or some saying of our lord on one or more of those occasions. mention is made by name of mary magdalene, of mary [the mother] of joses, of mary [the mother] of james, of salome, of joanna, of peter, of cleophas, of the disciple whom jesus loved, at whose house the mother of our lord then was; of thomas, of nathanael. the eleven also are mentioned generally. but by no one of the evangelists is reference made at all to mary the mother of our lord, as having been present at any one of those interviews; her name is not alluded to throughout. on one solitary occasion subsequently to the ascension of christ, mention is made of mary his mother, in company with many others, and without any further distinction to separate her from the rest: "and when { } they were come in (from having witnessed the ascension of our saviour), they went up into an upper room, where abode both peter, and james, and john, and andrew, philip, and thomas, bartholomew and matthew, james the son of alphaeus, and simon zelotes, and judas the brother of james. these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and mary the mother of jesus, and with his brethren." [acts i. .] not one word is said of mary having been present to witness even the ascension of her blessed son; we read no command of our lord, no wish expressed, no distant intimation to his disciples that they should even show to her marks of respect and honour; not an allusion is there made to any superiority or distinction and preeminence. sixty years at the least are generally considered to be comprehended within the subsequent history of the new testament before the apocalypse was written; but neither in the narrative, nor in the epistles, nor yet in the prophetic part of the holy book, is there the most distant allusion to mary. of him to whose loving care our dying lord committed his beloved mother of especial trust, we hear much. john, we find, putting forth the miraculous power of christ at the beautiful gate of the temple; we find him imprisoned and arraigned before the jewish authorities; but not one word is mentioned as to what meanwhile became of mary. we find john confirming the church in samaria; we find him an exile in the island of patmos; but no mention is made of mary. nay, though we have three of his epistles, and the second of them addressed to one "whom he loved in the truth," we find neither from the tongue nor from the pen of st. john, one single allusion to the mother of our lord alive or dead. and then, whatever may have been the matter { } of fact as to st. paul, neither the many letters of that apostle, nor the numerous biographical incidents recorded of him, intimate in the most remote degree that he knew any thing whatever concerning her individually. st. paul does indeed refer to the human nature of christ derived from his human mother, and had he been taught by his lord to entertain towards her such sentiments as the roman church now professes to entertain, he could not have had a more inviting occasion to give utterance to them. but instead of thus speaking of the virgin mary, he does not even mention her name or state at all, but refers only in the most general way to her nature and her sex as a daughter of adam: "but when the fulness of time was come, god sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law; to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." [gal. iv. .] from a time certainly within a few days of our saviour's ascension the scriptures are totally silent throughout as to mary, whether in life or in death. here we might well proceed to contrast this view which the scriptures of eternal truth give of the blessed virgin mary with the authorized and appointed worship of that branch of the christian church which is in communion with rome. we must first, however, here also examine the treasures of christian antiquity, and ascertain what witness the earliest uninspired records bear on this immediate point. { } * * * * * chapter ii.--evidence of primitive writers. closing the inspired volume, and seeking at the fountain-head for the evidence of christian antiquity, what do we find? for upwards of three centuries and a half (the limit put to our present inquiry) we discover in no author, christian or heathen, any trace whatever of the invocation of the virgin mary by catholic christians. i have examined every passage which i have found adduced by writers of the church of rome, and have searched for any other passages which might appear to deserve consideration as bearing favourably on their view of the subject; and the worship of the virgin, such as is now insisted upon by the council of trent, prescribed by the roman ritual, and practised in the church of rome, is proved by such an examination to have had neither name, nor place, nor existence among the early christians. forgive my importunity if i again and again urge you to join us in weighing these facts well; and to take your view of them from no advocate on the one side or the other. search the scriptures for yourselves, search the earliest writers for yourselves, and for yourselves search with all diligence into the authentic and authorized liturgies of your own church, your missals, and breviaries, and formularies. hearsay evidence, testimony { } taken at second or third hand, vague rumours and surmises will probably expose us, on either side, to error. let well-sifted genuine evidence be brought by an upright and an enlightened mind to bear on the point at issue, and let the issue joined be this, is the practice of praying to the virgin, and praising her, in the language of the prayers and praises now used in the prescribed formularies of the roman church, primitive. catholic, apostolical? i am aware that among those who adhere to the tridentine confession of faith, there are many on whom this investigation will not be allowed to exercise any influence. the sentiments of huet, wherever they are adopted, would operate to the total rejection of such inquiries as we are instituting in this work. his words on the immaculate conception of the virgin are of far wider application than the immediate occasion on which he used them, "that the blessed mary never conceived any sin in herself is in the present day an established principle of the church, and confirmed by the council of trent. in which it is our duty to acquiesce, rather than in the dicta of the ancients, if any seem to think otherwise, among whom must be numbered origen." [origen's works, vol. iv. part , p. .] in this address, however, we take for granted that the reader is open to conviction, desirous of arriving at the truth, and, with that view, ready to examine and sift the evidence of primitive antiquity. in that investigation our attention is very soon called to the remarkable fact, that, whereas in the case of the invocation of saints and angels, the defenders of that doctrine and practice bring forward a great variety of passages, in which mention is supposed to be made of { } those beings as objects of honour and reverential and grateful remembrance, the passages quoted with a similar view, as regards the virgin mary, are very few indeed: whilst the passages which intimate that the early christians paid her no extraordinary honour (certainly not more than we of the anglican church do now) are innumerable. i have thought that it might be satisfactory here to refer to each separately of those earliest writers, whose testimony we have already examined on the general question of the invocation of saints and angels, and, as nearly as may be, in the same order. in the former department of our investigation we first endeavoured to ascertain the evidence of those five primitive writers, who are called the apostolical fathers; and, with regard to the subject now before us, the result of our inquiry into the same works is this: . in the epistle ascribed to barnabas we find no allusion to mary. . the same must be affirmed of the book called the shepherd of hermas. . in clement of rome, who speaks of the lord jesus having descended from abraham according to the flesh, no mention is made of that daughter of abraham of whom he was born. . ignatius in a passage already quoted (ad eph. vii. p. and ) speaks of christ both in his divine and human nature as son of god and man, and he mentions the name of mary, but it is without any adjunct or observation whatever, "both of mary and of god." in another place he speaks of her virgin state, and the fruit of her womb; and of her having borne our god jesus the christ; but he adds no { } more; not even calling her "the blessed," or "the virgin." in the interpolated epistle to the ephesians, the former passage adds "the virgin" after "mary," but nothing more. . in the epistle of polycarp we find an admonition to virgins (page ), how they ought to walk with a spotless and chaste conscience, but there is no allusion to the virgin mary. justin martyr. in this writer i do not find any passage so much in point as the following, in which we discover no epithet expressive of honour, or dignity, or exaltation, though it refers to mary in her capacity of the virgin mother of our lord:--"he therefore calls himself the son of man, either from his birth of a virgin, who was of the race of david, and jacob, and isaac, and abraham, or because abraham himself was the father of those persons enumerated, from whom mary drew her origin." [trypho, § . p. .] and a little below he adds, "for eve being a virgin and incorrupt, having received the word from the serpent, brought forth transgression and death; but mary the virgin having received faith and joy (on the angel gabriel announcing to her the glad tidings, that the spirit of the lord should come upon her, and the power of the highest overshadow her) answered, be it unto me according to thy word. and of her was born he of whom we have shown that so many scriptures have been spoken; he by whom god destroys the serpent, and angels and men resembling [the serpent]; but works a rescue from death for such as repent of evil and believe in him." one more passage will suffice, "and according to the command of god, joseph, taking him with mary, went into egypt." [trypho, § . p. .] { } among those "questions" to which we have referred under the head of justin martyr's works, but which are confessedly of a much less remote date, probably of the fifth century, an inquiry is made, how could christ be free from blame, who so often set at nought his parent? the answer is, that he did not set her at nought; that he honoured her in deed, and would not have hurt her by his words;--but then the respondent adds, that christ chiefly honoured mary in that view of her maternal character, under which all who heard the word of god and kept it, were his brothers and sisters and mother; and that she surpassed all women in virtue. [qu. . p. .] irenÆus. to the confused passage relied upon by bellarmin, in which irenæus is supposed to represent mary as the advocate of eve, we have already fully referred (page of this work). in that passage there is no allusion to any honour paid, or to be paid to her, nor to any invocation of her. in every passage to which my attention has been drawn, irenæus speaks of the mother of our lord as mary, or the virgin, without any adjunct, or term of reverence. clement of alexandria speaks of the virgin, and refers to an opinion relative to her virgin-state, but without one word of honour. [stromat. vii. . p. .] tertullian[ ]. the passages in which this ancient writer refers to the mother of our lord are very far from countenancing the religious worship now paid to her by roman catholics: "the brothers of the lord had not believed on him, as it is contained in the gospel published { } before marcion. his mother likewise is not shown to have adhered to him; whereas others, marys and marthas, were frequently in his company." (see tert. de carne christi, c. . (p. . de sacy, . .)) and he tells us that christ was brought forth by a virgin, who was also about to be married once after the birth, that the two titles of sanctity might be united in christ by a mother who was both a virgin and also once married[ ]. [footnote : paris, . de carne christi, vii. p. . de monogamia, vii. p. . n.b. both these treatises were probably written after he became a montanist.] [footnote : on the works once ascribed to methodius, but now pronounced to be spurious, see above, p. .] origen thus speaks: "announcing to zacharias the birth of john, and to mary the advent of our saviour among men." [comment on john, § . vol. iv. p. .] in his eighth homily on leviticus, he refers to mary as a pure virgin. [vol. ii. p. .] in the forged work of later times, the writer, speaking of our saviour, says, "he had on earth an immaculate and chaste mother, this much blessed virgin mary." [hom. iii. in diversos.] in cyprian we do not find one word expressive of honour or reverence towards the virgin mary. nor is her name mentioned in the letter of his correspondent firmilian, bishop of cappadocia. lactantius speaks of "a holy virgin" [vol. i. p. .] chosen for the work of christ but not one other word of honour, or tending to adoration; though whilst dwelling on the incarnation of the son of god, had he or his fellow-believers paid religious honour to her, he could scarcely have avoided all allusion to it. eusebius speaks of the virgin mary, but is altogether silent as to any religious honour of any kind being due to her. in the oration of the emperor constantine (as it is recorded by eusebius), direct mention is made of the "chaste virginity," and of the maid who was mother { } of god, and yet remained a virgin. but the object present to the author's mind was so exclusively god manifest in the flesh, that he does not throughout even mention the name of mary, or allude to any honour paid or due to her. [cantab. . § . p. . and § . p. .] athanasius, bent ever on establishing the perfect divinity and humanity of christ, thus speaks: "the general scope of holy scripture is to make a twofold announcement concerning the saviour, that he was always god, and is a son; being the word and the brightness and wisdom of the father, and that he afterwards became man for us, taking flesh of the virgin mary, who bare god ([greek: taes theotokou])." [athan. orat. iii. cont. arian. p. .] the work which we have already examined, called the apostolical constitutions, compiled probably about the commencement of the fourth century, cannot be read without leaving an impression clear and powerful on the mind, that no religious honour was paid to the virgin mary at the time when they were written; certainly not more than is now cheerfully paid to her memory by us of the anglican church. take, for example, the prayer prescribed to be used on the appointment of a deaconess; the inference from it must be, that others with whom the lord's spirit had dwelt, were at least held in equal honour with mary: "o eternal god, father of our lord jesus christ, maker of male and female, who didst fill with thy spirit miriam, and hannah, and holda, and didst not disdain that thy son should be born of a woman," &c. [book viii. c. .] thus, { } too, in another passage, mary is spoken of just as other women who had the gift of prophecy; and of her equally and in conjunction with the others it is said, that they were not elated by the gift, nor lifted themselves up against the men. "but even have women prophesied; in ancient times miriam, the sister of aaron and moses; after her deborah; and afterwards huldah and judith; one under josiah, the other under darius; and the mother of the lord also prophesied, and elizabeth her kinswoman; and anna; and in our day the daughters of philip; yet they were not lifted up against the men, but observed their own measure. therefore among you also should any man or woman have such a grace, let them be humble, that god may take pleasure in them." [book viii. c. .] in the apostolical canons i find no reference to mary; nor indeed any passage bearing on our present inquiry, except the last clause of all, containing the benediction. in this passage not only is the prayer for spiritual blessings addressed to god alone, but it is offered exclusively through the mediation of christ alone, without alluding to intercessions of angels saints, or the virgin: "now may god, the only unproduced being, the creator of all things, unite you all by peace in the holy ghost; make you perfect unto every good work, not to be turned aside, unblameable, not deserving reproof; and may he deem you worthy of eternal life with us, by the mediation of his beloved son jesus christ our god and saviour: with whom be glory to him the sovereign god and father, in the holy ghost the comforter, now and ever, world without end. amen." [vol. i. p. .] i have not intentionally omitted any ancient author { } falling within the limits of our present inquiry, nor have i neglected any one passage which i could find bearing testimony to any honour paid to the virgin. the result of my research is, that i have not discovered one solitary expression which implies that religious invocation and honour, such as is now offered to mary by the church of rome, was addressed to her by the members of the primitive catholic church. { } * * * * * chapter iii.--the assumption of the virgin mary. by the church of england, two festivals are observed in grateful commemoration of two events relating to mary as the mother of our lord:--the announcement of the saviour's birth by the message of an angel, called, "the annunciation of the blessed virgin mary," and "the presentation of christ in the temple," called also, "the purification of saint mary the virgin." in the service for the first of these solemnities, we are taught to pray that, as we have known the incarnation of the son of god by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection. in the second, we humbly beseech the divine majesty that, as his only-begotten son was presented in the temple in the substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto him with pure and clean hearts by the same, his son jesus christ our lord. these days are observed to commemorate events declared to us on the most sure warrant of holy scripture; and these prayers are primitive and evangelical. they pray only to god for spiritual blessings through his son. the second prayer was used in the church { } from very early times, and is still retained in the roman breviary (hus. brev. rom. h. .); whereas, instead of the first[ ], we find there unhappily a prayer now supplicating that those who offer it, "believing mary to be truly the mother of god, might be aided by her intercessions with him." [v. .] [footnote : this collect also is found in the roman missal, as a prayer at the post communion; though it does not appear in the breviarium romanum.] in the roman catholic church, on the other hand, feasts are observed to the honour of the virgin mary, in which the anglican church cannot join; such as the nativity of the virgin mary, and the immaculate conception of her by her mother. on the origin and nature of these feasts it is not my intention to dwell. i can only express my regret, that by appointing a service and a collect commemorative of the conception of the virgin[ ] in her mother's womb, and praying that the observance of that solemnity may procure the votaries an increase of peace, the church of rome has given countenance to a superstition, against which at its commencement, so late as the th century, st. bernard strongly remonstrated, in an epistle to the monks of lyons; a superstition which has been supported and explained by discussions in no way profitable to the head or the heart. [epist. . paris, , p. .] [footnote : ut quibus beatæ virginis partus exstitit salutis exordium, conceptionis ejus votiva solemnitas pacis tribuat incrementum. h. .] of all these institutions however in honour of the virgin, the feast of the assumption appears to be as it were the crown and the consummation[ ]. this festival { } is kept to celebrate the miraculous taking up (assumptio) of the virgin mary into heaven. and its celebration, in roman catholic countries, is observed in a manner worthy a cause to which our judgment would give deliberately its sanction; in which our feelings would safely and with satisfaction rest on the firmness of our faith; from joining in which a truly pious mind would have no ground for inward misgiving, nor for the aspiration, would it were founded in truth! [footnote : "the assumption of the virgin mary is the greatest of all the festivals which the church celebrates in her honour. it is the consummation of all the other great mysteries by which her life was rendered most wonderful. it is the birthday of her true greatness and glory, and the crown of all the virtues of her whole life, which we admire single in her other festivals." alban butler, vol. viii. p. .] before such a solemn office of praise and worship were ever admitted among the institutions of the religion of truth, its originators and compilers should have built upon sure grounds; careful too should they also be who now join in the service, and so lend it the countenance of their example; more especially should those sift the evidence well, who, by their doctrine and writings, uphold, and defend, and advance it; lest they prove at the last to love rome rather than the truth as it is in jesus. so solemn, so marked, a religious service in the temples and at the altar of him who is the truth, a service so exalted above his fellows, ought beyond question to be founded on the most sure warrant of holy scripture, or at the least on undisputed historical evidence, as to the alleged matter of fact on which it is built,--the certain, acknowledged, uninterrupted, and universal testimony of the church catholic from the very time. they incur a momentous responsibility who aid in propagating for religious truths the inventions of men[ ]. [footnote : very different opinions are held by roman catholic writers as to the antiquity of this feast. all, indeed, maintain that it is of very ancient introduction; but whilst some, with lambecius (lib. viii. p. ), maintain the antiquity of the festival to be so remote, that its origin cannot be traced; and thence infer that it was instituted by a silent and unrecorded act of the apostles themselves; others (among whom kollarius, the learned annotator on the opinion of lambecius) acknowledged, that it was introduced by an ordinance of the church, though not at the same time in all countries of christendom. that annotator assigns its introduction at rome to the fourth century; at constantinople to the sixth; in germany and france to the ninth.] { } but what is the real state of the case with regard to the fact of the assumption of the virgin mary? it rests (as we shall soon see) on no authentic history; it is supported by no primitive tradition. i profess my surprise to have been great, when i found the most celebrated defenders of the roman catholic cause, instead of citing such evidence as would bear with it even the appearance of probability, appealing to histories written more than a thousand years after the alleged event, to forged documents and vague rumours. i was willing to doubt the sufficiency of my research; till i found its defenders, instead of alleging and establishing by evidence what god was by them said to have done, contenting themselves with asserting his omnipotence, in proof that the doctrine implied no impossibility; dwelling on the fitness and reasonableness of his working such a miracle in the honour of her who was chosen to be the mother of his eternal son; and whilst they took the fact as granted, substituting for argument glowing and fervent descriptions of what might have been the joy in heaven, and what ought to be the feelings of mortals on earth. at every step of the inquiry into the merits of this case, the principle recurs to the mind, that, as men really and in earnest looking onward to a life after this, our duty is to ascertain to the utmost of our { } power, not what god could do, not what we or others might pronounce it fit that god should do, but what he has done; not what would be agreeable to our feelings, were it true, but what, whether agreeably or adversely to our feelings or wishes, is proved to be true. the very moment a christian writer refers me from evidence to possibilities, i feel that he knows not the nature of christianity; he throws me back from the sure and certain hope of the gospel to the "beautiful fable" of socrates,--"it were better to be there than here, if these things are true." but let us inquire into the facts of the case. first, i would observe that it is by no means agreed among all who have written upon the subject, what was the place, or what was the time of the virgin's death. whilst some have maintained that she breathed her last at ephesus, the large majority assert that her departure from this world took place at jerusalem. and as to the time of her death, some have assigned it to the year of the christian era, about the time at which paul and barnabas (as we read in holy scripture) returned to antioch; whilst others refer it to a later date. i am not, however, aware of any supposition which fixes it at a period subsequent to that at which the canon of scripture closes. epiphanius indeed, towards the close of the fourth century, reminding us that scripture is totally and purely silent on the subject as well of mary's death and burial, as of her having accompanied st. john in his travels or not, without alluding to any tradition as to her assumption, thus sums up his sentiments: "i dare to say nothing; but considering it, i observe silence." [epiph. vol. i. p. .] { } should any of my readers have deliberately adopted as the rule of their faith the present practice of the church of rome, i cannot hope that they will take any interest in the following inquiry; but i have been assured, by most sensible and well-informed members of that church, that there is a very general desire entertained to have this and other questions connected with our subject examined without prejudice, and calmly placed before them. to such persons i trust this chapter may not appear altogether unworthy of their consideration. those who would turn from it on the principle to which we have here alluded, will find themselves very closely responding to the sentiments professed by st. bernard, "exalt her who is exalted above the choirs of angels to the heavenly kingdom. these things the church sings to me of her, and has taught me to sing the same to others. for my part, what i have received from it, i am secure in holding and delivering; which also, i confess, i am not over-scrupulous in admitting. (quod non scrupulosius fateor admiserim.) i have received in truth from the church that that day is to be observed with the highest veneration on which she was taken up (assumpta) from this wicked world, and carrying with her into heaven feasts of the most celebrated joys[ ]." [footnote : see lambecius, book viii. p. . the letter of st. bernard is addressed to the canons of lyons on the conception of the holy mary. paris, , p. . his observations in that letter, with a view of discountenancing the rising superstition, in juxtaposition with these sentiments, are well deserving the serious consideration of every one.] let us then, with the authorized and enjoined service of the church of rome for the th of august before us, examine the evidence on which that religious { } service, the most solemn consummation of all the rest, is founded. in the service of the assumption, more than twice seven times is it reiterated in a very brief space, and with slight variations of expression, that mary was taken up into heaven; and that, not on any general and indefinite idea of her beatific and glorified state, but with reference to one specific single act of divine favour, performed at a fixed time, effecting her assumption, as it is called, "to-day." [Æs. .] "to-day mary the virgin ascended the heavens. rejoice, because she is reigning with christ for ever." "mary the virgin is taken up into heaven, to the ethereal chamber in which the king of kings sits on his starry throne." "the holy mother of god hath been exalted above the choirs of angels to the heavenly realms." "come, let us worship the king of kings, to whose ethereal heaven the virgin mother was taken up to-day." and that it is her bodily ascension, her corporeal assumption into heaven, and not merely the transit of her soul[ ] from mortal life to eternal bliss, which the roman church maintains and propagates by this service, is put beyond doubt by the service itself. in the fourth and sixth reading[ ], or lesson, for example, we find these { } sentences:--"she returned not into the earth but is seated in the heavenly tabernacles." "how could death devour, how could those below receive, how could corruption invade, that body, in which life was received? for it a direct, plain, and easy path to heaven was prepared." [footnote : lambecius, indeed (book viii. p. ), distinctly affirms, that one object which the church had in view was to condemn the heresy of those who maintain that the reception of the virgin into heaven, was the reception of her soul only, and not also of her body. "ut damnet eorum hæresin qui sanctissimæ dei genetricis rcceptionem in coelum ad animam ipsius tantum, non vero simul etiam ad corpus pertinere existimant."] [footnote : non reversa est in terram, sed ... in coelestibus tabernaculis collocatum. quomodo mois devoraret, quomodo inferi susciperent, quomodo corruptio invaderit corpus illud in quo vita suscepta est? huic recta plana et facilis ad coelum parata est via. Æs. , .] now, on what authority does this doctrine rest? on what foundation stone is this religious worship built? the holy scriptures are totally and profoundly silent, as to the time, the place, the manner of mary's death. once after the ascension of our lord, and that within eight days, we find mentioned the name of mary promiscuously with others; after that, no allusion is made to her in life or in death; and no account, as far as i can find, places her death too late for mention to have been made of it in the acts of the apostles. the historian, nicephorus callistus, refers it to the th year of claudius, that is about a.d. : after which period, events through more than fifteen years are recorded in that book of sacred scripture. but closing the holy volume, what light does primitive antiquity enable us to throw on this subject? the earliest testimony quoted by the defenders of the doctrine, that mary was at her death taken up bodily into heaven, is a supposed entry in the chronicon of eusebius, opposite the year of our lord . this is cited by coccius without any remark; and even baronius rests the date of mary's assumption upon this testimony. [vol. i. .] the words referred to are these,--"mary the virgin, the mother of jesus, was taken up into heaven; as some write that it had been revealed to them." { } now, suppose for one moment that this came from the pen of eusebius himself, to what does it amount? a chronologist in the fourth century records that some persons, whom he does not name, not even stating when they lived, had written down, not what they had heard as matter of fact, or received by tradition, but that a revelation had been made to them of a fact alleged to have taken place nearly three centuries before the time of that writer. but instead of this passage deserving the name of eusebius as its author, it is now on all sides acknowledged to be altogether a palpable interpolation. suspicions, one would suppose, must have been at a very remote date suggested as to the genuineness of this sentence. many manuscripts, especially the seven in the vatican, were known to contain nothing of the kind; and the roman catholic editor of the chronicon at bordeaux, a.d. , tells us that he was restrained from expunging it, only because nothing certain as to the assumption of the virgin could be substituted in its stead. [p. .] its spuriousness however can no longer be a question of dispute or doubt; it is excluded from the milan edition of , by angelo maio and john zohrab; and no trace of it is to be found in the armenian[ ] version, published by the monks of the armenian convent at venice, in . [footnote : the author visited that convent whilst this edition of the chronicon of eusebius was going through the press, and can testify to the apparent anxiety of the monks to make it worthy of the patronage of christians.] the next authority, to which we are referred, is a letter[ ] said to have been written by sophronius the { } presbyter, about the commencement of the fifth century. the letter used to be ascribed to jerome; erasmus referred it to sophronius; but baronius says it was written "by an egregious forger of lies," ("egregius mendaciorum concinnator,") who lived after the heresies of nestorius and eutyches had been condemned. i am not at all anxious to enter upon that point of criticism; that the letter is of very ancient origin cannot be doubted. this document would lead us to conclude, that so far from the tradition regarding the virgin's assumption being general in the church, it was a point of grave doubt and discussion among the faithful, many of whom thought it an act of pious forbearance to abstain altogether from pronouncing any opinion on the subject. whoever penned the letter, and whether we look to the sensible and pious sentiments contained in it, or to its undisputed antiquity, the following extract cannot fail to be interesting[ ]. [footnote : the letter is entitled "ad paulam et eustochium de assumptione b.m. virginis." it is found in the fifth volume of jerome's works, p. . edit. jo. martian.] [footnote : baronius shows great anxiety (cologne, , vol. i. p. ) to detract from the value of this author's testimony, whoever he was; sharply criticising him because he asserts, that the faithful in his time still expressed doubts as to the matter of fact of mary's assumption. by assigning, however, to the letter a still later date than the works of sophronius, baronius adds strength to the arguments for the comparatively recent origin of the tradition of her assumption. see fabricius (hamburgh, ), vol. ix. p. .] "many of our people doubt whether mary was taken up together with her body, or went away, leaving the body. but how, or at what time, or by what persons her most holy body was taken hence, or whither removed, or whether it rose again, is not known; although some will maintain that she is already revived, and is clothed with a blessed immortality with christ in heavenly places, which very many affirm also of the blessed { } john, the evangelist, his servant, to whom being a virgin, the virgin was intrusted by christ, because in his sepulchre, as it is reported, nothing is found but manna, which also is seen to flow forth. nevertheless which of these opinions should be thought the more true we doubt. yet it is better to commit all to god, to whom nothing is impossible, than to wish to define rashly[ ] by our own authority any thing, which we do not approve of.... because nothing is impossible with god, we do not deny that something of the kind was done with regard to the blessed virgin mary; although for caution's sake (salva fide) preserving our faith, we ought rather with pious desire to think, than inconsiderately to define, what without danger may remain unknown." this letter, at the earliest, was not written until the beginning of the fifth century. [footnote : these last words, stamping the author's own opinion, "which we do not approve of," are left out in the quotation of coccius.] subsequent writers were not wanting to fill up what this letter declares to have been at its own date unknown, as to the manner and time of mary's assumption, and the persons employed in effecting it. the first authority appealed to in defence of the tradition relating to the assumption of the virgin[ ], is usually cited as a well-known work written by euthymius, who was contemporary with juvenal, archbishop of jerusalem. and the testimony simply quoted as his, offers to us the following account of the miraculous transaction[ ]:-- [footnote : coccius heads the extract merely with these words: "euthumius eremita historiæ ecclesiasticæ, lib. iii. c. ;" assigning the date a.d. .] [footnote : this version by coccius differs in some points from the original. jo. dam. vol. ii. p. .] "it has been above said, that the holy pulcheria { } built many churches to christ at constantinople. of these, however, there is one which was built in blachernæ, in the beginning of marcian i's _reign_ of divine memory. these, therefore, namely, marcian and pulcheria, when they had built a venerable temple to the greatly to be celebrated and most holy mother of god and ever virgin mary, and had decked it with all ornaments, sought her most holy body, which had conceived god. and having sent for juvenal, archbishop of jerusalem, and the bishops of palestine, who were living in the royal city on account of the synod then held at chalcedon, they say to them, 'we hear that there is in jerusalem the first and famous church of mary, mother of god and ever virgin, in the garden called gethsemane, where her body which bore the life was deposited in a coffin. we wish, therefore, her relics to be brought here for the protection of this royal city. but juvenal answered, 'in the holy and divinely inspired scripture, indeed, nothing is recorded of the departure of holy mary, mother of god. but from an ancient and most true tradition we have received, that at the time of her glorious falling asleep, all the holy apostles who were going through the world for the salvation of the nations, in a moment of time borne aloft, came together at jerusalem. and when they were near her, they had a vision of angels, and divine melody of the highest powers was heard: and thus with divine and more than heavenly glory, she delivered her holy soul into the hands of god in an unspeakable manner. but that which had conceived god being borne with angelic and apostolic psalmody, with funeral rites, was deposited in a coffin in gethsemane. in this place the chorus and singing of the angels continued for three whole days. but { } after three days, on the angelic music ceasing, since one of the apostles had been absent, and came after the third day, and wished to adore the body which had conceived god, the apostles, who were present, opened the coffin; but the body, pure and every way to be praised, they could not at all find. and when they found only those things in which it had been laid out and placed there, and were filled with an ineffable fragrancy proceeding from those things, they shut the coffin. being astounded at the miraculous mystery, they could form no other thought, but that he, who in his own person had vouchsafed to be clothed with flesh, and to be made man of the most holy virgin, and to be born in the flesh, god the word, and lord of glory, and who after birth had preserved her virginity immaculate, had seen it good after she had departed from among the living, to honour her uncontaminated and unpolluted body by a translation before the common and universal resurrection." such is the passage offered to us in its insulated form, as an extract from euthymius. to be enabled, however, to estimate its worth, the inquirer must submit to the labour of considerable research. he will not have pursued his investigation far, before he will find, that a thick cloud of uncertainty and doubt hangs over this page of ecclesiastical history. not that the evidence alleged in support of the reputed miracle can leave us in doubt as to the credibility of the tradition; for that tradition can scarcely be now countenanced by the most zealous and uncompromising maintainers of the assumption of the virgin. what i would say is, that the question as to the genuineness and authenticity of the works by which the tradition is said to have been preserved, is far more difficult and complicated, than { } those writers must have believed, who appeal to such testimony without any doubt or qualification. the result of my own inquiries i submit to your candid acceptance. the earliest author in whose reputed writings i have found the tradition, is john damascenus, a monk of jerusalem, who flourished somewhat before the middle of the eighth century. the passage is found in the second of three homilies on the "sleep of the virgin," a term generally used by the greeks as an equivalent for the latin word "assumptio." the original publication of these homilies in greek and latin is comparatively of a late date. lambecius, whose work is dated , says he was not aware that any one had so published them before his time[ ]. but not to raise the question of their genuineness, the preacher's introduction of this passage into his homily is preceded by a very remarkable section, affording a striking example of the manner in which christian orators used to indulge in addresses and appeals not only to the spirits of departed men, but even to things which never had life. the speaker here in his sermon addresses the tomb of mary, as though it had ears to hear, and an understanding to comprehend; and then represents the tomb as having a tongue to answer, and as calling forth from the preacher and his congregation an address of admiration and reverence. such apostrophes as these cannot be too steadily borne in mind, or too carefully weighed, when any argument is sought to be drawn from similar salutations offered by ancient christian orators to saint, or angel, or the virgin. [footnote : vol. viii. p. . le quien, who published them in , refers to earlier homilies on the dormitio virginis. jo. damas. paris, . vol. ii. p. .] { } the following are among the expressions in which the preacher, in the passage under consideration, addresses the virgin's tomb: "thou, o tomb, of holy things most holy (for i will address thee as a living being), where is the much desired and much beloved body of the mother of god?" [vol. ii. p. .] the answer of the tomb begins thus, "why seek ye her in a tomb, who has been taken up on high to the heavenly tabernacles?" in reply to this, the preacher first deliberating with his hearers what answer he should make, thus addresses the tomb: "thy grace indeed is never-failing and eternal," &c. [p. .] by the maintainers of the invocation of saints, many a passage far less unequivocal and less cogent than this has been adduced to show, that saints and martyrs were invoked by primitive worshippers. we find john damascenus thus introducing the passage of euthymius, "ye see, beloved fathers and brethren, what answer the all-glorious tomb makes to us; and that these things are so, in the euthymiac history, the third book and fortieth chapter, is thus written word for word." [p. .] lambecius maintains, that the history here quoted by john damascenus was not an ecclesiastical history, written by euthymius, who died in a.d. , but a biographical history concerning euthymius himself, written by an ecclesiastic, whom he supposes to be cyril, the monk, who died in a.d. . this opinion of lambecius is combated by cotelerius; the discussion only adding to the denseness of the cloud which involves the whole tradition. but whether the work quoted had euthymius for its author or its subject, the work itself is lost; and an epitome only of such a work has come down to { } our time. in that abridgment the passage quoted by damascenus is not found. the editor of john damascenus, le quien, in his annotations on this portion of his work, offers to us some very interesting remarks, which bear immediately on the agitated question as to the first observance of the feast of the assumption, as well as on the tradition itself. le quien infers, from the words of modestus, patriarch of jerusalem, that scarcely any preachers before him had addressed their congregations on the departure of the virgin out of this life; he thinks, moreover, that the feast of the assumption was at the commencement of the seventh century only recently instituted. though all later writers affirm that the virgin was buried in the valley of jehoshaphat, in the garden of gethsemane, the same editor says, that this could not have been known to jerome, who passed a great part of his life in bethlehem, and yet observes a total silence on the subject; though in his "epitaph on paula," [jerome, paris, . vol. iv. p. - , ep. .] he enumerates all the places in palestine consecrated by any remarkable event. neither, he adds, could it have been known to epiphanius, who, though he lived long in palestine, yet declares that nothing was known as to the death or burial of the virgin. [vol. ii, p. .] again, in his remarks upon the writings falsely attributed to melito, the same editor says, that since this pseudo-melito speaks many jejune things of the virgin mary, (such for example as at the approach of death her exceeding fear of being exposed to the wiles of satan,) he concludes, from that circumstance, that the work was written before the council of ephesus; alleging this very remarkable reason, that "after that { } time there began to be entertained, as was right, not only in the east, but also in the west, a far better estimate of the parent of god." [p. .] many of the remarks of this editor would appear to savour of prejudice had they come from the pen of one who denied the reality of the assumption, or oppugned the honour and worship now paid by members of the church of rome to the virgin. nor could the suspicion of such prejudice be otherwise than increased by the insinuation which the same editor throws out against the honesty of archbishop juvenal, and on the possibility of his having invented the whole story, and so for sinister purposes deceived marcian and pulcheria; just as he fabricated the writings which he forged for the purpose of securing the primacy of palestine; a crime laid to the charge of juvenal by leo the great, in his letter to maximus, bishop of antioch. [p. . see leo. vol. i. p. . epist. cxix.] it is moreover much to be regretted that in making the extract from john damascenus those who employ it as evidence of primitive belief, have not presented it to their readers whole and entire. in the present case the system of quoting garbled extracts is particularly to be lamented, because the paragraphs omitted in the quotation carry in themselves clear proof that juvenal's answer, as it now appears in john damascenus, could not have been made by juvenal to marcian and pulcheria. for in it is quoted from dionysius the areopagite by name, a passage still found in the works ascribed to him; whereas by the judgment of the most learned roman catholic writers, those spurious works did not make their appearance in christendom till the beginning of the sixth century, fifty years after the council of chalcedon, to assist at which { } juvenal is said to have been present in constantinople when the emperor and empress held the alleged conversation with him. the remainder of the passage from the history of euthymius, rehearsed in this oration of john damascenus, is as follows: "there were present with the apostles at that time both the most honoured timothy the apostle, and first bishop of the ephesians, and dionysius the areopagite, himself, as the great dionysius testifies in the laboured words concerning the blessed hierotheus, himself also then being present, to the above-named apostle timothy, saying thus, since with the inspired hierarchs themselves, when we also as thou knowest, and yourself, and many of our holy brethren had come together to the sight of the body which gave the principle of life; and there was present too james the brother of the lord ([greek: adelphotheos]), and peter the chief and the most revered head of the apostles ([greek: theologon]); then it seemed right, after the spectacle, that all the hierarchs (as each was able) should sing of the boundless goodness of the divine power. after the apostles, as you know, he surpassed all the other sacred persons, wholly carried away, and altogether in an ecstasy, and feeling an entire sympathy with what was sung; and by all by whom he was heard, and seen, and known (and he[ ] knew it not), he was considered to be an inspired and divine hymnologist. and why should i speak to you about the things there divinely said, for unless i have even forgotten myself, i know that i have often heard from you some portions also of those inspired canticles? and the royal personages having heard this, requested of juvenal the archbishop, that the holy coffin, with the { } clothes of the glorious and all-holy mary, mother of god, sealed up, might be sent to them. and this, when sent, they deposited in the venerable temple of the mother of god, built in blachernae; and these things were so." [footnote : this seems confused in the original ([greek: kai eginosketo, kai ouk eginoske]). the whole passage is involved in great obscurity.] it is a fact no less lamentable than remarkable, that out of the lessons appointed by the church of rome for the feast of the assumption, to be read to believers assembled in god's house of prayer, three of those lessons are selected and taken entirely from this very oration of john damascenus[ ]. [footnote : the fourth lesson begins "hodie sacra et animata arca." the fifth " " "hodie virgo immaculata." the sixth " " "eva quæ serpentis," &c.--Æ. . these contain the passages to which we have before referred as fixing the belief of the church of rome to be in the corporeal assumption of mary. "quomodo corruptio invaderet corpus illud in quo vita suscepta est? [greek: pos diaphthora tou zoodochon katatolmaeseie somatos.]"] this, then, is the account nearest to the time of the supposed event; and yet can any thing be more vague, and by way of testimony, more worthless? a writer near the middle of the sixth century refers to a conversation, said to have taken place in the middle of the fifth century; in this reported conversation at constantinople, the bishop of jerusalem is represented to have informed the emperor and empress of an ancient tradition, which was believed, concerning a miraculous event, said to have taken place nearly four hundred years before, that the body was taken out of a coffin without the knowledge of those who had deposited it there: whilst the primitive and inspired account, recording most minutely the journeys and proceedings of some of those very persons, and the letters of others, makes no mention at all of any transaction of the kind; and of { } all the intermediate historians and ecclesiastical writers not one gives the slightest intimation that any rumour of it had reached them[ ]. [footnote : baronius appears not to have referred to this history of euthymius, but he refers to nicephorus, and also to a work ascribed to melito, c. , . nicephorus, paris, . vol. i. p. . lib. ii. c. . baronius also refers to lib. . c. . this nicephorus was patriarch of constantinople. he lived during the reign of our edward the first, or edward the second, and cannot, therefore, be cited in any sense of the word as an ancient author writing on the events of the primitive ages; though the manner in which his testimony is appealed to would imply, that he was a man to whose authority on early ecclesiastical affairs we were now expected to defer.] another authority to which the writers on the assumption of the virgin appeal, is that of nicephorus callistus, who, at the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century, dedicated his work to andronicus palæologus. the account given by nicephorus is this: in the fifth year of claudius, the virgin at the age of fifty-nine, was made acquainted with her approaching death. christ himself then descended from heaven with a countless multitude of angels, to take up the soul of his mother; he summoned his disciples by thunder and storm from all parts of the world. the virgin then bade peter first, and afterwards the rest of the apostles, to come with burning torches[ ]. the apostles surrounded her bed, and "an outpouring of miracles flowed forth." the blind beheld the sun, the deaf heard, the lame walked, and every disease fled away. the apostles and others sang, as the coffin was borne from sion to gethsemane, angels preceding, surrounding, and following it. { } a wonderful thing then took place. the jews were indignant and enraged, and one more desperately bold than the rest rushed forward, intending to throw down the holy corpse to the ground. vengeance was not tardy; for his hands were cut off from his arms[ ]. the procession stopped; and at the command of peter, on the man shedding tears of penitence, his hands were joined on again and restored whole. at gethsemane she was put into a tomb, but her son transferred her to the divine habitation. [footnote : this author here quotes the forged work ascribed to dionysius the areopagite, to which we have before referred.] [footnote : this tradition seems to have been much referred to at a time just preceding our reformation. in a volume called "the hours of the most blessed mary, according to the legitimate rite of the church of salisbury," printed in paris in , from which we have made many extracts in the second part of this work, the frontispiece gives an exact representation of the story at the moment of the jew's hands being cut off. they are severed at the wrist, and are lying on the coffin, on which his arms also are resting. in the sky the virgin appears between the father and the son, the holy dove being seen above her. the same print occurs also in another part of the volume.] nicephorus then refers to juvenal, archbishop of jerusalem, as the authority on which the tradition was received, that the apostles opened the coffin to enable st. thomas (the one stated to have been absent) to embrace the body; and then he proceeds to describe the personal appearance of the virgin. [vol. i. p. .] i am unwilling to trespass upon the patience of my readers by any comment upon such evidence as this. is it within the verge of credibility that had such an event as mary's assumption taken place under the extraordinary circumstances which now invest the tradition, or under any circumstances whatever, there would have been a total silence respecting it in the holy scriptures? { } that the writers of the first four centuries should never have referred to such a fact? that the first writer who alludes to it, should have lived in the middle of the fifth century, or later; and that he should have declared in a letter to his contemporaries that the subject was one on which many doubted; and that he himself would not deny it, not because it rested upon probable evidence, but because nothing was impossible with god; and that nothing was known as to the time, the manner, or the persons concerned, even had the assumption taken place? can we place any confidence in the relation of a writer in the middle of the sixth century, as to a tradition of what an archbishop of jerusalem attending the council of chalcedon, had told the sovereigns at constantinople of a tradition, as to what was said to have happened nearly four hundred years before, whilst in the "acts" of that council, not the faintest trace is found of any allusion to the supposed fact or the alleged tradition, though the transactions of that council in many of its most minute circumstances are recorded, and though the discussions of that council brought the name and circumstances of the virgin mary continually before the minds of all who attended it? this, however, is a point of too great importance to be dismissed summarily; and seems to require us to examine, however briefly, into the circumstances of that council. { } * * * * * chapter iv.--councils of constantinople, ephesus, and the general council of chalcedon the legend on which the doctrine of the assumption of the virgin mary is founded professes to trace the tradition to juvenal, archbishop of jerusalem, when he was sojourning in constantinople for the purpose of attending the general council of chalcedon. to the emperor and empress, who presided at that council, juvenal is said to have communicated the tradition, as received in palestine, of the miraculous taking up of mary's body into heaven. this circumstance seems, as we have already intimated, of itself, to require us to examine the records of that council, with the view of ascertaining whether any traces may be found confirmatory of the tradition, or otherwise; and since that council cannot be regarded as an insulated assembly, but as a continuation rather or resumption of the preceding minor councils of constantinople and ephesus, we must briefly refer to the occasion and nature generally of that succession of christian synods. i am not aware that in the previous councils any thing had transpired { } which could be brought as evidence on the subject of our inquiry. the questions which had disturbed the peace of christendom, and which were agitated in these councils, inseparable from a repeated mention of the virgin mary's name, afforded an opportunity at every turn for an expression of the sentiments of those who composed the councils, and of all connected with them, including the bishop of rome himself, towards her. it would be altogether foreign from the purpose of this address to enter in any way at large upon the character and history of those or the preceding councils, yet a few words seem necessary, to enable us to judge of the nature and weight of the evidence borne by them on the question immediately before us. the source of all the disputes which then rent the church of him who had bequeathed peace as his last and best gift to his followers, was the anxiety to define and explain the nature of the great christian mystery, the incarnation of the son of god; a point on which it were well for all christians to follow only so far as the holy scriptures lead them by the hand. all parties appealed to the nicene council; though there seems to have been, to say the least, much misunderstanding and unnecessary violence and party spirit on all sides. the celebrated eutyches of constantinople was charged with having espoused heterodox doctrine, by maintaining that in christ was only one nature, the incarnate word. on this charge he was accused before a council held at constantinople in a.d. . his doctrine was considered to involve a denial of the human nature of the son of god. the council condemned him of heresy, deposed, and excommunicated him. from this proceeding eutyches appealed to a general council. a council (the authority of which, however, { } has been solemnly, but with what adequate reason we need not stop to examine, repudiated), was convened at ephesus in the following year, by the emperor theodosius. the proceedings of this assembly were accompanied by lamentable unfairness and violence. eutyches was acquitted, and restored by this council[ ]; and his accusers were condemned and persecuted; flavianus, archbishop of constantinople, who had summoned the preceding council, being even scourged and exiled. in his distress that patriarch sought the good offices of leo, bishop of rome, who espoused his cause, but who failed nevertheless of inducing theodosius to convene a general council. his successor marcian, however, consented; and in the year the council of chalcedon was convened, first meeting at nice, and by adjournment being removed to chalcedon. in this council all the proceedings as well of the council of constantinople as of ephesus, were rehearsed at length; and from a close examination of the proceedings of those three councils, only one inference seems deducible, namely, that the invocation and worship of saints and of the virgin mary had not then obtained that place in the christian { } church, which the church of rome now assigns to it; a place, however, which the church of england, among other branches of the catholic church, maintains that it has usurped, and cannot, without a sacrifice of the only sound principle of religious worship, be suffered to retain. [footnote : the sentiments of eutyches, even as they are recorded by the party who charged him with heresy, seem to imply so much of soundness in his principles, and of moderation in his maintenance of those principles, that one must feel sorrow on finding such a man maintaining error at any time. the following is among the records of transactions rehearsed at chalcedon: "he, eutyches, professed that he followed the expositions of the holy and blessed fathers who formed the councils of nicæa and ephesus, and was ready to subscribe to them. but if any where it might chance, as he said, that our fathers were deceived and led astray, that as for himself he neither accepted nor accused those things, but he only on such points investigated the divine scriptures as more to be depended upon [greek: os bebaioteras]."] the grand question then agitated with too much asperity, and too little charity, was, whether by the incarnation our blessed saviour became possessed of two natures, the divine and human. subordinate to this, and necessary for its decision, was involved the question, what part of his nature, if any, christ derived from the virgin mary? again and again does this question bring the name, the office, the circumstances, and the nature of that holy and blessed mother of our lord before these councils. the name of mary is continually in the mouth of the accusers, the accused, the judges, and the witnesses; and had christian pastors then entertained the same feelings of devotion towards her; had they professed the same belief as to her assumption into heaven, and her influence and authority in directing the destinies of man, and in protecting the church on earth; had they habitually appealed to her with the same prayers for her intercession and good offices, and placed the same confidence in her as we find now exhibited in the authorized services of the roman ritual, it is impossible to conceive that no signs, no intimation of such views and feelings, would, either directly or incidentally, have shown themselves, somewhere or other, among the manifold and protracted proceedings of these councils. i have searched diligently, but i can find no expression as to her nature and office, or as to our feelings and conduct towards mary, in which, as a { } catholic of the anglican church, i should not heartily acquiesce. i can find no sentiment implying invocation, or religious worship of any kind, or in any degree; i find no allusion to her assumption. pope leo, who is frequently in these documents [vol. v. p. .] called archbishop of rome, in a letter to julianus, bishop of cos, speaks of christ as born of "a virgin," "the blessed virgin," "the pure, undefiled virgin;" and in a letter to the empress pulcheria, he calls mary simply "the virgin mary." in his celebrated letter to flavianus, not one iota of which (according to the decree of the roman council under pope gelasius) was to be questioned by any man on pain of incurring an anathema, pope leo says that christ was conceived by the holy ghost in the womb of the virgin mary his mother, who brought him forth with the same virgin purity as she had conceived him. flavianus, archbishop of constantinople, in his declaration of faith to the emperor theodosius, affirms, that christ was born "of mary, the virgin--of the same substance with the father according to his godhead--of the same substance with his mother according to his manhood." [vol. vi. p. .] he speaks of her afterwards as "the holy virgin." there is, indeed, one word used in a quotation from cyril of alexandria, and adopted in these transactions, which requires a few words of especial observation. the word is _theotocos_[ ], which the latins were accustomed { } to transfer into their works, substituting only roman instead of greek characters, but which afterwards the authors of the church of rome translated by deipara, and in more recent ages by dei mater, dei genetrix, creatoris genetrix, &c. employing those terms not in explanation of the twofold nature of christ's person, as was the case in these councils, but in exaltation of mary, his virgin mother. this word was adopted by christians in much earlier times than the council of chalcedon; but it was employed only to express more strongly the catholic belief in the union of the divine and human nature in him who was son both of god and man; and by no means for the purpose of raising mary into an object of religious adoration. the sense in which it was used was explained in the seventh act of the council of constantinople, (repeated at chalcedon) as given by cyril of alexandria. "according to this sense of an unconfused union, we confess the holy virgin to be theotocos, because that god the word was made flesh, and became man, and from that very conception united with himself the temple received from her." [footnote : [greek: theotokos]. to those who would depend upon this word _theotocos_ as a proof of the exalted honour in which the early christians held the virgin, and not as indicative of an anxiety to preserve whole and entire the doctrine of the union of perfect god and perfect man in christ, deriving his manhood through her, i would suggest the necessity of weighing well that argument with this fact before them; that to the apostle james, called in scripture the lord's brother, was assigned the name of adelphotheos, or god's brother. this name was given to james, not to exalt him above his fellow-apostles, but to declare the faith of those who gave it him in the union of the divine and human nature of christ.--see joan. damascenus, hom. ii. c. . in dormit. virg. vol. ii. p. . le quien, paris, . the latin translation renders it domini frater.] nothing in our present inquiry turns upon the real { } meaning of that word _theotocos_. some who have been among the brightest ornaments of the anglican church have adopted the translation "mother of god," whilst many others among us believe that the original sense would be more correctly conveyed by the expression "mother of him who was god." i am induced here to lay side by side, with the second article of our anglican church, the confession of faith from cyril, first recited at constantinople, then repeated at ephesus, and afterwards again rehearsed at chalcedon; in its last clause the expression occurs which gave rise to these remarks. _ancient confession._ we confess that our lord jesus, the christ, the only begotten son of god, perfect god and perfect man, from a reasonable soul and body, begotten from everlasting of the father according to his godhead, and in these last days, he the same for us and for our salvation [was born] of mary, the virgin, according to his manhood--of the same substance with the father according to his godhead, of the same substance with us according to his manhood. for of two natures there became an union. wherefore we confess one christ, one lord. according to this sense of the unconfused union, we confess the holy virgin to be theotocos, because that god the word was made flesh, and became man, and from that very conception united with himself the temple received from her. [vol. vi. p. .] _second article of anglican church._ the son, which is the word of the father, begotten from everlasting of the father, the very and eternal god, and of one substance with the father, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the godhead and manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided, whereof is one christ, very god, and very man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men. { } but there are other points in the course of these important proceedings to which i would solicit your especial attention, with the view of comparing the sentiments of the bishop of rome at that day, and also the expressions employed by other chief pastors of christ's flock, with the language of the appointed authorized services of the roman church now, and the sentiments of her reigning pontiff, and of his accredited ministers. the circumstances of the church catholic, as represented in leo's letter in the fifth century, and the circumstances of the church of rome, as lamented by the present pope in [ ], are in many respects very similar. the end desired by leo and flavianus, his brother pastor and contemporary, bishop of constantinople, and by gregory, now bishop of rome, is one and the same, namely, the suppression of heresy, the prevalence of the truth, and the unity of the christian church. but how widely and how strikingly different are the foundations on which they respectively build their hopes for the attainment of that end! [footnote : "the encyclical letter of our most holy father, pope gregory, by divine providence, the sixteenth of that name, to all patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops."] the present roman pontiff's hopes, and desires, and exhortations are thus expressed[ ]:-- [footnote : this is the translation circulated in the roman catholic annual, p. , called, the laity's directory for the year ; on the title page of which is this notice: "the directory for the church service, printed by messrs. keating and brown, is the only one which is published with the authority of the vicars apostolic in england.--london, nov. , ." signed "james, bishop of usula, vic. ap. lond."] "that all may have a successful and happy issue, let us raise our eyes to the most blessed virgin mary, { } who alone destroys heresies, who is our greatest hope, yea, the entire ground of our hope[ ]. may she exert her patronage to draw down an efficacious blessing on our desires, our plans, and proceedings in the present straitened condition of the lord's flock. we will also implore, in humble prayer, from peter, the prince of the apostles, and from his fellow-apostle paul, that you may all stand as a wall to prevent any other foundation than what hath been laid; and supported by this cheering hope, we have confidence that the author and finisher of faith, jesus christ, will at last console us all in the tribulations which have found us exceedingly." [footnote : on this word there is a note of reference to s. bern. serm. de nat. b.m.v. .] "to you, venerable brethren, and the flocks committed to your care, we most lovingly impart, as auspicious of celestial help, the apostolic benediction. given at rome from st. mary major's, august th, the festival of the assumption of the same blessed virgin mary, the year of our lord , of our pontificate the second." how deplorable a change, how melancholy a degeneracy is here evinced from the faith, and hopes, and sentiments of christian bishops in days of old! in the expressed hopes of leo and flavianus, you will seek in vain for any reference or allusion "to the blessed virgin mary, as the destroyer of heresies, the greatest hope, the entire ground of a christian's hope;" you will in vain seek for any exhortation for the faithful "to raise their eyes to her in order to obtain a merciful and happy issue." equally vain would be your search for any "imploring in humble prayer," of peter and paul, or any even distant allusion to help from them. { } to god and god alone are the faithful exhorted to pray; on god and god alone do those christians express that their hopes rely; god alone they regard as the destroyer of heresy, the restorer of peace, and the protector of the church's unity. "their greatest hope, yea, the entire ground of their hope," the being to be "implored in humble prayer," is not mary, nor peter, nor paul, but god alone, the creator, the redeemer, the sanctifier of mary, and of peter, and of paul. thus flavian writing to leo says, "wherefore (in consequence of those errors, and heresies, and distractions, which he had deplored) we must be sober and watch unto prayer, and draw nigh to god." [vol. v. .] and again, "thus will the heresy which has arisen, and the consequent commotion, be easily destroyed by your holy letters with the assistance of god." [vol. v. .] thus leo in his turn writing to julian, bishop of cos, utters this truly christian sentiment. "may the mercy of god, as we trust, grant that without the loss of any soul, against the darts of the devil the sound parts may be entirely preserved, and the wounded parts may be healed. may god preserve you safe and sound, most honoured brother!" [vol. v. .] thus the same bishop of rome writing to flavian, expresses his hopes in these words: "confidently trusting that the help of god will be present, so that one who has been misled, condemning the vanity of his own thoughts, may be saved. may god preserve you in health and strength, most beloved brother!" [vol. v. .] i will detain you by only one more reference to these most interesting documents. the whole council of chalcedon, at the conclusion of all, and when the { } triumph was considered to have been secured over eutyches, and their gratitude was expressed that the heresies had been destroyed--instead of referring to mary as the "sole destroyer of heresies," shout, as if with the voice of one man, from every side, "it is god alone who hath done this!" [vol. vii. p. .] neither antecedently did their chief pastors exhort them to raise their eyes to mary, and promise to "implore" the blessing they needed, "in humble prayer from peter and paul." neither "in the straitened condition of the lord's flock" did they invoke any other than god. and when truth prevailed, and the victory was won, whilst they were lavish of their grateful thanks to the emperor and his queen, who were present and had succoured them; of help from the invisible world they make no mention, save only of the lord's; they had implored neither angel, nor saints, nor virgin to be their protector and patron; no angel, nor saint, nor virgin, shared their praises;--god alone was exalted in that day. and, let not the answer, ever at hand when reference is thus made to the prayers or professions of individuals, whether popes or canonized saints, seduce any now from a pursuit of the very truth. these, it is said, "are the prayers and professions of individuals, it is unfair then to make the church responsible for them; we appeal from them to the church." but in this case the words of the sovereign pontiff are in good faith the words of the church of rome; not because i at all would identify the words of a pope with the church, but because the prayers of the church of rome in her authorized solemn services and acts of worship justify { } pope gregory in every sentiment he utters, and every expression he employs. does gregory bid the faithful lift up their eyes to mary the sole destroyer of heresies? the roman ritual in the lesser office of the holy virgin thus addresses her, "rejoice, o mary virgin; thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world:" and again: "under thy protection we take refuge, holy parent of god; despise not thou our prayers in our necessities, but from all dangers ever deliver us, o glorious and blessed virgin." does gregory assure the faithful that he will implore in humble prayer of peter and paul? in doing so he is only treading in the very footsteps of the roman church itself. in an address, which we have already quoted (see p. ), peter is thus invoked. "now o good shepherd, merciful peter, accept the prayers of us who supplicate, and loose the bands of our sins, by the power committed to thee, by which thou shuttest heaven against all by a word, and openest it." these things are now; but from the beginning it was not so. { } * * * * * chapter v. section i.--present worship of the blessed virgin in the authorized and enjoined services of the church of rome. when from examining the evidence of antiquity we turn to the present enjoined services of the church of rome, it is impossible not to be struck by the fact repeatedly forced upon our notice, that whereas the invocation of the virgin seems to have been introduced at a period much later than those addresses to the martyrs which have already invited our attention, her worship now assumes so much higher a place, and claims so large a share in the public worship of the roman catholic portions of christendom above martyrs, saints, and angels. the offices of the virgin present instances of all those various and progressive stages of divine worship, which we have already exemplified in the case of the martyrs, from the first primitive and christian practice of making the anniversary of the saint a day either of especial praise and prayer to god for the mercies of redemption generally, or of returning thanks to god for the graces manifested in his holy servants now in peace, with prayers for light and strength to enable the worshippers to follow them, as they followed christ--down to the last and worst stage, the consummation { } of all, namely, prayer directly to saints and angels for protection, succour, and spiritual benefits at their hands. i. of the first class is the following collect, retained almost word for word in our anglican service. _on the day of the purification._ "almighty and everlasting god, we humbly beseech thy majesty, that as thy only begotten son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so thou wouldest cause us to be presented unto thee with purified minds. through the same." (omnipotens sempiterne deus, majestatem tuam supplices exoramus, ut sicut unigenitus filius tuus hodierna die cum nostræ carnis substantia est præsentatus, ita nos facias purificatis tibi mentibus præsentari. per eundem dominum.--h. .) such a prayer is founded on the facts of revelation, and is primitive, catholic, apostolic, and evangelical. ii. of the second progressive stage towards the adoration of the saints, the offices of the virgin supply us with various instances; the case, namely, of the christian orator being led by the flow of his eloquence to apostrophize the spirit of the saint, and address him as though he were present, witnessing the celebration of his day, hearing the panegyrics uttered for his honour, and partaking with the congregation in their religious acts of worship. "o holy and spotless virginhood; with what praises to extol thee i know not: because him, whom the heavens could not contain, thou didst bear in thy bosom. { } blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. thou art blessed, o virgin mary, who didst carry the lord, the creator of the world. thou didst give birth to him who made thee, and remainest a virgin for ever. [beata es virgo maria, quæ dominum portasti creatorem mundi: genuisti qui te fecit, et in æternum permanes virgo.--vern. clxii.] hail, holy parent, who didst in child-birth bring forth the king who ruleth heaven and earth for ever and ever. amen." [salve sacra parens enixa puerpera regem, qui coelum terramque regit in sæcula sæculorum. amen.--introit. at the mass on the nativity of the virgin.] in apostrophes like these, the members of the anglican church see nothing in itself harmful, so long as they are kept within due bounds. many of the passages cited from the ancient writers in proof of their having espoused the doctrine, and exemplified in themselves the practice of invoking saints, are nothing more than these glowing addresses. they have been responded to by one of the brightest ornaments, and sweetest minstrels of the anglican church, whose apostrophe at the same time by its own words would guard us against the abuses and excesses in which in the roman catholic church this practice, followed without restraint and indulged in with less and less of caution and soberness, unhappily ended; abuses against which also we cannot ourselves now be too constantly and carefully on our guard. "ave maria! blessed maid, lily of eden's fragrant shade, who can express the love, that nurtured thee so pure and sweet; making thy heart a shelter meet for jesus' holy dove? { } ave maria! mother blest, to whom, caressing and caress'd, clings the eternal child! favour'd beyond archangel's dream, when first on thee with tenderest gleam the newborn saviour smiled. ave maria! thou whose name, all but adoring love may claim, yet may we reach thy shrine; for he, thy son and saviour, vows, to crown all lowly lofty brows with love and joy like thine. bless'd is the womb that bare him,--bless'd the bosom where his lips were press'd; but rather bless'd are they who hear his word and keep it well, the living homes where christ shall dwell, and never pass away." j. keble's christian year. "the annunciation." would that no branch of the church catholic had ever passed the boundary line drawn here so exquisitely by this anglican catholic, from whose lips or pen no syllable could ever fall in disparagement of the holy virgin, as blessed among women, and the holy mother of our lord. to bring about the re-union of christians would in that case have been a far more hopeful task than it is now. iii. in the third stage, a prayer was offered to god, that he would permit the intercessions of the saints to help us; or the prayer contained the expression of a wish,--a desire not addressed either to god or to the saint, merely words expressive of the hope of the individual. the following are some of the many instances now contained in the roman breviary: { } "may the virgin of virgins herself intercede for us to the lord. amen." [ipsa virgo virginum intercedat pro nobis ad dominum. amen.--vern. cxlviii.] in the post-communion, on the day of the assumption, this prayer is offered:--"partakers of the heavenly table, we implore thy clemency, o lord our god, that we who celebrate the assumption of the mother of god, may, by her intercession, be freed from all impending evils. through," &c. [mensæ coelestis participes effecti imploramus clementiam tuam, domine deus noster, ut qui assumptionem dei genetricis colimus, a cunctis malis imminentibus ejus intercessione liberemur. per.--miss. rom.] "we beseech thee, o lord, let the glorious intercession of the blessed and glorious ever virgin mary protect us and bring us to life eternal." [beatæ et gloriosæ semper virginia mariæ, quæsumus, domine, intercessio gloriosa nos protegat, et ad vitam producat æternam.--vern. clv.] "pardon, we beseech thee, o lord, the offences of thy servants, that we, who cannot please thee of our own act, may be saved by the intercession of the mother of thy son, our lord, who liveth with thee." [famulorum tuorum quæsumus, domine, delictis ignosce, ut qui tibi placere de nostris actibus non valemus, genetricis filii tui, domini nostri, intercessione salvemur, qui tecum vivit.--vern. clxix.] on the vigil of the epiphany, this prayer is offered in the post-communion at the mass,--"let this communion, o lord, purge us from guilt, and by the intercession of the blessed virgin, mother of god, let it make us partakers of the heavenly cure. through the same." [hæc nos communio, domine, purget a crimine, et intercedente beata virgine dei genetrice coelestis remedii faciat esse consortes. per eundem.--miss. rom.] "grant, we beseech thee, o lord god, that we thy { } servants may enjoy perpetual health of body and mind, and be freed from present sorrow, and enjoy eternal gladness, by the glorious intercession of the blessed mary, ever virgin. through." [concede nos famulos tuos, quæsumus, domine deus, perpetua mentis et corporis sanitate gaudere, et gloriosa beatæ mariæ semper virginis intercessione a præsenti liberari tristitia, et æterna perfrui lætitia. per dominum.--vern. cxlvi.] on the second sunday after easter, we find a further and more sad departure from the simplicity of christian worship, in which the church of rome declares that the offerings made to god at the lord's supper were made for the honour of the virgin.--"having received, o lord, the helps of our salvation, grant, we beseech thee, that by the patronage of mary, ever virgin, we may be every where protected; in veneration of whom we make these offerings to thy majesty." [sumptis, domine, salutis nostræ subsidiis, da, quæsumus, beatæ mariæ semper virginis patrociniis ubique protegi, _in cujus veneratione_ hæc tuæ obtulimus majestati.--post commun. mis. rom.] on the octave of easter, at the celebration of mass, in the secret, the intercession of the virgin is made to appear as essential a cause of our peace and blessedness as the propitiation of christ; or rather, the two are represented as joint concurrent causes; as though the office of the saviour was confined to propitiation, exclusive altogether of intercession, whilst the office of intercession was assigned to the virgin.--"by thy propitiation, o lord, and by the intercession of the blessed mary, ever virgin, may this offering be profitable to us for perpetual and present prosperity and peace." [tua, domine, propitiatione et beatæ marisæ semper virginis intercessione ad perpetuam atque prsesentem hæc oblatio nobis profecerit prosperitatem et pacem.] { } iv. a fourth station in this lamentable progress was evidenced when christians at the tombs of martyrs implored, yet still in prayer to god, that he would, for the sake of the martyrs, and by their merits and good offices, grant to the petitioner some benefit temporal or spiritual. of that practice, we have an example in this prayer: "o god, who didst deign to choose the blessed virgin's womb in which to dwell, vouchsafe, we beseech thee, to make us, defended by her protection, to take pleasure in her commemoration." [deus qui virginalem aulam beatæ mariæ in qua habitares eligerere dignatus es, da, quæsumus, ut sua nos defensione munitos jucundos facias suæ interesse commemorationi.--Æst. clvi.] "by the virgin mother, may the lord grant us health and peace. amen." [per virginem matrem concedat nobis dominus salutem et pacem. amen.--vern. cxliii.] "by the prayers and merits of the blessed mary, ever virgin, and of all saints, may the lord bring us to the kingdom of heaven." [precibus et meritis beatæ mariæ virginis et omnium sanctorum perducat nos dominus ad regna coelorum.--vern. cxlvii.] "may the virgin mary bless us, together with a pious offspring." [nos cum prole pia benedicat virgo maria.--vern. cxlvii.] v. the fifth grade involves a still more melancholy departure from christian truth and primitive simplicity, when the prayer is no longer addressed to god, but is offered to the virgin, imploring her to intercede with god for the supplicants, yet still asking nothing but her prayers. "blessed mother, virgin undefiled, glorious queen of the world, intercede for us with the lord." [beata mater, et intacta virgo, gloriosa regina mundi, intercede pro nobis ad dominum.--aut. cxliv.] { } "blessed mother of god, mary, perpetual virgin, the temple of the lord, the holy place of the holy spirit, thou alone without example hast pleased our lord jesus christ: pray for the people, mediate for the clergy, intercede for the female sex who are under a vow." [beata dei genitrix, maria virgo perpetua, templum domini, sacrarium spiritus sancti, sola sine exemplo placuisti domino nostro jesu christo; ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu.--vern. clxiii.] "holy mary, pray for us! holy mother of god, pray for us! holy virgin of virgins, pray for us!" in the form of prayer called litaniæ lauretanæ, between the most solemn addresses to the ever blessed trinity, and to the lamb of god that taketh away the sins of the world, are inserted more than forty addresses to the virgin, invoking her under as many varieties of title. she is appealed to as--the mirror of justice, the cause of our joy, the mystical rose, the tower of david, the tower of ivory, the house of gold, the arc of the covenant, the gate of heaven, the refuge of sinners, the queen of angels, the queen of all saints. [vern. ccxxxix.] in examining the case of the invocation of saints, we placed under this head, as the safer course, a kind of invocation which seemed to vacillate between this appeal to them merely for intercession, and the last consummation of all, direct prayer to them for blessings. we exemplified it by the hymn to st. stephen. the following seems very much of the same character, addressed to the virgin:-- "hail, o queen, mother of mercy, our life, sweetness, and hope, hail! to thee we cry, banished sons { } of eve. to thee we sigh, groaning and weeping in this valley of tears. come then, our advocate, turn those compassionate eyes of thine on us, and after this exile show to us jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb. o merciful! o pious! o sweet virgin mary! [salve, regina, mater misericordiæ, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. ad te clamamus exules filii evæ. ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lachrymarum valle. eja ergo advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte, et jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post hoc exilium ostende. o clemens! o pia! o dulcis virgo maria!] "pray for us, o holy mother of god, that we may be made worthy of the promises of christ." [ora pro nobis, sancta dei genetrix, ut digni efficiamur promissionibus christi.--Æst. .] vi. unhappily, in the appointed religious services of the roman ritual, we have too many examples of prayer for benefits spiritual and temporal, addressed directly to the virgin. it is in vain to say that all that is meant is to ask her intercession; the people will not, cannot, do not, regard it in that light. it is affirmed that when the church of rome guides and directs her sons and daughters to pray for specific benefits at the hands of the virgin mother, without any mention of her prayers, without specifying that her petitions are all that they ask; yet they are taught only to ask for her intercession, and are not encouraged to look for the blessings as her gift and at her hands. but, can this be right and safe? in an act of all human acts the most solemn and holy, can recourse be had to such refinements without great danger? among many others of a similar kind this invocation frequently recurs, "deem me worthy to praise thee, { } o sacred virgin; give to me strength against thy enemies." [dignare me laudare te, virgo sacrata. da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos.--Æst. clvi.] the following seems to be among the most favourite addresses to the virgin:--"hail, star of the sea, kind mother of god, and ever virgin! happy gate of heaven, taking that 'hail!' from the mouth of gabriel, establish us in peace,--changing the name of eve. for the guilty, loose their bonds; bring forth light for the blind; drive away our evils; demand for us all good things. show that thou art a mother. let him who endured for us to be thy son, through thee receive our prayers. o excellent virgin, meek among all, us, freed from fault, make meek and chaste; make our life pure; prepare a safe journey; that, beholding jesus, we may always rejoice. praise be to god the father, glory to christ most high, and to the holy spirit; one honour to the three. amen." [ave man's stella, dei mater alma, atque semper virgo! felix coeli porta, sumens illud ave gabrielis ore, funda nos in pace, mutans evæ nomen. solve vincla reis, profer lumen cæcis, mala nostra pelle, bona cuncta posce. monstra te esse matrem; sumat per te preces, qui pro nobis natus tulit esse tuus. virgo singularis, inter omnes mitis, nos culpa solutos, mites fac et castos, vitam præsta puram, iter para tutum, ut videntes jesum semper collætemur. sit laus deo patri, summo christo decus, spiritui sancto, tribus honor unus. amen.--Æst. . ] in the body of this hymn, there is undoubtedly reference to an application to be made to the son, &c.; but can it be fitting that such language as is here suggested to the virgin, for her to use, should be addressed by a { } mortal to god? can such a call upon her to show her power and influence over the eternal son of the eternal father be fitting--"show that thou art a mother?" i confess that against what is here implied, my understanding and my heart entirely revolt.[ ] [footnote : at the present day some versions, contrary to the whole drift and plain sense and meaning of the passage, have translated it, as though the prayer was, that mary would, by her maternal good offices in our behalf, prove to us that she was our mother. an instance of what i mean occurs in a work called "nouveau recueil de cantiques," p. . "monstra te esse matrem: faites voir que vous êtes véritablement notre mère." in an english manual, first printed in , and then called "the prince of wales's manual," the lines are thus rendered-- shew us a mother's care, to him convey our prayer, who for our sake put on the title of thy son. i rejoice to see an indication of a feeling of impropriety in the sentiment in its plain, obvious meaning; still the change is inadmissible. she is addressed above, in the second line, as the mother of god; jesus is immediately mentioned, in the very next line, and through the entire stanza, as her son; and the prayer is, that through her that being who endured to be her son would hear the prayers of the worshippers. since i first prepared this note for the press, i have found a proof, that the obvious grammatical and logical meaning, "show thyself to be his mother," is the sense in which it was received and interpreted before the reformation. in a work dedicated to the "youth of england studious of good morals," and entitled "expositio sequentiarum," the only interpretation given to this passage is thus expressed: "show thyself to be a mother, namely by appeasing thy son, and let thy son take our prayers through thee, who (namely, the son born of the virgin mary,) for us miserable sinners endured to be thy son." "monstra te esse matrem (sc.) placando tilium tuum, et filius tuus sumat precem, id est, deprecationes nostras per te qui (sc.) filius natus ex virgine maria pro nobis (sc.) miseris peccatoribus tulit, id est, sustinuit esse tuus filius." it must be observed, that this work was expressly written for the purpose of explaining these parts of the ritual according to the use of sarum. it was printed by the famous w. de worde, at the sign of the sun in fleet-street, . the passage occurs in p. . b. this is by no means the only book of the kind. i have before me one printed at basil, in , and another at cologne the same year. they are evidently all drawn from some common source, but are not reprints all of the same work, for there are in each some variations. the cologne edition tells us, that it was the reprint of a familiar commentary long ago (jamdudum) published on the hymns. all these join in construing the passage so as to represent the prayer to the virgin to be, that she would show and prove that she was mother by appeasing her son, and causing him to hear our prayers. nor can any other meaning be attached to the translation of the words as given by cardinal du perron (replique à la rep. du roy de la g. bretagne. paris, , p. ). "et pourtant quand l'eglise dit à la saincte vierge, 'defends nous de l'ennemy, et nous reçoy à l'heure delamort,' elle n'entend pas prier la vierge qu'elle nous reçoive par sa propre virtu, mais par impetration de la grace de son fils, comme l'eglise le temoigne en ces mots: 'monstre que tu es mère, reçoive par toy nos prieres celuy, qui né pour nous a eu agreeable d'être tien!'" this novel interpretation i have not found in any one book of former days.] { } another prayer runs thus: "under thy protection we take refuge, holy mother of god. despise not our supplications in our necessities; but from all dangers ever deliver us, o glorious and blessed virgin." [sub tuum præsidium confugimus, sancta dei genetrix; nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, virgo gloriosa et benedicta.--Æst. cxlvi.] let us suppose the object of these addresses to be changed; and instead of the virgin let us substitute the name of the ever-blessed god and father of us all. the very words here addressed to the virgin are offered to him, and spoken of him in some of the most affecting prayers and praises recorded in the bible[ ]. [footnote : the identity of the prayers offered to the virgin with those offered in the book of inspiration, or in the roman ritual to the almighty, becomes very striking, if we lay side by side the authorized language of the roman liturgy, and the only translation of the scriptures authorized by the roman church. _roman ritual in addressing the _roman ritual, or translation virgin_ of the bible, in addressing the almighty_. sub tuum præsidium confugimus. dominus, firmamentum meum et refugium meum. ad te confugi.--ps. xvii. ; cxlii. . nostras deprecationes ne despicias ne despexeris deprecationem in necessitatibus. meam.--ps. liv. . sed a periculis cunctis libera nos. libera, domine, animam servi tui ab omnibus periculis inferni. hiem. ccvi. libera nos a malo. orat. dom. a periculo mortis libera nos, domine.--hiem. cciv. tu nos ab hoste protege. eripe me de inimicis meis, domine.--ps. cxlii. . et hora mortis suspice. _suscipe_, domine, servum tuum.--hiem. ccvi. { } ] but another hymn in the office of the virgin, addressed in part to the blessed saviour himself, and partly to the virgin mary, is still more revolting to all my feelings with regard to religious worship. the redeemer is only asked to remember his mortal birth; no blessing is here supplicated for at his hands; his protection is not sought; no deliverance of our souls at the hour of death is implored from him; these blessings, and these heavenly benefits, and these divine mercies, are sought for exclusively at the hands of the virgin alone. can such a mingled prayer, can such a contrast in prayer, be the genuine fruit of that gospel which bids us ask for all we need in prayer to god in the name and for the sake of his blessed son? "author of our salvation, remember that once, by { } being born of a spotless virgin, thou didst take the form of our body! mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, do thou protect us from the enemy, and receive us at the hour of death. glory to thee, o lord, who wast born of a virgin, with the father and the holy spirit, through eternal ages. amen[ ]." [footnote : memento, salutis auctor, tu nos ab hoste protege, quod nostri quondam corporis, et hora mortis suscipe. ex illibata virgine, gloria tibi, domine, nascendo formam sumpseris. qui natus es de virgine, maria mater gratiæ, cum patre et sancto spiritu, mater misericordiæ, in sempiterna sæcula. amen. in the new version, (referred to in page of the present work,) this hymn stands thus:-- memento, rerum conctitor, maria mater gratiæ, nostri quod olim corporis, dulcis parens clementiæ, sacrata ab alvo virginis, tu nos ab hoste protege, nascendo forrnam sumpseris. in mortis hora suscipe, &c. Æst. clv.] could the beloved john, to whose kind and tender care our blessed lord gave his mother of especial trust, have offered to her such a prayer as this? to god alone surely would he have prayed for deliverance from all evil and mischief. to god alone would he have prayed:--"in the hour of death, good lord, deliver us, and all for jesus christ's sake, our only saviour and mediator." to one other example of the practice of the church of rome i must refer. the rubric in our book of common prayer directs that "at the end of every psalm throughout the year, shall be repeated, glory be to the father, and to the son, and to the holy ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. amen." in the roman breviary also we find this rubric: "this verse, _gloria_, is always said in the end of all psalms, except it be otherwise { } noted." [Æst. .] such notifications occur at the end of various psalms. on the feast of the assumption [Æst. .], fourteen psalms are appointed to be used. at the close of every one of these psalms, without however any note that the gloria is not to be said, there is appended an anthem to the virgin. in some cases, so intimately is the anthem interwoven with the closing words of the psalm, as that under other circumstances it would induce us to infer that the gloria was intended to be left out, especially as in the parvum officium of the virgin [Æst. clv.], though to the various psalms anthems in the same manner have been annexed, yet the words "gloria patri et filio" are inserted in each case between the psalm and the anthem. be this as it may, the annexation of the anthem has a lamentable tendency to withdraw the thoughts of the worshippers from the truths contained in the inspired psalm, and to fix them upon mary and her assumption; changing the church's address from the eternal being, alone invoked by the psalmist, to one, who though a virgin blessed among women, is a creature of god's hand. thus, at the conclusion of the th psalm; "o lord, our lord, how excellent is thy name in all the world," we find immediately annexed these two anthems, "the holy mother of god is exalted above the choirs of angels to the heavenly realms. the gates of paradise are opened to us by thee, [by thee, o virgin [quæ gloriosa]] who glorious triumphest with the angels." thus again, an anthem is attached to the last verse of the th (in the hebrew and english versions the th). "he shall judge the earth in equity, and the people with his truth. rejoice, { } o virgin mary; thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world. deem me worthy to praise thee, hallowed virgin: give me strength against thy enemies." to the th ( th), the latter clause of that address is repeated, with the addition of the following: "after the birth thou didst remain a virgin inviolate. mother of god, intercede for us." an instance of the anthem being so intimately interwoven with the psalm, as to render the insertion of the "gloria," between the two, to say the least, forced and unnatural, occurs at the close of the th ( th) psalm. the vulgate translation of the last verse, differing entirely from the english, is this: "as the habitation of all who rejoice is in thee." this sentence of the psalmist is thus taken up in the roman ritual: "as the habitation of all us who rejoice is in thee, holy mother of god." the object proposed by the church from of old in concluding each psalm by an ascription of glory to the eternal trinity, was to lead the worshipper to apply the sentiments of the psalm to the work of our salvation accomplished by the three persons of the godhead. the analogous end of these anthems in the present service of the church of rome is to fix the thoughts of the worshipper upon mary. this practice unhappily sanctions the excesses into which bonaventura and others have run in their departures from the purity and integrity of primitive worship. cardinal du perron informs us, that at the altar in the office of the mass, prayer is not made directly to any saint, but only obliquely, the address being always made to god. but if prayers are offered in other parts of the service directly to them, it is difficult to see what is gained by that announcement. surely it is trifling { } to make such immaterial distinctions. if as a priest i could address the following prayer to the virgin in preparing for offering mass, why should i not offer a prayer to the same being during its celebration? "o mother of pity and mercy, blessed virgin mary, i a miserable and unworthy sinner, flee to thee with my whole heart and affection, and i pray thy most sweet pity, that as thou didst stand by thy most sweet son hanging upon the cross, so thou wouldest vouchsafe mercifully to stand by me a miserable priest, and by all priests who here and in all the holy church offer him this day, that, aided by thy grace, we may be enabled to offer a worthy and acceptable victim in the sight of the most high and undivided trinity. amen." [o mater pietatis et misericordiæ, beatissima virgo maria, ego miser et indignus peccator ad te confugio toto corde et affectu. et precor dulcissimam pietatem tuam, ut sicut dulcissimo filio tuo in cruce pendenti astitisti, ita et mihi misero sacerdoti et sacerdotibus omnibus hic et in tota sancta ecclesia ipsum hodie offerentibus, clementer assistere digneris, ut tua gratia adjuti dignam et acceptabilem hostiam in conspectu summæ et individuæ trinitatis offerre valeamus. amen.--rom. brev. hus. hiem. p. ccxxxiii.] this is called, in the roman breviary, "a prayer to the blessed virgin before the celebration of the mass," and is immediately followed by another prayer directed to be offered to any saint, male or female, whose feast is on that day celebrated. "o holy n. behold i, a miserable sinner, deriving confidence from thy merits, now offer the most holy sacrament of the body and blood of our lord jesus christ, for thy honour and glory. i humbly and devotedly pray thee that thou wouldest deign to intercede for me to-day, that i may be enabled to offer so great a sacrifice { } worthily and acceptably, and to praise him eternally with thee and with all his elect, and that i may live with him for ever." [o sancte n. ecce ego miser peccator de tuis mentis confisus, offero nunc sacratissimura sacramentum corporis et sanguinis domini nostri jesu christ! pro tuo honore et gloria; precor te humiliter et devote ut pro me hodie intercedere digneris, ut tantum sacrificium digne et acceptabiliter offerre valeam, ut eum tecum et cum omnibus electis ejus æternaliter laudare et cum eo semper regnare valeam.--hiem. ccxxxiii.] * * * * * such, christian brethren, is the result of our inquiries into the real practice of the church of rome with regard to the worship of the virgin mary at the present day, in every part of the world where allegiance to that church is acknowledged. can we wonder that individuals, high in honour with that church, have carried out the same worship to far greater lengths? i have ever present to my mind the principle of fixing upon the church of rome herself that only which is to be found in her canons, acknowledged decrees, and formularies. and unhappily of that which directly contravenes the gospel-rule and primitive practice, far more than enough is found in her authorized rituals to compel all who hold to the gospel and the integrity of primitive times, to withdraw their assent and consent from her worship. but with this principle before us, surely common justice and common prudence require that we should see for ourselves the practical workings of the system. "by their fruits ye shall know them," is a principle no less sanctioned by the gospel than suggested by common sense and experience and, indeed, the shocking lengths to which priests, bishops, cardinals, and canonized persons have gone in this particular of the worship of the virgin, might well { } cause every upright and enlightened roman catholic to look anxiously to the foundation; to determine honestly, though with tender caution and pious care, for himself, whether the corruption be not in the well-head, whether the stream do not flow impregnated with the poison from the very fountain itself; whether the prayers authorized and directed by the church of rome to be offered to the virgin be not in themselves at variance with the first principles of the gospel--faith in one god, the giver of every good, and in one mediator and intercessor between god and men, the man christ jesus, whose blood cleanseth from all sin: in a word, to see whether all the aberrations of her children in this department of religious duty have not their prototype in the laws and ordinances, the rules and injunctions, the example and practice of their mother herself. indeed i am compelled here to say, that, however revolting to us as believers in jesus, and as worshippers of the one true god, are those extravagant excesses into which the votaries of the virgin mary have run, i have found few of their most unequivocal ascriptions of divine worship to her, for a justification of which they cannot with reason appeal to the authorized ritual of the church of rome. in leaving this point of our inquiry, i would suggest two considerations: st, if it was intended that the invocation of the virgin should be exclusively confined to requests, praying her to pray and intercede by prayer for the petitioners, why should language be addressed to her which in its plain, obvious, grammatical, and common sense interpretation conveys the form of direct prayers to her for benefits believed to be at her disposal? and, ndly, if the church had { } intended that her members, when they suppliantly invoked the virgin mary, and had recourse to her aid, should have offered to her direct and immediate prayers that she would grant temporal and spiritual benefits, to be dispensed at her own will, and by her own authority and power, in that case, what words could the church have put into the mouth of the petitioners which would more explicitly and unequivocally have conveyed that idea? * * * * * section ii.--worship of the virgin, continued. i have no intention of dwelling at any length on the extraordinary excesses to which the adoration of the virgin mary has been carried in the church of rome, i do not mean by obscure and illiterate or fanatical individuals, but by her celebrated prelates, doctors, and saints. my researches have brought to my knowledge such a mass of error and corruption in the worship of christians as i never before had any conception of; and rather than bring it all forward, and exhibit it to others, i would turn my own eyes from it altogether. still many reasons render it absolutely necessary that we should not pass over the subject entirely in silence. few in england, i believe, are aware of the real facts of the case; and it well becomes us to guard ourselves and others against such melancholy results as would appear to be inseparable from the invocation and worship of the virgin. if indeed we could be justified in regarding such palpable instances of her worship in its most objectionable form as the { } marks of former and less enlightened times, most gladly would i draw a veil over them, and hide them from our sight for ever. but when i find the solemn addresses of the present chief authorities in the church, nay, the epistles of the present sovereign pontiff himself, cherishing, countenancing, and encouraging the selfsame evil departures from primitive truth and worship, it becomes a matter not of choice, but of necessity, to give examples at least of the deplorable excesses into which the highest and most honoured in that communion have been betrayed. on the present pope's encyclical letter [a.d. ] we have already observed; and in this place i propose to examine only one more of those many excesses meeting us on every side, which characterize the public worship of the virgin. the instance to which i refer seems to take a sort of middle station between the authorized enjoined services of the church of rome, and the devotions of individuals and family worship. it partakes on the one hand far too much of a public character to be considered in the light of private religious exercises; and on the other it wants that authority which would rank it among the appointed services of the church. the devotional parts of the services are found neither in the missals nor the breviaries, and the adoption and celebration of the service seems to be left to the option and care of individuals. but the service is performed in the churches,--a priest presides,--the host is presented to the adorations of the people,--and a sermon is preached by an appointed minister. the service to which i am referring is performed every evening through the entire month of may, and is celebrated expressly in honour of the virgin mary. { } the month of may is dedicated to her, and is called mary's month. temporary altars are raised to her honour, surrounded by flowers and adorned with garlands and drapery; her image usually standing before the altar. societies are formed chiefly for the celebration of the virgin's praises, and in some churches the effect, both to the eye and to the ear, corresponds with the preparation. one thing only is wanting--the proper object of worship. i have now before me a book of hymns published professedly for the religious fraternities in paris, and used in the churches there. [nouveau recueil de cantiques à l'usage des confréries des paroisses de paris. paris, .] many of these hymns are addressed to the virgin alone; some without any reference to the son of god and man, the only saviour, and without any allusion to the god of christians; indeed, an address to a heathen goddess more entirely destitute of christianity can scarcely be conceived. i copy one hymn entire. "around the altars of mary let us, her children, press; to that mother so endeared let us address the sweetest prayers. let a lively and holy mirth animate us in this holy day: there exists no sadness for a heart full of her love. let us adorn this sanctuary with flowers; let us deck her revered altar; let us redouble our efforts to please her. be this month consecrated to her; let the perfume of these crowns form a delicious incense, { } which ascending even to her throne may carry to her both our hearts and our prayers. let the holy name of mary be for us a name of salvation! let our softened soul ever pay to her a sweet tribute of love. let us join the choirs of angels the more to celebrate her beauty; and may our songs of praise resound in eternity. o holy virgin! o our mother! watch over us from fhe height of heaven; and when from this sojourning of misery, we present our prayers to you; o sweet, o divine mary! lend an ear to our sighs, and after this life make us to taste of immortal pleasures." [autour des autels de marie nous ses enfants, empressons-nous; a cette mère si chérie, adressons les voeux les plus doux. qu'une vive et sainte allégresse nous anime dans ce saint jour; il n'existe point de tristesse pour un coeur plein de son amour. ornons des fleurs ce sanctuaire, parons son autel révéré, redoublons d'efforts pour lui plaire. que ce mois lui soi, consacré; que le parfume de ces couronnes forme un encens délicieux, qui s'élevant jusqu'à son trône, lui porte et nos coeurs et nos voeux. que le nom sacré de marie soit pour nous un nom de salut; que toujours notre âme attendrie, d'amour lui paie un doux tribut. unissons-nous aux choeurs des anges, pour mieux célébrer sa beauté. et puissent nos chants de louanges retentir dans l'éternité. o vierge sainte! ô notre mère! veillez sur nous du haut des cieux; et de ce séjour de misère, quand nous vous présentons nos voeux, o douce, ô divine marie! prêtez l'oreille à nos soupirs;-- et faites qu'après cette vie, nous goûtions d'immortels plaisirs. --"cantiques à l'usage des confréries." paris, , p. .] in the course of the present work i have already suggested the propriety of trying the real import, { } the true intent, and meaning and force of an address to a saint, by substituting the holiest name ever uttered on earth, for the name of the saint to whom such address is offered; and if the same words, without any change, form a prayer fit to be offered by us sinners to the saviour of the world, then to ask ourselves, can this be right? i would earnestly recommend the application of the same test here; and in many other of the prayers now offered (for many such there are now offered) by roman catholics to the virgin. suppose, instead of offering these songs of praise and prayer, and self-devotion to mary in the month of may, we were to offer them, on the day of his nativity, to our blessed lord, would they not form an act of faith in him as our saviour and our god? "around the altar of jesus, let us, his children, press; to that saviour so endeared let us address the sweetest prayers. { } let a lively and holy mirth animate us in this holy day: there exists no sadness for a heart full of his love. let the holy name of jesus be for us a name of salvation! let our softened soul ever pay to him a sweet tribute of love. o holy jesus! o our saviour! watch over us from the height of heaven; and when from this sojourning of misery, we present our prayers to thee; o sweet, o divine redeemer, lend an ear to our sighs; and after this life, make thou us to taste of immortal pleasures." * * * * * section iii.--bonaventura. i will now briefly call your attention to the devotional works of the celebrated bonaventura. he is no ordinary man; and the circumstances under which his works were commended to the world are indeed remarkable. i know not how a church can give the impress of its own name and approval in a more full or unequivocal manner to the works of any human being, than the church of rome has stamped her authority on the works of this her saint. in the "acta sanctorum", [antwerp, , july , p. - .] it is stated, that this celebrated man was born in , and died in . he passed through all degrees of ecclesiastical dignities, { } short only of the pontifical throne itself. he was of the order of st. francis, and refused the archbishopric of york, when it was offered to him by pope clement the fourth, in ; whose successor, gregory the tenth, elevated him to the dignity of cardinal bishop. his biographer expresses his astonishment, that such a man's memory should have been so long buried with his body; but adds, that the tardiness of his honours was compensated by their splendour. more than two centuries after his death, his claims to canonization were urged upon sixtus the fourth; and that pope raised him to the dignity of saint; the diploma of his canonization bearing date kalends of may, , the eleventh year of that pope's reign. before a saint is canonized by the pope, it is usually required, that miracles wrought by him, or upon him, or at his tomb, be proved to the satisfaction of the roman court[ ]. we need not dwell on the nature of an inquiry into a matter-of-fact, alleged to have been done by an individual two hundred years before; and whose memory is said to have lain buried with his corpse. among the miracles specified, it is recorded, that on one occasion, when he was filled with solemn awe and fear at the celebration of the lord's supper, god, by an angel, took a particle of the consecrated host from the hands of the priest, and gently placed it in the holy man's mouth. but, with these transactions, i am not anxious to interfere, except so far as to ascertain the degree of authority with which any pious roman catholic must be induced to invest bonaventura as a teacher and instructor in the doctrines of christianity, authorized and appointed by his church. the case stands thus:--pope sixtus iv. states in his { } diploma, that the proctor of the order of minors, proved by a dissertation on the passage of st. john, "there are three that bear record in heaven," that the blessed trinity had borne testimony to the fact of bonaventura being a saint in heaven: the father proving it by the attested miracles; the son, in the wisdom of his doctrine; the holy spirit, by the goodness of his life. the pontiff then adds, in his own words, "he so wrote on divine subjects, that the holy spirit seems to have spoken in him." [page . "ea de divinis rebus scripsit, ut in eo spiritus sanctus locutus videatur."] a testimony referred to by pope sixtus the fifth. [footnote : see the canonization of st. bonaventura in the acta sanctorum.] this latter pontiff was crowned may , , more than a century after the canonization of bonaventura, and more than three centuries after his death. by his order, the works of bonaventura were "most carefully emendated." the decretal letters, a.d. , pronounced him to be an acknowledged doctor of holy church, directing his authority to be cited and employed in all places of education, and in all ecclesiastical discussions and studies. the same act offers plenary indulgence to all who assist at the mass on his feast, in certain specified places, with other minor immunities on the conditions annexed. [page .] in these documents bonaventura[ ] is called the seraphic doctor; and i repeat my doubt, whether it is possible for any human authority to give a more full, entire, and unreserved sanction to the works of any human being than the church of rome has given to { } the writings of bonaventura. and what do those works present to us, on the subject of the invocation and worship of the virgin mary? [footnote : the edition of his works which i have used was published at mentz in ; and the passages referred to are in vol. vi. between pp. and .] taking every one of the one hundred and fifty psalms[ ], bonaventura so changes the commencement of each, as to address them not as the inspired psalmist did, to the lord jehovah, the one only lord god almighty, but to the virgin mary; inserting much of his own composition, and then adding the gloria patri to each. it is very painful to refer to these prostitutions of any part of the holy book of revealed truth; but we must not be deterred from looking this evil in the face. a few examples, however, will suffice. [footnote : it is curious to find the cardinal du perron, in his answer to our king james, declaring that he had never seen nor met with this psalter in his life, and he was sure it was never written by bonaventura; alleging that it was not mentioned by trithemius or gesner. the vatican editors, however, have set that question at rest. they assure us that they have thrown into the appendix all the works about the genuineness of which there was any doubt, and that bonaventura wrote many works not mentioned by trithemius, which they have published from the vatican press. of this psalter there is no doubt. see cardinal du perron, replique à la rep. du roi de grand bretagne. paris, , p. .] in the th psalm. "in thee, o lord, have i trusted; let me not be confounded for ever," &c., the psalter of the virgin substitutes these words: [in te, domina, speravi; non confundar in æternum, &c. &c. in manus tuas, domina, commendo spiritum meum, totam vitam meam, et diem ultimum meum.--p. .] "in thee, o lady, have i trusted; let me not be confounded for ever: in thy grace take me. "thou art my fortitude and my refuge; my consolation and my protection. { } "to thee, o lady, have i cried, while my heart was in heaviness; and thou didst hear me from the top of the eternal hills. "bring thou me out of the snare which they have hid for me; for thou art my succour. "into thy hands, o lady, i commend my spirit, my whole life, and my last day.--gloria patri," &c. in the st psalm we read, "blessed are they whose hearts love thee, o virgin mary; their sins shall be mercifully blotted out by thee...." [beati quorum corda te diligunt, virgo maria; peccata ipsorum a te misericorditer diluentur.--p. .] in the th, v. . "incline thou the countenance of god upon us; compel him to have mercy upon sinners. o lady, thy mercy is in the heaven, and thy grace is spread over the whole earth." [inclina vultum dei super nos. coge illum peccatoribus misereri; domina, in coelo misericordia tua, et gratia diffusa est super terram.] in the th, instead of, "let god arise, and let his enemies be scattered," the psalter of the virgin has, "let mary arise, and let her enemies be scattered." [exurgat maria, et dissipentur inimici ejus.--p. .] in the opening of the rd psalm there is a most extraordinary, rather, as it sounds to me, a most impious and blasphemous comparison of the supreme god with the virgin mary, in reference to the very attribute, which shines first, last, and brightest in him,--his eternal mercy. nay, it draws the contrast in favour of the virgin, and against god. most glad should i be, to find that i had misunderstood this passage; and that it admits of another acceptation[ ]. but i fear its real meaning is beyond controversy. [footnote : a similar idea indeed pervades some addresses to the virgin of the present day, representing the great and only potentate as her heavenly husband, in himself full of rage, but softened into tenderness towards her votaries by her influence. see a hymn, in the paris collection already referred to, p. , &c. of this work (nouveau recueil de cantiques, p. ). daignez, marie, en ce jour vouchsafe, mary, on this day ecouter nos soupirs, to hear our sighs, et seconder nos désirs. and to second our desires. daignez, marie, en ce jour vouchsafe, mary, on this day recevoir notre encens, notre amour. to receive our incense, our love. du céleste époux calm the rage calmez le courroux, of thy heavenly husband, qu'il se montre doux let him show himself kind a tous qui sont à vous. to all those who are thine. du céleste époux of thy heavenly husband calmez le courroux, calm the rage, que son coeur s'attendrisse sur nous. let his heart be softened towards us. { } ] "the lord is a god of vengeance; but thou, o mother of mercy, bendest to be merciful." [deus ultionum dominus; sed tu, mater misericordiæ, ad miserandum inflectis.--p. .] the well known and dearly valued penitentiary psalm ( th) "de profundis," is thus addressed to mary:-- "out of the depths have i called to thee, o lady: "o lady, hear my voice. let thine ears be attent to the voice of thy praise and glorifying: deliver me from the hand of my enemies: confound their imaginations and attempts against me. rescue me in the evil day; and, in the day of death, forget not my soul. carry me into the haven of safety: let my name be enrolled among the just." [de profundis clamavi ad te, domina: domina, exaudi vocem meam. fiant aures tuæ intendentes in vocem laudis et glorificationis tuæ. libera me de manu adversariorum meorum: confunde ingenia et conatus eorum contra me. erue me in die mala: et in die mortis ne obliviscaris animæ meæ. deduc me ad portum salutis: inter justos scribatur nomen meum.--p. .] { } but, as the penitential psalms are thus turned, from him to whom the psalmist addressed them, so his hymns of praise to jehovah, are made to flow through the same channel to the virgin. and all nature in the sea, on the earth, in the heavens, and heaven of heavens, is called upon to praise and glorify mary. thus, in the th psalm, we read,-- "praise our lady of heaven, glorify her in the highest. praise her, all ye men and cattle, ye birds of the heaven, and fishes of the sea. praise her, sun and moon; ye stars and circles of the planets. praise her, cherubim and seraphim, thrones and dominions, and powers. praise her, all ye legions of angels. praise her, all ye orders of spirits above." [laudate dominam nostram de coelis: glorificate eam in excelsis. laudate eam omnes homines et jumenta: volucres coeli et pisces maris. laudate eam sol et luna: stellæ, et circuli planetarum. laudate eam cherubim et seraphim: throni et dominationes, et potestates. laudate eam omnes legiones angelorum. laudate eam omnes ordines spirituum supernorum.--p. .] the last sentence of the psalms is thus rendered,--"let every spirit [_or_ every thing that hath breath] praise our lady." to this psalter are added many hymns changed in the same manner. one, entitled, "a canticle, like that of habakkuk iii." presents to us an address to the virgin mary, of the very words which our blessed saviour most solemnly addressed to his heavenly father. o lord, i have heard thy o lady, i have heard thy report, speech, and was afraid, &c. &c. and was astonished; i considered thy works, o lady, and i was afraid at thy work. in the midst of the years thou hast revived it. { } i will confess to thee, o lady, because thou hast hid these things from the wise, and hast revealed them to babes. thy glory hath covered the heavens, and the earth is full of thy mercy. thou, o virgin, wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, for salvation with thy christ [thy anointed]. o thou blessed, our salvation rests in thy hands. remember our poverty, o thou pious one. whom thou willest, he shall be saved; and he from whom thou turnest away thy countenance, goeth into destruction. [domina, audivi auditionem tuam, et obstupui: consideravi opera tua, et expavi, domina, opus tuum: circa medium annorum vivificasti illud. confitebor tibi, domina: quia abscondisti hæc a sapientibus: et revelasti ea parvulis. operuit coelos gloria tua, et misericordia tua plena est terra. egressa es, virgo, in salutem populi tui: in salutem cum christo tuo. o benedicta, in manibus tuis est reposita nostra salus; recordare, pia, paupertatis nostræ. quem vis, ipse salvus erit, et a quo avertis vultum tuum, vadit in interitum.--g.p., &c.] the song of the three children is altered in the same manner. in it as well as in the canticle of zacharias, these prayers are introduced; "o mother of mercy, have mercy upon us miserable sinners; who neglect to repent of our past sins, and commit every day many to be repented of." [miserere, misericordiæ mater, nobis miseris peccatoribus, qui retroacta peccata poenitere negligimus, ac multa quotidie poenitenda committimus.] { } the te deum is thus lamentably perverted: "we praise thee, mother of god; we acknowledge thee, mary the virgin. [te matrem dei laudamus; te mariam virginem profitemur.] "all the earth doth worship thee, spouse of the eternal father. "to thee all angels and archangels, thrones and principalities, faithfully do service.... "to thee the whole angelic creation with incessant voice proclaim, "holy! holy! holy! mary, parent, mother of god, and virgin!... "... thou with thy son sittest at the right hand of the father.... "o lady, save thy people, that we may partake of the inheritance of thy son. "and rule us and guard us for ever.... "day by day we salute thee, o pious one; and we desire to praise thee in mind and voice even for ever. "vouchsafe, o sweet mary, now and for ever, to keep us without sin. "have mercy upon us, o pious one; have mercy upon us. "let thy great mercy be with us, because we put our trust in thee, o virgin mary. "in thee, sweet mary, do we hope, defend thou us eternally. { } "praise becomes thee, empire becomes thee; to thee be virtue and glory for ever and ever. amen." [salvum fac populum tuum, domina, ut simus participes hæreditatis filii tui, et rege nos et custodi nos in æternum. dignare, dulcis maria, mine et semper nos sine delicto conservare. miserere, pia, nobis! miserere nobis! fiat misericordia tua magna nobiscum, quia in te, virgo maria, confidimus. in te, dulcis maria, speramus, nos defendas in æternum. te decet laus, te decet imperium, tibi virtus et gloria in sæcula sæculorum, amen.] can this by any the most subtle refinement be understood to be a mere request to her to pray for us? the athanasian creed is employed in the same manner; and it is very remarkable that the assumption itself of the virgin into heaven is there specified as one of the points to be believed on pain of losing all hopes of salvation. "whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold firm the faith concerning the virgin mary: which except a man keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.... [quicunque vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est ut teneat de maria firmam fidem.] "whom at length he took up (assumpsit) unto heaven, and she sitteth at the right hand of her son, not ceasing to pray to her son for us. [quam demum ipse in coelum assumpsit, et sedit ad dexteram filii, non cessans pro nobis filium exorare.] "this is the faith concerning mary the virgin, which except every one believe faithfully and firmly he cannot be saved." [hæc est fides de maria virgine: quam nisi quisque fideliter firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse non poterit.] in the litany addressed to her, these sentences are found. "holy mary, whom all things praise and venerate, pray for us,--be propitious,--spare us, o lady. "from all evil deliver us, o lady. "in the devastating hour of death, deliver us, o lady. "from the horrible torments of hell, deliver us, o lady. "we sinners do beseech thee to hear us. "that thou wouldest vouchsafe to give eternal rest { } to all the faithful departed, we beseech thee to hear us. &c. &c." [sancta maria, quam omnia laudant et venerantur, ora pro nobis. propitia esto. parce nobis, domina. ab omni malo libera nos, domina. in hora mortis devastante libera nos, domina. ab inferni horribili cruciamine libera nos, domina. peccatores te rogamus, audi nos. ut cunctis fidelibus defunctis requiem Æternam donare digneris, te rogamus, audi nos.] i will add to this catalogue of prayers and praises to the virgin, only the translation of one prayer more from the same canonized saint; it contains a passage often referred to, but the existence of which has been denied. it stands, however, in his works, vol. vi. page . "therefore, o empress, and our most benign lady, by thy right of mother command thy most beloved son [jure matris impera tuo dilectissimo filio], our lord, jesus christ, that he vouchsafe to raise our minds from the love of earthly things to heavenly desires, who liveth and reigneth." * * * * * now let any man of common understanding and straightforward principles say, whether any, the most ingenious refinement can interpret all this to mean merely that bonaventura invoked the virgin mary to pray for him, or for his fellow-creatures. it looks as though he were resolved on set purpose to exalt her to an equality with the almighty, when we find him not once, not casually, not in the fervent rapture of momentary excitement, but deliberately, through one hundred and fifty psalms, applying to mary the very words dictated by the holy spirit to the psalmist, and consecrated { } to the worship of the one supreme god; and then selecting the most solemn expressions by which the christian church approaches the lord of heaven and earth, our father, our saviour, our sanctifier: employing too the very words of her most solemn form of belief in the ever-blessed trinity, and substituting mary's name for the god of christians. on the words, "by thy right of mother command thy son," beyond the assertion of the fact that there they are to this day, i wish to add nothing, because the very denial of their existence often repeated shows, that many roman catholics themselves regard them as objectionable. but, if such a man as bonaventura, one of the most learned and celebrated men of his age, could be tempted by the views cherished by the church of rome, to indulge in such language, what can be fairly expected of the large mass of persons who find that language published to the world with the highest sanction which their religion can give, as the work of a man whom the almighty declared when on earth, by miracles, to be a chosen vessel, and to be under the guidance of the holy spirit; and of whom they are taught by the infallible testimony[ ] of his canonization, that he is now reigning with christ in heaven, and is himself the lawful and appointed object of religious invocation. i profess to you that i see no way by which christians can hold and encourage this doctrine of the invocation of saints, without at the same time countenancing and cherishing what, were i to join in such invocation, would stain my soul with the guilt of idolatry. if the doctrine were confessedly scriptural, come what would come, our duty would be to maintain it at all hazards, { } and to brave every danger rather than from fear of consequences to renounce what we believe to have come from god; securing the doctrine at all events, and then putting forth our very best to guard against its perversion and abuse. but surely, it well becomes our brethren of the church of rome, to examine with most rigid and unsparing scrutiny into the very foundation of such a doctrine as this; a doctrine which in its mildest and most guarded form is considered by a very large number of their fellow christians, as a dishonouring of god and of his son, our saviour; and which in its excess, an excess witnessed in the books of learned and sainted authors, and in the every day practice of worshippers, seems to be in no wise distinguishable from the practices of acknowledged polytheism, and pagan worship. if that foundation, after honest and persevering examination, approves itself as based sure and deep on the word of god, and the faith and practice of the apostles and the church founded by them from the first, i have not another word to say, beyond a fervent prayer that the god in whom we trust would pour the bright beams of his gospel abundantly into the hearts of all who receive that gospel as the word of life. but were they my dying words to my dearest friend who had espoused that doctrine, i would say to him, look well yourself to the foundation, because i am, after long examination, convinced, beyond a shadow of doubt that the doctrine and practice of the invocation of saints and angels is as contrary to the doctrine and practice of the primitive church, as it is in direct opposition to the express words of scripture, and totally abhorrent from the spirit which pervades the whole of the old, and the whole of the new testament of god's eternal truth. [footnote : bellarmin, in his church triumphant, maintains that in the act of canonization, the church is infallible. vol. ii. p. .] { } * * * * * section iv.--biel, damianus, bernardinus de bustis, bernardinus senensis, &c. unhappily these excesses in the worship of the virgin mary are not confined to bonaventura, or to his age. we have too many examples of the same extravagant exaltation of her as an object of adoration and praise in men, whose station and abilities seemed to hold them forth to the world as burning and shining lights. again, let me repeat, that in thus soliciting your attention to the doctrines and expressed feelings of a few from among the host of the virgin's worshippers, i am far from believing that the enlightened roman catholics in england now are ready to respond to such sentiments. my desire is that all persons should be made aware of the excesses into which even celebrated teachers have been tempted to run, when they once admitted the least inroad to be made upon the integrity of god's worship; and i am anxious also, without offence, but with all openness, to caution my countrymen against encouraging that revival of the worship of the virgin in england, to promote which the highest authorities in the church of rome have lately expressed their solicitude, intimating, at the same time, their regret that the worship of the virgin at the present time has, in england, degenerated from its exaltation in former ages, and that england is now far behind her continental neighbours in her worship. though these excessive departures from gospel truth and the primitive worship of one god by one mediator may not be the doctrines of all who belong to the church of rome, yet they are the tenets of some of her most { } celebrated doctors, of men who were raised to her highest dignities in their lifetime, and solemnly enrolled by her among the saints of glory after their death. their words and their actions are appealed to now in support of similar tenets and doctrines, though few, in this country at least, are found to put them forth in all their magnitude and fulness. but even in their mildest and least startling form these doctrines are awfully dangerous. the fact is, that the direct tendency of the worship of the virgin, as practically illustrated in the church of rome, is to make god himself an object of fear, and the virgin an object of love; to invest him, who is the father of mercy and god of all comfort, with awfulness, and majesty, and with the terrors of eternal justice, and in direct and striking contrast to array the virgin mother with mercy and benignity, and compassionate tenderness. christians cannot be too constantly and too carefully on their guard against doing this wrong to our heavenly father. his own inspired word invites us to regard him not only as the god of love, but as love itself. "god is love;" [ john iv. .] and so far from terrifying us by representations of his tremendous majesty, and by declarations that we cannot ourselves draw nigh to god; so far from bidding us to approach him with our suits and supplications through mediators whom we should regard as having, more than our blessed redeemer, a fellow-feeling with us, and at the same time resistless influence with him; his own invitation and assurance is, "come unto me, and i will give you rest:" [matt. xi. .] "no one cometh unto the father but by me:" [john xiv. .] "him that cometh to me i will { } in no wise cast out:" [john vi. .] "let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." [heb. iv. .] how entirely opposed to such passages as these, breathing the spirit that pervades the whole bible, are those doctrines which represent the virgin mary as the mediatrix by whom we must sue for the divine clemency; as the dispenser of all god's mercies and graces; as the sharer of god's kingdom, as the fountain of pity, as the moderator of god's justice, and the appeaser of his wrath. "show thyself a mother." "compel thy son to have pity." "by thy right of mother command thy son." "god is a god of vengeance; but thou, mary, dost incline to mercy;" such expressions convey sentiments and associations shocking to our feelings, and from which our reason turns away, when we think of god's perfections, and the full atonement and omnipotent intercession of his son christ our redeemer. but it must not be disguised, that these are the very sentiments in which the most celebrated defenders of the worship of the virgin, in the church of rome, teach their disciples to acquiesce, and in which they must have themselves fully acquiesced, if they practised what they taught. it is very painful to make such extracts as leave us no alternative in forming our opinions on this point; but it is necessary to do so, otherwise we may injure the cause of truth by suppressing the reality; a reality over which there seems to be a strong disposition, in the present day, in part at least, to draw a veil; an expedient which can only increase the danger. the first author, whose sentiments i would request you to weigh, is gabriel biel, a schoolman of great celebrity[ ]. { } in his thirty-second lecture, on the canon of the mass, he thus expresses himself, referring to a sermon of st. bernard, "the will of god was, that we should have all through mary.... you were afraid to approach the father, frightened by only hearing of him.... he gave you jesus for a mediator. what could not such a son obtain with such a father? he will surely be heard for his own reverence-sake; for the father loveth the son. but, are you afraid to approach even him? he is your brother and your flesh; tempted through all, that he might become merciful. this brother mary gave to you. but, perhaps, even in him you fear the divine majesty, because, although he was made man, yet he remained god. you wish to have an advocate even to him. betake yourself to mary. for, in mary is pure humanity, not only pure from all contamination, but pure also by the singleness of her nature[ ]. nor should i, with any doubt say, she too will be heard for her own reverence-sake. the son, surely, will hear the mother, and the father will hear the son." [footnote : tubingen, . gabriel biel, born at spires about a.d. , was in a.d. appointed the first professor of theology in the then newly founded university of tubingen. he afterwards retired to a monastery, and died a.d. .] [footnote : this is a very favourite argument in the present day, often heard in the pulpits on the continent.] in his th lecture, the same author comments on this prayer, which is still offered in the service of the mass: "deliver us, we beseech thee, o lord, from all evils past, present, and future; and by the intercession of the blessed and glorious ever-virgin mother of god, mary, with thy blessed apostles, peter and paul, and andrew, and all saints, mercifully grant peace in our days, that, aided by the help of thy mercy, we may be both ever { } free from sin, and free from all disquietude. through the same our lord, &c." on this prayer biel observes, "again we ask, in this prayer, the defence of peace; and since we cannot, nor do we presume to obtain this by our own merit, ... therefore, in order to obtain this, we have recourse, in the second part of this prayer, to the suffrages of all his saints, whom he hath constituted, in the court of his kingdom, as our mediators, most acceptable to himself, whose prayers his love does not reject. but, of them, we fly, in the first place, to the most blessed virgin, the queen of heaven, to whom the king of kings, the heavenly father, has given the half of his kingdom; which was signified in hester, the queen, to whom, when she approached to appease king asuerus, the king said to her, even if thou shalt ask the half of my kingdom, it shall be given thee. so the heavenly father, inasmuch as he has justice and mercy as the more valued possessions of his kingdom, retaining justice to himself, granted mercy to the virgin mother. we, therefore, ask for peace, by the intercession of the blessed and glorious virgin." [cum habeat justitiam et misericordiam tanquam potiora regni sui bona, justitia sibi retenta, misericordiam matri virgini concessit.] the very same partition of the kingdom of heaven, is declared to have been made between god himself and the virgin by one who was dignified by the name of the "venerable and most christian doctor," john gerson[ ], who died in ; excepting that, instead of justice and mercy, gerson mentions power and mercy as the two parts of which god's kingdom consists, and that, whilst power remained with the lord, the part of mercy ceded "to the mother of christ, and the reigning { } spouse; hence, by the whole church, she is saluted as queen of mercy." [footnote : paris, . tract iv. super "magnificat," part iii. p. . see fabricius, vol. iii. p. . patav. .] i would next refer to a writer who lived four centuries before biel, but whose works received the papal sanction so late as the commencement of the seventeenth century, petrus damianus, cardinal and bishop. his works were published at the command of pope clement viii., who died a.d. , and were dedicated to his successor, paul v., who gave the copyright for fifteen years to the editor, constantine cajetan, a.d. . i will quote only one passage from this author. it is found in his sermon on the nativity of the virgin, whom he thus addresses: "nothing is impossible with thee, with whom it is possible to restore those in despair to the hope of blessedness. for how could that authority, which derived its flesh from thy flesh, oppose thy power? for thou approachest before that golden altar of human reconciliation not only asking, but commanding; a mistress, not a handmaid." [accedis enim ante illud aureum humanæ reconciliationis altare, non solum rogans, sed imperans; domina, non ancilla. paris, . vol. ii. p. . serm. .] i must now solicit your attention to the sentiments of two writers, whose partial identity of name has naturally led, in some instances, to the one being mistaken for the other, bernardinus de bustis, and bernardinus senensis. bernardinus de bustis, [fabricius, vol. i. .] in the country of milan, was the celebrated author of the "office of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin," which was confirmed by the bull of sixtus the fourth, and has since been celebrated on the th of december. he composed different works in honour of the virgin, { } to one of which he gave the title "mariale." in this work, with a great variety of sentiments of a similar tendency, he thus expresses himself:-- "of so great authority in the heavenly palace is that empress, that, omitting all other intermediate saints, we may appeal to her from every grievance.... with confidence, then, let every one appeal to her, whether he be aggrieved by the devil, or by any tyrant, or by his own body, or by divine justice;" [cologne, . part iii. serm. ii. p. .] and then, having specified and illustrated the three other sources of grievance, he thus proceeds: "in the fourth place, he may appeal to her, if any one feels himself aggrieved by the justice of god [licet ad ipsam appellare, si quis a dei justitia se gravari sentit.] ... that empress, therefore, hester, was a figure of this empress of the heavens, with whom god divided his kingdom. for, whereas god has justice and mercy, he retained justice to himself to be exercised in this world, and granted mercy to his mother; and thus, if any one feels himself to be aggrieved in the court of god's justice, let him appeal to the court of mercy of his mother." [ideo si quis sentit se gravari in foro justitiæ dei, appellet ad forum misericordiæ matris ejus.] for one moment, let us calmly weigh the import of these words:--is it any thing short of robbing the eternal father of the brightest jewel in his crown, and sharing his glory with another? is it not encouraging us to turn our eyes from the god of mercy as a stern and ruthless judge, and habitually to fix them upon mary as the dispenser of all we want for the comfort and happiness of our souls? in another place, this same author thus exalts mary: "since the virgin mary is mother of god, and god is her son; and every son is naturally inferior to his { } mother, and subject to her; and the mother is preferred above, and is superior to her son, it follows that the blessed virgin is herself superior to god, and god himself is her subject, by reason of the humanity derived from her;" [part ix. serm. ii. p. .] and again. "o the unspeakable dignity of mary, who was worthy to command the commander of all." [part xii. serm, ii. p. .] i will detain you by only one more quotation from this famed doctor. it appears to rob god of his justice and power, as well as of his mercy; and to turn our eyes to mary for the enjoyment of all we can desire, and for safety from all we can dread. would that bernardine stood alone in the propagation of such doctrines. "we may say, that the blessed virgin is chancellor in the court of heaven. for we see, that in the chancery of our lord the pope, three kinds of letters are granted: some are of simple justice, others are of pure grace, and the third mixed, containing justice and grace.... the third chancellor is he to whom it appertains to give letters of pure grace and mercy. and this office hath the blessed virgin; and therefore she is called the mother of grace and mercy: but those letters of mercy she gives only in the present life. for, to some souls, as they are departing, she gives letters of pure grace; to others, of simple justice; and to others, mixed, namely, of justice and grace. for some were very much devoted to her, and to them she gives letters of pure grace, by which she commands, that glory be given to them without any pain of purgatory: others were miserable sinners, and not devoted to her, and to them she gives letters of simple justice, by which she commands that condign vengeance be done upon them; others were lukewarm and remiss in devotion, and to them she gives letters of justice and grace, by which { } she commands that grace be given to them, and yet, on account of their negligence and sloth, some pain of purgatory be also inflicted on them." [part xii. serm. ii. on the twenty-second excellence, p. .] the only remaining author, to whom i will at present refer you, is a canonized saint, bernardinus senensis. a full account of his life, his miracles, and his enrolment among the saints in heaven, is found in the acta sanctorum, vol. v. under the th of may, the day especially dedicated to his honour. eugenius iv. died before the canonization of bernardine could be completed: the next pope, nicholas v. on whitsunday , in full conclave, enrolled him among the saints, to the joy, we are told, of all italy. in , pius the second said that bernardine was taken for a saint even in his lifetime; and, in , sixtus iv. issued a bull, in which he extols the saint, and authorizes the translation of his body into a new church, dedicated, as others had been, to his honour. this bernardine is equally explicit with others, in maintaining, that all the blessings which christians can receive on earth are dispensed by mary; that her princedom equals the princedom of the eternal father; that all are her servants and subjects, who are the subjects and servants of the most high; that all who adore the son of god should adore his virgin-mother, and that the virgin has repaid the almighty for all that he has done for the human race. some of these doctrines were to me quite startling; i was not prepared for them; but i have been assured they find an echo in the pulpits in many parts of the continent. very few quotations will suffice. [opera, per john de la haye. paris, . five volumes bound in two.] { } "as many creatures do service to the glorious mary, as do service to the trinity.... for he who is the son of god, and of the blessed virgin, wishing (so to speak) to make, in a manner, the princedom of his mother equal to the princedom of his father, he who was god, served his mother on earth. moreover, this is true, all things, even the virgin, are servants of the divine empire; and again, this is true, all things, even god, are servants of the empire of the virgin." [vol. iv. serm. v. c. vi. p. .] "therefore, all the angelic spirits are the ministers and servants of this glorious virgin." [serm. iii. c. iii. p. .] "to comprise all in a brief sentence, i do not doubt that god made all the liberations and pardons in the old testament on account of the reverence and love of this blessed maid, by which god preordained from eternity, that she should be, by predestination, honoured above all his works. on account of the immense love of the virgin, as well christ himself, as the whole most blessed trinity, frequently grants pardon to the most wicked sinners." [serm. v. c. ii. p. .] "by the law of succession, and the right of inheritance, the primacy and kingdom of the whole universe is due to the blessed virgin. nay, when her only son died on the cross, since he had no one on earth to succeed him of right, his mother, by the laws of all, succeeded, and by this acquired the principality of all. [serm. v. c. vii. p. .] ... but, of the monarchy of the universe, christ never made any testamentary bequest, because that could never be done without prejudice to his mother. moreover, he knew that a mother can annul the { } will of her son, if it be made to the prejudice of herself." [insuper noverat quod potest mater irritare filii testamentum si in sui præjudicium sit confectum.--p. .] "the virgin mother[ ], from the time she conceived god, obtained a certain jurisdiction and authority in every temporal procession of the holy spirit, so that no creature could obtain any grace of virtue from god except according to the dispensation of his virgin mother[ ]. as through the neck the vital breathings descend from the head into the body, so the vital graces are transfused from the head christ into his mystical body, through the virgin. i fear not to say, that this virgin has a certain jurisdiction over the flowing of all graces. and, because she is the mother of such a son of god, who produces the holy spirit; therefore, all the gifts, virtues, and graces of the holy spirit are administered by the hands of herself, to whom she will, when she will, how she will, and in what quantity she will." [serm. v. p. .] [footnote : serm. v. c. viii. and serm. vi. c. ii. p. and . there is an omission (probably by an error of the press) in the first passage, which the second enables us to supply.] [footnote : this writer is constantly referring to st. bernard's doctrine, "no grace comes from heaven upon the earth, but what passes through the hands of mary."] "she is the queen of mercy, the temple of god, the habitation of the holy spirit, always sitting at the right hand of christ in eternal glory. therefore she is to be venerated, to be saluted, and to be adored with the adoration of hyperdulia. and therefore she sits at the right hand of the king, that as often as you adore christ the king you may adore also the mother of christ." [serm. vi. p. .] "the blessed virgin mary alone has done more for { } god; or as much (so to speak) as god hath done for the whole human race. for i verily believe that god will grant me indulgence if i now speak for the virgin. let us gather together into one what things god hath done for man, and let us consider what satisfaction the virgin mary hath rendered to the lord." bernardine here enumerates many particulars, placing one against the other, which for many reasons i cannot induce myself to transfer into these pages, and then he sums up the whole thus: "therefore, setting each individual thing one against another, namely, what things god had done for man, and what things the blessed virgin has done for god, you will see that mary has done more for god, than god has for man; so that thus, on account of the blessed virgin, (whom, nevertheless, he himself made,) god is in a certain manner under greater obligations to us than we are to him." [serm. vi. p. .] the whole treatise he finishes with this address to the virgin:-- "truly by mere babbling are we uttering these thy praises and excellences; but we suppliantly pray thy immense sweetness. do thou, by thy benignity, supply our insufficiencies, that we may worthily praise thee through the endless ages of ages. amen." in closing these brief extracts i would observe, that by almost every writer in support of the worship of the virgin, an appeal is made to st. bernard[ ] as their chief authority. especially is the following passage quoted by many, either whole or in part, at almost every turn of their argument:-- [footnote : the present pope, in the same manner, refers to him in his encyclical letter.--a.d. .] "if thou art disturbed by the heinousness of thy crimes, and confounded by the foulness of thy conscience, { } if terrified by the horror of judgment thou begin to be swallowed up in the gulf of despair, think of mary, invoke mary; let her not depart from thy heart, let her not depart from thy mouth. for whilst thinking of her, thou dost not err; imploring her, thou dost not despair; following her, thou dost not lose thy way; whilst she holds thee, thou dost not fall; whilst she protects thee, thou dost not fear; whilst she is thy leader, thou art not wearied; whilst she is favourable, thou reachest thy end[ ]." [footnote : see bern. sen. vol. iv. p. . the passage is found in bernard, paris, . p. .] if the virgin mary is thus regarded as the source and well-head of all safety and blessing, we cannot wonder, that glory and praise are ascribed in the selfsame terms to her as to the almighty. cardinal bellarmin closes the several portions of his writings with "praise to god and the blessed virgin mary[ ]." it is painful to reflect, that either the highest glory, due to that god who will not share his glory with another, is here ascribed to one of the creatures of his hand (however highly favoured and full of grace), or else that to the most high god is ascribed an inferior glory and praise, such as it is lawful for us to address to an exalted fellow-creature. surely the only ascription fitting the lips and the heart of those who have been enlightened by the bright beams of gospel truth, is glory to god alone through christ his son. [footnote : such ascriptions are very common. joannes de carthagena, a most voluminous writer of homilies, adopts this as the close of his sections: "praise and glory to the triune god, to the humanity of christ, to the blessed virgin mary his mother, and to st. joseph her dearest spouse."--catholic homilies on the sacred secrets of the mother of god, and joseph, p. . paris, .] { } * * * * * section v.--modern works of devotion among roman catholics. it may perhaps be surmised, that the authors referred to in the last section lived many years ago, and that the sentiments of the faithful members of the church of rome have undergone material changes on these points. assurances are given on every side, that the invocation of the saints and of the virgin is nothing more than a request, that they would intercede with god, and implore his mercy for the suppliants. but whatever implicit reliance we may place on the good faith with which these declarations are made, we can discover no new key by which to interpret the forms of prayer and praise satisfactorily. confessedly there are no changes in the authorized services. we discover no traces of change in the worship of private devotion. the breviary and missal contain the same offices of the virgin mary as in former days. the same sentiments are expressed towards her in public; the same forms of devotion[ ], both in prayer and praise, are prepared for the use of individuals in their daily exercises. whatever meaning is to be attached to the expressions employed, the prevailing expressions themselves remain the same as we found them to have been in past ages. [footnote : works of this character abound in every place, where catholic books may be purchased.] since i made these extracts from the learned and celebrated doctors and canonized saints of former ages, my attention has been invited to the language now { } used in forms of devotion, the spirit of which implies similar views of the power and love of the virgin mary, as the fountain of mercies to mankind, and the dispenser of every heavenly blessing. at the head of these modern works, i was led to read over again the encyclical letter of the present sovereign pontiff, from the closing sentences of which i have already made extracts. and referring his words to a test which we have more than once applied in a similar case--that of changing the name of the person, and substituting the name of god, or his blessed son, i cannot see how the spirit of his sentiments falls in the least below the highest degree of religious worship. his words, in the third paragraph of his letter, as they appear in the laity's directory for , are these:-- "but having at length taken possession of our see in the lateran basilic according to the custom and institution of our predecessors, we turn to you without delay, venerable brethren, and in testimony of our feelings towards you, we select for the date of our letter this most joyful day on which we celebrate the solemn festival of the most blessed virgin's triumphant assumption into heaven, that she who has been through every great calamity our patroness and protectress, may watch over us writing to you, and lead our mind by her heavenly influence to those counsels which may prove most salutary to christ's flock." let us substitute for the name of mary, the holiest of all, the eternal spirit of jehovah himself; and will not these words be a proper vehicle of the sentiments of a christian pastor? let us fix upon christmas-day, or easter, or holy thursday, and what word expressive { } of gratitude for past mercies to the supreme giver of all good things, or of hope and trust in the guidance of the spirit of counsel, and wisdom, and strength--of the most high god, who alone can order the wills and ways of men--might not a bishop of christ's flock take from this declaration of the sovereign pontiff, and use in its first and natural sense, when speaking of the lord jehovah himself? "we select for the date of our letter this most joyful day on which we celebrate the solemn festival of the most blessed redeemer's nativity, (or glorious resurrection, or ascension,) that he who has been through every great calamity our patron and protector, may watch over us writing to you, and lead our mind by his heavenly influence to those counsels which may prove most salutary to christ's flock." in these sentiments of the present pope there is no allusion (as there is in the other clause) to mary's prayers and intercessions. looking to and weighing the words employed, and as far as words can be relied upon as interpreters of the thoughts, looking to the spirit of his profession, only one inference can be fairly drawn. however direct and immediate the prayers of the suppliants may be to the virgin for her protection and defence from all dangers, spiritual and bodily, and for the guidance of the inmost thoughts in the right way, (blessings which we of the anglican catholic church, following the footsteps of the primitive flock of christ, have always looked for at the hand of god almighty only, to be granted by him for the sake of his blessed son,) such petitioners to mary would be sanctioned to the utmost by the principles and example of the present roman pontiff. we have already, when examining the records of { } the council of chalcedon, compared the closing words of this encyclical letter with the more holy and primitive aspirations of the bishops of rome and constantinople in those earlier days; and the comparison is striking between the sentiments now expressed in the opening parts of the same letter, and the spirit of the collects which were adopted for the use of the faithful, before the invocation of saints and of the virgin had gained its present strong hold in the church of rome. for example, a collect at vespers teaches us to pray to god as the source from whom all holy desires and all good counsels proceed [hiem. .]; and on the fifth sunday after easter this prayer is offered: "o god, from whom all good things do come, grant, we pray thee, that by thy inspiration we may think those things that be good; and by thy guidance may perform the same;" whilst on the fifth sunday after the epiphany, in a collect, the spirit of which is strongly contrasted with the sentiments in both parts of this encyclical letter, god is thus addressed: "we beseech thee, o lord, with thy continual pity, guard thy family, that, leaning on the sole hope of heavenly grace, it may ever be defended by thy protection." [ut quæ in _sola_ spe gratiæ coelestis innititur, tua semper protectione muniatur.--hiem, . "let us raise our eyes to the blessed virgin, who is our greatest hope, yea, the entire ground of our hope."] similar materials are abundant. a whole volume, indeed, might readily be composed consisting solely of rules and instructions, confessions and forms of prayer, appertaining to the virgin and the saints, published by authority at the present day, both in our country and on the continent, for the use of our roman catholic { } brethren; but to which the word of god, and the doctrine and practice of the primitive church, are in our estimation as much opposed as to the prayers of bonaventura, or to the doctrine of either of the bernardins. it would, however, be unprofitable to dwell on this subject at any great length. i will, therefore, only briefly refer to two publications of this sort, to which my own attention has been accidentally drawn: "the imitation of the blessed virgin,"[ ] and "the little testament of the holy virgin."[ ] [footnote : "the imitation of the blessed virgin, composed on the plan of the imitation of christ. london, . approved by t.r. asselini, doctor of sorbonne, last bishop of boulogne. from the french."] [footnote : "the little testament of the holy virgin, translated from the french, and revised by a catholic priest. third edition. dublin, ."] the first professes to be "composed on the plan of the 'imitation of christ.'" this is, in itself, highly objectionable; its tendency is to exalt mary, by association, to the same place in our hearts and minds, which thomas à kempis had laboured, in his "imitation of christ," to secure for the saviour; and it reminds us of the proceedings of bonaventura, who wrote psalms to the honour of the virgin after the manner which david used in his hymns to the lord of glory. in this work we read the following prayer to the virgin, which seems to be stained with the error, the existence of which elsewhere we have already noticed, of contrasting the justice and the stern dealings even of the saviour, with the mercy, and loving-kindness, and fellow-feeling of mary; making god an object of fear, mary an object of love. "mother of my redeemer, o mary, in the last moments { } of my life, i implore thy assistance with more earnestness than ever. i find myself, as it were, placed between heaven and hell. alas! what will become of me, if thou do not exert, in my behalf, thy powerful influence with jesus?... i die with submission since jesus has ordained it; but notwithstanding the natural horror which i have of death, i die with pleasure, because i die under thy protection." [chap. xiii. p. .] in the fourteenth chapter the following passage occurs: "it is giving to the blessed virgin a testimony of love particularly dear and precious to her, to make her holy spouse joseph the first object of our devotion, next to that which consecrates us to her service.... the name of joseph is invoked with singular devotion by all the true faithful. they frequently join it with the sacred names of jesus and mary. whilst jesus and mary lived at nazareth, if we had wished to obtain some favour from them, could we have employed a more powerful protector than st. joseph? will he now have less power and credit? go therefore to joseph, (gen. xli. .) that he may intercede for you. whatever favour you ask, god will grant it you at his request.... go to joseph in all your necessities; but especially to obtain the grace of a happy death. the general opinion that he died in the arms of jesus and mary has inspired the faithful with great confidence, that, through his intercession, they will have an end as happy and consoling as his. in effect, it has been remarked, that it is particularly at the hour of death that those who have been during their life careful to honour this great saint, reap the fruit of their devotion." [p. .] in this passage the unworthy idea, itself formed on a groundless tradition, is introduced of paying reverence { } to one saint, in order to gratify and conciliate another. joseph must be especially honoured in order to do what is most acceptable to mary. surely this tends to withdraw the mind from that habitual reference of all our actions immediately to god, which the primitive teachers were so anxious to cultivate in all christians. in the "little testament of the holy virgin," the following (p. ) is called, "a prayer to the blessed virgin." can any words place more on an entire level with each other, the eternal son of god and the virgin? "jesus and mary?!" "o mary! what would be our poverty and misery if the father of mercies had not drawn you from his treasury to give you to earth! oh! my life and consolation, i trust and confide in your holy name. my heart wishes to love you; my mouth to praise you; my mind to contemplate you; my soul sighs to be yours. receive me, defend me, preserve me; i cannot perish in your hands. let the demons tremble when i pronounce your holy name, since you have ruined their empire; but we shall say with saint anselm, that he does not know god, who has not an idea sufficiently high of your greatness and glory. we shall esteem it the greatest honour to be of the number of your servants. let your glory, blessed mother, be equal to the extent of your name; reign, after god, over all that is beneath god; but, above all, reign in my heart; you will be my consolation in suffering, my strength in weakness, my counsel in doubt. at the name of mary my hope shall be enlightened, my love inflamed. oh! that i could deeply engrave the dear name on every heart, suggest it to every tongue, and make all celebrate it with me. mary! sacred name, under which no one { } should despair. mary! sacred name, often assaulted, but always victorious. mary! it shall be my life, my strength, my comfort! every day shall i envoke it and the divine name of jesus. the son will awake the recollection of the mother, and the mother that of the son. jesus and mary! this is what my heart shall say at the last hour, if my tongue cannot; i shall hear them on my death bed,--they shall be wafted on my expiring breath, and i with them, to see them, know them, bless and love them for eternity. amen." there may, perhaps, be a reasonable ground for our hoping that these are not the sentiments entertained by the enlightened roman catholics of our country and age. any one has a full right to say, "these are productions of individuals for which we and the church to which we belong are not responsible, any more than the church of england is responsible for all doctrines and sentiments expressed by writers in her communion! even the sentiments above referred to of the present reigning pope, you have no right to allege as the doctrines of the church!" but i would again venture to suggest to every one, who would thus speak, the duty of ascertaining for himself, whether the sentiments of those who at present fill the highest places, and which fully justify these devotional exercises and prayers to the virgin and the saints, be not themselves fully justified by the authorized ritual of the roman church. on this point are supplied, even in this volume, materials sufficiently diversified and abundant in quantity to enable any one to form a correct judgment. by two brief extracts i will now bring this branch of our inquiry to a close. the first is from the concluding paragraphs of a discourse lately delivered and { } published. in principle, the sentiments here professed apparently admit not only of being identified with those of the authorized services of the church of rome, but also, though not so naked and revolting in appearance as the doctrines of bonaventura, biel, and the two bernardins, yet in reality they equally depart from the simplicity of the gospel, and are equally at direct variance with that, its first and its last principle, one god and one mediator between god and men, the man christ jesus. "remember that this day you have put yourselves and your families under the protection of the ever-blessed mother of god, and her chaste spouse, st. joseph; of those who were chosen of god to protect the infancy of jesus from the danger by a persecuting world. entreat them to protect you and yours from the perils of a seducing and ensnaring world; to plead your interests in heaven, and secure by their intercession your everlasting crown. loudly proclaim the praises of your heavenly queen, but at the same time turn her power to your everlasting advantage by your earnest supplications to her." (see appendix.) the other extract, which sanctions to the full whatever offerings of praise and ascriptions of glory we have found individuals making to the virgin and to saints, is from an announcement in, i believe, the last english edition of the roman breviary published, in its present form, under the sanction of the pope himself. "to those who devoutly recite the following prayer after the office, pope leo the tenth hath granted pardon (indulsit) for the defects and faults in celebrating it, contracted by human frailty. "to the most holy and undivided trinity; to the manhood { } of our crucified lord jesus christ; to the fruitful spotlessness of the most blessed and most glorious and ever-virgin mary; and to the entire body of all the saints, be eternal praise, honour, virtue, and glory, from every creature, and to us remission of all sins, through endless ages of ages. amen." [norwich, . Æst.] on the indulgence for pardon given by pope leo the tenth, more than years ago, for such defects and faults in celebrating a religious service as may be contracted by human frailty; and on the fact of the notification of that indulgence being retained, and set forth so prominently in the service books at the present day, i will say nothing. whatever associations may be raised in our minds by these circumstances, the subject does not fall within our present field of inquiry. but to join the holy trinity with the virgin mother, and all the saints in one and the same ascription of eternal praise, honour, and glory, is as utterly subversive of the integrity of primitive christian worship, as it is repugnant to the plainest sense of holy scripture, and derogatory to the dignity of that supreme being, who declares himself to be a jealous god. it has, indeed, been maintained that such ascriptions of glory and praise jointly to god and his saints, is sanctioned by the language of our blessed saviour himself when he speaks of his having given his glory to his disciples [john xvii. .], and of his second advent, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his father's, and of the holy angels. [luke ix. .] but between the two cases there is no analogy whatever; the inference is utterly fallacious. we know that the lord of hosts is the king of glory, and that his eternal son shared the glory of his father before the foundations { } of the world were laid. we know, too, that the almighty has been pleased to create beings of various degrees and orders, differing from each other in kind or in excellence according to his supreme will. among those creatures of his hand are the angels whom we reverence and love, as his faithful servants and his ministers to us for good. but when we speak and think of religious adoration; of giving thanks; and ascribing eternal glory and honour, we have only one object in our minds,--the supreme sovereign lord of all. with regard to the gracious words of our saviour in his prayer to the father, on the eve of his death, st. peter's acts and words supply us with a plain and conclusive comment. he was himself one of those to whom christ had declared that he had given the glory which his father had given to him; and yet when cornelius fell down at his feet to worship him, he took him up, saying, "stand up; i myself also am a man." [acts x. .] the saviour was pleased to impart his glory to his apostles, dividing to them his heavenly gifts severally as he willed. we praise him for those graces which shone so brightly in them, and we pray to him to enable us by his grace to follow them, as they followed his blessed steps. we reverence their memory, but we give god alone the praise. as to the other instance, the words of our lord (assuring us that the angels should accompany him at his second advent in their glory, the glory which he assigned to them in the order of creation,) no more authorize us to ascribe praise and glory by a religious act to them, when we praise the god of angels and men, than would { } the assurance of an inspired apostle, that "there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars," sanction us in joining those luminaries in the same ascription of glory with their almighty creator and ours. just as reasonably would a pagan justify his worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars, by this passage of scripture, as our roman catholic brethren would justify themselves by the former passage in their ascription of praise and glory to the holy angels, and saints, and the blessed virgin. we honour the holy angels, we praise god for the glory which he has imparted to them, and for the share which he has been pleased to assign to them in executing his decrees of mercy in the heavenly work of our salvation; and we pray to him to grant that they may by his appointment succour and defend us on earth, through jesus christ our lord. but we address no invocation to them; we ascribe no glory to them as an act of religious worship. by offering thanks and praise to god he declares that we honour him; by offering thanks and praise, and by ascribing glory and honour to angel, saint, or virgin, we make them gods. { } * * * * * conclusion. we have now, my fellow christians, arrived at the conclusion of the task which i proposed to undertake. i have laid before you, to the utmost of my abilities and means, the result of my inquiry into the evidence of holy scripture and primitive antiquity, on the invocation of saints and angels, and the blessed virgin mary. in this inquiry, excepting so far as was necessary to elucidate the origin and history of the roman catholic tenet of the assumption of the virgin, we have limited our researches to the writers who lived before the nicene council. that council has always been considered a cardinal point,--a sort of climacteric in the history of the early church. it was the first council to which all the bishops of christendom were summoned; and the influence of its decrees is felt beneficially in the catholic church to this very day. in fixing upon this council as our present boundary line, i was influenced by a conviction, that the large body of christians, whether of the roman, the anglican, or any other branch of the church catholic, would consent to this as an indisputable axiom,--that what the church catholic did not believe or practise up to { } that date of her existence upon earth, cannot be regarded as either catholic or primitive, or apostolical. ending with st. athanasius, (who, though he was present at that council, yet brings his testimony down through almost another half century, his death not having taken place till a.d. , on the verge of his eightieth year,) we have examined the remains of christian antiquity, reckoning forward to that council from the times of the apostles. we have searched diligently into the writings, the sentiments, and the conduct of those first disciples of our lord. we have contemplated the words of our blessed saviour himself, and the inspired narrative of his life and teaching. with the same object in view we have studied the prophets of the old testament, and the works of moses; and we have endeavoured, at the fountainhead, to ascertain what is the mind and will of god, as revealed to the world from the day when he made man, on the question of our invoking the angels and saints to intercede with him in our behalf, or to assist and succour us on the earth. and the result is this:--from first to last, the voice of god himself, and the voices of the inspired messengers of heaven, whether under the patriarchal, the mosaic, or the christian dispensations, the voices too of those maintainers of our common faith in christ, who prayed, and taught, in the church, before the corruptions of a degenerate world had mingled themselves with the purity of christian worship, combine all, in publishing, throughout the earth, one and the self-same principle, "pray only to god; draw nigh to him alone; invoke no other; seek no other in the world of spirits, neither angel, nor beatified saint; seek him, and he will favourably, with mercy, hear your prayers." to this one { } principle, when the gospel announced the whole counsel of god in the salvation of man, our lord himself, his apostles, and his church, unite in adding another principle of eternal obligation,--there is one mediator between god and men, the man christ jesus; whatsoever the faithful shall ask the father in the name of that mediator, he will grant it to them: he is ever living to make intercession for those who believe in him: invoke we no other intercessor, apply we neither to saint nor angel, plead we the merits of no other. let us lift up our hearts to god almighty himself, and make our requests known to him in the name, and through the mediation of christ, and he will fulfil our desires and petitions as may be most expedient for us; he will grant to us, in this world, a knowledge of his truth, and in the world to come life everlasting! watching the tide of evidence through its whole progress, we find it to flow all in this one direction. here and there indeed attempts have been made to raise some mounds and barriers of human structure, in order to arrest its progress, and turn it from its straight course, but in vain; unchecked by any such endeavours, it rolls on in one full, steady, strong, and resistless current. until we have long passed the nicene council, we find no one writer of the christian church, whose remains tell us, that he either himself invoked saints and angels, and the virgin mary, or was at all aware of any such practice prevailing in christendom. suppose, for one moment, that our doctrine is right; and then we find the whole tenour of the old and new testaments, and the ancient writers, in their plain meaning, agreeably to the interpretation of the most learned and unbiassed critics, fully coinciding in every respect with our view of god being the sole object of invocation, { } and of the exclusive character of christ's intercession, mediation, and advocacy. suppose, for another moment, the roman catholic theory to be correct, then the whole general tenour and drift of scripture must be evaded; the clearest statements and announcements must be explained away by subtle distinctions, gratuitous definitions, and casuistical refinements, altogether foreign from the broad and simple truths of revelation; then, too, in ascertaining the sentiments of an author, not his general and pervading principles, evidenced throughout his writings, must be appealed to; but casual and insulated expressions must be contracted or expanded as may best seem to counteract the impression made by the testimony of those principles. we may safely ask, is there such evidence, that the primitive church offered invocations to saints and angels, and the virgin, as would satisfy us in the case of any secular dispute with regard to ancient usage? on the contrary, is not the evidence clear to a moral demonstration, that the offering of such addresses is an innovation of later days, unknown to the primitive christians till after the middle of the fourth century, and never pronounced to be an article of faith, until the council of trent, more than a thousand years after its first appearance in christendom, so decreed it. the tendency, indeed, of some roman catholic writings, especially of late years, is to draw off our minds on these points from the written word of god, and the testimony of the earliest church, and to dwell upon the possibility, the reasonableness of the doctrines of the church of rome in this respect, their accordance with our natural feelings, and their charitableness. but in points of such vast moment, in things concerning the soul's salvation, we can depend with satisfaction and { } without misgiving, only on the sure word of promise; nothing short of god's own pledge of his own eternal truth can assure us, that all is safe. such substitution of what may appear to us reasonable, and agreeable to our natural sentiments, and desirable if true, in place of the assurances of god's revealed will, may correspond with the arguments of a heathen philosopher unacquainted with the truth as it is in jesus, but cannot satisfy disciples of him who brought life and immortality to light by his gospel. such questions as these, "is there any thing unreasonable in this? would not this be a welcome tenet, if true?" well became the lips of socrates in his defence before his judges, but are in the strict sense of the word preposterous in a christian. with the christian the first question is, what is the truth? what is revealed? what has god promised? what has he taught man to hope for? what has he commanded man to do? by his own words, by the words and by the example of his inspired messengers, by the doctrine and practice of his church, the witness and interpreter of the truth, how has he directed us to sue for his mercy and all its blessings? on what foundation, sure and certain, can we build our hopes that "he will favourably with mercy hear our prayers?" for in this matter, a matter of spiritual life and death, we can anchor our hope on no other rock than his sure word of promise. that sure word of promise, if i am a faithful believer, i have; but it is exclusive of any invocation by me of saint, or angel, or virgin. the pledge of heaven is most solemnly and repeatedly given; god, who cannot lie, has, in language so plain, that he may run who readeth it, assured me that if i come to himself by his son, my prayer shall not be cast out, my suit shall { } not be denied, i shall not be sent empty away. in every variety of form which language can assume, this assurance is ratified and confirmed. his own revealed will directs me to pray for my fellow-creatures, and to expect a beneficial effect from the prayers of the faithful upon earth in my behalf. to pray for them, therefore, and to seek their prayers, and to wait patiently for an answer to both, are acts of faith and of duty. and were it also appointed by god's will to be an act of faith and duty in a christian to seek the prayers, and aid, and assistance, of saints and angels by supplicatingly invoking them, surely the same word of truth would have revealed that also. whereas the reverse shows itself under every diversified state of things, from the opening of the sacred book to its very last page. the subtle distinction of religious worship into latria, dulia, and hyperdulia, the refined classification of prayer under the two heads of direct, absolute, final, sovereign, on the one hand, and of oblique, relative, transitory, subaltern, on the other, swell indeed many elaborate works of casuistry, but are not discoverable in the remains of primitive christians, nor in the writings of god's word have they any place. i cannot find in the inspired apostles any reference to the necessity, the duty, the lawfulness, the expediency of our seeking by prayer the good offices of the holy dead, or of the angels of light. in their successors the earliest inspired teachers and pastors of christ's fold, i seek in vain for any precept, or example, or suggestion, or incidental allusion looking that way. why then should a christian wish to add to that which god has been pleased to appoint and to reveal? why should i attempt to enter heaven through any other gate than { } that gate which the lord of heaven has opened for me? or why should i seek to reach that gate by any other way than the way which he has made for me; which he has himself plainly prescribed to me; in which he has promised that his word shall be a lantern unto my feet; and along which those saints and servants of his, who received the truth from his own lips, and sealed it by their blood, have gone before? whenever a maintainer of the doctrine and practice of invoking the saints asks me, as we have lately been asked in these words, "may i not reasonably hope that their prayers will be more efficacious than my own and those of my friends? and, under this persuasion, i say to them, as i just now said to you, holy mary, holy peter, holy paul, pray for me. what is there in reason or revelation to forbid me to do so?" to this and similar questions and suggestions, i answer at once, god has solemnly covenanted to grant the petitions of those who ask him for his mercy, in the name and for the sake of his son; and in his holy word has, both by precept and example, taught us in this life to pray for each other, and to ask each other's prayers [james v. ; i tim. ii. .]; but that he will favourably answer the prayers which we supplicate angels to offer, or which we offer to himself through the merits and by the intercession of departed mortals, is no where in the covenant. moreover, when god invites me and commands me to approach him myself, in the name of his son, and trusting to his merits, it is not christian humility, rather it savours of presumption, and intruding into those things which we have not seen [coloss. ii. .], to seek to prevail with him by { } pleading other merits, and petitioning creatures, however glorious, to interest themselves with him in our behalf, angels and saints, of whose power even to hear us we have no evidence. when jesus himself, who knows both the deep counsels of the eternal spirit, and man's wants and weaknesses and unworthiness, and who loveth his own to the end, pledges his never-failing word, that whatsoever we ask the father in his name, he will give it us, can it be less than an unworthy distrust of his truth and faithfulness to ask the father for the merits and by the intercession of another? and as though in fear lest god should fail of his promise, or be unmindful of us himself, to invoke angels and the good departed to make our wants known unto him, and prevail with him to relieve us? surely it were wiser and safer to adhere religiously to that one way which cannot fail, than to adopt for ourselves methods and systems, for the success of which we have no guarantee; which may be unacceptable in his sight; and the tendency of which may be to bring down a curse and not a blessing. may the great shepherd and bishop of souls pour down upon his church the abundance of his mercy, preserving those in the truth who now possess it, restoring it to those by whom it has been lost, and imparting it to all who are yet in darkness. and, whilst we speak the truth in love, and endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, may he, for his own glory, and for the safety and comfort of his people, shed this truth abroad in our hearts, and enlighten us to receive it in all its fulness and integrity, and in the very sense in which the holy spirit, when he guided { } the pen of st. paul, willed the church to interpret it, "there is one god and one mediator between god and men, the man christ jesus." * * * * * o everlasting god, who hast ordained and constituted the services of angels and men in a wonderful order; mercifully grant, that as thy holy angels alway do thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth, through jesus christ our lord. amen. o almighty god, who hast built thy church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, jesus christ himself being the head corner-stone; grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple, acceptable unto thee, through jesus christ our lord. amen. o almighty god, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy son christ our lord; grant us grace, so to follow thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys, which thou hast prepared for them that unfeignedly love thee; through jesus christ our lord. amen. { } * * * * * appendix. * * * * * note.--pages and . the following is the original of the passages discussed in the text. justin martyr, apol. i. p. . § vi. benedictine edition by p. maran. paris, a.d. . [greek: enthende kai atheoi keklaemetha; kai homologoumen ton toiouton nomizomenon theon atheoi einai, all' ouchi tou alaethestatou, kai patros dikaiosunaes kai sophrosunaes, kai ton allon areton, anepimiktou te kakias theou; all' ekeinon te, kai ton par' autou huion elthonta kai didaxanta haemas tauta, kai ton ton allon hepomenon kai exomoioumenon agathon angelon straton, pneuma te to prophaetikon sebometha, kai proskunoumen, logoi kai alaetheiai timontes, kai panti boulomenoi mathein, hos edidachthaemen, aphthonos paradidontes.] ibid. page , . sect. xiii.--[greek: 'atheoi men oun hos ouk esmen, ton daemiourgon toude tou pantos sebomenoi, ... ton didaskalon te touton genomenon haemin, kai eis touto genaethenta iaesoun christon ton staurothenta epi pontiou pilatou, tou genomenou en ioudaiai epi chronois tiberiou kaisaros epitropou, huion autou tou ontos theou mathontes, kai en deuterai chorai echontes, pneuma te prophaetikon en tritaei taxei, hoti meta logou timomen, apodeixomen....] note.--page . in the text it has been observed, that "coccius in his elaborate work quotes the two following passages as origen's, without expressing { } any hesitation or doubt respecting their genuineness; in which he is followed by writers of the present day." the modern works, to which reference is here made, are chiefly the lectures delivered by dr. wiseman, in the roman catholic chapel in moorfields in the year , and the compilation of messrs. berington and kirk [berington and kirk. london, , p. .], from which dr. wiseman in his preface to his lectures (p. ix.) informs us, that in general he had drawn his quotations of the fathers. in citing the testimony of origen in support of the invocation of saints, it is evident that dr. wiseman has drawn from that source; for whereas the two confessedly spurious passages, from the lament, and from the book on job, are in that compilation quoted in the same page, dr. wiseman cites only the passage from the lament, as from a work on the lamentations, but gives his reference to the book on job. his words are these:--"again he (origen) thus writes on the lamentations: 'i will fall down on my knees, and not presuming, on account of my crimes, to present my prayer to god, i will invoke all the saints to my assistance. o ye saints of heaven, i beseech you with a sorrow full of sighs and tears; fall at the feet of the lord of mercies for me, a miserable sinner,'--lib. ii. de job." [lectures on the principal doctrines and practices of the catholic church, by nicholas wiseman, d.d. london, . vol. i. preface, p. ix. and vol. ii. p. .] when we find such passages as these, which have been so long ago and so repeatedly pronounced to be utterly spurious, yet cited in evidence at the present time, and represented as conveying the genuine testimony of origen, we shall be pardoned for repeating the sentiments expressed so many years ago by the learned bishop of avranches with regard to the very work here cited, "it is wonderful that, without any mark of their being forgeries, they should be sometimes cited in evidence by some theologians." note.--page . the whole passage cited as origen's comment on the words of ezekiel, "the heavens are opened," is in the latin version as follows. the greek original, if it ever existed, is lost. the portion between brackets is the part suspected of being an interpolation. . _et aperti sunt coeli_. clausi erant coeli, et ad adventum christi aperti sunt, ut reseratis illis veniret super eum spiritus sanctus in specie columbæ. neque enirn poterat ad nos commeare nisi primum { } ad suæ naturæ consortem descendisset. _ascendit jesus in altum, captivam duxit captivitatem, accepit dona in hominibus. qui descendit, ipse est qui ascendit super omnes coelos ut impleret omnia. et ipse dedit alios apostolos, alios prophetas, alios evangelistas, alios pastores et magistros in perfectionem sanctorum_. [ . _aperti sunt coeli_. non sufficit unum coelum aperiri: aperiuntur plurimi, ut descendant non ab uno, sed ab omnibus coelis angeli ad eos qui salvandi sunt. angeli qui ascendebant et descendebant super filium hominis, et accesserunt as eum, et ministrabant ei. descenderunt autem angeli, quia prior descenderat christus, metuentes descendere priusquam dominus virtutum omnium rerumque præciperet. quando autem viderunt principem militiæ coelestis in terrestribus locis commorari, tunc per apertam viam ingressi sunt sequentes dominum suum, et parentes voluntati ejus qui distribuit eos custodes credentium nomini suo. tu heri sub dæmonio eras, hodie sub angelo. _nolite_, inquit dominus, _contemnere unum de minimis istis_ qui sunt in ecclesia. _amen enim dico vobis, quia angeli eorum per omnia vident faciem patris qui est in coelis_. obsequuntur saluti tuæ angeli, concessi sunt ad ministerium filii dei, et dicuntinter se: si ille descendit, et descendit in corpus; si mortali indutus est carne, et sustinuit crucem, et pro hominibus mortuus est, quit nos quiescimus? quid parcimus nobis? eja omnes angeli descendamus e coelo. ideo et multitudo militiæ coelestis erat laudantium et glorificantium deum, quando natus est christus. omnia angelis plena sunt: veni, angeli, suscipe sermone conversum ab errore pristino, a doctrina dæmoniorum, ab iniquitate in altum loquente: et suscipiens eum quasi medicus bonus confove atque institue, parvulus est, hodie nascitur senex repuerascens: et suscipe tribuens ei baptismum secundæ regenerationis, et advoca tibi alios socios ministerii tui, ut concti pariter eos qui aliquando decepti sunt, erudiatis ad fidem. _gaudium enim est majus in coelis super unum peccatorem poenitentiam agentem, quam supra nonaginta novem justos quibus non opus est poenitentia_. exultat omnis creatura, collætatur et applaudit his qui salvandi sunt. nam _expectatio creaturæ revelationem filiorum dei expectat_. et licet nolint ii qui scripturas apostolicas interpolaverunt istiusmodi sermones inesse libris eorum quibus possit creator christus approbari, expectat tamen omnis creatura filios dei, quando liberentur a delicto, quando auferentur de zabuli manu, quando regenerentur a christo. verum jam tempus est, ut de præsenti loco aliqua tangamus. vidit propheta non visionem, sed visiones dei. { } quare non vidat unam, sed plurimas visiones? audi dominum pollicentem atque dicentem: _ego visiones multiplicavi_. . _quinta mensis_. hic annus quinta captivitatis regis joachim. trigesimo anno ætatis ezekielis, et quinto captivitatis joachim, propheta mittiur ad judæos. non despexit clementissimus pater, nec longo tempore incommonitum populum dereliquit. quintus est annus. quantum temporis intercessit? quinque anni interfluxerunt ex quo captivi serviunt.] statim descendit spiritus sanctus,--aperuit coelos, ut hi qui captivitatis jugo premebantur, viderent ea quæ videbantur a propheta. dicente quippe eo, _et aperti sunt coeli_, quodam modo et ipsi intuebantur oculis cordis quæ ille etiam oculis carnis aspexerat.--vol. iii. p. . note.--page . in a note on the epistle of st. cyprian to his brother, reference was made to the appendix for a closer comparison of cyprian's original letter with the modern translation of the passage under consideration. by placing the two versions in parallel columns side by side, we shall immediately see, that the mode of citing the testimony of st. cyprian adopted in dr. wiseman's lectures, from the compilation of messrs. berington and kirk, is rather to substitute his own comment and inference, than to allow the witness to speak for himself in his own words. the whole paragraph, as it appears in dr. wiseman's lectures, is this:-- "st. cyprian in the same century: 'let us be mindful of one another in our prayers; with one mind and with one heart, in this world and in the next, let us always pray with mutual charity relieving our sufferings and afflictions. and may the charity of him, who, by the divine favour, shall first depart hence, still persevere before the lord; may his prayer, for our brethren and sisters, not cease.' therefore, after having departed this life, the same offices of charity are to continue, by praying for those who remain on earth." [lect. xiii. vol. ii. p. , and berington and kirk, p. .] _st. cyprian's words_. _epist._ lvii. _p._ . _translation adopted by dr. wiseman from berington and kirk._ . memories nostri invicem simus, . let us be mindful of one another in our prayers; { } . concordes atque unanimes, . with one mind and with one heart. . utrobique. . in this world and in the next, . pro nobis semper oremus, . let us always pray, . pressuras et angustias mutua . with mutual charity relieving out caritate relevemus, sufferings and afflictions. . et si quis istinc nostrum . and may the charity of him, prior divinæ dignationis celeritate who, by the divine facour, shall præcesserit, perseveret apud dominum first depart hence, still persevere nostra dilectio, before the lord; . pro fratribus et sororibus . may his prayer, for our brethren nostris apud misericordiam patris and sisters, not cease. non cesset oratio. in this translation, by inserting the words, _in our prayers_, which are not in the original in the first clause; by rendering the adverb _utrobique_, in this world and in the next, in the third clause; by omitting the words _pro nobis, for each other_, which are in the original, in the fourth clause; by changing in the fifth the verb _relevemus, let us relieve_, implying another branch of their mutual kindness, into the participle _relieving_, which may imply, that the relief alluded to was also to be conveyed by the medium of their prayers; by substituting _the charity of him_, in place of _nostra dilectio, our charity_, in the sixth; and by inserting the word _his_, which is not in the original, before _prayer_, where the grammar of the sentence requires _our_, in the seventh clause;--by these means the translator makes cyprian express a sentiment far removed from what the words of cyprian, in their plain and natural sense, convey. it must, however, be borne in mind, as we have shown in our examination of the passage, that the sentiment of cyprian, even as it is thus unduly extracted from his words, would not in the remotest degree countenance the invocation of saints. it would do no more than imply his belief, that the faithful departed may take an interest in the welfare of their surviving friends on earth, and promote that welfare by their prayers; a point which, in the preface, is mentioned as one of those topics, the discussion of which would be avoided in this inquiry, as quite distinct from the invocation of saints. { } note.--page . an extract from eusebius, unnoticed in the text of this work, has recently been cited as conveying his testimony in favour of the invocation of saints. i have judged it better to defer the consideration of it to the appendix. it has been cited in these terms: "in the fourth century eusebius of cæsarea thus writes: 'may we be found worthy by the prayers and intercessions of all the saints.'" [dr. wiseman's lectures, vol. ii. p. . lect. xiii. berington and kirk, p. .] to form a just estimate of this alleged testimony, it is requisite that we have before us not only that incomplete clause, but the whole passage purporting to contain, in these words, the closing sentences of a commentary on isaiah: [tom. ii. p. , ed. paris, . dr. wiseman's reference is "com. in isai. tom. ii. p. , ed. paris, ."] "'and they shall be for a spectacle to all flesh.' to what flesh? altogether to that which shall be somewhere punished? nay, to that which shall of the heavenly vision be deemed worthy, concerning which it was said before, all flesh shall come to worship before me, of which may we also be deemed worthy by the prayers and intercessions of all the saints. amen." in examining this passage i am willing for the present that all its clauses should be accepted as the genuine words of eusebius, and accepted too in the meaning attached to them by those who have cited them. and to what do they amount? if these are indeed his expressions, eusebius believed that the saints departed can forward our spiritual welfare by their prayers and ministering offices; and he uttered his desire that we might thus be benefited. now whether we agree with him or not in that belief; whether we consider the faithful departed as able to take an interest in our welfare and to promote it, or regard such an opinion as without foundation in the word of god and in primitive doctrine; the belief implied and the wish expressed here by eusebius, are widely indeed removed from the act of suppliantly invoking the saints departed, and resorting to them with entreaties for their prayers and intercessions in our behalf. these two things, although often confounded, are far from being equivalent; and by all who would investigate with fairness the subject of our inquiry, they must be carefully kept distinct. the invocation of saints being the single point in question, our business is to ascertain, not what opinions eusebius may have { } entertained as to the condition, and power, and offices of the saints departed, but whether he invoked them; whether he had recourse to them with supplications for their prayers, or aid and succour. and keeping this closely in view, even if we admit this passage to be genuine, and interpret it as those who have cited it wish it to be interpreted, we find in it no authority for the invocation of saints. a christian would be no more countenanced by this language of eusebius in suppliantly invoking departed saints, than he would in praying to the angels for their help and mediation be countenanced by the terms of the prayer in regard to them, addressed by the anglican church to god, "o everlasting god, who hast ordained and constituted the services of angels and men in a wonderful order; mercifully grant, that as thy holy angels alway do thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth; through jesus christ our lord. amen." whoever petitions them, makes them gods--deos qui rogat ille facit. but whilst, for the sake of the argument, i have admitted this passage to be genuine, and correctly translated, and have shown that whether genuine or not, and even if it be thus correctly translated, it affects not in the least the issue of our inquiry, i do not feel at liberty to withhold the acknowledgment of my persuasion that in this concession i grant too much. for, in the first place, i am assured, that if the passage came from the pen of eusebius, no one is justified in confining the desire and wish contained in it to the intercessions and prayers of the saints in heaven; and, secondly, i see reasons for inferring that the last clause was framed and attached to this work, not by eusebius himself, but by some editor or scribe. in support of my first persuasion, i would observe that the very language of the writer of these comments on isaiah and the psalms precludes us from regarding the saints departed as exclusively constituting those "holy ones" by whose intercessions and prayers he expresses his desire that our spiritual welfare may be promoted. in this very comment on isaiah (ch. vi. . p. ), when he is speaking of the heavenly inhabitants, and illustrates his views by god's dealings towards the children of men in this world, he employs this expression: "for as among men the saints of god partake of more excellent graces." on the th ( th) ps. v. , having interpreted the words, "his strength is in the clouds," as referring to the { } prophets and teachers of divine wisdom, under the guidance of the spirit, pouring heavenly truths upon the souls of men as the clouds drop rain on fertile lands, he proceeds thus to comment on the expression, "god is wonderful among his saints." [vol. i. p. . the english translation refers the word "holy" to places, not persons.] "these saints are different from those before called apostles and prophets. and who can they be, except those who out of all nations are deemed worthy of purity and holiness, among whom god is wonderful, giving to them power and strength?" thus in perfect accordance with the language of this writer, the saints, from whose prayers and intercessions he desires to derive spiritual benefits, may be the saints of god on earth--in the same state with those saints still living in the flesh, whose prayers st. paul desired to be offered up for himself, that by them a door of utterance to speak the mystery of christ might be opened unto him [coloss. i. ; iv. , .]--and with those saints to whom the same apostle wrote at philippi: "to all the saints in christ jesus:" and to whom he sent the greetings of the saints who then surrounded him: "all the saints salute you." [phil i. ; iv. .] but before the closing words of this paragraph, whatever be its meaning, be acknowledged as the genuine and undoubted production of eusebius, i would suggest the careful weighing of some considerations, which appear to me to involve serious difficulties. . first, through all the voluminous works of eusebius, i have found in no single passage any allusion to the prayers of saints departed, or to their ministering offices in our behalf, though numberless openings show themselves for the natural introduction of such a subject. . secondly, among all the various works and treatises of eusebius, i have not found one which is closed by any termination of the kind; on the contrary, they all end with remarkable suddenness and abruptness, precisely as this comment would end, were the sentence under consideration removed. each, indeed, of the books of his ecclesiastical history, is followed by a notice of the close of the book, in some cases too that notice involving a religious sentiment: for example, at the close of the th book we read: "with the help of god, the end of the tenth book." but that these are appendages made by an editor or scribe is evident in itself, and moreover { } in many instances is shown by such sentences as these, "and this we have found in a certain copy in the th volume:" "this is in some copies, as if omitted from the th book." i find no one instance of eusebius bringing a chapter or a treatise to its close by any religious sentiment, or any termination of the nature here contemplated. it is also difficult to conceive that any author, having the flow and connexion of the whole passage present to his mind, would himself have appended this ejaculation as we now find it. we know that editors and scribes often attached a sentiment of their own to the closing words of an author. and it seems far more probable, that a scribe not having the full drift of the argument mainly before him, but catching the expression, "heavenly vision," appended such an ejaculation. that the writer himself should introduce such a sentence by the connecting link of a relative pronoun feminine, which must of necessity be referred, not as the grammatical construction would suggest to the feminine noun preceding it,--not to any word expressed or understood in the intervening clause preceding it,--not to the last word in the sentence even before that intervening clause, nor yet to the principal and leading subject immediately under discussion and thrice repeated,--but to a noun incidentally introduced, seems, to say the least, strange and unnatural. "and they shall be for a spectacle to all flesh. to what flesh? altogether to that which shall be somewhere punished? nay, to that which shall of the heavenly vision be deemed worthy, concerning which it was said before, all flesh shall come to worship before me, of which may we also be deemed worthy by the prayers and intercessions of all the saints. amen." but the classical reader will appreciate these remarks more satisfactorily by examining them with reference to the passage in the original language. [greek: kai esontai eis orasin pasaei sarki. poiai de sarki; ae pantos pou taei kolasthaesomenaei; taes de epouraniou theas kataxiothaesomenaei peri haes anotero elegeto aexei pasa sarx tou proskunaesai enopion mou, haes kai haemeis axiotheiaemen euchais kai presbeiais panton ton hagion, amaen.] note.--page . athanasius. in the text i observed that some roman catholic writers of the present day had cited the homily there shown to be utterly spurious, { } as the genuine work of st. athanasius, and as recording his testimony in defence of the invocation of saints. the passage there referred to dr. wiseman thus introduces, and comments upon. "st. athanasius, the most zealous and strenuous supporter that the church ever possessed of the divinity of jesus christ, and consequently of his infinite superiority over all the saints, thus enthusiastically addresses his ever-blessed mother: 'hear now, o daughter of david; incline thine ear to our prayers. we raise our cry to thee. remember us, o most holy virgin, and for the feeble eulogiums we give thee, grant us great gifts from the treasures of thy graces, thou who art full of grace. hail, mary, full of grace, the lord is with thee. queen and mother of god, intercede for us.' mark well," continues dr. wiseman, "these words; 'grant us great gifts, from the treasures of thy graces;' as if he hoped directly to receive them from her. do catholics use stronger words than these? or did st. athanasius think or speak with us, or with protestants?" in answer to these questions i reply with sure and certain confidence, first, that the genuine words of st. athanasius himself prove him to have spoken and thought with the anglican church, and not with the roman church on the invocation of saints and angels, and the blessed virgin mary; and secondly, that whatever words roman catholics use, whether stronger or not than these, these words on which the above questions are put, never came forth from the pen of st. athanasius. their spuriousness is not a question of doubt or difficulty. it has been shown in the text that the whole homily has been for ages utterly repudiated, as a work falsely attributed to st. athanasius. it is indeed very disheartening to those, whose object is the discovery and the establishment of the truth, to find works cited in evidence as the genuine productions of primitive christian teachers, which have been so long ago, and so repeatedly, and that not by members of another communion, but by the most learned men of the church of rome, adjudged to be spurious. i do not mean that i think it not fully competent for a writer of the present day to call in question, and overrule and set aside the decisions of former editors, as to the genuine or the spurious character of any work. on the contrary i am persuaded that a field is open in that department of theology, which would richly repay all the time and labour and expense, which persons well qualified for the task could bestow upon its culture. what i lament is this, that after a work has been deliberately condemned as unquestionably { } spurious, by competent and accredited judges for two centuries and a half at the least, that very work should be now cited as genuine and conclusive evidence, without any the most distant allusion to the judgment which had condemned it, or even to any suspicion of its being a forgery. in this instance, also, dr. wiseman has implicitly followed the compilation of messrs. berington and kirk. this is evident, because the extract, as it stands word for word the same in his lectures and their compilation, is not found as one passage in the spurious homily, but is made up of sentences selected from different clauses, and put together so as to make one paragraph. it is worthy of notice, that in quoting their authority, both dr. wiseman, and those whom he follows, refer us to the very volume in which the benedictine editors declare that there was no learned man, who did not pronounce the work to be spurious; and in which also they quote at length the letter of baronius which had proved it to be a forgery. [dr. wiseman's lectures, vol. ii. p. , from berington and kirk, p. , .] note.--page . (decree of the council of trent.) [canones et decreta sacros. oecumen. et genera. concilii tridentini, &c. rom. fol. a.d. .] mandat sancta synodus omnibus episcopis, et ceteris docendi munus curamque sustinentibus, ut juxta catholicæ, et apostolicæ ecclesiæ usum, a primævis christianæ religionis temporibus receptum, sanctorumque patrum consensionem, et sacrorum conciliorum decreta, inprimis de sanctorum intercessione, invocatione, reliquiarum honore, et legitimo imaginum usu, fideles diligenter instruant, docentes eos, sanctos, una cum christo regnantes, orationes suas pro hominibus deo offerre; bonum atque utile esse suppliciter eos invocare; et ob beneficia impetranda a deo per filium ejus jesum christum, dominum nostrum, qui solus noster redemptor et salvator est, ad eorum orationes, opem, auxiliumque confugere: illos vero, qui negant sanctos æternâ felicitate in coelo fruentes, invocandos esse; aut qui asserunt, vel illos pro hominibus non orare, vel eorum, ut pro nobis etiam singulis orent, invocationem esse idololatriam, vel pugnare cum verbo dei, adversarique honori unius mediatoris dei et hominum, jesu christi, vel stultum esse, in coelo regnantibus voce, vel mente supplicare, impie sentire. sanctorum quoque martyrum, et aliorum cum christo viventium sancta corpora, { } quæ viva membra fuerunt christi, et templum spiritus sancti, ab ipso ad æternam vitam suscitanda et glorificanda, a fidelibus veneranda esse; per quæ multa beneficia a deo hominibus præstantur: ita ut affirmantes, sanctorum reliquiis venerationem, atque honorem non deberi; vel eas, aliaque sacra monumenta a fidelibus inutiliter honorari; atque eorum opis impetrandæ causa sanctorum memorias frustra frequentari; omnino damnandos esse, prout jampridem eos damnavit, et nunc etiam damnat ecclesia. [de invocatione, veneratione, et reliquiis sanctorum, et sacris imaginibus, p. .] note.--pages and . in a prefatory epistle, addressed to the "chaplains, wardens, and brethren of the holy catholic gild," in huddersfield, dr. wiseman (p. ) expresses himself thus: "yesterday i laid the badge of your association at the feet of the sovereign pontiff, and it was most condescendingly and graciously received. but this is not all. as i had foretold, i found his holiness fully informed of your establishment and public manifestation; and i had the satisfaction of hearing him express his wish that similar institutions should revive all over the country." towards the close of the sermon, to which this preface is prefixed, and which was preached at st. patrick's chapel, huddersfield, sept. th, , and was printed at york in the present year [a.d. ], the preacher draws the comparison, referred to in page of this work, between england and the continent, and between england as it is, and england as it once was, and as, in his view, it ought to be again. after describing the scenes which you may witness in roman catholic countries, "where you might see the poor and the afflicted crowding round some altar, where their pious confidence or experience of past favours leads them to hope that their prayers will best be heard through the intercession of our dear lady," he thus proceeds: "oh that the time had come, when a similar expression of our devout feelings towards her should publicly be made, and all should unite to show her that honour, that reverence, and love which she deserves from all christians, and which has so long been denied her amongst us. there was a time when england was second to { } no other country upon earth in the discharge of this holy duty; and it will be only part of the restoration of our good and glorious days of old to revive to the utmost this part of ancient piety. therefore do i feel sincere joy at witnessing the establishment of this excellent brotherhood, and its public manifestation in this town this day, both as a means of encouraging devotion and virtue, and as a return to one of the venerable institutions of our forefathers. enter then fully into its spirit." ["a sermon delivered at st. patrick's, huddersfield, sept. th, , on occasion of the holy catholic gild there established, by the rev. n. wiseman, d.d., professor in the university of rome. york, ," p. , . the first quotation made in p. , is from this sermon.] [illustration: _madonna of castelfranco_ photogravure from the painting by giorgione in the parish church, castelfranco] the madonna in art by estelle m. hurll illustrated a mother is a mother still-- the holiest thing alive. --coleridge. boston l.c. page and company (_incorporated_) _copyright, _ by l.c. page and company (incorporated) contents. chapter preface introduction i. the portrait madonna ii. the madonna enthroned iii. the madonna in the sky iv. the pastoral madonna v. the madonna in a home environment vi. the madonna of love vii. the madonna in adoration viii. the madonna as witness bibliography illustrations. giorgione madonna of castelfranco _frontispiece_ _parish church, castelfranco._ jacopo bellini madonna and child _venice academy._ gabriel max madonna and child perugino madonna and saints (detail.) _vatican gallery, rome._ giovanni bellini madonna of san zaccaria. (detail.) _church of san zaccaria, venice._ veronese madonna and saints _venice academy._ quentin massys madonna and child _berlin gallery._ fra angelico madonna della stella _monastery of san marco, florence._ umbrian school glorification of the virgin _national gallery, london._ moretto madonna in glory _church of san giorgio maggiore, verona._ spanish school madonna on the crescent moon _dresden gallery._ bouguereau madonna of the angels raphael madonna in the meadow _belvedere gallery, vienna._ leonardo da vinci madonna of the rocks _national gallery, london._ palma vecchio santa conversazione _belvedere gallery, vienna._ filippino lippi madonna in a rose garden _pitti gallery, florence._ schongauer holy family _belvedere gallery, vienna._ raphael madonna dell' impannata _pitti gallery, florence._ correggio madonna della scala _parma gallery._ titian madonna and saints. (detail.) _belvedere gallery, vienna._ dÜrer madonna and child _belvedere gallery, vienna._ bodenhausen madonna and child _private gallery, washington, d.c._ andrea della robbia madonna in adoration _national museum, florence._ lorenzo di credi nativity _uffizi gallery, florence._ filippo lippi madonna in adoration _uffizi gallery, florence_. luigi vivarini madonna and child _church of the redentore, venice._ giovanni bellini madonna between st. george and st. paul. (detail.) _venice academy._ luini madonna with st. barbara and st. anthony _brera gallery, milan._ botticelli madonna of the pomegranate _uffizi gallery, florence._ murillo madonna and child _pitti gallery, florence._ raphael sistine madonna _dresden gallery._ preface. this little book is intended as a companion volume to "child-life in art," and is a study of madonna art as a revelation of motherhood. with the historical and legendary incidents in the life of the virgin it has nothing to do. these subjects have been discussed comprehensively and finally in mrs. jameson's splendid work on the "legends of the madonna." out of the great mass of madonna subjects are selected, here, only the idealized and devotional pictures of the mother and babe. the methods of classifying such works are explained in the introduction. great pains have been taken to choose as illustrations, not only the pictures which are universal favorites, but others which are less widely known and not easily accessible. the cover was designed by miss isabelle a. sinclair, in the various colors appropriate to the virgin mary. the lily is the virgin's flower, _la fleur de marie_, the highest symbol of her purity. the gold border surrounding the panel is copied from the ornamentation of the mantle worn by botticelli's dresden madonna. estelle m. hurll. _new bedford, mass., may, ._ introduction. it is now about fifteen centuries since the madonna with her babe was first introduced into art, and it is safe to say that, throughout all this time, the subject has been unrivalled in popularity. it requires no very profound philosophy to discover the reason for this. the madonna is the universal type of motherhood, a subject which, in its very nature, appeals to all classes and conditions of people. no one is too ignorant to understand it, and none too wise to be superior to its charm. the little child appreciates it as readily as the old man, and both, alike, are drawn to it by an irresistible attraction. thus, century after century, the artist has poured out his soul in this all-prevailing theme of mother love until we have an accumulation of madonna pictures so great that no one would dare to estimate their number. it would seem that every conceivable type was long since exhausted; but the end is not yet. so long as we have mothers, art will continue to produce madonnas. with so much available material, the student of madonna art would be discouraged at the outset were it not possible to approach the subject systematically. even the vast number of madonna pictures becomes manageable when studied by some method of classification. several plans are possible. the historical student is naturally guided in his grouping by the periods in which the pictures were produced; the critic, by the technical schools which they represent. besides these more scholarly methods, are others, founded on simpler and more obvious dividing lines. such are the two proposed in the following pages, forming, respectively, part i. and part ii. of our little volume. the first is based on the style of composition in which the picture is painted; the second, on the subject which it treats. the first examines the mechanical arrangement of the figures; the second asks, what is the real relation between them? the first deals with external characteristics; the second, with the inner significance. proceeding by the first, we ask, what are the general styles of treatment in which madonna pictures have been rendered? the answer names the following five classes: . the portrait madonna, the figures in half-length against an indefinite background. . the madonna enthroned, where the setting is some sort of a throne or dais. . the madonna in the sky or the "madonna in gloria," where the figures are set in the heavens, as represented by a glory of light, by clouds, by a company of cherubs, or by simple elevation above the earth's surface. . the pastoral madonna, with a landscape background. . the madonna in a home environment, where the setting is an interior. the foregoing subjects are arranged in the order of historical development, so far as is possible. the first and last of the classes enumerated are so small, compared with the others, that they are somewhat insignificant in the whole number of madonna pictures. yet, in all probability, it is along these lines that future art is most likely to develop the subject, choosing the portrait madonna because of its universal adaptability, and representing the madonna in her home, in an effort to realize, historically, the new testament scenes. of the remaining three, the enthroned madonna is, doubtless, the largest class, historically considered, because of the long period through which it has been represented. the pastoral and enskied madonnas were in high favor in the first period of their perfection. our next question is concerned with the aspects of motherhood displayed in madonna pictures: in what relation to her child has the madonna been represented? the answer includes the following three subjects: . the madonna of love (the mater amabilis), in which the relation is purely maternal. the emphasis is upon a mother's natural affection as displayed towards her child. . the madonna in adoration (the madre pia), in which the mother's attitude is one of humility, contemplating her child with awe. . the madonna as witness, in which the mother is preëminently the christ-bearer, wearing the honors of her proud position as witness to her son's great destiny. these subjects are mentioned in the order of philosophical climax, and as we go from the first to the second, and from the second to the third, we advance farther and farther into the experience of motherhood. at the same time there is an increase in the dignity of the madonna and in her importance as an individual. in the mater amabilis she is subordinate to her child, absorbed in him, so to speak; his infantine charms often overmatch her own beauty. when she rises to the responsibilities of her high calling, she is, for the time being, of equal interest and importance. Æsthetically, she is now even more attractive than her child, whose seriousness, in such pictures, takes something from his childlikeness. chronologically, our list reads backwards, as the religious aspect of mary's motherhood was the first treated in art, while the naturalistic conception came last. regarded as expressive of national characteristics, the mater amabilis is the madonna best beloved in northern countries, while the other two subjects belong specially to the art of the south. it will be seen that any number of madonna pictures, having been arranged in the five groups designated in part i., may be gathered up and redistributed in the three classes of part ii. to make this clear, the pictures mentioned in the first method of classification are frequently referred to a second time, viewed from an entirely different standpoint. since the lines of cleavage are so widely dissimilar in the two cases, both methods of study are necessary to a complete understanding of a picture. by the first, we learn a convenient term of description by which we may casually designate a madonna; by the second, we find its highest meaning as a work of art, and are admitted to some new secret of a mother's love. part i. madonnas classed by the style of composition. the madonna in art. chapter i. the portrait madonna. the first madonna pictures known to us are of the portrait style, and are of byzantine or greek origin. they were brought to rome and the western empire from constantinople (the ancient byzantium), the capital of the eastern empire, where a new school of christian art had developed out of that of ancient greece. justinian's conquest of italy sowed the new art-seed in a fertile field, where it soon took root and multiplied rapidly. there was, however, little or no improvement in the type for a long period; it remained practically unchanged till the thirteenth century. thus, while a byzantine madonna is to be found in nearly every old church in italy, to see one is to see all. they are half-length figures against a background of gold leaf, at first laid on solidly, or, at a somewhat later date, studded with cherubs. the virgin has a meagre, ascetic countenance, large, ill-shaped eyes, and an almost peevish expression; her head is draped in a heavy, dark blue veil, falling in stiff folds. unattractive as such pictures are to us from an artistic standpoint, they inspire us with respect if not with reverence. once objects of mingled devotion and admiration, they are still regarded with awe by many who can no longer admire. their real origin being lost in obscurity, innumerable legends have arisen, attributing them to miraculous agencies, and also endowing them with power to work miracles. there is an early and widespread tradition, imported with the madonna from the east, which makes st. luke a painter. it is said that he painted many portraits of the virgin, and, naturally, all the churches possessing old byzantine pictures claim that they are genuine works from the hand of the evangelist. there is one in the ara coeli at rome, and another in s. maria in cosmedino, of which marvellous tales are told, besides others of great sanctity in st. mark's, venice, and in padua. it would not be interesting to dwell, in any detail, upon these curious old pictures. we would do better to take our first example from the art which, though founded on byzantine types, had begun to learn of nature. such a picture we find in the venice academy, by jacopo bellini, painted at the beginning of the fifteenth century, somewhat later than any corresponding picture could have been found elsewhere in italy, as venice was chronologically behind the other art schools. the background is a glory of cherub heads touched with gold hatching. both mother and child wear heavy nimbi, ornamented with gold. these points recall byzantine work; but the gentler face of the virgin, and the graceful fall of her drapery, show that we are in a different world of art. the child is dressed in a little tunic, in the primitive method. with the dawn of the italian renaissance, the old style of portrait madonna passed out of vogue. more elaborate backgrounds were introduced from the growing resources of technique. in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, pictures of the portrait style were comparatively rare. raphael, however, was not above adopting this method, as every lover of the granduca madonna will remember. his friend bartolommeo also selected this style of composition for some of the loveliest of his works. [illustration: jacopo bellini.--madonna and child.] the story of the friendship between these two men is full of interest. at the time of raphael's first appearance in florence ( ), bartolommeo had been four years a monk, and had laid aside, apparently forever, the brush he had previously wielded with such promise. the young stranger sought the frate in his cell at san marco, and soon found the way to his heart. stimulated by this new friendship, bartolommeo roused himself from lethargy and resumed the practice of art with increasing success. it is pleasant to trace the influence which the two artists exerted upon each other. the older man had experience and learning; the younger had enthusiasm and genius. now it happened that, by nature, bartolommeo was specially gifted in the arrangement of large compositions, with many figures and stately architectural backgrounds. it is by these that he is chiefly known to-day. so it is the more interesting that, when raphael's sweet simplicity first touched him, he turned aside, for the time, from these elaborate plans and gave himself to the portrayal of the madonna in that simplest possible way, the half-length portrait picture. several of these he painted upon the walls of his own convent, glorifying that dim place of prayer and fasting with visions of radiant and happy motherhood. one of these may still be seen in the cell sometimes called the capella giovanato. it instantly recalls the tempi madonna of raphael, both in the pose of the figure and in the genuineness of feeling exhibited. damp and decay have warred in vain against it, and the modern visitor lingers before the mother and babe with hushed admiration. two other similar frescoes have been removed to the academy. they show the same motherly tenderness, the same innocent and beautiful babyhood. the mother holds her child close in her arms, pressing her forehead to his, or bending her cheek to receive his kiss. he throws his little arm about her neck, clinging to her veil or caressing her face. besides this group of pictures by bartolommeo, there are other scattered instances of portrait madonnas during the italian renaissance, by men too great to be tied to the fashions of their day. mantegna was such a painter, and luini another. all told, however, their pictures of this sort make up a class too rare to deserve longer description. a century later, the spanish school occasionally reverted to the same style of treatment. a pair of notable pictures are the madonna of bethlehem, by alonzo cano, and the madonna of the napkin, by murillo. both are in seville, the latter in the museum, the former still hanging in its original place in the cathedral. of cano's work, a great authority[ ] on spanish art has written, that, "in serene, celestial beauty, it is excelled by no image of the blessed mary ever devised in spain." murillo's picture is better known, and has a curious interest from its history. the cook in the capuchin monastery, where the artist had been painting, begged a picture as a parting gift. no canvas being at hand, a napkin was offered instead, on which the master painted a madonna, unexcelled among his works in brilliancy of color. [footnote : stirling-maxwell, in "annals of the artists of spain."] [illustration: gabriel max.--madonna and child.] as the portrait picture was the first style of madonna known to art, so, also, it is the last. by a leap of nearly a thousand years, we have returned, in our own day, to the method of the tenth century. it is strange that what was once a matter of necessity should at last become an object of choice. in the beginning of madonna art, the limited resources of technique precluded any attempts to make a more elaborate setting. such difficulties no longer stand in the way, and where we now see a portrait madonna, the artist has deliberately discarded all accessories in order better to idealize his theme. take, for instance, the portrait madonnas by gabriel max. here are no details to divert the attention from motherhood, pure and simple. we do not ask of the subject whether she is of high or of low estate, a queen or a peasant. we have only to look into the earnest, loving face to read that here is a mother. there are two pictures of this sort, evidently studied from the same bohemian models. in one, the mother looks down at her babe; in the other, directly at the spectator, with a singularly visionary expression. when weary with the senseless repetition of the set compositions of past ages, we turn with relief to a simple portrait mother like this, at once the most primitive and the most advanced form of madonna art. it is only another case where the simplest is the best. chapter ii. the madonna enthroned. in every true home the mother is queen, enthroned in the hearts of her loving children. there is, therefore, a beautiful double significance, which we should always have in mind, in looking at the madonna enthroned. according to the theological conception of the period in which it was first produced, the picture stands for the virgin mother as queen of heaven. understood typically, it represents the exaltation of motherhood. in the history of art development, the enthroned madonna begins where the portrait madonna ends. we may date it from the thirteenth century, when cimabue, of florence, and guido, of siena, produced their famous pictures. similar types had previously appeared in the mosaic decorations of churches, but now, for the first time, they were worthily set forth in panel pictures. the story of cimabue's madonna is one of the oft-told tales we like to hear repeated. how on a certain day, about , charles of anjou was passing through florence; how he honored the studio of cimabue by a visit; how the madonna was then first uncovered; how the people shouted so joyously that the street was thereafter named the borgo dei allegri; and how the great picture was finally borne in triumphal procession to the church of santa maria novella,--all these are the scenes in the pretty drama. the late sir frederick leighton has preserved for future centuries this story, already six hundred years old, in a charming pageant picture: "cimabue's madonna carried through the streets of florence." this was the first work ever exhibited by the english artist, and was an important step in the career which ended in the presidency of the royal academy. cimabue's madonna still hangs in santa maria novella, over the altar of the ruccellai chapel, and thither many a pilgrim takes his way to honor the memory of the father of modern painting. the throne is a sort of carved armchair, very simple in form, but richly overlaid with gold; the surrounding background is filled with adoring angels. here sits the madonna, in stiff solemnity, holding her child on her lap. if we find it hard to admire her beauty, we must note the superiority of the picture to its predecessors. for the enthroned madonna in a really attractive and beautiful form, we must pass at once to the period of full art development. in the interval, many variations upon the theme have been invented. the throne may be of any size, shape, or material; the composition may consist of any number of figures. the madonna, seated or standing, is now the centre of an assembly of personages symmetrically grouped about her. there is little or no unity of action among them; each one is an independent figure. the guard of honor may be composed of saints, as in montagna's madonna, of the brera, milan; or again it is a company of angels, as in the berlin madonna, attributed to botticelli, similar to which is the picture by ghirlandajo in the uffizi gallery. where saints are represented, each one is marked by some special emblem, the identification of which makes, in itself, an interesting study. st. peter's key, st. paul's sword, st. catherine's wheel, and st. barbara's tower soon become familiar symbols to those fond of this kind of lore. among the idealized presences about the virgin's throne may sometimes be seen the prosaic figure of the donor, whose munificence has made the picture possible. this is well illustrated in the famous madonna of victory in the louvre, painted in commemoration of the battle of fornovo, where mantegna represents francesco gonzaga, commander of the venetian forces, kneeling at the virgin's feet. a charming feature in many enthroned madonnas is the group of cherubs below,--one, two, or the mystic three. they are not the exclusive possession of any single school of art; bartolommeo and andrea del sarto of the florentines, francia of the bolognese, and bellini and cima of the venetians were particularly partial to them. the treatment in northern italy gives them a more definite purpose in the composition than does that of florence, for here they are always musicians, playing on all sorts of instruments,--the violin, the mandolin, or the pipe. bartolommeo was specially successful in the subject of the enthroned madonna, having fine gifts of composition united with profound religious earnestness. the great picture in the pitti gallery at florence may serve as a typical example. andrea del sarto's _chef-d'oeuvre_--the madonna di san francesco (uffizi)--may also be assigned to this class, although the arrangement is entirely novel. the virgin, holding the babe in her arms, stands on a sort of pedestal, carved at the corners with a design of harpies, from which the picture is often known as the madonna of the harpies. the pedestal throne is also seen in two of correggio's dresden pictures, but here the virgin is seated, with the child on her lap. an exceedingly simple throne madonna is that of luini, in the brera at milan, where the virgin sits on a plain coping not at all high. [illustration: perugino.--madonna and saints. (detail.)] a beautiful madonna enthroned is by perugino, in the vatican gallery at rome; one of the artist's best works in power and vivacity of color. the throne is an architectural structure of elegant simplicity of design, apparently of carved and inlaid marble. the virgin sits in quiet dignity, her face bent towards the bishops at her right, st. costantius and st. herculanus. on the other side stand the youthful st. laurence and st. louis of toulouse. although perugino was an exceedingly prolific artist, he did not often choose this particular subject. on this account the picture is especially interesting, and also because it is the original model of well known works by two of the umbrian painter's most illustrious pupils. many, indeed, were the apprentices trained in the famous _bottega_ at perugia, but, among them all, raphael and pinturicchio took the lead. these were the two who honored their master by repeating, with modifications of their own, the beautiful composition of the vatican. pinturicchio's picture is in the church of st. andrea, at perugia. a charming feature, which he introduced, is a little st. john, standing at the foot of the throne. raphael's picture is the so-called ansidei madonna, of the national gallery, london, purchased by the english government, in , for the fabulous price of £ , . the composition is here reduced to its simplest possible form, with only one saint on each side,--st. nicholas on the right, st. john the baptist on the left. the virgin and child give no attention to these personages, but are absorbed in a book which is open on the mother's knee. raphael had no great liking for this style of picture, which was rather too formal for his taste. it is noticeable that, in the few instances where he painted it, he took the suggestion, as here, from some previous work. thus his madonna of st. anthony, also in the national gallery (loaned by the king of naples), was based upon an old picture by bernardino di mariotto, according to the strict orders of the nuns for whose convent it was a commission. the baldacchino madonna of the pitti, at florence, is closely akin to bartolommeo's composition in the same gallery. glancing, briefly, at these scattered examples, we learn that the enthroned madonna belongs to every school of italian art, and exhibits an astonishing variety of forms. probably it was in the north of italy that it flourished most. the paduan school has its fine representation in mantegna's picture, already referred to; the brescian, in moretto's madonna of s. clemente; the veronese, in girolamo dai libri's splendid altar piece in san giorgio maggiore; the bergamesque, in lotto's madonna of s. bartolommeo. above all, it was in venice, the queen city of the adriatic, that the enthroned madonna reached the greatest popularity: the spirit of the composition was peculiarly adapted to the venetian love of pomp and ceremony. to understand venetian art aright, we must distinguish the character of the earlier and later periods. with vivarini, bellini, and cima, the madonna in trono was the expression of a devout religious feeling. with titian, tintoretto, and veronese, it was merely one among many popular art subjects. thus arose two different general types. the earlier madonna was a somewhat cold type of beauty; the faultless regularity of her features and the imperturbable calm of her expression make her rather unapproachable; but she shows a strong, sweet purity of character, worthy of profound respect. one of cima's most important works is the madonna of this type in the venice academy. high on a marble throne, she sits under a pillared portico, behind which stretches a pleasant landscape. three saints stand on each side,--an old man, a youth, and a maiden. on the steps sit two choristers playing the violin and mandolin. palma's great altar-piece, at vicenza, is another splendid enthroned madonna. attended by st. george and st. lucy, and entertained by a musical angel seated at her feet, the virgin supports her beautiful boy, as he gives his blessing. bellini's enthroned madonnas are known throughout the world. the picture by which he established his fame was one of this class, originally painted for a chapel in san giobbe, but now hanging in the venice academy. ruskin has pronounced it "one of the greatest pictures ever painted in christendom in her central art power." it is a large composition, with three saints at each side, and three choristers below. the frari madonna is in a simpler vein, and consists of three compartments, the central one containing the virgin's throne. the angioletti, on the steps, are probably the most popular of their charming class in venice. [illustration: giovanni bellini.--madonna of san zaccaria. (detail.)] the san zaccaria madonna was painted when bellini was over eighty years old, and has certain technical qualities surpassing any the artist had previously attained. the depth of light and shade is particularly remarkable; the colors rich and harmonious. the attendant saints are st. lucy on the right, a pretty blonde girl, with st. jerome beyond her, absorbed in his bible; opposite, stand st. catherine, pensively looking down, and st. peter, in profound meditation. the entire picture, both in conception and execution, may be considered a representative example of the times. following the bellini school, and forming, as it were, a connecting link between the earlier and the later art, was giorgione. less than a score of existing works give witness to the rare spirit of this master, who was spared to earth only thirty-four years. these are of a quality to place him among the immortals. the enthroned madonna is the subject of two, one in the madrid gallery, and another at castel-franco. they create an entirely distinct madonna ideal,--a poetic being, who sits, with drooping head and dreamy eyes, as if seeing unspeakable visions. the castel-franco picture expresses the finest elements in venetian character. every other composition seems elaborate and artificial when compared with the simplicity of this. other madonnas seem almost coarse beside such delicacy. the virgin's throne is of an unusual height,--a double plinth,--the upper step of which is somewhat above the heads of the attendant saints, liberale and francis. this simple, compositional device emphasizes the effect of her pensive expression. it is as if her high meditations set her apart from human companionship. there is, indeed, something almost pathetic in her isolation, but for the strength of character in her face. the color scheme is as simple and beautiful as the underlying conception. the virgin's tunic is of green, and the mantle, falling from the right shoulder and lying across her lap, is red, with deep shadows in its large folds. the back of the seat is covered with a strip of red and gold embroidery. the later period of venetian art is marked by a new ideal of the virgin. she is now a magnificent creature of flesh and blood. her face is proud and handsome; her figure large, well-proportioned, and somewhat voluptuous. no bethlehem stable ever sheltered this haughty beauty; her home is in kings' palaces; she belongs distinctly to the realm of wealth and worldliness. she has never known sorrow, anxiety, or poverty; life has brought her nothing but pleasure and luxury. her throne stands no longer in the sacred place of some inner sanctuary, where angel choristers make music. it is an elevated platform, at one side of the composition, as in titian's pesaro altar-piece, and veronese's madonna in the venice academy. this gives an opportunity for a display of elaborate draperies, such as we may see in veronese's picture. the peculiar qualities of art in verona and venice are blended in paolo veronese. no artist ever enjoyed more the splendors of color, or combined them in more enchanting harmonies. such gifts transform the commonest materials, and, though his virgin is a very ordinary woman, she has undeniable charms. an oft-copied figure, in this picture, is that of the little st. john, a universal favorite among child lovers. [illustration: veronese.--madonna and saints.] the reader must have remarked that, though the fundamental idea of the enthroned madonna is that of queenship, the virgin wears no crown in any of the pictures thus far cited; the crowned madonna is not characteristic of italian art. it is found occasionally in mosaics from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, and in some of the early votive pictures, but does not appear in the later period except in a few venetian pictures by giovanni da murano and carlo crivelli. the same idea was often carried out by placing two hovering angels over the virgin's head, holding the crown between them. botticelli's madonna of the inkhorn is treated in this way. the crown is essentially teutonic in origin and character. turning to the representative art of germany and belgium, we find the virgin almost invariably wearing a crown, whether she sits on a throne, or in a pastoral environment. no better example could be named than the celebrated holbein madonna, of darmstadt, known chiefly through the copy in the dresden gallery. here the imposing height of the virgin is rendered still more impressive by a high, golden crown, richly embossed and edged with pearls. beneath this her blond hair falls loosely over her beautiful neck, and gleams on the blue garment hanging over her shoulders. strong and tender, this noble figure sums up the finest elements in the madonna art of the north. a simple and lovely form for the madonna's crown is the narrow golden fillet set with pearls, singly or in clusters. this is placed over the virgin's brow just at the edge of the hair, which is otherwise unconfined. this is seen on madonnas by van eyck (frankfort), dürer (woodcut of ), memling (bruges), schongauer (munich). [illustration: quentin massys.--madonna and child.] in the enthroned madonna by quentin massys, in the berlin gallery, we have many typical characteristics of northern art. the throne itself is exceedingly rich, ornamented with agate pillars with embossed capitals of gold. the virgin has the fine features and earnest, tender expression which recalls earlier flemish painters. her dress falls in rich, heavy folds upon the marble pavement. but, as with van eyck and memling, holbein and schongauer, fine clothes do not conceal her girlish simplicity or her loving heart. a low table, spread with food, stands at the left,--a curious domestic element to introduce, and thoroughly northern in realism. considered as a symbol of the exaltation of motherhood, there is no reason why the throne should go out of fashion; but if it is to appear, it must be used intelligently, and with some adaptation to present modes of thought, not servilely imitated from the forms of a by-gone age. this is a fact too little appreciated by the artists of to-day. many modern pictures could be cited--by bouguereau, ittenbach, and others--of enthroned madonnas in which is adopted the form, but not the spirit, of the italian rennaissance. in such works, the setting is a mere affectation entirely out of taste. if we are to have a throne, let us have a madonna who is a veritable queen. chapter iii. the madonna in the sky. (the madonna in gloria.) we have seen that the first madonnas were painted against a background either of solid gold, or of cherub figures, and that the latter style of setting was continued in the early pictures of the enthroned madonna. the effect was to idealize the subject, and carry it into the region of the heavenly. this was the germinal idea which grew into the "madonna in gloria." the glory was originally a sort of nimbus of a larger order, surrounding the entire figure, instead of merely the head. it was oval in shape, like the almond or mandorla. a picture of this class is the famous madonna della stella, of fra angelico. it is in a beautiful gothic tabernacle, which is the sole ornament of a cell in san marco, florence. at every step in these sacred precincts, we meet some reminder of the angelic brother. how the gray walls blossomed, under his brush, into forms and colors of eternal beauty! after seeing the larger wall-paintings in corridors and refectory, this little gem seems to epitomize his choicest gifts. a rich frame, fit setting for the jewel, encloses an outer circle of adoring angels, and within, the central panel contains only the full length figure of the virgin with her child, against a mandorla formed of golden rays running from centre to circumference. the madonna is enveloped in a long, dark blue cloak, drawn around her head like a byzantine veil. a single star gleams above her brow, from which is derived the title of the picture. she holds her child fondly, and he, with responsive affection, nestles against his mother, pressing his little face into her neck. faithful to the standards of his predecessors, and untouched by the new spirit of naturalism all about him, the monk painter preserves, in his conception, the most sacred traditions of past ages, and yet unites with them an element of love and tenderness which appeals strongly to every human heart. [illustration: fra angelico.--madonna della stella.] it is but a step from this earlier form of the madonna in gloria to the more modern style of the madonna in the sky, where the field of vision is enlarged, and we see the virgin and child raised above the surface of the earth. in some pictures, her elevation is very slight. there is a curious composition, by andrea del sarto (berlin gallery), where we are puzzled to know if the madonna is enthroned or enskied. a flight of steps in the centre leads up as if to a throne, but above these the virgin sits in a niche, on a bank of clouds. in correggio's madonna of st. sebastian, in the dresden gallery, the virgin seems to be descending from heaven to earth with her babe, and the surrounding clouds and cherubs rest literally upon the heads of the saints who are honored by the vision. in other pictures the dividing line between earth and heaven is much more strongly marked. we have a landscape below, then a stratum of intervening air, and, in the upper sky, the madonna with her child. the lower part of the picture is occupied by a company of saints, to whom the heavenly vision is vouchsafed; or, in rare cases, by cherubs. the virgin appears in a cloud of cherub heads, or accompanied by a few child-angels. there are a few pictures in which her mother, st. anne, sits with her. adoring seraphs sometimes attend, one on each side, or even sainted personages. all these variations are exemplified in the pictures which we are to consider. [illustration: umbrian school.--glorification of the virgin.] the first has come down to us from the hand of some unknown umbrian painter. in the national gallery, london, where it now hangs, it was once attributed to lo spagna, but is now entered in the catalogue as nameless. it matters little whether or not we know the name of the master; he could ask no higher tribute to his talent than the universal admiration which his picture commands. in the foreground of a quiet umbrian landscape is a marble balcony, on the railing of which sit two captivating little boy choristers. one roguish fellow pipes on a trumpet, while the other, his face tip-tilted to the heavenly vision, makes music on a small guitar. above, on a cloud, sits the virgin, with the sweet, mystic smile on her face, so characteristic of umbrian art. she supports her babe with her right arm, and in her left hand carries a lily stalk. the child, standing on his mother's knee and clinging to her neck, turns his face out with sweet earnestness. in clouds at the side, tiny cherubs bear tapers, while others, floating above, hold a large crown just over her head. although we cannot limit this style of picture to any special locality, it appears to have found much favor in the art of northern italy. in the brescian school, moretto was unusually fond of the subject. his treatment of the theme is somewhat heavy; there is little of the ethereal in his celestial vision, either in the type of womanhood or in the style of arrangement. in defiance of the law of gravitation, he poses his upper figures so as to form a solid pyramid, wide at the base, and tapering abruptly to the apex. [illustration: moretto.--madonna in glory.] in the glorified madonna of st. john the evangelist, brescia, the pyramidal effect is accentuated by curtains draped back on either side of the upper part of the composition. in the madonna of san giorgio maggiore, at verona, we have a much more attractive picture. the "gloria" encompassing the vision is clearly defined, giving so strong an effect of the supernatural that we cease to judge the composition by ordinary standards of natural law. the virgin's white veil flutters from her head as if caught by some heavenly breeze. her cloak floats about her by the same mysterious force, held in graceful festoons by winged cherub heads. below is a group of five virgin martyrs, with st. cecilia in the centre, wearing a crown of roses; st. lucia holds the awl, the instrument of her torture, looking down at st. catherine, who leans against her terrible wheel; st. agnes, on the other side, reads quietly from a book while she caresses her lamb, and st. barbara stands behind her, with eyes lifted to the sky. they are all splendid young amazons, recalling moretto's fine st. justina of the vienna gallery. there is no trace of ascetism in their strong, well-developed figures, and in their faces no suggestion of an unhealthy pietism. moretto's ideals were an anticipation of the most advanced ideas of the modern science of physical culture. his madonna and saints derive their beauty neither from over refinement on the one hand, nor from sensuous charms on the other, but from sane and harmonious self-development. the berlin gallery contains a third glorified madonna by the same painter, treated as a holy family. st. elizabeth sits beside the virgin, who holds her own boy on her right side, while bending to embrace the little st. john with the left arm. so large a group is not appropriately treated in this way, yet the picture is so fine a work of art as to disarm criticism. still another representative of the brescian school must be considered in the person of savoldo. born of a noble family, and following painting as an amusement rather than as an actual profession, his works are rare, and one of the finest examples of his art is the glorification of the virgin, in the brera gallery, at milan. the mandorla-shaped glory surrounds the virgin's figure, studded with faintly discerned cherub heads. on either side, a musical angel is in adoration; four saints stand on the earth below. the entire conception is rendered with the utmost delicacy: the grace and beauty of the madonna are of exactly the quality to make her appearance a beatific vision. from brescia we turn to verona, where we again find many pictures of the beautiful subject. there are, in the churches of verona, at least three notable works, by gianfrancesco caroto, in this style. one is in sant' anastasia, another is in san giorgio, and the third--the artist's best existing work--is in san fermo maggiore, and shows the virgin's mother, st. anne, seated with her in the clouds. girolamo dai libri was a few years younger than caroto, and at one period was, to some extent, an imitator of the latter. beginning as a miniaturist, he finally attained a high place among the veronese artists of the first order. his characteristics can nowhere be seen to better advantage than in the madonna of st. andrew and st. peter, in the verona gallery. the virgin is in an oval glory, edged all around with small, fleecy clouds. she has a beautiful, matronly face, with abundant hair, smoothly brushed over her forehead. the two apostles, below, are fine, strong figures, full of virility. morando, or cavazzola, was, doubtless, the most gifted of the older school of verona, possessing some of the best qualities of the later master, paolo veronese. we should not leave the school, therefore, without mentioning a remarkable contribution he added to this class of pictures in his latest altar-piece. here the upper air is filled with a sacred company, the virgin and child are attended by st. francis and st. anthony, and surrounded by seven allegorical figures to represent the cardinal virtues. below are six saints, specially honored in the franciscan order. the picture is called the finest production of the school in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. in the venetian school, titian and tintoretto both painted the subject of the madonna in glory, but the pictures are not notable compared with many others from their hands. from the north of italy we naturally turn next to the south, to inquire what raphael was doing at the same period in rome. occupied by many great works under the papal patronage, he still found time for his favorite subject of the madonna, painting some pictures in the styles already mastered, and two for the first time in the style of the madonna in the sky. [illustration: spanish school.--madonna on the crescent moon.] the first was the foligno madonna, now in the vatican gallery. it was painted in for the pope's secretary, sigismund conti, as a thank-offering for having escaped the danger of a falling meteor at foligno. no thoughtful observer can be slow to recognize the superiority of this composition over all others of its kind in point of unity. here is no formal row of saints, each absorbed in his or her own reflections, apart from any common purpose. on the contrary, all unite in paying honor to the queen of heaven. not less superior to his contemporaries was the painter's skill in arranging the figures of mother and child with such grace of equilibrium that they seem to float in the upper air. in the sistine madonna, raphael carried this form of composition to the highest perfection. so simple and apparently unstudied is its beauty, that we do not realize the masterliness of its art. we seem to be standing before an altar, or, better still, before an open window, from which the curtains have been drawn aside, allowing us to look directly into the heaven of heavens. a cloud of cherub faces fills the air, from the midst of which, and advancing towards us, is the virgin with her child. the downward force of gravity is perfectly counterbalanced by the vital energy of her progress forward. there is here no uncomfortable sense, on the part of the spectator, that natural law is disregarded. while the seated madonna in glory seems often in danger of falling to earth, this full-length figure in motion avoids any such solidity of effect. the figures on either side are also so posed as to arouse no surprise at their presence. we should have said beforehand that heavy pontifical robes would be absurdly incongruous in such a composition, but raphael solves the problem so simply that few would suspect the difficulties. the final touch of beauty is added in the cherub heads below, recalling the naïve charm of the similar figures in the umbrian picture we have considered. [illustration: bouguereau.--madonna of the angels.] after the time of raphael, a pretty form of madonna in glory was occasionally painted, showing the virgin with her babe sitting above the crescent moon. the conception appears more than once in the paintings of albert dürer, and later, artists of all schools adopted it. sassoferrato's picture in the vatican gallery is a popular example. tintoretto's, in berlin, is not so well known. in the dresden gallery is a work, by an unknown spanish painter of the seventeenth century, differing from the others in that the virgin is standing, as in the oft-repeated spanish pictures of the immaculate conception. it is of pictures like this that our poet longfellow is speaking, when he thus apostrophizes the virgin: "thou peerless queen of air, as sandals to thy feet the silver moon dost wear." the enskied madonna involves many technical difficulties of composition, and demands a high order of artistic imagination. it could hardly be called a frequent subject in the period of greatest artistic daring, and no modern painter has shown any adequate understanding of the subject, though there are not lacking those who have made the attempt. bodenhausen, defregger, bouguereau, have all followed raphael in representing the queen of heaven as a full-length figure in the sky; but their conception has not the dignity corresponding to the style of treatment. impatient and dissatisfied with such modern art, we turn back to the old masters with new appreciation of their great gifts. chapter iv. the pastoral madonna. it was many centuries before art, at first devoted exclusively to figure painting, turned to the study of natural scenery. thus it was that madonna pictures, of various kinds, had long been established in popular favor before the idea of a landscape setting was introduced. we need not look for interesting pictures of this class before the latter part of the fifteenth century, and it was not until the sixteenth that the pastoral madonna, in its highest form, was first produced. even then there was no great number which show a really sympathetic love of nature. in the ideal pastoral, the landscape entirely fills the picture, and the figures are, as it were, an integral part of it. such pictures are so rare that we write in golden letters the names of the few who have given us these treasures. raphael's justly comes first in the list. his earliest madonnas show his love of natural scenery, in the charming glimpses of umbrian landscape, which form the background. these are treated, as müntz points out, with marked "simplicity of outline and breadth of design." they are, however, but the beginning of the great things that were to follow. the young painter's sojourn in florence witnessed a marvellous development of his powers. here he was surrounded by the greatest artists of his time, and he was quick to absorb into himself something of excellence from them all. his fertility of production was amazing. in a period of four years ( - ), interrupted by visits to perugia and urbino, he produced about twenty madonnas, in which we may trace the new influences affecting him. leonardo da vinci was, doubtless, his greatest inspiration, and it was from this master-student of nature that the young man learned, with new enthusiasm, the value of going directly to nature herself. the fruit of this new study is a group of lovely pastoral madonnas, which are entirely unique as nature idyls. three of these are among the world's great favorites. they are, the belle jardinière (the beautiful gardener), of the louvre gallery, paris; the madonna in grünen (the madonna in the meadow), in the belvedere gallery, vienna; and the cardellino madonna (the madonna of the goldfinch), of the uffizi, florence. we turn from one to another of these three beautiful pictures, always in doubt as to which is the greatest. fortunately, it is a question which there is no occasion to decide, as every lover of art may be the happy possessor of all three, in that highest mode of possession attained by devoted study. in each one we have the typical tuscan landscape, filling the whole picture with its tranquil beauty. the "glad green earth" blossoms with dainty flowers; the fair blue sky above is reflected in the placid surface of a lake. from its shores rise gently undulating hills, where towers show the signs of happy activity. in the foreground of this peaceful scene sits a beautiful woman with two charming children at her knee. they belong to the landscape as naturally as the trees and flowers; they partake of its tranquil, placid happiness. [illustration: raphael.--madonna in the meadow.] almost identical in general style of composition, the three pictures show many points of dissimilarity when we come to a closer study of the figures. considered as a type of womanly beauty, the belle jardinière is perhaps the most commonplace of the three virgins, or, to put it negatively, the least attractive. she is distinctly of the peasant class, gentle, amiable, and entirely unassuming. the madonna in the meadow is a maturer woman, more dignified, more beautiful. the smooth braids of her hair are coiled about the head, accentuating its lovely outline. the falling mantle reveals the finely modelled shoulders. the madonna of the goldfinch is a still higher type of loveliness, uniting with gentle dignity a certain delicate, high-bred grace, which raphael alone could impart. her face is charmingly framed in the soft hair which falls modestly about it. one wonders if any modern _coiffeur_ could invent so many styles of hair dressing as does this gifted young painter of the sixteenth century. turning from the mother to the children, we find the same general types repeated in the three pictures, but with some difference of _motif_. the christ-child of the belle jardinière is looking up fondly to his mother. in the vienna picture he is eagerly interested in the cross which the little st. john gives him. in the uffizi picture he is more serious, and strokes the goldfinch with an air of abstraction, meditating on the holy things his mother has been reading to him. the arrangement of the three figures is the same in all the pictures, and is so entirely simple that we forget the greatness of the art. the virgin, dominating the composition, brings into unity the two smaller figures. this unity is somewhat less perfect in the belle jardinière, because the little st. john is almost neglected in the intense absorption of mother and child in each other. once again, in the later days at rome, raphael recurred to the pastoral madonna type of this florentine period, and painted the picture known as the casa alba madonna. we have again the same smiling landscape and the same charming children, but a virgin of an altogether new order. a turbaned roman beauty of superb, juno-like physique, she does not belong to the idyllic character of her surroundings. it is as if some brilliant exotic had been transplanted from her native haunts to quiet fields, where hitherto the modest lily had bloomed alone. as raphael's first inspiration for the pastoral madonna came from the influence of leonardo da vinci, it is of interest to compare his work with that of the great lombard himself. critics tell us that the madonna pictures in which he came nearest to his model are the madonna in the meadow and the holy family of the lamb. (madrid.) these we may place beside the madonna of the rocks, which is the only entirely authentic da vinci madonna which we have. it is only the skilled connoisseur who, in travelling from paris to vienna, and from vienna to madrid, can hold in memory the qualities of technique which link together the three pictures; but for general characteristics of composition, the black and white reproductions may suffice. leonardo availed himself of his intimate knowledge of nature to choose from her storehouse something which is unique rather than typical. the rock grotto doubtless has a real counterpart, but we must go far to find it. in the river, gleaming beyond, we see the painter's characteristic treatment of water, which raphael was glad to adopt. the triangular arrangement of the figures, the relation of the virgin to the children, the simple, childish beauty of the latter, and their attitude towards each other--all these points suggest the source of raphael's similar conceptions. the virgin's hair falls over her shoulders entirely unbound, in gentle, waving ripples. [illustration: leonardo da vinci.--madonna of the rocks.] we do not need to be told, though the historian has taken pains to record it, that a feature of personal beauty by which leonardo was always greatly pleased was "curled and waving hair." we see it in the first touch of his hand when, as a boy in the workshop of verrochio, he painted the wavy-haired angel in his master's baptism; and here, again, in the virgin, we find it the crowning element of her mysterious loveliness. we try in vain to penetrate the secret of her smile,--it is as evasive as it is enchanting. and herein lies the distinguishing difference between leonardo and raphael. the former is always mysterious and subtle; the latter is always frank and ingenuous. while both are true interpreters of nature, leonardo reveals the rare and inexplicable, raphael chooses the typical and familiar. both are possessed of a strong sense of the harmony of nature with human life. the smile of the virgin of the rocks is a part of the mystery of her shadowy environment;[ ] the serenity of the madonna in the meadow belongs to the atmosphere of the open fields. [footnote : that the leonardesque _smile_ requires a leonardesque _setting_ is seen, i think, in the pictures by da vinci's imitators. the madonna by sodoma, recently added to the brera gallery at milan, is an example in point. here the inevitable smile of mystery seems meaningless in the sunny, open landscape.] among others who were affected by the influence of leonardo--and chief of the lombards--was luini. his pastoral madonna has, however, little in common with the landscapes of his master, judging from the lovely example in the brera. the group of figures is strikingly suggestive of da vinci, but the quiet, rural pasture in which the virgin sits is luini's own. in the distance is a thick clump of trees, finely drawn in stem and branch. at one side is a shepherd's hut with a flock of sheep grazing near. the child jesus reaches from his mother's lap to play with the lamb which the little st. john has brought, a _motif_ similar to raphael's madrid picture, and perhaps due, in both painters, to the example of leonardo. it is said by the learned that during the period of the renaissance the love of nature received an immense impulse from the revival of the latin poets, and that this impulse was felt most in the large cities. in the pictures noted, we have seen its effect in florentine and lombard art; that it was also felt in isolated places, we may see in some of correggio's work at parma, at about the same time. two, at least, of his madonna pictures are as famous for their beautiful landscapes as for the rare grace and charm of their figures. these are the kneeling madonna, of the uffizi, and "la zingarella," at naples. both show a perfect adaptation of the surroundings to the spirit of the scene. in the first it is morning, and the gladness of nature reflects the mother's rapturous joy in her awakening babe. a brilliant light floods the figures in the foreground and melts across the green slopes into the hazy distance of the sea-bound horizon. in the second it is twilight, and a calm stillness broods over all, as under the feathery palms the mother bends, watchful, over her little one's slumbers. such were the revelations of nature to the country-bred painter from the little town of correggio. turning now to venice for our last examples, we find that the love of natural scenery was remarkably strong in this city of water and sky, where the very absence of verdure may have created a homesick longing for the green fields. it was venetian art which originated that form of pastoral madonna known as the santa conversazione. this is usually a long, narrow picture, showing a group of sacred personages, against a landscape setting, centering about the madonna and child. the composition has none of the formality of the enthroned madonna. an underlying unity of purpose and action binds all the figures together in natural and harmonious relations. the acknowledged leader of this style of composition--the inventor indeed, according to many--was palma vecchio. it is curious that of a painter whose works are so widely admired, almost nothing is known. even the traditions which once lent color to his life have been shattered by the ruthless hand of the modern investigator. the span of his life extended from to . thus he came at the beginning of the century made glorious by titian, and contributed not a little in his own way to its glory. it is supposed that he studied under giovanni bellini, and at one time was a friend and colleague of lorenzo lotto. a child of the mountains--for he was born in serinalta--he never entirely lost the influence of his early surroundings. to the last his figures are grave, vigorous, sometimes almost rude, partaking of the characteristics of the everlasting hills. perhaps it was these traits which made the santa conversazione a favorite composition with him. he has an intense love of nature in her most luxuriant mood. [illustration: palma vecchio.--santa conversazione.] for a collection of palma's pictures, we should choose at least four to represent his treatment of the santa conversazione: those at naples, dresden, munich, and vienna. the naples picture is considered the most successful of palma's large pictures of this kind, but it is not easy for the less critical observer to choose a favorite among the four. one general formula describes them all: a sunny landscape with hills clad in their greenest garb; a tree in the foreground, beneath which sits the virgin, a comely, country-bred matron, who seems to have drawn her splendid vigor from the clear, bright air. on her lap she supports a sprightly little boy, who is the centre of attention. in the simpler compositions the madonna is at the left, and at the right kneel or sit two saints. one is a handsome young rustic, unkempt and roughly clad, sometimes figuring as st. john the baptist, and sometimes as st. roch. with him is contrasted a beautiful young female saint, usually st. catherine. where the composition includes other figures, the virgin is in the centre, with the attendant personages symmetrically grouped on either side. in the vienna picture the two additional figures at the left are the aged st. celestin and a fine st. barbara. of all schools of painting, the venetian is the least translatable into black and white, so rich in colors is the palette which composed it. this is especially true of palma, and to understand aright his santa conversazione, we must read into it the harmony of colors which it expresses, the chords of blue, red, brown, and green, the shimmering lights and brilliant atmosphere. [illustration: filippino lippi.--madonna in a rose garden.] the subject of the santa conversazione should not be left without a brief reference to other venetians, who added to the popularity of this charming style of picture. berenson mentions seven by palma's pupil, bonifazio veronese, and one by his friend, lorenzo lotto. cima, cariani, paris bordone, and last, but not least, the great titian,[ ] lent their gifts to the subject, so that we have abundant evidence of the venetian love of natural scenery. it remains to consider one more form of the pastoral madonna, that which represents the virgin and child in "a garden inclosed," in allusion to the symbolism of solomon's song ( : ). the subject is found among the woodcuts of albert dürer, but i have never seen it in any german painting. [footnote : see particularly titian's works in the louvre, of which the vierge au lapin is an especially charming pastoral.] in italian art there are two famous pictures of this class: by francia, in the munich gallery, and by filippino lippi (or so attributed), in the pitti, at florence. in both the _motif_ is the same: in the foreground, a square inclosure surrounded by a rose-hedge, with a hilly landscape in the distance; the virgin kneeling before her child in the centre. filippino lippi's is one of those pictures whose beauty attracts crowds of admirers to the canvas. copyists are kept busy, repeating the composition for eager purchasers, and it has made its way all over the world. the circle of graceful angels who, with the boy st. john, join the mother in adoring the christ-child, is one of the chief attractions of the picture. it is a pretty conceit that one of these angels showers rose leaves upon the babe. the pastoral madonna is the sort of picture which can never be outgrown. the charm of nature is as perennial as is the beauty of motherhood, and the two are always in harmony. here, then, is a proper subject for modern madonna art, a field which has scarcely been opened by the artists of our own day. such pastoral madonnas as have been painted within recent years are all more or less artificial in conception. compared with the idyllic charm of the sixteenth century pictures, they seem like pretty scenes in a well-mounted opera. we are looking for better things. chapter v. the madonna in a home environment. a subject so sacred as the madonna was long held in too great reverence to permit of any common or realistic treatment. the pastoral setting brought the mother and her babe into somewhat closer and more human relations than had before been deemed possible; but art was slow to presume any further upon this familiarity. the madonna as a domestic subject, represented in the interior of her home, was hesitatingly adopted, and has been so rarely treated, even down to our own times, as to form but a small group of pictures in the great body of art. [illustration: schongauer.--holy family.] the northern painters naturally led the way. peculiarly home-loving in their tastes, their ideal woman is the _hausfrau_, and it was with them no lowering of the madonna's dignity to represent her in this capacity. a picture in the style of quentin massys hangs in the munich gallery, and shows a flemish bedroom of the fifteenth century. at the left stands the bed, and on the right burns the fire, with a kettle hanging over it. the virgin sits alone with her babe at her breast. more frequently a domestic scene of this sort includes other figures belonging to the holy family. a typical german example is the picture by schongauer in the belvedere gallery at vienna. the virgin is seated in homely surroundings, intent upon a bunch of grapes which she holds in her hands, and which she has taken from a basket standing on the floor beside her. long, waving hair falls over her shoulders; a snowy kerchief is folded primly in the neck of her dress; she is the impersonation of virgin modesty. her baby boy stands on her lap, nestling against his mother; his eyes fixed on the fruit, his eager little face glowing with pleasure. beyond are seen the cattle, which joseph is feeding. he pauses at the door, a bundle of hay in his arms, to look in with fond pride at his young wife and her child. schongauer's work belongs to the latter part of the fifteenth century, and there was nothing similar to it in italy at the same period. it is true that madonnas in domestic settings have been attributed to contemporaneous italians, but they were probably by some flemish hand. [illustration: raphael.--madonna dell' impannata.] giulio romano, a pupil of raphael, was perhaps the first of the italians to give any domestic touch to the subject of the madonna and child. his madonna della catina of the dresden gallery is well known. it is so called from the basin in which the christ-child stands while the little st. john pours in water from a pitcher for the bath. another picture by the same artist shows the madonna seated with her child in the interior of a bedchamber. this was one of the "discoveries" of the late senator giovanni morelli, the critic, and is in a private collection in dresden. to giulio romano also, according to recent criticism, is due the domestic madonna known as the "impannata," and usually attributed to raphael. it is probable that both artists had a hand in it, the master in the arrangement of the composition, the pupil in its execution. a bed at one side is concealed by a green curtain. in the rear is the cloth-covered window which gives the picture its name. elizabeth and mary magdalene have brought home the child, who springs to his mother's arms, smiling back brightly at his friends. one other madonna from raphael's brush (the orleans) has an interior setting, but the domestic environment here is undoubtedly the work of some flemish painter of later date. by the seventeenth century, the holy family in a home environment can be found somewhat more often in various localities. by the french painter mignard there is a well-known picture in the louvre called la vierge à la grappe. by f. barocci of urbino there is an example in the national gallery known as the madonna del gatto, in which the child holds a bird out of the reach of a cat. a similar _motif_, certainly not a pleasant one, is seen in murillo's holy family of the bird, in madrid. by salimbeni, in the pitti, is a holy family in an interior, showing the boy jesus and his cousin st. john playing with puppies. rembrandt's domestic madonna pictures, equally homely as to environment, are by no means scenes of hilarity, but rather of frugal contentment. two similar works bear the title of le ménage du menuisier--the carpenter's home. in both, the scene is the interior of a common room devoted to work and household purposes. joseph is seen in the rear at his bench, while the central figures are the mother and child. in the louvre picture, the virgin's mother is present, caressing her grandchild, who is held at his mother's breast. the composition at st. petersburg (hermitage gallery) is simpler, and shows the virgin contemplating her babe as he lies asleep in the cradle. another well-known picture by rembrandt is in the munich gallery, where again we have signs of the carpenter's toil, but where the laborer has stopped for a moment to peep at the babe, who has gone off to dreamland at his mother's breast and now sleeps sweetly in her lap. let those who think such pictures too homely for a sacred theme compare them with the simplicity of the gospels. part ii. madonnas classed according to their significance as types of motherhood. chapter vi. the madonna of love. (the mater amabilis.) undoubtedly the most popular of all madonna subjects--certainly the most easily understood--is the mater amabilis. the mother's mood may be read at a glance: she is showing in one of a thousand tender ways her motherly affection for her child. she clasps him in her arms, holding him to her breast, pressing her face to his, kissing him, caressing him, or playing with him. love is written in every line of her face; love is the key-note of the picture. the style of composition best adapted to such a theme is manifestly the simplest. the more formal types of the enthroned and glorified madonnas are the least suitable for the display of maternal affection, while the portrait madonna, and the madonna in landscape or domestic scenes, are readily conceived as the mater amabilis. nevertheless, these distinctions have not by any means been rigidly regarded in art. this is manifest in some of the illustrations in part i., as the enthroned madonna, by quentin massys, where the mother kisses her child, and angelico's madonna in glory, where she holds him to her cheek. gathering our examples from so many methods of composition, we are in the midst of a multitude of pictures which no man can number, and which set forth every conceivable phase of motherliness. let us make raphael our starting-point. from the same master whose influence led him to the study of external nature, he learned also the study of human nature. to the interpretation of mother-love he brought all the fresh ardor of youth, and a sunny temperament which saw only joy in the face of nature. one after another of the series of his florentine pictures gives us a new glimpse of the loving relation between mother and child. the belle jardinière gazes into her boy's face in fond absorption. the tempi madonna holds him to her heart, pressing her lips to his soft cheek. in the orleans and colonna pictures she smiles indulgently into his eyes as he lies across her lap, plucking at the bosom of her dress. other pictures show the two eagerly reading together from the book of wisdom (the conestabile and ansidei madonnas). the painter's later work evinces a growing maturity of thought. in the holy family of francis i., how strong and tender is the mother's attitude, as she stoops to lift her child from his cradle; in the chair madonna, how protecting is the capacious embrace with which she gathers him to herself in brooding love. no technical artistic education is necessary for the appreciation of such pictures. all who have known a mother's love look and understand, and look again and are satisfied. correggio touches the heart in much the same way; he, too, saw the world through rose-colored glasses. his interpretation of life is full of buoyant enjoyment. beside the tranquil joy of raphael's ideals, his figures express a tumultuous gladness, an overflowing gayety. this is the more curious because of the singular melancholy which is attributed to him. the outer circumstances of his life moved in a quiet groove which was almost humdrum. he passed his days in comparative obscurity at parma, far from the great art influences of his time. but isolation seemed the better to develop his rare individuality. he was the architect of his own fortunes, and wrought out independently a style peculiar to himself. his most famous madonna pictures are large compositions, crowded with figures of extravagant attitudes and expression. the fame of these more pretentious works rests not so much upon their inner significance as upon their splendid technique. they are unsurpassed for masterly handling of color, and for triumphs of chiaroscuro. there are better qualities of sentiment in the smaller pictures, where the mother is alone with her child. it is here that we find something worthy to compare with raphael. there are several of these, produced in rapid succession during the period when the artist was engaged upon the frescoes of s. giovanni (parma), and soon after marriage had opened his heart to sweet, domestic influences. the first was the uffizi picture, so widely known and loved. the mother has gathered up her mantle so that it covers her head and drops at one side on a step, forming a soft, blue cushion for the babe. here the little darling lies, looking up into his mother's face. kneeling on the step below, she bends over him, with her hands playfully outstretched, in a transport of maternal affection. following this came the picture now in the national gallery, called the madonna della cesta, from the basket that lies on the ground. it is a domestic scene in the outer air: the mother is dressing her babe, and smilingly arrests his hand, which, on a sudden impulse, he has stretched towards some coveted object. the same face is almost exactly repeated in the madonna of the hermitage gallery (st. petersburg), who offers her breast to her boy, at that moment turning about to receive some fruit presented by a child angel. there are two duplicates of this picture in other galleries. the zingarella (the gypsy) is so called from the gypsy turban worn by the madonna. the mother, supposed to be painted from the artist's wife, sits with the child asleep on her lap. with motherly tenderness she bends so closely over him that her forehead touches his little head. it is unfortunate that this beautiful work is not better known. it is in the naples gallery. a comparison of these pictures discloses a remarkable variety in action and grouping. on the other hand, the madonnas are quite similar in general type. with the exception of the zingarella, who is the most motherly, they are all in a playful mood. the same playfulness, but of a more sweet and motherly kind, lights the face of the madonna della scala. the composition is somewhat in the portrait style, showing the mother in half length, seated under a sort of canopy. the babe clings closely to her neck, turning about at the spectator with a glance half shy and half mischievous. his coyness awakens a smile of tender amusement in the gentle, young face above him. the picture has an interesting history. it was originally painted in fresco over the eastern gate of parma, where vasari saw and admired it. in after years, the wall which it decorated was incorporated into a small new church, of which it formed the rear wall. to accommodate the high level of the madonna, the building was somewhat elevated, and, being entered by a flight of steps, was known as s. maria della scala (of the staircase). the name attached itself to the picture even after the church was destroyed (in ), and the fresco removed to the town gallery. the marks of defacement which it bears are due to the votive offerings which were formerly fastened upon it,--among them, a silver crown worn by the madonna as late as the eighteenth century. though such scars injure its artistic beauty, they add not a little to the romantic interest which invests it. [illustration: correggio.--madonna della scala.] beside such names as raphael and correggio, history furnishes but one other worthy of comparison for the portrayal of the mater amabilis--it is titian. his madonna is by no means uniformly motherly. there are times when we look in vain for any softening of her aristocratic features; when her stately dignity seems quite incompatible with demonstrativeness.[ ] but when love melts her heart how gracious is her unbending, how winning her smile! once she goes so far as to play in the fields with her little boy, quieting a rabbit with one hand for him to admire. (la vierge au lapin, louvre.) in other pictures she holds him lying across her lap, smiling thoughtfully upon him. such an one is the madonna with sts. ulfo and brigida, in the madrid gallery. the child is taking the flowers st. brigida offers him, and his mother looks down with the pleased expression of fond pride. again, when her babe holds his two little hands full of the roses his cousin st. john has brought him, she smiles gently at the eagerness of the two children. (uffizi gallery.) [footnote : see the madonna of the cherries in the belvedere at vienna, and the madonna and saints in the dresden gallery.] [illustration: titian.--madonna and saints. (detail.)] another similar composition reveals a still sweeter intimacy between mother and son. the babe stretches out his hand coaxingly towards his mother's breast, but she draws her veil about her, gently denying his appeal. a more beautiful mother, or a more bewitching babe, it were hard to find. three fine half-length figures of saints complete this composition, each of great interest and individuality, but not necessary to the unity of action--the madonna alone making a complete picture. there are two copies of this work, one in the belvedere at vienna, and one in the louvre at paris. the _motif_ of this picture is not unique in art, as will have been remarked in passing. the first duty of maternity, and one of its purest joys, is to sustain the newborn life at the mother's breast. a coarse interpretation of the subject desecrates a holy shrine, while a delicate rendering, such as raphael's or titian's, invests it with a new beauty. other pictures of this class should be mentioned in the same connection. there is one in the hermitage gallery at st. petersburg, attributed by late critics to the little-known painter, bernardino de' conti. the madonna's face, her hair drawn smoothly over her temples, has a beautiful matronliness. still another is the madonna of the green cushion, by solario, in the louvre. here the babe lies on a cushion before his mother, who bends over him ecstatically, her fair young face aglow with maternal love as she sees his contentment. we have noticed that in one of corregio's pictures the babe lies asleep on his mother's lap. it is interesting to trace this pretty _motif_ through other works of art. no phase of motherhood is more touching than the watchful care which guards the child while he sleeps; nor is infancy ever more appealing than in peaceful and innocent slumber. mrs. browning understood this well, when she wrote her beautiful poem interpreting the thoughts of "the virgin mary to the child jesus." hopes and fears, joy and pity, are alternately stirred in the heart of the watcher, as she bends over the tiny face, scanning every change that flits across it. each verse suggests a subject for a picture. we should naturally expect that raphael would not overlook so beautiful a theme as the mother watching her sleeping child. nor are we disappointed. the madonna of the diadem, in the louvre, belongs to this class of pictures. like the pastoral madonnas of the florentine period, it includes the figure of the little st. john, to whom, in this instance, the proud mother is showing her babe, daintily lifting the veil which covers his face. the seventeenth century produced many pictures of this class; among them, a beautiful work by guido reni, in rome, deserves mention, being executed with greater care than was usual with him. sassoferrato and carlo dolce frequently painted the subject. their madonnas often seem affected, not to say sentimental, after the simpler and nobler types of the earlier period. but nowhere is their peculiar sweetness more appropriate than beside a sleeping babe. the corsini picture by carlo dolce is an exquisite nursery scene. its popularity depends more, perhaps, upon the babe than the mother. like lady isobel's child in another poem of motherhood by mrs. browning, he sleeps-- "fast, warm, as if its mother's smile, laden with love's dewy weight, and red as rose of harpocrate, dropt upon its eyelids, pressed lashes to cheek in a sealèd rest." in northern madonna art, the mater amabilis is the preëminent subject. this fact is due partly to the german theological tendency to subordinate the mother to her divine son, but more especially to the characteristic domesticity of teutonic peoples. from van eyck and schongauer, through dürer and holbein, down to rembrandt and rubens, we trace this strongly marked predilection in every style of composition, regardless of proprieties. van eyck does not hesitate to occupy his richly dressed enthroned madonna at frankfort with giving her breast to her babe, and dürer portrays the same maternal duties in the virgin on the crescent moon. holbein's meyer madonna, splendid with her jewelled crown, is not less motherly than schongauer's young virgin sitting in a rude stable. rembrandt in humble dutch interiors, rubens in numerous holy families modelled upon the flemish life about him always conceive of the virgin mother as delighting in her maternal cares. as has been said of dürer's madonna,--and the description applies equally well to many others in the north,--"she suckles her son with a calm feeling of happiness; she gazes upon him with admiration as he lies upon her lap; she caresses him and presses him to her bosom without a thought whether it is becoming to her, or whether she is being admired." [illustration: dÜrer.--madonna and child.] this entire absence of posing on the part of the german virgin is one of the most admirable elements in this art. this characteristic is perfectly illustrated in dürer's portrait madonna of the belvedere gallery, at vienna. this is an excellent specimen of the master, who, alone of the germans, is considered the peer of his great italian contemporaries. frankly admired both by titian and raphael, he has in common with them the supreme gift of seeing and reproducing natural human affections. his work, however, is as thoroughly german as theirs is italian. the madonna of this picture has the round, maidenly face of the typical german ideal. a transparent veil droops over the flowing hair, covered by a blue drapery above. the mother holds her child high in her arms, bending her face over him. the babe is a beautiful little fellow, full of vivacity. he holds up a pear gleefully, to meet his mother's smile. the picture is painted with great delicacy of finish. the mater amabilis is the subject _par excellence_ of modern madonna art. carrying on its surface so much beauty and significance, it is naturally attractive to all figure painters. while other madonna subjects are too often beyond the comprehension of either the artist or his patron, this falls within the range of both. the shop windows are full of pretty pictures of this kind, in all styles of treatment. there are the portrait madonnas by gabriel max, already mentioned, and pastoral madonnas by bouguereau, by carl müller, by n. barabino, and by dagnan-bouveret. others carry the subject into the more formal compositions of the enthroned and enskied madonnas, being, as we have seen, not without illustrious predecessors among the old masters. of these we have guay's mater amabilis, where the mother leans from her throne to support her child, playing on the step below with his cousin, st. john; and mary l. macomber's picture, where the enthroned madonna folds her babe in her protecting arms, as if to shield him from impending evil. [illustration: bodenhausen.--madonna and child.] by bodenhausen we have the extremely popular mater amabilis in gloria, where a girlish young mother, her long hair streaming about her, stands in upper air, poised above the great ball of the earth, holding her sweet babe to her heart. pictures like these constantly reiterate the story of a mother's love--an old, old story, which begins again with every new birth. chapter vii. the madonna in adoration. (the madre pia.) the first tender joys of a mother's love are strangely mingled with awe. her babe is a precious gift of god, which she receives into trembling hands. a new sense of responsibility presses upon her with almost overwhelming force. hers is the highest honor given unto woman; she accepts it with solemn joy, deeming herself all too unworthy. this spirit of humility has been idealized in art, in the form of madonna known as the madre pia. it represents the virgin mary adoring her son. sometimes she kneels before him, sometimes she sits with clasped hands, holding him in her lap. whatever the variation in attitude, the thought is the same: it is an expression of that higher, finer aspect of motherhood which regards infancy as an object not only of love, but of reverent humility. it is a recognition of the great mystery of life which invests even the helpless babe with a dignity commanding respect. a picture with so serious an intention can never be widely understood. the meaning is too subtile for the casual observer. an outgrowth of mediæval pietism, it was superseded by more popular subjects, and has never since been revived. the subject had its origin as an idealized nativity, set in pastoral surroundings which suggest the bethlehem manger. theologically it represented the virgin as the first worshipper of her divine son. but though the sacred mystery of mary's experience sets her forever apart as "blessed among women," she is the type of true motherhood in all generations. the madonna in adoration is, properly speaking, a fifteenth century subject. it belongs primarily to that most mystic of all schools of art, the umbrian, centering in the town of perugia. nowhere else was painting so distinctly an adjunct of religious services, chiefly designed to aid the worshipper in prayer and contemplation. as an exponent of the typical qualities of the perugian school stands the artist who is known by its name, perugino. his favorite subject is the madre pia, and his best picture of the kind is the madonna of the national gallery. having once seen her here, the traveller recognizes her again and again in other galleries, in the many replicas of this charming composition. the madonna kneels in the foreground, adoring with folded hands the child, who is supported in a sitting posture on the ground, by a guardian angel. the virgin's face is full of fervent and exalted emotion. perugino had no direct imitator of his madre pia, but his bolognese admirer francia treated the subject in a way that readily suggests the source of his inspiration. his madonna of the rose garden in munich instantly recalls perugino. the artist has, however, chosen a novel _motif_ in representing the moment when the virgin is just sinking on her knees, as if overcome by emotion. between the umbrian school and the florentine, a reciprocal influence was exerted. if the latter taught the former many secrets of composition and technical execution, the umbrians in turn imparted something of their mysticism to their more matter-of-fact neighbors. while the umbrian school of the fifteenth century was occupied with the madre pia, florence also was devoted to the same subject. sculpture led the race, and in the front ranks was luca della robbia, founder of the school which bears his family name. beginning as a worker in marble, his inventive genius presently wrought out a style of sculpture peculiarly his own. this was the enamelled terra-cotta bas-relief showing pure white figures against a background of pale blue. they were made chiefly in circular medallions, lunettes, and tabernacles, and were scattered throughout the churches and homes of tuscany. associated with luca in his work was his nephew andrea, who, in turn, had three sculptor sons, giovanni, girolamo, and luca ii. so great was the demand for their ware that the della robbia studios became a veritable manufactory from which hundreds of pieces went forth. of these, a goodly number represent the madonna in adoration. while it is difficult to trace every one of these with absolute correctness to its individual author, the majority seem to be by andrea, who, as it would appear, had a special fondness for the subject. it must be acknowledged that the nephew is inferior to his uncle in his ideal of the virgin, less original than luca in his conceptions, and less noble in his results. his work, notwithstanding, has many charming qualities, which are specially appropriate to the character of the particular subject under consideration. there is, indeed, a peculiar value in low relief, for purposes of idealization. it has an effect of spiritualizing the material, and giving the figures an ethereal appearance. andrea profited by this advantage, and, in addition, showed great delicacy of judgment in subduing curves and retaining simplicity in his lines. we may see all this in the popular tabernacle which he designed, and of which there are at least five, and probably more, copies. the madonna kneels prayerfully before her babe, who lies on the ground by some lily stalks. in the sky above are two cherubim and hands holding a crown. there is a girlish grace in the kneeling figure, and a rare sweetness in the face, entirely free from sentimentality. a severe simplicity of drapery, and the absence of all unnecessary accessories, are points of excellence worth noting. the composition was sometimes varied by the introduction of different figures in the sky, other cherubim, or the head of the almighty, with the dove. only second in popularity to this was andrea's circular medallion of the nativity, with the virgin and st. john in adoration. there are two copies of this in the florentine academy, one in the louvre, and one in berlin. the effect of crowding so many figures into a small compass is not so pleasing as the classical simplicity of the former composition. [illustration: andrea della robbia.--madonna in adoration.] contemporary with the della robbias was another florentine family of artists equally numerous. of the five rossellini, antonio is of greatest interest to us, as a sculptor who had some qualities in common with the famous porcelain workers. like them, he had a special gift for the madonna in adoration. we can see this subject in his best style of treatment, in the beautiful nativity in san miniato, "which may be regarded as one of the most charming productions of the best period of tuscan art."[ ] the tourist will consider it a rich reward for his climb to the quaint old church on the ramparts overhanging the arno. if perchance his wanderings lead him, on another occasion, to the hill rising on the opposite side, he will find, in the cathedral of fiesole, a fitting companion in the altar-piece by mino da fiesole. this is a decidedly unique rendering of the madre pia. the virgin kneels in a niche, facing the spectator, adoring the christ-child, who sits on the steps below her, turning to the little baptist, who kneels at one side on a still lower step. [footnote : c.c. perkins, in tuscan sculptors.] [illustration: lorenzo di credi.--nativity.] passing from the sculpture of florence to its painting, it is fitting that we mention first of all the friend and fellow-pupil of the umbrian perugino, lorenzo di credi. the two had much in common. trained together in the workshop of the sculptor verrocchio, in those days of intense religious stress, they both became followers of the prophet-prior of san marco, savonarola. their religious earnestness naturally found expression in the beautiful subject of the madre pia. the florentine artist, though not less devout than his friend, introduces into his work an element of joy, characteristic of his surroundings, and more attractive than the somewhat melancholy types of umbria. his adoration, in the uffizi, is an admirable example of his best work. following the fashion made popular by the della robbias, the artist chose for his composition the round picture, or _tondo_. by this elimination of unnecessary corners, the attention centres in the beautiful figure of the virgin, which occupies a large portion of the circle. in exquisite keeping with the modest loveliness of her face, a delicate, transparent veil is knotted over her smooth hair, and falls over the round curves of her neck. in expression and attitude she is the perfect impersonation of the spirit of humility, joyfully submissive to her high calling, reverently acknowledging her unworthiness. this picture may be taken as a typical example of the subject in florentine painting. lorenzo himself repeated the composition many times, and numerous other works could be mentioned, strikingly similar in treatment, by ghirlandajo, in the florence academy; by signorelli, in the national gallery; by albertinelli, in the pitti; by filippo lippi, in the berlin gallery; by filippino lippi, in the pitti; and so on through the list. in many cases the subject seems to have been chosen, not so much from any devotional spirit on the part of the painter, as from force of imitation of the prevailing florentine fashion. this is especially true in the case of filippo lippi, who does not bear the best of reputations. although a brother in the carmelite monastery, his love of worldly pleasures often led him astray, if we are to believe the gossip of the old annalists. we may allow much for the exaggerations of scandal, but still be forced to admit that his candid realism is plain evidence of a closer study of nature than of theology. browning has given us a fine analysis of his character in the poem bearing his name, "fra lippo lippi." the artist monk, caught in the streets of the city on his return from some midnight revel, explains his constant quarrel with the rules of art laid down by ecclesiastical authorities. they insist that his business is "to the souls of men," and that it is "quite from the mark of painting" to make "faces, arms, legs, and bodies like the true." on his part, he claims that it will not help the interpretation of soul, by painting body ill. an intense lover of every beautiful line and color in god's world, he believes that these things are given us to be thankful for, not to pass over or despise. obliged to devote himself to a class of subjects with which he had little sympathy, he compromised with his critics by adopting the traditional forms of composition, and treating them after the manner of _genre_ painters, in types drawn from the ordinary life about him. the kneeling madre pia he painted three times: two of the pictures are in the florence academy, and the third and best is in the berlin gallery. [illustration: filippo lippi.--madonna in adoration.] in the madonna of the uffizi, he broke away somewhat from tradition, and rendered quite a new version of the subject. the virgin is seated with folded hands, adoring her child, who is held up before her by two boy angels. his type of childhood is by no means pretty, though altogether natural. the virgin cannot be called either intellectual or spiritual, but "where," as a noted critic has asked, "can we find a face more winsome and appealing?" certainly she is a lovely woman, and "if you get simple beauty and naught else, that's somewhat: and you'll find the soul you have missed within yourself, when you return him thanks." the idea of the seated madre pia, comparatively rare in florentine art, is quite frequent in northern italy. sometimes the setting is a landscape, in the foreground of which the madonna sits adoring the babe lying on her lap. examples are by basaiti (paduan), in the national gallery, and by a painter of titian's school, in berlin. much more common is the enthroned madonna in adoration, and for this we may turn to the pictures of the vivarini, bartolommeo and luigi, or alvise. these men were of muranese origin, and in the very beginning of venetian art-history were at the head of their profession, until finally eclipsed by the rival family of the bellini. among their works, we find by each one at least three pictures of the type described. as the most worthy of description, we may select the altar-piece by luigi, in the church of the redentore. as it is one of the most popular madonnas in venice, no collection is complete without it. a green curtain forms the background, against which the plain marble throne-chair is brought into relief. the virgin sits wrapt in her own thoughts, an impersonation of tranquil dignity. a heavy wimple falls low over her forehead, entirely concealing her hair, and with its severe simplicity accentuating the chaste beauty of her face. two fascinating little cherubs sit on a parapet in front, playing on lutes; and, lulled by their gentle music, the sweet babe sleeps on, serenely unconscious of it all. [illustration: luigi vivarini.--madonna and child.] before such pictures as this, gleaming in the dim light of quiet chapels, many a heart, before unbelieving, may learn a new reverence for the mysterious sanctity of motherhood. chapter viii. the madonna as witness. in proportion to a mother's ideals and ambitions for her child does her love take on a higher and purer aspect. the noblest mother is the most unselfish; she regards her child as a sacred charge, only temporarily committed to her keeping. her care is to nurture and train him for his part in life; this is the object of her constant endeavor. thus she comes to look upon him as hers and yet not hers. in one sense he is her very own; in another, he belongs to the universal life which he is to serve. there is no conflict between the two ideas; they are the obverse sides of one great truth. both must be recognized for a complete understanding of life. what is true of all motherhood finds a supreme illustration in the character of the virgin mary. she understood from the first that her son had a great mission to fulfil, that his work had somewhat to do with a mighty kingdom. never for a moment did she lose sight of these things as she "pondered them in her heart." her highest joy was to present him to the world for the fulfilment of his calling. as a subject of art, this phase of the madonna's character requires a mode of treatment quite unlike that of the mater amabilis or the madre pia. the attitude and expression of the virgin are appropriate to her office as the christ-bearer. both mother and child, no longer absorbed in each other, direct their glance towards the people to whom he is given for a witness. (isaiah : .) these may be the spectators looking at the picture, or the saints and votaries filling the composition. the mother's lap is the throne for the child, from which, standing or sitting, he gives his royal blessing. it will be readily understood that so lofty a theme can not be common in art. in our own day, it has, with the madre pia, passed almost entirely out of the range of art subjects; modern painters do not try such heights. franz defregger is alone in having made an honest and earnest effort, not without success, to express his conception of the theme. to his enthroned madonna at dölsach, and his less well-known madonna in glory, let us pay this passing word of honor. to approach our subject in the most systematic way, we will go back to the beginnings of madonna art. mrs. jameson tells us that the group of virgin and son was, in its first intention, a _theological symbol_, and not a _representation_. it was a device set up in the orthodox churches as a definite formalization of a creed. the first madonnas showed none of the aspects of ordinary motherhood in attitude, gesture, or expression. the theological element in the picture was the first consideration. we may take as a representative case the virgin nike-peja (of victory), supposed to be the same which eudocia, wife of the emperor theodosius ii., discovered in her travels in palestine, and sent to constantinople, whence it was finally brought to st. mark's, venice. the virgin--a half-length figure--holds the child in front of her, like a doll, as if exhibiting him to the gaze of the worshippers before the altar over which the picture hung. both faces look directly out at the spectator, with grave and stiff solemnity. the progress of painting, and the growing love of beauty, at length wrought a change. the time came when art saw the possibility of uniting, with the religious conception of previous centuries, a more natural ideal of motherhood. thus, while the madonna continues to be preëminently a witness of her son's greatness, it is not at the sacrifice of motherly tenderness. in venetian art-history, giovanni bellini stands at the period when the old was just merging into the new. we have already seen how greatly he and his contemporaries differed from the painters of a later time. taking advantage of all the progressive methods of the day, they did not relinquish the religious spirit of their predecessors, hence their work embodies the best elements of the old and new. as we examine the bellini madonnas, one after another, we can not fail to notice how delicately they interpret the relation of the mother to her child. loving and gracious as she is, she is not the mater amabilis: she is too preoccupied, though not too cold for caresses. neither is she the madre pia, though by no means lacking in humility. her thoughts are of the future, rather than of the present. true to a mother's instinct, she encircles her child with a protecting arm, but her face is turned, not to his, but to the world. both are looking steadfastly forward to the great work before them. their eyes have the far-seeing look of those absorbed in noble dreams. their faces are full of sweet earnestness, not of the ascetic sort, but joyful, with a calm, tranquil gladness. this description applies almost equally well to a half-dozen or more of bellini's madonnas, in various styles of composition. for the sake of definiteness, we may specify the madonna between st. paul and st. george in the venice academy. the virgin is in half-length, against a scarlet curtain, supporting the child, who stands on the coping of a balcony. in technical qualities alone, the picture is a notable one for precision of drawing, breadth of light and shade, and brilliant color. in christian sentiment it is among the rare treasures of italian art. the national gallery and the brera contain others which are very similar in style and conception. the three enthroned madonnas which have already been noticed are not less remarkable for religious significance. there is a peculiar freshness and vivacity in the san giobbe picture. both virgin and child are alert and eager, welcoming the future with smiling and youthful enthusiasm. the frari madonna is of a more subdued type, but is not less true to her ideal. the virgin of san zaccaria is more thoughtful and reflective, but she holds her child up bravely, that he may give his blessing to mankind. [illustration: giovanni bellini.--madonna between st. george and st. paul. (detail.)] it will have been noticed that the throne is an especially appropriate setting for the madonna as witness. it is one of the functions of royalty that the queen should show the prince to his people. we therefore turn naturally to this class of pictures for examples. to those of bellini just cited we may add, from the others mentioned in the second chapter, the madonnas by cima, by palma, and by montagna in venetian art; and by luini and by botticelli in the lombard and florentine schools respectively. luini's picture is one which readily touches the heart. the virgin unites the sweetness of fresh, young motherhood with womanly dignity of character. her smile has nothing of mystery in it; it is simply sweet and winning. the christ-child is a lovely boy, steadying himself against his mother's breast, and yet with an air of self-reliance. the two understand each other well. [illustration: luini.--madonna with st. barbara and st. anthony.] one could hardly imagine two more dissimilar spirits than luini and botticelli. to luini's virgin, the consciousness of her son's greatness is a proud honor, accepted seriously, but gladly. to botticelli, on the other hand, it brings a profound melancholy. this is so marked that at first sight almost every one is repelled by botticelli, and yields only after long familiarity to the mysterious fascination of the sad-eyed madonna, who holds her babe almost listlessly, as her head droops with the weight of her sorrow. her expression is the same whatever her attitude, when she presses her babe to her bosom as the mater amabilis (in the borghese gallery at rome, in the dresden gallery, and louvre), or when, as witness to her son's destiny, she holds him forth to be seen of men. it is in this last capacity that her mood is most intelligible. she seems oppressed rather than humbled by her honors; reluctant, rather than glad to assume them; yet, with proud dignity, determined to do her part, though her heart break in the doing. her nature is too deep to accept the joy without counting the cost, and her vision looks beyond bethlehem to calvary. this is well illustrated in the picture of the berlin gallery.[ ] the queen mother rises with the prince to receive the homage of humanity. the boy, old beyond his years, gravely raises his right hand to bless his people, the other still clinging, with infantile grace, to the dress of his mother. lovely, rose-crowned angels hold court on either side, bearing lighted tapers in jars of roses. [footnote : the berlin gallery contains two enthroned madonnas attributed to botticelli. the description here, and on page makes it clear that the reference is to the picture numbered . this does not appear in berenson's list of botticelli's works, but is treated as authentic by crowe and cavalcaselle.] the madonna of the pomegranate is another work by botticelli which belongs in this class of pictures. it is a _tondo_ in the uffizi, showing the figures in half length. the virgin, encircled by angels, holds the child half reclining on her lap. her face is inexpressibly sad, and the child shares her mood, as he raises his little hand to bless the spectator. two angels bear the virgin's flowers, roses and lilies; two others hold books. they bend towards the queen as the petals of a rose bend towards the centre, with the serious grace peculiar to botticelli. [illustration: botticelli.--madonna of the pomegranate .] in connection with the peculiar type of melancholy exhibited on the face of botticelli's madonna, it will be of interest to refer to the work of francia. the two artists were, in some points, kindred spirits; both felt the burden of life's mystery and sorrow. francia, as we have seen, imbibed from the works of perugino something of the spirit of mysticism common to the umbrian school. but while there is a certain resemblance between his madonna and perugino's, the former has less of sentimentality than the latter, and more real melancholy. like botticelli's virgin, she acts her part half-heartedly, as if the sword had already begun to pierce her heart. francia's favorite madonna subjects were of the higher order, the madre pia and the madonna as witness. in treating the latter, his christ-child is always in keeping with the mother, a grave little fellow who gives the blessing with almost touching dignity. enthroned madonnas illustrating the theme are those of the hermitage at st. petersburg, of the belvedere at vienna, and the famous bentivoglio madonna in s. jacopo maggiore at bologna. the last-named is one of the works which enable us to understand raphael's high praise of the bolognese master. it is a noble composition, full of strong religious feeling. [illustration: murillo.--madonna and child.] it is a long leap from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, taking us from a period of genuine religious fervor in art, into an age of artificial imitation. in the midst of the decadence of old ideals and the birth of art methods entirely new, arose one who seemed to be the reincarnation of the old spirit in a form peculiar to his age and race. this was murillo, the peasant-painter of spain, than whom was never artist more pious, not even excepting the angelic brother of san marco. he alone in the seventeenth century kept alive the pure flame of religious fervor, which had burned within the devout italians of the early school. through all his pictures of the virgin and child we can see that the madonna as the christ-bearer is the ideal he always has in view. he falls short of it, not through any lack of earnestness, but because his type of womanhood is incapable of expressing such lofty idealism. his virgins are modelled upon the simple andalusian maidens, sweet, timid, dark-eyed creatures. their faces glow with gentle affection as they look wistfully out of the picture, or raise their eyes to heaven, as if dimly discerning the heights which they have never reached. the pitti madonna is one of this sweet company, and perhaps the loveliest of them all. both she and her beautiful boy are full of gentle earnestness, and if they are too simple-minded to realize what is in store for them, they are none the less ready to do the father's will. one more picture remains for us to consider as an illustration of the madonna as witness. had we mentioned it first, nothing further could have been said on the subject. the sistine madonna is the greatest ever produced, from every point of view. we have already noted the superiority of its artistic composition over all other enskied madonnas, and are the more ready to appreciate its higher merits; for its strongest hold upon our admiration is in its moral and religious significance. its theme is the transfiguration of loving and consecrated motherhood. mother and child, united in love, move towards the glorious consummation of the heavenly kingdom. [illustration: raphael.--sistine madonna.] it has been said that raphael made no preparatory studies for this madonna, but, in a larger sense, he spent his life in preparation for it. he had begun by imitating the mystic sweetness of perugino's types, drawn by an intuitive delicacy of perception to this spiritual idealism, while yet too inexperienced to express any originality. then, by an inevitable reaction, he threw himself into the creation of a purely naturalistic madonna, and carried the mater amabilis to its utmost perfection. having mastered all the secrets of woman's beauty, he returned once more to the higher realm of idealism to send forth his matured conception of the madonna as the christ-bearer. the sistine madonna is above all words of praise; all extravagance of expression is silenced before her simplicity. hers is the beauty of symmetrically developed womanhood; the perfect poise of her figure is not more marked than the perfect poise of her character. not one false note, not one exaggerated emphasis, jars upon the harmony of body, soul, and spirit. confident, but entirely unassuming; serious, but without sadness; joyous, but not to mirthfulness; eager, but without haste; she moves steadily forward with steps timed to the rhythmic music of the spheres. the child is no burden, but a part of her very being. the two are one in love, thought, and purpose. sharing the secret of his sacred calling, the mother bears her son forth to meet his glorious destiny. art can pay no higher tribute to mary, the mother of jesus, than to show her in this phase of her motherhood. we sympathize with her maternal tenderness, lavishing fond caresses upon her child. we go still deeper into her experience when we see her bowed in sweet humility before the cares and duties she is called upon to assume. but we are admitted to the most cherished aspirations of her soul, when we see her oblivious of self, carrying her child forth to the service of humanity. it is thus that she becomes one of his "witnesses unto the people;" it is thus that "all generations shall call her blessed." bibliography. mrs. anna jameson: the legends of the madonna. boston, . crowe and cavalcaselle: history of painting in italy. london, . history of painting in north italy. london, . titian: his life and times. london, . kugler: handbook of the italian schools, revised by a.h. layard. london, . handbook of the german, flemish, and dutch schools, revised by j.a. crowe. london, . morelli: critical studies of the italian painters. translated by constance jocelyn ffoulkes. london, . j.a. symonds: renaissance in italy: the fine arts. new york, . walter h. pater: studies in the history of the renaissance. london, . bernhard berenson: the venetian painters of the renaissance. new york, . the florentine painters of the renaissance. new york, . karl kÁroly: a guide to the paintings of florence. london and new york, . a guide to the paintings of venice. london and new york, . c.c. perkins: tuscan sculptors. london, . cavalucci et molinier: les della robbia: leur vie et leur oeuvre. paris, . eugene mÜntz: raphael. translated by walter armstrong. london, . index of artists. albertinelli, madonna in the pitti, . angelico, fra, madonna della stella, - , . barabino, n., mater amabilis, . barocci, f., madonna del gatto, . bartolommeo, madonna in the capella giovanato, ; madonnas in the florence academy, ; enthroned madonna in the pitti, , . basaiti, madonna in the national gallery, . bellini, giovanni, madonna of san giobbe, , ; frari madonna, , ; madonna of san zaccaria, - , ; madonna between st. paul and st. george, ; madonna in the national gallery, ; madonna in the brera, . bellini, jacopo, madonna in the venice academy, . bodenhausen, madonna, , . bonifazio veronese, seven pictures of the santa conversazione, . botticelli, enthroned madonna at berlin, , , , ; madonna in the borghese, ; madonna in the dresden gallery, ; madonna in the louvre, ; madonna of the pomegranate, ; madonna of the inkhorn, . bouguereau, enthroned madonna, ; madonna of the angels, ; mater amabilis, . byzantine madonna in the ara coeli, ; in s. maria in cosmedino, ; in st. mark's, , ; at padua, . cano, alonzo, madonna of bethlehem, . caroto, gianfrancesco, madonna in sant' anastasia, ; madonna in san giorgio, ; madonna in san fermo maggiore, . cavazzola, see morando. cima, enthroned madonna in the venice academy, , . cimabue, ruccellai madonna, - . conti, bernardino de', madonna in the hermitage gallery, . correggio, madonnas in dresden, ; madonna of st. sebastian, ; madonna in the uffizi, , ; la zingarella, , , ; madonna della cesta, ; madonna della scala, , . credi, lorenzo di, nativity in the uffizi, . crivelli, carlo, use of crown by, . dagnan-bouveret, mater amabilis, . defregger, franz, madonna at dölsach, ; madonna in glory, , . dolce, carlo, madonna, . dürer, woodcut, ; madonna in "garden inclosed," ; madonna in the belvedere, - ; virgin on the crescent moon, , . eyck, van, madonna in frankfort, , . fiesole, mino da, altar-piece at fiesole, . francia, madonna of the rose garden, , ; enthroned madonna in the hermitage, ; enthroned madonna in the belvedere, ; bentivoglio madonna, . ghirlandajo, enthroned madonna in the uffizi, ; madonna in the florence academy, . giorgione, madonna of castel-franco, ; madonna in madrid, . guay, mater amabilis, . holbein, meyer madonna, , . ittenbach, enthroned madonna, . leonardo da vinci, see vinci. libri, girolamo dai, madonna in san giorgio maggiore, verona, ; madonna of st. andrew and st. peter, . lippi, filippino, madonna in the pitti, - , . lippi, filippo, madonna in the berlin gallery, , ; madonnas in the florence academy, ; madonna in the uffizi, - . lotto, madonna of s. bartolommeo, ; santa conversazione, . luini, madonna between st. anthony and st. barbara, , - ; pastoral madonna, - . macomber, mary l., madonna, . mantegna, madonna of victory, , . mariotto, bernardino di, madonna, . massys, quentin, enthroned madonna in the berlin gallery, , ; madonna in the munich gallery, . max, gabriel, madonnas, , . memling, madonna at bruges, . mignard, la vierge à la grappe, . montagna, madonna in the brera, , . morando, madonna in glory in verona gallery, . moretto, madonna of s. clemente, ; madonna of st. john the evangelist, ; madonna of san giorgio maggiore, ; madonna in the berlin gallery, - . müller, carl, mater amabilis, . murano, giovanni da, use of crown by, . murillo, madonna of the napkin, ; holy family of the bird, ; madonna in the pitti, - . palma, enthroned madonna at vicenza, , ; santa conversazione at naples, ; santa conversazione at dresden, ; santa conversazione at munich, ; santa conversazione at vienna, , . perugino, enthroned madonna in the vatican, ; madonna in the national gallery, . pinturicchio, madonna in st. andrea, perugia, . raphael, ansidei madonna, , ; madonna of st. anthony, ; baldacchino madonna, ; madonna of the casa alba, ; the chair madonna, ; the colonna madonna, ; the conestabile madonna, ; madonna of the diadem, ; foligno madonna, - ; granduca madonna, ; madonna of the goldfinch, , , ; holy family of francis i., ; holy family of the lamb, , ; madonna dell' impannata, ; belle jardinière, , , ; madonna in the meadow, , , , , ; orleans madonna, , ; sistine madonna, , , ; tempi madonna, , . rembrandt, le ménage du menuisier in the louvre, ; in st. petersburg, ; madonna in the munich gallery, - . reni, guido, madonna, . robbia, andrea della, popular tabernacle, ; nativity, . robbia, giovanni, son of andrea, . robbia, girolamo della, son of andrea, . robbia, luca della, founder of his school, . robbia, luca della, ii., son of andrea, . romano, giulio, madonna della catina, ; his work on the madonna dell' impannata, ; madonna in a bedchamber, . rossellino, antonio, nativity in san miniato, . rubens, holy families, . salimbeni, holy family, . sarto, andrea del, madonna di san francesco, ; madonna in the berlin gallery, . sassoferrato, madonna in vatican gallery, ; madonna with sleeping child, . savoldo, madonna in the brera, . schongauer, madonna in munich, ; holy family, - . siena, guido da, madonna, . signorelli, nativity in the national gallery, . sodoma, madonna in the brera, (note). solario, madonna of the green cushion, . lo spagna, madonna once attributed to, . spanish school, madonna in the dresden gallery, . tintoretto, madonna in the berlin gallery, . titian, vierge au lapin, (note), ; madonna of the cherries, (note); madonnas and saints at dresden, (note); madonna with sts. ulfo and brigida, ; madonna with roses, ; madonna and saints, ; pesaro madonna, . titian, school of, madonna in berlin, . umbrian school, madonna by, in the national gallery, - . veronese, madonna in the venice academy, . vinci, leonardo da, madonna of the rocks, - . vivarini, bartolommeo, madonnas, . vivarini, luigi, madonna in the church of the redentore, . art series the madonna in art estelle m. hurll. child life in art estelle m. hurll. angels in art clara erskine clement. love in art mary knight potter. l.c. page and company (incorporated) summer street, boston, mass. produced from images generously made available by the kentuckiana digital library) the angel of thought the angel of thought and other poems _impressions from old masters_ ethel allen murphy boston richard g. badger the gorham press _copyright , by ethel allen murphy_ _all rights reserved_ _the gorham press, boston, u.s.a._ to my friend and teacher anna j. hamilton the writer wishes to express her gratitude to the art department of the indiana university, whose kindness in lending the pictures which suggested the verses, and whose mission in opening some of their meanings to her spirit, have helped to make possible this little book. _contents_ _the angel of thought_ (_suggested by a fra angelico angel._) _annunciation--sonnet i_ _annunciation--sonnet ii_ (_from the picture by botticelli._) _the visitation_ (_from the picture in dürer's series on "the life of the virgin"_) _a botticelli madonna._ _i. the wondering angels_ (_from the madonna of the magnificat._) _ii. the mournful mother_ (_from the madonna of the pomegranate._) _iii. the loving christ_ (_from the madonna of the rose garden._) _the angel of the jasmine wreath_ (_from botticelli's painting, in the borghese gallery, of the madonna and child with angels._) _a prayer for the followers of ideal beauty_ (_with a pencil sketch of an angel, by botticelli._) _illustrations_ . _angel--"te deum laudamus," by fra angelico._ . _"the annunciation"--by botticelli._ . _"the visitation" (from the picture in the series on "the life of the virgin,") by dürer._ . _"the madonna of the magnificat"--by botticelli._ . _"the madonna of the pomegranate"--by botticelli._ . _"the madonna of the rose garden"--by botticelli._ . _the angel crowned with a jasmine wreath--by botticelli._ . _pencil sketch of an angel--by botticelli_. [illustration: _te deum laudamus by fra angelico_] the angel of thought (_suggested by a fra angelico angel_) angel of thought, meseems god winged _thee_ so, and crowned thine head with passion fine as flame, and made thy lifted face too pure for shame, with eyes and brow a mirror to his glow;-- and gave thy lips a golden trump, that, though long years have passed since other angels came to work the mighty wonders of his name,-- in god's own name and man's, thyself shalt go forever on strong pinions to and fro, and round the earth reverberating blow the mute, world-shaking music of the mind; that thou might'st make as naught all space and time, and thrill in mystic oneness through mankind, yet dwell in each, inviolate, sublime. [illustration: _the annunciation by botticelli_] annunciation (_from the picture by botticelli_) i kneeling in prayer, her spirit rapt above, she meets with god, who bendeth, brooding low, in vast compassion humanward, and so, there comes upon her life the power of love: rising--behold! with pinions like a dove, an angel with a rod where row on row of chaliced lilies spill supernal glow,-- which all her thought to wonder mute doth move. then falls upon the rapture of her soul, dimly some vision of gethsemane, athwart the resurrection's shining goal, and with uplifted hand she pleads as one shall pray in night of darkest agony, "this cup remove,--yet, lord, thy will be done." annunciation (_from a picture by botticelli_) ii immortal eloquence of mystic art! how strangely o'er oblivion and gray time, that hand doth speak, as in the painter's prime it uttered thus his own and mary's heart, at sight of it, what rich conjectures start, adown the years, what wistful aves chime, that wake the soul to rapture how sublime, wherewith we, too, must bear in him our part! for unto each to bring redemption's share, whereby adown the ages christ is borne, there comes the angel of the lilied rod; and though our souls with anguish sore are torn, we pray once more the world-o'ercoming prayer, and then is born in us the word of god. [illustration: _the visitation by dürer_] the visitation (_from the picture in dürer's series on "the life of the virgin"_) the mountains wonder from their cloudy height, the skies look on and grow more deep with awe; from these two women, earthly loves withdraw, and leave them shrined in some ensphering light,-- more fine than that which greets the earthly sight, more glorious than that creation saw, when, from abeyance to primeval law, there burst the dawn from out the womb of night; yet are all things unchanged around them,--these, the ancient hills, the town, the quiet trees, the household presences through which they grope blind to all else but to each other's eyes, wherein, transforming heaven and earth, there lies sublime effulgence of immortal hope. [illustration: _the madonna of the magnificat, by botticelli_] a botticelli madonna i the wondering angels behold! the tabernacle of god's will this woman's form enshrineth. what is this, more glorious than all our age-long bliss, which shines within the shadow of her sill? how shall we lift this strangeness which doth fill her human heart to breaking,--we who miss in our immortal joy, the enlight'ning kiss of sorrow's bitter lips whence comforts thrill? how shall we sing to her of joys to come, to her who bears upon her breast the sum of death's dread gloom and heaven's undying light? lean close, ah, close, about her from above,-- behold upon the mildness of her love enthroned the terrors of his holy might! [illustration: _the madonna of the pomegranate by botticelli_] a botticelli madonna ii the mournful mother o child of mine, my little son, alas! beneath the sunlight of thy gentle eyes, too soon, too soon, what fateful shadows rise, like night foretold in some sweet woodland glass? on tender feet that scarcely bow the grass, what stains are those of ripe pomegranate dyes?-- when on my breast thy head in slumber lies, what thorns are those that through my heart do pass? and round about these crowds of haunting forms that burn their splendor through my dimmest dreams! o little child, thou wonder too divine, thy precious body all my bosom warms with mine own blood, but oftentimes it seems, too dearly loved,--that yet thou art not mine. [illustration: _the madonna of the rose garden, by botticelli_] a botticelli madonna iii the loving christ the little hands returning wistfully from birdlike wand'rings, ever come to rest, on fostering hand on tender cheek or breast; the upturned eyes, with loving certainty seek ever the grave face where broodingly, the mother-soul by yearning love opprest, with wings down-drooped, seems folded o'er the nest where lies the hope of all humanity. and she his world, and he her calvary,-- he wraps her round with all the mystery of love predestined for earth's needy ones; "be comforted," it seems he fain would say, "o mother mine, there dawns an easter day, and thou in me hast mothered many sons." [illustration: _angel crowned with jasmine wreath, by botticelli_] the angel of the jasmine wreath (_from a picture by botticelli, of the madonna and child with angels,--in the borghese gallery_) ineffable angel, with the jasmine wreathed, wherefrom the sweetness over brow and lips, and luminous white eyelids tremulously slips, a visible essence from thy beauty breathed,-- the pure and pensive marvel of thy face is sheathed in tresses softer than the bloom of night, wherefrom the dampness on thy forehead drips with dews from out god's meadows infinite,-- thy face, itself, a lily filled with light:-- thyself the youngest of god's angels and most fair, bearing his latest breath and blessing on thine hair, thou comest fresh from looking on thy lord; and all is well, and all is filled for thee with eloquent, mute wonder of his word. oh, lean a little forth thy lips to me, for i am fain of peace amid this earthly strife, and i would drink, a spent soul, thirstily, from out thy never-failing cup of life. [illustration: _angel, from a pencil sketch, by botticelli_] a prayer for the followers of ideal beauty (_with a pencil sketch of an angel by botticelli_) thou in whose all no work imperfect stands, thou who dost gaze on beauty's unveiled face, grant to thy children thy sustaining grace, when low at length have run the daylight sands,-- when, though their day was set to thy commands, they bow contritely in prayer's holy place, because through strivings beauty-wards they trace the sad misshapings of their earthly hands: grant them at eve a soul devoutly still, grant them in dreams a vision of thy light, grant them at morn a sorrow purged away into the peace of all-absolving night, star in the dawnlight of a fairer day, nearer the blossom of thy perfect will. our lady saint mary by j. g. h. barry, d.d. would that it might happen to me that i should be called a fool by the unbelieving, in that i have believed such things as these. --origen. to the members of the league of the blessed virgin this volume is hopefully dedicated preface the two papers in part i have been published in the american church magazine. of part ii chapter has been published separately; chapters , , , and have been published in the holy cross magazine. the rest of the volume is here published for the first time. i would emphasise the fact that the contents of part ii is a series of sermons which were prepared as such, and were preached in the church of s. mary the virgin, new york city, for the most part in the winter of - . in preparing them for publication in this volume no attempt has been made to alter their sermon character. it is not a theological treatise on the blessed virgin that i have attempted, but a devotional presentation of her life. i have added to the text as originally prepared certain prayers and poems. the object of the selection of the prayers, almost exclusively from the liturgies of the catholic church, is to illustrate the prevalence of the address of devotion to our lady throughout christendom. the poems are selected with much the same thought, and have been mostly gathered from mediaeval sources, and so far as possible, from british. i have no special knowledge of devotional poetry, but have selected such poems as i have from time to time copied into my note books. this fact has made it impossible for me to give credit for them to the extent that i should have liked. i trust that any one who is entitled to credit will accept this apology. much of the difficulty felt by anglicans at expressions commonly found in prayers and hymns addressed to our lady is due to prevalent unfamiliarity with the devotional language of the catholic church throughout the ages. those whose background of thought is the theology of the catholic church, not in any one period, but in the whole extent of its life, will have no difficulty in such language because the limitations which are implied in it will be clear to them. to others, i can only say that it is fair to assume that the great saints of the church of god in all times and in all places did not habitually use language which was idolatrous, and our limitations are much more likely to be at fault than their meaning. it is not true in any degree that the teaching of catholics as to the place of the virgin intrudes on the prerogative of our lord. it is, as matter of fact catholics, and not those who oppose the catholic religion who are upholding that prerogative. this has been excellently expressed by a modern french theologian. "we are established in the friendship of god, in the divine adoption, in the heavenly inheritance, solely in virtue of the covenent by which our souls are bound to the son of god, and by which the goods, the merits, and the rights of the son of god are communicated to our souls, as in the natural order, the property of the husband becomes the property of the wife. surely, one can say nothing more than we say here, and assuredly the sects opposed to the church have never said more: indeed, they are far to-day from saying so much to maintain intact this truth, that jesus christ is our sole redeemer, and to give that truth the entire extent that belongs to it." contents part i. chapter i. of loyalty. ii. the meaning of worship. part ii. i. mary of nazareth. ii. the annunciation i. iii. the annunciation ii. iv. the visitation i. v. the visitation ii. vi. s. joseph. vii. the nativity. viii. the magi. ix. the presentation. x. egypt. xi. nazareth. xii. the temple. xiii. cana i. xiv. cana ii. xv. who is my mother? xvi. holy week i. xvii. holy week ii. xviii. the crucifixion. xix. the descent and burial. xx. the resurrection. xxi. the forty days. xxii. the ascension. xxiii. the descent of the holy spirit. xxiv. the home of s. john. xxv. the assumption. xxvi. the coronation. part one chapter i of loyalty o god, who causes us to rejoice in recalling the joys of the conception, the nativity, the annunciation, the visitation, the purification, and the assumption of the blessed and glorious virgin mary; grant to us so worthily to devote ourselves to her praise and service, that we may be conscious of her presence and assistance in all our necessities and straits, and especially in the hour of death, and that after death we may be found worthy, through her and in her, to rejoice in heaven with thee. through &c. sarum missal. the dream of the middle ages was of one christian society of which the church should be the embodiment of the spiritual, and the state of the temporal interests. as there is one humanity united to god in incarnate god, all its interests should be capable of unification in institutions which should be based on that which is essential in humanity, and not on that which is accidental: men should be united because they are human and christian, and not divided because of diversity of blood or color or language. the dream proved impossible of realization, and the struggle for human unity went to pieces on the rocks of the rapidly developing nationalism of the later middle ages. the reformation was the triumph of nationalism and the defeat of catholic idealism. it resulted in a shattered christendom in which the interests of local and homogeneous groups became supreme over the purely human interests. in state and church alike patriotism has tended more and more to become dominant over the interests that are supralocal and universal. the last few years have seen an intensification of localism. we have seen bitter scorn heaped on the few who have labored for internationalism in thought and feeling. we have seen the attempt of labor at internationalism utterly break down under the pressure of patriotic motive. we are finding that the same concentration on immediate and local interests is an insuperable bar to the realization of an ideal of internationalism which would effectively deal with questions arising between nations and put an end to war. the church failed to establish a spiritual internationalism; the indications are that it will be long before humanitarian idealists will be able to effect a union among nations still infected with patriotic motive, such as shall bring about a subordination of local and immediate interests to the interests of humanity as such. that the general interests are also in the end the local interests is still far from the vision of the patriot. what the growth of nationalities with its consequent rise of international jealousies and hostilities has effected in civil society, has been brought about in matters spiritual by the divisions of christendom. the various bodies into which christendom has been split up are infected with the same sort of localism as infects the state. they dwell with pride upon their own peculiarities, and treat with suspicion if not with contempt the peculiarities of other bodies. the effort to induce the members of any body of christians to appreciate what belongs to others, or to try to construe christianity in terms of a true catholicity, is almost hopeless. all attempts at the restoration of the visible unity of the church have been wrecked, and seem destined for long to be wrecked, on the rocks of local pride and local interests. the motives which in secular affairs lead a man to put, not only his body and his goods, as he ought, at the disposal of his country; but also induce him to surrender his mind to the prevailing party and shout, "my country, right or wrong," in matters ecclesiastical lead him to cry, "my church, right or wrong." it is only by transcending this localism that we can hope for progress in church or state--can hope to conquer the wars and fightings among our members that make peace impossible. this infection of localism is not peculiar to any body of christians. the oriental churches have been largely state-bound for centuries, and, in addition, have been mentally immobile. the roman church with its claims to exclusive ownership of the christian religion has lost the vision it once had and subordinated the catholic interests of the church to the local interests of the papacy. the fragments of protestantism are too small any longer to claim the universalism claimed by the east and west, and perforce acknowledge their partial character; but it is only to indulge in a more acute patriotism, and assertion of rights of division, and the supremacy of the local over the general. the churches of the anglican rite are less bound, perhaps, than others. they are restless under the limitations of localism and are haunted by a vision of an unrealized catholicity; but they are torn by internal divisions and find their attempts at movement in any direction thwarted by the pull of opposing parties. one result of the mental attitude generated by the conditions indicated above is that any attempt to deal with subjects other than those which are authorized because they are customary, or tolerated because they are familiar, is liable to be greeted with cries of reproach and accusations of disloyalty. such and such teachings we are told, without much effort at proof, are contrary to the teachings of the anglican church, or are not in harmony with that teaching, or are illegitimate attempts to bring in doctrines or practices which were definitely rejected by our fathers at the reformation. those who are implicated in such attempts are told that they are disturbers of the peace of the church and are invited to go elsewhere. as one who is not guiltless of such attempts, and as one who is becoming accustomed to be charged with novelty in teaching, and disloyalty in practice to that which is undoubtedly and historically anglican, i have been compelled to ask myself, "what is loyalty to the anglican church? is there, in fact, some peculiar and limited form of christianity to which i owe allegiance?" i had got accustomed to think of myself as a catholic christian whose lot was cast in a certain province of the catholic church which was administratively separated from other parts of that church. this i felt--this separation--to be unfortunate; but i was not responsible for it, and would be glad to do anything that i could to end it. i had not thought that this administrative separation from other provinces of the catholic church meant that i was pledged to a different religion; i had not thought of there being an anglican religion. i have all my life, in intention and as far as i know, accepted the whole catholic faith of which it is said in a creed accepted by the anglican church that "except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved." i do not intend to believe any other faith than that, and i intend to believe all of that; and i have not thought of myself as other than a loyal anglican in so doing. but criticism has led me to go back over the whole question and ask whether there is any indication anywhere in the approved documents of the anglican communion of an intention at all to depart from the faith of christendom as it was held by the whole catholic church, east and west, at the time when an administrative separation from rome was effected. was a new faith at any time introduced? has there at any time been any official action of the anglican church to limit my acceptance of the historic faith? that many anglican writers have denied many articles of the catholic faith i of course knew to be true. that some anglican writer could be found who had denied every article of the catholic faith i thought quite possible. but i was not interested in the beliefs or practices of individuals. i am not at all interested in what opinions may or may not have been held by cranmer at various stages of his career, or what opinions may be unearthed from the writings of bale by experts in immoral literature; i am interested solely in the official utterances of the anglican communion. in following out this line of investigation i have spent many weeks in the reading of many dreary documents: but fortunately documents are not important in proportion to the element of excitement they contain. i have read the documents contained in the collection of gee and hardy entitled "documents illustrative of english church history." i have read the "formularies of faith put forth by authority during the reign of henry viii." i have read cardwell's "synodalia." and i have also read "certain sermons or homilies appointed to be read in churches at the time of queen elizabeth of famous memory." i doubt whether any other extant human being has read them. and the upshot of the whole matter is that in none of these documents have i found any expressed intention to depart from the faith of the catholic church of the past as that faith had been set forth by authority. no doubt in the homilies there are things said which cannot be reconciled with the faith of catholic christendom. but the homilies are of no binding authority, and i have included them in my investigation only because i wanted their point of view. that is harmonious with the rest of the authoritative documents--the intention is to hold the faith: unfortunately the knowledge of some of the writers was not as pure as their intention. the point that i am concerned with is this: there is no intention anywhere shown in the authoritative documents of the anglican church to effect a change in religion, or to break with the religion which had been from the beginning taught and practised in england. the reformation did not mean the introduction of a new religion, but was simply a declaration of governmental independence. i will quote somewhat at length from the documents for the purpose of showing that there is no indication of an intention to set up a new church. one or two quotations from pre-reformation documents will make clear the customary phraseology in england during the middle ages. king john's ecclesiastical charter of uses the terms "church of england" and "english church." the magna charta of grants that the "church of england shall be free and have her rights intact, and her liberties uninjured." the articuli cleri of speak of the "english church." the second statute of provisors of uses the title "the holy church of england." "the english church" is the form used in the act "de hæretico comburendo" of , as it is also in "the remonstrance against the legatine powers of cardinal beaufort" of [ ]. [footnote : documents in gee & hardy.] these quotations will suffice to show the customary way of speaking of the church in england. if this customary way of speaking went on during and after the reformation the inference is that there had no change taken place in the way of men's thinking about the church; that they were unconscious of having created a new or a different church. we know that the protestant bodies on the continent and the later protestant bodies in england did change their way of thinking about the church from that of their fathers and consequently their way of speaking of it. but the formal documents of the church of england show no change. "the answer of the ordinaries" of appeals as authoritative to the "determination of scripture and holy church," and to the determination of "christ's catholic church." the "conditional restraint of annates" of protests that the english "as well spiritual as temporal, be as obedient, devout, catholic, and humble children of god and holy church, as any people be within any realm christened." in the act for "the restraint of appeals" of , which is the act embodying the legal principle of the english reformation, it is the "english church" which acts. the statement in the "act forbidding papal dispensations and the payment of peter's pence" of is entirely explicit as to the intention of the english authorities. it declares that nothing in this act "shall be hereafter interpreted or expounded that your grace, your nobles and subjects intend, by the same, to decline or vary from the congregation of christ's church in any things concerning the very articles of the catholic faith of christendom[ ]." [footnote : gee & hardy.] these documents date from the reign of henry viii. in the same reign another series of authoritative documents was put forth which contains the same teaching as to the church. "the institution of a christian man" set forth in , in the article on the church has this: "i believe assuredly--that there is and hath been from the beginning of the world, and so shall endure and continue forever, one certain number, society, communion, or company of the elect and faithful people of god.... and i believe assuredly that this congregation ... is, in very deed the city of heavenly jerusalem ... the holy catholic church, the temple or habitacle of god, the pure and undefiled espouse of christ, the very mystical body of christ," "the necessary doctrine and erudition for any christian man" of in treating of the faith declares that "all those things which were taught by the apostles, and have been by an whole universal consent of the church of christ ever sith that time taught continually, ought to be received, accepted, and kept, as a perfect doctrine apostolic." it is further taught in the same document in the eighth article, that on "the holy catholic church," that the church is "catholic, that is to say, not limited to any one place or region of the world, but is in every place universally through the world where it pleaseth god to call people to him in the profession of christ's name and faith, be it in europe, africa, or asia. and all these churches in divers countries severally called, although for the knowledge of the one from the other among them they have divers additions of names, and for their most necessary government, as they be distinct in places, so they have distinct ministers and divers heads in earth, governors and rulers, yet be all these holy churches but one holy church catholic, invited and called by one god the father to enjoy the benefit of redemption wrought by our lord and saviour jesu christ, and governed by one holy spirit, which teacheth this foresaid one truth of god's holy word in one faith and baptism[ ]." [footnote : formularies of faith in the reign of henry viii.] with the accession of edward vi. the protestant element in the reformation gained increased influence. our question is, did it succeed in imprinting a new theory of the nature and authority of the church on the formal and authoritative utterances of the church in england? the first "act of uniformity" of contains the now familiar appeal to scripture and to the primitive church, and the book set forth is called "the book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the church, after the use of the church of england." the "second act of uniformity," , uses the same language about the church of england and the primitive church. passing on to the reign of elizabeth, in the "injunctions" of there is set forth "a form of bidding the prayers," which begins: "ye shall pray for christ's holy catholic church, that is for the whole congregation of christian people dispersed throughout the whole world, and especially for the church of england and ireland." in the "act of supremacy" of the same year it is provided that an opinion shall "be ordered, or adjudged to be heresy, by the authority of the canonical scriptures, or by the first four general councils, or any of them, or by any other general council wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the said canonical scriptures." this test of doctrine is repeated in canon vi of the canons of . "preachers shall ... see to it that they teach nothing in the way of a sermon ... save what is agreeable to the teaching of the old or new testament, and what the catholic fathers and ancient bishops have collected from this self-same doctrine[ ]." [footnote : documents in gee & hardy.] it is hardly worth while to spend much time on the homilies. i will simply note that they continue the appeal to the primitive church which is asserted to have been holy, godly, pure and uncorrupt; and to the "old holy fathers and most ancient learned doctors" which are quoted as authoritative against later innovations. they still speak of the church of england as continuous with the past. i do not find that they treat the contemporary reformers as of authority or quote them as against the traditional teaching of the church. we will go on to one more stage, that is, to the canons of which represent the mind of the church of england at the time of the accession of james i. they declare that "whosoever shall hereafter affirm, that the church of england, by law established under the king's majesty, is not a true and an apostolical church, teaching and maintaining the doctrine of the apostles; let him be excommunicated." (iii) they appeal to the "ancient fathers of the church, led by the example of the apostles." (xxxi) in treating of the use of the sign of the cross in baptism they assert that its use follows the "rules of scripture and the practice of the primitive church." and further, "this use of the sign of the cross in baptism was held in the primitive church, as well by the greeks as the latins, with one consent and great applause." and replying to the argument from abuse the canon goes on: "but the abuse of a thing doth not take away the lawful use of it. nay, so far was it from the purpose of the church of england to forsake and reject the churches of italy, france, spain, germany, or any such like churches, in all things that they held and practised, that, as the apology of the church of england confesseth, it doth with reverence retain those ceremonies, which do neither endanger the church of god, nor offend the minds of sober men." (xxx) it appears clear from a study of the passages quoted and of many others of kindred nature that the anglican church did not start out upon its separate career with any intention of becoming a sect; it did not complain of the corruption of the existing religion and declare its purpose to show to the world what true and pure religion is. it did not put forward as the basis of its action the existing corruption of doctrine, but the corruption of administration. its claim was a claim to manage its own local affairs, and was put into execution when the convocation of canterbury voted in the negative on the question submitted to it, viz., "whether the roman pontiff has any greater jurisdiction bestowed on him by god in holy scripture in this realm of england, than any other foreign bishop?" the attitude indicated is one that has been characteristic of the anglican church ever since. it has always been restless in the presence of a divided christendom; the sin of the broken unity has always haunted it. it never has taken the smug attitude of sectarianism, a placid self-satisfaction with its own perfection. it has felt the constant pull of the catholic ideal and has been inspired by it to make effort after effort for the union of christendom. it has never lost the sense that it was in itself not complete but a part of a greater whole. it has never seen in the existing shattered state of the christian church anything but the evidences of sin. its appeal has constantly been, not to its own sufficiency for the determination of all questions, but to the scriptures as interpreted by the undivided church. if it has at times been prone to overstress the authority of some ideal and undefined primitive church, it was because it thought that there and there only could the catholic church be found speaking in its ideal unity. this the attitude of the anglican church of the past is its attitude to-day. the lambeth conference of gave voice to it: "the conference urges on every branch of the anglican communion that it should prepare its members for taking their part in the universal fellowship of the re-united church, by setting before them the loyalty which they owe to the universal church, and the charity and understanding which are required of the members of so inclusive a society." commenting upon this utterance of the lambeth conference the three bishops who are the joint authors of "lambeth and reunion" say: the bishops at lambeth "beg for loyalty to the universal church. the doctrinal standards of the undivided church must not be ignored. nor must modern developments, consistent with the past, be ruled out merely because they are modern. men must hold strongly what they have received; but they must forsake the policy of denying one another's positive presentment of truth. that only must be forbidden which the universal fellowship cannot conceivably accept within any one of its groups[ ]." [footnote : lambeth and rennion. by the bishops of peterborough, zanzibar and hereford.] the bishops just quoted add: "we rejoice indeed at this new mind of the lambeth conference." whether it is a new mind in lambeth conferences we need not consider; it is certainly no new mind in the anglican church, but is precisely its characteristic attitude of not claiming perfection or finality for itself, but of looking beyond itself to catholic christendom, and longing for the time when reunion of the churches which now make up its "broken unity" will enable it to speak with the same voice of authority with which it did in its primitive and undivided state. in attempting to decide what as a priest of the anglican communion one may or may not teach or practice, one is bound to have regard, not to what is asserted by anyone, even by any bishop, to be "disloyal" or "unanglican," but to the principles expressed or implied in the utterances of the church itself. from those utterances as i have reviewed them, it appears to me that a number of general principles may be deduced for the guidance of conduct. i. the churches of the anglican communion are bound by the entire body of catholic dogma formulated and accepted universally in the pre-reformation church. the anglican documents, to be sure, speak constantly of the "primitive church," but they do not anywhere define what they mean by that; and frequently, by their appeal to the "undivided church," and to "general councils," they seem to include in their undefined term much more than is commonly understood. in any case, the church has no special authority because it is _primitive_: its authority results not from its being primitive but from its being _church_. the only point of the anglican appeal would be the universal acceptance of a given doctrine. such universal acceptance must be taken as proof of its primitiveness, that is, of its being contained, explicitly or implicitly, in the original deposit of faith. the anglican church was content with the summing up of this faith in the three creeds, and attempted to formulate no new greed of her own--the xxxix articles are not strictly a creed: they are not articles of faith but of religion. but the very history of the creeds implies that they are not final, that is, complete, but that they are a summing up of the catholic religion to date. there are truths which the circumstances of the church in the conciliar period had not brought into prominence which later events compelled the church to express its mind upon. such a truth is that of the real presence of our lord in the sacrament of the altar. this truth had attained explicit acceptance throughout the church before the reformation, sufficiently witnessed by the liturgies in use. it is also embodied in the anglican liturgy. if anyone thinks the language of the anglican church doubtful on this point, the principles enunciated by the church compel interpretation in accord with the mind of the universal church. there are other truths which are binding on us on the same basis of universal consent, but i am not seeking to apply the principle in every case but only to illustrate it. ii. there is another class of truths or doctrines widely held in christendom, which yet cannot be classed as dogmas of the faith. such a doctrine is that of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary. this doctrine has been made of faith in the roman communion, but has not yet ecumenical acceptance, and therefore may be doubted without sin by members of the greek or anglican churches. what we need to avoid, as the lambeth conference has reminded us, is a purely insular and provincial attitude in relation to doctrines which have not been formally set forth by anglican authority. the anglican church has tried its best to impress upon us that there is no such thing as an anglican religion; there is but one religion--the religion of god's catholic church. what we are to seek to know is not the mind "of the anglican reformers," or the mind "of the caroline divines," but the mind of the catholic church. wherever we shall find that mind expressed, though in terms unfamiliar to us, we are bound to treat it with respect. we are to seek to know the truth that the truth may make us free--from all pride and prejudice, as well as from heresy and blasphemy. and we shall best come at this mind in its widest meaning by the study of the writings of the saints of all ages and of all parts of the church. it may fairly be inferred that those who have attained great perfection in the catholic life have achieved it by the application of catholic truth to every day living. iii. the members of the anglican church have the same freedom as other catholics in the matter of theological speculation. what was done at the reformation was not final in the sense that we are never to believe or to teach anything that is not found in anglican formularies. the fact that a certain doctrine like that of the invocation of saints was omitted from the anglican formularies is not fatal to its practice. the grounds of its omission in practice may or may not have been well judged. but the theory of it was never denied, it is indeed contained in the creeds themselves, and change in circumstances may justify its revival in practice. moreover, the theology of the christian church is not a body of static doctrine, but is the expression of the ceaseless meditation of the saints upon the truths revealed to us by god. to suppose that any age whatever has exhausted the meaning of the revealed truth would be absurd. it is inexhaustible. so long as the mind of the church is pondering it, it brings out from it things old and new. among ourselves it is perhaps at present more desirable that we should bring out the old things than seek to find the new. the historic circumstances of the anglican church have been such as to lead to the practical disuse of much that is of great spiritual value in the treasury of the church. it is largely in the attempt to bring into use the riches that have been abandoned that some are to-day incurring the charge of disloyalty--a charge that they are not careful to answer, if they may be permitted to minister to a larger spiritual life in the church they love. at the same time the development of doctrine is a real mode of enrichment of the theology of the church. the devout mind pondering divine truth will ever penetrate deeper into its meaning. thus it was that in the course of centuries the church arrived at a complete statement of the doctrine of our lord's person. and what it could rightly do in the supreme case, it surely can rightly do in cases of lesser moment. we need not be afraid of this movement of thought, for the mind of the united church may be trusted not to sanction any error. our lord has promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. we can trust him to fulfil his promise. he has also promised us that the holy spirit shall lead us into all the truth. can he trust us not to thwart the work of the spirit by a provincial attitude as of those who already in the utterances of the anglican formularies claim to possess all truth? iv. there is one other inference to be drawn from what i conceive to be the anglican position, and that is one that relates, not primarily to doctrine but to practice. for many years now the anglican churches have been greatly disturbed by varieties of practice, though it is difficult to see why varieties of practice should be in themselves disturbing. but without going into that matter, which would carry us far afield, i would simply state that the principle already laid down in regard to doctrine seems to apply here in the matter of practice: that is, the anglican has the right to use any practice which has not been explicitly forbidden by the authorities of the local church. the churches of the anglican communion have never set forth any competent guide for the conduct of worship, and by refraining from so doing have left the matter in the hands of those who have to conduct services and provide for the spiritual needs of those over whom they have been given cure of souls. there is nothing more absurd than to assume that nothing rightly can be done in these matters except what has been directed by authority; that no services can be held but such as have formal authorization; that no ceremonies can be introduced but such as the custom of the time since the reformation has made familiar to many. in such matters authority naturally and necessarily goes along with the cure of souls; the priest of the parish must perforce provide for the spiritual needs of his parish. if he finds those needs satisfied with the rendering of morning and evening prayer--well and good; but those who do not find the needs of their parish so satisfied must seek to satisfy them by the providing of other spiritual means. and in seeking thus to provide for the spiritual growth of souls committed to his care, the priest, on the principles of the anglican formularies, is justified and entitled to make use of the means in use throughout catholic christendom. he is quite justified in calling his people together for a prayer meeting, if in his judgment that will be for their spiritual good; or if his judgment is different, he is equally justified in inviting them to join him in saying the rosary. he may incite to greater devotion by a shortened form of evening prayer or by popular vespers. i do not think that there is anything in the christian religion or in the formularies of the anglican church that forbids him to have moving pictures or special musical services. nor is there any reason why, if it be in his judgment promotive of holiness, he should not provide for his parish such services as benediction of the blessed sacrament. there can be no legitimate criticism of a service on the ground of its _provenance_. it is a common reproach against the anglican communion that is "does not know its own mind." it would be much truer to say that there are many members of it who have been at no pains to ascertain whether it have a mind or what that mind is: who have been content to confound the mind of the church with the mind of the party to which they are attached by the accident of birth or of preference. i do not for a moment contend that the party (to use an ugly but necessary word) to which i am attached stands, in all things, in perfect alignment with the anglican formularies. there are circumstances in which it appears to me to be necessary to appeal from anglican action to the mind of that larger body, the whole church of christ throughout the world, to which the anglican church points me as its own final authority. in so doing i do not feel that i am disloyal, but that i am actually doing what authority tells me to do. these are cases in point. i do not believe that a local church can suppress and permanently disuse sacraments of the universal church. the anglican church by its suppression of the sacraments of unction and by its almost universal disuse for centuries of the sacrament of penance, compelled those who would be loyal to the catholic church to which it appealed to act on their own initiative in the revival of the use of those sacraments. i do not believe that the local church has the right or the power to forbid or permanently disuse customs which are of universal currency in the catholic church. i do not believe that it has the right to neglect and fail to enforce the catholic custom of fasting, and especially of fasting before communion. i do not believe that any christian who is informed on these things has the right to neglect them on the ground that the anglican church has not enforced them. on the basis of its own declarations the ecumenical overrides the local; and if it be said, "what is a priest, that he should undertake to set the practice of his church right?" the answer is that he is a man having cure of souls for whose progress in holiness he is responsible before god, and if those who claim authority in such matters will not act, he must act, though it be at the risk of his immortal soul. these things seem to be true with the truth of self-evidence. and because they seem to be true, i have not hesitated to preach, and now to print, the sermons on the life and words of our lady contained in this volume. i am told by many that such teaching is dangerous, but i am not told by any of any danger that is intelligible to me. that such devotions to our lady as are here commended trench on the prerogative of god, and exalt our lady above the place of a creature is sufficiently answered by the fact that the very act of asking the prayers of blessed mary is an assertion of her creaturehood--one does not ask the prayers of god. and when it is said that devotion to her takes away from devotion to her son, one has only to ask in reply, who as a matter of fact have maintained and do maintain unflinchingly the divinity of our lord? certainly the denials of the divinity of our lord are found where there is also a denial that any honor is due or may rightly be given to his blessed mother; and where that mother receives the highest honor, there we never for a moment doubt that the full godhead of jesus will be unflinchingly and unhesitatingly maintained. wherefore in praise, the worthiest that i may, jesu! of thee, and the white lily-flower which did thee bear, and is a maid for aye, to tell a story i will use my power; not that i may increase her honour's dower, for she herself is honour, and the root of goodness, next her son, our soul's best boot. o mother maid! o maid and mother free! o bush unburnt; burning in moses' sight! that down didst ravish from the deity, through humbleness, the spirit that did alight upon thy heart, whence, through that glory's might, conceived was the father's sapience, help me to tell it in thy reverence. lady! thy goodness, thy magnificance, thy virtue, and thy great humility, surpass all science and all utterance; for sometimes, lady, ere men pray to thee thou goest before in thy benignity, the light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer, to be our guide unto thy son so dear. my knowledge is so weak, o blissful queen! to tell abroad thy mighty worthiness, that i the weight of it may not sustain; but as a child of twelve months old or less, even so fare i; and therefore, i thee pray, guide thou my song which i of thee shall say. chaucer. the prioress' tale. version by wordsworth. part one chapter ii the meaning of worship o lord jesus christ, from whom all holy thoughts do come; who hast taught thy servants to honour thy glorious mother; mercifully grant us so to celebrate her on earth with the solemn sacrifice of praise and with due devotion, that by her intercession we may be found worthy to reign in joy in heaven. who livest &c. sarum missal. there are thoughts and actions which so enter the daily conduct of our lives that we take them for granted and never pause to analyse them. if perchance something occurs to make us ask what these thoughts and actions truly and deeply mean we are surprised to find that we have, in fact, no adequate understanding of them. we have a feeling about them and we are quite sure that this feeling is a good and right one. we have ends that we are seeking and we are satisfied that the ends are in all ways desirable. but suddenly confronted with the question why, unexpectedly asked to explain, to justify ourselves, we find ourselves dumb. we cannot find adequate exposition for what we nevertheless know that we are justified in. it is so with much that we admire; we have never tried to justify our admiration, have never thought that it needed an explanation; and then, unexpectedly, we find ourselves challenged, we find our taste criticised, and in our efforts at self-defence we blunder and stumble and hesitate about what we still feel that we are quite right in holding fast. it is common things that we thus take for granted; it is daily activities that we thus assume need no explanation. for us who habitually gather to the services of the church there is no more taken-for-granted act than worship. worship is a part of our daily experience. at certain times each day we offer to god stated and formal acts of worship. many times a day most likely we pause and for a moment lift our thought to our blessed lord for a brief communion with him. it is a part of our settled experience thus to draw strength from the inexhaustible source which at all times is at our disposal. we know how the tasks of the day are lightened and our strength to meet them renewed by these momentary invasions of the supernatural. there are also special times in each week when we meet with other members of the one body of christ in the offering of the unbloody sacrifice. we know that in that act heaven and earth join, and that not only our brethren who are kneeling beside us are uniting with us in the offering of the sacrifice, not only are we one with all those other members of the body who on this same morning are kneeling at the numberless altars of christendom, but that all those who are in christ are with us partakers of the same sacrifice, and that in its offering we are joined with all the holy dead, and by our partaking of christ are brought close to one another. we therefore lovingly take their names upon our lips, and enkindle their memory in our hearts; and find that death, which we had thought of as a separation, has but broken the barriers to the deepest and most blessed communion, and that we are now, as never before, united to those whom we find in christ jesus our lord. and then comes the unexpected challenge: "what does all this mean: these repeated and diverse acts that you are accustomed to speak of and to think of as acts of worship? what, ultimately, do you mean by worship, and can there possibly be found any common feature in these so diverse acts which can justify you in regarding them as essentially one? this act which is in truth presenting yourself before the majesty of god in humble adoration, in the guise of a suppliant child depending upon the love of the father for the supply of the daily needs; or this other act which is of such deepest mystery that we approach any attempted statement of it with awe, which is in fact the representation of the sacrifice of calvary; and then these invocations by which we ask the loving co-operation of our fellow members of christ that they may associate themselves with us in the work of prayer and mutual intercession--how can all these acts be brought together under a common rubric, how can they all be designated as worship? what in fact is it that you mean by worship?" so are we challenged. so are we thrown back, and in the end thrown back most beneficially, to the analysis of our acts. worship, we tell ourselves, is _worth_-ship; it is the attribution of worth or honor to whom these are properly due. "honour to whom honour is due," we hear the apostle saying. worship is therefore not an absolute value but a varying value, the content of any act of which will be determined by the nature of the object toward which it is directed. it is greatly like love in this respect; its nature is always the same, but its present value is determined by the object to which it is directed. we are to love the lord our god, and we are also to love our neighbour; the nature of the love is in each case the same; and yet we are not to love our neighbour with the limitless self-surrender with which we love god. the love of god is the passionate giving of ourselves to him with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength. the love of the neighbour is measured and restrained, having in view his good that we are seeking, the promotion of his salvation as our fellow member in the body of christ. in the same way worship will take its colour, its significance, its tone, its intensity, not from some abstract conception, but from the end it seeks. this is made plain, too, when we look at our bibles and prayer books for the actual use of the word. there we find much of the worship of god: but we also find a limited use of the word. "then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee." (s. luke, xiv, .) and in the marriage service of the english prayer book we read: "with this ring i thee wed, and with my body i thee worship." the same limited content of the word is found in the old title of respect--"your worship." but so thoroughly has the word worship become associated with our approach to god, that we still, many of us, no doubt, feel the shock of the unaccustomed when we hear the worship of the blessed virgin or of the saints spoken of. it does not help us much to fall back on the latin word, _cultus_, for we understand that the meaning is the same. we are helped, i think, if we substitute the parallel word honour for worship in the places of its use. we meet in the church to honour god, and we offer the blessed sacrifice as the act of supreme honour which is due to him alone; but in connection with the supreme honour offered to god we also honour the saints of god by the observance of their anniversaries with special services including the holy sacrifice. the word honour does not sound so ill to ears unaccustomed to a certain type of catholic expression as the word worship: but the meaning is untouched. let us go on then to the analysis of the notion of worship. in the writings of theologians we find an analysis of the notion of worship into three degrees. there is, first of all, that supreme degree of worship which is called _latria_ and which is the worship due to god alone. if we ask what essentially it is that differentiates _latria_ from all other degrees of worship or honour we find that it is the element of sacrifice that it contains. sacrifice is the supreme act of self-surrender to another, of utter self-immolation, and it can have no other legitimate object than god himself. the central notion of sacrifice is the surrender of self. the sacrifices of the old covenant were of value because they were the representatives of the nation and of the individuals who offered them; because of the self-identification of nation or individual with the thing offered, which must therefore be in some sense the offerer's, must, so to say, _contain him_: must be that in which he merges himself. so the one sacrifice of the new covenant gets its essential value in that it is the surrender of the son to the will of the father. "i am come to do thy will, o god." christ's sacrifice is self-sacrifice: the voluntary surrender of the whole life to the divine purpose. and when we actually worship god, worship him with the worship of _latria_, our act must be of the same essential nature; it must be an act of sacrifice, of self-giving; the offering of ourselves to the will of the father. so it is in our participation in the offering of the blessed sacrifice. the full meaning of our joining in that act is that we are uniting ourselves with our lord's offering of himself, and as members of his body share in the sacrifice of the body which is the supreme act of worship. and our other acts of worship lay hold on and proceed from this which is the ground of their efficacy. all our subordinate acts of worship, so to call them, have their character and vitality as christian acts of the worship of god because of the relation of the worshipper to god as a member of the body of his son. they are offered through the son and derive their potency from their association with him and his sacrifice. they reach god through the sacrifice of the one mediator. worship, then, in this complete sense, is due to god alone; and it is separated by a whole heaven from any worship, that is, honour, which can be offered to any creature, however exalted. no instructed person would for a moment imagine that the prayers which we address to the saints are in any degree such worship as is offered to god; but in as much as those who are unfamiliar with the forms of the catholic religion in its devotional expression may easily be led astray, it seems needful to stress this fact of the difference between simple petition and such acts and prayers as involve the highest degree of worship. one of the chief sources of confusion in this matter is the failure to distinguish between the nature of the act of worship, which is determined by the person to whom it is directed, and the mere adjuncts of the act. but an act of _latria_ is not constituted such by the fact that it is aided in its expression by such circumstances as banners, lights, incense and so on. these are quite appropriate to any act of honour, and have been customarily so used in relation to human beings. there was a certain hesitation in the church for some time in the matter of incense which under the older covenant had been especially appropriated to god, because in the experience of the early church it was demanded, and necessarily refused, as an acknowledgment of the divinity of the emperor. but with the passing of the pagan empire incense as the universal symbol of prayer came into use in all manner of services wherein intercession was a part. such adjuncts therefore are not foreign to those subordinate acts of worship or honour which are technically known as _dulia. dulia_--this word means service--is such honour as may be rightly rendered to creatures without at all encroaching upon the majesty of god. it is _that_ degree of worship that we have in mind when we speak of the worship of the saints. that _dulia_ of the saints is expressed when we ask for the intercession of this or that saint, and is not essentially different from the asking for the prayers of any other human beings. we commonly ask for one another's prayers and feel that in doing so we are exercising our brotherhood in the body of christ in calling into action its mutual love and sympathy. we should be beyond measure astonished if we were told that such requests for the prayers of our brethren were encroachments upon the honour of god and the sin of idolatry! but if in this case our surprise is justified, it is difficult to see how the case is at all altered by the fact that the fellow members of the body whose prayers we are asking happen to be _dead_, that is, as we believe and imply in our request for their intercession, have passed into a new and closer relation to our blessed lord. nor, again, does the case seem to be at all altered, if the brother whose prayers we ask has been dead a long time, and has, by the common consent of catholic christendom, been received into the number of the saints. the ways in which the human mind works under the influence of prejudice are always interesting. there are many devout persons who feel that it is a valuable element in their religion to have the privilege of following the kalendar of the church and to keep the saints' days therein indicated by attendance at divine service; who yet would be horrified if it were suggested that a prayer should be offered to the saint whose day is being observed, and that the saint should be made the object of an act of worship. but what essentially _is_ the keeping of a saint's day, with a celebration of the holy communion with special collect, epistle and gospel, but an act of worship _(dulia)_ of the saint? the nature of the act would be in no way changed if in addition to our accustomed collects there were added one which plainly asked for the prayers of the saint in whose honour we are keeping the feast. in the worship of the church of god a place apart is assigned to the honour to be paid to the blessed mother of our lord. as the highest of all creatures, as highly favoured above all, as she whom god chose to be the mother of his son, the devout thought of generations of christians has felt that their recognition of her relation to god in the incarnation called for a special degree of honour rightly to express it. the thought of the faithful lingers about all that was in any degree associated with the coming of god in the flesh: so great was the deliverance thereby wrought for man that man's gratitude ever seeks new means of expression and ever finds the means inadequate to his love. many of the expressions that are found in devotional writers associated with the cultus of the blessed virgin mary are an outcome of this attitude of mind. to those who are unused to them they seem exaggerated; in the vast mass of the devotional writings of catholic christendom there is no difficulty in finding expressions which _are_ exaggerated; but it is well to remember when thinking of this that the exaggeration is the exaggeration of love. the tendency of love _is_ to exaggerate the forms of its expression. it is, however, we feel on reflection, an error to judge by the exaggeration rather than by the love. it is perhaps well to ask ourselves whether we are saved from exaggeration by greater sanity or by lesser love. but exaggeration apart, this feeling of the unique position of the blessed mother in relation to the incarnate son, as calling forth a special honour for her is embodied in the designation of the honour to be rendered her as _hyperdulia_--a specially devoted service. it is hardly necessary after what has been said to point out that even here in the highest honour rendered to any saint there is no passing of the infinite gulf which separates creator from creature, any infringement upon the honour of god. no catholic could dream that blessed mary would be in any wise honoured by the attribution to her of what belongs to her son. these are no doubt commonplaces, but it is better to be commonplace than to be misunderstood. the intercession that is asked of the blessed mother is the intercession of one who by god's election is more closely associated with god than any other human being is or can be. her power of prayer is felt to proceed from the depth of her sanctity; from, in other words, the perfection of her relation to her blessed son who is the only mediator and the saviour of us all. let me say in conclusion that this giving of honour to our lord, and to all his saints as united to him, and the celebration of their days according to the church's year, and the asking of the help of their intercession in all the needs of our lives, is not simply a thing to be tolerated in those who are inclined to it, is not simply a privilege which we are entitled to if we care for it, but is a duty which all christians ought to fulfil because otherwise they are failing to make real to them a very important article of the christian creed. the communion of saints, like all other articles of the creed, needs to be put into active use, and will be when we believe it as distinguished from assent to it. when we believe that all who live unto god in the body of his dear son are inspired with active love one toward another, we shall ourselves feel the impulse of that love, and be compelled both to seek an outlet for it toward all other members of the body, and also will equally feel compelled to seek our own share in the action of that love by asking for the prayers of the saints for ourselves and for all in whom we are interested. then will we find in the "worship of the saints" one great means whereby we can worship the god of the saints by the devout recognition of the greatness of his work in them, may god be praised and glorified in all his saints. o virgin mother, daughter of thy son, lowly, and higher than all creatures raised, term by eternal council fixed upon, thou art she who didst ennoble man, that even he who had created him to be himself his creature disdained not. within thy womb rekindled was the love, by virtue of whose heat this flower thus is blossoming in the eternal peace. here thou art unto us a noon-day torch of charity, and among mortal men below, thou art a living fount of hope. lady, thou art so great and so prevailest, that who seeks grace without recourse to thee, would have his wish fly upward without wings. thy loving-kindness succors not alone him who is seeking it, but many times freely anticipates the very prayer. in thee is mercy, pity is in thee, in thee magnificence, whatever good is in created being joins in thee. dante, par. xxxiii, - . (trans. h. johnson.) part two chapter i mary of nazareth mary, of whom was born jesus. s. matt. i. . my maker and redeemer, christ the lord, o immaculate, coming forth from thy womb, having taken my nature upon him, hath delivered adam from the primal curse; wherefore, to thee, immaculate, the mother of god and virgin in very sooth, we cry aloud unceasingly the ave of the angel, "hail, o lady, protection and shelter and salvation of our souls!" byzantine. the silences of the holy scriptures have always provoked speculation as to what is left untold. the devout imagination has played about the hints we receive and woven them into stories which far outrun any true implication of the facts. thus has much legendary matter gathered about the childhood of our lord, containing the stories, not always very edifying according to our taste, which are set down in the apocryphal gospels. the same eagerness to know more than we are told has produced the developed legend of the childhood of our lady. we can of course place no reliance on most of the statements that are there made; perhaps the most that we can lay hold of is the fact that s. mary's father was joachim and her mother anna. the rest may be left to silence. but if the facts of the external life of mary of nazareth cannot be hoped for, certain general truths evidently follow from god's plan for her and from her relation to our blessed lord. there are certain inferences from her vocation which are irresistible and which the theologians of the church did not fail to make as they thought of her function in relation to the incarnation. we know that the work of redemption by which it was god's purpose to lead back a sinful world to himself was a purpose that worked from the very beginning of man's fatal separation from the source of his life and happiness. the essential meaning of holy scripture is that it is a history of the origin of god's purpose and of his bringing it to a successful issue in the mission of our lord. in the scriptures we are permitted to see the unfolding of the divine purpose and the preparation of the instruments by which the purpose is to be effected. we see the divine will struggling with the human will, and in appearance baffled again and again by the selfishness and the stupidity of man. we see too that the divine will is in the long run successful in securing a point of action in humanity, in winning the allegiance of men of good will to co-operation with the purpose of god. we see spiritual ideals assimilated, and sympathy with the work of god generated, until we feel that that work has gained a firm and enduring ground in humanity from which it can act. god is able to consummate his purpose, and men begin to understand in some measure the nature of the future deliverance and to look forward to the coming of one who should be the embodiment of the divine action and the representative of god himself with a completeness which no previous messenger of god had ever attained. it we would understand the old testament we must find that its intimate note is preparation, just as the intimate note of the new testament is accomplishment. god is working to a foreseen end, and is working as fast as men will consent to co-operate and become the instruments of his purpose. the purpose is not one that can be achieved by the exercise of power; it is a purpose of love and can be effected only through co-operating love. and as we watch the final unfolding of that purpose in the incarnation of god, we more and more become conscious of the preparation of all the instruments of the purpose which are working in harmony for the revelation of the meaning of god. of all the instruments of this divine purpose, one figure has preeminently fascinated the devout imagination because of her unique beauty, and has been the object of profound speculation because of the intimacy of her relation to god,--mary of nazareth. the vocabulary of love and reverence has exhausted itself in the attempt to express our estimate of her. the literature of mariology is immense. and no one who has at all entered into the meaning of the incarnation, of what is involved in eternal god taking human flesh, can wonder at this. here at the crisis of the divine redeeming action, when the crowning mystery which angels desire to look into is being accomplished, we find the figure of a village maiden of israel as the surprising instrument of the advent of god. we wonder: and we instinctively feel, that as all the other steps and instruments in god's redemption of man had from the beginning been carefully prepared, so shall we find preparation here. we understand that as god could not come in the flesh at any time, but only when the "fulness of time" had come; so he could not come of any woman, but only of such an one as he had prepared to be the instrument of his incarnation. it is involved in the very intimacy of the relation which exists between our lord and his blessed mother that she should be unique in the human race. we feel that we are right in saying that the incarnation which waited for the preparation of the world socially and spiritually, must also be thought of as waiting for the coming of the woman who would so completely surrender herself to the divine will that in her obedience could be founded the antidote to the disobedience which was founded in eve. the race waited for the coming of the new mother who should be the instrument in the abolishing of the evil of which the first mother was the instrument. and from the very beginning of the thought of the church about blessed mary there was no doubt that it was implied in her office in bearing the god-man that she should be without sin--sinless in the sense of never having in any least degree consented to evil the thought of the church has ever held her to be. it was held incredible that she who by god's election bore in the sanctuary of her womb during the months of her child-bearing him who was lord and creator and was come to save the world from all the stain and penalty of sin should herself be a sinner. without actual sin, therefore, was mary held to be from the time that the thought of the church was turned upon her relation to our blessed lord[ ]. [footnote : it is true that a few writers among the fathers see in blessed mary traces of venial sin; who think of her intervention at cana as presumptuous &c. but such notices are not of sufficient frequency or importance to break the general tradition.] for some time this seemed enough. it was not felt that any further thought about her sinlessness was needed. but as the uniqueness of mary forced itself more and more upon the brooding thought of theologians and saints they were compelled to face the fact that her freedom from actual sin was not a full appreciation of her purity, was not an exhaustive treatment of her relation to our lord. the doctrine of the nature of sin itself had been becoming clearer to the minds of christian thinkers. all men are conceived and born in sin, it was seen. after s. paul's teaching, the problem of _sin_ was not the problem of sins but the problem of sinfulness. the matter could not be left with the statement that all men do sin; the reason of their sinning must be traced out. and it was traced out, under s. paul's guidance, to a ground of sin in nature itself, to a defect in man as he is born into the world. he does not become a sinner when he commits his first sin: he is born a sinner. in other words, the problem of man's sinfulness is the problem of original sin. what then do we mean by original sin? briefly, we mean this. at his creation man was not only created innocent, but he was created in union with god, a union which conferred on him many supernatural gifts, gifts, that is, which were not a part of his nature, but were in the way of an addition to his nature. "by created nature man is endowed with moral sense, and is thus made responsible for righteousness; but he is unequal to its fulfilment. the all-righteous creator could be trusted to complete his work. he endowed primitive man with superadded gifts of grace, especially the supernatural gift, _donum supernaturale_, of the holy spirit[ ]." [footnote : hall, dogmatic theology, v, .] our purpose does not require us further to particularize these gifts and our time does not permit it. we are concerned with this: the effect of man's sin was, what the effect of sin always is, to separate man from god. to sin, man has to put his will in opposition to the will of god. this our first parents did; and the result of their act was the destruction of their union with god and the loss of their supernatural endowments. they lapsed into a state of nature, only it was a state in which they had forfeited what had been conferred upon them at their creation. this state of man, with only his natural endowments, is the state into which all men, the descendants of adam, have been born. this is the state of original sin. "original sin means in catholic theology a state inherited from our first human parents in which we are deprived of the supernatural grace and original righteousness with which they were endowed before they sinned, and are naturally prone to sin." (hall, dogmatic theology, vol. v, p. .) we can state the same fact otherwise, and more simply for our present purposes, by saying that by sin was forfeited the grace of union or sanctifying grace; and when we say that a child is born in sin we mean that it is born out of union with god, or without the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace. you will note here no implication of original sin as an active poison handed on from generation to generation. it will be important to remember this presently. when, therefore, the thought of the church began to follow out what was involved in its belief in the actual sinlessness of blessed mary, in its holding to the fact that her relation to god was of such a close and indeed unique character that her actual sinfulness would be incomprehensible; it was at length compelled to ask, what, in that case are we to think of original sin? if the first eve was created in innocence and endowed with supernatural gifts, are we to think that she whom the fathers of the church from the earliest times have constantly called the second eve, she whom god chose to be the mother of his son, should be less endowed? is it a fact any more conceivable that the virgin mother of god should be born in original sin than that she should be the victim of actual sin? if by the special grace of god she was kept from sin from the time that she was able to know good and evil, is it not probable that the freedom from sin goes further back than that, and is a freedom from original as well as from actual sin? what is the meaning of the angelic salutation, "hail, thou that art _full of grace_," unless it refer to a superadded grace, to such _donum supernaturale_ as the first eve received? there is indeed no precedent to guide in the case: the prophet jeremiah and s. john baptist had been preserved from sin from the womb, but this did not involve freedom from original sin. still the fact that there was no precedent was not in anywise fatal; the point of the situation was just that there was no precedent for the relation to god into which blessed mary had been called. it was precisely this uniqueness of vocation which was leading theological thought to the conclusion of the uniqueness of her privilege: and this uniqueness of privilege seemed to call for nothing less than an exemption from sin in any and all forms. so a belief in the immaculate conception grew up despite a good deal of opposition while its implications were being thought out, but was found more and more congenial to the mind of the church. she whose wonderful title for centuries had been mother of god could never at any moment of her existence have been separate from god. she must, so it was felt, have been united to god from the very first moment of her existence. but what does this exemption from the common lot of men actually mean? i think that the simplest way of getting at it is to ask ourselves what it is that happens to a child at baptism. every human child that is born into the world is born in original sin, that is, is born out of union with god, without sanctifying grace. it is then brought to the font and by baptism regenerated, born again, put in a relation to god that we describe as union, made a partaker of the divine nature. this varying description of the effect of baptism means that the soul of the child has become a partaker of sanctifying grace, the grace of union with god. original sin, we say, is forgiven: that is, the soul is placed in the relation to god that it would have had had sin not come into existence, save that there remains a certain weakness of nature due to its sinful heredity. this that happens to children when they are baptised is what is held to have happened to blessed mary at her creation. her soul instead of being restored to god by grace after her birth, was by god's special grace or favour created in union with him, and in that union always continued. the uniqueness of s. mary's privilege was that she never had to be restored to union with god because from the moment of her existence she had been one with him. this would have been the common lot of all men if sin had not come into the world. in view of much criticism of this belief it is perhaps necessary to emphasize the fact that a belief in mary's exemption from original sin does not imply a belief that she was exempt from the need of redemption. she is a creature of god, only the highest of his creatures: and like all human beings she needed to be redeemed by the blood of christ. the privileges which are our lord's mother's, are her's through the foreseen merits of her son--she, as all others, is redeemed by the sacrifice and death of christ. there is in the doctrine of the immaculate conception no shadow of encroachment on the doctrine of universal redemption in christ; there is simply the belief that for the merits of the son the mother was spared any moment of separation from the father. it will, of course, be said that this doctrine is but the relatively late and newly formulated doctrine of the latin church and is of no obligation elsewhere; that we are in no wise bound to receive it. in regard to which there are one or two things to be said. that we are not formally bound to believe a doctrine is not at all the same thing as to say that we are formally bound not to believe it. i am afraid that the latter is a not uncommon attitude. there is no obligation upon us to disbelieve the immaculate conception of blessed mary; there is an obligation upon us to understand it and to appreciate its meaning and value. we must remember that a doctrine that is not embodied in our creed may nevertheless have the authority of the church back of it. the doctrine of the real presence is not stated in the creed; yet it is and always has been the teaching of the church everywhere in all its liturgies. though any particular statement of the real presence is not binding, the fact itself is binding on all christians, and may not be doubted. in much the same way it will be found that theological doctrines of relatively late creedal formulation yet have behind the formulation a long history of actual acceptance in the teaching of the church. they are theologically certain long before they are embodied in authoritative formulae. what the individual christian has to do is to try to assimilate the meaning of theological teaching and to find a place for it in his devotional practice and experience. his best attitude is not one of doubt and scepticism, but of meditation and experiment. it is through this latter attitude that each one is helping to form the mind of the church, and aiding its progressive appreciation of revealed truth. i do not see how any one who has entered into the meaning of the incarnation can feel otherwise than that the uniqueness of the event carries with it the uniqueness of the instrument. it can of course be said that truth is not a matter of feeling but of revelation. but is it not true that god reveals himself in many ways, and that our feelings as well as our intellects are involved in our perception of the truth revealed? do we not often feel that something must be true far in advance of our ability to prove it so? and in truths of a certain order is there not an intuitive perception, a perception growing out of a sense of fitness, of congruity, which outruns the slow advance of the intellect? love and sympathy often far outrun intellectual process. this is not to say that feeling is all; that a sense of fitness and conformity is a sufficient basis of doctrine. there is always need of the verification of the conclusions of the affections by the intellect; and the intellect in the last resort will have to be the determining factor. and i think it can be said without hesitation that the intellectual work of theological students has quite justified the course that the affections of christendom have taken in their spontaneous appreciation of mary, the ever-virgin mother of our lord. what the heart of christendom has discovered, the mind of christendom has justified. but here more than in any other doctrinal development it is love that has led the way, often with an eagerness, an _élan_, with which theology has found it difficult to keep up. and as we to-day try to appreciate the place of blessed mary in the life of the church of god must we not feel it to be our misfortune that our past has been so wrapped in clouds of controversy that we have been unable to see her meaning at all clearly? must we not feel deep sadness at the thought that the very mention of mary's name, so often stirs, not love and gratitude, but the spirit of suspicion and dislike? we no doubt have passed beyond such feelings, but the traces of their evil work through the centuries still persist. they persist in certain feelings of reserve and hesitation when we find that our convictions are leading us to the adoption of the attitude toward her which is the common attitude of all catholicity, both east and west. when we feel that the time has actually come to abandon the narrowness and barrenness of devotional practice which is a part of our tradition, we nevertheless feel as though we were launching out on strange seas and that our next sight of land might be of strange regions where we should not feel at home. if such be our instinctive attitude, it is well to remember that progress, spiritual as well as other, is conquest of the (to us) new; but that the acquisition of the new does not necessarily mean the abandonment of the old. we shall in fact lose nothing of our hold on the unique work of our lord because we recognise that his blessed mother's association with it implies a certain preparation on her part, a certain uniqueness of privilege. there is one god, and one mediator between god and man, the man christ jesus; and all who come to god, come through him. but they come also in the unity of the body of many members and of many offices. and the office of her who in god's providence was called to be the mother of the incarnate is surely as unique as is her vocation. she surely is entitled to receive from us the deep affection of our hearts and the highest honour that may be given to any creature. the garland of the blessed virgin marie. here are five letters in this blessed name, which, changed, a five-fold mystery design, the m the myrtle, a the almonds claim, r rose, i ivy, e sweet eglantine. these form thy garland, when of myrtle green the gladdest ground to all the numbered five, is so implexéd fine and laid in, between, as love here studied to keep grace alive. thy second string is the sweet almond bloom mounted high upon selines' crest: as it alone (and only it) had room, to knit thy crown, and glorify the rest. the third is from the garden culled, the rose, the eye of flowers, worthy for her scent, to top the fairest lily now, that grows with wonder on the thorny regiment. the fourth is the humble ivy intersert but lowly laid, as on the earth asleep, preserved in her antique bed of vert, no faiths more firm or flat, then, where't doth creep. but that, which sums all, is the eglantine, which of the field is cleped the sweetest briar, inflamed with ardour to that mystic shine, in moses' bush unwasted in the fire. thus love, and hope, and burning charity, (divinest graces) are so intermixt with odorous sweets and soft humility, as if they adored the head, whereon they are fixed. part two chapter ii the annunciation i and the angel came in unto her, and said, hail, thou that art highly favoured, the lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. s. luke, i. oh god, whose will it was that thy word should take flesh, at the message of the angel, in the womb of the blessed virgin mary, grant to us thy suppliants that, we who believe her to be truly the mother of god, may be assisted by her intercession with thee. through &c. roman. when we attempt to reconstruct imaginatively any scene of holy scripture it is almost inevitable that we see it through the eyes of some great artist of the past. the crucifixion comes to us as dürer or guido reni saw it; the presentation or the visitation presents itself to us in terms of the imagination of raphael; we see the nativity as a composition of corregio. so the annunciation rises before us when we close our eyes and attempt to make "the composition of place" in a familiar grouping of the actors: a startled maiden who has arisen hurriedly from work or prayer, looking with wonder at the apparition of an angel who has all the eagerness of one who has come hastily upon an urgent mission. the surroundings differ, but artists of the renaissance like to think of a sumptuous background as a worthy setting for so great an event. we keep close to the meaning of scripture if we set the annunciation in a room in a cottage of a palestinian working man. and i like to think of s. mary at her accustomed work when gabriel appeared, not with a rush of wings, but as a silent and hardly felt presence standing before her whom the lord has chosen to be the instrument of his coming. wonder there would have been, the kind of awe-struck wonder with which the supernatural always fills men; and yet only for a moment, for how could she who was daily living so close to god fear the messenger of god? the thought of angels and divine messengers would be wholly familiar to her. they had been the frequent agents of god in many a crisis of her people's history, and appeared again and again in the story of her ancestors on whose details she had often meditated. yet in her humility she could but think it strange that an angel should have any message to bear to her. it is a striking enough scene, as the artists have felt when they tried to put it before us. but no artist has ever been able to go below the surface and by any hint lead us to an appreciation of the vast implications of the moment. this moment of the annunciation is in fact the central moment of the world's history. no moment before or since has equalled it in its unspeakable wonder, in its revelation of the meaning of god. not the moment of the creation when all the sons of god sang together at the vision of the unfolding purpose of god; not the morning of the resurrection when the empty tomb told of the accomplished overthrow of death and hell. this is the moment toward which all preceding time had moved, and to which all succeeding ages will look back--the moment of the incarnation of god. it is well to ask ourselves at this point what the incarnation means, because our estimate of blessed mary as the chosen instrument of god's grace will be influenced by our estimate of that which she was chosen to do. one feels the failure to grasp her position in the work of our redemption often displays a weak hold upon that which is the very heart of god's work--the fact of god made man. the moment of the annunciation is the moment of the incarnation: god in his infinite love for mankind is sending forth his son to be born of a woman in the likeness of our flesh. god the son, the second person of the ever adorable trinity, is entering the womb of this maiden, there to wrap himself in her flesh and to pass through the common course of a human child's development till he shall reach the hour of the nativity. when we try to grasp the reach of the divine love, its depth, its self-forgetfulness, we must stand in the cottage in nazareth and hear the angelic salutation. and then surely our own hearts cannot fail to respond to the revelation of the divine love; and something of our love that goes out to our hidden lord, goes out too to the maiden-mother who so willingly became god's instrument in his work for our redemption. in imagination i see s. gabriel kneeling before her who has become a living tabernacle of god most high, and repeating his "hail, thou that art highly favoured," with the deepest reverence. "hail, thou that art full of grace." we linger over this ave of s. gabriel, and often it rises to our lips. perhaps it is with s. luke's narrative, almost naked in its simplicity, in our hands as we try once more to push our thought deep into the meaning of the scene, that we may understand a little better what has resulted in our experience from the incarnation of god, and our thought turns to s. mary whom god chose and brought so near to himself. perhaps it is when, with chaplet in hand, we try to imagine s. mary's feelings at this first of the joyful mysteries when the meaning of her vocation comes clearly before her. hail! thou that art full of grace, of the living grace, the very presence of the divinity itself. the plummet of our thought fails always to reach the depth of that mystery of mary's child. it was indeed centuries before the church under the guidance of the holy spirit thought out and fully stated the meaning of this child; it was centuries before it fully grasped the meaning of mary herself in her relation to her divine son: and after all the centuries of spirit-guided statement and saintly meditation it still remains that many fail to understand and to make energetic in life the fact of the incarnation of god in the womb of the virgin mary. and what was s. mary's own attitude toward the announcement of the angel? her first instinctive word--the word called out by her imperfect grasp of the meaning of the message of s. gabriel, is: how can this be seeing i know not a man? are we to infer from these words, as many have inferred, that in her secret thoughts s. mary had resolved always to remain a virgin, that she had so offered herself to god in the virgin state? possibly when we remember that such was god's will for her it is not going too far to assume that she had been prompted thus to meet and offer herself to the divine will. be that as it may there is an obvious and instantaneous assumption that the child-bearing which is predicted to her lies outside the normal and accustomed way of marriage. she clearly does not think that the archangel's words look to her approaching union with s. joseph, even if the nominal nature of that marriage were not agreed upon. it is clear that her instantaneous feeling is that as the message is supernatural in character, so will its fulfilment be, and the wondering _how_ arises to her lips. the answer to the how is that what is worked in her is by the power of the holy spirit: "the holy ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god." as so often in the dealing of god with us, that which is put forward as an explanation actually deepens the mystery. it was no abatement of mary's wonder, nor did it really put away her _how_ when she was told that the holy ghost should come upon her and that the child should be the son of the highest. and yet this was the only answer to such a question that was possible. our questions may be met in two ways: either by a detailed explanation, or by the answer that the only explanation is god--that what we are concerned with is a direct working of god outside the accustomed order of nature and therefore outside the reach of our understanding. such acts have no doubt their laws, but they are not the laws in terms of which we are wont to think. the question of s. mary was not a question which implied doubt. it is therefore the proper question with which to approach all god's works. there is a stress with which such questions may be asked which implies on our part unbelief or at least hesitation in belief. it is a not uncommon accent to hear to-day in questions as to divine mysteries. our recitation of the creed is not rarely invaded by restlessness, shadows of doubt, which perhaps we brush aside, or perhaps let linger in our minds with the feeling that it is safer for our religion not to follow these out. i am afraid that there are not a few who still adhere to the church who do so with the feeling that it is better for them to go on repeating words that they have become used to rather than to raise questions as to their actual truth; who feel that the faith of the church rests on foundations which in the course of the centuries have been badly shaken, but that it is safer not to disturb them lest they incontinently fall to pieces. in other words there is a wide-spread feeling that such stories as this of the annunciation and of the virgin birth of our lord are fables. when we ask, why is there such a feeling? the only answer is that the modern man has become suspicious of the supernatural. has there anything been found in the way of evidence, we ask, which reflects upon the truth of the story in s. luke? no, we are told; the story stands where it always did, its evidence is what it always was. what has changed is not the story or the evidence for it but the human attitude toward that and all such stories. the modern mind does not attempt to disprove them, it just disapproves of them, and therefore declines to believe them. it sets them aside as belonging to an order of ideas with which it no longer has any sympathy. it is no doubt true that we reach many of our conclusions, especially those which govern our practical attitude towards life, from the ground of certain hardly recognised presuppositions, rather than from the basis of thought out principles. the thought of to-day is pervaded by the denial of the supernatural. it insists that all that we know or can know is the natural world about us. it rules out the possibility of any invasions of the natural order and declines to accept such on any evidence whatsoever. all that one has time to say now of such an attitude is that it makes all religion impossible, and sets aside as untrustworthy all the deepest experiences of the human soul. if i were going to argue against this attitude (as i am not able to now) i should simply oppose to it the past experience of the race as embodied in its best religious thought. i should stress the fact that what is noblest and best in the past of humanity is wholly meaningless unless humanity's supposition of a life beyond this life, and of the existence of spiritual powers and beings to whom we are related, holds good. no nation has ever conducted its life on the basis of pure materialism, save in those last stages of its decadence which preluded its downfall. but without going so far as to reject the supernatural and reject the truth of the immediate intervention of god in life, there are multitudes of men and women whose whole life never moves beyond the natural order. they have no materialistic theory; if you ask them, they think that they are, in some sense not very well defined, christians. but they have no christian interests, no spiritual activities of any sort. for all practical purposes god and the spiritual order do not exist for them. they are not for the most part what any one would call bad people; though there seems no intelligible meaning of the word in which they can be called _good_. the best that one can say of them is that they have a certain usefulness in the present social order though they are not missed when they fall out of it. they can be replaced in the social machine much as a lost or broken part can in an engine. and just as the part of an engine which has become useless where it is, can have no possible usefulness elsewhere, so we are unable to imagine them as capable of adaptation to any other place than that which they have filled here. perhaps that is what we mean by hell--incapacity to adapt oneself to the life of the future. all this implies a temper of mind and soul that has rendered itself incapable of vision. for just as our ordinary vision of the beauty of this world depends not only on the existence of the world but on a certain capacity in us to see it, so that the beauty of the world does not at all exist for the man whose optic nerve is paralysed; so the meaning and beauty, nay, the very existence of the supernatural order depends for us upon a capacity in us which we may call the capacity of vision. the sceptic waves aside our stories of supernatural happenings with the brusque statement, "nobody to-day sees angels. they only appear in an atmosphere of primitive or mediæval superstition, not in the broad intellectual light of the twentieth century." but it may be that the fact (if it be a fact) that nobody sees angels in the twentieth century is due to some other cause than the non-existence of the angels. after all, in any century you see what you are prepared to see, what in other words, you are looking for. it is a common enough phenomenon that the man who lives in the country misses most of the beauty of it. in his search for the potato bug he misses the sunset, and disposes of the primrose on the river's brim as a common weed. it is true that in order to see we need something beside eyes, and to hear we need something beside ears. when on an occasion the father spoke from heaven to the son many heard the sound, and some said, "it thundered"; others got so far as to say, "an angel spake to him." let us then in the presence of narratives of supernatural happenings ask our _how_ with a good deal of reverence and a good deal of modesty, not as implying a sceptical doubt on our part, but as a wish that we may be admitted deeper into the meaning of the event. scepticism simply closes the door through which we might pass to fuller knowledge. the questioning of faith holds the door open. to those who have not closed the door upon the supernatural it is evident that it is permeated with forces and influences which are not material in their origin or their effects; that god acts upon the world now as he has ever acted upon it. if we cannot believe this i do not see that we can believe in god at all in any intelligible sense. there is to me one attitude toward the supernatural that is even more hopeless than the attitude of materialistic scepticism which says, "miracles do not happen"; and that is the attitude which says, "miracles happened in bible times, but have never happened since." as the one attitude seems to imply that god made the world, but after he had made it left it to go on by itself and no more expresses any interest in it; so the other implies that after god put the christian religion in the world he left that to go on by itself and no longer pays any attention to it. either to me is wholly unintelligible and inconceivable. and what is worse, is wholly out of touch with the revelation of god made in holy scripture. that displays god working in and through the material universe, and it displays god working in and through the spirit of man; and it in no place implies that either the material world or the human order is so perfect as to need no further divine action. revelation implies the constant presence and action of god in nature and in the church; it implies that both have a forward look and are not ends in themselves but are moving on toward some ultimate perfection. "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth ... waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body." we look for a new heaven and a new earth; and human society looks to a perfect consummation in the fellowship of the saints in light. looking out on life from the spiritual point of vantage, we may hopefully ask our _how_, and there will be an answer. to blessed mary s. gabriel replied: "the holy ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god."--an answer that was full of light and of deepest mystery. the immediate question--the mode of her conception--was cleared up; it would be through the direct action of god the holy spirit: but the nature of the child to be born is filled with mystery. we can imagine s. mary in the days to come finding her child-bearing quite intelligible in comparison with the mystery that brooded over his nature. this is the common fact in our dealing with god. we express it when we say that we never get beyond the need of faith. we pray that one thing may be made clear, and the result of the clearing is the deepened sense of the mystery of the things beyond, just as any increase in the power of the telescope clears up certain questions which had been puzzling the astronomers only to carry their vision into vaster depths of space, opening new questions to tantalize the imagination. we find it so always. the solution of any question of our spiritual lives does not lead as perhaps we thought it would lead to there being no longer any questions to perplex us and to draw on our time and our energy; rather such solution puts us in the presence of new and, it may well be, deeper and more perplexing questions. "are there no limits to the demands of god upon us," we sometimes despairingly ask? and the answer is, "no: there are no limits because the end of the road that we are travelling is in infinity." the limit that is set to our perfecting is the perfection of god, and if we grow through all the years of eternity we shall still have attained only a relative perfection. so the successful passing of one test cannot be expected to relieve us from all tests in the future. it is the dream of the child that manhood will set it free; and he reaches manhood only to find that it imposes obligations which are so pressing that he reverses his dream and speaks of his childhood as the time of his true freedom. the meeting of spiritual tests is but the proving of spiritual capacity to meet other tests. to our lady it might well seem that the acceptance of the conditions of the incarnation was the severest test that god could assign her; that in the light of the promise she could look on to joy. but the future concealed a sword which should pierce her very heart. the promise contained no doubt wonderful things--this wonder of god's blessing that she was now experiencing in the coming of the holy ghost, in the very embrace of god himself: this is but the first of the joyful mysteries which were god's great gifts to her. but her life was not to be a succession of joyful mysteries, ultimately crowned with the mysteries of glory. there were the sorrowful mysteries as well. they were as true, and shall we not say, as necessary, as valuable, a part of her spiritual training as the others. she, our mother, was now near god, with a nearness that was possible for no other human being, and it is one of the traditional sayings of our lord: "he that is near me is near fire." and fire burns as well as warms and lights. she is wonderful, the virgin of nazareth, in this moment when she becomes mother of god: and we share in the rapture of the moment when in the fulness of her joy she hardly notices s. gabriel's departure: but we feel, too, a great pity for her as we think of the coming days. so we kneel to her who is our mother, as well as mother of god, and say our _ave_, and ask her priceless intercession. gabriel, that angel bright, brighter than the sun is light, from heaven to earth he took his flight, letare. in nazareth, that great city, before a maiden he kneeled on knee, and said, "mary, god is with thee, letare." "hail mary, full of grace, god is with thee, and ever was; he hath in thee chosen a place. letare." mary was afraid of that sight, that came to her with so great light, then said the angel that was so bright, "letare." "be not aghast of least nor most, in thee is conceived of the holy ghost, to save the souls that were for-lost. letare." fifteenth century. part two chapter iii the annunciation ii and mary said, behold the handmaid of the lord; be it unto me according to thy word. s. luke i. o god, who through the fruitful virginity of blessed mary didst bestow on mankind the rewards of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech thee, that we may experience her intercession for us through whom we were made worthy to receive the author of life, even jesus christ thy son our lord. roman. s. mary's momentary hesitation had been due to the surprise that she felt at the nature of the angelic message and the difficulty that there was in relating it to her state of life. that she, a virgin, should bear a son was vastly perplexing; but the answer of s. gabriel speedily cleared away the difficulty: "the holy ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee." blessed mary had no difficulty about the supernatural; she was not afflicted with the modern disease that there are no things in heaven and earth save such as are contained in our philosophy. she was not of those who "cannot believe what they do not understand," it was enough for her that a message had come from god: and no matter how little she was able to understand the mode of god's proposed action within her, she was willing to offer herself to be the instrument of the will of god. no doubt that was an habitual attitude and not one taken up on the spur of the moment. it is indeed very rarely that what seem spontaneous actions are really such; and s. mary's first word was nearer spontaneity than the second. her exclamation in answer to the angelic _ave_ was the natural expression of her surprise at so unexpected a message: its variance from all her thought about her life was the thing that struck her; and therefore her instinctive, "how can this be?" in this second word we have a quite different attitude. here is revealed to us the profound and perfect humility of the blessed virgin. this answer comes from the experience of her whole life. it is of such utterances that we say that they are revealing. what we at any time say, does in fact reveal what we are--what we have come to be through the experience of our past life. and no doubt it is these instinctive utterances which are called out by some unexpected occurrence that reveal more of us than our weighed and guarded words. back of every word we utter is a life we have lived. we have been spending years in preparing for that word. perhaps when the time comes to speak it, it is not the word we thought we were going to speak, it was not the prelude to the action we thought that we were going to perform; it reveals a character other than the character that we thought we had. how often the gospel brings that before us! we see the young ruler come running with his brave and perfectly sincere words about inheriting eternal life; and then we see him going away when the testing of our lord demonstrated that he only partly meant what he said. it was not s. peter's brave words, "though i should die with thee, yet will i not deny thee," that revealed the truth about the apostle; but the words that were called out by the accusation that he was of the company of jesus: "then began he to curse and swear, saying, i know not the man." we have no doubt that he knows himself better when he catches the eye of the master turned upon him and goes and weeps bitterly. and it is true, is it not, that it is through words called out and thoughts stirred by the unexpected that we often get new insight into our real state. a sudden temptation reveals a hidden weakness, and we go away shamed and crushed, saying, "i did not suppose that i was capable of that." but, thank god, the revelation is sometimes the other way; the testing uncovers unexpected strength. of many a man, after some strong trial, we say, "i did not know that he had so much courage, or so much patience." the quiet unassuming exterior was the mask of an heroic will of which very likely not even the possessor suspected the true quality. the annals of martyrdom are full of these revelations of unsuspected strength. here in the case of blessed mary the quality revealed is that of humility so perfect that it dreams not of revolt from the most searching trial. it reveals the character of our mother better than pages of description can do. what we see in response to the bewildering messages brought by s. gabriel is the instinctive movement of the soul toward god. there is utter absence of any thought of self or of how she may be affected by the purpose of god; it is enough that that purpose is made plain. it seems well to insist on this instinctive movement of the soul in blessed mary because it is one item of the evidence that the catholic church has to offer for its belief in her sinlesssness. any momentary rebellion, no matter how soon recovered from, or how sincerely regretted, against the will of god, would be evidence of the existence of sin. but where sin is not, where there is an unstained soul, there the knowledge of the will of god will send one running to its acceptance; there will be active acceptance and not just submission to god's will. submission implies a certain effort to place ourselves in line with the will of god; it often seems to imply that we are accepting it because we cannot do anything else. but with blessed mary there is a glad going forth to meet god; the word "behold" springs out to meet the will of god half-way. it is as though she had been holding herself ready, expectant, in the certainty of the coming of some message, and now she offers herself without the shadow of hesitation, as to a purpose which was a welcome vocation: "behold the handmaid of the lord; be it unto me according to thy word." how wonderful is the humility of obedience! and humility--we must stress this--is not a virtue of youth; it is not one of the virtues which ripen quickly, but is of slow development and delayed maturity. modesty we should expect in a maiden, and lack of self-assertion; and perhaps obedience of a sort. but those do not constitute the virtue of humility. we are humble when we have lost self; and mary's wondering answer reveals the fact that she is not thinking of herself at all, but only of the nature of the divine purpose. that that purpose being known she should at all resist it would seem to her a thing incredible, for all her life she had had no other motive of action. her will had never been separated from the will of god. this state of union which was hers by divine election and privilege, we achieve, if we achieve it at all, by virtue of great spiritual discipline. we are, to be sure, brought into union with god through the sacraments, but the union so achieved is, if one may so express it, an unstable union; it is union that we have to maintain by daily spiritual action and which suffers many a weakening through our infidelity, even if it escape the disaster of mortal sin. we sway to and fro in our struggle to attain the equilibrium of perfection which belonged to blessed mary by virtue of the first embrace of god which had freed her from sin. our tragedy is that we have almost universally lost the first engagements of the spiritual combat before we have at all understood that there is any combat. the circumstances of life of child and youth are such that we become familiar with sin before we have the intelligence to understand the need of resisting, even if we are fortunate enough to have such an education as to awaken a sense of sin as opposition to god. there is nothing more appalling than the tragedy of life thus defiled and broken and put at a disadvantage before it even understands the ideals that should govern its course. when the vision of perfection comes and we face life as the field where we are to acquire eternal values, we face it with a poisoned imagination and a depleted strength. our battle is not only to maintain what we have, but to win back what we have lost. under such conditions there is much consolation in learning that we do not fight alone but have the constant help and sympathy of those who are endued with the strength of perfect purity. their likeness to us in that they have lived the life of the flesh assures us of their understanding, and it assures us too of their active co-operation. we cannot understand the saints standing outside human life and from the vantage point of their achievement looking on as indolent spectators. the spectacle offorded by the church militant must call out the active intercession of all the saints; but especially do we look for helpful sympathy from her who is our all-pure mother, whose very purity gives her intercession unmeasured power. she is not removed from us through her spotlessness, but by virtue of her clearer understanding of the meaning of sin and of separation from god that it brings her, she is ready to fly to the help of all sinners by her ceaseless intercession. the difficulty of our spiritual lives rises chiefly out of the clash of wills. a disordered nature, a tainted inheritance, a corrupt environment conspire to make the life of grace tremendously difficult. it is only in a very limited sense that we can be said to be free, and there is no possibility at all of overcoming the handicap of sin, except firm and careful reliance on the grace of god. that grace, no doubt, is always at our disposal as far as we will use it. grace moves us, but it does not compel us; and we are free always to reject the offer of god. we have only to open our eyes upon the world about us to see how rarely is the grace of god accepted in any effective way. even in convinced christians the attempt to live the divided life is the commonest thing possible. it sometimes seems as though the prevalent conception of the christian life were that it is sufficient to offer god a certain limited allegiance and that the remainder of the life will be thereby ransomed and placed at our disposal to use as we will. we find the theory well worked out in the current attitude of christians toward the observance of the lord's day. it appears to be held that an attendance at mass or matins is a sufficient recognition of the interests of religion and that the rest of the day may be regarded, not as the lord's day, but as man's--as a day of unlimited amusement and self-indulgence. the notion of consecration is abandoned. the only possible outcome of such theories of life is what we already experience, spiritual lawlessness and moral degradation. i suppose that it will only be through social disaster that society will come (as usual, too late) to any comprehension that the will of god is what it is because it is only by following the road that it indicates that human life can reach a successful development. god's laws are not arbitrary inflictions; they are the expression of the highest wisdom in the guidance of human life. our elementary duty therefore as sane persons is to find what is the will of god in any given circumstances; there should be no action until there has been an effort to ascertain that will. it were as sensible to set about building a house without ascertaining what strength of foundation would be needful, or without knowing the sort of material we were going to use. one has heard of a house being built in which it turned out that there was a room with no doorway, or floor to which no stair led up; but we do not commend such exploits as the last word in architecture, nor would we commend a farmer who planted his crops without attention to the nature of the soil. there are certain elementary principles of common sense which we pretty uniformly hold to in every matter with the exception of religion; that seems to be held to be a separate department of human activity with laws of its own, and in which the principles which govern life elsewhere do not hold. we do not profess this theory, of course, but we commonly act upon it, while we still profess to respect the will of god. it is strange too that after having habitually neglected that will, we are greatly disappointed, not to say indignant, when after a life of disobedience and scorn of god's thought for us we do not find ourselves in possession of the fruits of righteousness. if it were not so tragic it would be amusing to hear men declaim against the justice of a god whose existence they have habitually disregarded. but, it is often said, it is not by any means easy to find out god's will. you talk about it as though it were as easy to know god's will as it is to know the multiplication table. well, at least it can be said that one does not get to know the multiplication table without effort! what objections as to the obscurity of the will of god will seem to mean is that it does take effort to ascertain it. i do not know of any reason for regarding that as unjust. if the will of god is what religion maintains that it is, of primary importance to our lives, we might well be glad that it is ascertainable at all, at the expense of whatever effort. an almighty god has implanted within every human heart the knowledge that his will exists and is important; that is, he has endowed every man with a conscience which is the certainty of the difference between right and wrong, and the conviction that we are responsible for our conduct to some power outside ourselves; that we are not at liberty to conduct life on any lines we will. having so much certainty, it surely becomes us to set about ascertaining the nature of the power and the details of the will. the very nature of conscience, as a sense of obligation, rather than a source of information, should create a desire for a knowledge of what god's will is in detail, that is, what is the content of the notion of right and wrong. and while it is true that such content can only be ascertained by work, it is not true that the work is a specially difficult one. the revelation of god's mind made through holy scripture and through the life of his incarnate son is an open book that any one can study; and to any objection that such study has led chiefly to difference of opinion and darkness rather than light, the answer is that such disaster follows for the most part only when the guidance of the catholic church is repudiated; when, that is, we pursue a course in this study which we should not pursue in relation to any other. if we were studying geology we should not regard it as the best course to scorn all that preceding students have done, and betake our unprepared selves to field work! but that is the "bible and the bible only" theory of spiritual knowledge. if we want to know the meaning of the biblical teaching, we must make use of the helps which the experience of the church has richly provided. but the nature of the divine will and the particulars of our obligation are not merely, perhaps one ought to say, not chiefly, to be assimilated through our brains. the best preparation for the doing of the will of god and the progressive entering into his mind, is an obedient life. purity of character will carry us farther on this path than cleverness of brains. our lord's own rule is: _he that doeth the will shall know of the doctrine._ in other words, we understand the mind of god and attain to the illumination of the conscience, through sympathetic response to the will so far as we have seen it. and each new response, in its turn, carries us to a deeper and clearer understanding of the will. that is to say, our conscience, by habitual response to god's will, so far as it knows it, is so illumined as to be able to make trustworthy judgments on new material submitted to it. this is, of course, to be otherwise described as the working of god the holy spirit. he is the spirit that dwelleth in us and directs us to right judgments if we will listen. our danger is that self-will constantly crops up and complicates the case by representing that the line suggested by the holy spirit is not in reality in accord with our interests. this opposition between the seeming interests suggested by self-will, which indeed often contribute to our immediate gratification, and our true interests as indicated by the monitions of the holy spirit, constitutes the real struggle of the life during the period of probation. the will of god in every circumstance is usually plain enough; but it is silenced by the clamour of the passions and desires demanding immediate gratification: and we are all more or less children in our insistence on the immediate and our incapacity to wait. but i must insist again that it is not knowledge that is wanting but sympathy with the course that knowledge directs. we pursuade ourselves that we do not know, when the real trouble is that we know only too well. one feels that much that is put forward as inability to understand religion is at bottom merely disinclination to obey it. not that there is not room for genuine perplexity. often it happens that we are not at all certain in this or that detail of conduct. in that case it is well to consider whether it is necessary to act before we can attain certainty through study or advice. but if act we must, we can at least act with honesty, not making our will the accomplice of our passions or interests. i do not believe that there are many cases in which we shall go wrong if we make use of all the means at our disposal. a diligent doing of the will of god does undoubtedly bring light on unknown problems and unexpected situations in which we from time to time find ourselves. if our constant attitude has been one of free and glad obedience we need not fear to go astray. "behold the handmaid of the lord," blessed mary said; and such an attitude has never failed to meet the divine approval and call out the help of god. just to put ourselves utterly at god's disposal is the clearing of all life. "into thy hands," is the solution of all difficulties. i sing a maiden that is matchless; king of all kings to her son she ches. he came all so still to his mother's bower, as dew in april that falleth on the flower. mother and maiden was never none but she; well might such a lady god's mother be. english, fifteenth century. part two chapter iv the visitation i and mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of judah; and entered into the house of zacharias, and saluted elizabeth. s. luke i. , . grant, we beseech thee, o lord god, to us thy servants, that we may evermore enjoy health of mind and body, and by the glorious intercession of blessed mary, ever a virgin, be delivered from present sorrows and enjoy everlasting gladness. through. roman. those who were faithful in israel and were looking forward to the fulfilment of god's promises would be drawn together by close bonds of sympathy. it oftentimes proves that the bonds of a common ideal are stronger than the bonds of blood. it was to prove so many times in the history of christianity when in accordance with our lord's words the closest blood relation would be broken through fidelity to him, and a man's foes be found to be those of his own household. but also it is true that the possession of common ideals becomes the basis of relations which are stronger than race or family. we may be sure that the members of that little group of which we catch glimpses now and then in the progress of the gospel story found in their expectation of the lord's deliverance of israel such a bond. we feel that s. mary and s. joseph must have been members of this group and that they were filled with the hope of god's manifestation. another family which shared the same hope was that of the priest zacharias whose wife elizabeth was the cousin of mary of nazareth. it is to their house in the hill country of judah we now turn our thoughts. it was a part of the angelic message to s. mary that her cousin elizabeth had "conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren." overwhelmed as s. mary was by the vocation which had come to her, perplexed as to what should be her next step, she may well have seized upon the words of the angel as a hint as to her present course. she must confide in some one, and that some one, we instantly feel, must be a woman. in her own great joy she would need some one with whom to share it. in her unprecedented case she would need a counselor, and who better could afford aid than her cousin whose case was in so many respects like her own, who was already cherishing a child whose conception was due to the intervention of god? we understand therefore, why it is that without waiting for the further development of events, mary arises, and goes "with haste" to the home of her cousin. it is just now a house full of joy. for many years there had been happiness there, but a happiness over which a cloud rested. the affliction of barrenness was their sorrow. to the hebrew there was no true family until the love of the father and the mother was incarnated in the child; and through many weary days zacharias and elizabeth had waited until hope quite failed as they found themselves beyond the possibility of bearing a child to cheer them and to hand on their name. we may be sure that they were reconciled to the will of god, for it is written of them that they were righteous, and the central feature of righteousness is the acceptance of the divine will. but though one cheerfully accepts the divine will there may still remain a consciousness of a vacancy in life; and therefore we can understand the joy that came to zacharias when the angel appeared to him in the temple when he was exercising the priest's office and offering the incense of the daily sacrifice with the message that he should have a son. it was a joy that would be unclouded by the god-sent dumbness which was at once a punishment for his lack of immediate faith and a sign of the faithfulness of god. it was a joy that would hasten his steps homeward with the glad tidings, a joy that would fill the heart of elizabeth when she heard the message of god. soon the consciousness of the babe in her womb would be a growing wonder and a growing happiness. there would be a new brightness in the house where the aged mother waits through the months and the dumb father with his writing tablet at his side meditates upon the meaning of the providence of god and upon the prophecies of the angel as to his child's future. but what that future would be he could hardly expect to witness; he was too old to live to the day of his child's showing unto israel. it is to this house that we see s. mary hastening, sure of finding there a heart in which she can confide. she "entered into the house of zacharias and saluted elizabeth." we are not told what the words of her salutation were, but no doubt it was the customary jewish salutation of peace. there could have been no more appropriate salutation exchanged between these two in whose souls was abiding the peace of a perfect possession of god. the will of god to which they had been accustomed to offer themselves all their lives was being accomplished through them in unexpected ways; but it found them as ready of acceptance as they had been in any of the ordinary duties of life wherein they had been accustomed to wait upon god. we may seem sometimes to go beyond holy scripture in our interpretations of feelings and thoughts which we are sure must have been those of the actors in the drama of salvation unfolded to us in the scriptures; but are we not entitled to infer from god's actions a good deal of the nature of the instruments he uses? are we not quite safe in the case of s. mary in the deduction from the nature of her vocation of the spiritual perfection to attribute to her? does not god's use of a person imply qualities in the person used? it is on this ground that i feel that we are quite safe in inferring the spiritual attitude of s. mary and of s. elizabeth from the choice god made of them to be the instruments of his purpose of redemption. but we are not inferring, we have the record with us, when we think of the joy of the mothers transcended in the joy of the children. the unborn forerunner becomes conscious of the approach of him of whom he is to say later: "behold the lamb of god that taketh away the sin of the world"; and there is an instantaneous movement that can only be that of recognition and worship. the movement of the child is at once understood and translated by s. elizabeth: "and she spake out with a loud voice, and said, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. and whence is this to me, that the mother of my lord should come to me? for, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." in the presence of such joy and such sanctity we feel that our proper attitude is the attitude of adoring wonder that s. elizabeth expresses. we worship our hidden lord as the unborn prophet worships him. we have no question to ask, nor curiosity at the mode of god's action. we are quite content to accept his action as it is revealed to us in scripture; a revelation of the divine presense in humanity which has been abundantly verified in all the history of the church. that verification in experience--a verification that we ourselves can repeat--is worth infinitely more than all the argument that the centuries have seen. "blessed art thou among women," s. elizabeth cries; and in doing so she is but repeating the words of the angel of the annunciation. this word, too, we presently hear s. mary taking up, and under the inspiration of the holy ghost saying: "from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." and so they have. all generations, that is, that have been faithful to the gospel teaching and have assimilated in any degree the consequences of s. mary's nearness to god. when we speak of "blessed" mary we are but doing what angels and holy women have done, and it is great pity if in doing so we have to make a conscious effort, if the words do not spring spontaneously from our lips. surely, we have not gone far toward the mastery of god's coming in the incarnation if we have not felt the purity of the instrument through whom god enters our nature. the outward and visible sign of our understanding is found in our ability to complete the _ave_ as the holy spirit has taught the church to complete it: "holy mary, mother of god, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death." this reiterated attribution of blessedness to mary our mother calls us to pause and ask just what blessedness means. it is of course the characteristic scripture locution for those who in some way enjoy the special favour of god. blessedness is the state of those who have received special divine gifts of favour. a characteristic scriptural description of the blessedness of the righteous in contrast with the disaster of the unrighteous may be studied in the first psalm. in the new testament we naturally turn to the sermon on the mount where the beatitudes give us our lord's thought about blessedness. i think that we can describe the notion of blessedness there presented as being the state of those who have taken god at his word and chosen him, and by that act of choice, while they have forfeited the world and the world's favour, have attained to the spiritual riches of the kingdom of god. they are those to whom god is the supreme good, in whose possession they gladly count all things but loss. these are they who here in the pilgrim state have already attained to the enjoyment of god because they want nothing other or beside him. supremely blessed, therefore, is mary our mother, who never for a moment even in thought was separate from god. from the earliest moment of her existence she could say, "my beloved is mine and i am his." we try to think out what such a fact may mean when translated into terms of spiritual energy, and it seems to mean more than anything else boundless power of intercession such as the church has attributed to s. mary from the earliest times. we see no other way of estimating spiritual power save as the power of prayer. it is through prayer that we approach god--for we remember that sacrifice is but the highest form of prayer. the blessedness of s. mary, that peculiar degree of blessedness which seems signalized by the reiterated attribution of the quality to her, must for our purposes to be understood as "power with god," power of intercession. it means that our lord has chosen her to be a special medium of approval to him, and that through her prayers he wills to bestow upon men many of his choicest gifts. naturally, her prayers, like our prayers, are mediated by the merits of her divine son; nevertheless they have a peculiar power which is related to her peculiar blessedness in that she is the mother of incarnate god, and by special privilege is herself without sin. of all those to whom we are privileged to turn in the joys and tragedies of our lives for the sympathy which helps through enlightened, loving prayer, we most naturally resort to her who is all love and all sympathy, mary, the mother of jesus, blessed among women forever. although we are told nothing of these days that s. mary spent with her cousin elizabeth, we do gather that she remained with her until her child was born and that she saw s. john in his mother's arms, and was a partaker in the joy of the aged parents. she was present when zacharias, his speech restored, uttered the _benedictus_ in thanksgiving for the birth of his son. it was then, having seen her own son's forerunner that s. mary went back to nazareth filled more than ever with the sense that god's hand was in the events that were taking place, and of the approach of some crisis in her nation's history. it must have been that she talked intimately with zacharias and elizabeth and with them tried to imagine what was the future in which these two children were so closely concerned. when we consider the _magnificat_ and the _benedictus_ not as the "gospel canticles" to be sung in church but as the utterances of pious israelites under the inspiration of the holy ghost, we feel how very vivid must have been their expectation of god's action in the immediate future, and with what intense love and interest they thought of the parts to be taken by their children in the deliverance god was preparing. how often they must have pondered the god-inspired saying: "he shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest; and the lord god shall give unto him the throne of his father david; and he shall reign over the house of jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." "and thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our god; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace." we think too of a more intimate sympathy that there would have been between these two women, drawn now so close together, not only by the blood bond, but by the bond of a common experience. what wonderful hours of communing during these three months! the peace of the hills of judah is all about them and the peace of god is in their souls. what ecstatic joy, what ineffable love was theirs in these moments as they thought of the children who were god's precious gift to them. i fancy that there were many hours when they ceased to think of the mystery that hung over these children's destiny, and became just mothers lost in love of the coming sons. as we try to think out their relation to each other it presents itself to us as a relation of sympathy. sympathy is community of feeling; it is maimed and thwarted when there is feeling only on one side. we speak of our sympathy in their affliction for others whom we do not know and who do not know us, but that is a very imperfect rendering of the perfect thing. no more than love does sympathy reach its perfection in solitude. but here in this village of judah we know that we have the perfect thing--sympathy in its most exquisite form. this capacity for sympathy is one of the greatest of human endowments, and, one is glad to think, not like many human endowments, rare in its manifestation. in its ordinary manifestation it is instinctive, is roused by the spectacle of need calling us to its aid. there come to our knowledge from time to time instances of what seem to us very grievous failures in sympathy, but investigation shows that ignorance is very commonly at the bottom of them. when human beings are convinced of a need they are quite ready to respond. indeed this readiness to respond makes them the easy victims of all sorts of impostures, of baseless appeals which play upon sentiment rather than convince the understanding. and just there lies the weakness of sympathy in that it is so easily turned to sentimentality. but the sentimentalist who gushes over ills, real or imaginary, can commonly be brought to book easily enough. for one thing the sentimentalist is devoted to publicity. he loves to conduct campaigns and drives, to "get up" a demonstration or an entertainment. i do not mean that he is a hypocrite but only that he loves the lime-light. when any tragedy befalls man his impulse is to organise a dance in aid of it. it is extraordinary how many people there are who will aid a charity by dancing to whom one would feel it quite hopeless to appeal for the amount of the dance tickets. and yet they are not wholly selfish people; there does lie back of the dance a certain sympathetic impulse. we easily deceive ourselves about ourselves, and it is well to be sure that we have true sympathy and not just sentiment. it is not so difficult to find out. we can test ourselves quickly enough by examining our giving. do we give only when we are asked? do we yield to spectacular appeals or only to those that we have examined and found good? do we put the spiritual interests of humanity first? is there any appreciable amount of quiet spontaneous giving which is known to no one? do we prefer to be anonymous? such tests soon reveal what we are like. one who never gives spontaneously, without being asked, we may be sure is lacking in sympathy. but of course one does not mean that sympathy is so closely related to what we call charity as what i have just said, if left by itself, would seem to imply. that is indeed the common form assumed by sympathy which has to be called out. but the best type of sympathy is the expression of our knowledge of one another; it is based on our knowledge of human nature and our interest in human beings. because it is based on knowledge it is not subject to be swept away by the sweet breezes of sentimentalism. to its perfect exercise it is needful to know individuals not merely to know about them. the ordinary limitations of sympathy come from this, that we do not want to take time and pains to know one another. that, for example, is where the church falls short in its mission to constitute a real brotherhood among its members--they have no time nor inclination really to know one another, or they find the artificial walls that society has erected impassable. it is, in fact, not very easy to know one another, and it is impossible to develop the complete type of sympathy with a crowd. for one must insist that this highest type of sympathy requires, what the word actually does mean, mutual sharing in life, the participation in the lives of our fellows and their partaking in our lives. so we understand why perfect sympathy is conditioned on spirituality. unless we are spiritually developed and spiritually at one we cannot share in one another's lives fully. where there are lives separated by a gulf of spiritual differences the completest sympathy is impossible. and we understand why incarnate seems so much nearer to us than god unincarnate. it is true that "the father himself loveth you"; it is true that it is the love of the blessed trinity that is expressed in the incarnation. the incarnation did not create god's love and sympathy, it only reveals it. yet it is precisely the incarnation that enables us to lay hold on god's sympathy with a certainty and sureness of grasp that we would not otherwise have. the sight of "god in christ reconciling the world unto himself" is more to us in the way of proof than any amount of declaration can be. to be told of the sympathy of god is one thing, to see how it works is another. our personal need in this matter is to find the sympathy that will help us in something outside ourselves, outside the limitations of human nature. much as we value human sympathy, precious as we find its expression, yet we do find that it has for the higher purposes of life serious limitations. it has very little power to execute what it finds needs to be done. a man may understand another's weakness and may utterly sympathise with it; he may advise and console, but in the end he finds that he cannot adequately help. the case is hopeless unless he can point the sufferer to some source outside himself on which he can draw, unless he can lead him to the sympathy of god. god can offer not only consolation, not only the spectacle of another life which has triumphed under analogous circumstances, but he can give the power to this present weak and discouraged life to triumph in the place where it is. he can "make a way of escape." but there is another form of sympathy which we crave and need which is just the communion of soul with soul. we are not asking anything more or other than to show ourselves. we are overwhelmed with the loneliness of life. it comes upon us in the most crowded places, this sense of separation from all about us. oh, that i might flee away and be at rest, is our feeling. it is here that we specially need our lord. blessed are we if we have learned to find in him the rest we need for our souls, if we have learned to open the door that leads always to him; or, perhaps to knock appealingly at that door which he will never fail to open. it is then that we find the joy of the invitation "come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and i will give you rest." but christ, the perfect sympathiser, has associated others with himself. if we can go to him, so can others; the way is open to all. and those who go and are associated with him are gathered into a family. here among those who have followed the interests which are ours, and have pursued the ends that we are pursuing, and cultivated the qualities which we value, we feel sure of that sympathetic understanding of life which we seek. and especially among those members of the body who have gone on to the end in fidelity to the ideals of the life which is hid with christ in god shall we look for understanding and help. it is from this point of view that the communion of saints will mean so much to us. we value the strength of mutual support which inevitably grows out of associated life. we cannot think of the saints of god as having passed beyond us into some place of rest where they are content to forget the problems of earth: rather we are compelled to think of them as still actively sharing in those interests which are still the interests of their divine head. until, jesus himself cease to think of us who are still in the pilgrim way, and cease to offer himself on our behalf, we cannot think of any who are in him as other than intensely interested in us of the earthly church, or as doing other than helping by prayer for us that we with them may attain our end. and especially shall we feel sure that at any moment of our lives we may turn to the mother in confident expectancy of finding most helpful sympathy and most ready aid. her life to-day is a life of intercession, of intercession which has all the power of perfect understanding and perfect sympathy. let us learn to go to her; let us learn that as god is praised and honoured in his saints, as our lord choses to work through those who are united to him, so it is his will that great power of prayer shall be hers of whom he assumed our nature, that nature through which he still distributes the riches of his grace. as i lay upon a night, my thought was on a lady bright that men callen mary of might, redemptoris mater. to her came gabriel so bright and said, "hail, mary, full of might, to be called thou art adight;" redemptoris mater. right as the sun shineth in glass, so jesus in his mother was, and thereby wit men that she was redemptoris mater. now is born that babe of bliss, and queen of heaven his mother is, and therefore think me that she is redemptoris mater. after to heaven he took his flight, and there he sits with his father of might, with him is crowned that lady bright, redemptoris mater. english, fifteenth century. part two chapter v the visitation ii and mary said, my soul doth magnify the lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my saviour. s. luke i. , . forasmuch as we have no excuse, because of the multitude of our sins, we plead through thee, o virgin mother of god, with him whom thou didst bear. lo, great is thine intercession, strong and acceptable with our saviour. o stainless mother, reject not us sinners in thine intercession with him whom thou didst bear. coptic. wonderful was this day in the little town of judah where these two women, each in her way an instrument of god in the upbuilding of his kingdom, met and rejoiced together. there is revealed to us something of the possibilities of our religion when we try to follow the thought of these two women. they are so utterly devoted to god that god can speak to them. i think that it is well for us to dwell on this fact for a moment. we are apt to look upon inspiration, what is described as being filled with the holy ghost, as somewhat of a mechanical mode of god's operation. our mistaken view is that god takes control of the faculties of a human being and uses them for his own purposes. but that is quite to misunderstand god's method. god uses the faculties of a man in proportion as the man yields himself to him; and one who is living a sincere religion becomes in a degree the medium of god's self-expression. this possibility of expressing god increases as we increase in sanctity. those who have completely yielded themselves to god in a life of sanctity become in a deep sense the representatives of god: they have, in s. paul's phraseology, his mind. to be capable of so becoming the divine instrument it is necessary, not only to offer no opposition to god's purposes, but to make ourselves the active executants of them. our christian vocation is thus to be the instrument of god, to be the visible demonstrations of his power and presence. there is a true inspiration, a true speaking for god to-day, no doubt, as true as at any time in the church's history, wherever there is sanctity. what is lacking to present day utterances of sanctity is not the action of the holy spirit, but authentication by the church: that is given only under certain special circumstances and for special purposes. but there is no need to limit the inspiring action of the holy spirit to such utterances as for special reasons have received official recognition. what we need to feel is the constant action of the holy spirit--that he wants to speak through every man. and it helps to clear our minds if we go to our bibles with the expectation of finding here, not exceptions to all rules which obtain in common life, but types of the divine action. the isolation of bible history has done much to create a feeling of its unreality. what has happened only in the bible can, we are apt to feel, safely be disregarded in daily life in the twentieth century. but if what we find there is customary modes of divine action in life, exceptional in detail rather than in principle, the attitude we shall take will be wholly different. we shall then study them with the feeling expressed in s. paul's saying, "these things are written for our learning," and we shall expect to find in us and about us the same order of divine action, we shall learn to look on our lives as having their chief meaning in the fact that they are possible instruments of god; we shall learn to regard failure as failure to show forth god to the world. in a way we can read our facts backward: the fact that "elizabeth was filled with the holy ghost," and the fact that mary under the same divine impulse gave utterance to the words of the magnificat, is a revelation of the character of these two women which would satisfy us of their sanctity had we no other evidence of it. the choice of them by god to be his instruments is evidence of the divine approval; and that approval can never be false to the facts; what god treats as holy must be holy. so we come to holy mary's song with the feeling that in studying it we shall find in it a revelation of s. mary herself. she is not an instrument on which the holy spirit plays, but an intelligent being through whom he acts. she, like s. elizabeth, is filled with the holy spirit--she had never been in the slightest degree out of union with god--but still the magnificat is her utterance; it represents her thought; it is the measure, if one may so put it, in modern terminology, of her degree of spiritual culture. much that we say about s. mary, her simplicity, her social place, and so on, seems to carry with it the implication of the ignorance and spiritual dullness that we associate with the type of poverty we are accustomed to to-day. but the poor folk whom we meet in association with our lord are neither ignorant nor spiritually dull; and it would be a vast mistake to think of blessed mary as other than of great intelligence and spiritual receptivity, or as deficient in understanding of the details of her ancestral religion. we have no reason to be surprised that she should sing magnificat, or to think that the holy spirit was speaking through her thoughts which were quite beyond her comprehension. inspired she was, but inspired, no doubt, to utter thoughts that had many times filled her mind. her spiritual attitude as revealed in the magnificat is but the attitude which must have been hers habitually--the attitude that exalts god and not self. "my soul doth magnify the lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my saviour." that is the starting-place of all holy souls--the adoration of god. true humility is never self-conscious because self is lost in the vision of god. s. mary was bearing in her pure body the very son of god. admit, if you will, that as yet she did not understand the full reach of her vocation; but she did know that she had been chosen by god in a most signal manner to be the instrument of his purpose. that which s. elizabeth spoke under divine impulse,--"whence is this that the mother of my lord should come to me?"--must have had clear meaning for her. but the wonder of all that god is accomplishing through her only brings her to god's feet. that "he that is mighty hath done me great things," is but the evidence of his sanctity, not of her greatness. one never gets through wondering at the beauty of humility; and it is one of the marks of how far we are from spiritual apprehension when we find this splendid virtue unattractive. it does indeed cut across many of the instinctive impulses of our nature; it can hardly be said to have dawned on humanity as a virtue until the incarnation of god. therein it has revealed to us god's attitude in his work and, by consequence, the natural attitude of all such as would associate themselves with god. it is not so much a self-denying as a self-forgetting virtue. it is ruined by the very consciousness of it. such phrases as "practicing humility" seem self-contradictory--when one begins to practice humility it becomes something else. we do not conceive of our lady as setting out to be humble, of thinking of what a humble person would do under such and such circumstances. she does not, as i was saying, think of herself at all, but thinks of god. the "great things" she has are his gift. that he has looked upon her low estate, and that in consequence of his visitation "all generations shall call her blessed," is a manifestation of the divine glory and goodness, not an occasion of pride to the recipient of god's gifts. we who are so self-seeking, who are so greedy of praise, who are constantly wanting what we feel is our due, who hunger to be "appreciated," who are full of proud boasting about our accomplishment, will do well to meditate upon this point of view. we acknowledge the supremacy of god with our lips, but in our acts we are quite prone to assume that we are independent actors in the universe where whatever we have is due to our own creative powers. we claim a certain lordship over life, a certain independent use of it. we resent the pressure of religious principle as setting up a sort of counter-claim to control that which it is ours to dispose of as we will. most of our difficulties come from this godless attitude which claims independence of life. it results in a religion which is willing to pay god tribute, but is not willing to belong to god. but the humble person has nothing of his own and moreover wants nothing; he wants simply that god shall use him, that he shall be found a ready instrument in god's hands. it is this readiness that we find in blessed mary when she answered the astonishing announcement of the angel with her, "behold the handmaid of the lord." it is that quality which we find in her here when she construes god's purpose in terms which go out far beyond her individual life and sees in her experience but one item in god's dealing with humanity in his age-long work of "bringing his wanderers home." we should have far less difficulty and find our lives far more significant if we could get rid of our wretched egotism and find it possible to lose ourselves in the work of god. we should then find the work important because it is god's work and not because we are associated with it. we should also find it less easy to be discouraged because we should not understand our failure to be the failure of god. discouragement is but one of the aspects of egotism, and not the most attractive. we cannot rise to anything like a passion of holiness unless we have found god to be all in all. only so can we lose ourselves in god. and i must, at whatever risk of over-dwelling, stress the fact that we can only attain this point of view by dwelling on god and not on self. let god be the foreground of our thought. let our souls magnify the lord. let us dwell upon the "great things" god has done for us. in every life there is such a wonderful manifestation of the divine goodness--only we do not take time to look for it. it is well to take the time: to write out, if need be, our spiritual history. we shall then find abundant evidence of the goodness of god. it may be that it is a goodness that is seen chiefly in offers, in opportunities to be something which we have declined or have only imperfectly realized. be that as it may, there is no life, i am quite convinced, that has not a spiritual history which is a marvellous history of what god at least wanted to do for it. it is also a history of what he actually has done: a history of graces, of rich gifts, of deliverances. it matters not that we have been so heedless as to miss most of what god has done. the facts stand and are discoverable whenever we care to pay enough attention to them to ascertain their true meaning. when we do that, then surely we shall be compelled to do, what blessed mary never needed to do, fall at god's feet in an act of penitence, seeing ourselves, perhaps for the first time, in the light of god's mind. the magnificat, if we consider it as a personal expression, is a wonderful expression of selfless devotion, where the perception of the glory and majesty of god excludes all other thoughts. it is, too, a thanksgiving for the personal gift which is her vocation to be the mother of the saviour. out of her lowliness she has been exalted--how highly she herself cannot at the time have dreamed. we can see what was necessarily involved in god's choice of her, and to-day we think of her as in her perfect purity exalted in heaven far above all other creatures. mother of god most holy we call her, and in the words of her canticle ever repeat her thanksgiving as our thanksgiving, too, for the vocation that god sent her and for the gift which through her has come to us. but there is a more universal aspect of the magnificat. essentially it is the presentation of the constant antithesis which runs through all revelation between the flesh and the spirit, between the kingdom of god and the kingdom of this world. it embodies the conception of god striving to save a world which has revolted from him, and now at last entering upon that stage of his work which is the beginning of a triumph over all the powers of the adversary. in mary's song the contrasted powers are still presented under the old testament terminology which was the natural form of her thought. the adversaries of god are the proud, the mighty, the rich; while those who are on god's side are the humble, the god-fearers, the hungry. the form of the thought and its essential meaning remain the same through the centuries, though our terminology changes somewhat. presently in the pages of the new testament we shall get the presentation as the contrast between the children of this world and the sons of god. we shall find the briefest expression of the latter to be the saints. we no longer feel that rich and poor express a spiritual contrast. nor do we, who are quite accustomed to the action of labour leaders, regard social position as being the exclusive seat of arrogancy. but we know that the spiritual values which are expressed in the varying terminology are constant; we know that the warfare between god and not-god is still the most important phenomenon in the universe. and it happens as we look out on the battlefield where the forces of good and evil contend, where before our eyes they seem to sway back and forth on the field of human life with every varying fortunes, that we not seldom feel that the battle is not obviously falling to the side of righteousness. there come moments when we are oppressed by what seems to us the lack of power in the ideals of righteousness. the appeal of the proud and of the rich is so dazzling; the splendour of the visible kingdom of the world is so intoxicating, the contagion of the crowd which follows the uplifted banner of satan is so penetrating, that we hardly wonder to see the new generations carried away in the sweep of popular enthusiasm. here is excitement, exhilarating enjoyment, the throb and sting of the flesh, the breathless whirl of gaiety, the physical quiet of satisfied desires. what is there to appeal on the other side? as the crowds troop past to the sound of music and dancing they for a moment raise their eyes, and above them rises a hill whereon is a cross and on the cross an emaciated victim is nailed, and at the foot of the cross a small group of discouraged folk--s. john, the blessed mother, the other mary--stunned by the grief born of the death of son and friend. these two utterances stand in eternal contrast: "all these things will i give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me": and, "i, if i be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." as yet the appeal made from an "exceeding high mountain" visibly seems to prevail against that made from "the place which is called calvary." and what have we to counteract the depression which is the natural reaction from the spectacle of the world-rejection of christ? we have the truth which is embodied in mary's magnificat, we have the fact of mary's vocation to be the mother of god. the revelation of god's meaning and purpose is a basis of optimism which no promise of satan can overthrow. when all is said, the view from the exceeding high mountain is a view of the kingdom of this world only; from the place called calvary you can see the kingdom of god as well. from this point of vantage alone the permanent values of life are visible; and to the taunt flung at us, the taunt so terrifying to the young, "you are losing life," the enigmatic reply from the cross is that you have to lose life to gain it; that permanent and eternal values are acquired by those who have the self-restraint and the foresight not to sacrifice the substance to the shadow, nor to mistake the toys of childhood for the riches of manhood. "in the meantime life is passing and the shadows draw in and you have not attained" so they say. true: we count not ourselves to have yet attained; but we press on toward the mark of our high calling in christ jesus our lord. we are not in a hurry, because the crown we are seeking is amaranthine, unfading. we are not compelled to compress our enjoyment within a given time; we do not awake each morning with the thought that we may not outlast the daylight; we are not hurried and fevered with the sense of our fragility. the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them must be seized now: satan cannot afford to wait because his kingdom has an end. but god can afford to wait because of his kingdom there is no end. we are content then with _promises_ and with such partial fulfilment as we find on our pilgrim-way. we are content because we see the end in the beginning. to those who in the first days of the church objected that though the promises were wonderful and abundant the fulfilment was small; to those who said we do not yet see the perfection of the kingdom; the answer of inspiration was: true, we do not yet see the accomplishment of all of god's promises, but we do see jesus. and there is where we stand to-day. the work that god has to do in the spiritualising of the human race is tremendous; but we actually see its beginning in jesus, and we are content to wait with god for the perfect accomplishment. and we must remember when we think of the work of god in terms of time, that the length of time that is required to accomplish the spiritualisation of the human race is not to be estimated in terms of the divine will but in terms of the human will. it is not divine power but human resistance which is the determining factor, for god will not compel us to obey him, nor would compelled obedience have any spiritual value. and we can estimate something of the human resistance that has to be overcome by concentrating attention upon one unit of that resistance. that is, we can learn from the study of our own life what is the resistance of one human being to the triumph of the will of god; and, taking oneself as a fair sample of the race can multiply our resistance to god's will by the numbers of the race. we are perfectly certain of the will of god: god wills that all men shall come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. "this is the will of god, even your sanctification." so far as we are thwarting that will we are playing into the hands of the power of evil. but that power is of limited existence; it draws to its end. its death knell was struck when the noon-day darkness lifted from calvary. therefore the rejoicing of blessed mary, whose song reads the necessary end in the beginning, is well considered; and we rejoice with her and in her. it is our privilege--and it is a vast privilege--to rejoice in blessed mary as the instrument of god in bringing the triumph of his kingdom one stage nearer its accomplishment. and in especial we rejoice because we see in her one more, and the most marked, illustration of the divine method. "he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden." "he hath exalted them of low degree." "he hath filled the hungry." the method of god is to work to his results through those who are spiritually receptive. the less of self there is in us the more room there is for god. "the kingdom of god is within you," that is, the starting-point of god's work in the building of the kingdom is within the soul of man. he must master the inner man, must win the allegiance of our souls, before his work can make any progress at all. the kingdom of god cometh not "with observation," that is, from the outside in an exhibition of power; it must of necessity come from the inside in demonstration of the spirit. "as many as are led by the spirit of god, they are the sons of god." in blessed mary we see the new starting-point in this last stage of the work of god. for the foreseen merits of her son she is brought into union with god and spared the taint of sin, and becomes the second eve, the mother of the new race. acting upon her pure humanity, the holy spirit produces that humanity which joined to the divinity in the second person of the blessed trinity becomes the christ, the son of the living god. in mary's rejoicing in this so great fact, the bringing of human redemption, we rightly share. it is with a right understanding of her song that the church throughout the ages has embodied it in its worship and through it constantly rejoices in god its saviour. the actual detailed accomplishment of god's work in man's redemption is going on under our eyes. it is regrettable that human stupidity seems to prefer dwelling upon what seem god's failures, and are actually our own, rather than upon the constant triumphs of grace. but god reigns; and we can always find grounds of optimism if we can find that he is day by day reigning more perfectly in us. when we pray "thy kingdom come," the field to examine for the fulfilment of our prayers is the field of our own souls. our lady took the road to zachary's abode; o'er mountain, vale and lea, full many a league sped she toward hebron's holy hill, by god's command and will. full light did mary, make of trouble for his sake. god's very son of yore within her breast she bore; and angels bright and fair, unseen, her fellows were. she, ere she took her way, an orison would say, that god her steps might tend safe to their journey's end; and there, in manner meet, her cousin she 'gan greet. elizabeth full fain eft bowed her head again; she wist 'twas god's own bride, as, worshipful she cried: 'o lady, full of grace, whence do i see thy face?' o house and home of bliss, o earthly paradis-- nay, heaven itself on ground wherein the lord is found, the lord of glory bright, in goodness great and might-- clean maiden thou that art, come, visit this my heart; and bring me chief my good, god's son in flesh and blood; bless body, soul; and bide for ever by my side. from the köln gesang-buch. xvi cent. part two chapter vi s. joseph joseph, her husband, being a just man-- s. matt. i. . o god, our refuge and our strength, look down in mercy upon thy people who cry to thee; and by the intercession of the glorious and immaculate virgin mary, mother of god, of st. joseph her spouse, and of thy blessed apostles peter and paul, and of all saints, in mercy and goodness hear our prayers for the conversion of sinners, and for the liberty and exaltation of our holy mother the church. through. roman. when we read the gospels, not simply as a record of events but as revelation of the method of god, we are constantly impressed with what we cannot otherwise describe than as the care of god for detail. there is a curious type of mind which finds it possible to think of god as creator and ruler of the universe, but impossible to conceive him as interested in or concerning himself with the minutiae of human life; who can conceive god as caring for a solar system or a planet, but not as caring for a baby. surely it is a strange notion of god that thinks of him as estimating values in terms of weight and measure: surely much more intelligible is the gospel presentation of him as concerned with spritual values and exercising that minute care over human life which is best expressed by the word _father_. it is very significant that as the volume of revelation unrolls, the earlier notions of god as ruler, governor, king, give way to the notion of father, until in our lord's presentation of the character of god it is his fatherhood which stands in the forefront. what our lord emphasises in the character of god are precisely the qualities of love and care and sympathy which the word father connotes. and nowhere do we see this loving care of god which we call his providence better set out for our study than in the detailed preparation which preceded and attended the birth of his son into this world. there was that preparation of the mother who was to be the source of the humanity of the child jesus which we have been dwelling upon; there was also the preparation for the proper guardianship of both mother and child during the years of jesus' immaturity. there are certain things which are self-evident when once we turn our minds to them; and it is thus self-evident that the care of our lord and of his blessed mother would require the preparation of the man to whom they should be committed. in the state of society into which our lord was born, he and his mother would need active guardianship of a peculiar nature. the man who should provide for our lord's infancy must be a man, in the nature of the case, who was receptive of spiritual monitions and devoted to the will of god. it was a delicate matter to live before the world as the husband of mary of nazareth, and to live before god as the guardian of her virginity and as the foster-father of her divine son. only a very choice nature could respond to the demands thus made upon it, a nature which had been habitually responsive to the will of god and long nurtured by the richness of his grace. we know very little of st. joseph; but god's choice of him for the office he was to fulfil near the blessed virgin mary and her son reveals the nature of the man. he is described to us as "a just man," one whose judgment would not be swayed by prejudices, but who would be open to the consideration of any case upon its merits: a man who would not view events in the light of their effect upon himself and his plans, but who can calmly consider what in given circumstances is due to others. such men are rare at any time for their production is a matter of slow discipline. we gather that both s. joseph and s. mary were of the same lineage, were descended from the same ancestor, david. we gather also that s. joseph was much older than his bethrothed wife, for he had been already married and had a family. all the notices of these brothers and sisters of the lord imply that they were considerably older than the child of mary, and that they felt that they had the sort of authority over him which commonly belongs to the elder children of a family; the sort of doubt and criticism of his course which would be the instinctive attitudes of elders toward the unprecedented course of a younger. we have, i think, a right to infer from the terms of the narrative, that s. joseph would have been well acquainted with s. mary and was not taking a wife who was a stranger to him. indeed, considering the actual development of the situation, i myself feel quite certain that those are right who maintain that the proposed marriage was intended to be merely a nominal union, the ultimate design of which was the protection of the virginity of mary. i find it impossible to think of that virginity as other than of deliberate purpose from the beginning, and prompted by the spirit of god for the purposes of god for which it served. there is, to be sure, no revelation of this in holy scripture, but there are facts which suggest themselves to the devout meditations of saints which we feel that we may safely take on the authority of their spiritual intuitions. such a fact is this of mary's purposed virginity which i am content to accept on the basis of its congruity with s. mary's life and vocation. of the fact of her perpetual virginity there can be no dispute among catholic christians. to s. joseph thus preparing himself to be the guardian of the blessed virgin it could only come as a tremendous shock that she should be found with a child. our character comes out at such times of trial as when something that we had taken quite for granted fails us, and we are left breathless and bewildered in in the face of what would have seemed impossible even had we thought of it. what was s. joseph's attitude? the beauty and sanity of his character at once shows itself. grieved and disheartened as he must have been, disappointed as he could not but be, he yet thinks at once of his bethrothed, not of himself. how far could he save her?--that was his first thought. he would at least avoid publicity. "being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, he was minded to put her away privily." it is the quality that we express by the word benevolence--the quality of mature and deliberate wisdom. we feel that such a man could be trusted under any circumstances of life. we feel, too, that god would not leave s. joseph in doubt as to the course he was to pursue, or as to the character of mary herself. there could no shade of suspicion be permitted to rest upon her. hence "while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, joseph, thou son of david, fear not to take unto thee mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the holy ghost. and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." it is not difficult to imagine the joy of s. joseph at this angelic message. we all know the sense of relief which comes when, after facing a most trying situation, and being forced to make up our minds to act when action either way is almost equally painful, we find that we are delivered from the necessity of acting at all, that the whole state of things has been utterly misunderstood. it was so with s. joseph; and in his case there was the added joy which springs from the nature of the coming child as the angel explains it to him. he who had accepted the charge of mary was now to add to that charge the charge of her child: and the child is the very saviour whom his soul and the souls of all pious israelites had longed for. "thou shalt call his name jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." we cannot expect that s. joseph would have taken in the full meaning of this message, but he would have understood that he was called to a wondrous co-operation with god in the work of the redemption of israel. as we think of s. joseph it is this co-operation which is the significant thing in his life. as we study human life in the only way in which it is much worth while to study it, in the light of revelation, it becomes clear to us that there is purpose in all human life. often we observe a purpose that we are not able to grasp, but in the light of what we know from revelation we do not doubt of its presence. even lives that seem obscure and insignificant we feel sure must have a divine meaning; and the pathetic thing about most human life is that it never dreams of its own significance. we are consumed with the notion that god's instruments must be great, while it is on the face of revelation that they are commonly humble and of seeming insignificance. it is the work that is important, and the instrument becomes important through its relation to the work. we all at least have the common vocation of the christian, and it would be difficult to exaggerate the spiritual significance of that. s. joseph seems to us at once set apart by his vocation to be the guardian of the divine child, to protect and to nurture the years of his human immaturity. this is no doubt a unique vocation, but is it quite so far separated from ordinary christian experience as we assume? you and i are also constituted guardians of the divine presence. this very morning, it may be, we have received within the tabernacle of our breast the same presence that s. joseph guarded--the presence of incarnate god. in that presence of his humanity our lord abode with us but a few minutes and then the presence withdrew: but he left behind him a real gift, the gift of an increase in sacramental grace. was that a light thing: was it indeed so much less than the vocation of s. joseph? and how have we guarded this presence? those few moments after the reception of our incarnate lord at the altar--how do we habitually spend them? do we spend them in guarding the presence? there is much to be learned about the meaning and the value of guarding the eucharistic gift. our thanksgiving after communion is fully as important as our preparation for receiving it. i am more and more inclined to think that much of the fruitlessness of communions which is so sad a side of the life of the church is due to careless reception and inadequate thanksgiving. it is the adoration of our lord within the tabernacle of our body and thanksgiving to him for having come to us that is the _appropriation_ of the gift of the sacrament. he comes to us and offers himself to us with all the benefits of his life and death; and then having offered himself "he makes as though he would go farther," and he does actually go, unless we are awake to our spiritual opportunity, and constrain him, saying, "abide with us, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent." we think of s. joseph then, as with a relieved and rejoicing heart he enters upon his new realised vocation as the head of the holy family. the marriage which he had been upon the point of abandoning he now enters that he may give s. mary and her coming child his full protection. so s. joseph "took unto him his wife; and knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son." these words have been so misunderstood as to imply that the marriage of s. joseph and s. mary was consummated after the birth of our lord. grammatically they convey no such implication; the mode of expression is perfectly simple and well known by which a fact is affirmed to exist up to a certain time without any implication as to what happens after. and the meaning of the passage which is not at all necessitated by its grammatical construction is utterly intolerable in catholic teaching. the constant teaching of the church is the perpetual virginity of mary--that she was a virgin "before and in and after her child-bearing." there was to be sure an heretic named helvidius who taught otherwise, but he was promptly repudiated by all catholic teachers and but served to emphasize the depth and clearness of the catholic tradition. upon this point there has never been any wavering in the mind of the church, and to hold otherwise shows a lamentable lack of a catholic perception of values and but a superficial grasp upon what is involved in the incarnation. the impression we get of s. joseph is that of a man of great simplicity and gentleness of character--that childlikeness which was later praised by his foster son. such qualities do not produce much impression on the superficial observer, but they are of great spiritual value. they are the concomitants of a special type of open-mindedness. open-mindedness is a quality much praised and little practiced. but the open-mindedness which is commonly praised is not the open-mindedness which is praiseworthy. what is at present meant by open-mindedness is in reality failure to have any mind at all upon a given subject. it is the attitude of doubt which never proceeds so far as to arrive at a solution. to have an open mind means to the contemporary man to hold all conclusions loosely, to consider all things open to question, to be ready to abandon what now appears to be true in favour of something which to-morrow may appear to be more true. in other words, we are invited to base life on pure scepticism. now no life can be so conducted. we live by a faith of some sort, whether it be a faith in god or no. the most sceptical mind has to believe something to act at all. it cannot even doubt without affirming a belief in its own intellectual processes. the open mind that never reaches any certainty to fill it is a very poor possession indeed. and it is not at all what we mean when we say of s. joseph that he was open-minded. we mean that he was receptive of new spiritual impressions and capable of further spiritual development. there are minds, and they are not unusual among people of a certain degree of spiritual development, which we can best describe as having reached a given stage of growth and then shut up. or, to vary the figure, they impress one as having a certain capacity, and when that has been reached, being able to contain nothing further. they come to a stop. from that point they try to maintain the position they have acquired. but that is impossible: they inevitably fall away unless they are going forward. when the power of spiritual assimilation is dead, we are spiritually in a dying condition. what we mean by having an open and childlike mind, then, is that one has this power of spiritual assimilation and, consequently, a power of growth. the sceptic is afflicted with spiritual indigestion; he is an invalid who is quite certain that any food that is offered him is indigestible. his soul withers away through its incapacity to believe. the open-minded saint has a healthy spiritual digestion. this does not mean that, in vulgar parlance, he can, "swallow anything"; it does mean a power of discrimination between food offered him,--that he assimilates what is wholesome and rejects the rest. the sceptic is pessimistic as to the existence of any wholesome food at all; he starves his soul for fear that he should believe something that is not true. the saint, with the test of faith, sorts the food proposed to him, and grows in grace, and consequently in the knowledge and the love of god. open-mindedness is sensitiveness to spiritual impressions, readiness for spiritual advance, even when such impressions cut across much that has seemed to us well settled, and such advance involves the upset of his established ways of thought. what distinguishes the evolution in the thought of the sceptic from that in the thought of the saint is that in the one case the result is destructive and in the other constructive. the sceptic is like a man who starts to build a house, and then periodically tears down what he has so far built and begins again on a new plan; the saint is like the house builder who broadens his plan in the course of construction, and who finds that within the limits of his general scheme there is room for indefinite improvement. the one never gets any building at all; the other gets a palace of which the last stages are of a more highly decorated school of architecture than he had conceived, or indeed, could conceive, when he began his work. in s. joseph's case nothing could be more revolutionary in appearance than the truth he was asked to accept. he was asked to believe in the virgin-motherhood of his bethrothed, and in the fact that the child soon to be born was he who was to save israel from his sins. he was asked to accept these incredible statements and to act upon them by taking mary to wife as he had proposed. and he did not hesitate to accept the evidence of a dream and act in accordance with it. how could he do this? because the required action which seemed so revolutionary of all his previous notions was, in fact, quite in accordance with his knowledge of god and of the promises of god. though a simple man, perhaps because he was a simple man, he would know something of the teaching of the prophets. that teaching would have given him thoughts about god which would have, unconsciously, prepared him for these new acts of god. though we cannot see before how a prophecy is to be fulfiled, after the event we can see that this is what is intended by it. we were actually being prepared by the prophecy for what was to take place. and thus, no doubt, s. joseph's mind, being filled with the teaching of the scriptures which he had heard read in the synagogue every sabbath day, would find that this new act of god on which he was asked to rely was, in fact, but a new step in the unfolding of that providence which had for centuries been shaping the history of his nation. it is a quality to cultivate, this simple open-mindedness which is ready to respond to new spiritual impulses. it is precisely what prevents that deadly attitude of soul which proceeds as though religion were for us exhausted: as though we had reached the limit of expectancy. but to expect nothing is to receive nothing, because it is only expectancy that perceives what is offered. we move in a world which is thronged with spirtual impulses and energetic with spiritual powers. god is trying to lead us on to new spiritual experiences by which we may attain to a better understanding of him. there is no assignable limit to our possible growth. but we fix a limit when we close our souls to further experiences by the practical denial that they exist. if we are childlike, we are always expecting new things of our father; if we are open-minded we are alive to the activities of the spiritual world. we are conscious of possessing a growing religion, a religion truly evolutionary, constantly bringing to our knowledge unsuspected riches stored in the very principles whose meaning we had assumed that we had exhausted. perhaps one of the treasures of our religion of which we have not achieved full consciousness is god's choice of us to be the guardians of his revelation. it is our charge "to keep the faith." i suppose that this responsibility is commonly regarded as belonging to some vaguely imagined church which hands it on from generation to generation, to us among others, but without imposing on us an obligation of any active sort. but we are the church--members in particular of the body of christ. and in the dissemination of the faith the last appeal is to us, not to some outside tribunal. when the church wishes to discover its faith and make it articulate, its place of search is in the minds and hearts of the faithful. our responsibility is to testify to the catholic faith, not so much by positively asserting it as by making it active and vivid in our lives so that its presence and power can by no means be mistaken. you, for instance, in common with the rest of the faithful, are the custodians of this truth of the perpetual virginity of the blessed virgin mary. it may seem a small matter, but it is not. that it is not is readily seen from this fact, that when the perpetual virginity of our blessed mother is denied then also the incarnation of her son is denied or is held only in a half-hearted way. the church stresses such facts, not only because they are facts, but because by their character they form a hedge about the truth of the incarnation of our lord. and we who are catholic christians must feel an obligation to hold fast this fact. we ought actively to show our firm adherence to it. how? chiefly by our attitude towards blessed mary herself, by the devotion that we show her. if we are quite indifferent to devotion to blessed mary, if we show her no honour, if we likewise fail in honour to her guardian, s. joseph, is it not to be expected that our grasp upon the truths which are enshrined in such devotion will be feeble, and that we shall hold them as of small moment? the whole system of catholic thought is so nicely articulated, so consistently held together, that failure to hold even the smallest constituent indicates a faulty conception of the whole. catholics are constantly accused of over-stressing devotion to blessed mary and the saints and thereby encroaching upon the honour due to our lord. the answer to the reproach is to be found in the question: who to-day are defending to the very death the truth of our lord's incarnation and the truths that hang upon it? are they those who deny the legitimacy of invocation, or those in whose religious practise it holds an important and vital place? a panegyrick on the blessed virgin mary. i do not tremble, when i write a mistress' praise, but with delight can dive for pearls into the flood, fly through every garden, wood, stealing the choice of flow'rs and wind, to dress her body or her mind; nay the saints and angels are nor safe in heaven, till she be fair, and rich as they; nor will this do, until she be my idol too. with this sacrilege i dispense, no fright is in my conscience, my hand starts not, nor do i then find any quakings in my pen; whose every drop of ink within dwells, as in me my parent's sin, and praises on the paper wrot have but conspired to make a blot: why should such fears invade me now that writes on her? to whom do bow the souls of all the just, whose place is next to god's, and in his face all creatures and delights doth see as darling of the trinity; to whom the hierarchy doth throng, and for whom heaven is all one song. joys should possess my spirit here, but pious joys are mixed with fear: put off thy shoe, 'tis holy ground, for here the flaming bush is found, the mystic rose, the ivory tower, the morning star and david's bower, the rod of moses and of jesse, the fountain sealèd, gideon's fleece, a woman clothèd with the sun, the beauteous throne of salomon, the garden shut, the living spring, the tabernacle of the king, the altar breathing sacred fume, the heaven distilling honeycomb, the untouched lily, full of dew, a mother, yet a virgin too, before and after she brought forth (our ransom of eternal worth) both god and man. what voice can sing this mystery, or cherub's wing lend from his golden stock a pen to write, how heaven came down to men? here fear and wonder so advance my soul, it must obey a trance. part two chapter vii the nativity she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. s. luke ii. . it is very meet to bless thee who bore the christ, o ever blessed and immaculate mother of god. more wondrous than the cherubim and of greater glory than the seraphim art thou who remaining virgin didst give birth to god the word. verily, do we magnify thee, o mother of god. in thee, o full of grace, all creation exults, the hierarchy of angels and the race of men. in thee sanctified temple, spiritual paradise, glory of virgins, of whom god took flesh, through whom our god who was before the world became a child. of thy womb he made a throne, and its dominion is more extensive than the heavens. in thee, o full of grace, all creation exults: glory to thee. russian. we see a man and a woman on the road to bethlehem where they are going to be taxed according to the decree of augustus. bethlehem would be known to them as the home of their ancestors, for they were both of the lineage of david. it was a painful journey for them for mary was near the time of her delivery. we follow them along the road and into the village, as the twilight fades, and see them seeking shelter for the night. bethlehem is a small place and the inn is crowded with those who have come on the errand with them, and the only place where they can find refuge for the night is a stable. but they are not used to luxury, and the stable serves their purpose. it also serves god's purpose. one understands as one reads this narrative of the nativity what is meant by the providential government of the world. we see how various lines of action, each free and independent, yet converge to the production of a given event. the different characters in the drama are all pursuing their own courses and yet the result is a true drama, not an unrelated series of events. caesar's action, joseph's lineage, our lord's conception, all working together, bring about the fulfilment of prophecy by the birth of the messiah in bethlehem. there is in the universe an over-ruling will which works to its ends by co-operating with human freedom, and not destroying it. we are not the sport of chance, not the slaves of fate, but free men; and yet through our freedom, through our blunders and rebellions and sins as well as through our obedience, the work of god is moving to its conclusion. man did all that he could to defeat the ends of god and to thwart god's purpose of redemption. yet on a certain night in bethlehem of judea the light of god overcame the human darkness, and the voices of god's angels pierced the human tumult, and jesus christ was born. "god of the substance of his father begotten before all worlds, man of the substance of his mother, born in the world; perfect god and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting." the manifestation came to certain shepherds watching their flocks in the fields about bethlehem; simple men, quite unable to take in the meaning of what they see and hear. one cannot help thinking of what it would have meant in the way of an intellectual revolution if to some greek or roman philosopher, speculating on the destiny of humanity, the truth could have come that the future of the world was not in the court of augustus, that it was not dependent on the roman armies or greek learning, but that it was bound up in the career and teaching of a baby that night born in a stable in an obscure village in judea. as we imagine such a case we see in the concrete the meaning of the revolution set in motion by this single event; and we are led to adore the ways of god in that he has chosen for the final approach to man for the purpose of redemption, this way of simplicity and humbleness. man would not have thought of this as the best path for god to follow in this purpose of rescue, but we can be wise after the event and see that this child born in poverty and obscurity would have fewer entanglements to break through, fewer obstacles to overcome. but these thoughts are far away from the night in bethlehem. in the stable there where a baby is lying in mary's arms and joseph stands looking on, there is no speculation about the world-consequences of the event. there is rather the splendour of love: the love of the mother in the new found mystery of this her child; the love of god who has given her the child. and all is a part of the great mystery of love, of the love wherewith god loves the world. "god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." here is the son, lying in mary's arms, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and mary looks into his face as any human mother looks into the face of her child. but through the eyes that smile up into mary's face, god is looking out on a world of sorrow and pain and sin that he has come to redeem, and for which, in redeeming it, to die. presently, the shepherds come in and complete the group, the representatives of universal humanity at the birth of their king, we have the whole world-problem in small, but here there is no consciousness of it. no echo of world-politics or of movements of thought break in here. but we know that here is the beginning of that which will set at naught world-politics and revolutionise movements of thought, that here is the centre about which humanity will move in the coming time. here is that which is fundamental and abiding because here is the one invincible power of the universe--love. all else will fail: prophecies, systems of philosophy, religions, political and social structures; each in the time of its flourishing, proclaiming itself the last word of human wisdom,--these in bewildering succession have arisen and passed away. but love has survived them all. love never faileth; through the slow succession of the centuries it is winning the world to god. it were well if we could learn to look on the happenings of this world as the miracles of divine love. we think of the power, the justice, the judgment of god as visible in this world's history; but these are but the instruments of love, and all that he does has its foundation in love and receives its impulse from love. this nativity is the divine love coming into the world on its last adventure, determined to win man, all other means failing, by the extremity of sacrifice. the final word about this child will be that having loved his own he loved them unto the uttermost, he loved them without stinting, with the uttermost capacity of love. understanding this meaning of the love of god, we are prepared for the further fact that god uses all sorts of instruments as the instruments of his love. he shares himself. he pours himself into human life. he takes men into partnership in the work of redemption. whenever a soul is mastered by love, it becomes a tool in god's hands. the progress of the church--of god's kingdom--might be described as the accumulation of these tools wherewith god works--souls who are so devoted to him as to be the medium of bringing his power, the power of love, to bear on the souls of their brethren. to be the highest, the most perfect, of all the instruments of redemption god chose mary of nazareth to be the mother of his son. she is the most complete human embodiment of god's love. she, in her perfect purity, can transmit that love as power with the least loss of energy in the process of transmission. when we think of the saints as the means of god's action, we think of blessed mary as the highest of the saints and the means most perfectly adapted to god's ends. here at bethlehem she holds god in her arms and looks into the human face that he has taken for this present work and all her being is absorbed in love. oblivious, we think her, of her mean surroundings, of the animals that share with her their stable, of the shepherds who come in and look on in wonder, of s. joseph standing by in sympathy. love is all. love is a passion consuming her being--what can the attendant circumstances matter? and to-day, after all these centuries: to-day the child is the ascended and enthroned redeemer, his risen and glorified humanity, transmitting something of the divine glory, seated at the right hand of the majesty of god. and mary, the mother? can we have any other thought than that she who on the first christmas morning looks into the face of her baby, still, to-day, looks up into the face of her divine son, and the look is the same look of love? and can we think of the look that comes back to her from eyes that are human, taken from her body, though they be in very truth the eyes of god--can we think, i say, of the eyes of her child and her god bringing anything else than the message of love? can we think that when in answer to our invocation she presents our prayers in union with her own, that love will fail? but let us come back to earth--to bethlehem--on that first christmas eve and listen to the songs of the angels as they sing over the star-lit fields. how near heaven seems! how real is god! how joyful is this season of peace to men of good will! the message is of peace, but that peace will need to have its nature explained in the coming years if men's hearts are not to fail them and their faith wither away. it is not a general peace to the world that is being proclaimed. later on our lord will say: "my peace i give unto you; not as the world giveth, give i unto you." it is such a gift as can be enjoyed only by men of good will; converted men, that is to say, men whose will is close set with the will of god. for how should there be peace in any world on any other terms? how can there be peace for those who are in rebellion against god? our lord can promise peace, and can fulfil his promise because he is bringing a new potency into human life. he is a new way of approach to god, a new way into the holiest of all. through his humanity god is united to man, and through it man, any man, can be united to god. and one of the results of that union is this gift of peace, and the fact that it arises from the union explains its new character, why our lord calls it his peace. this peace is the christmas gift of the divine child to us. this is the method of god's work, from the inside out; from the spiritual fact to its external result. we do not begin by finding peace with this world: "in the world ye shall have tribulation." and most of the failure to attain peace, and much of men's loss of faith is due to repudiation of the divine method. we live in a disordered and pain-stricken world where human life is uniformly a life of trial and struggle, and our easy yielding to temptation is an attempt at some sort of an adjustment with the world such as we think will produce peace and quiet. we constantly demand of religion that it should effect this for us. so far as one can see much of the revolt against religion to-day has its ground in the failure of religion to meet the demands made upon it for a better world. men look out on a world seething with unrest and filled with injustice, and they turn upon the church and ask, "why have you not changed all this? are you not, in fact, neglecting your duty in not changing it? or if you are not neglecting your duty, you must at least confess to your impotence. your self-confessed business is to make a better world." true; but only on the conditions which love imposes. religion does not propose to improve the world by a more skilful application of the principles of worldliness. it does not propose to turn stones into bread at the demand of any devils whatsoever. it does not say, "if you will support me and give me a certain superficial honour, i will bless your efforts and increase the success of your undertakings." religion proposes to improve the world on the condition that the principles of religion shall be accepted as the working principles of life; on condition, that is, that love shall be made the ground of human association. religion can make a better world, it can make the kingdoms of god and of his christ; but it can only do so on the condition that it is whole-heartedly accepted and thoroughly applied. the proof that it can do this is in the fact that it can and does make better individuals. wherever men and women have lived by the principles of the gospel they have brought forth the fruits of the gospel. it has done this, not under some specially favourable circumstances, but it has done it under all circumstances of life and in all nations of men. what has been done in unnumbered individual cases, can be done in whole communities when the communities want it done. it is quite pointless in times of great social distress to ask passionately, "why does not god make a better world?" the only question which is at all to the point is, "why has god not made _me_ better?" the problem of god's dealing with the world is, in essence, the problem of god's dealing with me. if he has not reformed me, if i do not, in my self-examination, find that i am responding to the ideals of god, as far as i know them, there is small point in declamations about the state of society. society that is godless, is just a mass of godless individuals; and i can understand why god does not reform the world perfectly well from the study of my own case. what in me prevents the full control of god is the same that prevents that control over the whole of society: and i know that that is not lack of knowledge, but lack of love. men ignore the primary obligation of life: "thou shalt love the lord thy god ... and thy neighbour as thyself." as long as they ignore that, there can be no reformed world, no world reflecting the divine purpose, no society,--whatever may be its widely multiplied legislation,--securing to men conditions of life which are sane and satisfactory. therefore the child who is born of mary in bethlehem while the angels are singing their carols over the fields where the shepherds watch, the child who brings peace to men of good will, still, after nearly two thousand years, finds his gift ignored and his longing to lift men to god unsatisfied. "he came unto his own and his own received him not"--and the conditions are not vitally changed to-day. when we think of a world of fifteen hundred million human beings, the number of those who profess and call themselves christians is comparatively small; the number of actually practicing christians, of men and women who do live by the gospel, without reserve and without compromise, is vastly smaller. the resistance of the principles of the gospel is to-day intense; the demand for compromise is insistent. we are asked to throw over a system which has obviously failed, and to accept as the equivalent and to permit to pass under the same name a system which is fundamentally different; a system whose end is man and not god, whose means are natural and not supernatural, which seek to produce an adjustment with this world that means comfort, rather than an adjustment with the spiritual world which means sanctity. the ideal achievement of peace is here in bethlehem where the mother holds the holy child to her breast, while her spirit is utterly in union with him who is both man and god. there is never any break in the pure peace of s. mary because there is never any moment when her will is separated from the will of god, when her union with him fails. this peace of perfect union has, through the merits of her son, been hers always; she has never known the wrench of the will that separates itself from god. she has always been poor; she has been perplexed with life; she has suffered and will suffer intensely, suffer most where she loves most; but peace she has never lost, because her will has never wavered in its allegiance. what visibly she is doing in these moments of her great joy, holding god to her breast in a passion of love, she in fact is doing always--always is she one with god. that undisturbed peace of a never broken union is never possible for us. we have known what it is to reject the will of god and go our own way and indulge the appetites of our nature in violation of our recognised standards of life. if we are to come to peace it must be along the rough road of repentance. and it is wholly just that it should be so; that we should win back to god at the expense of shame and suffering; that we should retrace the road that we have travelled, with weary feet and bleeding heart. this after all does not much matter: what does matter immensely is that there is a road back to god and that we find it. what matters is that we discover that repentance and reformation are the only road to peace. we are offered many other roads alleged to lead to the same place; but not even a child should be deceived by the modern substitutes for repentance, by the shallow teaching whereby it is attempted to persuade men of the innocence of sin. they are never worth discussing, these modern substitutes for repentance. men accept them, not because they are rational or convincing, but because they offer a justification for going the way that they have already made up their minds to go. but it is plain that whatever else they do they do not afford a basis for peace. they are no rock foundation for eternity. other foundation for peace can no man lay or has laid than the acceptance of the salvation offered in jesus christ. he is our peace; and when we discover that, he makes peace in us by the application to our souls of the blood of his cross. this is the peace he came to bring. this the peace that the angels announced as they sang over bethlehem. this is the peace which is ceaselessly proclaimed from the altars of the christian church, the peace of god which passeth understanding, the peace which is offered to all men of good will. how shall we attain it? by being men of good will, plainly. but what constitutes good will in a man? that which i have already discussed, perhaps abundantly, simplicity and childlike obedience of character. s. joseph, the guardian of mary and her child here in bethlehem, is the best example we can have of a man of good will, a man who under the most difficult circumstances responded with perfect readiness and complete obedience to the heavenly message that came to him. this is to be his course through the few years that he will live, to give himself to the will of god in the care of jesus. we are men of good will if we do whatsoever our lord says to us, if we are seeking first of all the kingdom of god and its righteousness, if our estimate of values corresponds to our lord's. there is our trouble--that old trouble of feebly trying to live the life of the kingdom when what we actually want is the offer of this world. there is, there can be, no peace in a divided life. there is a certain spiritual sloth which has the exterior look of peace, as a corpse looks peaceful, but it has no relation to the peace which god gives. it is in fact the wages of sin, wages easily earned and long enjoyed. but so long as we are spiritually alive, so long we cannot enjoy whole-heartedly even the most fascinating of sins because there is lurking in the background the sense of the transitoriness of our sin and of the imminence of death and judgment. there is the skeleton in every man's closet until he finally makes choice on one side or the other. for we are not ignorant of the spiritual obligations of life. we always know more than we have achieved. when we talk about our ignorance and perplexity, we are not meaning ignorance and perplexity about the obligation to live in a certain way, and to perform certain duties, on this particular day: rather we are making this alleged ignorance of the future an excuse for not taking action in the present, action which we know to be obligatory. and peace is so wonderful a gift! to feel oneself in harmony with god, to know that one is carefully seeking his will and making it one's first and highest duty to perform it. to have found the peace of the forgiven soul as the result of absolution, at the expense of much shame and repugnance, it may be, but with what marvellous compensations when we go away with a sense of restored purity and the friendship of god--life looks so different when we look at it through purified eyes! the old life has held us so tightly, the old sins have clung so close; and then there was a day when we gave up self and turned to god and the gift of god in jesus christ; and then we saw how miserable and vile and naked we had been all through the time of our boasted freedom; and we came as children to mary's child and offered ourselves to him for cleansing. we kneel and offer to him our wills and ask that they may be made good, and kept good in union with his most holy will. then we find how true this word is: "in me ye shall have peace: in the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, i have overcome the world." it is true, is it not? not only as we commonly interpret, that the disciples of christ shall have tribulation in this world; but that much that we, giving ourselves to the world, counted joy, was in reality tribulation, and we are glad to be rid of it. a babe is born to bliss us bring. i heard a maid lulley and sing. she said: "dear son, leave thy weeping: thy, father is the king of bliss." now sing we with angelis: gloria in excelsis. "lulley," she said and sung also, "my own dear son, why are thou wo? have i not done as i should do? now sing we with angelis: gloria in excelsis. "nay, dear mother, for thee weep i nought, but for the woe that shall be wrought to me ere i mankind have bought. was never sorrow like it i-wis." now sing we with angelis: gloria in excelsis. "peace, dear son! thou grievest me sore: thou art my child, i have no more. should i see men mine own son slay? alas, my dear son, what means all this?" now sing we with angelis: gloria in excelsis. "my hands, mother, that ye now see, shall be nailed to a tree; my feet also fast shall be, men shall weep that shall see this." now sing we with angelis: gloria in excelsis. "ah, dear son, hard is my happe to see my child that lay in my lap,-- his hands, his feet that i did wrappe,-- be so nailed; they never did amisse." now sing we with angelis: gloria in excelsis. "ah, dear mother, yet shall a spear my heart asunder all but tear: no wonder if i care-ful were and wept full sore to think on this." now sing we with angelis: gloria in excelsis. part two chapter viii the magi now when jesus was born in bethlehem of judea in the days of herod the king, behold, there came magi from the east to jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born king of the jews? s. matt. ii, i. hail to thee, mary, the fair dove, which hath borne for us god the word. we give thee salutation with the angel gabriel, saying, hail, thou that art full of grace; the lord is with thee. hail to thee, o virgin, the very and true queen; hail, glory of our race. thou hast borne for us emmanuel. we pray thee, remember us, o thou our faithful advocate with our lord jesus christ, that he may forgive us our sins. coptic. out of the east, over the desert, we see coming to bethlehem the train of the star-led magi. the devout imagination of the church, dwelling upon the _significance_ rather than the bare historical statements of the gospel, have seen them as the representatives of the whole gentile world. we often think of the treatment of the sacred story by the teachers and preachers of the church as embroidering the original narratives with legendary material. we can look at it in that way; and by so doing, i think, miss the meaning of the facts. what we call ecclesiastical legend will often turn out on examination to be but the unfolding of the meaning of an event in terms of the creative imagination. the object is to present vividly what the event actually means when the meaning is of such widely reaching significance as far to overpass the simple facts. it is thus, i take it, that we must understand the story of the magi as it takes shape in pious story. that the magi were kings, and that they were three in number, emphasises the felt importance of their coming to the cradle of our lord. actually, they were understood to represent the gentile world offering its allegiance to our blessed lord, and therefore they would naturally represent the three branches of the gentile world as it was understood at the time. the importance of their mission was reflected in the presentation of them as kings--no less persons were required to fill the dignity of the part. there was, too, a whole mass of prophecy to be reckoned with and interpreted in its relation to the event, the most obvious of which was that of isaiah: "and the gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." the church story is essentially true, is but a dramatic rendering of the gospel story. we may however content ourselves with the more simple rendering. we can hardly think of the stable as the setting of the reception of the eastern sages. just when they came we cannot tell; but we seem compelled to put the epiphany where the church puts it in her year, somewhere between the nativity and the presentation, and the scene of it will still be, the gospel implies, bethlehem. "now when jesus was born in bethlehem of judea in the days of herod the king, behold, there came magi from the east to jerusalem." and at the direction of herod, and guided by the star they came to bethlehem and offered their gifts and their worship. "they saw the young child with mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." we try to get before us what would have been the mind of s. mary through all these happenings which attended the birth of her child. what is written of her here is no doubt characteristic: "mary kept all these and pondered them in her heart." wonder at the ways of god had been hers for so many months now--wonder, with devout meditation upon their meaning. where there is no resistance to god's will but only the desire to know it more fully there is always the gradual assimilation of the truth. s. mary moves in a realm of mystery from the moment of the annunciation to the very end of her life. it is so difficult to understand what is the meaning of god in this unspeakable gift of a son conceived by the power of the holy spirit, and in the constant accompaniment of pain and disaster and disappointment which is the unfolding experience of her life in relation to him. but we feel in her no speculation, no rebellion, no insistence on knowing more; but we feel that there must have been a growing appreciation of the work of god, unhesitating acceptance of his will. just to keep things in one's heart is so often the best way of arriving at an understanding of them; is the best way, at least, of arriving at the conviction that what we in fact need to understand is not so much what god does as that it is god who does it. our true aim in life is to understand god, and through that understanding we shall sufficiently understand life. failure in human life is commonly due to an attempt to understand life without any attempt to understand it in relation to god. it is like an attempt to understand a work of art without an attempt to understand the artist, to estimate in terms of mechanical effort, rather than in terms of mind. a work of art means what the artist means when he creates it: life means what god means in his creation and government of it, and it is hopeless to expect to understand it without reference to the mind of god. therefore mary's way is the right way--the way of acceptance and meditation. so she sought to follow the mind of god. we are told little of her, but we are told quite enough to understand this. we know well her method, that she kept things in her heart. and we have one splendid example of the result of the method in the magnificat. there the results of her communion with god break forth in that canticle which ever since has been one of the priceless treasures of the church. the gospels never tell us very much; but if we will follow mary's method they tell us enough to let us see the very hand of god in the working out of our salvation; they give us sample events from which we easily infer god's meaning otherwhere. and we may be sure that the months that followed the annunciation would have been months of ever-deepening spiritual communion, resulting in a rapidly advancing spiritual maturity. one necessary result would have been to prepare the blessed mother to receive new manifestations of god's providence, and to fit them into the whole body of her experience. she would not at any time be lost in helpless surprise before a new development of the purpose of god. surprised as she must have been when the eastern sages came to kneel before the child she carried at her breast, and hail him as born king of the jews, she would have set to work to fit this new experience into what her acquired knowledge of the divine meaning had become. and one can have no doubt that these visitors from afar would have told her enough of the grounds of their action to illumine for her the prophecies concerning her son. the special incidents that the gospel select for record leave us always conscious that they _are_ a selection and therefore must have special significance. that we are told that the magi offered certain gifts, rather than told the words of homage wherewith they presented them turns our attention to the nature of the gifts as presumably having a significance in themselves rather than because of any actual value. in the gifts of these gentiles come from afar to kneel before him whom they recognise as king of the jews, we are compelled to see a certain attitude of humanity toward him who is revealed to be not only the king of the jews, but lord of heaven and earth; they give what humanity needs must always give--the gold of a perfect oblation, the incense of perpetual intercession, the myrrh of a humble self-abandonment. these which are offered as the ideal tribute of humanity by the star-led magi are found in their highest human perfection exemplified in the mother of the child to whom the tribute is made. perfect are they in our lord; and she who is nearest him in nature is nearest him in the perfection of nature. we turn from god's ideal as set out in our blessed lord to see it reflected as in a glass in the life of her whose perfection is the perfect rendering of his grace. mary is so perfect because, by god's election, she is "full of grace." we, alas! limp after the ideal at a long distance. one pictures the life of sanctity under the familiar symbol of the race course, where many start in the race, and many, one by one, fall out by the wayside. those who go on the race's end, go on because of certain qualities of endurance that we discover in them. in those who run the spiritual race for the amaranthine crown these qualities of endurance are not natural, but supernatural: they come not of birth but of rebirth. they are qualities which we draw from god. "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of god that showeth mercy." the hand that sets the race confers the gifts that enable one to win it. "so run that ye may obtain." and perhaps the chiefest of all those gifts is that which makes us, the children of god, capable of the adoration of our father. worship is no other than the utter giving of ourselves, giving as christ gave, "who being originally in the form of god, thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with god, but emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men"; giving as the blessed virgin gave when she gave, as she must have thought and have been willing to give, her whole reputation among men in response to the call of god; giving complete, in which there is no withholding. that is worship, sacrifice, the pure gold of self-oblation. but it is possible to think of the power of worship from another point of view. god never takes but he gives. what he appears to take he gives back with his blessing, and we find the restored gift multiplied manifold. so in the very act of our worship god confers on us power. for it is true, is it not, that in the very act of worship we experience, not exhaustion but exhilaration. in the very act of giving ourselves to god, god gives himself to us, and in overflowing abundance. that is what we find to be true in our highest act of worship, the blessed eucharist. here god and man meet in a perfect communion. here we offer ourselves in sacrifice--ourselves, our souls and bodies--in union with the sacrifice of our lord; and here our lord, who is the sacrifice itself, not only offers himself, but also he imparts himself to those who are united with him. and out of this sacrifice, thus issuing in an act of union, there flows the perpetual renewing of the vitality of the spiritual life. we are sustained from day to day by this sacrificial feeding; our strength which is continually being drawn upon by the demands of life, by the temptations we have to resist, by the exertion that is called for in all spiritual exercise, is renewed by our participation in the body and blood of our lord. i am sure that all those who are accustomed to frequent communion feel the drain upon their strength when at any time they are deprived of their great privilege. i am also sure that many who feel that their spiritual life is but languid, or those other many who seem only dimly to feel that there are spiritual problems to be met, and spiritual strength needed for the meeting of them, would find themselves immensely helped, would find their minds illumined and their strength sustained in more frequent participation in the sacrificial worship and feasting of the church. the attitude of vast numbers of those who are regarded as quite sincere christians is wholly incomprehensible. the life of god is day by day poured out at the altars of the church, and they go their way in seeming unconsciousness of its presence, of its appeal, of its virtue, or of their own sore need of it. the magi come from a far distance on a hazardous journey into an unknown country that they may offer the gold of their adoration to an infant king; and the christian feebly considers whether he is not too tired to get up of a morning and go a short distance to receive the body and blood of the redeemer of his soul! the magi came also bringing the incense of their intercession. their privilege was that they were admitted to the very presence chamber of the great king. that the infant in mary's arms did not show any sign of kingship, the humble room where they were received bore no resemblance to the presence chamber of such kings as they were accustomed to wait upon, was to them of no consequence. they were endowed with the gift of faith, and believed the supernatural guiding rather than the outward seeming. the faith that had followed the star from so great a distance was not likely to be quenched by the antithesis of what must have been their imagination of the reality, of all the pictures that had been filling their minds as they pushed on across the desert. it was no more incredible that the king whom they were seeking should be found in humble guise in a peasant's cottage than that they should have been guided to him by a heavenly star. the gift of god to them was that they should be permitted to enter the presence of the king. this right of admission to the divine presence is the precious gift of god to us. since the heavens received the ascending lord the kingdom of heaven has been open to all believers. prayer is a very simple and common thing in our experience; and yet when we try to think out its implications we are overwhelmed with the wonder of it. it implies a god who waits upon our pleasure: it reveals to us a father who is ever ready to listen to the voice of his children. no broken hearted sinner, overwhelmed with the conviction of his vileness, cries out in the agony of his repentance but god is ready to hear. "he is more ready to hear than we to pray." no man pours out his thanksgivings for the abundant blessings he discovers in his life but the heart of god is glad in his gladness. no child kneels at night to repeat his simple prayer but god bends over him and blesses him. the wonder of it is summed up in our lord's words: "the father himself loveth you," which are as an open door into the inner sanctuary, an invitation to enter to those who are hesitating on the threshold of the holy of holies. and there is no danger of tiring god: we come ceaselessly, endlessly. the cries of earth go up to him, pitiful, ignorant, foolish cries; but they find god ready to hear and answer, fortunately not according to our ignorance but according to his great mercy. we think of the clouds of prayer in all ages, from all nations, in all tongues, and the very vastness of them gives us an index of the divine love. and it is not simply for ourselves that we pray, nor do we pray by ourselves; it is of god's love that in the work of prayer we are associated with one another. there is nothing further from the divine plan of life than our present individualism. our temptation is to be egotistic and self-centred; to want to approach god alone with our private needs and wishes. we incline to travel the spiritual way by ourselves; we want no company; we want no one between our souls and god. but that precisely is not the divine method. we come to god through christ; we come in association with the members of the body. our standing as christians before him is dependent upon our corporate relation to one another in his son. important issues are involved. we attain through this associated life of the christian the power of mutual intercession. we find that it is our privilege to share our prayers with others, and to be interested in one another's lives. we have common interests and we work them out in common. therefore when we try to put before us an ideal picture of the power of prayer, it will not be the solitary individual offering his personal supplications to the father, but it will be the community of the faithful assembled for the offering of the divine sacrifice. it is the praying body that best satisfies our ideal of prayer, where we are conscious of helping one another in the work of intercession. we remember, too, when we think of prayer as prayer of the body of christ, that it is not just the visible congregation that is participating in it, but that all the body share in the intercessions, wherever they may individually be. our thoughts go up from the little assembly in the humble church and lose themselves in the splendour of the heavenly intercession where we are associated with prophets and apostles and martyrs, and with mary the mother of god. there was a third gift that the magi brought to him whom they hailed king, a gift that is more perplexing as a gift to royalty than the other two. that gold and incense should be offered a king is clearly his royal right; but what has he to do with the bitterness of myrrh? but to this king myrrh is a peculiarly appropriate gift, for it is the symbol of complete self-abandonment. he who came to do not his own will but the will of him that sent him; who laid aside the robes of his glory, issuing from the uncreated light that he might clothe himself with the humility of the flesh, is properly honoured with the gift of myrrh. and as it was the symbol of his humility, so is it the symbol of our humanity in relation to him. it suggests to us that uttermost of christian virtues, the virtue of entire abandonment to the will of god. this is a most difficult virtue to acquire. we cling to self. we are devoted to our own wills. we rely on our own judgment and wisdom. we are impatient of all that gets in the way of our self-determination. we have in these last days made a veritable religion out of devotion to self, a cult of the ego. but he who will enter into the sanctuary of the divine life, he who will seek union with god, he who will be one with the father in the son, must abandon self. he must lose his life in order to save it. he must let go the world to cling to the lord of life. this will of the man which is so insistent, so persistent, so assertive, so tenacious, must be laid aside and the will of another adopted in its place. often this is bitter. very true of us it is that when we were young we girded ourselves and walked whither we would; but it must be in the end, if we make life a spiritual success, that when we are old another shall gird us and carry us whither we would not. the secret of life is found when the bitterness of myrrh is turned to sweetness in the discovery that the outcome of the sacrificial life is not that it be narrowed but enlarged; and that for the life which we have entrusted to him god will do more than we ask or think. when our will becomes one with the will of god we are surprised to find that we have ceased to think of what we once called our sacrifices, because life in christ reveals itself to us as of infinite joy and richness, so that we forget the things that are behind and gladly press on. queen of heaven, blessed may thou be for godes son born he was of thee, for to make us free. gloria tibi, domine. jesu, godes son, born he was in a crib with hay and grass, and died for us upon the cross. gloria tibi, dominie. to our lady make we our moan, that she may pray to her dear son, that we may to his bliss come. gloria tibi, dominie. sixteenth century. part two chapter ix the presentation and when the days of her purification according to the law of moses were accomplished, they brought him to jerusalem, to present him to the lord. s. luke ii. . o come let us worship the holy trinity, the father, the son, and the holy ghost,--we the christian nations, for he is our true god. and we hope in holy mary, that god will have mercy upon us through her prayers. hail to thee, mary, the fair dove, who hath borne for us god the word. coptic the reading of a story in the gospels is often like looking through a window down some long arcade; there is in the foreground the group of actors in whom we are presently interested, and beyond them is the whole background of contemporary life to which they belong, of which they are a part. if we have time to think out the meaning of this surrounding life we gain added insight into the meaning of our principal characters. it is so now as we watch this group of humble peasant folk coming up to the temple to fulfil the demands of the law of moses. in the precincts of the temple they are merged in a larger group whose interests are clearly identical with their own, and whom we easily see to be the local representatives of a party--the name, no doubt, suggests an organisation which they had not--scattered throughout judea. their interest was the redemption of israel. they were the true heirs of the prophets, and among them the prophecies which concerned the lord's christ were the subject of constant study and meditation. amid the movements and intrigues of political and religious parties, they abode quietly in the temple, as simeon and anna, or in their homes, as zacharias and elizabeth, _waiting_. their power was the silent power of sanctity, the power that flows from lives steeped in meditation and prayer. they constitute that remnant which is the depository of the hopes of israel and the saving salt which prevents the utter putrefaction of the body of the nation. we cannot for a moment doubt that mary and joseph were of this remnant, and that they were in complete sympathy with those whom they found here in the temple when the child jesus was brought in "to do for him after the custom of the law." the actual ceremony of the purification was soon over, the demands of the law satisfied. neither jesus nor mary had any inner need of these observances; their value in their case was that by submission to them they associated themselves closely with their brethren, our lord thus continuing that divine self-emptying which he had begun at the incarnation. we are impressed with the completeness of this stooping of god when we see the offering that mary brings, "a pair of turtle doves," the offering of the very poor. our lord has accepted life on its lowest economic terms in order that nothing in his mission shall flow from adventitious aids. he must owe all in the accomplishment of his work to the father who gave it him to do. it will be the essence of the temptation that he must soon undergo that he shall consent to call to his aid earthly and material supports and base his hopes of success on something other than god. accidentally, there is this further demonstration contained in the poverty of the holy family, that, namely, the completest spiritual privilege, the fullest spiritual development, is independent of "possessions." it is no doubt true that "great possessions" do not of necessity create a bar in all cases to spiritual accomplishment; but to many of us it is a consolation to know that the completest sanctity humanity has known has been wrought out in utter poverty of life. we shall have occasion to speak more of this later; we now only note the fact that those whom we meet in the pages of the new testament as waiting hopefully for the redemption of israel are waiting in poverty and hard work. what we find in s. mary as she passes through the ceremony of her purification from a child-bearing which had in no circumstance of it anything impure, is the spirit of sacrifice which submission to the law implies. she has caught the spirit of her son, the spirit of selfless offering to the will of god. it is the central accomplishment of the life of sanctity. the life of sanctity must be wrought out from the centre, from our contact with god. no one becomes holy by works, whatever may be the nature of the works. works, the external life, are the expression of what we are, they are the externalization of our character. if they be not the expression of a life hid with christ in god they can have no spiritual value, whatever may be their social value. the kind of works which "are done to be seen of men" "have their reward," that is, the sort of reward they seek, human approval; they have no value in the realm of the spirit. but the life that is lived as sacrifice, as a thing perfectly offered to god, is a life growing up in god day by day. it is our lord's life, summed up from this point of view in the "i come to do thy will, o god." its most perfect reflection is caught by blessed mary with her acceptance of god's will: "behold, the handmaid of the lord." but it is the life expression of all sanctity; for the saint is such chiefly by virtue of his sacrificial attitude. it is the completest account of the life of sanctity that it "leaves all" to follow a divine call. it is the response of the apostles who, as james and john, leave their father zebedee and the boats and the nets and the hired servants, to follow jesus. it is the answer of matthew who rises from the receipt of custom at the master's word. it is the answer of all saints in all times. sanctity means the abandonment of all for christ: it means the embracing of the poverty of jesus and mary. is sanctity then, or the possibility of it, shut within the narrow limits of a poor life? well, even if it were, the limits would not be so very narrow. by far the greater part of the human race at any time has been poor, as poor as the holy family. unfortunately, christianity is forgetting its vocation of poverty and becoming a matter of well-to-do-ness. but we need not forget that the poor are the majority. however, the fact is not that economical poverty is automatically productive of spirituality, but that accepted and offered poverty is the road to the heart of god. it is not denied that the rich man may consecrate and offer his goods to god and make them instruments of god's service; but in the process he runs great risk of deceiving himself and of attempting to deceive god--the risk of quietly substituting for the spirit of sacrifice the spirit of commercial bargaining, and attempting to buy the favour of god, and of ransoming his great possessions by a well-calculated tribute. it is not so much our possessions as the way we hold them that is in question; it is a question whether the inner motive of our life is the will to sacrifice or the will to be rich. "they that desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition," these dangers s. paul noted as the besetting dangers of riches are counteracted by the possession of the spirit of sacrifice which holds all things at the disposal of god, and views life as opportunity for the service of god. and in so estimating life, we must remember that money is not the only thing that human beings possess. as i pointed out the vast majority of the human race have no money: it by no means follows that they have no capacity or field for the exercise of the spirit of sacrifice. there is, for instance, an abundant opportunity for the exercise of that spirit in the glad acceptance of the narrow lot that may be ours. probably many, indeed most, poor are only economically poor; they fall under s. paul's criticism in that "they desire to be rich," and are therefore devoid of the spirit of sacrifice that would transform their actual poverty into a spiritual value. but all the powers and energies of life do in fact constitute life's capital. a poor boy has great possessions in the gifts of nature that god has granted him. he may use this capital as he will. he may be governed by "the desire to be rich," or by the desire to consecrate himself to the will and service of god--and the working out of life will be accordingly. he may become very rich economically, or he may devote his life to the service of his fellows as physician, teacher, missionary, or in numberless other paths. once more, the meaning of life is in its voluntary direction, and whatever may be his economic state, he may, if he will, be "rich toward god." if what we are seeking is to follow the gospel-life, if we are seeking to express toward man the spirit of the master, we find abundant field for the exercise of this spirit of sacrifice in our daily relations with others. s. paul's rule of life: "look not every man to his own things, but every man also to the things of others," is the practical rule of the sacrificed will. it seeks to fulfil the service of the master by taking the spirit of the master--his helpfulness, his consideration, his sympathy--with one into the detail of the day's work. it is one of the peculiarities of human nature that it finds it quite possible to work itself up to an occasional accomplishment, especially in a spectacular setting, of spiritual works, which it finds itself quite impotent to do under the commonplace routine of life. the race experience is accurately enough summed up in the cynical proverb: "no man is a hero to his valet." it expresses the fact that in ordinary circumstances, and under commonplace temptations, we do not succeed in holding life to the accomplishment which is ours when we are, as it were, on dress parade. in other words, we respond to the opinions we desire to create in others; and the spirit of sanctity is a response not to public opinion, but to the mind and thought of god. when we seek the mind of christ, and seek to reproduce that mind in our own lives, seek to be possessed by it, then we shall gladly render back to god all life's riches which we have received from him, and acknowledge in the true spirit of poverty that "all things come of thee, o lord, and of thine own have we given thee." the world has got into a very ill way of thinking of god as _force_. force seems in the popular mind to be the synonym of _power_. the only power that we understand is the power that _compels_, that secures the execution of its will by physical or moral constraint. with this conception of power in mind men are continually asking: "why does not god do this or that? if he be god and wills goodness, why does he not execute goodness, use power to accomplish it?" it ought to be unnecessary to point out that such a conception of power is quite foreign to the christian conception of god. goodness that is compulsory is not goodness. human legislation, in its enforcement of law, looks not to the production of goodness but to the production of order, a quite different thing. but god's heart is set upon the sanctification of his children and is satisfied with nothing less than that. "this is the will of god, even your sanctification." but sanctification cannot be compelled. the divine method is, that "when the fulness of time was come, god sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. and because ye are sons, god sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, abba, father." through this method we "were reconciled to god by the death of his son." the result is not that we are compelled to obey, but that "the love of christ constraineth us." the account of the apostolic authority is not that it is a commission to rule the universal church, but "now then we are ambassadors for christ, as though god did beseech you by us; we pray you in christ's stead, be ye reconciled to god." the study of this divine method should put us on the right track in the attempt to estimate the nature of sanctity and the results we may expect from it. we shall expect nothing of spiritual value from force. we shall be quite prepared to turn away from the governing parties in jerusalem as from those who have repudiated the divine method and are therefore useless for the divine ends. we shall turn rather to those who gather about the temple and there, in a life of prayer and meditation, wait for the redemption. it is to these, who are the real temple of the lord, that the lord "shall come suddenly," that the manifestation of god will be made. and their hearts will overflow with joy as they behold the fulfilment of the promises of god. the power of god is the power of love; and it is that love, and that love alone, that has won the victories of god. it is a very slow method, men say. no doubt. but it is the only method that has any success. the method of force seems effective; but its triumphs are illusory. force cannot make men love, it can only make them hate. the world is being won to god by the love of god manifested in christ jesus our lord. and it is as well to remember, when we are tempted to complain of the slowness of the process, that the slowness is ours, not god's. the process is slow because men will not consent to become the instruments of god's love for the world, will not transmit the crucified love of god's son to their fellows. they continually, in their impatience, revert to force of some sort, for the attainment of spiritual ends. they become the tools of all sorts of secular ambitions which promise support in return for their co-operation. and the result may be read by any one not blinded by prejudice in the futility and incompetence of modern religions of all sorts. it is seen perhaps most of all in the pride of opinion which keeps the christian world in a fragmentary condition, and which approaches the undoing of the sin of a divided christendom with the preliminary announcement that no separated body must be required to admit that it has been in the wrong. human disregard of the divine method of love and humility can hardly go farther; and the only practical result that can be expected to follow is such as followed from the negotiations of herod and pontius pilate--a new crucifixion of the ever-sacrificed christ. we have risen to the divine method when we have learned to rely for spiritual results upon god alone. then is revealed to us the power of sanctity. we turn over the pages of the lives of the saints, of those who have been great in the kingdom of god, and we are struck by the growing influence of these men and women. they are simple men and women whose life's energy is concentrated on some special work; they are confessors or directors; they work among the very poor; they lead lives of retirement in religious houses; they are preachers of the gospel; they are missionaries. the one thing that they appear to have in common is utter consecration to the work in hand. and we see, it may be with some wonder, that as they become more and more absorbed in their special work, they become more and more centres of influence. without at all willing it they draw people about them, become centres of influences, arouse interest, become widely known. in short, they are, without willing it, centres of energy. of what energy? obviously, of the energy of love: the love of god manifested in them draws men to god. the man at whose disposal is unlimited force compels men to do his will; but he draws no one to him except the hypocrite and the sycophant who expect to gain something by their servility. the saint draws men, not to himself, but to god; for obviously it is not his power but god's power that is being manifested through him. unless we are very unfortunate we all know people whose attractiveness is the attractiveness of simple goodness. they are not learned nor influential nor witty nor clever, but we like to be with them. when we are asked why, we can only explain it by the attractiveness of their christlikeness. what we gain from intercourse with them is spiritual insight and power. their influence might be described as sacramental: they are means our blessed lord uses to impart himself. they are so filled with the mind of christ that they easily show him to the world; and withal, quite unconsciously. for great love is possible only where there is great humility. and this power of sanctity which is the outcome of union with god is a permanent acquisition to the kingdom of god. god's kingdom is ultimately a kingdom of saints. the sphere of god's self-manifestation in human life increases ever as the saints increase; and the power of sanctity necessarily remains while the saint remains, that is, forever. the saint remains a permanent organ of the body of christ, a perdurable instrument of the divine love. to speak humanly, the more saints there are, the more the love of god can manifest itself; the wider its influence on humanity. and the greater the saint, that is, the nearer the saint approaches the perfection of god, to which he is called--be ye therefore perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect--the more influential he must be; that is the more perfectly he will show the divine likeness and transmit the divine influence. when we think of the power of the saints as intercessors that is what actually we are thinking of,--the perfection of their understanding of the mind of christ. but to return to this world and to the gathering in the temple on the day of the purification. these are they in whom the hope of israel rests. israel is not a failure because it has brought forth these. god's work through the centuries has not come to naught because in these there is the possibility of a new beginning. the consummate flower of israel's life is the blessed mother through whom god becomes man; and these who meet her in the temple are the representatives of those hidden ones in israel who will be the field wherein the seed of the word can be sown and where it will bring forth fruit an hundredfold. jesus, this child, is god made man; and these around him to-day, mary and joseph, simeon and anna, are those who will receive his love and will show its power in the universe forever. and so it will remain always; the good ground wherein the seed may be sown and bring forth unto eternal life is the spiritual nature of man, made ready by humility and love,--"in quietness and confidence shall be your strength." in the quietness that waits for god to act, the confidence that knows that he will act when the time comes. it is well if our aspiration is to be of the number of those who live lives hid with christ in god; who are seeking nothing but that the love of god may be shed abroad in their hearts; who are "constrained" by nothing but the love of jesus. it is true that this simplicity of motive and aim will bring it about that our lives will be hidden lives, lives of which the world will take no note. we may be quite sure that none of the rulers of israel thought much about old simeon who passed his time praying in the temple. and if we want to be known of rulers it is doubtless a mistake to take the road that simeon followed. but the reward of that way was that he saw "the lord's christ," that it was permitted him to take in his arms incarnate god, and then, in his rapture, to sing _nunc dimittis_. we cannot travel two roads at once. when the holy family goes out from the temple it can go, if it will, to the palace of herod, or it can go back to bethlehem. it cannot go both ways and we know the way that it took. and we in our self-examination to-night can see two roads stretching out before us. we can go the way of the world, the way that seeks (whether it finds or no) popularity and prominence, or we can join the holy family and in company with jesus and mary and joseph go back to the quietness and hiddenness of the house of bread where the saints dwell. with them, sheltered by the sacrifice of jesus and the prayers of mary and joseph we can wait for the redemption in the full manifestation of the life of god in us, and for the time when the love of god shall be fully "shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given us." o sion, ope thy temple-gates; see, christ, the priest and victim, waits-- let lifeless shadows flee: no more to heaven shall vainly rise the ancient rites--a sacrifice all pure and perfect, see. behold, the maiden knowing well the hidden godhead that doth dwell in him her infant son: and with her infant, see her bring the doves, the humble offering for christ, the holy one. here, all who for his coming sighed behold him, and are satisfied-- their faith the prize hath won: while mary, in her breast conceals the holy joys her lord reveals, and ponders them alone. come, let us tune our hearts to sing the glory of our god and king, the blessed one and three: be everlasting praise and love to him who reigns in heaven above, through all eternity. part two chapter x egypt the angel of the lord appeareth to joseph in a dream, saying, arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into egypt. s. matt. ii, . deliver us, we beseech thee, o lord, from all evils past, present, and to come: and at the intercession for us of blessed mary who brought forth god and our lord, jesus christ; and of the holy apostles peter, and paul, and andrew; and of blessed ambrose thy confessor, and bishop, together with all thy saints, favorably give peace in our days, that, assisted by the help of thy mercy, we may ever be both delivered from sin, and safe from all turmoil. fulfil this, by him, with whom thou livest blessed, and reignest god, in the unity of the holy spirit, for ever and ever. ambrosian. those who live in intimate union with god, the peace of whose lives is untroubled by the constant irruption of sin, are peculiarly sensitive to that mode of the divine action that we call supernatural. i suppose that it is not that god wishes to reveal himself to souls only at crises of their experience or under exceptional conditions, but that only souls of an exceptional spiritual sensitivity are capable of this sort of approach. communications of the divine will through dream or vision of inner voice are the accompaniment of sanctity; one may almost say that they are the normal means in the case of advanced sanctity. most of us are too much immersed in the world, are too much the slaves of material things, to be open to this still, small voice of revelation. our eyes are dimned by the garish light of the world, and our ears dulled by its clamour, so that our powers of spiritual perception are of the slightest. this is quite intelligible; and we ought not to fall into the mistake of assuming that our undeveloped spirituality is normal, and that what does not happen to us is inconceivable as having happened at all. if we want to know the truth about spiritual phenomena we shall put ourselves to school to those whose spiritual natures have attained the highest development and in whose experience spiritual phenomena are of almost daily happening. to the man "whose talk is of oxen," whose whole life is absorbed in the study of material things, a purely spiritual manifestation comes as a surprise. his instinctive impulse is to deny its reality as a thing obviously impertinent to his understanding of life. but one whose life is based on spiritual postulates, who is, however feebly, attempting to shape life in accordance with spiritual principles, though he may never have attained anything that can be interpreted as a distinct revelation from god by vision or voice or otherwise, yet must he by the very basic assumptions of his life be ready to regard such manifestations of god as intelligible, and indeed to be expected. so far from regarding divine interventions in life as impossible, we shall regard the christian life which has no experience of them as abnormal, as not having realised its inheritance. the degree and kind of such intervention in life will vary; but it is the fact of the intervention that is important: the mode in a special case will be determined by the needs of that case. as we think along these lines we reach the conclusion that what we call the supernatural is not the unnatural or the abnormal, but is a higher mode of the natural. we are not surprised therefore to find that those whose spiritual development was such as to make it possible for god to choose them to fulfil special offices in relation to the incarnation; who could be chosen to be, in the one case, the mother of god-incarnate, and in the other, to be the guardian of the divine child and his blessed mother, have the divine will in regard to the details of the trust committed to them, imparted to them in vision and in dream. so far from such vision and dream suggesting to us "a mythical element" in the gospel narratives, they rather confirm our faith in that they harmonize with our instinctive conclusions as to what would be natural under the circumstances. we are prepared to be told that at this crisis in the holy child's life "the angel of the lord appeareth to joseph in a dream, saying, arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into egypt, and be thou there until i bring thee word; for herod will seek the young child to destroy him. when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into egypt." thus early in our lord's life is the element of tragedy introduced. the incarnation of god stirs the diabolic powers, the rulers of "this darkness" to excited activity. the companion picture of the nativity, of the holy child lying in mary's arms, of the wondering shepherds, of the magi from a far country,--the shadow of all this idyllic beauty is the massacre of the innocents, the wailing of rachel for her children. it is, as it were, the opening of a new stage in the world-old conflict where the powers of evil appear to have the advantage and can show the bodies of murdered infants as the trophies of their victory. but are we to think of the death of a child as a disaster? has any actual victory redounded to the prince of power of the air? one understands of course the grief and sense of loss that attends the death of any child, the breaking of the dreams which had gathered about its future. what the father and the mother dreamed over the cradle and planned for the future does not come to pass--all that is true. but in a consideration of the broader interests involved, does not the death of a baby have a meaning far deeper than a disappointment of hopes and dreams? it is true, is it not? that the coming of the child brought enrichment into the life of its parents? there was a new love born for this one child which is not the common property of all the children of the family, but is the peculiar possession of this child and its parents. life--the life of the parents--is better and nobler by virtue of this love. they understand this, because when they stand by the side of the child's coffin they never feel that it had been better that this child had not come into existence. and more than that: as they commit this fragile body to the grave they know that there is no real sense in which they can say that they have lost this child. rather, the child is a perpetual treasure, for the moment contemplated through tears, but presently to be thought of with unclouded joy. it is so wonderful a thing to think of this pure soul caught back to god; to think of it growing to spiritual maturity in god's very presence; to think of it following the lamb withersoever he goeth. yes: to think of it also as our child still, with our love in its heart, knowing that it has a father and a mother on earth, and, that, just because of its early death, it can be to them, what otherwise they would have been to it--the guard and helper of their jives. in god's presence are the souls of children as perpetual intercessors for those whom they have left on earth; and they may well rejoice before god in that what appeared the tragedy of their death was in fact a recall from the field of battle before the testing of their life was made. we wept as over an irreparable loss, while into nothingness crept back a host of shadows unexplored, of sins unsinned. the artists have imagined the souls of those who first died for jesus attending him on the way to egypt as a celestial guard. in any case we are certain that the angels who watched about him so closely all his life were with the holy family as they set out upon the way of exile. it would have been a wearisome march but that jesus was there. his presence lightened all the toils of the desert way. egypt, their place of refuge, would not have seemed to them what it seems to us, a land of wonder, of marvellous creations of human skill and intelligence, but a place of banishment from all that was dear, from the ties of home and religion. the religion which lay wrapped in the holy child was to break down barriers and hindrances to the worship of god; but the time was not yet. for them still the holy land, jerusalem, the temple, were the place of god's manifestation, and all else the dwelling place of idols. they must have shuddered in abhorrence at those strange forms of gods which rose about them on every hand. we cannot ourselves fail to draw the contrast between the statues which filled the egyptian sanctuaries and before which all egypt, rich and poor, mighty and humble, prostrated themselves, and this child sleeping on mary's breast. the imagination of the christian community later caught this contrast and embodied it in the legend that when jesus crossed the border of egypt, all the idols of the land of egypt fell down. we cannot follow the thought of the blessed mother through these strange scenes and the experiences of these days. no doubt in the jewish communities already flourishing in egypt there would be welcome and the means of livelihood. but there would be perplexing questions to one whose habit it was to keep all things which concerned her strange child hidden in her heart, the subject of constant meditation. why, after the divine action which had been so constant from his conception to his birth, and in the circumstances which attended his birth, this reversal, this defeat and flight? why after bethlehem, egypt? why after gabriel, herod? it brings us back again to the primary fact that the incarnation is essentially a stage in a battle, and that the nature of god's battles is such that he constantly appears to lose them. he "goes forth as a giant to run his course"; but the eyes of man cannot see the giant--they see only a babe laid in a manger. we are tricked by our notion of what is powerful. "they all were looking for a king to slay their foes and lift them high; thou cam'st, a little baby thing that made a woman cry." the battle presents itself to us as a demand that we choose, that we take sides. the demand of christ is that we associate ourselves with him, or that we define our position as on the other side. "the friendship of the world is enmity with god" is a saying that is true when reversed: the friendship of god is enmity with the world. an open disclosure of the friendship of god sets all the powers of the world against us. this may be uncomfortable; but there does not appear to be any way of avoiding the opposition. our lord, in his incarnation, not only stripped himself of his glory, took the servant form, and in doing so deliberately deprived himself of certain means which would have been vastly influential in dealing with men, but he also declined, in assuming human nature, to assume it under conditions which would have conferred upon him any adventitious advantage in the prosecution of his work. he would display to men neither divine nor human glory: he would have no aid from power or position, from wealth or learning. he undertook his work in the strength of a pure humanity united with god. he declined all else. and he found that almost the first event of his life was to be driven into exile. and they who are associated with him necessarily share his fortunes. unless they will abandon the child, mary and joseph must set out on the desert way. they had no doubt much to learn; but what is important is not the size or amount of what we learn, but the learning of it. when we are called, as they were, to leave all for christ, it often turns out as hard, oftentimes harder, to leave property as riches; and the reason is that what we ultimately are leaving is neither poverty nor riches, but self: and self to us is always a "great possession." therein, i suppose, lies the solution of the problem of the relation of property and christianity in the common life. idleness is sin; every one is bound to some useful labour, no matter what his material resources may be. and if we work for our living, if our labour is to be such as will support us, then there at once arises the problem of possessions. useful, steady labour will ordinarily produce more than "food and raiment." under present social arrangments accumulated property is handed on to heirs. a man naturally wants to make some provision for his family. or he finds himself in possession of considerable wealth and the impulse is to spend in luxuries of one sort or another,--modern invention has put endless means of ministering to physical or aesthetic comfort within his reach. he can have a motor car, a country house, an expensive library; he can have beautiful works of art. and then he is confronted with the picture of the holy family which can never have lived much beyond the poverty line. he realises the nature of our lord's life of poverty and ministry. and though the plain man may not feel that he can go very far in imitating this life, he does feel that there is a splendour of achievement in those who take our lord at his word and sell all to follow him. but the literal abandonment of life to the ideal of poverty is clearly not what our lord contemplated for the universal practice of his followers. he nowhere indicates that all gainful labour is to be abandoned, or that having gained enough for food and raiment we are to idle thereafter, or even give ourselves to some ungainful work. the kingdom of heaven does not appear to be society organised on the lines of socialism or otherwise. our lord contemplated life going on as it is, only governed by a new set of motives. it has as the result of the acceptance of the gospel a new orientation; and as a result of that it will view "possessions" in a new way. the acceptance of the gospel means the self surrendered utterly to the will of god, and all that self possesses held at the disposal of that will. we may expect that god's will for us will be manifested in the events of life and its opportunities, and we shall hold ourselves alert and ready to embrace that will. it may be that the call will come to sell all, and we need to beware lest the thoroughness of the demand terrify us into the repudiation of our lord's service; lest the thought of the sacrificed possessions send us away sorrowing. ordinarily the call is less searching than that; or perhaps the mercy of god spares us from demands that would be beyond our strength. in any case, the truly consecrated self will regard luxury as a dangerous thing, replete with entanglements of all kinds, that it were well to avoid at the expense of any sacrifice. one does well to hold "possessions" in a very loose grip, lest the hold be reversed, and we become their servants rather than they ours. and it is well to emphasise again that the mere size of possessions is of small importance. there is a not very rational tendency to think of this as being a matter of millions, for the man of moderate income to think that there is no problem for him. the problem is as pressing for him as for any man. his minimum of comfort may be as tightly grasped as the other man's maximum. the only solution of the problem will be found in the converted self. those who have really given themselves to god hold all things at his disposal. they are not thinking how they can indulge self but how they can glorify god. egypt to many will stand for another sort of abandonment which much perplexes the immature christian: that is, the sort of isolation in which the new christian is quite likely to find himself when first he attempts to put christian principles into practice. we imagine one brought up in the ordinary mixed circles of society, where there are unbelievers and lax christians mingled together, and where there are no principles firmly enough held to interfere with any sort of enjoyment of life which offers. such an one--a young woman, let us suppose--in the providence of god becomes converted to our lord, and comes to see that the lax and indifferent christian life she had been leading was a mere mockery of christian living. speedily does she find when she attempts to put into action the principles of living which she now understands to be the meaning of the gospel that a breach of sympathy has been opened between her and her accustomed companions; that many things which she was accustomed to do in their society and which made for their common fund of amusement are no longer possible to her. the careless talk, the shameless dress, the gambling, the drinking, the sunday amusements--such things as these she has thrown over; and she finds that with them she has thrown over the basis of intimacy with her usual companions. it is not that they are antagonistic but simply that their points of contact have ceased to exist. her own inhibitions exclude her automatically from most of the activities of her social circle. she finds herself much alone. her friends are sorry for her and think her foolish and try to win her back, but it is clear to her that she can only go back by going back from christ. this is the common case of the young whether boy or girl to-day, and the practical question is, can they endure the isolation? it is easy to say: let them make christian friends; but that is not always practical, especially in the present state of the church when there is no cohesion among its members, no true sense of constituting a brotherhood, of being members of the same body. we have to admit that the attempt to hold a high standard usually ends in failure, at least the practical failure of a weak compromise. but there are characters that are strong enough to face the isolation and to readjust life on the basis of the new principles and to mould it in accord with the new ideals. the period of this readjustment is one of severe testing of one's grasp on principles and one's strength of purpose. but the battle once fought out we attain a new kind of freedom and expansion of life. we look back with some amusement at the old life and the things that fascinated us in the days of our spiritual unconsciousness much as we look back at the games that amused us in our childish hours. the desert of egypt that we entered with trepidation and fearful hearts turns out not to be so dreadful as we imagined, and indeed the flowers spring up under our feet as we resolutely tread the desert way. these trials must be the daily experience of those who attempt to put their religion into practice, and these perplexities must assail them so long as the christian community continues to show its present social incompetence; so long, that is, as we attempt to make the basis of our social action something other than the principles of the spiritual life. a christian society, one would naturally think, would spring out of the possession of christian ideals; and doubtless it would if these ideals were really dominant in life, and not a sort of ornament applied to it. any social circle contains men and women of various degrees of intellectual development and of varying degrees of experience of life; what holds them together is the pursuit of common objects, the objects that we sum up as amusement. now the christians in a community certainly have a common object, the cultivation of the spiritual life through the supernatural means offered by the church of god. one would think that this object would have a more constraining power than the attractions of motoring or golf; but in fact we know that this is not so save in individual cases. there is not, that is to say, anywhere visible a christian community which is wrought into a unity by the solidifying forces of its professed ideals. those very people whose paths converge week by week until they meet at this altar, as they leave the altar, follow diverging paths and live in isolation for the rest of their time. one of the constant problems of the church is that of the loss of those who have for a time been associated with it--of those who have for a time seemed to recognise their duty to god, and their privileges as members of his son. they drift away into the world. we pray and meditate and worry over this and try to invent some machinery which will overcome it. but it cannot be overcome by machinery, especially by the sort of machinery which consists in transferring the amusements that people find in the world bodily into the church itself. it cannot and will not be overcome until a christian society has been created which is bound together by the interests of the kingdom of god, and in which those interests are so predominant as to throw into the shade and practically annihilate other interests. and especially must such spiritual interests be strong enough to break down all social barriers so that the cultured and refined can find a common ground with the uneducated and socially untrained in the spiritual privileges that they share in common. when the banker can talk with his chauffeur of their common experience in prayer, and the banker's wife and her cook can confer on their mutual difficulties in making a meditation, then we shall have got within sight of a christian society; but at present, while these have no spiritual contact, it is not within sight. the primitive christian community in jerusalem made the attempt at having all things in common. their mistake seems to have been that they, like other and more modern people, by "all things" understood money. you cannot build any society which is worth the name on money, a church least of all. it is unimportant whether a man is rich or poor; what is important is his spiritual accomplishment: and it is common spiritual aims and accomplishments which should make up the "all things" which possessed in common will form the basis of an enduring unity. but not until accomplishment becomes the supreme interest of life can we expect to get out of the impasse in which we at present find ourselves; in which, that is, the person can be converted to christianity and enter into union with god in christ and become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, and wake to find himself isolated from his old circle by his profession of new principles; but not, by his new principles, truly united to his fellow citizens in the kingdom of god! one is tempted to write, what a comedy; but before one can do so, realises that it is in fact a tragedy! mother of god--oh, rare prerogative; oh, glorious title--what more special grace could unto thee thy dear son, dread god, give to show how far thou dost all creatures pass? that mighty power within the narrow fold did of thy ne'er polluted womb remain, whom, whiles he doth th' all-ruling sceptre hold, not earth, nor yet the heavens can contain; thou in the springtide of thy age brought'st forth him who before all matter, time and place, begotten of th' eternal father was. oh, be thou then, while we admire thy worth a means unto that son not to proceed in rigour with us for each sinful deed. john brereley, priest (vere lawrence anderton, s.j.) - part two chapter xi nazareth and he went down with them, and came to nazareth, and was subject unto them. s. luke ii, . the holy church acknowledges and confesses the pure virgin mary as mother of god through whom has been given unto us the bread of immortality and the wine of consolation. give blessings then in spiritual song. armenian. after the rapid succession of fascinating pictures which are etched for us in the opening chapters of the gospel there follows a space of about twelve years of which we are told nothing. the fables which fill the pages of the apocryphal gospels serve chiefly to emphasise the difference between an inspired and an uninspired narrative. the human imagination trying to develop the situation suggested by the gospel and to fill in the unwritten chapters of our lord's life betrays its incompetence to create a story of god incarnate which shall have the slightest convincing power. these apocryphal stories are immensely valuable to us as, by contrast, creating confidence in the story of jesus as told by the evangelists, but for nothing more. we are left to use our own imagination in filling in these years of silence in our lord's training; and we shall best use it, not by trying to imagine what may have occurred, but by trying to understand what is necessarily involved in the facts as we know them. we know that the home in nazareth whither mary and joseph brought jesus after the death of herod permitted them to return from egypt was the simple home of a carpenter. it would appear to have been shared by the children of joseph, and our lady would have been the house-mother, busy with many cares. we know, too, that under this commonplace exterior of a poor household there was a life of the spirit of far reaching significance. mary was ceaselessly pondering many things--the significance of all those happenings which, as the years flowed on without any further supernatural intervention, must at times have seemed as though they were quite purposeless. of course this could not have been a settled feeling, for the insight of her pure soul would have held her to the certainty that such actions of god as she had experienced would some day reveal the meaning which as yet lay hidden. in the meantime other things did not matter much, seeing she had jesus, the object of endless love. every mother dreams over the baby she cares for and looks out into the future with trembling hope; so s. mary's thoughts would go out following the hints of prophecy and angelic utterances, unable to understand how the light and shadow which were mingled there could find fulfilment in her child. but like any other mother the thought would come back to her present possession, the satisfaction of her heart that she had in jesus. with the growth of jesus there would come the unfolding of the answering love, which was but another mode in which the love of god she had experienced all her life was manifesting itself. jesus grew in wisdom and stature and we are able to enter a little into the over-flowing love of mary as she watched the advance, this unfolding from day to day. the wonder that was hers in guiding this mind and will, in teaching our lord his first prayers, in telling him the story of the people of whom he had assumed our nature! there was here no self-will, no resistance to guidance, no perversity to wound a mother's heart. in the training of an ordinary child there are from time to time hints of characteristics or tendencies which may develop later into spiritual or moral disaster. there are growls of the sleeping beast which make us tremble for the future: there are hours of agony when we think of the inevitable temptations which must be met, and suggestions of weakness which colour our imagination of the meeting of them with the lurid light of defeat. but as mary watched the unfolding character of jesus she saw nothing there that carried with it the least suggestion of evil growth in the future, no outcropping of hereditary sin or disordered appetite. a constantly unfolding intelligence, and growing interest in the things that most interested her, an eagerness to hear and to know of the will and love of the eternal father, these are her joy. that would have been the centre--would it not?--of the unfolding consciousness of jesus: the knowledge of the father. training by love, so we might describe the life in the home at nazareth. and we must not forget the grave ageing figure who is the head of the household. _the holy family_--that was the perfect unity that their love created. there is a wonderful picture of these three by sassaferato which catches, as no other holy family that i know of does, the meaning of their association. s. mary whom the artistic imagination is so apt, after the nativity, to transform into a stately matron, here still retains the note of virginity which in fact she never lost. it is the maiden-mother who stands by the side of the grave, elderly s. joseph, the ideal workman, who is also the ideal guardian of his maiden-wife. and jesus binds these two together and with them makes a unity, interpreting to us the perfection of family life. family life is a tremendous test, it brings out the best and the worst of those who are associated in it. the ordinary restraints of social intercourse are of less force in the intimacy of family life: there is less need felt to watch conduct, or to mask what we know are our disagreeable traits. it is quite easy for character to deteriorate in the freedom of such intercourse. it is pretty sure to do so unless there is the constant pressure of principle in the other direction. the great safeguard is the sort of love that is based on mutual respect,--respect both for ourselves and for others. we talk a good deal as though love were always alike; as though the fact that a man and a woman love each other were always the same sort of fact. it does not require much knowledge of human nature or much reflection to convince us that that is not the case. love is not a purely physical fact; and outside its physical implications there are many factors which may enter, whose existence constitute the _differentia_ from case to case. it is upon these varying elements that the happiness of the family life depends. one of the most important is that character on either side shall be such as to inspire respect. many a marriage goes to pieces on this rock; it is found that the person who exercised a certain kind of fascination shows in the intimacy of married life a character and qualities which are repulsive; a shallowness which inspires contempt, an egotism which is intolerable, a laxity in the treatment of obligations which destroys any sense of the stability of life. a marriage which does not grow into a relation of mutual honour and respect must always be in a state of unstable equilibrium, constantly subject to storms of passion, to suspicion and distrust. and therefore such a marriage will afford no safe basis on which to build a family life. but without a stable family life a stable social and religious life is impossible. it is therefore no surprise to those who believe that the powers of evil are active in the world to find that the family is the very centre of their attack at the present time. the crass egotism lying back of so much modern teaching is nowhere more clearly visible than in the assertion of the right of self-determination so blatantly made in popular writings. by self-determination is ultimately meant the right of the individual to seek his own happiness in his own way, and to make pleasure the rule of his life. "the right to happiness" is claimed in utter disregard of the fact that the claim often involves the unhappiness of others. "the supremacy of love," meaning the supremacy of animalism, is the excuse for undermining the very foundations of family life. no obligation, it appears, can have a binding force longer than the parties to it find gratification in it. personal inclination and gratification is held sufficient ground for action whose consequences are far from being personal, which, in fact, affect the sane and healthy state of society as a whole. the decline of a civilisation has always shown itself more markedly in the decline of the family life than elsewhere. the family, not the individual, is the basis of the social state, and no amount of theorising can make the fact different. whatever assails the integrity of the family assails the life of the state, and no single family can be destroyed without society as a whole feeling the effect. "what," it is asked, "is to be done? if two people find that they have blundered, are they to go on indefinitely suffering from the result of their blunder? if an immature boy or girl in a moment of passion make a mistake as to their suitability to live together, are they to be compelled to do so at the expense of constant unhappiness?" it would seem obvious to say that justice requires that those who make blunders should take the consequences of them; that those who create a situation involving suffering should do the suffering themselves and not attempt to pass it on to others. it is not as though the consequences of the act can be avoided; they cannot. what happens is that the incidence of them is shifted. it is a part of the brutal egotism of divorce that it is quite willing to shift the incidence of the suffering that it has created on to the lives of wholly innocent people; in many cases upon children, in all cases upon society at large. for it is necessary to emphasize the fact that society is a closely compact body: so interwoven is life with life that if one member suffer the other members suffer with it. breaches of moral order are not individual matters but social. this truth is implied in society's constantly asserted right to regulate family relations in the general interest even after it has ceased to think of such relations as having any spiritual significance. we need to-day a more vivid sense of the _community_ lest we shall see all sense of a common life engulfed in the rising tide of individual anarchism. we need the assertion in energetic form of the right of the community as supreme over the right of the individual. we must deny the right of the individual to pursue his own way and his own pleasure at the expense of the rights of others. and to his insolent question, "why should i suffer in an intolerable situation?" we must plainly answer: "because you are responsible for the situation, and it is intolerable that you should be permitted to throw off the results of your wickedness or your stupidity upon other and innocent people." and it is quite clear that should society assert its pre-eminent right in unmistakable form and make it evident that it does not propose to tolerate the results of the egotistic nonsense of self-determination and the right of every one to live his own life, the evils of divorce and of shattered families would presently shrink to relatively small proportions. the present facility of divorce encourages thoughtless and unsuitable marriages in the first place; and in the second place, encourages the resort to divorce in circumstances of family disturbance which would speedily right themselves in the present as they have done in the past if those concerned knew that their happiness and comfort for years compelled an adjustment of life. when as at present any one who loses his temper can rush off to a court and get a marriage dissolved for some quite trivial reason, there is small encouragement to practice self-control. if a man and woman know that the consequences of conduct must be faced by them, and cannot be avoided by thrusting them upon others, they will no doubt in the course of time learn to exercise a little self-control. the family is the foundation of the state because, among other things, it is the natural training place of citizens: no public training in schools and camps can for a moment safely be looked to as a substitute or an equivalent of wholesome family influence. if the family does not make good citizens we cannot have good citizens. the family too is at the basis of organised religious life; if the family does not make good christians we shall not have good christians. the sunday school and the church societies are poor substitutes for the religious influence of the family, as the school and the camp are for its social interests. one is inclined to stress the obvious failure of the family to fulfil its alloted functions in the teaching of religion as the root difficulty that the christian religion has to encounter and the most comprehensive cause of its relative failure in modern life. the responsibility for the religious and moral training of children rests squarely upon those who have assumed the responsibility of bringing them into the world, and it cannot be rightly pushed off on to some one else. to the protest of parents that they are incompetent to conduct such training, the only possible reply is a blunt, "whose fault is that?" if you have been so careless of the fundamental responsibilities of life, you are incompetent to assume a relation which of necessity carries such responsibility with it. it is no light matter to have committed to you the care of an immortal soul whose eternal future may quite well be conditioned on the way in which you fulfil your trust. it would be well as a preliminary to marriage to take a little of the time ordinarily given to its frivolous accompaniments and seriously meditate upon the words of our lord which seem wholly appropriate to the circumstance: "whoso shall cause to stumble one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." it is the careless and incompetent training of children which in fact "causes them to stumble" when the presence of word and example would have held them straight. it has been (to speak personally) the greatest trial of my priesthood that out of the thousands of children i have dealt with, in only rare cases have i had the entire support of the family; and i have always considered that i was fortunate when i met with no interference and was given an indifferent tolerance. it is heart-breaking to see years of careful work brought to naught (so far as the human eye can see: the divine eye can see deeper) by the brutal materialism of a father and the silly worldliness of a mother. the interplay of lives in a family should be consciously directed by those who control them to the cultivation, to the bringing out of the best that is in them. education means the drawing out of the innate powers of the personality and the training of them for the highest purposes. it is the deliberate direction of personal powers to the highest ends, the discipline of them for the performance of those ends. the life of a child should be shaped with reference to its final destiny from the moment of its birth. it should be surrounded with an atmosphere of prayer and charity which would be the natural atmosphere in which it would expand as it grows, and in terms of which it would learn to express itself as soon as it reaches sufficient maturity to express itself at all. it should become familiar with spiritual language and modes of action, and meet nothing that is inharmonious with these. but we know that the education of the christian child is commonly the opposite of all this. it learns little that is spiritual. when it comes to learn religion it is obviously a matter of small importance in the family life; if there is any expression of it at all, it is one that is crowded into corners and constantly swamped by other interests which are obviously felt to be of more importance. too often the spiritual state of the family may be summed up in the words of the small boy who condensed his observation of life into the axiom: "men and dogs do not go to church." in such an atmosphere the child finds religion and morals reduced to a system of repression. god becomes a man with a club constantly saying, don't! he grows to think that he is a fairly virtuous person so long as he skilfully avoids the system of taboos wherewith he feels that life is surrounded, and fulfils the one positive family law of a religious nature, that he shall go to sunday school until he is judged sufficiently mature to join the vast company of men and dogs. nothing very much can come of negatives. religion calls for positive expression; and it is not enough that the child shall find positive expression once a week in the church; he must find it every day in the week in the intimacy of the family. he must find that the principles of life which are inculcated in the church are practiced by his father and his mother, his brother and his sister, or he will not take them seriously. if he is conscious of virtue and religious practice as repression, a sort of tyranny practiced on a child by his elders, his notion of the liberty of adult life will quite naturally be freedom to break away from what is now forced upon him into the life of self-determination and indifference to things spiritual that characterises the adult circle with which he is familiar. but consider, by contrast, those rare families where the opposite of all this is true; where there is the peace of a recollected life of which the foundations are laid in constant devotion to our lord. there you will find the nearest possible reproduction of the life of the holy family in nazareth. because the life of the family is a life of prayer, there will you find jesus in the midst of it. there you will find mary and joseph associated with its life of intercession. in such a family the expression of a religious thought will never be felt as a discord. the talk may quite naturally at any moment turn on spiritual things. there are families in which one feels that one must make a careful preparation for the introduction of a spiritual allusion: one does it with a sense of danger, much as one might sail through a channel strewn with mines. there are other families in which one has no hesitation in speaking of prayer, of sacraments, of spiritual actions, as things with which all are familiar in practice, and are as natural as food and drink. in this atmosphere it produces no smile to say, "i am going to slip into the church and make my meditation"; or, "i shall be a little late to-night as i am making my confession on my way home." religion in such a circle has not incurred contempt through familiarity: it still remains a great adventure, the very greatest of all indeed; but it is an adventure in the open, full of joy and gladness. the holy family was a family that worked hard. it is no doubt true that our lord learned his foster-father's trade, so that those who knew him later on, or heard his preaching, asked, "is not this the carpenter?" but the holy family was a radiant centre of joy and peace because jesus was in the midst of it. where jesus dwells there is the effect of his indwelling in the spiritual gladness that results. mary was never too busy for her religious duties nor joseph too tired with his week's work to get up on the sabbath for whatever services in honour of god the synagogue offered. they were perhaps conscious as the child "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with god and man" of a spiritual influence that flowed from him, and sweetened and lightened the life of the home. they were not conscious that in his person god was in the midst of them; but that is what we can (if we will) be conscious of. we are heirs of the incarnation, and god is in the midst of us; and especially does jesus wish to dwell, as he dwelt in nazareth, in the midst of the family. he wishes to make every household a holy family. he is in the midst of it in uninterrupted communion with the soul of the baptised child; and the father and mother, understanding that their highest duty and greatest privilege is to watch and foster the spiritual unfolding of the child's life in such wise that jesus may never depart from union with it, become as joseph and mary in their ministry to it. there is nothing more heavenly than such a charge; there is nothing more beautiful than such a family life. there is often a pause in god's work between times of great activity--a time of retreat, as it seems, which is a rest from what has preceded and a preparation for what is to come. such a pause were these years at nazareth in the life of blessed mary. the time from the annunciation to the return from egypt was a time of deep emotion, of spirit-shaking events. later on there were the trials of the years of the ministry, culminating in calvary. but these years while jesus was growing to manhood in the quietness of the home were years of unspeakable privilege and peace. the daily association with the perfect child, the privilege of watching and guarding and ministering to him, these days of deepening spiritual union with him, although much that was happening to the mother was happening unconsciously,--were strengthening her grasp on ultimate reality, so that she issued with perfect strength to meet the supreme tragedy of her life. how wonderful god must have seemed to her in those thirty years of peace! to all of us god is thus wonderful in quiet hours; and the quiet hours are much the more numerous in most of our lives. but have we all learned to use these hours so that we may be ready to meet the hours of testing which shall surely come? no matter how quiet the valley of our life, some day the pleasant path will lift, and we must climb the hilltop where rises the cross. it will not be intolerable, if the quiet years have been spent in nazareth with jesus and mary and joseph. most holy, and pure virgin, blessed mayd, sweet tree of life, king david's strength and tower, the house of gold, the gate of heaven's power, the morning-star whose light our fall hath stay'd. great queen of queens, most mild, most meek, most wise, most venerable, cause of all our joy, whose cheerful look our sadnesse doth destroy, and art the spotlesse mirror to man's eyes. the seat of sapience, the most lovely mother, and most to be admired of thy sexe, who mad'st us happy all, in thy reflexe, by bringing forth god's onely son, no other. thou throne of glory, beauteous as the moone, the rosie morning, or the rising sun, who like a giant hastes his course to run, till he hath reached his two-fold point of noone. how are thy gifts and graces blazed abro'd, through all the lines of this circumference, t'imprint in all purged hearts this virgin sence of being daughter, mother, spouse of god? ben jonson, - . part two chapter xii the temple and he said unto them, how is it that ye sought me? know ye not that i must be in my father's house? s. luke ii, . we give thanks unto thee, o lord, who lovest mankind, thou benefactor of our souls and bodies, for that thou hast this day vouchsafed to feed us with thy heavenly mysteries; guide our path aright, establish us all in thy fear, guard our lives, make sure our steps through the prayers and supplications of the glorious mother of god and ever virgin mary and of all thy saints. russian. the time was come when by the law of his people the boy jesus must assume the duties of an adult in the exercise of his religion. therefore his parents took him with them to jerusalem that he might participate in the celebration of the passover. it would be a wonderful moment in the life of any intelligent hebrew boy when for the first time he came in contact with the places and scenes which were so familiar to him in the story of his nation's past; and we can imagine what would have been the special interest of the child jesus who would have been so thoroughly taught in the old testament scriptures, and who would have felt an added interest in the places he was now seeing because of their association with his great ancestor, david. still his chief interest was in the religion of his people, and it was the temple where the sacrificial worship of god was centred that would have for him the greatest attraction. this was his "father's house," and here he himself felt utterly at home. we are not surprised to be told that he lingered in these courts. "and when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child jesus tarried behind in jerusalem; and joseph and his mother knew it not." they had perfect confidence in jesus; and yet it seems strange that they should have assumed that he was somewhere about and would appear at the proper time. when the night drew on and the camp was set up there was no child to be found. then we imagine the distress, the trouble of heart, with which mary and joseph hurry back to jerusalem and spend the ensuing days in seeking through its streets. we share something of our lord's surprise when we learn that the temple was the last place that they thought of in their search. did they think that jesus would be caught by the life of the passover crowds that filled the streets of jerusalem? did they think that it would be a child's curiosity which would hold him fascinated with the glittering toys of the bazaars? did they think that he had mistaken the caravan and been carried off in some other direction and was lost to them forever? we only know that it was not till three days had passed that they thought of the temple and there found him. "and when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, son, why has thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and i have sought thee sorrowing. and he said unto them, how is it that ye sought me? know ye not that i must be in my father's house?" s. mary and s. joseph were proceeding on certain assumptions as to what jesus would do which turned out to be untenable. it is one of the dangers of our religion--our personal religion--that we are apt to assume too much which in the testing turns out to be unfounded. we reach a certain stage of religious attainment, and then we assume that all is going well with us. when one asks a child how he is getting on he invariably answers: "i am all right." and the adult often has the same childish confidence in an untested and unverified state of soul. we are "all right"; which practically means that we do not care to be bothered with looking into our spiritual state at all. we have been going on for years now following the rules that we laid down when we first realised that the being a christian was a more or less serious matter. nothing has happened in these years to break the placidity of our routine. there has never been any relapse into grievous sin; we have never felt any real temptation to abandon the practice o£ our religion. we run along as easily and smoothly as a car on well-laid rails. we are "all right." but in fact we are all wrong. we have lapsed into a state of which the ideal is purely static: an ideal of spiritual comfort as the goal of our spiritual experience here on earth. we have acquired what appears to be a state of equilibrium into which we wish nothing to intrude that would endanger the balance. we are, no doubt, quite unconsciously, excluding from life every emotion, every ambition, as well as every temptation, which appears to involve spiritual disturbance. but we need to be disturbed. for the spiritual life is dynamic and not static; its ideal is motion and not rest. rest is the quality of dead things, and particularly of dead souls. the weariness of the way, which is so obvious a phenomenon in the christian life, is the infallible sign of lukewarmness. what we need therefore is to break with the assumption that we know all that it is necessary to know, and that we have done or are doing all that it is necessary to do. it is indeed the mark of an ineffective religion that the notion of necessity is adopted as its stimulus, rather than the notion of aspiration. the question, "must i do this?" is a revelation of spiritual poverty and ineptitude. "i press on," is the motto of a living religion. personal religion, therefore, needs constantly to be submitted to new tests, lest it lapse into an attitude of finality. fortunately for us, god does not leave the matter wholly in our hands, but himself, through his providence, applies a wide variety of tests to us. it is often a bitter and disturbing experience to have our comfortable routine broken up and to find that we have quite miserably failed under very simple temptations. and the sort of failure i am thinking of is not so much the failure of sin as the failure of ideal. it is the case of those who think that they have satisfactorily worked out the problems of the spiritual life, and have reached a satisfactory adjustment of duty and practice, and then find that if the adjustment changes their practice falls off. the outer circumstances of life change and the change is followed by a readjustment of the inner life on a distinctly lower plane. it is revealed to us that the outer circumstances were controlling the spiritual practice, and not the practice dominating the circumstances. the ruling ideal was that of comfort, and under the new circumstances the spiritual ideal is lowered until it fits in with a new possibility of comfort in the altered circumstances. it is well to examine ourselves on these matters and to find what is the actual ruling motive in our religious practice. we may have assumed that we have jesus, when all the assumption meant was that we thought that he was somewhere about. after all, it will not aid us very much if he is "in the company," if we go on our day's journey without him. it is a poor assumption to build life upon, that jesus exists, or that he is in the church, or that he is the saviour. it is nothing to us unless he is _our_ saviour, unless he is personally present in us and with us. and it is not wise or safe to let this be a matter of assumption, even though the assumption rest on a perfectly valid experience in the past; we cannot live on history, not even on our own history. that jesus is with us must be verified day by day, and we ought to go no day's journey without the certainty of his presence. we can best do that, when the circumstances of life permit, by a daily communion. there at the altar we meet jesus and know that he is with us. when the circumstances of life do not permit, (and often they do, when we lazily think they do not) there are other modes of arriving at spiritual certainty. it is quite easy to lose jesus. he does not force his companionship upon us, but rather when we meet him. "he makes as though he would go farther." he offers himself to us; he never compels us to receive him as a guest. and when we have in fact received him, and asked him to abide with us, he does not stay any longer than we want him. we have to constrain him. in other words, we lose jesus, we lose the vitality of our spiritual life (though we may retain the routine practice of our religion), if we are not from day to day making it the most vital issue of our lives. that does not necessarily mean that we are spending more time on it than on anything else, but that we are putting it first in the order of importance in our lives and are sacrificing, if occasion arise, other things to it, rather than it to them. that a man loves his wife and child does not necessarily mean that he actually spends more time on them than he does on his business, but it does mean that they are more important in his life than his business, and if need arise it will be the business that is sacrificed to them and not they to the business. spirituality is much less a matter of time than of energy. a wise director can guide a man to sanctity who will probably consecrate his sunday, and give the director one half hour on week days to dispose of. to lose jesus does not require the commission of great sin, as we count sin. the quite easiest way to lose him is to forget him and go about our business as though he did not exist. that is a frequent happening. for vast numbers jesus does not exist except for an hour or so on sunday. they give him the formal homage of attendance at church on sunday morning and then they go out and forget him, not only for the rest of the week but for the rest of the day. the religion which thus reduces itself to a minimum of attendance at mass on sunday morning is surely not a religion from which much can be expected in the way of spiritual accomplishment. if it be true that there is a minimum of religious requirement which will ensure that we "go to heaven," then that sort of religion may be useful; but i do not know that anywhere such a minimum _is_ required. the statement that i find is "thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." the outstanding characteristic of love is surely not niggardliness, but passionate self-giving. all things are forgiven, not to those who are careful to keep within the limits required, but to those who "love much." the study of many cases, the experience of over thirty years in the confessional, convinces me that the chief cause of spiritual failure among christians is not the irresistible impact of temptation but the lack of spiritual vision. the average man or woman is not consciously going anywhere; but they are just keeping a rule which is the arbitrary exactment of god. it might just as well be some other rule. that is, in their minds, the practice of the spiritual life has no immediate ends; it is not productive of spiritual expansion; it is not a ladder set up on earth to reach heaven on which they are climbing ever nearer god, and on the way are catching ever broader visions of spiritual reality as they ascend. the knowledge and the love of god are to them phrases, not practical goals, invitations to paths of spiritual adventure. hence, having no immediate ends to accomplish, they find the whole spiritual routine dull and unattractive and naturally tend to reduce it to a minimum. it is not at all surprising that in the end they drop religion altogether, as why should one keep on travelling a road that leads nowhere? how can one love and serve a jesus whom one has lost? the problem of personal religion is the problem of finding jesus, of bringing life into a right relation to him. the plain path is to follow the example of his parents who sought him "sorrowing." sorrow for having lost jesus is the true repentance. repentance which springs from fear of consequences, or from disgust with our own incompetence and stupidity when we realise that we have made a spiritual failure of life, is an imperfect thing. true repentance has its origin in love and is therefore directed toward a person. it is the conviction that we have violated the love of our father, our saviour, our sanctifier. sorrow springing from love is sorrow "after a godly sort." it is easy for us to drift into ways of carelessness and indifference which seem not to involve sin, to be no more than a decline from some preceding standard of practice which we conclude to have been unnecessarily strict; but the result is an increasing disregard of spiritual values, a growing obscuration of the divine presence in life. then the day comes when some quite marked and positive spiritual failure, a failure of which we cannot imagine ourselves to have been guilty, when we were living in constant communion with our lord, arouses us to the fact that for months our spiritual vitality has been declining and that we have ended in losing jesus. it is a tremendous shock to find how fast and how far we have been travelling when we thought that we were only slightly relaxing an unnecessarily strict routine: that when we thought that we were but acting "in a common sense way," we were in reality effecting a compromise with the world. well is it then if the surprise of our disaster shocks us back to the recovery of what we have lost, if it send us into the streets of the city, sorrowing and seeking for jesus. mere spiritual laziness is at the bottom of much failure in religion. there is no success anywhere in life save through the constant pressure of the will driving a reluctant and protesting set of nerves and muscles to their daily tasks. the day labourer comes home from his work with his muscular strength exhausted, but he has to go back to the same monotonous task on the morrow: his family has to be fed and clothed and he cannot permit himself to say, "i am tired and will stay away from work to-day." the business or professional man comes back from his office with a wearied brain that makes any thought an effort, but he must take up the routine to-morrow; the pressure of competitive business does not permit him to work when and as much as he chooses. but the christian who is engaged in the most important work that is carried on in this world, the work of preparing an immortal soul for an unending future, is constantly under the temptation "to take a day off"--to let down the standard of accomplishment till it ceases to interfere with the business or the pleasure of life; is constantly too tired or too busy to do this or that. in short, religion is apt to be treated in a manner that would ensure the bankruptcy of any material occupation in life. why then should it not ensure spiritual bankruptcy? surely, to retain jesus with us, to live in the intimacy of god, is the most pressingly important of our duties; it is worth any sort of expenditure of energy to accomplish it. and it cannot be accomplished without expenditure of energy. the view of religion which conceives it as a facile assent to certain propositions, the occasional and formal participation in certain actions, the more or less strict observance of certain rules of conduct, is so far from the fact that it is not worth discussing. religion is the realised friendship of god; it is a personal relation of the deepest and purest sort; and, like all personal relations, is kept alive by the mutual activities of those concerned. the action of one party will not suffice to keep the relation in healthy state. the love of god itself will not suffice to maintain a being in holiness and carry him on to happiness who is himself quite indifferent to the entire spiritual transaction--whose attitude is that of one willing to be saved if he be not asked to take much trouble about it. that lackadaisical attitude can never produce any result in the spiritual order; it can only ensure the spiritual decline and death of one who has not thought it worth while to make an effort to live. jesus can be found; but the finding depends upon the method of the seeking. there are many men who claim, and quite honestly, to be in pursuit of truth: to find the truth is the end of all their efforts. yet they do not succeed in finding it. why is this? i think that the principal reason is that they are constituting themselves the judges of the truth; they first of all lay down certain rules which god must obey if he wishes them to believe in him! they insist on having, before they will believe, a kind of evidence that is impossible of attainment. they assert that this or that is impossible, and the other thing incredible. they partially ascertain the laws that govern the material universe, and they deny to the maker of the universe the power to act otherwise than in accord with so much of the order of nature as they have discovered! they deny to god the sort of personal action in this world that they themselves constantly exercise. the method is not a method that can be hopeful of success. and it is worth noting that it is not a method that these same men followed in their investigations of the natural world. they have not accumulated information about natural law by first laying down rules as to how natural law must act, and refusing to listen to any evidence which does not fall in with these rules: rather, they have set themselves to observe how nature does act, and then deduced rules from their observation. why not pursue the same method in religion? why not in an humble spirit observe how god does act? why start by saying, "miracles do not happen?" why reject as incredible the virgin birth and the resurrection? why not get a bigger notion of god than that of a mechanician running a machine, and think of him as a person dealing with persons? the relation of persons cannot be mechanical or predetermined; they are and must be free and spontaneous: they have their origin, not in the pressure of invariable law but in the impulse of love. nor is the search for jesus that is inspired by mere curiosity likely to be a success. there are many people who are curious about religion, and they want to know why we believe thus and so; and particularly why we act as we do. why do you keep this day? what do you mean by this ceremony? do you think that it is wrong to do this or that? such people wander about observing; but their observation we understand is the observation of an idler who does not expect to be influenced by what he observes, but only to be amused. these are they who run after the latest thing in heresy, the newest thing in thought. what is observable about them is that they never seriously contemplate doing anything themselves. they are like those multitudes who followed our lord about for awhile but were dispersed by the test of hard sayings. but jesus can be found. he is found of all those who seek him humbly and sincerely, putting away self and desiring simply to be led: who do not challenge him with pilate's scornful, "what is truth?" but rather say, "lord, i believe; help thou my unbelief." he is easily found of those who know where to look for him. there is no mystery about that,--he will certainly be in his father's house. the surprise of joseph and mary that he had thus dealt with them is answered by jesus' surprise that they did not certainly know where he would be: "wist ye not that i must be in my father's house?" in the house of god, the church of god, is the ready approach to jesus. it is in the last degree foolish to waive aside the church in which are stored the treasures of more than nineteen centuries of christian experience as though it did and could have nothing to say in the matter. a seeker after information as to the meaning of the constitution of the united states would be considered a madman if he impatiently turned from those of whom he made enquiry when they suggested the decrees of the supreme court as the proper place to seek information. surely, from any point of view, the church will know more about jesus than any one else: if in all the centuries it has not discovered the meaning of him whom it ceaselessly worships there is small likelihood that that meaning will be discovered by an unbeliever studying an ancient book! if the church cannot lead us to jesus, and if it cannot interpret to us his will, there is small likelihood that any one else will be able to do so. and if during all these centuries his will has been unknown it can hardly be of much importance to discover it now. if his church has failed, then his mission is discredited. for us who have accepted his revelation as made to the church and by it unfailingly preserved, who have learned to find him there where he has promised to be until the end of time, there is another sense in which we think of his words as words of encouragement and consolation. there are hours in life which press hard upon us; there are other hours when the sense of god's love and goodness fills us with thankfulness and joy. in such hours we crave the intimacy of personal communion: we want to tell our grief or our joy. and then we take our way to the temple, and know that we shall find him there in his incarnate presence in his father's house. we go in and kneel before the tabernacle and know that jesus is here. here in the silence he waits for us. here in the long hours he watches; here is the ever-open door leading to the father where any man at any time may enter. he who humbled himself to the hidden life of nazareth now humbles himself to the hidden life of the tabernacle: and we who believe his word, have no need to envy joseph and mary the intimacy of their life with jesus, because here for us, if we will, is a greater intimacy--the intimacy of those of whom it can be said: they evermore dwell in him and he in them. lady of heaven, regent of the earth, empress of all the infernal marshes fell, receive me, thy poor christian, 'spite my, dearth, in the fair midst of thine elect to dwell: albeit my lack of grace i know full well; for that thy grace, my lady and my queen, aboundeth more than all my misdemean, withouten which no soul of all that sigh may merit heaven. 'tis sooth i say, for e'en in this belief i will to live and die. say to thy son, i am his--that by his birth and death my sins be all redeemable-- as mary of egypt's dole he changed to mirth, and eke theophilus', to whom befell quittance of thee, albeit (so men tell) to the foul fiend he had contracted been. assoilzie me, that i may have no teen, maid, that without breach of virginity didst bear our lord that in the host is seen: in this belief i will to live and die. a poor old wife i am, and little worth: nothing i know, nor letter aye could spell: where in the church to worship i fare forth, i see heaven limned with harps and lutes, and hell where damned folk seethe in fire unquenchable: one doth me fear, the other joy serene; grant i may have the joy, o virgin clean, to whom all sinners lift their hands on high, made whole in faith through thee, their go-between: in this belief i will to live and die. envoy thou didst conceive, princess most bright of sheen, jesus the lord, that hath no end nor mean, almighty that, departing heaven's demesne to succour us, put on our frailty, offering to death his sweet of youth and green: such as he is, our lord he is, i ween: in this belief i will to live and die. part two chapter xiii cana i and the third day there was a marriage in cana of galilee; and the mother of jesus was there; and both jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. s. john ii, . grant, o lord, we beseech thee, that we thy servants may enjoy constant health of body and mind, and by the glorious intercession of blessed mary, ever a virgin, be delivered from all temporal afflictions, and come to those joys that are eternal. through. having received, o lord, what is to advance our salvation; grant we may always be protected by the patronage of blessed mary, ever a virgin, in whose honor we have offered this sacrifice to thy majesty. through. old catholic. "there was a marriage in cana of galilee, and the mother of jesus was there." to s. john blessed mary is ever the "mother of jesus." he never calls her by her name in any mention of her. jesus who loved him and whom he loved and loves always with consuming passion, held the foreground of his consciousness; all other persons are known through their relation to him. as he is writing his gospel-story toward the end of his life, the blessed virgin has long been gone to join her son in the place of perfect love. we cannot conceive of her living long on earth after his ascension. her "conversation" would in a special way be "in heaven." whatever the time she remained here awaiting the will of god for her, we may be sure that the days she spent under the protection of s. john were wonderful days for him, wherein their communing would have been the continual lifting of their hearts and souls to him, child and friend, who is also god enthroned at the right hand of the father. it is not unlikely that the marvellous spiritual maturity of which we are conscious in the writings of s. john was aided in its unfolding by the intimacy of his relations with s. mary. but always she remained to him what she was because of what jesus was; she remained to the end "the mother of jesus." here at the marriage of cana the way in which she is mentioned suggests that she was staying in the house where the marriage was celebrated: she was simply there; jesus and the disciples were called, invited, to the wedding. some relationship, it has been suggested, between s. mary and the bride or groom led to her presence in the house. that however is mere conjecture. the marriage in any case was a wonderful one, for both jesus and mary were there. it was therefore the ideal of all weddings which seem to lack the true note of the new matrimony which springs from the incarnation if they take place without such guests. as in imagination we follow mary as she goes quietly about the house, which like her own was a home of the poor, helping in the arrangements of the wedding, one cannot help recalling many weddings with which one has had something to do, and in the arrangements of which we cannot think of mary as having any part. they were the arrangements of the weddings of christians, and the weddings took place in a christian church; but neither is mary there nor jesus called. we are unable to think of mary as present amid the tumult of worldiness and frivolity, the endless chatter over dress and decoration, which so commonly precedes the celebration of a sacrament which is the symbol of "the mystical union that there is betwixt christ and his church." that deep piety which puts god and god's will before all else would strike a jarring note here, where the dominant note is still the pagan note of the decking of the slave for her new master. it is perhaps not without significance of the direction of the movement of the modern mind that the protests of the emancipated woman are against the christian, not the pagan elements in matrimony: she tends to regard marriage as a state of temporary luxury rather than the perfect union of two souls in christ. clearly in marriages which are regarded as purely temporary engagements, dependent on the will of the parties for their continuance, there is no place for the mother of jesus. the purity that emanates from her will be a silent but keenly felt criticism on the whole conception underlying a vast number of modern marriages. even as i write i read that in a certain great city in the united states the number of divorces granted was one fourth of the number of the marriages celebrated. clearly at marriages which are surrounded with this atmosphere of paganism, be they celebrated where they may, there is no place for the blessed mother; and neither is jesus called. his priest, unfortunately, is often called, and dares celebrate a sacrament which in the circumstances he can hardly help feeling is a sacrilege. there are many cases in which what purports to be christian marriage is between those who are not christians, or of whom only one is a christian in any complete sense. one hears frequently of the sacrament of matrimony being celebrated when only one of the parties is baptised. it is of course possible for any priest to act on the authority conferred upon him by the state and in his capacity as a state official perform marriages between those whom the state authorises to be married: but why do it under the character of a priest? or why throw about the ceremony the suggestions of a sacrament? if jesus is really to be called to a marriage, it means that the preparations for the marriage will be largely spiritual. the parties to the marriage will approach the marriage through other sacraments. they will both be members of the church of god by baptism; and they will be, or look forward to becoming, communicants. they will prepare for the sacrament of matrimony by receiving the sacrament of penance, and receiving the communion. what better preparation for starting a new life, for setting out to create a new family in the kingdom of god, a family in which the ideals of the life at nazareth are to be the ruling ideals, than that cleansing of soul that fits them for the beginning of a new life? a priest has great joy when he knows that those who are kneeling before him to receive the nuptial blessing are souls pure in god's sight, dwellings ready and adorned for the coming of christ. for it is the normal and fitting crown of the ceremonies of marriage that jesus be there, that the holy mass be celebrated and that those who have just been indissolubly united may as their first act partake of the bread of heaven which giveth life to the world. i myself would rather not be asked to celebrate a wedding unless it is to be approached with the purity of mary, and sealed by the partaking of jesus. it is so great and wonderful a thing, this sacrament of matrimony. here are two human beings setting out to fulfil the vocation of man to build up the kingdom of god, to set up a new hearth where the love of god may be manifest and where children may be trained in the knowledge and love of god; where the life of christ may find contact with human life and through it manifest god to the world--how wonderful and beautiful and holy all that is! and then to remember what commonly takes place is to be overcome with a sense of what must be the pain of god's heart. we go back to look into the home where mary seems to be directing the arrangements of the wedding feast. it was a poor home and not much could be provided; the wine, so essential to the feast, failed. what was to be done? to whom would mary look? she could have no money to buy wine. one feels that after joseph's death she had come more and more to look to jesus for help of all sorts. the deepening of their mutual love, the completeness of their understanding, would make this the natural thing. s. mary feels that if there is any help in these embarrassing circumstances, any way of sparing the feelings of the bridegroom, jesus will know it and help. there is no doubt in her mind; but the certainty that he can help. so she turns to him with her "they have no wine." the words as we read them contain at once an appeal and a suggestion: an appeal for help, advice, guidance, with the hint that jesus can effectually help if he will. it is not as some have rather crudely thought a suggestion that he perform a miracle, but the appeal of one who has learned to have unlimited trust in him. the reply of our lord cannot fail to shock the english reader; and the very nature of the shock ought to indicate that there is something wrong with the translation. the words sound brusque and ill-mannered; and our lord was never that nor could be, least of all to his blessed mother. the dictionaries all tell us that the word translated woman is quite as well translated lady, in the sense of mistress or house mother. there is really a shade of meaning that we have no word for. perhaps we best understand what it is that is missed if we recall the fact that when our lord addressed s. mary from the cross he used the same word: "woman, behold thy son." in such circumstances we understand that the word on our lord's lips is a word of infinite tenderness. i do not believe that we could do better than to translate it mother. we might paraphrase our lord's saying thus: "mother, we are both concerned with the trouble of these friends; but do not be anxious; i will act when the time comes." his words are perfectly simple and courteous, though they do, no doubt, suggest that her anxiety is unnecessary and that he will act in due time. if we are to understand that our lady was suggesting that he perform a miracle, then he certainly yielded to her intercession. indeed, this short aside in the rejoicing of the marriage celebration is suggestive of wide reaches of thought. it suggests, which concerns us most here, something of the mode of prayer. prayer is not a force exercised upon god, it is an aspiration that he answers or not as he sees fit, according as he sees our needs to be: and if he answers, he answers in his own way and at his own time--when his hour is come. the intercession of the saints, and of the highest saint of all, the holy mother, must thus be conceived as aspiration not as force. we hardly need to remind ourselves that blessed mary though the highest of creatures is still a creature and infinitely removed from the uncreated god. when we think of her prayers or the prayers of the saints as having "influence" or "power" with god, we must remember the limitations of human language. it is quite possible through inaccurate use of language to create the impression that we believe the prayers of the saints to be prevailing with god because of some peculiar spiritual energy that belongs to them, or, still worse, because we regard them as a sort of court favourites who have special influence and can get things done that ordinary people cannot. we need only to state the supposition to see that we do not mean it. when we think what we mean by the influence of the prayers of the saints, of their prevailingness with god, we know that we mean that the superior value of the prayers of the saints is due to the superior nature of their spiritual insight, to their better understanding of the mind and purpose of god. blessed mary is our most powerful intercessor because by her perfect sanctity she understands god better than any one else. no educated christian believes that she can persuade god to change his mind or alter his judgment, or that she or any saint would for a moment want to do so. nor do we who cry for aid in the end want any other aid than aid to see god's will and power to do it: we have no wish or hope to impose our will on god. prayer is aspiration, the seeking for understanding, the submitting our desires to the love of god; and the prayer of the saints helps us because they are our brothers and sisters, of the same household, and join with us in the offering of ourselves to god that we may know and do his holy will. and we can see here in this incident at cana the whole mode of prayer. there is the just implied suggestion of the need, the hint of her own thought about the matter, in the way in which s. mary presents the case to jesus. there is the divine method which approves the end sought but reserves the time and method of fulfilling it to the "hour" which the divine wisdom approves. there is the ideal christian attitude which accepts the divine will perfectly, and says to the servants: "whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." "they have no wine": s. mary's word expresses the present weakness of humanity, man is born in sin, that is, out of union with god. that hoary statement of dogmatic theology seems to stir the wrath of the modern mind more than any other dogma of the christian faith, except it be the dogma of eternal punishment. it is rather an amusing phenomenon that those who have no visible basis for pride are likely to be the most consumed with it. the pride of diogenes was visible through the holes in his carpet; the pride of liberalism is visible in its irritability whenever the subject of sin, especially original sin, is mentioned. yet the very complacency of liberalism about the perfection of man, is but another evidence (if we needed another) of his inherent sinfulness, his weakness in the face of moral ideals. if we confess our sins we are on the way to forgiveness; but if we say that we have no sin the truth is not in us. this boasting of capacity to be pure and strong without god, theologically the pelagian heresy, is sufficiently answered by a cursory view of what humanity has done and does do. even where the christian religion has been accepted the accomplishment is hardly ground for boasting. the plain fact is (and you may account for it how you like, it remains in any case a fact) that human beings are terribly weak in the face of moral and spiritual ideals. they are not sufficiently drawn by them to overcome the tendency of their nature toward a quite opposite set of ideals. we do run easily and spontaneously after ideals which the calm and enlightened judgment of the race, whether christian or non-christian, has continuously disapproved. we know that buddha and mahomet and confucius would repudiate paris and berlin and new york and london with the same certainty if not with the same energy as christ. we live in a time when a decisive public opinion gets its way; and therefore we are quite safe in saying that the misery and sin which go unchecked in the very centres of modern civilisation exist and continue because there is no decided public opinion against them. all attempts at reform which are merely attempts to reform machinery are futile, they can produce only passing and superficial results. there is only one medicine for the disease of the world, and that medicine is the blood of christ. ultimately, one believes, that will be applied; but evidently it will not be applied in any broad way as a social treatment till all the quack remedies have demonstrated their uselessness. the last two centuries have been the flowering time of quacks. the mere history of their theories fills volumes. our own time shows no decline in productiveness, nor decline in hopefulness in the efficacy of the last remedy to bid for support. but the time of disillusionment must some time come. when that time comes all men will lift their eyes, as individual men have always lifted them, up to the hills whence cometh their help. except they had kept their eyes so resolutely fastened on the earth at their feet they would have seen, what has always been visible to those who lift up their eyes, a crucified figure on the one supreme hill of earth,--the hill called calvary. there "one figure stands, with outstretched hands" saying, with inextinguishable optimism, the indestructible optimism of god, "and i, if i be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." what in the end will prevail with them, what will make them turn to the tree which is for the healing of the nations, is the perception that in it is the remedy for the weakness that they have either sought to heal by other means, or have resolutely denied to exist at all. there are men whose wills are so strong that even in the grip of some serious disease they will long go on about their business asserting that there is nothing the matter with them and overcoming bodily pain and weakness by sheer will power; but the end comes finally with a collapse that is perhaps beyond remedy. we live in a society which has the same characteristics, but it may be that it will see its state and turn to healing. for god cannot heal except with our co-operation. christ pleads from the cross, but he can do no more. he will not submit to our tests; he will not come down that we may believe in him. we must come to him, laying aside all our pride and self-will, and kneel by the cross to ask his help. we know, do we not? that that is the law for the individual; that we found the meaning of christ, and what he can do in life, when we laid aside pride and self-will and humbly asked help and pardon. it may be that we resisted a long while, struggling against the pull of the divine magnet; but if we have attained to spiritual peace it is because the cross won, because we found ourselves kneeling at the feet of jesus. perhaps we have not got there yet, but are only on the way. perhaps our religion as yet is a formality and not a devotion. perhaps our pride still struggles against the catholic practice of religion. then why not give way now, to-night? let mary take you and lead you to jesus. she will bring you to him with her half-suggestion, half-prayer: "he has no wine." he has got to the end of his strength, and he has found the weariness of self, he is ready for healing. o my divine son, is not this your opportunity, your "hour"? jesus loves to have us bring one another to him. it is so obviously the response to his spirit, that carrying out of his teaching, so to love the brother that we may bring him to the healing of the cross. to care for the spiritual needs of the brother is a real ministry: it is an extension of christ in us that clothes us with the power to aid other souls in work or prayer. what a beautiful picture of this work there is in the gospel of st. john. "and there were certain greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: the same came therefore to philip, which was of bethsaida of galilee, and desired him, saying, sir, we would see jesus. philip cometh and telleth andrew: and again andrew and philip tell jesus." and this work of presenting souls to jesus which is so clearly one of our chief privileges, how should not that be also the privilege of all the saints, and especially of the holy mother? blessed mary, we may be sure, delights in leading souls who so hesitatingly come to her, to the presence of her son,--just presenting them in their need and with her prayer, which is all the plea that is needed to attract the love and mercy of jesus. "why not," ask certain people who have not thought out the meaning of catholic dogma, "why not go at once to our lord; why go in this roundabout way?" why not? because of our human qualities. because we need company and sympathy. for the same reason precisely that makes us ask one another's prayers here. "the father himself loveth you." why in this roundabout way ask me to pray? you do not come to me because you lack faith in god or in god's love; you come to me because you feel, if only implicitly, that in the body of christ association in love and sympathy and work is a high privilege, and that it is god's will that we should work together and "bear one another's burdens." and the frontiers of the kingdom of god are not the frontiers of the church militant, and its citizens are not only the citizens of the church here below, but--we believe in the communion of saints. the hour of god strikes for any soul when that soul yields to prevenient grace and places itself utterly at the disposal of god, confiding wholly in his divine wisdom. when our lord had answered his blessed mother she turned away satisfied. she did not have to concern herself any further; it was now in jesus' hands to provide as he would. it remained but to see that his will should be carried out when he made it known. submission is a difficult attitude to acquire; but it is such a happy attitude when once one has acquired it. the critics of it wholly mistake it and confound it with fatalism. it is not fatalism, or passive acquiescence in another's will--a will that we have no part in forming and cannot reject. submission is the acceptance of god's will as the expression of the highest wisdom for us. it is not true that we have no part in forming it; it is at any time an expression of god's will for us which is determined by the way in which we hitherto have corresponded to that will. submission means that we have put ourselves in a position of active co-operation with that will, that we have made it ours: because it is the expression of a divine wisdom and love we make it wholly ours. and we have found in the acceptance of it not bondage but liberty. it is wonderful how our preconceived notion of god and religion vanishes before the first gleams of experience. to the unregenerate the service of god is utter bondage; to the regenerate it is perfect freedom. and the difference seems to be accounted for by the reversal of ideals, by a new direction of affections. "i will run the way of thy commandments, when thou hast set my heart at liberty," a true conversion is, perhaps, signified, more than in any other way, by the liberty of the heart,--by this change in the object of our love. that has been the constant exhortation to us, to love that which is worthy of love. "set your affection on things above." "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." and we, loving the world and the things that are in the world, listen impatiently. but there is no possibility of a sincere conversion without a change of love. "a change of heart" conversion is often called, and so inevitably it is. and as we go through our self-examination one of the most profitable questions we can ask is, "what do i love?" that will commonly tell the whole story of the life, for "where a man's treasure is, there will his heart be also." richard rolle said: "truly he who is stirred with busy love, and is continually with jesu in thought, full soon perceives his own faults, the which correcting, henceforward he is ware of them; and so he brings righteousness busily to birth, until he is led to god and may sit with heavenly citizens in everlasting seats. therefore he stands clear in conscience and is steadfast in all good ways the which is never noyed with worldly heaviness nor gladdened with vainglory." cana i o glorious lady, throned in light, sublime above the starry height, whose arms thine own creator pressed, a suckling at thy sacred breast. through the dear blossom of thy womb, thou changest hapless eva's doom; through thee to contrite souls is given an opening to their home in heaven. thou art the great king's portal bright, the shining gate of living light; come then, ye ransomed nations, sing the life divine 'twas hers to bring. mother of love and mercy mild, mother of graces undefiled. drive back the foe, and to thy son lead thou our souls when life is done. all glory be to thee, o lord, a virgin's son, by all adored, with sire and spirit, three in one, while everlasting ages run. part two chapter xiv cana ii and when the wine failed, the mother of jesus saith unto him, they have no wine. jesus saith unto her, woman, what have i to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. s. john ii, , . we, the faithful, bless thee, o virgin mother of god, and glorify thee as is thy due, the city unshaken, the wall unbroken, the unbreakable defence and refuge of our souls. byzantine. "whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." these words have often been called the gospel according to s. mary. they certainly sum up her whole attitude in life. "behold the handmaid of the lord; be it unto me according to thy word," she had said in reply to the message s. gabriel brought her: and that is the meaning of her whole life-story, that she is at all times ready to accept the will of god, to give herself to the fulfilment of the divine purpose. there is no more perfect attitude, for it is the attitude of her divine son whose meat it was to do the will of the father and to finish his work, whose whole life's attitude was compressed into the words of his self-oblation in gethsemane, "not my will, but thine be done." and this is the virtue that jesus christ inculcates upon us. "when ye pray, say, our father which art in heaven ... thy will be done." there is no true religion possible without that attitude. and therefore one is deeply concerned about the immediate future inasmuch as the spirit of obedience, the spirit of jesus, the spirit of mary, is so rare. as one looks into the social development of the christian era, one feels that the life and example of s. mary has been of immense influence in the development of the ideal of womanhood. the rise of woman from a wholly subordinate and inferior condition to a condition of complete equality with man has owed more to s. mary than to any other factor. i am not concerned with political equality; that under our present conditions of social development women should have that equality if they want it seems to me just, but i am by no means satisfied that in the long run it will prove a boon either to them or to society at large. but i am at present thinking of their spiritual equality, which after all is the basis of their other claims; and this comes to them through the gospel, and was shown to the mind of the church largely through s. mary. in the earliest records of the church woman stands on the same level of privilege as man, and the same sort of spiritual accomplishment is expected of her. there are many members of the body of christ and there is a certain spiritual equality among them; but "all members have not the same office." in the holy spirit's distribution of functions within the body there is a difference. some functions, by the allotment of god, women are not called to exercise: these are sacramental and ruling functions. others, as prophecy (the daughters of s. philip), and ministry (the deaconess), are given them. for centuries she recognised this allotment and gave her best energies to her appointed works. she showed herself a true daughter of mary in her loyal acceptance of the divine will and her zeal in its accomplishment. and what was the result? the calendar of saints, filled with the names of women, is the answer. there are no more wonderful works of god than the women whose names are commemorated at the altars of the church and whose intercession is constantly asked throughout catholic christendom. there can be no thought of narrowness of opportunity or limitations in life as we study that wonderful series of women who have illumined the history of the church from the day of s. gabriel's message to this very moment when there are many many women who are faithfully following their vocation and doing god's will, and who will one day be our intercessors about the throne of god and of the lamb, as they are our intercessors in the church on earth to-day. why any woman should complain of lack of opportunity and of the narrowness of the church--the church that has nourished s. mary and s. monica, s. catherine of genoa and s. theresa; the foundresses of so many and so varied religious orders, so many who have devoted their lives to teaching, nursing, conducting works of charity, i am at a loss to understand. to-day we are witnessing all over the world a revolt of women against the church; we hear not infrequent threats of what is to be done to the church by those revolted members. i am afraid that woman is on the edge of another tragedy. she is once more looking fascinated at the fruit which "is good for food, and pleasant to the eyes and to be desired to make one wise," and listening to a voice that whispers: "thou shalt be as god." the question which is becoming more urgent everywhere is, what are the women of the future to be,--the daughters of eve, or the daughters of mary? it is not a question for declamation, but a question that calls for immediate action: and the action must be the action of women. if women clamour for work in the church of god, here it is, and here it is abundantly; and to accomplish it there is no need that they "seek the priesthood also." the work in the church of god is in the first place a work that god has given mothers to do; it is the primary duty of a mother to bring up her children, and especially her daughters, in fear of the lord. that she can always succeed i do not for a moment claim; there are many adverse factors in the situation that she has to deal with. but she is inexcusable if she does not give her effort to the work as the most important work of her life. she is utterly inexcusable and must answer to god for the result if she turn her children over to the care of maids and teachers while she occupies herself with society or any exterior work. in the second place the work of the church of god is a work that ought to appeal to all women and a work that any woman can help in. all women can help the spiritual progress of the church by meditating upon the life of blessed mary and fashioning their lives upon her example. we are all tremendously affected by example, and that is especially true of young girls. their supreme terror seems to be that they should be caught doing or saying something different from what all other girls say or do or wear. their opinions are as imitative as their clothes. hence the need of the pressure of a strong christian example, which would result most readily in the union of christian women in a single ideal. our present difficulty is that so many of our women who are devout members of the church in their private capacity, so far succumb to the group-mind in their social relations that they are possessed by the same terror as the young girl in the face of the possibility of being different. therefore are they careful to hide their real feeling for religion and their devotion to spiritual things under the mask of worldly conformity which evacuates their example of much of the power that it might have. i am quite convinced that fear of the world is about as strong an impulse toward evil as love of the world. we need that women should clear their ideals and realise their public responsibility for the presentation of them. we need terribly at this moment insistence on the purity and simplicity of the holy mother of god. one is stunned at the abandonment of the ideal of reserve and modesty that the last few years have seen. women seem to take it quite gaily: men, one notes, take it much more seriously. i have been consulted by more than one father during the past year as to the possibility of sending a boy to a school where he would be kept out of the society of half-naked girls. have mothers no longer any sense of the value of purity? or have they simply abandoned all responsibility that normally goes with being a mother? one recognises how helpless a man is under the circumstances, that his intervention in such matters simply casts him for the part of family tyrant; but why should a mother abandon her duty simply because her daughter says: "you don't understand. girls are not as they were when you were young. all the girls do this. no other mother takes the line that you do. you are not modern." one knows, of course, that the whole matter of decline in manners and morals is but a part of the world-wide revolt against the morality of jesus christ that we are witnessing everywhere. social and religious teachers, students of history and social movements have seen the approach of this revolt for a long time, have been watching its rise and growth. when they have pointed out the end of the path that we have been travelling, they have been disposed of by calling them pessimists. these "pessimists" pointed out long ago that the denial of the obligation to believe would be followed by an abandonment of all moral standards. they pointed out to the devotees of "liberal religion" that they are in reality the leaders of a moral revolt, that if it does not make any difference what you believe it will soon come to make no difference what you do. it is a rather silly performance to blow up the dam which holds back the mass of water of an irrigation system and imagine that no more water will flow out than you want to flow out. when the protestant revolt blew up the restraining dams of the catholic religion they had no right to expect that only so much denial of catholic truth as it suited them to dispense with would be the result. through the broken dams the whole religion of christ has been flowing out and it is mere empty pretence to claim that all that is of any value is left. it is impossible to maintain anything of the sort now that all the moral content of the christian system is openly thrown overboard by vast numbers of the population of the world, in every country that claims to be civilised. it is useless to say that there has always been evil in the world and that the maintenance of the catholic religion has never anywhere abolished sin. that is true, but it is not to the present point. the social situation is one where there are definite religious and moral ideals strongly maintained and universally recognised, though there are many men and women who violate them; it is quite another situation when the ideals themselves are repudiated and set aside as superstitions. that is our case to-day. the christian theory is confronted with a theory of naturalism in morals, and those who follow that theory do not do so with a feeling that they are violating accepted ideals, but with the assumption that they are missionaries setting forth a new faith. those who have revolted from the kingdom of god have now set up another kingdom and proclaimed openly, "we will not have this man to reign over us." the revolt which began with a breach in the dogmatic system of the church and denial of the authority of the catholic church in favour of the right of private judgment, has ended, as it could not help but end, in open abandonment of the life-ideal of the gospels. we now have the application of the right of private judgment in the theory that one's morals are one's own concern. such things have happened before. "in those days there was no king in israel, but every one did what was right in his own eyes." the social state depicted in the book of judges reflects this revolt. the result of the same repudiation of authority is seen in modern society where what is right in one's own eyes is the whole law and gospel. are we to remain quiescent, or are we to make the attempt to generate moral force? but how can christendom generate any more moral force? the teaching of the gospel which it proclaims is perfectly plain. true, but is the adherence of the church to its statements perfectly plain? is there no falling away, no compromise, there? when one speaks thus of the church one is conscious of a confusion of thought in the use of the word. the teaching of the formal documents of the church is not here in question; what we necessarily mean is the effect that the existing membership of the church is having upon contemporary life. what we have especially in mind is the attitude of the clergy and the action of the congregation in the way of moral force. what sort of a front is the church presenting to the world, what sort of moral influence is it exercising? it seems to me perfectly evident that all along the line the conventions of contemporary society have been accepted in the place of the life-ideals of the gospel of jesus. we have accepted plain departures from or compromises with christian teaching as the recognised law of action. this is due largely to the natural sloth of the human being and his disinclination to struggle for superior standards. he feels safe and comfortable if he can succeed in losing himself in a crowd: thus he escapes both trouble and criticism. a violation of law may become so common that there is no public spirit to oppose it. the same thing may happen in morals,--violations of the christian standard, if sufficiently widespread, command almost universal acquiesence. what is actually uncovered in the process is the fact that the plain man has no morals of his own, but imitates the prevailing morality; and if fashion sets against some particular ruling of the christian religion he feels quite secure in following the fashion. the _vox dei_ in holy scripture and in holy church affect him not at all if he be conscious that he is on the side of the _vox populi_. it is easy to illustrate this. the non-catholic christian world has the bible, and boasts of its adherence to it as the sole guide of life; but in the matter of divorced persons it utterly disregards its teachings. by this acceptance of an unchristian attitude it has vastly weakened the fight for purity in the family relation which the catholic church, at least in the west, has always waged. it deliberately divides the christian forces of the community and to a large extent thereby nullifies their action. the divisions of christendom are terrible from every point of view; but there are certain questions on which a united mind might well be presented, and in relation to which an united mind would go far to control the attitude of society. an united christian sentiment against divorce would go far to reduce the evil. on the other hand the progress of the movement to abolish the evils growing out of the use of alcohol has had its strength in the protestant bodies. on the whole (there were no doubt individual exceptions) the churches of the catholic tradition have been lukewarm in the matter. it is quite evident that the reform could never have been carried through if left to them, and especially if left to the bishops and clergy of the roman and anglican communions. it is a plain case of failure to support a vast moral reform because of the pressure of opinion in the social circles in which they move, combined with a purely individualistic attitude toward a grave social question. another instance is ready at hand in the practical abandonment of the religious observance of sunday. to christians sunday is the lord's day, and is to be observed as such. it is not true that an hour in the morning is the lord's day, and is to be given to worship, and that the rest of the day is given to us to do what we will with. but in our own communion do we get any strong protest in favour of the sanctity of the day? or are not the clergy compromising in the hope that if they surrender the greater part of the day to the world they will be able to save an hour or two for god? but is anything actually saved by this sort of compromise? do we not know that the encroachments of worldliness that have narrowed down sunday observance to an hour a day will ultimately demand that hour, that is, will deny any obligation other than the obligation of inclination? are we not bound to stand by the lord's day? are we to be made lax by silly talk about puritanism? those who talk about the "puritan sunday" would do well to read a little of the medieval legislation of the church. are we to keep silent in the pulpit because wealthy and influential members of the congregation want to play golf and tennis on sunday afternoons, or children want to play ball or go to the movies? are we to be taken in by talk of hard work during the week and consequent need of rest? it is no doubt well that a man should arrange his work with a view to an adequate amount of rest; but it is also well that he should rest in his own time and not in god's. the lord's day is not a day of rest. it ought to be, and is intended to be, a very strenuous day indeed. one could easily spend hours in pointing out where and how the gospel standard of life has been abandoned or compromised, and the life of the christian in consequence conformed to the world. the result would only strengthen the position that has been already sufficiently indicated that a wholly different standard of living has been quietly substituted throughout the western world for the standard that is contained in holy scripture. now we are either bound to be christians or we are not; and we are not christians solely by virtue of certain beliefs more or less loosely held. our lord's word is: "ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever i command you." and the gospel view of life is a perfectly plain one, and is as far removed from the common life of christians to-day as it possibly can be. the gospel conception of the christian life is contained first of all in our lord's life. that is the perfect human life; and the new testament optimism is well illustrated by its conviction that that life in its essential features can, with the grace of god, be imitated by man. and by those who have approached it in this spirit of optimism it has been found imitable. innumerable men and women have lived the christian life in the past and are living it in the present. to-day the possibility of living the christian life, of bringing life approximately to the standard of the gospel, is declared to be an impracticable piece of optimism, and our lord's teaching hopelessly out of touch with reality. when people talk of the difficulty of living the christ-life under modern conditions, the plain answer is that there is in fact only one difficulty in the matter, and that is the difficulty of wanting to do it. it is a confession of utter spiritual incompetence to say that we cannot follow the gospel standards under modern conditions because of the isolation in which we at once find ourselves if we attempt it. if the attempt to be a christian isolates us, it tells a pretty plain tale about our chosen companionship. it is asserting that it is hard for us to be christians because we are devoted to the society of those who are not christians, of those who ignore it and habitually insult the teachings of our saviour. that is surely an extraordinary confession for a christian to make! can we imagine a christian of the first period of the church excusing himself for offering incense to the divinity of augustus on the ground that if he did not do so certain court festivities would be closed to him, and that his friends would think him odd! "ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever i command you," "the friendship of this world is enmity with god." we have to choose. it is not that we may choose. it is not that it is possible to have a little of both. as christians it is quite impossible in any real sense to have the friendship of the world, though many christians think that they can. what really is open to us is the enmity of the world if we are sincere and strict in our profession, and the contempt of the world if we are not. you have not to read very deep in contemporary literature to learn what the world thinks about the christian who ignores or compromises his standards. the world knows perfectly well what constitutes a christian life, and it shows a well merited scorn of those who, not having the courage openly to abandon it, yet show by their lives that they do not value it. we may not show the same sort of contempt for the "weak brother" as s. paul calls him, but we ought to make it plain that we have no sort of approval of the brother who pleads weakness as an excuse for laxity. there is one law of life and only one; and that is summed up in our lady's direction to the servants at cana in galilee: "whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." there is no ground for pleading that our lord's will is an obscure will, or that circumstances have so changed that much that he set forth in word and example has no application to-day in the america of the twentieth century. perhaps if any one feels that there is some truth in the last statement, he would do well to examine the case and to find out just what and how much of the gospel teaching is obsolete, and how much has contemporary application, and to ask himself whether he is constantly putting in action that part which he thinks still holds good. it will, i think, on examination be found that none of our lord's teaching is obsolete, though in some cases changed circumstances may have changed its mode of application. certainly there is nothing obsolete in his teaching in the matter of purity. the virtues that he dwells upon--humility, meekness and the rest--are universal qualities on which time and social change have no effect. what christian conduct needs on our part is interest. we have to make clear to ourselves that a certain kind of life is like the life of god, and therefore is the medium for understanding god, and ultimately for enjoying god. the christian life is not an arbitrary thing; it is the highest expression of humanity. any other life is a distortion of the human ideal. people talk as though they thought that by the arbitrary will of god they were obliged to be good--a thing wholly contrary to our nature and to our present interests. but goodness is the natural unfolding of our nature as god made it: we find our true expression in the likeness of god. perfection is what nature aspires to. religion is not a curb on nature; religion is a help to enable nature to express itself. nature reaches its perfect expression when by the grace of god it becomes godlike. and the words of christ are our guide to the perfect expression of our best. therefore the earnest christian is willing to give time to the careful study of them, and of the whole ideal of life that is contained in them. he is not concerned with what they will cut him off from; he is concerned with that to which they will admit him. he is concerned to find the meaning of christ's teaching. this that s. paul says is fundamental is his rule of life: "be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of god." of one that is so fayr and bright _velut maris stella_, brighter than the day is light, _parens et puella_; i crie to thee, thou see to me, levedy, preye thi sone for me, _tam pia_, that i mote come to thee _maria_. al this world was for-lore _eva peccatrice_, tyl our lord was y-bore _de te genetrice_. with _ave_ it went away thuster nyth and comz the day _salutis_; the welle springeth ut of the, _virtutis_. levedy, flour of alle thing, _rosa sine spina_, thu here jhesu, hevene king, _gratia divina_; of alle thu ber'st the pris, levedy, quene of paradys _electa_: mayde milde, moder _es effecta_. part two chapter xv who is my mother? whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother, s. matt. xii, . grant, we beseech thee, almighty god, that we may keep with an immaculate heart the sacrament which we have received in honour of the blessed virgin mother mary; so that we who celebrate her feast now, may be found worthy when we have left this life to pass into her company. through &c. sarum missal. our blessed lord had begun his ministry of preaching. the mark of the early days of that preaching was success. crowds came about him wherever he taught. the fact that there were frequent miracles of healing no doubt added to the popularity that he achieved. it was largely the popularity of a new and strange movement, of a preaching cutting across the normal roads of instruction to which the jewish people were accustomed. there was a fascination about its form, its picturesque way of conveying its meaning, its use of the parable drawn from the everyday circumstances of life. there was nothing of hesitation in the words of the new preacher, but the ring of a dogmatic certainty. "he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes." he pushed aside the rulings of the traditional teaching with his, "ye have heard it said ... but i say." "verily, verily, i say unto you." and yet there are people who tell us that there was nothing dogmatic about our lord and his teaching! one would infer from much that is written upon the subject of our lord's teaching that he was a very mild giver of good advice but evidently the scribes and pharisees did not think so. they saw in him a man who was setting himself to undermine their whole authority. this popularity was at a high point when an interesting event happened of which we have an account in the first of the gospels. "his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him." one gathers from the whole tone of the narrative that they were anxious about him, that they looked with doubt upon this career of popular teacher that he was launched upon and felt that he was going too far. he needed advice and restraint, perhaps; it may be that there were already reports of possible interference by the national authorities. the fact that his "brethren" were present suggests the well meant interference of the older members of the family, who must always have thought jesus rather strange. that they had induced his mother to come with them makes us think that they were counting on the influence naturally hers, an influence which must always have been apparent in their family relations. so we reconstruct the incident. no doubt s. mary herself was anxious. she must always have been anxious as to what would be the next step in the development of her mysterious child. and while there was one side of her relation to jesus which would always have run out into mystery, the mystery of the as yet unrevealed will of god; on the other side she was no doubt a very real normal human mother, with all a mother's anxiety and need of constant intervention in the life of her child. i do not suppose that s. mary, any more than any other mother, ever understood that her son had grown up and could be trusted to conduct the ordinary affairs of the day without her help. she was no doubt as much concerned as any mother with the fact that his feet might be wet, or that he might not have had any lunch, or that he might have got run over by a passing chariot, or have been taken mysteriously ill. it was, we may think, this mother-attitude which brought her along with the brethren to give some advice as to how to carry on the preaching mission and avoid getting into trouble with the religious authorities. "one said unto him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. but he answered and said unto him that told him, who is my mother? and who are my brethren? and he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, behold my mother and my brethren! for whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my mother, and my sister, and my brother." our lord had a way of turning the passing incidents of the moment to account in his preaching, making them the texts of moral and spiritual teaching. one gathers that more than one of the parables and parabolic sayings was suggested by something that was before the eyes of his hearers. he was quick to seize any spoken word, any question, any exclamation, and to turn it to immediate account. it was so now. the report that his mother and his brethren were seeking him, he made the occasion of a statement of vast import. when we try to think it out, it was not in the least, as it has been perversely understood, an impatient rebuff of an untimely interference, an indication that he did not care for their intervention in a work that they did not understand. there is really nothing of all that, but a seizing of a passing incident as the medium of an universal truth. it is the skill of one who knows that the human attention is caught by a matter, however trifling, which is vividly present. the scene is sharply defined for us: our lord interrupted in his talk; the report of the mother and the brethren seeking him; the obvious interest of the people as to how he will take their intervention; and then the rapid seizing of this interest to make his declaration: "whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my mother, and my sister, and my brother." and what are we to understand him to mean? surely he is declaring that through the revelation of god that he is, there is a new stage in god's work for man being entered upon, and that this new stage will be characterised by the emergence of a new set of relations, relations so important that they throw into the background the ordinary relations of life. he is proclaiming to them the advent of the kingdom of god; and in that kingdom, the service of god will be put first, before all human relations. it will not be antagonistic to human relations; indeed, it will hallow them and raise them to a higher level; but in case they, as not infrequently they will, decline to adjust themselves to the work of the kingdom, or set themselves in opposition to it, then will they be brushed aside, no matter what they be. if we can consecrate our human relations and bring them into god, then will they be ours still with a vast enrichment and a rare spiritual beauty; but if they remain selfish, insist on absorbing all attention and energy, then they must be broken. the love of father and mother and children is an holy thing wherever we find it, but it is capable of becoming a selfish and perverse thing, insistent upon its own ends and declining wider responsibilities. in that case it must be regarded from the standpoint of a higher good: if it stand in the path of the kingdom it must be swept aside. so our lord declared in one of the most searching of his utterances; one of the utterances which we feel could come only from the lips of god: "think not that i am come to send peace on earth: i came not to send peace, but a sword. for i am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. and a man's foes shall be those of his own household. he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." that is the teaching of the incident before us. our lord's primary mission is to declare the will of god, and to make known the mind of the father to all who will heed. their acceptance of this will of the father will bring them into a new relation to him more important than, and transcending, all relations of flesh and blood. but--and this is important to mark--it does not exclude relations of flesh and blood; but it demands that they shall be put on a new basis and be assimilated to the higher relation. in our lord's case they were in fact so assimilated. the blessed mother and the brethren did not resist god's will when they came to understand it. they were, we know, glad of the higher relation, the new privilege. there is no ground at all for the suggestion of any breach between them. they are of the inner circle always in the kingdom of the regenerate. this fundamental truth of christ's teaching, that through him a new and closer relation to the father becomes possible, and that the kingdom is its embodiment, is one of the truths which have received constant lip-service, but have never been really assimilated in the working life of the church. that the church is the body of christ and we his members, and that by virtue of this membership in him we are also members one of another; that we are, at our entrance into the kingdom, made, as the catechism puts it, members of christ, children of god, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven are truths of most marvellous reach and of splendid social implications. but can we say that they have very wide or real acknowledgment? in face of a divided christendom it seems almost farcical to talk of a christian brotherhood. the baptismal membership of the church of god has fallen into group organisations whose mutual antagonism is of the bitterest kind. the so-called "religious press" is perhaps the saddest picture of modern christian life. one could name a half dozen journals off hand, organs of this or that group, every one a sufficient refutation of the claim of the christian religion to be a brotherhood of the redeemed. there is no possible excuse for the tone of such publications. no doubt it is an inevitable result of the state of a divided christendom that there should be disputes and controversies. we shall never reach any expression of the brotherhood that is the church by saying, peace, peace, where there is no peace. the unity we look to must be reached through painful sacrifice and through conflict; and we know that the wisdom that is from above is "first pure, and then peaceable," but it is quite possible while holding with all firmness to the truth, to hold it in the fear and love of god. so long as christendom is thus divided into hostile camps the ideal of brotherhood is impossible of realisation. i do not want however to discuss this matter from the point of view of church unity. i want to point out that within the groups themselves there is small vision of the meaning of the oneness of christ. for brotherhood is the expression of a spiritual reality. it looked for a moment in the early days of the church as though the ideal would be realised. the description of the church was that "all that believed were together, and had all things in common: and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." that was, no doubt, a passing phase of the life of the church in jerusalem, but we have evidence that elsewhere all distinctions based upon social considerations were for the moment swept away. there is "neither jew nor greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in christ jesus." our glimpses of the congregations of the early church are of men and women of all classes held together by the bond of a common membership in christ, so strongly felt as to enable them to forget all worldly distinctions. their sense of redemption was strong. they thrilled with the joy of deliverance from the old life "after the flesh." they knew that they were regenerate, new creations, and that this was the distinction of the brother who knelt beside them at their communions. it mattered not at all what he was in the world, whether he were greek or barbarian, whether he were patrician or freedman, whether he were of the slaves of rome or of caesar's household. the man who knelt to receive his communion might be a great nobleman, the priest who communicated him might be a slave: that did not matter; the significant thing was that they were both one in jesus christ. that did not last. i suppose that it could not be expected to last in an unconverted or half converted world. it could only last on condition of the fairly complete isolation of the christian group from the rest of society, pending the conversion of society as a whole. but it proved impossible to secure the isolation. the only real isolation was in monastic groups which naturally could contain only such men and women as god called to a special sort of life: the whole of society could not be so organised. as the church grew and took in the various social constituents included in the empire, it took them in differentiated as they were. there seems to have been no real effort to break down race distinctions or class distinctions. there were no doubt protests, but the protests were as ineffective then as now. "you cannot change human nature," men say; but that in fact is precisely what christianity claims to do. unless it can change human nature it is a failure. the ideal of christianity is not the abolition of inequality (only a certain sort of social theorists are insane enough to expect that). all men are born unequal in a variety of ways, physical, intellectual, moral; and under any form of society that so far has been invented they are born in social classes which remain very hard realities in spite of our theories. what christianity aims at accomplishing is to transcend these inequalities, natural and artificial, by raising men to a state of spiritual equality, a state which ensures true and full enjoyment of all the privileges of the child of god. in this state there is open to all the gift of sanctifying grace which is the possession of god now, and in the future will unfold into the capacity of the complete participation of the life of heaven. this belongs to, is within the grasp of, any child, any ignorant peasant, any toiler, as much as it is within the grasp of bishop or priest or religious. and this much--and how much it is!--the church has succeeded in accomplishing. it may be slow in offering the riches of the gospel to the unconverted world, but where it has presented the gospel, it presents it to all men as a gospel of salvation and sanctification. when tempted to discouragement let us remember that whatever the shortcoming of the church, it is yet true that every man, woman and child in these united states of america can through its instrumentality, become a saint whenever he desires. but, naturally, to become a saint, effort is necessary. where the church has failed is not in the offer of salvation and sanctity, but in removing some of of the obvious obstacles to its attainment by many to whom it appeals, to whom its divine mission is. it has not succeeded in convincing us that we are members one of another, that is, it has not succeeded in persuading us to act upon what we profess in any broad way. the church is not a fellowship in any comprehensive sense. the divisions which run through secular society and divide group from group run through it also. the parish which should be the exemplification of the christian brotherhood in action is not so. too often a parish is known as the parish of a certain social group. there are parishes to which people go to get "into society." very likely they do not succeed, but that is the sort of impression that the parish membership has made upon them. then there are parishes to which people "in society" would not be transferred. there are churches in which no poor person would set foot, not that they would be unwelcome, but that they would feel out of place. so long as such things are true, our practice of brotherhood has not much to commend of it. and when we go about setting things right i am not sure that we do not mostly make them worse. i do not believe that it is the business of the church to set about the abolition of inequalities and the getting rid of the distinctions between man and man. apart from the waste of time due to attempting the impossible, what would be gained? pending the arrival of the social millenium we need to do something; and that something, it seems to me a mistake to assume must be social. "we must bring people together": but what is gained by bringing people together when they do not want to be together, and will not actually get together when you force them into proximity. there is nothing more expressive of the failure of well-meant activity than a church gathering where people at once group themselves along the familiar lines and decline to mix, notwithstanding the utmost endeavours of clergy and zealous ladies to bring them together. the thing is an object lesson of wrong method. is there a right method? there must be, though no one seems to have found it yet. there is in any case a right point of departure in our common membership in jesus christ. suppose we drop the supposition that we make, i presume because we think it pious, that if they are both christians a dock labourer ought to be quite at home at a millionaire's dinner party, or a scrub-woman in a box at the metropolitan opera house. suppose we drop the attempt to force people together on lines which will be impossible till after the social revolution has buried us all in a common grave, and fasten attention on the one fact that, from our present point of view, counts, the fact that we are christians. suppose one learns to meet all men and all women simply on the basis of their religion; when that forms the bond that unites us when we come together, we have at once common grounds of interest in the life and activities of the body of christ. suppose the millionaire going down town in his motor sees his clerk walking and stops and picks him up, and instead of talking constrainedly about the weather or about business, he begins naturally to talk to him about spiritual matters. why could they not talk about the mission that has just been held, or the quiet day that is in prospect? one great trouble, is it not? is that we fight shy of talking to our fellow-christians of the interests that we really have in common and try to put intercourse on some other ground where we have little or nothing in common. the things that should, and probably do, vitally interest us, we decline to talk about at all. we are so stiff and formal and restrained in all matter of personal religious experience that we are unable to express the fact of christian brotherhood. the fact that you smile at the presentment of the case, that you cannot even imagine yourself talking about your spiritual experience with your clerk or your employer, shows how far you are from a truly christian conception of brotherhood. our lord's words that we are making our subject indicate the paramount importance that he laid upon the acceptance of god's will as the ultimate rule of life. "whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my mother, and my sister, and my brother." "ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever i command you." that is the common ground on which we are all invited to stand, the ground of a common loyalty to god, of intense zeal for the cause of god. our lord gave his whole life to that cause. as his disciples watched him on an occasion, they remembered that it was written: "the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." zeal is not a very popular quality because it is always disturbing the equanimity and self-complacency of lukewarm people. and then, we dislike to be thought fanatics. but i fancy that there will always be a touch of the fanatic about any very zealous christian, and it is not worth while to suppress our zeal for fear of the world's judgment upon it. what we have to avoid is the misdirection of zeal. there is, no doubt, a zeal which is "not according to knowledge." we need to be sure, in other words, that our zeal is a zeal for god, and not a zeal for party or person or cause. it is no doubt quite easy to imagine that we are seeking to do god's will when we are merely seeking to impose on our own will. self-seeking is quite destructive of the friendship and service of god. the kingdom whose interests we are attempting to forward may turn out to be a kingdom in which we expect to sit on the right hand or the left of the throne because of the brilliance of the service rendered. life is simplified very much when the will of god thus becomes its guiding principle, and all other relations of life are subordinated to our relation to our heavenly father. then have we brought life to that complete simplicity which is near akin to peace. when we have learned in deciding any line of action not to think what our neighbours and friends will feel, or what the world will think, but only what god will think, we have little difficulty in making up our minds. suppose that a boy has to make up his mind whether he will study for the priesthood, the vital thing on which to concentrate his thought and prayer is whether god is calling him to that life, and if he is convinced that he is being called the whole question should be settled. in fact in most cases it is far from being settled because this simplicity has not been attained. there is a whole social circle to be dealt with, who urge the hardness of the life, the scant reward, the greater advantages of a business career, and so on; all of which have absolutely nothing to do with the question to be decided. it is so all through life. in most questions of life's decisions, no doubt, there is no sense of any vocation at all, of a determining will of god; but is not that because we assume that god has no will in such matters, and leaves us free to follow our own devices? such an assumption is hardly justified in the case of one to whom the fall of a sparrow is a matter of interest. it is our weakness, or the sign of our spiritual incompetence, that we have unconsciously removed the greater part of life from the jurisdiction of the divine will. we do not habitually think of god as interested in the facts of daily experience; we do not take him with us into offices and factories. perhaps we think that they are hardly fit places for god, and i have no doubt that he has many things to suffer there. but he is there, and will suffer, until we recognise his right there, and insist upon his there being supreme. let us go back for a moment to our lady standing outside the place where jesus was preaching, perplexed and worried at the course he was taking. i suppose that it is always easier to surrender ourselves unreservedly into god's hands than it is to so surrender some one we love. i suppose that s. mary so trusted in god that she never thought with anxiety of what his providence was preparing for her; but she would not quite take that attitude about her son; or rather, while she did intellectually, no doubt, take that attitude, her feelings never went the whole distance that her mind went. but surrender to the will of god means complete surrender of ourself and ours. it means absolute confidence in god, it means lying quiet in his arms, as the child lies still in the arms of his mother. it means that we trust god. rose-mary, sum of virtue virginal, fresh flower on whom the dew of heaven downfell; o gem, conjoined in joy angelical, in whom rejoiced the saviour was to dwell: of refuge ark, of mercy spring and well, of ladies first, as is of letters a, empress of heaven, of paradise and hell-- mother of christ, o mary, hail, alway. o star, that blindest phoebus' beams so bright, with course above the empyrean crystalline; above the sphere of saturn's highest height, surmounting all the angelic orders nine; o lamp, that shin'st before the throne divine, where sounds hosanna in cherubic lay, with drum and organ, harp and cymbeline-- mother, of christ, o mary, hail, alway, o cloister chaste of pure virginity, that christ hath closed 'gainst crime for evermo'; triumphant temple of the trinity, that didst the eternal tartarus o'erthrow; princess of peace, imperial palm, i trow, from thee our samson sprang invict in fray; who, with one buffet, belial hath laid low-- mother of christ, o mary, hail, alway, thy blessed sides the mighty champion bore, who hath, with many a bleeding wound in fight, victoriously o'erthrown the dragon hoar that ready was his flock to slay and smite; nor all the gates of hell him succour might, since he that robber's rampart brake away, while all the demons trembled at the sight-- mother of christ, o mary, hail, alway, o maiden meek, chief mediatrix for man, and mother mild, full of humility, pray to thy son, with wounds that sanguine ran, whereby for all our trespass slain was he. and since he bled his blood upon a tree, 'gainst lucifer, our foe, to be our stay, that we in heaven may sing upon our knee-- mother of christ, o mary, hail, alway, hail, pearl made pure; hail, port of paradise; hail, ruby, redolent of rays to us; hail, crystal clear, empress and queen, hail thrice; mother of god, hail, maid exalted thus; o gratia plena, tecum dominus; with gabriel that we may sing and say, benedicta tu in mulieribus-- mother of christ, o mary, hail, alway. william dunbar, xv-xvi. cents. part two chapter xvi holy week i then all the disciples forsook him and fled. s. matt. xxvi, . through the intercession of the holy mother of god, accept, o lord, our prayers and save us. may the holy mother of god and all the saints be our intercessors with the heavenly father, that he may deign to be merciful to us, and in pity save his creatures. lord god all-powerful! save us and have mercy upon us. through the intercession of the holy mother of god, the immaculate mother of thine only son, and through the prayers of all the saints, receive, o lord, our supplications; hear us, o lord, and have mercy upon us; pardon us, bear with us, and blot out our sins, and make us worthy to glorify thee, together with thy son and the holy ghost, now and ever, world without end. amen. armenian. we try to see our lord's passion through the eyes of his blessed mother. we feel that all through holy week she must have been in direct touch with the experiences of our lord. her outlook would have been that of the apostolic circle the record of which we get in the gospels. our lord's ministry had showed a period of popularity during which it must have seemed to those closest to him that they were moving rapidly to success; and then, after the day at caeserea phillipi, when his messianic claims had been acknowledged, they would have been filled with enthusiasm for the mission the meaning of which was now defined. then came a period of disappointment. our lord declined to become a popular leader, and by the nature of his preaching, the demands that he made upon those who were inclined to support him lost popularity till it was a question to be considered whether the very apostles would not desert him. then came the flash of renewed enthusiasm which is evidenced by the palm sunday entry, bringing, no doubt, renewed hopes to those nearest our lord who seem to have been utterly unable to accept the view of his failure and death that he kept before them. but the hope vanished as quickly as it was roused. in less than a week the rejoicing group of sunday followed him from the upper chamber to the shades of gethsemane. the betrayal, the trial, the end, come quickly on. this to s. mary was the piercing of the sword through the very heart. these were the days when the meaning of close association with incarnate god, with god who was pursuing a mission of rescue, came out. the mission of the son for the redemption of man meant submitting to the extremity of insult and torture, and it meant that those who were closest associated with him should be caught into the circle of his pain. as our lord was displaying the best of which humanity is capable, so was he calling out the worst of which it is capable. these last days of the life of jesus show where man can be led when he surrenders himself to the dominion of the power of evil and becomes the servant of sin. the triumph of demoniac malice through its instruments, the roman governor, the jewish authorities, of necessity swept over all who were related to our lord. the storm scattered the apostolic group and left the christ to face his trial alone. yet not alone: he himself tells us the truth. "behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet i am not alone, because the father is with me." it was what the prophet had foreseen: "all ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, i will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." we do not know where s. mary was during these days, but we are sure that she was as near our lord as it was possible for her to be. we know that her own thought would be of the possibility of ministering to him. we know that she would not have fled with the apostles in their momentary panic. she was at the cross, and she was at the grave, and she would have been as near him in the agony and the trial as it was possible for her to be. and she too was in agony. every pang of our lord found echo in her. every blow that fell upon his bleeding back, she too felt. every insult that the soldiers inflicted, hurt her. our lord in the consciousness of his mission is constantly sustained by the thought that his passion and death is an offering to the will of the father,--an offering even for these miserable men who are brutally treating a man whom they know to be innocent. her sorrow is the utter desolation of seeing the one whom she loves above all else suffer, while she can bear him no alleviation in his suffering, cannot so much as wipe the blood from off his wounded brow, cannot even touch his hand, and look her love into his eyes. she follows from place to place while our lord is being hustled from caiaphas to pilate and from pilate to herod and back again; from time to time hearing from some one who has succeeded in getting nearer, how the trial is going on, what the accusation is, how jesus is bearing himself, what answers he has made, what the authorities have said. once and again, it may be, catching a distant glimpse of him as he is led about by the guards, seeing him always more worn and weary, always nearer the point of collapse. herself, too, nearer collapse; yet going on still with that strength that love gives to mothers, determined at the cost of any suffering to be near him, as near as she can be, till the very end. so we see her on that day in the streets of jerusalem, and think of the distance travelled since the morning when gabriel said to her, wondering: "hail thou that art highly favoured.... blessed art thou among women." we, too, follow. we have so often followed, with the gospel in our hands, and wondered at the method of god. we have tried hour after hour to penetrate the meaning of the passion, to find what personal message it brings, to discover what light it throws on our own lives. we have gone out into gethsemane and placed ourselves with the three chosen apostles while our lord went on to pray by himself; and we have discovered in ourselves the same weariness, the same tendency to sleep, in the presence of what we tell ourselves is the most important of all interests. we call up the scene under the olives, and find that we wander and are inattentive and idle when we most want to be attentive and alert. we place ourselves in the group that surrounds our lord when the soldiers, led by judas, come, and ask ourselves shall i too run away? and our memory flashes the answer: you have run away again and again: you have in the face, not of grave dangers, but of insignificant trifles--how insignificant they look now--for fear of criticism, for fear of being thought odd, for fear of the opinion of worldly companions, for fear of being pitied or laughed at, over and over again you have run away. the things that seemed important when they were present seem pitifully insignificant in the retrospect. we follow out of the garden to the meeting-place of the sanhedrin, to the judgment seat of pilate, to the palace of herod. any impulse to criticise s. peter is speedily suppressed: we have denied so often under such trifling provocation. s. peter was frightened from participation in the act of our lord's sacrifice through mortal fear of his life. we have stayed away from the offering of the holy sacrifice, how often! from mere sloth, from disinclination to effort, from the fact that our participation would prevent us from joining in some act of worldly amusement. s. peter, following to the high priest's palace to see the end, looks heroic beside our frivolity. we follow through the details of the trial, we go to herod's palace and see the brutal treatment of our lord, and we remember of these men that their conduct was founded in ignorance. we do not for a moment believe that they would have spit upon our lord and buffeted him, and crowned him with a crown of thorns, if they had believed that he was god. but we believe that he is god. our desertion of him when we sin, our contempt of his expressed ideals when we compromise with the world, our departure from his example when we excuse ourselves on the ground of very minor inconveniences from keeping some holy day or fasting day, are not founded in ignorance at all. they can hardly be said to be founded in weakness, so slight is the temptation that we do not resist. as we meditate on the passion, as we keep good friday, very pitiful all our idleness and subterfuges appear to us. but we so easily shake off the effect! we emerge from our meditation almost convinced that the stinging sense of the truth of our conduct which we are experiencing is the equivalent of having reformed it. we go out with a glow of virtue and by night realise that we have sinned again! it is no doubt well that we should not be permanently depressed about our spiritual state, but only because we have taken all the pains we can to heal the wounds of sin. there is no need that any one should abide in a state of sin because there has been in the precious blood a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and by washing therein, though our souls were as scarlet, they shall become white as snow. we have the right to a certain optimism about ourselves if it be founded on actual spiritual activity which ceaselessly tries to reproduce the christ-experience in us, even the experience of the passion by the voluntary self-discipline to which we subject ourselves. a brilliant writer has spoken of those whose view of their lives is drawn from "that fountain of all optimism--sloth." that is a true saying: our optimism is often no more than an idle refusal to face facts; a quaint and good-natured assumption that nothing very much matters and that everything will be all right in the end! this easy going optimism is commonly as far as possible from representing any spiritual fact. if we are seeking any serious and fruitful relation to the passion of our lord, we must seek it along the way of the cross. to follow his example means to follow his experience, to treat life as he treated it. the content of our lives is quite different, but the treatment of the given fact must be essentially the same. we need the same repulse of temptation, the same quiet disregard of the appeals of the world, whether it offer the alleviation of difficulty or the bestowal of pleasure as the reward of our allegiance. and we, sinners in so manifold ways, need what our lord did not need, repulsion from our sins as the necessary preliminary to forgiveness. my experience makes me feel very strongly that we are apt to be deficient in the first step in repentance--contrition. as we follow the way of sorrows we know that our lord is suffering _for us_; and we feel that the starting point of our repentance must lie in our success in making that a personal matter. in our self examination, in our approach to the sacrament of penance, we are compelled to ask ourselves, am i in fact sorry for my sins? it surely is not enough that we fear the results of sin, or that we are ashamed at our failure. this really is not repentance but a sort of pride. there must, i feel, be sorrow after a godly sort. that is, true contrition, true sorrow for sin, is the sort of sorrow which is born of the vision of god; it has its origin in love. i have found in our lord love giving itself to me, and i must find in myself love giving itself to him. to my forgiveness it is not enough that god loves me. i know that he loves me and will love me to the end, whether i repent or not; but the possibility of forgiveness lies in my love of him, whether it takes such hold on me as actually to stimulate me to forsake sin. i shall never really forsake sin through shame or fear; one gets used to those emotions after a little and disregards them. but one does not get used to love; it grows to be an increasing force in life, and so masters us as to draw us away from sin. contrition then will be the offspring of love. it will be born when we follow christ jesus out on the sorrowful way and understand that he is going out for us. then we want to get as near him as possible: we want to take his hand and go by his side. we want to stand by him in his trial and share his condemnation. we want constantly to tell him how sorry we are that we have brought him here. we shall not be content that he feel all the pain. we are convinced that we ought to share in the pain as we share in the results of the passion. when we have achieved this point of view we shall feel that our approach to him to ask his forgiveness needs, it may be, much more care than we have hitherto bestowed upon it. we have thought of penance as forgiveness; now we begin to see how much the attitude which precedes our entrance to the confessional counts, and that we must value the gift of god enough to have made sure that we are ready to receive it. we kneel down, therefore, and look at our crucifix, and say: "this hast thou done for me," and make our act of love in which we join ourselves to the cross of jesus. we tell ourselves that love is the beginning and end of our relation to him. it is to be urged that every christian should be utterly familiar with the life of our lord, and should spend time regularly in meditation upon his life, and especially upon his passion. love is the constant counteractive of familiarity; and it is kept fresh in our souls by the contemplation of what our lord has actually done for us. a general recalling of what he has done has not the same stimulating force as the vivid placing before us of the actual details of his work. to most of us visible aids to the realisation of our lord's action for us are most helpful. a crucifix on the wall of one's room before which one can say one's prayers, and before which also we stop for a moment time and again in the course of the day, just to say a few words, to make an act of love, of contrition, or of union, keeps the thought of the passion fresh. we gain in freshness and variety of prayer by the use of such devotions as the litany of the passion or the way of the cross. a set of cards of the stations help us to say them in our homes. it is much to be desired that we accustom ourselves to devotional helps of all sorts. we are quite too much inclined to think that there is something of spiritual superiority in the attempt to conduct our devotional life without any of the helps which centuries of christian experience have provided. it is the same sort of feeling that makes other christians assume that there is a superiority in spiritual attainment evidenced by their dispensing with "forms," especially with printed prayers. it is just as well to remember that we did not originate the christian religion, but inherited it; and that the practices of devotion that have been found helpful by generations of saints, and after full trial have retained the approval of the greater part of christendom, can hardly be treated as valueless, much less as superstitious. the fact that saints have found them valuable and one has not, may possibly not be a criticism of the saints. the meditation upon the way of the cross, the vision of jesus scourged, spitted upon, crowned with thorns, may well give us some searchings of heart in regard to our own easy-going, luxurious life. nothing seems to disturb the modern person so much as the suggestion that the chief business of the christian religion is not to look after their comfort. they hold, it would appear, to the pre-christian notion that prosperity is an obvious mark of god's favour, and that by the accumulation of wealth they are giving indisputable evidence of piety. it is well to recall that there is no such dangerous path as that of continual success. i do not in the least mean to imply that success is sinful or indicates the existence of sin, but i do mean to insist very strongly that the successful man needs to be a very spiritually watchful man. he is quite apt to think that he may take all sorts of liberties with the laws of god. there are, no doubt, evident dangers to the unsuccessful man, but the holy scriptures have not thought it worth while to spend much time in denouncing him. it has a good deal to say of the danger, not so much of wealth, as of prosperity in general: "behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease were in her." when we find ourselves in a satisfied and comfortable home life, so comfortable that we find it difficult to get up to a week-day mass, and disinclined to go out to a service after dinner, we need watching. and the best watchman is oneself; and the best method of self-examination is by the cross. is there any sense in which we can be said to be following our lord on the sorrowful way? have we taken up the cross to go after him, or are we assuming that we can just as well drift along with the crowd of those who only look on? we all need from time to time to consider the catholic teaching as to mortification and self-discipline. i am quite aware that to insist on this is not the way of popularity, but nevertheless i learned a long time ago that about the only way that a priest can take if he wishes to be saved is the way of unpopularity. and therefore i am going to insist that the practice of rigorous self-discipline is essential to any healthy christian life. we cannot dispense ourselves from this, for the mere fact that we are dispensing ourselves is the proof that we need that upon which we are turning our back. briefly, what i mean is that the assumption of the cross by a christian means that he is taking into his life, voluntarily, personal acts of self-sacrifice which he offers to our lord as the evidence and the means of his own cross-bearing. the unruliness of our nature can only be kept in order by continual acts of self-discipline. we, no doubt, recognise the need of the discipline of the passions, but our theory, so far as we can be said to have one, would seem to be that the discipline of the passions means resistence to special temptations as they arise. we may no doubt sin through the passions, and therefore we need a minimum of watchfulness to meet temptations which come our way. i submit that such a way of conducting life is quite sufficient to account for the vast amount of failure we witness or, perhaps, experience. when from time to time the country gets alarmed about its health, when it is threatened with some epidemic such as influenza, the papers are full of medical advice the sum of which is you cannot dodge all the disease germs that are in the air, but you can by a vigorous course of exercise and by careful diet, keep yourself in a state of such physical soundness that the chances are altogether favourable for your withstanding the assaults of disease. no doubt the vast majority of people prefer not to follow this advice. a considerable number of them resort to various magic cults, such as letting sudden drafts of cold air in upon the inoffensive bystander with a view to exorcising the germs. but it remains that the medical advice is sound: it amounts to saying, "keep yourself in the best physical condition possible and you will run the minimum chance of being ill." the catholic treatment of life and its recommendation of discipline and mortification has precisely the same basis as the physical advice--an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. we are exposed to temptation constantly, and we need to recognise the fact and prepare ourselves to meet it; and the best preparation is the preparation of self-discipline for the purpose of keeping rebellious nature under control. good farming does not consist in pulling up weeds; it consists in the choice and preparation of the ground in which the seed is to be sown; it looks primarily to the growth of the seed and not to the elimination of the weeds. our nature is a field in which the word of god is sown; its preparation and care is what we need to focus attention on, not the weeds. self-discipline is the preparation of nature, the discipline of the powers of the spiritual life with a view to what they have to do. and one of the important phases of our preparation is to teach our passions obedience, to subject them to the control of the enlightened will. if they are accustomed to obey they are not very likely to get out of hand in some time of crisis. if they are broken in to the dominion of spiritual motive, they will instinctively seek that motive whenever they are incited to act. hence the immense spiritual value of the habitual denial to ourselves of indulgence in various innocent kinds of activity. i do not at all mean that we are never to have innocent indulgences: i do mean that the declining of them occasionally for the purpose of self-discipline is a most wholesome practice. how frequently it is desirable must be determined by the individual circumstances. it is utterly disastrous to permit a child to have everything it wants because there is sufficient money to spend, to permit it to run to soda fountains or go to the picture houses as it desires. any sane person recognises that; but does the same person recognise the sane principle as applying in his own life? does he feel the value of going without something for a day or two, or staying from places of amusement for a time, or of abandoning for a while this or that luxury? the principle is of course the ascetic principle of self-mastery. it is best brought before us by the familiar practice of fasting, which is very mildly recommended to us in its lowest terms in the table in the book of common prayer. naturally, its value is not the value of going without this or that, but the value of self-mastery. the very fact that our appetites rebel at the notion shows their undisciplined character. the child at the table begins to ask, not for a sensible meal founded on sound reasons of hygiene, but for various things that are an immediate temptation to the appetite. the adult is not markedly different save that he preserves a certain order in indulgence. the principle of fasting is that he should from time to cut across the inclination of appetite, and either go without a meal altogether, or select such food as will maintain health without delighting appetite. so man gains the mastery over the animal side of his nature and shows himself the child of god. the actual practice of the ascetic life really carries us much farther than these surface matters of a physical nature that have been cited. it applies in particular to the disposition of time and the ruling of daily actions. the introduction of a definite order into the day actually seems to increase the time at one's disposal. i know, i can hear you saying: "if you were the head of a family, and had children to look after, you would not talk that way. you would know something of the practical difficulties of life." but indeed i am quite familiar with the situation. and if i were so situated i am certain that i should feel all the more need of order. families are disorderly because we let them be; because we do not face the initial trouble of making them orderly. a school or a factory would be still more disorderly than a family if it were permitted to be. any piece of human mechanism will get out of order if you will let it. that is precisely the reason for the insistence on the ascetic principle--this tendency of life to get out of order; that is the meaning of all that i have been saying, of the whole catholic insistence on discipline. time can be controlled; and, notwithstanding american experience, children can be controlled; and control means the rescuing of the life from disorder and sin, and the lifting it to a level of order and sanity and possible sanctity. we cannot hope to meet successfully the common temptations of life except we be prepared to meet them, except there be in our life an element of foresight. an undisciplined and untried strength is an unknown quantity. the man who expects to meet temptation when it occurs without any preparation is in fact preparing for failure. i do not believe that there is any other so great a source of spiritual weakness and disaster as the going out to meet life without preceding discipline, thus subjecting the powers of our nature to trials for which we have not fitted them. self-control, self-discipline, ascetic practice, are indispensible to a successful christian life. o star of starrès, with thy streamès clear, star of the sea, to shipman light or guide, o lusty living, most pleasant t'appear, whose brightè beames the cloudès may not hide: o way of life to them that go or ride, haven from tempest, surest up t'arrive, o me have mercy for thy joyès five. * * * * * o goodly gladded, when that gabriel with joy thee gret that may not be numb'rèd, or half the bliss who couldè write or tell, when th' holy ghost to thee was obumbrèd, wherethrough the fiendès were utterly encombrèd? o wemless maid, embellished in his birth, that man and angel thereof hadden mirth. john lydgate of bury, xv cent. from chaucerian and other poems, edited by w. w. skeat, . part two chapter xvii holy week ii and after they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. s. matt. xxvii, . forgive, o lord, we beseech thee, the sins of thy people: that we, who are not able to do anything of ourselves, that can be pleasing to thee, may be assisted in the way of salvation by the prayers of the mother of thy son. who. having partaken of thy heavenly table, we humbly beseech thy clemency, o lord, our god, that we who honour the assumption of the mother of god, may, by her intercession, be delivered from all evils. through. old catholic. the way of the cross is indeed a sorrowful way. we have meditated upon it so often that we are familiar with all the details of our lord's action as he follows it from the judgment seat of pilate to the place of a skull. i wonder if we enough pause to look with our lord at the crowds that line the way, or at those who follow him out of the city. it is not a mere matter of curiosity that we should do so, or an exercise of the devout imagination; the reason why we should examine carefully the faces of those men who attend our lord on the way to his death is that somewhere in that crowd we shall see our own faces: it is a mirror of sinful humanity that we look into there. all the seven deadly sins are there incarnate. it is extremely important that we should get this sort of personal reaction from the passion because we are so prone to be satisfied with generalities, to confess that we are miserable sinners, and let it go at that! but to stop there is to stop short of any possibility of improvement, because we can only hope to improve when we understand our lives in detail, when we face them as concrete examples of certain sins. there was pride there. it was expressed by both roman and jewish officialism which looked with scorn on this obscure fanatic who claimed to be a king! pilate had satisfied himself of his harmlessness by a very cursory examination. this galilean prophet with his handful of followers, peasants and women, who had deserted him at the first sign of danger, was hardly worth troubling about. the only ground for any action at all was the fear that the jewish leaders might be disagreeable. those jewish leaders took a rather more serious view of the situation because they knew that through the purity of his teaching and his obvious power to perform miracles, a power but just now once more strikingly demonstrated in the raising of lazarus, he had a powerful hold on the people. they, these jewish leaders, declined a serious examination of the claims of such a man in their pride of place and knowledge of the scriptures. they were concerned to sweep him aside as a possible leader in a popular outbreak, not as one whose claim to the messiahship needed a moment's examination. this intellectual pride is one of the very greatest sins to which humanity is tempted. it goes very deep in its destructive force because it is a sin, preeminently, of the spiritual nature, of that in us which is akin to god, his very image. it is, you will remember, the sin on which our lord centres his chief denunciation. and common as it has always been, it has never been so common as it is to-day. pilate and the chief priests are duplicated in every community in the thousands who reject christianity without any adequate examination as incredible in view of what they actually hold, or as inconvenient in view of what they desire to practice. we have only to read very superficially in the current literature of the day, we have only to examine the teaching in colleges, to be completely convinced of the vast extent of the revolt against the christian religion. this revolt is for the most part a revolt without adequate examination. it assumes that the christian religion is contrary to science, or to something else that is established as true. it looks at christianity superficially through the eyes of those who reject it and are ignorant of it. the fact is that christianity cannot be understood in any complete sense of the word by those who do not practice it. its "evidence" is no doubt of great force; of sufficient force to lead men to experiment; but the actual comprehension of christ as the saviour of man is an experience. the operation of the holy spirit in life is necessarily proved, and only completely proved, by the action of the spirit himself. another demonstration of the same pride is seen in the refusal, without adequate examination, to accept the catholic religion, and the picking and choosing among articles of belief and sacraments and practices as to what we will use or observe. men do not like this or that, and they therefore decline it. the whole attitude is one of self-will and pride. whatsoever comes to us with a great weight of christian experience back of it certainly deserves careful consideration; it demands of us that we treat it as other than a matter of taste. pride is the commonest of sins and the most dangerous for it attacks the very heart of the spiritual life. it runs, to be sure, through a broad range of experience and not all manifestations of pride are mortal sin; but all manifestations of it are subtle and insidious and capable of expansion to an indefinite degree. for there is no difference in nature between the spiritual attitude of the person who says, "i do not see any sense in that and will not do it," when the matter in question may be the church's rule of fasting, and that of the man who before pilate's judgment seat cried out, "we have no king but caesar." it was in fact because they found their own power and place threatened that the jewish authorities were so determined on our lord's death. their sin from this point of view was the sin of covetousness. this sin reaches its highest point when it is greed for power over other men's lives and destinies, when it is ready to sacrifice the lives of others in order to gain or maintain its ends. in this broad sense it is the most socially destructive of sins. the wars of the world for these many years have been wars for commercial supremacy. the world is being continually exploited by commercial enterprises which will stop at nothing to gain their ends. some day a history of the last two hundred years will be written which will tell the story of the commercial expansion of the world we call civilised, and it will be the most horrible book that has ever been written. it will contain the story of the spanish colonisation of america. it will contain the history of the slave trade. it will contain the history of the belgian congo, and of the rubber industry in south america. it will contain the history of the american indian and of the opium trade of india--and of many like things. but while we shudder at the world-torturing ways of the pursuit of wealth, of the world-wide seeking of money and power, we need not forget that the sin of covetousness is as common as any sin can be. it is so common and so subtle that it is almost impossible to know how far one is a victim of it. it is deliberately taught to us as children under the guise of thrift, which if it be a virtue is certainly one that the saints have overlooked. we are constantly called on to strike a balance between what are the proper needs of life and what is an improper concentration of attention upon ourselves. waste of money, like waste of any other energy, is a sin; but it is a very nice question as to what is waste. i think it a pretty safe rule to give expenditure the benefit of the doubt when it is for others, and to deny it when it is for self. however, i imagine that those who are conscientiously trying to conduct their lives as the children of god will have little difficulty in this matter. the real trouble is not in the matter of expenditure but in the matter of gain. the ethics of business are very far from being the ethics of the gospel, and we are often frankly told by those engaged in business that it cannot be successfully conducted on the basis of the ethics of the gospel, that it is not so conducted is sufficiently obvious from a cursory scanning of the advertising columns of any newspaper or magazine. the ideal of the business world is success. naturally, one cannot carry on an unsuccessful business, but need it be success by all means and to all extents? are there no limits to the methods by which business is to be pushed, except legal limits? if there is no room for christian ethics in the business world there can be but one end; competitive business will lead the civilisation that it controls to inevitable disaster. our lord said: "take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth." and he went on to speak a parable which has come to be known as the parable of the rich fool. the "practical man" may be as angered as he likes by this teaching, but in his soul he knows that our lord was right. when such things are pointed out from the pulpit the "practical man" says: "what would become of the church were it not for the rich and the successful?" i think that the answer is that in that case the church would no more represent the rich and would have a fair chance of once more representing jesus christ. it may seem at the first sight that of the mortal sins lust was not represented here upon the sorrowful way; but that, i think is but a superficial analysis of the nature of lust, thinking only of some manifestations of it. there is however one sin that has its roots deep in lust which psychologists tell us is one of its commonest manifestations, and that is cruelty. lust is not always, but commonly, cruel; and the desire to inflict pain on others is a very common form of its expression. there are sights we have seen or incidents we have read of, it may be a boy torturing an animal or another child, it may be a shouting mass of men about a prize-ring, it may be soldiers sacking a town,--when the action seems so senseless that we are at a loss to account for it; but the account of it lies in the mystery of our sensual nature, in the ultimate animal that we are. the savage joy that is being expressed by the participants in such scenes is ultimately a sensual joy. these men who delighted in the torture of our lord were sensualists; and there are few of us who if we will watch our selves closely will not find traces of the animal showing itself from time to time. of this crowd about the cross relatively few could have known anything about the case of our lord; but they were fascinated by the spectacle of a man's torture. if the executions of criminals were public to-day there would undoubtedly be huge crowds to gaze upon them. it is one of the lessons we learn from the study of sin that what we had thought was the essence of the sin was in fact but one of the manifestations of it, and that we have to carry our study far before we arrive at the ideal, know thyself. it is always dangerous to assume that we know when we have not been at the pains to look at a subject on all sides. our sensual nature needs a very careful discipline, and the mere freedom from certain forms of the sin of lust is not the equivalent of that purity which is the medium of the vision of god. it is the sin of gluttony which is the least obvious in the way of the cross. there are no doubt plenty of gluttons there, but that is not what we are trying to find; we are trying to see how each sin contributed to this final act in the drama of our lord's life, how each sin contributed to put men in opposition to our lord. it is not the actual sin of gluttony that we shall find in operation here but certain inevitable effects of it, what is the effect of gluttony on the soul of man? absorption in the pursuit of the pleasures that spring from material things; the indulgence of the appetite, and the natural result of such indulgence which is to render the soul insensitive to the spiritual. the man whose motto is, "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," puts himself out of touch with the spiritual realities of life. he is materialistic, whatever may be his philosophy. he wants immediate results from life. when he is confronted with our lord, when he is told that our lord makes demands upon life for self-restraint and self-discipline, that he demands that the appetites be curbed rather than indulged, he declines allegiance. one can have no doubt that in our lord's time as to-day indifference to his teaching and failure even to take in what the gospel means or how it can be a possible rule of life is largely due to the dull spiritual state, outcome of the indulgence of the appetite for meat and drink. men whose brains are clogged by over eating, and whose faculties are in a deadened state through the use of alcohol, cannot well understand the gospel of god. there is abundant evidence of anger all along the way of the cross. the constant thwarting of the purpose of the jewish authorities by our lord, his unsparing criticism of them before the people, had stirred them to fury. if our lord had seemed to them to threaten their "place and nation" we can understand that they would show toward him intense hostility. their attitude toward the people whose religious interests they were supposed to have in charge was one of utter contempt: "this people which knoweth not the law is cursed." our lord's attitude was the opposite of all this. it was not, to be sure, as to-day it is represented to be an appeal to the people. he was not bidding for popular support, but he showed unbounded sympathy with the people; he cast his teaching in a form that would appeal to them and draw them to him. he made a popular appeal in that he showed himself understanding of the popular mind and without social prejudice of any sort. this setting aside of the arrogant authorities of israel roused them to implacable wrath. they felt that our lord was setting himself to undermine their authority, and as they felt that their authority was "of god" their indignation translated itself into terms of zeal for god. this anger that manages to wear a cloak of virtue is peculiarly dangerous to the soul. when we are just ordinarily mad over some offence committed against us it is no doubt a sin; but it is not a sin of the same malignity as when we feel that we can go any lengths because we are not angry on our own behalf, then our anger almost becomes an act of religion in our eyes. we have become the defenders of a cause. no doubt there is such a thing as "righteous indignation," but it is not a virtue that we are compelled to practice, and we would do well to leave it alone as much as possible lest our indignation exceed our righteousness, and we indentify our personal interests with the cause of god. the worst feature of tempermental flare-ups is the testimony they bear to our lack of discipline. when we excuse ourselves or others on the ground that action is "temperamental" we are in fact no more than restating the fact that there is sore need of discipline; and there is no more ground for excusing one variety of temperament for its lack of discipline than an other. in fact, the more inclined a temperament is to certain sins, the more necessity there is for the appropriate sort of training. people without self-control, who are constantly losing their temper, are public nuisances and ought to be suppressed. there is the worst kind of arrogance in the assumption that i do not have to control myself and can speak and act as i like. no one, whatever his position, has the right to ignore the feelings of others; and the more the position is one of authority, exempting him from a certain kind of criticism, the more is he bound to criticise himself and examine himself as to this particular sin. there are sins under this caption which do not contain much malice but are disturbing to life, and they are especially disturbing to one's spiritual life. there are peevish, complaining people, who do not seem to mean much harm, but keep themselves in a state of dissatisfaction which renders their spiritual growth impossible. they grow old without any of the grace and beauty of character which should mark a christian old age. one knows old people who have been in intimate contact with the church and the sacraments for many years but do not show any signs of having reached our lord through them. they are dissatisfied and complaining and critical and generally disagreeable so that the task of those who take care of them is rendered very disheartening. what is the trouble? has there never been any true spiritual discipline, but only a certain superficial conformity to a spiritual rule? when old age comes the will is weakened and the sense of self-respect undermined, with the result that what the person has all along been in reality, now comes to the surface and is, perhaps for the first time, visible to every one. envy is closely related to pride on the one hand and to covetousness on the other. it begins in the perception of another's superiority, and carries its victim through the feeling of hurt pride at the contrast with himself to desire for that which is not his own. the envious person covets the qualities of possessions of another, while vividly denying that they are in fact superior to his own, except, it may be, in certain apparent and not very valuable aspects. the contrast between the superior and the inferior has one of two results: either the inferior is stirred to admiration, or he is stirred to a greater or less degree of envy. it was thus that contact with our lord _revealed_ the reality of men. it was a very true judgment to associate with him. his apostles were simple men who never thought of putting themselves in comparison with him: the more they knew him the more wonderful he seemed to them. we feel all through the gospel story what an overwhelming impression his personality made upon men. there is no criticism raised on his character from any point of view. his enemies fell back on the accusation of blasphemy growing out of his claims, an accusation that would be true, if the claims were not true. what we really discover in those who oppose him is envy, envy of the influence he exercises over others, envy stirred by his obvious superiority to themselves. envy is one of the sins of which we are least conscious. when people affirm that they envy others this or that: their leisure, their beauty, or what not, they clearly do not envy them at all, but are mildly covetous of the things that they see others possess. where envy does show its presence and where we do not recognise its nature, is in that horrible inclination to depreciate others which is visible in certain characters. they seem never to hear another mentioned but they try to think of something which limits the praise bestowed upon him, or altogether counteracts it. it seems to be an instinctive hostility to superiority as involving an implied criticism of one's own inferiority. it is that curious love of the worst that lies at the root of gossip. and what about the last of the deadly sins, the sin of sloth? one is almost tempted to say that it is at once the least obvious and the most destructive of all the deadly sins. that would no doubt be somewhat of an exaggeration, but it would not be very far off the truth. it is spiritual sloth that prevents us from considering as we should the spiritual problems that are presented to us, and therefore prevents us from gaining their promise. it is the quality in humanity that blocks the consideration of the new on the ground that we already know and can gain nothing by further exertion. the jewish religious leaders declined the intellectual and spiritual effort of considering our lord's claims; they just set them aside unconsidered. and is not that just what we are constantly doing, and what constitutes the most pressing danger of the spiritual life? we will not consider the future as the field of constantly new opportunity and therefore new stages of growth. we do not want to make the effort that is implied in that attitude. our sloth binds us hand and foot and delivers us to the enemy. there are no doubt some who cry out: "but i am not at all slothful; i am busy from morning to night; of whatever else i may be guilty, it is not of sloth!" my friend, busy people are quite often the most slothful people that there are. they are busy dodging their rightful duties and the opportunities that god offers them, all day long. have you never discovered that when you had something that you ought to do and do not want to do, that the easiest method by which you can still your conscience is to make yourself terribly busy about something else, and then to tell yourself that the reason why you have not done what you know that you ought to have done is that really you have not had time? do you not know that being busy is one of the most effective screens that you can put between your conscience and your obligation? do you not know that tens of thousands of men and women to-day are putting the screens of good works, of social service of some sort, between their souls and the worship of god and the practice of the sacraments? beware lest while you wear yourself out with activity your besetting sin be found to be sloth! and shall we find there on the way of sorrow the virtues that are the opposite of the seven sins? perhaps, if we had time to look, or had sufficient knowledge of the crowd that lines the way. there are certain women over there wailing and lamenting; perhaps they could help us. in any case we know that there is one woman who has succeeded in keeping near whose love of jesus is so intense that it will enable her to overcome all obstacles and be near him to the very last. jesus as he staggers along the way and falls at length under the intolerable weight of the cross is the embodiment of all virtues and of all spiritual accomplishment, and his blessed mother through his grace has been kept pure from all sin. she will show the perfection of purely human accomplishment. she is the best that humanity in union with the incarnate son has brought forth. we have seen--we have caught glimpses of her life through what the scriptures tell us of her--how completely she has responded to grace in all the actions of her life. not much do the scriptures say, but what they do say is like the opening of windows through which we catch passing aspects of her life which we feel are perfectly characteristic and revealing. and we have seen there, or we may see, may we not? the virtues which are the work of the holy spirit enabling us to overcome the deadly sins. we have seen the humility with which, without thought of self, she answered god's call to be the mother of his son. we have seen the liberality with which she places her whole life at god's disposal, withholding nothing from the divine service. purity undefiled had been god's gift to her from the first moment of her existence. hers too was that meekness which willingly accepted all that the appointment of god brought her, showing in her acceptance no withholding of the will, no trace of self-assertion. hers was the great virtue of temperance, the power of self-restraint and self-discipline, which suppressed all movements of nature that would be contrary to god's will. there too was the love of the brother and of the neighbour which is the contrary of envy; and there was the eagerness in fulfilling the will of god which is the opposite of sloth. we have then two spotless examples,--how shall we not be stirred to follow them! there is jesus manifesting the qualities of his sinless life, of the life of god's election, of humanity as god wills it to be, and as it ultimately will be when it gives itself to his will; and mary in whom we see the work of god's grace perfectly accomplished by virtue of her perfect response to the love of her sen. we look at these two lives and we see what is possible for us. we do not say, we cannot say, these things are too wonderful and great for me. we can only say, through the grace of god which is given me, "i can do all things." it is not my inevitable destiny that i should abide a sinner. i have the choice of being a sinner or a saint. mary: ever i cried full piteously: "lordings, what have ye i-brought? it is my son i love so much: for god's sake bury him nought." they would not stop though that i swooned, till that he in the grave were brought. rich clothes they around him wound: and ever mercy i them besought. * * * * * they said there was no better way but take and bury him full snel. they looked on my cousin john for sorrow both a-down we fell-- * * * * * by him we fell that was my child. his sweet mouth well full oft i kissed. john saw i was in point to spill, that nigh mine heart did come to break. he held his sorrow in his heart still and mildly then to me did speak: "mary, if it be thy will go we hence; the maudeleyn eke." he led me to a chamber then where my son was used to be,-- john and the maudeleyn also; for nothing would they from me flee. i looked about me everywhere: i could nowhere my sonè see. we sat us down in sorrow and woe and 'gan to weep all three. from st. bernard's lamentation on christ's passion. engl. version, probably th cent, by richard maydestone. part two chapter xviii the crucifixion and they crucified him. s. matt. xxvii, . in as much as we have no confidence because of our many sins, do thou, o virgin mother of god, beseech him who was born of thee; for a mother's supplication availeth much to gain the benignity of the master. despise not the prayers of sinners, o all-august, for merciful and mighty to save is he, who vouchsafed to suffer for us. byzantine. we have followed the way of sorrows to the very end and now stand on calvary watching by the cross, waiting for the death of the son of god. the mystery of iniquity is consummated here where man in open rebellion against his god crucifies the incarnate son. here is fulfilled the saying: "he came unto his own and his own received him not." all that man can do to prove his own degredation he has done. in the person of pilate he has condemned to death a man whom he knows to be innocent. the representative of human justice has denied justice for the sake of his own personal ends. in the person of herod he has permitted the insult and abuse of one of whom he knows no ill, and has displayed toward him wanton and brutal cruelty. in the person of the jewish authorities he has rejected the messenger of the god whom he recognises as his god, and will not listen to the voice of prophecy because he finds his personal ends countered by the fulfilment of the promises of the religion whose subject he professes to be. in the person of the disciples he shows himself too cowardly and self-regarding to stand by his innocent master and to throw in his lot with him. in the person of the people he shows himself cruel, hardened, indifferent to suffering and to justice, ready to be made the tool of unscrupulous politicians, unstable and ignorant. as we look on, we succeed in retaining any shred of respect for humanity only through the contemplation of the exceptions--of s. john and the little group of women who are faithful to the end: above all in the sight of blessed mary standing by the cross of her son. it is the will of god that our lord should follow the human lot to the very depth of its possible sufferings. there are no doubt many sufferings of humanity that our lord does not share, they are those which spring out of personal sin. he in whom was no sin could not suffer those things which spring from one's own wrong doing. that is one broad distinction between the burdens of the crosses on calvary, a distinction which the penitent thief caught easily when he said to his reviling fellow-criminal, "dost thou not fear god, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? and we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss." and in as much as a great part of what we suffer is plainly just, the pain we bear is intensified by the knowledge that what we are is the outcome of what we have been. but our lord, while he does not suffer as the result of his own sin, does suffer as the result of sin in that he wills to bear the result of men's sin by putting himself at their mercy. he bears the burden of sin to the uttermost, looking down from the cross at the faces of these men whose salvation he is making possible if in the days to come they will associate themselves with him. one wonders how many of those who saw him crucified came, before they died, to accept him as the saviour and their god. there must have been many wonderful first communions in the early church when those who had rejected jesus in his humility came to receive him glorified. but as we look at this scene of the dying we feel that the powers of evil are working their uttermost, they are driving their slaves to incredible sins. one feels the tremendous power that evil is as one looks at these human beings who are body and soul wholly under its dominion. the power of darkness appears utterly in control of the world of humanity; but we know that this moment in which its triumph seems most complete is in fact the moment in which its defeat is at hand. the victory that is being won is the victory of the vanquished: and the moment when the victory of evil seems assured by the dying of jesus, is in fact the moment when the chains of the slaves of sin are broken, and men who will to be free are henceforth free indeed. from that moment a new freedom is within the reach of men, the freedom which comes to them through their participation in the redemption wrought for them by god. presently s. john will announce the great message of freedom to the church, a message that he will tell in his own wonderful simplicity, a simplicity which almost deceives us as to its unfathomable depth of love and mystery: "for whatsoever is born of god overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.... we know that whosoever is born of god sinneth not: but he that was begotten of god keepeth him, and the evil one toucheth him not. and we know that we are of god, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. and we know that the son of god is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his son jesus christ. this is the true god, and eternal life." this is what the dying of jesus achieved for us, that we should be free as men had never been free, and that we should be strong as men had never been strong. on their crosses the thieves agonise in the realisation of the sin that has brought them there; but our lord, who is free from sin, looks out on the scene before him in a wonderful detachment from his personal suffering. being without sin our lord is without egotism, and never treats life from that purely personal standpoint that we are constantly tempted to adopt. our own needs, our own interests, occupy the foreground and determine the judgment; and we are rarely able to see in dealing with the concrete case that our own interests are ultimately indentical with the interests of the whole body. the lesson that if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, that we are partners in joy and sorrow alike, is almost impossible of assimilation by the radical individualists that we are. our theories break down before the test of actuality. but our lord was not an individualist. he, in his relations with men, is the head of the body; and he admits no division of interests between his members. he therefore can think of the needs of others while he himself is undergoing the last torture of death. he can impartially judge the separate cases of his members; he can attend to the spiritual welfare of a needy soul; he can think of his own death as an act of sacrifice willed by god, and not as a matter concerning himself alone; and in doing these things he teaches us a much-needed lesson of the handling of life. no lesson is to-day more needed because we are more and more being influenced to treat life as a private matter. i have spoken of this before and need not elaborate it now; but i do want to insist, at whatever risk of repetition, that a christian must, if his religion mean anything at all, look on the interests of the body, not as a separate group of interests to which he is privileged or obligated to contribute such help as seems to him from time to time appropriate, but as in fact his own primary interests because his true significance in the world is gained through his membership in the body. his life is hid with christ in god and his conversation is in heaven. the life that he now lives in the flesh he lives by the faith of the son of god, who loved him and gave himself for him. to assert separate interests is to break the essential relation of his life. he is nothing apart from the body but a dry and withered branch fit for the burning. no doubt our egotism rebels against this view of life, but it is certain that it is the view of the christian religion. if we would realise the ideals of the religion we must act as those who are in constant relations with the other members of the body and whose life gets its significance through those relations. there is no more outstanding lesson of our lord's life than this. it is true from whichever angle you look at it. if you think of our lord as a divine person it is at once evident how much of his meaning is included in his relations to the other persons of the blessed trinity. he claims no independent will; it is the will of the father that he has come to do. he claims no original work: it is the work that the father has given him to do that he is straightened until he accomplish. he has no individual possession, but all things that the father has are his. considered as god, our lord is one person in the one divine nature, no unitarian interpretation of him is possible. on the other hand, if you look at him as incarnate, as having identified himself with humanity, he is in that respect made one with his brethren. he has made their interests his, and as their new head is opening for them the gate of the future. he is inviting them into union with himself, that in the status of his "brethren" and "friends" they may be also the true children of the heavenly father. there is no hint anywhere that these things may be accomplished apart from him, in individual isolation: indeed, if they could be so accomplished the incarnation would be meaningless. he is the way and no one cometh to the father but by him. he is the truth, and no one knows the father but he to whom the son reveals him. he is the life, and no one spiritually lives except through his self-impartation. "he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." in this outlook from the cross which we recognise in our blessed lord when, forgetting his own sufferings in his appreciation of the needs of others, we see him still fulfilling his ministry of mercy and of sympathy, we are certain that his eyes would rest upon one group which could not fail to pierce his heart with its pathos and tragedy. our lord's love is not a general, impersonal love of humanity; it is always love of a person. he no doubt felt a special love for this thief who appealed to him from the cross by his side. in the whole course of his life our lord had shown his oneness with us in that he loved special people in a special way. he loved lazarus and his sisters, he loved s. john. above all others he loved his blessed mother. and now looking down from the cross he sees that the disciple whom he loved was succeeded in leading his mother into the very shadow of the cross. how s. mary had made her way there we do not know: only love knows how it triumphs over its obstacles and comes forth victorious. there is blessed mary, looking up into the face so scarred and bleeding, and there is the son, looking down through the blinding blood into the face of the mother. this is the supreme human tragedy of calvary. we can only stand and watch the exchange of love. and then comes the word--the word, by the way, which when it was spoken years ago in cana of galilee, men have interpreted as a harsh and rebuking word, with how much truth this scene tells--then comes the word: "woman, behold thy son." in his love he gives her that which he had so much loved, the friendship of s. john. he brings together those who had so supremely loved him in an association which would support them both in the trial of their loss. "woman, behold thy son; behold thy mother." bitter as was their sorrow in this hour, we know that they were marvellously comforted by this power of love which is able to transcend suffering and death. we know, because we know how utterly our lord is one with us, that it was much to him to look on the face that bent over him in the manger in bethlehem. we know, because we know the perfect woman that was mary, that there was deep joy as well as deep agony in being able to stand there at the last beneath the cross. do you think that we are going too far when we see in s. mary not simply the mother of our lord, but when we also see in her a certain representative character? does she not represent us in one way and s. john represent us in another, in this supreme exchange of love? do we not feel that in s. john we have been recommended to the love and care of mary who is our mother? do we not feel that in s. john the mother has been committed to our love and care? surely, because we are members of her son we have a special relation to s. mary, and a special claim upon her, if it be permitted to express it in that way. it is no empty form of words when we call her mother, no exaltation of sentimentalism. the title represents a very real relation of love. it brings home to us that the love of mary is as near infinite as the love of a creature can be, and that like the love of her son it is an unselfish love. she is necessarily interested in all the members of the body, and their cares and joys and sorrows she is glad to make her own. she is very close to us in her love and sympathy; she is very ready to help us with her prayers. we never go to her for succour but she hears us. "behold thy son," her divine son said to her on the cross in his agony, and all who are members of that son are her sons too. her place in heaven above all creatures, most highly favoured as she is, is a place to which our prayers penetrate, and never penetrate unheard. for that other son, through whose merits she is what she is, whose face she ever beholds as the face alike of her redeemer and her child, is ever ready to hear her intercessions for us because they come to him with the power and the insight that perfect purity and perfect sympathy alone can give. so for us there is intense personal consolation in this word: "behold thy mother." but there is another side to this committal. it is mutual: "behold thy son." if we can see ourselves in s. john, committed to the blessed mother, we can also see ourselves in s. john to whom the blessed mother is committed. "behold thy mother." there is a sense in which the blessed mother is committed to us; to-day she is our care. we see the fulfillment of this trust in the love and reverence wherewith christendom from the beginning has surrounded s. mary. it has accepted the charge with a passionate devotion. the growth of devotion to her is recorded in the vast literature of mariology which comes to us from all parts and all eras of the catholic church. the details of the expression of this devotion have been wrought out through the centuries with loving care, and the result is that wherever there is a catholic conception of religion, either in east or west, there is a grateful response to our lord's trust of his blessed mother to his church in the person of s. john. we feel, do we not? that it is one of the great privileges of our spiritual life that we have found a personal part in this trust, that it is permitted us to preserve and hand on this reverence for blessed mary, and in so doing to gain personal contact with her as a spiritual power in the kingdom of god. it means much to us that we can have the love and sympathy which are blended with her intercession, that we can associate our prayers with hers in the time of our need. much as we value the sympathy and prayers of our friends here, we cannot but feel that in mary we have a friend whose helpfulness is stimulated by a great love and directed by deep spiritual insight into the reality of our needs. we turn therefore to her with the certainty of her co-operation. our lord on the cross had now fulfilled his mission in the care of individual persons, had prayed for his tormentors, had forgiven the penitent thief, and had commended those who were the special objects of his love to one another, and could now turn his thoughts away from earth to the love of the father. his last words are intimate words to him. they express the agony that tears his soul as the face of the father is for a moment hidden, and the peace of an accomplished work as he surrenders himself into the hands of the father that sent him. he who had been our example all his life, showing us how to meet life, is our example in death, showing us how to meet death. but just wherein does the dying of christ become an example for us? this final surrender to the father of a will that had never been separate from the father,--what can we derive from all that? there are many lines of approach and application. i can only touch on one or two:-- "i have glorified thee on the earth," our lord said in the last wonderful prayer, "i have finished the work that thou gavest me to do." and here on the cross he repeats, "it is finished." when we think of this we are impressed with the steadiness with which our lord pursued his purpose, with the way he concentrated his whole life upon his work. he declined to be drawn aside by anything irrelevant to it. people came to him with all sorts of requests, from the request that he will settle a disputed inheritance to the request that he will become their king; and he puts them all aside as having no pertinence to his mission. it is interesting to go through the gospel and note just what are the details of this winnowing process; mark what our lord accepts as relevant to his mission and what not. he is never too occupied or tired to attend to what belongs to his work. an ill old woman or idiot child is important to him and he attends to them; but he declines the sort of work that will involve him and his mission in controversy and politics. he is not a reformer of society but a reformer of men. he knows that only by the reformation of men can society be reformed. there is no doubt much to be learned from the study of our lord's method of the limits of the social and political activity of his church. it has constantly fallen a victim to the temptation to undertake the reform of the world by some other means than the conversion of it. it has shown itself quite willing to be made "a judge and divider." it has not always declined the invitation it has received to assume the purple. "your business is to reform this miserable world which so sadly and so obviously needs you," men say to it; "you are not living up to your principles and you are neglecting your duty by not supporting this great movement for the betterment of the race," others say. still others urge, "you are losing great masses of men through your inexplicable failure to adopt their cause." and the church in the whole course of its history has constantly yielded to this temptation, and has not seen until too late that in so doing it was making itself the tool or the cat's-paw of one interest or another whose sole interest in religion was the possibility of exploiting the influence of the church. in the stupid hope of forwarding its spiritual interests the church has entangled itself with the responsibilities of temporal power; it has made itself the backer of "the divine right of kings"; and it has found itself bound hand and foot in the character of a national or state church; and with a curious incapacity to learn anything from experience is now enthusiastically cheering for democracy! poor church, whose leaders are so constantly misleaders. it is all due to the hoary temptation to try to get to one's end by some sort of a short cut: "all these things will i give you if you will fall down and worship me." our lord knew that satan could not really give him the ends he was seeking; but his followers are constantly confident that he can, and are therefore his constant and ready tools for this or that party or interest. they sell themselves to monarchy or democracy, to capital or labour, with the same guileless innocence of what is happening to them, with the same simple-minded incapacity to learn anything from the lessons of the past. there are no short cuts to spiritual ends, and those ends can never be accomplished by secular means. the interests of the kingdom of god can never be forwarded by alliance with the powers of this world; the interests of particular persons or parties in the church may be--but that is quite another thing. the lesson is one that is not without application to the individual life. there again the tendency to mind something other than one's own business is almost ineradicable. we have before us the work of building our spiritual house, of finishing the work that the father has given us to do, of carrying to a successful conclusion the work of our sanctification. in view of the experience of nearly two thousand years of christianity and of our own personal experience, that would seem a sufficiently difficult and obligatory work to occupy the undivided energies of a life-time. but we are accustomed to treat this primary business of life quite as though it were a parergon, a thing to play with in our unoccupied hours, the fad of a collector rather than the supreme interest of an immortal being. that spiritual results are no oftener achieved than they are can occasion no surprise when one understands the sort of spirit wherewith they are approached. if the average man adopted toward his business the attitude he adopts toward his religion he would be bankrupt within a week,--and he knows it. you know that the attention you are paying to religion and the sort of energy and sacrifice you are putting into it are insufficient to secure any sort of a result worth having. spiritually speaking, your life is an example of misdirected and dissipated energy. there is no spiritual result because there is no continuous and energetic effort in a spiritual direction. you are not like a master-builder planning and erecting a house. you are like a child playing with a box of blocks who begins to build a house with them and, when it is half built, is attracted by something else and runs after that--not even waiting to put the blocks back into the box! life, no doubt, this modern city life into which we are plunged, is terribly distracting. concentration upon a single aim is hard to attain. so we plead in our excuse, but the excuse is a false one and we know it. we know it because we know many people who have achieved the sort of concentration and simplicity of aim that we complain of as so difficult. they to be sure have other ends than those we claim to be ours, but that would not seem to be important. by far the greater part of the male population of this city is intensely concentrated in money making. i do not believe that i have overheard during the last year two men talking in a car or on the street who were not talking about money. there is a good enough example of the possibility of concentrating on a single end under the conditions of our life. there are other people, you know some of them, whose lives are devoted in the most thorough manner to the pursuit of pleasure. they find no difficulty in such concentration, and they afford an even better example of what we are discussing than the money-makers. the money-maker says, "i have to live and my family has to live, and we cannot live unless i devote myself to business. it is all very well to talk about spiritual interests, but those are the plain common sense facts. a man who spends all his time on religion will find it pretty difficult to live in new york." very well, that seems unanswerable. but go back to the men and women whose sole interest is amusement--how do they live? in some way they seem to have so succeeded in subordinating business to pleasure that they get what they want, and they somehow escape starvation! there, i fancy, is the explanation--they get what they want. in a broad way we all get what we want. we accomplish in some degree at least the ends which we make the supreme ends of life. we are back therefore where we started: what are our supreme ends? are they in fact spiritual? have we mastered the technique of the christian life sufficiently to be single-eyed and pure-hearted in our pursuit of life's ends? are we devoted to the aim of manifesting the glory of god and finishing the work that he has given us to do? this, once more, was the secret of our lord's life, and it is the secret of all those who have at all succeeded in imitating him. they have followed him with singleness of purpose. they have felt life to be before all else a vocation to manifest the will of god and to finish a given work. that was the attitude of our blessed mother; she began on that note: "behold the hand-maid of the lord; be it unto me according to thy word." it was the gospel that she preached: "whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." her whole life was a response--the response of love to love. that no doubt, goes to the heart of the spiritual problem. if we are to accomplish anything at all in the way of spiritual development, if we are to conduct life in simplicity toward spiritual ends, it will only be when the source of life's energy is found in love. he who does not love has no compelling motive toward god and no abiding principle to control life. if we conceive the christian life as a task that is forced upon us, and which in some way we are bound to fulfil, we may be sure that the way in which we shall fulfil it will be weak and halting. we may be as conscientious as you please, but we shall not be able to concentrate on a work which is merely a work of duty and not the embodiment of a great love. our primary activity should be devout meditation and study of our lord's life, with prayer for guidance and help, till something of the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts, till we feel our hearts burn within us and our spirits glow and we become able to offer ourselves, soul and body, a living sacrifice unto him. mary: i cried: "maudeleyn, help now! my son hath loved full well thee; pray him that i may die, that i not forgotten be! seest thou, maudeleyn, now my son is hanged on a tree, yet alive am i and thou,-- and thou, thou prayest not for me!" maudeleyn said: "i know no red, care hath smitten my heart sore. i stand, i see my lord nigh dead; and thy weeping grieveth me more. come with me; i will thee lead into the temple here before for thou hast now i-wept full yore." mary: "i ask thee, maudeleyn, where is that place,-- in plain or valley or in hill? where i may hide in any case that no sorrow come me till. for he that all my joy was, now death with him will do its will; for me no better solace is than just to weep, to weep my fill." the maudeleyn comforted me tho. to lead me hence, she said, was best: but care had smitten my heart so that i might never have no rest. "sister, wherever that i go the woe of him is in my breast, while my sone hangeth so his pains are in mine own heart fast. should i let him hangen there let my son alone then be? maudeleyn, think, unkind i were if he should hang and i should flee." * * * * * i bade them go where was their will, this maudeleyn and everyone, and by myself remain i will for i will flee for no man. from st. bernard's "lamentation on christ's passion." engl. version, th cent., by richard maydestone. part two chapter xix the descent and burial and when joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. s. matt. xxvii, , . it is meet in very truth to bless thee the theotokos, the ever-blessed and all-immaculate and mother of our god. honoured above the cherubim, incomparably more glorious than the seraphim, thou who without stain gavest birth to god the word, and art truly mother of god, we magnify thee. byzantine. the end had come--so it must have seemed to those who had loved and followed our lord. as they came back from the burial, those of them who had remained true to the end, as they came out of their hiding places, those others who forsook him and fled, they met in that "upper room" which was already consecrated by so many experiences. they came back from joseph's garden, s. john leading the blessed mother, the magdalen and the other mary following, s. peter came from whatever obscure corner he had found safety in. the other apostles came one by one, a frightened, disheartened group, shame-faced and doubtful as to what might next befall them. the thing that to us seems strangest of all is that no one seems to have taken in the meaning of our lord's words about his resurrection. not even s. mary herself appears to have seen any light through the surrounding darkness. i suppose that so much of what our lord taught them was unintelligible until after the coming of the holy spirit that they rarely felt sure that they understood his meaning; and when the meaning was so unprecedented as that involved in his sayings about the resurrection we can understand that they should have been so little influenced by them. s. mary's grief would have been so deep, so overwhelming, that she would have been unable to think of the future at all save as a dreary waste of pain. she could only think that her son who was all to her, was dead. she had stood by the cross through all the agony of his dying: she had heard his last words. that final word to her had sunk very deep into her heart. she had once more felt his body in her arms as it was taken down from the cross; and she had followed to the place where was a garden and a new tomb wherein man had never yet lain, there she had seen the body placed and hastily cared for, as much as the shortness of the time on the passover eve would permit. and then she had gone away, not caring at all where she was taken, with but one thought monotonously beating in her brain,--he is dead, he is dead. it would not be possible in such moments calmly to recall what he himself had taught about death. death for the moment would mean what it had always meant to religious people of her time and circle. what that was we have very clearly presented to us in the talk with martha that our lord had near the place where lazarus lay dead. there is a fuller knowledge than we find explicit in the old testament, showing a growth in the understanding of the revelation in the years that fall between the close of the old testament canon and the coming of our lord. there is a belief in survival to be followed by resurrection at the last day. that would no doubt be st. mary's belief about death. that is still the belief of many christians to-day. "i know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." there are still many who think that they have accepted the full revelation of god in christ who have not appreciated the vast difference that the triumph of christ over death has made for us here and now. so we have no difficulty in understanding the gloom that fell on the apostolic circle, accentuated as it was by the very vivid fear that at any moment they might hear the approaching feet of the jewish and roman officials and the knock of armed hands upon the door. what to do? how escape? had they so utterly misunderstood and misinterpreted christ that this is the natural outcome of his movement? had they been the victims of foolish hopes and of a baseless ambition when they saw in him the christ, the one who should at this time restore again the kingdom to israel? they had persistently clung to this nationalistic interpretation of his work although he had never encouraged it; but it was the only meaning that they were able to see in it. and now all their expectations had collapsed, and they were left hopeless and leaderless to face the consequences of a series of acts that had ended in the death of their master and would end, they knew not how, for them. was it at all likely that the jewish authorities having disposed of the leader in a dangerous movement would be content to let the followers go free? would they not rather seek to wipe out the last traces of the movement in blood? so they would have thought, gathered in that upper room, while outside the jewish authorities were keeping the passover. what a passover it was to them with this nightmare of a rebellion which threatened their whole place and power passed away. what mutual congratulations were theirs on the clever way in which the whole matter had been handled. there had been a moment when they were on the very point of failure, when pilate was ready to let jesus go free. that was their moment of greatest danger; and they took their courage in both hands and threw the challenge squarely in the face of the cowardly governor: "if thou let this man go, thou art not caesar's friend!" the chief priests knew their man, and they carried their plan against him with a determined hand, declining to accept any compromise, anything less than the death of jesus. great was the rejoicing; hearty were the mutual congratulations in the official circles of jerusalem. it had been long since they had celebrated so wonderful a passover as that! so limited, so mistaken, is the human outlook on life. they had but to await another night's passing and all would be changed. but in the meantime the position of the disciples was pitiful. they were in that state of dull, hopeless discouragement that is one of the most painful of human states. it is a state to which we who are christians do from time to time fall victims with much less excuse. we are hopeless, we say and feel. we look at the future, at the problems with which we are fronted, and we see no ray of light, no suggestion of a solution. we have been robbed of what we most valued and life looks wholly blank to us. for those others there was this of excuse,--they did not know jesus risen, they did not know the power of the resurrection life. for us there is no such excuse because we have a sure basis of hope in our knowledge of the meaning of the lord. hope is one of the great trilogy of christian virtues, the gift to christians of god the holy ghost. as christians we have the virtue of hope, the question is whether we will excercise it or no. it is one of the many fruits of our being in a state of grace. many blunder when they think of hope in that they confound it with an optimistic feeling about the future. we hear of hopeful persons and we know that by the description is meant persons who are confident "that everything will be all right," when there seems no ground at all for thinking so. they have a "buoyant temperament," by which i suppose is meant a temperament which soars above facts. that not very intelligent attitude has nothing to do with the christian virtue of hope. hope is born of our relation to god. it is the conviction: "god is on my side; i will not fear what man can do unto me." it is the serene and untroubled trust of one who knows that he is safe in the hands of god, and that his life is really ordered by the will and providence of god. this virtue, had they possessed it, would have carried the disciples through the crisis of our lord's death. they had had sufficient experience of him to know that they might utterly rely on him in all the circumstances of their lives. he had always sustained them and carried them through all crises. they had often been puzzled by him, no doubt; they had felt helpless to fathom much of his teaching, but they had slowly arrived at certain conclusions about him which he himself had confirmed. on that day at caesarea phillipi they had reached the conclusion of his messiahship, a slumbering conviction had broken into flame and light in the great confession of s. peter. the meaning of messiahship was a part of their national religious tradition; and although in some important respects mistaken, they yet, one would think, have been led to perfect trust in our lord when they acknowledged his messianic claims. but death? they could not get over the apparent finality of death. but, again, perhaps we are not very far beyond this in our understanding of it. to us still death seems very final. but it was just that sense of its finality--of its constituting a hopeless break in the continuity of existence--that our lord was engaged in removing during these days which to them were days of hopelessness and despair. when they came to know what in these days was taking place; and when the church guided by the holy spirit came to meditate upon the meaning of our lord's action it would see death in a changed light. the sense of a cataclysmic disaster in death would pass and be replaced by a sense of the continuity of life. hitherto attention had been concentrated on this world, and death had been a disappearence from this world, the stopping of worldly loves and interests. presently death would be seen to be the translation of the human being to a new sphere of activities, but involving no cessation of consciousness or failure of personal activities. men had thought, naturally enough in their lack of knowledge, of the effect of death on the survivors, of the break in their relations with the dead. now death would be viewed from the point of view of the interests of the person who is dead; and it would emerge that he continued under different conditions, and in the end it would come to be seen that even in the relations of the survivors with the dead there was no necessary and absolute break, but that the new conditions of life made possible renewed intercourse under altered circumstances. our lord, the disciples learned not long after, during these days went to preach to the spirits in prison, which the thought of the church has interpreted to mean that he carried the news of the redemption he had wrought through his dying, to the place of the dead, to the region where the souls of the faithful were patiently waiting the time of their perfecting. the doors of the heavenly world could not be opened till the time when he by his cross and passion, by his death and resurrection, opened them. the heads of the gates could not be lifted till they were lifted for the entrance of the king of glory. but once lifted they were lifted forever; and when he ascended up on high he led his troop of captives redeemed from the bondage of death and hell. it is through these lifted gates that the companies of the sanctified have been streaming ever since; and the difference that has been made in our view of death has been immense. if we have the faith of a christian death has been transformed. there remains, of course, the natural grief which is ours when we part from those whom we love. this grief is natural and holy as it is in fact an expression of our love. it is not rebellion against the will of god, but is the expression of a feeling wherewith god has endowed us. but there is no longer in it the sting of hopelessness that we find, for instance, in the inscriptions on pagan tombs, nay, on tombs still, though created by christians and found in christian cemeteries. rather it is the expression of a love which is learning to exercise itself under new conditions. we do not find it possible to reverse all our habits in a moment; and the new relation with the dead is one to which we have to learn to accustom ourselves. i remember a case where a mother and a son had never been separated for more than a day at a time, though he was far on in manhood. there came a time of indeterminate separation and the mother's grief was intense notwithstanding that there was no thought of a permanent separation. it took some time for her to accustom herself to the new mode of communication by letter. it is not far otherwise in death; it takes some time for us to accustom ourselves to the new mode of intercourse through prayer, but we succeed, and the new intercourse is very real and very precious. in a sense, too, it is a nearer, more intimate intercourse. it lacks the homely, daily touches, no doubt; but in compensation it reveals to us the spiritual values in life. we speedily learn, we learn almost by a spiritual instinct, what are the common grounds on which we can now meet. by our intercourse with our dead we get a new grasp on the truth of our common life in christ: it is in and through him that all our converse is now mediated. we have little difficulty in knowing what are the thoughts and interests which may be shared under the new conditions in which we find ourselves. our perception of spiritual interests and spiritual values grows and deepens, and our communion with our dead becomes an indication of the extent of our own spiritual growth. there come times in the spiritual experience of most of us when we seem to have got to the end. there is a deepening sense of failure which is not, when we analyse it, so much a failure in this or that detail, as a general sense of the futility of the life of the church as expressed in our individual lives. it came to those primitive congregations, you remember, to which s. peter was writing; "where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." it is the weariness of continuous effort from which we conclude that we are getting quite insufficient results. no doubt that is true. the results are never what we expect, possibly because the effort is never what we imagine it to be. we continually underestimate the opposing force of evil, the difficulty of dealing with a humanity which falls so easily under the slightest temptation. it is not that sinners decline to hear the word of god, but that those who profess themselves to be the servants of god, and who in fact intend to be such, are so lamentably weak and ineffective. we think of the effort of god in the incarnation; we have been following that effort in some detail through the passion. we are surprised, shocked, disheartened by the spectacle of the hatred that innocence stirs up, at the lengths men will go when they see their personal ends threatened. we are horrified by caiphas, pilate, herod. but is that the really horrifying thing about the passion of our lord? to me the supreme example of human incomprehension is that all the disciples forsook him and fled, that he was left to die almost alone. there we get the most disheartening failure in the tragedy. for we expect the antagonism of the world, especially that part of the world that has seen and rejected christ. there we find satanic activities. one of the outstanding features of the literature of to-day in the western world, the world that had known from childhood the story of jesus, is its utter hatred of christianity; its revolt from all that christianity stands for. this is markedly true in regard to the christian teaching in the matter of purity. the contemporary english novel is perhaps the vilest thing that has yet appeared on this earth. there have been plenty of unclean books written in the course of the world's history--we have only to recall the literature of the renaissance--but for the most part they have been written in careless or boastful disregard of moral sanctions which they still regarded as existing; but the novel of the present is an immoral propaganda--it is deliberately and of malice immoral, not out of careless levity, but out of deliberate intention. you do not feel that the modern author is just describing immoral actions which grow out of his story, but that he is constructing his story for the purpose of propagating immoral theory. he hates the whole teaching of the christian religion in the matter of purity. he has thrown it overboard on the ground that it is an "unnatural" restraint. to those who have studied the development of thought since the renaissance there is nothing surprising in this. but what does still surprise those who are as yet capable of being surprised is the light way in which the mass of christians take their religion. occasionally, in moments of frankness, they admit that they are not getting anything out of it; but it is harder to get them to admit that the reason is that they are not putting anything into it. you do not expect to get returns from a business into which you are putting no capital, and you have no right to expect returns from a religion into which you are putting no energy. what is meant by that is that those christians who are keeping the minimum routine of christianity, who are going to high mass on sunday (or perhaps only to low mass) and then making the rest of the day a time of self-indulgence and pleasure; who make their communions but rarely; who do not go to confession, or go only at easter; who are giving no active support to the work of the gospel as represented in parish and diocese have no right to be surprised if they find that they do not seem to get any results from their religion; that it is often rather a bore to do even so much as they do, and that they see no point in permitting it further to interfere with their customary amusements and avocations. i do not know what such persons expect from their religion, but i am sure that they will be disappointed if they are expecting any spiritual result. naturally, they will be disappointed if they look in themselves for any evidence of the virtue of hope. the most that can be looked for under the circumstances is that mockery of hope, presumption. we are not to be discouraged in our estimate of the christian religion by this which seems to be the failure of god. we are not to echo the cry: "since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." s. peter pointed out to those pessimists that all things do not continue the same, that there are times of crisis which are the judgments of god. such a judgment was that of old which swept the wickedness of the world away, "whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." he goes on to state that the present order likewise will issue in judgment: "the heavens and the earth which are now ... are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." what renders men hopeless is the feeling of god's inactivity; but this declaration of impending judgment certifies the active interest of god. god's dealing with the world is a perpetual judgment of which we are apt to decline the evidence until the cataclysm reveals the final scene. but every society, every individual life, is being judged through the whole course of its existence, and there is no need that either society or individual should be blind to the fact that such a judgment is taking place. there is no failure of god. there is a failure on our part to understand the works of god. we may very well consider the problem an individual one and ask ourselves what ground of hope we have. on the basis of our present effort can we, ought we, to have more than we have? the spiritual life is not an accident that befalls certain people; it is an art that is acquired by such persons as are interested in it. it is attained through the careful training and exercise of the faculties wherewith we have been endowed. the answer to our question is itself a perfectly simple one, as simple as would be the answer to the question: "do you speak french?" we speak french if we have taken the trouble to learn french; and we have gained results in the way of spiritual development and culture if we have taken the trouble to do so. i do not know why we should expect results on any other ground than that. but certain persons say: "i have tried, and have not attained any results." well, i should want to know what the trying means in that case. it is well for a person who aspires to spiritual culture to think of his past history. what sort of character-development has so far been going on? commonly it happens that there has been no spiritual effort that is worth thinking about; but that does not mean that nothing spiritual has been happening. it means on the contrary that there has been going on a spiritual atrophy, the spiritual powers have been without exercise and will be difficult to arouse to activity. in such a case as that spiritual awakening will be followed by a long period of spiritual struggle against habits of thought and action which we have already formed, a period in which unused and immature spiritual powers must be roused to action and disciplined to use. the simplest illustration of this is the difficulty experienced by the enthusiastic beginner in holding the attention fixed on spiritual acts such as the various forms of prayer. in all such attempts at spiritual activity there will be the constant drag of old habits, the recurrence of states of mind and imagination that had become habitual. these hindrances can be overcome, but only by steady and rather tedious labour. they call for the display of the virtue of patience which is not one of the virtues characteristic of spiritual immaturity. hence reaction and the feeling that one is not getting on, the feeling that we have quite possibly made a mistake about the whole matter. this is the place for the exercise of hope; and hope will come if we look away from our not very encouraging acquirement to the ground that we have for expecting any acquirement at all. if we ask: "why hope?" we shall see that our basis of hope is not in ourselves at all but in god. we hope because of the promises of god, because of his will for us as revealed in his son. "he loved us and gave himself for us"; and that giving will not be in vain. "he gave himself for me," i tell myself, "and therefore i am justified in my expectation of spiritual success." so one tries to learn from the present failure as it seems; so one repents and pushes on; so one learns that it is through tenacity of purpose that one attains results. and again: i am sustained by hope because i see that the results that i covet are not imaginary. they exist. i see them in operation all about me. i learn of them as i study the lives of other christians past and present. they are reality not theory, fact not dream. and what has been so richly and abundantly the outcome of spiritual living in others must be within my own reach. the results they attained were not miraculous gifts, but they were the working of god the holy spirit in lives yielded to him and co-operating with him. once more: is it not true that after a period of honest labour i do find results? perhaps not all that i would like but all that i am justified in expecting from the energy i have spent? i do not believe that any one can look back over a year's honest labour and not see that the labour has born fruit. in any case the fact that we do not see just what we are looking for does not mean that no spiritual work is going on. it may seem that our lord is silent and that to our cries there is no voice nor any that answers; but that may mean that we are looking in the wrong place or listening for the wrong word. the disciples looked that the outcome of our lord's life should be that the kingdom should be restored to israel; and when they turned away from the tomb in joseph's garden they felt that what they had looked for and prayed for was hopeless of accomplishment. but the important point was not their vision of the kingdom at all, but that they had yielded themselves to our lord and become his disciples and lovers. this is not what they intended to do, but it is what actually had happened: and when the grave yielded up the dead whom they thought that they had lost forever, jesus came back with a mission for them that was infinitely wider than their dream: the mission of founding not the old kingdom of david, but the kingdom of david's son. all their aspirations and prayers were fulfilled by being transcended, and they found themselves in a position vastly more important than had been reached even in their dreams. something like that not infrequently happens in our experience. we conceive a spiritual ambition and work for a spiritual end, and seem always to miss it; and then the day comes when god reveals to us what he has been doing, and we find that through the very discipline of our failure we have been being prepared for a success of which we had not thought: and when we raise our eyes from the path we thought so toilsome and uninteresting, it is to find ourselves at the very gate of the city of god. it will be with us as with the apostles who in the darkest hour of their imagined failure, when they were gathered together in hiding from the jews were startled by the appearence among them of the risen jesus, and were filled with the unutterable joy of his message of peace. "his body is wrappèd all in woe, hand and foot he may not go. thy son, lady, that thou lovest so naked is nailed upon a tree. "the blessèd body that thou hast born, to save mankind that was forlorn, his body, lady, the jews have torn, and hurt his head, as ye may see." when john his tale began to tell mary would not longer dwell but hied her fast unto that hill where she might her own son see. "my sweete son, thou art me dear, oh why have men hanged thee here? thy head is closed with a brier, o why have men so done to thee?" "john, this woman i thee betake; keep my mother for my sake. on rood i hang for mannes sake for sinful men as thou may see. "this game alone i have to play, for sinful souls that are to die. not one man goeth by the way that on my pains will look and see. "father, my soul i thee betake, my body dieth for mannes sake; to hell i go withouten wake, mannes soul to maken free." pray we all that blessed son that he help us when may no man and bring to bliss each everyone amen, amen, amen for charity. early english lyrics, p. . from an ms. in the sloane collection. part two chapter xx the resurrection and he saith unto them, be not affrighted; ye seek jesus of nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here. s. mark xvi, . o god, who wast pleased that thy word, when the angel delivered his message, should take flesh in the womb of the blessed virgin mary, give ear to our humble petitions, and grant that we who believe her truly to be the mother of god, may be helped by her prayers. through. o almighty and merciful god, who hast wonderfully provided perpetual succour for the defence of christian people in the most blessed virgin mary; mercifully grant that, contending during life under the protection of such patronage, we may be enabled to gain the victory, over the malignant enemy in death. through. old catholic. whatever may be our grief, however life may seem to have been emptied of all interest for us, nevertheless the routine of life reasserts itself and forces us back to the daily tasks no matter how savourless they may now seem. we speedily find that we are not isolated but units in a social order which claims us and calls on us to fulfil the duties of our place. blessed mary was led away from the tomb of her son in the prostration of grief; but her very duty to him would have forced her thought away from herself and led her to join in the preparations which were being made for the proper care of the sacred body. and in that sad duty she would find solace of a kind; there is an expression of love in the care we give our dead. this body now so helpless and unresponsive, has been the medium through which the soul expressed itself to us; it has been the instrument of love and the sacrament of our union. how well we know it! how well the mother knows every feature of her child, how she now lingers over the preparations for the burial feeling that the separation is not quite accomplished so long as her hands can touch and her eyes see the familiar features. in the pause that the sabbath forced on the friends of jesus we may be sure that they were making what preparations might be made under the restrictions of their religion, and that they looked eagerly for the passing of the sabbath as giving them one more opportunity of service to the master. there was the group of women who had followed him and "ministered of their substance" who were faithful still. the mother had no "substance"; she shared the poverty of her son. her support during the sabbath would be the expectancy of looking once more upon his face. but when the first day of the week dawned it proved to be a day of stupendous wonder. they, the disciples and these faithful women, seemed to themselves, no doubt, to have passed into a new world where the presuppositions of the old world were upset and reversed. there were visions of angels, reported appearances of jesus, an empty tomb. through the incredible reports that came to them from various sources the light gradually broke for them. it was true then, that saying of jesus, that he would rise again from the dead! it was not some mysterious bit of teaching, the exact bearing of which they did not catch, but a literal fact! and then while they still hesitated and doubted, while they still hid behind the closed doors, jesus himself came and stood in the midst with his message of peace. it is often so, is it not? while we are in perplexity and fear, while we think the next sound will be the knock of armed hands on the door, it is not the jews that come, but jesus with a message of peace. our fears are so pathetic, so pitiful; we meet life and death with so little of the understanding and the courage that our lord's promises ought to inspire in us! we stand so shudderingly before the vision of death, are so much appalled by the thought of the grave! we shudder and tremble as the hand of death is stretched out toward us and ours. one is often tempted to ask as one hears people talking of death: "are these christians? do they believe in immortality? have they heard the message of the first easter morning, the angelic announcement of the resurrection of christ? have they never found the peace of believing, the utter quiet of the spirit in the confidence of a certain hope which belongs to those who have grasped the meaning of the resurrection of the dead?" here in jerusalem in a few days the whole point of view is changed. the frightened group of disciples is transformed by the resurrection experience into the group of glad and triumphant missionaries who will be ready when they are endowed with power from on high to go out and preach jesus and the resurrection to the ends of the earth. what in these first days the resurrection meant to them was no doubt just the return of jesus. he was with them once more, and they were going to take hope again in the old life, to resume the old mission which had been interrupted by the disaster of calvary. all other feeling would have been swallowed up in the mere joy of the recovery. but it could not be many hours before it would be plain that if jesus was restored to them he was restored with a difference. a new element had entered their intercourse which was due to some subtle change that had passed upon him. we get the first note of it in that wonderful scene in joseph's garden when the lord appears to the magdalen. there is all the love and sympathy there had ever been; but when in response to her name uttered in the familiar voice the magdalen throws herself at his feet, there is a new word that marks a new phase in their relation: "touch me not, for i am not yet ascended." this new thing in our lord which held them back with a new word that they had never experienced before must have become plainer each day. s. mary feels no less love in her son restored to her from; the grave, but she does not find just the same freedom of approach. s. john could no longer think of leaning on his heart at supper as before. jesus was the same as before. there was the same thoughtful sympathy; the same tender love; but it is now mediated through a nature that has undergone some profound change in the days between death and resurrection. the humanity has acquired new powers, the spirit is obviously more in control of the body. our lord appeared and disappeared abruptly. his control over matter was absolute. and in his intercourse with the disciples there was a difference. he did not linger with them but appeared briefly from time to time as though he were but a passing visitor to the world. there were no longer the confidential talks in the fading light after the day's work and teaching was over. there was no longer the common meal with its intimacy and friendliness. there was, and this was a striking change, no longer any attempt to approach those outside the apostolic circle, no demonstration of his resurrection to the world that had, as it thought, safely disposed of him. he came for brief times and with brief messages, short, pregnant instructions, filled with meaning for the future into which they are soon to enter. what did it mean, this resurrection of jesus? it meant the demonstration of the continuity of our nature in our lord. the son of god took upon him our nature and lived and died in that nature. our pressing question is, what difference has that made to us? how are _we_ affected? has humanity been permanently affected by the resumption of it by god in the resurrection? if the assumption of humanity by our lord was but a passing assumption; if he took flesh for a certain purpose, and that purpose fulfilled, laid it aside, and once more assumed his pre-incarnate state, we should have difficulty in seeing that our humanity was deeply affected by the incarnation. there would have been exhibited a perfect human life, but what would have been left at the end of that life would have been just the story of it, a thing wholly of the past. it is not much better if it is assumed that the meaning of the resurrection is the revelation of the immortality of the human spirit, that in fact the resurrection means that the soul of jesus is now in the world of the spirit, but that his body returned to the dust. we are not very much interested in the bare fact of survival. what interests us is the mode of survival, the conditions under which we survive. we are interested, that is to say, in our survival as human beings and not in our survival as something else--souls. a soul is not a human being; a human being is a composite of soul and body. it is interesting to note that people who do not believe in the resurrection of our lord, do not believe in our survival as human beings, consequently do not believe in a heaven that is of any human interest. but we feel, do we not? a certain lack of interest in a future in which we shall be something quite different in constitution from what we are now. we can think of a time between death and the resurrection in which we shall be incomplete, but that is tolerable because it is disciplinary and temporary and looks on to our restitution to full humanity in the resurrection at the last day. and we feel that the promise, the certainty of this is sealed by our lord's resurrection from the dead. we are certain that that took place because it is needful to the completion of his work. the creed is one: and if one denies one article one speedily finds that there is an effect on others. the denial of the resurrection is part and parcel of the attempt to reduce christianity to a history of something that once took place which is important to us to-day because it affords us a standard of life, a pattern after which we are to shape ourselves. else should we be very much in the dark. we gain from the christian revelation a conception of god as a kindly father who desires his children to follow the example of his son. that example, no doubt, must not be pressed too literally, must be adapted to modern conditions; but we can get some light and guidance from the study of it. still, if you do not care to follow it nothing will happen to you. it is merely a pleasing occupation for those who are interested in such things. the affirmation of the resurrection, on the other hand, is the affirmation of the continuity of the work of god incarnate; it is an assertion that christianity is a supernatural action of god going on all the time, the essence of which is, not that it invites the believer to imitation of the life of christ, so far as seems practical under modern conditions, but that it calls him to union with christ; it makes it his life's meaning to recreate the christ-experience, to be born and live and die through the experience of incarnate god. it fixes his attention not on what jesus did but on what jesus is. it insists on a present vital organic relation to god, mediated by the humanity of jesus; and if there be no humanity of jesus, if at his death he ceased to be completely human, then there is no possibility of such a relation to god in christ as the catholic religion has from the beginning postulated; and unless we are to continue human there seems no continuing basis for such a relation to one another in the future as would make the future of any interest to us. for us, as for s. paul, all our hope hangs on the resurrection of christ from the dead; and if christ be not risen from the dead then is our faith vain. for us then, as for the men who wrote the gospel, and for the men who planted the church and watered it with their blood, the resurrection of jesus means the return of his spirit from the place whither it had gone to preach to the spirits in prison and its reunion with the body which had been laid in the tomb in joseph's garden, and the issuing of perfect god and perfect man from that tomb on the first easter morning. that humanity had, no doubt, undergone profound changes to fit it to be the perfect instrument of the spirit of christ jesus henceforward. it is now the resurrection body, the spiritual body of the new man. we understand that it is now a body fitted for the new conditions of the resurrection life, and we also understand that it is the exemplar of what our risen bodies will be. they will be endowed with new powers and capacities, but they will be human bodies, the medium of the spirit's expression and a recognisable means of intercourse with our friends. we lie down in the grave with a certainty of preserving our identity and of maintaining the capacity of intercourse with those we know and love. that is what really interests us in the future which would be uninteresting on other terms; and that is what our lord's appearances after the resurrection seem to guarantee. he resumed a human intercourse with those whom he had gathered about him. he continued his work of instruction and preparation for the future. and when at length he left them they were prepared to understand that his departure was but the beginning of a new relation. but also they would feel much less that there was an absolute break with the past than if he had not appeared to them after the crucifixion, and they had been left with but a belief in his immortality. they would, too, now be able to look on to the future as containing a renewal of the relations now changed, to read a definite meaning into his promises that where he is there shall his servants be. it is much to know that we are immortal: it is much more to know that this immortality is a human immortality. one feels in studying the pre-christian beliefs in immortality that they had very little effectiveness, and that the reason was that there was no real link connecting life in this world with life in the next. death was a fearful catastrophe that man in some sense survived, but in a sense that separated his two modes of existence by a great gulf. man survived, but his interests did not survive, and therefore he looked to the future with indifference or fear. this life seemed to him much preferable to the life which was on the other side of the grave. so far as the old testament writings touch on the future world, they touch upon it without enthusiasm. there is an immense difference between the attitude of the old testament saint toward death and that, for instance, of the early christian martyr. and the difference is that the martyr does not feel that death will put an end to all he knows and loves and set him, alive it may be, but alive in a strange country. he feels that he is about to pass into a state of being in which he will find his finer interests not lost but intensified. at the center of his religious expression is a personal love of jesus and a martyr's death would mean immediate admission to the presence and love of his master. he would--of this he had no shadow of doubt--he would see jesus, not the spirit of jesus, but the jesus who is god incarnate, whose earthly life he had gone over so many times, whom he felt that he should recognise at once. death was not the breaking off of all in which he was interested but was rather the fulfilment of all that he had dreamed. and this must be true always where our interests are truly christian interests. it is no doubt true that we find in christian congregations a large number of individuals whose attitude toward death and the future is purely heathen. they believe in survival, but they have no vital interest in it. i fancy that there are a good many people who would experience relief to be persuaded that death is the end of conscious existence, that they do not have to look forward to a continuous life under other conditions. and this not at all, as no doubt it would in some cases be, because it was the lifting of the weighty burden of responsibility for the sort of life one leads, because it was relief from the thought of a judgment to be one day faced, but because the world to come, as they have grasped its meaning, is a world in which they have no sort of interest. our lord in his presentation of the future does actually point us to the natural human interest by which our affection will follow that which we do in fact value. "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." but the class of whom i am thinking have no treasures. notwithstanding some sort of conformity to the christian religion, conceived most likely under the aspect of a compulsory moral code, there is nothing in their experience that one can call a love of our lord, no actually felt personal affection for him that makes them long to see him. there were those with whom they had intimately lived and whom they had loved and who have passed through the experience of death, but in the years that have passed they have become used to living without them and there is no passionate longing to be with them again. there are no interests in their lives which when they think of them they feel that they can carry with them to the world beyond. whatever they have succeeded in accumulating in life is hardly to be regarded as heavenly treasure! there then is the vital centre of the christian doctrine of the world to come,--that it is a life continuous with this life, not in bare existence, but in the persistence of relations and interests upon which we have entered here. at the center of that world as it is revealed to us, is jesus christ, god in our nature, and about him ever the saints of his kingdom, who are still human with human interests, and who look on to the time when the fulness of humanity will be restored to them by the resurrection of the body. the interests that are vital here are also the interests that are vital there, the interests of the kingdom of god. as the christian thinks of the life of the world to come he thinks of it as the sphere in which his ambitions can be and will be realised, where the ends of which he has so long and so earnestly striven will be attained. his life has been a life given to the service of our lord and to his kingdom, and it had, no doubt, often seemed to small purpose; it has often seemed that the kingdom was not prospering and the work of god coming to naught. and then he looks on to the future and sees that the work that he knows is an insignificant fragment of the whole work; and he thinks with longing of the time when he shall see revealed all that has been accomplished. he feels like a colonist who in some outlying province of an empire is striving to promote the interests of his homeland. his work is to build up peace and order and to civilise barbarous tribes. and there are days when the work seems very long and very hopeless; and then he comforts himself with the thought that this is but a corner of the empire and that one day he will be relieved and called home. there at the centre he will be able to see the whole fact, will be able to understand what this colony means, and will rejoice in the slight contribution to its upbuilding that it has been his mission to make. the heart of the christian is really in the homeland and he feels acutely that here he is on the pilgrim way. but he feels too that his present vocation is here and that he is here contributing the part that god has appointed him for the upbuilding of the kingdom, and that the more he loves our lord and the more he longs for him the more faithfully and exactly will he strive to accomplish his appointed work. they are right, those who are continually reproaching christians with having a centre of interest outside this world; but we do not mind the reproach because we are quite sure that only those will have an intelligent interest in this world who feel that it does not stand by itself as a final and complete fact, but is a single stage of the many stages of god's working. we no more think it a disgrace to be thinking of a future world and to have our centre of interest there than we think it a disgrace for the college lad to be looking forward to the career that lies beyond the college boundaries and for which his college is supposed to be preparing him. we do not consider that boy ideal whose whole time and energy is given to the present interests of a college, its athletics, its societies, and in the end is found to have paid so little attention to the intellectual work that he is sent there to perform that he fails to pass his examinations. christians are interested in this world because it is a province of the kingdom of god and that they are set here to work out certain problems, and that they are quite sure that the successful solution of these problems is the best and highest contribution that they can make to the development of life in this world. they do not believe that as a social contribution to the betterment of human life a saint is less valuable than an agnostic professor of sociology or an atheistic socialistic leader; nor does the christian believe that strict attention to the affairs of the kingdom of god renders him less valuable as a citizen than strict attention to a brewery or a bank. a whole-hearted christian life which has in view all the relations of the kingdom of god in this or in any other world, which loves god and loves its neighbour in god, is quite the best contribution that a human being can make to the cause of social progress. if it were possible to put in evidence anywhere a wholly christian community i am quite convinced that we should see that our social problems were there solved. i think then we shall be right to insist that what is needed is not less otherworldliness but more: that more otherworldliness would work a social revolution of a beneficent character. the result might be that we should spend less of our national income on preparations for war and more in making the conditions of life tolerable for the poor; that we should begin to pay something of the same sort of care for the training of children that we now bestow on the nurture of pigs and calves. we might possibly look on those whom we curiously call the "inferior races" as less objects of commercial exploitation and more as objects of moral and spiritual interest. we shall no doubt do this when we have more fully grasped what the resurrection of christ has done and made possible. it is no account of that resurrection to think of it as a demonstration of immortality. it only touches the fringes of its importance when we think of it as setting the seal of divine approval upon the teaching of jesus. we get to the heart of the matter when we think of the risen humanity of our lord as having become for us a source of energy. the truth of our lord's life is not that he gave us an example of how we ought to live, but that he provided the power that enables us to live as he lived. also he gave us the point of view from which to estimate life. the writer of the epistles to the hebrews uses a striking phrase when he speaks of "the power of an endless life." is not that an illuminating phrase when we think of our relation to our lord? his revelation of the meaning of human life has brought to us the vision of what that life may become and the power to attain that end. the fact of our endlessness at once puts a certain order into life. things, interests, occupations fall into their right places. there are so many things which seem not worth while because of the revelation of the importance of our work. other things there are which we should not have dared to undertake if we had but this life in which to accomplish them. but he who understands that he is building for eternity can build with all the care and all the deliberation that is needed for so vast a work. there is no haste if we select those things which have eternal value. we can undertake the development of the christian qualities of character with entire hopefulness. the very conception of the beauty and perfectness of the fruits of the spirit might discourage us if our time were limited. but if we feel that the work we have done on them, however elementary and fragmentary, as long as it is honest and heartfelt, will not be lost when death comes, then we can go securely on. we can go on in any spiritual work we have undertaken without that sense of feverish haste lest death overtake us and put an end to our labour which so affects men in purely secular things. to us death is not an interruption. death does not destroy our human personality, nor does it destroy our interest in anything that like us is permanent. we feel perfectly secure when we have identified ourselves with the business of the kingdom of god. then we almost feel the throb of our immortality; the power of an endless life is now ours. we have not to wait for death and resurrection to endue us with that power because it is the gift of god to us here, that gift of enternal life which our lord came to bestow upon us. only the gift which we realise imperfectly or not at all at its bestowal we come to understand in something of its real power; and henceforth we live in the possession and fruition of it, growing up "into him in all things, which is the head, even christ." hail, thou brightest star of ocean; hail, thou mother of our god; hail, thou ever-sinless virgin, gateway of the blest abode. ave; 'tis an angel's greeting-- thou didst hear his music sound, changing thus the name of eva-- shed the gifts of peace around. burst the sinner's bonds in sunder; pour the day on darkling eyes; chase our ills; invoke upon us all the blessings of the skies. show thyself a watchful mother; and may he our pleadings hear, who for us a helpless infant owned thee for his mother dear. maid, above all maids excelling, maid, above all maidens mild, freed from sin, oh, make our bosoms sweetly meek and undefiled. keep our lives all pure and stainless, guide us on our heavenly way, 'till we see the face of jesus, and exult in endless day. glory to the eternal father; glory to the eternal son; glory to the eternal spirit: blest for ever, three in one. part two chapter xxi the forty days to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of god. acts i, . open unto us the door of thy loving kindness, o blessed mother of god; we have set our hope on thee, may we not be disappointed, but through thee may we be delivered from adversity, for thou art the saving help of all christian people. o mother of god, thou who art a deep well of infinite mercy, bestow upon us thy compassion; look upon thy people who have sinned, and continue to make manifest thy power. for thee do we trust, and to thee do we cry, hail! even as of old did gabriel, the chief of the angelic hosts. russian. these forty days that intervened between our lord's resurrection and ascension must have been utterly bewildering in the experience of the apostles. our lord was once more with them; he had come back from the grave; that would have been the central experience. but in his intercourse with them he was so changed, the same and yet with a vast difference. we think of the perplexed group of the disciples gathered in the familiar place, going over the recent facts and trying to adjust themselves to them. just what is the difference that death and resurrection have made, we hear them discussing. is it that he appears and disappears so strangely, not coming any longer to be with them in the old way, with the old familiar intercourse? there is obviously no failure in himself, no decline in love; but there is a decline in intimacy. they themselves feel a strange awe in his presence such as they had not been accustomed to feel in the past. they feel too that this restrained intercourse is but temporary, that at any moment it may end. the instructions he is giving them are so obviously final instructions, fitting them for a future in which he will not be with them. amid all this perplexity we try to see our lady and to get at her mind. she was no doubt in the small group eagerly waiting our lord's coming, dreading each time he left them that he would return no more. one thinks of her as less bewildered than the others because her interest was more concentrated. she had no problems to work out, no perplexities to absorb her; she had simply to love. life to her was just love--love of the son whom she had brought forth and whom she had followed so far. she lived in his appearings; and between them she lived in remembrance of them. one does not think of her as dwelling very much on what he says, but as dwelling upon him. the thought of him absorbs her. she has passed into that relation to our lord that in the years to come many souls will strive to acquire--the state of absorbed contemplation, the state in which all things else for the time recede and one is alone with god. god so fills the soul that there is room there for nothing else. for the apostles these were days of immense importance as days in which they were compelled to reconstruct their whole view of the meeting of our lord's mission and of their relation to it. they came to these days with their settled notion about the renewed kingdom of israel and of our lord's reign on earth which his teaching hitherto had not been able to expel; but now they are compelled to see that the kingdom of god of which they are to be the missionaries is a kingdom in another sense than they had so far conceived it. it differs vastly from their dream of an israelite empire. it is no doubt true that this mental revolution is of slow operation, and that even when certain truths are grasped it will still take time to grasp them in all their implications. for long their judaism will impede their full understanding of the meaning of the kingdom of god. it will be years before they can see that it is a non-jewish fact and that other nations will stand on an equality with them. but they will by the end of the forty days have grasped the fact that they are not engaged in a secular revolution and are not entering on a career of worldly power. they will be ready for their active ministry after pentecost, a ministry of spiritual initiation into the kingdom of god. when in response to their preaching men asked the question: "men and brethren, what shall we do?" they were ready with their answer: "repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the holy ghost." so the forty days were filled with new meanings emerging from the old teaching, of suddenly grasped significance in some saying of our lord that they had assumed that they understood but in reality had attributed little meaning to. it is one of the striking things about our relation to spiritual truth that we can go on for long thinking that we are attaching a meaning to something which in fact, it turns out, has meant almost nothing to us. some day a phrase which we have often read or repeated suddenly is lighted up with a significance we had never dreamed of. we have long been looking some truth in the face, but in fact it has never laid hold of us; we have made no inferences from it, deduced no necessity of action, till on a day the significance of it emerges and we are overwhelmed by the revelation of our blunder, of our stupidity. the fact is that we assume that our conduct is quite right, and we interpret truth in the light of our conduct rather than interpret conduct in the light of truth. it is the explanation, i suppose, of the fact that so many people read their bible regularly without, so far as one can see, the reading having any effect upon their conduct. the conduct is a settled affair and they are finding it reflected in the pages of the gospel. their minds are already definitely made up to the effect that they know what the gospel means, and that is the meaning that they put into the bible. one does not know otherwise how to account for the fact that it is precisely those who think themselves "bible christians" who are farthest from accepting the explicit teaching of the bible. if there is anything plain in the new testament it is that the whole teaching of our lord is sacramental. if anything is taught there one would think it was the nature and obligation of baptism, the presence of our lord in the sacrament of the altar, the gift of confirmation, the meaning of absolution. yet it is to "bible christians" that sacraments appear to have no value, are things which can be dispensed with as mere ornaments of the christian religion. i wonder if we have wholly got beyond that point of view? i wonder if we have got a religious practice which is settled or one that is continually expanding? i wonder if we force our meaning on the bible or if we are trying to find therein new stimulus to action? that in truth is the reason for reading the holy scriptures at all--to find therein stimulus, stimulus for life; that we may see how little or how much our conduct conforms to the ideal set out there. we do not read to learn a religion, but to learn to practice the religion that we already have. now to take just one point in illustration. the commission of our lord to his church in the person of the apostles was a commission to forgive sins. "he breathed on them, and saith unto them, receive ye the holy ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." as to how in detail, this commission is to be exercised is a matter for the church to order as the circumstances of its life require. as i read my bible certain facts emerge: i am a sinner; christ died for my sins; he left power in his church for the forgiveness of sin--of my sin. and then the question arises: what is the bearing of all that on my personal practice? have i settled a practice for myself to which i am subjecting the teaching of the bible and the church? or am i alert to see a contrast or a contradiction between my practice and the teaching of the bible and the church, if such exist? now there are many people in the church who make no use of the sacrament of penance, and there are many others who make use of it very sparingly. it is clear that either they must be right, or the bible and the church must be right. it is clear that such persons, to press it no farther, are imposing the interpretation of their own conduct on the teaching of the christian religion and asserting by their constant practice that that interpretation is quite inadequate, notwithstanding the contrary practice of the entire catholic world. that, to put it mildly, is a very peculiar intellectual and spiritual attitude. we can most of us, i have no doubt, find by searching somewhere in our religious practice parallel attitudes toward truth. we have settled many questions in a sense that is agreeable to us. we cannot tell just how we got them settled, but settled they are. take a very familiar matter which greatly concerns us in this parish dedicated to the blessed virgin mary, the question of the honour and reverence due to our blessed mother. we had got settled in our practice that certain things were right and certain wrong. i doubt if a very intelligent account of this--why they were right or wrong--could, in many cases have been given. but the settled opinion and practice was there. and then came the demand for a review; that we look our practice squarely in the face and ask, "what is the ground of this? does it correspond with the teaching of scripture and of the catholic church? and if it does not, what am i going to do about it? have i only a collection of prejudices there where i supposed that i had a collection of settled truths? do i see that it is quite possible that i may be wholly wrong, and that i am hindered by pride from reversing my attitude?" for there is a certain pride which operates in these matters of belief and practice as well as elsewhere. we are quite apt to pride ourselves on our consistency and think it an unworthy thing to change our minds. that is rather a foolish attitude; changing one's mind is commonly not a mark of fickleness but of intellectual advance. it means oftentimes the abandonment of prejudice or the giving up of an opinion which we have discovered to have no foundation. this is rather a large universe in which we live, and it is improbable that any man's thought of it at any time should be adequate. intellectual progress means the assimilation of new truths. the christian religion is a large and complex phenomenon, and any individual's thought of it at any time must be, in the nature of things, an inadequate thought. progress in religion means the constant assimilation of new truths--new, that is, to us. surely it is a very peculiar attitude to be proud of never learning anything, making it a virtue to have precisely the same opinions this year as last! i should be very much ashamed of myself if a year were to pass in which i had learned nothing, had changed my mind about nothing. in religion, one knows that the articles of the faith are expressed in the dogmatic definitions of the church; but one will never know, seek as one will, all that these mean in detail, all that they demand in practice. and our only tolerable attitude is that of learners constantly seeking to fill up the _lacunae_ in our beliefs and practice. in fact, any living christian experience is always in process of adjustment. those who conceive a dogmatic religion as an immovable religion, as a collection of cut and dried formulae which each generation is expected to learn and repeat and to which it has no other relation, are quite right in condemning that conception, only that is not, in fact, what the christian religion is. the content of the christian dogmas is so full and so complex that there is never any danger of intellectual sterility in those who are called to deal with them; and their application to life is so rich and so manifold that there is not the least danger that those who set out to apply them to the problems of daily existence will become mere formalists. the attempt to live a truly christian life is a never-ending, inexhaustible adventure. only those can miss this fact who have utterly misconceived christianity as a barren set of prohibitions, warning its devotees off the field of great sections of human experience. there are those who appear to imagine that the primary business of christianity is to deal with sin, and that in order to keep itself occupied it has to invent a large number of unreal sins. unfortunately sin, as the deliberate rejection of the known will of god, exists; and, fortunately, the grace of our lord jesus christ who came into the world to save sinners also exists. we can be unendingly thankful for that. but it is also true that the action of christianity is not exhausted in the negative work of dealing with sin. christianity is primarily a positive action for the bringing about and development of the relation of the soul with god in the state of union. we may say that christianity has to turn aside from this its proper business of developing the spiritual life to the preliminary work of dealing with sin which kills spirituality and hinders its development. but it is not necessary to make the blunder of assuming that this dealing with sin is the essential work of christianity because it has so continually to be at it, any more than it is necessary to assume that the essential work of a farmer is the digging up of weeds. surely it would be no adequate treatise on agriculture which would confine itself to description of the nature of weeds and of methods of dealing with them. there is a branch of theology which deals with sin, the methods of its treatment and its cure; but there are also other branches of theology: and the direction of the holy scripture is not to get rid of sin and stop; but having done that, to go on to perfection. christian experience is a constant process of adjustment, a constantly growing experience. by the study of the christian revelation it is always finding new meanings in old truths, new modes of application of familiar practices. this simply means that the christian is alive and not a fossil. it means that his relation to our lord is such that it opens to him inexhaustible depths of experience. it is easy to see this in the concrete by taking up the life of almost any saint. it is easy to trace the growth of s. john from the young fisherman, fiery, impatient, who wished to call down fire from heaven upon his adversaries as elijah did, and gained the rebuke: "ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of," to the mature and supremely calm and simple experience which is reflected in the gospel and epistles. it is easy to trace the development of the impulsive, zealous pharisee that paul of tarsus was, through all the stages of spiritual growth that are reflected in his letters, till he is paul the aged waiting to depart and be with christ "which is far better." you can study it in the confessions of s. augustine in its first stage and follow it through its later stages in his letters and other writings, and in many another saint beside. if you have any spiritual experience at all you can trace it in your own case: you have grown, not through dealing with sin, but through the pursuit of ideal perfection, that perfection which is set before you by the christian religion. you may not feel that you have gone very far: that is not the point at present; you know that you have found a method by which you may go on indefinitely; that there is no need that you should stop anywhere short of the beatific vision. you do know that your religion is not the deadening repetition of dogmas which the unbeliever conceives it to be, but is the never ceasing attempt to master the inexhaustible truth that is contained in your relation to our lord. you do know that however far you have gone you feel that you are still but on the threshold and that the path before your feet runs out into infinity. let us go back again to our examination of the experience of the apostles. when we examine their training we find there, i think, two quite distinct elements both of which must have had a formative influence upon their ministry. in the first place there was the element of dogmatic teaching. there is a class of persons who are accustomed to tell us that there is no dogma in the new testament, by which they appear to mean that the particular dogmatic affirmations of the creed are not formulated in the pages of the new testament, but are of later production. that, no doubt, is true; but nevertheless it would be difficult to find a more dogmatic book than the new testament, or a more dogmatic teacher than was our lord. and our lord taught the apostles in a most definite way the expected acceptance of his teaching because he taught it. "he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes," it was noted. the point about the teaching of the scribes was that it was traditional, wholly an interpretation of the meaning of the old testament. it made no claim to originality but rather based its claim on the fact it was not original. our lord, it was noticed, did not base his claim on tradition. in fact he often noticed the jewish tradition for the purpose of marking the contrast between it and his own teaching. "ye have heard that it hath been said of old time ... but i say unto you." he commonly refused to give an explanation of what he had said, but demanded acceptance on his authority. he brought discipleship to the test of hard sayings, and permitted the departure of those who could not accept them. he cut across popular prejudices and took small account of the "modern mind" as expressed by the sadducees. he expected the same unhesitating submission from the apostles whom he was training, though it was also a part of their training to be the future heralds of the kingdom that they should have the "mysteries of the kingdom" explained to them. but from the time when jesus began to preach, saying "the kingdom of heaven is at hand," he preached and taught with the same unhesitating note of certainty, and with the same demand for intellectual submission on the part of those who heard him. and that continues to the end. during the forty days, the few sayings that have come to us have the same ring of authority, of dogmatic certainty. the result was that when the apostles went out to teach they were equipped with a body of truth which they presented to the world in the same unhesitating way. indeed, that is the only way in which the central truths of the christian faith can be presented. they are not the conclusions of argument, which may be taken up and argued over again to the end of the world,--they are the dicta of revelation. we either know them to be true because they have been revealed, or we do not know them to be true at all. they are mysteries, that is, truths beyond the possibility of human finding which have been made known to man by god himself. they are the appropriate data of religion and what distinguishes it from philosophy. the presence of mystery in philosophy is annoying, and the aim is to get rid of it, but a religion without mystery is absurd. religion deals with the fundamental relations between god and man and the light it brings us must be a supernatural light. such a religion in its presentation naturally cut across the preconceptions of the traditionalists in jerusalem to whom nothing new could be true, as across the preconceptions of the sophists of athens, to whom nothing that was not new was interesting. this dogmatic equipment was but one side, however, of the apostolic training for their future work, a training to which the finishing touches, so to say, were put during the forty days. the other side of the training was the impression upon them of the personality of our lord, the effect of their close association with him. this has an importance that dwarfs all other influences of the time; and we feel all through the gospel that it was what our lord himself counted upon in forming them for their mission. in the beginning "he chose twelve to be with him," and their day by day association with him was constantly changing their point of view and reforming their character. it was not the teaching, the explanation of parables, or the sight of the miracles; it was the silent effect of a personality that was in contact with them constantly and was constantly presenting to them an ideal of life, an ideal of absolute submission to the will of the father and of utter consecration to the, mission that had been committed to him. we all know this silent pressure of life upon life. we have most of us, i suppose, experienced it either from our parents or from friends in later life; and we can through that experience of ours attempt the explanation of our lord's influence on the apostles. there were not only the hours of formal teaching--they, in a way, were perhaps the less important from our present point of view. we have more in mind the informal talks that would go on as they went from village to village in galilee, or as they gathered about the door of some cottage in the evening or sat in the shelter of some grove during the noon-day heat. it was just talk arising naturally out of the incidents of the day, but it was always talk guided by jesus--talk in which jesus was constantly revealing himself to them, impressing upon them his point of view, making plain his own judgment upon life. and when we turn to his formal teaching we realise how revolutionary was his point of view in regard to life, how he swept aside the customary conventions by which they were accustomed to guide life, and substituted the radical principles that they have left on record in the sermon on the mount for the perplexity of a world yet far from understanding them. evidently the apostles would find their accustomed values tossed aside and a wholly new set of values presented to them. i suppose we find it difficult to appreciate how utterly revolutionary the gospel teaching continually is, not because we have become accustomed to follow it, but because we have got used to hearing it and evacuating it of most of its meaning by clever glossing. it was thus that the teaching classes in jerusalem avoided the pressure of old testament ideals by a facile system of interpretation which made "void the word of god by their traditions." human nature has not altered; and we succeed by the same method in making the gospel of none effect. we are so well accustomed to do this that we lose the point and pungency of much of our lord's teaching. but we know that the apostles did not. we know that they presented that teaching in all its sharpness to would-be disciples. it could not be otherwise with those who for three years had been in day by day intimacy with our lord and had assimilated his point of view and his judgment on life. one effect of their contact with our lord in the days following the resurrection would be that whatever changes the passage to a new level of existence had wrought in him, it had not changed either the tone of his teaching or the beauty and attractiveness of his personality. the concluding charges that were given them, the great commission of proclaiming the kingdom with which they were now definitely endued, the powers which were committed to them in the great words: "all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you: and, lo, i am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," would but confirm and strengthen all that had gone before in their experience of him. the jesus of the resurrection was no pale ghost returned from the grave, intermittently to appear to them to assure them of the fact of immortality. he was "the same jesus" whom they had known for three years, and whose return from the dead triumphant over the powers that had opposed him, set quite plainly and definitely the seal of indisputable authority upon all the teaching and the example that had gone before. the period of their probation was over: the commission was theirs: it remained that they should abide in jerusalem until they should be "endued with power from on high." proclaimed queen and mother of a god, the light of earth, the sovereign of saints, with pilgrim foot up tiring hills she trod, and heavenly stile with handmaids' toil acquaints; her youth to age, her health to sick she lends; her heart to god, to neighbor hand she bends. a prince she is, and mightier prince doth bear, yet pomp of princely train she would not have; but doubtless, heavenly choirs attendant were, her child from harm, herself from fall to save: word to the voice, song to the tune she brings, the voice her word, the tune her ditty sings. eternal lights enclosèd in her breast shot out such piercing beams of burning love, that when her voice her cousin's ears possessed the force thereof did force her babe to move: with secret signs the children greet each other; but, open praise each leaveth to his mother. robert southwell, s.j. - . part two chapter xxii the ascension and it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. s. luke xxiv, . o mother of god, since we have obtained confidence in thee, we shall not be put to shame, but we shall be saved. and since we have obtained thy help and thy meditation, o, thou holy, pure, and perfect one! we fear not but that we shall put our enemies to flight and scatter them. we have taken unto us the shelter of thy mighty help in all things like a shield. and we pray, and beseech thee that we may call upon thee, o mother of god, so that thou deliver us through thy prayers. and that thou mayest raise us up again from the sleep of darkness, to offer praise through the might of god who took flesh in thee. coptic. there would be no doubt of the finality of our lord's physical withdrawal this time. as the group of disciples stood on the hilltop in galilee and watched the clouds close about him, they would feel that this was the end of the kind of intercourse to which they had been accustomed. the past forty days would have done much to prepare them for the separation. their conception of our lord's work as issuing in the establishment of an earthly kingdom had been swept away; the changed terms of their intercourse with him in the resurrection state had emphasised the change that had taken place; his teaching during these weeks which was centered on the work of the future in which they were to carry on the mission he had initiated; all these elements prepared them for the definite withdrawal of the ascension. nevertheless we can understand the wrench that must have been involved in his actual withdrawal. we face the dying of some one we love. we know that it is a matter of weeks; the weeks shorten to days, and we are "prepared" for the death; but what we mean is that the death will not take us by surprise. however prepared we may be, the pain of parting will be a quite definite pain; there is no way of avoiding that. we know that there was no way for the disciples to avoid the pain of the going of jesus. it was not the same sort of pain that they felt now, as they gazed up from the hill top to the cloud drifting into the distance, as the pain that had been theirs as they hurried trembling and affrighted through the streets of jerusalem on the afternoon of the crucifixion. this pain had no sting of remorse for a duty undone, or of fear for a danger to be met. it was the calm pain of love in the realisation that the parting is final. we know that among the group that watched the receding cloud the eyes that would linger longest and would find it hardest to turn away would be those of the blessed mother. her mission about our lord during all these past years had been a very characteristically womanly mission, a mission of silence and help and sympathy. she was with the women who ministered to him, never obtrusive, never self-assertive; but always ready when need was. it was the silent service of a great love. that is the perfection of service. there are types of service which claim reward or recognition. we are not unfamiliar in the work of the kingdom with people who have to be cajoled and petted and made much of because of what they do. verily, they have their reward. but the type we are considering, of which the blessed mother is the highest expression, is without thought of self, being wholly lost in the wonder of being permitted to serve god at all. to be permitted to give one's time and personal ministry to our lord in his kingdom and in his members is so splendid a grace of god that all thought of self is lost in the joy of it. we know that s. mary could have had no other thought than the offering of her love in whatever way it was permitted to express itself; and we know that the quality of that love was such that the moment of the ascension would have left her desolate, watching the cloud that veiled him from her eyes. all of which does not mean that we are wrong when we speak of the ascension as one of the "glorious mysteries" of s. mary. there we are viewing it in its wide bearing as s. mary would come to view it in a short while. when the meaning of the ascension became plain, when under the guidance of the holy spirit, s. mary was able to view her son as "the one mediator between god and man, the man christ jesus," when she was able to think of the human nature that god had taken from her as permanently enthroned in heaven,--then would all this be to her creative of intense joy. we, seeing so clearly what the ascension essentially meant, can think of it as a mystery of intense joy, but as our lord passed away from sight the passing would for the moment be one last stab of the sword through this so-often wounded heart. there would be no lingering upon the hill top. the angel messengers press the lesson that the life before them is a life of eager contest, of energetic action. jesus had indeed gone in the clouds of heaven, but they were reminded that there would be a reappearance, a coming-again in the clouds of heaven, and in the meantime there was much to do, work that would require their self-expenditure even unto death. back must they go to jerusalem and there await the opening of the next act of the drama of the kingdom of god. as we turn to the epistles of the new testament and to the slowly shaping theology of the early church, we find set out for us the nature of our lord's heavenly activity; we see the full meaning of his incarnation. the human nature which the son of god assumed from a pure virgin, he assumed permanently. he took it from the tomb on the resurrection morning, he bore it with him from the galilean hill to the very presence of uncreated god. when the gates lift and admit the conqueror to heaven, what enters heaven is our nature, what is enthroned at the right hand of god is man, forever united to god. and when we ask, "what is the purpose of this?" the answer is that it is the continual purpose of the incarnation, the purpose of mediatorship between the created and the uncreated, between god and man. the constant purpose of the incarnation is mediation--of the need of mediation there is no end. our lord's work was not finished, though there are those who appear to believe that it was finished, when, as a galilean preacher he had taught men of the father: nor was it finished when he bought redemption for us on the cross, and triumphing over death in the resurrection, returned to heaven at the ascension. there is a very real sense in which we can say that all those acts were the preliminaries of his work, were what made the work possible. we then mean by his work the age-long work of building the kingdom of heaven, and through it bringing souls to the father. to insist perhaps over-much: we are not saved by the memory of what our lord did, we are saved by what he now does. we are saved by the present application to us of the work that was wrought in the years of his earthly life. we need to grasp this living and present character of our lord's work if we will understand the meaning of his mediation. there is a gulf between the divine, the purely spiritual, and the human, which needs some bridge to enable the human to cross it. that bridge was thrown across in the incarnation when god and man became united in the person of the second person of the ever blessed trinity. when god the son became incarnate, god and man were forever united and the door of heaven was about to swing open. henceforth from the demonstrated triumph of our lord in the ascension the kingdom of heaven is open to all believers, and there is an ever-ready way of approach to god the blessed trinity by the incarnate person of the son who is the one mediator between god and man. whoever approaches god, whoever would reach to the divine, must approach by that path, the path of jesus who is the way, the truth and the life. he is the way to god: and that way is one that we follow by participation in his nature, by being taken up into him. we do not reach god by thinking about our lord, or by believing about our lord: thinking and believing are the preliminaries of action. there are wonderful riches in the king's treasury, but you do not get them because you think of them or because you believe that they are there. you get them when you go after them. and you get the ends of the christian religion not because you believe them to exist, but because you go after them in the way in which christ directed. inasmuch as he is the way to the father, we reach the father by being made one with the son, by being made a member of him, by being taken into him in the life of union. "no man cometh unto the father but by me," he says. and the process of coming is by believing all that he said and acting upon his word to the uttermost. those who by partaking of the sacraments are in christ have passed by his mediation to the knowledge of the father. for a road can be travelled in either direction. christ is the road by which we come to the father, to participation in the life of the blessed trinity; but also we can think of him as the road by which the father comes to us. we can think of ourselves as drawing near to god in his beloved son: i love to think the other way of the road, of god drawing near to me, of god pouring of his riches into human life and elevating that life to his very self. i like to think of the christian life as a life to which god continually communicates himself, till we are filled "with all the fulness of god." can we imagine any more wonderful expression of the life of holiness to which we are called than that? we "grow up into him in all things." that is the true account of the christian life, not some thin and dull routine of moral duty, but the spiritual adventure of the road that travels out into the infinite pursuit of spiritual accomplishment till it is lost in the very heart of god. this was the starting point of blessed mary. she was filled with all the fulness of god from the moment of her conception, and was never separated from the joy of the great possession. we are born in sin and have to travel the road to the very end. yet we, too, begin in union, because we are born of our baptism into christ soon after our natural birth, and our problem is to achieve in experience the content of our birthright. in other words: our feet are set in the way from the beginning, and our part is to keep to the way and not wander to the right hand or to the left; that this may be possible for us christ lived and died and to-day is at the right hand of the father where he ever liveth to make intercession for us. we need never walk without christ. the weariness of the journey is sustained by his constant and ready help. the way is lighted by the truth which is himself, and the life that we live is his communicated life. "i live, yet not i, but christ liveth in me." there are those who find the road godward, the road of the christ-life, wearisome because they keep their eyes fixed on the difficulties of the way and treat each step as though it were a separate thing and not one step in a wonderful journey. the way to avoid the weariness of the day's travel is to keep one's eye fixed on the end, to raise the eyes to the heavens where jesus sitteth enthroned at the right hand of the father. the day's song is the sursum corda,--"lift up your hearts unto the lord!" the mediatorial office of our lord is exercised chiefly through his sacrifice. he ever liveth to make intercession for us; and this intercession is the presentation of the sacrifice that he himself offered once for all in blood upon the cross, and forever presents to the father in heaven "one unending sacrifice." this heavenly oblation of our lord which is the means wherethrough we approach pure divinity, is also the sacrifice of the church here on earth. the heavenly altar and the earthly altar are but one in that there is but one priest and one victim here and there. the eucharistic sacrifice is the church's presentation of her head as her means of approach to god, as the ground of all her prayers. these prayers make their appeal through jesus who died and rose again for us and is on the right hand of power. we know of no other way of approach, we plead no other merit as the hope of our acceptance. let us be very clear about this centrality of our lord's mediation because i shall presently have certain things to say which are often assumed to be in conflict with his mediatorial office, but which in reality do not so conflict, but exist at all because of the office. we approach divinity, then, through our lord's humanity; and we at once see how that teaching, so common to-day, which denies the resurrection of our lord's body, and believes simply in the survival of his human soul strikes at the very heart of the catholic religion. if revelation be true, our approach to god is rendered possible because there is a mediator between god and man, the man christ jesus. all our prayers have explicitly, or implicitly, this fact in view. all our masses are a pleading of this fact. how great is our joy and confidence when we realise this! we come together, let us say, on sunday morning at the high mass. we are coming to offer the blessed sacrifice of our lord's body and blood. but who, precisely, is to make the offering? when we ask what this congregation is, what is the answer? the congregation is the congregation of christ's flock: it is the body of christ gathered together for the worship of almighty god. the act that is to be performed is the act of a body, not primarily of individuals. our participation in the act of worship in the full sense of participation is conditioned upon our being members of the body. if we are not members of the body we have no recognised status as worshippers. no doubt we each one have our individual aspirations and needs which we bring with us, but they are the needs and aspirations of a member of the body of christ, and our ability to unite them with the act that is to be performed grows out of our status as members of the body; as such, we join our own intention to the sacrificial act and make our petitions through it. but we are here as offerers of the sacrifice, and may not neglect our official significance, and attempt to turn the mass into a private act of worship. we, then, the body of christ in this place, offer the sacrifice of christ. what is the status of the priest? he is a differentiated organ of the body, not created by the body, but created by god in the creation of the body. he is not separate from the body, an official imposed upon it from the outside, nor is he a creation of the body set apart to act upon its behalf. he is one mode of the expression of the body's life--the body could not perfectly perform its functions without him any more than a physical body can perfectly function without a hand or an eye. but neither has the priest any existence apart from the body of which he is a function. the sacrifice that he offers is not his on behalf of the body, but the body's own sacrifice which is made through his agency. but a complete body has a head; and of the body which is the church the head is christ. we, the members, have our life from him, the head; we are able at all to act spiritually because of our union with him. he is our life; and the acts of the body are ultimately the acts of the head. the sacrifice which the body offers as the means of its approach to divinity is one sacrifice of the head: and the priestly function of the body has any vitality because it is christ who is its life, who functions through the priest, who is, in fact, the true priest. he himself is both sacrifice and priest; and that which is offered here is indentical with that which is offered there. our life flows from our head, is the life of christ in us. so closely are we associated with him that we are called his members, the instrument through which his life expresses itself, through which he acts. by virtue of the life of christ of which all we are partakers, we are not only members of christ, but members one of another. our spiritual life is not our own affair, but we have duties one to another, and all the members of the body are concerned in our exercise of our gifts, have, in fact, claims on the exercise of them. this mutual inherence of the members of the body and these obligations to one another are in strict subordination to the head; but they are very real duties and privileges which are ours to exercise. what we are concerned with at present is that from, this view of them that i have been presenting there results the possibility and obligation of intercession; the love and care of the members for one another is exercised in their prayers for one another. this privilege of intercession is one of the privileges most widely valued and most constantly exercised throughout the church. days of intercession, litanies, the offering of the blessed sacrifice with special intention, the constant requests for prayers for objects in which people are interested, all testify to the value we place on the privilege. here is one action in regard to which there is no doubting voice in christendom. but curiously, and for some reason to me wholly unintelligible, there are a great many who think of this right and duty of intercession between the members of the one body as exclusively the right and duty of those who are living here on earth; or at least if it pertain to the "dead" it is in a way in which we can have no part. one would think--and so the catholic church has always thought--that those whom we call dead, but who are really "alive unto god" with a life more intense, a life more spiritually clear-visioned, than our own, would have a special power and earnestness in prayer, and that a share in their intercessions is a spiritual privilege much to be valued. they are members with us of the same body; death has not cut them off from their membership, rather, if possible, it has intensified it, or at least their perception of what is involved in it. they remain under all the obligations of the life of the body and consequently under the obligation to care for other members of the body. the intercession of the saints for us is a fact that the church has never doubted and cannot doubt except under penalty of denying at the same time the existence of the body. that certain members of the church have of late years doubted our right to invoke the saints, to call upon them for the aid of their prayers, is true; but there seems no ground for rejecting the tradition of invocation except the rather odd ground that we do not know the mode by which our requests reach them! as there are a good many other spiritual facts of which we do not know the mode, i do not think that we need be deterred from the practice of invocation on that ground: certainly the church has never been so deterred. it is strange how little people attempt to think out their religion, and especially their obligation to religious practice. i have so often heard people say, when the practice of invocation of saints was urged: why ask the saints? why not go directly to god? and these same people are constantly asking the prayers of their fellow christians here on earth! suppose when some pious soul comes to me and asks me if i will not pray for a sick child, or a friend at sea, i were to reply: "why come to me? why not go directly to god?" i should be rightly thought unfeeling and unchristian. but that is precisely what the same person says when i suggest that the saints or the blessed mother of god be invoked for some cause that we have in hand! a person comes to me and asks my prayers, and i go to a saint and ask his prayers on precisely the same basis and for precisely the same reason, namely, that we are both members of the body of christ and of one another. we have the right to expect the interest and to count on the love of our fellow-members in christ. we go to the saints with the same directness and the same simplicity with which we go to the living members of the body, living, i mean in the church on earth. if it be not possible to do that, then death has made a very disastrous break in the unity of the body of christ. and if we can count so without hesitation upon the love and sympathy and interest of the saints, surely we can count upon finding the same or greater love and sympathy in the greatest of all the saints, our blessed mother, who is also the mother of god. she in her spotless purity is the highest of creatures. she by her special privilege has boundless power of intercession; not power as i have explained before, because of any sort of favouritism, but power because her spiritual perfection gives her unique insight into the mind of god. power in prayer really means that, through spiritual insight we are enabled to ask according to his will "and this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us." that is why righteousness is the ground of prevailing intercession, because righteousness means sympathetic understanding of the mind of god. and in none is there such sympathetic understanding because in none is there such nearness to god, as in blessed mary. to go to her in our prayers and to beg her to intercede for us is, of course, no more a trenching upon the unique mediatorship of our lord than it is to ask my human friend to pray for me. we tend, do we not? to select from among the circle of our acquaintance those whom for some reason we feel to have what we call a special power in prayer when we seek for some one to pray for us in our need. is it not wholly natural then that we should go to our blessed mother on whose sympathy we can unfailingly count and in whose spiritual understanding we can implicitly trust, when we want to interest those who are dear to our lord in our special needs? we have every claim upon their sympathy because they are fellow-members of the same body; and we know, too, that he who has made us one in his body wills that we should receive his graces through our mutual ministrations. mary, maiden, mild and free, chamber of the trinity, a little while now list to me, as greeting i thee give; what though my heart unclean may be, my offering yet receive. thou art the queen of paradise, of heaven, of earth, of all that is; thou bore in thee the king of bliss without or spot or stain; thou didst put right what was amiss, what man had lost, re-gain. the gentle dove of noe thou art the branch of olive-tree that brought, in token that a peace was wrought, and man to god was dear: sweet ladye, be my fort, when the last fight draws near. thou art the sling, thy son the stone that david at goliath flung; eke aaron's rod, whence blossom sprung though bare it was, and dry: 'tis known to all, who've looked upon thy childbirth wondrous high. in thee has god become a child, the wretched foe in thee is foiled; that unicorn that was so wild is thrown by woman chaste; him hast thou tamed, and forced to yield, with milk from virgin breast. like as the sun full clear doth pass, without a break, through shining glass, thy maidenhood unblemished was for bearing of the lord: now, sweetest comfort of our race, to sinners be thou good. take, ladye dear, this little song that out of sinful heart has come; against the fiend now make me strong, guide well my wandering soul: and though i once have done thee wrong, forgive, and make me whole. wm. de shoreham's translation from the latin, or french of robt. grosseteste; c. . part two chapter xxiii the descent of the holy spirit and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. and they were all filled with the holy ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance. acts ii, . holy mother of god, virgin ever blessed, glorious and noble, chaste and inviolate, o mary immaculate, chosen and beloved of god, endowed win singular sanctity, worthy of all praise, thou who art the advocate for the sins of the whole world; o listen, listen, listen to us, o holy mary, pray for us. intercede for us. disdain not to help us. for we are confident and know for certain that thou canst obtain all that thou wiliest from thy son, our lord jesus christ, god almighty, the king of ages, who liveth with the father and the holy ghost, for ever and ever. ms. book of cerne, belonging to ethelwald, bp. of sherbourne, . "when the day of pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place"--i suppose the "all" will be not merely the "twelve," but the "all" that were mentioned by s. luke a few verses before. he mentions the apostles by name and then adds, "these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and mary the mother of jesus, and with his brethren." we think of our lady as sharing in the pentecostal gift. this was the first act of her ascended son, this sending forth of the holy spirit whom he had promised. it was the fulfilment of the prophecy: "i will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." i do not know of anything in the teaching of the church to lead us to suppose that this gift was to the apostles alone: rather the thought of the church is that to all christians is there a gift of the spirit. the holy spirit is imparted to the church as such, and within the organisation he functions through appropriate organs. "there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit." whatever the operations of god through the body of christ, the same divine energy is making them possible. "all these worketh that one and selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." that the holy spirit should manifest himself in her life was, of course, no new experience for s. mary. her conscious vocation to be the mother of god had begun when the holy ghost had come upon her, and she had conceived that "holy thing" which was called the son of god. and we cannot think that the spirit who is the spirit of sanctity had ever been absent from her from the moment of her wonderful conception when by the creative act of the spirit she was conceived without sin, that is, in union with god. but as there are diversities of gifts, so the coming of the spirit on pentecost would have meant to her some new or increased gift of god. for the church as such this coming of the spirit meant the entrance of the work of the incarnation upon a new phase of its action. we may, i suppose, think of the work of our lord during the years of his ministry as intensive. it was the work of preparing the men to whom was to be committed the commission to preach the kingdom of god. they had been chosen to be with him, and their training had been essentially an experience of him, an experience which was to be the essence of their gospel and which their mission was to interpret to the world. "who is this jesus of nazareth whom ye preach? what does he mean?" was to be the question that they would have to answer in the coming years; and they would have to answer it to all sorts of men; to jews who would find this conception of a suffering and rejected messiah "a stumbling-block"; to the greeks who would find "jesus and the resurrection" "foolishness"; to all races of men who would have to be persuaded to leave their ancestral religions and revolutionise their lives, and before they would do so would wish to know what was the true meaning of christ in whose name their whole past was challenged. as we watch the perplexity, the bewilderment, of these apostles in the face of the collapse of all their hopes on the first good friday, as we see them struggling with the fact of the resurrection, and attempting to adjust their lives to that; and then listen to their preaching and follow their action in the days succeeding pentecost, we have brought home to us the nature of the action of the holy spirit when he came to them as the spirit of jesus to enable them to carry on the work that jesus had committed to them. we understand that the work of the spirit was first of all the work of interpreting the experience of the last three years. during these years they had been with jesus, and the result was an experience which, however wonderful, or rather, just because it was wonderful, was in their consciousness at present little more than a chaotic mass of impressions and memories. it was the work of the spirit to enkindle and illuminate their understanding so that they could put the experiences of the last three years in order, if one may put it in that way. he enabled them to draw out the meaning of what they had gone through. we are at once impressed with the reality of the work of the spirit when we listen to the sermon of s. peter to those who have witnessed the miracle of pentecost. here is another miracle of which we have, perhaps, missed something of the wonder. this man who in answer to the mockeries of the crowd--"these men are full of new wine"--stands forth to deliver this exposition of jesus is the same man who but a few days before had denied his lord through fear; he is the same man who even after the resurrection was filled with such discouragement that he could think of nothing to do but to return to the old life of a fisherman, who had said on a day, "i go a-fishing." if we wish to understand the meaning of the coming of the spirit, let us forget for the moment the tongues of fire, which are the symbol, and read over the words of s. peter which are the true miracle of pentecost. and this action of the spirit is not sporadic or temporary. we follow the annals of the church and we find the constant evidence of the spirit's power and action in the christian propaganda. the courage with which the christians meet the opposition of jews and romans, in their resourcefulness in dealing with the utterly unprecedented problems they are called on to face, in the intellectual grip of the apologists who have to meet the criticism of very diverse sets of opponents, in their rapidly growing comprehension of what the incarnation means, and of all in the way of action that our lord's directions involve,--all these, when we recall the antecedents of these men, lead us to a clearer apprehension of the nature of the spirit's work in the church. as our lord had promised, he is bringing "all things to their remembrance" and "leading them into all the truth." if we need proof of the constant supernatural action of god in the church, we get all we can ask in the preaching of jesus by his followers in these opening years of their ministry. i said that our lord's work in the time of his ministry was intensive, the preparing of instruments for the founding of the kingdom. with pentecost and the coming of the spirit it passes into a new stage; it becomes _extensive_ in that it now reaches out to gather all men into the kingdom. to this end there is now a vast development of the machinery (so to call it) of the gospel, a calling into existence of the means whereby christ is to continue his action in men's souls. for there must continue a direct action of christ or the gospel will sink to the condition of a twice-told tale: it will be the constant repetition of the story of jesus of nazareth who went about doing good: and it will have less and less power to be of any help to men as it receeds into the past. without the means which are called into existence to produce continual contact between the redeemer and the redeemed we cannot conceive of the gospel continuing to exist as power. this is not a matter of pure theory: it is a thing that we have seen happen. we have seen the growth of a theory of christianity which dispenses wholly or nearly wholly with the means of grace, and reduces the presentation of the gospel to the presentation of the ideal of a good life as an object of imitation. when one asks: "why should i imitate this life which, however good in an abstract way, is not very harmonious with the ideals of society at present?" one is told that it is the best life ever lived, the life that best interprets god, our heavenly father to us. if one asks: "what is likely to happen if one does not imitate this life, but prefers some more modern type of usefulness?" the answer seems to be: "nothing in particular will happen." in other words, the preaching of the gospel divorced from the means of grace tends more and more to decline to the presentation of a humanitarian ideal of life which has little, and constantly less, driving power. we see then as we study the history of the early days of the church the constant presence and action of the holy spirit in the mode and means by which the gospel is presented. we see it particularly in the development of the ministry and the growth of the sacramental system. it seems to me not very important to find a detailed justification of all the things that were done or established in explicit words or acts in the new testament. if we are dealing, as we believe that we are, with an organism of which the life is god the holy ghost who is the vicar of christ in the building and administration of his kingdom, i do not see why we should not find in the action of the kingdom as much of inspiration as we find in its writings. i do not see why we should accept certain things on the authority of the action of the early christian community, as the baptism of infants and the communion of women, and reject others, as the reservation of the blessed sacraments and prayers for the dead. nor do i see why we should draw some sort of an artificial line through the history of the church and declare all the things on one side of it primitive and desirable, and all on the other late and suspect! especially as no one seems to be able to explain why the line should be drawn in one place rather than in another. if the holy spirit was sent by our lord as his vicar to preside in the church, as i suppose we all believe, it was in fulfilment of our lord's promise to be with it till the end of the world and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. there is nothing anywhere in holy scripture indicating that the holy spirit was to be sent to the "primitive church," even if any one could tell what the primitive church is, or rather when the church ceased to be primitive. the holy spirit is present as a guide to the church to-day quite as fully as he was in the first century. his presence then was not a guarantee that all men should believe the truth or do the right, nor is it now. the state of christendom is a sufficient evidence of the ability of men to defy the will of god, the holy spirit; but that does not mean that the holy spirit has withdrawn any more than the state of things at corinth which called out s. paul's two epistles to that church is a proof that god the holy ghost never came or did not stay with that primitive christian community. the power of the spirit is not an irresistible power, but a spiritual influence which will guide those who are willing to be guided, who will to be submissive to his will. but the will of god can always be resisted--and always is. nevertheless the holy spirit is in the church. he shaped and is shaping its beliefs and institutions: and to-day we trust that he is leading us back to his obedience that we may at length realize the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace. the work of the holy spirit in the individual christian is a constructive work; it has in view the growth of the child of god in holiness. he makes the soul of the baptised his dwelling-place and wishes to remain there as in his temple, carrying on the work of its sanctification. the state of guiltlessness that follows absolution is not the equivalent of sanctity. guiltlessness is a negative, sanctity is a positive state, and is acquired as the result of active correspondence with the will of god. in order that there may be this correspondence the will of god must be known, not merely as we know the things that we have learned by rote, but known in the sense of understood and appreciated. the will of god is knowable: that is, it has been revealed to man; but it needs to be effectively made known to the individual man. he must be convinced of the importance of divine truth to him. we know that just there is the supremely vital point in the teaching of the truth. men assent to truth as true; but they are not thereby necessarily moved to act upon it: it may remain unassimilated. the vast majority of the people of this country, if they were questioned, would assert a belief in god; but a surprising number of them are unmoved by that belief, are led by it to no action. or take the membership of any parish; they would all profess a belief in the efficacy of the sacraments: yet there is a surprisingly large number who do not frequent the sacraments. how many of you, for example, make your confessions and communions with the frequency and regularity that your theory about the sacraments implies? now it is the work of the holy spirit to effect the passage in life from theory to practice, from profession to action. he illuminates the mind that we may understand; he stirs the will that we may act. he aids us to overcome the intellectual and physical sloth which is the arch-enemy of christian practice. he intercedes for us, and he pleads with us that we may act as the children of god that we believe ourselves to be. but all he can do is to entice the will; if we remain unwilling, unmoved, he is ultimately grieved and leaves us. we may hope that that despair of the holy spirit of a soul rarely happens because it is a spiritual disaster awful to contemplate. in most men and women we can see enough impulse toward god, enough struggle with evil, to encourage us to think that the holy spirit has not utterly abandoned them. and it is never safe for us to judge definitely of another's spiritual case; but we do see lives that are so given over to malignancy that our hope for them is an optimism which has small basis on which to rest. in most we may be certain that there is going on a very active pleading of the holy spirit. he is interpreting the meaning of the truth we accept. he is present in a careful reading of the bible, in meditation, in devotional study. he receives of christ and shows it unto us. i am sure we ought to think more of this interpretative assistance of the holy spirit in the work of understanding the christian religion, especially in its application to the daily life. i am quite certain, and i have no doubt that the experience of some of you, at least, will bear me out, that it makes a vast difference in the results of our reading and study if we undertake it under the direct invocation of the holy spirit and with the conscious giving ourselves up to his guidance. we have to make a meditation, for example, and we begin with prayer to god the holy ghost for guidance and enlightenment. it is often well to let that prayer run on as long as it will. it may be in the end that instead of making the meditation we had planned we shall have spent the time in a prayer of union with the holy spirit and will find ourselves refreshed and enlightened as the result. there is need of that sort of yielding of self to the promptings of the spirit. i think that it not infrequently happens that our rules get in the way of his action by destroying or checking in us a certain flexibility which is necessary if we are to respond quickly to the voice of the spirit. as in the case just mentioned where the spirit is leading us to communion with him we are apt to think: "i must get on with my meditation or the time will be up and i shall not have made it," and we turn from the spirit and stop the work that he was accomplishing. he has so much to do for us, so many things to show us, so many grounds to urge for our more earnest seeking of sanctity. the true point of our bible reading is that it is the opportunity of the holy spirit to exhibit truth to us so that in us it will become energetic. we already are familiar with the incidents of our lord's passion. if it be a matter of knowledge there is no need to-night to take up the gospel and read the chapters which tell of the crucifixion. there is not much point in reading through a chapter as a matter of pious habit. it is extraordinary how many there are who speak with contempt of "mediæval prayers" such as the recitation of the rosary, who yet "read a chapter" once a day in the shortest possible time and with the minimum of attention. we can think of all religious practices as opportunities that we offer to god the holy ghost. the few verses of holy scripture we read may well be the medium of his action upon us. he may give us new insight into their meaning, he may stir our wills to correspondence with their teaching, he may kindle our hearts by the evidence of the divine love that he presses home. who does not remember moments when new meaning seemed to flash from the familiar pages, when we felt ourselves convicted of inadequate response to the knowledge we have, or when we felt our heart stir and send us to our knees in an act of thanksgiving and love? our constant need is the clear knowledge of ourselves. we may, we often do, see clearly god's will, and then we deceive ourselves as to the nature of our response. we think we are seeking for god when in reality we are seeking our own ends. we make our own plans and then seek to impose them on the will of god. self-seeking, which we mistake for something else, is at the root of much spiritual failure. we try to believe that god's will is our will, and we succeed in a measure. we need therefore to be constantly examining ourselves by the revealed standard of god's will, to let in the light of the spirit on our judgments and acts. for the struggle of the spirit for control is a struggle with a resisting and sluggish will. we see, but we do not move; we know, but we do not act. the horrible inertia of spiritual sloth paralyses us, and the call of the spirit is heard in vain. like the man in our lord's parable we plead the lateness of the hour, and our unwillingness to disturb others as our excuse for not rising at the spirit's summons. but the spirit, like the friend at midnight, still knocks at the door, and the sound of the summons penetrates the quietness of the house and breaks in upon our slumbers. well is it for us if in the end we rise and open to him. it is only as we thus become energetic by the yielding to god of our wills that he can go on to his desired work. the aim of god in dealing with our lives is creative. he wills that we bring forth fruit, and the fruit that he wills that we bring forth is the fruit of the spirit. the general notion of holiness analyses into these qualities which are the evidence of god's indwelling, of his actual possession of the soul. when the soul yields at last to the divine will and begins to follow the divinely indicated course of action, then it loses self and finds god, then the results begin to show in the growth of the character-qualities that we call fruits or virtues. the presence or the absence of these is infallible evidence of the spirit's success or failure in his work in us. if we abide in christ, then the natural results of such abiding must be forthcoming. "i am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and i in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." a vine bears fruit because it assimilates the natural elements which are furnished it by the providence of god through earth and air and water, and works them into the fruit which is the end, the meaning of its existence. our lord through the constant operation within us of the holy spirit gives us the spiritual power to work over the endowments of nature and the opportunities of life into the spiritual product which is holiness. we can just as well, and perhaps easier, work up the same natural elements into a quite different product. the result of our life's action may be that we can show the works of the flesh. but what is the will of the spirit, s. paul sets before us in these words: "for when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. but now being made free from sin, and become the servants of god, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord." any adequate self-examination, therefore, bears not only on our sins, our failures, but on our accomplishment. a tree is known by its fruits; and fruits are things which are evident to all men. if indeed the work of the spirit in us is love, joy, peace and the rest of the fruits, these qualities cannot be hid. certainly they cannot be hid from ourselves. they are the evidence to us of precisely where we stand in the way of spiritual accomplishment. and we must remember that they are supernatural qualities, and not be deceived by the existence in us of a set of human counterfeits. love is not good-natured tolerance; joy is not superficial gaiety, peace is not clever dodging of difficulties. the fruits of the spirit are not of easy growth, but come only at the end of a long period of cultivation, of energetic striving. but like all the gifts of god they do come if we want them to come. "if ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." but when we ask our lord for gifts we must remember that the giving is not a mechanical giving. what our lord gives is the might of the spirit to effect what we desire. if a man ask of god a good harvest the prayer is answered if there be given the conditions under which a good harvest can be produced; it will not be produced without the appropriate human labour. and when we ask of god the fruits of the spirit the prayer is granted if the conditions are given under which this fruit may be brought forth. but neither here may we expect fruit without appropriate action on our part. god gives, but he gives to those who want. i others do of grace bereave, when, in their mother's womb, they life receive, god, as his sole-borne daughter, loved thee: to match thee like thy birth's nobility, he thee his spirit for thy spouse did leave, of whom thou didst his only son conceive; and so was linked to all the trinity. cease, then, o queens, who earthly crowns do wear, to glory in the pomp of worldly, things: if men such respect unto you bear which daughters, wives and mothers are of kings; what honour should unto that queen be done who had your god for father, spouse and son? ii sovereign of queens, if vain ambition move my heart to seek an earthly prince's grace, show me thy son in his imperial place, whose servants reign our kings and queens above: and, if alluring passions i do prove by pleasing sighs--show me thy lovely face, whose beams the angels' beauty do deface, and even inflame the seraphins with love. so by ambition i shall humble be, when, in the presence of the highest king, i serve all his, that he may honour me; and love, my heart to chaste desires shall bring, when fairest queen looks on me from her throne, and jealous, bids me love but her alone. iii why should i any love, o queen, but thee, if favor past a thankful love should breed? thy womb did bear, thy breast my saviour feed, and thou didst never cease to succour me. if love do follow worth and dignity, thou all in thy perfections dost exceed; if love be led by hope of future meed, what pleasure more than thee in heaven to see? an earthly sight doth only please the eye, and breeds desire, but doth not satisfy: thy sight gives us possession of all joy; and with such full delights each sense shall fill, as heart shall wish but for to see thee still, and ever seeing, ever shall enjoy. iv sweet queen, although thy beauty raise up me from sight of baser beauties here below, yet, let me not rest there; but, higher go to him, who took his shape from god and thee. and if thy form in him more fair i see, what pleasure from his deity shall flow, by whose fair beams his beauty shineth so, when i shall it behold eternally? then, shall my love of pleasure have his fill, when beauty's self, in whom all pleasure is, shall my enamoured soul embrace and kiss, and shall new loves and new delights distill, which from my soul shall gush into my heart, and through my body flow to every part. henry constable: - . part two chapter xxiv the home of s. john and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. s. john xix, . but now we unite to praise thee, o pure and immaculate one, blessed virgin and sinless mother of thy great son and the god of all. o perfectly spotless and altogether holy, thou art the hope of despairing sinners. we bless thee as most full of grace, who didst give birth to christ, god and man. and we fall down before thee. we all invoke thee and implore thy help. deliver us, o virgin, holy and undefiled, from every pressing strait and from all temptations of the evil one. be thou our peacemaker in the hour of death and judgment. do thou save us from the future unquenchable fire and from the outer darkness. do thou render us worthy of the glory of thy son, o virgin and mother, most sweet and clement. a prayer of s. ephrem the syrian. there is no scene in the whole range of scripture narrative which is more full of pathos than this scene of the cross. two agonies meet: the agony of the nailing, the lifting, the dying; and the agony that looks on in silent helplessness. but while our lord's physical agony was in some sort swallowed up in the intensity of the love which was the motive for enduring it, overpassed in the vision of the need of those for whom he was dying, s. mary's agony was the pain of a love concentrated upon the sufferer who hangs dying before her eyes. if there be anything that can lighten the pain of such love it is that it feels itself answered, that its object is conscious of it and is helped by it. and s. mary had that consolation: the love poured to her from the cross, and revealed itself when the suffering son turned his eyes upon her agony and, understanding what her desolation would be, committed her to his beloved disciple: "behold thy mother; behold thy son." these two great loves which had been our lord's human consolation were thus committed to one another. and when the darkness fell, and death relieved the agony, and the sacred body had been cared for, then the mother found refuge with s. john: "and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." from the day of pentecost on, s. mary is no more heard of in the history of the church. as so often, the scriptures are silent and decline to answer our interested questions. they go on with the essentails of their story, the founding of the church of god, and leave other things aside. so we do not know any of the last years of the life of blessed mary. where did she live? how long did she live? the traditions, in any case of quite an untrustworthy nature, are contradictory. jerusalem and ephesus contend for the honour of our lady's residence. jerusalem must have been the site of that "home" to which s. john took her after the crucifixion. did she remain there, or did she follow s. john, and at length come to live with him in ephesus? ephesus puts forward the claim, and we feel that it would be well founded in the nature of the relation between these two, if s. mary lived until the settlement of the last of the apostles in the asian city. our lord's committal of his mother to the beloved disciple implies their personal association as long as s. mary lived: if till s. john was settled in ephesus, then we may be sure that she was there. she would be with s. john as long as she lived, but can we think of her as living long? would not a great love draw her to another world and the presence of her triumphant son? let us, however think, as one tradition bids us, of our lady as living some time with s. john at ephesus. we can understand the situation because it is so much like our own. these asia minor cities of the imperial period were curiously like the great centers of population in the western world of to-day--london, paris, new york, chicago. there was the same over-crowding of population, the same intense commercial activity, the same almost insane thirst for amusement and excitement, the same degeneracy of moral fibre. the sins that sapped the life of ephesus are the same that degrade contemporary life. in some ways ephesus was, possibly, more frankly corrupt; but on the other hand it had no daily press to advertise and promote sin and social corruption. there is more of christianity and of christian influence in the modern city, but even here there is a curious resemblance between the two. the christian religion had but recently been introduced into ephesus, but already it had precisely that touch of ineffectiveness that seems to us so modern. the message of the risen lord to the angel of the church in ephesus is: "nevertheless i have this against thee, that thou hast left thy first love. remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else i will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." the things that hearten us are sometimes strange; but i suppose that there is a feeling of encouragement in our present day distress and spiritual ineffectiveness in the thought that even under s. john the church in ephesus was not wholly ideal. the conditions which baffle us, baffled him. the converts who were so promising and enthusiastic declined in zeal and fell back under the spell of worldliness. zeal is a quality which is maintained with great difficulty, and the pull of the world, whether social or business, is steadily exercised. converts in ephesus, like converts in new york, felt that their friends were right who declared that they were quite unnecessarily strict, and that in order to serve christ it was not necessary to turn their backs absolutely on diana. as one tries to reconstruct the situation in ephesus, one feels that our lady would have had no prominence in the church in the way of an actively exercised influence. one thinks of her as living in retirement, as not even talking very much. if she lived long she would be an object of increasing interest and even of awe to the new converts, and an object of growing love to all those who were admitted to any sort of fellowship with her. but one cannot imagine a crowd about her, inquiring into her experiences and her memories of her divine son. once she told of her experience, for it was necessary that the church should know of the circumstances of the coming of the son of god into the world, but beyond that necessary communication of her experience we cannot think of her as speaking of her sacred memories. silence and meditation, longing and waiting, would have filled the years till the hour of her release. but in the quiet hours spent with s. john it would be different. between the blessed virgin and s. john there was perfect understanding and perfect sympathy, and we love to think of the hours that they would have spent together in deep spiritual intercourse. those hours would not be hours of reminiscence merely; they would rather be hours in which these two would attempt with the aid of the spirit who ruled in them so fully to enter deeper and ever deeper into the meaning of incarnate god. jesus would be the continual object of their thought and their love, and meditation upon his words and acts would lead them to an ever increasing appreciation of their depth and meaning. we have all felt, in reading the pages of s. john, how vast is the difference both in attitude toward his subject and in his understanding of it from that of the other evangelists. the earlier evangelists seem deliberately to keep all feeling out of their story, to tell the life of our lord in the most meagre outline, confining themselves to the essential facts. anything like interpretation they decline. in s. john all this is changed. the jesus whom he presents is the same jesus, but seen through what different eyes! the same life is presented, but with what changes in selection of material! the gospel of s. john seems almost a series of mediations upon selected facts of an already familiar life rather than an attempt to tell a life-story. and so indeed we think of it. when s. john wrote, the life of our lord as a series of events was already before the church. the church had the synoptic gospels, and it had a still living tradition to inform it. what it needed, and what the holy spirit led s. john to give it, was some glimpse of the inner meaning of the incarnation, some unfolding of the spiritual depths of the teaching of jesus. we know how it is that different people listening to the same words get different impressions and carry away with them quite different meanings. we hear what we are able to hear. and s. john was able to hear what the other disciples of our lord seem not to have heard. what dwelt in his memory and was worked up in his meditations and was at length transmitted to us, was the meaning of such incidents as the interview with nicodemus, and the talk with the woman of samaria, the discourse on the holy eucharist and the great high-priestly prayer. men have felt the contrast between s. john and the other evangelists so intensely that they have said that this is another christ who is presented by s. john, and the influences which have shaped the author of the fourth gospel are quite other than those which shaped the men of the inner circle of jesus. but no: it is the instinctive, or rather the spirit-guided, selection of the material afforded by those years of association with jesus for the purpose of transmitting to the church a spiritual depth and beauty, a spiritual significance in our lord's teaching, that the earlier gospel had hardly touched. which perhaps they could not touch because when they wrote there was not yet in the church the spiritual experience which could fully interpret our lord. through the life of union with the risen jesus and all the spiritual experience, all the illumined intelligence that that life brought, s. john was enabled to understand and interpret as he did. writing far on toward the end of the first century he was writing out of the personal experience of christian living of many years, which brought with it year by year an increased power of spiritual vision opening to him the depth and wonder of the fact of god made man. it is to an experience of our lord that he appeals as the basis of his teaching. "that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life: (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the father, and his son jesus christ." and as we read on in s. john's epistles we cannot fail to see how deeply the years of meditation have influenced his understanding of our lord and his teaching, and how much his past experience of our lord has been illumined by the experience of the risen jesus which has followed. at no time, we are certain, has s. john been out of touch with his master. and can we for a moment think that the years of intercourse with our lady meant nothing in the spiritual development of s. john? on the contrary, may we not think that much of the spiritual richness which is the outstanding feature of his writings was the outcome of his association with the blessed mother? no one has ever shown the sympathetic understanding of our lord, has been so well able convincingly to interpret him, as the beloved disciple. i myself have no doubt that much of his understanding came by way of s. mary. her interpretative insight would have been deeper than any one else's, not only because of her long association with jesus, but because of her sinlessness. no two lives ever touched so closely; and there was not between them the bar that so blocks our spiritual understanding and clouds our spiritual vision, the bar of sin. i suppose it is almost impossible for us to appreciate the effect of sin in clouding vision and dulling sympathy. our every day familiarity with venial sin, our easy tolerance of it, the adjustment of our lives to habits that involve it, have resulted in a lack of spiritual sensitiveness. much of the meaning of our lord's life and words passes over us just because of this dimness of vision, this insensitiveness to suggestion. and therefore we find it difficult to imagine what would be the understanding, the insight, the response to our lord, of one between whom and him there was no shadow of sin. and such an one was the blessed mother. with unclouded vision she looked into the face of her son. as his life expanded she followed with perfect sympathy; indeed, sometimes, as at cana, her understanding of what he was made her precipitate in concluding as to his necessary action. when he became a public teacher and unfolded largely in parable his doctrine, it was her sinless soul which would see clearest and deepest, and with the most ready response. and therefore i am sure that we cannot go astray in thinking that s. john's relation to s. mary was not simply that of a guardian of her from the pressure of the world, but was indeed that of a son who listened and learned from the experience of his mother. no doubt s. john himself was of a very subtle spiritual understanding; notwithstanding that, and notwithstanding his exceptional opportunities of learning, we may still believe that there are many touches in his gospel which are the result of his association with his lord's mother. is it not possible for us to have our share in that pure insight of blessed mary? when we try to think out the lines of our own spiritual development and the influences that have contributed to shape it, do we not find that the presence or absence of devotion to our lady has been a factor of considerable importance? devotion to her injected an element into our religion which is of vast moment, an element of sympathy, of gentleness, of purity. you can if you like, in condemnatory accents, call that element sentimentalism, although it is not that but the exercise of those gentler elements of our nature without whose exercise our nature functions one-sidedly. you may call it the feminine element, if you like; you will still be indicating the same order of activity. surely, an all around spiritual development will bring out the feminine as well as the masculine qualities. and it seems to be historically true that those systems of religion which represent a revolt against the cultus of our lady and carefully exclude all traces of it from their worship, show as a consequence of this exclusion a hardness and a barrenness which makes their human appeal quite one-sided. and when those same systems have realised their limitations and their lack of human appeal, and have tried to supply what is lacking, they have again failed, because instead of reverting to historical christianity they have taken the road of humanitarianism, basing themselves on our lord's human life and consequent brotherhood with us, rather than upon his supernatural personality as operative through his mystical body. stress is laid upon charitable helpfulness rather than upon the power of grace. the modern man tries to reform life rather than to regenerate it. and, i repeat, i cannot help associating with a repudiation of the cultus of the saints, and especially of the blessed virgin mary, a consequent failure to understand the christian life as a supernatural creation. if one leaves out of account the greater part of the kingdom of heaven, all the multitudes of the redeemed, and their activities, and fastens one's attention exclusively upon that small part of the kingdom which is the church on earth, one can hardly fail to miss the significance of the earthly church itself. religion understood in this limited way may well drift more and more toward deism and humanitarianism, and further and further from any supernatural implications. this is no theory; it is what has happened. it was the course of protestantism from the reformation to the eighteenth century; and, after a partial revival of supernaturalism, is once more the rapid course of protestantism to-day. protestantism has lost or is fast losing any grip on the trinity or the incarnation: to it god is more and more a barren unity, and jesus a good man. and this largely because all interest in the world of the redeemed has been abandoned and all intercourse with the inhabitants of that world denied. it is therefore of the last importance that we, infected as we are with protestantism, should stress the revival of the cultus of the saints, and should insist upon our right and privilege to pay due honour to the mother of god and ask our share in her prayers. we must do all we can to make her known to our brethren. we need her sympathy, her aid, her example. above all, the example of her spotless purity. it is notorious that one of the most marked features of our time is the virulent assault on purity. we had long emphasised a certain quality of conduct which we called modesty; it was, perhaps, largely a convention, but it was one of those protective conventions which are valuable as preservative of qualities we prize. it was protective of purity; and however artificial it was, in some respects, it existed because we felt that purity was a thing too precious to be exposed to unnecessary risk. well, modesty is gone now, whether in conduct or convention. one hears discussed at dinner-tables and in the presence of young girls matters which our mothers would have blushed to mention at all. the quality of modesty is declared puritanical and hypocritical. "hypocritical virtue" is a phrase one frequently meets; and we seem fast going on to the time when all virtue will be regarded as hypocrisy. customary standards are falling all about us, overthrown in the name of personal liberty. and by liberty, one gathers, is meant freedom to do as one pleases, and especially as one sexually pleases. the assault is pushed hardest just now against the sanctity of the sacrament of matrimony and the morals of that sacrament as they have been developed by the christian church. protestantism long ago assented to the overthrow of christian standards in the marriage relation and has aided the sexual anarchy with which we are faced to-day. to-day the chief attack is on the purity of marriage in the interests, ostensibly, of humanity. a vigorous campaign in favour of what is called birth-control is being carried on, and is being supported in quarters which are professedly christian. there are many grounds for opposing the movement, social, humanitarian and other. we are here concerned with it only as it is an attack on purity. from the christian point of view the marriage relation has for its end the procreation of children for the upbuilding of the kingdom of god. if circumstances are such, through reasons of health or economy, that children seem undesirable, the remedy is plain, self control. the theory that human beings have no more control over their appetites than beasts, while it has much to support it in contemporary life, cannot be admitted from the point of view of religion. self-control is always possible, and is constantly exercised by many men and women who choose to be guided by principle rather than by passion. and in any case the christian religion can become no partner, not even a silent one, in a conspiracy to murder, or in the sort of compromise that turns marriage into a licensed sodomy. if indeed the economic status of the modern world is such that the average couple cannot support a family, then the christian church may well aid in the bringing about of an economic revolution; but it can hardly aid in the destruction of its own ideals of purity. what is ultimately at stake in the modern world is the whole conception of purity as a quality that is desirable. this attitude has become possible among us for one reason because we have consented to the suppression of ideals of life which were calculated to sustain it. to sustain any moral or spiritual conception there must be maintained certain appropriate ideals which, while out of the reach of the average man, create and sustain in him an admiration and respect for the ideal standard. so the standard of purity presented in mary and protected by the belief in her immaculate conception and her assumption, has the effect, not only of commending the life of chastity in the sense of the vows of religion, but also in the broad sense of the restraint and discipline of appetite whether within or without the marriage relation. it impresses upon us the truth that purity is not only a human quality but a divinely created virtue, the result of the infusion of sanctifying grace into the soul. is it not largely because the young are taught (when they are taught anything at all in the premises) that purity is a matter of the _will_, that they so often fail? if they were taught the nature of the _virtue_ and were led to rely more on the indwelling might of the holy spirit would they not have better success? and if there were held constantly before their eyes the example of the saints and especially of blessed mary ever-virgin, would not they have an increased sense of the value of purity? the life and example of s. mary are an inestimable treasure of the church of god, and her removal from the world has only enhanced that value. to-day her meaning is clearer to us than ever. the spirit-guided mind of the church has through the centuries been meditating on the meaning of her office as mother of god. the words in which she accepts her vocation, behold the handmaid of the lord, implying, as they do, an active co-operation with the divine purpose, a voluntary association of herself with it, imply, too, the perpetual continuance of that association, and contain in germ all catholic teaching in regard to her office. she passed from this world silently, and to the world unknown; but to the church of god she ever remains of all human beings the greatest spiritual force in the kingdom of god. weep, living things, of life the mother dies; the world doth lose the sum of all her bliss, the queen of earth, the empress of the skies; by mary's death mankind an orphan is. let nature weep, yea, let all graces moan, their glory, grace and gifts die all in one. it was no death to her, but to her woe, by which her joys began, her griefs did end; death was to her a friend, to us a foe, life of whose lives did on her life depend: not prey of death, but praise to death she was. whose ugly shape seemed glorious in her face. her face a heaven; two planets were her eyes, whose gracious light did make our clearest day; but one such heaven there was, and lo, it dies, death's dark eclipse hath dimmed every, ray: sun, hide thy light, thy beams untimely shine; true light since we have lost, we crave not thine. robert southwell, - part two chapter xxv the assumption father, i will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where i am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. s. john xvii, . hail! holy queen, mother of mercy, hail! our life, our sweetness, our hope, all hail. to thee we cry, poor exiled children of eve. to thee we send up our cries, weeping and mourning in this vale of tears. turn, then, most gracious advocate, thy merciful eyes upon us, and now, after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, jesus. o gracious, o merciful, o sweet virgin mary. anthem from the breviary. attributed to hermann contractus, - . there is nothing more wonderful or beautiful, nothing that brings to us a more perfect revelation of our lord's mind, than this prayer which is recorded for us by s. john. there is in it a complete unfolding of that sympathy and love which we feel to underlie and explain our lord's mission. as we come to know what god is only when we see him revealed in jesus; when we enter into our lord's saying, "he that hath seen me, hath seen the father," so in the revelation of jesus we understand god's attitude toward us. in jesus the love of god shows itself, not as an abstract quality, a philosophical conception, but as a burning, passionate eagerness to rescue, an outgoing of god to individual souls. there is a deep personal affection displayed in this final scene in the upper chamber. this is our lord's real parting from his disciples. he will see them again, but under conditions of strain and tragedy, or under such changed circumstances that they cannot well enter into the old intimacy. but here there is no bar to the expression of love. here he gives them the final evidence of his utter union with them in the humility of the foot-washing. here he marvellously imparts himself in the breaking of the bread, wherein is consummated his personal union with them. this is the demonstration, if one were needed, that having loved his own, he loved them unto the uttermost. it is inconceivable that passionate love such as this should ever end. it is a personal relation which must endure while personality endures. it is really the demands of love which more than anything else outside revelation are the evidence of immortality. we are certain that the love of god which in its fulness has been made known in christ cannot be annihilated by death. "i have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have i drawn thee." love such as that must draw men, not only in this world, but in all worlds. if it can draw men out of sin to god, it must create an enduring bond. if it can draw god to men, it must be the revelation of a permanent attitude of god to man. it is a love that goes out beyond the world, that love of which s. paul says: "for i am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in christ jesus our lord." our instinctive thought of the judgment seems to be of it as condemnation, or, at best, as acquittal. but why not think of it as consummation? why not think of it as setting the seal of god's approval upon our accomplishment of his will and purpose for us? the final judgment is surely that,--the entrance of those who are saved into the full joy of their lord. there once more will our humanity be complete because it is the whole man, not the soul only, but the soul clothed with the body of the resurrection, once more clothed upon with its "house from heaven," which is filled with the joy of the beatific vision. the thought of the particular judgment may fill us with dread; but if we are able to look beyond that to the general judgment at the last day, we shall think only of our perfect bliss in the enjoyment of god. the belief in the assumption of our lady is a belief that in her case that which is the inheritance of all the saints, that they shall rise again with their bodies and be admitted to the vision of god, has been anticipated. in her, that which we all look forward to and dream of for ourselves, has been attained. she to-day is in god's presence in her entire humanity, clothed with her body of glory. this teaching, one finds, still causes some searching of hearts among us, and is thought to raise many questions difficult to answer. and it may be admitted at the outset that it is not a truth taught in holy scripture but a truth arrived at by the mind of the church after centuries of thought. unless we can think of the church as a divine organism with a continuous life from the day of pentecost until now, as being the home of the holy spirit, and as being continuously guided by him into all the truth; unless we can accept in their full sense our lord's promises that he will be with the church until the end of the world, we shall not find it possible to accept the assumption as a fact, but shall decline to believe that, and not only that but, if we are consistent, many another belief of the christian church. but if we have an adequate understanding of what is implied in the continuity of the church as the organ of the present action of the holy spirit, we shall not find that the fact that a given doctrine is not explicitly contained in holy scripture is any bar to its acceptance. we shall have learned that the revelation of god in christ, and our relation to god in christ, are facts of such tremendous import and inexhaustible content that it would be absurd to suppose that all their meaning had been understood and explicitly stated in the first generation of the christian church. we shall not, then, find it any bar to the acceptance of belief in the assumption of our lady that its formal statement came, as is said, "late." we simply want to know that when it came it came as the outcome of the mature thought of the church, the body of christ, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. it is to be noted that the assumption is not a wholly isolated fact. there are several cases of assumption in the old testament though of a slightly different character in that they were assumptions directly from life without any interval of death. such were the assumptions of enoch and elijah. moses, too, it has been constantly believed, was assumed into heaven,--in his case after death and with his resurrection body. a case which is more strangely like what is believed to have taken place in the experience of blessed mary is that closely connected with our lord's resurrection and recorded by s. matthew. "and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." although it is not asserted that these were assumed into heaven, it seems impossible to avoid the inference; and if "many saints which slept" were raised from the dead and assumed into the heavenly world, there can be no _a priori_ difficulty in believing the same thing to have taken place in the blessed mother of god. nay if such a thing as an assumption is at all possible for any human being one would naturally conclude from the very relation of s. mary to our lord that the possibility would be realised in her. and there were elements in her case which were lacking in all the other cases which suggest a certain fitness, if not inevitability, in her assumption. she was conceived without sin,--never had any breath of sin tainted her. was it then possible that she should be holden by death? surely, in any case, it was impossible that her holy body should see corruption: we cannot think of the dissolution of that body which had no part in sin. if ever an assumption were possible, here it was inevitable--so the thought of the church shaped itself. the compelling motives of the belief were theological rather than historical. the germ out of consideration of which was evolved the belief in the assumption was the relation of blessed mary to her son. that unique relation might be expected to carry with it unique consequences, and among these the consequence that the body which was bound by no sin should be reunited to the soul which had needed no purgation, but had passed at once to the presence of its god and its redeemer who was likewise son. it is well to stress the fact that the assumption is not only a fact but a doctrine. fact, of course, it was or there could be no doctrine; but the truth of the fact is certified by the growing conviction in the mind of the church of the inevitability of the doctrine. what is implied in the word assumption is that the body of the mother of our lord was after her death and burial raised to heaven by the power of god. it differed therefore essentially from the ascension of our lord which was accomplished by his own inherent power. when this assumption took place we have no means of knowing. we do not certainly know where s. mary lived, nor where and when she died. jerusalem and ephesus contend in tradition for the privilege of having sheltered her last days and reverently carried her body to its burial. there is no way of deciding between these two claims, although the fact that our lord confided his mother to s. john throws some little weight into the scale of ephesus. and yet s. mary may have died before s. john settled in ephesus. we can only say that history gives us no reliable information on the matter. in the silence of scripture we naturally turn to the other writings of the early church for light and guidance on the matter; but there, too, there is little help. there is, to be sure, a group of apocryphal writings which have a good deal to say about the life of s. mary, where the scriptures and tradition are silent. among other things these apocryphal writings have a good deal to say, and some very beautiful stories to tell, of s. mary's last days, of her burial and assumption. are we to think of these stories as containing any grain of truth? if they do, it is now impossible to sift it from the chaff. these stories are generally rejected as a basis of knowledge. and there has been, and still is in some quarters, a conviction that the belief of the church in the assumption rests on nothing better or more stable than these apocryphal stories; that the authors of these apocrypha were inventing their stories out of nothing, and that in an uncritical age their legends came to be taken as history. thus was a belief in the assumption foisted upon the church, having no slightest ground in fact. the human tendency to fill in the silences of scripture has resulted in many legends, that of the assumption among them. there is a good deal to be said for this position, yet i do not feel that it is convincing. that the incidents of the life of the blessed virgin mary as narrated in the apocrypha are historical, of course cannot be maintained. but neither is it at all probable that such stories grew up out of nothing: indeed, their existence implies that there were certain facts widely accepted in the christian community that served as their starting point. while the apocryphal stories of the life of our lady cannot be accepted as history, they do presuppose certain beliefs as universally, or at least widely, held. thus one may reject all the details of the story of the death and burial and assumption of our lady, and yet feel that the story is evidence of a belief in the assumption among those for whom the story was written. what was new to them was not the fact of the assumption but the detailed incidents with which the apocrypha embroidered it. i feel no doubt that these apocryphal stories are not the source of belief in the assumption, but are our earliest witness to the existence of the belief. they actually presuppose its existence in the church as the necessary condition of their own existence. another fact that tells in the same direction is the absence of any physical relics of our lady. at a time when great stress was laid upon relics, and there was little scruple in inventing them, if the authentic ones were not forthcoming, there were no relics produced which were alleged to be the physical relics of s. mary. why was this? surely, unless there were some inhibiting circumstances, relics, real or forged, would have been produced. the only probable explanation is that the inhibiting circumstance was the established belief in the assumption. if the assumption were a fact, there would be no physical relics; if it were an established belief, there would be no fraud possible. add to this that various relics of our lady were alleged to exist; but they were not relics of her body. again: by the seventh century the celebration of the feast of the assumption had spread throughout the whole church. this universal establishment of the feast implies a preceding history of considerable length, going well back into the past. the feast was kept in many places, and under a variety of names which seem to imply, not mere copying, but independent development. it is alleged, to be sure, that the names by which the feast was called do not imply belief in the assumption. the feast is called "the sleeping," "the repose," "the passage" of the virgin, as well as by the western title, the assumption. but a study of the liturgies and of the sermons preached in honour of the feast will convince any one that the underlying tradition was that of our lady's assumption. these quite separate and yet converging lines of evidence seem to me to show convincingly what was the wide-spread belief of the early christian community as to the destiny of blessed mary. they imply a tradition going well back into the past, so far back, that in view of the theological expression of the mind of the church they may well be regarded as apostolic. our personal belief in the assumption will still rest primarily upon its theological expression in the mind of the church, but having attained certainty as to the doctrine, which is of course at the same time certainty as to the fact, we shall have no difficulty in finding in the above sketched lines of historical development the evidence of the primitive character of the belief. it may not be amiss to give a few characteristic quotations as indicating the mind of the church in this matter. s. modestus, patriarch of jerusalem (d. ), preaching on the falling asleep of the mother of god, said:-- "the lord of heaven and earth has to-day consecrated the human tabernacle in which he himself, according to the flesh, was received, that it may enjoy with him forever the gift of incorruptibility. o blessed sleep of the glorious, ever-virgin mother of god, who has not known the corruption of the grave; for christ, our all-powerful saviour, has kept intact that flesh which gave him his flesh.... hail, most holy mother of god: jesus has willed to have you in his kingdom with your body clothed in incorruptibility.... the most glorious mother of christ our lord and saviour, who gave life and immortality, is raised by her son, and forever possesses incorruptibility with him who called her from the tomb." s. andrew, archbishop of crete (d. ), also preaching on the falling asleep of the mother of god, says:--"it is a wholly new sight, and one that surpasses the reason, that of a woman purer than the heavens entering heaven with her body. as she was born without corruption, so after death her flesh is restored to life." in one of his sermons at the same feast, s. germanus of constantinople (d. ), speaks thus:--"it was impossible that the tomb should hold the body which had been the living temple of the son of god. how should your flesh be reduced to dust and ashes who, by the son born of you, have delivered the human race from the corruption of death?" preaching on the same festival, s. john damascene (d. ) said:--"your flesh has known no corruption. your immaculate body, which knew no stain, was not left in the tomb. you remained virgin in your child-bearing; and in your death your body was not reduced to dust but has been placed in a better and celestial state." there are one or two practical consequences of this doctrine concerning which, perhaps, it may be well to say a few words. the first is as the result of such devotions to our lady as are implied in, or have in fact followed, a belief in her assumption. it is objected to them that even granting the truth of the fact of the assumption, still the stress laid on the fact and the devotions to our lady which are held to be appropriate to it, are unhealthy in their nature, and do, in fact, tend to obscure the worship of our lord: that where devotions to our lady are fostered, there devotion to our lord declines. that therefore instead of trying to advance the cultus of our lady, we should do much better to hold to the sanity and reserve which has characterised the anglican church since the reformation. these and the like arguments seem to me to hang in the air and to be quite divorced from facts. they imply a state of things which does not exist. the assertion that where devotion to our lady prevails devotion to our lord declines is as far as possible from being true. where to-day is the deity of our lord defended most ardently and devotion to him most wide spread? is it in churches where devotion to our lady is suppressed? on the contrary, do you not know with absolute certainty, that in any church where you find devotion to our lady encouraged, there will you find the deity of our lord maintained? has the anglican "sanity and reserve" in regard to the blessed virgin mary saved the anglican church from the inroads of unitarianism and rationalism? is it not precisely in those circles where the very virginity of our lady is denied that the divinity of our lord is denied also? no, devotion to mary is far indeed from detracting from the honour due to mary's son. and we cannot insist too much or too often that the doctrines of the christian church form a closely woven system such that none, even the seemingly least important, can be denied without injuring the whole. no article of christian belief expresses an independent truth, but always a truth depending upon other truths, and in its turn lending others its support. to deny any truth that the mind of the church has expressed is equivalent to the removal of an organ from a living body. and to-day we feel more than ever the need of the doctrine of the assumption. one of the bitterest attacks on the christian faith which is being made to-day, emanating principally from within the christian community, and even from within the christian ministry, is that which is being made on the truth of the resurrection of the body, whether the resurrection of our lord, or our own resurrection. in place of the christian doctrine believed and preached from the beginning, we are asked to lapse back into heathenism and a doctrine of immortality. not many seem to realise the vastness of the difference that is made in our outlook to the future by a belief in the resurrection of the body as distinguished from immortality. but the character of the religions resulting from these two contrary beliefs is absolutely different. it needs only to study them as they actually exist to be convinced of this fact. and it is precisely the doctrine of the assumption of our lady which contributes strong support to the christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body. it teaches us that in her case the vision and hope of mankind at large has been anticipated and accomplished. the resurrection of our lord is found, in fact, to extend (if one may so express it) to the members of his mystical body; and the promise which is fulfilled in blessed mary, is that hope of a joyful resurrection which is thus confirmed to us all. in its stress upon the assumption the mind of the christian church has not been led astray, has not been betrayed into fostering superstitions, but has been led by the spirit of christ which he promised it to the development of a truth not only revealing the present place of his glorious mother in the kingdom of her son, but encouraging and heartening us in our following of the heavenly way. whoe is shee that assends so high next the heavenlye kinge, round about whome angells flie and her prayses singe? who is shee that adorned with light, makes the sunne her robe, at whose feete the queene of night layes her changing globe? to that crowne direct thine eye, which her heade attyres; there thou mayst her name discrie wrytt in starry fires. this is shee, in whose pure wombe heaven's prince remained; therefore, in noe earthly tombe cann shee be contayned. heaven shee was, which held that fire whence the world tooke light, and to heaven doth now aspire, fflames with fflames to unite. shee that did so clearly shyne when our day begunne, see, howe bright her beames decline nowe shee sytts with the sunne. sir john beaumont, - . part two chapter xxvi the coronation and there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. rev. xii, i. to-day the angel gabriel brought the palm and the crown to the triumphant virgin. to-day he introduced to the lord of all, her, who was the temple of the most high, and the dwelling of the holy spirit. for the assumption. armenian. the heaven which s. john the evangelist shows us is the continuation of the earthly church. as we read his pages we feel that entrance there would be a real home-coming for the earnest christian. we are familiar enough with presentations of heaven which seem to us to be so detached from christian reality as to lack any human appeal. we think of philosophic presentations of the future with entire indifference. it is possible, we say, that they may be true; but they are utterly uninteresting. it is not so in the visions of s. john. here we have a heaven which is humanly interesting because it is continous with the present life, and its interests are the interests that it has been the object of our religion to foster. the qualities of character which the christian religion has urged upon our attention are presented as finding their clear field of development in the world to come. there, too, are unveiled the objects of our adoration, the ever-blessed three who yet are but one. love which has striven for development under the conditions and limitations of our earthly life, which has tried to see god and has gone out to seek him in the dimness of revelation, now sees and is satisfied. whom now we see in a mirror, enigmatically, we shall then see face to face. and it is a heaven thronged with saints, with men and women who have gone through the same experiences as those to which we are subjected, and have come forth purified and triumphant. we sometimes in discouragement think of life as continuous struggle. it is perhaps natural and inevitable that we should thus concentrate attention upon the present, but if we lift our eyes so as to clear them from the mists of the present we see that it is far from a hopeless struggle, but rather the necessary discipline from which we emerge triumphant. those saints whom we see rejoicing about the throne of god, those who go out to follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth, passed through the struggle of persecution to their triumphant attainment of the vision. it is our eternal temptation to expect to triumph here; but it is only in a very limited sense that this can be true: our triumph is indeed here, but the enjoyment of it and all that is implied in it is elsewhere. here even our most complete achievement is conditioned by the limitations of earth: there the limitations are done away and life expands in perfectness. so we look eagerly through the door that is opened in heaven as those who are looking into their future home. that is what we all are striving for--presumably. we are consciously selecting out of life precisely those elements, are centering on those interests, which have eternal significance and are imperishable values. as we travel along the pilgrim way it is with hearts uplifted and stimulated by the vision of the end. we advance as seeing him who is invisible. we live by hope, knowing that we shall attain no enduring satisfaction until we pass through the gates into the city, and mingle with the throng of worshippers who sing the song of moses and of the lamb. therefore our life is always forward-looking and optimistic: because we are sure of the end, we wait for it with patience and endurance, thankful for all the experience of the way. as the years flow by we do not look back on them with regret as the unrenewable experiences of a vanished youth, but we think of them as the bearers of experiences by which we have profited, and of goods which we have safely garnered, waiting the time when their stored values can be fully realised. over all the saints whom the church has seen rejoicing in the heavenly life, rises the form of mary, mother of god. s. john's vision of the "great sign in heaven" in its primary meaning has, no doubt, reference to the church itself; but the form of its symbolism would be impossible if there were not a secondary reference to the blessed virgin mary. it is the thought of her and of her office as mother of the redeemer that has determined the form of the vision. the details are too clear to permit of doubt, and such has been the constant mind of catholic interpreters. and how else than as queen of the heavenly host should we expect her to be represented? what does the church teaching as to sanctity imply? it implies the enjoyment of the beatific vision. the normal christian life begins in the sacramental act by which the regenerate child is made one with god, being made a partaker of the divine nature, and develops through sacramental experience and constant response to the will of god to that spiritual capacity which is the medium of the beatific vision and which we call sanctity or purity. "the pure in heart shall see god." but the teaching of the church also implies that there is a marvellous diversity in the sanctity of the members of the body of christ. each saint retains his personal characteristics, and his sanctity is not the refashioning of his character in a common mould but the perfecting of his character on its own lines. we sometimes hear it said that the christian conception of heaven is monotonous, but that is very far from being the fact. it is only those conceptions of heaven which have excluded the communion of saints, and have thought of heaven as the solitary communion of the soul with god; which have in other words, excluded the notion of human society from heaven, which have appeared monotonous. as we read any series of the lives of the saints, and realise that it is these men and women and multitudes of others like them, that make up the society of heaven, we get rid of any other notion than that of endless diversity. and thus studying individual saints we come to understand that not only is the sanctity of them diverse in experience but different in degree. all men have not the same capacity for sanctity, we infer; all cannot develop to the same level of attainment. we may perhaps say that while all partake of god, all do not reflect god in the same way or in the same degree. but if there be a hierachy of saints it is impossible that we should think of any other at its head than blessed mary. whatsoever diversity there may be in the attainments of the saints, there is one saint who is pre-eminent in all things, who,--because in her case there has never been any moment in which she was separate from god, when the bond of union was so much as strained,--is the completest embodiment of the grace of god. that is, i think, essentially what is meant by the coronation of our lady,--that her supremacy in sanctity makes her the head of the heirarchy of saints, that in her the possibilities of the life of union have been developed to the highest degree through her unstained purity and unfailing response to the divine will. it is of the last importance, if the catholic conceptions are to be influential in our lives, that we should gain such a hold on the life of heaven, the life that the saints, with saint mary at their head, are leading to-day, as shall make it a present reality to us, not a picture in some sort of dreamland. our lives are shaped by their ideals; and although we may never attain to our ideals here, yet we shall never attain them anywhere unless we shape them here. heaven must be grasped as the issue of a certain sort of life, as the necessary consequence of the application of christian principles to daily living. it is wholly bad to conceive it as a vague future into which we shall be ushered at death, if only we are "good"; it must be understood as a state we win to by the use of the means placed at our disposal for the purpose. those attain to heaven in the future who are interested in heaven in the present. and a study of the means is wholly possible for us because we have at hand in great detail the lives of those whom the church, by raising them to her altars, has guaranteed to us as having achieved sanctity and been admitted to the beatific vision. they achieved sanctity here--that is, in the past. they achieved it under an infinite variety of circumstanies,--that is the encouragement. they now enjoy the fruits of it in the world of heaven,--that is the promise. and nowhere can we better turn for the purpose of our study than to the life of blessed mary. there is the consummate flower of sainthood; and therefore it it best there that we can study its meaning. and for two principal reasons can we best study it there. in the first place because of its completeness: nowhere else are all the elements of sanctity so well developed. and in the second place because of the riches of the material for understanding blessed mary that is placed at our disposal by the labour of many generations of saints and doctors. all that devout meditation can do to understand the sanctity of blessed mary has been done. our limit is necessarily reduced, our selection partial and our accomplishment fragmentary. we cannot however miss our way if we follow in the steps of holy revelation in making love the central quality. s. mary's greatness is ultimately the greatness of her love. it began as a love of the will of god. she appears as utterly selfless, as having devoted herself to the will of god as he shall manifest that will. and therefore when the time comes she makes the great sacrifice that is asked of her without hesitation and without effort: "behold, the handmaid of the lord; be it unto me according to thy word." and all her life henceforth is loving response to what is unfolded as the content of the accepted revelation. that is a noteworthy thing that i fancy is often missed. it is not uncommon for one to accept a vocation as a whole, and then subsequently, as it unfolds, shrink from this or that detail of it. but in the case of s. mary the acceptance of the vocation meant the acceptance of _god_, and there was no holding back from the result of that. that must be our guide in the pursuit of the heavenly life: we must understand that we are not called to accept this or that belief or practice, but are called to accept god--god speaking to us through the revelation he has entrusted to his catholic church. we do not, when we make our act of acceptance, know all or very much of what god is going to mean; but whatever god turns out to mean in experience, there can be no holding back. the note of a true acceptance of vocation is precisely this limitless surrender, a surrender without reservation. s. mary could by no means understand what was to be asked of her: she only knew it was god who asked it. she could not foresee the years of the ministry when her son would not have where to lay his head, followed by the anxiety of holy week and the watch by the cross on good friday; but as these things came she could understand them as involved in her vocation, in her acceptance of god. and cannot we get the same attitude toward life? in the acceptance of the christian religion what we have accepted is god. we have acknowledged the supremacy of a will outside ourselves. we say, "we are not our own, we are bought with a price," the price of the precious blood. but if our acceptance is a reality and not a theory it will turn out to involve much more than we imagined at the first. the frequent and pathetic failures of those who have made profession of christianity is largely accounted for by this,--that the demands of the christian religion on life turn out to be more searching and far-reaching than was supposed would be the case. religion turns out to be not one interest to be adjusted to the other interests of life, but to be a demand that all life and action shall be controlled by supernatural motive. those who would willingly give a part, find it impossible to surrender the whole. the world is full of young rulers who are willing "to contribute liberally to the support of religion," but shrink from the demand that they "sell all." "i seek not yours, but you," s. paul writes to the corinthians; and that is also the seeking of god--"not yours but you." and because the limit of our willingness is reached in contribution and does not extend to sacrifice, we fail. but blessed mary did not fail because there was no limit to her willingness to sacrifice. her will to sacrifice had the same limitless quality as her love; and because of the limitless quality of her self-giving her growth in the life of union was unlimited, or limited only by the limitations of creaturehood. when therefore we think of her to-day as queen of saints we are not thinking of an arbitrarily conferred position; we are thinking of a position which comes to her because she is what she is. she through the unstinting sacrifice of her love came into more intimate relations with god than is possible for any other, and through that relation came to know more of the mind of god than any other. the power of her intercession is the power of her understanding, of her sympathy with the thoughts of god. when we come to her with our request for her intercession we feel that we are sure of her sympathy and her understanding. her experience of human life, we think, was not very wide: can she whose life was passed under such narrow conditions understand the complex needs of the modern man or woman? it is true that her actual experience of human life was not very wide; but her experience of god is very wide indeed, and she is able to understand our experience better than we can understand it ourselves because of her understanding of god's mind and will. it is seeing life through god's eyes that reveals the truth about it. hence the blunder and the tragedy of those who seek to know life by experience, when they mean experience gained by participation in life's evil as well as in its good. they succeed in soiling life rather than in understanding it; for participation in evil effectually prevents our understandings of good. it is on the face of things that the farther a man goes into sin, the less is righteousness intelligible to him. our lord's rule "he that doeth the will shall know of the doctrine" is not an arbitrary maxim, but embodies the deepest psychological truth. there is but one path to full understanding, and that is the path of sympathy. and therefore are we sure of our lady's understanding and come to her unhesitatingly for the help of her intercession. she understands our case because she sees it revealed in the mind of her son. it cannot be questioned that much of the weakness of religion to-day is due to the fact that christian ideals make but faint appeal. by many they are frankly repudiated as impossible of attainment in a world such as this, and as weakening to human character so far as they are attained. christians, of course, are unable to take this point of view, and, therefore, they treat the ideals with respect, but continue to govern their lives by motives which are not harmonious with them. it is tacitly assumed on all sides that a consistent pursuit of christians ideals will assure failure in social or business life. this, of course, is tantamount to a confession that social and business life are unchristian, and raises the same sort of grave questions as to the duty of a christian as were raised in the early days of the church under the heathen empire. with that, however, we may not concern ourselves now. we are merely concerned to note and to emphasise the fact that, whatever may be true of society or business, our religion is lamentably ineffective because of its failure to emphasise the ideals of sanctity and to present those ideals as the ideals of _all_ christian life, not as the ideals of a select few. while religious teachers asquiesce in the present set of compromises as an adequate expression of christian character, we may expect a decline in the church as a spiritual force, whatever may be true of it as a social force. if christian ideals are to resume their appeal to the membership of the church as a whole it is requisite that they be studied by the clergy and intelligently presented. but little is to be hoped in this direction so long as our theological training ignores religion and concentrates its attention on something that it takes for scholarship. the raw material that is sent by our parishes to the seminaries to be educated for holy orders is commonly turned out of the seminary with less religion that it entered. the outlook for the presentation of christian ideals is not hopeful. we seem destined to drift on indefinitely in our habitual compromises. all the more is it necessary that we should lift our eyes to the heavens where humility and meekness, where sacrifice and obdience, are, in the person of blessed mary, crowned as the most perfect expression of sanctity, as the qualities that raise man nearest god. and what consoles us in the present depressing circumstances of the church is that we are permitted to look through s. john's eyes into the world of heaven, and there see "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with white robes, and with palms in their hands." somehow, we feel, under whatever distressing and discouraging circumstances, the work of god in the regeneration of souls goes on. no doubt it is a work that is largely hidden from our eyes, from those eyes which are blinded to the reality of spiritual things. humility and meekness are the qualities of a hidden life; they do not flaunt themselves before men's eyes. but in their silence and obscurity great souls are growing up, growing to the spiritual status of the saints of god. in our estimate of values we shall do well to lay to heart the utterances of wisdom: "then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labours. when they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they had looked for. and they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say among themselves, this is he, whom we had sometime in derision, and a proverb of reproach: we fools accounted his life madness, and his end without honour: how is he numbered among the children of god, and his lot is among the saints! verily we went astray from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness shined not unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us." when we have attained to the point of view as to life's value which is expressed in the ideal of sanctity then we shall know how to estimate at their true worth the constant criticisms which are directed against those ideals and those who seek them. the saints, we are told, were no doubt estimable men and women, but they were weak, and for the purpose of the world's work, useless. but is this true, to keep to a specific example, of the blessed virgin mary? what is there about her life that suggests weakness? and what can be the meaning of calling such a life useless to the world? take but one aspect of it. it has for centuries furnished an ideal of womanhood. it is contended that the women who have taken blessed mary for their ideal have shown themselves weak and useless?--that those women are stronger in character and of more value to the world who have thrown over the ideals of sanctity and built their lives upon the social ideals prevalent at present? i no not care to attempt any characterisation of the feminine ideal which is commended to us at present; it is sufficient to say that it is difficult to understand how it can be considered socially valuable; still less how it can be considered an advance on the character qualities which distinguish the christian ideal of sanctity. in the midst of the present confusion of values it is for us of vast significance that we have in this matter the mind of christ. there need be no confusion in our minds. what christ commended has proved to be practical of accomplishment, the evidence of which is the great multitude which no man can number who to-day sing about the throne of god and of the lamb. what god approves is evidenced by the coronation of the blessed mother over all the multitudes of the saints of god. blessed mary is the embodied thought of god for humanity, the realised ideal of a human life. he that is mighty hath magnified her, till she shines resplendent in spiritual qualities over all the hosts of the elect. but though so highly exalted she is not thereby removed to an inaccessible distance. she who is privileged to bear the incredible title, mother of god is our mother as well. upon the cross our lord said to us in the person of his beloved disciple, "behold thy mother"; and it is a mother's love that we find flowing to us from the heart of mary. have we been cold to her, and inappreciative of her love? have we felt that we have no need of her in the conduct of our lives? if so, what we have been doing is to isolate ourselves from the divinely provided fount of human sympathy which ever flows from our star-crowned mother. is life so rich in sources of help and sympathy and love that we can afford to over-pass the eagerness of god's saints to help us, the willingness of the very mother of god to intercede? is not the life that shuts out from itself the society of heaven pitifully impoverished? too many of us are like the man who owned the field wherein was the buried treasure. limitless aid is at our disposal, but on condition that we want it and will seek it. let us try to understand what it is to have at our disposal the love and sympathy of the saints of god,--that they are not remote inhabitants of a distant sphere whose present interests have led to forgetfulness of what they once were, whose present joy is so intense as to make them self-centred, but that their very attainment of perfection implies the perfection of their love and the completeness of their sympathy. the perfection of god's saints and their attainment of the end of their course in the enjoyment of the beatific vision, has but made them more sensitive of our needs and more eager to help. the spiritual wisdom and power of the mother of god is at our disposal to-day. to the feebleness of our prayers may be added the spiritual wisdom and strength of her intercession. he whose will it is that we should pray for one another, wills too that the prayers of his blessed mother should be at the disposal of all who call upon her. let us take the fact of the intercession of the queen of saints seriously as a source of power ever open to us. thou who art god's mother and also ours, thou who lookst constantly into the face of the son, thou who art the fullest manifestation of the love of the blessed trinity, thou mary, our mother, pray for us now and in the hour of our death. all hail, o virgin crowned with stars and moon under thy feet, obtain us pardon of our sins of christ, our saviour sweet; for though thou art mother of any god, yet thy humility disdaineth not this simple wretch that flies for help to thee. thou knowest thou art more dear to me than any can express, and that i do congratulate with joy thy happiness. thou who art the queen of heaven and earth thy helping hand me lend, that i may love and praise my god and have a happy end. and though my sins me terrify, yet hoping still in thee, i find my soul refreshèd much when to thee i do flee; for thou most willingly to god petitions dost present, and dost obtain much grace for us in this our banishment. the honour and the glorious praise by all be given to thee, which jesus thy beloved son, ordained eternally; for thee whom he exalts in heaven above the angels all, and whom we find a patroness when unto thee we call. o mater dei, memento mei. amen. dame gertrude more, o.s.b. ob. . legends of the madonna, as represented in the fine arts. by mrs. jameson. corrected and enlarged edition. boston: houghton, mifflin and company. the riverside press, cambridge. . note by the publishers. some months since mrs. jameson kindly consented to prepare for this edition of her writings the series of _sacred and legendary art_, but dying before she had time to fulfil her promise, the arrangement has been intrusted to other hands. the text of the whole series will be an exact reprint of the last english edition. ticknor & fields. boston, oct. st, . contents. preface introduction-- origin of the worship of the madonna. earliest artistic representations. origin of the group of the virgin and child in the fifth century. the first council at ephesus. the iconoclasts. first appearance of the effigy of the virgin on coins. period of charlemagne. period of the crusades. revival of art in the thirteenth century. the fourteenth century. influence of dante. the fifteenth century. the council of constance and the hussite wars. the sixteenth century. the luxury of church pictures. the influence of classical literature on the representations of the virgin. the seventeenth century. theological art. spanish art. influence of jesuitism on art. authorities followed by painters in the earliest times. legend of st. luke. character of the virgin mary as drawn in the gospels. early descriptions of her person; how far attended to by the painters. poetical extracts descriptive of the virgin mary. symbols and attributes of the virgin. proper costume and colours. devotional subjects and historical subjects. altar-pieces. the life of the virgin mary as treated in a series. the seven joys and seven sorrows as a series. titles of the virgin, as expressed in pictures and effigies. churches dedicated to her. conclusion. supplementary notes devotional subjects. part i. the virgin without the child. la vergine gloriosa. earliest figures. the mosaics. the virgin of san venanzio. the virgin of spoleto. the enthroned virgin without the child, as type of heavenly wisdom. various examples. l'incoronata, the type of the church triumphant. the virgin crowned by her son. examples from the old mosaics. examples of the coronation of the virgin from various painters. the virgin of mercy, as she is represented in the last judgment. the virgin, as dispenser of mercy on earth. various examples. the mater dolorosa seated and standing, with the seven swords. the _stabat mater_, the ideal pietà. the votive pieta by guido. our lady of the immaculate conception origin of the subject. history of the theological dispute. the first papal decree touching the immaculate conception. the bull of paul v. the popularity of the subject in spain. pictures by guido, by roelas, velasquez, murillo. the predestination of the virgin. curious picture by cotignola. part ii. the virgin and child. the virgin and child enthroned. _virgo deipara_. the virgin in her maternal character. origin of the group of the mother and child. nestorian controversy. the enthroned virgin in the old mosaics. in early italian art the virgin standing as _regina coeli_. _la madre pia_ enthroned. _mater sapientiæ_ with the book. the virgin and child enthroned with attendant figures; with angels; with prophets; with apostles. with saints: john the baptist; st. anna; st. joachim; st. joseph. with martyrs and patron saints. _various examples of arrangement_. with the fathers of the church; with st. jerome and st. catherine; with the marriage of st. catherine. the virgin and child between st. catherine and st. barbara; with mary magdalene; with st. lucia. the virgin and child between st. george and st. nicholas; with st. christopher; with st. leonard. the virgin of charity. the madonnas of florence; of siena; of venice and lombardy. how attended. the virgin attended by the monastic saints. examples from various painters. votive madonnas. for mercies accorded; for victory; for deliverance from pestilence; against flood and fire. family votive madonnas, examples. the madonna of the bentivoglio family. the madonna of the sforza family. the madonna of the moyer family, the madonna di foligno. german votive madonna at rouen. madonna of réné, duke of anjou; of the pesaro family at venice. half-length enthroned madonnas; first introduced by the venetians. various examples. the mater amabilis, early greek examples. the infinite variety given to this subject. virgin and child with st. john. he takes the cross the madre pia; the virgin adores her son. pastoral madonnas of the venetian school. conclusion of the devotional subjects. historical subjects. part i. the life of the virgin from her birth to her marriage with joseph. the legend of joachim and anna. joachim rejected from the temple. joachim herding his sheep on the mountain. the altercation between anna and her maid judith. the meeting at the golden gate. the nativity of the virgin. the importance and beauty of the subject. how treated. the presentation of the virgin. a subject of great importance. general arrangement and treatment. various examples from celebrated painters. the virgin in the temple. the marriage of the virgin. the legend as followed by the painters. various examples of the marriage of the virgin, as treated by perugino, raphael, and others. part ii. the life of the virgin mary from the annunciation to the return from egypt. the annunciation, its beauty as a subject. treated as a mystery and as an event. as a mystery; not earlier than the eleventh century. its proper place in architectural decoration. on altar-pieces. as an allegory. the annunciation as expressing the incarnation. ideally treated with saints and votaries. examples by simone memmi, fra bartolomeo, angelico, and others. the annunciation as an event. the appropriate circumstances. the time, the locality, the accessories. the descent of the angel; proper costume; with the lily, the palm, the olive. proper attitude and occupation of mary; expression and deportment. the dove. mistakes. examples from various painters. the visitation. character of elizabeth. the locality and circumstances. proper accessories. examples from various painters. the dream of joseph. he entreats forgiveness of mary. the nativity. the prophecy of the sibyl. _la madonna del parto_. the nativity as a mystery; with poetical accessories; with saints and votaries. the nativity as an event. the time; the places; the proper accessories and circumstances; the angelic choristers; signification of the ox and the ass. the adoration of the shepherds. the adoration of the magi; they are supposed to have been kings. prophecy of balaam. the appearance of the star. the legend of the three kings of cologne. proper accessories. examples from various painters. the land surveyors, by giorgione. the purification of the virgin. the prophecy of simeon. greek legend of the _nunc dimittis_. various examples. the flight into egypt. the massacre of the innocents. the preparation for the journey. the circumstances. the legend of the robbers; of the palm. the repose of the holy family. the subject often mistaken. proper treatment of the group. the repose at matarea. the ministry of angels. the legend of the gypsy. the return from egypt. part iii. the life of the virgin from the sojourn in egypt to the crucifixion of our lord. the holy family. proper treatment of the domestic group as distinguished from the devotional. the simplest form that of the mother and child. the child fed from his mother's bosom. the infant sleeps. holy family of three figures; with the little st. john; with st. joseph; with st. anna. holy family of four figures; with st. elizabeth and others. the holy family of five and six figures. the family of the virgin grouped together. examples of holy family as treated by various artists. the carpenter's shop. the infant christ learning to read. the dispute in the temple. the virgin seeks her son. the death of joseph. the marriage at cana. proper treatment of the virgin in this subject; as treated by luini and by paul veronese. the virgin attends on the ministry of christ. mystical treatment by fra angelico. lo spasimo. christ takes leave of his mother. women who are introduced into scenes of the passion of our lord. the procession to calvary, _lo spasimo di sicilia_. the crucifixion. proper treatment of the virgin in this subject. the impropriety of placing her upon the ground. her fortitude. christ recommends his mother to st. john. the descent from the cross. proper place and action of the virgin in this subject. the deposition. proper treatment of this form of the _mater dolorosa_. persons introduced. various examples. the entombment. treated as an historical scene. as one of the sorrows of the rosary; attended by saints. the _mater dolorosa_ attended by st. peter. attended by st. john and mary magdalene. part iv. the life of the virgin mary from the resurrection of the lord to the assumption. the apparition of christ to his mother. beauty and sentiment of the old legend; how represented by the artists. the ascension of our lord. the proper place of the virgin mary. the descent of the holy ghost; mary being one of the principal persons. the apostles take leave of the virgin. the death and assumption of the virgin. the old greek legend. the angel announces to mary her approaching death. the death of the virgin, an ancient and important subject. as treated in the greek school; in early german art; in italian art. various examples. the apostles carry the body of the virgin to the tomb. the entombment. the assumption. distinction between the assumption of the body and the assumption of the soul of the virgin. the assumption as a mystery; as an event. la madonna bella cintola. the legend of the girdle; as painted in the cathedral at prato. examples of the assumption as represented by various artists. the coronation as distinguished from the _incoronata_; how treated as an historical subject. conclusion. note. the decease of mrs. jameson, the accomplished woman and popular writer, at an advanced period of life, took place in march, , after a brief illness. but the frame had long been worn out by past years of anxiety, and the fatigues of laborious literary occupation conscientiously undertaken and carried out. having entered certain fields of research and enterprise, perhaps at first accidentally, mrs. jameson could not satisfy herself by anything less than the utmost that minute collection and progressive study could do to sustain her popularity. distant and exhausting journeys, diligent examination of far-scattered examples of art, voluminous and various reading, became seemingly more and more necessary to her; and at the very time of life when rest and slackened effort would have been natural,--not merely because her labours were in aid of others, but to satisfy her own high sense of what is demanded by art and literature,--did her hand and brain work more and more perseveringly and thoughtfully, till at last she sank under her weariness; and passed away. the father of miss murphy was a miniature-painter of repute, attached, we believe, to the household of the princess charlotte. his daughter anna was naturally taught by him the principles of his own art; but she had instincts for all,--taste for music,--a feeling for poetry,--and a delicate appreciation of the drama. these gifts--in her youth rarer in combination than they are now (when the connection of the arts is becoming understood, and the love of all increasingly diffused)--were, during part of mrs. jameson's life, turned to the service of education.--it was not till after her marriage, that a foreign tour led her into authorship, by the publication of "the diary of an ennuyée," somewhere about the year .--it was impossible to avoid detecting in that record the presence of taste, thought, and feeling, brought in an original fashion to bear on art, society, morals.--the reception of the book was decisive.--it was followed, at intervals, by "the loves of the poets," "memoirs of italian painters," "the lives of female sovereigns," "characteristics of women" (a series of shakspeare studies; possibly its writer's most popular book). after this, the germanism so prevalent five-and-twenty years ago, and now somewhat gone by, possessed itself of the authoress, and she published her reminiscences of munich, the imitative art of which was new, and esteemed as almost a revelation. to the list of mrs. jameson's books may be added her translation of the easy, if not vigorous dramas by the princess amelia of saxony, and her "winter studies and summer rambles"--recollections of a visit to canada. this included the account of her strange and solitary canoe voyage, and her residence among a tribe of indians. from this time forward, social questions--especially those concerning the position of women in life and action--engrossed a large share of mrs. jameson's attention; and she wrote on them occasionally, always in a large and enlightened spirit, rarely without touches of delicacy and sentiment.--even when we are unable to accept all mrs. jameson's conclusions, or to join her in the hero or heroine worship of this or the other favourite example, we have seldom a complaint to make of the manner of the authoress. it was always earnest, eloquent, and poetical. besides a volume or two of collected essays, thoughts, notes on books, and on subjects of art, we have left to mention the elaborate volumes on "sacred and legendary art," as the greatest literary labour of a busy life. mrs. jameson was putting the last finish to the concluding portion of her work, when she was bidden to cease forever. there is little more to be told,--save that, in the course of her indefatigable literary career, mrs. jameson drew round herself a large circle of steady friends--these among the highest illustrators of literature and art in france, germany, and italy; and that, latterly, a pension from government was added to her slender earnings. these, it may be said without indelicacy, were liberally apportioned to the aid of others,--mrs. jameson being, for herself, simple, self-relying, and self-denying;--holding that high view of the duties belonging to pursuits of imagination which rendered meanness, or servility, or dishonourable dealing, or license glossed over with some convenient name, impossible to her.--she was a faithful friend, a devoted relative, a gracefully-cultivated, and honest literary worker, whose mind was set on "the best and honourablest things." * * * * * some months since mrs. jameson kindly consented to prepare for this edition of her writings the "legends of the madonna," "sacred and legendary art," and "legends of the monastic orders;" but, dying before she had time to fulfil her promise, the arrangement has been intrusted to other hands. the text of this whole series will be an exact reprint of the last english edition. * * * * * the portrait annexed to this volume is from a photograph taken in london only a short time before mrs. jameson's death. boston, september, . author's preface to the first edition. in presenting to my friends and to the public this series of the sacred and legendary art, few preparatory words will be required. if in the former volumes i felt diffident of my own powers to do any justice to my subject, i have yet been encouraged by the sympathy and approbation of those who nave kindly accepted of what has been done, and yet more kindly excused deficiencies, errors, and oversights, which the wide range of subjects rendered almost unavoidable. with far more of doubt and diffidence, yet not less trust in the benevolence and candour of my critics, do i present this volume to the public. i hope it will be distinctly understood, that the general plan of the work is merely artistic; that it really aims at nothing more than to render the various subjects intelligible. for this reason it has been thought advisable to set aside, in a great measure, individual preferences, and all predilections for particular schools and particular periods of art,--to take, in short, the widest possible range as regards examples,--and then to leave the reader, when thus guided to the meaning of what he sees, to select, compare, admire, according to his own discrimination, taste, and requirements. the great difficulty has been to keep within reasonable limits. though the subject has a unity not found in the other volumes, it is really boundless as regards variety and complexity. i may have been superficial from mere superabundance of materials; sometimes mistaken as to facts and dates; the tastes, the feelings, and the faith of my readers may not always go along with me; but if attention and interest have been exited--if the sphere of enjoyment in works of art have been enlarged and enlightened, i have done all i ever wished--all i ever hoped, to do. with regard to a point of infinitely greater importance, i may be allowed to plead,--that it has been impossible to treat of the representations of the blessed virgin without touching on doctrines such as constitute the principal differences between the creeds of christendom. i have had to ascend most perilous heights, to dive into terribly obscure depths. not for worlds would i be guilty of a scoffing allusion to any belief or any object held sacred by sincere and earnest hearts; but neither has it been possible for me to write in a tone of acquiescence, where i altogether differ in feeling and opinion. on this point i shall need, and feel sure that i shall obtain, the generous construction of readers of all persuasions. introduction i. origin and history of the effigies of the madonna. through all the most beautiful and precious productions of human genius and human skill which the middle ages and the _renaissance_ have bequeathed to us, we trace, more or less developed, more or less apparent, present in shape before us, or suggested through inevitable associations, one prevailing idea: it is that of an impersonation in the feminine character of beneficence, purity, and power, standing between an offended deity and poor, sinning, suffering humanity, and clothed in the visible form of mary, the mother of our lord. to the roman catholics this idea remains an indisputable religious truth of the highest import. those of a different creed may think fit to dispose of the whole subject of the madonna either as a form of superstition or a form of art. but merely as a form of art, we cannot in these days confine ourselves to empty conventional criticism. we are obliged to look further and deeper; and in this department of legendary art, as in the others, we must take the higher ground, perilous though it be. we must seek to comprehend the dominant idea lying behind and beyond the mere representation. for, after all, some consideration is due to facts which we must necessarily accept, whether we deal with antiquarian theology or artistic criticism; namely, that the worship of the madonna did prevail through all the christian and civilized world for nearly a thousand years; that, in spite of errors, exaggerations, abuses, this worship did comprehend certain great elemental truths interwoven with our human nature, and to be evolved perhaps with our future destinies. therefore did it work itself into the life and soul of man; therefore has it been worked _out_ in the manifestations of his genius; and therefore the multiform imagery in which it has been clothed, from the rudest imitations of life, to the most exquisite creations of mind, may be resolved, as a whole, into one subject, and become one great monument in the history of progressive thought and faith, as well as in the history of progressive art. of the pictures in our galleries, public or private,--of the architectural adornments of those majestic edifices which sprung up in the middle ages (where they have not been despoiled or desecrated by a zeal as fervent as that which reared them), the largest and most beautiful portion have reference to the madonna,--her character, her person, her history. it was a theme which never tired her votaries,--whether, as in the hands of great and sincere artists, it became one of the noblest and loveliest, or, as in the hands of superficial, unbelieving, time-serving artists, one of the most degraded. all that human genius, inspired by faith, could achieve of best, all that fanaticism, sensualism, atheism, could perpetrate of worst, do we find in the cycle of those representations which have been dedicated to the glory of the virgin. and indeed the ethics of the madonna worship, as evolved in art, might be not unaptly likened to the ethics of human love: so long as the object of sense remained in subjection to the moral idea--so long as the appeal was to the best of our faculties and affections--so long was the image grand or refined, and the influences to be ranked with those which have helped to humanize and civilize our race; but so soon as the object became a mere idol, then worship and worshippers, art and artists, were together degraded. it is not my intention to enter here on that disputed point, the origin of the worship of the madonna. our present theme lies within prescribed limits,--wide enough, however, to embrace an immense field of thought: it seeks to trace the progressive influence of that worship on the fine arts for a thousand years or more, and to interpret the forms in which it has been clothed. that the veneration paid to mary in the early church was a very natural feeling in those who advocated the divinity of her son, would be granted, i suppose, by all but the most bigoted reformers; that it led to unwise and wild extremes, confounding the creature with the creator, would be admitted, i suppose, by all but the most bigoted roman catholics. how it extended from the east over the nations of the west, how it grew and spread, may be read in ecclesiastical histories. everywhere it seems to have found in the human heart some deep sympathy--deeper far than mere theological doctrine could reach--ready to accept it; and in every land the ground prepared for it in some already dominant idea of a mother-goddess, chaste, beautiful, and benign. as, in the oldest hebrew rites and pagan superstitions, men traced the promise of a coming messiah,--as the deliverers and kings of the old testament, and even the demigods of heathendom, became accepted types of the person of christ,--so the eve of the mosaic history, the astarte of the assyrians-- "the mooned ashtaroth, queen and mother both,"-- the isis nursing horus of the egyptians, the demeter and the aphrodite of the greeks, the scythian freya, have been considered by some writers as types of a divine maternity, foreshadowing the virgin-mother of christ. others will have it that these scattered, dim, mistaken--often gross and perverted--ideas which were afterwards gathered into the pure, dignified, tender image of the madonna, were but as the voice of a mighty prophecy, sounded through all the generations of men, even from the beginning of time, of the coming moral regeneration, and complete and harmonious development of the whole human race, by the establishment, on a higher basis, of what has been called the "feminine element" in society. and let me at least speak for myself. in the perpetual iteration of that beautiful image of the woman highly blessed--_there_, where others saw only pictures or statues, i have seen this great hope standing like a spirit beside the visible form; in the fervent worship once universally given to that gracious presence, i have beheld an acknowledgment of a higher as well as gentler power than that of the strong hand and the might that makes the right,--and in every earnest votary one who, as he knelt, was in this sense pious beyond the reach of his own thought, and "devout beyond the meaning of his will." it is curious to observe, as the worship of the virgin-mother expanded and gathered to itself the relics of many an ancient faith, how the new and the old elements, some of them apparently the most heterogeneous, became amalgamated, and were combined into the early forms of art;--how the madonna, when she assumed the characteristics of the great diana of ephesus, at once the type of fertility, and the goddess of chastity, became, as the impersonation of motherhood, all beauty, bounty and graciousness; and at the same time, by virtue of her perpetual virginity, the patroness of single and ascetic life--the example and the excuse for many of the wildest of the early monkish theories. with christianity, new ideas of the moral and religious responsibility of woman entered the world; and while these ideas were yet struggling with the hebrew and classical prejudices concerning the whole sex, they seem to have produced some curious perplexity in the minds of the greatest doctors of the faith. christ, as they assure us, was born of a woman only, and had no earthly father, that neither sex might despair; "for had he been born a man (which was necessary), yet not born of woman, the women might have despaired of themselves, recollecting the first offence, the first man having been deceived by a woman. therefore we are to suppose that, for the exaltation of the male sex, christ appeared on earth as a man; and, for the consolation of womankind, he was born of a woman only; as if it had been said, 'from henceforth no creature shall be base before god, unless perverted by depravity.'" (augustine, opera supt. , serm. .) such is the reasoning of st. augustine, who, i must observe, had an especial veneration for his mother monica; and it is perhaps for her sake that he seems here desirous to prove that through the virgin mary all womankind were henceforth elevated in the scale of being. and this was the idea entertained of her subsequently: "ennobler of thy nature!" says dante apostrophizing her, as if her perfections had ennobled not merely her own sex, but the whole human race.[ ] [footnote : "tu se' colei che l'umana natura nobilitasti."] but also with christianity came the want of a new type of womanly perfection, combining all the attributes of the ancient female divinities with others altogether new. christ, as the model-man, united the virtues of the two sexes, till the idea that there are essentially masculine and feminine virtues intruded itself on the higher christian conception, and seems to have necessitated the female type. the first historical mention of a direct worship paid to the virgin mary, occurs in a passage in the works of st. epiphanius, who died in . in enumerating the heresies (eighty-four in number) which had sprung up in the early church, he mentions a sect of women, who had emigrated from thrace into arabia, with whom it was customary to offer cakes of meal and honey to the virgin mary, as if she had been a divinity, transferring to her, in fact, the worship paid to ceres. the very first instance which occurs in written history of an invocation to mary, is in the life of st. justina, as related by gregory nazianzen. justina calls on the virgin-mother to protect her against the seducer and sorcerer, cyprian; and does not call in vain. (sacred and legendary art.) these passages, however, do not prove that previously to the fourth century there had been no worship or invocation of the virgin, but rather the contrary. however this may be, it is to the same period--the fourth century--we refer the most ancient representations of the virgin in art. the earliest figures extant are those on the christian sarcophagi; but neither in the early sculpture nor in the mosaics of st. maria maggiore do we find any figure of the virgin standing alone; she forms part of a group of the nativity or the adoration of the magi. there is no attempt at individuality or portraiture. st. augustine says expressly, that there existed in his time no _authentic_ portrait of the virgin; but it is inferred from his account that, authentic or not, such pictures did then exist, since there were already disputes concerning their authenticity. there were at this period received symbols of the person and character of christ, as the lamb, the vine, the fish, &c., but not, as far as i can learn, any such accepted symbols of the virgin mary. further, it is the opinion of the learned in ecclesiastical antiquities that, previous to the first council of ephesus, it was the custom to represent the figure of the virgin alone without the child; but that none of these original effigies remain to us, only supposed copies of a later date.[ ] and this is all i have been able to discover relative to her in connection with the sacred imagery of the first four centuries of our era. [footnote : vide "_memorie dell' immagine di m.v. dell' imprunela_." florence, .] * * * * * the condemnation of nestorius by the council of ephesus, in the year , forms a most important epoch in the history of religious art. i have given further on a sketch of this celebrated schism, and its immediate and progressive results. it may be thus summed up here. the nestorians maintained, that in christ the two natures of god and man remained separate, and that mary, his human mother, was parent of the man, but not of the god; consequently the title which, during the previous century, had been popularly applied to her, "theotokos" (mother of god), was improper and profane. the party opposed to nestorius, the monophysite, maintained that in christ the divine and human were blended in one incarnate nature, and that consequently mary was indeed the mother of god. by the decree of the first council of ephesus, nestorius and his party were condemned as heretics; and henceforth the representation of that beautiful group, since popularly known as the "madonna and child," became the expression of the orthodox faith. every one who wished to prove his hatred of the arch-heretic exhibited the image of the maternal virgin holding in her arms the infant godhead, either in his house as a picture, or embroidered on his garments, or on his furniture, on his personal ornaments--in short, wherever it could be introduced. it is worth remarking, that cyril, who was so influential in fixing the orthodox group, had passed the greater part of his life in egypt, and must nave been familiar with the egyptian type of isis nursing horus. nor, as i conceive, is there any irreverence in supposing that a time-honoured intelligible symbol should be chosen to embody and formalize a creed. for it must be remembered that the group of the mother and child was not at first a representation, but merely a theological symbol set up in the orthodox churches, and adopted by the orthodox christians. it is just after the council of ephesus that history first makes mention of a supposed authentic portrait of the virgin mary. the empress eudocia, when travelling in the holy land, sent home such a picture of the virgin holding the child to her sister-in-law pulcheria, who placed it in a church at constantinople. it was at that time regarded, as of very high antiquity, and supposed to have been painted from the life. it is certain that a picture, traditionally said to be the same which eudocia had sent to pulcheria, did exist at constantinople, and was so much venerated by the people as to be regarded as a sort of palladium, and borne in a superb litter or car in the midst of the imperial host, when the emperor led the army in person. the fate of this relic is not certainly known. it is said to have been taken by the turks in , and dragged through the mire; but others deny this as utterly derogatory to the majesty of the queen of heaven, who never would have suffered such an indignity to have been put on her sacred image. according to the venetian legend, it was this identical effigy which was taken by the blind old dandolo, when he besieged and took constantinople in , and brought in triumph to venice, where it has ever since been preserved in the church of st. mark, and held in _somma venerazione_. no mention is made of st. luke in the earliest account of this picture, though like all the antique effigies of uncertain origin, it was in after times attributed to him. the history of the next three hundred years testifies to the triumph of orthodoxy, the extension and popularity of the worship of the virgin, and the consequent multiplication of her image in every form and material, through the whole of christendom. then followed the schism of the iconoclasts, which distracted the church for more than one hundred years, under leo iii., the isaurian, and his immediate successors. such were the extravagances of superstition to which the image-worship had led the excitable orientals, that, if leo had been a wise and temperate reformer, he might have done much good in checking its excesses; but he was himself an ignorant, merciless barbarian. the persecution by which he sought to exterminate the sacred pictures of the madonna, and the cruelties exercised on her unhappy votaries, produced a general destruction of the most curious and precious remains of antique art. in other respects, the immediate result was naturally enough a reaction, which not only reinstated pictures in the veneration of the people, but greatly increased their influence over the imagination; for it is at this time that we first hear of a miraculous picture. among those who most strongly defended the use of sacred images in the churches, was st. john damascene, one of the great lights of the oriental church. according to the greek legend, he was condemned to lose his right hand, which was accordingly cut off; but he, full of faith, prostrating himself before a picture of the virgin, stretched out the bleeding stump, and with it touched her lips, and immediately a new hand sprung forth "like a branch from a tree." hence, among the greek effigies of the virgin, there is one peculiarly commemorative of this miracle, styled "the virgin with three hands." (didron, manuel, p. .) in the west of europe, where the abuses of the image-worship had never yet reached the wild superstition of the oriental christians, the fury of the iconoclasts excited horror and consternation. the temperate and eloquent apology for sacred pictures, addressed by gregory ii. to the emperor leo, had the effect of mitigating the persecution in italy, where the work of destruction could not be carried out to the same extent as in the byzantine provinces. hence it is in italy only that any important remains of sacred art anterior to the iconoclast dynasty have been preserved.[ ] [footnote : it appears, from one of these letters from gregory ii, that it was the custom at that time ( ) to employ religious pictures as a means of instruction in the schools. he says, that if lee were to enter a school in italy, and to say that he prohibited pictures, the children would infallibly throw their hornbooks (_ta volexxe del alfabeto_) at his head.--v. _bosio_, p. .] the second council of nice, under the empress irene in , condemned the iconoclasts, and restored the use of the sacred pictures in the churches. nevertheless, the controversy still raged till after the death of theophilus, the last and the most cruel of the iconoclasts, in . his widow theodora achieved the final triumph of the orthodox party, and restored the virgin to her throne. we must observe, however, that only pictures were allowed; all sculptured imagery was still prohibited, and has never since been allowed in the greek church, except in very low relief. the flatter the surface, the more orthodox. it is, i think, about , that we first find the effigy of the virgin on the coins of the greek empire. on a gold coin of leo vi., the philosopher, she stands veiled, and draped, with a noble head, no glory, and the arms outspread, just as she appears in the old mosaics. on a coin of romanus the younger, she crowns the emperor, having herself the nimbus; she is draped and veiled. on a coin of nicephorus phocus (who had great pretensions to piety), the virgin stands, presenting a cross to the emperor, with the inscription, "theotokos, be propitious." on a gold coin of john zimisces, , we first find the virgin and child,--the symbol merely: she holds against her bosom a circular glory, within which is the head of the infant christ. in the successive reigns of the next two centuries, she almost constantly appears as crowning the emperor. returning to the west, we find that in the succeeding period, from charlemagne to the first crusade, the popular devotion to the virgin, and the multiplication of sacred pictures, continued steadily to increase; yet in the tenth and eleventh centuries art was at its lowest ebb. at this time, the subjects relative to the virgin were principally the madonna and child, represented according to the greek form; and those scenes from the gospel in which she is introduced, as the annunciation, the nativity, and the worship of the magi. towards the end of the tenth century the custom of adding the angelic salutation, the "_ave maria_," to the lord's prayer, was first introduced; and by the end of the following century, it had been adopted in the offices of the church. this was, at first, intended as a perpetual reminder of the mystery of the incarnation, as announced by the angel. it must have had the effect of keeping the idea of mary as united with that of her son, and as the instrument of the incarnation, continually in the minds of the people. the pilgrimages to the holy land, and the crusades in the eleventh and the twelfth centuries, had a most striking effect on religious art, though this effect was not fully evolved till a century later. more particularly did this returning wave of oriental influences modify the representations of the virgin. fragments of the apocryphal gospels and legends of palestine and egypt were now introduced, worked up into ballads, stories, and dramas, and gradually incorporated with the teaching of the church. a great variety of subjects derived from the greek artists, and from particular localities and traditions of the east, became naturalized in western europe, among these were the legends of joachim and anna; and the death, the assumption, and the coronation of the virgin. then came the thirteenth century, an era notable in the history of mind, more especially notable in the history of art. the seed scattered hither and thither, during the stormy and warlike period of the crusades, now sprung up and flourished, bearing diverse fruit. a more contemplative enthusiasm, a superstition tinged with a morbid melancholy, fermented into life and form. in that general "fit of _compunction_," which we are told seized all italy at this time, the passionate devotion for the benign madonna mingled the poetry of pity with that of pain; and assuredly this state of feeling, with its mental and moral requirements, must have assisted in emancipating art from the rigid formalism of the degenerate greek school. men's hearts, throbbing with a more feeling, more pensive life, demanded something more _like_ life,--and produced it. it is curious to trace in the madonnas of contemporary, but far distant and unconnected schools of painting, the simultaneous dawning of a sympathetic sentiment--for the first time something in the faces of the divine beings responsive to the feeling of the worshippers. it was this, perhaps, which caused the enthusiasm excited by cimabue's great madonna, and made the people shout and dance for joy when it was uncovered before them. compared with the spectral rigidity, the hard monotony, of the conventional byzantines, the more animated eyes, the little touch of sweetness in the still, mild face, must have been like a smile out of heaven. as we trace the same softer influence in the earliest siena and cologne pictures of about the same period, we may fairly regard it as an impress of the spirit of the time, rather than that of an individual mind. in the succeeding century these elements of poetic art, expanded and animated by an awakened observation of nature, and a sympathy with her external manifestations, were most especially directed by the increasing influence of the worship of the virgin, a worship at once religious and chivalrous. the title of "our lady"[ ] came first into general use in the days of chivalry, for she was the lady "of all hearts," whose colours all were proud to wear. never had her votaries so abounded. hundreds upon hundreds had enrolled themselves in brotherhoods, vowed to her especial service;[ ] or devoted to acts of charity, to be performed in her name.[ ] already the great religious communities, which at this time comprehended all the enthusiasm, learning, and influence of the church, had placed themselves solemnly and especially under her protection. the cistercians wore white in honour of her purity; the servi wore black in respect to her sorrows; the franciscans had enrolled themselves as champions of the immaculate conception; and the dominicans introduced the rosary. all these richly endowed communities vied with each other in multiplying churches, chapels, and pictures, in honour of their patroness, and expressive of her several attributes. the devout painter, kneeling before his easel, addressed himself to the task of portraying those heavenly lineaments which had visited him perhaps in dreams. many of the professed monks and friars became themselves accomplished artists.[ ] [footnote : _fr._ notre dame. _ital._ la madonna. _ger._ unser liebe frau.] [footnote : as the serviti, who were called in france, _les esclaves de marie_.] [footnote : as the order of "our lady of mercy," for the deliverance of captives.--_vide_ legends of the monastic orders.] [footnote : a very curious and startling example of the theological character of the virgin in the thirteenth century is figured in miss twining's work, "_the symbols of early christian art_;" certainly the most complete and useful book of the kind which i know of. here the madonna and child are seated side by side with the trinity; the holy spirit resting on her crowned head.] at this time, jacopo di voragine compiled the "golden legend," a collection of sacred stories, some already current, some new, or in a new form. this famous book added many themes to those already admitted, and became the authority and storehouse for the early painters in their groups and dramatic compositions. the increasing enthusiasm for the virgin naturally caused an increasing demand for the subjects taken from her personal history, and led, consequently, to a more exact study of those natural objects and effects which were required as accessories, to greater skill in grouping the figures, and to a higher development of historic art. but of all the influences on italian art in that wonderful fourteenth century, dante was the greatest. he was the intimate friend of giotto. through the communion of mind, not less than through his writings, he infused into religious art that mingled theology, poetry, and mysticism, which ruled in the giottesque school during the following century, and went hand in hand with the development of the power and practice of imitation. now, the theology of dante was the theology of his age. his ideas respecting the virgin mary were precisely those to which the writings of st. bernard, st. bonaventura, and st. thomas aquinas had already lent all the persuasive power of eloquence, and the church all the weight of her authority. dante rendered these doctrines into poetry, and giotto and his followers rendered them into form. in the paradise of dante, the glorification of mary, as the "mystic rose" (_roxa mystica_) and queen of heaven,--with the attendant angels, circle within circle, floating round her in adoration, and singing the regina coeli, and saints and patriarchs stretching forth their hands towards her,--is all a splendid, but still indefinite vision of dazzling light crossed by shadowy forms. the painters of the fourteenth century, in translating these glories into a definite shape, had to deal with imperfect knowledge and imperfect means; they failed in the power to realize either their own or the poet's conception; and yet--thanks to the divine poet!--that early conception of some of the most beautiful of the madonna subjects--for instance, the _coronation_ and the _sposalizio_--has never, as a religious and poetical conception, been surpassed by later artists, in spite of all the appliances of colour, and mastery of light and shade, and marvellous efficiency of hand since attained. every reader of dante will remember the sublime hymn towards the close of the paradiso:-- "vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio! umile ed alta più che creatura, terrains fisso d'eterno consiglio; tu se' colei che l'umana natura nobilitasti si, che 'l suo fattore non disdegno di farsi sua fattura; nel ventre tuo si raccese l'amore per lo cui caldo nell' eterna pace cosi è germinato questo fiore; qui se' a noi meridiana face di caritade, e giuso intra mortali se' di speranza fontana vivace: donna, se' tanto grande e tanto vali, che qual vuol grazia e a te non ricorre sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali; la tua benignita noa pur soccorre a chi dimanda, ma molte fiate liberamente al dimandar precorre; in te misericordia, in te pietate, in te magnificenza, in te s' aduna quantunque in creatura è di bontate!" to render the splendour, the terseness, the harmony, of this magnificent hymn seems impossible. cary's translation has, however, the merit of fidelity to the sense:-- "oh, virgin-mother, daughter of thy son! created beings all in lowliness surpassing, as in height above them all; term by the eternal counsel preordain'd; ennobler of thy nature, so advanc'd in thee, that its great maker did not scorn to make himself his own creation; for in thy womb, rekindling, shone the love reveal'd, whose genial influence makes now this flower to germin in eternal peace: here thou, to us, of charity and love art as the noon-day torch; and art beneath, to mortal men, of hope a living spring. so mighty art thou, lady, and so great, that he who grace desireth, and comes not to thee for aidance, fain would have desire fly without wings. not only him who asks, thy bounty succours; but doth freely oft forerun the asking. whatsoe'er may be of excellence in creature, pity mild, relenting mercy, large munificence, are all combin'd in thee!" it is interesting to turn to the corresponding stanzas in chaucer. the invocation to the virgin with which he commences the story of st. cecilia is rendered almost word for word from dante:-- "thou maid and mother, daughter of thy son! thou wel of mercy, sinful soules cure!" the last stanza of the invocation is his own, and as characteristic of the practical chaucer, as it would have been contrary to the genius of dante:-- "and for that faith is dead withouten workis, so for to worken give me wit and grace! that i be quit from thence that most dark is; o thou that art so fair and full of grace, be thou mine advocate in that high place, there, as withouten end is sung hozanne, thou christes mother, daughter dear of anne!" still more beautiful and more his own is the invocation in the "prioress's tale." i give the stanzas as modernized by wordsworth:-- "o mother maid! o maid and mother free! o bush unburnt, burning in moses' sight! that down didst ravish from the deity, through humbleness, the spirit that that did alight upon thy heart, whence, through that glory's might conceived was the father's sapience, help me to tell it in thy reverence! "lady, thy goodness, thy magnificence, thy virtue, and thy great humility, surpass all science and all utterance; for sometimes, lady! ere men pray to thee, thou go'st before in thy benignity, the light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer, to be our guide unto thy son so dear. "my knowledge is so weak, o blissful queen, to tell abroad thy mighty worthiness, that i the weight of it may not sustain; but as a child of twelve months old, or less, that laboureth his language to express, even so fare i; and therefore, i thee pray, guide thou my song, which i of thee shall say." and again, we may turn to petrarch's hymn to the virgin, wherein he prays to be delivered from his love and everlasting regrets for laura:-- "vergine bella, che di sol vestita, coronata di stelle, al sommo sole piacesti sì, che'n te sua luce ascose. "vergine pura, d'ogni parte intera, del tuo parto gentil figliuola e madre! "vergine sola al mondo senza esempio, che 'l ciel di tue bellezze innamorasti." the fancy of the theologians of the middle ages played rather dangerously, as it appears to me, for the uninitiated and uninstructed, with the perplexity of these divine relationships. it is impossible not to feel that in their admiration for the divine beauty of mary, in borrowing the amatory language and luxuriant allegories of the canticles, which represent her as an object of delight to the supreme being, theologians, poets, and artists had wrought themselves up to a wild pitch of enthusiasm. in such passages as those i have quoted above, and in the grand old church hymns, we find the best commentary and interpretation of the sacred pictures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. yet during the thirteenth century there was a purity in the spirit of the worship which at once inspired and regulated the forms in which it was manifested. the annunciations and nativities were still distinguished by a chaste and sacred simplicity. the features of the madonna herself, even where they were not what we call beautiful, had yet a touch of that divine and contemplative grace which the theologians and the poets had associated with the queenly, maternal, and bridal character of mary. thus the impulses given in the early part of the fourteenth century continued in progressive development through the fifteenth; the spiritual for some time in advance of the material influences; the moral idea emanating as it were _from_ the soul, and the influences of external nature flowing _into_ it; the comprehensive power of fancy using more and more the apprehensive power of imitation, and both working together till their "blended might" achieved its full fruition in the works of raphael. * * * * * early in the fifteenth century, the council of constance (a.d. ), and the condemnation of huss, gave a new impulse to the worship of the virgin. the hussite wars, and the sacrilegious indignity with which her sacred images had been treated in the north, filled her orthodox votaries of the south, of europe with a consternation and horror like that excited by the iconoclasts of the eighth century, and were followed by a similar reaction. the church was called upon to assert more strongly than ever its orthodox veneration for her, and, as a natural consequence, votive pictures multiplied, the works of the excelling artists of the fifteenth century testify to the zeal of the votaries, and the kindred spirit in which the painters worked. gerson, a celebrated french priest, and chancellor of the university of paris, distinguished himself in the council of constance by the eloquence with which he pleaded for the immaculate conception, and the enthusiasm with which he preached in favour of instituting a festival in honour of this mystery, as well as another in honour of joseph, the husband of the virgin. in both he was unsuccessful during his lifetime; but for both eventually his writings prepared the way. he also composed a latin poem of three thousand lines in praise of joseph, which was among the first works published after the invention of printing. together with st. joseph, the parents of the virgin, st. anna more particularly, became objects, of popular veneration, and all were at length exalted to the rank of patron saints, by having festivals instituted in their honour. it is towards the end of the fifteenth century, or rather a little later, that we first meet with that charming domestic group, called the "holy family," afterwards so popular, so widely diffused, and treated with such an infinite variety. * * * * * towards the end of this century sprung up a new influence,--the revival of classical learning, a passionate enthusiasm for the poetry and mythology of the greeks, and a taste for the remains of antique art. this influence on the representations of the virgin, as far as it was merely external, was good. an added dignity and grace, a more free and correct drawing, a truer feeling for harmony of proportion and all that constitutes elegance, were gradually infused into the forms and attitudes. but dangerous became the craving for mere beauty,--dangerous the study of the classical and heathen literature. this was the commencement of that thoroughly pagan taste which in the following century demoralized christian art. there was now an attempt at varying the arrangement of the sacred groups which led to irreverence, or at best to a sort of superficial mannered grandeur; and from this period we date the first introduction of the portrait virgins. an early, and most scandalous example remains to us in one of the frescoes in the vatican, which represents giulia farnese in the character of the madonna, and pope alexander vi. (the infamous borgia) kneeling at her feet in the character of a votary. under the influence of the medici the churches of florence were filled with pictures of the virgin, in which the only thing aimed at was an alluring and even meretricious beauty. savonarola thundered from his pulpit in the garden of san marco against these impieties. he exclaimed against the profaneness of those who represented the meek mother of christ in gorgeous apparel, with head unveiled, and under the features of women too well and publicly known. he emphatically declared that if the painters knew as well as he did the influence of such pictures in perverting simple minds, they would hold their own works in horror and detestation. savonarola yielded to none in orthodox reverence for the madonna; but he desired that she should be represented in an orthodox manner. he perished at the stake, but not till after he had made a bonfire in the piazza at florence of the offensive effigies; he perished--persecuted to death by the borgia family. but his influence on the greatest florentine artists of his time is apparent in the virgins of botticelli, lorenzo di credi, and fra bartolomeo, all of whom had been his friends, admirers, and disciples: and all, differing from each other, were alike in this, that, whether it be the dignified severity of botticelli, or the chaste simplicity of lorenzo di credi, or the noble tenderness of fra bartolomeo, we feel that each of them had aimed to portray worthily the sacred character of the mother of the redeemer. and to these, as i think, we might add raphael himself, who visited florence but a short time after the horrible execution of savonarola, and must have learned through his friend bartolomeo to mourn the fate and revere the memory of that remarkable man, whom he placed afterwards in the grand fresco of the "theologia," among the doctors and teachers of the church. (rome, vatican.) of the numerous virgins painted by raphael in after times, not one is supposed to have been a portrait: he says himself, in a letter to count castiglione, that he painted from an idea in his own mind, "mi servo d' una certa idea che mi viene in mente;" while in the contemporary works of andrea del sarto, we have the features of his handsome but vulgar wife in every madonna he painted.[ ] [footnote : the tendency to portraiture, in early florentine and german art, is observable from an early period. the historical sacred subjects of masaccio, ghirlandajo, and van eyck, are crowded with portraits of living personages. their introduction into devotional subjects, in the character of sacred persons, is far less excusable.] in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the constellation of living genius in every department of art, the riches of the church, the luxurious habits and classical studies of the churchmen, the decline of religious conviction, and the ascendency of religious controversy, had combined to multiply church pictures, particularly those of a large and decorative character. but, instead of the reign of faith, we had now the reign of taste. there was an absolute passion for picturesque grouping; and, as the assembled figures were to be as varied as possible in action and attitude, the artistic treatment, in order to prevent the lines of form and the colours of the draperies from interfering with each other, required great skill and profound study: some of these scenic groups have become, in the hands of great painters, such as titian, paul veronese, and annibale caracci, so magnificent, that we are inclined to forgive their splendid errors. the influence of sanazzaro, and of his famous latin poem on the nativity ("_de partu virginis_"), on the artists of the middle of the sixteenth century, and on the choice and treatment of the subjects pertaining to the madonna, can hardly be calculated; it was like that of dante in the fourteenth century, but in its nature and result how different! the grand materialism of michael angelo is supposed to have been allied to the genius of dante; but would dante have acknowledged the group of the holy family in the florentine gallery, to my feeling, one of the most profane and offensive of the so-called _religious_ pictures, in conception and execution, which ever proceeded from the mind or hand of a great painter? no doubt some of the sculptural virgins of michael angelo are magnificent and stately in attitude and expression, but too austere and mannered as religious conceptions: nor can we wonder if the predilection for the treatment of mere form led his followers and imitators into every species of exaggeration and affectation. in the middle of the sixteenth century, the same artist who painted a leda, or a psyche, or a venus one day, painted for the same patron a virgin of mercy, or a "mater purissima" on the morrow. _here_, the votary told his beads, and recited his aves, before the blessed mother of the redeemer; _there_, she was invoked in the purest latin by titles which the classical mythology had far otherwise consecrated. i know nothing more disgusting in art than the long-limbed, studied, inflated madonnas, looking grand with all their might, of this period; luckily they have fallen into such disrepute that we seldom see them. the "madonna dell' lungo collo" of parmigiano might be cited as a favourable example of this mistaken and wholly artificial grace. (florence, pitti pal.) but in the midst of these paganized and degenerate influences, the reform in the discipline of the roman catholic church was preparing a revolution in religious art. the council of trent had severely denounced the impropriety of certain pictures admitted into churches: at the same time, in the conflict of creed which now divided christendom, the agencies of art could not safely be neglected by that church which had used them with such signal success. spiritual art was indeed no more. it was dead: it could never be revived without a return to those modes of thought and belief which had at first inspired it. instead of religious art, appeared what i must call _theological_ art. among the events of this age, which had great influence on the worship and the representations of the madonna, i must place the battle of lepanto, in , in which the combined fleets of christendom, led by don juan of austria, achieved a memorable victory over the turks. this victory was attributed by pope pius v. to the especial interposition of the blessed virgin. a new invocation was now added to her litany, under the title of _auxilium christianorum_; a new festival, that of the rosary, was now added to those already held in her honour; and all the artistic genius which existed in italy, and all the piety of orthodox christendom, were now laid under contribution to incase in marble sculpture, to enrich with countless offerings, that miraculous house, which the angels had borne over land and sea, and set down at loretto; and that miraculous, bejewelled, and brocaded madonna, enshrined within it. * * * * * in the beginning of the seventeenth century, the caracci school gave a new impetus to religious, or rather, as it has been styled in contradistinction, sacerdotal or theological art. if these great painters had been remarkable merely for the application of new artistic methods, for the success with which they combined the aims of various schools-- "di michel angiol la terribil via e 'l vero natural di tiziano," the study of the antique with the observation of real life,--their works undoubtedly would never have taken such a hold on the minds of their contemporaries, nor kept it so long. everything to live must have an infusion of truth within it, and this "patchwork ideal," as it has been well styled, was held together by such a principle. the founders of the caracci school, and their immediate followers, felt the influences of the time, and worked them out. they were devout believers in their church, and most sincere worshippers of the madonna. guido, in particular, was so distinguished by his passionate enthusiasm for her, that he was supposed to have been favoured by a particular vision, which enabled him more worthily to represent her divine beauty. it is curious that, hand in hand with this development of taste and feeling in the appreciation of natural sentiment and beauty, and this tendency to realism, we find the associations of a peculiar and specific sanctity remaining with the old byzantine type. this arose from the fact, always to be borne in mind, that the most ancient artistic figure of the madonna was a purely theological symbol; apparently the moral type was too nearly allied to the human and the real to satisfy faith. it is the ugly, dark-coloured, ancient greek madonnas, such as this, which had all along the credit of being miraculous; and "to this day," says kugler, "the neapolitan lemonade-seller will allow no other than a formal greek madonna, with olive-green complexion and veiled head, to be set up in his booth." it is the same in russia. such pictures, in which there is no attempt at representation, real or ideal, and which merely have a sort of imaginary sanctity and power, are not so much idols as they are mere _fetishes_. the most lovely madonna by raphael or titian would not have the same effect. guido, who himself painted lovely virgins, went every saturday to pray before the little black _madonna della guardia_, and, as we are assured, held this old eastern relic in devout veneration. in the pictures of the madonna, produced by the most eminent painters of the seventeenth century, is embodied the theology of the time. the virgin mary is not, like the madonna di san sisto, "a single projection of the artist's mind," but, as far as he could put his studies together, she is "a compound of every creature's best," sometimes majestic, sometimes graceful, often full of sentiment, elegance, and refinement, but wanting wholly in the spiritual element. if the madonna did really sit to guido in person, (see malvasia, "felsina pittrice,") we fancy she must have revealed her loveliness, but veiled her divinity. without doubt the finest madonnas of the seventeenth century are those produced by the spanish school; not because they more realize our spiritual conception of the virgin--quite the contrary: for here the expression of life through sensation and emotion prevails over abstract mind, grandeur, and grace;--but because the intensely human and sympathetic character given to the madonna appeals most strongly to our human nature. the appeal is to the faith through the feelings, rather than through the imagination. morales and ribera excelled in the mater dolorosa; and who has surpassed murilio in the tender exultation of maternity?[ ] there is a freshness and a depth of feeling in the best madonnas of the late spanish school, which puts to shame the mannerism of the italians, and the naturalism of the flemish painters of the same period: and this because the spaniards were intense and enthusiastic believers, not mere thinkers, in art as in religion. [footnote : see in the handbook to the private galleries of art some remarks on the tendencies of the spanish school, p, .] as in the sixth century, the favourite dogma of the time (the union of the divine and human nature in christ, and the dignity of mary as parent of both) had been embodied in the group of the virgin and child, so now, in the seventeenth, the doctrine of the eternal sanctification and predestination of mary was, after a long controversy, triumphant, and took form in the "immaculate conception;" that beautiful subject in which guido and murilio excelled, and which became the darling theme of the later schools of art. it is worthy of remark, that while in the sixth century, and for a thousand years afterwards, the virgin, in all devotional subjects, was associated in some visible manner with her divine son, in this she appears without the infant in her arms. the maternal character is set aside, and she stands alone, absolute in herself, and complete in her own perfections. this is a very significant characteristic of the prevalent theology of the time. i forbear to say much of the productions of a school of art which sprung up simultaneously with that of the caracci, and in the end overpowered its higher aspirations. the _naturalisti_, as they were called, imitated nature without selection, and produced some charming painters. but their religious pictures are almost all intolerable, and their madonnas are almost all portraits. rubens and albano painted their wives; allori and vandyck their mistresses; domenichino his daughter. salvator rosa, in his satires, exclaims against this general profaneness in terms not less strong than those of savonarola in his sermons; but the corruption was by this time beyond the reach of cure; the sin could neither be preached nor chided away. striking effects of light and shade, peculiar attitudes, scenic groups, the perpetual and dramatic introduction of legendary scenes and personages, of visions and miracles of the madonna vouchsafed to her votaries, characterize the productions of the seventeenth century. as "they who are whole need not a physician, but they who are sick," so in proportion to the decline of faith were the excitements to faith, or rather to credulity: just in proportion as men were less inclined to believe were the wonders multiplied which they were called on to believe. i have not spoken of the influence of jesuitism on art. this order kept alive that devotion for the madonna which their great founder loyola had so ardently professed when he chose for the "lady" of his thoughts, "no princess, no duchess, but one far greater, more peerless." the learning of the jesuits supplied some themes not hitherto in use, principally of a fanciful and allegorical kind, and never had the meek mary been so decked out with earthly ornament as in their church pictures. if the sanctification of simplicity, gentleness, maternal love, and heroic fortitude, were calculated to elevate the popular mind, the sanctification of mere glitter and ornament, embroidered robes, and jewelled crowns, must have tended to degrade it. it is surely an unworthy and a foolish excuse that, in thus desecrating with the vainest and most vulgar finery the beautiful ideal of the virgin, an appeal was made to the awe and admiration of vulgar and ignorant minds; for this is precisely what, in all religious imagery, should be avoided. as, however, this sacrilegious millinery does not come within the province of the fine arts, i may pass it over here. among the jesuit prints of the seventeenth century, i remember one which represents the virgin and child in the centre, and around are the most famous heretics of all ages, lying prostrate, or hanging by the neck. julian the apostate; leo the isaurian; his son, constantine capronymus; arius; nestorius; manicheus; luther; calvin:--very characteristic of the age of controversy which had succeeded to the age of faith, when, instead of solemn saints and grateful votaries, we have dead or dying heretics surrounding the mother of mercy! * * * * * after this rapid sketch of the influences which modified in a general way the pictures of the madonna, we may array before us, and learn to compare, the types which distinguished in a more particular manner the separate schools, caught from some more local or individual impulses. thus we have the stern, awful quietude of the old mosaics; the hard lifelessness of the degenerate greek; the pensive sentiment of the siena, and stately elegance of the florentine madonnas; the intellectual milanese, with their large foreheads and thoughtful eyes; the tender, refined mysticism of the umbrian; the sumptuous loveliness of the venetian; the quaint, characteristic simplicity of the early german, so stamped with their nationality, that i never looked round me in a room full of german girls without thinking of albert durer's virgins; the intense life-like feeling of the spanish; the prosaic, portrait-like nature of the flemish schools, and so on. but here an obvious question suggests itself. in the midst of all this diversity, these ever-changing influences, was there no characteristic type universally accepted, suggested by common religious associations, if not defined by ecclesiastical authority, to which the artist was bound to conform? how is it that the impersonation of the virgin fluctuated, not only with the fluctuating tendencies of successive ages, but even with the caprices of the individual artist? this leads us back to reconsider the sources from which the artist drew his inspiration. the legend which represents st. luke the evangelist as a painter appears to be of eastern origin, and quite unknown in western europe before the first crusade. it crept in then, and was accepted with many other oriental superstitions and traditions. it may have originated in the real existence of a greek painter named luca--a saint, too, he may have been; for the greeks have a whole calendar of canonized artists,--painters, poets, and musicians; and this greek san luca may have been a painter of those madonnas imported from the ateliers of mount athos into the west by merchants and pilgrims; and the west, which knew but of one st. luke, may have easily confounded the painter and the evangelist. but we must also remember, that st. luke the evangelist was early regarded as the great authority with respect to the few scripture particulars relating to the character and life of mary; so that, in the figurative sense, he may be said to have _painted_ that portrait of her which has been since received as the perfect type of womanhood:-- . her noble, trustful humility, when she receives the salutation of the angel (luke i. ); the complete and feminine surrender of her whole being to the higher, holier will--"be it unto me according to thy word." . then, the decision and prudence of character, shown in her visit to elizabeth, her older relative; her journey in haste over the hills to consult with her cousin, which journey it is otherwise difficult to accord with the oriental customs of the time, unless mary, young as she was, had possessed unusual promptitude and energy of disposition. (luke i. , .) . the proof of her intellectual power in the beautiful hymn she has left us, "_my soul doth magnify the lord._" (luke i. .) the commentators are not agreed as to whether this effusion was poured forth by immediate inspiration, or composed and written down, because the same words, "and mary said," may be interpreted in either sense; but we can no more doubt her being the authoress, than we can doubt of any other particulars recorded in the same gospel: it proves that she must have been, for her time and country, most rarely gifted in mind, and deeply read in the scriptures. . she was of a contemplative, reflecting, rather silent disposition. "she kept all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart." (luke ii. .) she made no boast of that wondrous and most blessed destiny to which she was called; she thought upon it in silence. it is inferred that as many of these sayings and events could be known to herself alone, st. luke the evangelist could have learned them only from her own lips. . next her truly maternal devotion to her divine son, whom she attended humbly through his whole ministry;[ ] . and lastly, the sublime fortitude and faith with which she followed her son to the death scene, stood beside the cross till all was finished, and then went home, and _lived_ (luke xxiii.); for she was to be to us an example of all that a woman could endure, as well as all that a woman could be and act out in her earthly life. (john xix. .) such was the character of mary; such the _portrait_ really _painted_ by st. luke; and, as it seems to me, these scattered, artless, unintentional notices of conduct and character converge into the most perfect moral type of the intellectual, tender, simple, and heroic woman that ever was placed before us for our edification and example. [footnote : milton places in the mouth of our saviour an allusion to the influence of his mother in early life:-- "these growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving by words at times cast forth, duly rejoiced, and said to me apart, 'high are thy thoughts, o son; but nourish them, and let them soar to what height sacred virtue and true worth can raise them, though above example high.'"] but in the church traditions and enactments, another character was, from the fifth century, assigned to her, out of which grew the theological type, very beautiful and exalted, but absorbing to a great degree the scriptural and moral type, and substituting for the merely human attributes others borrowed from her relation to the great scheme of redemption; for it was contended that, as the mother of _the divine_, she could not be herself less than divine; consequently above the angels, and first of all created beings. according to the doctrine of the immaculate conception, her tender woman's wisdom became supernatural gifts; the beautiful humility was changed into a knowledge of her own predestined glory; and, being raised bodily into immortality, and placed beside her son, in all "the sacred splendour of beneficence," she came to be regarded as our intercessor before that divine son, who could refuse nothing to his mother. the relative position of the mother and son being spiritual and indestructible was continued in heaven; and thus step by step the woman was transmuted into the divinity. but, like her son, mary had walked in human form upon earth, and in form must have resembled her son; for, as it is argued, christ had no earthly father, therefore could only have derived his human lineaments from his mother. all the old legends assume that the resemblance between the son and the mother must have been perfect. dante alludes to this belief: "riguarda ormai nella faccia ch' a christo piu s' assomiglia." "now raise thy view unto the visage most resembling christ." the accepted type of the head of christ was to be taken as a model in its mild, intellectual majesty, for that of the virgin-mother, as far as difference of sex would allow. in the ecclesiastical history of nicephorus gallixtus, he has inserted a description of the person of mary, which he declares to have been given by epiphanius, who lived in the fourth century, and by him derived from a more ancient source. it must be confessed, that the type of person here assigned to the virgin is more energetic for a woman than that which has been assigned to our saviour as a man. "she was of middle stature; her face oval; her eyes brilliant, and of an olive tint; her eyebrows arched and black; her hair was of a pale brown; her complexion fair as wheat. she spoke little, but she spoke freely and affably; she was not troubled in her speech, but grave, courteous, tranquil. her dress was without ornament, and in her deportment was nothing lax or feeble." to this ancient description of her person and manners, we are to add the scriptural and popular portrait of her mind; the gentleness, the purity, the intellect, power, and fortitude; the gifts of the poetess and prophetess; the humility in which she exceeded all womankind. lastly, we are to engraft on these personal and moral qualities, the theological attributes which the church, from early times, had assigned to her, the supernatural endowments which lifted her above angels and men:--all these were to be combined into one glorious type of perfection. where shall we seek this highest, holiest impersonation! where has it been attained, or even approached? not, certainly, in the mere woman, nor yet in the mere idol; not in those lovely creations which awaken a sympathetic throb of tenderness; nor in those stern, motionless types,--which embody a dogma; not in the classic features of marble goddesses, borrowed as models; nor in the painted images which stare upon us from tawdry altars in flaxen wigs and embroidered petticoats. but where? of course we each form to ourselves some notion of what we require; and these requirements will be as diverse as our natures and our habits of thought. for myself, i have seen my own ideal once, and only once, attained: _there_, where raphael--inspired if ever painter was inspired--projected on the space before him that wonderful creation which we style the _madonna di san sisto_ (dresden gal.); for there she stands--the transfigured woman, at once completely human and completely divine, an abstraction of power, purity, and love, poised on the empurpled air, and requiring no other support; looking out, with her melancholy, loving mouth, her slightly dilated, sibylline eyes, quite through the universe, to the end and consummation of all things;--sad, as if she beheld afar off the visionary sword that was to reach her heart through him, now resting as enthroned on that heart; yet already exalted through the homage of the redeemed generations who were to salute her as blessed. six times have i visited the city made glorious by the possession of this treasure, and as often, when again at a distance, with recollections disturbed by feeble copies and prints, i have begun to think, "is it so indeed? is she indeed so divine? or does not rather the imagination encircle her with a halo of religion and poetry, and lend a grace which is not really there?" and as often, when returned, i have stood before it and confessed that there is more in that form and face than i had ever yet conceived. i cannot here talk the language of critics, and speak of this picture merely as a picture, for to me it was a revelation. in the same gallery is the lovely madonna of the meyer family: inexpressibly touching and perfect in its way, but conveying only one of the attributes of mary, her benign pity; while the madonna di san sisto is an abstract of _all_.[ ] [footnote : expression is the great and characteristic excellence of raphael more especially in his madonnas. it is precisely this which all copies and engravings render at best most imperfectly; and in point of expression the most successful engraving of the madonna di san sisto is certainly that of steinla.] * * * * * the poets are ever the best commentators on the painters. i have already given from the great "singers of high poems" in the fourteenth century _their_ exposition of the theological type of the madonna. now, in some striking passages of our modern poets, we may find a most beautiful commentary on what i have termed the _moral_ type. the first is from wordsworth, and may be recited before the madonna di san sisto:-- "mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost with the least shade of thought to sin allied! woman! above all women glorified; out tainted nature's solitary boast; purer than foam on central ocean tost; brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn with fancied roses, than the unblemish'd moon before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast, thy image falls to earth. yet some i ween, not unforgiven, the suppliant knee might bend, as to a visible power, in which did blend all that was mix'd and reconcil'd in thee, of mother's love with maiden purity, of high with low, celestial with terrene." the next, from shelley, reads like a hymn in honour of the immaculate conception:-- seraph of heaven! too gentle to be human, veiling beneath that radiant form of woman all that is insupportable in thee of light, and love, and immortality! sweet benediction in the eternal curse! veil'd glory of this lampless universe! thou moon beyond the clouds! thou living form among the dead! thou star above the storm! thou wonder, and thou beauty, and thou terror! thou harmony of nature's art! thou mirror in whom, as in the splendour of the sun, all shapes look glorious which thou gazest on!" "see where she stands! a mortal shape endued with love, and life, and light, and deity; the motion which may change but cannot die, an image of some bright eternity; a shadow of some golden dream; a splendour leaving the third sphere pilotless." i do not know whether intentionally or not, but we have here assembled some of the favourite symbols of the virgin--the moon, the star, the "_terribilis ut castrorum acies_" (cant. vi. ), and the mirror. the third is a passage from robert browning, which appears to me to sum up the moral ideal:-- "there is a vision in the heart of each, of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness to wrong and pain, and knowledge of their cure; and these embodied in a woman's form that best transmits them pure as first received from god above her to mankind below!" ii. symbols and attributes of the virgin. that which the genius of the greatest of painters only once expressed, we must not look to find in his predecessors, who saw only partial glimpses of the union of the divine and human in the feminine form; still less in his degenerate successors, who never beheld it at all. the difficulty of fully expressing this complex ideal, and the allegorical spirit of the time, first suggested the expedient of placing round the figure of the glorified virgin certain accessory symbols, which should assist the artist to express, and the observer to comprehend, what seemed beyond the power of art to portray;--a language of metaphor then understood, and which we also must understand if we would seize the complete theological idea intended to be conveyed. i shall begin with those symbols which are borrowed from the litanies of the virgin, and from certain texts of the canticles, in all ages of the church applied to her; symbols which, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, frequently accompany those representations which set forth her glorification or predestination; and, in the seventeenth, are introduced into the "immaculate conception." . the sun and the moon.--"electa ut sol, pulchra ut luna," is one of the texts of the canticles applied to mary; and also in a passage of the revelation, "_a woman clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars._" hence the radiance of the sun above her head, and the crescent moon beneath her feet. from inevitable association the crescent moon suggests the idea of her perpetual chastity; but in this sense it would be a pagan rather than a christian attribute. . the star.--this attribute, often embroidered in front of the veil of the virgin or on the right shoulder of her blue mantle, has become almost as a badge from which several well-known pictures derive their title, "la madonna della stella." it is in the first place an attribute alluding to the most beautiful and expressive of her many titles:--"_stella maris_" star of the sea,[ ] which is one interpretation of her jewish name, _miriam_: but she is also "_stella jacobi_," the star of jacob; "_stella matutina_," the morning star; "_stella non erratica_," the fixed star. when, instead of the single star on her veil or mantle, she has the crown of twelve stars, the allusion is to the text of the apocalypse already quoted, and the number of stars is in allusion to the number of the apostles.[ ] [footnote : "ave maris stella dei mater alma!" &c.] [footnote : "in capite inquit ejus corona stellarum duodecim; quidni coronent sidera quam sol vestit?"--_st. bernard_.] . the lily.--"_i am the rose of sharon, and lily of the valleys._" (cant. ii. , .) as the general emblem of purity, the lily is introduced into the annunciation, where it ought to be without stamens: and in the enthroned madonnas it is frequently placed in the hands of attendant angels, more particularly in the florentine madonnas; the lily, as the emblem of their patroness, being chosen by the citizens as the _device_ of the city. for the same reason it became that of the french monarchy. thorns are sometimes interlaced with the lily, to express the "_lilium inter spinas_." (cant. ii. .) . the rose.--she is the rose of sharon, as well as the lily of the valley; and as an emblem of love and beauty, the rose is especially dedicated to her. the plantation or garden of roses[ ] is often introduced; sometimes it forms the background of the picture. there is a most beautiful example in a madonna by cesare di sesto (milan, brera); and another, "the madonna of the rose bush," by martin schoen. (cathedral, colmar.) [footnote : quasi plantatio rosæ in jericho.] . the enclosed garden (_hortus conclusus_) is an image borrowed, like many others, from the song of solomon. (cant. iv. .) i have seen this enclosed garden very significantly placed in the background of the annunciation, and in pictures of the immaculate conception. sometimes the enclosure is formed of a treillage or hedge of roses, as in a beautiful virgin by francia.[ ] sometimes it is merely formed of stakes or palisades, as in some of the prints by albert durer. [footnote : munich gal.; another by antonio da negroponte in the san francesco della vigna at venice, is also an instance of this significant background.] the well always full; the fountain forever sealed; the tower of david; the temple of solomon; the city of david (_civitas sancti_), (cant iv. . , ); all these are attributes borrowed from the canticles, and are introduced into pictures and stained glass. . the porta claitsa, the closed gate, is another metaphor, taken from the prophecy of ezekiel (xliv. ). . the cedar of lebanon (_cedrus exaliata_, "exalted as a cedar in lebanon"), because of its height, its incorruptible substance, its perfume, and the healing virtues attributed to it in the east, expresses the greatness, the beauty, the goodness of mary. the victorious palm, the plantain "far spreading," and the cypress pointing to heaven, are also emblems of the virgin. the olive, as a sign of peace, hope, and abundance, is also a fitting emblem of the graces of mary.[ ] [footnote : quasi oliva speciosa in campis.] . the stem of jesse (isa. xi. ), figured as a green branch entwined with flowers, is also very significant. . the mirror (_specula sine macula_) is a metaphor borrowed from the book of wisdom (vii, ). we meet with it in some of the late pictures of the immaculate conception. . the sealed book is also a symbol often placed in the hands of the virgin in a mystical annunciation, and sufficiently significant. the allusion is to the text, "in that book were all my members written;" and also to the text in isaiah (xxix. , ), in which he describes the vision of the book that was sealed, and could be read neither by the learned nor the unlearned. . "the bush which burned and was not consumed," is introduced, with a mystical significance, into an annunciation by titian. * * * * * besides these symbols, which have a mystic and sacred significance, and are applicable to the virgin only, certain attributes and accessories are introduced into pictures of the madonna and child, which are capable of a more general interpretation. . the globe, as the emblem of sovereignty, was very early placed in the hand of the divine child. when the globe is under the feet of the madonna and encircled by a serpent, as in some later pictures, it figures our redemption; her triumph over a fallen world--fallen through sin. . the serpent is the general emblem of sin or satan; but under the feet of the virgin it has a peculiar significance. she has generally her foot on the head of the reptile. "she shall bruise thy head," as it is interpreted in the roman catholic church.[ ] [footnote : _ipsa_ conteret caput tuum.] . the apple, which of all the attributes is the most common, signifies the fall of man, which made redemption necessary. it is sometimes placed in the hands of the child; but when in the hand of the mother, she is then designated as the second eve.[ ] [footnote : mors per evam: vita per mariam.] . the pomegranate, with the seeds displayed, was the ancient emblem of hope, and more particularly of religious hope. it is often placed in the hands of the child, who sometimes presents it to his mother. other fruits and flowers, always beautiful accessories, are frequently introduced according to the taste of the artist. but fruits in a general sense signified "the fruits of the spirit--joy, peace, love;" and flowers were consecrated to the virgin: hence we yet see them placed before her as offerings. . ears of wheat in the hand of the infant (as in a lovely little madonna by ludovico caracci)[ ] figured the bread in the eucharist, and grapes the wine. [footnote : lansdowne collection. there was another exactly similar in the collection of mr. rogers.] . the book.--in the hand of the infant christ, the book is the gospel in a general sense, or it is the book of wisdom. in the hand of the madonna, it may have one of two meanings. when open, or when she has her finger between the leaves, or when the child is turning over the pages, then it is the book of wisdom, and is always supposed to be open at the seventh chapter. when the book is clasped or sealed, it is a mystical symbol of the virgin herself, as i have already explained. . the dove, as the received emblem of the holy spirit, is properly placed above, as hovering over the virgin. there is an exception to this rule in a very interesting picture in the louvre, where the holy dove (with the _nimbus_) is placed at the feet of the child.[ ] this is so unusual, and so contrary to all the received proprieties of religious art, that i think the _nimbus_ may have been added afterwards. [footnote : the virgin has the air of a gipsy. (louvre, .)] the seven doves round the head of the virgin signify the seven gifts of the spirit. these characterize her as personified wisdom--the mater sapientiæ. doves placed near mary when she is reading, or at work in the temple, are expressive of her gentleness and tenderness. . birds.--the bird in the egyptian hieroglyphics signified the soul of man. in the very ancient pictures there can be no doubt, i think, that the bird in the hand of christ figured the soul, or the spiritual as opposed to the material. but, in the later pictures, the original meaning being lost, birds became mere ornamental accessories, or playthings. sometimes it is a parrot from the east, sometimes a partridge (the partridge is frequent in the venetian pictures): sometimes a goldfinch, as in raphael's madonna _del cardellino_. in a madonna by guercino, the mother holds a bird perched on her hand, and the child, with a most _naïve_ infantine expression, shrinks back from it.[ ] in a picture by baroccio, he holds it up before a cat (nat. gal. ), so completely were the original symbolism and all the religious proprieties of art at this time set aside. [footnote : it was in the collection of mr. rogers.] other animals are occasionally introduced. extremely offensive are the apes when admitted into devotional pictures. we have associations with the animal as a mockery of the human, which render it a very disagreeable accessory. it appears that, in the sixteenth century, it became the fashion to keep apes as pets, and every reader of vasari will remember the frequent mention of these animals as pets and favourites of the artists. thus only can i account for the introduction of the ape, particularly in the ferrarese pictures. bassano's dog, baroccio's cat, are often introduced. in a famous picture by titian, "la vierge au lapin," we have the rabbit. (louvre.) the introduction of these and other animals marks the decline of religious art. certain women of the old testament are regarded as especial types of the virgin. eve. mary is regarded as the second eve, because, through her, came the promised redemption. she bruised the head of the serpent. the tree of life, the fall, or eve holding the apple, are constantly introduced allusively in the madonna pictures, as ornaments of her throne, or on the predella of an altar-piece, representing the annunciation, the nativity, or the coronation. rachel figures as the ideal of contemplative life. ruth, as the ancestress of david. abishag, as "the virgin who was brought to the king." (i kings i. .) bathsheba, because she sat upon a throne on the right hand of her son. judith and esther, as having redeemed their people, and brought deliverance to israel. it is because of their typical character, as emblems of the virgin, that these jewish heroines so often figure in the religious pictures.[ ] [footnote : the artistic treatment of these characters as types of the virgin, will be found in the fourth series of "legendary art."] in his "paradiso" (c. xxxii.), dante represents eve, rachel, sara, ruth, judith, as seated at the feet of the virgin mary, beneath her throne in heaven; and next to rachel, by a refinement of spiritual and poetical gallantry, he has placed his beatrice. in the beautiful frescoes of the church of st. apollinaris at remagen, these hebrew women stand together in a group below the throne of the virgin. of the prophets and the sibyls who attend on christ in his character of the messiah or redeemer, i shall have much to say, when describing the artistic treatment of the history and character of our lord. those of the prophets who are supposed to refer more particularly to the incarnation, properly attend on the virgin and child; but in the ancient altar-pieces, they are not placed within the same frame, nor are they grouped immediately round her throne, but form the outer accessories, or are treated separately as symbolical. first, moses, because he beheld the burning bush, "which burned and was not consumed." he is generally in the act of removing his sandals. aaron, because his rod blossomed miraculously. gideon, on whose fleece descended the dew of heaven, while all was dry around. daniel, who beheld the stone which was cut out without hands, and became a great mountain, filling the earth. (ch. ii. .) david, as prophet and ancestor. "listen, o daughter, and incline thine ear." isaiah, "behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." ezekiel, "this gate shall be shut." (ch. xliv. .) certain of these personages, moses, aaron, gideon, daniel, ezekiel, are not merely accessories and attendant figures, but in a manner attributes, as expressing the character of the virgin. thus in many instances, we find the prophetical personages altogether omitted, and we have simply the attribute figuring the prophecy itself, the burning bush, the rod, the dewy fleece, &c. the sibyls are sometimes introduced alternately with the prophets. in general, if there be only two, they are the tiburtina, who showed the vision to augustus, and the cumean sibyl who foretold the birth of our saviour. the sibyls were much the fashion in the classic times of the sixteenth century; michael angelo and raphael have left us consummate examples. but i must repeat that the full consideration of the prophets and sibyls as accessories belongs to another department of sacred art, and they will find their place there. the evangelists frequently, and sometimes one or more of the twelve apostles, appear as accessories which assist the theological conception. when other figures are introduced, they are generally either the protecting saints of the country or locality, or the saints of the religious order to whom the edifice belongs: or, where the picture or window is an _ex-voto_, we find the patron saints of the confraternity, or of the donor or votary who has dedicated it. angels seated at the feet of the madonna and playing on musical instruments, are most lovely and appropriate accessories, for the choral angels are always around her in heaven, and on earth she is the especial patroness of music and minstrelsy.[ ] her delegate cecilia patronized _sacred_ music; but _all_ music and musicians, all minstrels, and all who plied the "gaye science," were under the protection of mary. when the angels are singing from their music books, and others are accompanying them with lutes and viols, the song is not always supposed to be the same. in a nativity they sing the "gloria in excelsis deo;" in a coronation, the "regina coeli;" in an enthroned madonna with votaries, the "salve regina, mater misericordiæ!" in a pastoral madonna and child it may be the "alma mater redemptoris." [footnote : the picture by lo spagna, lately added to our national gallery, is a beautiful example.] * * * * * in all the most ancient devotional effigies (those in the catacombs and the old mosaics), the virgin appears as a majestic woman of mature age. in those subjects taken from her history which precede her return from egypt, and in the holy families, she should appear as a young maiden from fifteen to seventeen years old. in the subjects taken from her history which follow the baptism of our lord, she should appear as a matron between forty and fifty, but still of a sweet and gracious aspect. when michael angelo was reproached with representing his mater dolorosa much too young, he replied that the perfect virtue and serenity of the character of mary would have preserved her beauty and youthful appearance long beyond the usual period.[ ] [footnote : the group in st. peter's, rome.] because some of the greek pictures and carved images had become black through extreme age, it was argued by certain devout writers, that the virgin herself must have been of a very dark complexion; and in favour of this idea they quoted this text from the canticles, "i am black, but comely, o ye daughters of jerusalem." but others say that her complexion had become black only during her sojourn in egypt. at all events, though the blackness of these antique images was supposed to enhance their sanctity, it has never been imitated in the fine arts, and it is quite contrary to the description of nicephorus, which is the most ancient authority, and that which is followed in the greek school. the proper dress of the virgin is a close red tunic, with long sleeves;[ ] and over this a blue robe or mantle. in the early pictures, the colours are pale and delicate. her head ought to be veiled. the fathers of the primeval church, particularly tertullian, attach great importance to the decent veil worn by christian maidens; and in all the early pictures the virgin is veiled. the enthroned virgin, unveiled, with long tresses falling down on either side, was an innovation introduced about the end of the fifteenth century; commencing, i think, with the milanese, and thence adopted in the german schools and those of northern italy. the german madonnas of albert durer's time have often magnificent and luxuriant hair, curling in ringlets, or descending to the waist in rich waves, and always fair. dark-haired madonnas appear first in the spanish and later italian schools. [footnote : in a famous pietà by raphael, engraved by marc antonio, the virgin, standing by the dead form of her son, has the right arm apparently bare; in the repetition of the subject it is clothed with a full sleeve, the impropriety being corrected. the first is, however, the most perfect and most precious as a work of art.--_bartsch_, xiv. , .] in the historical pictures, her dress is very simple; but in those devotional figures which represent her as queen of heaven, she wears a splendid crown, sometimes of jewels interwoven with lilies and roses. the crown is often the sovereign crown of the country in which the picture is placed: thus, in the papal states, she often wears the triple tiara: in austria, the imperial diadem. her blue tunic is richly embroidered with gold and gems, or lined with ermine, or stuff of various colours, in accordance with a text of scripture: "the king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold. she shall be brought unto the king in a vesture of needlework." (ps. xlv. .) in the immaculate conception, and in the assumption, her tunic should be plain white, or white spangled with golden stars. in the subjects relating to the passion, and after the crucifixion, the dress of the virgin should be violet or gray. these proprieties, however, are not always attended to. in the early pictures which represent her as nursing the divine infant (the subject called the _vergine lattante_), the utmost care is taken to veil the bust as much as possible. in the spanish school the most vigilant censorship was exercised over all sacred pictures, and, with regard to the figures of the virgin, the utmost decorum was required. "what," says pacheco, "can be more foreign to the respect which we owe to our lady the virgin, than to paint her sitting down with one of her knees placed over the other, and often with her sacred feet uncovered and naked? let thanks be given to the holy inquisition, which commands that this liberty should be corrected." for this reason, perhaps, we seldom see the feet of the virgin in spanish pictures.[ ] carducho speaks more particularly on the impropriety of painting the virgin unshod, "since it is manifest that, our lady was in the habit of wearing shoes, as is proved by the much venerated relic of one of them from her divine feet at burgos." [footnote : or in any of the old pictures till the seventeenth century "tandis que dieu est toujours montré pieds nus, lui qui est descendu à terre et a pris notre humanité, marie au contraire est constamment représentée les pieds perdus dans les plis trainants, nombreux et légers de sa robe virginale; elle, qui est elevée au dessus de la terre et rapprochée de dieu par sa pureté. dieu montre par ses pieds nus qu'il a pris le corps de l'homme; marie fait comprendre en les cachant qu'elle participe de la spiritualité de dieu."] the child in her arms is always, in the greek and early pictures, clothed in a little tunic, generally white. in the fifteenth century he first appears partly, and then wholly, undraped. joseph, as the earthly _sposo_, wears the saffron-coloured mantle over a gray tunic. in the later schools of art these significant colours are often varied, and sometimes wholly dispensed with. iii. devotional and historical representations. in this volume, as in the former ones, i have adhered to the distinction between the devotional and the historical representations. i class as devotional, all those which express a dogma merely; all the enthroned madonnas, alone or surrounded by significant accessories or attendant saints; all the mystical coronations and immaculate conceptions; all the holy families with saints, and those completely ideal and votive groups, in which the appeal is made to the faith and piety of the observer. i shall give the characteristic details, in particular instances, further on. the altar-pieces in a roman catholic church are always either strictly devotional objects, or it may be, historical subjects (such as the nativity) treated in a devotional sense. they are sometimes in several pieces or compartments. a diptych is an altar-piece composed of two divisions or leaves which are united by hinges, and close like a book. portable altar-pieces of a small size are generally in this form; and among the most valuable and curious remains of early religious art are the greek and byzantine diptychs, sometimes painted, sometimes carved in ivory[ ]. a triptych is an altar-piece in three parts; the two outer divisions or wings often closing as shutters over the central compartment. [footnote : among the "casts from ancient ivory carvings", published by the arundel society, will be found some interesting and illustrative examples, particularly class iii. diptych _b_, class vii diptych _c_ and triptych _f_, class ix. triptych _k_.] on the outside of the shutters or doors the annunciation was generally painted, as the mystery which opened the gates of salvation; occasionally, also, the portraits of the votaries or donors. complete examples of devotional representation occur in the complex and elaborate altar-pieces and windows of stained glass, which often comprehend a very significant scheme of theology.[ ]. i give here plans of two of these old altar-pieces, which will assist the reader in elucidating the meaning of others. [footnote : still more important examples occur in the porches and exterior decoration of the old cathedrals, french and english which have escaped mutilation. these will be found explained at length in the fourth series of sacred and legendary art.] the first is the altar-piece in the rinuccini chapel in the church of the santa croco of florence. it is necessary to premise that the chapel was founded in honour of the virgin and mary magdalene; while the church is dedicated to the holy cross, and belongs to the franciscans. [illustration: altar-piece] the compartments are separated by wood-work most richly carved and gilt in the gothic style, with twisted columns, pinnacles, and scrolls. the subjects are thus distributed. a. the virgin and child enthroned. she has the sun on her breast, the moon under her feet, the twelve stars over her head, and is attended by angels bearing the attributes of the cardinal virtues. b. st. john the baptist. c. st. francis. d. st. john evangelist. e. mary magdalene. . the crucifixion, with the virgin and st. john. , , , . the four evangelists with their books: half length. , . st. peter and st. paul: half length. , , , . st. thomas, st. philip, st. james, and st. andrew: half length. pp. the predella. . the nativity and adoration of magi. . st. francis receives the stigmata. . baptism of christ. . the vision of st. john in patmos. . mary magdalene borne up by angels. between the altar-piece and the predella runs the inscription in gothic letters, ave delicissimis virgo maria, succurre nobis mater pia. mccclxxviii. the second example is sketched from an altar-piece painted for the suppressed convent of santa chiara, at venice. it is six feet high, and eight feet wide, and the ornamental caning in which the subjects are enclosed particularly splendid and elaborate. [illustration: altar-piece] a. the coronation of the virgin, treated as a religious mystery, with choral angels. b. the nativity of our lord. c. the baptism. d. the last supper. e. the betrayal of christ. f. the procession to calvary, in which the virgin is rudely pushed aside by the soldiers. g. the crucifixion, as an event: john sustains the virgin at the foot of the cross. h. the resurrection and the _noli me tangere_. i. ascension. . half-figure of christ, with the hand extended in benediction; in the other hand the gospel. . david. . isaiah. , , , . the four evangelists standing. . , , . scenes from the life of st. francis and st. clara. . the descent of the holy ghost. . the last judgment. it is to be regretted that so many of these altar-pieces have been broken up, and the detached parts sold as separate pictures: so that we may find one compartment of an altar in a church at rome, and another hanging in a drawing-room in london; the upper part at ghent, the lower half at paris; one wing at berlin, another at florence. but where they exist as a whole, how solemn, significant, and instructive the arrangement! it may be read as we read a poem. compare these with the groups round the enthroned virgin in the later altar-pieces, where the saints elbow each other in attitudes, where mortal men sit with unseemly familiarity close to personages recognized as divine. as i have remarked further on, it is one of the most interesting speculations connected with the study of art, to trace this decline from reverence to irreverence, from the most rigid formula to the most fantastic caprice. the gradual disappearance of the personages of the old testament, the increasing importance given to the family of the blessed virgin, the multiplication of legendary subjects, and all the variety of adventitious, unmeaning, or merely ornamental accessories, strike us just in proportion as a learned theology replaced the unreflecting, undoubting piety of an earlier age. * * * * * the historical subjects comprise the events from the life of the virgin, when treated in a dramatic form; and all those groups which exhibit her in her merely domestic relations, occupied by cares for her divine child, and surrounded by her parents and kindred, subjects which assume a pastoral and poetical rather than an historical form. all these may be divided into scriptural and legendary representations. the scriptural scenes in which the virgin mary is a chief or important personage, are the annunciation, the visitation, the nativity, the purification, the adoration of the magi, the flight into egypt, the marriage at cana, the procession to calvary, the crucifixion (as related by st. john), and the descent of the holy ghost. the traditional and legendary scenes are those taken from the apocryphal scriptures, some of which have existed from the third century. the legend of joachim and anna, the parents of the virgin, with the account of her early life, and her marriage with joseph, down to the massacre of the innocents, are taken from the gospel of mary and the protevangelion. the scenes of the flight into egypt, the repose on the journey, and the sojourn of the holy family at hieropolis or matarea, are taken from the gospel of infancy. the various scenes attending the death and assumption of the virgin are derived from a greek legendary poem, once attributed to st. john the evangelist, but the work, as it is supposed, of a certain greek, named meliton, who lived in the ninth century, and who has merely dressed up in a more fanciful form ancient traditions of the church. many of these historical scenes have been treated in a devotional style, expressing not the action, but the event, taken in the light of a religious mystery; a distinction which i have fully explained in the following pages, where i have given in detail the legends on which these scenes are founded, and the religious significance conveyed by the treatment. a complete series of the history of the virgin begins with the rejection of her father joachim from the temple, and ends with the assumption and coronation, including most of the events in the history of our lord (as for example, the series painted by giotto, in the chapel of the arena, at padua); but there are many instances in which certain important evens relating to the virgin only, as the principal person, are treated as a devotional series; and such are generally found in the chapels and oratories especially dedicated to her. a beautiful instance is that of the death of the virgin, treated in a succession of scenes, as an event apart, and painted by taddeo barrolo, in the chapel of the palazzo publico, at siena. this small chapel was dedicated to the virgin soon after the terrible plague of had ceased, as it was believed, by her intercession; so that this municipal chapel was at once an expression of thanksgiving, and a memorial of death, of suffering, of bereavement, and of hope in the resurrection. the frescoes cover one wall of the chapel, and are arranged in four scenes. . mary is reclining in her last sickness, and around her are the apostles, who, according to the beautiful legend, were _miraculously_ assembled to witness her departure. to express this, one of them is floating in as if borne on the air. st. john kneels at her feet, and she takes, with an expression exquisitely tender and maternal, his two hands in hers. this action is peculiar to the siena school.[ ] [footnote : on each side of the principal door of the cathedral at siena, which is dedicated to "beata virgine assunta," and just within the entrance, is a magnificent pilaster, of white marble, completely covered from the base to the capital with the most luxuriant carving, arabesques, foliage, &c., in an admirable and finished style. on the bases of these two pilasters are subjects from the life of the virgin, three on each side, and arranged, each subject on one side having its pendant on the other. . the meeting of joachim and anna. . the nativity of mary. . her sickness and last farewell to the apostles; bending towards st. john, she takes his hands in hers with the same tender expression as in the fresco by taddeo bartola. . she lies dead on her couch. . the assumption. . the coronation. the figures are about a foot in height, delicately carved, full of that sentiment which is especially sienese, and treated with a truly sculptural simplicity.] . she lies extended on her couch, surrounded by the weeping apostles, and christ behind receives the parting soul,--the usual representation, but treated with the utmost sentiment. . she is borne to the grave by the apostles; in the background, the walls of the city of jerusalem. here the greek legend of st. michael protecting her remains from the sacrilegious jew is omitted, and a peculiar sentiment of solemnity pervades the whole scene. . the resurrection of the virgin, when she rises from the tomb sustained by hovering angels, and is received by christ. when i first saw these beautiful frescoes, in , they were in a very ruined state; they have since been restored in a very good style, and with a reverent attention to the details and expression. in general, however, the cycle commences either with the legend of joachim and anna, or with the nativity of the virgin, and ends with the assumption and coronation. a most interesting early example is the series painted in fresco by taddeo gaddi, in the baroncelli chapel at florence. the subjects are arranged on two walls. the first on the right hand, and the second, opposite to us as we enter. . joachim is rejected from the temple. . he is consoled by the angel. . the meeting of joachim and anna. . the birth of the virgin. . the presentation of the virgin. she is here a child of about five years old; and having ascended five steps (of the fifteen) she turns as if to bid farewell to her parents and companions, who stand below; while on the summit the high priest, anna the prophetess, and the maidens of the temple come forward to receive her. . the marriage to joseph, and the rage and disappointment of the other suitors. the second wall is divided by a large window of the richest stained glass, on each side of which the subjects are arranged. . the annunciation. this is peculiar. mary, not throned or standing, but seated on the ground, with her hands clasped, and an expression beautiful for devotion and humility, looks upwards to the descending angel. . the meeting of mary and elizabeth. . the annunciation to the shepherds. . the nativity. . the wise men behold the star in the form of a child. . they approach to worship. under the window is the altar, no longer used as such; and behind it a small but beautiful triptych of the coronation of the virgin, by giotto, containing at least a hundred heads of saints, angels, &c.; and on the wall opposite is the large fresco of the assumption, by mainardi, in which st. thomas receives the girdle, the other apostles being omitted. this is of much later date, being painted about . the series of five subjects in the rinuccini chapel (in the sacristy of the same church) has been generally attributed to taddeo gaddi, but i agree with those who gave it to a different painter of the same period. the subjects are thus arranged:-- . the rejection of joachim, which fills the whole arch at the top, and is rather peculiarly treated. on the right of the altar advances a company of grave-looking elders, each with his offering. on the left, a procession of the matrons and widows "who had been fruitful in israel," each with her lamb. in the centre, joachim, with his lamb in his arms and an affrighted look, is hurrying down the steps. . the lamentation of joachim on the mountain, and the meeting of joachim and anna. . the birth of the virgin. . the presentation in the temple. . the sposalizio of the virgin, with which the series concludes; every event referring to her divine son, even the annunciation, being omitted. on comparing these frescoes with those in the neighbouring chapel of the baroncelli, the difference in _feeling_ will be immediately felt; but they are very _naïve_ and elegant. about a hundred years later than these two examples we have the celebrated series painted by ghirlandajo, in the choir of s. maria novella at florence. there are three walls. on the principal wall, facing us as we enter, is the window; and around it the annunciation (as a mystery), then the principal saints of the order to whom the church belongs,--st. dominic and st. peter martyr, and the protecting saints of florence. on the left hand (i.e. the right as we face the high altar) is the history of the virgin; on the opposite side, the history of st. john the baptist. the various cycles relating to st. john as patron of florence will be fully treated in the last volume of legendary art; at present i shall confine myself to the beautiful set of subjects which relate the history of the virgin, and which the engravings of lasinio (see the "ancient florentine masters") have rendered well known to the lovers of art. they cover the whole wall and are thus arranged, beginning from the lowest on the left hand. . joachim is driven from the temple. . the birth of the virgin. . the presentation of the virgin in the temple. . the marriage of joseph and mary. . the adoration of the magi (this is very much ruined). . the massacre of the innocents. (this also is much ruined.) vasari says it was the finest of all. it is very unusual to make this terrible and pathetic scene part of the life of the virgin. . in the highest and largest compartment, the death and assumption of the virgin. nearly contemporary with this fine series is that by pinturicchio in the church of s. maria del popolo, at rome (in the third chapel on the right). it is comprised in five lunettes round the ceiling, beginning with the birth of the virgin, and is remarkable for its elegance. about forty years after this series was completed the people of siena, who had always bees remarkable for their devotion to the virgin, dedicated to her honour the beautiful little chapel called the oratory of san bernardino (v. legends of the monastic orders), near the church of san francesco, and belonging to the same order, the franciscans. this chapel is an exact parallelogram and the frescoes which cover the four walls are thus arranged above the wainscot, which rises about eight feet from the ground. . opposite the door as we enter, the birth of the virgin. the usual visitor to st. anna is here a grand female figure, in voluminous drapery. the delight and exultation of those who minister to the new-born infant are expressed with the most graceful _naïveté_. this beautiful composition should be compared with those of ghirlandajo and andrea del sarto in the annunziata at florence;[ ] it yields to neither as a conception and is wholly different. it is the work of a sienese painter little known--girolamo del pacchio. [footnote : this series, painted by andrea and his scholars and companions, franciabigio and pontormo, is very remarkable as a work of art, but presents nothing new in regard to the choice and treatment of the subjects.] . the presentation in the temple, by g.a. razzi. the principal scene is placed in the background, and the little madonna, as she ascends the steps, is received by the high priest and anna the prophetess. her father and mother and groups of spectators fill the foreground; here, too, is a very noble female figure on the right; but the whole composition is mannered, and wants repose and religious feeling. . the sposalizio, by beccafumi. the ceremony takes place after the manner of the jews, outside the temple. in a mannered, artificial style. , . on one side of the altar, the angel gabriel floating in--very majestic and angelic; on the other side the virgin annunziata, with that attitude and expression so characteristic of the siena school, as if shrinking from the apparition. these also are by girolamo del pacchio, and extremely fine. . the enthroned virgin and child, by beccafumi. the virgin is very fine and majestic; around her throne stand and kneel the guardian saints of siena and the franciscan order; st. francis, st. antony of padua, st. bernardino, st. catherine of siena, st. ansano, st. john b., st. louis. (st. catherine, as patroness of siena, takes here the place usually given to st. clara in the franciscan pictures.) . the visitation. very fine and rather peculiar; for here elizabeth bends over mary as welcoming her, while the other inclines her head as accepting hospitality. by razzi. . the death of the virgin. fourteen figures, among which are four females lamenting, and st. john bearing the palm. the attitude and expression of mary, composed in death, are very fine; and christ, instead of standing, as usual, by the couch, with her parting soul in his arms, comes rushing down from above with arms outspread to receive it. . the assumption. mary, attired all in white, rises majestically. the tomb is seen beneath, out of which grow two tall lilies amid white roses; the apostles surround it, and st. thomas receives the girdle. this is one of the finest works of razzi, and one of the purest in point of sentiment. . the coronation, covering the whole wall which faces the altar, is by razzi; it is very peculiar and characteristic. the virgin, all in white, and extremely fine, bending gracefully, receives her crown; the other figures have that vulgarity of expression which belonged to the artist, and is often so oddly mingled with the sentiment and grandeur of his school and time. on the right of the principal group stands st. john b.; on the left, adam and eve; and behind the virgin, her mother, st. anna, which is quite peculiar, and the only instance i can remember. * * * * * it appears therefore that the life of the virgin mary, whether treated as a devotional or historical series, forms a kind of pictured drama in successive scenes; sometimes comprising only six or eight of the principal events of her individual life, as her birth, dedication, marriage, death, and assumption: sometimes extending to forty or fifty subjects, and combining her history with that of her divine son. i may now direct the attention of the reader to a few other instances remarkable for their beauty and celebrity. giotto, . in the chapel at padua styled _la capella dell' arena_. one of the finest and most complete examples extant, combining the life of the virgin with that of her son. this series is of the highest value, a number of scenes and situations suggested by the scriptures being here either expressed for the first time, or in a form unknown in the greek school.[ ] [footnote : _vide_ kugler's handbook, p. . he observes, that "the introduction of the maid-servant spinning, in the story of st. anna, oversteps the limits of the higher ecclesiastical style." for an explanation i must refer to the story as i have given it at p . see, for the distribution of the subjects in this chapel, lord lindsay's "christian art," vol. ii. a set of the subjects has since been published by the arundel society.] angiolo gaddi, . the series in the cathedral at prato. these comprise the history of the holy girdle. andrea orcagna, . the beautiful series of bas-reliefs on the shrine in or-san-michele, at florence. nicolò da modena, . perhaps the earliest engraved example: very remarkable for the elegance of the _motifs_ and the imperfect execution, engraving on copper being then a new art. albert durer. the beautiful and well-known set of twenty-five wood-cuts, published in . a perfect example of the german treatment. bernardino luini, . a series of frescoes of the highest beauty, painted for the monastery della pace. unhappily we have only the fragments which are preserved in the brera. the series of bas-reliefs on the outer shrine of the casa di loretto, by sansovino, and others of the greatest sculptors of the beginning of the sixteenth century. the series of bas-reliefs round the choir at milan: seventeen subjects. * * * * * we often find the seven joys and the seven sorrows of the virgin treated as a series. the seven joys are, the annunciation, the visitation, the nativity, the adoration of the magi, the presentation in the temple, christ found by his mother, the assumption and coronation. the seven sorrows are, the prophecy of simeon, the flight into egypt, christ lost by his mother, the betrayal of christ, the crucifixion (with st. john and the virgin only present), the deposition from the cross, the ascension when the virgin is left on earth. the seven joys and sorrows are frequently found in altar-pieces and religions prints, arranged in separate compartments, round the madonna in the centre. or they are combined in various groups into one large composition, as in a famous picture by hans hemling, wonderful for the poetry, expression, and finished execution.[ ] [footnote : altogether, on a careful consideration of this picture, i do not consider the title by which it is generally known as appropriate. it contains man groups which would not enter into the mystic joys or sorrows; for instance, the massacre of the innocents, christ at emmaus, the _noli me tangere_, and others.] another cycle of subjects consists of the fifteen mysteries of the rosary. the five joyful mysteries, are the annunciation, the visitation, the nativity, the purification, and christ found in the temple. the five dolorous or sorrowful mysteries are, our lord in the garden of olives, the flagellation, christ crowned with thorns, the procession to calvary, the crucifixion. the five glorious mysteries are, the resurrection, the ascension, the descent of the holy ghost, the assumption, the coronation. a series of subjects thus arranged cannot be called strictly historical, but partakes of the mystical and devotional character. the purpose being to excite devout meditation, requires a particular sentiment, frequently distinguished from the merely dramatic and historical treatment in being accompanied by saints, votaries, and circumstances purely ideal; as where the wise men bring their offerings, while st. luke sits in a corner painting the portrait of the virgin, and st. dominick kneels in adoration of the mystery (mabuse, munich gal.);--and in a hundred other examples. iv. titles of the virgin mary. of the various titles given to the virgin mary, and thence to certain effigies and pictures of her, some appear to me very touching, as expressive of the wants, the aspirations, the infirmities and sorrows, which are common to poor suffering humanity, or of those divine attributes from which they hoped to find aid and consolation. thus we have-- santa maria "del buon consilio." our lady of good counsel. s.m. "del soccorso." our lady of succour. our lady of the forsaken. s.m. "del buon core." our lady of good heart. s.m. "della grazia." our lady of grace. s.m. "di misericordia." our lady of mercy. s.m. "auxilium afflictorum." help of the afflicted. s.m. "refugium peccatorum." refuge of sinners. s.m. "del pianto," "del dolore." our lady of lamentation, or sorrow. s.m. "consolatrice," "della consolazione," or "del conforte." our lady of consolation. s.m. "della speranza." our lady of hope. under these and similar titles she is invoked by the afflicted, and often represented with her ample robe outspread and upheld by angels, with votaries and suppliants congregated beneath its folds. in spain, _nuestra señora de la merced_ is the patroness of the order of mercy; and in this character she often holds in her hand small tablets bearing the badge of the order. (legends of the monastic orders, d edit.) s.m. "della liberta," or "liberatrice," our lady of liberty; and s.m. "della catena," our lady of fetters. in this character she is invoked by prisoners and captives. s.m. "del parto," our lady of good delivery, invoked by women in travail.[ ] [footnote : dante alludes to her in this character:-- "e per ventura udi 'dolce maria!' dinanzi a noi chiamar cosi nel pianto come fa donna che 'n partorir sia."--_purg._ c. .] s.m. "del popolo." our lady of the people. s.m. "della vittoria." our lady of victory. s.m. "della pace." our lady of peace. s.m. "della sapienza," our lady of wisdom; and s.m. "della perseveranza," our lady of perseverance. (sometimes placed in colleges, with a book in her hand, as patroness of students.) s.m. "della salute." our lady of health or salvation. under this title pictures and churches have been dedicated after the cessation of a plague, or any other public calamity.[ ] [footnote : there is also somewhere in france a chapel dedicated to _notre dame de la haine_.] other titles are derived from particular circumstances and accessories, as-- s.m. "del presepio," our lady of the cradle; generally a nativity, or when she is adoring her child. s.m. "della scodella"--with the cup or porringer, where she is taking water from a fountain; generally a riposo. s.m. "dell' libro," where she holds the book of wisdom. s.m. "della cintola," our lady of the girdle, where she is either giving the girdle to st. thomas, or where the child holds it in his hand. s.m. "della lettera." our lady of the letter. this is the title given to our lady as protectress of the city of messina. according to the sicilian legend, she honoured the people of messina by writing a letter to them, dated from jerusalem, "in the year of her son, ." in the effigies of the "madonna della lettera," she holds this letter in her hand. s.m. "della rosa." our lady of the rose. a title given to several pictures, in which the rose, which is consecrated to her, is placed either in her hand, or in that of the child. s.m. "della stella." our lady of the star. she wears the star as one of her attributes embroidered on her mantle. s.m. "del fiore." our lady of the flower. she has this title especially as protectress of florence. s.m. "della spina." she holds in her hand the crown of thorns, and under this title is the protectress of pisa. s.m. "del rosario." our lady of the rosary, with the mystic string of beads. i do not remember any instance of the rosary placed in the hand of the virgin or the child till after the battle of lepanto ( ), and the institution of the festival of the rosary, as an act of thanksgiving. after this time pictures of the madonna "del rosario" abound, and may generally be found in the dominican churches. there is a famous example by guido in the bologna gallery, and a very beautiful one by murillo in the dulwich gallery. s.m. "del carmine." our lady of mount carmel. she is protectress of the order of the carmelites, and is often represented holding in her hand small tablets, on which is the effigy of herself with the child. s.m. "de belem." our lady of bethlehem. under this title she is the patroness of the jeronymites, principally in spain and portugal. s.m. "della neve." our lady of the snow. in spain, s. maria la blanca. to this legend of the snow the magnificent church of s.m. maggiore at rome is said to owe its origin. a certain roman patrician, whose name was john (giovanni patricie), being childless, prayed of the virgin to direct him how best to bestow his worldly wealth. she appeared to him in a dream on the night of the fifth of august, , and commanded him to build a church in her honour, on a spot where snow would be found the next morning. the same vision having appeared to his wife and the reigning pope, liberius, they repaired in procession the next morning to the summit of mount esquiline, where, notwithstanding the heat of the weather, a large patch of ground was miraculously covered with snow, and on it liberius traced out with his crosier the plan of the church. this story has been often represented in art, and is easily recognized; but it is curious that the two most beautiful pictures consecrated to the honour of the madonna della neve are spanish and not roman, and were painted by murillo about the time that philip iv. of spain sent rich offerings to the church of s.m. maggiore, thus giving a kind of popularity to the legend. the picture represents the patrician john and his wife asleep, and the vision of the virgin (one of the loveliest ever painted by murillo) breaking upon them in splendour through the darkness of the night; while in the dim distance is seen the esquiline (or what is meant for it) covered with snow. in the second picture, john and his wife are kneeling before the pope, "a grand old ecclesiastic, like one of titian's pontiffs." these pictures, after being carried off by the french from the little church of s.m. la blanca at seville, are now in the royal gallery at madrid. s. maria "di loretto." our lady of loretto. the origin of this title is the famous legend of the santa casa, the house at nazareth, which was the birthplace of the virgin, and the scene of the annunciation. during the incursions of the saracens, the santa casa being threatened with profanation, if not destruction, was taken up by the angels and conveyed over land and sea till it was set down on the coast of dalmatia; but not being safe there, the angels again took it up, and, bearing it over the adriatic, set it down in a grove near loretto. but certain wicked brigands having disturbed its sacred quietude by strife and murder, the house again changed its place, and was at length set down on the spot where it now stands. the date of this miracle is placed in . the madonna di loretto is usually represented as seated with the divine child on the roof of a house, which is sustained at the corners by four angels, and thus borne over sea and land. from the celebrity of loretto as a place of pilgrimage this representation became popular, and is often found in chapels dedicated to our lady of loretto. another effigy of our lady of loretto is merely a copy of a very old greek "virgin and child," which is enshrined in the santa casa. s.m. "del pillar," our lady of the pillar, is protectress of saragossa. according to the legend, she descended from heaven standing on an alabaster pillar, and thus appeared to st. james (santiago) when he was preaching the gospel in spain. the miraculous pillar is preserved in the cathedral of saragossa, and the legend appears frequently in spanish art. also in a very interior picture by nicolo poussin, now in the louvre. * * * * * some celebrated pictures are individually distinguished by titles derived from some particular object in the composition, as raphael's _madonna de impannata_, so called from the window in the back ground being partly shaded with a piece of linen (in the pitti pal., florence); correggio's _vierge au panier_, so called from the work-basket which stands beside her (in our nat gal.); murillo's _virgen de la servilleta_, the virgin of the napkin, in allusion to the dinner napkin on which it was painted.[ ] others are denominated from certain localities, as the _madonna di foligno_ (now in the vatican); others from the names of families to whom they have belonged, as _la madonna della famiglia staffa_, at perugia. [footnote : there is a beautiful engraving in stirling's "annals of the artists of spain."] * * * * * those visions and miracles with which the virgin mary favoured many of the saints, as st. luke (who was her secretary and painter), st. catherine, st. francis, st. herman, and others, have already been related in the former volumes, and need not be repeated here. with regard to the churches dedicated to the virgin, i shall not attempt to enumerate even the most remarkable, as almost every town in christian europe contains one or more bearing her name. the most ancient of which tradition speaks, was a chapel beyond the tiber, at rome, which is said to have been founded in , on the site where s. maria _in trastevere_ now stands. but there are one or two which carry their pretensions much higher; for the cathedral at toledo and the cathedral at chartres both claim the honour of having been dedicated to the virgin while she was yet alive.[ ] [footnote : in england we have , churches dedicated in her honour; and one of the largest and most important of the london parishes bears her name--"st. marie-la-bonne"] * * * * * brief and inadequate as are these introductory notices, they will, i hope, facilitate the comprehension of the critical details into which it has been necessary to enter in the following pages, and lend some new interest to the subjects described. i have heard the artistic treatment of the madonna styled a monotonous theme; and to those who see only the perpetual iteration of the same groups on the walls of churches and galleries, varied as they may suppose only by the fancy of the painter, it may seem so. but beyond the visible forms, there lies much that is suggestive to a thinking mind--to the lover of art a higher significance, a deeper beauty, a more various interest, than could at first be imagined. in fact, the greatest mistakes in point of _taste_ arise in general from not knowing what we ought to demand of the artist, not only in regard to the subject expressed, but with reference to the times in which he lived, and his own individuality. an axiom which i have heard confidently set forth, that a picture is worth nothing unless "he who runs may read," has inundated the world with frivolous and pedantic criticism. a picture or any other work of art, is worth nothing except in so far as it has emanated from mind, and is addressed to mind. it should, indeed, be _read_ like a book. pictures, as it has been well said, are the books of the unlettered, but then we must at least understand the language in which they are written. and further,--if, in the old times, it was a species of idolatry to regard these beautiful representations as endued with a specific sanctity and power; so, in these days, it is a sort of atheism to look upon them reckless of their significance, regardless of the influences through which they were produced, without acknowledgment of the mind which called them into being, without reference to the intention of the artist in his own creation. * * * * * supplementary notes to the second edition. i. in the first edition of this work, only a passing allusion was made to those female effigies, by some styled "_la donna orante_" (the praying woman) and by others supposed to represent mary the mother of our lord, of which so many examples exist in the catacombs and in the sculptured groups on the ancient christian sarcophagi. i know it has long been a disputed, or at least an unsettled and doubtful point, as to whether certain female figures existing on the earliest christian monuments were or were not intended to represent the virgin mary. the protestants, on the one hand, as if still inspired by that superstition against superstition which led to the violent and vulgar destruction of so many beautiful works of art, and the catholics on the other, jealous to maintain the authenticity of these figures as a testimony to the ancient worship of the virgin, both appear to me to have taken an exaggerated and prejudiced view of a subject which ought to be considered dispassionately on purely antiquarian and critical grounds. having had the opportunity, during a late residence in italy, of reconsidering and comparing a great number of these antique representations, and having heard the opinions of antiquarians, theologians, and artists, who had given their attention to the subject, and who occasionally differed from each other as to the weight of evidence, i have arrived at the conviction, that some of these effigies represent the virgin mary, and others do not. i confess i do not believe in any authentic representation of the virgin holding the divine child older than the sixth century, except when introduced into the groups of the nativity and the worship of the magi. previous to the nestorian controversy, these maternal effigies, as objects of devotion, were, i still believe, unknown, but i cannot understand why there should exist among protestants, so strong a disposition to discredit every representation of mary the mother of our lord to which a high antiquity had been assigned by the roman catholics. we know that as early as the second century, not only symbolical figures of our lord, but figures of certain personages of holy life, as st. peter and st. paul, agnes the roman, and euphemia the greek, martyr, did certainly exist. the critical and historical testimony i have given elsewhere. (sacred and legendary art.) why therefore should there not have existed effigies of the mother of christ, of the "woman highly blessed," the subject of so many prophecies, and naturally the object of a tender and just veneration among the early christians? it seams to me that nothing could be more likely, and that such representations ought to have a deep interest for all christians, no matter of what denomination--for _all_, in truth, who believe that the saviour of the world had a good mother, his only earthly parent, who brought him forth, nurtured and loved him. that it should be considered a point of faith with protestants to treat such memorials with incredulity and even derision, appears to me most inconsistent and unaccountable, though i confess that between these simple primitive memorials and the sumptuous tasteless column and image recently erected at rome there is a very wide margin of disputable ground, of which i shall say no more in this place. but to return to the antique conception of the "donna orante" or so-called virgin mother, i will mention here only the moat remarkable examples; for to enter fully into the subject would occupy a volume in itself. there is a figure often met with in the catacombs and on the sarcophagi of a majestic woman standing with outspread arms (the ancient attitude of prayer), or holding a book or scroll in her hand. when this figure stands alone and unaccompanied by any attribute, i think the signification doubtful: but in the catacomb of st. ciriaco there is a painted figure of a woman, with arms outspread and sustained on each aide by figures, evidently st. peter and st. paul; on the sarcophagi the same figure frequently occurs; and there are other examples certainly not later than the third and fourth century. that these represent mary the mother of christ i have not the least doubt; i think it has been fully demonstrated that no other christian woman could have been so represented, considering the manners and habits of the christian community at that period. then the attitude and type are precisely similar to those of the ancient byzantine madonnas and the italian mosaics of eastern workmanship, proving, as i think, that there existed a common traditional original for this figure, the idea of which has been preserved and transmitted in these early copies. further:--there exist in the roman museums many fragments of ancient glass found in the christian tombs, on which are rudely pictured in colours figures exactly similar, and having the name maria inscribed above them. on one of these fragments i found the same female figure between two male figures, with the names inscribed over them, maria. petrvs. pavlvs., generally in the rudest and most imperfect style, as if issuing from some coarse manufacture; but showing that they have had a common origin with those far superior figures in the catacombs and on the sarcophagi, while the inscribed names leave no doubt as to the significance. on the other hand, there are similar fragments of coarse glass found in the catacombs--either lamps or small vases, bearing the same female in the attitude of prayer, and superscribed in rude letters, dulcis anima pie zeses vivas. (zeses instead of jesus.) such may, possibly, represent, not the virgin mary, but the christian matron or martyr buried in the tomb; at least, i consider them as doubtful. the cavaliere rossi, whose celebrity as an antiquarian is not merely italian, but european, and whose impartiality can hardly be doubted, told me that a christian sarcophagus had lately been discovered at saint-maxime, in the south of france, on which there is the same group of the female figure praying, and over it the name maria. i ought to add, that on one of these sarcophagi, bearing the oft repeated subject of the good shepherd feeding his sheep, i found, as the companion group, a female figure in the act of feeding birds which are fluttering to her feet. it is not doubted that the good shepherd is the symbol of the beneficent christ; whether the female figure represent the virgin-mother, or is to be regarded merely as a general symbol of female beneficence, placed on a par with that of christ (in his human character), i will not pretend to decide. it is equally touching and beautiful in either significance. three examples of these figures occur to me. the first is from a christian sarcophagus of early date, and in a good style of art, probably of the third century--it is a noble figure, in the attitude of prayer, and separated from the other groups by a palm-tree on each side--at her feet is a bird (perhaps a dove, the ancient symbol of the released soul), and scrolls which represent the gospel. i regard this figure as doubtful; it may possibly be the effigy of a christian matron, who was interred in the sarcophagus. the second example is also from a sarcophagus. it is a figure holding a scroll of the gospel, and standing between st. peter and st. paul; on each side (in the original) there are groups expressing the beneficent miracles of our lord. this figure, i believe, represents the virgin mary. in the third example, the conspicuous female figure is combined with the series of groups on each side. she stands with hands outspread, in the attitude of prayer, between the two apostles, who seem to sustain her arms. on one side is the miracle of the water changed into wine; on the other side, christ healing the woman who touched his garment; both of perpetual recurrence in these sculptures. of these groups of the miracles and actions of christ on the early christian sarcophagi, i shall give a full account in the "history of our lord, as illustrated in the fine arts;" at present i confine myself to the female figure which takes this conspicuous place, while other female figures are prostrate, or of a diminutive size, to express their humility or inferiority; and i have no doubt that thus situated it is intended to represent the woman who was highly honoured as well as highly blessed--the mother of our saviour. i have come therefore to the conclusion, that while many of these figures have a certain significance, others are uncertain. where the figure is isolated, or placed within a frame or border, like the memorial busts and effigies on the pagan sarcophagi, i think it may be regarded as probably commemorating the christian martyr or matron entombed in the sarcophagus; but when there is no division, where the figure forms part of a continuous series of groups, expressing the character and miracles of christ, i believe that it represents his mother. ii. the borghese chapel, in the church, of st. maria maggiore at rome, was dedicated to the honour of the virgin mary by paul v. (borghese), in --the same pope who in promulgated the famous bull relative to the immaculate conception. the scheme of decoration in this gorgeous chapel is very remarkable, as testifying to the development which the theological idea of the virgin, as the sposa or personified church, had attained at this period, and because it is not, as in other examples, either historical or devotional, but purely doctrinal. as we enter, the profusion of ornament, the splendour of colour, marbles, gilding, from the pavement under our feet to the summit of the lofty dome, are really dazzling. first, and elevated above all, we have the "madonna della concezione," our lady of the immaculate conception, in a glory of light, sustained and surrounded by angels, having the crescent under her feet, according to the approved treatment. beneath, round the dome, we read in conspicuous letters the text from the revelations:--signum. magnum. apparavlt. in coelo. mulier. amicta. sole. et. luna. sub. pedibus. ejus. et. in capite. ejus, corona. stellarum. duodecim. (rev. xii. .) lower down is a second inscription, expressing the dedication. mariÆ. christi. matri. semper. virgini. paulus. quintus.p.m. the decorations beneath the cornice consist of eighteen large frescoes, and six statues in marble, above life size. beginning with the frescoes, we have the subjects arranged in the following order:-- . the four great prophets, isaiah, jeremiah, ezekiel, and daniel, in their usual place in the four pendentives of the dome. (v. the introduction.) . two large frescoes. in the first, the vision of st. gregory thaumaturgus,[ ] and heretics bitten by serpents. in the second, st. john damascene and st. ildefonso miraculously rewarded for defending the majesty of the virgin. (sacred and legendary art.) [footnote : st. gregory thaumaturgus, bishop of pontus in the third century, was favoured by a vision of the trinity, which enabled him to confute and utterly subdue the sabellian heretics--the unitarians of his time.] . a large fresco, representing the four doctors of the church who had especially written in honour of the virgin: viz. ireneus and cyprian, ignatius and theophilus, grouped two and two. . st. luke, who painted the virgin, and whose gospel contains the best account of her. . as spiritual conquerors in the name of the virgin, st. dominic and st. francis, each attended by two companions of his order. . as military conquerors in the name of the virgin, the emperor heraclius, and narses, the general against the arians. . a group of three female figures, representing the three famous saintly princesses who in marriage preserved their virginity, pulcheria, edeltruda (our famous queen ethelreda), and cunegunda. (for the legends of cunegunda and ethelreda, see legends of the monastic orders.) . a group of three learned bishops, who had especially defended the immaculate purity of the virgin, st. cyril, st. anselm, and st. denis (?). . the miserable ends of those who were opposed to the honour of the virgin. . the death of julian the apostate, very oddly represented; he lies on an altar, transfixed by an arrow, as a victim; st. mercurius in the air. (for this legend see sacred and legendary art.) . the death of leo iv., who destroyed the effigies of the virgin. . the death of constantine iv., also a famous iconoclast. the statues which are placed in niches are-- , . st. joseph, as the nominal husband, and st. john the evangelist, as the nominal son of the virgin; the latter, also, as prophet and poet, with reference to the passage in the revelation, c. xii. . , . aaron, as priestly ancestor (because his wand blossomed), and david, as kingly ancestor of the virgin. , . st. dionysius the areopagite, who was present at the death of the virgin, and st. bernard, who composed the famous "salve regina" in her honour. such is this grand systematic scheme of decoration, which, to those who regard it cursorily, is merely a sumptuous confusion of colours and forms, or at best, "a fine example of the guido school and bernino." it is altogether a very complete and magnificent specimen of the prevalent style of art, and a very comprehensive and suggestive expression of the prevalent tendency of thought, in the roman catholic church from the beginning of the seventeenth century. in no description of this chapel have i ever seen the names and subjects accurately given: the style of art belongs to the _decadence_, and the taste being worse than, questionable, the pervading _doctrinal_ idea has been neglected, or never understood. iii. those pictures which represent the virgin mary kneeling before the celestial throne, while the padre eterno or the messiah extends his hand or his sceptre towards her, are generally misunderstood. they do not represent, the assumption, nor yet the reception of mary in heaven, as is usually supposed; but the election or predestination of mary as the immaculate vehicle or tabernacle of human redemption--the earthly parent of the divine saviour. i have described such a picture by dosso dossi, and another by cottignola. a third example may be cited in a yet more beautiful and celebrated picture by francia, now in the church at san frediano at lucca. above, in the glory of heaven, the virgin kneels before the throne of the creator; she is clad in regal attire of purple and crimson and gold; and she bends her fair crowned head, and folds her hands upon her bosom with an expression of meek yet dignified resignation--"_behold the handmaid of the lord!_"--accepting, as woman, that highest glory, as mother, that extremest grief, to which the divine will, as spoken by the prophets of old, had called her. below, on the earth and to the right hand, stand david and solomon, as prophets and kingly ancestors: on the left hand, st. augustine and st. anselm in their episcopal robes. (i have mentioned, with regard to the office in honour of the immaculate conception, that the idea is said to have originated in england. i should also have added, that anselm, archbishop of canterbury, was its strenuous advocate.) each of these personages holds a scroll. on that of david the reference is to the th and th verses of psalm xxvii.--"_in the secret of his tabernacle he shall hide me_." on that of solomon is the text from his song, ch. iv. . on that of st. augustine, a quotation, i presume, from his works, but difficult to make out; it seems to be, "_in coelo qualis est pater, talis est films; qualis est filius, talis est mater_." on that of st. anselm the same inscription which is on the picture of cottignola quoted before, "_non puto vere esse_." &c., which is, i suppose, taken from his works. in the centre, st. anthony of padua kneels beside the sepulchre full of lilies and roses; showing the picture to have been painted for, or under the influence of, the franciscan order; and, like other pictures of the same class, "an attempt to express in a visible form the idea or promise of the redemption of the human race, as existing in the sovereign eternal mind before the beginning of the world." this altar-piece has no date, but appears to have been painted about the same time as the picture in our national gallery (no. .), which came from the same church. as a work of art it is most wonderfully beautiful. the editors of the last excellent edition of vasari speak of it with just enthusiasm as "_opera veramente stupenda in ogni parte_!" the predella beneath, painted in chiaro-oscuro, is also of exquisite beauty; and let us hope that we shall never see it separated from the great subject, like a page or a paragraph torn out of a book by ignorant and childish collectors. iv. although the nativity of the virgin mary is one of the great festivals of the roman catholic church, i have seldom seen it treated as a separate subject and an altar-piece. there is, however, a very remarkable example in the belle arti at siena. it is a triptych enclosed in a framework elaborately carved and gilt, in the gothic style. in the centre compartment, st. anna lies on a rich couch covered with crimson drapery; a graceful female presents an embroidered napkin, others enter, bringing refreshments, as usual. in front, three attendants minister to the infant: one of them is in an attitude of admiration; on the right, joachim seated, with white hair and beard, receives the congratulations of a young man who seems to envy his paternity. in the compartment on the right stand st. james major and st. catherine; on the left, st. bartholomew and st. elizabeth of hungary (?). this picture is in the hard primitive style of the fourteenth century, by an unknown painter, who must have lived, before giovanni di paolo, but vividly coloured, exquisitely finished, and full of sentiment and dramatic feeling. devotional subjects. part i. the virgin without the child. . la vergine gloriosa. . l'incoronata. . la madonna di misericordia. . la madre dolorosa. . la concezione. the virgin mary. _lat._ . virgo gloriosa. . virgo sponsa dei. . virgo potens . virgo veneranda. . virgo prædicanda. . virgo clemens. . virgo sapientissima. . sancta virgo virginum. _ital._ la vergine gloriosa. la gran vergine delle vergini. _fr._ la grande vierge. there are representations of the virgin, and among them some of the earliest in existence, which place her before us as an object of religious veneration, but in which the predominant idea is not that of her maternity. no doubt it was as the mother of the saviour christ that she was originally venerated; but in the most ancient monuments of the christian faith, the sarcophagi, the rude paintings in the catacombs, and the mosaics executed before the seventh century, she appears simply as a veiled female figure, not in any respect characterized. she stands, in a subordinate position, on one side of christ; st. peter or st. john the baptist on the other. when the worship of the virgin came to us from the east, with it came the greek type--and for ages we had no other--the greek classical type, with something of the oriental or egyptian character. when thus she stands before us without her son, and the apostles or saints on each side taking the subordinate position, then we are to regard her not only as the mother of christ, but as the second eve, the mother of all suffering humanity; the woman of the primeval prophecy whose issue was to bruise the head of the serpent; the virgin predestined from the beginning of the world who was to bring forth the redeemer of the world; the mystical spouse of the canticles; the glorified bride of a celestial bridegroom; the received type of the church of christ, afflicted on earth, triumphant and crowned in heaven; the most glorious, most pure, most pious, most clement, most sacred queen and mother, virgin of virgins. the form under which we find this grand and mysterious idea of glorified womanhood originally embodied, is wonderfully majestic and simple. a female figure of colossal dimensions, far exceeding in proportion all the attendant personages and accessories, stands immediately beneath some figure or emblem representing almighty power: either it is the omnipotent hand stretched out above her, holding the crown of immortality; or it is the mystic dove which hovers over her; or it is the half-form of christ, in the act of benediction. she stands with arms raised and extended wide, the ancient attitude of prayer; or with hands merely stretched forth, expressing admiration, humility, and devout love. she is attired in an ample tunic of blue or white, with a white veil over her head, thrown a little back, and displaying an oval face with regular features, mild, dignified--sometimes, in the figures of the ruder ages, rather stern and melancholy, from the inability of the artist to express beauty; but when least beautiful, and most formal and motionless, always retaining something of the original conception, and often expressibly striking and majestic. the earliest figure of this character to which i can refer is the mosaic in the oratory of san venanzio, in the lateran, the work of greek artists under the popes john iv. and theodorus, both greeks by birth, and who presided over the church from to . in the vault of the tribune, over the altar, we have first, at the summit, a figure of christ half-length, with his hand extended in benediction; on each side, a worshipping angel; below, in the centre, the figure of the virgin according to the ancient type, standing with extended arms, in a violet or rather dark-blue tunic and white veil, with a small cross pendant on her bosom. on her right hand stands st. paul, on her left st. peter; beyond st. peter and st. paul, st. john the baptist holding a cross, and st. john the evangelist holding a book; and beyond these again, st. domino and st. venantius, two martyred saints, who perished in dalmatia, and whose relics were brought out of that country by the founder of the chapel, john iv., himself a dalmatian by birth. at the extremities of this group, or rather line of figures, stand the two popes, john iv. and theodorus, under whom the chapel was founded and dedicated. although this ancient mosaic has been many times restored, the original composition remains. similar, but of later date, is the effigy of the virgin over the altar of the archiepiscopal chapel at ravenna. this mosaic, with others of greek work, was brought from the old tribune of the cathedral, when it was altered and repaired, and the ancient decorations removed or destroyed. another instance, also, at ravenna, is the basso-relievo in greek marble, and evidently of greek workmanship, which is said to have existed from the earliest ages, in the church of s. maria-in-porto-fuori, and is now preserved in the s. maria-in-porto, where i saw it in . it is probably as old as the sixth or seventh century. in st. mark's at venice, in the grand old basilica at torcello, in san donate at murano, at monreale, near palermo, and in most of the old churches in the east of europe, we find similar figures, either byzantine in origin, or in imitation of the byzantine style. but about the middle of the thirteenth century, and contemporary with cimabue, we find the first indication of a departure, even in the mosaics, from the lifeless, formal type of byzantine art. the earliest example of a more animated treatment is, perhaps, the figure in the apsis of st. john lateran. (rome.) in the centre is an immense cross, emblem of salvation; the four rivers of paradise (the four gospels) flow from its base; and the faithful, figured by the hart and the sheep, drink from these streams. below the cross is represented, of a small size, the new jerusalem guarded by an archangel. on the right stands the virgin, of colossal dimensions. she places one hand on the head of a diminutive kneeling figure, pope nicholas iv.,[ ] by whom the mosaic was dedicated about ; the other hand, stretched forth, seems to recommend the votary to the mercy of christ. [footnote : for a minute reduction of the whole composition, see kugler's handbook, p. .] full-length effigies of the virgin seated on a throne, or glorified as queen of heaven, or queen of angels, without her divine infant in her arms, are exceedingly rare in every age; now and then to be met with in the early pictures and illuminations, but never, that i know of, in the later schools of art. a signal example is the fine enthroned madonna in the campo santo, who receives st. ranieri when presented by st. peter and st. paul. on the dalmatica (or deacon's robe) preserved in the sacristy of st. peter's at rome (which lord lindsay well describes as a perfect example of the highest style of byzantine art) (christian art, i. ), the embroidery on the front represents christ in a golden circle or glory, robed in white, with the youthful and beardless face, his eyes looking into yours. he sits on the rainbow; his left hand holds an open book, inscribed, "come, ye blessed of my father!" while the right is raised in benediction. the virgin stands on the right entirely _within_ the glory; "she is sweet in feature and graceful in attitude, in her long white robe." the baptist stands on the left _outside_ the glory. in pictures representing the glory of heaven, paradise, or the last judgment, we have this idea constantly repeated--of the virgin on the right hand of her son, but not on the same throne with him, unless it be a "coronation," which is a subject apart. in the great altar-piece of the brothers van eyck, the upper part contains three compartments;[ ] in the centre is christ, wearing the triple tiara, and carrying the globe, as king, as priest, as judge--on each side, as usual, but in separate compartments, the virgin and st. john the baptist. the virgin, a noble queenly figure, full of serene dignity and grace, is seated on a throne, and wears a superb crown, formed of lilies, roses, and gems, over her long fair hair. she is reading intently in a book--the book of wisdom. she is here the _sponsa dei_, and the _virgo sapientissima_, the most wise virgin. this is the only example i can recollect of the virgin seated on the right hand of her son in glory, and _holding a book_. in every other instance she is standing or seated with her hands joined or crossed over her bosom, and her eyes turned towards him. [footnote : it is well known that the different parts of this great work have been dispersed. the three compartments mentioned here are at berlin.] among innumerable examples, i will cite only one, perhaps the most celebrated of all, and familiar, it may be presumed, to most of my readers, though perhaps they may not have regarded it with reference to the character and position given to the virgin. it is one of the four great frescoes of the camera della segnatura, in the vatican, exhibiting the four highest objects of mental culture--theology, poetry, philosophy, and jurisprudence. in the first of these, commonly, but erroneously, called _la disputa dell' sacramento_, raphael has combined into one great scene the whole system of theology, as set forth by the catholic church; it is a sort of concordance between heaven and earth--between the celestial and terrestrial witnesses of the truth. the central group above shows us the redeemer of the world, seated with extended arms, having on the right the virgin in her usual place, and on the left, also in his accustomed place, st. john the baptist; both seated, and nearly on a level with christ. the baptist is here in his character of the precursor "sent to bear witness to the light, that through him all men might believe." (john i. .) the virgin is exhibited, not merely as the mother, the sposa, the church, but as heavenly wisdom, for in this character the catholic church has applied to her the magnificent passage in proverbs: "the lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. i was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." "then i was by him as one brought up with him, and i was daily his delight, rejoicing alway before him." (prov. viii, - , and eccles. xxiv. , .) nothing can be more beautiful than the serene grace and the mingled majesty and humility in the figure of the virgin, and in her countenance, as she looks up adoring to the fountain of _all_ light, _all_ wisdom, and _all_ goodness. above the principal group, is the emblematical image of the father; below is the holy dove, in the act of descending to the earth.[ ] [footnote : for a detailed description of this fresco, see passavant's raphael, i. , and kugler's handbook, d edit., where a minute and beautiful reduction of the whole composition will give and idea of the general design.] the virgin alone, separate from her son, standing or enthroned before us, simply as the _virgine dea_ or _regina coeli_, is rarely met with in modern art, either in sculpture or painting. i will give, however, one signal example. in an altar-piece painted by cosimo rosselli, for the serviti at florence, she stands alone, and in a majestic attitude, on a raised pedestal. she holds a book, and looks upward, to the holy dove, hovering over her head; she is here again the _virgo sapientiæ_. (fl. gal.) on one side is st. john the evangelist and st. antonino of florence (see legends of the monastic orders); on the other, st. peter and st. philip benozzi; in front kneel st. margaret and st. catherine: all appear to contemplate with rapturous devotion the vision of the madonna. the heads and attitudes in this picture have that character of elegance which distinguished the florentine school at this period, without any of those extravagances and peculiarities into which piero often fell; for the man had evidently a touch of madness, and was as eccentric in his works as in his life and conversation. the order of the serviti, for whom he painted this picture, was instituted in honour of the virgin, and for her particular service, which will account for the unusual treatment. * * * * * the numerous--often most beautiful--heads and half-length figures which represent the virgin alone, looking up with a devout or tender expression, or with the head declined, and the hands joined in prayer, or crossed over the bosom with virginal humility and modesty, belong to this class of representations. in the ancient heads, most of which are imitations of the old greek effigies ascribed to st. luke, there is often great simplicity and beauty. when she wears the crown over her veil, or bears a sceptre in her hand, she figures as the queen of heaven (_regina coeli_). when such effigies are attended by adoring angels, she is the queen of angels (_regina angelorum_). when she is weeping or holding the crown of thorns, she is our lady of sorrow, the _mater dolorosa_. when she is merely veiled, with folded hands, and in her features all the beauty, maiden purity, and sweetness which the artist could render, she is simply the blessed virgin, the madonna, the _santa maria vergine_. such heads are very rare in the earlier schools of art, which seldom represented the virgin without her child, but became favourite studies of the later painters, and were multiplied and varied to infinitude from the beginning of the seventeenth century. from these every trace of the mystical and solemn conception of antiquity gradually disappeared; till, for the majestic ideal of womanhood, we have merely inane prettiness, or rustic, or even meretricious grace, the borrowed charms of some earthly model. l'incoronata. the coronation of the virgin. _lat._ coronatio beatæ mariæ virginis. _ital._ maria coronata dal divin suo figlio. _fr._ le couronnement de la sainte vierge. _ger._ die krönung mariä. the usual type of the church triumphant is the coronation of the virgin properly so called, christ in the act of crowning his mother; one of the most popular, significant, and beautiful subjects in the whole range of mediæval art. when in a series of subjects from the life of the virgin, so often met with in religious prints and in the roman catholic churches, we find her death and her assumption followed by her coronation; when the bier or sarcophagus and the twelve apostles appear below, while heaven opens upon us above; then the representation assumes a kind of dramatic character: it is the last and most glorious event of her history. the mother, dying on earth, is received into glory by her son who had gone before her, and who thus celebrates the consummation of his victory and hers. but when the scene is treated apart as a single subject; when, instead of the apostles gazing up to heaven, or looking with amazement into the tomb from which she had risen, we find the lower part of the composition occupied by votaries, patron saints, or choral angels; then the subject must be regarded as absolutely devotional and typical. it is not a scene or an action; it is a great mystery. it is consecrated to the honour of the virgin as a type of the spiritual church. the espoused is received into glory and crowned with the crown of everlasting life, exalted above angels, spirits, and men. in this sense we must understand the subject when we find it in ecclesiastical sculpture, over the doors of places of worship, in the decorative carving of church utensils, in stained glass. in many of the italian churches there is a chapel especially dedicated to the virgin in this character, called _la capella dell' incoronata_; and both in germany and italy it is a frequent subject as an altar-piece. in all the most ancient examples, it is christ only who places the crown on the head of his mother, seated on the same throne, and placed at his right hand. sometimes we have the two figures only; sometimes the _padre eterno_ looks down, and the holy spirit in the form of the dove hovers above or between them. in some later examples the virgin is seated between the father and the son, both in human form: they place the crown on her head each holding it with one hand, the holy spirit hovering above. in other representations the virgin _kneels_ at the feet of christ; and he places the crown on her head, while two or more rejoicing and adoring angels make heavenly music, or all paradise opens to the view; and there are examples where not only the choir of attendant angels, but a vast assembly of patriarchs, saints, martyrs, fathers of the church--the whole company of the blessed spirits--assist at this great ceremony. i will now give some celebrated examples of the various styles of treatment. there is a group in mosaic, which i believe to be singular in its kind, where the virgin is enthroned, with christ. she is seated at his right hand, at the same elevation, and altogether as his equal. his right arm embraces her, and his hand rests on her shoulder. she wears a gorgeous crown, which her son has placed on her brow christ has only the cruciform nimbus; in his left hand is an open book, on which is inscribed, "_veni, electa mea_" &c. "come, my chosen one, and i will place thee upon my throne." the virgin holds a tablet, on which are the words "his right hand should be under my head, and his left hand should embrace me." (cant. viii. .) the omnipotent hand is stretched forth in benediction above. here the virgin is the type of the church triumphant and glorified, having overcome the world; and the solemn significance of the whole representation is to be found in the book of revelations: "to him that overcometh will i grant _to sit with me in my throne_, even as i also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne." (rev. iii. .) this mosaic, in which, be it observed, the virgin is enthroned with christ, and _embraced_, not crowned, by him, is, i believe, unique either as a picture or a church decoration. it is not older than the twelfth century, is very ill executed, but is curious from the peculiarity of the treatment. (rome. s. maria in trastevere.) * * * * * in the mosaic in the tribune of s. maria-maggiore at rome, perhaps the earliest example extant of the coronation, properly so called, the subject is treated with a grand and solemn simplicity. christ and the virgin, colossal figures, are seated on the same regal throne within a circular glory. the background is blue studded with golden stars. he places the crown on her head with his right hand; in the left he holds an open book, with the usual text, "_veni, electa mea, et ponam te in thronum meum_," &c. she bends slightly forward, and her hands are lifted in adoration. above and around the circular glory the emblematical vine twines in arabesque form; among the branches and leaves sit peacocks and other birds; the peacock being the old emblem of immortality, as birds in general are emblems of spirituality. on each side of the glory are nine adoring angels, representing the nine choirs of the heavenly hierarchy; beyond these on the right stand st. peter, st. paul, st. francis; on the left, st. john the baptist, st. john the evangelist, and st. antony of padua; all these figures being very small in proportion to those of christ and the virgin. smaller still, and quite diminutive in comparison, are the kneeling figures of pope nicholas iv. and cardinal giacomo colonna, under whose auspices the mosaic was executed by jacopo della turrita, a franciscan friar, about . in front flows the river jordan, symbol of baptism and regeneration; on its shore stands the hart, the emblem of religions aspiration. underneath the central group is the inscription,-- maria virgo assumpta ad etherium thalamum in quo rex regum stellato sedet solio. the whole of this vast and poetical composition is admirably executed, and it is the more curious as being, perhaps, one of the earliest examples of the glorification of st. francis and st. antony of padua (monastic orders), who were canonized about thirty or forty years before. the mosaic, by gaddo gaddi (florence, a.d. ), over the great door in the cathedral at florence, is somewhat different. christ, while placing the crown on the head of his mother with his _left_ hand, blesses her with his right hand, and he appears to have laid aside his own crown, which lies near him. the attitude of the virgin is also peculiar.[ ] [footnote : in the same cathedral (which is dedicated to the virgin mary) the circular window of the choir opposite to the mosaic exhibits the coronation. the design, by donatello, is eminently fine and classical.] in a small altar-piece by giotto (florence, s. croce), christ and the virgin are seated together on a throne. he places the jewelled crown on her head with _both_ hands, while she bends forward with her hands crossed in her lap, and the softest expression in her beautiful face, as if she as meekly resigned herself to this honour, as heretofore to the angelic salutation which pronounced her "blessed:" angels kneel before the throne with censers and offerings. in another, by giotto, christ wearing a coronet of gems is seated on a throne: the virgin _kneels_ before him with hands joined: twenty angels with musical instruments attend around. in a "coronation," by piero laurati, the figures of christ and the virgin, seated together, resemble in sentiment and expression those of giotto. the angels are arranged in a glory around, and the treatment is wholly typical. one of the most beautiful and celebrated of the pictures of angelico da fiesole is the "coronation" now in the louvre; formerly it stood over the high altar of the church of st. dominick at fiesole, where angelico had been nurtured, and made his profession as monk. the composition is conceived as a grand regal ceremony, but the beings who figure in it are touched with a truly celestial grace. the redeemer, crowned himself, and wearing the ermine mantle of an earthly monarch, is seated on a magnificent throne, under a gothic canopy, to which there is an ascent of nine steps. he holds the crown, which he is in the act of placing, with both hands, on the head of the virgin, who kneels before him, with features of the softest and most delicate beauty, and an expression of divine humility. her face, seen in profile, is partly shaded by a long transparent veil, flowing over her ample robe of a delicate crimson, beneath which is a blue tunic. on each side a choir of lovely angels, clothed from head to foot in spangled tunics of azure and rose-colour, with shining wings, make celestial music, while they gaze with looks of joy and adoration towards the principal group. lower down on the right of the throne are eighteen, and on the left twenty-two, of the principal patriarchs, apostles, saints, and martyrs, among whom the worthies of angelico's own community, st. dominick and st. peter martyr, are of course conspicuous. at the foot of the throne kneel on one side st. augustine, st. benedict, st. charlemagne, the royal saint; st. nicholas; and st. thomas aquinas holding a pen (the great literary saint of the dominican order, and author of the office of the virgin); on the left we have a group of virgins, st. agnes, st. catherine with her wheel, st. catherine of siena, her habit spangled with stars; st. cecilia crowned with her roses, and mary magdalene, with her long golden hair.[ ] beneath this great composition runs a border or predella, in seven compartments, containing in the centre a pietà, and on each side three small subjects from the history of st. dominick, to whom the church, whence it was taken, is dedicated. the spiritual beauty of the heads, the delicate tints of the colouring, an ineffable charm of mingled brightness and repose shed over the whole, give to this lovely picture an effect like that of a church hymn, sung at some high festival by voices tuned in harmony--"blest voices, uttering joy!" [footnote : see "legends of the monastic orders," and "sacred and legendary art," for an account of all these personages.] in strong contrast with the graceful italian conception, is the german "coronation," now in the wallerstein collection. (kensington pal.) it is supposed to have been painted for philip the good, duke of burgundy, either by hans hemling, or a painter not inferior to him. here the virgin is crowned by the trinity. she kneels, with an air of majestic humility, and hands meekly folded on her bosom, attired in simple blue drapery, before a semicircular throne, on which are seated the father and the son, between them, with outspread wings, touching their mouths, the holy dove. the father a venerable figure, wears the triple tiara, and holds the sceptre; christ, with an expression of suffering, holds in his left hand a crystal cross; and they sustain between them a crown which they are about to place on the head of the virgin. their golden throne is adorned with gems, and over it is a glory of seraphim, with hair, faces, and plumage, all of a glowing red. the lower part of this picture and the compartments on each side are filled with a vast assemblage of saints, and martyrs, and holy confessors: conspicuous among them we find the saints most popular in flanders and burgundy--st. adrian, st. george, st. sebastian, st. maurice, clad in coats of mail and crowned with laurel, with other kingly and warlike personages; st. philip, the patron of philip the good; st. andrew, in whose honour he instituted the order of the golden fleece: and a figure in a blue mantle with a ducal crown, one of the three kings of cologne, is supposed to represent duke philip himself. it is, impossible by any description to do justice to this wonderful picture, as remarkable for its elaborate workmanship, the mysticism of the conception, the quaint elegance of the details, and portrait-like reality of the faces, as that of angelico for its spiritual, tender, imaginative grace. there is a "coronation" by vivarini (acad. venice), which may be said to comprise in itself a whole system of theology. it is one vast composition, not divided by compartments. in the centre is a magnificent carved throne sustained by six pillars, which stand on a lofty richly ornamented pedestal. on the throne are seated christ and the virgin; he is crowned, and places with both hands a crown on her head. between them hovers the celestial dove, and above them is seen the heavenly father in likeness of "the ancient of days," who paternally lays a hand on the shoulder of each. around his head and over the throne, are the nine choirs of angels, in separate groups. first and nearest, hover the glowing seraphim and cherubim, winged, but otherwise formless. above these, the thrones, holding the globe of sovereignty; to the right, the dominations, virtues, and powers; to the left, the princedoms, archangels, and angels. below these, on each side of the throne, the prophets and patriarchs of the old testament, holding each a scroll. below these the apostles on twelve thrones, six on each side, each holding the gospel. below these, on each side, the saints and martyrs. below these, again, the virgins and holy women. under the throne, in the space formed by the pillars, is seen a group of beautiful children (not angels), representing, i think, the martyred innocents. they bear the instruments of christ's passion--the cross, nails, spear, crown of thorns, &c. on the step below the pedestal, and immediately in front, are seated the evangelists and doctors of the church; on the right st. matthew and st. luke, and behind them st. ambrose and st. augustine; on the left st. mark and st. john, and behind them st. jerome and st. gregory. (see "sacred and legendary art") every part of this curious picture is painted with the utmost care and delicacy: the children are exquisite, and the heads, of which there are at least seventy without counting the angels, are finished like miniatures. this simple, and altogether typical representation of the virgin crowned by the trinity in human form, is in a french carving of the fifteenth century, and though ill drawn, there is considerable naïveté in the treatment. the eternal father wears, as is usual, the triple tiara, the son has the cross and the crown of thorns, and the holy ghost is distinguished by the dove on his hand. all three sustain the crown over the head of the kneeling virgin, whose train is supported by two angels. in a bas-relief over a door of the cathedral at treves, the subject is very simply treated; both christ and the virgin are standing, which is unusual, and behind each is an angel, also standing and holding a crown. where not more than five or six saints are introduced as attendants and accessories, they are usually the patron saints of the locality or community, which may be readily distinguished. thus, . in a "coronation" by sandro botticelli, we find below, st. john the evangelist, st. augustine, st. john gualberto, st. bernardo cardinale. it was painted for the vallombrosian monks. (fl. gal.) . in a very fine example by ghirlandajo, st. dominick and st. peter martyr are conspicuous: painted, of course, for the dominicans. (paris, louvre.) . in another, by pinturicchio, st. francis is a principal figure, with st. bonaventura and st. louis of toulouse; painted for the franciscans, or at least for a franciscan pope, sixtus iv. (rome, vatican.) . in another, by guido, the treatment differs from the early style. the coronation above is small and seen as a vision; the saints below, st. bernard and st. catherine, are life-size. it was painted for a community of bernardines, the monks of monte oliveto. (bologna, gal.) . in a beautiful little altar-piece by lorenzo di credi[ ], the virgin is kneeling above, while christ, seated, places the crown on her head. a glory of red seraphim surround the two figures. below are the famous patron saints of central italy, st. nicholas of bari and st. julian of rimini, st. barbara and st. christina. the st. francis and st. antony, in the predella, show it to have been painted for a franciscan church or chapel, probably for the same church at cestello for which lorenzo painted the st. julian and st. nicholas now in the louvre. [footnote : once in the collection of mr. rogers; _v_. "sacred and legendary art."] the "coronation of the virgin" by annibale carracci is in a spirit altogether different, magnificently studied.[ ] on high, upon a lofty throne which extends across the whole picture from side to side, the virgin, a noble majestic creature, in the true carracci style, is seated in the midst as the principal figure, her hands folded on her bosom. on the right hand sits the father, on the left the son; they hold a heavenly crown surmounted by stars above her head. the locality is the empyreum. the audience consists of angels only, who circle within circle, filling the whole space, and melting into an abyss of light, chant hymns of rejoicing and touch celestial instruments of music. this picture shows how deeply annibale carracci had studied correggio, in the magical chiaro-oscuro, and the lofty but somewhat mannered grace of the figures. [footnote : this was also in the collection of mr. rogers.] one of the latest examples i can point to is also one of the most simple and grand in conception. (madrid gal.) it is that by velasquez, the finest perhaps of the very few devotional subjects painted by him. we have here the three figures only, as large as life, filling the region of glory, without angels, witnesses, or accessories of any kind, except the small cherubim beneath; and the symmetrical treatment gives to the whole a sort of sublime effect. but the heads have the air of portraits: christ has a dark, earnest, altogether spanish physiognomy; the virgin has dark hair; and the _padre eterno_, with a long beard, has a bald head,--a gross fault in taste and propriety; because, though the loose beard and flowing white hair may serve to typify the "ancient of days," baldness expresses not merely age, but the infirmity of age. rubens, also, painted a "coronation" with all his own lavish magnificence of style for the jesuits at brussels. after the time of velasquez and rubens, the "immaculate conception" superseded the "coronation." * * * * * to enter further into the endless variations of this charming and complex subject would lead us through all the schools of art from giotto to guido. i have said enough to render it intelligible and interesting, and must content myself with one or two closing _memoranda_. . the dress of the virgin in a "coronation" is generally splendid, too like the coronation robes of an earthly queen,--it is a "raiment of needlework,"--"a vesture of gold wrought about with divers colours"--generally blue, crimson, and white, adorned with gold, gems, and even ermine. in the "coronation" by filippo lippi, at spoleto, she wears a white robe embroidered with golden suns. in a beautiful little "coronation" in the wallerstein collection (kensington pal.) she wears a white robe embroidered with suns and moons, the former red with golden rays, the latter blue with coloured rays,--perhaps in allusion to the text so often applied in reference to her, "a woman clothed with the _sun_," &c. (rev. xii. , or cant. vi. .) . in the set of cartoons for the tapestries of the sistine chapel (kugler's handbook, ii. ), as originally prepared by raphael, we have the foundation, the heaven-bestowed powers, the trials and sufferings of the early church, exhibited in the calling of st. peter, the conversion of st. paul, the acts and miracles of the apostles, the martyrdom of st. stephen; and the series closed with the coronation of the virgin, placed over the altar, as typical of the final triumph of the church, the completion and fulfilment of all the promises made to man, set forth in the exaltation and union of the mortal with the immortal, when the human mother and her divine son are reunited and seated on the same throne. raphael placed on one side of the celestial group, st. john the baptist, representing sanctification through the rite of baptism; and on the other, st. jerome, the general symbol of sanctification through faith and repentance. the cartoon of this grand symbolical composition, in which all the figures were colossal, is unhappily lost; the tapestry is missing from the vatican collection; two old engravings, however, exist, from which some idea may be formed of the original group. (passavant's rafael, ii. .) . it will be interesting to remember that the earliest existing impression taken from an engraved metal plate, is a "coronation of the virgin." maso finiguerra, a skilful goldsmith and worker in niello, living at florence in , was employed to execute a pix (the small casket in which the consecrated wafer of the sacrament is deposited), and he decorated it with a representation of the coronation in presence of saints and angels, in all about thirty figures, minutely and exquisitely engraved on the silver face. whether finiguerra was the first worker in niello to whom it occurred to fill up the lines cut in the silver with a black fluid, and then by laying on it a piece of damp paper, and forcibly rubbing it, take off the fac-simile of his design and try its effect before the final process,--this we can not ascertain; we only know that the impression of his "coronation" is the earliest specimen known to exist, and gave rise to the practice of cutting designs on plates of copper (instead of silver), for the purpose of multiplying impressions of them. the pix finished by maso in is now in the florence gallery in the "salle des bronzes." the invaluable print, first of its species, exists in the national library at paris. there is a very exact fac-simile of it in otley's "history of engraving," christ and the virgin are here seated together on a lofty architectural throne: her hands are crossed on her bosom, and she bends her meek veiled head to receive the crown, which her son, who wears a triple tiara, places on her brow. the saints most conspicuous are st. john the baptist, patron of florence and of the church for which the pix was executed, and a female saint, i believe st. reparata, both standing; kneeling in front are st. cosmo and st. damian, the patrons of the medici family, then paramount at florence. (sacred and legendary art.) . in an illuminated "office of the virgin," i found a version of this subject which must be rare, and probably confined to miniatures. christ is seated on a throne and the virgin kneels before him; he bends forwards, and tenderly takes her clasped hands in both his own. an empty throne is at the right hand of christ, over which hovers an angel bearing a crown. this is the moment which _precedes_ the coronation, as the group already described in the s. maria-in-trastevere exhibits the moment which _follows_ the coronation. . finally, we must bear in mind that those effigies in which the madonna is holding her child, while angels place a crown upon her head, do not represent the coronation properly so called, but merely the virgin honoured as mother of christ and queen of heaven (_mater christi, regina coeli_); and that those representations of the coronation which conclude a series of the life of the virgin, and surmount her death-bed or her tomb, are historical and dramatic rather than devotional and typical. of this historical treatment there are beautiful examples from cimabue down to raphael, which will be noticed hereafter in their proper place. the virgin of mercy. our lady of succour. _ital._ la madonna di misericordia. _fr._ nôtre dame de miséricorde. _ger._ maria mutter des erbarmens. _sp._ nuestra señora de grazia. when once the virgin had been exalted and glorified in the celestial paradise, the next and the most natural result was, that she should be regarded as being in heaven the most powerful of intercessors, and on earth a most benign and ever-present protectress. in the mediæval idea of christ, there was often something stern; the lamb of god who died for the sins of the world, is also the inexorable judge of the quick and the dead. when he shows his wounds, it is as if a vindictive feeling was supposed to exist; as if he were called upon to remember in judgment the agonies and the degradation to which he had been exposed below for the sake of wicked ungrateful men. in a greek "day of judgment," cited by didron, moses holds up a scroll, on which is written, "behold him whom ye crucified," while the jews are dragged into everlasting fire. everywhere is the sentiment of vengeance; christ himself is less a judge than an avenger. not so the virgin; she is represented as all mercy, sympathy, and benignity. in some of the old pictures of the day of judgment, she is seated by the side of christ, on an equality with him, and often in an attitude of deprecation, as if adjuring him, to relent: or her eyes are turned on the redeemed souls, and she looks away from the condemned as if unable to endure the sight of their doom. in other pictures she is lower than christ, but always on his right hand, and generally seated; while st. john the baptist, who is usually placed opposite to her on the left of christ, invariably stands or kneels. instead of the baptist, it is sometimes, but rarely, john the evangelist, who is the pendant of the virgin. in the greek representations of the last judgment, a river of fire flows from under the throne of christ to devour and burn up the wicked.[ ] in western art the idea is less formidable,--christ is not at once judge and executioner; but the sentiment is always sufficiently terrible; "the angels and all the powers of heaven tremble before him." in the midst of these terrors, the virgin, whether kneeling, or seated, or standing, always appears as a gentle mediator, a, supplicant for mercy. in the "day of judgment," as represented in the "hortus deliciarum," [ ] we read inscribed under her figure the words "_maria, filio suo pro ecclesia supplicat_." in a very fine picture by martin schoen (schleissheim gal.), it is the father, who, with a sword and three javelins in his hand, sits as the avenging judge; near him christ; while the virgin stands in the foreground, looking up to her son with an expression of tender supplication, and interceding, as it appears, for the sinners kneeling round her, and whose imploring looks are directed to _her_. in the well-known fresco by andrea ortagna (pisa, campo santo), christ and the virgin sit throned above, each in a separate aureole, but equally glorified. christ, pointing with one hand to the wound in his side, raises the other in a threatening attitude, and his attention is directed to the wicked, whom he hurls into perdition. the virgin, with one hand pressed to her bosom, looks to him with an air of supplication. both figures are regally attired, and wear radiant crowns; and the twelve apostles attend them, seated on each side. [footnote : didron, "iconographie chrétienne;" and in the mosaic of the last judgment, executed by byzantine artists, in the cathedral at torcello.] [footnote : a celebrated illuminated ms. (date about to ), preserved in the library at strasburg.] * * * * * in the centre group of michael angelo's "last judgment," we have the same leading _motif_, but treated in a very different feeling. christ stands before us in figure and mien like a half-naked athlete; his left hand rejects, his right hand threatens, and his whole attitude is as utterly devoid of dignity as of grace. i have often wondered as i have looked at this grand and celebrated work, what could be michael angelo's idea of christ. he who was so good, so religious, so pure-minded, and so high-minded, was deficient in humility and sympathy; if his morals escaped, his imagination was corrupted by the profane and pagan influences of his time. his conception of christ is here most unchristian, and his conception of the virgin is not much better. she is grand in form, but the expression is too passive. she looks down and seems to shrink; but the significance of the attitude,--the hand pressed to the maternal bosom,--given to her by the old painters, is lost. in a "last judgment" by rubens, painted for the jesuits of brussels (brussels; musée), the virgin extends her robe over the world, as if to shield mankind from the wrath of her son; pointing, at the same time, significantly to her bosom, whence he derived his earthly life. the daring bad taste, and the dramatic power of this representation, are characteristic alike of the painter, the time, and the community for which the picture was painted. * * * * * more beautiful and more acceptable to our feelings are those graceful representations of the virgin as dispenser of mercy on earth; as protectress and patroness either of all christendom, or of some particular locality, country, or community. in such pictures she stands with outstretched arms, crowned with a diadem, or in some instances simply veiled, her ample robe, extended on each side, is held up by angels, while under its protecting folds are gathered worshippers and votaries of all ranks and ages--men, women, children,--kings, nobles, ecclesiastics,--the poor, the lame, the sick. or if the picture be less universal in its significance, dedicated perhaps by some religious order or charitable brotherhood, we see beneath her robe an assemblage of monks and nuns, or a troop of young orphans or redeemed prisoners. such a representation is styled a _misericordia_. in a picture by fra filippo lippi (berlin gal.), the madonna of mercy extends her protecting mantle over thirty-five kneeling figures, the faces like portraits, none elevated or beautiful, but the whole picture as an example of the subject most striking. a very beautiful and singular representation of the virgin of mercy without the child, i found in the collection of herr v. quandt, of dresden. she stands with hands folded over her bosom, and wrapped in ample white drapery, without ornament of any kind; over her head, a veil of transparent gauze of a brown colour, such as, from various portraits of the time, appears to have been then a fashion. the expression of the face is tender and contemplative, almost sad; and the whole figure, which is life-size, is inexpressibly refined and dignified. the following inscription is on the dark background to the right of the virgin:-- imago beatÆ mariÆ virginis quÆ mens. august. mdxxxiii. apparuit miraculor. operatione concursu pop. celeberrim. this beautiful picture was brought from brescia to vienna by a picture-dealer, and purchased by herr v. quandt. it was painted by moretto of brescia, of whom lanzi truly says that his sacred subjects express _la compunzione, la pietà, la carità istessa_; and this picture is an instance. but by whom dedicated, for what especial mercy, or in what church, i could not ascertain.[ ] [footnote : i possess a charming drawing of the head by fraulein louise seidler of weimar, whose feeling for early religious art is shown in her own works, as well as in the beautiful copies she has made of others.] * * * * * it is seldom that the madonna di misericordia appears without the child in her arms; her maternity is supposed to be one element in her sympathy with suffering humanity. i will add, however, to the examples already given, one very celebrated instance. the picture entitled the "misericordia di lucca" is famous in the history of art. (lucca. s. romano.) it is the most important work of fra bartolomeo, and is dated , two years before his death. the virgin, a grand and beautiful figure, stands alone on a raised platform, with her arms extended, and looking up to heaven. the ample folds of her robe are held open by two angels. beneath and round her feet are various groups in attitudes of supplication, who look up to her, as she looks up to heaven. on one side the donor of the picture is presented by st. dominick. above, in a glory, is the figure of christ surrounded by angels, and seeming to bend towards his mother. the expression in the heads, the dignified beneficence of the virgin, the dramatic feeling in the groups, particularly the women and children, justify the fame of this picture as one of the greatest of the productions of mind.[ ] [footnote : according to the account in murray's "handbook," this picture was dedicated by the noble family of montecanini, and represents the virgin interceding for the lucchesi during the wars with florence. but i confess i am doubtful of this interpretation, and rather think it refers to the pestilence, which, about , desolated the whole of the north of italy. wilkie, who saw this picture in , speaks of the workmanship with the enthusiasm of a workman.] * * * * * there is yet another version of this subject, which deserves notice from the fantastic grace of the conception. as in early christian art, our saviour was frequently portrayed as the good shepherd, so, among the later spanish fancies, we find his mother represented as the divine shepherdess. in a picture painted by alonzo miguel de tobar (madrid gal. ), about the beginning of the eighteenth century, we find the virgin mary seated under a tree, in guise of an arcadian pastorella, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, encircled by a glory, a crook in her hand, while she feeds her flock with the mystical roses. the beauty of expression in the head of the virgin is such as almost to redeem the quaintness of the religious conceit; the whole picture is described as worthy of murillo. it was painted for a franciscan church at madrid, and the idea became so popular, that we find it multiplied and varied in french and german prints of the last century; the original picture remains unequalled for its pensive poetical grace; but it must be allowed that the idea, which at first view strikes from its singularity, is worse than questionable in point of taste, and will hardly bear repetition. there are some ex-voto pictures of the madonna of mercy, which record individual acts of gratitude. one, for instance, by nicolò alunno (rome, pal. colonna), in which the virgin, a benign and dignified creature, stretches forth her sceptre from above, and rebukes the ugly fiend of sin, about to seize a boy. the mother kneels on one side, with eyes uplifted, in faith and trembling supplication. the same idea i have seen repeated in a picture by lanfranco. * * * * * the innumerable votive pictures which represent the madonna di misericordia with the child in her arms, i shall notice hereafter. they are in catholic countries the usual ornaments of charitable institutions and convents of the order of mercy; and have, as i cannot but think, a very touching significance. the mater dolorosa. _ital._ la madre di dolore. l' addolorata. _fr._ nôtre dame da pitié. la vierge de douleur. _sp_. nuestra señora de dolores _ger._ die schmerzhafte mutter. one of the most important of these devotional subjects proper to the madonna is the "mourning mother," the _mater dolorosa_, in which her character is that of the mother of the crucified redeemer; the mother of the atoning sacrifice; the queen of martyrs; the woman whose bosom was pierced with a sharp sword; through whose sorrow the world was saved, whose anguish was our joy, and to whom the roman catholic christians address their prayers as consoler of the afflicted, because she had herself tasted of the bitterest of all earthly sorrow, the pang of the agonized mother for the loss of her child. in this character we have three distinct representations of the madonna. mater dolorosa. in the first she appears alone, a seated or standing figure, often the head or half length only; the hands clasped, the head bowed in sorrow, tears streaming from the heavy eyes, and the whole expression intensely mournful. the features are properly those of a woman in middle age; but in later times the sentiment of beauty predominated over that of the mother's agony; and i have seen the sublime mater dolorosa transformed into a merely beautiful and youthful maiden, with such an air of sentimental grief as might serve for the loss of a sparrow. not so with the older heads; even those of the carracci and the spanish school have often a wonderful depth of feeling. it is common in such representations to represent the virgin with a sword in her bosom, and even with _seven_ swords in allusion to the _seven_ sorrows. this very material and palpable version of the allegorical prophecy (luke ii, ) has been found extremely effective as an appeal to the popular feelings, so that there are few roman catholic churches without such a painful and literal interpretation of the text. it occurs perpetually in prints, and there is a fine example after vandyck; sometimes the swords are placed round her head; but there is no instance of such a figure from the best period of religious art, and it must be considered as anything but artistic: in this case, the more materialized and the more matter of fact, the more _unreal_. * * * * * stabat mater. a second representation of the _madre di dolore_ is that figure of the virgin which, from the very earliest times, was placed on the right of the crucifix, st. john the evangelist being invariably on the left. i am speaking here of the _crucifix_ as a wholly ideal and mystical emblem of our faith in a crucified saviour; not of the _crucifixion_ as an event, in which the virgin is an actor and spectator, and is usually fainting in the arms of her attendants. in the ideal subject she is merely an ideal figure, at once the mother of christ, and the personified church. this, i think, is evident from those very ancient carvings, and examples in stained glass, in which the virgin, as the church, stands on one side of the cross, trampling on a female figure which personifies judaism or the synagogue. even when the allegory is less palpable, we feel that the treatment is wholly religious and poetical. the usual attitude of the _mater dolorosa_ by the crucifix is that of intense but resigned sorrow; the hands clasped, the head declined and shaded by a veil, the figure closely wrapped in a dark blue or violet mantle. in some instances a more generally religious and ideal cast is given to the figure; she stands with outspread arms, and looking up; not weeping, but in her still beautiful face a mingled expression of faith and anguish. this is the true conception of the sublime hymn, "stabat mater dolorosa juxta crucem lachrymosa dum pendebat filius." la pietÀ. the third, and it is the most important and most beautiful of all as far as the virgin is concerned, is the group called the pietÀ, which, when strictly devotional, consists only of the virgin with her dead son in her arms, or on her lap, or lying at her feet; in some instances with lamenting angels, but no other personages. this group has been varied in a thousand ways; no doubt the two most perfect conceptions are those of michael angelo and raphael; the first excelling in sublimity, the latter in pathos. the celebrated marble group by michael angelo stands in the vatican in a chapel to the right as we enter. the virgin is seated; the dead saviour lies across the knees of his mother; she looks down on him in mingled sorrow and resignation, but the majestic resignation predominates. the composition of raphael exists only as a print; but the flimsy paper, consecrated through its unspeakable beauty, is likely to be as lasting as the marble. it represents the virgin, standing with outstretched arms, and looking up with an appealing agonized expression towards heaven; before her, on the earth, lies extended the form of the saviour. in tenderness, dignity, simplicity, and tragic pathos, nothing can exceed this production; the head of the virgin in particular is regarded as a masterpiece, so far exceeding in delicacy of execution every other work of marc antonio, that some have thought that raphael himself took the burin from his hand, and touched himself that face of quiet woe. another example of wonderful beauty is the pietà by francia, in our national gallery. the form of christ lies extended before his mother; a lamenting angel sustains the head, another is at the feet: the virgin, with eyes red and heavy with weeping, looks out of the picture. there needs no visible sword in her bosom to tell what anguish has pierced that maternal heart. there is another pietà, by michael angelo, quite a different conception. the virgin sits at the foot of the cross; before her, and half-sustained by her knees, lies the form of the dead saviour, seen in front; his arms are held up by two angels (unwinged, as is usual with michael angelo). the virgin looks up to heaven with an appealing expression; and in one engraving of this composition the cross is inscribed with the words, "tu non pensi quanta sangue costa." there is no painting by michael angelo himself, but many copies and engravings of the drawing. a beautiful small copy, by marcello venusti, is in the queen's gallery. there is yet another version of the pietà, quite mystical and devotional in its significance,--but, to my feeling, more painful and material than poetical. it is variously treated; for example:-- . the dead redeemer is seen half-length within the tomb; his hands are extended to show his wounds; his eyes are closed, his head declined, his bleeding brow encircled by thorns. on one side is the virgin, on the other st. john the evangelist, in attitudes of profound grief and commiseration. . the dead form, half emerging from the tomb, is sustained in the arms of the mater dolorosa. st. john the evangelist on the other side. there are sometimes angels. the pietà thus conceived as a purely religious and ideal impersonation of the atoning sacrifice, is commonly placed over the altar of the sacrament, and in many altar-pieces it forms the centre of the predella, just in front where the mass is celebrated, or on the door of the tabernacle, where the host is deposited. when, with the mater dolorosa and st. john, mary magdalene is introduced with her dishevelled hair, the group ceases to be properly a pietà, and becomes a representation rather than a symbol. * * * * * there are also examples of a yet more complex but still perfectly ideal and devotional treatment, in which the mourning mother is attended by saints. a most celebrated instance of this treatment is the pietà by guido. (bologna gal.) in the upper part of the composition, the figure of the dead redeemer lies extended on a white shroud; behind him stands the virgin-mother, with her eyes raised to heaven, and sad appealing face, touched with so divine a sorrow--so much of dignity in the midst of infinite anguish, that i know nothing finer in its way. her hands are resignedly folded in each other, not raised, not clasped, but languidly drooping. an angel stands at the feet of christ looking on with a tender adoring commiseration; another, at his head, turns away weeping. a kind of curtain divides this group from the lower part of the picture, where, assembled on a platform, stand or kneel the guardian saints of bologna: in the centre, the benevolent st. charles borromeo, who just about that time had been canonized and added to the list of the patrons of bologna by a decree of the senate; on the right, st. dominick and st. petronius; on the left, st. proculus and st. francis. these sainted personages look up as if adjuring the virgin, even by her own deep anguish, to intercede for the city; she is here at once our lady of pity, of succour, and of sorrow. this wonderful picture was dedicated, as an act of penance and piety, by the magistrates of bologna, in , and placed in their chapel in the church of the "mendicanti," otherwise s. maria-della-pietà. it hung there for two centuries, for the consolation of the afflicted; it is now placed in the academy of bologna for the admiration of connoisseurs. our lady of the immaculate conception. _ital._ la madonna purissima. _lat._ regina sine labe originali concepta. _spa._ nuestra señora sin peccado concepida. la concepcion. _fr._ la conception de la vierge marie. _ger._ das geheimniss der unbefleckten empfängniss mariä. dec. . the last and the latest subject in which the virgin appears alone without the child, is that entitled the "immaculate conception of the blessed virgin;" and sometimes merely "the conception." there is no instance of its treatment in the earlier schools of art; but as one of the most popular subjects of the italian and spanish painters of the seventeenth century, and one very frequently misunderstood, it is necessary to go into the history of its origin. in the early ages of christianity, it was usual to celebrate, as festivals of the church, the conception of jesus christ, and the conception of his kinsman and precursor john the baptist; the latter as miraculous, the former as being at once divine and miraculous. in the eleventh century it was proposed to celebrate the conception of the virgin mother of the redeemer. from the time that the heresy of nestorius had been condemned, and that the dignity of the virgin as mother of the _divinity_ had become a point of doctrine, it was not enough to advocate her excelling virtue and stainless purity as a mere human being. it was contended, that having been predestined from the beginning as the woman, through whom the divine nature was made manifest on earth, she must be presumed to be exempt from all sin, even from that original taint inherited from adam. through the first eve, we had all died; through the second eve, we had all been "made alive." it was argued that god had never suffered his earthly temple to be profaned; had even promulgated in person severe ordinances to preserve its sanctuary inviolate. how much more to him was that temple, that _tabernacle_ built by no human hands, in which he had condescended to dwell. nothing was impossible to god; it lay, therefore, in his power to cause his mother to come absolutely pure and immaculate into the world: being in his power, could any earnest worshipper of the virgin doubt for a moment that for one so favoured it would not be done? such was the reasoning of our forefathers; and the premises granted, who shall call it illogical or irreverent? for three or four centuries, from the seventh to the eleventh, these ideas had been gaining ground. st. ildefonso of seville distinguished himself by his writings on this subject; and how the virgin recompensed his zeal, murillo has shown us, and i have related in the life of that saint. (legends of the monastic orders.) but the first mention of a festival, or solemn celebration of the mystery of the immaculate conception, may be traced to an english monk of the eleventh century, whose name is not recorded, (v. baillet, vol. xii.) when, however, it was proposed to give the papal sanction to this doctrine as an article of belief, and to institute a church office for the purpose of celebrating the conception of mary, there arose strong opposition. what is singular, st. bernard, so celebrated for his enthusiastic devotion to the virgin, was most strenuous and eloquent in his disapprobation. he pronounced no judgment against those who received the doctrine of the immaculate conception, he rather leaned towards it; but he opposed the institution of the festival as an innovation not countenanced by the early fathers of the church. after the death of st. bernard, for about a hundred years, the dispute slept; but the doctrine gained ground. the thirteenth century, so remarkable for the manifestation of religious enthusiasm in all its forms, beheld the revival of this celebrated controversy. a certain franciscan friar, duns scotus (john scott of dunse), entered the lists as champion for the virgin. he was opposed by the dominicans and their celebrated polemic thomas aquinas, who, like st. bernard, was known for his enthusiastic reverence for the virgin; but, like him, and on the same grounds, objected to the introduction of new forms. thus the theological schools were divided. during the next two hundred years the belief became more and more general, the doctrine more and more popular; still the church, while it tolerated both, refused to ratify either. all this time we find no particular representation of the favourite dogma in art, for until ratified by the authority of the church, it could not properly enter into ecclesiastical decoration. we find, however, that the growing belief in the pure conception and miraculous sanctification of the virgin multiplied the representations of her coronation and glorification, as the only permitted expression of the popular enthusiasm on this point. for the powerful order of the franciscans, who were at this time and for a century afterwards the most ardent champions of the immaculate conception, were painted most of the pictures of the coronation produced during the fourteenth century. the first papal decree touching the "immaculate conception" as an article of faith, was promulgated in the reign of sixtus iv., who had been a franciscan friar, and he took the earliest opportunity of giving the solemn sanction of the church to what had ever been the favourite dogma of his order; but the celebration of the festival, never actually forbidden, had by this time become so usual, that the papal ordinance merely sanctioned without however rendering it obligatory. an office was composed for the festival, and in the sorbonne declared in favour of it still it remained a point of dispute; still there were dissentient voices, principally among the dominican theologians; and from to we find this controversy occupying the pens of the ecclesiastics, and exciting the interest and the imagination of the people. in spain the "immaculate conception of the virgin," owing perhaps to the popularity and power of the franciscans in that country, had long been "the darling dogma of the spanish church." villegas, in the "flos sanctorum," while admitting the modern origin of the opinion, and the silence of the church, contended that, had this great fact been made manifest earlier and in less enlightened times, it might possibly have led to the error of worshipping the virgin as an actual goddess. (stirling's artists of spain, p. .) to those who are conversant with spanish theology and art, it may seem that the distinction drawn in theory is not very definite or perceptible in practice. at length, in july, , paul v. formally instituted the office commemorating the immaculate conception, and in issued a bull forbidding any one to teach or preach a contrary opinion. "on the publication of this bull, seville flew into a frenzy of religious joy." the archbishop performed a solemn service in the cathedral. cannon roared, and bull fights, tournaments, and banquets celebrated this triumph of the votaries of the virgin. spain and its dependencies were solemnly placed under the protection of the "immaculate conception," thus personifying an abstract idea; and to this day, a spaniard salutes his neighbour with the angelic "ave maria purissima!" and he responds "sin peccado concepida!"[ ] [footnote : in our own days we have seen this curious controversy revived. one of the latest, if not the last, writer on the subject was cardinal lambruschini; and the last papal ordinance was promulgated by pio mono, and dated from gaeta, .] * * * * * i cannot find the date of the earliest picture of the immaculate conception; but the first writer on the art who makes allusion to the subject, and lays down specific rules from ecclesiastical authority for its proper treatment, is the spaniard pacheco, who must have been about forty years of age when the bull was published at seville in . it is soon after this time that we first hear of pictures of the immaculate conception. pacheco subsequently became a familiar of the inquisition, and wielded the authority of the holy office as inspector of sacred pictures; and in his "arte de la pintura," published in , he laid down those rules for the representation which had been generally, though not always, exactly followed. it is evident that the idea is taken from the woman in the apocalypse, "clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." the virgin is to be portrayed in the first spring and bloom of youth as a maiden of about twelve or thirteen years of age; with "grave sweet eyes;" her hair golden; her features "with all the beauty painting can express;" her hands are to be folded on her bosom or joined in prayer. the sun is to be expressed by a flood of light around her. the moon under her feet is to have the horns pointing downwards, because illuminated from above, and the twelve stars are to form a crown over her head. the robe must be of spotless white; the mantle or scarf blue. round her are to hover cherubim bearing roses, palms, and lilies; the head of the bruised and vanquished dragon is to be under her feet. she ought to have the cord of st. francis as a girdle, because in this guise she appeared to beatriz de silva, a noble franciscan nun, who was favoured by a celestial vision of the madonna in her beatitude. perhaps the good services of the franciscans as champions of the immaculate conception procured them the honour of being thus commemorated. all these accessories are not absolutely and rigidly required; and murillo, who is entitled _par excellence_ the painter of the conception, sometimes departed from the letter of the law without being considered as less orthodox. with him the crescent moon, is sometimes the full moon, or when a crescent the horns point upwards instead of downwards. he usually omits the starry crown, and, in spite of his predilection for the capuchin order, the cord of st. francis is in most instances dispensed with. he is exact with regard to the colours of the drapery, but not always in the colour of the hair. on the other hand, the beauty and expression of the face and attitude, the mingled loveliness, dignity, and purity, are given with exquisite feeling; and we are never, as in his other representations of the madonna, reminded of commonplace homely, often peasant, portraiture; here all is spotless grace, ethereal delicacy, benignity, refinement, repose,--the very apotheosis of womanhood. i must go back to observe, that previous to the promulgation of the famous bull of pope paul v., the popular ideas concerning the immaculate conception had left their impress on art. before the subject had taken an express and authorized form, we find pictures which, if they do not represent it, relate to it, i remember two which cannot be otherwise interpreted, and there are probably others. the first is a curious picture of the early florentine school. (berlin gal.) in the centre is original sin, represented by eve and the serpent; on the right stand st. ambrose, st. hilarius, st. anselm, and st. bernard; on the left st. cyril, origen, st. augustine, and st. cyprian; and below are inscribed passages from the writings of these fathers relating to the immaculate conception of the virgin: all of them had given to her in their works the title of immaculate, most pure; but they differed as to the period of her sanctification, as to whether it was in the moment of conception or at the moment of birth. the other picture is in the dresden gallery, and one of the finest productions of that extraordinary ferrarese painter dosso dossi. in the lower part of the picture are the four latin fathers, turning over their great books, or in deep meditation; behind them, the franciscan bernardino of siena. above, in a glory of light, the virgin, clothed, not in spotless white, but a richly embroidered regal mantle, "wrought about with divers colours," kneels at the feet of the almighty, who extends his hand in benediction. i find no account in the catalogue whence this picture was taken, but it was evidently painted for the franciscans. * * * * * in , when the bull of paul v. was formally expedited, guido was attached to the papal court in quality of painter and an especial favourite with his holiness. among the earliest accredited pictures of the immaculate conception, are four of his finest works. . the cupola of the private chapel of the quirinal represents the almighty meditating the great miracle of the immaculate conception, and near him, within the same glory of light, is the virgin in her white tunic, and in an attitude of adoration. this was painted about or , when pope paul v. was meditating the promulgation of his famous ordinance. . the great picture, also painted for paul v., represents the doctors of the church arguing and consulting their great books for the authorities on the subject of the conception.[ ] above, the virgin is seated in glory, arrayed in spotless white, her hands crossed over her bosom, and her eyes turned towards the celestial fountain of light. below are six doctors, consulting their books; they are not well characterized, being merely so many ideal heads in a mannered style; but i believe they represent the four latin fathers, with st. john damascene and st. ildefonso, who were especial defenders of the doctrine. [footnote : petersburg imp. gal. there is a fine engraving.] . the next in point of date was painted for the infanta of spain, which i believe to be the same now in the possession of lord ellesmere. the figure of the virgin, crowned with the twelve stars, and relieved from a background of golden light, is standing on a crescent sustained by three cherubs beneath; she seems to float between heaven and earth; on either side is a seraph, with hands folded and looks upraised in adoration. the whole painted in his silvery tone, with such an extreme delicacy and transparency of effect, that it might be styled "a vision of the immaculate conception." . the fourth was painted for the chapel of the immaculate conception, in the church of san biagio, at forli, and is there still. * * * * * just as the italian schools of painting were on the decline, the spanish school of art arose in all its glory, and the "conception" became, from the popularity of the dogma, not merely an ecclesiastical, but a popular subject. not only every church, but almost every private house, contained the effigy either painted or carved, or both, of our lady "_sin peccado concepida_;" and when the academy of painting was founded at seville, in , every candidate for admission had to declare his orthodox belief in _the most pure conception of our lady_. the finest spanish "conception" before the time of murillo, is by roelas, who died in ; it is in the academy at seville, and is mentioned by mr. ford as "equal to guido."[ ] [footnote : handbook of spain. a very fine picture of this subject, by roelas, was sold out of the soult collection.] one of the most beautiful and characteristic, as well as earliest, examples of this subject i have seen, is a picture in the esterhazy gallery at vienna. the virgin is in the first bloom of girlhood; she looks not more than nine or ten years old, with dark hair, spanish features, and a charming expression of childlike simplicity and devotion. she stands amid clouds, with her hands joined, and the proper white and blue drapery: there are no accessories. this picture is attributed to an obscure painter, lazaro tavarone, of whom i can learn nothing more than that he was employed in the escurial about . the beautiful small "conception" by velasquez, in the possession of mr. frere, is a departure from the rules laid down by pacheco in regard to costume; therefore, as i presume, painted before he entered the studio of the artist-inquisitor, whose son-in-law he became before he was three and twenty. here the virgin is arrayed in a pale violet robe, with a dark blue mantle. her hands are joined, and she looks down. the solemnity and depth of expression in the sweet girlish face is very striking; the more so, that it is not a beautiful face, and has the air of a portrait. her long hair flows over her shoulders. the figure is relieved against a bright sun, with fleecy clouds around; and the twelve stars are over her head. she stands on the round moon, of which the upper half is illumined. below, on earth, and through the deep shadow, are seen several of the emblems of the virgin--the fountain, the temple, the olive, the cypress, and the garden enclosed in a treillage of roses.[ ] this picture is very remarkable; it is in the earliest manner of velasquez, painted in the bold free style of his first master, herrara, whose school he quitted when he was about seventeen or eighteen, just at the period when the pope's ordinance was proclaimed at seville. [footnote : v. introduction: "the symbols and attributes of the virgin."] * * * * * of twenty-five pictures of this subject, painted by murillo, there are not two exactly alike; and they are of all sizes, from the colossal figure called the "great conception of seville," to the exquisite miniature representation in the possession of lord overston, not more than fifteen inches in height. lord lansdowne has also a beautiful small "conception," very simply treated. in those which have dark hair, murillo is said to have taken his daughter francisca as a model. the number of attendant angels varies from one or two, to thirty. they bear the palm, the olive, the rose, the lily, the mirror; sometimes a sceptre and crown. i remember but few instances in which he has introduced the dragon-fiend, an omission which pacheco is willing to forgive; "for," as he observes, "no man ever painted the devil with good-will." in the louvre picture (no. ), the virgin is adored by three ecclesiastics. in another example, quoted by mr. stirling (artists of spain, p. ), a friar is seen writing at her feet: this figure probably represents her champion, the friar duns scotus. there is at hampton court a picture, by spagnoletto, of this same duns scotus writing his defence of the immaculate conception. spagnoletto was painting at naples, when, in , "the viceroy solemnly swore, in presence of the assembled multitude, to defend with his life the doctrine of the immaculate conception;" and this picture, curious and striking in its way, was painted about the same time. * * * * * in italy, the decline of art in the seventeenth century is nowhere more apparent, nor more offensive, than in this subject. a finished example of the most execrable taste is the mosaic in st. peter's, after pietro bianchi. there exists, somewhere, a picture of the conception, by le brun, in which the virgin has no other drapery than a thin, transparent gauze, and has the air of a venus meretrix. in some old french prints, the virgin is surrounded by a number of angels, defending her with shield and buckler against demons who are taking aim at her with fiery arrows. such, and even worse, vagaries and perversities, are to be found in the innumerable pictures of this favourite subject, which inundated the churches between and . of these i shall say no more. the pictures of guido and murillo, and the carved figures of alonzo cano, montanez, and hernandez, may be regarded as authorized effigies of "our lady of the most pure conception;" in other words, as embodying, in the most attractive, decorous, and intelligible form, an abstract theological dogma, which is in itself one of the most curious, and, in its results, one of the most important of the religions phenomena connected with the artistic representations of the virgin.[ ] [footnote : we often find on pictures and prints of the immaculate conception, certain scriptural texts which the theologians of the roman church have applied to the blessed virgin; for instance, from ps. xliv. _omnis gloria ejus filiæ regis ab intus_--"the king's daughter is all glorious within;" or from the canticles, iv. , _tota pulchra es amica mea, et macula non est in te_,--"thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee." i have also seen the texts, ps. xxii. , and prov. viii. , , xxxi. , thus applied, as well as other passages from the very poetical office of the virgin _in festo immaculatæ conceptionis_.] we must be careful to discriminate between the conception, so styled by ecclesiastical authority, and that singular and mystical representation which is sometimes called the "predestination of mary," and sometimes the "litanies of the virgin." collectors and writers on art must bear in mind, that the former, as a subject, dates only from the beginning of the seventeenth century, the latter from the beginning of the sixteenth. although, as representations, so very similar, yet the intention and meaning are different. in the conception it is the sinless virgin in her personal character, who is held up to reverence, as the purest, wisest, holiest, of created beings. the earlier theme involves a yet more recondite signification. it is, undoubtedly, to be regarded as an attempt on the part of the artist to express, in a visible form, the idea or promise of the redemption of the human race, as existing in the sovereign mind before the beginning of things. they do not personify this idea under the image of christ,--for they conceived that, as the second person of the trinity, he could not be his own instrument,--but by the image of mary surrounded by those attributes which were afterwards introduced into the pictures of the conception: or setting her foot, as second eve, on the head of the prostrate serpent. not seldom, in a series of subjects from the old testament, the _pendant_ to eve holding the apple is mary crushing the head of the fiend; and thus the "bane and antidote are both before us." this is the proper interpretation of those effigies, so prevalent in every form of art during the sixteenth century, and which are often, but erroneously, styled the immaculate conception. the numerous heads of the virgin which proceeded from the later schools of italy and spain, wherein she appears neither veiled nor crowned, but very young, and with flowing hair and white vesture, are intended to embody the popular idea of the _madonna purissima_, of "the virgin most pure, conceived without sin," in an abridged form. there is one by murillo, in the collection of mr. holford; and another by guido, which will give an idea of the treatment. before quitting the subject of the immaculate conception. i must refer to a very curious picture[ ] called an assumption, but certainly painted at least one hundred years before the immaculate conception was authorized as a church subject. [footnote : once in the collection of mr. solly, and now in the possession of mr. bromley of wootten.] from the year , when sixtus iv. promulgated his bull, and the sorbonne put forth their famous decree,--at a time when there was less of faith and religious feeling in italy than ever before,--this abstract dogma became a sort of watchword with theological disputants; not ecclesiastics only, the literati and the reigning powers took an interest in the controversy, and were arrayed on one side or the other. the borgias, for instance, were opposed to it. just at this period, the singular picture i allude to was painted by girolamo da cotignola. it is mentioned by lanzi, but his account of it is not quite correct. above, in glory, is seen the _padre eterno_, surrounded by cherubim bearing a scroll, on which is inscribed, "_non enim pro te sed pro omnibus hec lex constitutura est._"[ ] lower down the virgin stands on clouds, with hands joined, and attired in a white tunic embroidered with gold, a blue mantle lined with red, and, which is quite singular and unorthodox, _black shoes_. below, on the earth, and to the right, stands a bishop without a glory, holding a scroll, on which is inscribed, "_non puto verè esse amatorem virginis qui respuit celebrare festum suæ conceptionis_;" on the left is st. jerome. in the centre are three kneeling figures: on one side st. catherine (or perhaps caterina sforza in the character of st. catherine, for the head looks like a portrait); on the other an elderly woman, ginevra tiepolo, widow of giovanni sforza, last prince of pesaro; [ ] between them the little costanzo sforza, looking up with a charming devout expression. [ ] underneath is inscribed, "junipera sfostia patria a marito recepta. exvoto mcccccxii." giovanni sforza had been dispossessed of his dominions by the borgias, after his divorce from lucrezia, and died in . the borgias ceased to reign in ; and ginevra, apparently restored to her country, dedicated this picture, at once a memorial of her gratitude and of her faith. it remained over the high-altar of the church of the serviti, at pesaro, till acquired by mr. solly, from whom it was purchased by mr. bromley. [ ] [footnote : from the office of the blessed virgin.] [footnote : this giovanni was the first husband of lucrezia borgia.] [footnote : lanzi calls this child costanzo ii., prince of pesaro. very interesting memoirs of all the personages here referred to may be found in mr. dennistoun's "dukes of urbino."] [footnote : girolamo marchesi da cotignola, was a painter of the francia school, whose works date from about to . those of his pictures which i have seen are of very unequal merit, and, with much feeling and expression in the heads, are often mannered and fantastic as compositions. this agrees with what vasari says, that his excellence lay in portraiture, for which reason he was summoned, after the battle of ravenna, to paint the portrait of caston de foix, as he lay dead. (see vasari, _vita di bagnacavallo_; and in the english trans., vol. iii. .) the picture above described, which has a sort of historical interest, is perhaps the same mentioned in murray's handbook (central italy, p. .) as an _enthroned_ madonna, dated , and as being in in its original place over the altar in the serviti at pesaro; if so, it is there no longer.] devotional subjects. part ii. the virgin and child. . la vergine madre di dio. . la ma dre amabile. the virgin and child enthroned. _lat._ sancta dei genitrix. virgo deipara. _ital._ la santissima vergine, madre di dio. _fr._ la sainte vierge, mère de dieu. _ger._ die heilige mutter gottes. the virgin in her maternal character opens upon us so wide a field of illustration, that i scarce know where to begin or how to find my way, amid the crowd of associations which press upon me. a mother holding her child in her arms is no very complex subject; but like a very simple air constructed on a few expressive notes, which, when harmonized, is susceptible of a thousand modulations, and variations, and accompaniments, while the original _motif_ never loses its power to speak to the heart; so it is with the madonna and child;--a subject so consecrated by its antiquity, so hallowed by its profound significance, so endeared by its associations with the softest and deepest of our human sympathies, that the mind has never wearied of its repetition, nor the eye become satiated with its beauty. those who refuse to give it the honour due to a religious representation, yet regard it with a tender half-unwilling homage; and when the glorified type of what is purest, loftiest, holiest in womanhood, stands before us, arrayed in all the majesty and beauty that accomplished art, inspired by faith and love, could lend her, and bearing her divine son, rather enthroned than sustained on her maternal bosom, "we look, and the heart is in heaven!" and it is difficult, very difficult, to refrain from an _ora pro nobis_. but before we attempt to classify these lovely and popular effigies, in all their infinite variety, from the enthroned grandeur of the queen of heaven, the sancta dei genitrix, down to the peasant mother, swaddling or suckling her infant; or to interpret the innumerable shades of significance conveyed by the attendant accessories, we must endeavour to trace the representation itself to its origin. this is difficult. there exists no proof, i believe, that the effigies of the virgin with the infant christ in her arms, which existed before the end of the fifth century, were placed before christian worshippers as objects of veneration. they appear to have been merely groups representing a particular incident of the new testament, namely, the adoration of the magi; for i find no other in which the mother is seated with the infant christ, and this is an historical subject of which we shall have to speak hereafter. from the beginning of the fourth century, that is, from the time of constantine and the condemnation of arius, the popular reverence for the virgin, the mother of christ, had been gaining ground; and at the same time the introduction of images and pictures into the places of worship and into the houses of christians, as ornaments on glass vessels and even embroidered on garments and curtains, became more and more diffused, (v. neander's church history.) the earliest effigies of the virgin and child may be traced to alexandria, and to egyptian influences; and it is as easily conceivable that the time-consecrated egyptian myth of isis and horus may have suggested the original type, the outward form and the arrangement of the maternal group, as that the classical greek types of the orpheus and apollo should have furnished the early symbols of the redeemer as the good shepherd; a fact which does not rest upon supposition, but of which the proofs remain to us in the antique christian sculptures and the paintings in the catacombs. the most ancient greek figures of the virgin and child have perished; but, as far as i can learn, there is no evidence that these effigies were recognized by the church as sacred before the beginning of the sixth century. it was the nestorian schism which first gave to the group of the mother bearing her divine son that religious importance and significance which it has ever since retained in catholic countries. the divinity of christ and his miraculous conception, once established as articles of belief, naturally imparted to mary, his mother, a dignity beyond that of other mothers her son was god; therefore the title of mother of god was assigned to her. when or by whom first brought into use, does not appear; but about the year it became a popular designation. nestorias, patriarch of constantinople in , had begun by persecuting the arians; but while he insisted that in jesus were combined two persons and two natures, he insisted that the virgin mary was the mother of christ considered as _man_, but not the mother of christ considered as _god_; and that, consequently, all those who gave her the title of _dei genitrix_, _deipara_,[ ] were in error. there were many who adopted these opinions, but by a large portion of the church they were repudiated with horror, as utterly subverting the doctrine of the mystery of the incarnation. cyril of alexandria opposed nestorius and his followers, and defended with zealous enthusiasm the claims of the virgin to all the reverence and worship due to her; for, as he argued, the two natures being one and indivisible from the moment of the miraculous conception, it followed that mary did indeed bring forth god,--was, in fact, the mother of god; and, all who took away from her this dignity and title were in error, and to be condemned as heretics. [footnote : the inscription on the greek and byzantine pictures is actually [greek: maer thu] ([greek: mhaetaer theos]).] i hope i shall not be considered irreverent in thus plainly and simply stating the grounds of this celebrated schism, with reference to its influence on art; an influence incalculable, not only at the time, but ever since that time; of which the manifold results, traced from century to century down to the present hour, would remain quite unintelligible, unless we clearly understood the origin and the issue of the controversy. cyril, who was as enthusiastic and indomitable as nestorius, and had the advantage of taking the positive against the negative side of the question, anathematized the doctrines of his opponent, in a synod held at alexandria in , to which pope celestine ii gave the sanction of his authority. the emperor theodosius ii then called a general council at ephesus in , before which nestorius refused to appear, and was deposed from his dignity of patriarch by the suffrages of bishops. but this did not put an end to the controversy; the streets of ephesus were disturbed by the brawls and the pavement of the cathedral was literally stained with the blood of the contending parties theodosius arrested both the patriarchs; but after the lapse of only a few days, cyril triumphed over his adversary: with him triumphed the cause of the virgin. nestorius was deposed and exiled; his writings condemned to the flames; but still the opinions he had advocated were adopted by numbers, who were regarded as heretics by those who called themselves "the catholic church." the long continuance of this controversy, the obstinacy of the nestorians, the passionate zeal of those who held the opposite doctrines, and their ultimate triumph when the western churches of rome and carthage declared in their favour, all tended to multiply and disseminate far and wide throughout christendom those images of the virgin which exhibited her as mother of the godhead. at length the ecclesiastical authorities, headed by pope gregory the great, stamped them as orthodox: and as the cross had been the primeval symbol which distinguished the christian from the pagan, so the image of the virgin mother with her child now became the symbol which distinguished the catholic christian from the nestorian dissenter. thus it appears that if the first religious representations of the virgin and child were not a consequence of the nestorian schism, yet the consecration of such effigies as the visible form of a theological dogma to the purposes of worship and ecclesiastical decoration must date from the council of ephesus in ; and their popularity and general diffusion throughout the western churches, from the pontificate of gregory in the beginning of the seventh century. in the most ancient of these effigies which remain, we have clearly only a symbol; a half figure, veiled, with hands outspread, and the half figure of a child placed against her bosom, without any sentiment, without even the action of sustaining him. such was the formal but quite intelligible sign; but it soon became more, it became a representation. as it was in the east that the cause of the virgin first triumphed, we might naturally expect to find the earliest examples in the old greek churches; but these must have perished in the furious onslaught made by the iconoclasts on all the sacred images. the controversy between the image-worshippers and the image-breakers, which distracted the east for more than a century (that is, from to ), did not, however, extend to the west of europe. we find the primeval byzantine type, or at least the exact reproduction of it, in the most ancient western churches, and preserved to us in the mosaics of rome, ravenna, and capua. these remains are nearly all of the same date, much later than the single figures of christ as redeemer, and belonging unfortunately to a lower period and style of art. the true significance of the representation is not, however, left doubtful; for all the earliest traditions and inscriptions are in this agreed, that such effigies were intended as a confession of faith; an acknowledgment of the dignity of the virgin mary, as the "sancta dei genitrix;" as a visible refutation of "the infamous, iniquitous, and sacrilegious doctrines of nestorius the heresiarch."[ ] [footnote : _mostrando quod ipsa deipara esset contra impiam nestorii heresium quam talem esse iste heresiareo negabat_ vide ciampini, and munter's "sinnbilder."] * * * * * as these ancient mosaic figures of the virgin, enthroned with her infant son, were the precursors and models of all that was afterwards conceived and executed in art, we must examine them in detail before proceeding further. the mosaic of the cathedral of capua represents in the highest place the half figure of christ in the act of benediction. in one of the spandrels, to the right, is the prophet isaiah, bearing a scroll, on which is inscribed, _ecce dominus in fortitudine veniet, et brachium ejus dominibatur_,--"the lord god will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him." (isaiah, ch. xl. v. .) on the left stands jeremiah, also with a scroll and the words, _fortissime, magne, et patens dominus exercituum nomen tibi_,--"the great, the mighty god, the lord of hosts is his name." (jeremiah, ch. xxxii. v. .) in the centre of the vault beneath, the virgin is seated on a rich throne, a footstool under her feet; she wears a crown over her veil. christ, seated on her knee, and clothed, holds a cross in his left hand; the right is raised is benediction. on one side of the throne stand st. peter and st. stephen; on the other st. paul and st. agatha, to whom the church is dedicated. the greek monogram of the virgin is inscribed below the throne. the next in date which remains visible, is the group in the apsis of s. maria-della-navicella (rome), executed about , in the time of paschal i, a pontiff who was very remarkable for the zeal with which he rebuilt and adorned the then half-ruined churches of rome. the virgin, of colossal size, is seated on a throne; her robe and veil are blue; the infant christ, in a gold-coloured vest, is seated in her lap, and raises his hand to bless the worshippers. on each side of the virgin is a group of adoring angels; at her feet kneels the diminutive figure of pope paschal. in the santa maria-nova (called also, "santa francesca," rome), the virgin is seated on a throne wearing a rich crown, as queen of heaven. the infant christ stands upon her knee; she has one hand on her bosom and sustains him with the other. on the façade of the portico of the s. maria-in-trastevere at rome, the virgin is enthroned, and crowned, and giving her breast to the child. this mosaic is of later date than that in the apsis, but is one of the oldest examples of a representation which was evidently directed against the heretical doubts of the nestorians: "how," said they, pleading before the council of ephesus, "can we call him god who is only two or three months old; or suppose the logos to have been _suckled_ and to increase in wisdom?" the virgin in the act of suckling her child, is a _motif_ often since repeated when the original significance was forgotten. in the chapel of san zeno (rome), the virgin is enthroned; the child is seated on her knee. he holds a scroll, on which are the words _ego sum lux mundi_, "i am the light of the world;" the right hand is raised in benediction. above is the monogram [greek: m-r thu], maria mater dei. in the mosaics, from the eighth to the eleventh century, we find art at a very low ebb. the background is flat gold, not a blue heaves with its golden stars, as in the early mosaics of the fifth and sixth centuries. the figures are ill-proportioned; the faces consist of lines without any attempt at form or expression. the draperies, however, have a certain amplitude; "and the character of a few accessories, for example, the crown on the virgin's heads instead of the invariable byzantine veil, betrays," says kugler, "a northern and probably a frankish influence." the attendant saints, generally st. peter and st. paul, stand, stiff and upright on each side. but with all their faults, these grand, formal, significant groups--or rather not groups, for there was as yet no attempt either at grouping or variety of action, for that would have been considered irreverent--but these rows of figures, were the models of the early italian painters and mosaic-workers in their large architectural mosaics and altar-pieces set up in the churches during the revival of art, from the period of cimabue and andrea tafi down to the latter half of the thirteenth century: all partook of this lifeless, motionless character, and were, at the same time, touched with the same solemn religious feeling. and long afterwards, when the arrangement became less formal and conventional, their influence may still be traced in those noble enthroned madonnas, which represent the virgin as queen of heaven and of angels, either alone, or with attendant saints, and martyrs, and venerable confessors waiting round her state. the general disposition of the two figures varies but little in the earliest examples which exist for us in painting, and which are, in fact, very much alike. the madonna seated on a throne, wearing a red tunic and a blue mantle, part of which is drawn as a veil over her head, holds the infant christ, clothed in a red or blue tunic. she looks straight out of the picture with her head a little declined to one side. christ has the right hand raised in benediction, and the other extended. such were the simple, majestic, and decorous effigies, the legitimate successors of the old architectural mosaics, and usually placed over the high altar of a church or chapel. the earliest examples which have been preserved are for that reason celebrated in the history of art. the first is the enthroned virgin of guido da siena, who preceded cimabue by twenty or thirty years. in this picture, the byzantine conception and style of execution are adhered to, yet with a softened sentiment, a touch of more natural, life-like feeling, particularly in the head of the child. the expression in the face of the virgin struck me as very gentle and attractive; but it has been, i am afraid, retouched, so that we cannot be quite sure that we have the original features. fortunately guido has placed a date on his work, mccxxi., and also inscribed on it a distich, which shows that he felt, with some consciousness and self-complacency, his superiority to his byzantine models;-- "me guido de senis diebus depinxit amoenis quem christus lenis nullis velit angere poenis."[ ] next we may refer to the two colossal madonnas by cimabue, preserved at florence. the first, which was painted for the vallombrosian monks of the s. trinità, is now in the gallery of the academy. it has all the stiffness and coldness of the byzantine manner. there are three adoring angels on each side, disposed one above another, and four prophets are placed below in separate niches, half figures, holding in their hands their prophetic scrolls, as in the old mosaic at capua, already described. the second is preserved in the ruccellai chapel, in the s. maria novella, in its original place. in spite of its colossal size, and formal attitude, and severe style, the face of this madonna is very striking, and has been well described as "sweet and unearthly, reminding you of a sibyl." the infant christ is also very fine. there are three angels on each side, who seem to sustain the carved chair or throne on which the madonna is seated; and the prophets, instead, of being below, are painted in small circular medallions down each side of the frame. the throne and the background are covered with gold. vasari gives a very graphic and animated account of the estimation in which this picture was held when first executed. its colossal dimensions, though familiar in the great mosaics, were hitherto unknown in painting; and not less astonishing appeared the deviation, though slight, from ugliness and lifelessness into grace and nature. "and thus," he says, "it happened that this work was an object of so much admiration to the people of that day, they having never seen anything better, that it was carried in solemn procession, with the sound of trumpets and other festal demonstrations, from the house of cimabue to the church, he himself being highly rewarded and honoured for it. it is further reported, and may be read in certain records of old painters, that, whilst cimabue was painting this picture, in a garden near the gate of san pietro, king charles the elder, of anjou, passed through florence, and the authorities of the city, among other marks of respect, conducted him to see the picture of cimabue. when this work was thus shown to the king it had not before been seen by any one; wherefore all the men and women of florence hastened in crowds to admire it, making all possible demonstrations of delight. the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, rejoicing in this occurrence, ever afterwards called that place _borgo allegri_; and this name it has ever since retained, although in process of time it became enclosed within the walls of the city." [footnote : the meaning, for it is not easy to translate literally, is "_me, hath painted, in pleasant days, guido of siena, upon whose soul may christ deign to have mercy!_"] * * * * * in the strictly devotional representations of the virgin and child, she is invariably seated, till the end of the thirteenth century: and for the next hundred years the innovation of a standing figure was confined to sculpture. an early example is the beautiful statue by niccolà pisano, in the capella della spina at pisa; and others will be found in cicognara'a work (storia della scultura moderna). the gothic cathedrals, of the thirteenth century, also exhibit some most graceful examples of the madonna in sculpture, standing on a pedestal, crowned or veiled, sustaining on her left arm the divine child, while in her right she holds a sceptre or perhaps a flower. such crowned or sceptred effigies of the virgin were placed on the central pillar which usually divided the great door of a church into two equal parts; in reference to the text, "i am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." in roman catholic countries we find such effigies set up at the corners of streets, over the doors of houses, and the gates of gardens, sometimes rude and coarse, sometimes exceedingly graceful, according to the period of art and skill of the local artist. here the virgin appears in her character of protectress--our lady of grace, or our lady of succour. * * * * * in pictures, we rarely find the virgin standing, before the end of the fourteenth century. an almost singular example is to be found in an old greek madonna, venerated as miraculous, in the cathedral of orvieto, under the title of _la madonna di san brizio_, and to which is attributed a fabulous antiquity. i may be mistaken, but my impression, on seeing it, was, that it could not be older than the end of the thirteenth century. the crowns worn by the virgin and christ are even more modern, and out of character with the rest of the painting. in italy the pupils of giotto first began to represent the virgin standing on a raised dais. there is an example by puccio capanna, engraved in d'agincourt's work; but such figures are very uncommon. in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they occur more frequently in the northern than in the italian schools. in the simple enthroned madonna, variations of attitude and sentiment were gradually introduced. the virgin, instead of supporting her son with both hands, embraces him with one hand, and with the other points to him; or raises her right hand to bless the worshipper. then the child caresses his mother,--a charming and natural idea, but a deviation from the solemnity of the purely religious significance; better imagined, however, to convey the relation between the mother and child, than the virgin suckling her infant, to which i have already alluded in its early religious, or rather controversial meaning. it is not often that the enthroned virgin is thus occupied. mr. rogers had in his collection an exquisite example where the virgin, seated in state on a magnificent throne under a gothic canopy and crowned as queen of heaven, offers her breast to the divine infant then the mother adores her child. this is properly the _madre pia_ afterwards so beautifully varied. he lies extended on her knee, and she looks down upon him with hands folded in prayer: or she places her hand under his foot, an attitude which originally implied her acknowledgment of his sovereignty and superiority, but was continued as a natural _motif_ when the figurative and religious meaning was no longer considered. sometimes the child looks up in his mother's face with his finger on his lip, expressing the _verbum sum_, "i am the word." sometimes the child, bending forwards from his mother's knee, looks down benignly on the worshippers, who are _supposed_ to be kneeling at the foot of the altar. sometimes, but very rarely he sleeps; never in the earliest examples; for to exhibit the young redeemer asleep, where he is an object of worship, was then a species of solecism. when the enthroned virgin is represented holding a book, or reading, while the infant christ, perhaps, lays his hand upon it--a variation in the first simple treatment not earlier than the end of the fourteenth century, and very significant--she is then the _virgo sapientissima_, the most wise virgin; or the mother of wisdom, _mater sapientiæ_; and the book she holds is the book of wisdom.[ ] this is the proper interpretation, where the virgin is seated on her throne. in a most beautiful picture by granacci (berlin gal.), she is thus enthroned, and reading intently; while john the baptist and st. michael stand on each side. [footnote : l'abbé crosnier, "iconographie chrétienne;" but the book as an attribute had another meaning, for which, see the introduction.] * * * * * with regard to costume, the colours in which the enthroned virgin-mother was arrayed scarcely ever varied from the established rule: her tunic was to be red, her mantle blue; red, the colour of love, and religious aspiration; blue, the colour of constancy and heavenly purity. in the pictures of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and down to the early part of the fifteenth, these colours are of a soft and delicate tint,--rose and pale azure; but afterwards, when powerful effects of colour became a study, we have the intense crimson, and the dark blue verging on purple. sometimes the blue mantle is brought over her head, sometimes she wears a white veil, in other instances the queenly crown. sometimes (but very rarely when she is throned as the _regina coeli_) she has no covering or ornament on her head; and her fair hair parted on her brow, flows down on either side in long luxuriant tresses. in the venetian and german pictures, she is often most gorgeously arrayed; her crown studded with jewels, her robe covered with embroidery, or bordered with gold and pearls. the ornamental parts of her dress and throne were sometimes, to increase the magnificence of the effect, raised in relief and gilt. to the early german painters, we might too often apply the sarcasm of apelles, who said of his rival, that, "not being able to make venus _beautiful_ he had made her _fine_;" but some of the venetian madonnas are lovely as well as splendid. gold was often used, and in great profusion, in some of the lombard pictures even of a late date; for instance, by carlo crivelli: before the middle of the sixteenth century, this was considered barbaric. the best italian painters gave the virgin ample, well disposed drapery, but dispensed with ornament. the star embroidered on her shoulder, so often retained when all other ornament was banished, expresses her title "stella maris." i have seen some old pictures, in which she wears a ring on the third finger. this expresses her dignity as the _sposa_ as well as the mother. with regard to the divine infant, he is, in the early pictures, invariably draped, and it is not till the beginning of the fifteenth century that we find him first partially and then wholly undraped. in the old representations, he wears a long tunic with full sleeves, fastened with a girdle. it is sometimes of gold stuff embroidered, sometimes white, crimson, or blue. this almost regal robe was afterwards exchanged for a little semi-transparent shirt without sleeves. in pictures of the throned madonna painted expressly for nunneries, the child is, i believe, always clothed, or the mother partly infolds him in her own drapery. in the umbrian pictures of the fifteenth century, the infant often wears a coral necklace, then and now worn by children in that district, as a charm against the evil eye. in the venetian pictures he has sometimes a coronal of pearls. in the carved and painted images set up in churches, he wears, like his mother, a rich crown over a curled wig, and is hung round with jewels; but such images must be considered as out of the pale of legitimate art. * * * * * of the various objects placed in the hand of the child as emblems i have already spoken, and of their sacred significance as such,--the globe, the book, the bird, the flower, &c. in the works of the ignorant secular artists of later times, these symbols of power, or divinity, or wisdom, became mere playthings; and when they had become familiar, and required by custom, and the old sacred associations utterly forgotten, we find them most profanely applied and misused. to give one example:--the bird was originally placed in the hand of christ as the emblem of the soul, or of the spiritual as opposed to the earthly nature; in a picture by baroccio, he holds it up before a cat, to be frightened and tormented.[ ] but to proceed. [footnote : in the "history of our lord, as illustrated in the fine arts," the devotional and characteristic effigies of the infant christ, and the accompanying attributes, will be treated at length.] the throne on which the virgin is seated, is, in very early pictures, merely an embroidered cushion on a sort of stool, or a carved gothic chair, such as we see in the thrones and stalls of cathedrals. it is afterwards converted into a rich architectural throne, most elaborately adorned, according to the taste and skill of the artist. sometimes, as in the early venetian pictures, it is hung with garlands of fruits and flowers, most fancifully disposed. sometimes the arabesque ornaments are raised in relief and gilt. sometimes the throne is curiously painted to imitate various marbles, and adorned with medallions and bas-reliefs from those subjects of the old testament which have a reference to the character of the virgin and the mission of her divine child; the commonest of all being the fall, which rendered a redeemer necessary. moses striking the rock (the waters of life)--the elevation of the brazen serpent--the gathering of the manna--or moses holding the broken tablets of the old law,--all types of redemption, are often thus introduced as ornaments. in the sixteenth century, when the purely religious sentiment had declined, and a classical and profane taste had infected every department of art and literature, we find the throne of the virgin adorned with classical ornaments and bas-reliefs from the antique remains; as, for instance, the hunt of theseus and hippolyta. we must then suppose her throned on the ruins of paganism, an idea suggested by the old legends, which represent the temples and statues of the heathen gods as falling into ruin on the approach of the virgin and her child; and a more picturesque application of this idea afterwards became common in other subjects. in garofalo's picture the throne is adorned with sphinxes--_à l'antique_. andrea del sarto has placed harpies at the corner of the pedestal of the throne, in his famous madonna di san francesco (florence gal.),--a gross fault in that otherwise grand and faultless picture; one of those desecrations of a religious theme which andrea, as devoid of religious feeling as he was weak and dishonest, was in the habit of committing. but whatever the material or style of the throne, whether simple or gorgeous, it is supposed to be a heavenly throne. it is not of the earth, nor on the earth; and at first it was alone and unapproachable. the virgin-mother, thus seated in her majesty, apart from all human beings, and in communion only with the infant godhead on her knee, or the living worshippers who come to lay down their cares and sorrows at the foot of her throne and breathe a devout "salve regina!"--is, through its very simplicity and concentrated interest, a sublime conception. the effect of these figures, in their divine quietude and loveliness, can never be appreciated when hung in a gallery or room with other pictures, for admiration, or criticism, or comparison. i remember well suddenly discovering such a madonna, in a retired chapel in s. francesco della vigna at venice,--a picture i had never heard of, by a painter then quite unknown to me, fra antonio da negroponte, a franciscan friar who lived in the fifteenth century. the calm dignity of the attitude, the sweetness, the adoring love in the face of the queenly mother as with folded hands she looked down on the divine infant reclining on her knee, so struck upon my heart, that i remained for minutes quite motionless. in this picture, nothing can exceed the gorgeous splendor of the virgin's throne and apparel: she wears a jewelled crown; the child a coronal of pearls; while the background is composed entirely of the mystical roses twined in a sort of _treillage_. i remember, too, a picture by carlo crivelli, in which the virgin is seated on a throne, adorned, in the artist's usual style, with rich festoons of fruit and flowers. she is most sumptuously crowned and apparelled; and the beautiful child on her knee, grasping her hand as if to support himself, with the most _naïve_ and graceful action bends forward and looks dawn benignly on the worshippers _supposed_ to be kneeling below. when human personages were admitted within the same compartment, the throne was generally raised by several steps, or placed on a lofty pedestal, and till the middle of the fifteenth century it was always in the centre of the composition fronting the spectator. it was a venetian innovation to place the throne at one side of the picture, and show the virgin in profile or in the act of turning round. this more scenic disposition became afterwards, in the passion for variety and effect, too palpably artificial, and at length forced and theatrical. the italians distinguish between the _madonna in trono_ and the _madonna in gloria_. when human beings, however sainted and exalted were admitted within the margin of the picture, the divine dignity of the virgin as _madre di dio_, was often expressed by elevating her wholly above the earth, and placing her "in regions mild of calm and serene air," with the crescent or the rainbow under her feet. this is styled a "madonna in gloria." it is, in fact, a return to the antique conception of the enthroned redeemer, seated on a rainbow, sustained by the "curled clouds," and encircled by a glory of cherubim. the aureole of light, within which the glorified madonna and her child when in a standing position are often placed, is of an oblong form, called from its shape the _mandorla_, "the almond;"[ ] but in general she is seated above in a sort of ethereal exaltation, while the attendant saints stand on the earth below. this beautiful arrangement, though often very sublimely treated, has not the simple austere dignity of the throne of state, and when the virgin and child, as in the works of the late spanish and flemish painters, are formed out of earth's most coarse and commonplace materials, the aërial throne of floating fantastic clouds suggests a disagreeable discord, a fear lest the occupants of heaven should fall on the heads of their worshippers below. not so the virgins of the old italians; for they look so divinely ethereal that they seem uplifted by their own spirituality: not even the air-borne clouds are needed to sustain them. they have no touch of earth or earth's material beyond the human form; their proper place is the seventh heaven; and there they repose, a presence and a power--a personification of infinite mercy sublimated by innocence and purity; and thence they look down on their worshippers and attendants, while these gaze upwards "with looks commercing with the skies." [footnote : or the "vescica pisces," by lord lindsay and others.] * * * * * and now of these angelic and sainted accessories, however placed, we must speak at length; for much of the sentiment and majesty of the madonna effigies depend on the proper treatment of the attendant figures, and on the meaning they convey to the observer. * * * * * the virgin is entitled, by authority of the church, queen of angels, of prophets, of apostles, of martyrs, of virgins, and of confessors; and from among these her attendants are selected. angels were first admitted, waiting immediately round her chair of state. a signal instance is the group of the enthroned madonna, attended by the four archangels, as we find it in the very ancient mosaic in sant-apollinare-novo, at ravenna. as the belief in the superior power and sanctity of the blessed virgin grew and spread, the angels no longer attended her as princes of the heavenly host, guardians, or councillors; they became, in the early pictures, adoring angels, sustaining her throne on each side, or holding up the embroidered curtain which forms the background. in the madonna by cimabue, which, if it be not the earliest after the revival of art, was one of the first in which the byzantine manner was softened and italianized, we have six grand, solemn-looking angels, three on each side of the throne, arranged perpendicularly one above another. the virgin herself is of colossal proportions, far exceeding them in size, and looking out of her frame, "large as a goddess of the antique world." in the other madonna in the gallery of the academy, we have the same arrangement of the angels. giotto diversified this arrangement. he placed the angels kneeling at the foot of the throne, making music, and waiting on their divine mistress as her celestial choristers,--a service the more fitting because she was not only queen of angels, but patroness of music and minstrelsy, in which character she has st. cecilia as her deputy and delegate. this accompaniment of the choral angels was one of the earliest of the accessories, and continued down to the latest times. they are most particularly lovely in the pictures of the fifteenth century. they kneel and strike their golden lutes, or stand and sound their silver clarions, or sit like beautiful winged children on the steps of the throne, and pipe and sing as if their spirits were overflowing with harmony as well as love and adoration.[ ] in a curious picture of the enthroned madonna and child (berlin gal.), by gentil fabriano, a tree rises on each side of the throne, on which little red seraphim are perched like birds, singing and playing on musical instruments. in later times, they play and sing for the solace of the divine infant, not merely adoring, but ministering: but these angels ministrant belong to another class of pictures. adoration, not service, was required by the divine child and his mother, when they were represented simply in their divine character, and placed far beyond earthly wants and earthly associations. [footnote : as in the picture by lo spagna in our national gallery, no. .] there are examples where the angels in attendance bear, not harps or lutes, but the attributes of the cardinal virtues, as in an altar-piece by taddeo gaddi at florence. (santa croce, rinuccini chapel.) the patriarchs, prophets, and sibyls, all the personages, in fact, who lived under the old law, when forming, in a picture or altar-piece, part, of the _cortège_ of the throned virgin, as types, or prophets, or harbingers of the incarnation, are on the _outside_ of that sacred compartment wherein she is seated with her child. this was the case with _all_ the human personages down to the end of the thirteenth century; and after that time, i find the characters of the old testament still excluded from the groups immediately round her throne. their place was elsewhere allotted, at a more respectful distance. the only exceptions i can remember, are king david and the patriarch job; and these only in late pictures, where david does not appear as prophet, but as the ancestor of the redeemer; and job, only at venice, where he is a patron saint. the four evangelists and the twelve apostles are, in their collective character in relation to the virgin, treated like the prophets, and placed around the altar-piece. where we find one or more of the evangelists introduced into the group of attendant "sanctities" on each side of her throne, it is not in their character of evangelists, but rather as patron saints. thus st. mark appears constantly in the venetian pictures; but it is as the patron and protector of venice. st. john the evangelist, a favourite attendant on the virgin, is near her in virtue of his peculiar relation to her and to christ; and he is also a popular patron saint. st. luke and st. matthew, unless they be patrons of the particular locality, or of the votary who presents the picture, never appear. it is the same with the apostles in their collective character as such; we find them constantly, as statues, ranged on each side of the virgin, or as separate figures. thus they stand over the screen of st. mark's, at venice, and also on the carved frames of the altar-pieces; but either from their number, or some other cause, they are seldom grouped round the enthroned virgin. * * * * * it is st. john the baptist who, next to the angels, seems to have been the first admitted to a propinquity with the divine persons. in greek art, he is himself an angel, a messenger, and often represented with wings. he was especially venerated in the greek church in his character of precursor of the redeemer, and, as such, almost indispensable in every sacred group; and it is, perhaps, to the early influence of greek art on the selection and arrangement of the accessory personages, that we owe the preëminence of john the baptist. one of the most graceful, and appropriate, and familiar of all the accessory figures grouped with the virgin and child, is that of the young st. john (called in italian _san giovannino_, and in spanish _san juanito_.) when first introduced, we find him taking the place of the singing or piping angels in front of the throne. he generally stands, "clad in his raiment of camel's hair, having a girdle round his loins," and in his hand a reed cross, round which is bound a scroll with the words "_ecce agnus dei_" ("behold the lamb of god"), while with his finger he points up to the enthroned group above him, expressing the text from st. luke (c. ii.), "and thou, child shalt be called the prophet of the highest," as in francia's picture in our national gallery. sometimes he bears a lamb in his arms, the _ecce agnus dei_ in form instead of words. the introduction of the young st. john becomes more and more usual from the beginning of the sixteenth century. in later pictures, a touch of the dramatic is thrown into the arrangement: instead of being at the foot of the throne, he is placed beside it; as where the virgin is throned on a lofty pedestal, and she lays one hand on the head of the little st. john, while with the other she strains her child to her bosom; or where the infant christ and st. john, standing at her knee, embrace each other--a graceful incident in a holy family, but in the enthroned madonna it impairs the religious conception; it places st. john too much on a level with the saviour, who is here in that divine character to which st. john bore witness, but which he did not share. it is very unusual to see john the baptist in his childish character glorified in heaven among the celestial beings: i remember but one instance, in a beautiful picture by bonifazio. (acad. venice.) the virgin is seated in glory, with her infant on her knee, and encircled by cherubim; on one side an angel approaches with a basket of flowers on his head, and she is in act to take these flowers and scatter them on the saints below,--a new and graceful _motif_: on the other side sits john the baptist as a boy about twelve years of age. the attendant saints below are st. peter, st. andrew, st. thomas holding the girdle,[ ] st. francis, and st. clara, all looking up with ecstatic devotion, except st. clara, who looks down with a charming modesty. [footnote : st. thomas is called in the catalogue, james, king of arragon.] * * * * * in early pictures, st. anna, the mother of the virgin, is very seldom introduced, because in such sublime and mystical representations of the _vergine dea_, whatever connected her with realities, or with her earthly genealogy, is suppressed. but from the middle of the fifteenth century, st. anna became, from the current legends of the history of the virgin, an important saint, and when introduced into the devotional groups, which, however, is seldom, it seems to have embarrassed the painters how to dispose of her. she could not well be placed below her daughter; she could not be placed above her. it is a curious proof of the predominance of the feminine element throughout these representations, that while st. joachim the father and st. joseph the husband of the virgin, are either omitted altogether, or are admitted only in a subordinate and inferior position, st. anna, when she does appear, is on an equality with her daughter. there is a beautiful example, and apt for illustration, in the picture by francia, in our national gallery, where st. anna and the virgin are seated together on the same throne, and the former presents the apple to her divine grandson. i remember, too, a most graceful instance where st. anna stands behind and a little above the throne, with her hands placed affectionately on the shoulders of the virgin, and raises her eyes to heaven as if in thanksgiving to god, who through her had brought salvation into the world. where the virgin is seated on the knees of st. anna, it is a still later innovation. there is such a group in a picture in the louvre, after a famous cartoon by leonardo da vinci, which, in spite of its celebrity, has always appeared to me very fantastic and irreverent in treatment. there is also a fine print by carraglio, in which the virgin and child are sustained on the knees of st. anna: under her feet lies the dragon. st. roch and st. sebastian on each side, and the dead dragon, show that this is a votive subject, an expression of thanksgiving after the cessation of a plague. the germans, who were fond of this group, imparted, even to the most religious treatment, a domestic sentiment. the earliest instance i can point to of the enthroned virgin attended by both her parents, is by vivarini (acad. venice): st. anna is on the right of the throne; st. joachim, in the act of reverently removing his cap, stands on the left; more in front is a group of franciscan saints. the introduction of st. anna into a holy family, as part of the domestic group, is very appropriate and graceful; but this of course admits, and indeed requires, a wholly different sentiment. the same remark applies to st. joseph, who, in the earlier representations of the enthroned virgin, is carefully excluded; he appears, i think, first in the venetian pictures. there is an example in a splendid composition by paul veronese. (acad. venice.) the virgin, on a lofty throne, holds the child; both look down on the worshippers; st. joseph is partly seen behind leaning on his crutch. round the throne stand st. john the baptist, st. justina, as patroness of venice, and st. george; st. jerome is on the other side in deep meditation. a magnificent picture, quite sumptuous in colour and arrangement, and yet so solemn and so calm![ ] [footnote : there is another example by paul veronese, similar in character and treatment, in which st. john and st. joseph are on the throne with the virgin and child, and st. catherine and st. antony below.] the composition by michael angelo, styled a "holy family," is, though singular in treatment, certainly devotional in character, and an enthroned virgin. she is seated in the centre, on a raised architectural seat, holding a book; the infant christ slumbers,--books can teach him nothing, and to make him reading is unorthodox. in the background on one side, st. joseph leans over a balustrade, as if in devout contemplation; a young st. john the baptist leans on the other side. the grand, mannered, symmetrical treatment is very remarkable and characteristic. there are many engravings of this celebrated composition. in one of them, the book held by the virgin bears on one side the text in latin, "_blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb._" on the opposite page, "_blessed be god, who has regarded the low estate of his hand-maiden. for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed._" while the young st. john is admitted into' such close companionship with the enthroned madonna, his mother elizabeth, so commonly and beautifully introduced into the holy families, is almost uniformly excluded. next in order, as accessory figures, appear some one or two or more of the martyrs, confessors, and virgin patronesses, with their respective attributes, either placed in separate niches and compartments on each side, or, when admitted within the sacred precincts where sits the queenly virgin mother and her divine son, standing, in the manner of councillors and officers of state on solemn occasions, round an earthly sovereign, all reverently calm and still; till gradually this solemn formality, this isolation of the principal characters, gave way to some sentiment which placed them in nearer relation to each other, and to the divine personages. occasional variations of attitude and action were introduced--at first, a rare innovation; ere long, a custom, a fashion. for instance;--the doctors turn over the leaves of their great books as if seeking for the written testimonies to the truth of the mysterious incarnation made visible in the persons of the mother and child; the confessors contemplate the radiant group with rapture, and seem ready to burst forth in hymns of praise; the martyrs kneel in adoration; the virgins gracefully offer their victorious palms: and thus the painters of the best periods of art contrived to animate their sacred groups without rendering them too dramatic and too secular. such, then, was the general arrangement of that religious subject which is technically styled "the madonna enthroned and attended by saints." the selection and the relative position of these angelic and saintly accessories were not, as i have already observed, matters of mere taste or caprice; and an attentive observation of the choice and disposition of the attendant figures will often throw light on the original significance of such pictures, and the circumstances under which they wore painted. shall i attempt a rapid classification and interpretation of these infinitely varied groups? it is a theme which might well occupy volumes rather than pages, and which requires far more antiquarian learning and historical research than i can pretend to; still by giving the result of my own observations in some few instances, it may be possible so to excite the attention and fancy of the reader, as to lead him further on the same path than i have myself been able to venture. * * * * * we can trace, in a large class of these pictures, a general religious significance, common to all periods, all localities, all circumstances; while in another class, the interest is not only particular and local, but sometimes even personal. to the first class belongs the antique and beautiful group of the virgin and child, enthroned between the two great archangels, st. michael and st. gabriel. it is probably the most ancient of these combinations: we find it in the earliest greek art, in the carved ivory diptychs of the eighth and ninth centuries, in the old greco-italian pictures, in the ecclesiastical sculpture and stained glass of from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. in the most ancient examples, the two angels are seen standing on each side of the madonna, not worshipping, but with their sceptres and attributes, as princes of the heavenly host, attending on her who is queen of angels; st. gabriel as the angel of birth and life, st. michael as the angel of death, that is, in the christian sense, of deliverance and immortality. there is an instance of this antique treatment in a small greek picture in the wallerstein collection. (now at kensington palace.) in later pictures, st. gabriel seldom appears except as the _angela annunziatore_; but st. michael very frequently. sometimes, as conqueror over sin and representative of the church militant, he stands with his foot on the dragon with a triumphant air; or, kneeling, he presents to the infant christ the scales of eternal justice, as in a famous picture by leonardo da vinci. it is not only because of his popularity as a patron saint, and of the number of churches dedicated to him, that he is so frequently introduced into the madonna pictures; according to the legend, he was by divine appointment the guardian of the virgin and her son while they sojourned on earth. the angel raphael leading tobias always expresses protection, and especially protection to the young. tobias with his fish was an early type of baptism. there are many beautiful examples. in raphael's "madonna dell' pesce" (madrid gal.) he is introduced as the patron saint of the painter, but not without a reference to more sacred meaning, that of the guardian spirit of all humanity. the warlike figure of st. michael, and the benign st. raphael, are thus represented as celestial guardians in the beautiful picture by perugino now in our national gallery. (no. .) there are instances of the three archangels all standing together below the glorified virgin: st. michael in the centre with his foot on the prostrate fiend; st. gabriel on the right presents his lily; and, on the left, the protecting angel presents his human charge, and points up to the source of salvation. (in an engraving after giulio romano.) * * * * * the virgin between st. peter and st. paul is also an extremely ancient and significant group. it appears in the old mosaics. as chiefs of the apostles and joint founders of the church, st. peter and st. paul are prominent figures in many groups and combinations, particularly in the altar-pieces of the roman churches, and those painted for the benedictine communities. the virgin, when supported on each side by st. peter and st. paul, must be understood to represent the personified church between her two great founders and defenders; and this relation is expressed, in a very poetical manner, when st. peter, kneeling, receives the allegorical keys from the hand of the infant saviour. there are some curious and beautiful instances of this combination of a significant action with the utmost solemnity of treatment; for example, in that very extraordinary franciscan altar-piece, by carlo crivelli, lately purchased by lord ward, where st. peter, having deposited his papal tiara at the foot of the throne, kneeling receives the great symbolical keys. and again, in a fine picture by andrea meldula, where the virgin and child are enthroned, and the infant christ delivers the keys to peter, who stands, but with a most reverential air; on the other side of the throne is st. paul with his book and the sword held upright. there are also two attendant angels. on the border of the mantle of the virgin is inscribed "_ave maria gratia plena_."[ ] [footnote : in the collection of mr. bromley, of wootton. this picture is otherwise remarkable as the only authenticated work of a very rare painter. it bears his signature, and the style indicates the end of the fifteenth century as the probable date.] i do not recollect any instance in which the four evangelists as such, or the twelve apostles in their collective character, wait round the throne of the virgin and child, though one or more of the evangelists and one or more of the apostles perpetually occur. the virgin between st. john the baptist and st. john the evangelist, is also a very significant and beautiful combination, and one very frequently met with. though both these saints were as children contemporary with the child christ, and so represented in the holy families, in these solemn ideal groups they are always men. the first st. john expresses regeneration by the rite of baptism the second st. john, distinguished as _theologus_, "the divine," stands with his sacramental cup, expressing regeneration by faith. the former was the precursor of the saviour, the first who proclaimed him to the world as such; the latter beheld the vision in patmos, of the woman in travail pursued by the dragon, which is interpreted in reference to the virgin and her child. the group thus brought into relation is full of meaning, and, from the variety and contrast of character, full of poetical and artistic capabilities. st. john the baptist is usually a man about thirty, with wild shaggy hair and meagre form, so draped that his vest of camel's hair is always visible; he holds his reed cross. st. john the evangelist is generally the young and graceful disciple; but in some instances he is the venerable seer of patmos, "whose beard descending sweeps his aged breast." there is an example in one of the finest pictures by perugino. the virgin is throned above, and surrounded by a glory of seraphim, with many-coloured wings. the child stands on her knee. in the landscape below are st. michael, st. catherine, st. apollonia, and. st. john the evangelist as the aged prophet with white flowing beard. (bologna acad.) * * * * * the fathers of the church, as interpreters and defenders of the mystery of the incarnation, are very significantly placed near the throne of the virgin and child. in western art, the latin doctors, st. jerome, st. ambrose, st. augustine, and st. gregory, have of course the preëminence. (v sacred and legend. art.) the effect produced by these aged, venerable, bearded dignitaries, with their gorgeous robes and mitres and flowing beards, in contrast with the soft simplicity of the divine mother and her infant, is, in the hands of really great artists, wonderfully fine. there is a splendid example, by vivarini (venice acad.); the old doctors stand two on each side of the throne, where, under a canopy upborne by angels, sits the virgin, sumptuously crowned and attired, and looking most serene and goddess-like; while the divine child, standing on her knee, extends his little hand in the act of benediction. of this picture i have already given a very detailed description. (sacred and legend. art.) another example, a grand picture by moretto, now in the museum at frankfort, i have also described. there is here a touch of the dramatic sentiment;--the virgin is tenderly caressing her child, while two of the old doctors, st. ambrose and st. augustine, stand reverently on each side of her lofty throne; st. gregory sits on the step below, reading, and st. jerome bends over and points to a page in his book. the virgin is not sufficiently dignified; she has too much the air of a portrait; and the action of the child is, also, though tender, rather unsuited to the significance of the rest of the group; but the picture is, on the whole, magnificent. there is another fine example of the four doctors attending on the virgin, in the milan gallery.[ ] [footnote : in a native picture of the milanese school, dedicated by ludovico sforza _il moro_.] sometimes not four, but two only of these fathers, appear in combination with other figures, and the choice would depend on the locality and other circumstances. but, on the whole, we rarely find a group of personages assembled round the throne of the virgin which does not include one or more of these venerable pillars of the church. st. ambrose appears most frequently in the milanese pictures: st. augustine and st. jerome, as patriarchs of monastic orders, are very popular: st. gregory, i think, is more seldom met with than the others. * * * * * the virgin, with st. jerome and st. catherine, the patron saints of theological learning, is a frequent group in all monasteries, but particularly in the churches and houses of the jeronimites. a beautiful example is the madonna, by francia. (borghese palace. rome.) st. jerome, with mary magdalene, also a frequent combination, expresses theological learning in union with religious penitence and humility. correggio's famous picture is an example, where st. jerome on one side presents his works in defence of the church, and his translation of the scriptures; while, on the other, mary magdalene, bending down devoutly, kisses the feet of the infant christ. (parma.) of all the attendants on the virgin and child, the most popular is, perhaps, st. catherine; and the "marriage of st. catherine," as a religious mystery, is made to combine with the most solemn and formal arrangement of the other attendant figures. the enthroned virgin presides over the mystical rite. this was, for intelligible reasons, a favourite subject in nunneries.[ ] [footnote : for a detailed account of the legendary marriage of st. catherine and examples of treatment, see sacred and legendary art.] in a picture by garofalo, the child, bending from his mother's knee, places a golden crown on the head of st. catherine as _sposa_; on each side stand st. agnes and st. jerome. in a picture by carlo maratti, the nuptials take place in heaven, the virgin and child being throned in clouds. if the kneeling _sposa_ be st. catherine of siena, the nun, and not st. catherine of alexandria, or if the two are introduced, then we may be sure that the picture was painted for a nunnery of the dominican order.[ ] [footnote : see legends of the monastic orders. a fine example of this group "the spozulizio of st. catherine of siena," has lately been added to our national gallery; (lorenzo di san severino, no. .)] the great madonna _in trono_ by the dominican fra bartolomeo, wherein the queenly st. catherine of alexandria witnesses the mystical marriage of her sister saint, the nun of siena, will occur to every one who has been at florence; and there is a smaller picture by the same painter in the louvre;--a different version of the same subject. i must content myself with merely referring to these well-known pictures which have been often engraved, and dwell more in detail on another, not so well known, and, to my feeling, as preëminently beautiful and poetical, but in the early flemish, not the italian style--a poem in a language less smooth and sonorous, but still a _poem_. this is the altar-piece painted by hemmelinck for the charitable sisterhood of st. john's hospital at bruges. the virgin is seated under a porch, and her throne decorated with rich tapestry; two graceful angels hold a crown over her head. on the right, st. catherine, superbly arrayed as a princess, kneels at her side, and the beautiful infant christ bends forward and places the bridal ring on her finger. behind her a charming angel, playing on the organ, celebrates the espousals with hymns of joy; beyond him stands st. john the baptist with his lamb. on the left of the virgin kneels st. barbara, reading intently; behind her an angel with a book; beyond him stands st. john the evangelist, youthful, mild, and pensive. through the arcades of the porch is seen a landscape background, with incidents picturesquely treated from the lives of the baptist and the evangelist. such is the central composition. the two wings represent--on one side, the beheading of st. john the baptist; on the other, st. john the evangelist, in patmos, and the vision of the apocalypse. in this great work there is a unity and harmony of design which blends the whole into an impressive poem. the object was to do honour to the patrons of the hospital, the two st. johns, and, at the same time, to express the piety of the charitable sisters, who, like st. catherine (the type of contemplative studious piety), were consecrated and espoused to christ, and, like st. barbara (the type of active piety), were dedicated to good works. it is a tradition, that hemmelinck painted this altar-piece as a votive offering in gratitude to the good sisters, who had taken him in and nursed him when dangerously wounded: and surely if this tradition be true, never was charity more magnificently recompensed. in a very beautiful picture by ambrogio borgognone (dresden, collection of m. grahl) the virgin is seated on a splendid throne; on the right kneels st. catherine of alexandria, on the left st. catherine of siena: the virgin holds a hand of each, which she presents to the divine child seated on her knee, and to each he presents a ring. * * * * * the virgin and child between st. catherine and st. barbara is one of the most popular, as well as one of the most beautiful and expressive, of these combinations; signifying active and contemplative life, or the two powers between which the social state was divided in the middle ages, namely, the ecclesiastical and the military, learning and arms (sacred and legend. art); st. catherine being the patron of the first, and st. barbara of the last. when the original significance had ceased to be understood or appreciated, the group continued to be a favourite one, particularly in germany; and examples are infinite. the virgin between st. mary magdalene and st. barbara, the former as the type of penance, humility, and meditative piety, the latter as the type of fortitude and courage, is also very common. when between st. mary magdalene and st. catherine, the idea suggested is learning, with penitence and humility; this is a most popular group. so is st. lucia with one of these or both: st. lucia with her _lamp_ or her _eyes_, is always expressive of _light_, the light of divine wisdom. * * * * * the virgin between st. nicholas and st. george is a very expressive group; the former as the patron saint of merchants, tradesmen, and seamen, the popular saint of the bourgeoisie; the latter as the patron of soldiers, the chosen saint of the aristocracy. these two saints with st. catherine are pre-eminent in the venetian pictures; for all three, in addition to their poetical significance, were venerated as especial protectors of venice. * * * * * st. george and st. christopher both stand by the throne of the virgin of succour as protectors and deliverers in danger. the attribute of st. christopher is the little christ on his shoulder; and there are instances in which christ appears on the lap of his mother, and also on the shoulder of the attendant st. christopher. this blunder, if it may be so called, has been avoided, very cleverly i should think in his own opinion, by a painter who makes st. christopher kneel, while the virgin places the little christ on his shoulders; a _concetto_ quite inadmissible in a really religious group. * * * * * in pictures dedicated by charitable communities, we often find st. nicholas and st. leonard as the patron saints of prisoners and captives. wherever st. leonard appears he expresses deliverance from captivity. st. omobuono, st. martin, st. elizabeth of hungary, st. roch, or other beneficent saints, waiting round the virgin with kneeling beggars, or the blind, the lame, the sick, at their feet, always expressed the virgin as the mother of mercy, the _consolatrix afflictorum_. such pictures were commonly found in hospitals, and the chapels and churches of the order of mercy, and other charitable institutions. the examples are numerous. i remember one, a striking picture, by bartolomeo montagna, where the virgin and child are enthroned in the centre as usual. on her right the good st. omobuono, dressed as a burgher, in a red gown and fur cap, gives alms to a poor beggar; on the left, st. francis presents a celebrated friar of his order, bernardino da feltri, the first founder of a _mont-de-piété_, who kneels, holding the emblem of his institution, a little green mountain with a cross at the top. * * * * * besides these saints, who have a _general_ religious character and significance, we have the national and local saints, whose presence very often marks the country or school of art which produced the picture. a genuine florentine madonna is distinguished by a certain elegance and stateliness, and well becomes her throne. as patroness of florence, in her own right, the virgin bears the title of santa maria del fiore, and in this character she holds a flower, generally a rose, or is in the act of presenting it to the child. she is often attended by st. john the baptist, as patron of florence; but he is everywhere a saint of such power and importance as an attendant on the divine personages, that his appearance in a picture does not stamp it as florentine. st. cosmo and st. damian are florentine, as the protectors of the medici family; but as patrons of the healing art, they have a significance which renders them common in the venetian and other pictures. it may, however, be determined, that if st. john the baptist, st. cosmo and st. damian, with st. laurence (the patron of lorenzo the magnificent), appear together in attendance on the virgin, that picture is of the florentine school. the presence of st. zenobio, or of st. antonino, the patron archbishops of florence, will set the matter at rest, for these are exclusively florentine. in a picture by giotto, angels attend on the virgin bearing vases of lilies in their hands. (lilies are at once the emblem of the virgin and the _device_ of florence.) on each side kneel st. john the baptist and st. zenobio.[ ] [footnote : we now possess in our national gallery a very interesting example of a florentine enthroned madonna, attended by st. john the baptist and st. zenobio as patrons of florence.] a siena madonna would naturally be attended by st. bernardino and st. catherine of siena; if they seldom appear together, it is because they belong to different religious orders. in the venetian pictures we find a crowd of guardian saints; first among them, st. mark, then st. catherine, st. george, st. nicholas, and st. justina: wherever these appear together, that picture is surely from the venetian school. all through lombardy and piedmont, st. ambrose of milan and st. maurice of savoy are favourite attendants on the virgin. * * * * * in spanish and flemish art, the usual attendants on the queenly madonna are monks and nuns, which brings us to the consideration of a large and interesting class of pictures, those dedicated by the various religious orders. when we remember that the institution of some of the most influential of these communities was coeval with the revival of art; that for three or four centuries, art in all its forms had no more powerful or more munificent patrons; that they counted among their various brotherhoods some of the greatest artists the world has seen; we can easily imagine how the beatified members of these orders have become so conspicuous as attendants on the celestial personages. to those who are accustomed to read the significance of a work of art, a single glance is often sufficient to decide for what order it has been executed. st. paul is a favourite saint of the benedictine communities; and there are few great pictures painted for them in which he does not appear. when in companionship with st. benedict, either in the original black habit or the white habit of the reformed orders, with st. scholastica bearing her dove, with st. bernard, st. romualdo, or other worthies of this venerable community, the interpretation is easy. here are some examples by domenico puligo. the virgin not seated, but standing on a lofty pedestal, looks down on her worshippers; the child in her arms extends the right hand in benediction; with his left he points to himself, "i am the resurrection and the life." around are six saints, st. peter, st. paul, st. john the baptist as protector of florence, st. matthew, st. catherine; and st. bernard, in his ample white habit, with his keen intellectual face, is about to write in a great book, and looking up to the virgin for inspiration. the picture was originally painted for the cistercians.[ ] [footnote : it is now in the s. maria-maddalena de' pazzi at florence. engraved in the "etruria pittrice," xxxv.] the virgin and child enthroned between st. augustine and his mother st. monica, as in a fine picture by florigerio (venice acad.), would show the picture to be painted for one of the numerous branches of the augustine order. st. antony the abbot is a favourite saint in pictures painted for the augustine hermits. in the "madonna del baldachino" of raphael, the beardless saint who stands in a white habit on one side of the throne is usually styled st. bruno; an evident mistake. it is not a carthusian, but a cistercian monk, and i think st. bernard, the general patron of monastic learning. the other attendant saints are st. peter, st. james, and st. augustine. the picture was originally painted for the church of san spirito at florence, belonging to the augustines. but st. augustine is also the patriarch of the franciscans and dominicans, and frequently takes an influential place in their pictures, as the companion either of st. francis or of st. dominick, as in a picture by fra angelico. (florence gal.) among the votive madonnas of the mendicant orders, i will mention a few conspicuous for beauty and interest, which will serve as a key to others. . the virgin and child enthroned between antony of padua and st. clara of assisi, as in a small elegant picture by pellegrino, must have been dedicated in a church of the franciscans. (sutherland gal.) . the virgin blesses st. francis, who looks up adoring: behind him st. antony of padua; on the other side, john the baptist as a man, and st. catherine. a celebrated but not an agreeable picture, painted by correggio for the franciscan church at parma. (dresden gal.) . the virgin is seated in glory; on one side st. francis, on the other st. antony of padua, both placed in heaven, and almost on an equality with the celestial personages. around are seven female figures, representing the seven cardinal virtues, bearing their respective attributes. below are seen the worthies of the franciscan order; to the right of the virgin, st. elizabeth of hungary, st. louis of france, st. bonaventura; to the left, st. ives of bretagne, st. eleazar, and st. louis of toulouse.[ ] painted for the franciscans by morone and paolo cavazzolo of verona. this is a picture of wonderful beauty, and quite poetical in the sentiment and arrangement, and the mingling of the celestial, the allegorical, and the real personages, with a certain solemnity and gracefulness quite indescribable. the virtues, for instance, are not so much allegorical persons as spiritual appearances, and the whole of the ripper part of the picture is like a vision. [footnote : for these franciscan saints, v. legends of the monastic orders.] . the virgin, standing on the tree of site, holds the infant: rays of glory proceed from them on every side. st. francis, kneeling at the foot of the tree, looks up in an ecstasy of devotion, while a snake with a wounded and bleeding head is crawling away. this strange picture, painted for the franciscans, by carducho, about , is a representation of an abstract dogma (redemption from original sin), in the most real, most animated form--all over life, earthly breathing life--and made me start back: in the mingling of mysticism and materialism, it is quite spanish.[ ] [footnote : esterhazy gal., vienna. mr. stirling tells us that the franciscan friars of valladolid possessed two pictures of the virgin by mateo de cerezo "in one of which she was represented sitting in a cherry-tree and adored by st. francis. this unusual throne may perhaps have been introduced by cerezo as a symbol of his own devout feelings, his patronymic being the castilian word for cherry-tree."--_stirling's artists of spain_, p. . there are, however, many prints and pictures of the virgin and child seated in a tree. it was one of the fantastic conceptions of an unhealthy period of religion and art.] . the virgin and child enthroned. on the right of the virgin, st. john the baptist and st. zenobio, the two protectors of florence. the latter wears his episcopal cope richly embroidered with figures. on the left stand st. peter and st. dominick, protectors of the company for whom the picture was painted. in front kneel st. jerome and st. francis. this picture was originally placed in san marco, a church belonging to the dominicans.[ ] [footnote : i saw and admired this fine and valuable picture in the rinuccini palace at florence in ; it was purchased for our national gallery in .] . when the virgin or the child holds the rosary, it is then a _madonna del rosario_, and painted for the dominicans. the madonna by murillo, in the dulwich gallery, is an example. there is an instance in which the madonna and child enthroned are distributing rosaries to the worshippers, and attended by st. dominick and st. peter martyr, the two great saints of the order. (caravaggio, belvedere gal., vienna.) * * * * * . very important in pictures is the madonna as more particularly the patroness of the carmelites, under her well-known title of "our lady of mount carmel," or _la madonna del carmine_. the members of this order received from pope honorius iii. the privilege of styling themselves the "family of the blessed virgin," and their churches are all dedicated to her under the title of _s. maria del carmine_. she is generally represented holding the infant christ, with her robe outspread, and beneath its folds the carmelite brethren and their chief saints.[ ] there is an example in a picture by pordenone which once belonged to canova. (acad. venice.) the madonna del carmine is also portrayed as distributing to her votaries small tablets on which is a picture of herself. [footnote : v. legends of the monastic orders, "the carmelites".] . the virgin, as patroness of the order of mercy, also distributes tablets, but they bear the badge of the order, and this distinguishes "our lady of mercy," so popular in spanish, art, from "our lady of mount carmel." (v. monastic orders.) a large class of these madonna pictures are votive offerings for public or private mercies. they present some most interesting varieties of character and arrangement. a votive mater misericordiæ, with the child, in her arms, is often standing with her wide ample robe extended, and held up on each side by angels. kneeling at her feet are the votaries who have consecrated the picture, generally some community or brotherhood instituted for charitable purposes, who, as they kneel, present the objects of their charity--widows, orphans, prisoners, or the sick and infirm. the child, in her arms, bends forward, with the hand raised in benediction. i have already spoken of the mater misericordiæ _without_ the child. the sentiment is yet more beautiful and complete where the mother of mercy holds the infant redeemer, the representative and pledge of god's infinite mercy, in her arms. there is a "virgin of mercy," by salvator rosa, which is singular and rather poetical in the conception. she is seated in heavenly glory; the infant christ, on her knee, bends benignly forward. tutelary angels are represented as pleading for mercy, with eager outstretched arms; other angels, lower down, are liberating the souls of repentant sinners from torment. the expression in some of the heads, the contrast between the angelic pitying spirits and the anxious haggard features of the "_anime del purgatorio_" are very fine and animated. here the virgin is the "refuge of sinners," _refugium peccatorum_. such pictures are commonly met with in chapels dedicated to services for the dead. * * * * * another class of votive pictures are especial acts of thanksgiving:-- st. for victory, as _la madonna della vittoria, notre dame des victoires._ the virgin, on her throne, is then attended by one or more of the warrior saints, together with the patron or patroness of the victors. she is then our lady of victory. a very perfect example of these victorious madonnas exists in a celebrated picture by andrea mantegna. the virgin is seated on a lofty throne, embowered by garlands of fruit, leaves, and flowers, and branches of coral, fancifully disposed as a sort of canopy over her head. the child stands on her knee, and raises his hand in the act of benediction. on the right of the virgin appear the warlike saints, st. michael and st. maurice; they recommend to her protection the marquis of mantua, giovan francesco gonzaga, who kneels in complete armour.[ ] on the left stand st. andrew and st. longinus, the guardian saints of mantua; on the step of the throne, the young st. john the baptist, patron of the marquis; and more in front, a female figure, seen half-length, which some have supposed to be st. elizabeth, the mother of the baptist, and others, with more reason, the wife of the marquis, the accomplished isabella d'este.[ ] this picture was dedicated in celebration of the victory gained by gonzaga over the french, near fornone, in .[ ] there is something exceedingly grand, and, at the same time, exceedingly fantastic and poetical, in the whole arrangement; and besides its beauty and historical importance, it is the most important work of andrea mantegna. gonzaga, who is the hero of the picture, was a poet as well as a soldier. isabella d'este shines conspicuously, both for virtue and talent, in the history of the revival of art during the fifteenth century. she was one of the first who collected gems, antiques, pictures, and made them available for the study and improvement of the learned. altogether, the picture is most interesting in every point of view. it was carried off by the french from milan in ; and considering the occasion on which it was painted, they must have had a special pleasure in placing it in their louvre, where it still remains. [footnote : "qui rend grâces du _prétendu_ succès obtenu sur charles viii. à la bataille de fornone," as the french catalogue expresses it.] [footnote : both, however, may be right; for st. elizabeth was the patron saint of the marchesana: the head has quite the air of a portrait, and may be isabella in likeness of a saint.] [footnote : "si les soldats avaient mieux secondé la bravoure de leur chef, l'armie de charles viii. était perdue sans ressource--ils se disperserent pour piller et laissèrent aux français le temps de continuer leur route."] there is a very curious and much more ancient madonna of this class preserved at siena, and styled the "madonna del voto." the sienese being at war with florence, placed their city under the protection of the virgin, and made a solemn vow that, if victorious, they would make over their whole territory to her as a perpetual possession, and hold it from her as her loyal vassals. after the victory of arbia, which placed florence itself for a time in such imminent danger, a picture was dedicated by siena to the virgin _della vittoria_. she is enthroned and crowned, and the infant christ, standing on her knee, holds in his hand the deed of gift. * * * * * dly. for deliverance from plague and pestilence, those scourges of the middle ages. in such pictures the virgin is generally attended by st. sebastian, with st. roch or st. george; sometimes, also, by st. cosmo and st. damian, all of them protectors and healers in time of sickness and calamity. these intercessors are often accompanied by the patrons of the church or locality. there is a remarkable picture of this class by matteo di giovanni (siena acad.), in which the virgin and child are throned between st. sebastian and st. george, while st. cosmo and st. damian, dressed as physicians, and holding their palms, kneel before the throne. in a very famous picture by titian. (rome, vatican), the virgin and child are seated in heavenly glory. she has a smiling and gracious expression, and the child holds a garland, while angels scatter flowers. below stand st. sebastian, st. _nicholas_, st. catherine, st. peter, and st. _francis_. the picture was an offering to the virgin, after the cessation of a pestilence at venice, and consecrated in a church of the _franciscans_ dedicated to st. _nicholas_.[ ] [footnote : san nicolo de' frari, since destroyed, and the picture has been transferred to the vatican.] another celebrated votive picture against pestilence is correggio's "madonna di san sebastiano." (dresden gal.) she is seated in heavenly glory, with little angels, not so much adoring as sporting and hovering round her; below are st. sebastian and st. roch, the latter asleep. (there would be an impropriety in exhibiting st. roch sleeping but for the reference to the legend, that, while he slept, an angel healed him, which lends the circumstance a kind of poetical beauty.) st. sebastian, bound, looks up on the other side. the introduction of st. geminiano, the patron of modena, shows the picture to have been painted for that city, which had been desolated by pestilence in . the date of the picture is . we may then take it for granted, that wherever the virgin and child appear attended by st. sebastian and st. roch, the picture has been a votive offering against the plague; and there is something touching in the number of such memorials which exist in the italian churches. (v. sacred and legendary art.) the brotherhoods instituted in most of the towns of italy and germany, for attending the sick and plague-stricken in times of public calamity, were placed under the protection of the virgin of mercy, st. sebastian, and st. roch; and many of these pictures were dedicated by such communities, or by the municipal authorities of the city or locality. there is a memorable example in a picture by guido, painted, by command of the senate of bologna, after the cessation of the plague, which desolated the city in . (acad. bologna.) the benign virgin, with her child, is seated in the skies: the rainbow, symbol of peace and reconciliation, is under her feet. the infant christ, lovely and gracious, raises his right hand in the act of blessing; in the other he holds a branch of olive: angels scatter flowers around. below stand the guardian saints, the "_santi protettori_" of bologna;--st. petronius, st. francis, st. dominick; the warrior-martyrs, st. proculus and st. florian, in complete armour; with st. ignatius and st. francis xavier. below these is seen, as if through a dark cloud and diminished, the city of bologna, where the dead are borne away in carts and on biers. the upper part of this famous picture is most charming for the gracious beauty of the expression, the freshness and delicacy of the colour. the lower part is less happy, though the head of st. francis, which is the portrait of guido's intimate friend and executor, saulo guidotti, can hardly be exceeded for intense and life-like truth. the other figures are deficient in expression and the execution hurried, so that on the whole it is inferior to the votive pietà already described. guido, it is said, had no time to prepare a canvas or cartoons, and painted the whole on a piece of white silk. it was carried in grand procession, and solemnly dedicated by the senate, whence it obtained the title by which it is celebrated in the history of art, "il pallione del voto." dly. against inundations, flood, and fire, st. george is the great protector. this saint and st. barbara, who is patroness against thunder and tempest, express deliverance from such calamities, when in companionship. the "madonna di san giorgio" of correggio (dresden gal.) is a votive altar-piece dedicated on the occasion of a great inundation of the river secchia. she is seated on her throne, and the child looks down on the worshippers and votaries. st. george stands in front victorious, his foot on the head of the dragon. the introduction of st. geminiano tells us that the picture was painted for the city of modena; the presence of st. john the baptist and st. peter martyr show that it was dedicated by the dominicans, in their church of st. john. (see legends of the monastic orders.) * * * * * not less interesting are those votive madonnas dedicated by the piety of families and individuals. in the family altar-pieces, the votary is often presented on one side by his patron saint, and his wife by her patron on the other. not seldom a troop of hopeful sons attend the father, and a train of gentle, demure-looking daughters kneel behind the mother. such memorials of domestic affection and grateful piety are often very charming; they are pieces of family biography:[ ] we have celebrated examples both in german and italian art. [footnote : several are engraved, as illustrations, in litta's great history of the italian families.] . the "madonna della famiglia bentivoglio" was painted by lorenzo costa, for giovanni ii., lord or tyrant of bologna from to , the history of this giovanni is mixed up in an interesting manner with the revival of art and letters; he was a great patron of both, and among the painters in his service were francesco francia and lorenzo costa. the latter painted for him his family chapel in the church of san giacomo at bologna; and, while the bentivogli have long since been chased from their native territory, their family altar still remains untouched, unviolated. the virgin, as usual, is seated on a lofty throne bearing her divine child; she is veiled, no hair seen, and simply draped; she bends forward with mild benignity. to the right of the throne kneels giovanni with his four sons; on the left his wife, attended by six daughters: all are portraits, admirable studies for character and costume. behind the daughters, the head of an old woman is just visible,--according to tradition the old nurse of the family. . another most interesting family madonna is that of ludovico sforza il moro, painted for the church of sant' ambrogio at milan.[ ] the virgin sits enthroned, richly dressed, with long fair hair hanging down, and no veil or ornament; two angels hold a crown over her head. the child lies extended on her knee. round her throne are the four fathers, st. ambrose, st. gregory, st. jerome, and st. augustine. in front of the throne kneels ludovico il moro, duke of milan, in a rich dress and unarmed; ambrose, as protector of milan, lays his hand upon his shoulder. at his side kneels a boy about five years old. opposite to him is the duchess, beatrice d'este, also kneeling; and near her a little baby in swaddling clothes, holding up its tiny hands in supplication, kneels on a cushion. the age of the children shows the picture to have been painted about . the fate of ludovico il moro is well known: perhaps the blessed virgin deemed a traitor and an assassin unworthy of her protection. he died in the frightful prison of loches after twelve years of captivity; and both his sons, maximilian and francesco, were unfortunate. with them the family of sforza and the independence of milan were extinguished together in . [footnote : by an unknown painter of the school of lionardo, and now in the gallery, of the brera.] . another celebrated and most precious picture of this class is the virgin of the meyer family, painted by holbein for the burgomaster jacob meyer of basle.[ ] according to a family tradition, the youngest son of the burgomaster was sick even to death, and, through the merciful intercession of the virgin, was restored to his parents, who, in gratitude, dedicated this offering. she stands on a pedestal in a richly ornamented niche; over her long fair hair, which falls down her shoulders to her waist, she wears a superb crown; and her robe of a dark greenish blue is confined by a crimson girdle. in purity, dignity, humility, and intellectual grace, this exquisite madonna has never been surpassed; not even by raphael; the face, once seen, haunts the memory. the child in her arms is generally supposed to be the infant christ. i have fancied, as i look on the picture, that it may be the poor sick child recommended to her mercy, for the face is very pathetic, the limbs not merely delicate but attenuated, while, on comparing it with the robust child who stands below, the resemblance and the contrast are both striking. to the right of the virgin kneels the burgomaster meyer with two of his sons, one of whom holds the little brother who is restored to health, and seems to present him to the people. on the left kneel four females--the mother, the grandmother, and two daughters. all these are portraits, touched with that homely, vigorous truth, and finished with that consummate delicacy, which characterized holbein in his happiest efforts; and, with their earnest but rather ugly and earthly faces, contrasting with the divinely compassionate and refined being who looks down on them with an air so human, so maternal, and yet so unearthly. [footnote : dresden gal. the engraving by steinle is justly celebrated.] * * * * * sometimes it is a single votary who kneels before the madonna. in the old times he expressed his humility by placing himself in a corner and making himself so diminutive as to be scarce visible afterwards, the head of the votary or donor is seen life-size, with hands joined in prayer, just above the margin at the foot of the throne; care being taken to remove him from all juxtaposition with the attendant saints. but, as the religious feeling in art declined, the living votaries are mingled with the spiritual patrons--the "human mortals" with the "human immortals,"--with a disregard to time and place, which, if it be not so lowly in spirit, can be rendered by a great artist strikingly poetical and significant. . the renowned "madonna di foligno," one of raphael's masterpieces, is a votive picture of this class. it was dedicated by sigismund conti of foligno; private secretary to pope julius ii., and a distinguished man in other respects, a writer and a patron of learning. it appears that sigismund having been in great danger from a meteor or thunderbolt, vowed an offering to the blessed virgin, to whom he attributed his safety, and in fulfilment of his vow consecrated this precious picture. in the upper part of the composition sits the virgin in heavenly glory; by her side the infant christ, partly sustained by his mother's veil, which is drawn round his body: both look down benignly on the votary sigismund conti, who, kneeling below, gazes up with an expression of the most intense gratitude and devotion. it is a portrait from the life, and certainly one of the finest and most life-like that exists in painting. behind him stands st. jerome, who, placing his hand upon the head of the votary, seems to present him to his celestial protectress. on the opposite side john the baptist, the meagre wild-looking prophet of the desert, points upward to the redeemer. more in front kneels st. francis, who, while he looks up to heaven with trusting and imploring love, extends his right hand towards the worshippers, supposed to be assembled in the church, recommending them also to the protecting grace of the virgin. in the centre of the picture, dividing these two groups, stands a lovely angel-boy holding in his hand a tablet, one of the most charming figures of this kind raphael ever painted; the head, looking up, has that sublime, yet perfectly childish grace, which strikes us in those awful angel-boys in the "madonna di san sisto." the background is a landscape, in which appears the city of foligno at a distance; it is overshadowed by a storm-cloud, and a meteor is seen falling; but above these bends a rainbow, pledge of peace and safety. the whole picture glows throughout with life and beauty, hallowed by that profound religious sentiment which suggested the offering, and which the sympathetic artist seems to have caught from the grateful donor. it was dedicated in the church of the ara-coeli at rome, which belongs to the franciscans; hence st. francis is one of the principal figures. when i was asked, at rome, why st. jerome had been introduced into the picture, i thought it might be thus accounted for:--the patron saint of the donor, st. sigismund, was a king and a warrior, and conti might possibly think that it did not accord with his profession, as an humble ecclesiastic, to introduce him here. the most celebrated convent of the jeronimites in italy is that of st. sigismund near cremona, placed under the special protection of st. jerome, who is also in a general sense the patron of all ecclesiastics; hence, perhaps, he figures here as the protector of sigismund conti. the picture was painted, and placed over the high altar of the ara-coeli in , when raphael was in his twenty-eighth year. conti died in , and in his grandniece, suora anna conti, obtained permission to remove it to her convent at foligno, whence it was carried off by the french in . since the restoration of the works of art in italy, in , it has been placed among the treasures of the vatican. * * * * * . another perfect specimen of a votive picture of this kind, in a very different style, i saw in the museum at rouen, attributed there to van eyck. it is, probably, a fine work by a later master of the school, perhaps hemmelinck. in the centre, the virgin is enthroned; the child, seated on her knee, holds a bunch of grapes, symbol of the eucharist. on the right of the virgin is st. apollonia; then two lovely angels in white raiment, with lutes in their hands; and then a female head, seen looking from behind, evidently a family portrait. more in front, st. agnes, splendidly dressed in green and sable, her lamb at her feet, turns with a questioning air to st. catherine, who, in queenly garb of crimson and ermine seems to consult her book. behind her another member of the family, a man with a very fine face; and more in front st. dorothea, with a charming expression of modesty, looks down on her basket of roses. on the left of the virgin is st. agatha; then two angels in white with viols; then st. cecilia; and near her a female head, another family portrait; next st. barbara wearing a beautiful head-dress, in front of which is worked her tower, framed like an ornamental jewel in gold and pearls; she has a missal in her lap. st. lucia next appears; then another female portrait. all the heads are about one fourth of the size of life. i stood in admiration before this picture--such miraculous finish in all the details, such life, such spirit, such delicacy in the heads and hands, such brilliant colour in the draperies! of its history i could learn nothing, nor what family had thus introduced themselves into celestial companionship. the portraits seemed to me to represent a father, a mother, and two daughters. * * * * * i must mention some other instances of votive madonnas, interesting either from their beauty or their singularity. . réné, duke of anjou, and king of sicily and jerusalem, the father of our amazonian queen, margaret of anjou, dedicated, in the church of the carmelites, at aix, the capital of his dominions, a votive picture, which is still to be seen there. it is not only a monument of his piety, but of his skill; for, according to the tradition of the country, he painted it himself. the good king réné was no contemptible artist; but though he may have suggested the subject, the hand of a practised and accomplished painter is too apparent for us to suppose it his own work. this altar-piece in a triptychon, and when the doors are closed it measures twelve feet in height, and seven feet in width. on the outside of the doors is the annunciation: to the left, the angel standing on a pedestal, under a gothic canopy; to the right, the virgin standing with her book, under a similar canopy: both graceful figures. on opening the doors, the central compartment exhibits the virgin and her child enthroned in a burning bush; the bush which burned with fire, and was not consumed, being a favourite type of the immaculate purity of the virgin. lower down, in front, moses appears surrounded by his flocks, and at the command of an angel is about to take off his sandals. the angel is most richly dressed, and on the clasp of his mantle is painted in miniature adam and eve tempted by the serpent. underneath this compartment, is the inscription, "_rubum quem viderat moyses, incombustum, conservatam agnovimus tuam laudabilem virginitatem, sancta dei genitrix[ ]_." on the door to the right of the virgin kneels king réné himself before an altar, on which lies an open book and his kingly crown. he is dressed in a robe trimmed with ermine, and wears a black velvet cap. behind him, mary magdalene (the patroness of provence), st. antony, and st. maurice. on the other door, jeanne de laval, the second wife of réné, kneels before an open book; she is young and beautiful, and richly attired; and behind her stand st. john (her patron saint), st. catherine (very noble and elegant), and st. nicholas. i saw this curious and interesting picture in . it is very well preserved, and painted with great finish and delicacy in the manner of the early flemish school. [footnote : for the relation of moses to the virgin (as attribute) v. the introduction.] . in a beautiful little picture by van eyck (louvre, no. . ecole allemande), the virgin is seated on a throne, holding in her arms the infant christ, who has a globe in his left hand, and extends the right in the act of benediction. the virgin is attired as a queen, in a magnificent robe falling in ample folds around her, and trimmed with jewels; an angel, hovering with outspread wings, holds a crown over her head. on the left of the picture, a votary, in the dress of a flemish burgomaster, kneels before a prie-dieu, on which is an open book, and with clasped hands adores the mother and her child. the locality represents a gallery or portico paved with marble, and sustained by pillars in a fantastic moorish style. the whole picture is quite exquisite for the delicacy of colour and execution. in the catalogue of the louvre, this picture, is entitled "st. joseph adoring the infant christ,"--an obvious mistake, if we consider the style of the treatment and the customs of the time. . all who have visited the church of the frari at venice will remember--for once seen, they never can forget--the ex-voto altar-piece which adorns the chapel of the pesaro family. the beautiful virgin is seated on a lofty throne to the right of the picture, and presses to her bosom the _dio bambinetto_, who turns from her to bless the votary presented by st. peter. the saint stands on the steps of the throne, one hand on a book; and behind him kneels one of the pesaro family, who was at once bishop of paphos and commander of the pope's galleys: he approaches to consecrate to the madonna the standards taken from the turks, which are borne by st. george, as patron of venice. on the other side appear st. francis and st. antony of padua, as patrons of the church in which the picture is dedicated. lower down, kneeling on one side of the throne, is a group of various members of the pesaro family, three of whom are habited in crimson robes, as _cavalieri di san marco_; the other, a youth about fifteen, looks out of the picture, astonishingly _alive_, and yet sufficiently idealized to harmonize with the rest. this picture is very remarkable for several reasons. it is a piece of family history, curiously illustrative of the manners of the time. the pesaro here commemorated was an ecclesiastic, but appointed by alexander vi. to command the galleys with which he joined the venetian forces against the turks in . it is for this reason that st. peter--as representative here of the roman pontiff--introduces him to the madonna, while st. george, as patron of venice, attends him. the picture is a monument of the victory gained by pesaro, and the gratitude and pride of his family. it is also one of the finest works of titian; one of the earliest instances in which a really grand religious composition assumes almost a dramatic and scenic form, yet retains a certain dignity and symmetry worthy of its solemn destination.[ ] [footnote : we find in the catalogue of pictures which belonged to our charles i. one which represented "a pope preferring a general of his navy to st. peter." it is pope alexander vi. presenting this very pesaro to st. peter; that is, in plain unpictorial prose, giving him the appointment of admiral of the galleys of the roman states. this interesting picture, after many vicissitudes, is now in the museum at antwerp. (see the _handbook to the royal galleries_, p. .)] . i will give one more instance. there is in our national gallery a venetian picture which is striking from its peculiar and characteristic treatment. on one side, the virgin with her infant is seated on a throne; a cavalier, wearing armour and a turban, who looks as if he had just returned from the eastern wars, prostrates himself before her: in the background, a page (said to be the portrait of the painter) holds the horse of the votary. the figures are life-size, or nearly so, as well as i can remember, and the sentimental dramatic treatment is quite venetian. it is supposed to represent a certain duccio constanzo of treviso, and was once attributed to giorgione: it is certainly of the school of bellini. (nat. gal. catalogue, .) * * * * * as these enthroned and votive virgins multiplied, as it became more and more a fashion to dedicate them as offerings in churches, want of space, and perhaps, also, regard to expense, suggested the idea of representing the figures half-length. the venetians, from early time the best face painters in the world, appear to have been the first to cut off the lower part of the figure, leaving the arrangement otherwise much the same. the virgin is still a queenly and majestic creature, sitting there to be adored. a curtain or part of a carved chair represents her throne. the attendant saints are placed to the right and to the left; or sometimes the throne occupies one side of the picture, and the saints are ranged on the other. from the shape and diminished size of these votive pictures the personages, seen half-length, are necessarily placed very near to each other, and the heads nearly on a level with that of the virgin, who is generally seen to the knees, while the child is always full-length. in such compositions we miss the grandeur of the entire forms, and the consequent diversity of character and attitude; but sometimes the beauty and individuality of the heads atone for all other deficiencies. * * * * * in the earlier venetian examples, those of gian bellini particularly, there is a solemn quiet elevation which renders them little inferior, in religious sentiment, to the most majestic of the enthroned and enskied madonnas. * * * * * there is a sacred group by bellini, in the possession of sir charles eastlake, which has always appeared to me a very perfect specimen of this class of pictures. it is also the earliest i know of. the virgin, pensive, sedate, and sweet, like all bellini's virgins, is seated in the centre, and seen in front. the child, on her knee, blesses with his right hand, and the virgin places hers on the head of a votary, who just appears above the edge of the picture, with hands joined in prayer; he is a fine young man with an elevated and elegant profile. on the right are st. john the baptist pointing to the saviour, and st. catherine; on the left, st. george with his banner, and st. peter holding his book. a similar picture, with mary magdalene and st. jerome on the right, st. peter and st. martha on the left, is in the leuchtenberg gallery at munich. another of exquisite beauty is in the venice academy, in which the lovely st. catherine wears a crown of myrtle. once introduced, these half-length enthroned madonnas became very common, spreading from the venetian states through the north of italy; and we find innumerable examples from the best schools of art in italy and germany, from the middle of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century. i shall particularize a few of these, which will be sufficient to guide the attention of the observer; and we must carefully discriminate between the sentiment proper to these half-length enthroned madonnas, and the pastoral or domestic sacred groups and holy families, of which i shall have to treat hereafter. raphael's well-known madonna _della seggiola_ and madonna _della candelabra_, are both enthroned virgins in the grand style, though seen half-length. in fact, the air of the head ought, in the higher schools of art, at once to distinguish a madonna, _in trono_, even where only the head is visible. * * * * * in a milanese picture, the virgin and child appear between st. laurence and st. john. the mannered and somewhat affected treatment is contrasted with the quiet, solemn simplicity of a group by francia, where the virgin and child appear as objects of worship between st. dominick and st. barbara. the child, standing or seated on a table or balustrade in front, enabled the painter to vary the attitude, to take the infant christ out of the arms of the mother, and to render his figure more prominent. it was a favourite arrangement with the venetians; and there is an instance in a pretty picture in our national gallery, attributed to perugino. sometimes, even where the throne and the attendant saints and angels show the group to be wholly devotional and exalted, we find the sentiment varied by a touch of the dramatic,--by the introduction of an action; but it must be one of a wholly religious significance, suggestive of a religious feeling, or the subject ceases to be properly _devotional_ in character. there is a picture by botticelli, before which, in walking up the corridor of the florence gallery, i used, day after day, to make an involuntary pause of admiration. the virgin, seated in a chair of state, but seen only to the knees, sustains her divine son with one arm; four angels are in attendance, one of whom presents an inkhorn, another holds before her an open book, and she is in the act of writing the magnificat, "my soul doth magnify the lord!" the head of the figure behind the virgin is the portrait of lorenzo de' medici when a boy. there is absolutely no beauty of feature, either in the madonna, or the child, or the angels, yet every face is full of dignity and character. in a beautiful picture by titian (bel. gal., vienna. louvre, no. ), the virgin is enthroned on the left, and on the right appear st. george and st. laurence as listening, while st. jerome reads from his great book. a small copy of this picture is at windsor. * * * * * the old german and flemish painters, in treating the enthroned madonna, sometimes introduced accessories which no painter of the early italian school would have descended to; and which tinge with a homely sentiment their most exalted conceptions. thus, i have seen a german madonna seated on a superb throne, and most elaborately and gorgeously arrayed, pressing her child to her bosom with a truly maternal air; while beside her, on a table, is a honeycomb, some butter, a dish of fruit, and a glass of water. (bel. gal., vienna.) it is possible that in this case, as in the virgin suckling her child, there may be a religious allusion:--"_butter and honey shall he eat_," &c. the mater amabilis. _ital._ la madonna col bambino. la madonna col celeste suo figlio. _fr._ la vierge et l'enfant jesus. _ger._ maria mit dem kind. there is yet another treatment of the madonna and child, in which the virgin no longer retains the lofty goddess-like exaltation given to her in the old time. she is brought nearer to our sympathies. she is not seated in a chair of state with the accompaniments of earthly power; she is not enthroned on clouds, nor glorified and star-crowned in heaven; she is no longer so exclusively the vergine dea, nor the virgo dei genitrix; but she is still the alma mater redemptoris, the young, and lovely, and most pure mother of a divine christ. she is not sustained in mid-air by angels; she dwells lowly on earth; but the angels leave their celestial home to wait upon her. such effigies, when conceived in a strictly ideal and devotional sense, i shall designate as the mater amabilis. the first and simplest form of this beautiful and familiar subject, we find in those innumerable half-length figures of the madonna, holding her child in her arms, painted chiefly for oratories, private or way-side chapels, and for the studies, libraries, and retired chambers of the devout, as an excitement to religious feeling, and a memorial of the mystery of the incarnation, where large or grander subjects, or more expensive pictures, would be misplaced. though unimportant in comparison with the comprehensive and magnificent church altar-pieces already described, there is no class of pictures so popular and so attractive, none on which the character of the time and the painter is stamped more clearly and intelligibly, than on these simple representations. the virgin is not here the dispenser of mercy; she is simply the mother of the redeemer. she is occupied only by her divine son. she caresses him, or she gazes on him fondly. she presents him to the worshipper. she holds him forth with a pensive joy as the predestined offering. if the profound religious sentiment of the early masters was afterwards obliterated by the unbelief and conventionalism of later art, still this favourite subject could not be so wholly profaned by degrading sentiments and associations, as the mere portrait heads of the virgin alone. no matter what the model for the madonna, might have been,--a wife, a mistress, a _contadina_ of frascati, a venetian _zitella_, a _madchen_ of nuremberg, a buxom flemish _frau_,--for the child was there; the baby innocence in her arms consecrated her into that "holiest thing alive," a mother. the theme, however inadequately treated as regarded its religious significance, was sanctified in itself beyond the reach of a profane thought. miserable beyond the reach of hope, dark below despair, that moral atmosphere which the presence of sinless unconscious infancy cannot for a moment purify or hallow! among the most ancient and most venerable of the effigies of the madonna, we find the old greek pictures of the _mater amabilis_, if that epithet can be properly applied to the dark-coloured, sad-visaged madonnas generally attributed to st. luke, or transcripts of those said to be painted by him, which exist in so many churches, and are, or were, supposed by the people to possess a peculiar sanctity. these are almost all of oriental origin, or painted to imitate the pictures brought from the east in the tenth or twelfth century. there are a few striking and genuine examples of these ancient greek madonnas in the florentine gallery, and, nearer at hand, in the wallerstein collection at kensington palace. they much resemble each other in the general treatment. the infinite variety which painters have given to this most simple _motif_, the mother and the child only, without accessories or accompaniments of any kind, exceeds all possibility of classification, either as to attitude or sentiment. here raphael shone supreme: the simplicity, the tenderness, the halo of purity and virginal dignity, which he threw round the _mater amabilis_ have, never been surpassed--in his best pictures, never equalled. the "madonna del gran-duca," where the virgin holds the child seated on her arm; the "madonna tempi," where she so fondly presses her check to his,--are perhaps the most remarkable for simplicity. the madonna of the bridgewater gallery, where the infant lies on her knees, and the mother and son look into each other's eyes; the little "madonna conestabile," where she holds the book, and the infant christ, with a serious yet perfectly childish grace, bends to turn over the leaf,--are the most remarkable for sentiment. other madonnas by raphael, containing three or more figures, do not belong to this class of pictures. they are not strictly devotional, but are properly holy families, groups and scenes from the domestic life of the virgin. with regard, to other painters before or since his time, the examples of the _mater amabilis_ so abound la public and private galleries, and have been so multiplied in prints, that comparison is within the reach of every observer. i will content myself with noticing a few of the most remarkable for beauty or characteristic treatment. two painters, who eminently excelled in simplicity and purity of sentiment, are gian bellini of venice, and bernardino luini of milan. squarcione, though often fantastic, has painted one or two of these madonnas, remarkable for simplicity and dignity, as also his pupil mantegna; though in both the style of execution is somewhat hard and cold. in the one by fra bartolomeo, there is such a depth of maternal tenderness in the expression and attitude, we wonder where the good monk found his model. in his own heart? in his dreams? a _mater amabilis_ by one of the caracci or by vandyck is generally more elegant and dignified than tender. the madonna, for instance, by annibal, has something of the majestic sentiment of an enthroned madonna. murillo excelled in this subject; although most of his virgins have a portrait air of common life, they are redeemed by the expression. in one of these, the child, looking out of the picture with extended arms and eyes full of divinity, seems about to spring forth to fulfil his mission. in another he folds his little hands, and looks up to heaven, as if devoting himself to his appointed suffering, while the mother looks down upon him with a tender resignation. (leuchtenberg gal.) in a noble madonna by vandyck (bridgewater gal.), it is she herself who devotes him to do his father's will; and i still remember a picture of this class, by carlo cignani (belvedere gal., vienna), which made me start, with the intense expression: the mother presses to her the child, who holds a cross in his baby hand; she looks up to heaven with an appealing look of love and anguish,--almost of reproach. guido did not excel so much in children, as in the virgin alone. poussin, carlo dolce, sasso ferrato, and, in general, all the painters of the seventeenth century, give us pretty women and pretty children. we may pass them over. a second version of the mater amabilis, representing the virgin and child full-length, but without accessories, has been also very beautifully treated. she is usually seated in a landscape, and frequently within the mystical enclosure (_hortus clausus_), which is sometimes in the german pictures a mere palisade of stakes or boughs. andrea mantegna, though a fantastic painter, had generally some meaning in his fancies. there is a fine picture of his in which the virgin and child are seated in a landscape, and in the background is a stone-quarry, where a number of figures are seen busily at work; perhaps hewing the stone to build the new temple of which our saviour was the corner-stone. (florence gal.) in a group by cristofano allori, the child places a wreath of flowers on the brow of his mother, holding in his other hand his own crown of thorns: one of the _fancies_ of the later schools of art. the introduction of the little st. john into the group of the virgin and child lends it a charming significance and variety, and is very popular; we must, however, discriminate between the familiarity of the domestic subject and the purely religious treatment. when the giovannino adores with folded hands, as acknowledging in christ a superior power, or kisses his feet humbly, or points to him exulting, then it is evident that we have the two children in their spiritual character, the child, priest and king, and the child, prophet. in a picture by lionardo da vinci (coll. of the earl of suffolk), the madonna, serious and beautiful, without either crown or veil, and adorned only by her long fair hair, is seated on a rock. on one side, the little christ, supported in the arms of an angel, raises his hand in benediction; on the other side, the young st. john, presented by the virgin, kneels in adoration. where the children are merely embracing each other, or sporting at the feet of the virgin, or playing with the cross, or with a bird, or with the lamb, or with flowers, we might call the treatment domestic or poetical; but where st. john is taking the cross from the hand of christ, it is clear, from the perpetual repetition of the theme, that it is intended to express a religious allegory. it is the mission of st. john as baptist and prophet. he receives the symbol of faith ere he goes forth to preach and to convert, or as it has been interpreted, he, in the sense used by our lord, "takes up the cross of our lord." the first is, i think, the meaning when the cross is enwreathed with the _ecce agnus dei_; the latter, when it is a simple cross. in raphael's "madonna della famiglia alva," (now in the imp. gal., st. petersburg), and in his madonna of the vienna gallery, christ gives the cross to st. john. in a picture of the lionardo school in the louvre we have the same action; and again in a graceful group by guido, which, in the engraving, bears this inscription, "_qui non accipit crucem suam non est me dignus_." (matt. x. .) this, of course, fixes the signification. another, and, as i think, a wholly fanciful interpretation, has been given to this favourite group by treck and by monckton milnes. the children contend for the cross. the little st. john begs to have it. "give me the cross, i pray you, dearest jesus. o if you knew how much i wish to have it, you would not hold it in your hand so tightly. something has told me, something in my breast here, which i am sure is true, that if you keep it, if you will let no other take it from you, terrible things i cannot bear to think of must fall upon you. show me that you love me: am i not here to be your little servant, follow your steps, and wait upon your wishes?" but christ refuses to yield the terrible plaything, and claims his privilege to be the elder "in the heritage of pain." in a picture by carlo maratti, i think this action is evident--christ takes the cross, and st. john yields it with reluctance. a beautiful version of the mater amabilis is the madre pia, where the virgin in her divine infant acknowledges and adores the godhead. we must be careful to distinguish this subject from the nativity, for it is common, in the scene of the birth of the saviour at bethlehem, to represent the virgin adoring her new-born child. the presence of joseph--the ruined shed or manger--the ox and ass,--these express the _event_. but in the madre pia properly so called, the locality, and the accessories, if any, are purely ideal and poetical, and have no reference to time or place. the early florentines, particularly lorenzo di credi, excelled in this charming subject. there is a picture by filippino lippi, which appears to me eminently beautiful and poetical. here the mystical garden is formed of a balustrade, beyond which is seen a hedge all in a blush with roses. the virgin kneels in the midst, and adores her infant, who has his finger on his lip (_verbum sum!_); an angel scatters rose-leaves over him, while the little st. john also kneels, and four angels, in attitudes of adoration, complete the group. but a more perfect example is the madonna by francia in the munich gallery, where the divine infant lies on the flowery turf; and the mother, standing before him and looking down on him, seems on the point of sinking on her knees in a transport of tenderness and devotion. this, to my feeling, is one of the most perfect pictures in the world; it leaves nothing to be desired. with all the simplicity of the treatment it is strictly devotional. the mother and her child are placed within the mystical garden enclosed in a treillage of roses, alone with each other, and apart from all earthly associations, all earthly communion. the beautiful altar-piece by perugino in our national gallery is properly a madre pia; the child seated on a cushion is sustained by an angel, the mother kneels before him. the famous correggio in the florentine gallery is also a madre pia. it is very tender, sweet, and maternal. the child lying on part of his mother's blue mantle, so arranged that while she kneels and bends over him, she cannot change her attitude without disturbing him, is a _concetto_ admired by critics in sentiment and art; but it appears to me very inferior and commonplace in comparison to the francia at munich. in a group by botticelli, angels sustain the infant, while the mother, seated, with folded hands, adores him: and in a favourite composition by guido he sleeps. and, lastly, we have the mater amabilis in a more complex, and picturesque, though still devotional, form. the virgin, seen at full length, reclines on a verdant bank, or is seated under a tree. she is not alone with her child. holy personages, admitted to a communion with her, attend around her, rather sympathizing than adoring. the love of varied nature, the love of life under all its aspects, became mingled with the religious conception. instead of carefully avoiding whatever may remind us of her earthly relationship, the members of her family always form a part of her _cortège_. this pastoral and dramatic treatment began with the venetian and paduan schools, and extended to the early german schools, which were allied to them in feeling, though contrasted with them in form and execution. the perpetual introduction of st. joseph, st. elizabeth, and other relatives of the virgin (always avoided in a madonna dell trono), would compose what is called a holy family, but that the presence of sainted personages whose existence and history belong to a wholly different era--st. catherine, st. george, st. francis, or st. dominick--takes the composition out of the merely domestic and historical, and lifts it at once into the ideal and devotional line of art. such a group cannot well be styled a _sacra famiglia_; it is a _sacra conversazione_ treated in the pastoral and lyrical rather than the lofty epic style. in this subject the venetians, who first introduced it, excel all other painters. there is no example by raphael. the german and flemish painters who adopted this treatment were often coarse and familiar; the later italians became flippant and fantastic. the venetians alone knew how to combine the truest feeling for nature with a sort of elysian grace. i shall give a few examples. . in a picture by titian (dresden gal.), the virgin is seated on a green bank enamelled with flowers. she is simply dressed like a _contadina_, in a crimson tunic, and a white veil half shading her fair hair. she holds in her arms her lovely infant, who raises his little hand in benediction. st. catherine kneels before him on one side; on the other, st. barbara. st. john the baptist, not as a child, and the contemporary of our saviour, but in likeness of an arcadian shepherd, kneels with his cross and his lamb--the _ecce agnus dei_, expressed, not in words, but in form. st. george stands by as a guardian warrior. and st. joseph, leaning on his stick behind, contemplates the group with an air of dignified complacency. . there is another instance also from titian. in a most luxuriant landscape thick with embowering trees, and the mountains of cadore in the background, the virgin is seated on a verdant bank; st. catherine has thrown herself on her knees, and stretches out her arms to the divine child in an ecstasy of adoration, in which there is nothing unseemly or familiar. at a distance st. john the baptist approaches with his lamb. . in another very similar group, the action of st. catherine is rather too familiar,--it is that of an eider sister or a nurse: the young st. john kneels in worship. . wonderfully fine is a picture of this class by palma, now in the dresden gallery. the noble, serious, sumptuous loveliness of the virgin; the exquisite child, so thoughtful, yet so infantine; the manly beauty of the st. john; the charming humility of the st. catherine as she presents her palm, form one of the most perfect groups in the world. childhood, motherhood, maidenhood, manhood, were never, i think, combined in so sweet a spirit of humanity.[ ] [footnote : when i was at dresden, in , i found steinle, so celebrated for his engravings of the madonna di san sisto and the holbein madonna, employed on this picture; and, as far as his art could go, transferring to his copper all the fervour and the _morbidezza_ of the original.] . in another picture by palma, in the same gallery, we have the same picturesque arrangement of the virgin and child, while the _little_ st. john adores with folded hands, and st. catherine sits by in tender contemplation. this arcadian sentiment is carried as far as could well be allowed in a picture by titian (louvre, ), known as the _vierge au lapin_. the virgin holds a white rabbit, towards which the infant christ, in the arms of st. catherine, eagerly stretches his hand. in a picture by paris bordone it is carried, i think, too far. the virgin reclines under a tree with a book in her hand; opposite to her sits st. joseph holding an apple; between them, st. john the baptist, as a bearded man, holds in his arms the infant christ, who caressingly puts one arm round his neck, and with the other clings to the rough hairy raiment of his friend. * * * * * it will be observed, that in these venetian examples st. catherine, the beloved protectress of venice, is seldom omitted. she is not here the learned princess who confounded tyrants and converted philosophers, but a bright-haired, full-formed venetian maiden, glowing with love and life, yet touched with a serious grace, inexpressibly charming. st. dorothea is also a favourite saint in these sacred pastorals. there is an instance in which she is seated by the virgin with her basket of fruits and flowers; and st. jerome, no longer beating his breast in penance, but in likeness of a fond old grandfather, stretches out his arms to the child. much finer is a picture now in the possession of sir charles eastlake. the lovely virgin is seated under a tree: on one side appears the angel raphael, presenting tobit; on the other, st. dorothea, kneeling, holds up her basket of celestial fruit, gathered for her in paradise.[ ] [footnote : see sacred and legendary art, for the beautiful legend of st. dorothea] when st. ursula, with her standard, appears in these venetian pastorals, we may suppose the picture to have been painted for the famous brotherhood (_scuola di sant' orsola_) which bears her name. thus, in a charming picture by palma, she appears before the virgin, accompanied by st. mark a protector of venice. (vienna, belvedere gal.) ex-voto pictures in this style are very interesting, and the votary, without any striking impropriety, makes one of the arcadian group. very appropriate, too, is the marriage of st. catherine, often treated in this poetical style. in a picture by titian, the family of the virgin attend the mystical rite, and st. anna places the hand of st. catherine in that of the child. in a group by signorelli, christ appears as if teaching st. catherine; he dictates, and she, the patroness of "divine philosophy," writes down his words. when the later painters in their great altar-pieces imitated this idyllic treatment, the graceful venetian conception became in their hands heavy, mannered, tasteless,--and sometimes worse. the monastic saints or mitred dignitaries, introduced into familiar and irreverent communion with the sacred and ideal personages, in spite of the grand scenery, strike us as at once prosaic and fantastic "we marvel how they got there." parmigiano, when he fled from the sack of rome in , painted at bologna, for the nuns of santa margherita, an altar-piece which has been greatly celebrated. the madonna, holding her child, is seated in a landscape under a tree, and turns her head to the bishop st. petronius, protector of bologna. st. margaret, kneeling and attended by her great dragon, places one hand, with a free and easy air, on the knee of the virgin, and with the other seems to be about to chuck the infant christ under the chin. in a large picture by giacomo francia, the virgin, walking in a flowery meadow with the infant christ and st. john, and attended by st. agnes and mary magdalene, meets st. francis and st. dominick, also, apparently, taking a walk. (berlin gal. no. .) and again;--the madonna and st. elizabeth meet with their children in a landscape, while st. peter, st. paul, and st. benedict stand behind in attitudes of attention and admiration. now, such pictures may be excellently well painted, greatly praised by connoisseurs, and held in "_somma venerazione_," but they are offensive as regards the religious feeling, and, are, in point of taste, mannered, fantastic, and secular. * * * * * here we must end our discourse concerning the virgin and child as a devotional subject. very easily and delightfully to the writer, perhaps not painfully to the reader, we might have gone on to the end of the volume; but my object was not to exhaust the subject, to point out every interesting variety of treatment, but to lead the lover of art, wandering through a church or gallery, to new sources of pleasure; to show him what infinite shades of feeling and character may still be traced in a subject which, with all its beauty and attractiveness, might seem to have lost its significant interest, and become trite from endless repetition; to lead the mind to some perception of the intention of the artist in his work,--under what aspect he had himself contemplated and placed before the worshipper the image of the mother of christ,--whether crowned and enthroned as the sovereign lady of christendom; or exalted as the glorious empress of heaven and all the spiritual world; or bending benignly over us, the impersonation of sympathizing womanhood, the emblem of relenting love, the solace of suffering humanity, the maid and mother, dear and undefiled-- "created beings all in lowliness surpassing, as in height above them all." it is time to change the scene,--to contemplate the virgin, as she has been exhibited to us in the relations of earthly life, as the mere woman, acting and suffering, loving, living, dying, fulfilling the highest destinies in the humblest state, in the meekest spirit. so we begin her history as the ancient artists have placed it before us, with that mingled _naïveté_ and reverence, that vivid dramatic power, which only faith, and love, and genius united, could impart. historical subjects part i. the life of the virgin mary from her birth to her marriage with joseph. . the legend of joachim and anna. . the nativity of the blessed virgin. . the dedication in the temple. . the marriage with joseph. the legend of joachim and anna. _ital._ la leggenda di sant' anna madre della gloriosa vergine maria, e di san gioacchino. of the sources whence are derived the popular legends of the life of the virgin mary, which, mixed up with the few notices in scripture, formed one continuous narrative, authorized by the priesthood, and accepted and believed in by the people, i have spoken at length in the introduction. we have now to consider more particularly the scenes and characters associated with her history; to show how the artists of the middle ages, under the guidance and by the authority of the church, treated in detail these favourite themes in ecclesiastical decoration. in early art, that is, up to the end of the fifteenth century, joachim and anna, the parents of the virgin, never appear except in the series of subjects from her life. in the devotional groups and altar-pieces, they are omitted. st. bernard, the great theological authority of those times, objects to the invocation of any saints who had lived before the birth of christ, consequently to their introduction into ecclesiastical edifices in any other light than as historical personages. hence, perhaps, there were scruples relative to the representations of st. anna, which, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, placed the artists under certain restrictions. under the name of anna, the church has honoured, from remote times, the memory of the mother of the virgin. the hebrew name, signifying _grace_, or _the gracious_, and all the traditions concerning her, came to us from the east, where she was so early venerated as a saint, that a church was dedicated to her by the emperor justinian, in . several other churches were subsequently dedicated to her in constantinople during the sixth and seventh centuries, and her remains are said to have been deposited there in . in the west, she first became known in the reign of charlemagne; and the greek apocryphal gospels, or at least stories and extracts from them, began to be circulated about the same period. from these are derived the historic scenes and legendary subjects relating to joachim and anna which appear in early art. it was about , in the beginning of the sixteenth century, that the increasing veneration for the virgin mary gave to her parents, more especially to st. anna, increased celebrity as patron saints; and they became, thenceforward, more frequent characters in the sacred groups. the feast of st. anna was already general and popular throughout europe long before it was rendered obligatory in .[ ] the growing enthusiasm for the doctrine of the immaculate conception gave, of course, additional splendour and importance to her character. still, it is only in later times that we find the effigy of st. anna separated from that of the virgin. there is a curious picture by cesi (bologna gal.), in which st. anna kneels before a vision of her daughter before she is born--the virgin of the immaculate conception. a fine model of a bearded man was now sometimes converted into a st. joachim reading or meditating, instead of a st. peter or a st. jerome, as heretofore. in the munich gallery are two fine ancient-looking figures of st. joachim the father, and st. joseph the husband, of the virgin, standing together; but all these as separate representations, are very uncommon; and, of those which exhibit st. anna devotionally, as enthroned with the virgin and child, i have already spoken. like st. elizabeth, she should be an elderly, but not a _very_ old woman. joachim, in such pictures, never appears but as an attendant saint, and then very rarely; always very old, and sometimes in the dress of a priest, which however, is a mistake on the part of the artist. [footnote : in england we have twenty-eight churches dedicated in the name of st. anna.] * * * * * a complete series of the history of the blessed virgin, as imaged forth by the early artists, always begins with the legend of joachim and anna, which is thus related. "there was a man of nazareth, whose name was joachim, and he had for his wife a woman of bethlehem, whose name was anna, and both were of the royal race of david. their lives were pure and righteous, and they served the lord with singleness of heart. and being rich, they divided their substance into three portions, one for the service of the temple, one for the poor and the strangers, and the third for their household. on a certain feast day, joachim brought double offerings to the lord according to his custom, for he said, 'out of my superfluity will i give for the whole people, that i may find favour in the sight of the lord, and forgiveness for my sins.' and when the children of israel brought their gifts, joachim also brought his; but the high priest issachar stood over against him and opposed him, saying, 'it is not lawful for thee to bring thine offering, seeing that thou hast not begot issue in israel.' and joachim was exceeding sorrowful, and went down to his house; and he searched through all the registers of the twelve tribes to discover if he alone had been childless in israel. and he found that all the righteous men, and the patriarchs who had lived before him, had been the fathers of sons and daughters. and he called to mind his father abraham, to whom in his old age had been granted a son, even isaac. "and joachim was more and more sorrowful; and he would not be seen by his wife, but avoided her, and went away into the pastures where were the shepherds and the sheep-cotes. and he built himself a hut, and fasted forty days and forty nights; for he said 'until the lord god look upon me mercifully, prayer shall be my meat and my drink.' "but his wife anna remained lonely in her house, and mourned with a twofold sorrow, for her widowhood and for her barrenness. "then drew near the last day of the feast of the lord; and judith her handmaid said to anna, 'how long wilt thou thus afflict thy soul? behold the feast of the lord is come, and it is not lawful for thee thus to mourn. take this silken fillet, which was bestowed on me by one of high degree whom i formerly served, and bind it round thy head, for it is not fit that i who am thy handmaid should wear it, but it is fitting for thee, whose brow is as the brow of a crowned queen.' and anna replied, 'begone! such things are not for me, for the lord hath humbled me. as for this fillet, some wicked person hath given it to thee; and art thou come to make me a partaker in thy sin?' and judith her maid answered, 'what evil shall i wish thee since thou wilt not hearken to my voice? for worse i cannot wish thee than that with which the lord hath afflicted thee, seeing that he hath shut up thy womb, that thou shouldst not be a mother in israel.' "and anna hearing these words was sorely troubled. and she laid aside her mourning garments, and she adorned her head, and put on her bridal attire; and at the ninth hour she went forth into her garden, and sat down under a laurel tree and prayed earnestly. and looking up to heaven, she saw within the laurel bush a sparrow's nest; and mourning within herself she said, 'alas! and woe is me! who hath begotten me? who hath brought me forth? that i should be accursed in the sight of israel, and scorned and shamed before my people, and cast out of the temple of the lord! woe is me! to what shall i be likened? i cannot be likened to the fowls of heaven, for the fowls of heaven are fruitful in thy sight, o lord! woe is me! to what shall i be likened? not to the unreasoning beasts of the earth, for they are fruitful in thy sight, o lord! woe is me! to what shall i be likened? not to these waters, for they are fruitful in thy sight, o lord! woe is me! to what shall i be likened? not unto the earth, for the earth bringeth forth her fruit in due season, and praiseth thee, o lord!' "and behold an angel of the lord stood by her and said, 'anna, thy prayer is heard, thou shalt bring forth, and thy child shall be blessed throughout the whole world.' and anna said, 'as the lord liveth, whatever i shall bring forth, be it a man-child or a maid, i will present it an offering to the lord.' and behold another angel came and said to her, 'see, thy husband joachim is coming with his shepherds;' for an angel had spoken to him also, and had comforted him with promises. and anna went forth to meet her husband, and joachim came from the pasture with his herds, and they met at the golden gate; and anna ran and embraced her husband, and hung upon his neck, saying, 'now know i that the lord hath blessed me. i who was a widow am no longer a widow; i who was barren shall become a joyful mother.' "and they returned home together. "and when her time was come, anna brought forth a daughter; and she said, 'this day my soul magnifieth the lord.' and she laid herself down in her bed; and she called, the name of her child mary, which in the hebrew is miriam." * * * * * with the scenes of this beautiful pastoral begins the life of the virgin. . we have first joachim rejected from the temple. he stands on the steps before the altar holding a lamb; and the high priest opposite to him, with arm upraised, appears to refuse his offering. such is the usual _motif_; but the incident has been variously treated--in the earlier and ruder examples, with a ludicrous want of dignity; for joachim is almost tumbling down the steps of the temple to avoid the box on the ear which issachar the priest is in the act of bestowing in a most energetic fashion. on the other hand, the group by taddeo gaddi (florence, baroncelli chapel, s. croce), though so early in date, has not since been excelled either in the grace or the dramatic significance of the treatment. joachim turns away, with his lamb in his arms, repulsed, but gently, by the priest. to the right are three personages who bring offerings, one of whom, prostrate on his knees, yet looks up at joachim with a sneering expression--a fine representation of the pharisaical piety of one of the elect, rejoicing in the humiliation of a brother. on the other side are three persons who appear to be commenting on the scene. in the more elaborate composition by ghirlandajo (florence, s. maria novella), there is a grand view into the interior of the temple, with arches richly sculptured. joachim is thrust forth by one of the attendants, while in the background the high priest accepts the offering of a more favoured votary. on each side are groups looking on, who express the contempt and hatred they feel for one, who, not having children, presumes to approach the altar. all these, according to the custom of ghirlandajo, are portraits of distinguished persons. the first figure on the right represents the painter baldovinetti; next to him, with his hand on his side, ghirlandajo himself; the third, with long black hair, is bastiano mainardi, who painted the assumption in the baroncelli chapel, in the santa croce; and the fourth, turning his back, is david ghirlandajo. these real personages are so managed, that, while they are not themselves actors, they do not interfere with the main action, but rather embellish and illustrate it, like the chorus in a greek tragedy. every single figure in this fine fresco is a study for manly character, dignified attitude, and easy grand drapery. in the same scene by albert durer,[ ] the high priest, standing behind a table, rejects the offering of the lamb, and his attendant pushes away the doves. joachim makes a gesture of despair, and several persons who bring offerings look at him with disdain or with sympathy. [footnote : in the set of wood-cuts of the life of the virgin.] the same scene by luini (milan, brera) is conceived with much pathetic as well as dramatic effect. but as i have said enough to reader the subject easily recognized, we proceed. * * * * * . "joachim herding his sheep on the mountain, and surrounded by his shepherds, receives the message of the angel." this subject may so nearly resemble the annunciation to the shepherds in st. luke's gospel, that we must be careful to distinguish them, as, indeed, the best of the old painters have done with great taste and feeling. is the fresco by taddeo gaddi (in the baroncelli chapel), joachim is seated on a rocky mountain, at the base of which his sheep are feeding, and turns round to listen to the voice of the angel. in the fresco by giotto in the arena at padua, the treatment is nearly the same.[ ] in the series by luini, a stream runs down the centre of the picture: on one side is joachim listening to the angel, on the other, anna is walking in her garden. this incident is omitted by ghirlandajo. in albert durer's composition, joachim is seen in the foreground kneeling, and looking up at an angel, who holds out in both hands a sort of parchment roll looking like a diploma with seals appended, and which we may suppose to contain the message from on high (if it be not rather the emblem of the _sealed book_, so often introduced, particularly by the german masters). a companion of joachim also looks up with amazement, and farther in the distance are sheep and shepherds. [footnote : the subject will be found in the set of wood-cuts published by the arundel society.] the annunciation to st. anna may be easily mistaken for the annunciation to the virgin mary;--we must therefore be careful to discriminate, by an attention to the accessories. didron observes that in western art the annunciation to st. anna usually takes place in a chamber. in the east it takes place in a garden, because there "_on vit feu dans les maisons et beaucoup en plein air_;" but, according to the legend, the locality ought to be a garden, and under a laurel tree, which is not always attended to. . the altercation between st. anna and her maid judith i have never met with but once, in the series by luini, where the disconsolate figure and expression of st. anna are given with infinite grace and sentiment. (milan, brera.) * * * * * . "the meeting of joachim and anna before the golden gate." this is one of the most important subjects. it has been treated by the very early artists with much _naïveté_, and in the later examples with infinite beauty and sentiment; and, which is curious, it has been idealized into a devotional subject, and treated apart. the action is in itself extremely simple. the husband and wife affectionately and joyfully embrace each other. in the background is seen a gate, richly ornamented. groups of spectators and attendants are sometimes, not always, introduced. in the composition of albert durer nothing can be more homely, hearty, and conjugal. a burly fat man, who looks on with a sort of wondering amusement in his face, appears to be a true and animated transcript from nature, as true as ghirlandajo's attendant figures--but how different! what a contrast between the florentine citizen and the german burgher! in the simpler composition by taddeo gaddi, st. anna is attended by three women, among whom the maid judith is conspicuous, and behind joachim is one of his shepherds[ ]. [footnote : in two compartments of a small altar-piece (which probably represented in the centre the nativity of the virgin), i found on one side the story of st. joachim, on the other the story of st. anna.--_collection of lord northwick, no. , in his catalogue_.] the franciscans, those enthusiastic defenders of the immaculate conception, were the authors of a fantastic idea, that the birth of the virgin was not only _immaculate_, but altogether _miraculous_, and that she owed her being to the joyful kiss which joachim gave his wife when they met at the gate. of course the church gave no countenance to this strange poetical fiction, but it certainly modified some of the representations; for example, there is a picture by vittore carpaccio, wherein st. joachim and anna tenderly embrace. on one side stands st. louis of toulouse as bishop; on the other st. ursula with her standard, whose presence turns the incident into a religious mystery. in another picture, painted by ridolfo ghirlandajo, we have a still more singular and altogether mystical treatment. in the centre st. joachim and st. anna embrace; behind st. joachim stands st. joseph with his lily wand and a book; behind st. anna, the virgin mary (thus represented as existing before she was born[ ]), and beyond her st. laurence; in the corner is seen the head of the votary, a servite monk; above all, the padre eterno holds an open book with the _alpha_ and _omega_. this singular picture was dedicated and placed over the high altar of the conception in the church of the servi, who, under the title of _serviti di maria_, were dedicated to the especial service of the virgin mary. (v. legends of the monastic orders.) [footnote : prov. viii , . these texts are applied to the madonna.] the nativity of the blessed virgin. _ital._ la nascità della b. vergine. _fr._ la naissance de la s. vierge. _ger._ die geburt maria. this is, of course, a very important subject. it is sometimes treated apart as a separate scene; and a series of pictures dedicated to the honour of the virgin, and comprising only a few of the most eventful scenes in her history, generally begins with her nativity. the primitive treatment is greek, and, though varied in the details and the sentiment, it has never deviated much from the original _motif_. st. anna reclines on a couch covered with drapery, and a pillow under her head; two handmaids sustain her; a third fans her, or presents refreshments; more in front a group of women are busied about the new-born child. it has been the custom, i know not on what authority, to introduce neighbours and friends, who come to congratulate the parents. the whole scene thus treated is sure to come home to the bosom of the observer. the most important event in the life of a woman, her most common and yet most awful experience, is here so treated as to be at once ennobled by its significance and endeared by its thoroughly domestic character. i will give some examples. . the first is by an unknown master of the greco-italian school, and referred by d'agincourt to the thirteenth century, but it is evidently later, and quite in the style of the gaddi. . there is both dignity and simplicity in the fresco by taddeo gaddi. (florence, baroncelli chapel.) st. anna is sitting up in bed; an attendant pours water over her hands. in front, two women are affectionately occupied with the child a lovely infant with a glory round its head. three other attendants are at the foot of the bed. . we have next in date, the elegant composition by ghirlandajo. as joachim and anna were "exceedingly rich," he has surrounded them with all the luxuries of life. the scene is a chamber richly decorated; a frieze of angelic boys ornaments the alcove; st. anna lies on a couch. vasari says "certain women are ministering to her." but in lasinio's engraving they are not to be found. in front a female attendant pours water into a vase; two others seated hold the infant. a noble lady, habited in the elegant florentine costume of the fifteenth century, enters with four others--all portraits, and, as is usual with ghirlandajo, looking on without taking any part in the action. the lady in front is traditionally said to be ginevra benci, celebrated for her beauty. . the composition by albert durer[ ] gives us an exact transcript of antique german life, quite wonderful for the homely truth of the delineation, but equally without the simplicity of a scriptural or the dignity of an historical scene. in an old-fashioned german chamber lies st. anna in an old-fashioned canopied bedstead. two women bring her a soup and something to drink, while the midwife, tired with her exertions, leans her head on the bedside and has sank to sleep. a crowd of women fill up the foreground, one of whom attends to the new-born child: others, who appear to have watched through the night, as we may suppose from the nearly extinguished candles, are intent on good cheer; they congratulate each other; they eat, drink, and repose themselves. it would be merely a scene of german _commérage_, full of nature and reality, if an angel hovering above, and swinging a censer, did not remind us of the sacred importance of the incident represented. [footnote : in the set of wood-cuts of the "life of the virgin mary."] . in the strongest possible contrast to the homely but animated conception of albert durer, is the grand fresco by andrea del sarto, in the church of the nunziata at florence. the incidents are nearly the same: we have st. anna reclining in her bed and attended by her women; the nurses waiting on the lovely new-born child; the visitors who enter to congratulate; but all, down to the handmaidens who bring refreshments, are noble and dignified, and draped in that magnificent taste which distinguished andrea, angels scatter flowers from above and, which is very uncommon, joachim is seen, after the anxious night reposing on a couch. nothing in fresco can exceed the harmony and brilliancy of the colouring, and the softness of the execution. it appeared to me a masterpiece as a picture. like ghirlandajo, andrea has introduced portraits; and in the florentine lady who stands in the foreground we recognize the features of his worthless wife lucrezia, the original model of so many of his female figures that the ignoble beauty of her face has become quite familiar. the presentation of the virgin. _ital._ la presentazione, ove nostra signora piccioletta sale i gradi del tempio. _ger._ joachim und anna weihen ihre tochter maria im tempel. die vorstellung der jungfrau im tempel. nov. . in the interval between the birth of mary and her consecration in the temple, there is no incident which i can remember as being important or popular as a subject of art. it is recorded with what tenderness her mother anna watched over her, "how she made of her bedchamber a holy place, allowing nothing that was common or unclean to enter in;" and called to her "certain daughters of israel, pure and gentle," whom she appointed to attend on her. in some of the early miniature illustrations of the offices of the virgin, st. anna thus ministers to her child; for instance, in a beautiful greek ms. in the vatican, she is tenderly putting her into a little bed or cradle and covering her up. (it is engraved in d'agincourt.) it is not said anywhere that st. anna instructed her daughter. it has even been regarded as unorthodox to suppose that the virgin, enriched from her birth, and before her birth, with all the gifts of the holy spirit, required instruction from any one. nevertheless, the subject of the "education of the virgin" has been often represented in later times. there is a beautiful example by murillo; while anna teaches her child to read, angels hover over them with wreaths of roses. (madrid gal.) another by rubens, in which, as it is said, he represented his young wife, helena forman. (musée, antwerp.) there is also a picture in which st. anna ministers to her daughter, and is intent on braiding and adorning her long golden hair, while the angels look on with devout admiration. (vienna, lichtenstein gal.) in all these examples mary is represented as a girl of ten or twelve years old. now, as the legend expressly relates that she was three years old when she became an inmate of the temple, such representations must be considered as incorrect. * * * * * the narrative thus proceeds:-- "and when the child was _three years old_, joachim said, 'let us invite the daughters of israel, and they shall take each a taper or a lamp, and attend on her, that the child may not turn back from the temple of the lord.' and being come to the temple, they placed her on the first step, and she ascended alone all the steps to the altar: and the high priest received her there, kissed her, and blessed her, saying, 'mary, the lord hath magnified thy name to all generations, and in thee shall be made known the redemption of the children of israel.' and being placed before the altar, she danced with her feet, so that all the house of israel rejoiced with her, and loved her. then her parents returned home, blessing god because the maiden had not turned back from the temple." * * * * * such is the incident, which, in artistic representation, is sometimes styled the "dedication," but more generally "the presentation of the virgin." it is a subject of great importance, not only as a principal incident in a series of the life of the virgin, but because this consecration of mary to the service of the temple being taken in a general sense, it has often been given in a separate form, particularly for the nunneries. hence it has happened that we find "the presentation of the virgin" among some of the most precious examples of ancient and modern art. the _motif_ does not vary. the child mary, sometimes in a blue, but oftener in a white vesture, with long golden hair, ascends the steps which lead to the porch of the temple, which steps are always fifteen in number. she ought to be an infant of three years of age; but in many pictures she is represented older, veiled, and with a taper in her hand instead of a lamp, like a young nun; but this is a fault. the "fifteen steps" rest on a passage in josephus, who says, "between the wall which separated the men from the women, and the great porch of the temple, were fifteen steps;" and these are the steps which mary is supposed to ascend. . it is sometimes treated with great simplicity; for instance, in the bas-relief by andrea orcagna, there are only three principal figures--the virgin in the centre (too old, however), and joachim and anna stand on each side. (florence, or san michele.) . in the fresco by taddeo gaddi we have the same artless grace, the same dramatic grouping, and the same faults of drawing and perspective as in the other compartments of the series. (florence, baroncelli chapel.) . the scene is represented by ghirlandajo with his usual luxury of accessories and accompaniments. (florence, s. maria novella.) the locality is the court of the temple; on the right a magnificent porch; the virgin, a young girl of about nine or ten years old, is seen ascending the steps with a book in her hand; the priest stretches out his arms to receive her; behind him is another priest; and "the young virgins who were to be her companions" are advancing joyously to receive her. (adducentur regi virgines post eam. ps. xlv.) at the foot of the steps are st. anna and st. joachim, and farther off a group of women and spectators, who watch the event in attitudes of thanksgiving and joyful sympathy. two venerable, grand-looking jews, and two beautiful boys fill the foreground; and the figure of the pilgrim resting on the steps is memorable in art as one of the earliest examples of an undraped figure, accurately and gracefully drawn. the whole composition is full of life and character, and that sort of _elegance_ peculiar to ghirlandajo. . in the composition of albert durer we see the entrance of the temple on the left, and the child mary with flowing hair ascending the steps; behind her stand her parents and other personages, and in front are venders of provisions, doves, &c., which are brought as offerings. . the scene, as given by carpaccio, appears to me exceedingly graceful. the perfectly childish figure of mary with her light flowing tresses, the grace with which she kneels on the steps, and the disposition of the attendant figures, are all beautifully conceived. conspicuous in front is a page holding a unicorn, the ancient emblem of chastity, and often introduced significantly into pictures of the virgin. (venice academy.) . but the most celebrated example is the presentation by titian, in the academy at venice, originally painted for the church of the brotherhood of charity (_scuola della carità_), and still to be seen there--the carità being now the academy of art. in the general arrangement, titian seems to have been indebted to carpaccio; but all that is simple and poetical in the latter becomes in titian's version sumptuous and dramatic. here mary does not kneel, but, holding up her light-blue drapery, ascends the steps with childish grace and alacrity. the number of portrait-heads adds to the value and interest of the picture. titian himself is looking up, and near him stands his friend, andrea de' franceschi, grand-chancellor of venice,[ ] robed as a _cavaliero di san marco_. in the fine bearded head of the priest, who stands behind the high-priest, we may recognize, i think, the likeness of cardinal bembo. in the foreground, instead of the poetical symbol of the unicorn, we have an old woman selling eggs and fowls, as in albert durer's print, which must have been well known to titian. albert durer published his life of the virgin in , and titian painted his picture about . (venice academy.) [footnote : "_amorevolissime del pittare_," says ridolfi. it is the same person whom titian introduced, with himself, in the picture at windsor; there, by a truly unpardonable mistake, called "titian and aretino."] * * * * * from the life of the virgin in the temple, we have several beautiful pictures. as she was to be placed before women as an example of every virtue, so she was skilled in all feminine accomplishments; she was as studious, as learned, as wise, as she was industrious, chaste, and temperate. she is seen surrounded by her young companions, the maidens who were brought up in the temple with her, in a picture by agnolo gaddi. (florence, carmine.) she is instructing her companions, in a charming picture by luini: here she appears as a girl of seven or eight years old, seated on a sort of throne, dressed in a simple light-blue tunic, with long golden hair; while the children around her look up and listen with devout faces. (milan, brera.) * * * * * some other scenes of her early life, which, in the protevangelion, are placed after her marriage with joseph, in pictures usually precede it. thus, she is chosen by lot to spin the fine purple for the temple, to weave and embroider it. didron mentions a fine antique tapestry at rheims, in which mary is seated at her embroidery, while two unicorns crouching on each side look up in her face. * * * * * i remember a fine drawing, in which the virgin is seated at a large tapestry frame. behind her are two maidens, one of whom is reading; the other, holding a distaff, lays her hand on the shoulder of the virgin, as if about to speak. the scene represents the interior of the temple with rich architecture. (vienna, col. of archduke charles.) in a small but very pretty picture by guido, the virgin, as a young girl, sits embroidering a _yellow_ robe. (lord ellesmere's gal.) she is attended by four angels, one of whom draws aside a curtain it is also related that among the companions of mary in the temple was anna the prophetess; and that this aged and holy woman, knowing by inspiration of the holy spirit the peculiar grace vouchsafed to mary, and her high destiny, beheld her with equal love and veneration; and, notwithstanding the disparity of age, they become true and dear friends. in an old illumination, the virgin is seated spinning, with an angel by her side. (office of the virgin, . oxford, bodleian.) * * * * * it is recorded that the angels daily ministered to her, and fed her with celestial food. hence in some early specimens of art an angel brings her a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water,--the _bread of life_ and the _water of life_ from paradise. in this subject, as we find it carved on the stalls of the cathedral of amiens, mary holds a book, and several books are ranged on a shelf in the background: there is, besides, a clock, such as was in use in the fifteenth century, to indicate the studious and regular life led by mary in the temple. * * * * * st. evode, patriarch of antioch, and st. germanus, assert as an indubitable tradition of the greek church, that mary had the privilege--never granted to one of her sex before or since--of entering the holy of holies, and praying before the ark of the covenant. hence, in some of the scenes from her early life, the ark is placed in the background. we must also bear in mind that the ark was one of the received types of her who bore the logos within her bosom. * * * * * in her fourteenth year, mary was informed by the high priest that it was proper that she should be married; but she modestly replied that her parents had dedicated her to the service of the lord, and that, therefore, she could not comply. but the high-priest, who had received a revelation from an angel concerning the destiny of mary, informed her thereof, and she with all humility submitted herself to the divine will. this scene between mary and the high-priest has been painted by luini, and it is the only example with which i am acquainted. pictures of the virgin in her girlhood, reading intently the book of wisdom, while angels watch over her, are often of great beauty. the marriage of the virgin _ital._ il sposalizio. _fr._ le mariage de la vierge. _ger._ die trauung mariä. jan. . this, as an artistic subject, is of great consequence, from the beauty and celebrity of some of the representations, which, however, are unintelligible without the accompanying legends. and it is worth remarking, that while the incident is avoided in early greek art, it became very popular with the italian and german painters from the fourteenth century. in the east, the prevalence of the monastic spirit, from the fourth century, had brought marriage into disrepute; by many of the ascetic writers of the west it was considered almost in the light of a necessary evil. this idea, that the primal and most sacred ordinance of god and nature was incompatible with the sanctity and purity acceptable to god, was the origin of the singular legends of the marriage of the virgin. one sees very clearly that, if possible, it would have been denied that mary had ever been married at all; but, as the testimony of the gospel was too direct and absolute to be set aside, it became necessary, in the narrative, to give to this distasteful marriage the most recondite motives, and in art, to surround it with the most poetical and even miraculous accessories. but before we enter on the treatment of the subject, it is necessary to say a few words on the character of joseph, wonderfully selected to be the husband and guardian of the consecrated mother of christ, and foster-father of the redeemer; and so often introduced into all the pictures which refer to the childhood of our lord. from the gospels we learn nothing of him but that he was of the tribe of judah and the lineage of david; that he was a _just_ man; that he followed the trade of a carpenter, and dwelt in the little city of nazareth. we infer from his conduct towards mary, that he was a mild, and tender, and pure-hearted, as well as an upright man. of his age and personal appearance nothing is said. these are the points on which the church has not decided, and on which artists, left to their own devices, and led by various opinions, have differed considerably. the very early painters deemed it right to represent joseph as very old, almost decrepit with age, and supported by a crutch. according to some of the monkish authorities, he was a widower, and eighty-four years old when he was espoused to mary. on the other hand, it was argued, that such a marriage would have been quite contrary to the custom of the jews; and that to defend mary, and to provide for her celestial offspring, it was necessary that her husband should be a man of mature age, but still strong and robust, and able to work at his trade; and thus, with more propriety and better taste, the later painters have represented him. in the best italian and spanish pictures of the holy family, he is a man of about forty or fifty, with a mild, benevolent countenance, brown hair, and a short, curled beard: the crutch, or stick, however, is seldom omitted; it became a conventional attribute. in the german pictures, joseph is not only old, but appears almost in a state of dotage, like a lean, wrinkled mendicant, with a bald head, a white beard, a feeble frame, and a sleepy or stupid countenance. then, again, the later italian painters have erred as much on the other side; for i have seen pictures in which st. joseph is not only a young man not more than thirty, but bears a strong resemblance to the received heads of our saviour. it is in the sixteenth century that we first find joseph advanced to the dignity of a saint in his own right; and in the seventeenth he became very popular, especially in spain, where st. theresa had chosen him for her patron saint, and had placed her powerful order of the reformed carmelites under his protection. hence the number of pictures of that time, which represent joseph, as the foster-father of christ, carrying the infant on his arm and caressing him, while in the other hand he bears a lily, to express the sanctity and purity of his relations with the virgin. * * * * * the legend of "the marriage of joseph and mary" is thus given in the protevangelion and the history of joseph the carpenter:-- "when mary was fourteen years old, the priest zacharias (or abiathar, as he is elsewhere called) inquired of the lord concerning her, what was right to be done; and an angel came to him and said, 'go forth, and call together all the widowers among the people, and let each bring his rod (or wand) in his hand, and he to whom the lord shall show a sign, let him be the husband of mary. and zacharias did as the angel commanded, and made proclamation accordingly. and joseph the carpenter, a righteous man, throwing down his axe, and taking his staff in his hand, ran out with the rest. when he appeared before the priest, and presented his rod, lo! a dove issued out of it--a dove dazzling white as the snow,--and after settling on his head, flew towards heaven. then the high priest said to him, 'thou art the person chosen to take the virgin of the lord, and to keep her for him.' and joseph was at first afraid, and drew back, but afterwards he took her home to his house, and said to her, 'behold, i have taken thee from the temple of the lord, and now i will leave thee in my house, for i must go and follow my trade of building. i will return to thee, and meanwhile the lord be with thee and watch over thee.' so joseph left her, and mary remained in her house." there is nothing said of any marriage ceremony, some have even affirmed that mary was only betrothed to joseph, but for conclusive reasons it remains an article of faith that she was married to him. i must mention here an old tradition cited by st. jerome, and which has been used as a text by the painters. the various suitors who aspired to the honour of marrying the consecrated "virgin of the lord," among whom was the son of the high-priest, deposited their wands in the temple over night,[ ] and next morning the rod of joseph was found, like the rod of aaron, to have budded forth into leaves and flowers. the other suitors thereupon broke their wands in rage and despair; and one among them, a youth of noble lineage, whose name was agabus, fled to mount carmel, and became an anchorite, that is to say, a carmelite friar. [footnote : the suitors kneeling with their wands before the altar in the temple, is one of the series by giotto in the arena at padua.] according to the abbé orsini, who gives a long description of the espousals of mary and joseph, they returned after the marriage ceremony to nazareth, and dwelt in the house of st. anna. * * * * * now, with regard to the representations, we find that many of the early painters, and particularly the italians, have carefully attended to the fact, that, among the jews, marriage was a civil contract, not a religious rite. the ceremony takes place in the open air, in a garden, or in a landscape, or in front of the temple. mary, as a meek and beautiful maiden of about fifteen, attended by a train of virgins, stands on the right; joseph, behind whom are seen the disappointed suitors, is on the left. the priest joins their hands, or joseph is in the act of placing the ring on the finger of the bride. this is the traditional arrangement from giotto down to raphael. in the series by giotto, in the arena at padua, we have three scenes from the marriage legend. . st. joseph and the other suitors present their wands to the high-priest. . they kneel before the altar, on which their wands are deposited, waiting for the promised miracle. . the marriage ceremony. it takes place before an altar, in the _interior_ of the temple. the virgin, a most graceful figure, but rather too old, stands attended by her maidens; st. joseph holds his wand with the flower and the holy dove resting on it: one of the disappointed suitors is about to strike him; another breaks his wand against his knee. taddeo gaddi, angelico, ghirlandajo, perugino, all followed this traditional conception of the subject, except that they omit the altar, and place the locality in the open air, or under a portico. among the relics venerated in the cathedral of perugia, is the nuptial ring of the blessed virgin; and for the altar of the sacrament there, perugino painted the appropriate subject of the marriage of the virgin.[ ] here the ceremony takes place under the portico of the temple, and joseph of course puts the ring on her finger. it is a beautiful composition, which has been imitated more or less by the painters of the perugino school, and often repeated in the general arrangement. [footnote : it was carried off from the church by the french, sold in france, and is now to be seen in the musée at caen.] but in this subject, raphael, while yet a youth, excelled his master and all who had gone before him. every one knows the famous "sposalizio of the brera."[ ] it was painted by raphael in his twenty-first year, for the church of s. francesco, in città di castello; and though he has closely followed the conception of his master, it is modified by that ethereal grace which even then distinguished him. here mary and joseph stand in front of the temple, the high-priest joins their hands, and joseph places the ring on the finger of the bride; he is a man of about thirty, and holds his wand, which has blossomed into a lily, but there is no dove upon it. behind mary is a group of the virgins of the temple; behind joseph the group of disappointed suitors; one of whom, in the act of breaking his wand against his knee, a singularly graceful figure, seen more in front and richly dressed, is perhaps the despairing youth mentioned in the legend.[ ] with something of the formality of the elder schools, the figures are noble and dignified; the countenances of the principal personages have a characteristic refinement and beauty, and a soft, tender, enthusiastic melancholy, which lends a peculiar and appropriate charm to the subject. in fact, the whole scene is here idealized; it is like a lyric poem, (kugler's handbook, d edit.) [footnote : at milan. the fine engraving by longhi is well known.] [footnote : in the series by giotto at padua, we have the youth breaking his wand across his knee.] in ghirlandajo's composition (florence, s. maria novella), joseph is an old man with a bald head; the architecture is splendid; the accessory figures, as is usual with ghirlandajo, are numerous and full of grace. in the background are musicians playing on the pipe and tabor, an incident which i do not recollect to have seen in other pictures. the sposalizio by girolamo da cotignola (bologna gal.), painted for the church of st. joseph, is treated quite in a mystical style. mary and joseph stand before an altar, on the steps of which are seated, on one side a prophet, on the other a sibyl. * * * * * by the german painters the scene is represented with a characteristic homely neglect of all historic propriety. the temple is a gothic church; the altar has a gothic altar-piece; joseph looks like an old burgher arrayed in furs and an embroidered gown; and the virgin is richly dressed in the costume of the fifteenth century. the suitors are often knights and cavaliers with spurs and tight hose. * * * * * it is not said anywhere that st. anna and st. joachim were present at the marriage of their daughter; hence they are supposed to have been dead before it took place. this has not prevented some of the old german artists from introducing them, because, according to their ideas of domestic propriety, they _ought_ to have been present. * * * * * i observe that the later painters who treated the subject, rubens and poussin for instance, omit the disappointed suitors. * * * * * after the marriage, or betrothal, joseph conducts his wife to his house. the group of the returning procession has been beautifully treated in giotto's series at padua;[ ] still more beautifully by luigi in the fragment of fresco now in the brera at milan. here joseph and mary walk together hand in hand. he looks at her, just touching her fingers with an air of tender veneration; she looks down, serenely modest. thus they return together to their humble home; and with this scene closes the first part of the life of the virgin mary. [footnote : cappella dell' arena, engraved for the arundel society.] historical subjects part ii the life of the virgin mary from the annunciation to the return from egypt. . the annunciation. . the salutation of elizabeth. . the joubney to bethlehem. . the nativity. . the adoration of the shepherds. . the adoration of the magi. . the presentation in the temple. . the flight into egypt. . the riposo. . the return from egypt. the annunciation. _ital._ l' annunciazione. la b. vergine annunziata. _fr._ l'annonciation. la salutation angélique. _ger._ die verkündi gung. der englische gruss. march . the second part of the life of the virgin mary begins with the annunciation and ends with the crucifixion, comprising all those scriptural incidents which connect her history with that of her divine son. but to the scenes narrated in the gospels the painters did not confine themselves. not only were the simple scripture histories coloured throughout by the predominant and enthusiastic veneration paid to the virgin--till the life of christ was absolutely merged in that of his mother, and its various incidents became "the seven joys and the seven sorrows of mary,"--but we find the artistic representations of her life curiously embroidered and variegated by the introduction of traditional and apocryphal circumstances, in most cases sanctioned by the church authorities of the time. however doubtful or repulsive some of these scenes and incidents, we cannot call them absolutely unmeaning or absurd; on the contrary, what was _supposed_ grew up very naturally, in the vivid and excited imaginations of the people, out of what was _recorded_; nor did they distinguish accurately between what they were allowed and what they were commanded to believe. neither can it be denied that the traditional incidents--those at least which we find artistically treated--are often singularly beautiful, poetical, and instructive. in the hands of the great religions artists, who worked in their vocation with faith and simplicity, objects and scenes the most familiar and commonplace became sanctified and glorified by association with what we deem most holy and most venerable. in the hands of the later painters the result was just the reverse--what was most spiritual, most hallowed, most elevated, became secularized, materialized, and shockingly degraded. no subject has been more profoundly felt and more beautifully handled by the old painters, nor more vilely mishandled by the moderns, than the annunciation, of all the scenes in the life of mary the most important and the most commonly met with. considered merely as an artistic subject, it is surely eminently beautiful: it places before us the two most graceful forms which the hand of man was ever called on to delineate;--the winged spirit fresh from paradise; the woman not less pure, and even more highly blessed--the chosen vessel of redemption, and the personification of all female loveliness, all female excellence, all wisdom, and all purity. * * * * * we find the annunciation, like many other scriptural incidents, treated in two ways--as a mystery, and as an event. taken in the former sense, it became the expressive symbol of a momentous article of faith, _the incarnation of the deity_. taken in the latter sense, it represented the announcement of salvation to mankind, through the direct interposition of miraculous power. in one sense or the other, it enters into every scheme of ecclesiastical decoration; but chiefly it is set before us as a great and awful mystery, of which the two figures of gabriel, the angel-messenger, and mary the "highly-favoured," placed in relation to each other, became the universally accepted symbol, rather than the representation. the annunciation as a mystery. considering the importance given to the annunciation in its mystical sense, it is strange that we do not find it among the very ancient symbolical subjects adopted in the first ages of christian art. it does not appear on the sarcophagi, nor in the early greek carvings and diptychs, nor in the early mosaics--except once, and then as a part of the history of christ, not as a symbol; nor can we trace the mystical treatment of this subject higher than the eleventh century, when it first appears in the gothic sculpture and stained glass. in the thirteenth, and thenceforward, the annunciation appears before us, as the expression in form of a theological dogma, everywhere conspicuous. it became a primal element in every combination of sacred representations; the corner-stone, as it were, of every architectural system of religious decoration. it formed a part of every altar-piece, either in sculpture or painting. sometimes the virgin stands on one side of the altar, the angel on the other, carved in marble or alabaster, or of wood richly painted and gilt; or even, as i have seen in some instances, of solid silver. not seldom, we find the two figures placed in niches against the pillars, or on pedestals at the entrance of the choir. it was not necessary, when thus symbolically treated, to place the two figures in proximity to signify their relation to each other; they are often divided by the whole breadth of the chancel. whatever the subject of the altar-piece--whether the nativity, or the enthroned madonna, or the coronation, or the crucifixion, or the last supper,--the annunciation almost invariably formed part of the decoration, inserted either into the spandrels of the arches above, or in the predella below; or, which is very common, painted or carved on the doors of a tabernacle or triptychon. if the figures are full-length, a certain symmetry being required, they are either both standing or both kneeling; it is only in later times that the virgin sits, and the angel kneels. when disposed in circles or semicircles, they are often merely busts, or half-length figures, separated perhaps by a framework of tracery, or set on each side of the principal subject, whatever that may be. hence it is that we so often find in galleries and collections, pictures of the annunciation in two separate parts, the angel in one frame, the virgin in another; and perhaps the two pictures, thus disunited, may have found their way into different countries and different collections,--the virgin being in italy and the angel in england. sometimes the annunciation--still as a mystical subject--forms an altar-piece of itself. in many roman catholic churches there is a chapel or an altar dedicated expressly to the mystery of the annunciation, the subject forming of course the principal decoration. at florence there is a church--one of the most splendid and interesting of its many beautiful edifices--dedicated to the annunciation, or rather to the virgin in her especial character and dignity, as the instrument of the incarnation, and thence styled the church _della santissima nunziata_. the fine mosaic of the annunciation by ghirlandajo is placed over the principal entrance. of this church, and of the order of the servi, to whom it belongs, i have already spoken at length. here, in the first chapel on the left, as we enter, is to be found the miraculous picture of the annunciation, formerly held in such veneration, not merely by all florence, but all christendom:--found, but not seen--for it is still concealed from profane eyes, and exhibited to the devout only on great occasions. the name of the painter is disputed; but, according to tradition, it is the work of a certain bartolomeo; who, while he sat meditating on the various excellences and perfections of our lady, and most especially on her divine beauty, and thinking, with humility, how inadequate were his own powers to represent her worthily, fell asleep; and on awaking, found the head of the virgin had been wondrously completed, either by the hand of an angel, or by that of st. luke, who had descended from heaven on purpose. though this curious relic has been frequently restored, no one has presumed to touch the features of the virgin, which are, i am told--for i have never been blessed with a sight of the original picture--marvellously sweet and beautiful. it is concealed by a veil, on which is painted a fine head of the redeemer, by andrea del sarto; and forty-two lamps of silver burn continually round it. there is a copy in the pitti palace, by carlo dolce. it is evident that the annunciation, as a mystery, admits of a style of treatment which would not be allowable in the representation of an event. in the former case, the artist is emancipated from all considerations of locality or circumstance. whether the background be of gold, or of blue, or star-bespangled sky,--a mere curtain, or a temple of gorgeous architecture; whether the accessories be the most simple or the most elaborate, the most real or the most ideal; all this is of little moment, and might be left to the imagination of the artist, or might be modified according to the conditions imposed by the purpose of the representation and the material employed, so long as the chief object is fulfilled--the significant expression of an abstract dogma, appealing to the faith, not to the senses or the understanding, of the observer. to this class, then, belong all those church images and pictures of the annunciation, either confined to the two personages, with just sufficient of attitude and expression to place them in relation to each other, or with such accompaniments as served to carry out the mystical idea, still keeping it as far as possible removed from the region of earthly possibilities. in the fifteenth century--that age of mysticism--we find the annunciation, not merely treated as an abstract religious emblem, but as a sort of divine allegory or poem, which in old french and flemish art is clothed in the quaintest, the most curious forms. i recollect going into a church at breslau, and finding over one of the altars a most elaborate carving in wood of the annunciation. mary is seated within a gothic porch of open tracery work; a unicorn takes refuge in her bosom: outside, a kneeling angel winds a hunting horn; three or four dogs are crouching near him. i looked and wondered. at first i could make nothing of this singular allegory; but afterwards found the explanation, in a learned french work on the "stalles d'amiens." i give the original passage, for it will assist the reader to the comprehension of many curious works of art; but i do not venture to translate it. "on sait qu'an xvi siècle, le mystère de l'incarnation étoit souvent représenté par une allegorie ainsi conçue: une licorne se réfugiant au sein d'une vierge pure, quatre lévriers la pressant d'une course rapide, un veneur ailé sonnant de la trompette. la science de la zoologie mystique du temps aide à en trouver l'explication; le fabuleux animal dont l'unique corne ne blessait que pour purger de tout venin l'endroit du corps qu'elle avoit touché, figuroit jésus christ, médecin et sauveur des âmes; on donnait aux lévriers agiles les noms de misericordia, veritas, justitia, pax, les quatre raisons qui ont pressé le verbe éternel de sortir de son repos mais comme c'étoit par la vierge marie qu'il avoit voulu descendre parmi les hommes et se mettre en leur puissance, on croyoit ne pouvoir mieux faire que de choisir dans la fable, le fait d'une pucelle pouvant seule servir de piége à la licorne, en l'attirant par le charme et le parfum de son sein virginal qu'elle lui présentoit; enfin l'ange gabriel concourant au mystère étoit bien reconnoissable sous les traits du venenr ailé lançant les lévriers et embouchant la trompette." * * * * * it appears that this was an accepted religious allegory, as familiar in the sixteenth century as those of spenser's "fairy queen" or the "pilgrim's progress" are to us. i have since found it frequently reproduced in the old french and german prints: there is a specimen in the british museum; and there is a picture similarly treated in the musée at amiens. i have never seen it in an italian picture or print; unless a print after guido, wherein a beautiful maiden is seated under a tree, and a unicorn has sought refuge in her lap, be intended to convey the same far-fetched allegory. very common, however, in italian art, is a less fantastic, but still wholly poetical version of the annunciation, representing, in fact, not the annunciation, but the incarnation. thus, in a picture by giovanni sanzio (the father of raphael) (brera, milan), mary stands under a splendid portico; she appears as if just risen from her seat her hands are meekly folded over her bosom; her head declined. the angel kneels outside the portico, holding forth his lily; while above, in the heavens, the padre eterno sends forth the redeemer, who, in form of the infant christ bearing his cross, floats downwards towards the earth, preceded by the mystic dove. this manner of representing the incarnation is strongly disapproved of by the abbé méry (v. théologie des peintres), as not only an error, but a heresy: yet it was frequently repeated in the sixteenth century. the annunciation is also a mystery when certain emblems are introduced conveying a certain signification; as when mary is seated on a throne, wearing a radiant crown of mingled gems and flowers, and receives the message of the angel with all the majesty that could be expressed by the painter; or is seated, in a garden enclosed by a hedge of roses (the _hortus clausus_ or _conclusus_ of the canticles); or where the angel holds in his hands the sealed book, as in the famous altar-piece at cologne. in a picture by simone memmi, the virgin seated on a gothic throne receives, as the higher and superior being, yet with a shrinking timidity, the salutation of the angel, who comes as the messenger of peace, olive-crowned, and bearing a branch of olive in his hand. (florence gal.) this poetical version is very characteristic of the early siena school, in which we often find a certain fanciful and original way of treating well known subjects. taddeo bartoli, another sienese, and martin schoen, the most poetical of the early germans, also adopted the olive-symbol; and we find it also in the tabernacle of king réné, already described. the treatment is clearly devotional and ideal where attendant saints and votaries stand or kneel around, contemplating with devout gratitude or ecstatic wonder the divine mystery. thus, in a remarkable and most beautiful picture by fra bartolomeo, the virgin is seated on her throne; the angel descends from on high bearing his lily: around the throne attend st. john the baptist and st. francis, st. jerome, st. paul, and st. margaret. (bologna gal.) again, in a very beautiful picture by francia, mary stands in the midst of an open landscape; her hands, folded over each other, press to her bosom a book closed and clasped: st. jerome stands on the right, john the baptist on the left; both look up with a devout expression to the angel descending from above. in both these examples mary is very nobly and expressively represented as the chosen and predestined vehicle of human redemption. it is not here the annunciation, but the "_sacratissima annunziata_" we see before us. in a curious picture by francesco da cotignola, mary stands on a sculptured pedestal, in the midst of an architectural decoration of many-coloured marbles, most elaborately painted: through an opening is seen a distant landscape, and the blue sky; on her right stands st. john the baptist, pointing upwards; on her left st. francis, adoring; the votary kneels in front. (berlin gal.) votive pictures of the annunciation were frequently expressive offerings from those who desired, or those who had received, the blessing of an heir; and this i take to be an instance. in the following example, the picture is votive in another sense, and altogether poetical. the virgin mary receives the message of the angel, as usual; but before her, at a little distance, kneels the cardinal torrecremata, who presents three young girls, also kneeling, to one of whom the virgin gives a purse of money. this curious and beautiful picture becomes intelligible, when we find that it was painted for a charitable community, instituted by torrecremata, for educating and endowing poor orphan girls, and styled the "_confraternità dell' annunziatà_."[ ] [footnote : benozzo gozzoli, in s. maria sopra minerva, rome.] in the charming annunciation by angelico, the scene is in the cloister of his own convent of st. mark. a dominican (st. peter martyr) stands in the background with hands folded in prayer. i might add many beautiful examples from fra bartolomeo, and in sculpture from benedetto maiano, luca della robbia, and others, but have said enough to enable the observer to judge of the intention of the artist. the annunciation by sansovino among the bas-reliefs, which cover the chapel at loretto is of great elegance. i must, however, notice one more picture. of six annunciations painted by rubens, five represent the event; the sixth is one of his magnificent and most palpable allegories, all glowing with life and reality. here mary kneels on the summit of a flight of steps; a dove, encompassed by cherubim, hovers over her head. before her kneels the celestial messenger; behind him moses and aaron, with david and other patriarchal ancestors of christ. in the clouds above is seen the heavenly father; on his right are two female figures, peace and reconciliation; on his left, angels bear the ark of the covenant. in the lower part of the picture, stand isaiah and jeremiah, with four sibyls:--thus connecting the prophecies of the old testament, and the promises made to the gentile nations through the sibyls, with the fulfilment of both in the message from on high. the annunciation as an event. had the annunciation to mary been merely mentioned as an awful and incomprehensible vision, it would have been better to have adhered to the mystical style of treatment, or left it alone altogether; but the scripture history, by giving the whole narration as a simple fact, a real event, left it free for representation as such; and, as such, the fancy of the artist was to be controlled and limited only by the words of scripture as commonly understood and interpreted, and by those proprieties of time, place, and circumstance, which would be required in the representation of any other historical incident or action. when all the accompaniments show that nothing more was in the mind of the artist than the aim to exhibit an incident in the life of the virgin, or an introduction to that of our lord, the representation is no longer mystical and devotional, but historical. the story was to be told with all the fidelity, or at least all the likelihood, that was possible; and it is clear that, in this case, the subject admitted, and even required, a more dramatic treatment, with such accessories and accompaniments as might bring the scene within the sphere of the actual. in this sense it is not to be mistaken. although the action is of itself so very simple, and the actors confined to two persons, it is astonishing to note the infinite variations of which this favourite theme has been found susceptible. whether all these be equally appropriate and laudable, is quite another question; and in how far the painters have truly interpreted the scriptural narration, is now to be considered. and first, with regard to the time, which is not especially mentioned. it was presumed by the fathers and early commentators on scripture, that the annunciation must have taken place in early spring-time, at eventide, soon after sunset, the hour since consecrated as the "ave maria," as the bell which announces it is called the "angelus;"[ ] but other authorities say that it was rather at midnight, because the nativity of our lord took place at the corresponding hour in the following december. this we find exactly attended to by many of the old painters, and indicated either by the moon and stars in the sky, or by a taper or a lamp burning near. [footnote : so lord byron:-- "ave maria! blessed be the hour! the time, the clime, the spot, where i so oft have felt that moment in its fullest power sink o'er the earth so beautiful and soft, while swung the deep bell in the distant tower, or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft, and not a breath crept through the rosy air, and yet the forest leaves seem'd stirr'd with prayer"] * * * * * with regard to the locality, we are told by st. luke that the angel gabriel was sent from god, and that "he came _in_ to mary" (luke i. ), which seems to express that she was _within_ her house. in describing the actual scene of the interview between the angel and mary, the legendary story of the virgin adheres very closely to the scriptural text. but it also relates, that mary went forth at evening to draw water from the fountain; that she heard a voice which said, "hail thou that art full of grace!" and thereupon being troubled, she looked to the right and to the left, and seeing no one, returned to her _house_, and sat down to her work, (protevangelion, ix. .) had any exact attention been paid to oriental customs, mary might have been working or reading or meditating on the roof of her house; but this has not suggested itself in any instance that i can remember. we have, as the scene of the interview, an interior which is sometimes like an oratory, sometimes a portico with open arcades; but more generally a bedroom. the poverty of joseph and mary, and their humble condition in life, are sometimes attended to, but not always; for, according to one tradition, the house at nazareth was that which mary had inherited from her parents, joachim and anna, who were people of substance. hence, the painters had an excuse for making the chamber richly furnished, the portico sustained by marble pillars, or decorated with sculpture. in the german and flemish pictures, the artist, true to the national characteristic of _naïve_ and literal illustration, gives us a german or a gothic chamber, with a lattice window of small panes of glass, and a couch with pillows, or a comfortable four-post bedstead, furnished with draperies, thus imparting to the whole scene an air of the most vivid homely reality. as for the accessories, the most usual, almost indispensable, is the pot of lilies, the symbolical _fleur de marie_, which i have already explained at length. there is also a basket containing needle work and implements of female industry, as scissors, &c.; not merely to express mary's habitual industry, but because it is related that when she returned to her house, "she took the purple linen, and sat down to work it." the work-basket is therefore seldom omitted. sometimes a distaff lies at her feet, as in raphael's annunciation. in old german pictures we have often a spinning-wheel. to these emblems of industry is often added a basket, or a dish, containing fruit; and near it a pitcher of water to express the temperance of the blessed virgin. there is grace and meaning in the introduction of birds, always emblems of the spiritual. titian places a tame partridge at the feet of mary, which expresses her tenderness; but the introduction of a cat, as in barroccio's picture, is insufferable. * * * * * the archangel gabriel, "one of those who stand continually in the presence of god," having received his mission, descends to earth. in the very earliest representation of the annunciation, as an event (mosaic, s. maria maggiore), we have this descent of the winged spirit from on high; and i have seen other instances. there is a small and beautiful sketch by garofalo (alton towers), in which, from amidst a flood of light, and a choir of celestial spirits, such as milton describes as adoring the "divine sacrifice" proclaimed for sinful man (par. lost, b. iii.), the archangel spreads his lucid wings, and seems just about to take his flight to nazareth. he was accompanied, says the italian legend, by a train of lower angels, anxious to behold and reverence their queen; these remained, however, at the door, or "before the gate," while gabriel entered. the old german masters are fond of representing him as entering by a door in the background, while the serene virgin, seated in front, seems aware of his presence without seeing him. in some of the old pictures, he comes in flying from above, or he is upborne by an effulgent cloud, and surrounded by a glory which lights the whole picture,--a really _celestial_ messenger, as in a fresco by spinello aretino. in others, he comes gliding in, "smooth sliding without step;" sometimes he enters like a heavenly ambassador, and little angels hold up his train. in a picture by tintoretto, he comes rushing in as upon a whirlwind, followed by a legion of lesser angels; while on the outside of the building, joseph the carpenter is seen quietly at his work. (venice, school of s. rocco.) but, whether walking or flying, gabriel bears, of course, the conventional angelic form, that of the human creature, winged, beautiful, and radiant with eternal youth, yet with a grave and serious mien, in the later pictures, the drapery given to the angel is offensively scanty; his sandals, and bare arms, and fluttering robe, too much _à l'antique_; he comes in the attitude of a flying mercury, or a dancer in a ballet. but in the early italian pictures his dress is arranged with a kind of solemn propriety: it is that of an acolyte, white and full, and falling in large folds over his arms, and in general concealing his feet. in the german pictures, he often wears the priestly robe, richly embroidered, and clasped in front by a jewel. his ambrosial curls fall over this cope in "hyacinthine flow." the wings are essential, and never omitted. they are white, or many-coloured, eyed like the peacock's train, or bedropped with gold. he usually bears the lily in his hand, but not always. sometimes it is the sceptre, the ancient attribute of a herald; and this has a scroll around it, with the words, "ave maria gratia plena!" the sceptre or wand is, occasionally surmounted by a cross. in general, the palm is given to the angel who announces the death of mary. in one or two instances only i have seen the palm given to the angel gabriel, as in a predella by angelico; for which, however, the painter had the authority of dante, or dante some authority earlier still. he says of gabriel, "that he bore the _palm_ down unto mary when the son of god vouchsafed to clothe him in terrestrial weeds." the olive-bough has a mystical sense wherever adopted: it is the symbol of _peace_ on earth. often the angel bears neither lily, nor sceptre, nor palm, nor olive. his hands are folded on his bosom; or, with one hand stretched forth, and the other pointing upwards, he declares his mission from on high. in the old greek pictures, and in the most ancient italian examples, the angel stands; as in the picture by cimabue, wherein the greek model is very exactly followed. according to the roman catholic belief, mary is queen of heaven, and of angels--the superior being; consequently, there is propriety in making the angel deliver his message kneeling: but even according to the protestant belief the attitude would not be unbecoming, for the angel, having uttered his salutation, might well prostrate himself as witness of the transcending miracle, and beneath the overshadowing presence of the holy spirit. now, as to the attitude and occupation of mary at the moment the angel entered, authorities are not agreed. it is usual to exhibit her as kneeling in prayer, or reading with a large book open on a desk before her. st. bernard says that she was studying the book of the prophet isaiah, and as she recited the verse, "behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son," she thought within her heart, in her great humility, "how blessed the woman of whom these words are written! would i might be but her handmaid to serve her, and allowed, to kiss her feet!"--when, in the same instant, the wondrous vision burst upon her, and the holy prophecy was realized in herself. (il perfetto legendario.) i think it is a manifest fault to disturb the sublime tenor of the scene by representing mary as starting up in alarm; for, in the first place, she was accustomed, as we have seen, to the perpetual ministry of angels, who daily and hourly attended on her. it is, indeed, said that mary was troubled; but it was not the presence, but the "saying" of the angel which troubled her--it was the question "how this should be?" (luke i. .) the attitude, therefore, which some painters have given to her, as if she had started from her seat, not only in terror, but in indignation, is altogether misplaced. a signal instance is the statue of the virgin by mocchi in the choir of the cathedral at orvieto, so grand in itself, and yet so offensive as a devotional figure. misplaced is also, i think, the sort of timid shrinking surprise which is the expression in some pictures. the moment is much too awful, the expectance much too sublime, for any such human, girlish emotions. if the painter intend to express the moment in which the angel appears and utters the salutation, "hail!" then mary may be standing, and her looks directed towards him, as in a fine majestic annunciation of andrea del sarto. standing was the antique attitude of prayer; so that if we suppose her to have been interrupted in her devotions, the attitude is still appropriate. but if that moment be chosen in which she expressed her submission to the divine will, "behold the handmaid of the lord! let it be unto me according to thy word!" then she might surely kneel with bowed bead, and folded hands, and "downcast eyes beneath th' almighty dove." no attitude could be too humble to express that response; and dante has given us, as the most perfect illustration of the virtue of humility, the sentiment and attitude of mary when submitting herself to the divine will. (purg. x., cary's trans.) "the angel (who came down to earth with tidings of the peace to many years wept for in vain, that op'd the heavenly gates from their long interdict) before us seem'd in a sweet act so sculptur'd to the life, he look'd no silent image. one had sworn he had said 'hail!' for she was imag'd there, by whom the key did open to god's love; and in her act as sensibly imprest that word, 'behold the handmaid of the lord,' as figure seal'd on wax." and very beautifully has flaxman transferred the sculpture "divinely wrought upon the rock of marble white" to earthly form. * * * * * the presence of the holy spirit in the historical annunciations is to be accounted for by the words of st. luke, and the visible form of the dove is conventional and authorized. in many pictures, the celestial dove enters by the open casement. sometimes it seems to brood immediately over the head of the virgin; sometimes it hovers towards her bosom. as for the perpetual introduction of the emblem of the padre eterno, seen above the sky, under the usual half-figure of a kingly ancient man, surrounded by a glory of cherubim, and sending forth upon a beam of light the immaculate dove, there is nothing to be said but the usual excuse for the mediæval artists, that certainly there was no _conscious_ irreverence. the old painters, great as they were in art, lived in ignorant but zealous times--in times when faith was so fixed, so much a part of the life and soul, that it was not easily shocked or shaken; as it was not founded in knowledge or reason, so nothing that startled the reason could impair it. religion, which now speaks to us through words, then spoke to the people through visible forms universally accepted; and, in the fine arts, we accept such forms according to the feeling which _then_ existed in men's minds, and which, in its sincerity, demands our respect, though now we might not, could not, tolerate the repetition. we must also remember that it was not in the ages of ignorance and faith that we find the grossest materialism in art. it was in the learned, half-pagan sixteenth and the polished seventeenth century, that this materialized theology became most offensive. of all the artists who have sinned in the annunciation--and they are many--nicolò poussin is perhaps the worst. yet he was a good, a pious man, as well as a learned and accomplished painter. all through the history of the art, the french show themselves as the most signal violators of good taste, and what they have invented a word for--_bienséance_. they are worse than the old germans; worse than the modern spaniards--and that is saying much. in raphael's annunciation, mary is seated in a reclining attitude, leaning against the side of her couch, and holding a book. the angel, whose attitude expresses a graceful _empressement_, kneels at some distance, holding the lily. * * * * * michael angelo gives us a most majestic virgin standing on the steps of a prie-dieu, and turning with hands upraised towards the angel, who appears to have entered by the open door; his figure is most clumsy and material, and his attitude unmeaning and ungraceful. it is, i think, the only instance in which michael angelo has given wings to an angelic being: for here they could not be dispensed with. in a beautiful annunciation by johan van eyck (munich gal., cabinet iii. ), the virgin kneels at a desk with a book before her. she has long fair hair, and a noble intellectual brow. gabriel, holding his sceptre, stands in the door-way. the dove enters by the lattice. a bed is in the background, and in front a pot of lilies. in another annunciation by van eyck, painted on the ghent altar-piece, we have the mystic, not the historical, representation, and a very beautiful effect is produced by clothing both the angel and mary in robes of pure white. (berlin gal., , .) in an engraving after rembrandt, the virgin kneels by a fountain, and the angel kneels on the opposite side. this seems to express the legendary scene. these few observations on the general arrangement of the theme, whether mystical or historical, will, i hope, assist the observer in discriminating for himself. i must not venture further, for we have a wide range of subjects before us. the visitation. _ital._ la visitazione di maria. _fr._ la visitation de la vierge _ger._ die heimsuchung mariä. july . after the annunciation of the angel, the scripture goes on to relate how "mary arose and went up into the hill country with haste, to the house of her cousin elizabeth, and saluted her." this meeting of the two kinswomen is the subject styled in art the "visitation," and sometimes the "salutation of elizabeth." it is of considerable importance, in a series of the life of the virgin, as an event; and also, when taken separately in its religious significance, as being the first recognition of the character of the messiah. "whence is this to me," exclaims elizabeth, "that the mother of my lord should come to me?" (luke i. ); and as she spoke this through the influence of the holy spirit, and not through knowledge, she is considered in the light of a prophetess. of elizabeth i must premise a few words, because in many representations relating to the life of the virgin, and particularly in those domestic groups, the holy families properly so called, she is a personage of great importance, and we ought to be able, by some preconceived idea of her bearing and character, to test the propriety of that impersonation usually adopted by the artists. we must remember that she was much older than her cousin, a woman "well stricken in years;" but it is a, great mistake to represent her as old, as wrinkled and decrepit, as some painters have done. we are told that she was righteous before the lord, "walking in all his commandments blameless:" the manner in which she received the visit of mary, acknowledging with a glad humility the higher destinies of her young relative, show her to have been free from all envy and jealousy. therefore all pictures of elizabeth should exhibit her as an elderly, but not an aged matron; a dignified, mild, and gracious creature; one selected to high honour by the searcher of hearts, who, looking down on hers, had beheld it pure from any secret taint of selfishness, even as her conduct had been blameless before man.[ ] [footnote : for a full account of the legends relating to elizabeth, the mother of the baptist, see the fourth series of sacred and legendary art.] * * * * * such a woman as we believe mary to have been must have loved and honoured such a woman as elizabeth. wherefore, having heard that elizabeth had been exalted to a miraculous motherhood, she made haste to visit her, not to ask her advice,--for being graced with all good gifts of the holy spirit, and herself the mother of wisdom, she could not need advice,--but to sympathize with her cousin and reveal what had happened to herself. thus then they met, "these two mothers of two great princes, of whom one was pronounced the greatest born of woman, and the other was his lord:" happiest and most exalted of all womankind before or since, "needs must they have discoursed like seraphim and the most ecstasied order of intelligences!" such was the blessed encounter represented in the visitation. * * * * * the number of the figures, the locality and circumstances, vary greatly. sometimes we have only the two women, without accessories of any kind, and nothing interferes with the high solemnity of that moment in which elizabeth confesses the mother of her lord. the better to express this willing homage, this momentous prophecy, she is often kneeling. other figures are frequently introduced, because it could not be supposed that mary made the journey from nazareth to the dwelling of zacharias near jerusalem, a distance of fifty miles, alone. whether her husband joseph accompanied her, is doubtful; and while many artists have introduced him, others have omitted him altogether. according to the ancient greek formula laid down for the religious painters, mary is accompanied by a servant or a boy, who carries a stick across his shoulder, and a basket slung to it. the old italians who followed the byzantine models seldom omit this attendant, but in some instances (as in the magnificent composition of michael angelo, in the possession of mr. bromley, of wootten) a handmaid bearing a basket on her head is substituted for the boy. in many instances joseph, attired as a traveller, appears behind the virgin, and zacharias, in his priestly turban and costume, behind elizabeth. the locality is often an open porch or a garden in front of a house; and this garden of zacharias is celebrated in eastern tradition. it is related that the blessed virgin, during her residence with her cousin elizabeth, frequently recreated herself by walking in the garden of zacharias, while she meditated on the strange and lofty destiny to which she was appointed; and farther, that happening one day to touch a certain flower, which grew there, with her most blessed hand, from being inodorous before, it became from that moment deliciously fragrant. the garden therefore was a fit place for the meeting. * * * * * . the earliest representation of the visitation to which i can refer is a rude but not ungraceful drawing, in the catacombs at rome, of two women embracing. it is not of very high antiquity, perhaps the seventh or eighth century, but there can be so doubt about the subject. (cemetery of julius, v. bosio, roma sotterana.) . cimabue has followed the greek formula, and his simple group appears to me to have great feeling and simplicity. . more modern instances, from the date of the revival of art, abound in every form. almost every painter who has treated subjects from the life of the virgin has treated the visitation. in the composition by raphael (madrid gal.) there are the two figures only; and i should object to this otherwise perfect picture, the bashful conscious look of the virgin mary. the heads are, however, eminently beautiful and dignified. in the far background is seen the baptism of christ--very happily and significantly introduced, not merely as expressing the name of the votary who dedicated the picture, _giovan-battista_ branconio, but also as expressing the relation between the two unborn children--the christ and his prophet. . the group by sebastian del piombo is singularly grand, showing in every part the influence of michael angelo, but richly coloured in sebastian's best manner. the figures are seen only to the knees. in the background, zacharias is seen hurrying down some steps to receive the virgin.[ ] [footnote : louvre, . there is, in the louvre, another visitation of singular and characteristic beauty by d. ghirlandajo.] . the group by pinturicchio, with the attendant angels, is remarkable for its poetic grace; and that by lucas v. leyden is equally remarkable for affectionate sentiment. . still more beautiful, and more dramatic and varied, is another composition by pinturicchio in the sala borgia. (vatican, rome.) the virgin and st. elizabeth, in the centre, take each other's hands. behind the virgin is st. joseph, a maiden with a basket on her head, and other attendants. behind st. elizabeth, we have a view into the interior of her house, through arcades richly sculptured; and within, zacharias is reading, and the handmaids of elizabeth, are spinning and sewing. this elegant fresco was painted for alexander vi. . there is a fine picture of this subject, by andrea sabattini of salerno, the history of which is rather curious. "it was painted at the request of the sanseverini, princes of salerno, to be presented to a nunnery, in which one of that noble family had taken the veil. under the form of the blessed virgin, andrea represented the last princess of salerno, who was of the family of villa marina; under that of st. joseph, the prince her husband; an old servant of the family figures as st. elizabeth; and in the features of zacharias we recognize those of bernardo tasso, the father of torquato tasso, and then secretary to the prince of salerno. after remaining for many years over the high altar of the church, it was removed through the scruples of one of the neapolitan archbishops, who was scandalized by the impropriety of placing the portraits of well-known personages in such a situation." the picture, once removed from its place, disappeared, and by some means found its way to the louvre. andrea, who was one of the most distinguished of the scholars of raphael, died in .[ ] [footnote : this picture is thus described in the old catalogues of the louvre (no. ); but is not to be found in that of villot.] . the composition by rubens has all that scenic effect and dramatic movement which was characteristic of the painter. the meeting takes place on a flight of steps leading to the house of zacharias. the virgin wears a hat, as one just arrived from a journey; joseph and zacharias greet each other; a maiden with a basket on her head follows; and in the foreground a man unloads the ass. i will mention two other example, each perfect in its way, in two most opposite styles of treatment. . the first is the simple majestic composition of albertinelli. (florence gal.) the two women, standing alone under a richly sculptured arch, and relieved against the bright azure sky, embrace each other. there are no accessories. mary is attired in dark-blue drapery, and elizabeth wears an ample robe of a saffron or rather amber colour. the mingled grandeur, power, and grace, and depth of expression in these two figures, are quite extraordinary; they look like what they are, and worthy to be mothers of the greatest of kings and the greatest of prophets. albertinelli has here emulated his friend bartolomeo--his friend, whom he so loved, that when, after the horrible execution of savonarola, bartolomeo, broken-hearted, threw himself into the convent of st. mark, albertinelli became almost distracted and desperate. he would certainly, says vasari, have gone into the same convent, but for the hatred be bore the monks, "of whom he was always saying the most injurious things." through some hidden influence of intense sympathy, albertinelli, though in point of character the very antipodes of his friend, often painted so like him, that his pictures--and this noble picture more particularly--might be mistaken for the work of the frate. * * * * * . we will now turn to a conception altogether different, and equally a masterpiece; it is the small but exquisitely finished composition by rembrandt. (grosvenor gal.) the scene is the garden in front of the house of zacharias; elizabeth is descending the steps in haste to receive and embrace with outstretched arms the virgin mary, who appears to have just alighted from her journey. the aged zacharias, supported by a youth, is seen following elizabeth to welcome their guest. behind mary stands a black female attendant, in the act of removing a mantle from her shoulders; in the background a servant, or (as i think) joseph, holds the ass on which mary has journeyed; a peacock with a gem-like train, and a hen with a brood of chickens (the latter the emblem of maternity), are in the foreground. though the representation thus conceived appears like a scene of every-day life, nothing can be more poetical than the treatment, more intensely true and noble than the expression of the diminutive figures, more masterly and finished than the execution, more magical and lustrous than the effect of the whole. the work of albertinelli, in its large and solemn beauty and religious significance, is worthy of being placed over an altar, on which we might offer up the work of rembrandt as men offer incense, gems, and gold. as the visitation is not easily mistaken, i have said enough of it here; and we pass to the next subject,--the dream of joseph. * * * * * although the feast of the visitation is fixed for the d of july, it was, and is, a received opinion, that mary began her journey to the hill country but a short time, even a few days, after the annunciation of the angel. it was the sixth month with elizabeth, and mary sojourned with her three months. hence it is supposed, by many commentators, that mary must have been present at the birth of john the baptist. it may seem surprising that the early painters should not have made use of this supposition. i am not aware that there exists among the numerous representations of the birth of st. john, any instance of the virgin being introduced; it should seem that the lofty ideas entertained of the mater dei rendered it impossible to place her in a scene where she would necessarily take a subordinate position: this i think sufficiently accounts for her absence.[ ] mary then returned to her own dwelling at nazareth; and when joseph (who in these legendary stories is constantly represented as a house-carpenter and builder, and travelling about to exercise his trade in various places) also came back to his home, and beheld his wife, the suspicion entered his mind that she was about to become a mother, and very naturally his mind was troubled "with sorrow and insecure apprehensions; but being a just man, that is, according to the scriptures and other wise writers, a good, a charitable man, he would not openly disgrace her, for he found it more agreeable to justice to treat an offending person with the easiest sentence, than to render her desperate, and without remedy, and provoked by the suffering of the worst of what she could fear. no obligation to justice can force a man to be cruel; pity, and forbearance, and long-suffering, and fair interpretation, and excusing our brother" (and our sister), "and taking things in the best sense, and passing the gentlest sentence, are as certainly our duty, and owing to every person who _does_ offend and _can_ repent, as calling men to account can be owing to the law." (v. bishop taylor's life of christ.) thus says the good bishop taylor, praising joseph, that he was too truly just to call furiously for justice, and that, waiving the killing letter of the law, he was "minded to dismiss his wife privily;" and in this he emulated the mercy of his divine foster-son, who did not cruelly condemn the woman whom he knew to be guilty, but dismissed her "to repent and sin no more." but while joseph was pondering thus in his heart, the angel of the lord, the prince of angels, even gabriel, appeared to him in a dream, saying, "joseph, thou son of david, fear not to take unto thee mary thy wife!" and he awoke and obeyed that divine voice. [footnote : there is, however, in the liverpool museum, a very exquisite miniature of the birth of st. john the baptist, in which the female figure standing near represents, i think, the virgin mary. it was cut out of a choral book of the siena school.] this first vision of the angel is not in works of art easily distinguished from the second vision but there is a charming fresco by luini, which can bear no other interpretation. joseph is seated by the carpenter's bench, and leans his head on his hand slumbering. (milan, brera.) an angel stands by him pointing to mary who is seen at a window above, busied with needlework. on waking from this vision, joseph, says the legend, "entreated forgiveness of mary for having wronged her even in thought." this is a subject quite unknown, i believe, before the fifteenth century, and not commonly met with since, but there are some instances. on one of the carved stalls of the cathedral of amiens it is very poetically treated. (stalles d'amiens, p. .) mary is seated on a throne under a magnificent canopy; joseph, kneeling before her and presented by two angels, pleads for pardon. she extends one hand to him; in the other is the volume of the holy scriptures. there is a similar version of the text in sculpture over one of the doors of notre-dame at paris. there is also a picture by alessandro tiarini (le repentir de saint joseph, louvre, ), and reckoned by malvasia, his finest work, wherein joseph kneels before the virgin, who stands with a dignified air, and, while she raises him with one hand, points with the other up to heaven. behind is seen the angel gabriel with his finger on his lip, as commanding silence, and two other angels. the figures are life-size, the execution and colour very fine; the whole conception in the grand but mannered style of the guido school. the nativity. _ital._ il presepio. il nascimento del nostro signore. _fr._ la nativité. _ger._ die geburt christi. dec. . the birth of our saviour is related with characteristic simplicity and brevity in the gospels; but in the early christian traditions this great event is preceded and accompanied by several circumstances which have assumed a certain importance and interest in the artistic representations. according to an ancient legend, the emperor augustus cæsar repaired to the sibyl tiburtina, to inquire whether he should consent to allow himself to be worshipped with divine honours, which the senate had decreed to him. the sibyl, after some days of meditation, took the emperor apart, and showed him an altar; and above the altar, in the opening heavens, and in a glory of light, he beheld a beautiful virgin holding an infant in her arms, and at the same time a voice was heard saying, "this is the altar of the son of the living god;" whereupon augustus caused an altar to be erected on the capitoline hill, with this inscription, _ara primogeniti dei_; and on the same spot, in later times, was built the church called the _ara-coeli_, well known, with its flight of one hundred and twenty-four marble steps, to all who have visited rome. of the sibyls, generally, in their relation to sacred art, i have already spoken.[ ] this particular prophecy of the tiburtine sibyl to augustus rests on some very antique traditions, pagan as well as christian. it is supposed to have suggested the "pollio" of virgil, which suggested the "messiah" of pope. it is mentioned by writers of the third and fourth centuries, and our own divines have not wholly rejected it, for bishop taylor mentions the sibyl's prophecy among "the great and glorious accidents happening about the birth of jesus." (life of jesus christ, sec. .) [footnote : introduction. the personal character and history of the sibyls will be treated in detail in the fourth series of sacred and legendary art.] a very rude but curious bas-relief preserved in the church of the ara-coeli is perhaps the oldest representation extant. the church legend assigns to it a fabulous antiquity; but it must be older than the twelfth century, as it is alluded to by writers of that period. here the emperor augustus kneels before the madonna and child and at his side is the sibyl, tiburtina, pointing upwards. since the revival of art, the incident has been frequently treated. it was painted by cavallini, about , on the vault of the choir of the ara-coeli. in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it became a favourite subject. it admitted of those classical forms, and that mingling of the heathen and the christian in style and costume, which were calculated to please the churchmen and artists of the time, and the examples are innumerable. the most celebrated, i believe, is the fresco by baldassare peruzzi, in which the figure of the sibyl is certainly very majestic, but the rest of the group utterly vulgar and commonplace. (siena, fonte giusta.) less famous, but on the whole preferable in point of taste, is the group by garofalo, in the palace of the quirinal; and there is another by titian, in which the scene is laid in a fine landscape after his manner. vasari mentions a cartoon of this subject, painted by rosso for francis i., "among the best things rosso ever produced," and introducing the king and queen of france, their guards, and a concourse of people, as spectators of the scene. in some instances the locality is a temple, with an altar, before which kneels the emperor, having laid upon it his sceptre and laurel crown: the sibyl points to the vision seen through a window above. i think it is so represented in a large picture at hampton court, by pietro da cortona. * * * * * the sibylline prophecy is supposed to have occurred a short tune before the nativity, about the same period when the decree went forth "that all the world should be taxed." joseph, therefore, arose and saddled his ass, and set his wife upon it, and went up from nazareth to bethlehem. the way was long, and steep, and weary; "and when joseph looked back, he saw the face of mary that it was sorrowful, as of one in pain; but when he looked back again, she smiled. and when they, were come to bethlehem, there was no room for them in the inn, because of the great concourse of people. and mary said to joseph, "take me down for i suffer." (protevangelion.) the journey to bethlehem, and the grief and perplexity of joseph, have been often represented. . there exists a very ancient greek carving in ivory, wherein mary is seated on the ass, with an expression of suffering, and joseph tenderly sustains her; she has one arm round his neck, leaning on him: an angel leads the ass, lighting the way with a torch. it is supposed that this curious relic formed part of the ornaments of the ivory throne of the exarch of ravenna, and that it is at least as old as the sixth century.[ ] . there is an instance more dramatic in an engraving after a master of the seventeenth century. mary, seated on the ass, and holding the bridle, raises her eyes to heaven with an expression of resignation; joseph, cap in hand, humbly expostulates with the master of the inn, who points towards the stable; the innkeeper's wife looks up at the virgin with a strong expression of pity and sympathy. . i remember another print of the same subject, where, in the background, angels are seen preparing the cradle in a cave. [footnote : it is engraved in gori's "thesaurus," and described in münter's "sinnbilder."] i may as well add that the virgin, in this character of mysterious, and religious, and most pure maternity, is venerated under the title of _la madonna del parto_.[ ] [footnote : every one who has visited naples will remember the church on the mergellina, dedicated to the _madonna del parto_, where lies, beneath his pagan tomb, the poet sannazzaro. mr. hallam, in a beautiful passage of his "history of the literature of europe," has pointed out the influence of the genius of tasso on the whole school of bolognese painters of that time. not less striking was the influence of sannazzaro and his famous poem on the nativity (_de partû virginis_), on the contemporary productions of italian art, and more particularly as regards the subject under consideration: i can trace it through all the schools of art, from milan to naples, during the latter half of the sixteenth century. of sannazzaro's poem, mr. hallam says, that "it would be difficult to find its equal for purity, elegance, and harmony of versification." it is not the less true, that even its greatest merits as a latin poem exercised the most perverse influence on the religious art of that period. it was, indeed, only _one_ of the many influences which may be said to have demoralized the artists of the sixteenth century, but it was one of the greatest.] the nativity of our saviour, like the annunciation, has been treated in two ways, as a mystery and as an event, and we must be careful to discriminate between them. the nativity as a mystery. in the first sense the artist has intended simply to express the advent of the divinity on earth in the form of an infant, and the _motif_ is clearly taken from a text in the office of the virgin, _virgo quem genuit, adoravit._ in the beautiful words of jeremy taylor, "she blessed him, she worshipped him, and she thanked him that he would be born of her;" as, indeed, many a young mother has done before and since, when she has hung in adoration over the cradle of her first-born child;--but _here_ the child was to be a descended god; and nothing, as it seems to me, can be more graceful and more profoundly suggestive than the manner in which some of the early italian artists have expressed this idea. when, in such pictures, the locality is marked by the poor stable, or the rough rocky cave, it becomes "a temple full of religion, full of glory, where angels are the ministers, the holy virgin the worshipper, and christ the deity." very few accessories are admitted, merely such as serve to denote that the subject is "a nativity," properly so called, and not the "madre pia," as already described. the divine infant lies in the centre of the picture, sometimes on a white napkin, sometimes with no other bed than the flowery turf; sometimes his head rests on a wheat-sheaf, always here interpreted as "the bread of life." he places his finger on his lip, which expresses the _verbum sum_ (or, _vere verbum hoc est abbreviatum_), "i am the word," or "i am the bread of life" (_ego sum panis ille vitæ._ john vi. ), and fixes his eyes on the heavens above, where the angels are singing the _gloria in excelsis._ in one instance, i remember, an angel holds up the cross before him; in another, he grasps it in his hand; or it is a nail, or the crown of thorns, anticipative of his earthly destiny. the virgin kneels on one side; st. joseph, when introduced, kneels on the other; and frequently angels unite with them in the act of adoration, or sustain the new-born child. in this poetical version of the subject, lorenzo di credi, perugino, francia, and bellini, excelled all others[ ]. lorenzo, in particular, became quite renowned for the manner in which he treated it, and a number of beautiful compositions from his hand exist in the florentine and other galleries. [footnote : there are also most charming examples in sculpture by luca della robbia, donatello, and other masters of the florentine school.] there are instances in which attendant saints and votaries are introduced as beholding and adoring this great mystery. . for instance, in a picture by cima, tobit and the angel are introduced on one side, and st. helena and st. catherine on the other. . in a picture by francia (bologna gal.), the infant, reclining upon a white napkin, is adored by the kneeling virgin, by st. augustine, and by two angels also kneeling. the votary, antonio galeazzo bentivoglio, for whom the picture was painted, kneels in the habit of a pilgrim.[ ] he had lately returned from a pilgrimage to jerusalem and bethlehem, thus poetically expressed in the scene of the nativity, and the picture was dedicated as an act of thanksgiving as well as of faith. st. joseph and st. francis stand on one side; on the other is a shepherd crowned with laurel. francia, according to tradition, painted his own portrait as st. francis; and his friend the poet, girolamo casio de' medici, as the shepherd. . in a large and famous nativity by giulio romano (louvre, ), which once belonged to our charles i., st. john the evangelist, and st. longinus (who pierced our saviour's side with his lance), are standing on each side as two witnesses to the divinity of christ;--here strangely enough placed on a par: but we are reminded that longinus had lately been inaugurated as patron of mantua, (v. sacred and legendary art.) [footnote : "an excellent likeness," says vasari. it is engraved as such in litta's memorials of the bentivogli. girolamo casio received the laurel crown from the hand of clement vii. in . a beautiful votive madonna, dedicated by girolamo casio and his son giacomo, and painted by beltraffio, is in the louvre.] in a triptych by hans hemling (berlin gal.) we have in the centre the child, adored, as usual, by the virgin mother and attending angels, the votary also kneeling: in the compartment on the right, we find the manifestation of the redeemer to the _west_ exhibited in the prophecy of the sibyl to augustus; on the left, the manifestation of the redeemer to the _east_ is expressed by the journey of the magi, and the miraculous star--"we have seen his star _in the east_." but of all these ideal nativities, the most striking is one by sandro botticelli, which is indeed a comprehensive poem, a kind of hymn on the nativity, and might be set to music. in the centre is a shed, beneath which the virgin, kneeling, adores the child, who has his finger on his lip. joseph is seen a little behind, as if in meditation. on the right hand, the angel presents three figures (probably the shepherds) crowned with olive; on the left is a similar group. on the roof of the shed, three angels, with olive-branches in their hands, sing the _gloria in excelsis_. above these are twelve angels dancing or floating round in a circle, holding olive-branches between them. in the foreground, in the margin of the picture, three figures rising out of the flames of purgatory are received and embraced by angels. with all its quaint fantastic grace and dryness of execution, the whole conception is full of meaning, religious as well as poetical. the introduction of the olive, and the redeemed, souls, may express "peace on earth, good will towards men;" or the olive may likewise refer to that period of universal peace in which the _prince of peace_ was born into the world.[ ] [footnote : this singular picture, formerly in the ottley collection, was, when i saw it, in the possession of mr. fuller maitland, of stensted park.] i must mention one more instance for its extreme beauty. in a picture by lorenzo di credi (florence, pal. pitti) the infant christ lies on the ground on a part of the veil of the virgin, and holds in his hand a bird. in the background, the miraculous star sheds on the earth a perpendicular blaze of light, and farther off are the shepherds. on the other side, st. jerome, introduced, perhaps, because he made his abode at bethlehem, is seated beside his lion. the nativity as an event. we now come to the nativity historically treated, in which time, place, and circumstance, have to be considered as in any other actual event. the time was the depth of winter, at midnight; the place a poor stable. according to some authorities, this stable was the interior of a cavern, still shown at bethlehem as the scene of the nativity, in front of which was a ruined house, once inhabited by jesse, the father of david, and near the spot where david pastured his sheep: but the house was now a shed partly thatched, and open at that bitter mason to all the winds of heaven. here it was that the blessed virgin "brought forth her first-born son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger." we find in the early greek representations, and in the early italian painters who imitated the byzantine models, that in the arrangement a certain pattern was followed: the locality is a sort of cave--literally a hole in a rock; the virgin mother reclines on a couch; near her lies the new-born infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. in one very ancient example (a miniature of the ninth century in a greek menologium), an attendant is washing the child. but from the fourteenth century we find this treatment discontinued. it gave just offence. the greatest theologians insisted that the birth of the infant christ was as pure and miraculous as his conception; and it was considered little less than heretical to portray mary reclining on a couch as one exhausted by the pangs of childbirth (isaiah lxvi. ), or to exhibit assistants as washing the heavenly infant. "to her alone," says st. bernard, "did not the punishment of eve extend." "not in sorrow," says bishop taylor, "not in pain, but in the posture and guise of worshippers (that is, kneeling), and in the midst of glorious thoughts and speculations, did mary bring her son into the world." we must seek for the accessories and circumstances usually introduced by the painters in the old legendary traditions then accepted and believed. (protevangelion, xiv.) thus one legend relates that joseph went to seek a midwife, and met a woman coming down from the mountains, with whom he returned to the stable. but when they entered it was filled with light greater than the sun at noonday; and as the light decreased and they were able to open their eyes, they beheld mary sitting there with her infant at her bosom. and the hebrew woman being amazed said, "can this be true?" and mary answered, "it is true; as there is no child like unto my son, so there is no woman like unto his mother." * * * * * these circumstances we find in some of the early representations, more or less modified by the taste of the artist. i have seen, for instance, an old german print, in which the virgin "in the posture and guise of worshippers," kneels before her child as usual; while the background exhibits a hilly country, and joseph with a lantern in his hand is helping a woman over a stile. sometimes there are two women, and then the second is always mary salome, who, according to a passage in the same popular authority, visited the mother in her hour of travail. the angelic choristers in the sky, or upon the roof of the stable, sing the _gloria in excelsis deo_; they are never, i believe, omitted, and in early pictures are always three in number; but in later pictures, the mystic _three_ become a chorus of musicians joseph is generally sitting by, leaning on his staff in profound meditation, or asleep as one overcome by fatigue; or with a taper or a lantern in his hand, to express the night-time. among the accessories, the ox and the ass are indispensable. the introduction of these animals rests on an antique tradition mentioned by st. jerome, and also on two texts of prophecy: "the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib" (isaiah i. ); and habakkuk iii. , is rendered, in the vulgate, "he shall lie down between the ox and the ass." from the sixth century, which is the supposed date of the earliest extant, to the sixteenth century, there was never any representation of the nativity without these two animals; thus in the old carol so often quoted-- "agnovit bos et asinus quod puer erat dominus!" in some of the earliest pictures the animals kneel, "confessing the lord." (isaiah xliii. .) in some instances they stare into the manger with a most _naïve_ expression of amazement at what they find there. one of the old latin hymns, _de nativitate domini_, describes them, in that wintry night, as warming the new-born infant with their breath; and they have always been interpreted as symbols, the ox as emblem of the jews, the ass of the gentiles. i wonder if it has ever occurred to those who have studied the inner life and meaning of these old representations,--owed to them, perhaps, homilies of wisdom, as well as visions of poetry,--that the introduction of the ox and the ass, those symbols of animal servitude and inferiority, might be otherwise translated;--that their pathetic dumb recognition of the saviour of the world might be interpreted as extending to them also a participation in his mission of love and mercy;--that since to the lower creatures it was not denied to be present at that great manifestation, they are thus brought nearer to the sympathies of our humanity, as we are, thereby, lifted to a nearer communion with the universal spirit of love;--but this is "considering too deeply," perhaps, for the occasion. return we to our pictures. certainly we are not in danger of being led into any profound or fanciful speculations by the ignorant painters of the later schools of art. in their "nativities," the ox and ass are not, indeed, omitted; they must be present by religious and prescriptive usage; but they are to be made picturesque, as if they were in the stable by right, and as if it were only a stable, not a temple hallowed to a diviner significance. the ass, instead of looking devoutly into the cradle, stretches out his lazy length in the foreground; the ox winks his eyes with a more than bovine stupidity. in some of the old german pictures, while the hebrew ox is quietly chewing the cud, the gentile ass "lifts up his voice" and brays with open mouth, as if in triumph. one version of this subject, by agnolo gaddi, is conceived with much simplicity and originality. the virgin and joseph are seen together within a rude and otherwise solitary building. she points expressively to the manger where lies the divine infant, while joseph leans on his staff and appears lost in thought. correggio has been much admired for representing in his famous nativity the whole picture as lighted by the glory which proceeds from the divine infant, as if the idea had been new and original. ("_la notte_," dresden gal.) it occurs frequently before and since his time, and is founded on the legendary story quoted above, which describes the cave or stable filled with a dazzling and supernatural light. * * * * * it is not often we find the nativity represented as an historical event without the presence of the shepherds; nor is the supernatural announcement to the shepherds often treated as a separate subject: it generally forms part of the background of the nativity; but there are some striking examples. in a print by rembrandt, he has emulated, in picturesque and poetical treatment, his famous vision of jacob, in the dulwich gallery. the angel (always supposed to be gabriel) appears in a burst of radiance through the black wintry midnight, surrounded by a multitude of the heavenly host. the shepherds fall prostrate, as men amazed and "sore afraid;" the cattle flee different ways in terror (luke ii. .) i do not say that this is the most elevated way of expressing the scene; but, as an example of characteristic style, it is perfect. the adoration of the shepherds. _ital._ l' adorazione del pastori. _fr._ l'adoration des bergers. _ger._ die anbetung der hirten. the story thus proceeds:--when the angels were gone away into heaven, the shepherds came with haste, "and found mary, and joseph, and the young child lying in a manger." being come, they present their pastoral offerings--a lamb, or doves, or fruits (but these, considering the season, are misplaced); they take off their hats with reverence, and worship in rustic fashion. in raphael's composition, the shepherds, as we might expect from him, look as if they had lived in arcadia. in some of the later italian pictures, they pipe and sing. it is the well-known custom in italy for the shepherds of the campagna, and of calabria, to pipe before the madonna and child at christmas time; and these _piffereri_, with their sheepskin jackets, ragged hats, bagpipes, and tabors, were evidently the models reproduced in some of the finest pictures of the bolognese school; for instance, in the famous nativity by annibale caracci, where a picturesque figure in the corner is blowing into the bagpipes with might and main. in the venetian pictures of the nativity, the shepherds are accompanied by their women, their sheep, and even their dogs. according to an old legend, simon and jude, afterwards apostles, were among these shepherds. when the angels scatter flowers, as in compositions by raphael and ludovico caracci, we must suppose that they were not gathered on earth, but in heaven. the infant is sometimes asleep:--so milton sings-- "but see the virgin blest hath laid her babe to rest!" in a drawing by raphael, the child slumbers, and joseph raises the coverlid, to show him to a shepherd. we have the same idea in several other instances. in a graceful composition by titian, it is the virgin mother who raises the veil from the face of the sleeping child. * * * * * from the number of figures and accessories, the nativity thus treated as an historical subject becomes capable of almost endless variety; but as it is one not to be mistaken, and has a universal meaning and interest, i may now leave it to the fancy and discrimination of the observer. the adoration of the magi. _ital._ l' adorazione de' magi. l' epifania. _fr._ l'adoration des rois mages. _ger._ die anbetung der weisen aus dem morgenland. die heiligen drei könige. jan. . this, the most extraordinary incident in the early life of our saviour, rests on the authority of one evangelist only. it is related by st. matthew so briefly, as to present many historical and philosophical difficulties. i must give some idea of the manner in which these difficulties were elucidated by the early commentators, and of the notions which prevailed in the middle ages relative to the country of the three kings, before it will be possible to understand or to appreciate the subject as it has been set before us in every style of art, in every form, in every material, from the third century to the present time. in the first place, who were these magi, or these kings, as they are sometimes styled? "to suppose," says the antique legend, "that they were called magi because they were addicted to magic, or exercised unholy or forbidden arts, would be, heaven save us! a rank heresy." no! magi, in the persian tongue, signifies "wise men." they were, in their own country, kings or princes, as it is averred by all the ancient fathers; and we are not to be offended at the assertion, that they were at once princes and _wise_ men,--"car à l'usage de ce temps-là les princes et les rois etoient très sages!"[ ] [footnote : quoted literally from the legend in the old french version of the _flos sanctorum_.] they came from the eastern country, but from what country is not said; whether from the land of the arabians, or the chaldeans, or the persians, or the parthians. it is written in the book of numbers, that when balaam, the son of beor, was called upon to curse the children of israel, he, by divine inspiration, uttered a blessing instead of a curse. and he took up this parable, and said, "i shall see him, but not now: i shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a star out of jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of israel." and the people of that country, though they were gentiles, kept this prophecy as a tradition among them, and waited with faith and hope for its fulfilment. when, therefore, their princes and wise men beheld a star different in its appearance and movement from those which they had been accustomed to study (for they were great astronomers), they at once knew its import, and hastened to follow its guidance. according to an ancient commentary on st. matthew, this star, on its first appearance, had the form of a radiant child bearing a sceptre or cross. in a fresco by taddeo gaddi, it is thus figured; and this is the only instance i can remember. but to proceed with our story. when the eastern sages beheld this wondrous and long-expected star, they rejoiced greatly; and they arose, and taking leave of their lands and their vassals, their relations and their friends, set forth on their long and perilous journey across vast deserts and mountains, and broad rivers, the star going before them, and arrived at length at jerusalem, with a great and splendid train of attendants. being come there, they asked at once, "where is he who is born king of the jews?" on hearing this question, king herod was troubled, and all the city with him; and he inquired of the chief priests where christ should be born. and they said to him, "in bethlehem of judea." then herod privately called the wise men, and desired they would go to bethlehem, and search for the young child (he was careful not to call him _king_), saying, "when ye have found him, bring me word, that i may come and worship him also." so the magi departed, and the star which they had seen in the east went before them, until it stood over the place where the young child was--he who was born king of kings. they had travelled many a long and weary mile; "and what had they come for to see?" instead of a sumptuous palace, a mean and lowly dwelling; in place of a monarch surrounded by his guards and ministers and all the terrors of his state, an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid upon his mother's knee, between the ox and the ass. they had come, perhaps, from some far-distant savage land, or from some nation calling itself civilized, where innocence had never been accounted sacred, where society had as yet taken no heed of the defenceless woman, no care for the helpless child; where the one was enslaved, and the other perverted: and here, under the form of womanhood and childhood, they were called upon to worship the promise of that brighter future, when peace should inherit the earth, and righteousness prevail over deceit, and gentleness with wisdom reign for ever and ever! how must they have been amazed! how must they have wondered in their souls at such a revelation!--yet such was the faith of these wise men and excellent kings, that they at once prostrated themselves, confessing in the glorious innocent who smiled upon them from his mother's knee, a greater than themselves--the image of a truer divinity than they had ever yet acknowledged. and having bowed themselves down--first, as was most fit, offering _themselves_,--they made offering of their treasure, as it had been written in ancient times, "the kings of tarshish and the isles shall bring presents, and the kings of sheba shall offer gifts." and what were these gifts? gold, frankincense, and myrrh; by which symbolical oblation they protested a threefold faith;--by gold, that he was king; by incense, that he was god; by myrrh, that he was man, and doomed to death. in return for their gifts, the saviour bestowed upon them others of more matchless price. for their gold he gave them charity and spiritual riches; for their incense, perfect faith; and for their myrrh, perfect truth and meekness: and the virgin, his mother, also bestowed on them a precious gift and memorial, namely, one of those linen bands in which she had wrapped the saviour, for which they thanked her with great humility, and laid it up amongst their treasures. when they had performed their devotions and made their offerings, being warned in a dream to avoid herod, they turned back again to their own dominions; and the star which had formerly guided them to the west, now went before them towards the east, and led them safely home. when they were arrived there, they laid down their earthly state; and in emulation of the poverty and humility in which they had found the lord of all power and might, they distributed their goods and possessions to the poor, and went about in mean attire, preaching to their people the new king of heaven and earth, the child-king, the prince of peace. we are not told what was the success of their mission; neither is it anywhere recorded, that from that time forth, every child, as it sat on its mother's knee, was, even for the sake of that prince of peace, regarded as sacred--as the heir of a divine nature--as one whose tiny limbs enfolded a spirit which was to expand into the man, the king, the god. such a result was, perhaps, reserved for other times, when the whole mission of that divine child should be better understood than it was then, or is _now_. but there is an ancient oriental tradition, that about forty years later, when st. thomas the apostle travelled into the indies, he found these wise men there, and did administer to them the rite of baptism; and that afterwards, in carrying the light of truth into the far east, they fell among barbarous gentiles, and were put to death; thus each of them receiving in return for the earthly crowns they had cast at the feet of the saviour, the heavenly crown of martyrdom and of everlasting life. their remains, long afterwards discovered, were brought to constantinople by the empress helena; thence in the time of the first crusade they were transported to milan, whence they were carried off by the emperor barbarossa, and deposited in the cathedral at cologne, where they remain to this day, laid in a shrine of gold and gems; and have performed divers great and glorious miracles. * * * * * such, in few words, is the church legend of the magi of the east, the "three kings of cologne," as founded on the mysterious gospel incident. statesmen and philosophers, not less than ecclesiastics, have, as yet, missed the whole sense and large interpretation of the mythic as well as the scriptural story; but well have the artists availed themselves of its picturesque capabilities! in their hands it has gradually expanded from a mere symbol into a scene of the most dramatic and varied effect and the most gorgeous splendour. as a subject it is one of the most ancient in the whole range of christian art. taken in the early religions sense, it signified the calling of the gentiles; and as such we find it carved in bas-relief on the christian sarcophagi of the third and fourth centuries, and represented with extreme simplicity. the virgin mother is seated on a chair, and holds the infant upright on her knee. the wise men, always three in number, and all alike, approach in attitudes of adoration. in some instances they wear phrygian caps, and their camels' heads are seen behind them, serving to express the land whence they came, the land of the east, as well as their long journey; as on one of the sarcophagi in the christian museum of the vatican. the star in these antique sculptures is generally omitted; but in one or two instances it stands immediately over the chair of the virgin. on a sarcophagus near the entrance of the tomb of galla placidia, at ravenna, they are thus represented. the mosaic in the church of santa maria maggiore at rome, is somewhat later in date than these sarcophagi (a.d. ), and the representation is very peculiar and interesting. here the child is seated alone on a kind of square pedestal, with his hand raised in benediction; behind the throne stand two figures, supposed to be the virgin and joseph; on each side, two angels. the kings approach, dressed as roman warriors, with helmets on their heads. in the mosaic in the church of sant' appollinare-novo, at ravenna (a.d. ), the virgin receives them seated on a throne, attended by the archangels; they approach, wearing crowns on their heads, and bending in attitudes of reverence: all three figures are exactly alike, and rather less in proportion than the divine group. * * * * * immediately on the revival of art we find the adoration of the kings treated in the byzantine style, with few accessories. very soon, however, in the early florentine school, the artists began to avail themselves of that picturesque variety of groups of which the story admitted. in the legends of the fourteenth century, the kings had become distinct personages, under the names of caspar (or jasper), melchior, and balthasar: the first being always a very aged man, with a long white beard; the second, a middle-aged man; the third is young, and frequently he is a moor or negro, to express the king of ethiopia or nubia, and also to indicate that when the gentiles were called to salvation, all the continents and races of the earth, of whatever complexion, were included. the difference of ages is indicated in the greek formula; but the difference of complexion is a modern innovation, and more frequently found in the german than in the italian schools. in the old legend of the three kings, as inserted in wright's "chester mysteries," jasper, or caspar, is king of tarsus, the land of merchants; he makes the offering of gold. melchior, the king of arabia and nubia, offers frankincense; and balthasar, king of saba,--"the land of spices and all manner of precious gums,"--offers myrrh.[ ] [footnote : the names of the three kings appear for the first time in a piece of rude sculpture over the door of sant' andrea at pistoia, to which is assigned the date . (_vide_ d'agincourt, _scultura_, pl. xxvii.)] it is very usual to find, in the adoration of the magi, the angelic announcement to the shepherds introduced into the background; or, more poetically, the magi approaching on one side, and the shepherds on the other. the intention is then to express a double signification; it is at once the manifestation to the jews, and the manifestation to the gentiles. the attitude of the child varies. in the best pictures he raises his little hand in benediction. the objection that he was then only an infant of a few days old is futile: for he was from his birth the christ. it is also in accordance with the beautiful and significant legend which describes him as dispensing to the old wise men the spiritual blessings of love, meekness, and perfect faith, in return for their gifts and their homage. it appears to me bad taste, verging on profanity, to represent him plunging his little hand into the coffer of gold, or eagerly grasping one of the gold pieces. neither should he be wrapped up in swaddling clothes, nor in any way a subordinate figure in the group; for it is the epiphany, the manifestation of a divine humanity to jews and gentiles, which is to be expressed; and there is meaning as well as beauty in those compositions which represent the virgin at lifting a veil and showing him to the wise man. the kingly character of the adorers, which became in the thirteenth century a point of faith, is expressed by giving them all the paraphernalia and pomp of royalty according to the customs of the time in which the artist lived. they are followed by a vast train of attendants, guards, pages, grooms, falconers with hawks; and, in a picture by gaudenzio ferrari, we have the court-dwarf, and, in a picture by titian, the court-fool, both indispensable appendages of royal state in those times. the kings themselves wear embroidered robes, crowns, and glittering weapons, and are booted and spurred as if just alighted from a long journey; even on one of the sarcophagi they are seen in spurs. the early florentine and venetian painters profited by the commercial relations of their countries with the levant, and introduced all kinds of outlandish and oriental accessories to express the far country from which the strangers had arrived; thus we have among the presents, apes, peacocks, pheasants, and parrots. the traditions of the crusades also came in aid, and hence we have, the plumed and jewelled turbans, the armlets and the scymitars, and, in the later pictures, even umbrellas and elephants. i remember, in an old italian print of this subject, a pair of hunting leopards or _chetas_. it is a question whether joseph was present--whether he _ought_ to have been present: in one of the early legends, it is asserted that he hid himself and would not appear, out of his great humility, and because it should not be supposed that he arrogated any relationship to the divine child. but this version of the scene is quite inconsistent with the extreme veneration afterwards paid to joseph; and in later times, that is, from the fifteenth century, he is seldom omitted. sometimes he is seen behind the chair of the virgin, leaning on his stick, and contemplating the scene with a quiet admiration. sometimes he receives the gifts offered to the child, acting the part of a treasurer or chamberlain. in a picture by angelico one of the magi grasps his hand as if in congratulation. in a composition by parmigiano one of the magi embraces him. it was not uncommon for pious votaries to have themselves painted in likeness of one of the adoring kings. in a picture by sandro botticelli, cosmo de' medici is thus introduced; and in a large and beautifully arranged composition by leonardo da vinci, which unhappily remains as a sketch only, the three medici of that time, cosmo, lorenzo, and giuliano, are figured as the three kings. (both these pictures are in the florence gal.) a very remarkable altar-piece, by jean van eyck, represents the worship of the magi. in the centre, mary and her child are seated within a ruined temple; the eldest of the three kings kneeling, does homage by kissing the hand of the child: it is the portrait of philip the good, duke of burgundy. the second, prostrate behind him with a golden beaker in his hand, is supposed to be one of the great officers of his household. the third king exhibits the characteristic portrait of charles the bold; there is no expression of humility or devotion either in his countenance or attitude; he stands upright, with a lofty disdainful air, as if he were yet unresolved whether he would kneel or not. on the right of the virgin, a little in the foreground, stands joseph in a plain red dress, holding his hat in his hand, and looking with as air of simple astonishment at his magnificent guests. all the accessories in this picture, the gold and silver vessels, the dresses of the three kings sparking with jewels and pearls, the velvets, silks, and costly furs, are painted with the most exquisite finish and delicacy, and exhibit to us the riches of the court of burgundy, in which van eyck then resided. (munich gal, .) in raphael's composition, the worshippers wear the classical, not the oriental costume; but an elephant with a monkey on his back is seen in the distance, which at once reminds us of the far east. (rome, vatican.) ghirlandajo frequently painted the adoration of the magi, and shows in his management of the accessories much taste and symmetry. in one of his compositions, the shed forms a canopy in the centre; two of the kings kneel in front. the country of the ethiopian king is not expressed by making him of a black complexion, but by giving him a negro page, who is in the act of removing his master's crown. (florence, pitti pal.) a very complete example of artificial and elaborate composition may be found in the drawing by baldassare peruzzi in our national gallery. it contains at least fifty figures; in the centre, a magnificent architectural design; and wonderful studies of perspective to the right and left, in the long lines of receding groups. on the whole, it is a most skilful piece of work; but to my taste much like a theatrical decoration,--pompous without being animated. a beautiful composition by francia i must not pass over.[ ] here, to the left of the picture, the virgin is seated on the steps of a ruined temple, against which grows a fig-tree, which, though it be december, is in full leaf. joseph kneels at her side, and behind her are two arcadian shepherds, with the ox and the ass. the virgin, who has a charming air of modesty and sweetness, presents her child to the adoration of the wise men: the first of these kneels with joined hands; the second, also kneeling, is about to present a golden vase; the negro king, standing, has taken off his cap, and holds a censer in his hand; and the divine infant raises his hand in benediction. behind the kings are three figures on foot, one a beautiful youth in an attitude of adoration. beyond these are five or six figures on horseback, and a long train upon horses and camels is seen approaching in the background. the landscape is very beautiful and cheerful: the whole picture much in the style of francia's master, lorenzo costa. i should at the first glance have supposed it to be his, but the head of the virgin is unmistakably francia. [footnote : dresden gal. arnold, the well-known print-seller at dresden, has lately published a very beautiful and finished engraving of this fine picture; the more valuable, because engravings after francia are very rare.] there are instances of this subject idealized into a mystery; for example, in a picture by palma vecchio (milan, brera), st. helena stands behind the virgin, in allusion to the legend which connects her with the history of the kings. in a picture by garofalo, the star shining above is attended by angels bearing the instruments of the passion, while st. bartholomew, holding his skin, stands near the virgin and child: it was painted for the abbey of st. bartholomew, at ferrara. among the german examples, the picture by albert durer, in the tribune of the florence gallery; and that of mabuse, in the collection of lord carlisle, are perhaps the most perfect of their kind. in the last-named picture the virgin, seated, in a plain dark-blue mantle, with the german physiognomy, but large browed, and with a very serious, sweet expression, holds the child. the eldest of the kings, as usual, offers a vase of gold, out of which christ has taken a piece, which be holds in his hand. the name of the king, jasper, is inscribed on the vase; a younger king behind holds a cup. the black ethiopian king, balthasar, is conspicuous on the left; he stands, crowned and arrayed in gorgeous drapery, and, as if more fully to mark the equality of the races--at least in spiritual privileges--his train is borne by a white page. an exquisite landscape is seen through the arch behind, and the shepherds are approaching in the middle distance. on the whole, this is one of the most splendid pictures of the early flemish school i have ever seen; for variety of character, glow of colour, and finished execution, quite unsurpassed. in a very rich composition by lucas van leyden, herod is seen in the background, standing in the balcony of his palace, and pointing out the scene to his attendants. as we might easily imagine, the ornamental painters of the venetian and flemish schools delighted in this subject, which allowed them full scope for their gorgeous colouring, and all their scenic and dramatic power. here paul veronese revelled unreproved in asiatic magnificence: here his brocaded robes and jewelled diadems harmonized with his subject; and his grand, old, bearded, venetian senators figured, not unsuitably, as eastern kings. here rubens lavished his ermine and crimson draperies, his vases, and ewers, and censers of flaming gold;--here poured over his canvas the wealth "of ormuz and of ind." of fifteen pictures of this subject, which he painted at different times, the finest undoubtedly is that in the madrid gallery. another, also very fine, is in the collection of the marquis of westminster. in both these, the virgin, contrary to all former precedent, is not seated, but _standing_, as she holds up her child for worship. afterwards we find the same position of the virgin in pictures by vandyck, poussin, and other painters of the seventeenth century. it is quite an innovation on the old religious arrangement; but in the utter absence of all religious feeling, the mere arrangement of the figures, except in an artistic point of view, is of little consequence. as a scene of oriental pomp, heightened by mysterious shadows and flashing lights, i know nothing equal to the rembrandt in the queen's gallery; the procession of attendants seen emerging from the background through the transparent gloom is quite awful; but in this miraculous picture, the lovely virgin mother is metamorphosed into a coarse dutch _vrow_, and the divine child looks like a changeling imp. in chapels dedicated to the nativity or the epiphany, we frequently find the journey of the wise men painted round the walls. they are seen mounted on horseback, or on camels, with a long train of attendants, here ascending a mountain, there crossing a river; here winding through a defile, there emerging from a forest; while the miraculous star shines above, pointing out the way. sometimes we have the approach of the wise men on one side of the chapel, and their return to their own country on the other. on their homeward journey they are, in some few instances, embarking in a ship: this occurs in a fresco by lorenzo costa, and in a bas-relief in the cathedral of amiens. the allusion is to a curious legend mentioned by arnobius the younger, in his commentary on the psalms (fifth century). he says, in reference to the th psalm, that when herod found that the three kings had escaped from him "in ships of tarsus," in his wrath he burned all the vessels in the port. there is a beautiful fresco of the journey of the magi in the riccardi chapel at florence, painted by benozzo gozzoli for the old cosmo de' medici. "the baptism of the magi by st. thomas," is one of the compartments of the life of the virgin, painted by taddeo gaddi, in the baroncelli chapel at florence, and this is the only instance i can refer to. * * * * * before i quit this subject--one of the most interesting in the whole range of art--i must mention a picture by giorgione in the belvedere gallery, well known as one of the few undoubted productions of that rare and fascinating painter, and often referred to because of its beauty. its signification has hitherto escaped all writers on art, as far as i am acquainted with them, and has been dismissed as one of his enigmatical allegories. it is called in german, _die feldmässer_ (the land surveyors), and sometimes styled in english the _geometricians_, or the _philosophers_, or the _astrologers_. it represents a wild, rocky landscape, in which are three men. the first, very aged, in as oriental costume, with a long gray beard, stands holding in his hand an astronomical table; the next, a man in the prime of life, seems listening to him; the third, a youth, seated and looking upwards, holds a compass. i have myself no doubt that this beautiful picture represents the "three wise men of the east," watching on the chaldean hills the appearance of the miraculous star, and that the light breaking in the far horizon, called in the german description the rising sun, is intended to express the rising of the star of jacob.[ ] in the sumptuous landscape, and colour, and the picturesque rather than religious treatment, this picture is quite venetian. the interpretation here suggested i leave to the consideration of the observer; and without allowing myself to be tempted on to further illustration, will only add, in conclusion, that i do not remember any spanish picture of this subject remarkable either for beauty or originality.[ ] [footnote : there is also a print by giulio bonasoni, which appears to represent the wise men watching for the star. (_bartsch_, xv. .)] [footnote : in the last edition of the vienna catalogue, this picture has received its proper title.] the purification of the virgin, the presentation, and the circumcision of christ. _ital._ la purificazione della b. vergine. _ger._ die darbringung im tempel. die beschneidung christi. after the birth of her son, mary was careful to fulfil all the ceremonies of the mosaic law. as a first-born son, he was to be redeemed by the offering of five shekels, or a pair of young pigeons (in memory of the first-born of egypt). but previously, being born of the children of abraham, the infant christ was submitted to the sanguinary rite which sealed the covenant of abraham, and received the name of jesus--"that name before which every knee was to bow, which was to be set above the powers of magic, the mighty rites of sorcerers, the secrets of memphis, the drugs of thessaly, the silent and mysterious murmurs of the wise chaldees, and the spells of zoroaster; that name which we should engrave on our hearts, and pronounce with our most harmonious accents, and rest our faith on, and place our hopes in, and love with the overflowing of charity, joy, and adoration." (v. bishop taylor's life of christ.) the circumcision and the naming of christ have many times been painted to express the first of the sorrows of the virgin, being the first of the pangs which her son was to suffer on earth. but the presentation in the temple has been selected with better taste for the same purpose; and the prophecy of simeon, "yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also," becomes the first of the seven sorrows. it is an undecided point whether the adoration of the magi took place thirteen days, or one year and thirteen days after the birth of christ. in a series of subjects artistically arranged, the epiphany always precedes, in order of time, that scene in the temple which is sometimes styled the purification, sometimes the presentation and sometimes the _nunc dimitis_. they are three distinct incidents; but, as far as i can judge, neither the painters themselves, nor those who have named pictures, have been careful to discriminate between them. on a careful examination of various compositions, some of special celebrity, which are styled, in a general way, the presentation in the temple, it will appear, i think, that the idea uppermost in the painter's mind has been to represent the prophecy of simeon. no doubt, in later times, the whole scene, as a subject of art, was considered in reference chiefly to the virgin, and the intention was to express the first of her seven sorrows. but in ancient art, and especially in greek art, the character of simeon assumed a singular significance and importance, which so long as modern art was influenced by the traditional byzantine types, modified, in some degree, the arrangement and sentiment of this favourite subject. it is related that when ptolemy philadelphus about years before christ, resolved to have the hebrew scriptures translated into greek, for the purpose of placing them in his far-famed library, he despatched messengers to eleazar, the high priest of the jews, requiring him to send scribes and interpreters learned in the jewish law to his court at alexandria. thereupon eleazar selected six of the most learned rabbis from each of the twelve tribes of israel, seventy-two persons in all, and sent them to egypt, in obedience to the commands of king ptolemy, and among these was simeon, a priest, and a man full of learning. and it fell to the lot of simeon to translate the book of the prophet isaiah. and when he came to that verse where it is written, "behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son," he began to misdoubt, in his own mind, how this could be possible; and, after long meditation, fearing to give scandal and offence to the greeks, he rendered the hebrew word _virgin_ by a greek word which signifies merely a _young woman_; but when he had written it down, behold an angel effaced it, and substituted the right word. thereupon he wrote it again and again; and the same thing happened three times; and he remained astonished and confounded. and while he wondered what this should mean, a ray of divine light penetrated his soul; it was revealed to him that the miracle which, in his human wisdom he had presumed to doubt, was not only possible, but that he, simeon, "should not see death till he had seen the lord's christ." therefore he tarried on earth, by the divine will, for nearly three centuries, till that which he had disbelieved had come to pass. he was led by the spirit to the temple on the very day when mary came there to present her son, and to make her offering, and immediately, taking the child in his arms, he exclaimed, "lord, _now_ lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word." and of the virgin mother, also, he prophesied sad and glorious things. anna the prophetess, who was standing by, also testified to the presence of the theocratic king: but she did not take him in her arms, as did simeon. (luke ii. .) hence, she was early regarded as a type of the synagogue, which prophesied great things of the messiah, but, nevertheless, did not embrace him when he appeared, as did the gentiles. that these curious legends relative to simeon and anna, and their symbolical interpretation, were well known to the old painters, there can be no doubt; and both were perhaps in the mind of bishop taylor when he wrote his eloquent chapter on the presentation. "there be some," he says, "who wear the name of christ on their heads, to make a show to the world; and there be some who have it always in their mouths; and there be some who carry christ on their shoulders, as if he were a burthen too heavy to bear; and there be some--who is me!--who trample him under their feet, but _he_ is the true christian who, _like simeon_, embraces christ, and takes him to his heart." now, it seems to me that it is distinctly the acknowledgment of christ by simeon,--that is, christ received by the gentiles,--which is intended to be placed before us in the very early pictures of the presentation, or the _nunc dimittis_, as it is always styled in greek art. the appearance of an attendant, bearing the two turtle-doves, shows it to be also the so-called purification of the virgin. in an antique formal greek version we have the presentation exactly according to the pattern described by didron. the great gold censer is there; the cupola, at top; joseph carrying the two young pigeons, and anna behind simeon. * * * * * in a celebrated composition by fra bartolomeo, there is the same disposition of the personages, but an additional female figure. this is not anna, the mother of the virgin (as i have heard it said), but probably mary salome, who had always attended on the virgin ever since the nativity at bethlehem. the subject is treated with exquisite simplicity by francia; we have just the same personages as in the rude greek model, but disposed with consummate grace. still, to represent the child as completely undraped has been considered as a solecism. he ought to stretch out his hands to his mother and to look as if he understood the portentous words which foretold his destiny. sometimes the imagination is assisted by the choice of the accessories; thus fra bartolomeo has given us, in the background of his group, moses holding the _broken_ table of the old law; and francia represents in the same manner the sacrifice of abraham; for thus did mary bring her son as an offering. in many pictures simeon raises his eyes to heaven in gratitude; but those painters who wished to express the presence of the divinity in the person of christ, made simeon looking at the child, and addressing _him_ as "lord." the flight into egypt. _ital._ la fuga in egitto. _fr._ la fuite de la sainte famille en egypte. _ger._ die flucht nach Ægypten. the wrath of herod against the magi of the east who had escaped from his power, enhanced by his fears of the divine and kingly infant, occasioned the massacre of the innocents, which led to the flight of the holy family into egypt. of the martyred children, in their character of martyrs, i have already spoken, and of their proper place in a scheme of ecclesiastical decoration. there is surely something very pathetic in that feeling which exalted these infant victims into objects of religious veneration, making them the cherished companions in heavenly glory of the saviour for whose sake they were sacrificed on earth. he had said, "suffer little children to come unto me;" and to these were granted the prerogatives of pain, as well as the privileges of innocence. if, in the day of retribution, they sit at the feet of the redeemer, surely they will appeal against us, then and there;--against us who, in these days, through our reckless neglect, slay, body and soul, legions of innocents,--poor little unblest creatures, "martyrs by the pang without the palm,"--yet dare to call ourselves christians. * * * * * the massacre of the innocents, as an event, belongs properly to the life of christ: it is not included in a series of the life of the virgin, perhaps from a feeling that the contrast between the most blessed of women and mothers, and those who wept distracted for their children, was too painful, and did not harmonize with the general subject. in pictures of the flight into egypt, i have seen it introduced allusively into the background; and in the architectural decoration of churches dedicated to the virgin mother, as notre dame de chartres, it finds a place, but not often a conspicuous place;[ ] it is rather indicated than represented. i should pass over the subject altogether, best pleased to be spared the theme, but that there are some circumstances connected with it which require elucidation, because we find them introduced incidentally into pictures of the flight and the _riposo_. [footnote : it is conspicuous and elegantly treated over the door of the lorenz kirche at nuremberg.] thus, it is related that among the children whom herod was bent on destroying, was st. john the baptist; but his mother elizabeth fled with him to a desert place, and being pursued by the murderers, "the rock opened by a miracle, and close upon elizabeth and her child;" which means, as we may presume, that they took refuge in a cavern, and were concealed within it until the danger was over. zacharias, refusing to betray his son, was slain "between the temple and the altar," (matt, xxiii. .) both these legends are to be met with in the greek pictures, and in the miniatures of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[ ] [footnote : they will be found treated at length in the artistic subjects connected with st. john the baptist.] from the butchery which made so many mothers childless, the divine infant and his mother were miraculously saved; for an angel spoke to joseph in a dream, saying, "arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into egypt." this is the second of the four angelic visions which are recorded of joseph. it is not a frequent subject in early art, but is often met with in pictures of the later schools. joseph is asleep in his chair, the angel stands before him, and, with a significant gesture, points forward--"arise and flee!" there is an exquisite little composition by titian, called a _riposo_, which may possibly represent the preparation for the flight. here mary is seated under a tree nursing her infant, while in the background is a sort of rude stable, in which joseph is seen saddling the ass, while the ox is on the outside. in a composition by tiarini, we see joseph holding the infant, while mary, leaning one hand on his shoulder, is about to mount the ass. in a composition by poussin, mary, who has just seated herself on the ass, takes the child from the arms of joseph. two angels lead the ass, a third kneels in homage, and two others are seen above with a curtain to pitch a tent. * * * * * i must notice here a tradition that both the ox and the ass who stood over the manger at bethlehem, accompanied the holy family into egypt. in albert durer's print, the ox and the ass walk side by side. it is also related that the virgin was accompanied by salome, and joseph by three of his sons. this version of the story is generally rejected by the painters; but in the series by giotto in the arena at padua, salome and the three youths attend on mary and joseph; and i remember another instance, a little picture by lorenzo monaco, in which salome, who had vowed to attend on christ and his mother as long as she lived, is seen following the ass, veiled, and supporting her steps with a staff. but this is a rare exception. the general treatment confines the group to joseph, the mother, and the child. to joseph was granted, in those hours of distress and danger, the high privilege of providing for the safety of the holy infant--a circumstance much enlarged upon in the old legends, and to express this more vividly, he is sometimes represented in early greek art as carrying the child in his arms, or on his shoulder, while mary follows on the ass. he is so figured on the sculptured doors of the cathedral of beneventum, and in the cathedral of monreale, both executed by greek artists.[ ] but we are not to suppose that the holy family was left defenceless on the long journey. the angels who had charge concerning them were sent to guide them by day, to watch over them by night, to pitch their tent before them, and to refresh them with celestial fruit and flowers. by the introduction of these heavenly ministers the group is beautifully varied. [footnote : th century. also at città di castello; same date.] joseph, says the gospel story, "arose by night;" hence there is both meaning and propriety in those pictures which represent the flight as a night-scene, illuminated by the moon and stars, though i believe this has been done more to exhibit the painter's mastery over effects of dubious light, than as a matter of biblical accuracy. sometimes an angel goes before, carrying a torch or lantern, to light them on the way; sometimes it is joseph who carries the lantern. in a picture by nicolo poussin, mary walks before, carrying the infant; joseph follows, leading the ass; and an angel guides them. the journey did not, however, comprise one night only. there is, indeed, an antique tradition, that space and time were, on this occasion, miraculously shortened to secure a life of so much importance; still, we are allowed to believe that the journey extended over many days and nights; consequently it lay within the choice of the artist to exhibit the scene of the flight either by night or by day. in many representations of the flight into egypt, we find in the background men sowing or cutting corn. this is in allusion to the following legend:-- when it was discovered that the holy family had fled from bethlehem, herod sent his officers in pursuit of them. and it happened that when the holy family had travelled some distance, they came to a field where a man was sowing wheat. and the virgin said to the husbandman, "if any shall ask you whether we have passed this way, ye shall answer, 'such persons passed this way when i was sowing this corn.'" for the holy virgin was too wise and too good to save her son by instructing the man to tell a falsehood. but behold, a miracle! for by the power of the infant saviour, in the space of a single night, the seed sprung up into stalk, blade, and ear, fit for the sickle. and next morning the officers of herod came up, and inquired of the husbandman, saying, "have you seen an old man with a woman and a child travelling this way?" and the man, who was reaping his wheat, in great wonder and admiration, replied "yes." and they asked again, "how long is it since?" and he answered. "when i was sowing this wheat." then the officers of herod turned back, and left off pursuing the holy family. a very remarkable example of the introduction of this legend occurs in a celebrated picture by hans hemling (munich gal., cabinet iv. ), known as "die sieben freuden mariä." in the background, on the left, is the flight into egypt; the men cutting and reaping corn, and the officers of herod in pursuit of the holy family. by those unacquainted with the old legend, the introduction of the cornfield and reapers is supposed to be merely a decorative landscape, without any peculiar significance. * * * * * in a very beautiful fresco by pinturicchio, (rome, st. onofrio), the holy family are taking their departure from bethlehem. the city, with the massacre of the innocents, is seen in the background. in the middle distance, the husbandman cutting corn; and nearer, the palm tree bending down. * * * * * it is supposed by commentators that joseph travelled from bethlehem across the hilly country of judea, taking the road to joppa, and then pursuing the way along the coast. nothing is said in the gospel of the events of this long and perilous journey of at least miles, which, in the natural order of things, must have occupied five or six weeks; and the legendary traditions are very few. such as they are, however, the painters have not failed to take advantage of them. we are told that on descending from the mountains, they came down upon a beautiful plain enamelled with flowers, watered by murmuring streams, and shaded by fruit trees. in such a lovely landscape have the painters delighted to place some of the scenes of the flight into egypt. on another occasion, they entered a thick forest, a wilderness of trees, in which they must have lost their way, had they not been guided by an angel. here we encounter a legend which has hitherto escaped, because, indeed, it defied, the art of the painter. as the holy family entered this forest, all the trees bowed themselves down in reverence to the infant god; only the aspen, in her exceeding pride and arrogance, refused to acknowledge him, and stood upright. then the infant christ pronounced a curse against her, as he afterwards cursed the barren fig tree; and at the sound of his words the aspen began to tremble through all her leaves, and has not ceased to tremble even to this day. we know from josephus the historian, that about this time palestine was infested by bands of robbers. there is an ancient tradition, that when the holy family travelling through hidden paths and solitary defiles, had passed jerusalem, and were descending into the plains of syria, they encountered certain thieves who fell upon them; and one of them would have maltreated and plundered them, but his comrade interfered, and said, "suffer them, i beseech thee, to go in peace, and i will give thee forty groats, and likewise my girdle;" which offer being accepted, the merciful robber led the holy travellers to his stronghold on the rock, and gave them lodging for the night. (gospel of infancy, ch. viii.) and mary said to him, "the lord god will receive thee to his right hand, and grant thee pardon of thy sins!" and it was so: for in after times these two thieves were crucified with christ, one on the right hand, and one on the left; and the merciful thief went with the saviour into paradise. the scene of this encounter with the robbers, near ramla, is still pointed out to travellers, and still in evil repute as the haunt of banditti. the crusaders visited the spot as a place of pilgrimage; and the abbé orsini considers the first part of the story as authenticated; but the legend concerning the good thief he admits to be doubtful. (vie de la ste. vierge.) as an artistic subject this scene has been seldom treated. i have seen two pictures which represent it. one is a fresco by giovanni di san giovanni, which, having been cut from the wail of some suppressed convent, is now in the academy at florence. the other is a composition by zuccaro. one of the most popular legends concerning the flight into egypt is that of the palm or date tree, which at the command of jesus bowed down its branches to shade and refresh his mother; hence, in the scene of the flight, a palm tree became a usual accessory. in a picture by antonello mellone, the child stretches out his little hand and lays hold of the branch: sometimes the branch is bent down by angel hands. sozomenes relates, that when the holy family reached the term of their journey, and approached the city of heliopolis in egypt, a tree which grew before the gates of the city, and was regarded with great veneration as the seat of a god, bowed down its branches at the approach of the infant christ. likewise it is related (not in legends merely, but by grave religious authorities) that all the idols of the egyptians fell with their faces to the earth. i have seen pictures of the flight into egypt, in which broken idols lie by the wayside. * * * * * in the course of the journey the holy travellers had to cross rivers and lakes; hence the later painters, to vary the subject, represented them as embarking in a boat, sometimes steered by an angel. the first, as i have reason to believe, who ventured on this innovation, was annibale caracci. in a picture by poussin, the holy family are about to embark. in a picture by giordano, an angel with one knee bent, assists mary to enter the boat. in a pretty little picture by teniers, the holy family and the ass are seen in a boat crossing a ferry by moonlight; sometimes they are crossing a bridge. i must notice here a little picture by adrian vander werff, in which the virgin, carrying her child, holds by the hand the old decrepit joseph, who is helping her, or rather is helped by her, to pass a torrent on some stepping-stones. this is quite contrary to the feeling of the old authorities, which represent joseph as the vigilant and capable guardian of the mother and her child: but it appears to have here a rather particular and touching significance; it was painted by vander werff for his daughter in his old age, and intended to express her filial duty and his paternal care. the most beautiful flight into egypt i have ever seen, is a composition by gaudenzio ferrari. the virgin is seated and sustained on the ass with a quite peculiar elegance. the infant, standing on her knee, seems to point out the way; an angel leads the ass, and joseph follows with the staff and wallet. in the background the palm tree inclines its branches. (at varallo, in the church of the minorites.) claude has introduced the flight of the holy family as a landscape group into nine different pictures. the repose of the holy family. _ital._ il riposo. _fr._ le repos de la sainte famille. _ger._ die ruhe in Ægypten. the subject generally styled a "riposo" is one of the most graceful and most attractive in the whole range of christian art. it is not, however, an ancient subject, for i cannot recall an instance earlier than the sixteenth century; it had in its accessories that romantic and pastoral character which recommended it to the venetians and to the landscape-painters of the seventeenth century, and among these we must look for the most successful and beautiful examples. i must begin by observing that it is a subject not only easily mistaken by those who have studied pictures; but perpetually misconceived and misrepresented by the painters themselves. some pictures which erroneously bear this title, were never intended to do so. others, intended to represent the scene, are disfigured and perplexed by mistakes arising either from the ignorance or the carelessness of the artist. we must bear in mind that the riposo, properly so called, is not merely the holy family seated in a landscape; it is an episode of the flight into egypt, and is either the rest on the journey, or at the close of the journey; quite different scenes, though all go by the same name. it is not an ideal religious group, but a reality, a possible and actual scene; and it is clear that the painter, if he thought at all, and did not merely set himself to fabricate a pretty composition, was restricted within the limits of the actual and possible, at least according to the histories and traditions of the time. some of the accessories introduced would stamp the intention at once; as the date tree, and joseph gathering dates; the ass feeding in the distance; the wallet and pilgrim's staff laid beside joseph; the fallen idols; the virgin scooping water from a fountain; for all these are incidents which properly belong to the riposo. it is nowhere recorded; either in scripture or in the legendary stories, that mary and joseph in their flight were accompanied by elizabeth and the little st. john; therefore, where either of these are introduced, the subject is not properly a _riposo_, whatever the intention of the painter may have been: the personages ought to be restricted to the virgin, her infant, and st. joseph, with attendant angels. an old woman is sometimes introduced, the same who is traditionally supposed to have accompanied them in their flight. if this old woman be manifestly st. anna or st. elizabeth, then it is not a _riposo_, but merely a _holy family_. it is related that the holy family finally rested, after their long journey, in the village of matarea, beyond the city of hermopolis (or heliopolis), and took up their residence in a grove of sycamores, a circumstance which gave the sycamore tree a sort of religions interest in early christian times. the crusaders imported it into europe; and poor mary stuart may have had this idea, or this feeling when she brought from france, and planted in her garden, the first sycamores which grew in scotland. near to this village of matarea, a fountain miraculously sprung up for the refreshment of the holy family. it still exists, as we are informed by travellers, and is still styled by the arabs, "the fountain of mary."[ ] this fountain is frequently represented, as in the well-known riposo by correggio, where the virgin is dipping a bowl into the gushing stream, hence called the "madonna _della scodella_" (parma): in another by baroccio (grosvenor gal.), and another by domenichino (louvre, ). [footnote : the site of this fountain is about four miles n.e. of cairo.] in this fountain, says another legend, mary washed the linen of the child. there are several pictures which represent the virgin washing linen in a fountain; for example, one by lucio massari, where, in a charming landscape, the little christ takes the linen out of a basket, and joseph hangs it on a line to dry. (florence gal.) the ministry of the angels is here not only allowable, but beautifully appropriate; and never has it been more felicitously and more gracefully expressed than in a little composition by lucas cranach, where the virgin and her child repose under a tree, while the angels dance in a circle round them. the cause of the flight--the massacre of the innocents--is figuratively expressed by two winged boys, who, seated on a bough of the tree, are seen robbing a nest, and wringing the necks of the nestlings, while the parent-birds scream and flutter over their heads: in point of taste, this significant allegory had been better omitted; it spoils the harmony of composition. there is another similar group, quite as graceful, by david hopfer. vandyck seems to have had both in his memory when he designed the very beautiful riposo so often copied and engraved (coll. of lord ashburton); here the virgin is seated under a tree, in an open landscape, and holds her divine child; joseph, behind, seems asleep; in front of the virgin, eight lovely angels dance in a round, while others, seated in the sky, make heavenly music. in another singular and charming riposo by lucas cranach, the virgin and child are seated under a tree; to the left of the group is a fountain, where a number of little angels appear to be washing linen; to the right, joseph approaches leading the ass, and in the act of reverently removing his cap. there is a riposo by albert durer which i cannot pass over. it is touched with all that homely domestic feeling, and at the same time all that fertility of fancy, which are so characteristic of that extraordinary man. we are told that when joseph took up his residence at matarea in egypt, he provided for his wife and child by exercising his trade as a carpenter. in this composition he appears in the foreground dressed as an artisan with an apron on, and with an axe in his hand is shaping a plank of wood. mary sits on one side spinning with her distaff, and watching her infant slumbering in its cradle. around this domestic group we have a crowd of ministering angels; some of these little winged spirits are assisting joseph, sweeping up the chips and gathering them into baskets; others are merely "sporting at their own sweet will." several more dignified-looking angels, having the air of guardian spirits, stand or kneel round the cradle, bending over it with folded hands.[ ] [footnote : in the famous set of wood cuts of the life of the virgin mary.] in a riposo by titian, the infant lies on a pillow on the ground, and the virgin is kneeling before him, while joseph leans on his pilgrim's staff, to which is suspended a wallet. in another, two angels, kneeling, offer fruits in a basket; in the distance, a little angel waters the ass at a stream. (all these are engraved.) the angels, according to the legend, not only ministered to the holy family, but pitched a tent nightly, in which they were sheltered. poussin, in an exquisite picture, has represented the virgin and child reposing under a curtain suspended from the branches of a tree and partly sustained by angels, while others, kneeling, offer fruit. (grosvenor gal.) poussin is the only painter who has attempted to express the locality. in one of his pictures the holy family reposes on the steps of an egyptian temple; a sphinx and a pyramid are visible in the background. in another riposo by the same master, an ethiopian boy presents fruits to the infant christ. joseph is frequently asleep, which is hardly consonant with the spirit of the older legends. it is, however, a beautiful idea to make the child and joseph both reposing, while the virgin mother, with eyes upraised to heaven, wakes and watches, as in a picture by mola (louvre, ); but a yet more beautiful idea to represent the virgin and joseph sunk in sleep, while the divine infant lying in his mother's arms wakes and watches for both, with his little hands joined in prayer, and his eyes fixed on the hovering angels or the opening skies above. in a riposo by rembrandt, the holy family rest by night, and are illuminated only by a lantern suspended on the bough of a tree, the whole group having much the air of a gypsy encampment. but one of rembrandt's imitators has in his own way improved on this fancy; the virgin sleeps on a bank with the child on her bosom; joseph, who looks extremely like an old tinker, is doubling his fist at the ass, which has opened its mouth to bray. * * * * * before quitting the subject of the riposo, i must mention a very pretty and poetical legend, which i have met with in one picture only; a description of it may, however, lead to the recognition of others. there is, in the collection of lord shrewsbury, at alton towers, a riposo attributed to giorgione, remarkable equally for the beauty and the singularity of the treatment. the holy family are seated in the midst of a wild but rich landscape, quite in the venetian style; joseph is asleep; the two children are playing with a lamb. the virgin, seated holds a book, and turns round, with an expression of surprise and alarm, to a female figure who stands on the right. this woman has a dark physiognomy, ample flowing drapery of red and white, a white turban twisted round her head, and stretches out her hand with the air of a sibyl. the explanation of this striking group i found in an old ballad-legend. every one who has studied the moral as well as the technical character of the various schools of art, must have remarked how often the venetians (and giorgione more especially) painted groups from the popular fictions and ballads of the time; and it has often been regretted that many of these pictures are becoming unintelligible to us from our having lost the key to them, in losing all trace of the fugitive poems or tales which suggested them. the religious ballad i allude to must have been popular in the sixteenth century; it exists in the provençal dialect, in german, and in italian; and, like the wild ballad of st. john chrysostom, it probably came in some form or other from the east. the theme is, in all these versions, substantially the same. the virgin, on her arrival in egypt, is encountered by a gypsy (zingara or zingarella), who crosses the child's palm after the gypsy manner, and foretells all the wonderful and terrible things which, as the redeemer of mankind, he was destined to perform and endure on earth. an italian version which lies before me is entitled, _canzonetta nuova, sopra la madonna, quando si partò in egitto col bambino gesù e san giuseppe_, "a new ballad of our lady, when she fled into egypt with the child jesus and st. joseph." it begins with a conversation between the virgin, who has just arrived from her long journey, and the gypsy-woman, who thus salutes her:-- zingarella. dio ti salvi, bella signora, e ti dia buona ventura. ben venuto, vecchiarello, con questo bambino bello! madonna. ben trovata, sorella mia, la sua grazia dio ti dia. ti perdoni i tuoi peccati l' infinità sua bontade. zingarella. siete stanchi e meschini, credo, poveri pellegrini che cercate d' alloggiare. vuoi, signora, scavalcare? madonna. voi che siete, sorella mia, tutta piena di cortesia, dio vi renda la carità per l'infinità sua bontà. noi veniam da nazaretta, siamo senza alcun ricetto, arrivati all' strania stanchi e lassi dalla via! gypsy. god save thee, fair lady, and give thee good luck welcome, good old man, with this thy fair child! mary. well met, sister mine! god give thee grace, and of his infinite mercy forgive thee thy sins! gypsy. ye are tired and drooping, poor pilgrims, as i think, seeking a night's lodging. lady, wilt thou choose to alight? mary. o sister mine! full of courtesy, god of his infinite goodness reward thee for thy charity. we are come from nazareth, and we are without a place to lay our heads, arrived in a strange land, all tired and weary with the way! the zingarella then offers them a resting-place, and straw and fodder for the ass, which being accepted, she asks leave to tell their fortune, but begins by recounting, in about thirty stanzas, all the past history of the virgin pilgrim; she then asks to see the child-- ora tu, signora mia. che sei piena di cortesia, mostramelo per favore lo tuo figlio redentore! and now, o lady mine, that art full of courtesy, grant me to look upon thy son, the redeemer! the virgin takes him from the arms of joseph-- datemi, o caro sposo, lo mio figlio grazioso! quando il vide sta meschina zingarella, che indovina! give me, dear husband, my lovely boy, that this poor gypsy, who is a prophetess, may look upon him. the gypsy responds with becoming admiration and humility, praises the beauty of the child, and then proceeds to examine his palm: which having done, she breaks forth into a prophecy of all the awful future, tells how he would be baptized, and tempted, scourged, and finally hung upon a cross-- questo figlio accarezzato tu lo vedrai ammazzato sopra d'una dura croce, figlio bello! figlio dolce! but consoles the disconsolate mother, doomed to honour for the sake of us sinners-- sei arrivata a tanti onori per noi altri peccatori! and ends by begging an alms-- non ti vo' più infastidire, bella signora; so chi hai a fare. dona la limosinella a sta povera zingarella true repentance and eternal life. vo' una vera contrizione per la tua intercezione, accio st' alma dopo morte tragga alle celesti porte! and so the story ends. there can be no doubt, i think, that we have here the original theme of giorgione's picture, and perhaps of others. in the provençal ballad, there are three gypsies, men, not women, introduced, who tell the fortune of the virgin and joseph, as well as that of the child, and end by begging alms "to wet their thirsty throats." of this version there is a very spirited and characteristic translation by mr. kenyon, under the title of "a gypsy carol."[ ] [footnote : a day at tivoli, with other verses, by john kenyon, p. .] the return from egypt. according to some authorities, the holy family sojourned in egypt during a period of seven years, but others assert that they returned to judea at the end of two years. in general the painters have expressed the return from egypt by exhibiting jesus as no longer an infant sustained in his mother's arms, but as a boy walking at her side. in a picture by francesco vanni, he is a boy about two or three years old, and carries a little basket full of carpenter's tools. the occasion of the flight and return is indicated by three or four of the martyred innocents, who are lying on the ground. in a picture by domenico feti two of the innocents are lying dead on the roadside. in a very graceful, animated picture by rubens, mary and joseph lead the young christ between them, and the virgin wears a large straw hat. historical subjects. part iii. the life of the virgin mary from the sojourn in egypt to the crucifixion of our lord. . the holy family. . the virgin seeks her son. . the death of joseph. . the marriage at cana. . "lo spasimo." . the crucifixion. . the descent from the cross. . the entombment. the holy family. when the holy family under divine protection, had returned safely from their sojourn in egypt, they were about to repair to bethlehem; but joseph hearing that archelaus "did reign in judea in the room of his father herod, he was afraid to go thither; and being warned of god in a dream, he turned aside into galilee," and came to the city of nazareth, which was the native place and home of the virgin mary. here joseph dwelt, following in peace his trade of a carpenter, and bringing up his reputed son to the same craft: and here mary nurtured her divine child; "and he grew and waxed strong in spirit, and the grace of god was upon him." no other event is recorded until jesus had reached his twelfth, year. * * * * * this, then, is the proper place to introduce some notice of those representations of the domestic life of the virgin and the infancy of the saviour, which, in all their endless variety, pass under the general title of the holy family--the beautiful title of a beautiful subject, addressed in the loveliest and most familiar form at once to the piety and the affections of the beholder. these groups, so numerous, and of such perpetual recurrence, that they alone form a large proportion of the contents of picture galleries and the ornaments of churches, are, after all, a modern innovation in sacred art. what may be called the _domestic_ treatment of the history of the virgin cannot be traced farther back than the middle of the fifteenth century. it is, indeed, common to class all those pictures as holy families which include any of the relatives of christ grouped with the mother and her child; but i must here recapitulate and insist upon the distinction to be drawn between the _domestic_ and the _devotional_ treatment of the subject; a distinction i have been careful to keep in view throughout the whole range of sacred art, and which, in this particular subject, depends on a difference in sentiment and intention, more easily felt than set down in words. it is, i must repeat, a _devotional_ group where the sacred personages are placed in direct relation to the worshippers, and where their supernatural character is paramount to every other. it is a _domestic_ or an _historical_ group, a holy family properly so called, when the personages are placed in direct relation to each other by some link of action or sentiment, which expresses the family connection between them, or by some action which has a dramatic rather than a religious significance. the italians draw this distinction in the title "_sacra conversazione_" given to the first-named subject, and that of "_sacra famiglia_" given to the last. for instance, if the virgin, watching her sleeping child, puts her finger on her lip to silence the little st. john; there is here no relation between the spectator and the persons represented, except that of unbidden sympathy: it is a family group; a domestic scene. but if st. john, looking out of the picture, points to the infant, "behold the lamb of god!" then the whole representation changes its significance; st. john assumes the character of precursor, and we, the spectators, are directly addressed and called upon to acknowledge the "son of god, the saviour of mankind." if st. joseph, kneeling, presents flowers to the infant christ, while mary looks on tenderly (as in a group by raphael), it is an act of homage which expresses the mutual relation of the three personages; it is a holy family: whereas, in the picture by murillo, in our national gallery, where joseph and mary present the young redeemer to the homage of the spectator, while the form of the padre eterno, and the holy spirit, with attendant angels, are floating above, we have a devotional group, a "_sacra conversazione_:"--it is, in fact a material representation of the trinity; and the introduction of joseph into such immediate propinquity with the personages acknowledged as divine is one of the characteristics of the later schools of theological art. it could not possibly have occurred before the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century. the introduction of persons who could not have been contemporary, as st. francis or st. catherine, renders the group ideal and devotional. on the other hand, as i have already observed, the introduction of attendant angels does not place the subject out of the domain of the actual; for the painters literally rendered what in the scripture text is distinctly set down and literally interpreted, "he shall give his angels charge concerning thee." wherever lived and moved the infant godhead, angels were always _supposed_ to be present; therefore it lay within the province of an art addressed especially to our senses, to place them bodily before us, and to give to these heavenly attendants a visible shape and bearing worthy of their blessed ministry. the devotional groups, of which i have already treated most fully, even while placed by the accessories quite beyond the range of actual life, have been too often vulgarized and formalized by a trivial or merely conventional treatment.[ ] in these really domestic scenes, where the painter sought unreproved his models in simple nature, and trusted for his effect to what was holiest and most immutable in our common humanity, he must have been a bungler indeed if he did not succeed in touching some responsive chord of sympathy in the bosom of the observer. this is, perhaps, the secret of the universal, and, in general, deserved popularity of these holy families. [footnote : see the "mater amabilis" and the "pastoral madonnas," p. , .] two figures. the simplest form of the family group is confined to two figures, and expresses merely the relation between the mother and the child. the _motif_ is precisely the same as in the formal, goddess-like, enthroned madonnas of the antique time; but here quite otherwise worked out, and appealing to other sympathies. in the first instance, the intention was to assert the contested pretensions of the human mother to divine honours; here it was rather to assert the humanity of her divine son; and we have before us, in the simplest form, the first and holiest of all the social relations. the primal instinct, as the first duty, of the mother, is the nourishment of the life she has given. a very common subject, therefore, is mary in the act of feeding her child from her bosom. i have already observed that, when first adopted, this was a theological theme; an answer, _in form_, to the challenge of the nestorians, "shall we call him _god_, who hath sucked his mother's breast?" then, and for at least years afterwards, the simple maternal action involved a religious dogma, and was the visible exponent of a controverted article of faith. all such controversy had long ceased, and certainly there was no thought of insisting on a point of theology in the minds of those secular painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who have set forth the representation with such an affectionate and delicate grace; nor yet in the minds of those who converted the lovely group into a moral lesson. for example, we find in the works of jeremy taylor (one of the lights of our protestant church) a long homily "of nursing children, in imitation of the blessed virgin mother;" and prints and pictures of the virgin thus occupied often bear significant titles and inscriptions of the same import; such as "le prémier devoir d'une mère," &c. i do not find this _motif_ in any known picture by raphael: but in one of his designs, engraved by marc antonio, it is represented with characteristic grace and delicacy. goethe describes with delight a picture by correggio, in which the attention of the child seems divided between the bosom of his mother, and some fruit offered by an angel. he calls this subject "the weaning of the infant christ." correggio, if not the very first, is certainly among the first of the italians who treated this _motif_ in the simple domestic style. others of the lombard school followed him; and i know not a more exquisite example than the maternal group by solario, now in the louvre, styled _la vierge à l'oreiller verd_, from the colour of the pillow on which the child is lying. the subject is frequent in the contemporary german and flemish schools of the sixteenth century. in the next century, there are charming examples by the bologna painters and the _naturalisti_, spanish, italian, and flemish. i would particularly point to one by agostino caracci (parma), and to another by vandyck (that engraved by bartolozzi), as examples of elegance; while in the numerous specimens by rubens we have merely his own wife and son, painted with all that coarse vigorous life, and homely affectionate expression, which his own strong domestic feelings could lend them. we have in other pictures the relation between the mother and child expressed and varied in a thousand ways; as where she contemplates him fondly--kisses him, pressing his cheeks to hers; or they sport with a rose, or an apple, or a bird; or he presents it to his mother; these originally mystical emblems being converted into playthings. in another sketch she is amusing him by tinkling a bell:--the bell, which has a religious significance, is here a plaything. one or more attendant angels may vary the group, without taking it out of the sphere of reality. in a quaint but charming picture in the wallerstein collection, an angel is sporting with the child at his mother's feet--is literally his playfellow; and in a picture by cambiaso, mary, assisted by an angel, is teaching her child to walk. * * * * * to represent in the great enthroned madonnas, the infant saviour of the world asleep, has always appeared to me a solecism: whereas in the domestic subject the infant slumbering on his mother's knee, or cradled in her arms, or on her bosom, or rocked by angels, is a most charming subject. sometimes angels are seen preparing his bed, or looking on while he sleeps, with folded hands and overshadowing wings. sometimes marry hangs over his pillow; "pondering in her heart" the wondrous destinies of her child. a poetess of our own time has given us an interpretation worthy of the most beautiful of these representations, in the address of the virgin mary to the child jesus,--"sleep, sleep, mine holy one!" "and are thou come for saving, baby-browed and speechless being? art thou come for saving? the palm that grows beside our door is bowed by treadings of the low wind from the south, a restless shadow through the chamber waving, upon its bough a bird sings in the sun. but thou, with that close slumber on thy mouth, dost seem of wind and sun already weary, art come for saving, o my weary one? "perchance this sleep that shutteth out the dreary earth-sounds and motions, opens on thy soul high dreams on fire with god; high songs that make the pathways where they roll more bright than stars do theirs; and visions new of thine eternal nature's old abode. suffer this mother's kiss, best thing that earthly is, to glide the music and the glory through, nor narrow in thy dream the broad upliftings of any seraph wing. thus, noiseless, thus!--sleep, sleep, my dreaming one."[ ] [footnote : poems by elizabeth barrett browning, vol. ii. p. .] such high imaginings might be suggested by the group of michael angelo,--his famous "silenzio:" but very different certainly are the thoughts and associations conveyed by some of the very lovely, but at the same time familiar and commonplace, groups of peasant-mothers and sleeping babies--the countless productions of the later schools--even while the simplicity and truth of the natural sentiment go straight to the heart. i remember reading a little italian hymn composed for a choir of nuns, and addressed to the sleeping christ, in which he is prayed to awake or if he will not, they threaten to pull him by his golden curls until they rouse him to listen! * * * * * i have seen a graceful print which represents jesus as a child standing at his mother's knee, while she feeds him from a plate or cap held by an angel; underneath is the text, "_butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good_" and in a print of the same period, the mother suspends her needlework to contemplate the child, who, standing at her side, looks down compassionately on two little birds, which flutter their wings and open their beaks expectingly; underneath is the test, "are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" mary employed in needlework, while her cradled infant slumbers at her side, is a beautiful subject. rossini, in his _storia della pittura_, publishes a group, representing the virgin mending or making a little coat, while jesus, seated at her feet, without his coat, is playing with a bird; two angels are hovering above. it appears to me that there is here some uncertainty as regards both the subject and the master. in the time of giottino, to whom rossini attributes the picture, the domestic treatment of the madonna and child was unknown. if it be really by him, i should suppose it to represent hannah and her son samuel. * * * * * all these, and other varieties of action and sentiment connecting the mother and her child, are frequently accompanied by accessory figures, forming, in their combination, what is properly a holy family. the personages introduced, singly or together, are the young st. john, joseph, anna, joachim, elizabeth, and zacharias. three figures. the group of three figures most commonly met with, is that of the mother and child, with st. john. one of the earliest examples of the domestic treatment of this group is a quaint picture by botticelli, in which mary, bending down, holds forth the child to be caressed by st. john,--very dry in colour and faulty in drawing, but beautiful for the sentiment. (florence, pitti pal.) perhaps the most perfect example which could be cited from the whole range of art, is raphael's "madonna del cardellino" (florence gal.); another is his "belle jardinière" (louvre, ); another, in which the figures are half-length, is his "madonna del giglio" (lord garvagh's coll.). as i have already observed, where the infant christ takes the cross from st. john, or presents it to him, or where st. john points to him as the redeemer, or is represented, not as a child, but as a youth or a man, the composition assumes a devotional significance. the subject of the sleeping christ is beautifully varied by the introduction of st. john; as where mary lifts the veil and shows her child to the little st. john, kneeling with folded hands: raphael's well-known "vierge à la diademe" is an instance replete with grace and expression.[ ] sometimes mary, putting her finger to her lip, exhorts st. john to silence, as in a famous and oft-repeated subject by annibale caracci, of which there is a lovely example at windsor. such a group is called in italian, _il silenzio_, and in french _le sommeil de jésus_. [footnote : louvre, . it is also styled _la vierge au linge_] * * * * * another group of three figures consists of the mother, the child, and st. joseph as foster-father. this group, so commonly met with in the later schools of art, dates from the end of the fifteenth century. gerson, an ecclesiastic distinguished at the council of constance for his learning and eloquence, had written a poem of three thousand lines in praise of st. joseph, setting him up as the christian, example of every virtue; and this poem, after the invention of printing, was published and widely disseminated. sixtus iv. instituted a festival in honour of the "husband of the virgin," which, as a novelty and harmonizing with the tone of popular feeling, was everywhere acceptable. as a natural consequence, the churches and chapels were filled with pictures, which represented the mother and her child, with joseph standing or seated by, in an attitude of religious contemplation or affectionate sympathy; sometimes leaning on his stick, or with his tools lying beside him; and always in the old pictures habited in his appropriate colours, the saffron-coloured robe over the gray or green tunic. in the madonna and child, as a strictly devotional subject, the introduction of joseph rather complicates the idea; but in the domestic holy family his presence is natural and necessary. it is seldom that he is associated with the action, where there is one; but of this also there are some beautiful examples. * * * * * . in a well-known composition by raphael (grosvenor gal.), the mother withdraws the covering from the child, who seems to have that moment awaked, and, stretching out his little arms, smiles in her face: joseph looks on tenderly and thoughtfully. . in another group by raphael (bridgewater gal.), the infant is seated on the mother's knee, and sustained by part of her veil; joseph, kneeling, offers flowers to his divine foster-son, who eagerly stretches out his little hand to take them. in many pictures, joseph is seen presenting cherries; as in the celebrated _vierge aux cerises_ of annibale caracci. (louvre.) the allusion is to a quaint old legend, often introduced in the religious ballads and dramatic mysteries of the time. it is related, that before the birth of our saviour, the virgin mary wished to taste of certain cherries which hung upon a tree high above her head; she requested joseph to procure them for her, and he reaching to pluck them, the branch bowed down to his hand. . there is a lovely pastoral composition by titian, in which mary is seated under some trees, with joseph leaning on his staff, and the infant christ standing between them: the little st. john approaches with his lap full of cherries; and in the background a woman is seen gathering cherries. this picture is called a ripose; but the presence of st. john, and the cherry tree instead of the date tree, point out a different signification. angels presenting cherries on a plate is also a frequent circumstance, derived from the same legend. . in a charming picture by garofalo, joseph is caressing the child, while mary--a rather full figure, calm, matronly, and dignified, as is usual with garofalo--sits by, holding a book in her hand, from which she has just raised her eyes. (windsor gal.) . in a family group by murillo, joseph, standing, holds the infant pressed to his bosom; while mary, seated near a cradle, holds out her arms to take it from him: a carpenter's bench is seen behind. . a celebrated picture by rembrandt, known as _le ménage du menuisier_, exhibits a rustic interior; the virgin is seated with the volume of the scriptures open on her knees--she turns, and lifting the coverlid of the cradle, contemplates the infant asleep: in the background joseph is seen at his work; while angels hover above, keeping watch over the holy family. exquisite for the homely natural sentiment, and the depth of the colour and chiaro-oscuro. (petersburg.) . many who read these pages will remember the pretty little picture by annibale caracci, known as "le raboteur."[ ] it represents joseph planing a board, while jesus, a lovely boy about six or seven years old, stands by, watching the progress of his work. mary is seated on one side plying her needle. the great fault of this picture is the subordinate and utterly commonplace character given to the virgin mother: otherwise it is a very suggestive and dramatic subject, and one which might be usefully engraved in a cheap form for distribution. [footnote : in the coll. of the earl of suffolk, at charlton.] * * * * * sometimes, in a holy family of three figures, the third figure is neither st. john nor st. joseph, but st. anna. now, according to some early authorities, both joachim and anna died either before the marriage of mary and joseph, or at least before the return from egypt. such, however, was the popularity of these family groups, and the desire to give them all possible variety, that the ancient version of the story was overruled by the prevailing taste, and st. anna became an important personage. one of the earliest groups in which the mother of the virgin is introduced as a third personage, is a celebrated, but to my taste not a pleasing, composition, by lionardo da vinci, in which st. anna is seated on a sort of chair, and the virgin on her knees bends down towards the infant christ, who is sporting with a lamb. (louvre, .) four figures. in a holy family of four figures, we have frequently the virgin, the child, and the infant st. john, with st. joseph standing by. raphael's madonna del passeggio is an example. in a picture by palma vecchio, st. john presents a lamb, while st. joseph kneels before the infant christ, who, seated on his mother's knee, extends his arms to his foster-father. nicole poussin was fond of this group, and has repeated it at least ten times with variations. but the most frequent group of four figures consists of the virgin and child, with st. john and his mother, st. elizabeth--the two mothers and the two sons. sometimes the children are sporting together, or embracing each other, while mary and elizabeth look on with a contemplative tenderness, or seem to converse on the future destinies of their sons. a very favourite and appropriate action is that of st. elizabeth presenting st. john, and teaching him to kneel and fold his hands, as acknowledging in his little cousin the infant saviour. we have then, in beautiful contrast, the aged coifed head of elizabeth, with its matronly and earnest expression; the youthful bloom and soft virginal dignity of mary; and the different character of the boys, the fair complexion and delicate proportions of the infant christ, and the more robust and brown-complexioned john. a great painter will be careful to express these distinctions, not by the exterior character only, but will so combine the personages, that the action represented shall display the superior dignity of christ and his mother. five or six figures. the addition of joseph as a fifth figure, completes the domestic group. the introduction of the aged zacharias renders, however, yet more full and complete, the circle of human life and human affection. we have then, infancy, youth, maturity, and age,--difference of sex and various degrees of relationship, combined into one harmonious whole; and in the midst, the divinity of innocence, the child-god, the brightness of a spiritual power, connecting our softest earthly affections with our highest heavenward aspirations.[ ] [footnote : the inscription under a holy family in which the children are caressing each other is sometimes _delicæ meæ esse cum filiis hominum_ (prov. viii. , "my delights were with the sons of men").] * * * * * a holy family of more than six figures (the angels not included) is very unusual. but there are examples of groups combining all those personages mentioned in the gospels as being related to christ, though the nature and the degree of this supposed relationship has embarrassed critics and commentators, and is not yet settled. according to an ancient tradition, anna, the mother of the virgin mary, was three times married, joachim being her third husband: the two others were cleophas and salomé. by cleophas she had a daughter, also called mary, who was the wife of alpheus, and the mother of thaddeus, james minor, and joseph justus. by salomé she had a daughter, also mary, married to zebedee, and the mother of james major and john the evangelist. this idea that st. anna was successively the wife of three husbands, and the mother of three daughters, all of the name of mary, has been rejected by later authorities; but in the beginning of the sixteenth century it was accepted, and to that period may be referred the pictures, italian and german, representing a peculiar version of the holy family more properly styled "the family of the virgin mary." a picture by lorenzo di pavia, painted about , exhibits a very complete example of this family group. mary is seated in the centre, holding in her lap the infant christ; near her is st. joseph. behind the virgin stand st. anna, and three men, with their names inscribed, joachim, cleophas, and salomé. on the right of the virgin is mary the daughter of cleophas, alpheus her husband, and her children thaddeus, james minor, and joseph justus. on the left of the virgin is mary the daughter of salome, her husband zebedee, and her children james major and john the evangelist.[ ] [footnote : this picture i saw in the louvre some years ago, but it is not in the new catalogue by m. villot.] a yet more beautiful example is a picture by perugino in the musée at marseilles, which i have already cited and described (sacred and legendary art): here also the relatives of christ, destined to be afterwards his apostles and the ministers of his word, are grouped around him in his infancy. in the centre mary is seated and holding the child; st. anna stands behind, resting her hands affectionately on the shoulders of the virgin. in front, at the feet of the virgin, are two boys, joseph and thaddeus; and near them mary, the daughter of cleophas, holds the hand of her third son james minor. to the right is mary salomé, holding in her arms her son john the evangelist, and at her feet is her other son, james major. joseph, zebedee, and other members of the family, stand around. the same subject i have seen in illuminated mss., and in german prints. it is worth remarking that all these appeared about the same time, between and , and that the subject afterwards disappeared; from which i infer that it was not authorized by the church; perhaps because the exact degree of relationship between these young apostles and the holy family was not clearly made out, either by scripture or tradition. in a composition by parmigiano, christ is standing at his mother's knee; elizabeth presents st. john the baptist; the other little st. john kneels on a cushion. behind the virgin are st. joachim and st. anna; and behind elizabeth, zebedee and mary salomé, the parents of st. john the evangelist. in the centre, joseph looks on with folded hands. * * * * * a catalogue _raisonnée_ of the holy families painted by distinguished artists including from two to six figures would fill volumes: i shall content myself with directing attention to some few examples remarkable either for their celebrity, their especial beauty, or for some peculiarity, whether commendable or not, in the significance or the treatment. the strictly domestic conception may be said to have begun with raphael and correggio; and they afford the most perfect examples of the tender and the graceful in sentiment and action, the softest parental feeling, the loveliest forms of childhood. of the purely natural and familiar treatment, which came into fashion in the seventeenth century, the pictures of guido, rubens, and murillo afford the most perfect specimens. . raphael. (louvre, .) mary, a noble queenly creature, is seated, and bends towards her child, who is springing from his cradle to meet her embrace; elizabeth presents st. john; and joseph, leaning on his hand, contemplates the group: two beautiful angels scatter flowers from above. this is the celebrated picture once supposed to have been executed expressly for francis i.; but later researches prove it to have been painted for lorenzo de' medici, duke of urbino.[ ] [footnote : it appears from the correspondence relative to this picture and the "st. michael," that both pictures were painted by order of this lorenzo de' medici, the same who is figured in michael angelo's _pensiero_, and that they were intended as presents to francis i. (see dr. gaye's _carteggio_, ii. , and also the new catalogue of the louvre by f. villot.) i have mentioned this holy family not as the finest of raphael's madonnas, but because there is something peculiarly animated and dramatic in the _motif_, considering the time at which it was painted. it was my intention to have given here a complete list of raphael's holy families; but this has been so well done in the last english edition of kugler's handbook, that it has become superfluous as a repetition. the series of minute and exquisite drawings by mr. george scharf, appended to kugler's catalogue, renders it easy to recognize all the groups described in this and the preceding pages.] . correggio. mary holds the child upon her knee, looking down upon him fondly. styled, from the introduction of the work-basket, _la vierge au panier_. a finished example of that soft, yet joyful, maternal feeling for which correggio was remarkable. (national gal. .) . pinturicchio. in a landscape, mary and joseph are seated together; near them are some loaves and a small cask of wine. more in front the two children, jesus and st. john, are walking arm in arm; jesus holds a book and john a pitcher, as if they were going to a well. (siena acad.) . andrea del sarto. the virgin is seated on the ground, and holds the child; the young st. john is in the arms of st. elizabeth, and joseph is seen behind. (louvre, .) this picture, another by the same painter in the national gallery, a third in the collection of lord lansdowne, and in general all the holy families of andrea, may be cited as examples of fine execution and mistaken or defective character. no sentiment, no action, connects the personages either with each other, or with the spectator. . michael angelo. the composition, in the florence gallery, styled a holy family, appears to me a signal example of all that should be avoided. it is, as a conception, neither religious nor domestic; in execution and character exaggerated and offensive, and in colour hard and dry. another, a bas-relief, in which the child is shrinking from a bird held up by st. john, is very grand in the forms: the mistake in sentiment, as regards the bird, i have pointed out in the introduction. (royal academy.) a third, in which the child leans pensively on a book lying open on his mother's knee, while she looks out on the spectator, is more properly a _mater amabilis_. there is an extraordinary fresco still preserved in the casa buonarotti at florence, where it was painted on the wall by michael angelo, and styled a holy family, though the exact meaning of the subject has been often disputed. it appears to me, however, very clear, and one never before or since attempted by any other artist. (this fresco is engraved in the _etruria pittrice_.) mary is seated in the centre; her child is reclining on the ground between her knees; and the little st. john holding his cross looks on him steadfastly. a man coming forward seems to ask of mary, "whose son is this?" she most expressively puts aside joseph with her hand, and looks up, as if answering, "not the son of an earthly, but of a heavenly father!" there are five other figures standing behind, and the whole group is most significant. . albert durer. the holy family seated under a tree; the infant is about to spring from the knee of his mother into the outstretched arms of st. anna; joseph is seen behind with his hat in his hand; and to the left sits the aged joachim contemplating the group. . mary appears to have just risen from her chair, the child bends from her arms, and a young and very little angel, standing on tiptoe, holds up to him a flower--other flowers in his lap:--a beautiful old german print. . giulio romano. (_la madonna del bacino_.) (dresden gal.) the child stands in a basin, and the young st. john pours water upon him from a vase, while mary washes him. st. elizabeth stands by, holding a napkin; st. joseph, behind, is looking on. notwithstanding the homeliness of the action, there is here a religious and mysterious significance, prefiguring the baptism. . n. poussin. mary, assisted by angels, washes and dresses her child. (gal. of mr. hope.) . v. salimbeni.--an interior. mary and joseph are occupied by the child. elizabeth is spinning. more in front st. john is carrying two puppies in the lappet of his coat, and the dog is leaping up to him. (florence, pitti pal.) this is one out of many instances in which the painter, anxious to vary the oft-repeated subject, and no longer restrained by refined taste or religious veneration, has fallen into a most offensive impropriety. . ippolito andreasi. mary, seated, holds the infant christ between her knees; elizabeth leans over the back of her chair; joseph leans on his staff behind the virgin; the little st. john and an angel present grapes, while four other angels are gathering and bringing them. a branch of vine, loaded with grapes, is lying in the foreground. christ looks like a young bacchus; and there is something mannered and fantastic in the execution. (louvre, .) with this domestic scene is blended a strictly religious symbol, "_i am the vine_." . murilio. mary is in the act of swaddling her child (luke ii, ), while two angels, standing near him, solace the divine infant with heavenly music. (madrid gal.) . rubens. mary, seated on the ground, holds the child with a charming maternal expression, a little from her, gazing on him with rapturous earnestness, while he looks up with responsive tenderness in her face. his right hand rests on a cross presented by st. john, who is presented by st. elizabeth. wonderful for the intensely natural and domestic expression, and the beauty of the execution. (florence, pitti pal.) . d. hopfer. within the porch of a building, mary is seated on one side, reading intently. st. anna, on the other side, holds out her arms to the child, who is sitting on the ground between them; an angel looks in at the open door behind. (bartsch., viii. .) . rembrandt. (_le ménage du menuisier_.) a rustic interior. mary, seated in the centre, is suckling her child. st. anna, a fat flemish grandame, has been reading the volume of the scriptures, and bends forward in order to remove the covering and look in the infant's face. a cradle is near. joseph is seen at work in the background. (louvre.) . le brun. (_the benedicite_.) mary, the child, and joseph, are seated at a frugal repast. joseph is in the act of reverently saying grace, which gives to the picture the title by which it is known.[ ] [footnote : louvre, ecole française . there is a celebrated engraving by edelinck.] * * * * * it is distinctly related that joseph brought up his foster-son as a carpenter, and that jesus exercised the craft of his reputed father. in the church pictures, we do not often meet with this touching and familiar aspect of the life of our saviour. but in the small decorative pictures painted for the rich ecclesiastics, and for private oratories, and in the cheap prints which were prepared for distribution among the people, and became especially popular during the religious reaction of the seventeenth century, we find this homely version of the subject perpetually, and often most pleasingly, exhibited. the greatest and wisest being who ever trod the earth was thus represented, in the eyes of the poor artificer, as ennobling and sanctifying labour and toil; and the quiet domestic duties and affections were here elevated, and hallowed, by religious associations, and adorned by all the graces of art. even where the artistic treatment was not first-rate, was not such as the painters--priests and poets as well as painters--of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries would have lent to such themes,--still if the sentiment and significance were but intelligible to those especially addressed, the purpose was accomplished, and the effect must have been good. i have before me an example in a set of twelve prints, executed in the netherlands, exhibiting a sort of history of the childhood of christ, and his training under the eye of his mother. it is entitled _jesu christi del domini salvatoris nostri infantia_, "the infancy of our lord god and saviour jesus christ;" and the title-page is surrounded by a border composed of musical instruments, spinning-wheels, distaffs, and other implements, of female industry, intermixed with all kinds of mason's and carpenter's tools. to each print is appended a descriptive latin verse; latin being chosen, i suppose, because the publication was intended for distribution in different countries, and especially foreign missions, and to be explained by the priests to the people. . the figure of christ is seen in a glory surrounded by cherubim, &c. . the virgin is seated on the hill of sion. the infant in her lap, with outspread arms, looks up to a choir of angels, and is singing with them. . jesus, slumbering in his cradle, is rocked by two angels, while mary sits by, engaged in needlework.[ ] [footnote : the latin stanza beneath, is remarkable for its elegance, and because it has been translated by coleridge, who mentions that he found the print and the verse under it in a little inn in germany. dormi, jesu, mater ridet, quæ tam dulcem somnum videt, dormi, jesu, blandule! si non dormis mater plorat, inter fila cantans orat, blande, veni, somnule! sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling, mother sits beside thee smiling, sleep, my darling, tenderly! if thou sleep not, mother mourneth, singing as her wheel she turneth" come, soft slumber, balmily!"] . the interior of a carpenter's shop. joseph is plying his work, while joachim stands near him. the virgin is measuring linen, and st. anna looks on. two angels are at play with the infant christ, who is blowing soap-bubbles. . while mary is preparing the family meal, and watching a pot which is boiling on the fire, joseph is seen behind chopping wood: more in front, jesus is sweeping together the chips, and two angels are gathering them up. . mary is reeling off a skein of thread; joseph is squaring a plank; jesus is picking up the chips, assisted by two angels. . mary is seated at her spinning-wheel; joseph, assisted by jesus, is sawing through a large beam; two angels looking on. . mary is spinning with a distaff; behind, joseph is sawing a beam, on which jesus is standing above; and two angels are lifting a plank. . joseph is seen building up the framework of a house, assisted by an angel; jesus is boring a hole with a large gimlet: an angel helps him; mary is winding thread. . joseph is busy roofing in the house; jesus, assisted by the angels, is carrying a beam of wood up a ladder; below, in front, mary is carding wool or flax. . joseph is building a boat, assisted by jesus, who has a hammer and chisel in his hand: two angels help him. the virgin is knitting a stocking; and the new-built house is seen in the background. . joseph is erecting a fence round a garden; jesus, assisted by the angels, is fastening the palings together; while mary is weaving garlands of roses. justin martyr mentions, as a tradition of his time, that jesus assisted his foster-father in making yokes and ploughs. in holland, where these prints were published, the substitution of the boat-building seems very natural. st. bonaventura, the great franciscan theologian, and a high authority in all that relates to the life and character of mary, not only described her as a pattern of female industry, but alludes particularly to the legend of the distaff, and mentions a tradition, that, when in egypt, the holy family was so reduced by poverty, that mary begged from door to door the fine flax which she afterwards spun into a garment for her child. * * * * * as if to render the circle of maternal duties, and thereby the maternal example, more complete, there are prints of mary leading her son to school. i have seen one in which he carries his hornbook in his hand. such representations, though popular, were condemned by the highest church authorities as nothing less than heretical. the abbé méry counts among the artistic errors "which endanger the faith of good christians," those pictures which represent mary or joseph instructing the infant christ; as if all learning, all science, divine and human, were not his by intuition, and without any earthly teaching, (v. théologie des peintres.) a beautiful holy family, by schidone, is entitled, "the infant christ learning to read" (bridgewater gal.); and we frequently meet with pictures in which the mother holds a book, while the divine child, with a serious intent expression, turns over the leaves, or points to the letters: but i imagine that these, and similar groups, represent jesus instructing mary and joseph, as he is recorded to have done. there is also a very pretty legend, in which he is represented as exciting the astonishment, of the schoolmaster zaccheus by his premature wisdom. on these, and other details respecting the infancy of our saviour, i shall have to say much more when treating of the history of christ. the dispute in the temple. _ital._ la disputa nel tempio. _fr._ jésus au milieu des docteurs. the subject which we call the dispute in the temple, or "christ among the doctors," is a scene of great importance in the life of the redeemer (luke ii. , ). his appearance in the midst of the doctors, at twelve years old, when he sat "hearing them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and his answers," has been interpreted as the first manifestation of his high character as teacher of men, as one come to throw a new light on the prophecies,-- "for trailing clouds of glory had he come from heaven, which was his home;" and also as instructing as that those who are to become teachers of men ought, when young, to listen to the voice of age and experience; and that those who have grown old may learn lessons of wisdom from childish innocence. such is the historical and scriptural representation. but in the life of the virgin, the whole scene changes its signification. it is no longer the wisdom of the son, it is the sorrow of the mother which is the principal theme. in their journey home from jerusalem, jesus has disappeared; he who was the light of her eyes, whose precious existence had been so often threatened, has left her care, and gone, she knows not whither. "no fancy can imagine the doubts, the apprehensions, the possibilities of mischief, the tremblings of heart, which the holy virgin-mother feels thronging in her bosom. for three days she seeks him in doubt and anguish." (jeremy taylor's "life of christ.") at length he is found seated in the temple in the midst of the learned doctors, "hearing them, and asking them questions." and she said unto him, "son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, i and thy father have sought thee sorrowing." and he said unto them, "how is it that ye sought me? wise ye not that i must be about my father's business?" now there are two ways of representing this scene. in all the earlier pictures it is chiefly with reference to the virgin mother: it is one of the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. the child jesus sits in the temple, teaching with hand uplifted; the doctors round him turn over the leaves of their great books, searching the law and the prophets. some look up at the young inspired teacher--he who was above the law, yet came to obey the law and fulfil the prophecies--with amazement. conspicuous in front, stand mary and joseph, and she is in act to address to him the tender reproach, "i and thy father have sought thee sorrowing." in the early examples she is a principal figure, but in later pictures she is seen entering in the background; and where the scene relates only to the life of christ, the figures of joseph and mary are omitted altogether, and the child teacher becomes the central, or at least the chief, personage in the group. in a picture by giovanni da udine, the subject is taken out of the region of the actual, and treated altogether as a mystery. in the centre sits the young redeemer, his hand raised, and surrounded by several of the jewish doctors; while in front stand the four fathers of the church, who flourished in the interval between the fourth and sixth centuries after christ; and these, holding their books, point to jesus, or look to him, as to the source of their wisdom;--a beautiful and poetical version of the true significance of the story, which the critics of the last century would call a chronological mistake. (venice, academy.) but those representations which come under our especial consideration at present, are such as represent the moment in which mary appears before her son. the earliest instance of this treatment is a group by giotto. dante cites the deportment of the virgin on this occasion, and her mild reproach, "_con atto dolce di madre_," as a signal lesson of gentleness and forbearance. (purgatorio, c. xv.) it is as if he had transferred the picture of giotto into his vision; for it is as a picture, not an action, that it is introduced. another, by simon memmi, in the roscoe collection at liverpool, is conceived in a similar spirit. in a picture by garofalo, mary does not reproach her son, but stands listening to him with her hands folded on her bosom. in a large and fine composition by pinturicchio, the doctors throw down their books before him, while the virgin and joseph are entering on one side. the subject is conspicuous in albert durer's life of the virgin, where jesus is seated on high, as one having authority, teaching from a chair like that of a professor in a university, and surrounded by the old bearded doctors; and mary stands before her son in an attitude of expostulation. after the restoration of jesus to his parents, they conducted him home; "but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart." the return to nazareth, jesus walking humbly between joseph and mary, was painted by rubens for the jesuit college at antwerp, as a lesson to youth. underneath is the text, "and he was subject unto them."[ ] [footnote : it has been called by mistake "the return from egypt"] the death of joseph. _ital._ la morte di san giuseppe. _fr._ la mort de st. joseph _ger._ josef's tod. between the journey to jerusalem and the public appearance of jesus, chronologers place the death of joseph, but the exact date is not ascertained: some place it in the eighteenth year of the life of our saviour, and others in his twenty-seventh year, when, as they assert, joseph was one hundred and eleven years old. i have already observed, that the enthusiasm for the character of joseph, and his popularity as a saint and patron of power, date from the fifteenth century; and late in the sixteenth century i find, for the first time, the death of joseph treated as a separate subject. it appears that the supposed anniversary of his death (july ) had long been regarded in the east as a solemn festival, and that it was the custom to read publicly, on this occasion, some homily relating to his life and death. the very curious arabian work, entitled "the history of joseph the carpenter," is supposed to be one of these ancient homilies, and, in its original form, as old as the fourth century.[ ] here the death of joseph is described with great detail, and with many solemn and pathetic circumstances; and the whole history is put into the mouth of jesus, who is supposed to recite it to his disciples: he describes the pious end of joseph; he speaks of himself as being present, and acknowledged by the dying man as "redeemer and messiah," and he proceeds to record the grief of mary:-- "and my mother, the virgin, arose, and she came nigh to me and said, 'o my beloved son now must the good old man die!' and i answered and said unto her, 'o my most dear mother, needs must all created beings die; and death will have his rights, even over thee, beloved mother; but death to him and to thee is no death, only the passage to eternal life; and this body i have derived from thee shall also undergo death.'" [footnote : the arabic ms. in the library at paris is of the year , and the coptic version as old as . extracts from these were become current in the legends of the west, about the fifteenth century.--see the "neu testamentlichen apokryphen," edited in german by dr. k.f. borberg.] and they sat, the son and the mother, beside joseph; and jesus held his hand, and watched the last breath of life trembling on his lips; and mary touched his feet, and they were cold; and the daughters and the sons of joseph wept and sobbed around in their grief; and then jesus adds tenderly, "i, and my mother mary, we wept with them." then follows a truly oriental scene, of the evil angels rising up with death, and rejoicing in his power over the saint, while jesus rebukes them; and at his prayer god sends down michael, prince of the angelic host, and gabriel, the herald of light, to take possession of the departing spirit, enfold it in a robe of brightness thereby to preserve it from the "dark angels," and carry it up into heaven. this legend of the death of joseph was, in many forms, popular in the sixteenth century; hence arose the custom of invoking him as intercessor to obtain a blessed and peaceful end, so that he became, in some sort, the patron saint of death-beds; and it is at this time we find the first representations of the death of joseph, afterwards a popular subject in the churches and convents of the augustine canons and carmelite friars, who had chosen him for their patron saint; and also in family chapels consecrated to the memory or the repose of the dead. the finest example i have seen, is by carlo maratti, in the vienna gallery. st. joseph is on a couch; christ is seated near him; and the virgin stands by with folded hands, in a sad, contemplative attitude. * * * * * i am not aware that the virgin has ever been introduced into any representation of the temptation or the baptism of our saviour. these subjects, so important and so picturesque, are reserved till we enter upon the history of christ. the marriage at cana in galilee. _ital._ le nozze di cana. _fr._ les noces de cana. _ger._ die hochzeit zu cana. after his temptation and baptism, the first manifestation of the divine mission and miraculous power of jesus was at the wedding feast at cana in galilee; and those who had devoted themselves to the especial glorification of the virgin mother did not forget that it was at her request this first miracle was accomplished:--that out of her tender and sympathetic commiseration for the apparent want, arose her appeal to him,--not, indeed, as requiring anything from him, but, looking to him with habitual dependence on his goodness and power. she simply said, "they have no wine!" he replied, "woman, what have i to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." the term _woman_, thus used, sounds harsh to us; but in the original is a term of respect. nor did jesus intend any denial to the mother, whom he regarded with dutiful and pious reverence:--it was merely an intimation that he was not yet entered into the period of miraculous power. he anticipated it, however, for her sake, and because of her request. such is the view taken of this beautiful and dramatic incident by the early theologians; and in the same spirit it has been interpreted by the painters. the marriage at cana appears very seldom in the ancient representations taken from the gospel. all the monkish institutions then prevalent discredited marriage; and it is clear that this distinct consecration of the rite by the presence of the saviour and his mother did not find favour with the early patrons of art. there is an old greek tradition, that the marriage at cana was that of john the evangelist. in the thirteenth century, when the passionate enthusiasm for mary magdalene was at its height, it was a popular article of belief, that the marriage which jesus graced with his presence was that of john the evangelist and mary magdalene; and that immediately after the wedding feast, st. john and mary, devoting themselves to an austere and chaste religious life, followed christ, and ministered to him. as a scene in the life of christ, the marriage at cana, is of course introduced incidentally; but even here, such were the monastic principles and prejudices, that i find it difficult to point out any very early example. in the "manual of greek art," published by didron, the rules for the representation are thus laid down:--"a table; around it scribes and pharisees; one holds up a cup of wine, and seems astonished. in the midst, the bride and bridegroom are seated together. the bridegroom is to have 'grey hair and a round beard (_cheveux gris et barbe arrondie_); both are to be crowned with flowers; behind them, a servitor. christ, the virgin, and joseph are to be on one side, and on the other are six jars: the attendants are in the act of filling them with water from leathern buckets." the introduction of joseph is quite peculiar to greek art; and the more curious, that in the list of greek subjects there is not one from his life, nor in which he is a conspicuous figure. on the other hand, the astonished "ruler of the feast" (the _architriclino_), so dramatic and so necessary to the comprehension of the scene, is scarcely ever omitted. the apostles whom we may imagine to be present, are peter, andrew, james, and john. * * * * * as a separate subject, the marriage at cana first became popular in the venetian school, and thence extended to the lombard and german schools of the same period--that is, about the beginning of the sixteenth century. the most beautiful representation i have ever seen is a fresco, by luini, in the church of san maurizio, at milan. it belongs to a convent of nuns; and i imagine, from its introduction there, that it had a mystic signification, and referred to a divine _sposalizio_. in this sense, the treatment is perfect. there are just the number of figures necessary to tell the story, and no more. it is the bride who is here the conspicuous figure, seated in the centre, arrayed in spotless white, and represented as a nun about to make her profession; for this is evidently the intended signification. the bridegroom is at her side, and near to the spectator. christ, and the virgin are seated together, and appear to be conversing. a man presents a cup of wine. including guests and attendants, there are only twelve figures. the only fault of this exquisite and graceful composition, is the introduction of a cat and dog in front: we feel that they ought to have been omitted, as giving occasion for irreverent witticisms.[ ] [footnote : this beautiful fresco, which is seldom seen, being behind the altar, was in a very ruined condition when i saw it last in .] in contrast with this picture, and as a gorgeous specimen of the venetian style of treatment, we may turn to the "marriage at cana" in the louvre, originally painted to cover one side of the refectory of the convent of _san giorgio maggiore_ at venice, whence it was carried off by the french in . this immense picture is about thirty-six feet in length, and about twenty feet in height, and contains more than a hundred figures above life-size. in the centre christ is seated, and beside him the virgin mother. both heads are merely commonplace, and probably portraits, like those of the other personages at the extremity of the table. on the left are seated the bride and bridegroom. in the foreground a company of musicians are performing a concert; behind the table is a balustrade, where are seen numerous servants occupied in cutting up the viands and serving dishes, with attendants and spectators. the chief action to be represented, the astonishing miracle performed by him at whose command "the fountain blushed into wine," is here quite a secondary matter; and the value of the picture lies in its magnitude and variety as a composition, and the portraits of the historical characters and remarkable personages introduced,--francis i., his queen eleanora of austria, charles v. and others. in the group of musicians in front we recognize titian and tintoretto, old bassano, and paolo himself. the marriage at cana, as a refectory subject, had been unknown till this time: it became popular, and paolo afterwards repeated it several times. the most beautiful of all, to my feeling, is that in the dresden gallery, where the "ruler of the feast," holding up the glass of wine with admiration, seems to exclaim, "thou hast kept the good wine until now." in another, which is at milan, the virgin turns round to the attendant, and desires him to obey her son;--"whatsoever he saith unto you, do it!" as the marriage at cana belongs, as a subject, rather to the history of christ, than to that of the virgin his mother, i shall not enter into it further here, but proceed. * * * * * after the marriage at cana in galilee, which may be regarded as the commencement of the miraculous mission of our lord, we do not hear anything of his mother, the virgin, till the time approached when he was to close his ministry by his death. she is not once referred to by name in the gospels until the scene of the crucifixion. we are indeed given to understand, that in the journeys of our saviour, and particularly when he went up from nazareth to jerusalem, the women followed and ministered to him (matt. xxvii. , luke, viii. ): and those who have written the life of the virgin for the edification of the people, and those who have translated it into the various forms of art, have taken it for granted that she, his mother, could not have been absent or indifferent where others attended with affection and zeal: but i do not remember any scene in which she is an actor, or even a conspicuous figure. among the carvings on the stalls at amiens, there is one which represents the passage (matt. xii. .) wherein our saviour, preaching in judea, is told that his mother and his brethren stand without. "but he answering, said to him that told him, 'who is my mother? and who are my brethren?' and he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, 'behold my mother and my brethren!'" the composition exhibits on one side jesus standing and teaching his disciples; while on the other, through an open door, we perceive the virgin and two or three others. this representation is very rare. the date of these stalls is the sixteenth century; and such a group in a series of the life of the virgin could not, i think, have occurred in the fifteenth. it would have been quite inconsistent with all the religious tendencies of that time, to exhibit christ as preaching _within_, while his "divine and most glorious" mother was standing _without_. the theologians of the middle ages insist on the close and mystical relation which they assure us existed between christ and his mother: however far separated, there was constant communion between them; and wherever he might be--in whatever acts of love, or mercy, or benign wisdom occupied for the good of man--_there_ was also his mother, present with him in the spirit. i think we can trace the impress of this mysticism in some of the productions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. for example, among the frescoes by angelico da fiesole in the cloisters of st. mark, at florence, there is one of the transfiguration, where the saviour stands glorified with arms outspread--a simple and sublime conception,--and on each side, half figures of moses and elias: lower down appear the virgin and st. dominick. there is also in the same series a fresco of the last supper as the eucharist, in which the virgin is kneeling, glorified, on one side of the picture, and appears as a partaker of the rite. such a version of either subject must be regarded as wholly mystical and exceptional, and i am not acquainted with any other instance. lo spasimo. "o what avails me now that honour high, to have conceived of god, and that salute, 'hail highly favoured among woman blest! while i to sorrows am no less advanced, and fears as eminent, above the lot of other women by the birth i bore." --"this is my favoured lot, my exaltation to afflictions high." milton. in the passion of our lord, taken in connection with the life of the virgin mother, there are three scenes in which she is associated with the action as an important, if not a principal, personage. we are told in the gospel of st. john (chap. xvii), that christ took a solemn farewell of his disciples: it is therefore supposed that he did not go up to his death without taking leave of his mother,--without preparing her for that grievous agony by all the comfort that his tender and celestial pity and superior nature could bestow. this parting of christ and his mother before the crucifixion is a modern subject. i am not acquainted with any example previous to the beginning of the sixteenth century. the earliest i have met with is by albert durer, in the series of the life of the virgin, but there are probably examples more ancient, or at least contemporary. in albert durer's composition, mary is sinking to the earth, as if overcome with affliction, and is sustained in the arms of two women; she looks up with folded hands and streaming eyes to her son who stands before her; he, with one hand extended, looks down upon her compassionately, and seems to give her his last benediction. i remember another instance, by paul veronese, full of that natural affectionate sentiment which belonged to the venetian school. (florence gal.) in a very beautiful picture by carotto of verona, jesus _kneels_ before his mother, and receives her benediction before he departs: this must be regarded as an impropriety, a mistake in point of sentiment, considering the peculiar relation between the two personages; but it is a striking instance of the popular notions of the time respecting the high dignity of the virgin mother. i have not seen it repeated.[ ] [footnote : verona, san bernardino. it is worth remarking, with regard to this picture, that the intendant of the convent rebuked the artist, declaring that he had made the saviour show _too little_ reverence for his mother, seeing that he knelt to her on one knee only.--see the anecdote in _vasari_, vol. i. p. . fl. edit. .] * * * * * it appears from the gospel histories, that the women who had attended upon christ during his ministry failed not in their truth and their love to the last. in the various circumstances of the passion of our lord, where the virgin mother figures as an important personage, certain of these women are represented as always near her, and sustaining her with a tender and respectful sympathy. three are mentioned by name,--mary magdalene; mary the wife of cleophas; and mary, the mother of james and john. martha, the sister of mary magdalene, is also included, as i infer from her name, which in several instances is inscribed in the nimbus encircling her head. i have in another place given the story of martha, and the legends which in the fourteenth century converted her into a very important character in sacred art, (first series of sacred and legendary art.) these women, therefore, form, with the virgin, the group of _five_ female figures which are generally included in the scriptural scenes from the life of christ. of course, these incidents, and more especially the "procession to calvary," and the "crucifixion," belong to another series of subjects, which i shall have to treat hereafter in the history of our lord; but they are also included in a series of the rosary, as two of the mystical sorrows; and under this point of view i must draw attention to the peculiar treatment of the virgin in some remarkable examples, which will serve as a guide to others. * * * * * the procession to calvary (_il portamento della croce_) followed a path leading from the gate of jerusalem to mount calvary, which has been kept in remembrance and sanctified as the _via dolorosa_, and there is a certain spot near the summit of the hill, where, according to a very ancient tradition, the virgin mother, and the women her companions, placed themselves to witness the sorrowful procession; where the mother, beholding her divine son dragged along, all bleeding from the scourge, and sinking under his cross, in her extreme agony sank, fainting, to the earth. this incident gave rise to one of the mournful festivals of the passion week, under the title, in french, of _notre dame du spasme_ or _de la pamoison_; in italian _la madonna dello spasimo_, or _il pianto di maria_; and this is the title given to some of those representations in which the affliction of mary is a prominent part of the tragic interest of the scene. she is sometimes sinking to the earth, sustained by the women or by st. john; sometimes she stands with clasped hands, mute and motionless with excess of anguish; sometimes she stretches out her arms to her son, as jesus, sinking under the weight of his cross, turns his benign eyes upon her, and the others who follow him: "daughters of jerusalem, weep not for me!" this is the moment chosen by raphael in that sublime composition celebrated under the title "_lo spasimo di sicilia_" (madrid gal.); so called because it was originally painted for the high altar of the church of the sicilian olivetans at palermo, dedicated to the _madonna dello spasimo_. it was thence removed, by order of philip iv. of spain, early in the seventeenth century, and is now placed in the gallery at madrid. here the group of the five women forms an important part of the picture, occupying the foreground on the right. the expression in the face of the mother, stretching forth her arms to her son with a look of appealing agony, has always been cited as one of the great examples of raphael's tragic power. it is well known that in this composition the attitude of christ was suggested by the contemporary engraving of martin schoen; but the prominence given to the group of women, the dramatic propriety and pathetic grace in the action of each, and the consummate skill shown in the arrangement of the whole, belong only to raphael.[ ] in martin schoen's vivid composition, the virgin, and the women her companions, are seen far off in the background, crouching in the "hollow way" between two cliffs, from which spot, according to the old tradition, they beheld the sad procession. we have quite a contrary arrangement in an early composition by lucas van leyden. the procession to calvary is seen moving along in the far distance, while the foreground is occupied by two figures only, mary in a trance of anguish sustained by the weeping st. john. [footnote : the veneration at all times entertained for this picture was probably enhanced by a remarkable fact in its history. raphael painted it towards the close of the year , and when finished, it was embarked at the port of ostia, to be consigned to palermo. a storm came on, the vessel foundered at sea, and all was lost except the case containing this picture, which was floated by the currents into the bay of genoa; and, on being landed, the wondrous masterpiece of art was taken out unhurt. the genoese at first refused to give it up, insisting that it had been preserved and floated to their shores by the miraculous interposition of the blessed virgin herself; and it required a positive mandate from the pope before they would restore it to the olivetan fathers.--see _passavant's rafael_, i. .] in a very fine "portamento del croce," by gaudenzio ferrari, one of the soldiers or executioners, in repulsing the sorrowful mother, lifts up a stick as if to strike her;--a gratuitous act of ferocity, which shocks at once the taste and the feelings, and, without adding anything to the pathos of the situation, detracts from the religious dignity of the theme. it is like the soldier kicking our saviour, which i remember to have seen in a version of the subject by a much later painter, daniele crespi. murillo represents christ as fainting under the weight of the cross, while the virgin sits on the ground by the way-side, gazing on him with fixed eyes and folded hands, and a look of unutterable anguish.[ ] [footnote : this picture, remarkable for the intense expression, was in the collection of lord orford, and sold in june, .] * * * * * the ecce homo, by correggio, in our national gallery, is treated in a very peculiar manner with reference to the virgin, and is, in fact, another version of _lo spasimo_, the fourth of her ineffable sorrows. here christ, as exhibited to the people by pilate, is placed in the distance, and is in all respects the least important part of the picture, of which we have the real subject in the far more prominent figure of the virgin in the foreground. at sight of the agony and degradation of her son, she closes her eyes, and is on the point of swooning. the pathos of expression in the half-unconscious face and helpless, almost lifeless hands, which seem to seek support, is particularly fine. the crucifixion. "verum stabas, optima mater, juxta crucem filli tui, non solum corpore, sed mentis constatia." this great subject belongs more particularly to the life of christ. it is, i observe, always omitted in a series of the life of the virgin, unless it be the rosary, in which the "vigil of the virgin by the cross" is the fifth and greatest of the seven sorrows. we cannot fail to remark, that whether the crucifixion be treated as a mystery or as an event, mary is always an important figure. in the former case she stands alone on the right of the cross, and st. john on the left.[ ] she looks up with an expression of mingled grief and faith, or bows her head upon her clasped hands in resignation. in such a position she is the idealized mater dolorosa, the daughter of jerusalem, the personified church mourning for the great sacrifice; and this view of the subject i have already discussed at length. [footnote : it has been a question with the learned whether the virgin mary, with st. john, ought not to stand on the left of the cross, in allusion to psalm cxlii. (always interpreted as prophetic of the passion of christ) ver. : "_i looked on my right hand, and be held, but there was none who would know me._"] on the other hand, when the crucifixion is treated as a great historical event, as a living scene acted before our eyes, then the position and sentiment given to the virgin are altogether different, but equally fixed by the traditions of art. that she was present, and near at hand, we must presume from the gospel of st. john, who was an eye-witness; and most of the theological writers infer that on this occasion her constancy and sublime faith were even greater than her grief, and that her heroic fortitude elevated her equally above the weeping women and the timorous disciples. this is not, however, the view which the modern painters have taken, and even the most ancient examples exhibit the maternal grief for a while overcoming the constancy. she is standing indeed, but in a fainting attitude, as if about to sink to the earth, and is sustained in the arms of the two marys, assisted, sometimes, but not generally, by st. john; mary magdalene is usually embracing the foot of the cross. with very little variation this is the visual treatment down to the beginning of the sixteenth century. i do not know who was the first artist who placed the mother prostrate on the ground; but it must be regarded as a fault, and as detracting from the high religious dignity of the scene. in all the greatest examples, from cimabue, giotto, and pietro cavallini, down to angelico, masaccio, and andrea mantegna, and their contemporaries, mary is uniformly standing. in a crucifixion by martin schoen, the virgin, partly held up in the arms of st. john, embraces with fervour the foot of the cross: a very rare and exceptional treatment, for this is the proper place of mary magdalene. in albert durer's composition, she is just in the act of sinking to the ground in a very natural attitude, as if her limbs had given way under her. in tintoretto's celebrated crucifixion, we have an example of the virgin placed on the ground, which if not one of the earliest, is one of the most striking of the more modern conceptions. here the group at the foot of the cross is wonderfully dramatic and expressive, but certainly the reverse of dignified. mary lies fainting on the earth; one arm is sustained by st. john, the other is round the neck of a woman who leans against the bosom of the virgin, with eyes closed, as if lost in grief. mary magdalene and another look up to the crucified saviour, and more in front a woman kneels wrapped up in a cloak, and hides her face. (venice, s. rocco.) zani has noticed the impropriety here, and in other instances, of exhibiting the "_grandissima donna_" as prostrate, and in a state of insensibility; a style of treatment which, in more ancient times, would have been inadmissible. the idea embodied by the artist should be that which bishop taylor has _painted_ in words:--"by the cross stood the holy virgin mother, upon whom old simeon's prophecy was now verified; for now she felt a sword passing through her very soul. she stood without clamour and womanish noises sad, silent, and with a modest grief, deep as the waters of the abyss, but smooth as the face of a pool; full of love, and patience, and sorrow, and hope!" to suppose that this noble creature lost all power over her emotions, lost her consciousness of the "high affliction" she was called to suffer, is quite unworthy of the grand ideal of womanly perfection here placed before us. it is clear, however, that in the later representations, the intense expression of maternal anguish in the hymn of the stabat mater gave the key to the prevailing sentiment. and as it is sometimes easier to faint than to endure; so it was easier for certain artists to express the pallor and prostration of insensibility, than the sublime faith and fortitude which in that extremest hour of trial conquered even a mother's unutterable woe. that most affecting moment, in which the dying saviour recommends his mother to the care of the best beloved of his disciples, i have never seen worthily treated. there are, however, some few crucifixions in which i presume the idea to have been indicated; as where the virgin stands leaning on st. john, with his sustaining arm reverently round her, and both looking up to the saviour, whose dying face is turned towards them. there is an instance by albert durer (the wood-cut in the "large passion"); but the examples are so few as to be exceptional. * * * * * the descent from the cross, and the deposition, are two separate themes. in the first, according to the antique formula, the virgin should stand; for here, as in the crucifixion, she must be associated with the principal action, and not, by the excess of her grief, disabled from taking her part in it. in the old legend it is said, that when joseph of arimathea and nicodemus wrenched out the nails which fastened the hands of our lord to the cross, st. john took them away secretly, that his mother might not see them--"_affin que la vierge marie ne les veit pas, crainte que le coeur ne lui amolist_." and then, while nicodemus drew forth the nails which fastened his feet, joseph of arimathea sustained the body, so that the head and arms of the dead saviour hung over his shoulder. and the afflicted mother, seeing this, arose on her feet and she took the bleeding hands of her son, as they hung down, and clasped them in her own, and kissed him tenderly. and then, indeed, she sank to the earth, because of the great anguish she suffered, lamenting her son, whom the cruel jews had murdered.[ ] [footnote : "---- tant qu'il n'y a coeur si dur, ni entendement d'homme qui n'y deust penser. 'lasse, mon confort! m'amour et ma joye, que les juifz ont faict mourir à grand tort et sans cause pour ce qu'il leur monstrait leurs faltes et enseignoit leur saulvement! o felons et mauvais juifz, ne m'epargnez pas! puisque vous crucifiez mon enfant crucifiez moy--moy qui suis sa dolente mere, et me tuez d'aucune mort affin que je meure avec luy!'" v. _the old french legend_, "_vie de notre-dame la glorieuse vierge marie._"] the first action described in this legend (the afflicted mother embracing the arm of her son) is precisely that which was adopted by the greek masters, and by the early italians who followed them, nicolo pisano, cimabue, giotto, puccio capanna, duccio di siena, and others from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. but in later pictures, the virgin in the extremity of her grief has sunk to the ground. in an altar-piece by cigoli, she is seated on the earth, looking out of the picture, as if appealing, "was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow?" while the crown of thorns lies before her. this is very beautiful; but even more touching is the group in the famous "descent from the cross," the masterpiece of daniel di volterra (rome, trinità di monte): here the fainting form of the virgin, extended on the earth, and the dying anguish in her face, have never been exceeded, and are, in fact, the chief merit of the picture. in the famous descent at antwerp, the masterpiece of rubens, mary stands, and supports the arm of her son as he is let down from the cross. this is in accordance with the ancient version; but her face and figure are the least effective part of this fine picture. in a beautiful small composition, a print, attributed to albert durer, there are only three figures. joseph of arimathea stands on a ladder, and detaches from the cross the dead form of the saviour, who is received into the arms of his mother. this is a form of the _mater dolorosa_ which is very uncommon, and must be regarded as exceptional, and ideal, unless we are to consider it as a study and an incomplete group. * * * * * the deposition is properly that moment which succeeds the descent from the cross; when the dead form of christ is deposed or laid upon the ground, resting on the lap of his mother, and lamented by st. john, the magdalene, and others. the ideal and devotional form of this subject, styled a pietà, may be intended to represent one of those festivals of the passion week which commemorate the participation of the holy virgin mother in the sufferings of her son.[ ] i have already spoken at length of this form of the mater dolorosa; the historical version of the same subject is what we have now to consider, but only so far as regards the figure of the virgin. [footnote : "c'est ce que l'on a jugé à propos d'appeler _la compassion_ de la vierge, autrement _notre dame de pitié_."--vide _baillet_, "les fêtes mobiles."] in a deposition thus dramatically treated, there are always from four to six or eight figures. the principal group consists of the dead saviour and his mother. she generally holds him embraced, or bends over him contemplating his dead face, or lays her cheek to his with an expression of unutterable grief and love: in the antique conception she is generally fainting; the insensibility, the sinking of the whole frame through grief, which in the crucifixion is misplaced, both in regard to the religious feeling and the old tradition, is here quite proper.[ ] thus she appears in the genuine greek and greco-italian productions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as in the two finest examples that could be cited in more modern times. [footnote : the reason given is curious:--"_perchè quando gesù pareva tormentato essendo vivo, il dolore si partiva frà la santissima madre e lui; ma quando poi egli era morto, tutto il dolore rimaneva per la sconsolata madre._"] . in an exquisite composition by raphael, usually styled a pietà, but properly a deposition, there are six figures: the extended form of christ; the virgin swooning in the arms of mary salome and mary cleophas; mary magdalene sustains the feet of christ, while her sister martha raises the veil of the virgin, as if to give her air; st. john stands by with clasped hands; and joseph of arimathea looks on the sorrowing group with mingled grief and pity.[ ] [footnote : this wonderful drawing (there is no _finished_ picture) was in the collection of count fries, and then belonged to sir t. lawrence. there is a good engraving by agricola.] . another, an admirable and celebrated composition by annibale caracci, known as the four marys, omits martha and st. john. the attention of mary magdalene is fixed on the dead saviour; the other two marys are occupied by the fainting mother. (castle howard.) on comparing this with raphael's conception, we find more of common nature, quite as much pathos, but in the forms less of that pure poetic grace, which softens at once, and heightens the tragic effect. besides joseph of arimathea, we have sometimes nicodemus; as in the very fine deposition by perugino, and in one, not loss fine, by albert durer. in a deposition by ambrogio lorenzetti, lazarus, whom jesus raised from the dead, stands near his sister martha. in a picture by vandyke, the mother closes the eyes of the dead redeemer: in a picture by rubens, she removes a thorn from his wounded brow:--both natural and dramatic incidents very characteristic of these dramatic painters. there are some fine examples of this subject in the old german school. in spite of ungraceful forms, quaint modern costumes, and worse absurdities, we often find _motifs_, unknown in the italian school, most profoundly felt, though not always happily expressed, i remember several instances in which the madonna does not sustain her son; but kneeling on one side, and, with clasped hands, she gazes on him with a look, partly of devotion, partly of resignation; both the devotion and the resignation predominating over the maternal grief. i have been asked, "why no painter has ever yet represented the great mother as raising her hands in thankfulness that her son _had_ drank the cup--_had_ finished the work appointed for him on earth?" this would have been worthy of the religions significance of the moment; and i recommend the theme to the consideration of artists.[ ] [footnote : in the most modern deposition i have seen (one of infinite beauty, and new in arrangement, by paul delaroche), the virgin, kneeling at some distance, and a little above, contemplates her dead son. the expression and attitude are those of intense anguish, and _only_ anguish. it is the bereaved mother; it is a craving desolation, which is in the highest degree human and tragic; but it is not the truly religious conception.] * * * * * the entombment follows, and when treated as a strictly historical scene, the virgin mother is always introduced, though here as a less conspicuous figure, and one less important to the action. either she swoons, which is the ancient greek conception; or she follows, with streaming eyes and clasped hands, the pious disciples who bear the dead form of her son, as in raphael's wonderful picture in the borghese palace, and titian's, hardly less beautiful, in the louvre, where the compassionate magdalene sustains her veiled and weeping figure;--or she stands by, looking on disconsolate, while the beloved son is laid in the tomb. * * * * * all these fine and important themes belong properly to a series of the history of christ. in a series of the life of the virgin, the incidents of the passion of our lord are generally omitted; whereas, in the cycle of subjects styled the rosary, the bearing of the cross, the crucifixion, and the deposition, are included in the fourth and fifth of the "sorrowful mysteries." i shall have much more to say on these subjects when treating of the artistic representations from the history of christ. i will only add here, that their frequency as _separate_ subjects, and the preëminence given to the figure of the virgin as the mother of pity, are very suggestive and affecting when we come to consider their _intention_ as well as their significance. for, in the first place, they were in most instances the votive offerings of those who had lost the being most dear to them, and thus appealed so the divine compassion of her who had felt that sword "pierce through her own heart also." in this sense they were often suspended as memorials in the chapels dedicated to the dead, of which i will cite one very beautiful and touching example. there is a votive deposition by giottino, in which the general conception is that which belonged to the school, and very like giotto's deposition in the arena at padua. the dead christ is extended on a white shroud, and embraced by the virgin; at his feet kneels the magdalene, with clasped hands and flowing hair; mary salome kisses one of his hands, and martha (as i suppose) the other; the third mary, with long hair, and head dropping with grief, is seated in front to the right. in the background, in the centre, stands st. john, bending over the group in profound sorrow; on his left hand joseph of arimathea stands with the vase of "spices and ointments," and the nails; near him nicodemus. on the right of st. john kneels a beautiful young girl, in the rich florentine costume, who, with a sorrowful earnestness and with her hands crossed over her bosom, contemplates the dead saviour. st. romeo (or san remigio) patron of the church in which the picture was dedicated, lays his hand paternally on her head; beside her kneels a benedictine nun, who in the game manner is presented by st. benedict. these two females, sisters perhaps, are the bereaved mourners who dedicated the picture, certainly one of the finest of the giottesque school.[ ] [footnote : it is now in the gallery of the uffizii, at florence. in the florentine edition of vasari the name of the church in which this picture was originally placed is called san _romeo_, who is st. remi (or remigio), bishop of reims. the painter, giottino, the greatest and the most interesting, personally, of the giottesque artists, was, as vasari says, "of a melancholy temperament, and a lover of solitude;" "more desirous of glory than of gain;" "contented with little, and thinking more of serving and gratifying others than of himself;" "taking small care for himself, and perpetually engrossed by the works he had undertaken." he died of consumption, in , at the age of thirty two.] secondly, we find that the associations left in the minds of the people by the expeditions of the crusaders and the pilgrimages to the holy sepulchre, rendered the deposition and the entombment particularly popular and impressive as subjects of art, even down to a late period. "ce que la vaillante épée des ayeux avait glorieusement defendu, le ciscaux des enfans aimait à le réproduire, leur piété à l'honorer." i think we may trace these associations in many examples, particularly in a deposition by raphael, of which there is a fine old engraving. here, in the centre, stands a circular building, such as the church at jerusalem was always described; in front of which are seen the fainting virgin and the mournful women: a grand and solemn group, but poetically rather than historically treated. * * * * * in conclusion, i must notice one more form of the mater dolorosa, one of the dramatic conceptions of the later schools of art; as far as i knew, there exist no early examples. in a picture by guercino (louvre), the virgin and st. peter lament the death of the saviour. the mother, with her clasped hands resting on her knees, appears lost in resigned sorrow: she mourns her son. peter, weeping, as with a troubled grief, seems to mourn at once his lord and master, and his own weak denial. this picture has the energetic feeling and utter want of poetic elevation which generally characterized guercino. there is a similar group by ludovico caracci in the duonio at bologna. in a picture by tiarini, the _madre addolorata_ is seated, holding in her hand the crown of thorns; mary magdalene kneels before her, and st. john stands by--both expressing the utmost veneration and sympathy. these and similar groups are especially to be found in the later bologna school. in all the instances known to me, they have been painted for the dominicans, and evidently intended to illustrate the sorrows of the rosary. in one of the services of the passion week, and in particular reference to the maternal anguish of the virgin, it was usual to read, as the epistle, a selection from the first chapter of the lamentations of jeremiah, eloquent in the language of desolation and grief. the painters seemed to have filled their imagination with the images there presented; and frequently in the ideal _pietà_ the daughter of jerusalem "sits solitary, with none to comfort her." it is the contrary in the dramatic version: the devotion of the women, the solicitude of the affectionate magdalene, and the filial reverence of st. john, whom the scriptural history associates with the virgin in a manner so affecting, are never forgotten. in obedience to the last command of his dying master, john the evangelist-- "he, into whose keeping, from the cross, the mighty charge was given--" dante. conducted to his own dwelling the mother to whom he was henceforth to be as a son. this beautiful subject, "john conducting the virgin to his home," was quite unknown, as far as i am aware, in the earlier schools of art, and appears first in the seventeenth century. an eminent instance is a fine solemn group by zurbaran. (munich.) christ was laid in the sepulchre by night, and here, in the gray dawn, john and the veiled virgin are seen as returning from the entombment, and walking mournfully side by side. * * * * * we find the peculiar relation between the mother of christ and st. john, as her adopted son, expressed in a very tender and ideal manner, on one of the wings of an altar-piece, attributed to taddeo gaddi. (berlin gal., no. .) mary and st. john stand in front; he holds one of her hands clasped in both his own, with a most reverent and affectionate expression. christ, standing between them, lays one hand on the shoulder of each; the sentiment of this group is altogether very unusual; and very remarkable. historical subjects part iv. the life of the virgin mary from the resurrection of our lord to the assumption. . the apparition of christ to his mother. . the ascension. . the descent of the holy ghost. . the death of the virgin. . the assumption and coronation. the apparition of christ to his mother. the enthusiastic and increasing veneration for the madonna, the large place she filled in the religious teaching of the ecclesiastics and the religious sentiments of the people, are nowhere more apparent, nor more strikingly exhibited, than in the manner in which she was associated with the scenes which followed the passion;--the manner in which some incidents were suggested, and treated with a peculiar reference to her, and to her maternal feelings. it is nowhere said that the virgin mother was one of the marys who visited the tomb on the morning of the resurrection, and nowhere is she so represented. but out of the human sympathy with that bereaved and longing heart, arose the beautiful legend of the interview between christ and his mother after he had risen from the dead. there existed a very ancient tradition (it is mentioned by st. ambrose in the fourth century, as being then generally accepted by christians), that christ, after his return from hades, visited his mother even before he appeared to mary magdalene in the garden. it is not indeed so written in the gospel; but what of that? the reasoning which led to the conclusion was very simple. he whose last earthly thought was for his mother would not leave her without that consolation it was in his power to give; and what, as a son, it was his duty to do (for the _humanity_ of christ is never forgotten by those who most intensely believed in his _divinity_,) that, of course, he did do. the story is thus related:--mary, when all was "finished," retired to her chamber, and remained alone with her grief--not wailing, not repining, not hopeless, but waiting for the fulfilment of the promise. open before her lay the volume of the prophecies; and she prayed earnestly, and she said, "thou, didst promise, o my most dear son! that thou wouldst rise again on the third day. before yesterday was the day of darkness and bitterness, and, behold, this is the third day. return then to me thy mother; o my son, tarry not, but come!" and while thus she prayed, lo! a bright company of angels, who entered waving their palms and radiant with joy; and they surrounded her, kneeling and singing the triumphant easter hymn, _regina coeli lætare, alleluia!_[ ] and then came christ partly clothed in a white garment, having in his left hand the standard of the cross, as one just returned from the nether world, and victorious over the powers of sin and death. and with him came the patriarchs and prophets, whose long-imprisoned spirits he had released from hades.[ ] all these knelt before the virgin, and saluted her, and blessed her, and thanked her, because through her had come their deliverance. but, for all this, the mother was not comforted till she had heard the voice of her son. then he, raising his hand in benediction, spoke and said, "i salute thee, o my mother!" and she, weeping tears of joy, responded, "is it thou indeed, my most dear son?" and she fell upon his neck, and he embraced her tenderly, and showed her the wounds he had received for sinful man. then he bid her be comforted and weep no more, for the pain of death had passed away, and the gates of hell had not prevailed against him. and she thanked him meekly on her knees, for that he had been pleased to bring redemption to man, and to make her the humble instrument of his great mercy. and they sat and talked together, until he took leave of her to return to the garden, and to show himself to mary magdalene, who, next to his glorious mother, had most need of consolation.[ ] [footnote : "regina coeli lætare alleluia! quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia! resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia! ora pro nobis deum, alleluia!"] [footnote : the legend of the "descent into hades" (or limbo), often treated of in art, will be given at length in the history of our lord.] [footnote : i have given the legend from various sources; but there is something quite untranslatable and perfectly beautiful in the naïveté of the old italian version. after describing the celestial music of the angels, the rejoicing of the liberated patriarchs, and the appearance of christ, _allegro, e bello e tutto lucido_, it thus proceeds: "_quando ella lo vidde, gli andò incontro ella ancora con le braccia aperte, e quasi tramortita per l'allegrazza. il benedetto gesù l'abbraccio teneressimamente, ed ella glidesse; 'ahi, figliuolo mio cordialissimo, sei tu veramente il mio gesù, ò pur m'inganna l'affetto!' 'io sono il tuo figliuolo, madre mia, dolcissima,' disse il signore: 'cessino hormai le tue lagrime, non fare ch'io ti veda più di mala voglia, già son finiti li tuoi e li miei travagli e dolori insieme!' erano rimase alcune lagrime negli occhi della vergine.... e per la grande allegrezza non poteva proferire parola alcuna ... ma quando al fine potè parlare, lo ringrazio per parte di tutto il genere humano, per la redenzione, operata e fatta, per tutto generalmente."--v. il perfetto legendario_] the pathetic sentiment, and all the supernatural and mystical accompaniments of this beautiful myth of the early ages, have been very inadequately rendered by the artists. it is always treated as a plain matter-of-fact scene. the virgin kneels; the saviour, bearing his standard, stands before her; and where the delivered patriarchs are introduced, they are generally either adam and eve, the authors of the fall or abraham and david, the progenitors of christ and the virgin. the patriarchs are omitted in the earliest instance i can refer to, one of the carved panels of the stalls in the cathedral of amiens: also in the composition by albert durer, not included in his life of the virgin, but forming one of the series of the passion. guido has represented the scene in a very fine picture, wherein an angel bears the standard of victory, and behind our saviour are adam and eve. (dresden gal.) another example, by guercino (cathedral, cento), is cited by goethe as an instance of that excellence in the expression of the natural and domestic affections which characterized the painter. mary kneels before her son, looking up in his face with unutterable affection; he regards her with a calm, sad look, "as if within his noble soul there still remained the recollection of his sufferings and hers, outliving the pang of death, the descent into the grave, and which the resurrection had not yet dispelled." this, however, is not the sentiment, at once affectionate and joyously triumphant, of the old legend. i was pleased with a little picture in the lichtenstein gallery at vienna, where the risen saviour, standing before his mother, points to the page of the book before her, as if he said, "see you not that thus it is written?" (luke xxiv. .) behind jesus is st. john the evangelist bearing the cup and the cross, as the cup of sorrow and the cross of pain, not the mere emblems. there is another example, by one of the caracci, in the fitzwilliam collection at cambridge. a picture by albano of this subject, in which christ comes flying or floating on the air, like an incorporeal being, surrounded by little fluttering cherubim, very much like cupids, is an example of all that is most false and objectionable in feeling and treatment. (florence, pitti pal.) the popularity of this scene in the bologna school of art arose, i think, from its being adopted as one of the subjects from the rosary, the first of "the five glorious mysteries;" therefore especially affected by the dominicans, the great patrons of the caracci at that time. * * * * * the ascension, though one of the "glorious mysteries," was also accounted as the seventh and last of the sorrows of the virgin, for she was then left alone on earth. all the old legends represent her as present on this occasion, and saying, as she followed with uplifted eyes the soaring figure of christ, "my son, remember me when thou comest to thy kingdom! leave me not long after thee, my son!" in giotto's composition in the chapel of the arena, at padua, she is by far the most prominent figure. in almost all the late pictures of the ascension, she is introduced with the other marys, kneeling on one side, or placed in the centre among the apostles. * * * * * the descent of the holy ghost is a strictly scriptural subject. i have heard it said that the introduction of mary is not authorized by the scripture narrative. i must observe, however that, without any wringing of the text for an especial purpose, the passage might be so interpreted. in the first chapter of the acts (ver. ), after enumerating the apostles by name, it is added, "these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and mary the mother of jesus, and with his brethren." and in the commencement of the second chapter the narrative thus proceeds: "and when the day of pentecost was fully come, they were _all_ with one accord in one place." the word _all_ is, in the concordance, referred to the previous text (ver. ), as including mary and the women: thus they who were constant in their love were not refused a participation in the gifts of the spirit. mary, in her character of the divine mother of wisdom, or even wisdom herself,[ ] did not, perhaps, need any accession of intellectual light; but we must remember that the holy spirit was the comforter, as well as the giver of wisdom; therefore, equally needed by those, whether men or women, who were all equally called upon to carry out the ministry of christ in love and service, in doing and in suffering. [footnote : the sublime eulogium of wisdom (prov. viii. ), is, in the roman catholic church, applied to the virgin mary.] in the account of the apostles i have already described at length the various treatment and most celebrated examples of this subject, and shall only make one or two observations with especial reference to the figure of the virgin. it was in accordance with the feelings and convictions prevalent in the fifteenth century, that if mary were admitted to be present, she would take the principal place, as queen and mother of the apostles (_regina et mater apostolorum_). she is, therefore, usually placed either in front, or in the centre on a raised seat or dais; and often holding a book (as the _mater sapientiæ_); and she receives the divine affusion either with veiled lids and meek rejoicing; or with uplifted eyes, as one inspired, she pours forth the hymn, _veni, sancte spiritus_. i agree with the critics that, as the spirit descended in form of cloven tongues of fire, the emblem of the dove, almost always introduced, is here superfluous, and, indeed, out of place. * * * * * i must mention here another subject altogether apocryphal, and confined to the late spanish and italian schools: the virgin receives the sacramental wafer from the hand of st. john the evangelist. this is frequently misunderstood, and styled the communion of mary magdalene. but the long hair and uncovered head of the magdalene, and the episcopal robe of st. maximin, are in general distinguishable from the veiled matronly head of the virgin mother, and the deacon's vest of st. john. there is also a legend that mary received baptism from st. peter; but this is a subject i have never met with in art, ancient or modern. it may possibly exist. i am not acquainted with any representations taken from the sojourn on earth of the blessed virgin from this time to the period of her death, the date of which is uncertain. it is, however, generally supposed to have taken place in the forty-eighth year of our era, and about eleven years after the crucifixion, therefore in her sixtieth year. there is no distinct record, either historical or legendary, as to the manner in which she passed these years. there are, indeed, floating traditions alluded to by the early theological writers, that when the first persecution broke out at jerusalem, mary accompanied st. john the evangelist to ephesus, and was attended thither by the faithful and affectionate mary magdalene. also that she dwelt for some time on mount carmel, in an oratory erected there by the prophet elijah, and hence became the patroness of the carmelites, under the title of our lady of mount carmel (_la madonna del carmine_, or _del carmelo_). if there exist any creations of the artists founded on these obscure traditions, which is indeed most probable, particularly in the edifices of the carmelites in spain, i have not met with them. * * * * * it is related that before the apostles separated to obey the command of their divine master, and preach the gospel to all the nations of the earth, they took a solemn leave of the virgin mary, and received her blessing. this subject has been represented, though not by any distinguished artist. i remember such a picture, apparently of the sixteenth century, in the church of s. maria-in-capitolio at cologne, and another, by bissoni, in the san giustina at padua. (sacred and legendary art.) the death and assumption of the virgin _lat._ dormitio, pausatio, transitus, assumptio, b. virginis. _ital._ il transito di maria. il sonno della beata vergine. l' assunzione. _fr._ la mort de la vierge. l'assomption. _ger._ das absterben der maria. maria himmelfahrt. august, , . we approach the closing scenes. of all the representations consecrated to the glory of the virgin, none have been more popular, more multiplied through every form of art, and more admirably treated, than her death and apotheosis. the latter in particular, under the title of "the assumption," became the visible expression of a dogma of faith then universally received--namely, the exaltation and deification of the virgin in the body as well as in the spirit. as such it meets us at every turn in the edifices dedicated to her; in painting over the altar, in sculpture over the portal, or gleaming upon us in light from the shining many-coloured windows. sometimes the two subjects are combined, and the death-scene (_il transito di maria_) figured below, is, in fact, only the _transition_ to the blessedness and exaltation figured above. but whether separate or combined, the two scenes, in themselves most beautiful and touching,--the extremes of the mournful and the majestic, the dramatic and the ideal,--offered to the medieval artists such a breadth of space for the exhibition of feeling and fancy as no other subject afforded. consequently, among the examples handed down to us, are to be found some of the most curious and important relics of the early schools, while others rank among the grandest productions of the best ages of art. for the proper understanding of these, it is necessary to give the old apocryphal legend at some length; for, although the very curious and extravagant details of this legend were not authorized by the church as matters of fact or faith, it is clear that the artists were permitted thence to derive their materials and their imagery. in what manner they availed themselves of this permission, and how far the wildly poetical circumstances with which the old tradition was gradually invested, were allowed to enter into the forms of art, we shall afterwards consider. the legend of the death and assumption of the most glorious virgin mary. mary dwelt in the house of john upon mount sion looking for the fulfilment of the promise of deliverance, and she spent her days in visiting those places which had been hallowed by the baptism, the sufferings, the burial and resurrection of her divine son, but more particularly the tomb wherein he was laid. and she did not this as seeking the living among the dead, but for consolation and for remembrance. and on a certain day; the heart of the virgin, being filled with an inexpressible longing to behold her son, melted away within her, and she wept abundantly. and lo! an angel appeared before her clothed in light as with a garment. and he saluted her, and said, "hail, o mary! blessed by him who hath given salvation to israel i bring thee here a branch of palm gathered in paradise; command that it be carried before thy bier in the day of thy death; for in three days they soul shall leave thy body, and though shalt enter into paradise, where thy son awaits thy coming." mary, answering, said, "if i have found grace in thy eyes, tell me first what is thy name; and grant that the apostles my brethren may be reunited to me before i die, that in their presence i may give up my soul to god. also, i pray thee, that my soul, when delivered from my body, may not be affrighted by any spirit of darkness, nor any evil angel be allowed to have any power over me." and the angel said, "why dost thou ask my name? my name is the great and the wonderful. and now doubt not that all the apostles shall be reunited, to thee this day; for he who in former times transported the prophet habakkuk from judea to jerusalem by the hair of his head, can as easily bring hither the apostles. and fear thou not the evil spirit, for hast thou not bruised his head and destroyed his kingdom?" and having said these words, the angel departed into heaven; and the palm branch which he had left behind him shed light from every leaf, and sparkled as the stars of the morning. then mary lighted, the lamps and prepared her bed, and waited until the hour was come. and in the same instant john, who was preaching at ephesus, and peter, who was preaching at antioch, and all the other apostles who were dispersed in different parts of the world, were suddenly caught up as by a miraculous power, and found themselves before the door of the habitation of mary. when mary saw them all assembled round her, she blessed and thanked the lord, and she placed in the hands of st. john the shining palm, and desired that he should bear it before her at the time of her burial. then mary, kneeling down, made her prayer to the lord her son, and the others prayed with her; then she laid herself down in her bed and composed herself for death. and john wept bitterly. and about the third hour of the night, as peter stood at the head of the bed and john at the foot, and the other apostles around, a mighty sound filled the house, and a delicious perfume filled the chamber. and jesus himself appeared accompanied by an innumerable company of angels, patriarchs, and prophets; all these surrounded the bed of the virgin, singing hymns of joy. and jesus said to his mother, "arise, my beloved, mine elect! come with me from lebanon, my espoused! receive the crown that is destined for thee!" and mary, answering, said, "my heart is ready; for it was written of me that i should do thy will!" then all the angels and blessed spirits who accompanied jesus began to sing and rejoice. and the soul of mary left her body, and was received into the arms of her son; and together they ascended into heaven.[ ] and the apostles looked up, saying, "oh most prudent virgin, remember us when thou comest to glory!" and the angels, who received her into heaven, sung these words, "who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved? she is fairer than all the daughters of jerusalem." [footnote : in the later french legend, it is the angel michael who takes charge of the departing soul. "_ecce dominus venit cum multitudine angelorum_; et jésus christ vint en grande compaignie d'anges; entre lesquels estoit sainct michel, et quand la vierge marie le veit elle dit, 'benoist soit jésus christ car il ne m'a pas oubliée.' quand elle eut ce dit elle rendit l'esprit, lequel sainct michel print."] but the body of mary remained upon the earth; and three among the virgins prepared to wash and clothe it in a shroud; but such a glory of light surrounded her form, that though they touched it they could not see it, and no human eye beheld those chaste and sacred limbs unclothed. then the apostles took her up reverently and placed her upon a bier, and john, carrying the celestial palm, went before. peter sung the th psalm, "_in exitu israel de egypto, domus jacob de populo barbaro_," and the angels followed after, also singing. the wicked jews, hearing these melodious voices, ran together; and the high-priest, being seized with fury, laid his hands upon the bier intending to overturn it on the earth; but both his arms were suddenly dried up, so that he could not move them, and he was overcome with fear; and he prayed to st. peter for help, and peter said, "have faith in jesus christ, and his mother, and thon shalt be healed;" and it was so. then they went on and laid the virgin in a tomb in the valley of jehoshaphat.[ ] [footnote : or gethsemane. i must observe here, that in the genuine oriental legend, it is michael the archangel who hews off the hands of the audacious jew, which were afterwards, at the intercession of st. peter, reunited to his body.] and on the third day, jesus said to the angels, "what honour shall i confer on her who was my mother on earth, and brought me forth?" and they answered, "lord, suffer not that body which was thy temple and thy dwelling to see corruption; but place her beside thee on thy throne in heaven." and jesus consented; and the archangel michael brought unto the lord, the glorious soul of our lady. and the lord said, "rise up, my dove, my undefiled, for thou shalt not remain in the darkness of the grave, nor shall thou see corruption;" and immediately the soul of mary rejoined her body, and she arose up glorious from the tomb, and ascended into heaven surrounded and welcomed by troops of angels, blowing their silver trumpets, touching their golden lutes, singing, and rejoicing as they sung, "who is she that riseth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?" (cant. vi. .) but one among the apostles was absent; and when he arrived soon after, he would not believe in the resurrection of the virgin; and this apostle was the same thomas, who had formerly been slow to believe in the resurrection of the lord; and he desired that the tomb should be opened before him; and when it was opened it was found to be full of lilies and roses. then thomas, looking up to heaven, beheld the virgin bodily, in a glory of light, slowly mounting towards the heaven; and she, for the assurance of his faith, flung down to him her girdle, the same which is to this day preserved in the cathedral of prato. and there were present at the death of the virgin mary, besides the twelve apostles, dionysius the areopagite, timotheus, and hierotheus; and of the women, mary salome, mary cleophas,[ ] and a faithful handmaid whose name was savia. [footnote : according to the french legend, mary magdalene and her sister martha were also present.] * * * * * this legend of the death and assumption of the virgin has afforded to the artists seven distinct scenes. . the angel, bearing the palm, announces to mary her approaching death. the announcing angel is usually supposed to be gabriel, but it is properly michael, the "angel of death." . she takes leave of the apostles. . her death. . she is borne to the sepulchre. . her entombment. . her assumption, where she rises triumphant and glorious, "like unto the morning" ("_quasi aurora consurgens_"). . her coronation in heaven, where she takes her place beside her son. in early art, particularly in the gothic sculpture, two or more of these subjects are generally grouped together. sometimes we have the death-scene and the entombment on a line below, and, above these, the coronation or the assumption, as over the portal of notre dame at paris, and in many other instances; or we have first her death, above this, her assumption, and, above all, her coronation; as over the portal at amiens and elsewhere. * * * * * i shall now take these subjects in their order. the angel announcing to mary her approaching death has been rarely treated. in general, mary is seated or standing, and the angel kneels before her, bearing the starry palm brought from paradise. in the frescoes at orvieto, and in the bas-relief of oreagna,[ ] the angel comes flying downwards with the palm. in a predella by fra filippo lippi, the angel kneels, reverently presenting a taper, which the virgin receives with majestic grace; st. peter stands behind. it was the custom to place a taper in the hand of a dying person; and as the palm is also given sometimes to the angel of the incarnation, while the taper can have but one meaning, the significance of the scene is here fixed beyond the possibility of mistake, though there is a departure from the literal details of the old legend. there is in the munich gallery a curious german example of this subject by hans schauffelein. [footnote : on the beautiful shrine in or-san-michele, at florence.] * * * * * the death of the virgin is styled in byzantine and old italian art the sleep of the virgin, _il sonno della madonna_; for it was an old superstition, subsequently rejected as heretical, that she did not really die after the manner of common mortals, only fell asleep till her resurrection. therefore, perhaps, it is, that in the early pictures we have before us, not so much a scene or action, as a sort of mysterious rite; it is not the virgin dead or dying in her bed; she only slumbers in preparation for her entombment; while in the later pictures, we have a death-bed scene with all the usual dramatic and pathetic accessories. in one sense or the other, the theme has been constantly treated, from the earliest ages of the revival of art down to the seventeenth century. in the most ancient examples which are derived from the greek school, it is always represented with a mystical and solemn simplicity, adhering closely to the old legend, and to the formula laid down in the greek manual. there is such a picture in the wallerstein collection at kensington palace. the couch or bier is in the centre of the picture, and mary lies upon it wrapped in a veil and mantle with closed eyes and hands crossed over her bosom. the twelve apostles stand round in attitudes of grief angels attend bearing tapers. behind the extended form of the virgin is the figure of christ; a glorious red seraph with expanded wings hovers above his head. he holds in his arms the soul of the virgin in likeness of a new-born child. on each side stand st. dionysius the areopagite, and st. timothy, bishop of ephesas, in episcopal robes. in front, the archangel michael bends forward to strike off the hands of the high-priest adonijah, who had attempted to profane the bier. (this last circumstance is rarely expressed, except in the byzantine pictures; for in the italian legend, the hands of the intruder wither and adhere to the bed or shrine.) in the picture just described; all is at once simple, and formal, and solemn, and supernatural; it is a very perfect example in its way of the genuine byzantine treatment. there is a similar picture in the christian museum of the vatican. another (the date about the first half of the fourteenth century, as i think) is curious from the introduction of the women.[ ] the virgin lies on an embroidered sheet held reverently by angels; at the feet and at the head other angels bear tapers; christ receives the departing soul, which stretches out its arms; st. john kneels in front, and st. peter reads the service; the other apostles are behind him, and there are three women. the execution of this curious picture is extremely rude, but the heads very fine. cimabue painted the death of the virgin at assisi. there is a beautiful example by giotto, where two lovely angels stand at the head and two at the feet, sustaining the pall on which she lies; another most exquisite by angelico in the florence gallery; another most beautiful and pathetic by taddeo bartoli in the palazzo publico at siena. [footnote : at present in the collection of mr. bromley, of wootten.] the custom of representing christ as standing by the couch or tomb of his mother, in the act of receiving her soul, continued down to the fifteenth century, at least with slight deviations from the original conception. the later treatment is quite different. the solemn mysterious sleep, the transition from one life to another, became a familiar death-bed scene with the usual moving accompaniments. but even while avoiding the supernatural incidents, the italians gave to the representation much ideal elegance; for instance, in the beautiful fresco by ghirlandajo. (florence, s. maria-novella.) * * * * * in the old german school we have that homely matter-of-fact feeling, and dramatic expression, and defiance of all chronological propriety, which belonged to the time and school. the composition by albert durer, in his series of the life of the virgin, has great beauty and simplicity of expression, and in the arrangement a degree of grandeur and repose which has caused it to be often copied and reproduced as a picture, though the original form is merely that of a wood-cut.[ ] in the centre is a bedstead with a canopy, on which mary lies fronting the spectator, her eyes half closed. on the left of the bed stands st. peter, habited as a bishop: he places a taper in her dying hand; another apostle holds the asperge with which to sprinkle her with holy water: another reads the service. in the foreground is a priest bearing a cross, and another with incense; and on the right, the other apostles in attitudes of devotion and grief. [footnote : there is one such copy in the sutherland gallery; and another in the munich gallery, cabinet viii. .] another picture by albert durer, once in the fries gallery, at vienna, unites, in a most remarkable manner, all the legendary and supernatural incidents with the most intense and homely reality. it appears to have been painted for the emperor maximilian, as a tribute to the memory of his first wife, the interesting maria of burgundy. the disposition of the bed is the same as in the wood-cut, the foot towards the spectator. the face of the dying virgin is that of the young duchess. on the right, her son, afterwards philip of spain, and father of charles v., stands as the young st. john, and presents the taper; the other apostles are seen around, most of them praying; st. peter, habited as bishop, reads from an open book (this is the portrait of george à zlatkonia, bishop of vienna, the friend and counsellor of maximilian); behind him, as one of the apostles, maximilian himself, with head bowed down, as in sorrow. three ecclesiastics are seen entering by an open door, bearing the cross, the censer, and the holy water. over the bed is seen the figure of christ; in his arms, the soul of the virgin, in likeness of an infant with clasped hands; and above all, in an open glory and like a vision, her reception and coronation in heaven. upon a scroll over her head, are the words, "_surge propera, amica mea; veni de libano, veni coronaberis._" (cant. iv. .) three among the hovering angels bear scrolls, on one of which is inscribed the text from the canticles, "_quæ est ista quæ progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata?_" (cant. vi. ;) on another, "_quæ est ista quæ ascendit de deserto deliciis affluens super dilectum suum?_" (cant. viii. ;) and on the third, "_quæ est ista quæ ascendit super dilectum suum ut virgula fumi?_" (cant. iii. .) this picture bears the date . if it be true, as is, indeed, most apparent, that it was painted by order of maximilian nearly forty years after the loss of the young wife he so tenderly loved, and only one year before his own death, there is something very touching in it as a memorial. the ingenious and tender compliment implied by making mary of burgundy the real object of those mystic texts consecrated to the glory of the mater dei, verges, perhaps, on the profane; but it was not so intended; it was merely that combination of the pious, and the poetical, and the sentimental, which was one of the characteristics of the time, in literature, as well as in art. (heller's albrecht dürer p. .) the picture by jan schoreel, one of the great ornaments of the boisserée gallery,[ ] is remarkable for its intense reality and splendour of colour. the heads are full of character; that of the virgin in particular, who seems, with half-closed eyes, in act to breathe away her soul in rapture. the altar near the bed, having on it figures of moses and aaron, is, however, a serious fault and incongruity in this fine painting. [footnote : munich ( ). the admirable lithograph by strixner is well known.] i must observe that mary is not always dead or dying: she is sometimes preparing for death, in the act of prayer at the foot of her couch, with the apostles standing round, as in a very fine picture by martin schaffner, where she kneels with a lovely expression, sustained in the arms of st. john, while st. peter holds the gospel open before her. (munich gal.) sometimes she is sitting up in her bed, and reading from the book of the scripture, which is always held by st. peter. in a picture by cola della matrice, the death of the virgin is treated at once in a mystical and dramatic style. enveloped in a dark blue mantle spangled with golden stars, she lies extended on a couch; st. peter, in a splendid scarlet cope as bishop, reads the service; st. john, holding the palm, weeps bitterly. in front, and kneeling before the coach or bier, appear the three great dominican saints as witnesses of the religious mystery; in the centre, st. dominick; on the left, st. catherine of siena; and on the right, st. thomas aquinas. in a compartment above is the assumption. (rome, capitol.) * * * * * among the later italian examples, where the old legendary accessories are generally omitted, there are some of peculiar elegance. one by ludovico caracci, another by domenichino, and a third by carlo maratti, are treated, if not with much of poetry or religious sentiment, yet with great dignity and pathos. i must mention one more, because of its history and celebrity: caravaggio, of whom it was said that he always painted like a ruffian, because he _was_ a ruffian, was also a genius in his way, and for a few months he became the fashion at rome, and was even patronized by some of the higher ecclesiastics. he painted for the church of _la scala in trastevere_ a picture of the death of the virgin, wonderful for the intense natural expression, and in the same degree grotesque from its impropriety. mary, instead of being decently veiled, lies extended with long scattered hair; the strongly marked features and large proportions of the figure are those of a woman of the trastevere.[ ] the apostles stand around; one or two of them--i must use the word--blubber aloud: peter thrusts his fists into his eyes to keep back the tears; a woman seated in front cries and sobs; nothing can be more real, nor more utterly vulgar. the ecclesiastics for whom the picture was executed were so scandalized, that they refused to hang it up in their church. it was purchased by the duke of mantua, and, with the rest of the mantuan gallery, came afterwards into the possession of our unfortunate charles i. on the dispersion of his pictures, it found its way into the louvre, where it now is. it has been often engraved. [footnote : the face has a swollen look, and it was said that his model had been a common woman whose features were swelled by intoxication. (louvre, .)] * * * * * the apostles carry the body of the virgin to the tomb. this is a very uncommon subject. there is a most beautiful example by taddeo bartoli (siena, pal. publico), full of profound religious feeling. there is a small engraving by bonasoni, in a series of the life of the virgin, apparently after parmigiano, in which the apostles bear her on their shoulders over rocky ground, and appear to be descending into the valley of jehoshaphat: underneath are these lines:-- "portan gli uomini santi in su le spalle al sepolcro il corpo di maria di josaphat nella famosa valle." there is another picture of this subject by ludovico caracci, at parma. * * * * * the entombment. in the early pictures, there is little distinction between this subject and the death of the virgin. if the figure of christ stand over the recumbent form, holding in his arms the emancipated soul, then it is the _transito_--the death or sleep; but when a sarcophagus is in the centre of the picture, and the body lies extended above it on a sort of sheet or pall held by angels or apostles, it may be determined that it is the entombment of the virgin after her death. in a small and very beautiful picture by angelico, we have distinctly this representation.[ ] she lies, like one asleep, on a white pall, held reverently by the mourners. they prepare to lay her in a marble sarcophagus. st. john, bearing the starry palm, appears to address a man in a doctor's cap and gown, evidently intended for dionysius the areopagite. above, in the sky, the soul of the virgin, surrounded by most graceful angels, is received into heaven. this group is distinguished from the group below, by being painted in a dreamy bluish tint, like solidified light, or like a vision. [footnote : this picture, now in the possession of w. fuller maitland, esq., was exhibited in the british institution in the summer of . it is engraved in the etruria pittrice.] * * * * * the assumption. the old painters distinguish between the assumption of the soul and the assumption of the body of the virgin. in the first instance, at the moment the soul is separated from the body, christ receives it into his keeping, standing in person either beside her death-bed or above it. but in the assumption properly so called, we have the moment wherein the soul of the virgin is reunited to her body, which, at the command of christ, rises up from the tomb. of all the themes of sacred art there is not one more complete and beautiful than this, in what it represents, and in what it suggests. earth and its sorrows, death and the grave, are left below; and the pure spirit of the mother again clothed in its unspotted tabernacle, surrounded by angelic harmonies, and sustained by wings of cherubim and seraphim, soars upwards to meet her son, and to be reunited to him forever. * * * * * we must consider this fine subject under two aspects. the first is purely ideal and devotional; it is simply the expression of a dogma of faith, "_assumpta est maria virgo in coelum_." the figure of the virgin is seen within an almond-shaped aureole (the mandorla), not unfrequently crowned as well as veiled, her hands joined, her white robe falling round her feet (for in all the early pictures the dress of the virgin is white, often spangled with stars), and thus she seems to cleave the air upwards, while adoring angels surround the glory of light within which she is enshrined. such are the figures which are placed in sculpture over the portals of the churches dedicated to her, as at florence.[ ] she is not always standing and upright, but seated on a throne, placed within an aureole of light, and borne by angels, as over the door of the campo santo at pisa. i am not sure that such figures are properly styled the assumption; they rather exhibit in an ideal form the glorification of the virgin, another version of the same idea expressed in the _incoronata_. she is here _varia virgo assumpta_, or, in italian, _l'assunta_; she has taken upon her the glory of immortality, though not yet crowned. [footnote : the "santa maria del fiore,"--the duomo.] but when the assumption is presented to us as the final scene of her life, and expresses, as it were, a progressive action--when she has left the empty tomb, and the wondering, weeping apostles on the earth below, and rises "like the morning" ("_quasi aurora surgens_") from the night of the grave,--then we have the assumption of the virgin in its dramatic and historical form, the final act and consummation of her visible and earthly life. as the church had never settled in what manner she was translated into heaven, only pronouncing it heresy to doubt the fact itself, the field was in great measure left open to the artists. the tomb below, the figure of the virgin floating in mid-air, and the opening heavens above, such is the general conception fixed by the traditions of art; but to give some idea of the manner in which this has been varied, i shall describe a few examples. . giunta pisano, . (assisi, s. franceso.) christ and the virgin ascend together in a seated attitude upborne by clouds and surrounded by angels; his arm is round her. the empty tomb, with the apostles and others, below. the idea is here taken from the canticles (ch. viii.), "who is this that ariseth from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved?" . andrea orcagna, . (bas-relief, or-san-michele, florence.) the virgin mary is seated on a rich throne within the _mandorla_, which is borne upwards by four angels, while two are playing on musical instruments. immediately below the virgin, on the right, is the figure of st. thomas, with hands outstretched, receiving the mystic girdle: below is the entombment; mary lies extended on a pall above a sarcophagus. in the centre stands christ, holding in his arms the emancipated soul; he is attended by eight angels. st. john is at the head of the virgin, and near him an angel swings a censer; st. james bends and kisses her hand; st. peter reads as usual; and the other apostles stand round, with dionysius, timothy, and hierotheus, distinguished from the apostles by wearing turbans and caps. the whole most beautifully treated. i have been minutely exact in describing the details of this composition, because it will be useful as a key to many others of the early tuscan school, both in sculpture and painting; for example, the fine bas-relief by nanni over the south door of the duomo at florence, represents st. thomas in the same manner kneeling outside the aureole and receiving the girdle; but the entombment below is omitted. these sculptures were executed at the time when the enthusiasm for the _sacratissima cintola della madonna_ prevailed throughout the length and breadth of tuscany, and prato had become a place of pilgrimage. this story of the girdle was one of the legends imported from the east. it had certainly a greek origin;[ ] and, according to the greek formula, st. thomas is to be figured apart in the clouds, on the right of the virgin, and in the act of receiving the girdle. such is the approved arrangement till the end of the fourteenth century; afterwards we find st. thomas placed below among the other apostles. [footnote : it may be found in the greek menologium, iii. p. ] the legend of the holy girdle. an account of the assumption would be imperfect without some notice of the western legend, which relates the subsequent history of the girdle, and its arrival in italy, as represented in the frescoes of agnolo gaddi at prato.[ ] [footnote : _notizie istoriche intorno alla sacratissima cintola di maria vergine, che si conserva, nella città di prato, dal dottore giuseppe bianchini di prato_, .] the chapel _della sacratissima cintola_ was erected from the designs of giovanni pisano about . this "most sacred" relic had long been deposited under the high altar of the principal chapel, and held in great veneration; but in the year , a native of prato, whose name was musciatino, conceived the idea of carrying it off, and selling it in florence. the attempt was discovered; the unhappy thief suffered a cruel death; and the people of prato resolved to provide for the future custody of the precious relic a new and inviolable shrine. the chapel is in the form of a parallelogram, three sides of which are painted, the other being separated from the choir by a bronze gate of most exquisite workmanship, designed by ghiberti, or, as others say, by brunelleschi, and executed partly by simone donatello. on the wall, to the left as we enter, is a series of subjects from the life of the virgin, beginning, as usual, with the rejection of joachim from the temple, and ending with the nativity of our saviour. the end of the chapel is filled up by the assumption of the virgin, the tomb being seen below, surrounded by the apostles; and above it the virgin, as she floats into heaven, is in the act of loosening her girdle, which st. thomas, devoutly kneeling, stretches out his arms to receive. above this, a circular window exhibits, in stained glass, the coronation of the virgin, surrounded by a glory of angels. on the third wall to the right we have the subsequent history of the girdle, in six compartments. st. thomas, on the eve of his departure to fulfil his mission as apostle in the far east, intrusts the precious girdle to the care of one of his disciples, who receives it from his hands in an ecstasy of amazement and devotion. the deposit remains, for a thousand years, shrouded from the eyes of the profane; and the next scene shows us the manner in which it reached the city of prato. a certain michael of the dogomari family in prato, joined, with a party of his young townsmen, the crusade in . but, instead of returning to his native country after the war was over, this same michael took up the trade of a merchant, travelling from land to land in pursuit of gain, until he came to the city of jerusalem, and lodged in the house of a greek priest, to whom the custody of the sacred relic had descended from a long line of ancestry; and this priest, according to the custom of the oriental church, was married, and had "one fair daughter, and no more, the which he loved passing well," so well, that he had intrusted to her care the venerable girdle. now it chanced that michael, lodging in the same house, became enamoured of the maiden, and not being able to obtain the consent of her father to their marriage, he had recourse to the mother, who, moved by the tears and entreaties of the daughter, not only permitted their union, but bestowed on her the girdle as a dowry, and assisted the young lovers in their flight. in accordance with this story, we have, in the third compartment, the marriage of michael with the eastern maiden, and then the voyage from the holy land to the shores of tuscany. on the deck of the vessel, and at the foot of the mast, is placed the casket containing the relic, to which the mariners attribute their prosperous voyage to the shores of italy. then michael is seen disembarking at pisa, and, with his casket reverently carried in his hands, he reenters the paternal mansion in the city of prato. then we have a scene of wonder. michael is extended on his bed in profound sleep. an angel at his head, and another at his feet, are about to lift him up; for, says the story, michael was so jealous of his treasure, that not only he kindled a lamp every night in its honour, but, fearing he should be robbed of it, he placed it under his bed, which action, though suggested by his profound sense of its value, offended his guardian angels, who every night lifted him from his bed and placed him on the bare earth, which nightly infliction this pious man endured rather than risk the loss of his invaluable relic. but after some years michael fell sick and died. in the last compartment we have the scene of his death. the bishop uberto kneels at his side, and receives from him the sacred girdle, with a solemn injunction to preserve it in the cathedral church of the city, and to present it from time to time for the veneration of the people, which injunction uberto most piously fulfilled; and we see him carrying it, attended by priests bearing torches, in solemn procession to the chapel, in which it has ever since remained. agnolo gaddi was but a second-rate artist, even for his time, yet these frescoes, in spite of the feebleness and general inaccuracy of the drawing, are attractive from a certain _naïve_ grace; and the romantic and curious details of the legend have lent them so much of interest, that, as lord lindsay says, "when standing on the spot one really feels indisposed for criticism."[ ] [footnote : m. rio is more poetical. "comme j'entendais raconter cette légende pour la première fois, il me semblait que le tableau réfléchissait une partie de la poésie qu'elle renferme. cet amour d'outre mer mêlé aux aventures chevaleresques d'une croisade, cette relique précieuse donnée pour dot à une pauvre fille, la dévotion des deux époux pour ce gage révéré de leur bonheur, leur départ clandestin, leur navigation prospère avec des dauphins qui leur font cortège à la surface des eaux, leur arrivée à prato et les miracles répétés qui, joints à une maladie mortelle, arracèhrent enfin de la bouche du moribond une déclaration publique à la suite de laquelle la ceinture sacrée fut déposée dans la cathédrale, tout ce mélange de passion romanesque et de piété naïve, avait effacé pour moi les imperfections techniques qui au raient pu frapper une observateur de sang-froid."] the exact date of the frescoes executed by agnolo gaddi is not known, but, according to vasari, he was called to prato _after_ . an inscription in the chapel refers them to the year , a date too late to be relied on. the story of michele di prato i have never seen elsewhere; but just as the vicinity of cologne, the shrine of the "three kings," had rendered the adoration of the magi one of the popular themes in early german and flemish art; so the vicinity of prato rendered the legend of st. thomas a favourite theme of the florentine school, and introduced it wherever the influence of that school had extended. the fine fresco by mainardi, in the baroncelli chapel, is an instance; and i must cite one yet finer, that by ghirlandajo in the choir of s. maria-novella: in this last-mentioned example, the virgin stands erect in star-bespangled drapery and closely veiled. we now proceed to other examples of the treatment of the assumption. . taddeo bartoli, . he has represented the moment in which the soul is reunited to the body. clothed in a starry robe she appears in the very act and attitude of one rising up from a reclining position, which is most beautifully expressed, as if she were partly lifted up upon the expanded many-coloured wings of a cluster of angels, and partly drawn up, as it were, by the attractive power of christ, who, floating above her, takes her clasped hands in both his. the intense, yet tender ecstasy in _her_ face, the mild spiritual benignity in _his_, are quite indescribable, and fix the picture in the heart and the memory as one of the finest religious conceptions extant. (siena, palazzo publico.) i imagine this action of christ taking her hands in both his, must be founded on some ancient greek model, for i have seen the same _motif_ in other pictures, german and italian; but in none so tenderly or so happily expressed. . domenico di bartolo, . a large altar-piece. mary seated on a throne, within a glory of encircling cherubim of a glowing red, and about thirty more angels, some adoring, others playing on musical instruments, is borne upwards. her hands are joined in prayer, her head veiled and crowned, and she wears a white robe, embroidered with golden flowers. above, in the opening heaven, is the figure of christ, young and beardless (_à l'antique_), with outstretched arms, surrounded by the spirits of the blessed. below, of a diminutive size, as if seen from a distant height, is the tomb surrounded by the apostles, st. thomas holding the girdle. this is one of the most remarkable and important pictures of the siena school, out of siena, with which i am acquainted. (berlin gal., .) . ghirlandajo, . the virgin stands in star-spangled drapery, with a long white veil, and hands joined, as she floats upwards. she is sustained by four seraphim. (florence, s. maria-novella.) . raphael, . the virgin is seated within the horns of a crescent moon, her hands joined. on each side an angel stands bearing a flaming torch; the empty tomb and the eleven apostles below. this composition is engraved after raphael by an anonymous master (_le maitre au dé_). it is majestic and graceful, but peculiar for the time. the two angels, or rather genii, bearing torches on each side, impart to the whole something of the air of a heathen apotheosis. . albert durer. the apostles kneel or stand round the empty tomb; while mary, soaring upwards, is received into heaven by her son; an angel on each side. . gaudenzio ferrari, . mary, in a white robe spangled with stars, rises upward as if cleaving the air in an erect position, with her hands extended, but not raised, and a beautiful expression of mild rapture, as if uttering the words attributed to her, "my heart is ready;" many angels, some of whom bear tapers, around her. one angel presents the end of the girdle to st. thomas; the other apostles and the empty tomb lower down. (vercelli, s. cristofore.) . correggio. cupola of the duomo at parma, . this is, perhaps, one of the earliest instances of the assumption applied as a grand piece of scenic decoration; at all events we have nothing in this luxuriant composition of the solemn simplicity of the older conception. in the highest part of the cupola, where the strongest light falls, christ, a violently foreshortened figure, precipitates himself downwards to meet the ascending madonna, who, reclining amid clouds, and surrounded by an innumerable company of angels, extends her arms towards him. one glow of heavenly rapture is diffused over all; but the scene is vast, confused, almost tumultuous. below, all round the dome, as if standing on a balcony, appear the apostles. . titian, (about). in the assumption at venice, a picture of world-wide celebrity, and, in its way, of unequalled beauty, we have another signal departure from all the old traditions. the noble figure of the virgin in a flood of golden light is borne, or rather impelled, upwards with such rapidity, that her veil and drapery are disturbed by the motion. her feet are uncovered, a circumstance inadmissible in ancient art; and her drapery, instead of being white, is of the usual blue and crimson, her appropriate colours in life. her attitude, with outspread arms--her face, not indeed a young or lovely face, but something far better, sublime and powerful in the expression of rapture--the divinely beautiful and childish, yet devout, unearthly little angels around her--the grand apostles below--and the splendour of colour over all--render this picture an enchantment at once to the senses and the imagination; to me the effect was like music. . palma vecchio, . (venice acad.) the virgin looks down, not upwards, as is usual, and is in the act of taking off her girdle to bestow it on st. thomas, who, with ten other apostles, stands below. . annibale caracci, . (bologna gal.) the virgin amid a crowd of youthful angels, and sustained by clouds, is placed _across_ the picture with extended arms. below is the tomb (of sculptured marble) and eleven apostles, one of whom, with an astonished air, lifts from the sepulchre a handful of roses. there is another picture wonderfully fine in the same style by agostino caracci. this fashion of varying the attitude of the virgin was carried in the later schools to every excess of affectation. in a picture by lanfranco. she cleaves the air like a swimmer, which is detestable. . rubens painted at least twelve assumptions with characteristic _verve_ and movement. some of these, if not very solemn or poetical, convey very happily the idea of a renovated life. the largest and most splendid as a scenic composition is in the musée at brussels. more beautiful, and, indeed, quite unusually poetical for rubens, is the small assumption in the queen's gallery, a finished sketch for the larger picture. the majestic virgin, arrayed in white and blue drapery, rises with outstretched arms, surrounded by a choir of angels; below, the apostles and the women either follow with upward gaze the soaring ecstatic figure, or look with surprise at the flowers which spring within the empty tomb. in another assumption by rubens, one of the women exhibits the miraculous flowers in her apron, or in a cloth, i forget which; but the whole conception, like too many of his religious subjects, borders on the vulgar and familiar. . guido, as it is well known, excelled in this fine subject,--i mean, according to the taste and manner of his time and school. his ascending madonnas have a sort of aërial elegance, which is very attractive; but they are too nymph-like. we must be careful to distinguish in his pictures (and all similar pictures painted after ) between the assumption and the immaculate conception; it is a difference in sentiment which i have already pointed out. the small finished sketch by guido in our national gallery is an assumption and coronation together: the madonna is received into heaven as _regina angelorum_. the fine large assumption in the munich gallery may be regarded as the best example of guido's manner of treating this theme. his picture in the bridgewater gallery, often styled an assumption, is an immaculate conception. the same observations would apply to poussin, with, however, more of majesty. his virgins are usually seated or reclining, and in general we have a fine landscape beneath. * * * * * the assumption, like the annunciation, the nativity, and other historical themes, may, through ideal accessories, assume a purely devotional form. it ceases then to be a fact or an event, and becomes a vision or a mystery, adored by votaries, to which attendant saints bear witness. of this style of treatment there are many beautiful examples. . early florentine, about . (coll. of fuller maitland, esq.) the virgin, seated, elegantly draped in white, and with pale-blue ornaments in her hair, rises within a glory sustained by six angels; below is the tomb full of flowers and in front, kneeling, st. francis and st. jerome. . ambrogio borgognone-- . (milan, brera.) she stands, floating upwards in a fine attitude: two angels crown her; others sustain her; others sound their trumpets. below are the apostles and empty tomb; at each side, st. ambrose and st. augustine; behind them, st. cosimo and st. damian; the introduction of these saintly apothecaries stamps the picture as an ex-voto--perhaps against the plague. it is very fine, expressive, and curious. . f. granacci. .[ ] the virgin, ascending in glory, presents her girdle to st. thomas, who kneels: on each, side, standing as witnesses. st. john the baptist, as patron of florence, st. laurence, as patron of lorenzo de' medici, and the two apostles, st. bartholomew and st. james. [footnote : in the casa ruccellai (?) engraved in the _etruria pittrice_.] . andrea del sarto, . (florence, pitti pal.) she is seated amid vapoury clouds, arrayed in white: on each side adoring angels: below, the tomb with the apostles, a fine solemn group: and hi front, st. nicholas, and that interesting penitent saint, st. margaret of cortona. (legends of the monastic orders.) the head of the virgin is the likeness of andrea's infamous wife; otherwise this is a magnificent picture. * * * * * the coronation of the virgin follows the assumption. in some instances, this final consummation of her glorious destiny supersedes, or rather includes, her ascension into heaven. as i have already observed, it is necessary to distinguish this scenic coronation from the mystical incoronata, properly so called, which is the triumph of the allegorical church, and altogether an allegorical and devotional theme; whereas, the scenic coronation is the last event in a series of the life of the virgin. here we have before us, not merely the court of heaven, its argent fields peopled with celestial spirits, and the sublime personification of the glorified church exhibited as a vision, and quite apart from all real, all human associations; but we have rather the triumph of the human mother;--the lowly woman lifted into immortality. the earth and its sepulchre, the bearded apostles beneath, show us that, like her son, she has ascended into glory by the dim portal of the grave, and entered into felicity by the path of pain. her son, next to whom she has taken her seat, has himself wiped the tears from her eyes, and set the resplendent crown upon her head; the father blesses her; the holy spirit bears witness; cherubim and seraphim welcome her, and salute her as their queen. so dante,-- "at their joy and carol smiles the lovely one of heaven, that joy is in the eyes of all the blest." thus, then, we must distinguish:-- . the coronation of the virgin is a strictly devotional subject where she is attended, not merely by angels and patriarchs, but by canonized saints and martyrs, by fathers and doctors of the church, heads of religious orders in monkish dresses, patrons and votaries. . it is a dramatic and historical subject when it is the last scene in a series of the life of the virgin; when the death-bed, or the tomb, or the wondering apostles, and weeping women, are figured on the earth below. of the former treatment, i have spoken at length. it is that most commonly met with in early pictures and altar-pieces. with regard to the historical treatment, it is more rare as a separate subject, but there are some celebrated examples both in church decoration and in pictures. . in the apsis of the duomo at spoleto, we have, below, the death of the virgin in the usual manner, that is, the byzantine conception treated in the italian style, with christ receiving her soul, and over it the coronation. the virgin kneels in a white robe, spangled with golden flowers; and christ, who is here represented rather as the father than the son, crowns her as queen of heaven. . the composition by albert durer, which concludes his fine series of wood-cuts, the "life, of the virgin" is very grand and singular. on the earth is the empty tomb; near it the bier; around stand the twelve apostles, all looking up amazed. there is no allusion to the girdle, which, indeed, is seldom found in northern art. above, the virgin floating in the air, with the rainbow under her feet, is crowned by the father and the son, while over her head hovers the holy dove. . in the vatican is the coronation attributed to raphael. that he designed the cartoon, and began the altar-piece, for the nuns of monte-luce near perugia, seems beyond all doubt; but it is equally certain that the picture as we see it was painted almost entirely by his pupils giulo romano and gian francesco penni. here we have the tomb below, filled with flowers; and around it the twelve apostles; john and his brother james, in front, looking up; behind john, st. peter; more in the background, st. thomas holds the girdle. above is the throne set in heaven, whereon the virgin, mild and beautiful, sits beside her divine son, and with joined hands, and veiled head, and eyes meekly cast down, bends to receive the golden coronet he is about to place on her brow. the dove is omitted, but eight seraphim, with rainbow-tinted wings, hover above her head. on the right, a most graceful angel strikes the tambourine; on the left, another, equally graceful, sounds the viol; and, amidst a flood of light, hosts of celestial and rejoicing spirits fill up the background. thus, in highest heaven, yet not out of sight of earth, in beatitude past utterance, in blessed fruition of all that faith creates and love desires, amid angel hymns and starry glories, ends the pictured life of mary, mother of our lord. the end. [transcriber's notes:] this text is derived from http://archive.org/details/maycarolspoems veregoog page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces, e.g. { }. they have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book. dedicated to fr. richard trout who brings his love of christ and the virgin mary to life in his preaching at corpus christi parish. "thanks for the homilies." [end transcriber's notes:] _by the same author._ i. the search after peoseepine, and other poems. mo s. d. j. h. and j. parker, oxford and london. ii. poems (miscellaneous and sacred). fcap. vo s. d. burns and lambert, london. may carols. london: printed by spottiswoode & co new-street square. may carols. by aubrey de vere. london: longman, brown, green, longmans, & roberts. . _the right of translation is reserved._ to the very reverend henry edward manning these poems are affectionately dedicated {v} introduction. the wisdom of the church, which consecrates the fleeting seasons of time to the interests of eternity, has dedicated the month of may (the birthday festival, as it were, of creation) to her who was ever destined in the divine counsels to become the mother of her creator. it belongs to her, of course, as she is the representative of the incarnation, and its practical exponent to a world but too apt to forget what it professes to hold. the following poems, written in her honour, are an attempt to set forth, though but in mere outline, each of them some one of the great ideas or essential principles embodied in that all-embracing mystery. on a topic so comprehensive, converse statements, at one time illustrating the highest excellence compatible with mere creaturely existence, at another, the infinite distance between the chief of creatures and the creator, may seem, at first sight, and to some eyes, contradictory, although in reality, mutually correlative. on an attentive perusal, however, that harmony which exists among the {vi} many portions of a single mastering truth, can hardly fail to appear--and with it the scope and aim of this poem. with the meditative, descriptive pieces have been interspersed. they are an attempt towards a christian rendering of external nature. nature, like art, needs to be spiritualised, unless it is to remain a fortress in the hands of an adverse power. the visible world is a passive thing, which ever takes its meaning from something above itself. in pagan times, it drew its interpretation from pantheism; and to pantheism--nay, to that idolatry which is the popular application of pantheism--it has still a secret, though restrained tendency, not betrayed by literature alone. a world without divinity, matter without soul, is intolerable to the human mind. yet, on the other hand, there is much in fallen human nature which shrinks from the sublime thought of a creator, and rests on that of a sheathed divinity diffused throughout the universe, its life, not its maker. mere personified elements, the wood-god and river-nymph, captivate the fancy and do not over-awe the soul. for a bias so seductive, no cure is to be found save in authentic christianity, the only practical theism. the whole truth, on the long run, holds its own better than the half truth; and minds repelled by the thought of a god who stands afar off, and created the universe but to abandon it to general laws, fling themselves at the feet of a god made man. in other words, {vii} the incarnation is the _complement_ of creation. in it is revealed the true nature of that link which binds together the visible and invisible worlds. when the "word was made flesh," a bridge was thrown across that gulf which had else for ever separated the finite from the infinite. the same high truth which brings home to us the doctrine of a creation, consecrates that creation, reconstituting it into an eden meet for an unfallen adam and an unfallen eve; nay, exalting it into a heavenly jerusalem, the dwelling-place of the lamb and of the bride. it does this, in part, through symbols and associations founded on the all-cleansing blood and the all-sanctifying spirit --symbols and associations the reverse of those in which an epicurean mythology took delight, and which the very superficial alone can confound with such. this is perhaps the aspect of religion least above the level of poetry. as to its form, the present work belongs to the class of serial poems, a species of composition happily revived in recent times, as by wordsworth, in his "ecclesiastical sketches," and "sonnets dedicated to liberty," by landor, and, with preeminent success, by the author of "in memoriam." it was in common use among our earlier poets, who derived it from petrarch and the italians. most often the interest of such poems was of a personal sort, as in the serial sonnets of shakespeare, spenser, sidney, drummond, daniel, and drayton; as well as the "aurora" of lord {viii} stirling, and the "astrea" of sir john davies. occasionally, it was of a more abstract character. in both cases, alike, advantage was derived from a method of writing which unites an indefinite degree of continuity with a somewhat lawless variety, and which gains in brevity by the omission of connecting bonds. in herbert's "temple," vaughan's "silex scintillans," and the chief poems of donne and crashaw, the unity is but that of kindred thoughts, and a common subject, not of a complete design. habington's "castara," a noble work too little known, combines a personal with an abstract interest. in it many poems on religious and philosophical subjects are grouped for support round a single centre; that centre being the sustained homage paid by the poet to one not unworthy, apparently, of his reverence and love. {ix}{x}{xi}{xii} contents page prologue xv part i. who feels not, when the spring once more upon thy face, o god, thy world all but unutterable name sancta maria dei genitrix virgo virginum ascending from the convent-grates adolescentulae amaverunt te nimis mater christi mater christi mater creatoris mater salvatoris mater dolorosa mater dolorosa mater admirabilis mater amabilis mater filii mater divinae gratiae mater divinae gratiae when april's sudden sunset cold as children when, with heavy tread mariae cliens fest. visitationis not yet, not yet! the season sings fest. nativitatis b.v.m. the moon, ascending o'er a mass a dream came to me while the night fest. purificationis fest. epiphaniae the sunless day is sweeter yet legenda part ii. conservabat in corde ascensio domini ascensio domini elias stronger and steadier every hour speculum justitiae munera predestinata three worlds there are:--the first of sense-- alas! not only loveliest eyes idolatria tota pulchra stella matutina janua coeli if sense of man's unworthiness causa nostra laetitiae stella maris blossom for ever, blossoming rod! unica magnificat mystica expectatio still on the gracious work proceeds turris eburnea who doubts that thou art finite? who they seek not; or amiss they seek a sudden sun-burst in the woods dominica pentecostes dominica pentecostes turris davidica "tu sola interemisti omnes haereses" part iii. in vain thine altars do they heap babylon the golden rains are dashed against sedes sapientiae sedes sapientiae here, in this paradise of light fest. b.v.m. de monte carmelo come from the midnight mountain tops advocata nostra thronus trinitatis cultus sanctorum fest. s. s. trinitatis where is the crocus now, that first "ad nives" fest. puritatis cloud-piercing mountains! chance and change foederis arca domus aurea respexit humilitatem respexit humilitatem "sine labe originali concepta" "sine labe originali concepta" brow-bound with myrtle and with gold corpus christi corpus christi pleasant the swarm about the bough sing on, wide winds, your anthems vast coeli enarrant caro factus est a woman "clothed with the sun" no ray or all their silken sheen epilogue _prologue._ that sun-eyed power which stands sublime upon the rock that crowns our globe, her feet on all the spoils of time, with light eternal on her robe, she, sovereign of the orb she guides, on truth's broad sun may root a gaze that deepens, onward as she rides, and shrinks not from the fontal blaze: but they--her daughter arts--must hide within the cleft, content to see dim skirts of glory waving wide, and steps of parting deity. 'tis theirs to watch religion break in types from nature's frown or smile, the legend rise from out the lake, the relic consecrate the isle. 'tis theirs to adumbrate and suggest; to point toward founts of buried lore; leaving, in reverence, unexpressed what man must know not, yet adore. for where her court true wisdom keeps, 'mid loftier handmaids, one there stands dark as the midnight's starry deeps, a slave, gem-crowned, from nubia's sands. o thou whose light is in thy heart love-taught submission! without thee science may soar awhile; but art drifts barren o'er a shoreless sea. { } may carols part i. may carols. part i. i. who feels not, when the spring once more, stepping o'er winter's grave forlorn with winged feet, retreads the shore of widowed earth, his bosom burn? as ordered flower succeeds to flower, and may the ladder of her sweets ascends, advancing hour by hour from scale to scale, what heart but beats? some presence veiled, in fields and groves, that mingles rapture with remorse;-- some buried joy beside us moves, and thrills the soul with such discourse { } as they, perchance, that wondering pair who to emmaus bent their way, hearing, heard not. like them our prayer we make:--"the night is near us . . stay!" with paschal chants the churches ring; their echoes strike along the tombs; the birds their hallelujahs sing; each flower with floral incense fumes. our long-lost eden seems restored; as on we move with tearful eyes we feel through all the illumined sward some upward-working paradise. { } ii. upon thy face, o god, thy world looks ever up in love and awe; thy stars, in circles onward hurled, still weave the sacred chain of law. in alternating antiphons stream sings to stream and sea to sea; and moons that set and sinking suns obeisance make, o god, to thee. the swallow, winter's rage o'erblown, again, on warm may breezes borne, revisiteth her haunts well-known; the lark is faithful to the morn. the whirlwind, missioned with its wings to drown the fleet and fell the tower, obeys thee as the bird that sings her love-chant in a fleeting shower. amid an ordered universe man's spirit only dares rebel:-- with light, o god, its darkness pierce! with love its raging chaos quell! { } iii. all but unutterable name! adorable, yet awful, sound! thee can the sinful nations frame save with their foreheads to the ground? soul-searching and all-cleansing fire! to see thy countenance were to die: yet how beyond the bound retire of thy serene immensity? thou mov'st beside us, if the spot we change--a noteless, wandering tribe; the orbits of our life and thought in thee their little arcs describe. in the dead calm, at cool of day, we hear thy voice, and turn, and flee:-- thy love outstrips us on our way: from thee, o god, we fly--to thee. { } _sancta maria._ iv. mary! to thee the humble cry. what seek they? gifts to pride unknown. they seek thy help--to pass thee by:-- they murmur, "show us but thy son." the childlike heart shall enter in; the virgin soul its god shall see:-- mother, and maiden pure from sin, be thou the guide: the way is he. the mystery high of god made man through thee to man is easier made: pronounce the consonant who can without the softer vowel's aid! { } _dei genitrix._ v. i see him: on thy lap he lies 'mid that judaean stable's gloom: o sweet, o awful sacrifice! he smiles in sleep, yet knows his doom. thou gav'st him life! but was not this that life which knows no parting breath? unmeasured life? unwaning bliss dread priestess, lo! thou gav'st him death! beneath the tree thy mother stood: beneath the cross thou too shalt stand:-- o tree of life! o bleeding rood! thy shadow stretches far its hand. that god who made the sun and moon in swaddling bands lies dumb and bound!-- love's captive! darker prison soon awaits thee in the garden ground. he wakens. paradise looks forth beyond the portals of the grave. life, life thou gavest! life to earth, not him. thine infant dies to save. { } _virgo virginum._ vi. when from their lurking place the voice of god dragged forth that fallen pair, still seemed the garden to rejoice; the sinless eden still was fair. they, they alone, whose light of grace but late made paradise look dim, stood now, a blot upon its face, before their god; nor gazed on him. they glanced not up; or they had seen in that severe, death-dooming eye unutterable depths serene of sadly-piercing sympathy. not them alone that eye beheld, but, by their side, that other twain, in whom the race whose doom was knelled once more should rise; once more should reign. { } it saw that infant crowned with blood;-- and her from whose predestined breast that infant ruled the worlds. she stood, her foot upon the serpent's crest! voice of primeval prophecy! she who makes glad whatever heart adores her son and saviour, she in thee, that hour, possessed a part! { } vii. ascending from the convent-grates, the children mount the woodland vale. 'tis may-day eve; and hesper waits to light them, while the western gale blows softly on their bannered line: and, lo! down all the mountain stairs the shepherd children come to join the convent children at their prayers. they meet before our lady's fane: on yonder central rock it stands, uplifting, ne'er invoked in vain, that cross which blesses all the lands. before the porch the flowers are flung; the lamp hangs glittering 'neath the rood; the "maris stella" hymn is sung; their chant each morn to be renewed. ah! if a secular muse might dare, far off, the children's song to catch; to echo back, or burthen bear!-- as fitly might she hope to match the linnet's note as theirs, 'tis true: yet, now and then, that borrowed tone, like sunbeams flashed on pine or yew, might shoot a sweetness through her own! { } _adolescentulae amaverunt te nimis._ viii. "behold! the wintry rains are past; the airs of midnight hurt no more: the young maids love thee. come at last: thou lingerest at the garden-door. "blow over all the garden; blow, thou wind that breathest of the south, through all the alleys winding low, with dewy wing and honeyed mouth. "but wheresoever thou wanderest, shape thy music ever to one name:-- thou too, clear stream, to cave and cape be sure thou whisper of the same. "by every isle and bower of musk thy crystal clasps, as on it curls, we charge thee, breathe it to the dusk; we charge thee, grave it in thy pearls." the stream obeyed. that name he bore far out above the moon-lit tide. the breeze obeyed. he breathed it o'er the unforgetting pines; and died. { } _mater christi._ ix. daily beneath his mother's eyes her lamb matured his lowliness: twas hers the lovely sacrifice with fillet and with flower to dress. beside his little cross he knelt; with human-heavenly lips he prayed: his will within her will she felt; and yet his will her will obeyed. gethsemané! when day is done thy flowers with falling dews are wet: her tears fell never; for the sun those tears that brightened never set. the house was silent as that shrine the priest but entered once a year. there shone his emblem. light divine! thy presence and thy power was here! { } _mater christi._ x. he willed to lack; he willed to bear; he willed by suffering to be schooled; he willed the chains of flesh to wear: yet from her arms the worlds he ruled. as tapers 'mid the noontide glow with merged yet separate radiance burn, with human taste and touch, even so, the things he knew he willed to learn. he sat beside the lowly door: his homeless eyes appeared to trace in evening skies remembered lore, and shadows of his father's face. one only knew him. she alone who nightly to his cradle crept, and lying like the moonbeam prone, worshipped her maker as he slept. { } _mater creatoris._ xi. bud forth a saviour, earth! fulfil thy first of functions, ever new! balm-dropping heaven, for aye distil thy grace like manna or like dew! "to us, this day, a child is born.'" heaven knows not mere historic facts:-- celestial mysteries, night and morn, live on in ever-present acts. calvary's dread victim in the skies on god's great altar rests even now: the pentecostal glory lies for ever round the church's brow. from son and father, he, the lord of love and life, proceeds alway: upon the first creative word creation, trembling, hangs for aye. nor less ineffably renewed than when on earth the tie began, is that mysterious motherhood which re-creates the worlds and man. { } _mater salvatoris._ xii. o heart with his in just accord! o soul his echo, tone for tone! o spirit that heard, and kept his word! o countenance moulded like his own! behold, she seemed on earth to dwell; but, hid in light, alone she sat beneath the throne ineffable, chanting her clear magnificat. fed from the boundless heart of god, the joy within her rose more high and all her being overflowed, until the awful hour was nigh. then, then, there crept her spirit o'er the shadow of that pain world-wide whereof her son the substance bore:-- him offering, half in him she died; standing like that strange moon, whereon the mask of earth lies dim and dead, an orb of glory, shadow-strewn, yet girdled with a luminous thread. { } _mater dolorosa._ xiii. she stood: she sank not. slowly fell adown the cross the atoning blood. in agony ineffable she offered still his own to god. no pang of his her bosom spared; she felt in him its several power. but she in heart his priesthood shared: she offered sacrifice that hour. "behold thy son!" ah, last bequest! it breathed his last farewell! the sword predicted pierced that hour her breast. she stood: she answered not a word. his own in john he gave. she wore thenceforth the mother-crown of earth. o eve! thy sentence too she bore; like thee in sorrow she brought forth. { } _mater dolorosa._ xiv. from her he passed: yet still with her the endless thought of him found rest; a sad but sacred branch of myrrh for ever folded in her breast. a boreal winter void of light-- so seemed her widowed days forlorn: she slept; but in her breast all night her heart lay waking till the morn. sad flowers on calvary that grew;-- sad fruits that ripened from the cross;-- these were the only joys she knew: yet all but these she counted loss. love strong as death! she lived through thee that mystic life whose every breath from life's low harpstring amorously draws out the sweetened name of death. love stronger far than death or life! thy martyrdom was o'er at last her eyelids drooped; and without strife to him she loved her spirit passed. { } _mater admirabilis._ xv. o mother-maid! to none save thee belongs in full a parent's name; so fruitful thy virginity, thy motherhood so pure from blame! all other parents, what are they? thy types. in them thou stood'st rehearsed, (as they in bird, and bud, and spray). thine antitype? the eternal first! prime parent he: and next him thou! overshadowed by the father's might, thy "fiat" was thy bridal vow; thine offspring he, the "light of light." her son thou wert: her son thou art, o christ! her substance fed thy growth:-- she shaped thee in her virgin heart, thy mother and thy father both! { } _mater amabilis._ xvi. mother of love! thy love to him cherub and seraph can but guess:-- a mother sees its image dim in her own breathless tenderness. that infant touch none else could feel vibrates like light through all her sense: far off she hears his cry: her zeal with lions fights in his defence. unmarked his youth goes by: his hair still smooths she down, still strokes apart: the first white thread that meets her there glides, like a dagger, through her heart. men praise him: on her matron cheek there dawns once more a maiden red. of war, of battle-fields they speak: she sees once more his father dead. in sickness--half in sleep--she hears his foot, ere yet that foot is nigh: wakes with a smile; and scarcely fears, if he but clasp her hand, to die. { } _mater filii._ xvii. others, the hours of youth gone by, a mother's hearth and home forsake; and, with the need, the filial tie relaxes, though it does not break. but thou wert born to be a son. god's son in heaven, thy will was this, to pass the chain of sonship on, and bind in one whatever is. thou cam'st the _son_ of man to be, that so thy brethren too might bear adoptive sonship, and with thee thy sire's eternal kingdom share. transcendently the son thou art: in this mysterious bond entwine, as in a single, two-celled heart, thy natures, human and divine. { } _mater divinae gratiae._ xviii. "they have no wine." the tender guest was grieved their feast should lack for aught. he seemed to slight her mute request: not less the grace she wished he wrought. o great in love! o full of grace! that winds in thee, a river broad, from christ, with heaven-reflecting face, gladdening the city of thy god:-- be this thy gift: that man henceforth no more should creep through life content (draining the springs impure of earth) with life's material element. let sacraments to sense succeed: let nought be winning, nought be good which fails of him to speak, and bleed once more with his all-cleansing blood! { } _mater divinae gratiae._ xix. the gifts a mother showers each day upon her softly-clamorous brood: the gifts they value but for play,-- the graver gifts of clothes and food,-- whence come they but from him who sows with harder hand, and reaps, the soil; the merit of his labouring brows, the guerdon of his manly toil? from him the grace: through her it stands adjusted, meted, and applied; and ever, passing through her hands, enriched it seems, and beautified. love's mirror doubles love's caress: love's echo to love's voice is true:-- their sire the children love not less because they clasp a mother too. { } xx. when april's sudden sunset cold through boughs half-clothed with watery sheen bursts on the high, new-cowslipped wold, and bathes a world half gold half green, then shakes the illuminated air with din of birds; the vales far down grow phosphorescent here and there; forth flash the turrets of the town; along the sky thin vapours scud; bright zephyrs curl the choral main; the wild ebullience of the blood rings joy-bells in the heart and brain: yet in that music discords mix; the unbalanced lights like meteors play; and, tired of splendours that perplex, the dazzled spirit sighs for may. { } xxi. as children when, with heavy tread, men sad of face, unseen before, have borne away their mother dead-- so stand the nations thine no more. from room to room those children roam, heart-stricken by the unwonted black: their house no longer seems their home: they search; yet know not what they lack. years pass: self-will and passion strike their roots more deeply day by day; old servants weep; and "how unlike" is all the tender neighbours say. and yet at moments, like a dream, a mother's image o'er them flits: like her's their eyes a moment beam; the voice grows soft; the brow unknits. such, mary, are the realms once thine, that know no more thy golden reign. hold forth from heaven thy babe divine! o make thine orphans thine again! { } _mariae cliens._ xxii. a little longer on the earth that aged creature's eyes repose (though half their light and all their mirth are gone); and then for ever close. she thinks that something done long since ill pleases god:--or why should he so long delay to take her hence who waits his will so lovingly? whene'er she hears the church-bells toll she lifts her head, though not her eyes, with wrinkled hands, but youthful soul, counting her lip-worn rosaries. and many times the weight of years falls from her in her waking dreams: a child her mother's voice she hears: to tend her father's steps she seems. { } once more she hears the whispering rains on flowers and paths her childhood trod; and of things present nought remains save the abiding sense of god. mary! make smooth her downward way! not dearer to the young thou art than her. make glad her latest may; and hold her, dying, on thy heart. { } _fest. visitationis._ xxiii. the hilly region crossed with haste, its last dark ridge discerned no more, bright as the bow that spans a waste she stood beside her cousin's door; and spake:--that greeting came from god! filled with the spirit from on high sublime the aged mother stood, and cried aloud in prophecy,-- "soon as thy voice had touched mine ears the child in childless age conceived leaped up for joy! throughout all years blessed the woman who believed." type of electing love! 'tis thine to speak god's greeting from the skies! thy voice we hear: thy babe divine at once, like john, we recognise. within our hearts the second birth exults, though blind as yet and dumb. the child of grace his hands puts forth, and prophesies of things to come. { } xxiv. not yet, not yet! the season sings not of fruition yet, but hope; still holds aloft, like balanced wings, her scales, and lets not either drop. the white ash, last year's skeleton, still glares, uncheered by leaf or shoot, 'gainst azure heavens, and joy hath none in that fresh violet at her foot. yet nature's virginal suspense is not forgetfulness nor sloth: where'er we wander, soul and sense discern a blindly working growth. her throne once more the daisy takes, that white star of our dusky earth; and the sky-cloistered lark down-shakes her passion of seraphic mirth. twixt barren hills and clear cold skies she weaves, ascending high and higher, songs florid as those traceries which took, of old, their name from fire. sing! thou that need'st no ardent clime to sun the sweetness from thy breast; and teach us those delights sublime wherein ascetic spirits rest! { } _fest nativitatis b.v.m._ xxv. when thou wert born the murmuring world boiled on, nor dreamed of things to be, from joy to sorrow madly whirled;-- despair disguised in revelry. a princess thou of david's line; the mother of the prince of peace; that hour no royal pomps were thine: the earth alone her boon increase. before thee poured. september rolled down all the vine-clad syrian slopes her breadths of purple and of gold; and birds sang loud from olive tops. perhaps old foes, they knew not why, relented. from a fount long sealed tears rose, perhaps, to pity's eye: love-harvests crowned the barren field. { } the respirations of the year. at least, grew soft. o'er valleys wide pine-roughened crags again shone clear; and the great temple, far descried, to watchers, watching long in vain, to patriots grey, in bondage nursed, flashed back their hope--"the second fane in glory shall surpass the first!" { } xxvi. the moon, ascending o'er a mass of tangled yew and sable pine, what sees she in yon watery glass? a tearful countenance divine. far down, the winding hills between, a sea of vapour bends for miles, unmoving. here and there, dim-seen, the knolls above it rise like isles. the tall rock glimmers, spectre-white; the cedar in its sleep is stirred; at times the bat divides the night; at times the far-off flood is heard. above, that shining blue!--below, that shining mist! o, not more pure midwinter's landscape, robed in snow, and fringed with frosty garniture. the fragrance of the advancing year-- that, that assures us it is may. ah, tell me! in the heavenlier sphere must all of earth have passed away? { } xxvii. a dream came to me while the night thinned off before the breath of morn, which filled my soul with such delight as hers who clasps a babe new-born. i saw--in countenance like a child-- (three years methought were hers, no more) that maid and mother undefiled the saviour of the world who bore. a nun-like veil was o'er her thrown; her locks by fillet-bands made fast, swiftly she climbed the steps of stone;-- into the temple swiftly passed. not once she paused her breath to take; not once cast back a homeward look:-- as longs the hart his thirst to slake, when noontide rages, in the brook, so longed that child to live for god; so pined, from earth's enthralments free, to bathe her wholly in the flood of god's abysmal purity! anna and joachim from far their eyes on that white vision raised: and when, like caverned foam or star cloud-hid, she vanished, still they gazed. { } _fest. purificationis._ xxviii. twelve years had passed, and, still a child, in brightness of the unblemished face, once more she scaled those steps, and smiled on him who slept in her embrace. as in she passed there fell a calm around: each bosom slowly rose like the long branches of the palm when under them the south wind blows. the scribe forgot his wordy lore; the chanted psalm was heard far off; hushed was the clash of golden ore; and hushed the sadducean scoff. type of the christian church! 'twas thine to offer, first, to god that hour, thy son--the sacrifice divine, the church's everlasting dower! great priestess! round that aureoled brow which cloud or shadow ne'er had crossed, began there not that hour to grow a milder dawn of pentecost? { } _fest. epiphaniae._ xxix. a veil is on the face of truth: she prophesies behind a cloud; she ministers, in robes of ruth, nocturnal rites, and disallowed. eleusis hints, but dares not speak; the orphic minstrelsies are dumb; lost are the sibyl's books, and weak earth's olden faith in him to come. but ah, but ah, that orient star! on straw-roofed shed and large-eyed kine it flashes, guiding from afar the magians to the child divine. gold, frankincense, and myrrh they bring-- love, worship, life severe and hard: well pleased the symbol gifts the king accepts; and truth is their reward. rejoice, o sion, for thy night is past: the lord, thy light, is born. the gentiles shall behold thy light; the kings walk forward in thy morn. { } xxx. the sunless day is sweeter yet than when the golden sun-showers danced on bower new-glazed or rivulet; and spring her banners first advanced. by wind unshaken hang in dream the wind-flowers o'er their dark green lair; and those thin poppy cups that seem not bodied forms, but woven of air. nor bird is heard; nor insect flits. a tear-drop glittering on her cheek, composed but shadowed, nature sits-- yon primrose not more staid and meek. the light of pensive hope unquenched on those pathetic brows and eyes, she sits, by silver dew-showers drenched, through which the chill spring-odours rise. was e'er on human countenance shed so sweet a sadness? once: no more. then when his charge the patriarch led dream-warned to egypt's distant shore. down on her infant mary gazed; her face the angels marked with awe; yet 'neath its dimness, undisplaced, looked forth that smile the magians saw. { } _legenda._ xxxi. as, flying herod, southward went that child and mother, unamazed, into egyptian banishment, the weeders left their work, and gazed. the bright one spake to them and said, "when herod's messengers demand, "passed not the infant, herod's dread,-- "passed not the infant through your land? "then shall ye answer make, and say, "behold, since first the corn was green "no little infant passed this way; "no little infant we have seen." earth heard; nor missed the maid's intent-- as on the flower of eden passed with eden swiftness up she sent a sun-browned harvest ripening fast. by simplest words and sinless wheat the messengers rode back beguiled; and by that truthfullest deceit which saved the little new-born child! { } part ii. { }{ } { } part ii. _conservabat in corde._ i. as every change of april sky is imaged in a placid brook, her meditative memory mirrored his every deed and look. as suns through summer ether rolled mature each growth the spring has wrought, so love's strong day-star turned to gold her harvests of quiescent thought. her soul was as a vase, and shone translucent to an inner ray; her maker's finger wrote thereon a mystic bible new each day. deep heart! in all his sevenfold might the paraclete with thee abode; and, sacramented there in light, bore witness of the things of god. { } _ascensio domini_. ii. rejoice, o earth, thy crown is won! rejoice, rejoice, ye heavenly host! and thou, the mother of the son, rejoice the first; rejoice the most! who captive led captivity-- from hades' void circumference who led the patriarch band on high, there rules, and sends us graces thence. rejoice, glad earth, o'er winter's grave with altars wreathed and clarions blown; and thou, the race redeemed, outbrave the rites of nature with thine own! rejoice, o mary! thou that long didst lean thy breast upon the sword-- sad nightingale, the spirit's song that sang'st all night! he reigns, restored! rejoice! he goes, the paraclete to send! rejoice! he reigns on high! the sword lies broken at thy feet-- his triumph is thy victory! { } _ascensio domini._ iii. i take this reed--i know the hand that wields it must ere long be dust-- and write, upon the fleeting sand each wind can shake, the words, "i trust." and if that sand one day was stone and stood in courses near the sky, for towers by earthquake overthrown, or mouldering piecemeal, what care i? things earthly perish: life to death and death to life in turn succeeds. the spirit never perisheth: the chrysalis its psyche breeds. true life alone is that which soars to him who triumphed o'er the grave: with him, on life's eternal shores, i trust one day a part to have. ah, hark! above the springing corn that chime; in every breeze it swells! ye bells that wake the ascension morn, ye give us back our paschal bells! { } _elias._ iv. o thou that rodest up the skies, thy task fulfilled, on steeds of fire,-- that somewhere, sealed from mortal eyes, some air immortal dost respire! thou that in heavenly beams enshrined, in quiet lulled of soul and flesh, with one great thought of god thy mind dost everlastingly refresh! where art thou? age succeeds to age; thou dost not hear their fret and jar: with thy celestial hermitage successive winters wage not war. still as a corse with field-flowers strewn thou liest; on god thine eyes are bent: and the fire-breathing stars alone look in upon thy cloudy tent. behold, there is a debt to pay! like enoch, hid thou art on high: but both shall back return one day, to gaze once more on earth, and die. { } v. stronger and steadier every hour the pulses of the season's glee, as toward her zenith climbs that power which rules the purple revelry. trees, that from winter's grey eclipse of late but pushed their topmost plume, or felt with green-touched finger-tips for spring, their perfect robes assume. like one that reads, not one that spells, the unvarying rivulet onward runs: and bird to bird, from leafier cells, sends forth more leisurely response. through the gorse covert bounds the deer:-- the gorse, whose latest splendours won make all the fulgent wolds appear bright as the pastures of the sun. a balmier zephyr curls the wave; more purple flames o'er ocean dance; and the white breaker by the cave falls with more cadenced resonance; while, vague no more, the mountains stand with quivering line or hazy hue; but drawn with finer, firmer hand, and settling into deeper blue. { } _speculum justitiae._ vi. not in himself the eternal word lay hid upon creation's day: his loveliness abroad he poured on all the worlds; and pours for aye. not in himself the incarnate son, in whom man's race is born again, his glory hides. the victory won, he rose to send his "gifts on men." in sacraments--his dread behests; in providence; in granted prayer; before the time he manifests his glory, far as man may bear. he shines not from a vault of gloom; the horizon vast his splendour paints: both heaven and earth his beams illume; his light is glorious in his saints. { } he shines upon his church--that moon who, in the watches of the night, transmits to man the entrusted boon; a sister orb of sacred light. and thou, pure mirror of his grace!-- as sun reflected in a sea-- so, mary, feeblest eyes the face of him thou lovest discern in thee. { } _munera._ vii. not for herself does mary hold among the saints that queenly throne, her seat predestined from of old; but for the brethren of her son. pure thoughts that make to god their quest, with her find footing o'er the clouds; like those sea-crossing birds that rest a moment on the sighing shrouds. in her our hearts, no longer nursed on dust, for spiritual beauty yearn; from her our instincts, as at first, an upward gravitation learn. her distance makes her not remote: for in true love's supernal sphere no more round self the affections float-- more near to god, to man more near. in her, the weary warfare past, the port attained, the exile o'er, we see the church's barque at last close-anchored on the eternal shore! { } _predestinata._ viii. eternal beauty, ere the spheres had rolled from out the gulfs of night, sparkled, through all the unnumbered years, before the eternal father's sight. like objects seen by man in dream, or landscape glassed on morning mist, before his eyes it hung--a gleam flashed from the eternal thought of christ. it stood the archetype sublime of that fair world of finite things which, in the bands of space and time, creation's glittering verge enrings. star-like within the depths serene of that still vision, mary, thou with him, thy son, of god wert seen millenniums ere the lucid brow { } of eye o'er eden founts had bent,-- millenniums ere that second fair with dust the hopes of man had blent, and stained the brightness once so fair. elect of creatures! man in thee beholds that primal beauty yet,-- sees all that man was formed to be,-- sees all that man can ne'er forget! { } ix. three worlds there are:--the first of sense-- that sensuous earth which round us lies; the next of faith's intelligence; the third of glory, in the skies. the first is palpable, but base; the second heavenly, but obscure; the third is star-like in the face-- but ah! remote that world as pure! yet, glancing through our misty clime, some sparkles from that loftier sphere make way to earth;--then most what time the annual spring-flowers re-appear. amid the coarser needs of earth all shapes of brightness, what are they but wanderers, exiled from their birth, or pledges of a happier day? yea, what is beauty, judged aright, but some surpassing, transient gleam; some smile from heaven, in waves of light, rippling o'er life's distempered dream? or broken memories of that bliss which rushed through first-born nature's blood when he who ever was, and is, looked down, and saw that all was good? { } x. alas! not only loveliest eyes, and brows with lordliest lustre bright, but nature's self--her woods and skies-- the credulous heart can cheat or blight. and why? because the sin of man twixt fair and good has made divorce; and stained, since evil first began, that stream so heavenly at its source. o perishable vales and groves! your master was not made for you; ye are but creatures: human loves are to the great creator due. and yet, through nature's symbols dim, there are with keener sight that pierce the outward husk, and reach to him whose garment is the universe. for this to earth the saviour came in flesh; in part for this he died; that man might have, in soul and frame, no faculty unsanctified. that fancy's self--so prompt to lead through paths disastrous or defiled-- upon the tree of life might feed; and sense with soul be reconciled. { } _idolatria._ xi. the fancy of an age gone by, when fancy's self to earth declined, still thirsting for divinity, yet still, through sense, to godhead blind, poor mimic of that truth of old, the patriarchs' hope--a faith revealed-- compressed its god in mortal mould, the prisoner of creation's field. nature and nature's lord were one! then countless gods from cloud and stream glanced forth; from sea, and moon, and sun: so ran the pantheistic dream. and thus the all-holy, thus the all-true, the one supreme, the good, the just, like mist was scattered, lost like dew, and vanished in the wayside dust. { } mary! through thee the idols fell: when he the nations longed for [footnote ] came-- true god yet man--with man to dwell, the phantoms hid their heads for shame. [footnote : "the desire of the nations."] his place or thine removed, ere long the bards would push the sects aside; and lifted by the might of song olympus stand re-edified. { } _tota pulchra._ xii. a broken gleam on wave and flower-- a music that in utterance dies-- o poets, and o men! what more is all that beauty which ye prize? and ah! how oft corruption works through that brief beauty's force or wile! how oft a gloom eternal lurks beneath an evanescent smile! but thou, serene and smiling light of every grace redeemed from sense, in thee all harmonies unite that charm a pure intelligence. whatever teaches mind or heart to god by loveliest types to mount, mary, is thine. of each true art the parent art thou, and the fount. { } those pictures, fair as moon or star, the ages dear to faith brought forth, formed but the illumined calendar of her, that church which knows thy worth. not less doth nature teach through thee that mystery hid in hues and lines: who loves thee not hath lost the key to all her sanctuaries and shrines. { } _stella matutina._ xiii. shine out, o star, and sing the praise of that unrisen sun whose glow thus feeds thee with thine earlier rays-- the secret of thy song we know. thou sing'st that sun of righteousness, sole light of this benighted globe, whose beams, reflected, dressed and dress his mother in her shining robe. pale lily, pearled around with dew, lift high that heaven-illumined vase, and sing the glories ever new of her, god's chalice, "full of grace." cerulean ocean, fringed with white, that wear'st her colours evermore, in all thy pureness, all thy might, resound her name from shore to shore. that fringe of foam, when drops the sun to-night, a sanguine stain shall wear:-- thus mary's heart had strength, alone, the passion of her lord to share. { } _janua coeli._ xiv. the night through yonder cloudy cleft, with many a lingering last regard, withdraws--but slowly--and hath left her mantle on the dewy sward. the lawns with silver dews are strewn; the winds lie hushed in cave and tree; nor stirs a flower, save one alone that bends beneath the earliest bee. peace over all the garden broods; pathetic sweets the thickets throng; like breath the vapour o'er the woods ascends--dim woods without a song: or hangs, a shining, fleece-like mass o'er half yon lake that winds afar among the forests, still as glass, the mirror of that morning star { } which, halfway wandering from the sky, amid the rose of morn delays and (large and less alternately) bends down a lustrous, tearful gaze. mother and home of spirits blest! bright gate of heaven and golden bower! thy best of blessings, love and rest, depart not till on earth thou shower! { } xv. if sense of man's unworthiness with nature's blameless looks at strife, should wake with wakening may, and press new-born contentment out of life: if thoughts of sable breed and blind should stamp upon the springing flower, or blacker memories haunt the mind as ravens haunt the ruined tower:-- o then how sweet in heart to breathe those pure judean gales once more; from bethlehem's crib to nazareth in heart to tread that syrian shore! to watch that star-like infant bring to one of soul as clear and white may-lilies, fresh from siloa's spring, or passion-flower with may-dews bright! to follow, earlier yet, the feet of her the "hilly land" who trod with true love's haste, intent to greet that aged saint beloved of god. before her, like a stream let loose, the long vale's flowerage, winding, ran: nature resumed her eden use; and earth was reconciled with man. { } _causa nostra laetitiae._ xvi. whate'er is floral on the earth to thee, o flower, of right belongs; whate'er is musical in mirth, whate'er is jubilant in songs. childhood and springtide never cease for him thy freshness keeps from stain: dew-drenched for him, like gideon's fleece, the dusty paths of life remain. spirit of brightness and of bliss! thou threaten'st none! a sinless lure, thy fragrance and thy gladsomeness draw on to christ; to christ secure. hope, hope is strength! that joy of thine to us is glory's earliest ray! through faith's dim air, o star benign, look down, and light our onward way! { } _stella maris._ xvii. i left at morn that blissful shore o'er which the fruit-bloom fluttered free; and sailed the wildering waters o'er, till sunset streaked with blood the sea. my sleep the hoarse sea-thunders broke, and sudden chill. their feet foam-hid, huge cliffs leaned out, through vapour-smoke, like tower, and tomb, and pyramid. in the black shadow, ghostly white the breaker raced o'er foaming shoals: from caverns of eternal night came wailings, as of suffering souls. sudden, through clearing mists, the star of ocean o'er the billow rose: down dropped the elemental war; tormented chaos found repose. { } star of the ocean! dear art thou, ah! not to earth and heaven alone: the suffering church, when shines thy brow upon her penance, stays her moan. the holy souls draw in their breath; the sea of anguish rests in peace; and, from beyond the gates of death, up swell the anthems of release. { } xviii. blossom for ever, blossoming rod! thou did'st not blossom once to die: that life which, issuing forth from god, thy life enkindled, runs not dry. without a root in sin-stained earth, 'twas thine to bud salvation's flower. no single soul the church brings forth but blooms from thee and is thy dower. rejoice, o eve! thy promise waned; transgression nipt thy flower with frost but, lo! a mother man hath gained holier than she in eden lost. { } _unica._ xix. while all the breathless woods aloof lie hush'd in noontide's deep repose, that dove, sun-warmed on yonder roof, with what a grave content she coos! one note for her! deep streams run smooth the ecstatic song of transience tells. o what a depth of loving truth in thy divine contentment dwells! all day, with down-dropt lids, i sat, in trance; the present scene forgone. when hesper rose, on ararat, methought, not english hills, he shone. back to the ark, the waters o'er, the primal dove pursued her flight: a branch of that blest tree she bore which feeds the church with holy light. i heard her rustling through the air with sliding plume--no sound beside, save the sea-sobbings everywhere, and sighs of that subsiding tide. { } _magnificat._ xx. she took the timbrel, as the tide rushed, refluent, up the red sea shore: "the lord hath triumphed," she cried: her song rang out above the roar of lustral waves that, wall to wall, fell back upon the host abhorred: above the gloomy watery pall, as eagles soar, her anthem soared. miriam, rejoice! a mightier far than thou, one day shall sing with thee! who rises, brightening like a star above yon bright baptismal sea? that harp which david touched who rears heaven-high above those waters wide? the prophet-queen! throughout all years she sings the triumph of the bride! { } _mystica._ xxi. as pebbles flung for sport, that leap along the superficial tide, but enter not those chambers deep wherein the beds of pearl abide; such those light minds that, grazing, spurn the surface text of sacred lore, yet ne'er its deeper sense discern, its hails of mystery ne'er explore. ah! not for such the unvalued gems; the priceless pearls of truth they miss: not theirs the starry diadems that light god's temple in the abyss! ah! not for such to gaze on her that moves through all that empire pale; at every shrine doth minister, yet never drops her vestal veil. "the letter kills." make pure thy will; so shalt thou pierce the text's disguise: till then, revere the veil that still hides truth from truth-affronting eyes. { } _expectatio._ xxii. a sweet exhaustion seems to hold in spells of calm the shrouded eve: the gorse itself a beamless gold puts forth:--yet nothing seems to grieve. the dewy chaplets hang on air; the willowy fields are silver-grey; sad odours wander here and there;-- and yet we feel that it is may. relaxed, and with a broken flow, from dripping bowers low carols swell in mellower, glassier tones, as though they mounted through a bubbling well. the crimson orchis scarce sustains upon its drenched and drooping spire the burden of the warm soft rains; the purple hills grow nigh and nigher. { } nature, suspending lovely toils, on expectations lovelier broods, listening, with lifted hand, while coils the flooded rivulet through the woods. she sees, drawn out in vision clear, a world with summer radiance drest, and all the glories of that year which sleeps within her virgin breast. { } xxiii. still on the gracious work proceeds;-- the good, great tidings preached anew yearly to green enfranchised meads, and fire-topped woodlands flushed with dew. yon cavern's mouth we scarce can see; yon rock in gathering bloom lies meshed; and all the wood-anatomy in thickening leaves is over-fleshed. that hermit oak which frowned so long upon the spring with barren spleen, yields to the holy siren's song, and bends above her goblet green. young maples, late with gold embossed,-- lucidities of sun-pierced limes, no more surprise us--merged and lost like prelude notes in deepening chimes. disordered beauties and detached demand no more a separate place: the abrupt, the startling, the unmatched, submit to graduated grace; while upward from the ocean's marge the year ascends with statelier tread to where the sun his golden targe finds, setting, on yon mountain's head. { } _turris eburnea._ xxiv. this scheme of worlds, which vast we call, is only vast compared with man: compared with god, the one yet all, its greatness dwindles to a span. a lily with its isles of buds asleep on some unmeasured sea:-- o god, the starry multitudes, what are they more than this to thee? yet girt by nature's petty pale each tenant holds the place assigned to each in being's awful scale:-- the last of creatures leaves behind the abyss of nothingness: the first into the abyss of godhead peers; waiting that vision which shall burst in glory on the eternal years. { } tower of our hope! through thee we climb finite creation's topmost stair; through thee from sion's height sublime towards god we gaze through purer air. infinite distance still divides created from creative power; but all which intercepts and hides lies dwarfed by that surpassing tower! { } xxv. who doubts that thou art finite? who is ignorant that from godhead's height to what is loftiest here below the interval is infinite? o mary! with that smile thrice-blest upon their petulance look down;-- their dull negation, cold protest-- thy smile will melt away their frown! show them thy son! that hour their heart will beat and burn with love like thine; grow large; and learn from thee that art which communes best with things divine. the man who grasps not what is best in creaturely existence, he is narrowest in the brain; and least can grasp the thought of deity. { } xxvi. they seek not; or amiss they seek;-- the cold slight heart and captious brain:-- to love alone those instincts speak whose challenge never yet was vain. true gate of heaven! as light through glass, so he who never left the sky to this low earth was pleased to pass through thine unstained virginity. summed up in thee our hearts behold the glory of created things:-- from his, thy son's, corporeal mould looks forth the eternal king of kings! { } xxvii. a sudden sun-burst in the woods, but late sad winter's palace dim! o'er quickening boughs and bursting buds pacific glories shoot and swim. as when some heart, grief-darkened long, conclusive joy by force invades-- so swift the new-born splendours throng; such lustre swallows up the shades. the sun we see not; but his fires from stem to stem obliquely smite, till all the forest aisle respires the golden-tongued and myriad light. the caverns blacken as their brows with floral fire are fringed; but all yon sombre vault of meeting boughs turns to a golden fleece its pall, as o'er it breeze-like music rolls. o spring, thy limit-line is crossed! o earth, some orb of singing souls brings down to thee _thy_ pentecost! { } _dominica pentecostes._ xxviii. clear as those silver trumps of old that woke judea's jubilee; strong as the breeze of morning, rolled o'er answering woodlands from the sea, that matutinal anthem vast which winds, like sunrise, round the globe, following the sunrise, far and fast, and trampling on his fiery robe. once more the pentecostal torch lights on the courses of the year: the "upper chamber" of the church is thrilled once more with joy and fear. who lifts her brow from out the dust? who fixes on a world restored a gaze like eve's, but more august? who bends it heaven-ward on her lord? { } it is the birthday of the bride. the new begins; the ancient ends: from all the gates of heaven flung wide the promised paraclete descends. he who o'er-shadowed mary once o'ershades humanity to-day; and bids her fruitful prove in sons co-heritors with christ for aye. { } _dominica pentecostes._ xxix. the form decreed of tree and flower, the shape susceptible of life, without the infused vivific power, were but a slumber or a strife. he whom the plastic hand of god himself created out of earth remained a statue and a clod till spirit infused to life gave birth. so, till that hour, the church. in christ her awful structure, nerve and bone, though built, and shaped, and organised, existed but in skeleton; till down on that predestined frame, complete through all its sacred mould, the pentecostal spirit came,-- the self-same spirit who of old creative o'er the waters moved. thenceforth the church, made one and whole, arose in him, and lived, and loved-- his temple she; and he her soul. { } _turris davidica._ xxx. the towered city loves thee well, strong tower of david's house! in thee she hails the unvanquished citadel that frowns o'er error's subject sea. with magic might that tower repels a host that breaks where foe is none,-- no foe but statued saints in cells high-ranged, and smiling in the sun. there stands augustin; leo there; and bernard, with a maiden face like john's; and, strong at once and fair, that spirit-pythian, athanase. upon thy star-surrounded height god's angel keepeth watch and ward; and sunrise flashes thence ere night hath left dark street and dewy sward. { } _"tu sola interemisti omnes haereses."_ xxxi. what tenderest hand uprears on high the standard of incarnate god? successive portents that deny her son, who tramples? she who trod on satan erst with starlike scorn! ah! never alp looked down through mist as she, that whiter star of morn, through every cloud that darkens christ! roll back the centuries:--who were those that, age by age, their lord denied? their seats they set with mary's foes:-- they mocked the mother as the bride. of such was arius; and of such he whom the ephesian sentence felled, [footnote ] her title triumphed. at the touch [footnote ] of truth the insurgent rout was quelled. [footnote : nestorius.] [footnote : dei-para.] back, back the hosts of hell were driven as forth that sevenfold thunder rolled:-- and in the church's mystic heaven there was great silence as of old. { } may carols. part iii. { } { } part iii. i. in vain thine altars do they heap with blooms of violated may who fail the words of christ to keep; thy son who love not, nor obey. their songs are as a serpent's hiss; their praise a poniard's poisoned edge; their offering taints, like judas' kiss, thy shrine; their vows are sacrilege. sadly from such thy countenance turns: thou canst not stretch thy babe to such (albeit for all thy pity yearns) as greet him with a leper's touch. who loveth thee must love thy son. weak love grows strong thy smile beneath: but nothing comes from nothing; none can reap love's harvest out of death. { } _babylon._ ii. the watchman watched along the walls: and lo! an hour or more ere light loud rang his trumpet. from their halls the revellers rushed into the night. there hung a terror on the air; there moved a terror under ground;-- the hostile hosts, heard everywhere, within, without--were nowhere found. "the christians to the lions! ho!"-- alas! self-tortured crowds, let be! let go your wrath; your fears let go: ye gnaw the net, but cannot flee. ye drank from out orestes' cup; orestes' furies drave ye wild. who conquers from on high? look up! a woman, holding forth a child! { } iii. the golden rains are dashed against those verdant walls of lime and beech with which our happy vale is fenced against the north; yet cannot reach the stems that lift yon leafy crest high up above their dripping screen: the chestnut fans are downward pressed on banks of bluebell hid in green. white vapours float along the glen, or rise from every sunny brake;-- a pause amid the gusts--again the warm shower sings across the lake. sing on, all-cordial showers, and bathe the deepest root of loftiest pine! the cowslip dimmed, the "primrose rathe" refresh; and drench in nectarous wine yon fruit-tree copse, all blossomed o'er with forest-foam and crimson snow-- behold! above it bursts once more the world-embracing, heavenly bow! { } _sedes sapientiae._ iv. o that the wordy war might cease! self-sentenced babel's strife of tongues! loud rings the arena. athletes, peace! nor drown the wild-dove's song of songs. alas, the wanderers feel their loss: with tears they seek--ah, seldom found-- that peace whose volume is the cross; that peace which leaves not holy ground. mary, who loves true peace loves thee! a happy child, not taught of scribes, he stands beside the church's knee; from her the lore of christ imbibes. hourly he drinks it from her face: for there his eyes, he knows not how, the face of him she loves can trace, and, crowned with thorns, the sovereign brow. "behold! all colours blend in white! behold! all truths have root in love!" so sings, half lost in light of light, her song of songs the mystic dove. { } _sedes sapientiae._ v. "wisdom hath built herself a house, and hewn her out her pillars seven." [footnote ] her wine is mixed. her guests are those who share the harvest-home of heaven. [footnote : proverbs ix. .] who guards the gates? the flaming sword of penance. every way it turns: but healing from on high is poured on each that fire seraphic burns. the fruits upon her table piled are gathered from the tree of life. around are ranged the undefiled, and those that conquered in the strife. who tends the guests? who smiles away sad memories? bids misgiving cease? a crowned one countenanced like the day-- the mother of the prince of peace. { } vi. here, in this paradise of light, superfluous were both tree and grass: enough to watch the sunbeams smite yon white flower sole in the morass. from his cold nest the skylark springs; sings, pauses, sings; shoots up anew; attains his topmost height, and sings quiescent in his vault of blue. with eyes half-closed i watch that lake flashed from whose plane the sun-sparks fly, like souls new-born that shoot and break from thy deep sea, eternity! ripplings of sunlight from the wave ascend the white rock, high and higher; soft gurglings fill the satiate cave; soft airs amid the reeds expire. all round the lone and luminous meer the dark world stretches, far and free: that skylark's song alone i hear; that flashing wave alone i see. o myriad earth! where'er thy word makes way indeed into the soul, an answering echo there is stirred:-- of thee the part is as the whole. { } _fest. b.v.m. de monte carmelo._ vii. carmel, with alp and apennine, low whispers in the wind that blows beneath the eastern stars, ere shine the lights of morning on their snows. of thee, elias, carmel speaks, and that white cloud, so small at first, thou saw'st approach the mountain peaks to quench a dying nation's thirst. on carmel, like a sheathed sword, thy monks abode till jesus came; on carmel then they served their lord;-- then carmel rang with mary's name. blow over all the garden; blow o'er all the garden of the west, balm-breathing orient! whisper low the secret of thy spicy nest. { } "who from the desert upward moves like cloud of incense onward borne? who, moving, rests on him she loves? who mounts from regions of the morn? "behold! the apple-tree beneath-- there where of old thy mother fell-- i raised thee up. more strong than death is love;--more strong than death or hell." [footnote ] [footnote : cant. viii. .] { } viii. come from the midnight mountain tops, the mountains where the panthers play: descend; the veil of darkness drops; come fair and fairer than the day! our hearts are wounded with thine eyes: they character in words of light thereon the mystery of the skies: the "name o'er every name" they write. come from thy lebanonian peaks whose sacerdotal cedars nod above the world, when morning breaks-- the mountain of the house of god. the land thou lov'st--well is she! the ploughers on her back may plough; but in her vales upgrows the tree of life, and binds the bleeding brow. { } _advocata nostra._ ix. i saw, in visions of the night, creation like a sea outspread, with surf of stars and storm of light and movements manifold and dread. then lo, within a human hand a sceptre moved that storm above: thereon, as on the golden wand of kings new-crowned, there sat a dove. beneath her gracious weight inclined that sceptre drooped. the waves had rest and sceptre, hand, and dove were shrined within a glassy ocean's breast. his will it was that placed her there! he at whose word the tempests cease upon that sceptre planted fair that peace-bestowing type of peace! { } _thronus trinitatis._ x. each several saint the church reveres, what is he but an altar whence some separate virtue ministers to god a separate frankincense? each beyond each, not made of hands, they rise, a ladder angel-trod: star-bright the last and loftiest stands-- that altar is the throne of god. lost in the uncreated light a form all human rests thereon: his shade from that surpassing height beyond creation's verge is thrown. him "lord of lords, and king of kings," the chorus of all worlds proclaim:-- "he took from her," one angel sings at intervals, "his human frame." { } _cultus sanctorum._ xi. he seemed to linger with them yet: but late ascended to the skies, they saw--ah, how could they forget?-- the form they loved, the hands, the eyes. from anchored boat--in lane or field-- he taught; he blessed, and brake the bread; the hungry filled; the afflicted healed; and wept, ere yet he raised, the dead. but when, like some supreme of hills, whose feet shut out its summit's snow, that, hid no longer, heavenward swells as further from its base we go, abroad his perfect godhead shone, each hour more plainly kenned on high, and clothed his manhood with the sun, and, cleansing, hurt the adoring eye; { } then fixed his church a deepening gaze upon his saints. with him they sate, and, burning in that godhead's blaze, they seemed that manhood to dilate. his were they: of his likeness each had grace some fragment to present, and nearer brought to mortal reach of him some line or lineament. { } _fest. s. s. trinitatis._ xii. fall back, all worlds, into the abyss, that man may contemplate once more that which he ever was who is:-- the eternal essence we adore. angelic hierarchies! recede beyond extinct creation's shade! what were ye at the first? decreed:-- decreed, not fashioned; thought, not made! like wind the untold millenniums passed. sole-throned he sat; yet not alone: godhead in godhead still was glassed;-- the spirit was breathed from sire and son. prime virgin, separate and sealed; nor less of social love the root; dimly in lowliest shapes revealed; entire in every attribute;-- { } thou liv'st in all things, and around; to thee external is there nought; thou of the boundless art the bound; and still creation is thy thought. in vain, o god, our wings we spread; so distant art thou--yet so nigh. remains but this, when all is said, for thee to live; in thee to die. { } xiii. where is the crocus now, that first, when earth was dark and heaven was grey, a prothalamion flash, up-burst? ah, then we deemed not of the may! the clear stream stagnates in its course; narcissus droops in pallid gloom; far off the hills of golden gorse a dusk saturnian face assume. the seeded dandelion dim casts loose its air-globe on the breeze; along the grass the swallows skim; the cattle couch among the trees. yet ever lordlier loveliness succeeds to that which slips our hold: the thorn assumes her snowy dress; laburnum bowers their robes of gold. down waves successive of the year we drop; but drop once more to rise, with ampler view, as on we steer, of lovelier lights and loftier skies. { } _"ad nives."_ xiv. before the morn began to break the bright one bent above that pair whose childless vows aspired to take the mother of their lord for heir. 'twas august: even in midnight shade the roofs were hot, and hot the street:-- "build me a fane," the vision said, "where first your eyes the snow shall meet." [footnote ] [footnote : santa maria maggiore, on the esquiline, at rome.] with snow the esquiline was strewn at morn!--fair legend! who but thinks of thee, when first the breezes blown from summer alp to alp he drinks? he stands: he hears the torrents dash: slowly the vapours break; and lo! through chasms of endless azure flash the peaks of everlasting snow. { } he stands; he listens; on his ear swells softly forth some virgin hymn: the white procession windeth near, with glimmering lights in sunshine dim. mother of purity and peace! they sing the saviour's name and thine clothe them for ever with the fleece unspotted of thy lamb divine! { } _fest. puritatis._ xv. far down the bird may sing of love; the honey-bearing blossom blow: but hail, ye hills that rise above the limit of perpetual snow! o alpine city, with thy walls of rock eterne and spires of ice, where torrent still to torrent calls, and precipice to precipice;-- how like that holier city thou, the heavenly salem's earthly porch, which rears among the stars her brow, and plants firm feet on earth--the church! "decaying, ne'er to be decayed," her woods, like thine, renew their youth: her streams, in rocky arms embayed, are clear as virtue, strong as truth. { } at times the lake may burst its dam; black pine and rock the valley strew; but o'er the ruin soon the lamb its flowery pasture crops anew. she, too, in regions near the sky up-piles her cloistered snows, and thence diffuses gales of purity o'er fields of consecrated sense. on those still heights a love-light glows the plains from them alone receive;-- not all the lily! there thy rose, o mary, triumphs, morn and eve! { } xvi. cloud-piercing mountains! chance and change more high than you their thrones advance. self-vanquished nature's rockiest range gives way before them like the trance of one that wakes. from morn to eve through fissured clefts her mists make way; at night's cold touch they freeze, and cleave her crags; and, with a titan's sway, flake off and peel the rotting rocks, and heap the glacier tide below with isles of sand and floating blocks, as leaves on streams when tempests blow. lo, thus the great decree all-just, o earth, thy mountains hear; and learn from fire and frost its import--"dust thou art; and shalt to dust return." he only is who ever was; the all-measuring mind; the will supreme. rocks, mountains, worlds, like bubbles pass: god is; the things not god but seem. { } _foederis arca._ xvii. from end to end, o god, thy will with swift yet ordered might doth reach: thy purposes their scope fulfil in sequence, resting each on each. in thee is nothing sudden; nought from harmony and law that swerves: the orbits of thine act and thought in soft succession wind their curves. o then with what a gradual care must thou have shaped that sacred shrine, that ark of grace, ordained to bear the burthen of the babe divine! how many a gift within her breast lay stored, for him a couch to strew! how many a virtue lined his nest! how many a grace beside him grew! of love on love what sweet excess! how deep a faith! a hope how high!-- mary! on earth of thee we guess; but we shall see thee when we die! { } _domus aurea._ xviii. she mused upon the saints of old; their toils, their pains, she longed to share of him she mused, the child foretold; to him her hands she stretched in prayer. no moment passed without its crown; and each new grace was used so well it drew some tenfold talent down, some miracle on miracle. o golden house! o boundless store of wealth by heavenly commerce won! when god himself could give no more, he gave thee all; he gave his son! blessed the mother of her lord! and yet for this more blessed still, because she heard and kept his word-- high servant of his sovereign will! { } _respexit humilitatem._ xix not all thy purity, although the whitest moon that ever lit the peaks of lebanonian snow shone dusk and dim compared with it;-- not that great love of thine, whose beams transcended in their virtuous heat those suns which melt the ice-bound streams, and make earth's pulses newly beat:-- it was not these that from the sky drew down to thee the eternal word: he looked on thy humility; he knew thee, "handmaid of thy lord." let no one claim with thee a part; let no one, mary, name thy name, while, aping god, upon his heart pride sits, a demon robed in flame. proud vices, die! where sin has place be sin's familiar self-disgust. proud virtues, doubly die; that grace at last may burgeon from your dust. { } _respexit humilitatem._ xx. supreme among the things create omnipotence revealed below, more swift than thought, more strong than fate, such, such, humility, art thou! all strength beside is weakness. might belongs to god: and they alone, self-emptied souls and seeming-slight, are filled with god and share his throne. o mary! strong wert thou and meek; thy meekness gave thee strength divine: thyself in nothing didst thou seek; therefore thy maker made him thine. through pride our parents disobeyed; rebellious sense avenged the crime: the soul, the body's captive made, became the branded thrall of time. { } with barrenness the earth was cursed; inviolate she brought forth no more her fruits, nor freely as at first:-- thou cam'st, her eden to restore! low breathes the wind upon the string; the harp, responsive, sounds in turn: thus o'er thy soul the spirit's wing creative passed; and christ was born. { } _"sine labe originali concepta."_ xxi. met in a point [footnote ] the circles twain of temporal and eternal things embrace, close linked. redemption's chain drops thence to earth its myriad rings. [footnote : the incarnation.] in either circle, from of old, that point of meeting stood decreed;-- twin mysteries cast in one deep mould, "the woman," and "the woman's seed." mary, long ages ere thy birth resplendent with salvation's sign, in thee a stainless hand the earth put forth, to meet the hand divine! first trophy of all-conquering grace, first victory of that blood all pure, of man's once fair but fallen race thou stood'st, the monument secure. the word made flesh! the way! the door! the link that dust with godhead blends! through him the worlds their god adore:-- through thee that god to man descends. { } _"sine labe originali concepta."_ xxii. a soul-like sound, subdued yet strong, a whispered music, mystery-rife, a sound like eden airs among the branches of the tree of life-- at first no more than this; at last the voice of every land and clime, it swept o'er earth, a clarion blast: earth heard, and shook with joy sublime. mary! thy triumph was her own. in thee she saw her prime restored: she saw ascend a spotless throne for him, her saviour, and her lord. the church had spoken. she that dwells sun-clad with beatific light, from truth's unvanquished citadels, from sion's apostolic height, had stretched her sceptred hands, and pressed the seal of faith, defined and known, upon that truth till then confessed by love's instinctive sense alone. { } xxiii. brow-bound with myrtle and with gold, spring, sacred now from blasts and blights, lifts in a firm, untrembling hold her chalice of fulfilled delights. confirmed around her queenly lip the smile late wavering, on she moves; and seems through deepening tides to step of steadier joys and larger loves. the stony ash itself relents, into the blue embrace of may sinking, like old impenitents heart-touched at last; and, far away, the long wave yearns along the coast with sob suppressed, like that which thrills (while o'er the altar mounts the host) some chapel on the irish hills. { } _corpus christi._ xxiv. rejoice, o mary! and be glad, thou church triumphant here below! he cometh, in meekest emblems clad; himself he cometh to bestow! that body which thou gav'st, o earth, he giveth back--that flesh, that blood; born of the altar's mystic birth; at once thy worship and thy food. he who of old on calvary bled on all thine altars lies to-day, a bloodless sacrifice, but dread; the lamb in heaven adored for aye. his godhead on the cross he veiled; his manhood here he veileth too: but faith has eagle eyes unsealed; and love to him she loves is true. { } "i will not leave you orphans. lo! while lasts the world with you am i." saviour! we see thee not; but know, with burning hearts, that thou art nigh! he comes! blue heaven, thine incense breathe o'er all the consecrated sod; and thou, o earth, with flowers enwreathe the steps of thine advancing god! { } _corpus christi._ xxv. what music swells on every gale? what heavenly herald rideth past? vale sings to vale, "he comes; all hail!" sea sighs to sea, "he comes at last." the earth bursts forth in choral song; aloft her "lauda sion" soars; her myrtle boughs at once are flung before a thousand minster doors. far on the white processions wind through wood and plain and street and court the kings and prelates pace behind the king of kings in seemly sort. the incense floats on grecian air; old carmel echoes back the chant; in every breeze the torches flare that curls the waves of the levant. on ramah's plain--in bethlehem's bound-- is heard to-day a gladsome voice: "rejoice," it cries, "the lost is found! with mary's joy, o earth, rejoice!" { } xxvi. pleasant the swarm about the bough; the meadow-whisper round the woods; and for their coolness pleasant now the murmur of the falling floods. pleasant beneath the thorn to lie, and let a summer fancy loose; to hear the cuckoo's double cry; to make the noon-tide sloth's excuse. panting, but pleased, the cattle stand knee-deep in water-weed and sedge, and scarcely crop the greener band of osiers round the river's edge. but hark! far off the south wind sweeps the golden-foliaged groves among, renewed or lulled, with rests and leaps-- ah! how it makes the spirit long to drop its earthly weight, and drift like yon white cloud, on pinions free, beyond that mountain's purple rift, and o'er that scintillating sea! { } xxvii. sing on, wide winds, your anthems vast! the ear is richer than the eye: upon the eye no shape can cast such impress of infinity. and thou, my soul, thy wings of might put forth:--thou too, one day shalt soar, and, onward borne in heavenward flight, the starry universe explore; breasting that breeze which waves the bowers of heaven's bright forest never mute, whereof perchance this earth of ours is but the feeblest forest-fruit. "the spirit bloweth where he wills"-- effluence of that life divine which wakes the universe, and stills, in thy strong refluence make us thine! { } _coeli enarrant._ xxviii. sole maker of the worlds! they lay a barren blank, a void, a nought, beyond the ken of solar ray or reach of archangelic thought. thou spak'st; and they were made! forth sprang from every region of the abyss, whose deeps, fire-clov'n, with anthems rang, the spheres new-born and numberless. thou spak'st:--upon the winds were found the astonished eagles. awed and hushed subsiding seas revered their bound; and the strong forests upward rushed. before the vision angels fell, as though the face of god they saw; and all the panting miracle found rest within the arms of law. { } perfect, o god, thy primal plan-- that scheme frost-bound by adam's sin: create, within the heart of man, worlds meet for thee; and dwell therein. from thy bright realm of sense and nature, which flowers enwreathe and stars begem, shape thou thy church; the crowned creature; the bride; the new jerusalem! { } _caro factus est._ xxix. when from beneath the almighty hand the suns and systems rushed abroad, like coursers which have burst their band, or torrents when the ice is thawed; when round in luminous orbits flung the great stars gloried in their might; still, still, a bridgeless gulf there hung 'twixt finite things and infinite. that crown of light creation wore was edged with vast unmeasured black; and all of natural good she bore confessed her supernatural lack. for what is nature at the best? an arch suspended in its spring; an altar-step without a priest; a throne whereon there sits no king. { } as one stone-blind that fronts the morn, the world before her maker stood, uplifting suppliant hands forlorn-- god's creature, yet how far from god! he came. that world his priestly robe; the kingly pontiff raised on high the worship of the starry globe:-- the gulf was bridged, and god was nigh. { } xxx. a woman "clothed with the sun," [footnote ] yet fleeing from the dragon's rage!-- the strife in eden-bowers begun swells upward to the latest age. [footnote : rev. xii. .] that woman's son is throned on high; the angelic hosts before him bend: the sceptre of his empery subdues the worlds from end to end. yet still the sword goes through her heart, for still on earth his church survives. in her that woman holds a part: in her she suffers, wakes, and strives. around her head the stars are set; a dying moon beneath her wanes: but he that letteth still must let: the power accurst awhile remains. break up, strong earth, thy stony floors, and snatch to penal caverns dun that dragon from the pit that wars against the woman and her son! { } xxxi. no ray of all their silken sheen the leaves first fledged have lost as yet unfaded, near the advancing queen of flowers, abides the violet. the rose succeeds--her month is come:-- the flower with sacred passion red: she sings the praise of martyrdom, and him for whom his martyrs bled. the perfect work of may is done: hard by a new perfection waits:-- the twain, a sister and a nun, a moment parley at the grates. the whiter spirit turns in peace to hide her in the cloistral shade:-- 'tis time that you should also cease, slight carols in her honour made. { } epilogue. { } { } _epilogue_ regent of change, thou waning moon, whom they, the sons of night, adore, her feet are on thee! late or soon heap up upon the expectant shore the tides of man's intelligence; or backward to the blackening deep remit them: knowledge won from sense but sleeps to wake, and wakes to sleep. where are the hands that reared on high heaven-threat'ning babel? where the might of them, that giant progeny, the deluge dealt with? lost in night. the child who knows his creed doth stretch a sceptred hand o'er space, and hold the end of all those threads that catch in wisdom's net the starry fold. the sabbath comes: the work-days six of time go by; meantime the key, o salutary crucifix, of all the worlds, we clasp in thee. { } truth deeplier felt by none than him [footnote ] who at the alban mountain's foot, wandering no more in shadows dim, lay down, a lamb-like offering mute. [footnote : robert isaak wilberforce.] his mighty lore found rest at last in faith, and woke in god. ah, friend! when life which is not life is past, pray that like thine may be my end. thy fair large front; thine eyes' grave blue; thine english ways so staid and plain;-- through native rosemaries and rue memory creeps back to thee again. beside thy dying bed were writ some snatches of these random rhymes; weak song, how happy if with it thy name should blend in after times. rome, april , . london: printed by spottiswoode & co. new-street square. mater christi meditations on our lady _by the same author_ with a preface to each volume by the rev. joseph rickaby, s.j. sponsa christi. meditations on the religious life. passio christi. meditations for lent. dona christi. meditations for ascension-tide, whitsun-tide, and corpus christi. longmans, green, and co. london, new york, bombay, calcutta, and madras mater christi meditations on our lady by mother st paul house of retreats, birmingham author of "sponsa christi," "passio christi," etc. with a preface by rev. joseph rickaby, s.j. _mater christi, ora pro nobis_ new impression longmans, green and co. paternoster row, london fourth avenue and th street, new york bombay, calcutta, and madras all rights reserved =nihil obstat= josephus rickaby, s.j. _censor deputatus._ =imprimatur= [+] eduardus _archiep. birmingamien._ _die oct. ._ preface _jesus christ, yesterday and to-day, the same also for ever._ (heb. xiii. .) his salvation extends to all generations. _my salvation shall endure for ever, and my righteousness shall not fail._ (isaias li. .) also he says: _my words shall not pass away_. (matt. xxiv. .) he is the teacher of all times, and that as well by his actions as by his words, by what he said and by what he did. it was his _to do and to teach_. (acts i. .) it is ours, ours in this twentieth century, to listen to what he says, and to mark what he does. it is ours to hear him and to see him, spiritually. that we do by reading of his gospel, by listening to sermons, and very particularly by meditation, or by what st ignatius calls "contemplation" of the mysteries of his life. to "contemplate" in the ignatian sense is to make yourself present at some scene of our saviour's life and behold it all, as it were, re-enacted before your eyes. it is the process called in modern philosophy "visualisation." these meditations are composed on the ignatian plan of _visualising_ what our lord did, said, and suffered. _blessed are they who hear the word of god and keep it._ (luke xi. .) blessed are they who take pains thus to _hear_ what their saviour _says_, to _contemplate_ and _visualise_ what he _does_. they are the persons most likely, with mary, to _keep all these words in their heart_ (luke ii. ), and in their measure to fulfil the teaching of the _teacher of all nations_. (matt. xxviii. .) joseph rickaby, s.j. _ th october ._ _dignare me laudare te, virgo sacrata_ contents page prayers before and after meditation meditations . immaculate! . mary's birthday . her presentation in the temple . her marriage . hail mary! . mary's first word. ("_how shall this be done?_") . her second word. ("_behold the handmaid of the lord_") . her third word. (her salutation to elizabeth) . her fourth word. (the _magnificat_) . her silence . her expectation . the stable . the circumcision of her son . her purification . wise men and babes . egypt . mary's fifth word. ("_son, why hast thou done so to us?_") . nazareth . mary's sixth word. ("_they have no wine_") . her seventh word. ("_whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye_") . "who is my mother?" . the fourth and fifth dolours. (_meeting jesus with his cross, and the crucifixion_) . the sixth and seventh dolours. (_the taking down from the cross and the burial_) . the first glorious mystery . the second and third glorious mysteries . mary's exile . her death . her tomb . "who is she?" (the fourth glorious mystery) . mary's coronation. (the fifth glorious mystery) . salve regina mater christi prayers before meditation o holy ghost, give me a great devotion and a great attraction towards mary, thy spouse; a great support in her maternal bosom, and an abiding refuge in her mercy; so that in her and by her thou mayest form in me jesus christ. (_blessed grignon de montfort._) memorare, o piissima virgo maria, non esse auditum a sæculo, quemquam ad tua currentem præsidia, tua implorantem auxilia, tua petentem suffragia, esse derelictum. ego, tali animatus confidentia, ad te virgo virginum, mater, curro. ad te venio; coram te gemens peccator assisto. noli, mater verbi, verba mea despicere; sed audi propitia et exaudi. amen. remember, o most gracious virgin mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, and sought thy intercession was left unaided. inspired with this confidence, i fly to thee, o virgin of virgins, my mother. to thee i come; before thee i stand, sinful and sorrowful. o mother of the word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. amen. (_ days, each time._) after meditation my queen and my mother, to thee i offer myself without reserve; and to give thee a mark of my devotion, i consecrate to thee during this day, my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, and my whole person. since then i belong to thee, o my good mother, preserve and defend me, as thy property and possession. amen. (_ days, once a day, if said morning and evening._) sub tuum præsidium confugimus, sancta dei genitrix! nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus nostris, sed a periculis cunctis, libera nos semper virgo gloriosa et benedicta. we fly to thy patronage, o holy mother of god. despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, o glorious and blessed virgin. immaculate! "_thy holy tabernacle which thou hast prepared from, the beginning._" (wisdom ix. .) _ st prelude._ a picture or medal of the immaculate conception. _ nd prelude._ grace to understand. _point i._--the preparation of the tabernacle why should mary be called a tabernacle? she tells us herself--for the church applies these words to mary: "he that created me rested in my tabernacle." (ecclus. xxiv. .) he sojourned there for a time who "was made flesh and dwelt (_tabernacled_ the greek word means) among us." when did god begin to prepare his tabernacle? was it on the day of the holy and immaculate conception? was it when he spoke to our first parents of "the seed of the woman"? was it just before the war in heaven, when he revealed his plans to the first creatures of his hands? long, long before! "from the beginning," the holy tabernacle was being prepared. and _he_ says this, who had no beginning, with whom is "neither beginning of days nor end of life," (heb. vii. ), who says of himself: "i am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end." (apoc. i. .) from all eternity, then, the holy tabernacle was being prepared in the mind of god. what care god took in the preparation of mary, because she was to be the mother of his son! and what care he takes in his preparation of me! i, too, have always been in the mind of god. "from the beginning" he has prepared me to fulfil the end for which he created me. here on earth we are very careful about the training of those who are destined to fill certain offices, and the higher the office the more careful the training. how carefully are princes of royal blood trained! how careful is the preparation of a priest, of a religious! but god has been at work at the preparation long before we begin ours, and he is training for a most important office, namely, the salvation of the soul--the end for which he created every single child of adam. all the chequered picture of the life of god's child forms a part of his preparation--all the ups and downs, and windings and turnings, and things that seemed at the time, perhaps, so useless. mistakes and failures--even sin itself, he can, by means of the contrition which it causes, turn to good account, as he did in the cases of st mary magdalen, of st peter, and of innumerable others. he knows how to bring good out of evil, and to make all work together for good to those who love him. what have i got to do, then, in the matter? do as mary did, prove my love to him by _co-operation_ in his plans for me. there must be no complaint about what he arranges. faith must be strong enough to believe that, not only now in the present, all things are working together to enable me to fulfil the end for which god created me; but that in the past, too--that past which i so often allow to disturb my peace--god was working, and preparing me step by step for what he intended me to be. it is want of faith, really, which is often at the bottom of all my problems and difficulties. i will not believe that he forgives and forgets and brings good out of the evil. this it is which interferes in god's preparation of me, and makes me unfit for the work for which he has so patiently been preparing me. let me think to-day of mary's perfect co-operation, and ask her to obtain for me more faith and more love. _point ii._--the holy tabernacle what was it? a human body and soul specially prepared by god to be the tabernacle where his son should rest--a body, we may well believe, more than usually beautiful, for that body from which he that was "fairer than the sons of men" was to take flesh, must needs be fair too. "thou art _all_ fair." but it was the _soul_ which made the tabernacle holy. here the preparation had been special and unique. mary's soul had a beauty all its own, for neither original sin nor any of its effects had ever touched it. not only was it sinless, as my soul was after baptism, but, instead of being prone to evil, it was upright, and ever aspiring after good. never once was there a wilful imperfection in mary's soul. it is probable, too, that her understanding was enlightened, and that she had the full use of reason from the moment of her conception, that is, from the moment when her body and soul were joined together. in her will there was no weakness, it was in perfect conformity with god's will; and in her heart there was no concupiscence. her body, too, shared in this wondrous liberty, for it knew neither sickness nor corruption. but are we not making mary almost equal with her son? no, for the gulf between them is that between the creator and the creature. could any gulf be wider? her son was god, and was impeccable _by nature_. mary was impeccable _by grace_. mary was sinless because god her creator chose to make her so, so that at the moment of her conception he was able to say: "thou art all fair--there is no spot in thee." such was "the holy tabernacle prepared from the beginning." and mary is my model! does it seem impossible? does it almost weary me to have such perfection given me to copy? let me answer my question by another: _could_ god do otherwise? would it be worthy of himself if he were to give me anything less than a _perfect_ copy? if for our pupils, who are studying merely things of time, we seek ever the best models, can we expect god, who is training for eternity, to give his pupils a copy that is less than perfect? and the task need not discourage us. god is not a hard master expecting to reap where he has not sown. he does not expect more than he has given; he does not expect perfection; but he does expect generous efforts. he does expect fidelity, and correspondence to the grace he has given. it was her constant perseverance in these virtues which kept mary always full of grace and pleasing to god, not the privilege of her immaculate conception. "o mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." pray that i, who with all a child's love and admiration desire to copy my mother, may never be discouraged, but may go on, ever aiming at perfection, and never surprised at the want of it; full of faults and failings always, but full, too, of love and confidence and conformity to god's will. so shall i one day, with my mother's prayers and help, be presented "spotless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." (jude .) _colloquy._ "o god, who by the immaculate conception of a virgin didst prepare a worthy habitation for thy son, we beseech thee that thou, who through the foreseen death of thy same son didst preserve her from all stain of sin, wouldst grant also to us through her intercession to come pure to thee." (_collect for the feast of the immaculate conception._) _resolution._ to strive to copy my model. _spiritual bouquet._ "be diligent, that ye may be found undefiled and unspotted to him in peace." ( peter iii. .) mary's birthday "_in me is all grace._" (ecclus. xxiv. .) _ st prelude._ a picture of our lady's nativity. st anne is holding up her babe, just swaddled, and offering it to god; the nurse is waiting to put the little one in its cradle. st joachim is coming into the room. a dove is hovering over the babe's head. angels are looking on. _ nd prelude._ grace to look on with the angels, and try to understand. _point i._--the angels what does it all mean? why are the angels so full of interest? was the birth of this little one so different from any other? it was indeed miraculous, but joachim and anne were by no means the only ones thus favoured. no, there is something beyond this which is engaging the interest of the angels. they see in this little babe, whom anne is offering to god, a sight to make them wonder and adore--they see a soul which has never been touched by original sin. they had seen adam created in grace; they had seen jeremias, and later would see john baptist, both spotless from their birth, but spotless because they had been _cleansed_ from original sin before birth. in these souls, however, they saw no more than they see in each little soul as it leaves the baptismal font, grace having taken the place of original sin. but in mary they see a sight which they have never seen before--a soul whose sanctity surpasses that of angels and of men, a soul which will glorify god more perfectly than any other creature ever has done, or will do. no wonder the angels are lost in admiration! they have known about the incarnation ever since the war in heaven; now they see one of the steps by which it was to be accomplished. they see the "tabernacle prepared," and at its side they will never cease to wonder and praise god, as long as that pure soul stays in this land of exile. _point ii._--the babe mary was born with an end to fulfil, just as i was. she was created to praise, reverence, and serve god, just as i was; created to save her soul, just as i was. and because of her absolute purity, she understood her end perfectly from the first moment of her existence, and followed it always without swerving. while her mother was offering her to god, she, with the full use of her reason (as many hold) offered herself to fulfil the end for which she had been created. she did not know what the _particular_ end was to be--god did not reveal to her till the day of the incarnation, that she was to be the mother of god--but she offered herself to do what god wished, she put herself at his disposal. and this is what i must do every day of my life if i would fulfil the end for which god has created me. here i am, lord, to do thy bidding, to do whatever thou didst intend me to do to-day. i may not know, any more than did the immaculate babe in her cradle, what the _particular_ end is for which he has destined me; but that does not matter. if i am found faithfully doing my duty of the moment, whatever it may be--doing it, that is to say, for god, praising, reverencing, and serving him in it--i shall not miss the important moment in my life when god calls me to the special work for which he has destined me. i can, if i will, do each little duty of my everyday life for god, with the pure motive of giving him pleasure. it is the surest way of making myself indifferent as to whether or not the duty gives _me_ pleasure! and it ensures that, from one point of view, _all_ duties will be a pleasure. i was created by god to do this particular thing for him at this particular moment, so i do it. what an uplifting thought! it puts me at once on to another plane--the supernatural plane--where the whole aspect is different. this is the truth, which the little one whose birthday i am thinking about to-day understood so perfectly. "behold the handmaid of the lord," was her cry even then. it was because mary understood the value of the "sacrament of the moment," as it has been called, that when _the_ moment of her life came, and her great end was revealed to her, she was able to say: "_ecce ancilla domini!_" she was used to saying it; it was the most natural thing for her to say. and so will it be for me, if only i will practise as mary did. i shall bow to his will in the _great_ crises of my life--not naturally but supernaturally--because i have formed the habit in all the _little_ things that make up my life. _point iii._--the dove overshadowing his spouse is the holy ghost. he it was who filled her with grace at the moment of the immaculate conception. he it is who will keep her "full of grace" at every moment of her life. never for one instant will he leave her. never for one instant will she cease to be the temple of the holy ghost. ( cor. vi. .) always will he be able to say to her: "thou art all fair, o my love, and there is not a spot in thee." (cant. iv. .) why? because mary will never "_extinguish_ the holy spirit." ( thess. v. .) she will never "_grieve_" him. (eph. iv. .) and not only will she never resist a single one of his inspirations, but she will never let _one_ pass by unnoticed. her correspondence to grace will be perfect. oh, what need i have to turn to the little one in her cradle to-day, and say: "pray for me _now_"! pray that i may never extinguish the holy spirit, but live always in a state of grace. pray that i may never grieve him, whose temple i am, by resisting his pleadings with me. _colloquy_ with the babe in her cradle. _resolution._ to make much of the "sacrament of the moment" to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "in me is all grace." (ecclus. xxiv. .) mary's presentation in the temple "_in the holy dwelling-place i have ministered before him._" (ecclus. xxiv. .) _ st prelude._ the child on the temple steps. _ nd prelude._ grace to present myself to god. _point i._--mary at the age of three years, tradition tells us, mary left her home to go and live in the temple--not merely, as other little girls of her time, to attend the temple school, but to dedicate herself to god, and to live continually under the shadow of his presence, as samuel of old had done. her desire, even at that tender age, was to confirm her parents' dedication of her at her birth, by giving herself up entirely to god, to live a hidden life with him away from everything, however lawful, that might disturb her union with him. she waited only for his call, and as soon as it was given, she left all and followed--even her parents must take a second place. so, joyously and eagerly, did mary fulfil her end of the moment. god called her, and she went to him. she did not know what he wanted her for, nor did she seek to know. sufficient for her that he wanted her, and was calling. at once she presented herself before him as the little samuel of old. "here am i, for thou didst call me. speak, for thy servant heareth." ( kings iii. .) she was ready for anything that he might want. and this should be the attitude of all who would serve him--a constant presentation of themselves to him for whatever he wants. this attitude can only be arrived at by the spirit of sacrifice. to be always at liberty for god's service, the soul must be disentangled from all else, free from all that would hold it back. and this means sacrifice. mary, presenting herself at the temple, is specially, though not exclusively, the model of those who are called to the religious life. but do not let us make any mistake--a religious is not _free_ to give himself to god because he has left parents and home and possessions. he may go through all these preliminaries, and yet not be, by any means, at god's service. the great work of disentangling the soul and setting it free is done _inside_ the cloister, while the religious is learning that it is _self_ which stands in the way, and that until _that_ is crushed, he is not able to render to god free and joyous service, such as mary did. and this lesson has to be learned by those outside the cloister too, if they would follow mary in being always ready to answer god's calls and do his biddings. it is not their home and friends and possessions that they are asked to quit, but _themselves_. god will constantly want them in the midst of their busy lives, and they will never be too much occupied or engrossed to answer his calls, if self is out of the question. "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto god, your reasonable service." (rom. xii. .) present yourselves each day, each hour, each moment, with each joy, each sorrow, each duty, each difficulty--present all as an offering to him, who expects your reasonable service. this is the lesson which the child on the temple steps teaches us to-day--the lesson of _self-sacrifice_. _point ii._--joachim and anne her parents did not thwart her in her wish. they had made their sacrifice three years before, and they were not likely to take it back now. they had probably told mary the story of their long, childless years; of their earnest prayers to god; and of their promise to give the child back to him should he bless them with one. they would have told her, too, that they had offered her to god at birth, and that, as soon as she was old enough, she would present herself in god's temple, as something dedicated to his service. and now, to-day, they accompany their little one to the "holy dwelling-place" where she is to "minister before him," and watch her climbing the temple steps, at the top of which the priest is waiting to receive her in god's name. desolate though their home would now be, joachim and anne would rather have it so than interfere in any way with the call of god to their child. they recognised that god has _his_ rights, and that these must come first. what an honour god shows to parents, when he gives a vocation to a child of theirs; and what a blessing is thereby bestowed on the whole family! and surely, if there is merit laid up for the one who, in answer to god's call, leaves father, mother, brother, sister, friend, to follow him, there is merit also for those who make perhaps an equally great sacrifice, even if it is somewhat grudgingly made. god will not forget the hearts and homes which have been made desolate because he has ravished a heart there. he is never outdone in generosity. those who have given up their treasure on earth will find treasure in heaven. children sometimes give themselves unnecessary pain by presuming too readily that their parents' consent will be withheld. they will often find their parents more ready than they think to make the sacrifice. it is not likely that god would give a vocation in a family without making _some_ sort of preparation there for it. his ways are not our ways, and so it happens that there are many surprises. _point iii._--mary's vow it is not known exactly when she made it--probably not on the day of her presentation. she would take then the _temporary_ vow of virginity, as all the pupils at the temple school did till they left to be married. but some time during her stay in the temple, mary, probably unknown to anyone but god, who inspired her, took a vow of _perpetual_ virginity. she could keep nothing back from god; he must have all. she presented herself "wholly acceptable unto god." to understand what a strange thing this vow of mary's was, we must remember that in those days _everyone_ married, even priests and high priests, and everyone hoped--and especially now that the expectation was getting keener--that his would be the favoured family in which the messias was to be born. mary had more reason to hope than many others, for was she not of the tribe of judah, and of the house of david? yet she took a vow which cut her off from all hope that this greatest of blessings would be hers. why? because her sacrifice of self was perfect. self was laid entirely on one side, and, as a consequence, her humility was so great that she never thought it possible that the honour of being the mother of the messias could be hers, and she cut herself off from all prospect of it. it was this very self-abnegation which was fitting mary for the destiny god intended for her. her vow of virginity, made in response to god's inspirations, was the necessary means for the carrying out of his plans. god's ways are not our ways. "behold a _virgin_ shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called emmanuel." (is. vii. .) but there were no virgins; and the fact that every mother in israel was hoping to be the mother of the messias was a proof that this "sign," which god himself gave, was wholly ignored. it was contrary to the spirit of the age. and this was god's moment. clearly he gave his call: "hearken, o daughter, and see, and incline thy ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house; and the king shall greatly desire thy beauty." (ps. xliv. , .) and as the little one, in answer to the appeal, joyously mounted the temple steps, the angels were already saluting her as _queen of virgins_. she was the first; how many would follow in her train! "_after her_ shall virgins be brought to the king; her neighbours shall be brought to thee; they shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing; they shall be brought into the temple of the king. instead of thy fathers, sons shall be born unto thee." (verses - .) may there not be a warning here for those who, having, in imitation of mary, taken the vow of virginity, desire too ardently to be the "spiritual mothers of children"? mary had no such desires. her whole desire was for union with god--there was not a tinge of self in it. the soul which thinks itself unworthy of being used is the one god uses, the soul which is wrapped up in seeking after its own perfection, hiding itself in its interior life, living its life in solitude with god and for god. blessed are the mothers of spiritual children! yes, but rather blessed are they who hear the word of god and keep it. there should be no limit to our zeal for souls, but it should be covered up by an annihilation of self, and an unobtrusive humility--a humility which teaches us to _act_, not to talk, as if _we_ could never be the ones chosen by god to do his work. humility, far from being an obstacle, always makes it easier for god to carry out his plans. _colloquy._ "o mary, queen of virgins, grant that by thy intercession we may deserve to be presented one day to the most high in the temple of his glory." (_collect for the feast of the presentation, b.v.m., nov. ._) _resolution._ to present myself often to god to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "congratulate me, all ye that love the lord, because when i was a little one, i pleased the most high." (_common office of our lady._) mary's marriage "_joseph, the husband of mary, of whom was born jesus, who is called christ._" (st matt. i. .) _ st prelude._ picture of the marriage of our lady and st joseph. _ nd prelude._ the grace of confidence in god. _point i._--mary twelve years have passed since the little child mounted the temple steps to present herself to god. never, during that time, has she taken back the smallest part of her offering. always has she been presenting herself as a living sacrifice; always has she been _full_ of grace, doing god's will perfectly, glorifying him by her every thought, word, and action, as no human creature had ever glorified him. how much mary added during those twelve years to the treasury of merits from which the church was to draw, through all time, in answer to the appeals of her children, who were anxious to make satisfaction for their sins! in return for a little indulgenced prayer, or act, the church unlocks the treasury, and the superabundant merits of mary, added to the infinite merits of her divine son, are given to the suppliant, either to make satisfaction for his own sins, or, if he will, to be applied to the souls in purgatory, and thus lessen the debt they owe to god, and shorten the distance that lies between them and the beatific vision, for which they so earnestly long. oh, blessed treasury of merits! jesus, who poured into it his infinite merits, has an interest in it. mary, whose wondrous merits all went into it, has an interest in it. the saints, whose superabundant satisfactions are stored up there, have an interest in it. the holy souls must watch with the keenest interest for the moments when the church, coming with the keys, entreats from him, who alone has jurisdiction in purgatory, that her treasures may be handed to this or that particular soul; and he, whose justice, as well as his mercy, is infinite, will distribute them as he will. and shall not i, too, take an interest in this wondrous treasury? let me never forget to make use of it; and let my prayer every morning be a fervent and a heart-felt one: "i desire to gain all the indulgences that i can this day." but the time came when mary had to leave the seclusion of the temple, and give herself in marriage. she was helpless to prevent this, for her vow was a secret, unknown even to her parents. all she could do was to leave the matter in god's hands. it was to him she had offered her virginity, and she trusted him to guard it. how simple and child-like was her trust! the path pointed out to her _appeared_ to be directly opposite to the one she had chosen, but it was pointed out by those whom god had chosen to represent himself to her--the priests of the temple, or her parents, or both. her faith was great enough to believe that god can make no mistakes, that he cannot call in two different directions, that all will work together to fulfil his will, if only his will is put _first_. what a lesson for us! how often in my life has something happened, some way opened, which seemed to cut at the very root of some cherished plan! and yet, on looking back, i see that had i not followed god's call along the path which _seemed_ to be leading the wrong way, i should never have been able to carry out that plan which i had made for his glory. why was abraham called the friend of god? was it not because of his confidence in god--confidence shown in his readiness to follow wherever god called--even when he called him to sacrifice the child of the promises? god loves to lead us about, by circuitous paths, and thus to bring out our love and trust and obedience. had mary taken a line of her own, and refused to marry because of her vow, she would have frustrated god's plans for the incarnation. i do not want to frustrate his plans for me. let me remember this the next time i am tempted to turn a deaf ear to a call of his, which does not fit in with my tastes and desires and hopes. _point ii._--joseph the husband, chosen by god for this most delicate and most responsible position, was our dear st joseph. he was the one man in all the world of whom god could be sure. he was "a just man," one who would put no obstacle to god's designs, but would, by his silence, tact, self-sacrifice, and fidelity lend himself to further them. let me dwell for a little while on these qualities--qualities which god values and looks for, when he wants someone to whom he can entrust his work or his secrets; and perhaps i shall discover things which may help me to be more zealous in his service, to be less for self and more for him. some have thought that mary confided her secret to joseph; and that he showed his sympathy, and readiness to enter into all her interests, by taking the vow of virginity too, thus preparing himself to be the husband of mary and the foster-father of jesus. _point iii._--the marriage and so this most beautiful marriage took place; and the holy spirit, who was ever watching over his spouse, blessed and sanctified the union of these two virgin souls. it was a union in which the body was forgotten--or rather, the spiritual life had reached such heights by means of the body, that is, of the senses, that the soul was able to live entirely in those heights. the soul was helped upwards by the body, as god intended it to be. when the body is dead, the soul can grow no more. the level of the spiritual life, at which i am found at death, will be mine through all eternity. the converse of this truth is, that the body is necessary for the growth of the spiritual life, and that the soul grows in proportion to the help it gets from the body. these thoughts will help me to understand how much the chaste marriage of joseph and mary must have aided their spiritual life, and how the angels must have rejoiced at a union which savoured so much more of heaven than of earth. now, all was ready. the virgin who was to conceive and bear a child, whose name was to be emmanuel--god with us--had got a guardian. god could work his stupendous miracle, and keep it hidden, as he willed it to be for the present, from the curious gaze of unbelievers. mary, by her self-abandonment, was supplying god with all he needed, never thwarting him, nor putting the least obstacle in his way. and so we leave her, doing the work of the little cottage at nazareth, while her carpenter-husband labours to support her. mary has changed her abode; her outward circumstances have altered; but her union with god suffers no change; it remains unbroken, undisturbed; nothing has the power to disturb her thoughts of him. and mary is my model. what i have to aim at, too, is a union with god so real and so close that the changes and chances of this mortal life have no power to interrupt it. this blessed lot will be mine when i have faith enough to see god's hand in every circumstance of my life. if i know that he is there, why need i trouble so much about the ups and downs? the sea of life is bound to have waves. what i have to do is to see to it that my little barque rides on the top of them in the most perfect security and peace. the master is at the helm, and i am _with him_ in the boat. my thoughts, surely, will be fixed on him rather than on the changes in the weather! _colloquy_ with our lady, asking her to get me more faith. _resolution._ to let nothing interrupt my union with god. _spiritual bouquet._ "sancta virgo virginum, ora pro nobis." hail mary! "_the angel gabriel was sent from god into a city of galilee, called nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was joseph, of the house of david; and the virgin's name was mary. and the angel, being come in, said unto her: hail! full of grace, the lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women!_" (st luke i. - .) _ st prelude._ gabriel saying the first _hail mary_. _ nd prelude._ grace to say my _hail maries_ well. when all was ready and god's moment had arrived--"when the fulness of the time was come" (gal. iv. )--heaven opened, and one of god's messengers, gabriel, an archangel, was sent to nazareth on a secret errand to mary. he knew her well, and he expressed his knowledge in the first _hail mary_ that was ever said. let us meditate on these familiar words, and try to find a few thoughts which may help us to say our _hail maries_ better. _point i._--hail! reverently he salutes her; for though she is not yet the mother of god, she is immaculate, and worthy of all honour; besides, he is in the secret, and knows god's designs. "hail! full of grace." what does it mean--this word "_ave_," _hail!_ with which gabriel begins his message? it is an expression of respect, honour, and reverence. it was the salutation always given to the roman emperor: _ave! cæsar imperator._ but it is not only a form of greeting; it implies also that he who uses it is anxious to attract attention because he has something to say or some favour to ask. how often i say it!--_hail mary!_ what do i mean by it? i ought to mean that i am saluting the queen of heaven with all respect, honour, and reverence; and also that i, her child, am calling my mother's attention. when she hears my _hail!_ she expects that i have something to say to her, or that i want something. is it so? and if mary turned and said: "yes, my child, what is it?" should i know? my _hail!_ should be also to call my mother's attention to the fact that i am there if _she_ has anything to say to me, or if she wants anything. hail mary! your child is here, ready to do anything for you. when she turns at my _hail!_ to ask me for something, does she always get it? or is she disappointed to find that her child's thoughts are not really with her at all? what shall i do, for i know that i stand convicted; and much though i should like each _hail mary_ that i say to mean all this, i know that it does _not_? would it be better not to say it at all, than to risk any want of respect to that mother whom i love so dearly? oh no. does not a mother love to hear the voice of her babe in its cradle, even though the sounds it makes are quite inarticulate, and it cannot say what it wants? she always understands, and is able to interpret the baby language, and will give it what is good for it, though it may be all unconscious of its needs. none but the mother would recognise that the babe was calling her attention--not even the babe itself. is not this something like my _hail maries_ carelessly and lightly said? i say them because i am mary's child; it is the most natural thing to do; and she will interpret them as her mother's heart knows how. and, like the babe in its cradle, i love to feel that she is at my side, because i have attracted her attention, even though i may have done it almost from habit, and may not know exactly why. hail mary! i will say the blest words as often as i can, putting into them all the meaning and fervour of which i am capable, and leaving it to my mother to make up all deficiencies. _point ii._--full of grace how is mary full of grace? . because she was conceived without sin: that is, her soul was full of grace instead of original sin. she was full of grace always--even before she was the mother of the author of grace. . because of her correspondence to grace. she was always faithful to grace. she never let one single opportunity pass by her unused. the more faithful i am to the inspirations of grace, the fuller shall i be of grace. it is a question of my fidelity, not of god's generosity. he never fails--the grace is always there waiting for me. . because she was always meriting grace. each correspondence to grace entitled her to more, as it does me. it is by virtue of her merits that she can obtain from her divine son all the grace that her children need. confidently may they appeal to her, for she is the "mother of divine grace." "_in me is all grace of the way._" (ecclus. xxiv. .) so mary says to her children, and she has all i need for the way--that is, for my journey through life. the way is hard--it is the highway of the cross, the way that jesus trod before me. let me never attempt to tread it alone--not for a single hour, for the pitfalls are many; but let me ask mary to accompany me--mary with her never-failing supply of grace. it was jesus himself who gave me his mother, and he gave her also all the grace that he knew i should need for the way. what a provision he has made for me! if i drew upon my stores more confidently, i should be much fuller of grace than i am. _hail mary! full of grace_, thou art my mother. let me put my hands in thine and keep close to thee. so shall the way have no terrors for me, and so shall i be able to tread in the footsteps of thy son, along his own highway of the cross. _point iii._--the lord is with thee. blessed art thou among women _the lord is with thee._ these words were often said of or to those to whom god was about to entrust some special work. he was "with joseph" while he was in putiphar's prison, preparing him for the great work of serving the nation during the famine. (gen. xxxix. .) "i will be with thee," god said to moses at the burning bush, when he told him that it was he who was to bring the children of israel out of egypt. (ex. iii. .) and to josue, who had to bring the chosen people into the promised land, he said: "as i have been with moses, so i will be with thee. fear not, and be not dismayed: because the lord thy god is with thee in all things whatsoever thou shalt go to." (jos. i. - .) "the lord is with thee, o most valiant of men." this was the message the angel brought to gedeon at the threshing floor, for he was to leave his wheat and go to deliver god's people from idolatry and from their enemies. (jud. vi. .) and now when mary is being singled out for the greatest work that was ever entrusted to any child of adam--that of being the mother of him who was to save not one nation only, but the whole world, god sends an archangel and bids him say to her: _the lord is with thee_. god was with mary always; but now all three persons of the blessed trinity are to be with her in a very special way, to enable her to co-operate with god's designs for her. but the message goes further: "blessed art thou among women." gabriel tells her that god's message to her is that she is blessed, and more blessed than all other women! it is praise indeed, and praise from god himself. but god can trust mary with praise. she is full of humility, for she is full of grace; and god knows that she will look at things from his point of view--not from her own. i may get some consolation from these words for myself. god sometimes gives me work to do for him. how blessed i am to be picked out and chosen by him! and i may be quite sure that he is _with me_ for it. it is his own work, and he will look after it himself; but he needs an instrument. the workman is never far from his tools, unless he has thrown them on one side as useless. "the lord is with thee." if i see to it that i am an instrument fit and ready for his service, i need have no other anxiety. he will use me when he wants me; the responsibility of the work will be all his, and he will be with me, doing his work by means of me. o mary, my mother, help me to see things from god's point of view, as thou didst. obtain for me the grace to be full of confidence about any work with which god may entrust me. and while i rejoice to be amongst those _blessed_ ones whom he picks out to do his work, obtain for me the grace of humility. and if the workman should allow any words of praise to be given to the instrument, may it be because he can count on the humility of his instrument--because he knows that the praise will all be passed on to himself. _colloquy_ with my mother as we walk along "the way" together--a colloquy about correspondence to grace, about being never alone in my work, about the blessedness of being chosen by him, about humility. _resolution._ to let my rosary recall some of these thoughts to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "among the blessed she shall be blessed." (ecclus. xxiv. .) mary's first word "_and mary said to the angel: how shall this be done, because i know not man?_" (st luke i. .) _ st prelude._ a picture of the annunciation. _ nd prelude._ that my love for god may be great enough to separate me from all else. _point i._--mary's silence we do not know what mary was doing when the heavenly visitor arrived with his message. she is generally represented as kneeling in contemplation. she may have been: or she may have been about her work. in any case, she was engaged in prayer, for mary's heart and mind were ever lifted up to god; and that is prayer. and god can reveal his secrets just as easily to those who are working as to those who are given up to contemplation. no wonder mary's attention is arrested, for not only does she see one of god's archangels, but it is to _her_ that he has come, to _her_ that he is showing such reverence and honour, to _her_ that he is now delivering his message: "hail! ... full of grace; the lord is with thee.... blessed art thou among women." each sentence of the message seems more wonderful and startling than the last. mary does not speak, but she is _troubled_, as she thinks within herself what manner of salutation this is. her intelligence is perfect, and she knows at once what the message means. it means that she, the one woman who has cut herself off from every prospect of being the mother of the messias; that she, who has felt herself so utterly unworthy that legend tells us she used to pray that she might be his mother's _servant_; that _she_ has been singled out by god as the one who was to be blessed among women. and she is _troubled_. it is not the presence of the angel nor the dignity of his message which is disquieting her--her trouble goes deeper; but still she does not speak--she waits in silence for god to explain himself or to direct her. how much wiser in _most_ cases it would be for me, if i kept silence, for a time at any rate, when i am face to face with trouble, or difficulty, or perplexity. of one thing i may be sure--that the trouble is a message from god, and if i wait patiently, he will reveal more to me, and throw light upon what seems so obscure. nothing is gained by making complaints, and losing my calm and self-possession. much is gained by silence; for silence to man, at such times, generally means converse with god, and to obtain this more intimate union with my heart is one of his chief reasons for sending me his messages. gabriel, seeing that she is troubled, hastens to reassure her: "fear not, mary." he is god's messenger, and he is giving god's consolation, so he calls her by her name. consolation is never far off when it is to god alone that we turn for it. gabriel then tells her quite plainly what are god's intentions concerning her, if she gives her consent and co-operation--that she is indeed to be the mother of the messias; that she is to call him jesus; that her son is to be great, and is to be called the son of the most high; that god will give him a throne and a kingdom; and that of his kingdom there shall be no end. _point ii._--mary's first word she has pondered in her heart, and now she speaks: "_how shall this be done?_" st bernardine, who calls the seven recorded words of our lady, "_seven flames of love_," calls this first word "a flame of _separating_ love" (_flamma amoris separantis_). let us try to find out why. "how shall this be done?" her question shows clearly what is the cause of her trouble. it is the thought of her vow of virginity--that precious offering which, as a little child, she had made to god. this it is which forces mary, who so values silence, to speak. "how shall this be done," and yet my vow be left intact? to it at any cost i must be faithful. mary, by her first word, shows that her love for god is so intense that it separates her from all else besides. it was out of love for him that she made that vow. it was a flame of separating love that burnt within her, making a clear division between god and anything, however lawful and even desirable in itself, which might hinder her union with him. and it is the same flame of love which now impels her to speak: "how shall this be done?" seeing that i am separated, consecrated to god. her love so detaches her from all else that even the honour of being singled out to be the mother of god has no attraction for her in comparison with keeping that contract made with god, by which she promised to be wholly his. am i, like mary, absolutely faithful to any contract that i may have made with god? do i say: "how can this be done?" seeing i have made that promise, seeing i am a christian, seeing i have been to holy communion, seeing i have taken certain vows. all these are so many cords of love which should separate me from the world. my contract with god must come before everything else--all turns upon my fidelity to it. mary was troubled because she feared her vow was in danger; and her trouble was pleasing to god. mary's separating love for god was the outcome of god's separating love for mary. her very vow of virginity, which, humanly speaking, made it impossible for her to be the mother of the messias, was part of god's plan, separating her from the rest of the world for this honour. when god wants something done, he separates the soul which he has chosen to do it, though at the moment the soul may be wholly unconscious of the reasons for the process which gives it so much pain. the separation may be one of place, or family, or affections, or cherished hopes and plans. god's separating love takes various forms: but in some way or other he must and will separate from self those whom he intends to use for his service. st paul says of himself that god separated him from his earliest infancy. (gal. i. .) none would have guessed that he was separated when he was haling the christians to death and persecuting the church of god beyond measure. we understand so little of god's plans, and of his preparation of souls for his service. st paul tells us that later he was "separated unto the gospel of god." (rom. i. .) and when our lord wanted him for a special mission, the order went forth to the church: "separate me saul and barnabas for the work whereunto i have taken them." help me, my mother, to co-operate with grace, lest i hinder god's designs for me; and while _his_ love is a separating one, may mine be the same--a love strong enough to separate me from all but his will. _colloquy_ with mary, asking her to obtain for me the grace to say with her: "how shall this be done?" whenever the least thing comes between me and my duty to god. _resolution._ to let nothing to-day separate me from the love of god. (rom. viii. .) _spiritual bouquet._ "how shall this be done?" mary's second word "_the holy ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most high shall overshadow thee. and therefore also the holy, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the son of god. and mary said: behold the handmaid of the lord; be it done to me according to thy word._" (st luke i. , .) _ st prelude._ picture of the annunciation. _ nd prelude._ grace to meditate more deeply on the _first joyful mystery_. _point i._--gabriel's explanation in answer to mary's question, the angel explains quite simply how god's plans are to be brought about. "_the holy ghost shall come upon thee._" no prophecy had ever said a word of this; the agency of the holy ghost had never been hinted at till the angel made it known to mary to quiet her legitimate trouble. and as soon as mary knew that it was to be the work of the holy ghost, she was at rest--all trouble disappeared. do i follow my mother's example in this? as soon as i know that whatever is being asked of me is the holy spirit's doing, am i at rest? is there no more trouble, no more indecision, no more questioning, even though the inspiration may seem to be going to upset my plans, and may be contrary to all that has hitherto seemed right? it is not necessary to _understand_ god's dealings with me, but as soon as i know that they are his dealings, it _is_ necessary to co-operate at whatever cost--otherwise there will be trouble in my soul. the co-operation with the work of the holy spirit will produce a calm and a peace which no exterior things, however changed they may be, will have the power to disturb. and then the angel tells her about her cousin elizabeth and the miraculous things which are happening to her, in order to prove to mary that "no word is impossible with god"--that he, the god of nature, has power over nature's laws--that when he makes such promises as she has just heard, "the holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god," all will be fulfilled. _point ii._--mary's second word then mary speaks again: "behold the handmaid of the lord; be it done to me according to thy word." she gives her consent, shows herself ready to co-operate with god; and at the same moment, the word is made flesh; gabriel adores the god-man, as he had pledged himself to do at the time of the war in heaven, and, his mission accomplished, departs from her. st bernadine calls this second word: "a flame of _transforming_ love" (_flamma amoris transformantis_). it was certainly _love_ that prompted the word, but in what sense was it a _transforming_ love? ( ) _it was a transformation for mary._ her first word _separated_ her for him who loved her; her second word _transformed_ her into him who loved her. it made them for ever one. "behold the handmaid of the lord." here i am for thee to do whatever thou wilt with me. i put no obstacle in thy way. _fiat._ "be it done to me according to thy word." this word was not only the outcome and the proof of her perfect union with god, it was also the turning point of her life--and not only of her life but of the life of the whole world. heaven--and earth too, though unconsciously--was waiting for this word of mary's, a word which she could have withheld. the word was spoken, and by it she lent herself to god as his co-worker; by it she was transformed from a maid into a mother, and in that moment of transformation she saw all that it meant--she saw calvary, and she said _fiat_. "be it done to me." she saw herself transformed into the image of christ ( cor. iii. ) by pain and suffering, and yet she would not withhold her _fiat_. why? because she _loved_, and from that moment the transforming process was ever going on in her soul; and the flame of transforming love was ever burning more brightly, showing her the way to greater heights and deeper depths of the love of god, and so transforming her at each further step, that she shrank from nothing. ( ) _it was a transformation for the world._ this word of mary's, by which she gave her consent to god's plan of redemption, changed the face of the whole world. it began a new era--a.d. instead of b.c. it settled the moment of the arrival of the "fulness of time" (gal. iv. )--of god's time. as a result of it, god was already tabernacling among men. the leaven of the gospel, which was to leaven the whole world, was already beginning to work. mary's word produced a transformation in the world, and though it "knew him not," it was never the same world again. ( ) this word is a _transformation for the soul_ which makes it its own. any soul which really says: "behold the handmaid of the lord: be it done to me according to thy word," is transformed, for it is "made conformable to the image of his son." (rom. viii. .) nothing but love has the power to bring about this transformation in the soul, for it means the effacement of self; it means a readiness to do god's will at whatever cost; it means a holy indifference to one's own plans and theories and even judgment--it means what it says: "_fiat_," for everything that god arranges. when this is so there is a complete transformation; the selfish soul becomes selfless; the weak, strong; the timid, courageous; the hesitating, decided; the doubting, confident; the agitated, peaceful and calm. heaven has already begun in the soul. love--god's love for it first, and then its love for god--has transformed it. are these great things possible for me? yes, quite possible. how was mary transformed? by christ dwelling within her. how was the world transformed? by christ dwelling within it. and this is how i am to be transformed, by christ dwelling within me. each communion should be to me a "flame of transforming love." it is then that, in answer to the appeal: "my child, give me thy heart," i say to him: "be it done to me according to thy word," and he comes to do what he will in my heart; and if only i put no obstacles in his way, his love will transform me into all that he wants me to be. _colloquy_ with our lady, asking her to get me the grace of submission, which alone can transform me. _resolution._ to do nothing to-day to hinder the transforming process in me. _spiritual bouquet._ "angelus domini nuntiavit mariæ et concepit de spiritu sancto." mary's third word "_and she entered into the house of zachary, and saluted elizabeth._" (st luke i. .) _ st prelude._ mary saluting elizabeth. _ nd prelude._ the grace of charity. _point i._--mary's charity when the angel left her, mary's thoughts seem to have been fixed, not, as we should have expected, on the part of the heavenly message which concerned herself, but on what had been incidentally revealed to her about her cousin elizabeth. what a total oblivion of self there is in mary and what charity! she picks out just the little bit of the message that concerns somebody else, decides that it is not for nothing that she has been told this--it may be that her cousin has need of her; and so, instead of giving herself up to dwelling on the great things that have been said and done to her, she rises up in those days and goes into the hill country, with haste, to pay a visit of charity. and she takes jesus with her. mary is my model, and i can surely find some lessons to study here. one is that charity passes before everything, even sometimes before spiritual exercises and contemplation and meditation, going to mass and benediction. i see too that though i must be ever mindful of god's benefits, i need not dwell too much--if at all--on the interior graces he has given to my soul; on any words of praise--though they may have come almost directly from himself; on any piece of work that he has effected through my instrumentality. it is far more wholesome to be rising up to go to the next duty, starting forth into the hill country of difficulties, if need be, and thus taking my thoughts off myself by doing something for somebody else. i shall not, by thus acting, lose any of the graces or any of the sweetness, for i shall take jesus with me, and together we shall face the difficulties of the next bit of life's journey. _point ii._--mary's salutation she _saluted_ elizabeth. we are not told what this salutation was, but we know that words were spoken, because elizabeth _heard_ them. "the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears," she says. it was probably just the form of salutation customary among the jews: "the lord is with you!" but what a different meaning the words have on mary's lips! she, the mother of the word incarnate, has brought him with her to the house of zachary. the lord himself is indeed there in a way that he has never been before. john the baptist, yet unborn, understands the salutation, and leaps to adore his god; and at that moment jesus, whose work on earth has already begun, cleanses his forerunner from the stain of original sin. elizabeth also understands in what sense the words are spoken; for the holy ghost, who has been doing great things for her too, has communicated to her the heavenly secret about the mother and the child. she is expectant and ready for her visitors, and when mary gives her wondrous salutation: "the lord is with you," filled with the holy ghost she answers: "blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb"; and then she thinks of the great honour which god is showing to her home by permitting mary with her child to visit it. "whence is this to me, that the mother of my lord should come to me?" next she tells mary of the joy that has been caused within her, and adds: "blessed art thou that hast believed, for all that the lord hath spoken about the child will now be accomplished." thus mary receives the blessed assurance that all is true--not that she doubted, and not that she needed any confirmation, but it must, nevertheless, have been a comfort to her to hear herself called "the mother of my lord," and that by one who had not heard the news from any human lips. it was because elizabeth was "filled with the holy ghost" that she saw all so clearly and believed that mary was indeed the mother of god. it is a truth which many people in the twentieth century have not yet grasped. the reason is that they have not yet grasped the meaning of the incarnation. "_nos cum prole pia benedicat virgo maria._" ("may mary the virgin bless us with her holy child.") _point iii._--mary's third word st bernardine describes this third word as a "flame of _communicating_ love" (_flamma amoris communicantis_.) no sooner has mary become "the mother of fair love" than she wants to communicate that love to others--not to communicate her secret--no, of that she does not speak--but to let the flame of love, which is burning within her, reach others also. so it is not mary only, but jesus within her, who "makes haste" to go into the "hill country." he is in a hurry to begin his work. it is jesus, divine love, who enters into the house of zachary and salutes elizabeth. it is the heart of jesus, burning already with love for sinners, which speaks to the heart of john. it is because god, who for love of us men became incarnate, is communicating that love to her, that elizabeth is able to grasp so clearly the mysteries by which she is surrounded. ah, yes, mary's third word is indeed one of communicating love, because she communicates to all around her, jesus, who is love. o mother of fair love, why do the poor banished children of eve so continually turn to thee? is it not just because of this flame of communicating love? is it not because they know that to go to mary is to go to jesus; that when they appeal to the heart of mary it is the heart of jesus which answers through her; that her chief work is to communicate his love to them? three months mary abode in zachary's house, and all that time the flame of communicating love abode there too, burning ever more brightly within her. what a privilege for the house of zachary! we read in sacred history that once "the ark of the lord abode in the house of obededom the gethite for three months; and the lord blessed obededom and all his household." ( kings vi. .) what then must have been the blessings bestowed on zachary's household, while mary the "ark of the covenant" abode there! "_foederis arca, ora pro nobis._" pray that we too may get the blessings of those who receive thee as their constant guest. but mary is my example. is there anything in which i can copy her in her visit to her cousin elizabeth? let me make a self-examination on a few points suggested by this meditation. am i in _haste_ to perform acts of charity, especially when the request for them comes at inconvenient moments? do i always take jesus with me when i go to visit my friends? do those whom i visit feel that i create an atmosphere--an atmosphere which makes them more ready to bless jesus and mary? these things can only be so by my having a flame of communicating love within me. where can i get it? at each communion, when jesus comes to me in the sacrament of his love. and if i put no hindrance in his way, he will communicate himself to others through me. let me, then, aim at being a christ-bearer. "glorify and bear christ in your body." ( cor. vi. .) it is often through his children that jesus does his work in the world, and communicates his love to others. _colloquy_ with our lady. _resolution._ to be a christ-bearer to all whom i greet, remembering that even a little act of politeness may turn the scale in the conversion of a soul. a visit paid, a word dropped in conversation, may be a necessary part of god's plans. _spiritual bouquet._ "flamma amoris communicantis." mary's fourth word _and mary said: "my soul doth magnify the lord."_ _ st prelude._ mary saying the _magnificat_. _ nd prelude._ grace to catch something of the spirit in which she said it. _point i._--the magnificat as soon as elizabeth has finished "crying out with a loud voice" her praise of mary and of jesus, and of the benefits god has wrought for herself and her son, mary speaks, and in the longest of her recorded "words" gives vent to the thoughts pent up in her breast. she at once closes the door against any praise given to herself: "my soul doth magnify the _lord_"--he it is whom we must praise and make much of--"and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my saviour." mary understands what it is that is making her so full of joy. it is the presence of jesus her _saviour_. she has him within her, who has saved her from the stain of original sin, and who will save her each moment that she lives from actual sin. well may her spirit rejoice! she goes on to explain more fully the cause of her joy and exultation. it is because god has done such great things for her. he has regarded the humility of his handmaid. the word used means _humiliation_ rather than humility. mary is too humble to speak of her humility. she is referring rather to her humble circumstances, her low estate. the same word is translated in st james i. as "low condition." he whose name is holy has regarded _me_! and his mercy is not only for me, but for all that fear him. it is because of the great things he has done to me that "all generations shall call me blessed." mary passes on all the praise and honour to god. she speaks of herself only to recall her low estate--only to let her littleness magnify god's greatness in the eyes of others--only that in calling her blessed they may be lifted up to "the god and father of our lord jesus christ, who is blessed for ever." ( cor. xi. .) gabriel stands at the head of "all generations." when he was delivering god's message he called her blessed. elizabeth, inspired by the holy ghost, did the same. and yet there are those to-day (and their name is legion!) who think it would defile their lips to speak of the _blessed_ virgin mary! can it be that they do not believe that god did great things for her? can it be that they _prefer_ to be among the proud whom he scatters in the conceit of their heart, among the mighty whom he puts down from their seat, among the rich whom he sends away empty? can it be that they refuse to listen to the inspiration of the holy spirit who tells them that mary is blessed among women? and yet they sing the _magnificat_, which tells them how ready god is to "exalt the humble" and to "fill the hungry with good things." o blessed virgin mary, mother of god, pray for all those who honour thee by singing thy _magnificat_, that they may honour thee also by understanding it. grant that they too may fulfil thy prophecy--"all generations shall call me blessed"--and get in return the blessings thou art so ready to bestow on thy children. before i go on, let me ask myself to what extent i am copying my mother in at once passing on to god all praise that may come to me? he it is who does all for me, and in me, and by me; and the more he gives, the more he ought to get. he knew it would be so with mary, and therefore he could trust her with "great things." he knew that he would have all the glory. let me see how much i take into account god's glory. is it my first motive and object? if he gives me some little thing--for example, an "original" thought, a happy idea, a solution to a problem, some word to help another--is my first thought to thank him and to praise him because this will bring glory to him? is it not rather to go and tell it to someone else--to quote my words and deeds--not with the object of edifying others (satan, to quiet my conscience, tells me that this is the reason), but of gaining glory and praise for myself out of something that is not mine at all? thus do i rob god of his glory, deliberately taking for myself what belongs to him! oh, my mother, teach thy child what real humility means, and that _all_ praise belongs of right to god. _point ii._--a flame of joyful love this is the name that st bernardine gives to mary's fourth word--"_flamma amoris jubilantis_." her love for god was so strong that it made her burst out into this joyful song of praise. she could no longer keep to herself all that god had done to her; she must tell others; she was so full of joy that she must sing god's praises. and all her love and joy found expression in the _magnificat_--a song of thanksgiving for the incarnation--a song which showed clearly that mary's joy was caused by the glory that was given to god by the incarnation. all through those blessed three months during which mary abode with zachary and elizabeth, she was singing _magnificat_. all through her life she sang _magnificat_, even though she was the mother of sorrows, for the thought of god's glory ever lifted her out of herself and made her praise him for all he did. it was because mary had said her _fiat_ that she could say her _magnificat_. what do i know of this flame of joyful love? if it is caused by the great things god has done, surely it ought to be burning in me. surely he has done enough for me to make my love so great that it is a flame of _joy_ within me. is it so? does the joy that is in my heart show itself in my countenance, in my manner, in my actions, and sometimes perhaps in my words? does my happiness, even in the midst of trial, make others understand what great things god _can_ do for those who love him? if so, i am praising him and obtaining praise and glory for him. oh, my mother, look upon thy child, so often discontented, sad, distrustful, murmuring, and obtain for me "the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for the spirit of grief." (isaias lxi. .) teach me to say my _fiat_ for everything, and out of it will spring a joyful _magnificat_. teach me to love god's will, and to praise him for all he does. _colloquy_ with our lady. _resolution._ to let others see my joy to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "our lady sings _magnificat_ in songs surpassing sweet." mary's silence "_mary abode with elizabeth about three months, and she returned to her own house._" (st luke i. .) _ st prelude._ a statue of our lady. _ nd prelude._ grace to leave all that concerns me in god's hands. _point i._--mary's return we know nothing of what went on during those three months, but we may presume that things continued as they began. it is not likely that elizabeth said her "_ave_" only once, and only once spoke of the honour she considered it to have the mother of god in her house. it is not likely that the unborn forerunner never again saluted his master, in whose presence he so continually was. it is impossible to conceive that mary sang god's praises and her own unworthiness no more during those three months. and what about jesus? these were the first three months of his life on earth, and grace was surely going out from him to his blessed mother first, and then to all who knew the secret. and we must not forget the head of the household, zachary. he, at any rate after the birth of his son, knew the secret too, for he spoke in his song of praise of the "_orient_ from on high (which) hath visited us." (st luke i. .) "dumb" he had been and "unable to speak," but mary with her son had been sojourning in his house, with the result that his doubts had all disappeared, and that he understood already something of the "joy and gladness" which gabriel had promised should be his (verse ), and understood also how it came to pass that his son was "filled with the holy ghost, even from his mother's womb." (verse .) but the time comes when mary has to leave this highly favoured household and go home. her work of charity is over. elizabeth no longer needs her, and her thoughts turn to joseph, her husband, and to nazareth--to the spot where gabriel had visited her, and where the holy ghost had wrought such great things in her. _point ii._--mary's silence to st joseph when last we thought about st joseph, he was abandoning himself to a life of self-sacrifice by his vow of virginity. since then he has made the sacrifice of sparing mary from their little home to go and do an act of charity for her kinswoman, and now that that is over, it is probably joseph himself who goes to fetch her home again. of the visit of the archangel to his wife joseph knows nothing, and mary keeps the secret locked within her heart. she has not revealed it to anyone. (it was the holy ghost who told elizabeth, and jesus himself who saluted john.) but trouble is in store for those two faithful souls. this is natural. it would be strange if god did not take us at our word when we make the sacrifice of ourselves to him! it would look as if he did not believe us. "mary was found with child of the holy ghost. whereupon joseph her husband, being a just man and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately." (st matt. i. , .) how much is told in those few simple words! what anguish of soul do they cover! how could joseph bear to have suspicions of his wife, whom he considered to be purity itself, and whom he loved so tenderly? and yet he was forced to suspect, and as a just man was obliged to keep the law--namely, write a bill of divorce, give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. (deut. xxiv. .) he made up his mind to do this as _privately_ as possible, shielding her secret from everyone except the two witnesses who were necessary for the bill of divorce. how nobly joseph acted! he was ready, for the sake of right, to sacrifice what was most dear to him, to crush at one blow his most cherished affections! no wonder the holy spirit calls him a just man! no wonder that he was the one in all the world whom god could trust to co-operate with himself! and if joseph suffered, how much more did mary in seeing him thus troubled, and knowing that she was the cause of his distress. one word from her would have been sufficient to clear away all the difficulties--and it almost seemed as if it would be for the glory of god to say the word--at any rate it would have justified her, put an end to joseph's trouble, and saved her from suspicion, and even perhaps shame and humiliation. but mary has made her sacrifice--has said her _fiat_--and this is her first great trial, caused entirely by the fact of her nearness to jesus, and of the union between her life and his. and so she does not say the word--she does not take back her sacrifice, but meets it generously. it is not for her to publish god's secrets. his dealings with her are for herself, and are not to be shared even with one as dear to her as is st joseph, unless god bids her. mary is silent and abandons herself and her trouble and all that concerns her to god. and this is god's moment--when the need is at its height, when both his children have proved their fidelity, and their readiness to abandon themselves to him and his will, cost what it may. in his sleep an angel appears to joseph and reveals the secret to him, and his sorrow is changed to an unspeakable joy. if i am striving to tread the way trodden by mary and the saints, i shall do well to let self-justification alone. i am not likely to be put to as great a test as were mary and joseph, but there are sure to be many little occasions in my life when it is left to my choice either to clear myself of suspicion or to leave the matter in god's hands, and out of love to him keep silence, and thus sacrifice a little of my self-love. it is a difficult question, perhaps, when to keep silence and when to speak; but at any rate i need not be in such a hurry to excuse myself and shield myself from blame as i generally am. nothing will be lost by _waiting_. mary and joseph _waited_, with the result that god himself cleared things up for them and brought them consolation. if joseph had questioned mary, or if mary had allayed joseph's suspicions, both would have acted in a most natural way; but god would not have been glorified, and they would have missed the consolation which he reserves for those who are generous in their sacrifices to him. _colloquy_ with mary. _resolution._ to be silent the next time fault is found with me. _spiritual bouquet._ "fear not, joseph." mary's expectation "_his left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me._" (cant. ii. .) "_my beloved to me and i to him._" (verse .) _ st prelude._ mary and joseph waiting. _ nd prelude._ grace to believe that god's plans are the best. _point i._--at nazareth we should like to penetrate into those remaining six months, which mary and joseph spent together, before the birth of the holy child. scripture is silent about them, but it is not difficult for a sanctified imagination to picture something of what was taking place. perhaps the thought of the altar of repose on maundy thursday will bring the realities home to us better than anything else could. though he is hidden from our sight, all know that he is there. angels are in constant adoration, and the faithful do not forget him. all try to get near and to hold silent communion with him; and all are expecting the great day when he will rise again and show himself to them. and he is spending the time in giving his blessing and his grace to all who, by faith, seek him. the house at nazareth was in very deed god's sanctuary, containing the altar of repose, where the saviour of the world was resting. angels were in constant adoration before their king. the faithful consisted of mary and joseph, whose thought and conversation could be about nothing else but the child who was coming into the world. and who shall measure the graces and blessings, which that child was showering upon mary and her faithful spouse, during those months of waiting and prayer and holy converse, while they planned and arranged with such care and minuteness, as parents are wont to do, every detail connected with the birth of the firstborn? but man proposes and god disposes. god, who "ordereth all things sweetly," (wisdom viii. ), was stirring up the whole civilised world so that the scripture might be fulfilled which said: "and thou, _bethlehem_ ephrata, ... out of _thee_ shall he come forth to me, that is to be the ruler in israel; and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity." (micheas v. .) it was in _bethlehem_--not at _nazareth_, that the child was to be born. and to effect this, "in those days there went out a decree from cæsar augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled.... and all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. and joseph also went ... out of the city of nazareth ... to the city of david, which is called bethlehem (because he was of the house and family of david), to be enrolled with mary his espoused wife." (st luke ii. - .) what a trial this order must have been to mary! to leave home, to forego all her plans, to take a long journey, to interrupt her days of solitude and calm and peace--and all at the bidding of a heathen emperor. but mary knew how to take her trials. _fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum._ "be it done to me according to thy word." for her there were no second causes. it was ever god who was ordering "all things sweetly" for her, and she had nothing to say but "_ecce ancilla--fiat_." she waited for nothing but god's will. and as _he_ arranged it, she could spend her time of waiting just as well on the public highway to bethlehem as in the seclusion of nazareth. oh, my mother, teach me this lesson too: if i could only learn it, how different my life would be! my life--every detail of it--is in god's hands. he is "ordering it sweetly," and i _complain_! how little is my faith! when my faith is great enough, i shall take all things, as sweetly as god orders them, even though they may upset my most cherished plans. _point ii._--on the way to bethlehem and so, in obedience to the command, mary and joseph leave the calm and quiet and solitude of their little home, and go to face poverty and difficulties and the unknown. but jesus is with them, and this makes them independent of exterior circumstances--their calm and quiet are unbroken, and they can find solitude even in the busy thoroughfares. mary is communing with her child, and is peaceful with the peace he gives. joy, too, fills her heart as she thinks how fast the time is approaching when she will see his face. oh, how i should love to be allowed to go with them on this journey! at my request, mary readily consents to take me as her servant, and i am so glad to be in that blessed company that i forego everything else--i know that the family i have come to live with is _poor_, and i am determined not to ask them to get any special things for _me_. the table has the barest necessities--perhaps hardly these, for true poverty consists in the want of necessities; but it is the company that i care about, and nothing else matters. i can see that all sorts of inconveniences and privations and hardships will be mine, but i cannot be an exception in that family; and somehow, now that i am so close to the blessed mother, i do not wish to be. my great desire is to be like her, and to share all with her and her son. at bethlehem joseph begins his weary and anxious search for a lodging; but all in vain--no one wants the holy family. how joseph suffers at each refusal--not for himself but for mary! mary is too much taken up with her joy to heed the suffering. and the servant--does she regret that she is not in one of the big hotels, as she might have been, or does she turn with joy to follow the holy family to the cave, saying: with jesus and mary i have all i want, and i love every hardship and every privation which comes to me, because i have made myself one with them? oh, my mother, i thank thee for allowing me to be thy servant; i thank thee for bringing me into such close contact with thy son; i thank thee for every privation, every difficulty, every hardship, every inconvenience, every crossing of my own will which has come to me, because i chose to be in thy company and in that of thy son. help me to persevere bravely, thinking all worth while for the sake of the company. _colloquy_ with mary, asking her to get me grace to be always joyous, because i am living my life with her and her blessed son. _resolution._ to show myself worthy of the company i am in, by the way i face the little difficulties of my everyday life. _spiritual bouquet._ "i am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid." (ps. cxv. .) the stable "_mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart._" (st luke ii. .) _ st prelude._ mary and joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. _ nd prelude._ grace to ponder with mary _point i._--the birth of her son "she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger." she has seen his face at last; she has folded him in her arms and pressed him to her bosom--her son and her god. and she ponders--she meditates--she cannot tell her thoughts to any human soul--but she can tell them to her son. _dico ego opera mea regi._ i will speak of my works to the king. (ps. xliv. .) many works had been wrought in and through mary by the holy ghost, but they were all the king's secrets, and she pondered over them, speaking of them to him alone. there was her vow of virginity, which she did not even speak of to her parents; there was the visit of the king's messenger, of which she spoke to no one--not to elizabeth, nor even to st joseph; there was the painful journey to bethlehem, and the difficulty about finding a lodging. she might have told st luke all about it, and had it all written down in the gospel--but no, there is not a word except the mere fact that they went to bethlehem, and that there was no room for them in the inn. her sufferings were those of the king, and she shared them with him alone. and now that she has got her jesus, she spends her time in pondering--in telling him her thoughts and her secrets, which are his too. how much i should gain if i could be a little more like my mother in this!--if, instead of being so ready to go and talk of all the things that have been said and done to me, or of what i have said or done, or of what i have had to suffer, i were just to speak to my king about it--let it be something between us which nobody else knows anything about. it may often be my duty to speak, as it was mary's later on, when she was obliged, for example, to tell st luke all about the angel's visit and what he said to her, because god wanted that piece of revelation to be written. but this was later. she did not go at once and tell elizabeth all about it. let us learn from mary to let our _first_ words, at any rate, be for our king; and, if this is so, it is probable that in many cases the matter will go no further, and others as well as ourselves will be saved from the miseries which so often follow from our being too ready to talk. _dico ego opera mea regi._ to _him_ i can never say too much, and he loves those silent heart-to-heart colloquies. he loves the things which are talked over with him only--the king's secrets. _point ii._--the shepherds "they came with haste, and they found mary and joseph, and the infant lying in a manger." and during their visit they "understood," and went away to tell the good news to wondering listeners, leaving mary still pondering. each moment of her son's life on earth brings her fresh matter for meditation. she has scarcely time to think of the miraculous birth before she hears "a multitude of the heavenly army" proclaiming the birth, praising god, and telling of the glory that is being given to him, and of the peace that is being brought to earth. and mary realises that she no longer has her babe all to herself, that heaven and earth claim him. then the shepherds arrive; and after they have adored the saviour who is born to them, they tell his mother of all the wonders of that night: of the angel of the lord who suddenly stood by them in the night watches; of the "brightness of god"; of how they feared; of how the angel bid them: "fear not"; of the good tidings that he brought, and of the great joy which was to be for everyone; that the angel had actually told them that the child was the messias, and that he had given them the strangest sign by which they could know him--he will be wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger! and lastly, how they had come in haste, as soon as the angels had gone back to heaven, and had found it all to be true. what joy this beautiful, simple, story must have brought to the mother's heart! what fresh subjects for meditation now were hers! what a tender welcome she would give to these simple shepherds, whom god had picked out for such signal favours, and had allowed to be the first worshippers of her son! how she would realise all the "great things" that god was doing now that she heard them from the mouths of these "little ones" to whom god had revealed them! (st matt. xi. .) how graciously she would accept the poor offerings of these poor men to her child who had chosen to be poor! and how proud she would be that she, as his mother, had the right to lift that little hand, to convey the blessing which his heart was giving to those who were going to be his first witnesses and apostles. "mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart." how easy meditation was to mary! why? because she lived always in the closest possible union with jesus. if i find my meditations difficult, let me examine myself, and see whether the cause may not be that my union with him is not so close as it was, that i have let something come between us, that i am not telling all my secrets to the king. if this is so, let me hasten to put things right with him; and then i shall find again that my most precious moments are those in which i can devote my thoughts entirely to my king and ponder over the simple stories told of him and his blessed mother. _colloquy._ _the alma redemptoris mater_:--"sweet mother of our redeemer, gate whereby we enter heaven, and star of the sea, help us, we fall; yet do we long to rise. nature looked upon thee with admiration when thou didst give birth to thy divine creator, thyself remaining before and after it a pure virgin. gabriel spoke his _hail_ to thee; we sinners crave thy pity." (_anthem from advent to the purification._) _resolution._ to ponder more and speak less. _spiritual bouquet._ "dico ego opera mea regi." the circumcision of mary's son "_and after eight days were accomplished that the child should be circumcised, his name was called jesus, which was called by the angel before he was conceived._" (st luke ii. .) _ st prelude._ mary with her child. _ nd prelude._ grace to learn more about them both. _point i._--the circumcision after one week of peace and joy, mary is called upon to suffer with, and on account of, her son. the law of god is clear. "on the eighth day, the infant shall be circumcised." (lev. xii. .) and there is no doubt in the minds of mary and joseph, that, though the holy child has no need of the rite which probably cleansed away original sin, he must nevertheless submit to it, as being part of his father's law, every jot and tittle of which he has come to fulfil. so jesus, of his own free will, classes himself with sinners, and offers to god the firstfruits of that blood which he will shed for them on calvary. the circumcision of her son means much to mary; she sees him suffer; she hears his cry of pain; she sees the blood flow; and she understands that to be the mother of god means being the _mater dolorosa_; and now she has fresh matter for her meditations. her son is to be the victim for sin, and she unites her sacrifice to his. the rite of circumcision was to the jew a sign of the covenant that god had made with his nation--it marked him out as one of god's own people; it was a mark of his dependence on god, and also of his slavery to sin till god set him free. "circumcision is that of the heart," st paul tells us, "in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of god." (rom. ii. .) by assisting with mary at the circumcision of her son, i mean that i want to understand something of this circumcision of the _heart_--understand, that is, that god has made a covenant with me, that i belong to him, and am dependent on him; i mean that i am ready with the knife of mortification to cut away all that prevents me from being a good servant, ready to "resist unto blood," if need be, but, at any rate, ready to make myself a victim with jesus, as mary did, willing to suffer anything which he calls upon me to suffer. _point ii._--his name--jesus his name was chosen by his heavenly father, and revealed both to mary and joseph before his birth--to mary by the angel gabriel at the annunciation, and to joseph by the angel who was sent to allay his suspicions about his wife. jesus--the "name which is above every name"! god gave it him because "he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death--even the death of the cross." (phil. ii. .) he earned his name by the cross, and it was given him at the moment when he shed the first drops of his precious blood. he could have allowed this first shedding of his blood to redeem the world, had he so willed. he could have made it the _redeeming_ blood, but it was not yet his will; his time had not yet come; he wished to live and to suffer long years on earth before he shed the blood which he intended to be efficacious for the redemption of the world. "thou shalt call his name jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." (st matt. i. .) and when at length he did shed his redeeming blood on calvary, there was a title nailed to the cross, proclaiming his name to all: "this is jesus," the saviour. he is saving his people from their sins. it cost him much to be the saviour, and it cost mary much to be the mother of the saviour; but both cheerfully made the sacrifice in advance--both entered into god's plan for my salvation. jesus had come to do his father's will--he was content to do it--and his mother was content to be identified in everything with her son, and to say her _fiat_. if my salvation cost jesus and mary so much, ought it not to cost me something too? would it be fair if all were easy and smooth for me? surely not. surely, if i have a part in the saviour, i ought to have a part in his cross. let the thought of the holy babe shedding his first drops of blood on his mother's knee brace me up to meet suffering, of whatever kind god chooses for me; let it hush my murmurs and my discontent; let it make me not only willing but anxious to suffer, and thus to have an opportunity of being like him, who was in such a hurry to shed his blood, that it seemed as though it were too long for him to wait till calvary. he must make the sacrifice in advance, and offer at any rate the firstfruits of his blood to his father. _colloquy_ with mary, who is identifying herself with the sufferings, intentions, and desires of her son. teach me, my mother, not only to expect but to appreciate suffering. how can i be like jesus, and a child of thine without it? i want to look upon it always as a sign of love, as a sign that i am recognised as one of the holy family. _resolution._ to understand that my very existence on earth means suffering, and that my identification with jesus and mary means suffering willingly and cheerfully. _spiritual bouquet._ "i come to do thy will, o my god." her purification "_they carried him to jerusalem to present him to the lord._" _ st prelude._ jesus, mary, and joseph going to the temple. _ nd prelude._ grace to go too, and learn the lessons. _point i._--mary's purification it is the fortieth day after the birth of her son, the day when it is mary's turn to keep the legal observances, and so to identify herself in all things with her son. there is no need for her to be purified, before she is allowed to enter god's temple; neither is there any need for her to present her firstborn in the temple and pay the ransom money for him, for his name is saviour and he is himself the ransom for his people. there is no _need_; but mary gladly does both, that she may enter more closely into the spirit of her son, who had undergone the rite of circumcision. how many unnecessary humiliations and unpleasant duties do i undertake just for the sake of identifying myself with jesus and mary, and sharing their spirit? we may imagine the holy family quietly setting out for their two hours' walk to the temple, attracting no more notice than was usually attached to an event so common. passing remarks were probably made as to its being the first time she was out; as to the disparity in their age; as to their poverty, for joseph was carrying two doves, the offering of the poor, to be offered by mary for her purification. ah, how little the world sees! extraordinary things are going on, though they are hidden, as is ever god's wont, under things most ordinary. mary, the purest of creatures, the virgin of virgins, the queen of heaven, of angels and of men, is bearing in her arms the lord of glory, who is on his way to visit his temple for the first time, and thus to fill it with a greater glory than ever solomon's temple had possessed. angels are worshipping and adoring at every step of that journey, and presently they will throw open wide the gate of the temple to let the king of glory in. and the humble and silent joseph is playing a part which no jew before or since has ever played; for though the verdict of the world is that he is too poor to afford to take a lamb, in reality he is too rich to need one, for is he not bringing to the temple the lamb of god--an offering which no one has ever been rich enough to make before? let us try to see things and judge them from god's point of view--not from the world's. _point ii._--the presentation of her son this involved three sacrifices. ( ) the sacrifice made by jesus. _ecce venio._ "lo, i come to do thy will, o my god." he has come to the temple to offer himself as a sweet-smelling sacrifice to his father. this is the morning sacrifice--the evening sacrifice will be on calvary. this is like the _offertory_ at mass, when the priest offers to god the bread and wine which he will use presently to accomplish the sacrifice at the consecration. he is the "firstborn amongst many brethren," (rom. viii. ), that is why he must be presented in the temple. he is our elder brother. he represents us all, and answers to god for all those who are united to him. he offers himself as a ransom that all the rest of the family may go free. am i prepared to ratify this offering that my elder brother made in my name? have i any right to claim the privileges? yes, if i am united with him, identified with him; if i am saying as he did: "behold, i come to do thy will," and this in the little sacrifices of my everyday life. ( ) the sacrifice made by mary. _ecce ancilla._ "behold the handmaid of the lord." mary knows perfectly well what she is doing when she puts her jesus into the arms of the priest. she knows that she is offering to god the firstfruits--the earnest of what is to come; and she makes her sacrifice whole-heartedly, zealously, lovingly. she said her _fiat_ at the incarnation, and she will never take it back. she is his mother--it is with blood drawn from her veins that he will one day redeem the world; and she offers to god now, not only the victim who is to be the redeemer, but herself as a co-victim--herself to suffer with him. "behold the handmaid of the lord"--ready to give him all that he requires. how perfectly mary identifies herself with jesus! it is her intense love which enables her to copy so exactly. ( ) the sacrifice made by joseph. _ecce adsum._ "behold, i am here too, ready for any sacrifice." joseph is so closely connected with jesus and mary that he must share their spirit and do what they do. but his sacrifice is made in the dark, as ours are for the most part. he does not know what jesus and mary are doing. he cannot gauge the extent of their sacrifices--enough for him to unite his intention with theirs, and to offer with perfect detachment his two treasures to god, begging him to use them as he will. am i ready to make my sacrifice--even a blind one--ready to say: _ecce adsum_--"behold, here i am"--and to trust where i cannot understand? _point iii._--the first dolour the sacrifice was no sooner made than god took mary at her word. simeon, holding "the christ of the lord" in his arms, called him "the _salvation_ which thou hast prepared; a light to the revelation of the gentiles and the glory of thy people israel." and while his father and mother were wondering at these things which were spoken concerning him, simeon addressed himself to "mary his mother," and spoke in no hidden language of the passion; and the sword pierced her soul, for though she knew it all, it was the first time she had heard it from the lips of another. it was the first of the _seven dolours_. she heard that her child was to be:-- . "... _for the fall of many_": that is, the _ruin_ of many. what a lifelong sorrow for the heart of mary to know that for many her son's passion would be in vain--that he was to be the "touchstone," with the result that, in many cases, he would be "rejected of men"! . "... _for a sign which shall be contradicted_." war was to be waged against him in all places, and that to the end of time. this was the treatment he, who had come to be the saviour and the light of the world, was to receive. and then simeon added: "_thy own soul a sword shall pierce_." he identified mary with her son, and spoke not only of his passion but of her compassion. the queen of sorrows was now on her throne; there was no longer any doubt about it. god had accepted her sacrifice. jesus was the victim, and she was his mother--the mater dolorosa. but simeon's prophecy was not the last word that mary was to hear before she left the temple courts, which she loved so well. god, who in his love had permitted the wound, had provided also some balm to be poured into it. a little act of courtesy was waiting for mary to do before she was free to ponder over all that had happened in the temple, and especially over the new revelation which had stabbed her to the quick. well did old anna, the prophetess, know the maiden whose happy childhood had been spent in the temple! how gladly mary went up to her and renewed her friendship with her! how proud she was to show her little son to her! mary was wondering how much anna knew; but she did not speak, she revealed nothing. soon she found out that the holy old woman had been rewarded for her fasting and prayers and vigils, by a special revelation, in consequence of which she "confessed to the lord and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of israel." and mary heard, and balm was poured into that first sword-wound. can i, sweet mother of sorrows, pour balm into that terrible wound? i cannot bear to think of thee going home, pressing thy babe against thy aching heart. let me accompany thee; i will keep close to thee, and i will speak continually of thy child. never will i speak against him--to me, at least, he shall not be a contradiction, but a resurrection from all from which he has come to save me. _colloquy_ with mary, about the _fourth joyful mystery_, and the _first dolour_. _resolution._ to throw in my lot with jesus and mary. _spiritual bouquet._ "ecce adsum." wise men and babes "_thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged when the strength of the gentiles shall come to thee._" (isaias lx. .) _ st prelude._ a picture of the wise men. _ nd prelude._ grace to understand that nearness to jesus and mary means the cross. _point i._--the wise men mary had much to meditate about as she turned her steps homewards to bethlehem. she knew, for the angels had said so at his birth, that her son was to be the saviour for "all the people"; but simeon in his song of praise had gone further, and said that he was to be for "all peoples," emphasising the fact that he was to be "a light to the revelation of the _gentiles_." and so the subjects to ponder over were ever increasing, and mary's heart was ever enlarging. she had now to pray for the great world outside, as well as for god's chosen people. thus was her heart being prepared to receive the next worshippers at the shrine of the infant god, and it may be that when they arrived--perhaps soon after the first anniversary of her son's birth--it was no surprise to her that they were _gentiles_. "gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising; they shall come from afar, bringing gold and frankincense and showing forth praise to the lord." (isaias lx. - .) all this was fulfilled in the little house at bethlehem. the wise men, firstfruits of the gentile world, had had faith enough to overcome every obstacle, and during their journey of, perhaps, some months, had had but one idea--namely, to follow the star which god had put in the heavens for them, and by its means to find the new king, who was to be their saviour. mary's prayers had no doubt helped them to make light of their many difficulties, and when their star had brought them right to the house which they sought, "they entered in and found the child with mary, his mother." they were quite at home at once; their faith was so strong, that the unexpected surroundings and the poverty did not strike them as incongruous. they had found what they sought, and their joy and satisfaction were complete. as soon as they were in the real presence their conversion was an accomplished fact. mary showed them her child, "and falling down they adored him." it was to _mary_ that they offered their gifts out of gratitude for all that the holy child, to whom they felt that they now belonged, had done for them. it was _mary_ whom they thanked for her gracious hospitality. it was _mary_ who guided the little hand to bless them ere they took their departure. it was to _mary_ that they explained that from henceforth their lives would be devoted to the service of the new king and the spreading of his kingdom among the gentiles. it was _mary_, the mother of the way, who bade them godspeed on their journey. how interested she was in those first great converts from the gentiles! how their visit widened her outlook, and enlarged her maternal heart! she is not less interested now in converts than she was then. she has been praying for them ever since. "mary's prayers shall bring them back." let us remember this when we are dealing with them; we are not working alone. mary, the great advocate, is pleading with her son. let us bring them, as often as we can, into the real presence--they may be all unconscious, but _he_ is not. he will act upon them. virtue will go out of him to them: they will not go empty away, for it is impossible for them to be under the direct rays of his presence without being influenced. _point ii._--the baby martyrs their visit over, the three kings took leave of the holy child and his mother, and, warned by god not to go and give their good news to herod, they returned to their country by another way. this so exasperated herod that he gave an order which plunged not only bethlehem but all the neighbourhood into the most profound grief and desolation. how the heart of mary went out in sympathy to the bereaved mothers! how big her heart felt as it dilated to take them all in! she understood now what it meant to be the mother of sorrows, and that only by having this title could she have the other--_consolatrix afflictorum_ (consoler of the afflicted). how quickly simeon's prophecy was being fulfilled! her son was already a sign being contradicted, in those hebrew mothers and their innocent babes. each mother was sacrificing her babe that mary might not have to sacrifice hers. each babe was giving its life to save the life of jesus. their sufferings were all because of jesus and mary. how the sword pierced mary's heart as she heard the bitter cries of mothers and children! "poor banished children of eve," born to sorrow and trouble! but from henceforth their cause will be espoused by a "most gracious advocate," who will take a special interest in all troubles and sufferings that come to her children on account of the sacrifices that they make for her son, or which are caused by their nearness to him. at that moment of anguish the jewish mothers _were_ making a sacrifice, though it was an unwilling one and made in ignorance. god, in his mercy, rewards even such. had their children lived, they might have been among the murderers of jesus; now they are saved from all sin, they escape purgatory, and, the first to give their lives for him, they will follow the lamb for ever. happy little innocents! happy those who have the honour to be their mothers! happy all those who make the least sacrifice for him! and happy, thrice happy, the queen of martyrs, who is now entering into the possession of her new kingdom! the more closely i am identified with jesus and mary, the more i must expect suffering. the training for the kingdom is the same, whether for wise men or babes. the wise men learnt from the child on mary's knee to view suffering in a new light, and they went back to their country prepared to sacrifice all for the child and his mother, shrinking from nothing till they laid down their lives for him whose star they had so diligently followed. so simeon's sword is piercing; the cross is already showing that the followers of the babe are to be victims too--all is getting clearer and clearer to mary, and as she wonders her heart is enlarged. _colloquy_ with mary. _resolution._ to follow the generosity of the wise men and the babes. _spiritual bouquet._ "mater dolorosa, consolatrix afflictorum, regina martyrum, ora pro nobis." egypt "_that it might be fulfilled which the lord spake by the prophet, saying: out of egypt have i called my son._" (st matt. ii. .) _ st prelude._ picture of jesus, mary, and joseph. _ nd prelude._ grace to believe that no circumstances in which god has placed me can hinder my spiritual life. _point i._--the flight into egypt only one child escaped the cruel sword of herod, and that one was mary's son. he was safe in the arms of his mother, who was fleeing with him into egypt, with an anguish of heart so great that it constituted the _second dolour_. but no design of herod, however powerful and clever, could touch that life before his hour was come. the child knew it, and his mother knew it--yet they fled from those who sought his life; for in all things mary's son must be made like unto his brethren. he could have protected himself, had he so wished, without giving so much trouble and anxiety to his parents. he heard "rachel bewailing her children"; he heard the cry of each one of those little innocents, who was giving his life for him--yet he did not raise a finger to prevent all the misery, because he had come to do his father's will, and he left all in his hands; and also because he is our model, and he was showing us how to act. he wants us to have a perfect acquiescence in god's will, a boundless confidence, a profound peace, and even _joy_, in the midst of the most trying and perplexing circumstances. he wants us to lie quiet in god's arms, as he lay in his mother's, content to know nothing except that god's will is being done. he who knew least about it all, and yet had apparently to take the chief part and bear all the anxiety, was joseph. he it was who received the warning message from the angel; he it was who had to break the news to mary that the child's life was in danger and that they must fly immediately--even in the middle of the night. he it was who took the child and his mother into egypt, in accordance with what to anyone else but joseph would have seemed a very arbitrary and unreasonable command. but those who live their lives close to jesus and mary do not criticise god's dealings: such an idea never occurs to them; they have only one thing to do--to obey. when a criticising, discontented spirit comes over me, i shall find that the reason is always the same--i have not been keeping close to jesus and mary. how much mary suffers during that long journey across the desert--anxiety, fatigue, hunger, thirst, want of shelter! but it is all on account of her son; the sword is piercing her heart every day, but the babe is pressed against the wounds. angels are following and longing to help their queen, but they cannot without a permission from their little master, and the permission will not be given, for he and his mother have made their sacrifice--they have laid themselves on the altar as victims and are already being consumed; and the desert is rejoicing and flourishing like the lily, (isaias xxxv. ), because mary with her child is passing through it. o mary, look upon thy children who are crossing the desert of this world. the wilderness has lost all its terrors since thou with thy son didst pass through it. thou knowest its difficulties and its hardships; "turn, then, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, jesus." _point ii._--the land of egypt mary now finds herself in a heathen land, and her interest in the gentiles must have greatly increased. but her heart is also enlarged in another direction--namely, towards the jews of the dispersion. legend tells us that it was at heliopolis, one of the cities where the egyptian jews lived and where they had built a temple, that the holy family took up their abode while they stayed in egypt. what a blessing and a joy to those faithful souls to have the holy family living amongst them! how it must have stirred up their zeal and courage! it may have been mary's influence on many a mother's heart, and the influence of jesus on many a little playmate, which produced in after years some of the great preachers to the gentiles who came from amongst the jews of the dispersion. it was not for nothing that mary and her son were sent into egypt. god has his reasons, though he does not often reveal them, because he loves to have our confidence. now, for a time--_perhaps_ only for a few months, for herod died soon after the slaughter of the innocents--egypt was the centre of the world; nobody guessed it, but the angels were there worshipping, adoring, wondering. it is a true picture of the blessed sacrament, hidden away in so many tabernacles, surrounded by people who do not suspect its presence. it is nothing to thousands who pass by. but what is it to those who know? what was jesus to mary in the land of her exile? he was her all--_with him_ exile was no exile; _with him_ god's will was easy, god's arrangements the best; _with him_ it was impossible to complain, impossible to have any regrets about the past, or impatient wonderings about the future. she was absorbed in the present, because she had jesus with her. he had to be taken care of, fed, taught, thought about, worked for, lived for. what a lesson for those who are inclined to look upon their surroundings as _egypt_, who say too readily: "how shall we sing the song of the lord in a strange land?" (ps. cxxxvi. .) how can i do this or that _here_? it was in egypt that the child grew, and it was there that mary heard his first words, watched his first tottering steps, and taught him his first (vocal) prayers. and while her child grew in wisdom and age, mary was growing too--growing in grace and virtue; imbibing more and more of the spirit of her son from the services she rendered to him; making great progress in her new school, the school of the cross; getting daily more food for meditation and prayer; enlarging her heart and preparing herself to be a second eve--the mother of all living. it _is_ possible, then, to grow in egypt! and not only is it _possible_, but if god sends me there, it is the soil most suitable for my growth at that particular epoch of my life. how many of god's children have had to live in uncongenial surroundings, and with those who have no sympathy with their faith, from the earliest confessors and martyrs to the present-day converts to the faith! if jesus had spent all his lifetime in the holy land, such might have been tempted to say: "he is my model, but he was never in my circumstances!" but no, jesus spent some time with his mother in egypt, and he _grew_ there. let me learn the lesson that god is with me wherever i am and in whatever circumstances; and let me try to copy mary in being so absorbed by him, and by all that i have to do for him, in the person of his "least brethren," that my surroundings matter little. _point iii._--the return from egypt "be thou there until i shall tell thee," was the only order given to joseph--there was no hint of how long the time would be; and so mary said her _fiat_ each day, ready either to stay in egypt or to go back to her own land--both were the same to her as long as they were the expression of god's will. at last the angel came again with a message: "arise and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of israel; for they are dead that sought the life of the child." their own dear land, then, was no longer dangerous to them. god gave his reasons this time--but when he does not, what then? then my faith must be strong enough to believe that the fair land, which looks as if it would be so congenial, holds dangers for me which egypt does not; there are enemies there who seek after my soul to destroy it, and whom i can only escape by the hard discipline of egypt. then i will be thankful for egypt as long as it lasts, and thankful, too, that my life--every detail of it--is arranged for me by one who _knows_. and so the faces of mary and jesus were set towards the land of israel--and to them both it meant calvary. mary would doubtless have preferred to take her son back to bethlehem, and bring him up near the temple, but again the warning voice told them that it was not god's will. and so they "retired into the quarters of galilee," and mary found herself back again in nazareth--the city of so many memories; and two more of the prophecies concerning her son have been fulfilled: "out of egypt have i called my son," and, "he shall be called a nazarene." _colloquy._ o mary, get thy child grace to learn some of the precious lessons that egypt has to teach--that blind obedience and submission which bring perfect rest; that waiting for god's orders without any complaining, or impatience, or suggestions of something else; that quiet uniting of all sufferings with those of jesus; that entire acquiescence in all his plans for me. _resolution._ to put no obstacle in the way of god's direction of me to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "fly into egypt, and be there until i shall tell thee." mary's fifth word "_and his mother said to him: son, why hast thou done so to us? behold, thy father and i have sought thee sorrowing._" (st luke ii. .) _ st prelude._ a picture of mary and joseph finding jesus in the temple. _ nd prelude._ grace to seek jesus as our lady sought him. _point i._--the loss of her son once more the holy family has come up to the temple; and it is here that mary speaks her next recorded word. her son was not yet born when she spoke her last. since then he has been her constant companion through infancy and boyhood, in trouble and in joy, at bethlehem, in egypt, and at nazareth. he is twelve years old now, and counts under the law as a man; it is time to decide his calling in life. he is old enough to go with his parents to the passover feast at jerusalem. so once again the real passover lamb goes up to his temple; and we can think of mary and joseph praying there to the child who is kneeling between them, mary pondering over her last visit to the temple with him, when she presented him to the lord as a little baby and when the sword pierced her soul for the first time. when it was all over, the child jesus "remained in jerusalem," without saying anything to his parents! it was only when they halted for the night that mary and joseph would find out their loss, for the men and women left the temple by different gates, and the children might go with either group. mary had lost her child! it was the third of the _seven dolours_, and it has been revealed to the saints that her spiritual desolation was greater than that ever experienced by any of god's children. not only was she suffering intense desolation, but her grief was enhanced by the fear that he had left her because she had done something of which he did not approve. she also had to bear the sight of her dearly loved spouse "sorrowing," perhaps blaming himself for his want of care, and in any case not so well able as she to bear the anxiety and grief. mary shows us how to act in our times of desolation. diligently she searched for him during those three days, "in the company among their kinsfolks and acquaintance," and in all the places where he had been. then they retraced their steps to jerusalem. no time was lost, no pains were spared; they sought him sorrowing for his loss, and for any fault that might be theirs. how jesus loves to be sought thus! it is one of his reasons for hiding himself, to force us back to the company where we enjoyed his presence, to the places where we had him with us, and to everything that reminds us of what he said to us and what we said to him. he is not far from the souls that thus seek him. _point ii._--they found him in the temple it was the most natural place to find him. do i in my times of desolation turn instinctively to his house, where i know that he is hidden? do i feel that i must spend all the time i possibly can close to the tabernacle, that my body, at any rate, may be near to him, while my spirit is calling out in its distress: "oh, that i knew where i might find him!" who can measure what must have been mary's joy and relief when she saw her son sitting in the midst of the doctors, listening to their teaching! she "wondered"; she was perplexed; and then it was that she uttered her fifth word. it was a word of reproach rather than of joy, though it was joy that caused it, and the reproach was full of tenderness. st bernardine calls this word, _flamma amoris saporantis_, "a flame of savouring or relishing love," because, he says, it belongs to love to "distinguish and discern, and, as it were, taste the divine effects and qualities of that which is loved." it was her love which made mary _savour_ the intense pain caused by the absence of her son and by the anxiety of her spouse. the flame of love within her enabled her to _relish_ both the love and the pain. mary does not try to conceal her pain--that is not the outcome of true love. she says straight out what she is feeling, with that holy familiarity to which her love gives her a right: "son, why hast thou done so to us? behold, thy father and i have sought thee sorrowing." why? none knew better than he what the agony of those three days had been to his mother, and he could have prevented it. why, then, has he done so? because he was beginning the principle which he carried out all through. he was the "man of sorrows," and she was the "mother of sorrows," and he would not spare her one drop in the cup of suffering. he knew its value too well, and his love for her was too great. when we have to undergo suffering that seems so unnecessary and that could (perhaps we think) with a little forethought have been so easily avoided, instead of allowing ourselves to give way to discontent, and regrets, and even rebellion, how much better it would be to say: yes, it is quite true, jesus could have prevented this, but he is treating me in some degree as he treated his blessed mother, not saving me the pain and trouble and inconvenience, but letting me have the opportunity of sanctifying my soul and of gaining greater merit. "why hast thou done so?" and he answers: "did you not know that i must be about my father's business?" by his answer he prepares his mother for the future; he raises her above the human in him to the divine; he announces himself, though obscurely, to the doctors as the messias; he teaches the great lesson of detachment, and shows that even our best natural affections must be supernaturalised. "my father's business"--that must ever come first. "for this came i into the world," (st john xviii. ), and i _must_ be about it, even if by so doing i give pain to those dearest to me. they were her son's first recorded words, and mary "understood" them not; they were words full of mystery and full of meaning; her mingled feelings of pain and relief, of sorrow and joy, would prevent her from seeing the gist of their meaning at once; but as time went on, and her spiritual horizon increased, she would understand more and more what his "father's business" was, though perhaps not till she stood at the foot of the cross did she understand the words in all their fulness. "_why hast thou done so?_" it is a question mary often puts to her other children--sometimes in surprise and amazement, sometimes in anxiety and sorrow, sometimes in love and tenderness. well for us if we can always answer, like our elder brother: the "father's business." this is an answer which will always satisfy the flame of love within her which prompts the question. _colloquy_ with mary, asking for grace that i may be so taken up with my "father's business" that i cause her no anxiety. _resolution._ to put my "father's business" first, to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "why hast thou done so to us?" nazareth "_and he went down with them, and came to nazareth, and was subject to them. and his mother kept all these words in her heart. and jesus advanced in wisdom and age, and grace with god and men._" (st luke ii. .) _ st prelude._ jesus, mary, and joseph going back to nazareth. _ nd prelude._ grace to go there too, and to study its lessons. _point i._--mary with jesus and joseph the lesson has been given now; jesus has shown his parents that he is the son of god before he is the son of mary; that god's will, and god's business, and god's work, are the reasons for his being on earth. now, because he is perfect man, he will live for eighteen years in subjection to his parents, to show us that subjection is one of god's laws; that the father's business can only be done by a perfect submission to his will and to his orders, expressed and given by those under whom his providence places us. all the direction needed for the spiritual life is contained in these two sentences: "_i must be about my father's business_," and "_he was subject to them_." the father's business is to be done in his way--not in mine; it will only be done by a perfect submission of my will to his, by subjection all along the line, by the crushing of self. his mother kept all these words in her heart. as she went home she was pondering and meditating again. she had no need to make a "_composition of place_," as she had to do a few hours ago, for her boy was at her side once again; it was upon his words that she was meditating. they had made her realise that he was a man now, that he would have "business" to do that she must no longer expect wholly to understand. no doubt she prepared herself in her meditation to be ready from henceforth to find that his sweet, childish, obedience was over. just as we, in our meditations, make the sacrifice beforehand about something that we dread, and then when we come up to it during the day, it is not there! but god is pleased, nevertheless, that we made our sacrifice. one of the many uses of meditation is that we may be fore-armed for the day's battles. so it was with mary. when she got back to nazareth, it is true that there was a change; it is true that the boyhood of her son was fast passing into manhood; but his subjection was the same--only it was far more touching to his mother's heart just because he was no longer a child. and what was mary's part? if jesus was "subject," mary had to command; if jesus obeyed, it was because mary gave her orders--and this till he was thirty years old! what an absolute repression of self and of her own ideas there must have been in mary before she could bring herself to give an order to him whom she was worshipping as her god! with what reverence, and honour, and humility, and searchings of heart, and preparation, and care she would give her orders! only the knowledge that it was his wish that she should stand in god's place to him, could have given her courage. her authority over him was god's authority, and it was only by constantly referring it to god that she dared to maintain it. what a lesson mary gives here to parents and superiors and to all whose duty it is to command others! whether they have to command the unruly and the unsubmissive, or those whom they know to be in every way superior to themselves, a few thoughts suggested by the contemplation of mary commanding her son at nazareth may help to make easier a position which must often be irksome and difficult:-- . god has put me into this position because he intends me to be his delegate. . my orders are all given in his name, and all my authority refers back to him. . my only sure weapons are--_humility_, that is, a real belief in my own weakness; and _self-effacement_, to the extent of letting those who are under me see, not me, but god, in my orders. . i must see jesus in all whom i command. if they are thankless and unruly, they are nevertheless amongst his "least brethren," and he wants them trained to live with their elder brother in his father's house. if they are already so like him in their docility and humility that the very sight of them makes me adore god in them, i will remember that mary gave her orders to jesus because god wished it; and that thought will give me courage to be his faithful representative and to give those under my care every possible opportunity of advancing in wisdom and grace by the submission of their will. . i must be firmly persuaded that god never puts anyone into a position without giving the grace to fill it. mary needed far more grace to command jesus than ever i shall need! _point ii._--mary a widow neither sacred nor profane history gives the exact date of that sad day in mary's life when death deprived her of her beloved spouse. joseph had shared all mary's sacred joys and sorrows from her school-days. he it was who had trained her son in his work as a carpenter; and to him alone could she speak freely of him. what a wonderfully happy and blessed death must have been st joseph's--the last people he saw, jesus and mary; his last messages given to jesus and mary; all he had to leave, left to jesus and mary; the last words he heard, those of jesus and mary! he is the _patron of a good death_: that is, he will help those who invoke him, to die with jesus and mary. and now from henceforth mary will have no one to talk to about her son, no one to share her joy in all these new lessons which she is ever learning from him. but, on the other hand, from henceforth her son will be her _all_. he, who later raised the dead man because "he was the only son of his mother and she was a widow," knew how to wipe away the tears from his mother's eyes. he knew how to be to her more than a husband. from henceforth the son and the mother were all in all to each other--he her sole support, and she keeping the little home for him alone. they were alone for their meals, and alone in the evenings when the day's work was done. it may have been during those blessed evenings that jesus explained to mary what his "father's business" was, so that she might understand all about it; that he unfolded to her the wonderful plan of redemption; that he told her about his public life, about the church that he was going to found, and which she was to nurse during its infancy. perhaps he told her, too, of the extension of the incarnation--his great secret, the blessed sacrament. who had a greater right to know it than mary, through whose means the incarnation took place? and as the time of the hidden life drew to a close, he would explain to her that his "father's business" was calling him away from nazareth, that he would have to give up his home and his life with her, but that they would still work together for the redemption of the world, their interests would still be one. oh, blessed converse! the secrets of jesus and mary! more than ever was her heart being enlarged; more than ever would she have need to ponder these things in her heart. with the undivided attention of such a master, what progress she must have made in virtue and in grace! _point iii._--mary alone but the day came at last when her son was to leave their little home. mary knew that it would come; again she had made her sacrifice beforehand, and she was ready. she was saying her _fiat_ while simeon's ever-active sword was piercing her heart. there was the last meal, the last kiss, the last blessing--and he was gone. she watched him till he was out of sight and then turned to her empty house. it would never be the same again. never again would she have him all to herself. but mary was a "valiant woman," and no grief of hers would spoil her son's work. three thoughts supported her in her trial; and the same three will support us in our trials too. . this separation was god's will--and that was always dearer to mary than _anything_ else. . the very sacrifice of her son that she was called upon to make, was a proof of her union with him and with his interests. . the knowledge that the separation was no real separation. it is true that never again will he come in from his work and share the simple meal with her; true that there will be no more talking over their plans together; but such a perfect union as theirs cannot be broken by separation. does not everything in the house speak of him? mary has had her time of _consolation_; now she is to have her time of _desolation_. let me learn from her how to act under these changed conditions, which are sure to be mine at some time or other in my life. how does mary act? does she sit still and mourn over the days that are gone? not at all. she acts as though they were _not_ gone; as though there were no difference between consolation and desolation; there _is_ no difference really, but faith and love must be very strong before this fact can be grasped. mary does her work as usual with her son and for her son. her heart is with him all the time; everything reminds her of him, and she is thinking of him, talking to him, telling him everything just as she did before. how far am i like her? "sedes sapientiæ, ora pro nobis." _colloquy_ with mary, asking her to get me grace to ponder over these wonderful mysteries. _resolution._ never to allow myself to make any change in my spiritual life during a time of desolation. _spiritual bouquet._ "he was subject to them." mary's sixth word "_the mother of jesus saith to him: they have no wine._" (st john ii. .) _ st prelude._ the marriage feast. _ nd prelude._ grace to remember the interest that mary takes in her children. _point i._--"they have no wine" it looks, from the context, as though our blessed lady were staying in the house at cana where the wedding feast took place, for while st john tells us that jesus and his disciples were _invited_, he says that "the mother of jesus was _there_." we need not suppose that she remained long at nazareth after her son began his public ministry--it is more probable that she stayed with friends in the neighbourhood of his work. after this first miracle of her son's, she went with him and his disciples to capharnaum, but "remained there not many days," st john tells us. (chap. ii. .) at all events, she was at cana at the time of the marriage feast, and it may be that it was in st john's house that she was staying; for there is a very old tradition which tells that the bridegroom was none other than john himself. if the tradition be true, it lends an additional significance to this sixth word of our lady; for, as st bernardine suggests, it would probably be the miracle produced by this word which made him decide to give up the wedded state, even before he had entered upon it, for one of perpetual virginity--a decision which endeared him to the hearts of our lord and his blessed mother. eighteen years had passed since mary's last recorded word. it was spoken to our lord himself, as also was this one. st bernardine calls the sixth word "a word of compassionating love" (_flamma amoris compatientis_). we shall see why as we continue our meditation. it is not difficult to picture that little family feast in which jesus and mary took part. their presence produced, as it ever must, joy, peace, and harmony. but now, apparently, there was going to be a hitch in the proceedings; mary's watchful eyes noticed that the wine was running short; she wanted to save the newly married pair from any confusion and humiliation that would spoil their mirth on this glad day, and she showed her _compassionating_ love by anticipating their need. mary is the same now; she is full of compassionating love, pity, and thought for her children; she anticipates their needs and will save them, if possible, from the dangers which threaten them, by telling jesus. what a comfort it should be to me to remember that i have a mother in heaven who is looking out for the difficulties and dangers which threaten me, and doing her best to avert them! how far am i like my mother in this? do i, by my tact and forethought and observation, try to smooth away difficulties and avert little unpleasantnesses that i see lying in the path of another? to what extent is this _flamma amoris compatientis_ burning in me? do others feel that if i am there, not only will there be more joy and mirth, but also more harmony and good feeling--in short, that things are sure to run smoothly, because one of mary's children--"a child of mary"--is there. the mother of jesus was there. _point ii._--the answer of jesus jesus, too, had noticed that the wine was running short, and he knew that he was going to work a wonderful miracle of transubstantiation, foreshadowing the miracle worked at every mass. he knew also that he would not work the miracle till his mother had intervened. at nazareth he made her a participator in all his work. though separated from him, she was still to have her share; and her share was _prayer_--the great work of intercession. by this means, doubtless, she had had her share in her son's baptism, in the fasting and temptation in the wilderness, in the calling of the first six apostles. now, in this first miracle, he will give a lesson to these apostles and show them the position his mother is to occupy in his church. she understands that he addresses her as "woman" rather than as mother, to show them that he, and they too, must be detached from all natural affections and ties. he has his father's business to do, and they have been chosen to help him in it, and she is acting in her _official_ position as intercessor. my hour for working this miracle is not yet come, but now that you have spoken it soon will come, seems to be the meaning of his answer. it was by this miracle that jesus manifested forth his glory, "so that his disciples believed on him." and one of mary's reasons for saying: "they have no wine," and thus asking for the miracle, may have been that she knew it would confirm the faith of the new apostles in her son. what a loving, compassionating mother she already is! how her heart is enlarging to take in all that concerns her son--his work, his interests, his miracles, his apostles! she notices the needs, and just hints them to jesus; there is no need to explain and go into details; they understand each other--it is heart-to-heart work. if the flame of compassionating love is burning in her heart, it is because it has been lighted at the fire of the sacred heart. in after years, especially during the passion and after the ascension, when the apostles must so often have turned to our lady for consolation, help, and direction, how they would look back to the time of the feast in cana of galilee, when they heard her say her first _official_ word: "they have no wine"! and how the remembrance of it would strengthen their faith, not only in him, in whom from that moment they "believed," but also in her whom he had then so clearly pointed out as his co-worker, and as the one from whom they might expect help in their needs. if mary did so much for her children when she was on earth, without even being asked; and if she supplied needs, of which they were scarcely conscious, what will she not do now, when, as the great intercessor at her son's right hand in heaven, she hears the entreaties of her children on earth? she still co-operates with jesus; her work is still to find out the needs of her children and to tell him of them. when i am in need, perplexity, or trouble, what a consolation and strength it would be to remember that this very need of mine is a subject of conversation between jesus and mary; and that, when his hour is come, her pleadings for me will be heard, and the need will be supplied! _colloquy_ with the mother of compassion. "mater misericordiæ, ora pro nobis." _resolution._ to try to-day to prevent little unpleasantnesses happening to others. _spiritual bouquet._ "the mother of jesus was there." her seventh word _his mother saith to the waiters: "whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye."_ (st john ii. .) _ st prelude._ the marriage feast. mary speaking to the waiters. _ nd prelude._ grace to obey. _point i._--love's consummation--obedience the perfect understanding that existed between mary and her son made her quite sure from his answer that all would be well, that a miracle would be worked, and the need supplied; and so she prepared the way for it by speaking her seventh recorded word. it is to the waiters that she speaks--to those whose work it is to minister to the needs of jesus and his brethren. "whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." st bernardine calls this word "a flame of consummating love," (_flamma amoris consummantis_), because mary shows by it that her love for her son and for all her other children is so great, that she desires that all should obey him, and accomplish his commandments perfectly. she is not content with loving and serving him herself, the flame of love that makes her own obedience so perfect, burns that others too may consummate their love by their obedience: "whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." if you want my son to show you some special favour, be very careful about your obedience. mary's word is for _all_ her children, but it is intended principally for the waiters, to whom it was primarily addressed. it is those who have, in any way, to minister to jesus under the guise of his "least brethren," who have to remember so specially that they are to do only what _he_ says--that they are only his agents waiting for his orders. how much better his servants would do their work if they carried out his mother's direction, and did all that he says and only what he says! his "least brethren," who are sick, would never feel neglected, would never hear that impatient word which makes them long to get up, and wait on themselves, instead of being left to the tender mercies of the servants of jesus and mary! his "least brethren" who are tiresome and difficult to get on with--perhaps only because they are lonely and in need of sympathy--would be quite sure of never getting an unkind, cutting, or thoughtless word from those who are waiting on jesus and mary; it is what _he_ saith that they will say and do--nothing else. and amongst the waiters themselves there would be no jealousies, and heart-burnings, and envyings, and criticisms; no thinking that others are preferred to them, that they are left out and taken no notice of, that their services are not wanted. the waiters would remember that they are waiting upon _his_ brethren, and that they have no right to do or say or plan anything that he does not tell them; and if he tells them nothing for the moment, and they have to stand by, and see others do his work, they are nevertheless his servants, waiting for his next orders. "whatsoever he shall say, do." obedience, then, is love's consummation. mary's love--strong flame though it is--cannot get beyond obedience; there is nothing higher; it is the proof, the crown, the consummation of love. when, for the moment, her request seems unheeded--even rejected--her consolation is: "whatsoever he shall say" will be right; whatever it is, it will be the answer for me. "_ecce ancilla domini._" behold the servant waiting. _point ii._--result--water changed to wine the waiters have not long to wait for their orders. when his mother has prepared us and we are standing waiting ready to do "whatsoever" he shall say, the order is quite clear. we know exactly what he means, and what it is that he wants done; and though the order may seem unreasonable, and we run the risk of humiliating ourselves before others, yet we shall do it, for his mother said: "whatsoever." and by doing it we shall prove that our love, like hers, is a consummating love--a love that finds its consummation in obedience. this kind of love is like a fairy's wand; it changes all that it touches, water is wine everywhere--that is, we get the best out of everything; not perhaps immediately, or at any rate we are not so quick to _detect_ the "good wine" as the steward of the feast was; the path of obedience is often, as it was for mary, a path beset with difficulty and sorrow; but love has touched it, the result is the same, the water _is_ changed, and changed into "_good_ wine." it would not be good for us to drink of it to the full now. god reserves the good wine till the end, and when we have well drunk of the cup of suffering and sorrow here, he will hand us the cup of joy that inebriates. here we may only "_taste_ and see that the lord is sweet"; (ps. xxxiii. ); but one day, when the _flamma amoris consummantis_ is perfected in us, when we have done all that he saith to us, and paid our debts even to "the last farthing," (st matt. v. ), then we shall drink to the full of the joy of his countenance, (ps. xv. ), and he will say: "i have inebriated the weary soul, and i have _filled_ every hungry soul." (jer. xxxi. .) _colloquy_ with our lady, asking that i may always hear her voice telling me to obey her son. _resolution._ to remember that obedience turns water into wine. _spiritual bouquet._ "whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." who is my mother? "_my mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of god and do it._" (st luke viii. .) _ st prelude._ our lady standing waiting on the outskirts of the crowd. _ nd prelude._ grace to "hear the word of god and do it." _point i._--his mother standing without this one incident in which mary is mentioned between the time of the marriage at cana and holy week, happened during the second year of her son's ministry. we do not know whether or not she had been near him during this time. according to the opinion of some, she was one of the little band of women who followed him about, to minister to his needs and those of his apostles. but whether she followed him actually or not, we know that her spirit was ever with him, and that she followed him with her prayers, and interest, and sympathy, _knowing_ him more as he manifested himself more by his healing and miracles, and therefore _loving_ him and _imitating_ him more, and _therefore_, growing in grace, of which she was ever full. such, we are quite sure, is a true picture of mary, though this one instance at capharnaum is the only occasion on which we are able to make an actual picture of her. her son had probably come to capharnaum for a rest after one of his missionary rounds; it may be that he had come to have a little time of refreshment with her. and she and his brethren--his relatives--went to meet him, desiring to speak to him. we are not told what it was that they were so anxious to tell him. when they arrived he was already addressing a crowd which was _sitting_ about him, and which was so great that his mother and his brethren could not get near him; and so "they _stood_ without"--on the outskirts--and thus attracted the notice of someone who attracted _his_ notice; someone, in fact, who interrupted him in the middle of his discourse, by telling him that his mother and his brethren wanted him. such is the simple incident, and by it mary affords her son the opportunity of giving two most important lessons to his apostles, and also to those who would, during all time, have any kind of apostolic work to do. _point ii._--a lesson on interruptions he is preaching, and he is interrupted. what does he do? shows, as he had shown so clearly before, when he was only twelve years old, that his "father's business" must come first--that he is perfectly indifferent to all natural ties when that is concerned, and that his followers have got to be the same. he is preaching to the people--that is his work, and not even for a desire of his mother will he interrupt it. he preaches by example what he had already preached by word: "he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that taketh not up his cross and followeth me is not worthy of me." (st matt. x. .) incidentally, he shows us what we may do with our interruptions. we are so prone to let them worry us, to think that they spoil our work, to say: but for these endless interruptions, i could do so much more! what did our lord do with his interruption, which was a very real one, and far more disturbing than are many of ours of which we complain so readily? he turned it into good use, so that his work was the gainer by it and not the loser. if we cannot always follow his example literally by making the interruption a _direct_ help to our work, we can always make it help _indirectly_ by taking it as a message from god, who would give his apostle an opportunity of practising patience, self-control, and self-repression. our work will gain more by these divinely planned interruptions than by the smooth, easy, methods which we had planned for ourselves. _point iii._--a lesson on relationships to the interrupter he said: "who is my mother? and who are my brethren?" and, looking round on them who sat about him, he saith: "behold my mother and my brethren! for my mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of god and do it." it is the same lesson that he gave to the woman, who probably was one of the very crowd he was now addressing, and who could not refrain from proclaiming before everyone the _blessedness_ of his mother. to her he said: "yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of god and keep it." (st luke xi. , .) the lesson, then, is that he holds as his nearest and dearest those who do his father's will. his mother was, it is true, dearer to him than all besides, was, it is true, blessed above all women; but only because she did his father's will more perfectly than any other. who is my mother? any of these in the crowd have as much right to me as she has, if they do my father's will as she does it. this is the lesson that mary is giving him the opportunity of teaching. would i be dear to him as his mother was; would i have that close union of heart; would i see things from his point of view; would i be willing to be put in the background and kept standing there if it furthers the "father's business"; would i be ready to suffer anything for the spread of his kingdom? there is only one way--do as she did. "whosoever shall do the will of my father that is in heaven, the same is my mother." _colloquy_ with mary standing in the background. thou whose unique privilege it is to be the mother of god, teach me to do his will in such a way that i may share in some degree thy _spiritual_ maternity. this was thine by _detachment_--even from the visible presence of jesus, by a perfect _performance of the will of god_, and by _suffering_. by thy ceaseless intercession help me to struggle ceaselessly till i know something of these three things. _resolution._ to prove my close relationship with jesus and mary to-day by the way i do god's will. _spiritual bouquet._ "his mother stood without." the fourth and fifth dolours "_and thy own soul a sword shall pierce._" (st luke ii. .) _ st prelude._ ( ) mary meeting jesus with his cross. ( ) mary witnessing the crucifixion of her son. _ nd prelude._ grace to understand what a precious gift suffering is. _point i._--mary's suffering mary, with the knowledge which she had all her life of her son's passion, must have known when the hour was approaching. she had noticed the ever-increasing envy and hatred of the chief priests. she knew of the various attempts on his life, and of the organised plot to kill him. and when the passion itself began, we may be quite sure that, even if she were not actually a witness of some of the scenes, the apostles kept her informed of what was going on. she would hear of the agony in the garden, of judas' betrayal, of the desertion of the apostles; then of the trials, of the scourging and crowning with thorns, of pilate's vain attempts to save him; _she_ knew that they would be vain. and when at length the death sentence was passed, she set out with the other ministering women to be as near to him as she could while he carried his cross to calvary. _once_, at any rate, on the way of the cross they caught sight of each other, and had that unspeakable consolation which no one could give to jesus but mary, and no one to mary but jesus. but though it was a consolation, it was also an anguish so great, that this meeting of jesus with his blessed mother is counted as one of the seven swords that pierced her heart. it is the _fourth dolour_. then, on calvary's hill, she must have heard, even if she did not see, the nails being driven in; and heard, too, something that gave her strength and courage at that terrible moment--her son speaking to his father, the crowning point of whose "business" he had now reached: "father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." who can measure what the pain of this _fifth dolour_ was to mary! what was it that gave her an almost superhuman courage? the firm belief that everything she saw and heard was god's will; and such was the intensity with which she had said her _fiat_, that his will was nearer to her even than her own sufferings. in proportion as this is the case with us shall we get the good that god intends out of suffering, and join, as mary did, our prayers with those of jesus by asking god's forgiveness for all who cause us suffering. _point ii._--mary's sacrifice then, as soon as the darkness permitted her to draw near without observation, she allowed john to take her to the foot of the cross, and there took up her stand. her sacrifice was very near to its completion now. this is what she meant when she said her _fiat_ to the angel gabriel thirty-three years ago. this is what she meant when she presented him to the lord when he was forty days old. the three days' loss, and the separation when he left his home at nazareth, had been a foreshadowing of this. now the consummation of her sacrifice had arrived: "and there stood by the cross of jesus his mother"! she had never flinched, had never looked back. it had been _fiat_ all along the line. she was a "valiant woman" to the end, bravely doing her part, and offering her son to god. this was mary's sacrifice--but what is her part in the sacrifice that her son is offering to his father for the world's redemption? just this, that she provided the victim. she did not withhold her son--her only son. (gen. xxii. .) jesus on calvary offered himself to the father; and mary assisted--not only by the perfect union of her will and intention with his, but _actually_, by providing him with the body which he was offering to his father. her position was that of the deacon at high mass. his part is not the offering of the sacrifice--the priest alone can do that--but he provides the priest with the bread and wine which he is going to use for the sacrifice, and without which there could be no sacrifice. "a _body_ hast thou prepared me"; and that body came from mary--it was with blood drawn from her veins that he redeemed the world. but the sacrificial act was his, and his alone: "i have trodden the wine-press alone." (isaias lxiii. .) _point iii._--mary's legacy as she stood there taking her part, how her heart was enlarging! he was dying for the whole world--for the whole human race, past, present, and future--and she was his mother; she was standing by and assisting; all his interests were hers. she had seen the conversions worked by him on the way of the cross; she had seen the change in the dying thief; now jesus addressed himself to her, and by his third word from the cross made her the second eve, the mother of all living--of all for whom he was dying. "woman, behold thy son!" again he used the official title--_woman_; he was not treating her now as _his_ mother, but rather as the mother of all. behold thy son; take john for thy son, and with him take the whole human race. he counted on her power of suffering, and it was through that suffering that she became the universal mother. he knew how the sword would stab when she heard that she was to take john in his place, but he knew also that the wound made by that sword-thrust would enlarge her heart to take in her new family. he was dying, and his legacy to his mother was the whole human race. the idea was not a new one to her, for he had been gradually training her up to it, as we have seen, ever since the incarnation. he added another word to make all sure. he spoke now to john as the representative of the human race: "behold thy mother!" the immediate meaning of his words john very well understood--that he was to cherish, support, and take care of her; be a son to her now that her own son was being taken from her. but he had an intention in that word for each one of us. to each and all he said: "_behold thy mother!_" and from that moment all who will, have the right to take her to their own. to what extent have i taken this word seriously? have i really believed that jesus had me in his mind as well as st john when he said: "behold thy mother!" that it was of me that he thought and to me that he spoke? have i felt the responsibility as well as the honour of being a child of mary, and that it is my bounden duty to love and cherish her, to support and take care of her--that is, to stand up for her and shield her from those who _will_ not behold her as their mother? o my mother, i want more than ever to take thee to _my own_, as thy first adopted son did. come home with me, live side by side with me, talk to me of jesus, and thus help to pass the time when you see me getting weary; help me to imitate him as thou didst, and to share his work by my prayer and sacrifice as thou didst. and then, mother, thou wilt always be there to show me what sacrifice really means--how it enters into all the little details of everyday life--to show me what having my will united to thy son's means. thou wilt be there to put a restraining hand upon me and make me live as a child of mary should; thou, to whom jesus was subject, wilt teach me what real submission means. yes, i am decided that to-day it shall be recorded of me in heaven: "from that hour that disciple took her to his own." _colloquy_ with mary. _resolution._ to take mary as the special gift of jesus to me. _spiritual bouquet._ "there stood by the cross of jesus his mother." the sixth and seventh dolours "_and joseph, buying fine linen and taking him down, wrapped him in the fine linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewed out of a rock._" (st mark xv. .) _ st prelude._ a picture of the thirteenth station. _ nd prelude._ grace to be unselfish in my grief. _point i._--mater dolorosa as mary stands at her post, praying for her new family for whom her son is dying, and uniting herself more closely than ever with his intentions, the sword never ceases to pierce afresh her wounded heart. she has to listen to the cry: "i thirst!" from the parched lips and throat of him from whom she had never heard a complaint; and she has to appear to be deaf to his needs. again she hears a cry, more full of agony even than the last: "my god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me!" and she who once lost her son for three days (the _third dolour_) can understand in some small degree the anguish of that cry. then after his next words: "all is consummated," she hears him commend his soul to his father, and she watches him die. she is alone! and not only is she alone, but she has a sense of responsibility. just as on the occasion of a death among us, the one next has to rise to the responsibility and act _at once_, so it was with mary. she was the one _next_. she knew that it was to her that the apostles and all his friends would turn to know what to do--what he would like done. he who had died on the cross "was indeed the son of god," and she was his mother; she, if anyone did, must know all about him. so, although all is over, there is no time for mary to relax and give way to her grief. there is work to be done--work that he has left her. "it is finished" for him, but she is only just beginning her work as mother of the church. and so she still stands at the foot of the cross, reverently worshipping the dead body to which the divinity is still united. her meditation was suddenly interrupted--"one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side"; and again simeon's prophecy was fulfilled: "thine own soul a sword shall pierce." soon followed what is called her _sixth dolour_--the taking down of her son from the cross. he was in the hands of friends now, and all was done with the greatest reverence and loving tenderness. but nothing could stay the sword from piercing mary's heart when she received into her hands the blood-stained crown of thorns and the rough nails. nothing could stay it when she had her jesus once more in her arms, and was able to see for herself the cruel wounds as she washed them and bound them up. then when the precious body had been wrapped in the winding sheet, she accompanied the little cortège which carried it to the tomb. and when, after a few minutes' adoration, she beckoned them all away, and the great stone was rolled to its place, the sword pierced her heart again--it was the _seventh dolour_--the burial of jesus. she allowed john to escort her past the three crosses, along the way which he had trodden, back to the cenacle. "that disciple took her to his own." the next time we make the way of the cross, let us make it with mary as john did. she will explain to us better than anyone else can, the meaning of each "station." mary has left him now, but she is with him still in spirit and in heart--hence her strength. what a lesson she gives us on how to act in times of bereavement! we are never to lose sight of the fact that this particular kind of suffering is intended for our sanctification. this will prevent us from allowing it to make us morbid, selfish, gloomy, inconsiderate, ungrateful, acting as though _our_ suffering were greater than that of everybody else, being exacting and fastidious about things that remind us of our lost one--even of having the name mentioned in our presence! what about our sacrifice? are not all such things as these a part of it? we have no business to add to the trials of others by our tyrannical selfishness. sorrow ought to brace the soul up to greater heights of sanctity; if it depresses it to a lower level of spirituality, there is something very wrong with us. we are not copying mary, neither are we uniting our sufferings to those of jesus--the only way of making them meritorious. let us see to it that our grief is a source of joy and blessing to everyone else in the house. this means self put on one side; it means a smiling face, a bright, cheery, voice in spite of a breaking heart. it means a great sympathy with the grief of others--and it _often_ means that we shall get the credit of not really caring, of not having much depth of affection, not much heart! but this again is part of the sacrifice which we gladly offer if only it may aid suffering in doing its blessed work. there were those, no doubt, who were ready enough to say that mary's calm courage was unnatural. but _we_ know that it was supernatural: let us try to copy her in it. _point ii._--mater misericordiÆ what must have been the grief of the apostles--their friend, teacher, and lord dead, their hopes all dashed, and their consciences ill at ease as they thought of their base desertion of him in his hour of need! they were scattered everyone to his own, but probably one by one they found their way back to the cenacle. it was the last house where they had been all together with him, and it seemed natural to go there again--and besides, his mother was there. she was next to him, and therefore more to them than anyone else could be. _she_ had been faithful to the end. she could tell them more about him than anyone else could. her very voice and manner reminded them of him. somehow, they felt that she would look at things from his point of view, and that if _she_ forgave them for the wrong they had done to her son, _he_ would. then they would learn from john what jesus had said about her with his dying lips--that they might now regard her in very deed as their mother; that she was now in fact the mother of the church which he had founded; and that they could turn to her in their times of perplexity and difficulty. "behold thy mother"--the mother of good counsel and the mother of mercy! was it not just what they wanted? how well he knew! how thoughtful it was of him to leave us mary! and so we may think of mary on holy saturday rallying her new family round her, loving them for her son's sake, making excuses for their weaknesses, as a mother ever does, and putting fresh heart and courage into them. and then we may think of her stealing away to ponder--to make the first meditation on the passion, presenting willingly her heart to the sword once more, that her compassion might fit her for her position as mother of mercy. _colloquy_ with mary, who says to me: for you, too, my child, "i am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. he that hearkeneth unto me shall not be confounded; and they that work by me shall not sin." (ecclus. xxiv. - .) _resolution._ to take my troubles and difficulties to mary to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "mater dolorosa, mater misericordiæ, ora pro nobis." the first glorious mystery "_he shall reign for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end._" (st luke i. , .) _ st prelude._ a picture or statue of our lady. _ nd prelude._ grace to learn from mary how to rejoice. _point i._--mary's easter day "of his kingdom there shall be no end." it was to mary that these words were said, before her son was born; and she believed them. she knew, therefore, that he would rise again; she knew that all was not finished when she left the precious body in joseph's new tomb. in all probability, too, jesus had told her, as he told the apostles, that he would rise again on the third day. and while they "believed not nor understood," _she_ did both. but this supernatural gift of faith, which she exercised to the full, had not the power to prevent the sword from piercing on good friday and holy saturday. she felt the full weight of all her sorrow, but she sorrowed, as all christian mourners should do, "not without hope." what must her expectation have been as she knelt on that holy saturday night counting the minutes till the day dawned! she knew that he would rise again--but would she see him? would he come to her? he had kept her so much in the background during his ministry, perhaps he will do so still, and it will be to those who need him most that he will come. no, sweet mother, the meek and lowly of heart ever attract him; it is to the heart which _desires_ him most that he will come. a pure, disinterested desire to have jesus ever proves to him an invincible attraction. no one on earth desired to see jesus as mary did, and it was to her, as the traditions of the holy fathers testify, that he came first--as soon as the easter day dawned and "death could no longer be holden of him." the evangelists are silent about this appearance of jesus to his blessed mother, for the very good reason that she told them nothing about it. there was no need to do so, as, for example, there was to tell various little details about his birth, because god wished us to know them. at this meeting of the son and the mother even angels would fear to intrude; and we ordinary mortals simply should not understand what took place, even were it narrated to us. all those to whom he appeared would take it for granted that his mother had seen him--why write down a thing that everybody knew? "according to thy faith be it unto thee." mary was the _only_ one who had faith enough to believe that her son would rise again, and it was only natural that she should be the first to see him. she was the one who had entered most deeply into his sorrows, and she would be the one to whom he would first communicate the easter joy. let us now think a little about mary's joy. _point ii._--mary's joy and its causes what joy it must have been to mary to see that precious body which he had taken from her, which she had nurtured and tended and loved, which she had seen so recently covered with scars and gaping wounds! what joy it must have been to her to see it in all the beauty of its resurrection--to see it glorified! her joy was so intense that the saints tell us it was only by a miracle that her body could master her soul and keep it still a prisoner. and then the consolation of knowing that never again would he suffer--the joy of seeing the five wounds and knowing that he would keep them always, as precious memorials of his death and of his victory over death, of his undying love for his church, and of his right to give it all that it should ever claim, because with those wounds he had more than paid for all that it would ever need. mary entered into all these truths as no one else could, and therefore her easter joy was greater than that of anybody else. her joy was greater, too, because her _love_ was greater. her love for jesus was wholly unselfish, and so was her joy; it was wholly on account of the joy of her son. she forgot her own joy for the moment; she forgot the long exile that lay before her; she forgot everything but his joy. her _suffering_ also was indirectly another cause of her joy. our capacity for joy is in proportion to our capacity for suffering. we have seen something of what mary's capacity for suffering was, and so we can understand in some small measure how full was her cup of joy. mary had other joys too, which were incidental to the joy of seeing her son risen and glorified. she saw the saints who rose with him, for he would be sure to present them to his mother. some would need no introduction--her dear spouse st joseph, her parents st joachim and st anne. yes, mary's joys more than made up for her sorrows. one day, if we try to receive our cup of sorrow as mary did, that is, take it _for_ jesus and _with_ jesus, we too shall receive the cup of joy, and we shall be able to say with st paul as we put the two side by side: "the sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory." (rom. viii. .) teach me, o holy mother of god, something of this real joy--the joy that is arrived at through faith, through suffering, through a perfect union of heart with the sacred heart of jesus, and through conformity to god's will; the joy of the risen life--the new life that rises out of the death to self. _colloquy._ the _regina coeli_:-- "queen of heaven, rejoice,--alleluia for he whom thou wast made worthy to bear--alleluia hath risen as he said--alleluia. pray for us to god--alleluia." (_anthem from easter to trinity._) _resolution._ to say my _fiat_ bravely with mary, as the surest way of sharing her joy. _spiritual bouquet._ "causa nostræ lætitiæ, ora pro nobis." the second and third glorious mysteries "_all these were persevering with one mind in prayer, with the women, and mary the mother of jesus, and with his brethren._" (acts i. .) _ st prelude._ ( ) a picture of the ascension--our lady kissing the footprints. ( ) a picture of the descent of the holy ghost--a tongue of fire resting on the head of our lady, who is seated in the midst of the apostles. _ nd prelude._ grace to enter into the dispositions of mary. _point i._--mary on ascension day many, no doubt, were the visits that jesus paid to his blessed mother during the forty days that his glorified body still lingered in this world of ours, as though he were loath to leave it. he was bracing her up for the time of exile that lay before her, filling her with stores of consolation upon which she would be able to draw in her times of desolation. she probably knew that the fortieth day was the last, and that, when he led his little flock out "as far as bethania," it was his last walk with them. she knew of the "mountain appointed" where he wished all his brethren to assemble--"more than five hundred at once." ( cor. xv. .) she heard his last words, heard him charge his _witnesses_: "going, therefore, teach (_make disciples of_) all nations: and behold i am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." (st matt. xxviii. , .) she was not to be a witness--though she was ever the silent witness of his humanity--but it was only fitting that she should hear all the orders that were given to her children. she heard of the promise of the father, and that they were to stay in the city till it was fulfilled. she saw him lift up his hands in blessing--the last blessing; she watched with the rest his glorified body raised up from their midst--watched till "a cloud received him out of their sight," then she knelt in humble acquiescence to god's will and kissed the ground where he had just stood--the favoured bit of earth which was the last to be touched by his blessed feet. when she looked up, it was to see two angels asking the astonished disciples why they were gazing into heaven, and telling them that the same jesus who was taken up from them into heaven would so come again as they had seen him go. it was not to _her_ that the angels were speaking--_she_ was not gazing up. she _knew_ the lesson that the others were being taught, knew that her son was already in heaven, sitting at the right hand of god. (st mark xvi. .) when the apostles realised sufficiently what had happened, they, "adoring, went back to jerusalem with joy," (st luke xxiv. ), and mary led them to the cenacle to "wait for the promise of the father," as her son had bidden them. thus she taught them the lesson she would teach all her children--that the only thing to do in times of desolation and sorrow is to follow closely the commands of jesus: "whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." it is no use to stand gazing after what has gone; this is no time for regrets; he gave a clear command: "go to jerusalem and wait." we shall always find that there is no balm for sorrow like fidelity to duty. it costs something; human nature longs to stay and hug its sorrow; but it is far wiser to turn away from the loved spot and go bravely hand in hand with the mother of sorrows to do the next thing to which duty--that is the voice of jesus--calls us. _point ii._--mary on the day of pentecost nine days they spent with mary the mother of jesus, persevering with one mind in prayer, (acts i. ), and going constantly to the temple to praise and bless god. (st luke xxiv. .) it was a novena of prayer and thanksgiving. it was mary's first official act as mother of the church. she kept the little flock together, kept them close to her son by obedience to his last command, by intercession for the great gift that he had promised to send them, and by thanksgiving for all that he had been to them and done for them. it was the first retreat, and they made it with mary, the mother of god. what must mary's prayers have been during those nine days! she was now more united than ever to her son; her eye of faith saw him at the right hand of god in heaven; she saw eye to eye with him; she knew all his interests and intentions; she had still a mother's right to command him; she knew that nothing in their relationship was changed, and that he would not refuse her behests in heaven any more than he had done on earth. and so, as her eyes swept the wide horizon which was now hers, the mother of the church made a novena for pentecost, praying with all her knowledge and all her power, for the holy ghost to come down upon her children--to come and fill that church of which she was the mother, that church which her son had founded, for which he had given his life. these first retreatants had no books. they needed none--their lives were so closely bound up with the life of jesus; the holy spirit prayed within them; and mary was ever with them directing, and setting them an example. in proportion as these things are true of us are we independent of _exterior_ help in our prayers. and the more we are able to dispense with exterior help, the more interior and real will be our prayers. then "when the days were accomplished"--when the novena was over--the holy ghost came down as jesus had promised that he should--came down as a tongue of fire upon each one: a proof that he had entered into each one of those expectant, faithful souls, filling each according to his capacity, and giving each the power needful to carry on the work that was appointed for him to do. what, then, must have been the measure with which mary was "filled with the holy ghost," for what was the apostles' work compared with hers? she had always been "full of grace"--she had long been the spouse of the holy ghost, ever since he had overshadowed her at the incarnation, and he had always been filling her according to her ever-increasing capacity. we have seen how, under her son's training, her horizon was ever enlarging--how much wider it became on calvary, how pain and joy had dilated her heart, how her intercourse with her divine son during those forty days had still more widened her outlook; and now, with all the fresh territory over which she was to reign, in her mind and in her heart, she had been praying--the holy ghost had been praying within her--for him to come and overshadow her once again, and fill her with grace that she might be able to meet all her new responsibilities as mother of the church. mary had more need of the holy ghost than any of the hundred and twenty souls gathered in the cenacle; her desire to receive him too was greater than theirs; and so we may well believe that she received him in a fuller measure. she had no need of the gifts of tongues and miracles, which were a necessity to the apostles, to help them in the beginning of their difficult work. her work during the remaining years of her life was that of intercession, and it was to be carried on in secret and obscurity. the gifts she needed from the holy ghost were those of hiddenness, patience, humility, conformity to god's will. she needed him in all his plenitude to pray within her with "unutterable groanings" for all the needs of the church throughout all time. her work was still, as it ever had been, to _ponder_ in her heart--to meditate and hold colloquies with her divine son, through the agency of the holy spirit, about all the interests which they had in common. _colloquy._ "our lady of light, spouse of the holy ghost, i offer thee my whole heart, my soul and my body, to keep for jesus, that i may be his for ever. our lady of light, pray for me." (_prayer of blessed grignon de montfort._) _resolution._ to think more of the holy spirit praying within me. _spiritual bouquet._ "sacrarium spiritus sancti, ora pro nobis." (sanctuary of the holy spirit, pray for us.) mary's exile "_woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged._" (ps. cxix. .) _ st prelude._ a statue or picture of our lady. _ nd prelude._ grace to learn how an exiled child of eve should live. _point i._--mary's exile tradition tells us that st john took the holy mother to his house in jerusalem, and that it was there that she died, though she spent some of the time of her exile at ephesus. in solitude and silence she pondered over all the wonderful mysteries of her life; she interceded for her new-born child, the church, which had already so many needs; and she helped the apostles by her prayers. they were soon scattered in different directions, "making disciples of all nations," as their master had bidden them; and it would only be at rare intervals that they could come and see their mother, and talk over their difficulties, and get the advice of her who saw eye to eye with her son. but what a comfort and strength it must have been to them to know that she was always there, telling her divine son of their needs! and during those long years--according to some opinions fifteen, to others, twenty-three--what was mary's strength? the same as it had ever been--union with her son. every day, tradition tells us, she received him in the blessed sacrament at the hands of st john. what communions must those have been, when mary said again: _ecce ancilla domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum_, and her god was again incarnate within her! what made those communions so intense? the fact that his love and desire in coming were _reciprocated_. the love and desire are never wanting on his side, but unfortunately there is so little of either on ours! it takes more than one to make a good communion. _a joining together_ of two is the meaning of the word. if the union is to be strong, fervent, real, lasting, each must do his part. oh, teach me, dear mother, how to receive thy son in holy communion. thy whole life was centred in him; thy every thought was with him; everything thou didst was done for him; every moment of thy exile gladly borne for him; every sigh a spiritual communion; and when each day the glad moment of actual communion came, it was just his embrace--he pressed thee to his heart for a few minutes, telling thee it would not be long before thy exile would be over, and thou wouldst see his face again. thy communions were an ecstasy of love--help me to put a little more love into mine; teach me to regard them as the bread from heaven sent specially for the exile; teach me to make them the centre of my life; teach me to live my whole life with him, so that my communion may never be interrupted. this should be the aim, surely, of every communicant; it is the ideal life; it is the life that jesus intended when he said: "he that eateth me, he shall live by me." it is possible; but oh, how far i come short! _point ii._--the reason for mary's exile why did her son leave her behind to suffer so intensely, as he well knew she would, from the separation? would not the beatific vision in heaven have been better than her communions on earth? could not her intercession for the church have been even more effectual had she been close to her son's throne in heaven? could she not have been the mother of good counsel in heaven for those who had to guide the church in its infancy, as she has been ever since? we can think of many reasons why jesus left her in exile for a time:-- . she had to _nurse the new-born church_ by strengthening and encouraging the apostles with her example, so like that of the master himself, and by supplying the evangelists with many details of his life, which they could not have learnt from any lips but hers. . she had to _establish her position_ as mother of the church--the tradition was to be handed down by the apostles that it was _she_ who guided, and tended, and cared for the church during the early and tender years of its existence; that it was to her they turned in times of perplexity and doubt; that her constant intercession for them was their strength. this could not have been so had she left the earth with her son. during those long years of exile the new child learnt to regard mary as its mother, and when she was taken away into heaven, it was quite natural to it still thus to regard her, and to teach all who came after to do the same. . our lord would give her still more time to _increase her merits_ by suffering. he wanted her crown to be the most beautiful possible, and even for the mother of god there was only one way to make it so--the way of suffering, which intensified her love and humility and submission to god's will. . may not another reason have been in order that she might be the _better able to sympathise_ with the exiled children of eve (_exules filii evæ_)? had he taken her with him, they would surely have felt that their mother could not quite understand their position. and what is such an effectual barrier to sympathy as the feeling that we are not understood? so mary was left in exile to gain much that she could not have gained otherwise. i am one of the exiled children of eve. what have _i_ got to do as an exile? . _i have to establish my position._ there is a certain place prepared for me in heaven, which _may_ be mine through all eternity. what is to decide whether i get it or not? the way i "pass the time of my sojourning" here. by the time my exile is over, i must so have lived that there must be no doubt about it that i belong to the heavenly land; that i am a child of god and an heir to his kingdom; that i seek not the things of earth but those which are above; that heaven is my home. and what will be my position there? mary earned her position as queen of angels, of patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, virgins, as mother of the church. what position shall i earn? that depends, as mary's did, on my fidelity to grace. i shall have just that degree of glory and merit to which i have attained when i am called hence to give an account of my stewardship--no less and no more. the position i have to establish, then, during my exile, is that of being known by all the inhabitants of heaven--all the angels and saints--as one who is sure to join them one day. "make your calling and election _sure_." . _i have to suffer._ one of the actual reasons for my being here on earth is that i may _suffer_--not that suffering is in itself good, but it gives me the means--perhaps the greatest means--of developing the virtues which must be mine if i am to enter the kingdom one day. our lord chose for himself and for his mother a life of suffering, to make us understand and to show us how suffering may aid us--yes, the very same suffering which hardens the sinner. what is the secret, then, of suffering? that by means of it, and because of it, we may make acts of love and contrition and submission to god's will. suffering is too powerful an instrument to leave our human nature untouched by it; we _must_ do something under it--either _curse_ god and die, as job's wife advised him to do, or _bless_ him all the more fervently, as job did. let me remember, then, that one of the things i have to do as an exile is to see to it that god gets, out of each piece of suffering that he sends me, the extra _love_ that he expected would result from it. . _to do the work god wants me to do_; to work in my little corner of his vineyard; to co-operate with him in his great work of the salvation of souls; and to show sympathy and kindness to my fellow-exiles. _colloquy._ _the salve regina_:--"hail, holy queen, mother of mercy; hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope! to thee do we cry, poor banished children of eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning, and weeping in this vale of tears. turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, jesus: o clement, o loving, o sweet virgin mary." (_anthem from trinity to advent._) _resolution._ to learn the exile's lessons. _spiritual bouquet._ "for we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come." (heb. xiii. .) mary's death "_they that work by me shall not sin._" (from the epistle for the vigil of the assumption, ecclus. xxiv. .) _ st prelude._ a picture of mary's death. _ nd prelude._ to prepare for death by living "by mary." _point i._--"the sting of death is sin" ( cor. xv. ) sin had never touched mary; there was therefore for her no sting in death. she had no penalty to pay, neither had she to die for others as her son died. why, then, should mary die? . because she had a mortal nature. she belonged to the great human race, and it was therefore appointed unto her to die. (heb. ix. .) . because she chose to die (the fathers say her son gave her the choice) that she might be conformable in all things to her son, and also that she might be the better able to help, and pray for, and sympathise with her children, who throughout all time would be constantly saying: "pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." . because our lord wanted her to have a specially chosen death--one that came neither from old age nor sickness, but simply from _love_. her love for him was so great that her body could no longer hold her soul captive. . because god would not deprive her of the inestimable privilege of making the sacrifice of her life to him, and such a life! this practice it is which makes the death of his saints precious in the sight of the lord. (ps. cxv. .) let us learn two lessons:-- . to _choose_ to be in all things conformable to jesus, even though this choice means death to self. . how precious a thing in god's sight is the sacrifice of their lives to him by his children! let us resolve to make him this sacrifice often beforehand--at least every night before we take from his hands the precious gift of sleep which "he giveth his beloved." _point ii._--mary's preparation for death we are told that some little while before her death an angel (probably gabriel) was sent to tell her that her time was at hand. she answered: _ecce ancilla domini_ ("behold the handmaid of the lord"), and made once again the sacrifice of her life. she then told the news to john, who made it known to the faithful. how great their sorrow must have been at the prospect of losing such a mother! st denis tells us that our lord brought all the apostles and missionaries, who were scattered all over the world, to witness her death. she blessed them, and encouraged them to continue their work, saying that she would help them powerfully in heaven. her joy was full because the time, which was to unite her to her son, had come at last; but mary was not selfish in her joy any more than she had been in her grief. she did not forget the sorrow of her children; they were still to be exiles, but exiles with a mother in the homeland--a mother who would be there to befriend them and take an interest in all they were doing. do i realise this--that while i am an exile here i have a mother in heaven who is taking the keenest interest in all that concerns me, in all that is preparing me for my home; a mother who is waiting there for me, ready to welcome me? _point iii._--how mary died there was no sickness, no wearing out nor decay of that beautiful body, no effects in it of original sin. of what, then, did mary die? of two things--_love_ and _desire_; and these were so intense that even _her_ body, strong and perfect though it was, had not the power to detain the soul captive any longer. mary died of love, as her son had died of grief--a grief which was the outcome of an immense love. did mary receive the last sacraments? the sacrament of penance was out of the question for her sinless soul; we may doubt about extreme unction; but with what intensity of love and desire must she have received her viaticum! and when jesus came with all his court to fetch her immaculate soul, we are told that she said: "thy will be done; for a long time i have sighed after thee, my son and my god; nothing can be more delightful than to join thee and be where thou art for ever." then the angels began to sing--all who were present heard them--and while they sang, mary said her _fiat_ and died, and her most pure soul began its eternal happiness in the sight of the beatific vision. the eternal trinity gave it the glory which was its due--the reward of her love so pure, so generous, so constant. she had a higher degree of glory and a clearer vision of god than all the saints, because glory depends on grace, virtue, and merit, of which she had far more than any of them. what does mary's death say to me? "they that work by me shall not sin." you cannot be sinless, as i was, you cannot die of love, as i did, (st theresa and st philip of neri did), but you can, by keeping close to me, and doing all your work at my side, keep from all wilful sin, and you can thus love jesus so much that when he comes to fetch you, death will have no terrors for you, and you, too, will be able to say: _ecce ancilla domini_, here i am, thy servant, doing thy work. "blessed is that servant whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching"; and the best way to watch is to work at mary's side. and let me never forget that my degree of glory in heaven will be according to the amount of grace and merit that i have at the moment of my death. how thankful i should be that i still have power to increase these! and how eager and zealous to use my time to the best advantage! death cometh when no man can work--when no more merit, no more reparation will be possible. the point i have then reached will be mine through all eternity. "as the tree falls, so will it lie." holy mary, mother of god, pray for me now and at the hour of my death. _colloquy_ with mary, my mother in heaven, who is pleading for me; who is letting me do all my work close to her side; and who will be there at the hour of my death, to put me back into the hands of her son, who gave me to her when he was on the cross, saying: "take this child and nurse it for me." and he will see to it that none shall pluck me out of his hands, for it is impossible for a child of mary to be lost. _resolution._ to let love for her son keep me close to mary's side to-day, listening to all her directions about my work, so that i may do it to please him. _spiritual bouquet._ "they that work by me shall not sin." mary's tomb "_i gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aromatical balm; i yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh._" (ecclus. xxiv. .) "_in the holy city likewise i rested, and my_ abode _is in the full assembly of the saints._" (verses , .) _ st prelude._ the apostles carrying the body of their mother to the grave. _ nd prelude._ the grace of faith and love to penetrate into these mysteries. _point i._--mary's body the angels still continued singing, while the apostles and missionaries and women wept around the body. but the heavenly music was catching, and it was not long before the mourners dried their tears and joined in the angels' hymn of praise. we are told that the sick and the blind and the lame were allowed to come and kiss the precious body, and that in so doing they were instantly healed. why was mary's body so precious? because it had been the tabernacle of the son of god. why is mine so precious? because it, too, is so often the tabernacle of jesus christ. do i realise that this makes my body holy? and do i regard it as something precious, consecrated and dedicated, god's temple, his own dwelling-place? often have angels adored before it! how much respect, then, ought i to show it! how careful i ought to be as to what i do with it, and to what use i put it! we are told that when the apostles carried the bier to the grave, near the garden of gethsemani, all the faithful accompanied them, and the angels never ceased their singing. the precious body exhaled a sweet fragrance which perfumed every place the procession had to pass through, and there were miracles and conversions all along the route. they laid their precious burden in the grave, put a great stone over it, and then dispersed. but they did not leave the grave alone. the apostles watched and prayed there in turn, listening to, and rejoicing in the angels' song. _point ii._--the empty tomb on the third day, st thomas arrived from the indies (the apostles felt sure that it was our lord's plan that he should be late), and naturally wanted to look once again on his mother's face. so they removed the stone, but only to find an empty tomb. they found the linen and clothes all in order, and they noted the delicious fragrance, but the body was gone; the soul had come back for it and fetched it to share in its glory. then the apostles remembered that during the morning the celestial singing had suddenly stopped, and they knew that their mother, clothed in her glorified body, was even then sitting at the right hand of her son in heaven. why was it? why was her body not left in the tomb? because it was impossible for that body, from which the word had taken flesh, and which had never been touched by sin, to "see corruption." also, although mary had to die, and to bear the separation of soul and body, there was no necessity in her case for that penalty to be prolonged. god would not keep her--a perfect human creature--in an imperfect state, which the soul without the body must ever be. so, though not yet a dogma, the assumption of the blessed virgin mary has ever been a belief of the church. if we need a _proof_, let us call to mind the fact that no one has ever pretended to possess relics of our lady's body. our lord would surely never have deprived the church of such treasures, had they existed. _point iii._--the fourth glorious mystery let me turn from the empty tomb, and try to realise the other side of the picture--mary in heaven. this fourth glorious mystery was foretold more than once in holy scripture: "arise, o lord, into thy resting-place; thou, and the ark which thou hast sanctified." (ps. cxxxi. .) what is this ark sanctified by god but mary's body, of which the son of god took flesh? "the queen stood on thy right hand in gilded clothing surrounded with variety." who is this but the queen of heaven clothed with her glorious body of immortality? "a throne was set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right hand," ( kings ii. ), in all the dazzling beauty of her glorified body, surrounded by adoring saints and angels. her son on his throne is saying to her: ask, my mother, for i will not say thee nay. the beauty of the scene is so entrancing, the light is so dazzling, the music is so enchanting, the mystery is so wonderful, that i feel almost bewildered and want to shut my eyes and think what it all means. it means this--that i have a mother in heaven, and that when her son bends towards her from his throne, and when all the hosts of heaven hold their breath to catch what their queen is saying, they hear her ask some little favour for me, her child on earth. why? because i am saying: "holy mary, mother of god, pray for me now." let me, with the eye of faith and love, penetrate the thin veil, which hides these wondrous mysteries from my sight. let me try to see things as they really are, and then my prayers will be less formal. _colloquy_ with mary on the right hand of jesus in heaven. _resolution._ to think of her there when i say my rosary to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "holy mary, mother of god, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." "who is she?" (the fourth glorious mystery) "_quæ est ista quæ progreditur quasi aurora consurgens, pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata?_" "_who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?_" (cant. vi. .) _ st prelude._ the angels asking three times: "who is she?" (cant. iii. ; vi. ; viii. .) _ nd prelude._ grace to understand who she is. _point i._--"who is she?" "who is she?" ask the angels, as they see mary coming into heaven. once before had one clothed in the robe of his beautiful, glorified body passed through heaven's portals; and the angels had said: "who is this that cometh with dyed garments from bosra, this beautiful one in his robe?" (isaias lxiii. ), and they had opened wide heaven's gate to let in the conqueror of sin and death, the king of glory, the lord mighty in battle. but who is _she_--a woman, who, though she is beautiful as the morning rising, fair as the moon, and bright as the sun, is also terrible as an army set in array? she also has come from the battlefield; she also is a conqueror, for she has crushed the serpent's head; she has undone eve's terrible work, and, as far as a creature can, has made reparation for it. she it is who has stood like a rock amidst the most crushing sorrows. her strength is terrible to the devil, but the angels rejoice in it, and her children flee to her as the _refugium peccatorum_, saying: _da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos_. (give me, too, strength against thy enemies.) and so the angels open wide heaven's gates again, to let in the mother of the king--the queen of heaven--_their_ queen--who has earned her right to her throne; not by being the mother of god, but by nobly fighting the battle against sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil. "maria mater gratiæ, dulcis parens clementiæ, tu nos ab hoste protege, et mortis hora suscipe." (o mary, mother of grace, sweet fount of gentleness, do thou protect us from the enemy, and receive us in the hour of our death.) and she _will_; she is there for her children. "who is she?" she is our mother; she will never forget it, though she is the queen of heaven, of angels, and of saints; and she will ever be terrible to all who dare to attack her children. _point ii._--"who is she?" "who is she that goeth up by the desert as a pillar of smoke, of aromatical spices, of myrrh and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?" (cant. iii. .) that is: who is she who is adorned with all possible graces and virtues? "who is she?" she is the "fairest among women" (chap. i. ) because of her _humility_, answers the angel who heard her say: _ecce ancilla domini_, at the most exalted moment of her life. "who is she?" she is the "fairest among women" because of her conformity to god's will, say those who have heard over and over again her _fiat_ when the sword was piercing her soul. "who is she?" we, too, can answer the question, for we know her. we have watched her, and meditated upon her life, from the moment of her immaculate conception till her holy death of love and desire; and we have seen that she has always been growing in grace and in conformity to her divine son. yes, she is the "fairest among women," and she is my mother and my model. how is it with me? am i known to my friends, to those who live with me, to my guardian angel, yea, to the blessed trinity, as one, who is growing in virtue and grace; as one, whose conformity to jesus and his will, is apparent from the use i make of the _ecce ancilla_ and the _fiat_? there must be some resemblance between the child and the mother. _point iii._--"who is she?" for the third time the angels ask the question: "who is she that cometh up from the desert flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?" (chap. viii. .) there is no doubt about it now--she is his mother, and her beloved is jesus, the son of god and of mary. what unspeakable joy is hers to find herself once more in the arms of her beloved! "his left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me," (chap. ii. ), and she leans upon him. she had never left him really; she had been leaning on him all the time of her exile: by her memory, by her love, by her communions, by her constant doing of his will. this is why i can so safely lean on mary, the mother of good counsel, because to lean on her is to lean on jesus, on whom she leans. she nurses her children _for him_. "who is she that cometh up from the desert?" in spirit mary had ever been coming up. always had she sought "the things that are above, where christ sitteth at the right hand of god." her treasure was in heaven, and nothing on earth had power to attract or attach her. how far do i copy my mother in this? are my affections set on things above, where jesus and mary are? have things of earth no attraction for me in comparison with heavenly things? am i ready to give them up to him to whom they belong when he asks for them? is my whole heart in heaven because my treasure is there? this is what is meant by going up from the desert. it means striving always after what is more perfect. it means that each day finds me _more_ charitable, _more_ faithful, _more_ careful about occasions of sin, _more_ like my mother. and it means also _sursum corda_ (lift up your hearts) whenever the difficulties and sorrows of the desert seem too much. _colloquy_ with mary. _resolution._ to ask myself the question often to-day: "who is she?" _spiritual bouquet._ "pulchra es et decora filia jerusalem, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata." (thou art fair and comely, o daughter of jerusalem, terrible as an army set in array.) mary's coronation (the fifth glorious mystery) "_thou wast made exceeding beautiful and wast advanced to be a queen._" (ezech. xvi. .) _ st prelude._ the great sign which appeared in heaven: "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." (apoc. xii. .) _ nd prelude._ the grace so to live and die, that i may one day be crowned. _point i._--mary's coronation _specie tua et pulchritudine tua, intende, prospere procede, et regna._ (in thy comeliness and thy beauty go forth, proceed prosperously, and reign.) the culminating point is reached, and mary is led in triumph to receive her crown from the blessed trinity. god the father crowns her as a _victor_; god the son as a _queen_; and god the holy ghost as a _bride_. we give our crowns on earth to victors, to queens and to brides. mary was all of these for she had conquered the devil; she was the king's mother, and she was the spouse of the holy ghost. . she was crowned as a _victor_, as a sign of her courage and bravery. god the father had seen the world, which he had created and had pronounced to be "very good," spoiled by sin. the arch-fiend had entered paradise, and had stolen away the hearts of his children, robbing them of his grace, and leaving them and all their descendants stained by sin. to satan god had spoken of a woman whose child would be his enemy; and of her he said: "she shall bruise thy head." now the old prophecy has been fulfilled, and mary stands before him waiting for her crown. she has crushed the serpent; she has been terrible to all god's enemies; and the crown that the eternal father places on the head of his daughter is a token that she is indeed a victor. how did mary win the victor's crown? by her fidelity to grace. no one ever had so many occasions of grace, and she did not miss one of them. "there _is_," somewhere in the heavenly courts, "a crown laid up for _me_." ( tim. iv. .) but "the lord, the just judge" will only give it me if "i have fought a good fight." (verse .) "to him that shall _overcome_ will i give to sit with me in my throne." (apoc. iii. ). "be thou faithful unto death, and i will give thee a crown of life." (chap. ii. .) "hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (chap. iii. ). all, then, depends on my efforts. i have got to be _faithful_, to _fight_, to _overcome_, and to _hold fast_. my consolation is that my mother is interceding for me; my enemies are the same as hers, and she has overcome them. _da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos._ . she is crowned as a _queen_. her son is the king of heaven, and he crowns her as the queen-mother. "a throne was set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right hand." ( kings ii. .) "the queen stood at thy right hand in gilded clothing, clothed round about with varieties." (ps. xliv. .) kings and queens wear their crowns in token of their power and authority. jesus crowned his mother in token of _her_ power and authority. he made her queen of angels, of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and gave her not only authority over all these, but also, in a certain sense, if we may say so reverently, over himself. he allowed her still to keep the sweet authority which she had exercised over him at nazareth, when he was "subject" to her; for he says to her: "my mother, ask, for i _must_ not turn away thy face." ( kings ii. .) how he loves us--even to the extent of pledging himself to answer the intercessory prayer of one who he knows will make full use of her privilege--one who is even now turning to me, her child, and saying: "i will speak for thee to the king." (verse ). let me determine to have my share in this blessed compact between the son and the mother, by continually asking my queen-mother for her intercession. _sancta dei genitrix, ora pro nobis._ . the holy ghost crowns her as his _spouse_. "come from libanus, my spouse; come and thou shalt be crowned." (cant. iv. .) "faithful unto death" she had been; ever since her immaculate conception she had always listened to the least inspiration of grace which her divine spouse had suggested, and now she receives her reward, the "crown of life." the end is attained, and there is joy in the presence of the angels of god. _point ii._--the joy of the angels _de cujus assumptione gaudent angeli et collaudant filium dei._ at whose assumption the angels rejoice and praise together the son of god. (_introit for the feast of the assumption._) what were the causes of their joy? . mary's joy at her re-union with her son. . her reception and coronation as their queen. . her being placed on the throne at her son's right hand. . the sight of her beautiful glorified body--the means of the incarnation--before which, as before the tabernacle, they had so often worshipped their hidden god. . the likeness between the mother and the son--a likeness which had been increasing during her years of exile, by means of the blessed sacrament. . hearing jesus call her _mother_. "my mother, ask." . seeing the great intercessor at her work praying for sinners, in whom they take such an interest. and the result of their joy is that "they praise together the son of god"--that is, they perfectly fulfil the end for which they were created, teaching us the great lesson that the more we know mary and rejoice in her joy, her position and her work, the more we shall know and praise her divine son, and so fulfil the end for which we were created. but it is not only the angels who are rejoicing. she is "_queen of all saints_" as well as "_queen of angels_," and the church triumphant is swelling the chorus of joy. each member of that spotless multitude has already been a cause of joy in heaven, for there is joy in the presence of the angels of god over every sinner that doeth penance. (st luke xv. .) "joy cometh in the morning" after the night of doing penance. "no cross, no crown." it is because mary is the "_mother of sorrows_" that she is able to be the "_cause of our joy_," and we must all pass by the same route. help me, my mother, to share the joy of the angels and saints even in the "valley of tears." it is possible, but it can only be done by a faith strong enough to see things as they really are. and what about mary's joy? as she stands in the midst of that great multitude of angels and saints, who are vying with each other to do her honour, her heart too is overflowing with joy, but it is all for her son. the honour and worship that are being paid to her are _his_; they are because of "the great things _he_ has done" for her. she is only his handmaid, and she is always singing her _magnificat_: "my soul doth magnify the lord, my spirit doth _rejoice_ in god my saviour." _humility_ is ever her greatest virtue, and she shows it on her coronation day by casting her crown at the feet of him who redeemed her with his blood--her son, her saviour, and her god. _colloquy._ the _ave regina cælorum_:--"hail, queen of heaven! hail, lady of the angels! hail, blessed root and gate, from which came light upon the world! rejoice, o glorious virgin, that surpassest all in beauty! hail, most lovely queen! and pray to christ for us." (_anthem from purification to easter._) _resolution._ to work for my crown to-day. _spiritual bouquet._ "ora pro nobis, sancta dei genitrix, ut digni efficiamur promissionibus christi." salve regina (according to the second method of prayer[ ]) salve. this anthem of the blessed virgin, which the church bids her children use from trinity to advent, begins with a _salutation_. in addressing our mother, we are to copy the archangel who, when he came with a message to the lowly child at nazareth, begins by _saluting_ her. hail! full of grace. but though the word, which is here put into the lips of us sinners, means, "be thou safe and well," it is not a wholly disinterested salutation; there is an idea of wanting a favour implied in it, though we do not actually ask for it. it is like the cheerful "good-morning, sir!" of the beggar. our _hail_ here has not so much the majesty of the salutation of an archangel as the cry of distress of a banished child. regina. she is appealed to as a queen; she asks as a queen; she is answered as a queen; she gives as a queen. "i pray thee speak to the king, for he cannot deny thee anything.... i will speak for thee to the king.... and the king arose to meet her, and bowed to her, and sat down upon his throne. and a throne was set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right hand. and she said to him: i desire one small petition of thee; do not put me to confusion. and the king said to her: my mother, ask, for i must not turn away thy face." ( kings ii. - .) such is the beautiful picture holy scripture portrays for us of king solomon and his mother bethsabee. "but a greater than solomon is here"; and we are addressing his mother. with what confidence then may we say our _salve regina_! she has pledged herself to speak to the king for us, and her royal son will give her all that she asks. she is the queen of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins--yes, queen of _all_ saints. why? because when they were "poor banished children" on earth they recognised her as their queen, and did not address their _salve_ to her in vain. mater. not only is she queen of heaven and my queen, but also she is the mother of each one of the banished children. "i will not leave you orphans," jesus said when he was leaving the sorrowing disciples; and a little later, when his last moment drew near, he showed them their mother, saying to st john, who represented the whole human race: "behold thy mother!" and to her: "behold thy son," and in him all thy banished children! what a consolation it would be to me if i realised more that i have a mother in heaven! my first thought in any trouble, difficulty, or perplexity would be: "salve sancta parens!" misericordiÆ. she is the mother of so many virtues--of fair love, of knowledge, of good counsel, of holy hope, of divine grace--yes, and the mother of sorrows too; but here her children love to call her "mother of _mercy_," of _pity_, for they are exiles, and it is she who can effect their ransom. _mercy_--this is what they who say the _salve regina_ need. they are poor, banished, weeping children, and they need the pity, the mercy, the sympathy of their mother. how comes it that there is no sorrow with which the heart of mary cannot sympathise? how is it that "never is it heard of that her children turn to her in vain"? because the "sword pierced her own heart also." no heart except that of her divine son can sympathise like the seven-times pierced heart of mary. it is because she understands so well the sorrows of a bleeding heart, that not the smallest need of any one of her smallest children, who appeals to her, is overlooked. how merciful should they be who have such a merciful mother! "go thou and do in like manner," was our blessed lord's injunction when he had been telling of the mercy of the good samaritan. (st luke x. .) am i merciful in my judgments of others; merciful when i am talking of them; merciful to those who have wronged me; merciful to those who come to me for pardon; merciful in my thoughts? o virgin most merciful, pray for me! vita. she is our _life_, for it was she who gave life to our redeemer. it was from mary's veins that he took the blood which he shed for our salvation. she did not spare her son, her only son, (gen. xxii. ), but offered him up for a sacrifice for us. in every truth she can say: "in me is all hope of life." (ecclus. xxiv. .) dulcedo. our sweetness. think of her sweetness all through her life--when the angel came to her; during the three months that she helped elizabeth; when there was no room for her in the inn at bethlehem; when her son seemed to take no notice of her during his ministerial work; when she met him on the way of sorrows; when she stood by the cross; when she gently bathed his wounds and prepared his body for the grave; when she consoled the mourning disciples; when he appeared to her on easter day; when she kissed his footprints as he ascended to heaven; when the holy ghost came down upon her. even from her body after the soul had left it, and even from her grave after the body had left it, there came a delicious odour, reminding all who enjoyed it of the _sweetness_ of the mother who had left them. and this sweetness her children must try to copy. is my sweetness for ever proclaiming itself to all with whom i come in contact--by my patience under the little trials of everyday life, by the kind word with which i meet the sharp, sarcastic one, by my extreme care of the feelings of others, by my universal kindness, by the humility with which i bear humiliations, by the ready way in which i prefer everybody else to myself? o my mother, pray for thy child, and teach me how to copy thee! et spes nostra. how necessary is _hope_ to the poor banished children! without it they would indeed be in a desperate condition; but mary is ever inspiring them with hope. _ego mater sanctæ spei._ (i am the mother of holy hope.) and her hope is all for her children: she has no need of it for herself. she is a true mother--always hopeful of her children, never giving them up. it is impossible for a child of mary not to share her mother's holy hope. a child of mary _cannot_ despair! when we think about death and final perseverance, what holy hope at once fills our hearts as we remember that we have put that terrible moment into the hands of our mother! _ora pro nobis, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ._ (pray for us now and at the hour of our death.) "hail, our hope!" before these words all fears disappear. for never has it been known that those who appeal to the mother of holy hope appeal in vain. salve. we repeat our salutation. we do not want her to forget us. the importunate are ever dear to the heart of mary as they are to the heart of her divine son. let us constantly greet her with our _salve_--it will be enough to appeal to her mother-heart, and she will give us whatever we are needing. ad te. to _thee_. to whom should we go if not to the mother whom jesus has given us. "behold thy mother!" it is only natural that we should turn to thee. _monstra te esse matrem._ show thyself to be a mother by hearkening to our cry. clamamus--_do we cry_. it is a direct cry for help now--we make no secret of it--the children are calling aloud for their mother--their need is so great that they care not who hears them. exules. at last we describe ourselves; one word is sufficient--_exules_. we are _exiles_; we are not at home; we are banished from our country. there is something so pathetic about an exile. how he cherishes any news of his dear country! how he writes every little detail of his life and of the strange land to his mother at home! how he longs for her letters! mary is my mother, and i am an exile. do i love to hear about my own country? do i tell my mother of all the difficulties of the way and allow her to console me with stories of the homeland? "how shall we sing in a strange land?" it _is_ possible, by keeping in touch with mary. she will so inspire us with hope and with love for our heavenly country that we shall often find our hearts light enough to soar beyond this land of exile, and to join in the ceaseless praises of those who have reached home. queen of heaven, give me a _real_ desire for heaven. filii evÆ. we account for our exile by explaining that we are children of _eve_. we had another mother once, and she brought misery on all her children, and they were all with her "driven out from paradise," and an angel with a flaming sword was put at the entrance to prevent their getting back. poor children! is there any use in crying for re-admittance? yes, for before the justice of god drove out eve and her children, he spoke of another mother, who was, through her divine son, to undo all the harm that eve had done, and to "open the kingdom of heaven to all believers." to whom, then, is it more natural for the poor banished children of eve to turn than to the mother whose one idea is to get them back? and with our cries are joined those of other banished children whose cry: "how long!" is ever ascending to heaven. it is their mother mary whom they long to see; for as the turn of each one's banishment expires, she it is who comes to open the gate and bring them to the "better country" which they have so long desired. when we say our _salve_, let us remember those souls who, though they are holy, are still banished children, and let us intercede with their mother for them. ad te suspiramus. to thee do we send up our sighs. the idea is that each breath is a sigh, and a sigh meant for our mother to hear. well would it be for us if this were true! it would change the character of our exile. a sigh meant for our blessed lady could not be one of discontent and murmuring and rebellion against our lot. the very fact that it is intended for her would make it full of love and hope and submission to god's will. it would be like the sigh of a child whose mother has promised it some little pleasure. the time seems very long to the little one, and as she sits patiently by her mother's side, a sigh escapes her now and then--a very marked and intentional sigh! what does it mean? it means that though she will not speak or do anything that her mother might not like, yet she would remind her mother of her presence and let her know that she is feeling the time very long. does the mother mind the sighs? oh no, for each one tells her of the love of her child, and makes her anxious to shorten the time of waiting if she can. gementes et flentes. the sighs become more audible--_groaning_ and _weeping_--the exiles are _mourning_ the loss of things they can never have again till they get home. it is one of the times when they feel that the harps must be hung up, (ps. cxxxvi.), when mirth and joy are altogether out of place. such times will come in our land of exile; and these are the times when we shall do well to cry out to our mother. o mary, look upon thy weeping children, and as the great wail of suffering humanity rises up to thee, "show thyself a mother," the mother of consolation. come to the suffering hearts that cry for thee, and make them understand that joy and gladness is for them, even in the land of their exile ever since the sun of justice has risen over it "with healing in his wings." whisper to each heartbroken one, words of hope and consolation; tell of reparation, of mortification, of detachment, of the immense value of suffering, till the sorrowing heart is willing, yea _glad_, to suffer. in hoc lacrymarum valle. in this _vale_. our land of exile is a valley of humiliation. it was here that jesus came to stay, when he _humbled_ himself even to the death of the cross; and here it is that he would have each one of his children wait till the humiliations of the valley have taught them to conquer self-love. "be you humbled, therefore, under the mighty hand of god, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation." ( pet. v. .) it is a vale of _tears_--a vale where jesus wept; a vale which has been sanctified by the tears of a magdalen, and a peter, and of multitudes of others who have learnt here to be saints; a vale where every tear shed by his children is treasured by god. "thou hast set my tears in thy sight." (ps. lv. .) we read of two occasions on which jesus wept--once for the sorrows of his friends (st john xi. ), and once for the sins of his enemies. (st luke xix. .) i need not then be ashamed of tears--not even if i have to say with the psalmist: "my tears have been my bread day and night." (ps. xli. .) but i must be careful that they resemble those of jesus, that the cause of them is never self-love or self-pity, but sorrow for my own sins and those of others, and for anything which grieves the heart of jesus. "they that sow in tears shall reap in joy," for he himself "will wipe away all tears from their eyes." (ps. cxxv. , and apoc. vii. .) eia ergo advocata nostra. _therefore_, just because of our misery and need--it is our only plea, and one which appeals more than any other to a mother's heart--we appeal to her as _our advocate_: one who will plead our cause, who will speak to the king for us and tell him of our needs, as she did long ago at cana of galilee. had ever banished children such an advocate--one to whom the judge has pledged himself: "i must not turn away thy face!" o _advocata nostra_, plead for me with thy son when i stand before him to be judged! in that terrible moment remember my _salve_, for i shall be unable to say it then. misericordes oculos ad nos converte. _turn thy merciful eyes upon us._ we only ask her to _look_. it is quite enough for a mother to see her child in trouble. she does not need to be told what to do. et jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post hoc exilium ostende. here we get to the point of the prayer--the sighs, and groans, and cries, and tears of the banished children are all because they want to see jesus. _and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, jesus._ "we would see jesus" (st john xii. ), and we come to ask his mother to show him to us. this is her great work; and she turns to the children and says: "whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye," and you shall see his face one day. _after this our exile._ "when the voyage is o'er, o stand on the shore and show him at last to me." it is because i cannot see jesus that i am so often in trouble in the land of exile. if my faith were strong enough i should see him continually, and sorrow would flee away. we have not got to wait till the voyage is o'er before seeing him. many and many a glimpse of the blessed fruit of her womb does our mother give us. to be near her means that we are near him too. each communion, each absolution--yea, each humiliation and sorrow is our mother letting us see jesus if we will only look; and when she stands on the shore to show him _at last_, we shall see that it is the "same jesus" who so often walked with us in the land of our exile, though our eyes were for the most part holden by our want of faith, and we did not recognise him. o clemens, o pia, o dulcis virgo maria. _o clement, o loving, o sweet virgin mary._ we multiply our words in trying to express to our mother something of what we feel towards her, but they all mean the same thing--that she is a _mother_. her sweetness is as ointment poured forth, and attracts all to it. her kindness and love, too, have been known to all since she stood at the foot of the cross, and received all her banished children into her stricken heart. never in vain can we appeal to our sweet mother. and so with renewed confidence we will say our _salve_, rejoicing even in this vale of tears because we have a mother who knows all about us, and who will never forget us; whose one desire is to show us the blessed fruit of her womb, jesus; who will teach us to sing the lord's song in a strange land, even as she sang her _magnificat_; and who will one day, when the days of our exile are over, sing with us the ever "new song" of redemption to "him who loved us and washed us in his blood." till then, dear mother, help us to be patient, and help us to learn the lessons of the valley, remembering that they will never be learned at all if they are not learned here. _colloquy._ the _salve regina_. footnote: [footnote : _note._--there are times when we get a little tired of preludes and points, and feel that a change of method would be a help to our meditation. st ignatius knew this, and knew also that to some minds preludes and points would be a positive hindrance; and so he has given us, in his book of the _spiritual exercises_, "three (other) methods of prayer." our meditation to-day is according to the _second method_, which "consists in considering the signification of each word of a prayer." (text of the _exercises_.) st ignatius says that if one or two words give us sufficient matter for thought and spiritual relish and consolation, we are not to be anxious to pass on, even though the whole time of the meditation be spent on _one_ word, but leave the rest till the next day. so we may take to-day as many words of the _salve regina_ as we find spiritual relish for. this method, st ignatius tells us, may be applied to "_any other prayer whatsoever_."] _dei genitrix, intercede pro nobis._ printed in great britain by neill and co., ltd., edinburgh. * * * * * transcriber's notes: obvious spelling and punctuation errors were repaired, but unusual period spellings and grammar uses were retained. original placed punctuation such as semi-colons outside closing quotation marks; this was retained. table of contents entries do not always agree with chapter headings in the original; these differences were retained. gospel references throughout the main text begin with "st" as in "st luke." in two exceptions--p. and --the "st" was missing and has been added by the transcriber for consistency. the preface, by a different author, does not use "st" before gospel references. a few uses of "god" were left out of small-caps in the original. these were placed in small-caps to agree with majority use. three uses of "ch." were changed to match three uses of "chap." for consistency. p. : transcriber added a paragraph break between "sacrifices." and ( ) for consistent treatment of numbered paragraphs. blocking of numbered paragraphs on p. - and is faithful to the original. mary, the help of christians mary, help of christians and the fourteen saints invoked as holy helpers instructions, legends, novenas and prayers with thoughts of the saints for every day in the year compiled by rev. bonaventure hammer, o.f.m. to which is added an appendix on the reasonableness of catholic ceremonies and practices by rev. john j. burke --- new york, cincinnati, chicago benziger brothers printers to the holy apostolic see publishers of benzinger's magazine imprimi permittitur. fr. chrysostomus theobald, o.f.m., _minister provincialis._ cincinnati, ohio, die , martii, . nihil obstat. remy laport, s.t.l., _censor librorum._ imprimatur. john m. farley, archbishop of new york. new york, march , . copyright, , by benziger brothers. preface the contents of the following pages are based on the catholic doctrine of the veneration and invocation of the saints, and of the efficacy of the prayer of intercession. the legends of the individual "holy helpers" were compiled from authors whose writings have the approval of the church. in compliance with the decrees of pope urban viii of , , and , the compiler formally declares that he submits everything contained in this little book to the infallible judgment of the church, and that he claims no other than human credibility for the facts, legends, and miracles related, except where the church has otherwise decided. the compiler. contents preface part i the veneration and invocation of saints and the efficacy of prayer chapter i the veneration and invocation of saints chapter ii efficacy of the intercession of the saints chapter iii for what the intercession of the saints may and should be invoked chapter iv the qualities of prayer part ii mary, the help of christians novenas in preparation for the principal feasts of the blessed virgin rules for the proper observance of novenas on the manner of reading the meditations and observing the practices introduction mary, the help of christians i. novena in honor of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary first day.--the predestination of the blessed virgin mary second day.--mary's immaculate conception third day.--mary, the victrix of satan fourth day.--mary without actual sin fifth day.--mary, full of grace sixth day.--mary, our refuge seventh day.--mary, the mother of chastity eighth day.--the image of the immaculate conception ninth day.--the feast of the immaculate conception ii. novena in honor of the nativity of the blessed virgin mary first day.--the birth of mary second day.--mary, the elect of god third day.--mary, the child of royalty fourth day.--mary, the child of pious parents fifth day.--mary's supernatural prerogatives sixth day.--mary, the joy of the most holy trinity seventh day.--the angels rejoice at mary's birth eighth day.--the joy of the just in limbo at mary's birth ninth day.--the holy name of mary iii. novena for the feast of the annunciation of the blessed virgin mary first day.--the annunciation second day.--the import of the angel's salutation third day.--the effect of the angel's salutation fourth day.--mary's question fifth day.--the solution sixth day.--mary's consent seventh day.--mary's fortitude in suffering eighth day.--mary, the mother of god ninth day.--mary our mother iv. novena in honor of the seven sorrows of mary first day.--devotion to the seven sorrows of mary second day.--mary's first sorrow: simeon's prophecy in the temple third day.--mary's second sorrow: the flight into egypt fourth day.--mary's third sorrow: jesus lost in jerusalem fifth day.--mary's fourth sorrow: she meets jesus carrying his cross sixth day.--mary's fifth sorrow: beneath the cross seventh day.--mary's sixth sorrow: the taking down of jesus' body from the cross eighth day.--mary's seventh sorrow: jesus is buried ninth day.--why mary had to suffer v. novena for the feast of the assumption of the blessed virgin mary first day.--mary's death was without pain second day.--at mary's tomb third day.--the empty tomb fourth day.--reasons for the bodily assumption of mary into heaven fifth day.--mary's glorious entrance into heaven sixth day.--mary crowned in heaven seventh day.--mary's bliss in heaven eighth day.--mary, the queen of mercy ninth day.--mary in heaven the help of christians on earth part iii the fourteen holy helpers chapter i the fourteen holy helpers chapter ii legends the legends of the fourteen holy helpers i.--st. george, martyr ii.--st. blase, bishop and martyr iii.--st. erasmus, bishop and martyr iv.--st. pantaleon, physician and martyr v.--st. vitus, martyr vi.--st. christophorus, martyr vii.--st. dionysius, bishop and martyr viii.--st. cyriacus, deacon and martyr ix.--st. achatius, martyr x.--st. eustachius, martyr xi.--st. giles, hermit and abbot xii.--st. margaret, virgin and martyr xiii.--st. catherine, virgin and martyr xiv.--st. barbara, virgin and martyr part iv i. novenas to the holy helpers novena to each of the holy helpers i.--novena in honor of st. george ii.--novena in honor of st. blase iii.--novena in honor of st. erasmus iv.--novena in honor of st. pantaleon v.--novena in honor of st. vitus vi.--novena in honor of st. christophorus vii.--novena in honor of st. dionysius viii.--novena in honor of st. cyriacus ix.--novena in honor of st. achatius x.--novena in honor of st. eustachius xi.--novena in honor of st. giles xii.--novena in honor of st. margaret xiii.--novena in honor of st. catherine xiv.--novena in honor of st. barbara novena to all the holy helpers first day.--the devotion to the fourteen holy helpers second day.--the destiny of man third day.--the virtue of faith fourth day.--the virtue of hope fifth day.--the love of god sixth day.--the virtue of charity seventh day.--human respect eighth day.--prayer ninth day.--perseverance ii. prayers and petitions prayers of petition and intercession i.--three invocations ii.--prayer in illness iii.--prayer for the sick iv.--prayer of parents for their children v.--prayer of children for their parents vi.--prayer for married people part v general devotions morning prayers evening prayers prayers at holy mass prayers after mass prayers for confession before confession after confession prayers for holy communion before communion after communion visit to the blessed sacrament prayer to the sacred heart of jesus prayers to jesus suffering the stations of the cross prayer to our suffering redeemer prayer to the blessed virgin mary prayer for all things necessary to salvation the four approved litanies litany of the most holy name of jesus litany of the sacred heart of jesus litany of loreto, in honor of the blessed virgin mary litany of all saints part vi thoughts and counsels of the saints for every day of the year january february march april may june july august september october november december part vii reasonableness of catholic ceremonies and practices the ceremonies of the catholic church i.--ceremonies necessary to divine worship ii.--vestments used by the priest at mass iii.--ceremonies of the mass the practices of the catholic church i.--vespers and benediction ii.--devotion to the blessed sacrament iii.--holy communion iv.--confirmation v.--honoring the blessed virgin vi.--confession of sin vii.--granting indulgences viii.--the last sacraments ix.--praying for the dead x.--praying to the saints xi.--crucifixes, relics, and images xii.--some sacramentals--the books used by the priest, the sign of the cross, holy water, blessed candles, palm and ashes, holy oils, scapulars, medals, agnus dei, prayers, litanies, rosary, angelus, stations, funeral service, and various blessings xiii.--the celebration of feasts xiv.--infant baptism xv.--the marriage tie--one and indissoluble xvi.--respect shown to ecclesiastical superiors xvii.--celibacy xviii.--conclusion part i the veneration and invocation of saints, and the efficacy of prayer "remember your prelates who have spoken the word of god to you; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation" (_heb._ xiii. ). "wherefore i beseech you, be ye followers of me, as i am also of christ" (_ cor._ iv. ). [illustration: presentation of mary in the temple.] chapter i the veneration and invocation of saints in the creed of the council of trent, which the catholic church places before the faithful as the rule of faith, we read: "i firmly believe that the saints reigning with christ are to be venerated and invoked." the church therefore teaches, first, that it is right and pleasing to god to venerate the saints and to invoke their intercession; and second, that it is useful and profitable to eternal salvation for us to do so. the veneration of the saints is useful and profitable to us. men conspicuous in life for knowledge, bravery, or other noble qualities and unusual merits are honored after death. why, then, should catholics not be permitted to honor the heroes of their faith, who excelled in the practice of supernatural virtue and are in special grace and favor with god? that this veneration is profitable to us is evident from the fact that the example of the saints incites us to imitate them to the best of our ability. the veneration of the saints is not only in full accord with the demands of reason, but we are, moreover, enjoined explicitly by holy scripture to venerate the memory of the holy patriarchs and prophets: "let us now praise men of renown, and our fathers in their generation" (_ecclus_. xliv. ). "and their names continue for ever, the glory of the holy men remaining unto their children" (_ecclus_. xlvi. ). reason and holy scripture, then, are in favor of the veneration of the saints. we find it practised, therefore, also in the early church. she was convinced from the very beginning of its propriety and utility. as early as the first century the memorial day of the martyrs' death was observed by the christians. they assembled at the tombs of the sainted victims of pagan cruelty and celebrated their memory by offering up the holy sacrifice over their relics. we know this not only from the testimony of the earliest ecclesiastical writers, as origen, tertullian, and st. cyprian, but also from the history of st. ignatius the martyr (d. ), and of st. polycarp of smyrna (d. ). over one hundred panegyrics of various saints written by st. augustine are still extant. and why should it not be right and useful to invoke the _intercession_ of the saints? everybody deems it proper to ask a pious friend for his prayers. st. paul the apostle recommended himself to the prayers of the faithful (_rom._ xv. ), and god himself commanded the friends of job to ask him for his intercession that their sin might not be imputed to them (_job_ xlii. ). how, then, can it be wrong or superfluous to invoke the intercession of the saints in heaven? the saints are _willing_ to invoke god's bounty in our favor, for they love us. they are _able_ to obtain it for us, because god always accepts their prayer with complacency. that they really hear our prayer and intercede with god for us is clearly shown by many examples in holy scripture. and if, according to the testimony of st. james (v. ), the prayer of the just man here on earth availeth much with god, how much more powerful, then, must be the prayer of the saints, who are united with god in heaven in perfect love and are, so to say, partakers of his infinite goodness and omnipotence? a most striking proof of the efficacy of the prayers of the saints is the numerous miracles wrought and the many favors obtained at all times through their intercession. among these miracles are a great number whose authenticity was declared by the church after the most scrupulous and strict investigation, as the acts of canonization prove. that the invocation of the saints was a practice of the early church is proved by the numerous inscriptions on the tombs of the roman catacombs preserved to this day. we read there, for instance, on the tomb of sabbatius, a martyr, "sabbatius, o pious soul, pray and intercede for your brethren and associates!" on another tomb is inscribed, "allicius, thy spirit is blessed; pray for thy parents!" and again, "jovianus, live in god, and pray for us!" we have also the testimony of one of the greatest thinkers and protestant philosophers, leibnitz, for the claim that the veneration and invocation of the saints is founded in reason, on holy scripture, and on the tradition of the church. he writes: "because we justly expect great advantage by uniting our prayers with those of our brethren here on earth, i can not understand how it can be called a crime if a person invokes the intercession of a glorified soul, or an angel. if it be really idolatry or a detestable cult to invoke the saints and the angels to intercede for us with god, i do not comprehend how basil, gregory nazianzen, ambrose, and others, who were hitherto considered saints, can be absolved from idolatry or superstition. to continue in such a practice would indeed not be a small defect in the fathers, such as is inherent in human nature--it would be an enormous public crime. for if the church, even in those early times, was infected with such abominable errors, let any one judge for himself what the christian faith would eventually come to. would not gamaliel's proposition, to judge whether christ's religion be divine or human from its effects, result in its disfavor?" but whilst the catholic church practises and recommends the veneration and invocation of the saints, she does not teach us to honor and invoke them as we do god, nor to pray to them as we do to him. she makes a great distinction. the veneration of the saints differs from the worship of god in the following: . we _adore_ god as our supreme lord. we _honor_ the saints as his faithful servants and friends. . we _adore_ god for his own sake. we _honor_ the saints for the gifts and prerogatives with which god endowed them. therefore there is a difference between the prayer to god and the invocation of the saints. we pray to god asking him to help us by his omnipotence: we pray to the saints to help us by their intercession with god. our veneration of the saints should consist, primarily, in the imitation of their virtues. it is truly profitable only when we are intent upon following their example; for only by imitating their virtues shall we share their eternal bliss in heaven. a veneration which contents itself with honoring the saints without imitating their virtues is similar to a tree that produces leaves and blossoms but bears no fruit. the saints themselves desire that we should follow their example. each of them, so to say, exhorts us with st. paul, "be ye followers of me, as i also am of christ" (_ cor._ iv. ). there is no age, no sex, no station in life for which the catholic church has not saints, whose example teaches us to avoid sin and to observe faithfully the commandments of god and the church at this or that age, or in this or that station. therefore the principal object of our invocation of the saints ought to be the obtaining of their help in following their example. thus we shall move them to come to our aid all the more readily. chapter ii efficacy of the intercession of the saints nothing is more consoling and comforting than the assurance that in the saints of heaven we have powerful protectors and advocates with god. through their intercession they obtain for us from him the grace to lead a virtuous life and to gain heaven. however, is there any reasonable doubt that the saints are able to render us such a service? in virtue of the communion of saints, which comprises the church militant on earth, the church suffering in purgatory, and the church triumphant in heaven, all members of the church are members of one body, whose head is christ. hence the saints are united with us in spirit, though separated from us in body. united with christ, they are imbued with a superior knowledge, and through him, the all-knowing, they know everything that concerns us, and for which we have recourse to them in prayer. our confidence in the intercessory power of the saints is founded on their relation to god and to us. as friends of god they have influence with him now, even more than during their sojourn on earth, because their intercessory power is one of their glorious prerogatives in heaven. their love of god and their charity for their fellow-men, and the zeal for the salvation of souls resulting therefrom, together with their conformity with christ, induces them to use their influence readily in our favor. because god dispenses his gifts according to his own adorable will, it may please him to grant a certain favor at the particular intercession of a certain saint; hence it is not superstition to invoke his aid in such cases. moreover, we justly place our confidence in saints whom we have selected to be our special patrons, or who were given us as such by ecclesiastical authority. by the intercession of the saints the mediatorship of christ is not set aside or restricted. the power of intercession, the intercession itself, and its invocation are an effect of the grace of christ; therefore he remains our only mediator. god remains our lord and father, although men share in his lordship and paternity; for all power and authority comes from god, who is pleased to operate in his creatures through other creatures. hence, only a dependent mediatorship can be ascribed to the saints. whoever admits that the living can pray for each other can not denounce the intercession of the saints as an usurpation of the mediatorship of christ. the saints are not the authors and dispensers of grace and heavenly gifts, but they are able to obtain them for us from god. the saints, moreover, do not only pray for mankind in general, but for their clients in particular. as co-reigners with christ, the denizens of heaven have knowledge of the conditions and events of his kingdom; hence the saints may pray for us individually; therefore it is permissible and profitable for us to invoke them. it is obvious that the knowledge of individual occurrences does not mar the bliss of the saints. how they gain this knowledge is not clear to the spiritual authors; but most of them incline to the view that they attain it by direct divine mediation. god reveals our condition and our invocation to the saints. can we doubt the willingness of the saints to aid us by their intercession? according to st. paul, charity is the greatest of all virtues. if, then, the saints, whilst on earth loved their fellow-men, cared for and prayed for them, how much more will they do so now, when their charity is perfected? they, too, were pilgrims on earth, who had to suffer the adversities and miseries of life and therefore know by experience how sorely in need of divine assistance we poor mortals are. persons who have themselves experienced trials have more compassion for the adversities of others. therefore it is certain that the saints have compassion on us, that they wish our prayers to be heard and bring them before the throne of god. "the saints," says st. augustine, "being secure of their eternal welfare, are intent upon ours." holy scripture establishes this beyond doubt, saying that the saints bring the prayers of the faithful before the throne of god (_apoc._ v. ). or is there any one that doubts the _efficacy_ of the saints' prayer with god? at any rate, we must concede that their prayer is more effectual than ours; for they are confirmed in justice, and therefore friends and favorites of god, whilst we are sinners, of whom holy scripture says, "the lord is far from the wicked, and he will hear the prayers of the just" (_prov._ xv. ). on this subject, let us hear st. basil in his panegyric on the forty martyrs: "you often wanted to find an intercessor: here you have forty who intercede unanimously for you. are you in distress? have recourse to the holy martyrs. rejoicing, do the same. the former that you may find relief, the latter that you may continue to prosper. these saints hear the mother praying for her children, the wife invoking aid for her sick or absent husband. o brave and victorious band, protectors of mankind, generous intercessors when invoked, be our advocates with god!" there is no doubt, then, that during our earthly pilgrimage the saints are our intercessors with god. true, we know that there is one who guides our destinies and whose providence watches over all; but who would not choose, also, to have a friend already abiding with god, sharing his bliss and confirmed for ever in his grace, and who therefore is in a position to aid us, and certainly will do so if we invoke him? the following is an example illustrating the power of the saints' intercession with god: basilides was one of the guards that led st. potamiana to a martyr's death. whilst the rest of the soldiers and the crowd of spectators insulted the holy virgin, he treated her with great respect and protected her from the assaults of the rabble. the martyr thanked him for his kindness, and promised to pray for him when she came into god's presence. a few days after her death the grace of god touched basilides' heart, and he professed himself a christian. his comrades at first imagined that he was jesting. but when he persevered in the confession of the faith, he was brought before the judge, who sentenced him to be beheaded next day. taken to prison, he was baptized, and at the appointed time, executed. what else but the intercession of the saint whom he had befriended obtained for this heathen the grace of the faith and martyrdom? convinced of the power of the intercession of the saints, origen writes: "i will fall on my knees, and because i am unworthy to pray to god on account of my sins, i will invoke all the saints to come to my aid. o ye saints of god, i, filled with sadness, sighing and weeping, implore you; intercede for me, a miserable sinner, with the lord of mercies!" chapter iii for what the intercession of the saints may and should be invoked it is obvious that there are objects to attain which we ought not to pray. we shall try to specify them as follows: . _we may not pray for things that are evil or injurious in themselves, or injurious on account of circumstances._ amongst these are comprised all those that are opposed to the salvation of the person praying, or of some one else. it is contrary to the very idea of prayer that god should grant to his creature anything evil, anything that is in itself, and not only by abuse, harmful. prayer, according to the rules of morality, must have for its object only the attainment of whatever is good and profitable, and only then is it heard by god. . _things completely indifferent are not comprised in the efficacy of prayer. hence prayer imploring for temporal goods is heard only inasmuch as they relate to the salvation of souls._ reason, as well as faith, teaches us that god orders all his actions first for the promotion of his glory, and secondly for the salvation of souls. matters, therefore, that are either in general, or on account of circumstances, positively indifferent, must be excluded from the general plan of god's providence when there is question of his positive agency, and not simply of his permission. it is obvious that temporal goods, such as health, wealth, etc., are classed with things indifferent, in as far as they are not connected with the moral order. thus considered, the various goods of the temporal order do, or at least may, under certain conditions, co-operate unto man's salvation, and then they belong to the supernatural order. as such, the efficacy of prayer in their regard must be judged according to the principles applying to the latter. . _all those things which any one can obtain himself without extraordinary effort, are not comprised within the scope of prayer._ this restriction results from the very nature of prayer. obviously, prayer is not the only means by which man can obtain those things which, on the one hand, he momentarily does not possess, and which, on the other hand, are necessary or advantageous for his supernatural life. as a rule, man can, by labor and application, procure his sustenance. persons unable to work can have recourse to the charity of their fellow-men, and will, as a rule, find the necessary assistance. in regard to salvation, it must first be ascertained whether in many or at least in some cases, the faithful co-operation with the graces which god gives to all men is not sufficient. considered from this view, we may, and even must, in a certain sense say: when there is question of attaining specified goods and specified graces, prayer is often not the primary, but only the secondary and subordinate means. from this premise follows that god in his wise providence does not have regard for our prayer when we easily can help ourselves, either by our own exertion and industry, or by the faithful cooperation with graces already received, or by the reception of the holy sacraments. this self-evident idea is expressed in holy scripture as follows, "because of the cold the sluggard would not plow; he shall beg therefore in the summer, and it shall not be given him" (_prov._ xx. ). for this reason formal miracles are, as a rule, not to be expected from the efficacy of prayer. god ordained the world and its course in such a manner, that mankind in general and each individual in particular can be provided, without the intervention of a miracle, with all things necessary for their temporal and eternal welfare. theologians, therefore, teach that to ask god for a miracle, generally, is the same as to tempt him. this rule, however, admits of exceptions. and if we may, in exceptional cases, ask for miracles, we may, logically, expect them; for miracles in general are not excluded from the plan of divine providence. they are rather an essential part of the existing order of god's government of the world. at most we may say: as miracles of their nature belong among the extraordinary manifestations of providence, they are not obtained by the prayer of each and every one, but only in exceptional cases. however, if we consider how feeble and helpless man's nature is, even with the assistance of divine grace, we may not apply the above principles too strictly. this, for the following reason: cases in which we can not help ourselves with the aid of the grace given us are rare. therefore god gives us, in reward of our confident prayer, not only that which is strictly necessary, but also that which is profitable and conducive to our welfare. this being so, the logical deduction is, that god is willing to hear our prayer not only when we, of ourselves, are totally incapable of helping ourselves, but also when great difficulties beset us in this our self-help. hence, in a certain sense, we may maintain that in the work of our salvation prayer and its efficacy must be considered, together with the sacraments, as one of the chief means, and not as a mere accessory. [illustration: the annunciation] this limitation of the main principle is founded on the generality of the divine promises concerning the hearing of prayer, and on the great goodness and bounty of god in which these promises originated. when man, making use of all the means placed at his disposal, can not help himself, a cry for help is sent to heaven is not presumptuous or unreasonable, and therefore the hope of being heard is not unfounded or in vain. chapter iv the qualities of prayer for greater convenience of explanation, we condense the various qualities of prayer taught by theologians as conditions of its efficacy into the following four: ( ) devotion; ( ) confidence; ( ) perseverance; ( ) resignation to the will of god. treating of prayer, some theological authors demand, above all, the intention of praying. this intention is indeed so necessary that it does not belong to the qualities or attributes of prayer, but to its very essence. for whosoever has not the intention or will to pray may recite a formula of prayer with the greatest attention, yet does not really and truly pray. again, the teachers of the spiritual life tell us that prayer must be "in the name of jesus." this being a condition insisted upon by our divine lord himself, it also belongs to the essence of prayer. it means that we offer up our prayer to god in the name of jesus his son, that is, with reference to him and in the firm confidence that we shall be heard on his account and because of his promises. again, to pray in the name of jesus means to pray according to his manner and in his spirit. we now proceed to explain the qualities of true prayer: . _devotion._--what is meant by devotion in prayer? devotion in prayer means: (_a_) that our prayer must be attentive; that is, the person praying must direct his thoughts as uninterruptedly as possible to his prayer, _viz.,_ to the formula he uses to state the object of his desires, and above all to god, to whom his prayer is directed. (_b_) the person praying must know and acknowledge his own needs, and that of himself he has no claims whatsoever on god, and thus engender in himself sentiments of true humility, (_c_) these sentiments must, moreover, embrace reverence for god and the acknowledgment of dependence on him, thus giving to prayer the character of piety, (_d_) all this must culminate in full abandonment to god, the giver of all good things. this abandonment is an essential part of our divine cult. as to the question whether devotion, and what grade of it, is necessary in prayer, and whether prayer without it loses its entire efficacy, and especially its imploring efficiency, it is evident that prayer without devotion is ineffective; it is simulation. an example of this, that is, of a man pretending to pray and not praying in reality, is given us in the parable of the pharisee and the publican (_luke_ xviii. - ). to determine accurately what grade of devotion, that is, what degree of attention, humility, and piety is necessary to render prayer from a formality into a reality, is possible only when all the circumstances, dispositions, and qualities of mind of the person praying can be taken into account. suffice it to remark that when all the other conditions, together with the intention of praying, combine, strict but reliable theologians declare that the true essence of prayer is compatible with a less degree of attention and recollection. . _confidence._--there is no doubt but that strong confidence, or the firm hope of being heard, contributes much to the perfection of prayer and renders it especially effective. therefore confidence, like devotion or attention, must be reckoned among the essential qualities or attributes of prayer. for it is inconceivable that a rational being should resolve on presenting a petition when he has not the least hope of its being granted. in this case his petition would be entirely useless, and therefore irrational. again, it is inconceivable that god should have regard for a prayer or the petition of a man who has absolutely no confidence in his mercy. a prayer without confidence is hypocrisy, rather than true and sincere supplication. if we address a petition to god without the confidence that he can and will grant it, he must rather feel offended than honored thereby. how, then, shall he feel moved to grant us new benefits? if we nevertheless receive them, it is the effect of his bountiful goodness, and not the result of our sham prayer. therefore, to be effective, our prayer must be inspired by confidence. the apostle st. james inculcates this, saying: "but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind. therefore let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the lord" (_james_ i. - ). by these words the apostle designates not a common and ordinary confidence, but one firm and steadfast. at the same time he speaks in general; that is, his words have reference not only to extraordinary petitions, but to everything for which we are accustomed to pray. moreover, the explicit and positive promises made by christ in regard to prayer manifestly have the purpose of inspiring the person praying with firm confidence and the sure hope of being heard. if, then, our prayer be wanting in this quality, we do not pray in the spirit of christ, nor in the terms in which we ought to pray, and can not claim the fulfilment of his promises. . _perseverance._--to understand properly in how far perseverance is a quality of prayer, we must, above all, know what may be the objects of our prayer. of these there are three classes. to the first class belong those cases in which a person needs divine help at the present moment or at least at a time definitely near, and seeks it through prayer. such a petition would be, for instance, to obtain the necessary and effective aid of divine grace for overcoming an existing transient temptation, or the conversion of a certain sinner approaching death. to the second class belongs the avoidance of temporal evils, or of continuous temptations, or the conversion of a certain sinner now in good health. to the third class belong such benefits which can be granted only for a later period, perhaps at the hour of death. the grace of final perseverance is the foremost among these. having stated the preliminary conditions, the answer to the question of perseverance in prayer is: _a._ inasmuch as our prayer is directed toward the attainment of benefits of the first class, that is, of graces which we need immediately, perseverance can obviously not be an essential condition of our prayer. either we can not attain our object by prayer, or a transient prayer which has the other necessary qualities must suffice for its attainment. the first supposition is contrary to the divine promises; therefore the alternative must stand. _b._ when there is question of benefits and graces of the second and third class, we must concede that perseverance or continuance in prayer is neither impossible, nor is it unreasonable. god is willing to grant us his almighty help, but at the same time he desires that we, being convinced of its necessity, implore it all the more eagerly, and thereby become more worthy to receive it when he shall be pleased to grant our petitions. therefore . _resignation_ to the will of god is a necessary condition for the efficacy of our prayer. this quality of our prayer needs no lengthy explanation; its application to prayer is self-evident. finally the petition for a certain benefit, in order to be reasonable and permissible, must include the following two attributes: (_a_) the object prayed for must not be harmful, but profitable; (_b_) it must not be opposed to the will of god. _conclusions._--careful observation will convince us that prayer is often wanting in one or more of the above qualities. often that which one seeks to obtain by prayer is not promotive of god's glory and of the salvation of souls, even considered from a human point of view, much less in the designs of providence. in cases where the object of prayer in itself presents no difficulties, it is often defective for want of devotion or perseverance. but oftenest our prayer is wanting in confidence and trust, which want originates in the feeble faith of the person praying, or in too little reliance on the promises of christ and in the merits of his redemption. thus there is nothing to surprise us if we are not heard. again, we must never forget that very many, and generally the most precious gifts of divine grace are bestowed secretly. remember the many and great benefits conferred daily and hourly by god on mankind, universally and individually. considering them, it is presumption to maintain that in a special case the prayer of the church, or of a community, or of an individual, was not granted. the opposite is fully proved by the goodness, bounty, and mercy which god shows so profusely to us. we must, moreover, never lose sight of the principle that the promises made to prayer concern directly only the supernatural order of salvation. to the goods of the temporal order they are applicable only relatively. if we, therefore, experience that our prayers relative to temporal things remain unheard, we must, instead of doubting the divine promises, be firmly convinced that the attainment of the object for which we prayed was, under the circumstances, not conducive to our real welfare. we must, moreover, be convinced that god, in order not to leave our petition ungranted, conferred on us some other real benefit. finally, when the refusal of our prayer is clearly and unmistakably established, the reasons for this may be the following: (_a_) perhaps the person praying was wanting in effort, or in cooperation with graces formerly received, a deficiency which can not be repaired by prayer alone. (_b_) or the prayer itself is wanting in one or the other necessary qualities, especially in confidence. (_c_) god does not intend to refuse the desired grace, but, for reasons of his own, delays it (_d_) god gives us in place of what we asked some other grace more salutary to us. part ii mary, the help of christians novenas in preparation for the principal feasts of the blessed virgin "holy mary, aid the miserable, assist the desponding, strengthen the weak, pray for the people, plead for the clergy, intercede for the devout female sex. let all who have recourse to thee experience the efficacy of thy help!"--holy church. rules for the proper observance of novenas _by st. alphonsus liguori_ . the soul must be in the state of grace; for the devotion of a sinful heart pleases neither god nor the saints. . we must persevere, that is, the prayers for each day of the novena must never be omitted. . if possible, we should visit a church every day, and there implore the favor we desire. . every day we ought to perform certain specified acts of exterior self-denial and interior mortification, in order to prepare us thereby for the reception of grace. . it is most important that we receive holy communion when making a novena. therefore prepare yourself well for it. . after obtaining the desired grace for which the novena was made, do not omit to return thanks to god and to the saint through whose intercession your prayers were heard. on the manner of reading the meditations and observing the practices holy scripture says, "before prayer prepare thy soul; and be not as a man that tempteth god" (_eccles._ xviii. ). therefore place yourself in the presence of god, invoke the assistance of the holy ghost, and make a most sincere act of contrition for your sins. offer up to god your will, your intellect, and your memory, so that your prayer may be pleasing to god and serve to promote your spiritual welfare. then read the meditation slowly, reflecting on each point of the thought or mystery treated, and consider what you can learn from it, and for what grace you ought to implore god. this is the principal object to be attained by mental prayer. never rise from your prayer without having formed some special resolution for practical observance. the practices at the end of each consideration in the following novenas will aid you to do so. finally, ask for grace to carry out effectively your good purposes, and thank god for enlightening your mind during the meditation. introduction mary, the help of christians no catholic denies that our lord jesus christ is the only mediator through whose merits we became reconciled to god. nevertheless, it is a doctrine of our faith that god willingly grants us grace if the saints, and especially the blessed virgin mary, the queen of saints, intercede for us. if the saints, during their life on earth, were so potent with god that through their prayers the blind obtained sight, the deaf hearing, and the dumb speech, that the sick of all conditions were healed, the dead restored to life, and the most obstinate sinners converted; if thousands of other miracles in the order of nature and of grace were performed through their intercession; what, then, will not she obtain for us from god, whose virtue and merits transcend those of all the saints, and who did more for the greater honor and glory of god than they all? mary is the queen of saints not only because she is the mother of the most high, but also because her sanctity is more perfect than theirs, and she therefore thrones above them all in heaven. hence the favor with which god regards her, and consequently the power of her intercession with him is so much the greater. if mary's sanctity thus impressively illustrates the potency of her intercession, the contemplation of her dignity as the mother of god does still more so. mary brought forth him who is the almighty. she calls him her son, who by the word of his omnipotence created from out of nothing the whole world with all its beauties, and who can call into being countless millions of other worlds. she calls him her son, whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth, who governs all nature with almighty power and reveals his name to mankind through the most astounding miracles. in a word, mary calls him her son, whose omnipotence fills heaven and earth; and this great, almighty god, who honors her as his mother and has wrought in her such great things, will he not heed her word of intercession, and hear her pleading for those who have recourse to her? on earth he was subject to her. her intercession moved him to exercise his omnipotent power at the wedding feast at cana; and now, when he has glorified and raised her up so high he would let her invoke him in vain? no, it is inconceivable that god should not hear the prayers of his mother! [illustration: the blessed virgin visits st. elizabeth] the holy fathers and doctors of the church vie with each other in proclaiming the power of mary's intercession with the heart of her divine son. some say that having been subject to her on earth, he desires to be so in heaven, inasmuch as to refuse her nothing she asks. hence st. bernard calls her the "intercessory omnipotence." indeed, when all the angels and saints in heaven join in supplication to god, their prayers are but those of servants; but when mary prays her intercession is that of his mother. therefore we can not sufficiently thank god for having given us in mary so powerful an advocate. st. bernard aptly says: "the angel announces, 'thou hast found grace before god.' o supreme happiness! mary shall always find grace. and what else could we wish? if we seek grace, let us seek it through mary; for what she seeks, she finds. never can she plead ineffectually." god, then, who in his infinite mercy has been pleased to provide for all our needs, desires through mary to console us, to comfort us, to remove all distrust, to strengthen our hope. how consoling to him who calls upon god in sore distress, or implores his pardon for sins committed, is the thought that at the throne of divine mercy he has in mary an advocate as mighty as she is gracious, who supplements his great unworthiness by her sublime dignity, and who makes good the defects of his prayer by her intercession! therefore st. bonaventure exclaims: "verily, great is our lord's mercy! that we, through fear of our divine judge, depart not forever from him, he gave us his own mother for our advocate and mediatrix of grace." i. novena in honor of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary indulgences to all the faithful who by themselves or with others, in church or at home, with at least contrite heart and devotion, shall make this novena: ( ) days indulgence for each of the nine days; ( ) a plenary indulgence on one day of the novena or of the eight days following it. (pius ix, january , .) conditions: confession, communion, and prayer, according to the intentions of the holy father. _remark._--whenever, in the following pages, an indulgence is said to be granted "under the usual conditions," these conditions are the same as above. _note._--the above indulgences may also be gained for making the novena at any other time of the year, and are not attached to any prescribed formula of prayer. the same applies to all other novenas in honor of the blessed virgin. first day predestination of the blessed virgin mary preparatory prayer in thy conception, o virgin mary, thou wast immaculate; pray for us to the father, whose son jesus, conceived in thy womb by the holy ghost, thou didst bring forth. indulgence. days, every time. (pius vi, november , .) meditation holy church, our mother, purposely gathered into the season of advent everything which might contribute to assist us in preparing for the coming of the redeemer. purity of heart is the most necessary and helpful requirement for receiving god worthily, and for participating in the fruits of our redemption through christ. to remind us of this, holy church celebrates the feast of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary, this primary feast of purity, in advent. the church, moreover, intends to remind us that the coming of christ, our promised redeemer, depended on the consent of the blessed virgin. the redeemer could not appear before she was born of whom he was to be born. the aurora must precede the rising sun. thus also mary, the spiritual aurora, had to be conceived and born before the appearance of the sun of justice in this world. practice in mary appeared the woman who was to crush the serpent's head, who was to repair by her willing co-operation with god's designs the damage wrought by the disobedience of our first parents, and who was to become our mother and mighty advocate with god. the designs of god concerning mary were fully accomplished. god also has designs concerning us. our life was planned by him from all eternity, and we were destined to co-operate with him harmoniously and conscientiously in working out our salvation. have we corresponded with god's designs? did we not oppose them by yielding to our evil inclinations and passions? what a disparity between god's intentions concerning us and our own co-operation, between his merciful designs and our cowardly resistance to them! prayer of the church o god, who through the immaculate conception of the virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for thy divine son; grant that, as in view of thy son thou didst preserve her from all taint, so thou wouldst vouchsafe unto us that cleansed from all sin by her intercession we too may arrive at thine eternal glory. through the same christ our lord. amen. litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ behold, virgin immaculate, at thy sacred feet i bow, while my heart overflows with joy in union with thine own, because from eternity thou wast the mother-elect of the eternal word, and was preserved stainless from the taint of adam's sin. forever praised, forever blessed be the most holy trinity, who in thy conception poured out upon thy soul the riches of that matchless privilege. i humbly pray thee, most gracious mother, obtain for me the grace to overcome the bitter results of original sin. make me victorious over them, that i may never cease to love my god. hail mary, etc. _ejaculation_ o mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee! indulgence. days, once a day. (leo xiii, march , .) second day mary's immaculate conception preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation according to the definition of pope pius ix, the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary is that privilege by which she was preserved, in view of the merits of our saviour jesus christ, from original sin in the first moment of her conception. by solemnly proclaiming the dogma of mary's immaculate conception, the church confirmed anew the fundamental principles of christianity which in our times are so frequently attacked, derided, or forgotten. god reserved the solemn proclamation of this dogma, which seemingly has no practical bearing on the christian life, for our age, to recall to our mind the doctrines resulting from it. practice the most important of these doctrines is that of original sin, which to-day is rejected by many as a debasement of human nature, and is forgotten by others as having no practical influence on our moral state. by the promulgation of the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary, the church solemnly declares and defines as an article of faith, that the blessed virgin mary is conceived without the stain of original sin by a special privilege and grace of god. if, then, mary's sinlessness is an exception, the general rule remains in force, and all other human beings enter this world in the state of original sin. thus, by the proclamation of the dogma of the immaculate conception, the church combats human pride and sensuality, the foremost vices of the age. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ mary, unsullied lily of heavenly purity, i rejoice with thee, because at thy conception's earliest dawn thou wast full of grace and endowed with the perfect use of reason. i thank and adore the ever-blessed trinity, who gave thee such high gifts. i am overwhelmed with shame in thy presence, to see myself so poor in grace. o thou who wast filled with heavenly grace, impart some portion of it to my soul, and make me share the treasures of thy immaculate conception. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day mary, the victrix of satan preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary inaugurated the fulfilment of the divine promise made to our first parents in paradise in the words addressed to the serpent: "i shall put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head" (_gen._ iii. ). mary is the woman in whom satan never had a part. her intimate connection with god was announced by the angel: "hail, full of grace; the lord is with thee." now was fulfilled the saying of the psalmist, "the most high hath sanctified his own tabernacle. god is in the midst thereof, it shall not be moved: god will help it in the morning early" (_ps._ xlv. - ). mary was chosen to be the glorious tabernacle of the son of god "in the morning early," that is, in the first moment of her existence. god called her into being that she might assume the exalted dignity of the mother of his son, and therefore granted her the singular privilege of exemption from original sin. in her were fulfilled solomon's prophetic words of praise, "thou art all fair, o my love, and there is not a spot in thee" (_cant._ iv. ). it was in view of her son's merits applied to her beforehand that god thus produced in her the image of the new man regenerated in the holy ghost. practice the spirit of darkness holds mankind enslaved, but one human being escapes him. a destructive fire lays waste the whole earth, but one tree remains unscathed. a terrible tyrant conquers the whole world, but one fortified city repels his assaults. this human being retaining liberty, this tree escaping destruction, this city repelling the enemy's attack is the blessed virgin mary. will the almighty and merciful god, who has accomplished such great things in mary, who has selected her for his mother, not listen to her prayers when she intercedes for us? st. william of paris exclaims: "no other created being can obtain for us so many and so great graces from god as his mother. by the all-powerful might of her intercession he honors her not only as his handmaid, but also as his mother." therefore we ought not be surprised when the holy fathers maintain that a single sigh of mary is more effective with god than the combined intercession of all the angels and saints. if, then, mary's power is so great, she will surely hear us when we invoke her help in our combat with satan. having conquered him herself, she will also help us to conquer him. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ mary, thou mystical rose of purity, my heart rejoices with thine at the glorious triumph which thou didst gain over the infernal serpent by thy immaculate conception, and because thou wast conceived without stain of original sin. i thank and praise with my whole heart the ever-blessed trinity, who granted thee this glorious privilege; and i pray thee to obtain for me strength to overcome all the wiles of the infernal foe, and never to stain my soul with sin. be thou mine aid; make me, by thy protection, victorious over the common foe of our eternal welfare. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day mary without actual sin preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary conceived without sin is the most blessed daughter of the eternal father, the real and true mother of the divine son, the elect spouse of the holy ghost. but in the world, in what condition do we behold her? she dwells not in a splendid palace; she is not surrounded by a retinue of servants ready at every moment to do her bidding; she is not exempt from trials and suffering. on the contrary, she is poor; she lives in obscurity, and suffered so much on earth that, without shedding her blood, she merits to be styled the queen of martyrs. her heart was transfixed with the sword of sorrow. mary is not exempt from tribulations and adversity; but one thing god does not permit to touch her, _i.e.,_ sin. hence holy church applies to her the words, "thou art all fair, o my love, and there is not a spot in thee" (_cant._ iv. ). practice though we were not preserved from sin like mary, yet god in his ineffable goodness and mercy granted us the grace to be cleansed from sin and to be clothed with the garment of sanctifying grace in baptism. no treasure of the world can be compared with this prerogative. but as we bear this grace in a fragile vase, we must be most careful to protect and preserve it in ourselves and others from all danger. let the blessed virgin mary be our example. well knowing the inestimable value of the grace conferred upon her, she guarded it with the greatest care. although exempt from concupiscence and "full of grace," she was so distrustful of herself as if she were in continual danger. how much more, then, must we use precaution to preserve in ourselves and in others this treasure of grace, since we feel in ourselves constantly the law of the flesh, which resists the law of the spirit, and urges us on to evil, whilst the world and the devil never weary in placing snares for us in order to accomplish our ruin. therefore let us have recourse to mary, and invoking her aid bravely resist all temptations. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ mirror of holy purity, mary, virgin immaculate, great is my joy while i consider that, from thy immaculate conception, the most sublime and perfect virtues were infused into thy soul, and with them all the gifts of the holy ghost. i thank and praise the most holy trinity, who bestowed on thee these high privileges. i pray thee, gentle mother, obtain for me grace to practise virtue, and to make me worthy to become partaker of the gifts and graces of the holy ghost. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day mary, full of grace preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation satan's relation to god as his child was severed by sin. the beautiful image of god imprinted on man's soul was disfigured by it. but with the immaculate conception of mary, a being full of grace, an object of god's supreme complacency entered this world. after the lapse of four thousand years god, in his wisdom, power, and love, for the first time again created a human being in that state in which he had originally created our first parents. mary, from the first moment of her existence was, in virtue of the sanctifying grace infused into her soul, most intimately united with god, and endowed with the most precious gifts of heaven. because she was predestined to become the mother of the redeemer of mankind, it was befitting that she should unite in herself all the gifts becoming to such an ineffable dignity. hence she surpassed in grace and holiness all other created beings, and was consecrated a worthy temple of the incarnate word. therefore she was saluted by the angel as "full of grace," and the church, in our behalf, addresses the almighty: "o god, who through the immaculate conception of the virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for thy divine son; grant, that, as in view of the death of that son thou didst preserve her from all taint, so thou wouldst vouchsafe unto us that, cleansed from all sin by her intercession, we too may arrive at thine eternal glory." practice the world considers men according to their rank and station, their wealth and knowledge. god recognizes in them but one difference, that caused by the presence or absence of sanctifying grace in their soul. a soul in the state of sanctifying grace is god's friend; without it, his enemy. a man dying in the state of sanctifying grace is sure of eternal bliss. therefore we ought to prize this grace above all else, and do everything in our power to preserve it. st. leo exhorts us, "recognize, o man, thy dignity! as thou hast received divine grace, beware of returning to your former sinful condition by a wicked life." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ mary, bright moon of purity, i rejoice with thee, because the mystery of thy immaculate conception was the beginning of salvation for the race of man and the joy of the whole world. i thank and bless the ever-blessed trinity, who thus did magnify and glorify thee; and i beg of thee to obtain for me the grace so to profit by thy dear son's death and passion, that his precious blood may not have been shed in vain for me upon the cross, but that, after a holy life, i may reach heaven in safety. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary, our refuge preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation we carry the precious treasure of sanctifying grace in a frail vessel. our inclination to evil remains with us, and continues to impel us to that which is forbidden. on whom shall we call for aid? call on mary! she is conceived without sin. she, the lily among thorns, who never lost god's friendship, is our advocate. let her, who was found worthy to become the mother of our redeemer, inspire you with trust and confidence. the church invokes her as the refuge of sinners, and under no other title does she show her love for us more convincingly and her power with god more efficiently. [illustration: the adoration of the shepherds] practice we may trust confidently in mary's intercession and aid in all temptations and trials, if we but have recourse to her. therefore st. john damascene writes: "come to my aid, o mother of my redeemer! thou art my help, my consolation in life. come to my aid, and i shall escape unscorched from the fire of temptation; amongst a thousand i shall remain unharmed; i shall brave the storms of assault unwrecked. thy name is my shield, thy help my armor, thy protection my defense. with thee i boldly attack the enemy and drive him off in confusion; through thee i shall achieve a triumphant victory." in all temptations, therefore, let us have recourse to mary and through her intercession we shall overcome them. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ mary immaculate, most brilliant star of purity, i rejoice with thee because thy immaculate conception has bestowed upon the angels in paradise the greatest joy. i thank and bless the ever-blessed trinity, who enriched thee with this high privilege. o let me, too, one day enter into this heavenly joy, in the company of angels, that i may praise and bless thee, world without end. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day mary, the mother of chastity preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation holy scripture and the fathers agree in the statement that the blessed virgin mary made the vow of perpetual virginity. for when the archangel gabriel brought god's message to the immaculate spouse of st. joseph, that she was to become the mother of the most high, she asked, "how shall this be done, because i know not man?" (_luke_ i. .) indeed, mary would not have been, in the full and most excellent sense of the word, the "virgin of virgins," had she not from her own free choice vowed her virginity to god. during the whole christian era there have been heroic souls who made the vow of perpetual chastity, consecrating themselves to god. trusting in the powerful protection of the immaculate virgin, they persevered in their resolve to bear this priceless treasure before god's throne despite the dangers of the world, the temptations of concupiscence, and the assaults of hell, and with the help of the queen of virgins they achieved a triumphant victory. practice since the fall of adam our senses are in rebellion against the law of god. "i see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin" (_rom._ vii. ). chastity is the virtue which causes us the greatest struggles. st. augustine says: "the fiercest of all combats is the one for the preservation of chastity, and we must engage in it every day." fierce as this combat is, the aid which mary gives her children to achieve victory is all-powerful. she sustains them by her maternal love and protection. those who lead a chaste life receive the divine spirit, are happy in this life, and will receive a special crown in heaven. among the means for the preservation of chastity, the following are specially recommended: the assiduous and constant practice of self-denial; the frequentation of the sacraments; the daily invocation of mary for her aid and protection; scrupulous avoidance of the occasions of sin. st. chrysostom writes: "he errs who believes that he can overcome his sensual propensities and preserve chastity by his own efforts. god's mercy must extinguish nature's ardor." have recourse to the intercession of the immaculate virgin and rest assured that you will obtain this mercy. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ mary immaculate, rising morn of purity, i rejoice with thee, gazing in wonder upon thy soul confirmed in grace from the very first moment of thy conception, and rendered inaccessible to sin. i thank and magnify the ever-blessed trinity, who chose thee from all our race for this special privilege. holy virgin, obtain for me utter and constant hatred of all sin above every other evil, and let me rather die than ever again fall into sin. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day the image of the immaculate conception preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation christian art represents the immaculate conception as follows: the blessed virgin appears standing on a globe, about which is coiled a serpent holding an apple in its mouth. one of mary's feet rests upon the serpent, the other is placed on the moon. her eyes are raised toward heaven; her hands are either joined in prayer, or she holds a lily in her right, and places the left on her breast. her dress is white; her ample mantle is of blue color. a crown of twelve stars encircles her head. these emblems typify in a most striking manner mary's power and glory. "and a great sign appeared in heaven. a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (_apoc._ xii. ). practice the representation of the immaculate conception is very instructive. ( ) mary appears standing on the globe. this signifies that being human, she belongs to the earth, and yet is exalted above the world and sin; also, that she trampled under foot earthly possessions, vanities, and joys. ( ) a serpent is coiled about the globe, bearing an apple in its mouth. this reminds us of the fall of our first parents, and of the consequences of their sin. ( ) mary's foot rests on the serpent, indicating that she never was under satan's dominion, but was preserved from sin in the first moment of her existence. ( ) mary stands on the moon. the moon, on account of its changes, is an emblem of inconstancy. we see it at mary's feet, to be reminded that we ought to be constant in faith and virtue. ( ) mary wears a crown, to indicate that she is a queen. the crown is composed of twelve stars: she is the queen of heaven. ( ) mary's dress is white, to denote her spotless purity and innocence. ( ) she folds her hands in prayer, reminding us to imitate her example. ( ) or she holds a lily in her right hand, to indicate her virginity and chastity, and the sweet odor of her virtues. ( ) mary's mantle is blue, which color is emblematic of humility. its folds are ample, to remind us that all who have recourse to her find a secure refuge in all dangers and necessities. therefore let us invoke her intercession in the words of holy church: "we fly to thy patronage, o holy mother of god. despise not our petitions, and deliver us from all danger, o ever glorious and blessed virgin!" prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o spotless sun! o virgin mary! i congratulate thee. i rejoice with thee because in thy conception god gave thee grace greater and more boundless than he ever shed on all his angels and all the saints, together with all their merits. i am thankful and i marvel at the surpassing beneficence of the ever-blessed trinity, who conferred on thee this privilege. o make me correspond with the grace of god and never abuse it. change this heart of mine; make me now begin to amend my life. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day the feast of the immaculate conception preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation early in the christian era the feast of mary's immaculate conception was observed in several countries. st. anselm, bishop of canterbury, introduced it in england. a great number of popes favored the doctrine of mary's absolute sinlessness, and the adversaries of the immaculate conception were bidden to be silent and not publicly assert or defend their view. in , pope sixtus iv prescribed the feast of the immaculate conception to be observed in the whole church, and made it obligatory on priests to recite the special canonical office and to use the mass formula published for the purpose. in , the bishops of the united states assembled in plenary council in baltimore elected the blessed virgin under the title of her immaculate conception patroness of the church in their country. finally, pope pius ix, after consulting with the bishops throughout the world, and having implored the holy ghost for his guidance in prayer and fasting, promulgated, on december , , the dogma which teaches that the blessed virgin mary was in her conception, by a special grace and through the merits of her divine son, preserved from the stain of original sin. this doctrine was received throughout the world with ineffable joy; and, indeed, no one who loves the blessed virgin can help rejoicing at this her most glorious privilege. the invocation, "queen conceived without the stain of original sin," was added to the litany of loreto. in , at the second plenary council in baltimore, the feast of the immaculate conception was raised to the rank of a holyday of obligation for the church of the united states. practice in the inscrutable designs of his providence god ordained that the mystery of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary should be proclaimed an article of faith as late as the middle of the nineteenth century. but, then, its proclamation was attended by circumstances that undeniably proved that the holy father in pronouncing the dogma had been inspired and guided by the holy ghost. let us praise god and thank him for bestowing this glorious privilege on our beloved mother, and let us often invoke her under her favorite title, the immaculate conception. st. alphonsus liguori tells us that the devotion to this mystery is especially efficacious in overcoming the temptations of impurity. therefore he was accustomed to recommend to his penitents thus tempted to recite three times every day the hail mary in honor of mary immaculate. and the venerable john of avila assures us that he never found any one who practised a true devotion to the immaculate conception of mary, who did not in a short time obtain the gift of that virtue which renders us so dear to her immaculate heart. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o living light of holiness, model of purity, mary immaculate, virgin and mother! as soon as thou wast conceived thou didst profoundly adore thy god, giving him thanks that in thee the ancient curse was revoked, and blessing came again upon the sinful sons of adam. o make this blessing kindle in my heart love for god; and do thou fan this flame of love within me, that i may love him constantly and one day in heaven eternally enjoy him, there to thank him more and more fervently for all the wondrous privileges conferred on thee, and to rejoice with thee for thy high crown of glory. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ii novena in honor of the nativity of the blessed virgin mary first day the birth of mary preparatory prayer we fly to thy patronage, o holy mother of god. despise not our petitions in our necessities, and deliver us from all dangers, o ever glorious and blessed virgin! meditation mary is born! the dawn announcing the coming salvation of mankind is at hand. the deep significance of mary's birth is expressed in the words of the church: "thy birth, o virgin mother of god, has brought joy to the world; for from thee is to come forth the sun of justice, christ our lord, to dispel the curse and bring the blessing, to conquer death and bring us everlasting life. on this day a light broke forth to brighten the paths of men through all time. let us, then, rejoice in mary's coming." equally expressive and touching are the reflections of that great doctor of the church, st. augustine: "the day has dawned, the long-wished-for day of the blessed and venerable virgin mary. well may this earth of ours rejoice and be glad for having been honored and sanctified by the birth of such a virgin." practice let us, then, rejoice in mary's coming. let us hail the birth of her who attained the dignity of mother without losing the high privilege of a virgin. let us imitate her holy life, that she may become our intercessor before the throne of her son, our judge and redeemer. by becoming the mother of god she became also our mother. as mother of the redeemer she is also the mother of the redeemed. richard of st. lawrence writes: "if we desire grace and help, let us have recourse to mary and we shall obtain what we desire." for, as st. alphonsus remarks: "all graces and gifts which god has resolved to bestow upon us he gives us through the hands of mary." prayer of the church grant to us, thy servants, we beseech thee, o lord, the gift of heavenly grace; that to those for whom the delivery of the blessed virgin was the commencement of salvation, the commemoration of her nativity may give increasing peace. through christ our lord. amen. litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ most lovely child, who by thy birth hast comforted the world, made glad the heavens, struck terror into hell, brought help to the fallen, consolation to the sad, health to the sick, joy to all; we pray thee with all fervent love, be thou born again in spirit in our souls through thy most holy love. renew our fervor in thy service, rekindle in our hearts the fire of thy love, and bid all virtues blossom there, which may cause us to find more and more fervor in thy gracious eyes. o mary, may we feel the saving power of thy sweetest name! let it ever be our comfort to call on that great name in all our troubles; let it be our hope in dangers, our shield in temptation, and in death our last aspiration. _ejaculation_ o mary, who didst come into the world free from stain: obtain of god for me that i may leave it without sin! indulgence. days, once a day. (pius ix, march , .) second day mary, the elect of god preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation we find the explanation of the great prerogatives and privileges which god bestowed upon the blessed virgin mary by reflecting on her singular and glorious predestination. from all eternity she was predestined to become the mother of his divine son; therefore, says pope pius ix, god loved her above all created beings, and in his special predilection made her the object of his divine complacency. with singular appropriateness we may apply to her the words of holy scripture, "i have loved thee with an everlasting love" (_jer._ xxxi. ). the eternal father regarded mary as his beloved daughter; the divine son honored her as his dearest mother; the holy ghost loved her as his spotless spouse. "and," says st. anselm, "they loved each other with an affection unsurpassed by any other." practice inspired by the contemplation of mary's extraordinary privileges, st. anselm exclaims: "thou, o mary, art more exalted than the patriarchs, greater than the martyrs, more glorious than the confessors, purer than the virgins, and therefore thou, alone, canst achieve more than they can without thee." let us, then, rejoice that we possess such a powerful advocate in heaven, and let us place implicit trust in her. but let us also co-operate with the graces and favors which she obtains for us. moreover, let us remember that we grievously offend god and mary if we abuse what we obtain through her intercession to gratify our evil inclinations, and that the graces she obtains for us for our salvation will redound to our ruin if we do not use them for the glory of god and the promotion of our soul's welfare. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ we hail thee, mary, who, sprung from the royal line of david, didst come forth to the light of heaven with high honor from the womb of holy anna, thy most happy mother. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day mary, the child of royalty preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation according to her lineage, as traced in two gospels, mary numbers among her paternal and maternal ancestors the holiest and most renowned personages of the old testament. we find amongst them abraham, the friend of god, the father of israel and of all the faithful; then david, the man after god's own heart, the inspired royal prophet; and solomon, the wise and mighty king, and the whole line of the kings of juda. on her mother's side she belonged to the tribe of levi, and was descended from its noblest and most prominent family, that of aaron the high priest, and was therefore a relative of the high priests of the old testament. thus royal and sacerdotal prestige distinguished mary's lineage. practice the blessed virgin was not proud of her illustrious ancestry, and not depressed because of the downfall of her family, but applied herself diligently to adhere to the faith and follow the example of her ancestors. remembering the wicked members of her family, she learned from them that temporal greatness, success, wealth, and glory are more dangerous to virtue than poverty, retirement, and work. let us imitate mary's example. even possessed of the most excellent prestiges of the natural order, of ourselves we are nothing. "what hast thou that thou hast not received? and if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?" ( _cor._ iv. .) therefore do not overestimate yourself; do not be conceited; do not strive for praise, honors, and high station; be not boastful or arrogant; do not presume on your merits; rather be distrustful of yourself and patiently bear affronts, neglect, and humiliations. however poor you may be, be content with your lot, remembering the words of the apostle: "they that will become rich fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires which draw men into destruction and perdition. for the desire of money is the root of all evils: which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows" ( _tim._ vi. , ). prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ we hail thee, o mary, heavenly babe, white dove of purity, who, despite the infernal serpent, was conceived free from the taint of adam's sin. with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to come down again and be born in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). [illustration: the purification] fourth day mary, the child of pious parents preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation tradition tells us that mary's parents were called joachim and anna. the holy fathers rival each other in praising the virtue of this holy couple. st. epiphanius writes: "joachim and anna were pleasing in the sight of god because of the holiness of their lives." st. andrew of crete remarks: "joachim was eminent for the mildness and fortitude of his character. the law of god was his rule of life. he was just, and never relaxed in the fervor of his love of god. anna was no less noted for her meekness, continence, and chastity." st. jerome relates: "the life of this holy couple was simple and just before the lord, edifying and virtuous before men." st. john damascene exclaims: "o happy, chaste, and immaculate couple, joachim and ann! you are known, according to the lord's word, by your fruit. your life was pleasing in the sight of god, and worthy of her who was born of you." practice it is a great blessing, and one to be esteemed more highly than wealth and high station, to have god-fearing, pious parents. for their sake god is gracious to the children and lavishes his gifts on them. it is certainly a great privilege to be offered up to god immediately after birth by the hands of a pious mother. to have, from childhood up, the example and guidance of virtuous parents is certainly of the greatest importance. st. chrysostom writes: "the parents' example is the book from which the child learns." a pious bishop was wont to say: "the good example of the parents is the best catechism and the truest mirror that a family can have." if christian parents imitate the example of joachim and ann the blessing of god will rest on them and on their children; for because her parents were so dear to mary, she will not refuse to join them in their prayers for us. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ we hail thee, brightest morn, forerunner of the heavenly sun of justice, who didst first bring light to earth. humbly prostrate, with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day mary's supernatural prerogatives preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary was the masterpiece of god's creation; her soul was the most perfect ever dwelling in a human body. a pious tradition tells us that she possessed the use of reason much earlier than other children. her intellect was illuminated by supernatural light; her will was exempt from concupiscence. being preserved from original sin, she surpassed in holiness, from the first moment of her existence, all angels and men. she possessed all virtues in the highest degree, because of her faithful co-operation with sanctifying grace and with the countless actual graces granted to her. she lived in constant communion with god, undisturbed by evil inclinations from within or temptations from without. practice through the effects of original sin we have lost the supernatural prerogative of original justice, and even after receiving sanctifying grace in holy baptism we are exposed to many temptations. our life is a constant warfare. we must, however, not despair in this struggle, for if we are true children of mary she will come to our aid. in all temptations mary is the "help of christians" if we have recourse to her. but if we wish her to help us, we must not expose ourselves unnecessarily to temptation. "he that loveth danger shall perish in it" (_ecclus._ iii. ). this sad experience has come to many. let us, therefore, avoid the danger and occasion of sin; and whenever evil approaches us in any shape, let us call upon mary, and we may rest assured that she will assist us. "i shall certainly triumph over my enemies," exclaims st. alphonsus, "if i place my trust in thee, o mary, and if thou art my shield and protection against them." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ we hail thee, o chosen one! who like the untarnished sun didst burst forth into being in the dark night of sin. humbly prostrate at thy feet, o mary, we give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary, the joy of the most holy trinity preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation in the child mary the eternal father beheld his unsullied glorious image, which image had been defaced in all other human beings by original and actual sin. what a joy to him to behold this stainless, immaculate child! and how great must have been the joy of the son of god at the birth of her who was to be his mother! from her he was to take that sacred body in which he was to dwell on earth, the blood of which he was to shed on the cross for our redemption, and in which he was to return to heaven to sit at the right hand of the father. he will call her mother, and regard her with all the filial tenderness of a child for his mother. she will love him in return with a true mother's affection and devotion. as the mother of sorrows she will weep over his inanimate body taken down from the cross. but like himself, she will leave the tomb, and reign at his side as the queen of heaven. how great, then, must have been his joy at the birth of this child! the holy ghost, too, rejoiced at mary's birth. he infused into her the plenitude of his holy love, for she was destined to become the mother of god. and how mary will love god, from whom she received so many and so great graces, and whom she is to bear in her arms as her real and true son! this, her divine son's love for mankind, will be imparted also to her. therefore the holy ghost rejoices at this child, who received into her heart the fulness of his grace, and shall be the helper of those who have recourse to her. practice raise your spirit above time and space; try to contemplate well the mystery of mary's predestination. to make us realize the great privileges conferred upon her, the church applies to her the words of holy scripture, "he that shall find me, shall find life, and have salvation from the lord" (_prov._ viii. ). only when we consider mary as the mother of god, do we arrive at a right conception of her great dignity. hence st. bonaventure exclaims, "god might have created a more beautiful world; he might have made heaven more glorious; but it was impossible for him to exalt a creature higher than mary in making her his mother." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ we hail thee, beauteous moon, o mary most holy, who didst shed light upon a world wrapped in the densest darkness of sin. humbly prostrate at thy feet, we give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day the angels rejoice at mary's birth preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation describing god's power and wisdom as shown in creation, holy scripture, according to the explanation of the fathers, introduces him as saying, "when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of god made a joyful melody" (_job_ xxxviii. ), and by these words intends to convey with what joy the angels praised god's omnipotence on beholding the wonders of creation. what, then, must have been their joy on beholding this new wonder of divine power and wisdom, the child mary, destined to be their queen. filled with admiration they exclaimed, "who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?" (_cant._ vi. .) and moreover, if, as our lord declares, the angels rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, how great must have been their joy at the birth of her who was to be the refuge of sinners and the mother of him who was to be the redeemer of sinners? again, the angels rejoiced at mary's birth, because she would fill, through the salvation of mankind by her divine son, the places made vacant in heaven by the apostate angels. practice good children rejoice on the birthday of their parents and gratefully remember all the benefits they have received from them. thus should we, also, celebrate the nativity of the blessed virgin by a grateful remembrance of the innumerable graces, individual and general, we received through her intercession. in acknowledging mary's co-operation with our salvation, holy church calls her our mediatrix, and greets her as the "cause of our joy," because, though we receive grace from christ, it comes to us through her mediation. what cause, then, have we not for rejoicing at her birth! again, greeting mary as the cause of our joy, let us remember the protection she extended to the church in times of adversity and persecution; let us, furthermore, remember all the graces which, according to the holy fathers, are dispensed to us by mary's hands. "of her plenitude," says st. bonaventure, "we have all received; the captive liberty, the sick health, the sad consolation, the sinner pardon, the just grace." therefore the church invokes mary as the mother of mercy, the health of the sick, the comforter of the afflicted, the refuge of sinners, the help of christians, in a word, as the cause of our joy. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ we hail thee, fair soul of mary, who from all eternity wast god's, and god's alone; sanctuary and living temple of the holy ghost; sun without blemish, because free from original sin. with all our hearts we pray to thee, o mary, to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day the joy of the just in limbo at mary's birth preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation for four thousand years the just in limbo sighed for redemption, and sent up to heaven the plaintive cry, "o that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down!" (_is._ xiv. .) "drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened and bud forth a saviour" (_is._ xlv. ). what joy must have filled the souls of the just when they heard the welcome tidings of the birth of mary, the virgin mother of the promised messias; how great their consolation at the rising of that dawn which preceded the sun of justice, whose splendor was to illuminate the darkness of them that sat in the shadow of death! practice a joy similar to that which filled the captive souls in limbo at mary's birth now fills the souls in purgatory when we implore her to come to their relief. contemplating the immense love of the most holy trinity for mary, we may not doubt but that, by her intercession, she might at once deliver all the suffering souls from their prison, if such were in accordance with god's will. but god's wisdom and providence have decreed otherwise. therefore mary does not pray for the release of all souls in purgatory, but recommends them, in conformity with god's will, to his mercy. st. bernardine of sienna applies to mary the words of holy scripture, "i have penetrated into the bottom of the deep and have walked in the waves of the sea" (_ecclus._ xxiv. ), and says: "she descends into that sea of suffering and soothes the pains of the poor souls." st. denis the carthusian remarks, that when the name of mary is mentioned in purgatory, the souls there imprisoned experience the same relief as when a sick person hears words of consolation on his bed of pain. therefore let us entrust our prayers for the souls in purgatory to mary. she will present our petitions to god, and thus presented, he will speedily hear and graciously grant them. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ we hail thee, strong child, who didst put to flight all hell and the powers of darkness. we give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day the holy name of mary preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation st. alphonsus writes of the name of mary: "this name was neither invented on earth, nor imposed by human agency. it came from heaven and was given to the mother of god by divine command." just as it is a peculiar glory of our saviour's name, that "god hath given him a name which is above all names, that in the name of jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" (_philipp._ ii. ), thus it also behooves that mary, the most perfect, the most pure, and most exalted of all created beings, should receive a most holy, lovely, and powerful name. st. methodius declares that the name of mary is so rich in grace and blessing, that no one can pronounce it devoutly without at the same time receiving a spiritual favor. bl. jordan exclaims: "let a heart be ever so obdurate, let a man even despair of god's mercy, if he have recourse to thee, o mary, virgin most clement, he can not fail to be softened and filled with confidence if he invokes thy name; for thou wilt inspire him with hope in god's mercy, pardon, and grace." practice it is, then, meet and just that we should devoutly honor and praise the name of mary. let us never mention it except in reverence and devotion. let us invoke mary by it in all dangers of body and soul, mindful of the words of st. bernard: "o sinner, when the floods and tempests of this earthly life overwhelm thee so that thou canst not firmly set thy foot, turn not away thy gaze from the light of this guiding star. when the storms of temptation assail thee, and the rocks and quicksands of vexation and trial threaten to shatter thy bark of hope, look up to that bright star in the heavens, and call on the name of mary. when the billows of pride and of ambition, when the floods of calumny are about to submerge thee, look up to this star and call on the name of mary. when anger, avarice, and concupiscence convulse the peace of thy soul, look up to this star and call on mary. when thy sins rise up like hideous monsters before thy troubled vision, when thy conscience stings thee, when the terrors of future judgment fill thee with deadly anguish, when gloom and sadness overpower thee, when thou findest thyself on the brink of hellish despair, take courage; think of mary, and thou wilt find from thy own inward experience how true are the sayings of those who tell thee that the name of the blessed virgin is 'star of the sea,' the name of the virgin is mary." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ we hail thee, beloved child mary, adorned with every virtue, immeasurably above all the saints, and therefore worthy mother of the saviour of the world, who by the operation of the holy ghost didst bring forth the incarnate word. we give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). iii novena for the feast of the annunciation of the blessed virgin mary first day the annunciation preparatory prayer my queen, my mother, remember i am thine own. keep me, guard me, as thy property and possession! indulgence. days, every time. (pius ix, august , .) meditation at nazareth, a mountain village in judea, lived poor and in obscurity mary, the virgin selected by god to become the mother of his son. on march th she was in prayer in her chamber, and perhaps sent up to heaven the yearning petition, "drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened and bud a saviour" (_is._ xlv. ). behold, suddenly the chamber is suffused by a heavenly light. the archangel gabriel stands reverently before her and says, "hail, full of grace, the lord is with thee. blessed art thou among women. and when mary heard the angel's words, she was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be" (_luke_ i. , ). practice the angel's salutation comprises two titles of ineffable greatness. mary is called "full of grace," because of her innocence and purity; she is called "blessed among women," because she is the elect mother of god. never before was a human being thus greeted. it was god himself who sent the message to mary. a good angel now repaired the harm once done by a bad angel. for lucifer, the fallen angel, seduced eve to sin and thereby caused the ruin of the whole human race; now another angel, gabriel, was sent to announce the glad tidings to mary, that she was to conceive the redeemer from sin, who was to accomplish the salvation of mankind. mary was troubled at the angel's words, and reflected on the meaning of the message. st. ambrose writes: "mary was troubled, not because the angel was a heavenly spirit, but because he appeared to her in the form of a youth. still more was she troubled at the praises spoken to her. she was innocent and humble, and therefore reflected on the meaning of the message. she had always considered herself as a poor and unknown virgin; she deemed herself unworthy of god's grace; therefore she was troubled at the salutation. in that decisive moment she was and remained our model." [illustration: the flight into egypt] prayer of the church pour forth, we beseech thee, o lord, thy grace into our hearts, that we unto whom the incarnation of christ thy son was made known by the message of an angel, may, by his passion and cross, be brought to the glory of the resurrection. through the same christ our lord. amen. litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ with wonder i revere thee, holiest virgin mary; for of all god's creatures thou wast the humblest on the very day of thy annunciation, when god himself exalted thee to the sublime dignity of his own mother. o mightiest virgin, make me, wretched sinner that i am, know the depths of my own nothingness, and make me humble myself at last with all my heart, beneath the feet of all men. hail mary, etc. _ejaculation_ virgin mary, mother of god, pray to jesus for me! indulgence. days, once a day. (leo xiii, march , .) second day the import of the angel's salutation preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation "hail, full of grace!" mary was greeted as full of grace by the giver of grace himself. the angel's salutation meant: "the grace of god has preserved thee from all sin. neither the stain of original sin, nor the guilt of actual sin, ever obscured the mirror of thy soul. by the special favor of god the most sublime virtues were infused into thy soul." "the lord is with thee." from all eternity the lord was with mary. he was with her not only as he is with his whole creation, but he was with her in a special manner. the eternal father was with her from all eternity as with his beloved daughter. the divine son was with her from all eternity as with his chosen mother. the holy ghost was with her from all eternity as with his beloved spouse. this intimate union never was disrupted. therefore mary is "blessed among women," and ever was, and ever shall be the beloved of the lord. practice consider how mary receives the angel's message. she is troubled, she is disturbed at the praise, at the reverence of the angel. what an example of humility! let us imitate her in this virtue by the acknowledgment before god of our weakness, our unworthiness, our nothingness, and by ordering our whole being accordingly. humility renders us pleasing in the sight of god and makes us susceptible of his grace. hence st. augustine writes: "god resists the proud and gives his grace to the humble. what a terrible punishment for the proud, what a splendid reward for the humble! the proud man resembles a rock, the humble man a beautiful valley. the grace of god descends from heaven like a gentle rain. it can not penetrate the rock of pride, and hence the proud man loses god's grace and love. but in the valley of humility the waters of divine grace can diffuse themselves and fructify the soul of the humble man, so that it may bring forth fruit unto eternal life." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o mary, holiest virgin, who, when the archangel gabriel hailed thee in thy annunciation, and thou wast raised by god above all choirs of the angels, didst confess thyself "the handmaid of the lord"; do thou obtain for me true humility and a truly angelic purity, and so to live on earth as ever to be worthy of the blessings of god. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day the effect of the angel's salutation preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the effect of the angel's salutation on mary was striking. imbued with sentiments quite different from ours, she was troubled at the praise addressed to her. meanwhile she is silent and considers within herself what might be the meaning of these words. and now the angel calls her by name, saying, "fear not, mary, for thou hast found grace with god. behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name jesus. he shall be great, and shall be called the son of the most high, and the lord god shall give unto him the throne of david his father: and he shall reign in the house of jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (_luke_ i. - ). practice let us admire the prudence shining forth in mary. after hearing the angel's words of praise she was silent and thought within herself what kind of a salutation this was. she is very careful and prudent. on this her conduct st. thomas aquinas remarks: "mary did not refuse to believe, nor did she receive the message with credulity. she avoided eve's gullibility and the distrust of zachary the high priest." and st. bernard writes: "mary preferred to remain silent in humility, rather than to speak inconsiderately." let us strive always to speak and act with deliberation. our conversation ought always to be judicious; for often a word spoken inconsiderately causes bitter regret. st. thomas aquinas observes: "song was given to a number of creatures, but human beings alone were endowed with the faculty of speech, to indicate that in speaking we should use our reason." and st. chrysostom says: "let us always guard our tongue; not that it should always be silent, but that it should speak at the proper time." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i rejoice with thee, o virgin ever blessed, because by thy humble word of consent thou didst draw down from the bosom of the eternal father the divine word into thy own pure bosom. o draw, then, ever my heart to god; and with god bring grace into my heart that i may ever sincerely bless thy word of consent, so mighty and so efficacious. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day mary's question preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation well versed as mary was in holy scripture, she fully understood the words she had heard and knew their great import. she was destined to become the mother of the most high, the son of god. but there is an obstacle which prevents her from giving immediate assent. she has solemnly vowed her virginity to god. not knowing how the mystery announced to her was to be accomplished, and intent above all on keeping inviolate her vow, she interrupts her silence by the short but comprehensive question, "how shall this be done, because i know not man?" (_luke_ i. .) this is the first word of mary recorded in the gospel. practice "how shall this be done, because i know not man?" truly a momentous question, proceeding from her knowledge of the great excellence and value before god of virginity, which, before mary, was unknown to the world. let us follow mary's example and esteem holy purity and chastity above all things. let us remember how highly holy scripture extols this virtue. "o how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory; for the memory thereof is immortal, because it is known both with god and with men" (_wis._ iv. ). st. athanasius writes: "o chastity, thou precious pearl, found by few, even hated by some, and sought only by those who are worthy of thee! thou art the joy of the prophets, the ornament of the apostles, the life of the angels, the crown of the saints." let us therefore carefully guard this inestimable treasure. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ mary, mighty virgin, thou who on the day of thy annunciation wast found by the archangel so prompt and ready to do god's will, and to correspond with the desires of the august trinity, who wished for thy consent in order to redeem the world; obtain for me that, whatever happens, good or ill, i may turn to my god, and with resignation say, "be it done unto me according to thy word." hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day the solution preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the angel explains to mary how, without detriment to her virginity, she will become a mother. he says, "the holy ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most high shall overshadow thee. and therefore also the holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god" (_luke_ i. ). st. bernard remarks: "let him who can, comprehend it. who, but that most happy virgin who was worthy to experience the influence and effect of the power of the most high and to penetrate this sublime mystery, can understand how the divine light was poured into the virgin's womb? the most holy trinity alone co-operated in the sacred act, and it remains an impenetrable mystery to all, except to her who was called to so sublime a destiny." practice mary did not entertain a single doubt concerning the wonders which the angel announced to her about the coming messias and his kingdom. she believed with simple faith the words of the heavenly messenger. only about that which concerned her personally she asked a question. when the wonderful mystery was explained to her, she did not ask how this _can_ be done, but only how it _shall_ be done. and after the angel had declared to her that she shall conceive by the holy ghost, she was fully resigned and announced her implicit belief in these humble words: "behold the handmaid of the lord; be it done to me according to thy word" (_luke_ i. ). therefore the holy ghost himself praised her by the mouth of elizabeth: "blessed art thou that hast believed" (_luke_ i. ). let us remain steadfast in the profession of all articles of faith, and let us oppose, like a strong shield, the words, "nothing is impossible with god," to all attacks of unbelievers, and to all doubts that may arise in our own minds. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ mary most holy, i see that thy obedience united thee so closely to god, that all creation never shall know again union so fair and so perfect. i am overwhelmed with confusion in seeing how my sins have separated me from god. help me, then, gentle mother, to repent sincerely of my sins, that i may be reunited to thy loving jesus. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary's consent preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation we admire the creative word of god, by which heaven and earth were called into existence. but mary's word, "be it done to me according to thy word," is even mightier and more efficacious; for it commands the obedience even of the almighty creator. without this word of humility and obedience the incarnation of our divine saviour would not have been accomplished. mary does not say, "i accept the proposal, i agree to the proposition," nor does she use other words of similar import. she simply says, "be it done to me according to thy word." it was not her own choice, nor her own decision, but a voluntary, full, and complete surrender to the will of god that the message found in mary's soul, which was expressed in these words. what a source of consolation to her in the subsequent sorrowful and afflicted stages of her life was this complete surrender to god's will! it comprised the tranquilizing assurance that he to whose designs she submitted, would endow her with the fortitude and strength necessary to co-operate with them. practice just as our divine lord himself became obedient unto death, thus also his incarnation and the motherhood of mary were the result of obedience. again, in contemplating the works that in the course of time were undertaken in the church for the glory of god and the salvation of man, we find that only those were really great, effective, and enduring, which had their beginning, continuation, and consummation in obedience. rejoice, then, if it is your happy lot to walk in the safe path of obedience. avail yourself of every opportunity to submit your will to the will of your superiors. they are the representatives of god. by obeying them we fulfil his will, not the will of men. st. bonaventure calls obedience the key of heaven. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ holiest mary, if through thy modesty thou wert troubled at the appearance of the archangel gabriel in thy dwelling, i am terrified at the sight of my monstrous pride. by thy incomparable humility, which brought forth god for men, reopened paradise and let the captive souls go free from their prison, draw me, i pray thee, out of the deep pit into which my sins have cast me, and make me save my soul. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day mary's fortitude in suffering preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation although mary's consent was free, and freely given, she was clearly convinced and perfectly conscious of the responsibility, the obligations, and the duties involved by that consent, and which she now assumed. great are the duties and tearful the days of a mother who has to raise her son, who is also god, to be sacrificed on the cross. mary assumes with the dignity this responsibility. she consents to conceive the son of god, to give birth to him, to nourish him, to educate him for the ignominious death of the cross. when she pronounced the words, "be it done," her eyes were fixed on the distant tragedy of golgotha, on the cross towering upon its height. yet she accepts it, together with the dignity of mother of god. practice mary, in consenting to become the mother of jesus, became not only his mother, but the mother of all mankind. she became, for all time, the refuge of sinners, the health of the sick, the intercessor with god for man; she consented to exercise a mother's love for suffering and sinful humanity. but alas, how many of those adopted by mary as her children under the cross of her dying son are unworthy of her mother love! how many are rebellious children, who fill her heart with sorrow and anguish! others, faithless and obdurate, become a reproach to her. have you, during your past life, always been a good child of this loving mother? are you to her an honor or a disgrace, a joy or a sorrow? prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ though my tongue is unhallowed, yet, purest virgin, i presume to hail thee every day with the angel's salutation, "hail mary, full of grace!" from my heart, i pray thee, pour into my soul a little of that mighty grace wherewith the holy spirit, overshadowing thee, filled thee to the full. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day mary, the mother of god preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary's true greatness consists in her having been chosen the mother of god. this sublime dignity, pre-eminently her own and shared by no other creature, elevates her to a station inconceivably exalted. mother of god! st. peter damian thus gives expression to his conception of this dignity: "in what words may mortal man be permitted to pronounce the praises of her who brought forth that divine word who lives for all eternity? where can a tongue be found holy and pure enough to eulogize her who bore the author of all created things, whom the elements praise and obey in fear and trembling? when we essay to extol a martyr's constancy, to recount his heroic acts of virtue, to describe his devotion to his saviour's cause and honor, we are supplied with words by facts and occurrences that belong to the province of human experience. but when we undertake to describe the glories of the blessed virgin, we are on unknown ground, on a subject transcending all human effort. we fail to find words suitable to portray her sublime prerogatives, privileges, and mysteries." practice st. anselm, writing on the motherhood of mary, says: "it was eminently just and proper that the creature chosen to be the mother of god should shine with a luster of purity far beyond anything conceivable in any other creature under heaven. for it was to her that the eternal father decreed to give his only-begotten son, whom he loves as himself; and to give him in such a mysterious manner that he should be at the same time the son of god and the son of the virgin mary. she must indeed be purity itself, whom the son of god elected as his mother, and who was the chosen spouse of the holy ghost, to be overshadowed by him to bring forth the second person of that most blessed trinity from whom he himself proceeds." let us honor the virgin mother with filial devotion, gratefully greeting her often in the words of the angel, "hail mary, full of grace!" let us remember that god alone is above mary, and beneath her is all that is not god. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i believe, holiest mary, that almighty god was ever with thee from thy conception, and is, by his incarnation, still more closely united to thee. make it thy care, i pray thee, that i may be with that same lord jesus ever one heart and soul by means of sanctifying grace. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day mary, our mother preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary could not consent to become the mother of the redeemer without including in her consent those to be redeemed. "she bore one man," says st. antonine, "and thereby has borne all men again. beneath the cross of her divine son she has reborne us to life with great pain, just as eve our first mother, has borne us under the tree of forbidden fruit unto death. that there be no doubt concerning it, her divine son made this declaration in his last will." "when therefore jesus had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother, woman, behold thy son. after that he saith to the disciple, behold thy mother" (_john_ xix. ). she gave up her son for the redemption of mankind, and he gave us, in the person of his beloved disciple st. john, to her as her children, declaring her our mother. from that moment we belong to mary, and mary belongs to us: "behold thy mother!" [illustration: the rest in egypt] practice mary loves us because she loves god, and because god loves us. she loves us as her brethren who share human nature with her. she loves us as her children, whom she has borne to eternal life. she loves us because we are miserable and helpless. true, we offended her divine son, but she knows our frailty, our blindness, the assaults of the flesh and the devil to which we are exposed; and by all this she is moved to come to our aid. do not, however, imagine that this good and amiable mother will hear your call for assistance if you continue to offend her divine son with malice prepense. to obtain her aid you must make yourself in a manner worthy of it. this you do by striving to imitate her virtues. or is there anything in her example that we are unable to imitate? true, we can not attain to her perfection in virtue, but we can copy it to a certain degree. to follow mary's example there is no need of performing miracles, of having ecstasies, or of doing any other extraordinary deeds. all that is necessary is to persevere faithfully in the ordinary duties of life, and to perform them to the best of our ability. "behold thy mother!" these words of our dying lord were addressed to the beloved disciple st. john, but were intended for all mankind. even as mary never ceases to be the mother of god, she never will cease to be our mother. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o holiest mary, bless me, my heart and my soul, as thou thyself wast ever blessed of god among all women; for i have this sure hope, dear mother, that if thou bless me while i live, then, when i die, i shall be blessed of god in the everlasting glory of heaven. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). iv novena in honor of the seven sorrows of mary note.--besides the indulgences granted for every novena in honor of the blessed virgin mary by pius ix, pope leo xiii, january , , granted that all the faithful may gain, on the _third sunday in september_, being the second feast of the seven sorrows of mary (the other is observed on the friday before palm sunday), a plenary indulgence _as often_ as they visit, after confession and communion, a church where the archconfraternity of the seven sorrows is canonically established, and pray there for the intentions of the holy father. this indulgence is applicable to the souls in purgatory. first day devotion to the seven sorrows of mary preparatory prayer bid me bear, o mother blessed, on my heart the wounds impressed suffered by the crucified! indulgence. days, once a day. a plenary indulgence, on any one day, in each month, to those who shall have practised this devotion for a month, saying besides seven hail marys, followed each time by the above invocation. conditions: confession, communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope. (pius ix, june , .) meditation from the dolorous way of our lord's passion holy church selected fourteen incidents to place before us for consideration, which are called the stations of the cross. in the same manner the pious devotion of the faithful selected seven events in the life of the blessed virgin mary, and gives itself to their religious contemplation. they are: ( ) simeon's prophecy in the temple; ( ) the flight into egypt with the divine child; ( ) the loss of the divine child at jerusalem; ( ) mary's meeting with her son bearing the cross; ( ) mary beneath the cross; ( ) mary receives the body of her son from the cross; ( ) the placing of jesus' body in the tomb. practice "forget not the sorrows of thy mother" (_ecclus._ vii. ). according to this exhortation of holy scripture it is our duty to remember and meditate often on the sorrows of the blessed virgin mary. we ought never to forget that our sins were the cause of the sufferings and death of jesus, and therefore also of the sorrows of mary. holy church celebrates two feasts in honor of the sorrows of mary; she approved of the rosary and of many other devotions in honor of the seven dolors, and enriched them with numerous indulgences. let us practise these devotions to enkindle in our hearts a true and ardent love for our sorrowful mother. prayer of the church grant, we beseech thee, o lord jesus christ, that the most blessed virgin mary, thy mother, may intercede for us before the throne of thy mercy, now and at the hour of our death, through whose most holy soul, in the hour of thine own passion, the sword of sorrow passed. through thee, jesus christ, saviour of the world, who livest and reignest with the father and the holy ghost, for ever and ever. amen. litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ ever glorious blessed virgin mary, queen of martyrs, mother of mercy, hope, and comfort of dejected and desolate souls, through the sorrows that pierced thy tender heart i beseech thee take pity on my poverty and necessities, have compassion on my anxieties and miseries. i ask it through the mercy of thy divine son; i ask it through his immaculate life, bitter passion, and ignominious death on the cross. as i am persuaded that he honors thee as his beloved mother, to whom he refuses nothing, let me experience the efficacy of thy powerful intercession, according to the tenderness of thy maternal affection, now and at the hour of my death. amen. hail mary, etc. _ejaculation_ mother of sorrows, queen of martyrs, pray for us! second day mary's first sorrow: simeon's prophecy in the temple preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation forty days after the birth of our divine saviour, mary his mother fulfilled the law of moses by offering him to his divine father in the temple. "and behold there was a man in jerusalem named simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of israel, and the holy ghost was in him. and he received an answer from the holy ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the christ of the lord. and he came by the spirit into the temple. and when his parents brought in the child jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he also took him into his arms, and blessed god, and said: now dost thou dismiss thy servant, o lord, according to thy word, in peace; because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples. a light to the revelation of the gentiles and the glory of thy people israel. and his father and mother were wondering at these things which were spoken concerning him. and simeon blessed them, and said to mary his mother: behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; and thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed" (_luke_ ii. - ). practice mary was familiar with the predictions of the prophets and knew that ignominy, sorrow, and suffering would be her divine son's portion throughout his earthly career. but to have this secret of her anxious soul thus publicly and solemnly declared by simeon, was a sharp thrust of that seven-edged sword which was to pierce her loving heart. in spirit she viewed that boundless, surging sea of trials, pain, and death on which her son was to be tossed about, and was willing to be engulfed in its bitter waters. her affliction would have scarcely been greater had the death sentence of her divine son been pronounced then and there and put into execution. what a sorrow, what an affliction, what a trial for such a tender mother! well might she exclaim with the royal prophet: "my life is wasted with grief, and my years in sighs" (_ps._ xxx. ). let us often contemplate this sorrow, and excite our hearts to a tender compassion with the mother of sorrows. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, in the grief thy tender heart underwent when the holy old man simeon prophesied to thee. dear mother, by thy heart then so afflicted, obtain for me the virtue of humility and the gift of the holy fear of god. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day mary's second sorrow: the flight into egypt preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation for the second time the sword of sorrow pierced mary's heart when she was commanded to fly into egypt with her divine child. without manifesting undue perplexity or discontent, she hastily gathered a few necessaries for the journey, while st. joseph saddled the beast of burden. then taking the infant jesus into her arms and pressing him to her throbbing heart, the holy pilgrims set forth into the cold, starry night, away to a foreign land, through the trackless desert, and into a heathen country. arrived in egypt, the experience of bethlehem was renewed; no one gave them shelter. practice during this second great sorrow, what was mary's behavior? she was content to fulfil the will of god; she did not ask for reasons, or complain of the fatigues of the journey, but preserved her peace of heart amid all the trials of this severe probation. she is poor, but her poverty does not render her unhappy or querulous. if god sends us trials, we ought not murmur or complain. following the example of mary, let us bear them submissively. if we suffer patiently with mary on earth, we shall enjoy eternal bliss with her in heaven. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the anxiety which thy most tender heart underwent during thy flight into egypt and thy sojourn there. dear mother, by thy heart then so sorrowful, obtain for me the virtue of liberality, especially toward the poor, and the gift of piety. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day mary's third sorrow: jesus lost in jerusalem preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation who can describe mary's sorrow when, returning from jerusalem, she missed her divine son? with st. joseph she retraced her steps in anxious search of him whom her soul loved. she went to all her relatives and acquaintances in jerusalem, but heard no tidings of her lost child. she passed three long days of anxiety in her search, and this constitutes her third sorrow. of it, origen writes: "on account of the ineffable love of mary for her divine son, she suffered more by his loss than the martyrs suffered amid the most cruel tortures." practice in meditating on this sorrow of mary, we ought to remember how indifferent so many christians are after having lost god by sin. they feel no compunction, no sorrow at having offended him, and yet they can weep at the loss of a trifle; they shed copious tears when their will is crossed, or when they receive a deserved reprimand; but for the loss of their god they have not a tear. they have lost him, perhaps years ago, and never make the least effort to find him. pray to the sorrowful mother that she preserve you from such a deplorable fate! prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the terrors felt by thy anxious heart when thou didst lose thy dear son, jesus. dear mother, by thy heart, then so agitated, obtain for me the virtue of chastity, and with it the gift of knowledge. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day mary's fourth sorrow: she meets jesus carrying his cross preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the time was at hand when mankind's redemption was to be accomplished. already the divine victim of our sins is bearing the instrument of our salvation. torn by the cruel scourging, crowned with thorns, and covered with blood he proceeds on his way to calvary, and in this pitiful condition meets his blessed mother. what a spectacle, what a sight for a mother such as mary! anxious to look upon her, and with one fond glance to thank her for her heroic, unselfish love, he made an effort to change his bowed position beneath the cross, feebly raised his head, and directed toward her one loving glance of ineffable anguish, mingled with grateful recognition and humble resignation. then the sad procession moves on, mary following her divine son on his way to death. practice we, by our sins, placed into the hands of the jews and executioners the weapons by which jesus suffered, and thus we thrust the sword of sorrow into mary's heart. we repeat this, in a certain sense, as often as we commit a grievous sin, because we thereby number ourselves among those whom the apostle describes as "crucifying again to themselves the son of god, and making him a mockery" (_heb._ vi. ). cardinal hugo writes: "sinners crucify, as far as is in them, christ our lord, because they repeat the cause of his crucifixion." doing this, we thrust anew the sword of sorrow into mary's heart. let this consideration fill us with hatred for and fear of sin. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the shock thy mother heart experienced when jesus met thee as he carried his cross. dear mother, by that heart of thine, then so afflicted, obtain for me the virtue of patience and the gift of fortitude. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary's fifth sorrow: beneath the cross preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation at the crucifixion of jesus the soul of mary was plunged into a sea of sorrow when she stood three hours under the cross. writhing in excruciating pain, the son of god hung upon the tree of disgrace and infamy, yet mary continued to stand at its foot, tearful, grieving, yet persevering, filled with anguish because she could do nothing to help him. another great sorrow befell the heart of mary when she slowly withdrew her tearful gaze from the face of jesus, and cast her weeping eyes upon the cold and indifferent world that lay in darkness around and about calvary. and yet, "when jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother, woman, behold thy son. after that he saith to the disciple, behold thy mother" (_john_ xix. , ). practice these words, "behold thy son, behold thy mother," contain and express the mystery of unbounded love, which jesus has for all mankind, but more especially for the church which is appointed and authorized to lead men to salvation. o blessed, o happy bequest! it was not enough for the love of jesus to have restored heaven to us by his atoning death; he wished also to give us his dearest mother. and she has always shown herself as such. to each of us individually she was and is a kind and loving mother. give thanks to her, bless and praise her for having adopted you as her child, and strive to become worthy of so great a privilege. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the martyrdom thy generous heart bore so nobly whilst thou didst stand by jesus agonizing. dear mother, by thy heart then so cruelly martyred, obtain for me the virtue of temperance and the gift of counsel. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day mary's sixth sorrow: the taking down of jesus' body from the cross preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation who can describe the sorrow and anguish of mary's heart when the body of jesus was taken from the cross, when her tearful eyes fell upon his disfigured features! the pure and holy and beauteous form of her son was a mass of clotted blood and unsightly wounds; and yet, disfigured as it was, there shone in his countenance a clear, calm expression of divine majesty. now mary views the wounds of that sacred body; she looks at the gap made in his side by the cruel spear, and can almost see the sacred heart of jesus, all bruised and broken for love of man. before her vision passes in detail his life and her own. memory presents to her mind every day and hour of their quiet, happy life at nazareth. is it to be wondered, then, that at this bitter moment her sorrow was so great that, as st. anselm observes, she should have died had she not been sustained by a miracle of divine omnipotence? practice ought not the contemplation of the sorrows of our blessed mother confirm us in patience, in resignation to the will of god in our trials and sufferings? if the son of god said of himself: "ought not christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?" (_luke_ xxiv. ); if the most pure and holy mother of god, despite her great prerogatives and merits, had to suffer a sorrow so ineffable, do not murmur if the word of christ is addressed also to you: "and he that taketh not up his cross and followeth me, is not worthy of me" (_matt._ x. ). prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the pain thou didst suffer when the body of thy divine son, taken down all torn and bloody from the cross, was placed in thy arms. dear mother, by thy heart pierced through, obtain for me the virtue of fraternal charity and the gift of understanding. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). [illustration: on the way to jerusalem] eighth day mary's seventh sorrow: jesus is buried preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the sacrifice for the redemption of the world was accomplished. "and joseph, taking the body, wrapt it up in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewed out in a rock. and he rolled a great stone to the door of the monument, and went his way" (_matt._ xxvii. ). mary also took part in the burial of her beloved son, though the evangelists do not mention her name amongst those who were present on that mournful occasion. never, most assuredly, was human soul visited by such woe and desolation, as that which overwhelmed hers as she cast a last glance on the precious remains of her dead son. practice let us learn of the sorrowful mother at the tomb of her divine son submission to god's holy will in all things, but especially when he takes from us one of our dear ones. again, the contemplation of the sufferings of mary should fortify us in patience, whenever god is pleased to visit us with a light and small cross of affliction, or even with a sorrow that causes our heart to bleed. it should inspire us with a filial confidence in mary, who thus suffered for us and gave her divine son for our salvation. we can and ought to prove our love for her, not by sentimental feelings of affection, but by a sincere hatred of sin and great fervor in the service of her divine son. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the anguish felt by thy loving heart when jesus' body was laid in the sepulcher. dear mother, by all the bitterness of desolation thou didst know, obtain for me the virtue of diligence and the gift of wisdom. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day reasons why mary had to suffer preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the reasons why god permitted mary to suffer so much may be briefly stated as follows: he did so from his love for mary and from his love for us. he did so from his love for mary, because by suffering she merited greater glory in heaven. as mother of the crucified she persevered beneath the cross, and now she thrones in heaven as the glorious mother of the risen redeemer. because she shared in his suffering, she now shares his glory. again, god permitted mary to suffer because he loved us. if she had not experienced such bitter sorrow, we would not have recourse to her, for whosoever has not suffered himself can not have sympathy with the sufferings of others. mary knows the pangs of sorrow by experience, and therefore knows also how to console and help us. practice because she herself drained the most bitter cup of sorrow, mary is always willing to help those who invoke her aid. but above all she is inclined to help repentant sinners, because she knows how great the price of their redemption was, paid by the blood of her divine son. she is able to help us, because, after god, she is most powerful; she is most willing to help us, because she loves us, whom god so has loved "as to give his only-begotten son" (_john_ iii. ). let us, therefore, have recourse to her in all our needs, and we shall experience the power of her help in life and death. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for all thy sorrows. i beseech thee, dear mother, by thy heart pierced through by them, obtain for me full abandonment to the will of god in everything and perseverance to the end. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). v novena for the feast of the assumption of the blessed virgin mary first day mary's death was without pain preparatory prayer o mary, virgin most blessed and mother of our lord and redeemer jesus christ, through thy mercy i beseech thee to come to my aid, and to inspire me with such confidence in thy power, that i may have recourse to thee, pray to thee, and implore thy aid in all needs of soul and body. meditation mary, the virgin mother of god, was conceived without original sin. she never dimmed the luster of sanctifying grace which beautified her soul by actual sin. nevertheless she had to pass through the dark portal of death before she was assumed, body and soul, into heaven. she had not been endowed with the privilege of immortality with which god had invested our first parents in paradise. it was meet that she should be like unto her divine son in everything, even in death. but as she had drained the bitter cup of suffering during her whole life, and especially when standing beneath the cross, her death was to be free from pain and suffering. she quietly passed away yielding up her spirit in a yearning desire to be united forever with her divine son in heaven. practice if you have dispossessed your heart of all unruly attachment to the goods and enjoyments of this earth, you, too, may hope for a happy and tranquil transition from this land of exile to your home in heaven. therefore, if you are still attached to the transitory things of this life, disengage your heart from them now. the voluntary renouncement of earthly goods alone is meritorious before god. the separation from them enforced by the strong hand of death is of no supernatural value. prayer of the church we beseech thee, o lord, pardon the shortcomings of thy servants; that we who, by our own works, are not able to please thee, may be saved by the intercession of the mother of thy son, our lord jesus christ. amen. litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o most benign mother mary! i rejoice that by thy happy and tranquil death the yearning of thy heart was appeased, and thy life, so rich in merit and sacrifice, received its crown. i rejoice that after passing from this life, thou, o most loving mother, wast made the glorious and powerful queen of heaven and dost exercise thy influence as such for the benefit of thy frail, exiled children on earth. obtain for me, i beseech thee, a happy death, that i may praise and glorify thy might and kindness forever in heaven. hail mary, etc. _ejaculation_ sweet heart of mary be my salvation! indulgence. ( ) days, every time. ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, on any day, to all who shall have said it every day for a month, under the usual conditions. second day at mary's tomb preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation an ancient legend relates that, led by heaven, all the apostles, except st. thomas, assembled at the blessed virgin's death-bed. after she had breathed forth her pure spirit, her sacred remains were prepared for the grave by wrapping the body in new white linen and decking it with flowers. meanwhile the apostles, assembled in another room, sang psalms and hymns in praise of their departed mother. the apostles, all the disciples, and the faithful dwelling in jerusalem followed the blessed remains to the grave chanting psalms and hymns. arrived in the valley of josaphat, the body was gently placed in a sepulcher of stone not far from the garden of olives. after the entombment the apostles and crowds of the faithful lingered near the sacred spot in prayer, meditation, and chanting of psalms in which angels' voices were heard to mingle. practice join in spirit with the apostles and faithful in their prayer and meditation at the grave of our blessed mother. contemplate and review her whole life. could a course like hers have terminated more appropriately than with so beautiful, painless, and tranquil a passing away? prepare yourself even now for your departure from this life. do not postpone the settlement of your affairs, spiritual and temporal, until the last uncertain hours. above all, remove now, or as soon as possible, all doubts, anxieties, and irregularities of conscience, because delay is dangerous and leads to impenitence, and because in the last hours the powers of hell usually assail the departing soul with all their might. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ glorious virgin, who for thy consolation didst deserve to die comforted by the sight of thy dear son jesus, and in the company of the apostles and angels; pray for us, that at that awful moment we, too, may be comforted by receiving jesus in the most holy eucharist, and may feel thee nigh when we breathe forth our soul. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day the empty tomb preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation st. john damascene writes: "st. thomas was not with the other apostles when the blessed virgin died, but arrived in jerusalem on the third day after that event. ardently desiring to see once more and to venerate the sacred body which had given flesh and blood to his beloved master, the grave was opened for this purpose. the body could nowhere be seen, and a delicious perfume filled the empty tomb. the apostles then became convinced that as god had preserved the body of mary free from sin before, in, and after the birth of his son, he was pleased likewise, after her death, to preserve that same body from corruption, and to glorify it in heaven." a council held in jerusalem in the year declared: "it is beyond all doubt that the blessed virgin is not only a great and miraculous sign on earth, because she bore god in the flesh and yet remained a virgin, but she is also a great and miraculous sign in heaven, because she was taken up thither with soul and body. for although her sinless body was enclosed in the tomb, yet, like the body of our lord, it arose on the third day and was carried up to heaven." although the doctrine of the bodily assumption of mary into heaven was not defined by the church as an article of faith in the strict sense, yet the learned pope benedict xiv remarks, "it would be presumptuous and blameworthy in any one to call into doubt or to question this beautiful and consoling belief of ages." practice let us rejoice at the thought of the glorious resurrection of our dear mother. let us unite ourselves in spirit with the apostles in heaven and with holy church to congratulate her on this extraordinary privilege. but let us also rejoice at the thought of our own resurrection. true, it shall not take place immediately after death, but it is therefore not the less certain, and it depends on us to make it glorious and blessed. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! as thy sacred body after death was preserved from corruption, and united with thy sinless soul was borne to heaven by the angels; obtain for me the grace that my life and death be holy, so that on the day of judgment i may arise to glory everlasting. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day reasons for the bodily assumption of mary into heaven preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation . the wages of sin is death. now, as the blessed virgin from the first moment of her existence was preserved from all sin, and even from original sin, it necessarily follows that death could have no permanent dominion over her, and that her body would not be permitted to see corruption. . this sinless body had been the medium by which the body of our lord jesus christ, who was the conqueror of death, had been formed. how, then, could such a highly privileged body, a pure and virginal body, be permitted to pass through corruption and decay? . as mary had yielded up her sacred person to be a dwelling-place for the lord of heaven, it seems fitting that this same lord, in his turn, should give the kingdom of heaven to her as her resting-place. st. bernard expresses this sentiment as follows: "when our lord came into this world, mary furnished him with the noblest dwelling on earth, the temple of her virginal womb. in return, the lord on this day raises her up to the highest throne in heaven." practice if you desire to look forward to death without fear, and to expect your dissolution with confidence, follow the apostle's injunction, "therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good" (_gal._ vi. ). avoid sin, perform good works, be patient in affliction, and strive to expiate the punishment due to your sins by voluntary acts of penance, thus reducing your inclination to sin. therefore offer up to god every morning, in a spirit of penitence, all your labors, trials, and sufferings. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! i beseech thee through the ineffable glory thou didst make for thy departure from this world by a life of retirement, full of merits and virtue, dedicated to god alone; obtain for me the grace that, following thy example, i may detach my heart from this world, and patiently bear affliction and adversity, carefully avoid sin, and always strive to advance in the love of god. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day mary's glorious entrance into heaven preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation a joy greater than human heart can conceive fills the heavenly spirits when a soul enters heaven to receive her reward. what jubilant transports, then, must those have been with which they hailed the entrance into heavenly bliss of the most pure and holy virgin, the mother of the son of god, body and soul, transfigured in glory! and she is, and shall be, for all eternity, their mistress and queen! what an ineffable joy, too, for the blessed virgin, to behold the countless numbers of angels, to admire their beauty, their purity, their intense love of god! but as the feeble light of a candle disappears before the splendor of the sun's rays, thus are these choirs of angels obscured by the ineffable glory of her divine son coming to welcome his mother. who can describe this affecting meeting? what a superabundant reward for affliction and suffering! what an ocean of joy and bliss, when the son of god presented his mother before the throne of his heavenly father, who greeted her as his beloved daughter! what a joy to behold the holy ghost, whose pure spouse she had been even on earth! these transports of bliss baffle all attempts at description. practice though we are unable to have an adequate perception of mary's glory in heaven, by which she is raised above all angels and saints, yet it is in our power to do one thing; we can rejoice at the glory of our blessed mother, and join the heavenly spirits and the saints in paying homage to her. let us resolve to do this, and never to forget that mary attained to the largest share of her divine son's glory because she was foremost in sharing his sufferings. let this encourage us to bear our cross, to bear it with our saviour even to the height of calvary, there to die with him. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! i beseech thee through the preparation with which thou wast glorified by god--by the father as his most beloved daughter, by the son as his immaculate mother, and by the holy ghost as his most pure spouse--in heaven; obtain for me the grace to share to some extent this thy glory, and therefore to live so that i may deserve it. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary crowned in heaven preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary's glory received its culmination by her coronation as queen of heaven and earth. it was meet that in her should be fulfilled the words of holy scripture: "come from libanus, my spouse, come, thou shalt be crowned" (_cant._ iv. ), and that her own prophetic words, "he hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble" (_luke_ i. ), should be exemplified in her. for it was reasonable and becoming that she, who once with jesus wore the crown of shame and contempt, should now share with him the crown of immortal glory. it was but fair and just that the immaculate being who was chosen, above all inhabitants of heaven and earth, to be the true and worthy mother of god, should now be solemnly installed over all creatures in heaven and on earth as the queen of angels and men, and that to her should be offered homage, praise, and honor by the blessed spirits and by the souls of the saints. but the crown which she received is not one made of gold and precious stones; it is composed of the virtues with which mary, in faithful co-operation with divine grace, embellished herself; it consists, too, of all the homage and glory which she receives as queen of heaven. the most precious gem in this crown is the filial love and gratitude jesus shows toward his mother in heaven. practice indeed, "eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man," what the heavenly father has prepared in the mansions of eternal bliss for his beloved daughter, the son for his blessed mother, and the holy ghost for his chosen spouse. she is now queen of heaven and earth; of heaven, for she is the queen of all angels and saints; of earth, for as mother of god she is the mother of all mankind, the mediatrix between the redeemer and the redeemed. you, too, may contribute a gem toward the crown of your heavenly mother by paying her filial homage, imitating her virtues, and preserving, for the love of her, your innocence and purity of heart. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). [illustration: the blessed virgin and st. joseph finding jesus in the temple] _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! i beseech thee through the everlasting crown of glory with which god has crowned thee queen of heaven and earth; obtain for me through thy mighty intercession the grace to persevere in virtue to the end, so that finally i may attain the crown of bliss prepared by god for those that love him. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day mary's bliss in heaven preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation according to holy scripture and the doctrine of the church, there are in heaven various grades of glory and bliss, according to the rank and merit of the saints. they probably attain this higher grade of glory and bliss by the increase of their ability to enjoy the happiness of heaven. their intellect is enabled to contemplate more profoundly the incomprehensible essence of god; their power of perception is augmented so that they may more readily recognize and admire the splendor of the angels, saints, and heavenly mansions; their will is enabled to be united, in a higher degree, with god. from this we may conclude that mary's bliss in heaven transcends all human conception. her heavenly glory and reward consists in the perfect adaptation of her whole being to the enjoyment of god and of eternal bliss. practice look up, christian soul, to this great and brilliant queen of heaven. she is your gentle mother and assures you of her help, and the diadem she wears upon her brow is a proof that she has the power to help you. do not, therefore, refuse the hand of this mighty friend in heaven, for she will lift you from the depths of your misery, from the rocky shoals of temptation, and lead you strong and victorious into the presence of her divine son. thus you will enter into a new and supernatural life in christ, to share in the grace-laden mysteries of his life, passion, and triumph. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o great and glorious queen of heaven, mary! i beseech thee by that exalted throne upon which god has raised thee above all angels and saints; let me one day appear amongst them to join them in their praise of thee. obtain for me the grace that i may never cease to honor thee as thou dost deserve to be honored, and thereby to become worthy of thy mighty protection in life and death. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day mary, the queen of mercy preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary is, then, a queen, but--what a consolation to know it!--a queen always mild and gentle, always willing to confer benefits upon us. hence the church teaches us to call her the mother of mercy. the pious and learned author gerson says: "god's dominion comprises justice and mercy. he divided it, retaining the administration of justice for himself, and relinquishing, in a certain sense, the dispensation of mercy to mary, by conferring through her hands all graces he grants to mankind." how consoling, then, the assurance that our merciful mother is so mighty and so loving a queen! practice so great is the tenderness of mary's maternal heart "that never was it heard that any one who fled to her protection, implored her help, and sought her intercession was left unaided." how many prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings ascend daily to the throne of this our exalted and merciful protectress! there is not a cry of an afflicted, struggling, and suffering soul that she does not graciously hear. join, therefore, confidently in the prayer of holy church, "hail, holy queen, mother of mercy!" approach her with filial trust. neglect not to honor her yourself, and do all in your power to lead others to do her honor. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! holy church teaches me that despite the glory to which thou wast exalted, thou didst not forget thy miserable clients, and that in heaven thy mercy is still greater than it was during thy life on earth. therefore i come to thee and trustingly lay at thy feet all my needs, miseries, and petitions. my queen, my mother, turn not thy gracious eyes from me. remember me with thy divine son; cease not to pray for me and take me under thy protection, so that i may finally have the happiness to see and praise thee in thy glory for ever and ever. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day mary in heaven, the help of christians on earth preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary's help as mother of mercy is not confined to individuals. she is the protectress and helper of the whole church. all over the earth, wherever we cast our glance, in the records of the history of times long past and those of recent occurrence, we find testimony of the graces and benefits obtained through her intercession. the feasts celebrated by the church throughout the year, what are they but evidences of gratitude offered to the queen of heaven for the oftentimes miraculous delivery from war, pestilence, and other great afflictions? hence she is rightly invoked as the "help of christians." practice in our days, too, storms and dangers threaten the church. let us, therefore, by calling on mary for help, do our part toward shortening the days of visitation and trial. let us not confine our petitions to her within the narrow limits of our own personal needs, but let us join in the cry for help ascending to the mother of mercy throughout all christendom. let us daily, for holy church, send up our petition to mary's heavenly throne: "help of christians, pray for us!" prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the list of approved litanies). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary, queen of heaven! forget us not. thou art the help of christians; lighten our tribulations, and help us with motherly intercession at the throne of thy divine son. with holy church i join in the petition to thee: "holy mary, aid the miserable, assist the desponding, strengthen the weak, pray for the people, plead for the clergy, intercede for the devout female sex. let all who have recourse to thee experience the efficacy of thy help!" hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). part iii the fourteen holy helpers "the souls of the just are in the hand of god, and the torment of death shall not touch them. in the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, and their departure was taken for misery, and their going away from us for utter destruction; but they are in peace. and though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality. afflicted in a few things, in many they shall be well rewarded; because god has tried them and found them worth of himself" (_wis._ iii - .) chapter i the fourteen holy helpers among the saints who in catholic devotion are invoked with special confidence, because they have proved themselves efficacious helpers in adversity and difficulties, there is a group venerated under the collective name of holy helpers. they are: . st. george, martyr. . st. blase, bishop and martyr. . st. pantaleon, martyr. . st. vitus, martyr. . st. erasmus, bishop and martyr. . st. christophorus, martyr. . st. dionysius, bishop and martyr. . st. cyriacus, martyr. . st. achatius, martyr. . st. eustachius, martyr. . st. giles, abbot. . st. catherine, virgin and martyr. . st. margaret, virgin and martyr. . st. barbara, virgin and martyr. the reason why these saints are invoked as a group is said to have been an epidemic which devastated europe from to . it was called the plague, or "black death," and among its symptoms were the turning black of the tongue, parching of the throat, violent headache, fever, and boils on the abdomen. the malady attacked its victims suddenly, bereft them of reason, and caused death in a few hours, so that many died without the last sacraments. fear caused many attacks and disrupted social and family ties. to all appearances, the disease was incurable. during this period of general affliction the people in pious confidence turned toward heaven, and had recourse to the intercession of the saints, praying to be spared an attack, or to be cured when stricken. among the saints invoked since the earliest times of the church as special patrons in certain diseases were: st. christopher and st. giles against the plague, st. dionysius against headache, st. blase against ills of the throat, st. catherine against those of the tongue, st. erasmus against those of the abdomen, st. barbara against fever, st. vitus against epilepsy. st. pantaleon was the patron of physicians, st. cyriacus was had recourse to in temptations, especially in those at the hour of death; st. achatius was invoked in death agony; sts. christopher, barbara, and catherine were appealed to for protection against a sudden and unprovided death; the aid of st. giles was implored for making a good confession; st. eustachius was patron in all kinds of difficulties, and, because peculiar circumstances separated him for a time from his family, he was invoked also in family troubles. domestic animals, too, being attacked by the plague, sts. george, erasmus, pantaleon, and vitus were invoked for their protection. it appears from the invocation of these saints, so widespread in olden times during the plague and other epidemics, that their being grouped as the fourteen holy helpers originated in a like visitation. the fourteen saints venerated as the holy helpers are represented with the symbols of their martyrdom, or with the insignia of their state of life; also, as a group of children. the latter representation is accounted for as follows: the abbey of langheim, in the diocese of bamberg, bavaria, owned a farm on which the monks kept their flocks. the sheep were tended by shepherds, who led them along the hillsides, where they grazed quietly during the day, and were driven home in the evening. on the evening of september , , a young shepherd, herman leicht, who was gathering his flock for the homeward drive, heard what seemed to him to be the cry of a child, and looking about, saw a child sitting in a field near by. surprised, and wondering how the child came there, he was about to approach, when it disappeared. feeling rather disturbed, the boy returned to his flock. after reaching it, he turned to look back to the place where he had seen the apparition. there the child sat again, this time in a circle of light, and between two burning candles. terrified at this second apparition, he made the sign of the cross. the child smiled, as if to encourage him, and he was about to approach it again, when it vanished a second time. greatly perplexed, he drove his flock home and informed his parents of the occurrence. but they called the apparition a delusion and told him not to mention it to any one. nevertheless, feeling uneasy, and desiring an explanation, he went to the monastery and related his experience to one of the fathers, who advised him to ask the child, if it ever should appear to him again, what it wanted. nearly a year later, june , , the eve of the feast of sts. peter and paul, the child again appeared to the boy in the same place as before and about sunset; but this time it was surrounded by thirteen other children, all in a halo of glory. he boldly approached the group and asked the child he had formerly seen in the name of the father, and of the son, and the holy ghost, what it desired. the child replied: "we are the fourteen helpers, and desire that a chapel be built for us. be thou our servant, and we shall serve thee." then the group of children disappeared, and the shepherd boy was filled with heavenly consolation. the following sunday, after he had driven his flock to the pasture, it seemed to him that he saw two lighted candles descending from the sky to the place where he had seen the apparition. a woman who was passing at the time declared that she also saw them. the boy hastened to the monastery and told about the two apparitions. the abbot, frederic iv, and the rest of the community, were not inclined to believe in the apparition, and ascribed it to the boy's visionary fancy. but when, in the course of time, several extraordinary favors were granted to people who prayed at the place of the apparition, the monks built a chapel there. it was begun in , and finished and dedicated next year under the invocation of the blessed virgin mary and the fourteen holy helpers. the bishop granted an indulgence for the day of the anniversary of the dedication, the papal nuncio, cardinal joannes, granted another, and pope nicholas v a third. these indulgences, and a number of other spiritual privileges granted to the chapel, attracted a great many visitors, so that it became a place of pious pilgrimage. elector frederic iii, in fulfilment of a vow made when beset with difficulties, visited the chapel in . emperor ferdinand also visited it and left, as a votive offering, his gold pectoral chain on the altar. devotion to the fourteen holy helpers continued to spread. in , a magnificent church, to replace the old chapel, was begun, and completed in . churches and altars in honor of these saints are found in italy, austria, tyrol, hungary, bohemia, switzerland, and other countries of europe. in the united states of america two churches are dedicated under the invocation of the holy helpers: one in baltimore, md., the other in gardenville, n. y. wherever and whenever invoked, these saints have proved themselves willing helpers in all difficulties, vicissitudes, and trials of their faithful clients. chapter ii legends before proceeding to relate the lives of the fourteen holy helpers, we deem it opportune to define the term usually applied to the narrative of the lives of the saints. the histories of the saints are called legends. this word is derived from the latin, and signifies something that is to be read, a passage the reading of which is prescribed. the legends of the saints are the lives of the holy martyrs and confessors of the faith. some of them occur in the roman breviary which the catholic clergy is obliged to read every day. joseph von goerres, an illustrious champion of the church during the first half of the nineteenth century, writes as follows concerning legends: "the histories of the lives of the saints were gathered from the earliest times. a collection of such histories is found in 'the golden legend.' the passionales, too, containing the life of a saint for every day in the year, belong to this sort of literature. in germany these histories were at first translations from the latin; later, they were written in the native idiom, and, in style, were of a charming simplicity. at that time, when the upper classes did not yet judge themselves too highly cultivated to share in the faith, and not too privileged to join in the sentiments and affections of the people, and were therefore more in harmony with the lower ranks of society, these legends were in general circulation among all classes: among the wealthy in manuscript, among the poor orally and in the form in which they had become acquainted with them in church and elsewhere. "in early times the science of criticism was unknown; therefore little care was exercised in separating the poetic additions from the authentic legends, especially as the church had not yet spoken on the subject. faith was yet of that robust sort which is not affected by miraculous occurrences. nearly all europe then still accepted the adage now current only in spain, 'it is better sometimes to believe what can not be established as truth, than to lose a single truth by want of faith.' but later the science of criticism came into its rights. the church established canonical rules, according to which a strict investigation of all the facts submitted to her judgment was to be made, and rejected everything that could not stand the most rigid examination. [illustration: mary, the mother of sorrows] "then art devoted itself to that legendary lore which the church, declaring it outside of her domain, permitted to be embellished at will. thus poetic legends were multiplied, their authors being more or less convinced that the reader would be able to distinguish truth from poetical embellishment. the common people continued to make little distinction and did not permit criticism to influence their ancient beliefs. they regarded these legends as they regard the pictures of the saints; not as portraits of the persons depicted--for in the very next church the same saint might be represented in a quite different manner-- but as illustrations, more or less apt, whose object was to attract the attention by their artistic character and thus to draw the mind to the contemplation of their original, and by it to god, and thereby serve the purpose of edification." if we are not devoid of all sentiments of piety, the history of the combats and victories of the saints and martyrs, and the narrative of the miracles wrought through their intercession before and after their death, will always be a source of joy and consolation to us, and will tend to animate us with similar fortitude and love of virtue. the legends of the fourteen holy helpers are replete with the most glorious examples of heroic firmness and invincible courage in the profession of the faith, which ought to incite us to imitate their fidelity in the performance of the christian and social duties. if they, with the aid of god's grace, achieved such victories, why should not we, by the same aid, be able to accomplish the little desired of us? god rewarded his victorious champions with eternal bliss; the same crown is prepared for us, if we but render ourselves worthy of it. god placed the seal of miracles on the intrepid confession of his servants; and a mind imbued with the spirit of faith sees nothing extraordinary therein, because our divine saviour himself said, "amen, amen i say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that i do, he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do" (_john_ xiv. ). in all the miraculous events wrought in and by the saints appears only the victorious omnipotent power of jesus christ, and the living faith in which his servants operated in virtue of this power. to obliterate the miracles that appear in the lives of the saints, or even to enfeeble their import by the manner of relating them, would rob these legends of their intrinsic value. if our age is no longer robust enough to acknowledge the effects of divine omnipotence and grace, it does not follow that they must be disavowed or denied. the legends of the fourteen holy helpers i. st. george, martyr legend st. george is honored throughout christendom as one of the most illustrious martyrs of jesus christ. in the reign of the first christian emperors numerous churches were erected in his honor, and his tomb in palestine became a celebrated place of pilgrimage. but his history is involved in great obscurity, as no early records of his life and martyrdom are at present in existence. the following are the traditions concerning him which have been handed down to us by the greek historians, and which are celebrated in verse by that illustrious saint and poet of the eighth century, st. john damascene. st. george is said to have been born in cappadocia of noble christian parents. after the death of his father, he traveled with his mother into palestine, of which she was a native. there she possessed a considerable estate, which fell to him upon her death. being strong and robust in body, he embraced the profession of a soldier, and was made a tribune, or colonel, in the army. his courage and fidelity attracted the attention of emperor diocletian, who bestowed upon him marks of special favor. when that prince declared war against the christian religion, st. george laid aside the signs of his rank, threw up his commission, and rebuked the emperor for the severity of his bloody edicts. he was immediately cast into prison, and alternate threats and promises were employed to induce him to apostatize. as he continued firm, he was put to the torture and tormented with great cruelty. "i despise your promises," he said to the judge, "and do not fear your threats. the emperor's power is of short duration, and his reign will soon end. it were better for you, to acknowledge the true god and to seek his kingdom." thereupon a great block of stone was placed on the breast of the brave young officer, and thus he was left in prison. next day he was bound upon a wheel set with sharp knives, and it was put in motion to cut him to pieces. whilst suffering this cruel torture, he saw a heavenly vision, which consoled and encouraged him, saying, "george, fear not; i am with thee." his patience and fortitude under the torments inflicted on him so affected the numerous pagan spectators that many of them were converted to the faith and suffered martyrdom for it. on the next day, april , , st. george was led through the city and beheaded. this took place at lydda, the city in which, as we read in the acts of the apostles (ix.), st. peter healed a man sick with the palsy. st. george is usually represented as a knight tilting against a dragon; but this is only emblematical of the glorious combat in which he encountered and overthrew the devil, winning for himself thereby a martyr's crown. lesson we too, like st. george, often have opportunity to confess our faith in christ. we confess it by patiently bearing adversity, by suppressing our evil inclinations, by suffering injustice without retaliating evil for evil, by using every opportunity of performing deeds of charity, by devoting ourselves unremittingly to our daily duties, by carefully guarding our tongue, etc. examine yourself whether you have not often denied your faith, if not in words, through your works. _prayer of the church_ o god, who dost rejoice us by the merits and intercession of thy blessed martyr george; graciously grant that we, who through him implore thee for thy bounty, may receive thereby the gift of thy grace. through christ our lord. amen. ii st. blase, bishop and martyr legend st. blase was born at sebaste, armenia. he became a physician, but at the same time devoted himself zealously to the practice of his christian duties. his virtuous conduct gained for him the esteem of the christian clergy and people to such a degree, that he was elected bishop of his native city. henceforth he devoted himself to ward off the dangers of soul from the faithful, as he had hitherto been intent on healing their bodily ills. to all, he was a shining example of virtue. during the reign of emperor licinius a cruel persecution of christians broke out. the persecutors directed their fury principally against the bishops, well knowing that when the shepherd is stricken the flock is dispersed. listening to the entreaties of the faithful, and mindful of the words of our lord, "when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another" (_matt._ x. ), st. blase hid himself in a cave. but one day the prefect agricola instituted a chase, and his party discovered the holy bishop and brought him before their master. st. blase remained steadfast in the faith, and by its able confession and defense attracted the attention of the attendants at his trial. the cruel tyrant had him bound and tortured with iron combs. after suffering these torments with great patience and meekness, the saint was cast into prison. he was kept there a long time, because the prefect hoped to exhaust his powers of endurance, and to bring him to sacrifice to the idols. his jailer permitted the holy bishop to receive visitors in his prison, and many sick and suffering availed themselves of this privilege. he cured some of them and gave good advice to others. one day a mother brought to him her boy, who, while eating, had swallowed a fishbone, which remained in his throat, and, causing great pain, threatened suffocation. st. blase prayed and made the sign of the cross over the boy, and behold, he was cured. for this reason the saint is invoked in throat troubles. at length the holy bishop was again brought before the judge and commanded to sacrifice to the idols. but he said: "thou art blind, because thou art not illuminated by the true light. how can a man sacrifice to idols, when he adores the true god alone? i do not fear thy threats. do with me according to thy pleasure. my body is in thy power, but god alone has power over my soul. thou seekest salvation with the idols; i hope and trust to receive it from the only true and living god whom i adore." then the prefect sentenced him to death. st. blase was beheaded, suffering death for the faith february , . lesson st. blase gave us a glorious example of fortitude in the confession of the faith. according to the teaching of st. paul, confession of the faith is necessary for our salvation. he says, "for if thou confess with thy mouth the lord jesus, and believe in thy heart that god hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. for with the heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (_rom._ x. , ). we are, therefore, not permitted to be silent, much less to agree, when our faith, and whatever is connected therewith, as the sacraments, ceremonies, priests, etc., are ridiculed and reviled. parents especially must be most careful in speaking of these subjects before their children and servants, and do so only with due reverence. on the contrary, we must confess our faith, and if necessary, defend it against all attacks. often one serious word will suffice to silence a calumniator of the faith and cause him to blush. we must confess our faith not only in the bosom of our family, but also in public. we must let our fellow-men know that we are true catholics, who adhere to our faith from conviction, without regard to what others say of us, or how they judge us, remembering the words of our lord, "every one, therefore, that shall confess me before men, i will also confess him before my father who is in heaven" (_matt._ x. ). it was remarked above that st. blase is the patron invoked in throat troubles. therefore the church, on his feast, february , gives a special blessing, at which she prays over those receiving it: "by the intercession of st. blase, bishop and martyr, may god deliver thee from all ills of the throat and from all other ills; in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. amen." do not neglect to receive this blessing, if you have the opportunity. the blessings of the church are powerful and effective, for she is god's representative on earth. therefore her blessing is god's blessing, and is always effective, except we ourselves place an obstacle in its way. _prayer of the church_ o god, who dost rejoice us through the memory of thy blessed bishop and martyr blase: graciously grant us, that we, who honor his memory, may experience his protection. through christ our lord. amen. iii st. erasmus, bishop and martyr legend the pious historians of the early christian times state, as a rule, only what the saints did and suffered for the faith, and how they died. they deemed the martyrs' glorious combat and their victorious entrance into heaven more instructive, and therefore more important, than a lengthy description of their lives. hence we know little of the native place and the youth of st. erasmus, except that at the beginning of the fourth century of the christian era he was bishop of antioch in asia minor, the city where the name of "christian" first came into use. when a long and cruel persecution broke out under the emperor diocletian, st. erasmus hid himself in the mountains of the libanon, and led there, for some years, an austere life of penance and fasting. finally he was discovered and dragged before the judge. at first, persuasions and kindness were employed to induce him to deny the faith, but when these efforts failed recourse was had to the most cruel torments. he was scourged, and finally cast into a caldron filled with boiling oil, sulphur, and pitch. in this seething mass god preserved him from harm, and by this miracle many spectators were converted to the faith. still more enraged thereat, the judge ordered the holy bishop to be thrown into prison and kept there in chains till he died of starvation. but god delivered him, as he had once delivered st. peter. one night an angel appeared to him and said: "erasmus, follow me! thou shalt convert a great many." thus far he had led numbers to the faith by suffering, now he was to convert multitudes as a missionary. delivered from prison by the power of god, he went forth into many lands and preached the faith. mighty in word and deed, he wrought many miracles and converted great numbers of heathens. at length he came to italy, where emperor maximin persecuted the christians as fiercely as did diocletian in the east. as soon as maximin heard of erasmus and the conversions effected by his preaching and miracles, he ordered the slaughter of three hundred of the converts. erasmus himself was most cruelly tortured, but to no purpose. he remained firm. then cast into prison, he was again liberated by an angel. at last the hour of deliverance came to this valiant and apostolic confessor and martyr of christ. he heard a heavenly voice, saying: "erasmus, come now to the heavenly city and rest in the place which god has prepared for thee with the holy martyrs and prophets. enjoy now the fruit of thy labor. by thee i was honored in heaven and on earth." erasmus, looking toward heaven, saw a splendid crown, and the apostles and prophets welcoming him. he bowed his head, saying: "receive, o lord, the soul of thy servant!" and peacefully breathed forth his spirit on june , . lesson the tortures which st. erasmus suffered for the faith seem almost incredible, and the events related of him are truly wonderful. martyrdom and miracles illustrated the doctrine he preached; he converted multitudes and gained the crown of heaven. perhaps you say that in our times there are no longer any martyrs, at least not in civilized countries. are you quite sure of it? st. augustine writes: "peace also has its martyrs." it is certainly not easy to suffer torments like the martyrs and to receive finally the death-dealing blow of the sword. but is it not also a martyrdom to suffer for years the pains of a lingering illness? again, how difficult the combat with the world, the flesh, and the powers of hell! how carefully must we watch and pray to gain the victory! this is our martyrdom. let us imitate the example of the holy martyrs in bearing the trials and sufferings of life, and we shall receive, as they did, the crown of heaven. _prayer of the church_ o god, who dost give us joy through the memory of thy holy martyrs, graciously grant that we may be inflamed by their example, in whose merits we rejoice. through christ our lord. amen. iv st. pantaleon, physician and martyr legend st. pantaleon was physician to emperor maximin and a christian, but he fell through a temptation which is sometimes more dangerous than the most severe trials by the fiercest torments. this temptation was the bad example of the impious, idolatrous courtiers with whom the young physician associated. he was seduced by them and abandoned the faith. but the grace of god called him, and he obeyed. hermolaus, a zealous priest, by prudent exhortation awakened pantaleon's conscience to a sense of his guilt, and brought him back into the fold of the church. henceforth he devoted himself ardently to the advancement of the spiritual and temporal welfare of his fellow-citizens. first of all he sought to convert his father, who was still a heathen, and had the consolation to see him die a christian. he divided the ample fortune which he inherited amongst the poor and the sick. as a physician, he was intent on healing his patients both by physical and by spiritual means. christians he confirmed in the practice and confession of the faith, and the heathens he sought to convert. many suffering from incurable diseases were restored to health by his prayer and the invocation of the holy name of jesus. his presence was everywhere fraught with blessings and consolation. st. pantaleon yearned to prove his fidelity to the faith by shedding his blood for it, and the opportunity came to him when his heathen associates in the healing art denounced him to the emperor as a zealous propagator of christianity. he was brought up before the emperor's tribunal and ordered to sacrifice to the idols. he replied: "the god whom i adore is jesus christ. he created heaven and earth, he raised the dead to life, made the blind see and healed the sick, all through the power of his word. your idols are dead, they can not do anything. order a sick person to be brought here, one declared incurable. your priests shall invoke their idols for him and i shall call on the only true god, and we shall see who is able to help him." the proposal was accepted. a man sick with the palsy was brought, who could neither walk nor stand without help. the heathen priests prayed for him, but in vain. then pantaleon prayed, took the sick man by the hand, and said: "in the name of jesus, the son of god, i command thee to rise and be well." and the palsied man rose, restored to perfect health. by this miracle a great number of those present were converted. but the emperor and the idolatrous priests were all the more enraged. maximin now attempted to gain pantaleon by blandishments and promises to deny the faith, but without success. then he had recourse to threats, and as they too availed nothing, he proceeded to have them put into execution. the brave confessor of the faith was tortured in every conceivable manner. finally he was nailed to a tree, and then beheaded. the priest hermolaus and the brothers hermippos and hermocrates suffered death with him, in the year . lesson happy are they who, whatever may be their station or calling in life, are intent on bringing those with whom they come into contact under the influence of religion. but, alas, too many do just the reverse. they permit themselves to be led astray by bad example, and set aside the claims of the church as too severe and exacting. how do you act in this regard? do you shun the company of the wicked? a proverb says: "tell me in whose company you are found, and i will tell you who you are." bad company insensibly undermines faith and morals, overcomes the fear of evil and the aversion to it and weakens the will. "he that loveth danger shall perish in it" (_ecclus_. iii. ). as soon as st. pantaleon came to a sense of his apostasy, he repented and returned to the practice of the faith. he did this despite the knowledge that he thereby incurred hatred and persecution. the true christian will ever follow the dictates of conscience and please god, whether he thereby incur the displeasure of men or not. if, to please men, we become remiss in the service of god, we show that we fear and love him less than men. what a lamentable folly! of whom have we to expect greater benefits or to fear greater evils--from god or man? do not act thus unwisely; rather imitate st. pantaleon, and live for god and his service. _prayer of the church_ almighty god, grant us through the intercession of thy blessed martyr pantaleon to be delivered and preserved from all ills of the body, and from evil thoughts and influences in spirit. through christ our lord. amen. [illustration: our lord in the lap of his blessed mother] v st vitus, martyr legend st. vitus belonged to a noble pagan family of sicily, and was born about the year , at mazurra. his father, hylas, placed him in early childhood in charge of a christian couple named modestus and crescentia, who raised him in the christian faith, and had him baptized. he grew in years and in virtue, till, at the age of twelve, he was claimed by his father, who, to his great anger, found him a fervent christian. convinced, after many unsuccessful attempts, that stripes and other chastisements would not induce him to renounce the faith, his father delivered the brave boy up to valerian, the governor, who in vain employed every artifice to shake his constancy. finally he commanded vitus to be scourged, but when two soldiers were about to execute this order their hands and those of valerian were suddenly lamed. the governor ascribed this to sorcery, yet he invoked vitus' help, and behold, when the christian boy made the sign of the cross over the lamed members, they were healed. then valerian sent him back to his father, telling him to leave no means untried to induce his son to sacrifice to the idols. hylas now tried blandishments, pleasures, and amusements to influence the brave boy. he even sent a corrupt woman to tempt him, and for that purpose locked them both together in one room. but vitus, who had remained firm amid tortures, resisted also the allurements of sensuality. closing his eyes, he knelt in prayer, and behold, an angel appeared, filling the room with heavenly splendor, and stood at the youth's side. terrified, the woman fled. but even this miracle did not change the obstinate father. finally vitus escaped, and with modestus and crescentia fled to italy. they landed safe in naples, and there proclaimed christ wherever they had an opportunity. their fervor and many miracles which they wrought attracted the attention of emperor diocletian to them. he ordered them to be brought before his tribunal, which being done, he at first treated them kindly, employing blandishments and making promises to induce them to renounce christ. when this had no effect, they were cruelly tormented, but with no other result than confirming them in their constancy. enraged, the emperor condemned them to be thrown to the wild beasts. but the lions and tigers forgot their ferocity and cowered at their feet. now diocletian, whose fury knew no bounds, ordered them to be cast into a caldron of molten lead and boiling pitch. they prayed, "o god, deliver us through the power of thy name!" and behold, they remained unharmed. then the emperor condemned them to the rack, on which they expired, in the year . lesson the heroic spirit of martyrdom exhibited by st. vitus was owing to the early impressions of piety which he received through the teaching and example of his virtuous foster-parents. the choice of teachers, nurses, and servants who have the care of children is of the greatest importance on account of the influence they exert on them. the pagan romans were most solicitous that no slave whose speech was not perfectly elegant and graceful should have access to children. shall a christian be less careful as to their virtue? it is a fatal mistake to imagine that children are too young to be infected with the contagion of vice. no age is more impressionable than childhood; no one observes more closely than the young, and nothing is so easily acquired by them as a spirit of vanity, pride, revenge, obstinacy, sloth, etc., and nothing is harder to overcome. what a happiness for a child to be formed to virtue from infancy, and to be instilled from a tender age with the spirit of piety, simplicity, meekness, and mercy! such a foundation being well laid, the soul will easily, and sometimes without experiencing severe conflicts, rise to the height of christian perfection. _prayer of the church_ we beseech thee, o lord, to graciously grant us through the intercession of thy blessed martyrs vitus, modestus, and crescentia, that we may not proudly exalt ourselves, but serve thee in humility and simplicity, so as to avoid evil and to do right for thy sake. through christ our lord. amen. vi st. christophorus, martyr legend an ancient tradition concerning st. christophorus relates: he was born in the land of canaan, and was named reprobus, that is reprobate, for he was a barbarous heathen. in stature and strength he was a giant. thinking no one his like in bodily vigor, he resolved to go forth in search of the mightiest master and serve him. in his wanderings, he met with a king who was praised as the most valorous man on earth. to him he offered his services and was accepted. the king was proud of his giant and kept him near his person. one day a minstrel visited the king's castle, and among the ballads he sung before the court was one on the power of satan. at the mention of this name the king blessed himself, making the sign of the cross. reprobus, wondering, asked him why he did that. the king replied: "when i make this sign, satan has no power over me." reprobus rejoined: "so thou fearest the power of satan? then he is mightier than thou, and i shall seek and serve him." setting forth to seek satan, he came into a wilderness. one dark night he met a band of wild fellows riding through the forest. it was satan and his escort. reprobus bravely accosted him, saying he wished to serve him. he was accepted. but soon he was convinced that his new master was not the mightiest on earth. for one day, whilst approaching a crucifix by the wayside, satan quickly took to flight, and reprobus asked him for the reason. satan replied: "that is the image of my greatest enemy, who conquered me on the cross. from him i always flee." when reprobus heard this, he left the devil, and went in search of christ. in his wanderings, he one day came to a hut hidden in the forest. at its door sat a venerable old man. reprobus addressed him, and in the course of the conversation that ensued the old man told him that he was a hermit, and had left the world to serve christ, the lord of heaven and earth. "thou art my man," cried reprobus; "christ is he whom i seek, for he is the strongest and the mightiest. tell me where i can find him." the hermit then began instructing the giant about god and the redeemer, and concluded by saying: "he who would serve christ must offer himself entirely to him, and do and suffer everything for his sake. his reward for this will be immense and will last forever." reprobus now asked the hermit to allow him to remain, and to continue to instruct him. the hermit consented. when reprobus was fully instructed, he baptized him. after his baptism, a great change came over the giant. no longer proud of his great size and strength, he became meek and humble, and asked the hermit to assign to him some task by which he might serve god, his master. "for," said he, "i can not pray and fast; therefore i must serve god in some other way." the hermit led him to a broad and swift river nearby, and said: "here build thyself a hut, and when wanderers wish to cross the river, carry them over for the love of christ." for there was no bridge across the river. henceforth, day and night, whenever he was called, reprobus faithfully performed the task assigned to him. one night he heard a child calling to be carried across the river. quickly he rose, placed the child on his stout shoulder, took his staff and walked into the mighty current. arrived in midstream, the water rose higher and higher, and the child became heavier and heavier. "o child," he cried, "how heavy thou art! it seems i bear the weight of the world on my shoulder." and the child replied, "right thou art. thou bearest not only the world, but the creator of heaven and earth. i am jesus christ, thy king and lord, and henceforth thou shalt be called christophorus, that is, christ-bearer. arrived on yonder shore, plant thy staff in the ground, and in token of my power and might tomorrow it shall bear leaves and blossoms." and the child disappeared. on reaching the other shore, christophorus stuck his staff into the ground, and behold, it budded forth leaves and blossoms. then, kneeling, he promised the lord to serve him ever faithfully. he kept his promise, and thenceforth became a zealous preacher of the gospel, converting many to the faith. on his missionary peregrinations he came also to lycia, where, after his first sermon, eighteen thousand heathens requested baptism. when emperor decius heard of this, he sent a company of four hundred soldiers to capture christophorus. to these he preached so convincingly, that they all asked for baptism. decius became enraged thereat and had him cast into prison. there he first treated him with great kindness, and surrounded him with every luxury to tempt him to sin, but in vain. then he ordered him to be tortured in the most cruel manner, until he should deny the faith. he was scourged, placed on plates of hot iron, boiling oil was poured over and fire was lighted under him. when all these torments did not accomplish their purpose, the soldiers were ordered to shoot him with arrows. this, too, having no effect, he was beheaded, on july , . two great saints refer to the wonderful achievements of st. christophorus. st. ambrose mentions that this saint converted forty-eight thousand souls to christ. st. vincent ferrer declares, that when the plague devastated valencia, its destructive course was stayed through the intercession of st. christophorus. lesson the legend of st. christophorus conveys a wholesome truth. we ought all to be christ-bearers, by preserving in our hearts faith, hope, and charity, and by receiving our lord worthily in holy communion. he alone is worthy of our service. in the service that we owe to men, we ought to serve god by doing his will. we can not divide our heart, for our lord himself says, "no man can serve two masters" (_matt_. vi. ). if you serve the world, it deceives you, for it can not give you what it promises. if you serve sin, satan is your master. he, too, deceives his servants, and leads them to perdition. christ on the cross conquered these two tyrants, and with his help you can also vanquish them. therefore, give yourself to him with all your heart, and you shall find peace in this world, and eternal bliss in the next. st. augustine learned this truth by sad experience, and therefore exclaims: "thou hast created us for thee, o lord, and our heart is restless till it rests in thee." _prayer of the church_ grant us, almighty god, that whilst we celebrate the memory of thy blessed martyr st. christophorus, through his intercession the love of thy name may be increased in us. through christ our lord. amen. vii st. dionysius, bishop and martyr legend when st. paul the apostle, in the year of our lord , came to athens to preach the gospel, he was summoned to the areopagus, the great council which determined all religious matters. among the members of this illustrious assembly was dionysius. his mind had already been prepared to receive the good tidings of the gospel by the miraculous darkness which overspread the earth at the moment of our lord's death on the cross. he was at that time at heliopolis, in egypt. on beholding the sun obscured in the midst of its course, and this without apparent cause, he is said to have exclaimed: "either the god of nature is suffering, or the world is about to be dissolved." when st. paul preached before the areopagus in athens, dionysius easily recognized the truth and readily embraced it. the apostle received him among his disciples, and appointed him bishop of the infant church of athens. as such he devoted himself with great zeal to the propagation of the gospel. he made a journey to jerusalem to visit the places hallowed by the footsteps and sufferings of our redeemer, and there met the apostles st. peter and st. james, the evangelist st. luke, and other holy apostolic men. he also had the happiness to see and converse with the blessed virgin mary, and was so overwhelmed by her presence that he declared, that if he knew not jesus to be god, he would consider her divine. the idolatrous priests of athens were greatly alarmed at the many conversions resulting from the eloquent preaching of dionysius, and instigated a revolt against him. the holy bishop left athens, and, going to rome, visited the pope, st. clement. he sent him with some other holy men to gaul. some of his companions remained to evangelize the cities in the south, while dionysius, with the priest rusticus and the deacon eleutherius continued their journey northward as far as lutetia, the modern paris, where the gospel had not yet been announced. here for many years he and his companions labored with signal success, and finally obtained the crown of martyrdom on oct. , . dionysius was beheaded at the advanced age of years. the spot where the three martyrs dionysius, rusticus, and eleutherius suffered martyrdom, is the well-known hill of montmartre. an ancient tradition relates that st. dionysius, after his head was severed from his body, took it up with his own hands and carried it two thousand paces to the place where, later, a church was built in his honor. the bodies of the martyrs were thrown into the river seine, but taken up and honorably interred by a christian lady named catulla not far from the place where they had been beheaded. the christians soon built a chapel on their tomb. st. dionysius was not only a great missionary and bishop, but also one of the most illustrious writers of the early church. some of his works, which are full of catholic doctrine and christian wisdom, are still extant, and well worthy of a convert and disciple of st. paul, whose spirit they breathe. lesson the apostolic men like st. dionysius, who converted so many to christ, were filled with his spirit, and acted and lived for him alone. they gave their lives to spread his religion, convinced that the welfare of individuals and nations depends upon it. on religion depends the security and stability of all government and of society. human laws are too weak to restrain those who disregard and despise the law of god. unless a man's conscience is enlightened by religion and bound by its precepts, his passions will so far enslave him, that the impulse of evil inclinations will prompt him to every villainy of which he hopes to derive an advantage, if he can but accomplish his purpose secretly and with impunity. true religion, on the contrary, insures comfort, peace, and happiness amid the sharpest trials, safety in death itself, and after death the most glorious and eternal reward in god. how grateful, therefore, must we be to the men who preached the true religion amid so many difficulties, trials, and persecutions; and also to those who preach it now, animated by the same spirit. and how carefully should we avoid all persons, books, and periodicals that revile and calumniate our holy faith, and attempt its subversion! _prayer of the church_ o god, who didst confer on thy blessed servant dionysius the virtue of fortitude in suffering, and didst join with him rusticus and eleutherius, to announce thy glory to the heathens, grant, we beseech thee, that following them, we may despise, for the love of thee, the pleasures of this world, and that we do not recoil from its adversities. through christ our lord. amen. viii st. cyriacus, deacon and martyr legend emperor maximin in token of his gratitude to diocletian, who had ceded the western half of his empire to him, ordered the building of that magnificent structure in rome, whose ruins are still known as the "baths of diocletian." the christians imprisoned for the faith were compelled to labor under cruel overseers at this building. a zealous christian roman, touched with pity at this moving spectacle, resolved to employ his means in improving the condition of these poor victims of persecution. among the deacons of the roman church at that time was one by the name of cyriacus, who was distinguished by his zeal in the performance of all good works. him, with two companions, largus and smaragdus, the pious roman selected for the execution of his plan. cyriacus devoted himself to the work with great ardor. one day, whilst visiting the laborers to distribute food amongst them, he observed a decrepit old man, who was so feeble that he was unable to perform his severe task. filled with pity, cyriacus offered to take his place. the aged prisoner consenting, the merciful deacon thenceforth worked hard at the building. but after some time he was discovered, and cast into prison. there he again found opportunity to exercise his zeal. some blind men who had great confidence in the power of his prayer, came to ask him for help in their affliction, and he restored their sight. he and his companions spent three years in prison, and during that time he healed many sick and converted a great number of heathens from the darkness of paganism. then emperor diocletian's little daughter became possessed by an evil spirit, and no one was able to deliver her from it. to the idolatrous priests who were called, the evil spirit declared that he would leave the girl only when commanded to do so by cyriacus, the deacon. he was hastily summoned, and prayed and made the sign of the cross over the girl, and the evil spirit departed. the emperor loved his daughter, therefore he was grateful to the holy deacon, and presented him with a house, where he and his companions might serve their god unmolested by their enemies. about this time the daughter of the persian king sapor was attacked by a similar malady, and when he heard what cyriacus had done for diocletian's daughter, he wrote to the emperor, asking him to send the christian deacon. it was done, and cyriacus, on foot, set out for persia. arrived at his destination, he prayed over the girl and the evil spirit left her. on hearing of this miracle, four hundred and twenty heathens were converted to the faith. these the saint instructed and baptized, and then set out on his homeward journey. returned to rome, he continued his life of prayer and good works. but when diocletian soon afterward left for the east, his co-emperor maximin seized the opportunity to give vent to his hatred for the christians, and renewed their persecution. one of the first victims was cyriacus. he was loaded with chains and brought before the judge, who first tried blandishments and promises to induce him to renounce christ and to sacrifice to the idols, but in vain. then the confessor of christ was stretched on the rack, his limbs torn from their sockets, and he was beaten with clubs. his companions shared the same tortures. finally, when the emperor and the judge were convinced that nothing would shake the constancy of the holy martyrs, they were beheaded. they gained the crown of glory on march , . lesson in the life of st. cyriacus two virtues shine forth in a special manner; his love of god and his charity toward his fellow-men. his love of god impelled him to sacrifice all, even his life, for his sake, thereby fulfilling the commandment: "thou shalt love the lord thy god with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind" (_matt_. xxii. ). a greater love of god no man can have than giving his life for him. st. cyriacus also fulfilled the other commandment, of which our lord declared, "and the second is like to this: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (_matt_. xxii. ). he helped his fellow-christians to bear their burdens, relieved them in their sufferings, assisted and encouraged them by word and deed, and edified them by his example. his sole aim was to do good to all men, mindful of the words of the royal prophet: "blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor" (_ps_. xl. ). he was so imbued with the virtue of charity, that he was disposed even to sacrifice his life for the relief and assistance of others. [illustration: the holy women at the tomb.] how shall we justify our unfeeling hardness of heart, by which we seek every trifling pretense to exempt us from the duty of aiding the unfortunate? remember the threat of the apostle, "judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy" (_james_ ii. ). _prayer of the church_ o god, who rejoicest us by the remembrance of thy blessed martyrs cyriacus, largus, and smaragdus; grant, we beseech thee, that we, by celebrating their memory, may imitate their fortitude in suffering. through christ our lord. amen. ix st. achatius, martyr legend of the saints named achatius, that one is reckoned among the holy helpers who, as a roman soldier, died for christ. achatius was a native of cappadocia and as a youth joined the roman army during the reign of emperor hadrian, attaining the rank of captain. one day, when leading his company against the enemy, he heard a voice saying to him, "call on the god of christians!" he obeyed, was instructed, and received baptism. filled with zeal, he henceforth sought to convert also the pagan soldiers of the army. when the emperor heard of this, achatius was thrown into prison, then placed on the rack, bound to a post and scourged, because he refused to offer sacrifice to the idols. when all these tortures availed nothing, he was brought before the tribune bibianus. asked by him what was his name and country, achatius replied, "my name is christian, because i am a follower of christ; men call me achatius. my country is cappadocia. there my parents lived; there i was converted to the christian faith, and was so inspired by the combats and sufferings of the christian martyrs that i am resolved to shed my blood for christ to attain heaven." then bibianus ordered him to be beaten with leaden clubs, after which he was loaded with chains and returned to the prison. after achatius had been in prison seven days, bibianus was called to byzantium, and ordered all prisoners to be transported there. on the journey achatius suffered greatly, for his entire body was covered with wounds, his chains were galling, the guards were cruel and the roads were bad. he thought himself dying. praying to god, a voice from the clouds answered him, "achatius, be firm!" the soldiers of the guard were terrified and asked each other, "what is this? how can the clouds have a voice?" many prisoners were converted. next day some of the converts saw a number of men in shining armor speaking to achatius, washing his wounds and healing them, so that not even a scar remained. arrived in byzantium the saint was again cast into prison, and after seven days dragged before the judge. when neither promises nor the most cruel torments shook the constancy of the brave confessor of the faith, the judge sent him to flaccius, the proconsul of thracia, who imprisoned him for five days, and meanwhile read the records of his former trials. then he ordered him to be beheaded. achatius suffered death for christ on may , . lesson achatius manfully and without fear confessed the faith amid persecutions and sufferings. we, too, are often placed in circumstances where the profession of our faith and the practice of the virtues inculcated by it cause us trials. but so deplorable are the effects of sensuality, avarice, and ambition, and such is the laxity and spiritual callousness of many christians, that there is real cause for every one to be filled with alarm for the safety of his soul. it is not the crowd we are to follow, but the precepts of the gospel. therefore we ought to strive to give a good example by our faithful compliance with the demands of religion. for our lord himself exhorts us: "so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father, who is in heaven" (_matt._ v. ). _prayer of the church_ o god, who dost give us joy through the remembrance of thy blessed martyrs, achatius and his companions; grant, we beseech thee, that we may be inflamed by the example of those for whose merits we rejoice. through christ our lord. amen. x st. eustachius, martyr legend at the beginning of the second century, during the reign of emperor trajan, there lived in rome a famous general by the name of placidus, who was distinguished among his fellow-citizens for his wealth and military prowess. it happened one day, that while following the chase he became separated from his companions, and was pursuing with eagerness a stag of extraordinary size, when suddenly it turned toward him, and he beheld raised aloft between its antlers the image of jesus christ suspended on the cross. at the same time our blessed saviour addressed him in loving words, inviting him henceforth to follow him by embracing the christian faith, and to make eternal life in future the object of his pursuit. faithful to the grace which he had received, placidus on his return home communicated the heavenly vision to his wife tatiana, who informed him that she too had been favored with a heavenly apparition. together they went immediately to the pope, related their experience, and after due instruction received baptism. at the sacred font placidus received the name of eustachius, and his wife was called theopista, while his sons were baptized by the names of agapitus and theopistus. upon returning to the spot where he first received the call, eustachius was favored with another communication from our lord, announcing to him that he was destined to endure many and great afflictions for the sake of christ. it was not long before his faith and patience were put to a severe trial. stripped of all his possessions and forced to flee from the fury of the persecution, he was reduced to extreme distress, and in the course of his wanderings was by a series of calamitous events separated from his wife and children, of whom he lost all trace. for many years he dwelt in a remote spot, following the occupation of a farm laborer, until he was found by the messengers of the emperor, who was sadly in need of the skill of his former general, because a fierce war had broken out, in which the romans sustained severe losses. being again invested with the command of the imperial troops, eustachius set out for the seat of war, and achieved a decisive victory. in the course of his march he had the happiness, by a singular providence of god, to recover his wife and children, with whom he returned to rome. his entrance into the city was attended with great rejoicings, and many were the congratulations which he received on his extraordinary good fortune. but soon afterward a solemn sacrifice of thanksgiving to the pagan deities was proclaimed, in which he was ordered by the emperor to take a part. upon his refusal, after every effort had been made to shake his constancy, he was condemned to be exposed to the lions in the public amphitheater along with his wife and children. finally, as the savage animals, laying aside their natural ferocity, refused to injure the confessors of christ, eustachius and his family were by order of the emperor enclosed in the body of an immense brazen bull, which was heated by means of a great fire enkindled beneath. the last moments of these heroic martyrs was spent in chanting the divine praises, in the midst of which their happy souls passed to the enjoyment of everlasting bliss. their bodies, miraculously preserved uninjured, were buried with great devotion by the faithful christians, and were afterward transferred to a magnificent church erected in their honor. lesson how inspiring, to see a great man preferring justice, truth, and religion to the favor of the mighty, readily quitting estate, friends, country, and even sacrificing life, rather than consent to do violence to his conscience; and to see him, at the same time, meek, humble, patient in suffering, forgiving sincerely and loving his unjust and treacherous persecutors! passion and revenge often beget anger and triumph over virtue and integrity. ambition and the desire of wealth may, for a time, urge men on to brave danger, but finally they reduce them to the most abject slavery, and result in grievous crimes and misery. religion alone is the source of charity, magnanimity, and true courage. it so enlightens the mind, as to place a man above the vicissitudes of the world; it renders him steadfast and calm in adversity, preserves him from error, teaches him to bear injustice and calumny in a tranquil spirit, and gives him that ineffable peace and joy which springs from the conviction that god's will is always most just and holy and that he protects, aids, and rewards his servants. does religion exert this powerful influence on us? do we show it in our actions and conduct? our courage and constancy must be apparent not only when we encounter danger and opposition, but also when our evil propensity urges us to yield to temptations that present sin to us in the guise of pleasure. _prayer of the church_ o god, who dost permit us to celebrate the remembrance of thy blessed martyrs, eustachius and companions, grant us, that we may enjoy their company in eternal bliss. through christ our lord. amen. xi st. giles, hermit and abbot legend athens, in greece, was the native city of st. giles. he was of noble parentage, and devoted himself from early youth to piety and learning. after the death of his parents he distributed his rich inheritance to the poor, and to escape the applause of men for his charity left his country to bury himself in obscurity. he sailed for france, and on his arrival there retired to a deserted country near the mouth of the river rhone. later he made his abode near the river gard, and finally buried himself in a forest in the diocese of nimes. in this solitude he passed many years, living on wild herbs and roots, with water for his drink. it is related that for some time a hind came daily to be milked by him, thus furnishing him additional sustenance. here he lived, disengaged from earthly cares, conversing only with god, and engaged in the contemplation of heavenly things. one day the king instituted a great hunt in the forest where giles lived, and encountered the hind. giving chase, the royal hunter was led to the saint's hut, where the panting animal had sought refuge. the king inquired who he was, and was greatly edified at the holiness of his life. the fame of the saintly hermit now spread far and wide, and was much increased by the many miracles wrought through his intercession. the king tried to persuade him to leave his solitude, but prevailed upon him only in so far, that giles accepted several disciples and founded a monastery in which the rule of st. benedict was observed, and of which he was chosen the abbot. he governed his community wisely and well, and at the earnest solicitation of his monks was ordained priest. the fame of st. giles' sanctity induced the frankish king, charles martel to call him to his court to relieve him of a great trouble of conscience. the saint made the journey, and told the king that he would find relief and comfort only by the sincere confession of a sin which he had hitherto concealed. the king followed his advice, found interior peace and dismissed giles with many tokens of gratitude. on his homeward journey the saint raised the recently deceased son of a nobleman to life. after a short stay in his monastery st. giles went to rome, to obtain from the pope the confirmation of some privileges and the apostolic blessing for his community. the pope granted his wishes, and presented him, besides, with two grand and beautifully carved doors of cedar wood for his church. st. giles died at a ripe old age on september , . many miracles were wrought at his tomb. lesson st. giles left his native country and retired into solitude to escape the notice and applause of the world, and served god as a recluse. to lead such a life, there must be a special call from god. it is not suited to all, and even inconsistent with the duties of most men. but all are capable of disengaging their affections from the inordinate attachment to creatures, and of attaining to a pure and holy love of god. by making the service of god the motive of their thoughts and actions, they will sanctify their whole life. in whatever conditions of life we may be placed, we have opportunities of subduing our evil inclinations and mortifying ourselves by frequent self-denials, of watching over our hearts and purifying our senses by recollection and prayer. thus each one, in his station of life, may become a saint, by making his calling an exercise of virtue and his every act a step higher to perfection and eternal glory. _prayer of the church_ o lord, we beseech thee to let us find grace through the intercession of thy blessed confessor giles; that what we can not obtain through our merits be given us through his intercession. through christ our lord amen. xii st. margaret, virgin and martyr legend st. margaret was the daughter of a pagan priest at antioch. she lost her mother in infancy and was placed in the care of a nurse in the country, who was a christian, and whose first care was to have her little charge baptized and to give the child a christian education. margaret grew up a modest, pious virgin, and when she returned to her father he was charmed with the grace and virtue of his daughter. he regretted only one thing; she took no part in the worship of the idols. when she told him the reason he was greatly displeased, for she stated that she was a christian, and that nothing should separate her from the love of christ. her father tried every means to change her mind, and when all his endeavors failed became enraged and drove her forth from his house. margaret returned to her nurse and became her servant, doing all kinds of menial work, and at the same time perfecting herself in virtue. about this time emperor diocletian began to persecute the christians. one day alybrius, the prefect of the city, saw margaret, and fell in love with her. he sent a messenger to ask her in marriage. the pious virgin was filled with consternation at the proposal and replied to the messenger: "i can not be espoused to your master, because i am the spouse of our lord jesus christ. i am promised to him, and to him i wish to belong." when the prefect heard this, he became furious with rage, and gave orders to have the virgin brought to him by force. when she appeared before him he thus addressed her: "what is your name and condition?" she replied: "i am called margaret, and belong to a noble family. i adore christ and serve him." the prefect now advised her to abandon the worship of a crucified god. margaret asked him, "how do you know that we worship a crucified god?" the prefect replied: "from the books of the christians." margaret continued: "why did you not read further on? the books of the christians would have told you that the crucified rose on the third day, and that he ascended into heaven. is it love of truth to believe in the abasement of christ and to reject his glorification, when both are related in the selfsame book?" at this reproof the prefect became angry and ordered the tender virgin to be cruelly scourged, placed on the rack, and torn with iron combs. then she was cast into prison. there margaret fervently thanked god for the victory she had achieved and implored his help for the combat yet in store for her. suddenly there appeared to her the arch-enemy of mankind in the shape of a furious dragon, threatening to swallow her. the brave virgin feared him not, but made the sign of the cross, and the monster vanished. then her desolate prison cell became suffused with heavenly light, and her heart was filled with divine consolation. at the same time her terrible wounds were suddenly healed, and not the least scar was left. next day margaret was again brought before the prefect. surprised at her complete recovery from the effects of his cruelty, he remarked that no doubt it was due to the power of the pagan gods, and exhorted her to show her gratitude to them by sacrificing to the idols. margaret maintained that she had been healed by the power of christ alone and declared that she despised the heathen gods. at this, the rage of alybrius knew no bounds. he ordered lighted torches to be applied to margaret's body, and then had her cast into icy water to intensify her torture. but scarcely had this been done when a violent earthquake occurred. her bonds were severed and she rose unscathed from the water, without a mark of the burns caused by the flaming torches. on witnessing this miracle, a great number of spectators were converted to the faith. finally the prefect ordered margaret to be beheaded. her glorious martyrdom and death occurred about the year . lesson the history of the virgin martyr st. margaret teaches us that we can and ought to serve god even in youth. in the old law god commanded all the first-born and the first-fruits to be offered to him. "thou shalt not delay to pay thy tithes and first-fruits. thou shalt give the first-born of thy sons to me" (_ex._ xxii. ). certainly our whole life ought to be dedicated to the service of god; but from the above command we are to understand that god especially desires our service during the early years of our life. they are our first-fruits. st. augustine calls the years of youth the blossoms, the most beautiful flowers of life, and st. thomas aquinas writes: "what the young give to god in their early years, they give of the bloom, of the full vigor and beauty of life." youth is the age beset with countless temptations. safety is found only in the service of god, by obedience, humility, and docility. this is not so difficult as it appears, and our lord himself invites you to his service, saying: "my son, give me thy heart" (_prov._ xxiii. ), and, "taste and see that the lord is sweet" (_ps._ xxxiii. ). _prayer of the church_ we beseech thee, o lord, grant us thy favor through the intercession of thy blessed virgin and martyr margaret, who pleased thee by the merit of her purity and by the confession of thy might. through christ our lord. amen. xiii st catherine, virgin and martyr legend st. catherine was a native of alexandria, egypt, a city then famous for its schools of philosophy. she was a daughter of costis, half-brother of constantine, and of sabinella, queen of egypt. her wisdom and acquirements were remarkable, the philosophy of plato being her favorite study. while catherine was yet young her father died, leaving her heiress to the kingdom. her love of study and retirement displeased her subjects, who desired her to marry, asserting that her gifts of noble birth, wealth, beauty, and knowledge should be transmitted to her children. the princess replied that the husband whom she would wed must be even more richly endowed than herself. his blood must be the noblest, his rank must surpass her own, his beauty without comparison, his benignity great enough to forgive all offences. the people of alexandria were disheartened, for they knew of no such prince; but catherine remained persistent in her determination to wed none other. now, it happened that a certain hermit who lived near alexandria had a vision in which he saw the blessed virgin, who sent him to tell catherine that her divine son was the spouse whom she desired. he alone possessed all, and more, than the requirements she demanded. the holy man gave catherine a picture of jesus and mary; and when the princess had gazed upon the face of christ she loved him so that she could think of naught else, and the studies in which she had been wont to take delight became distasteful to her. [illustration: the descent of the holy ghost on the blessed virgin and the apostles.] one night catherine dreamed that she accompanied the hermit to a sanctuary, whence angels came to meet her. she fell on her face before them, but one of the angelic band bade her, "rise dear sister catherine, for the king of glory delighteth to honor thee." she rose and followed the angels to the presence of the queen of heaven, who was surrounded by angels and saints and was beautiful beyond description. the queen welcomed her and led her to her divine son, our lord. but he turned from her, saying: "she is not fair and beautiful enough for me." catherine awoke at these words and wept bitterly until morning. she then sent for the hermit and inquired what would make her worthy of the heavenly bridegroom. the saintly recluse instructed her in the true faith and, with her mother, she was baptized. that night, in a dream, the blessed virgin and her divine son again appeared to her. mary presented her to jesus, saying: "behold, she has been regenerated in the water of baptism." then christ smiled on her and plighted his troth to her by putting a ring on her finger. when she awoke the ring was still there, and thenceforth catherine despised all earthly things and longed only for the hour when she should go to her heavenly bridegroom. after the death of sabinella, emperor maximin came to alexandria and declared a persecution against the christians. catherine appeared in the temple and held an argument with the tyrant, utterly confounding him. the emperor ordained that fifty of the most learned men of the empire be brought to dispute with her; but, sustained by the power of god, catherine not only vanquished them in argument, but converted them to the true faith. in his fury maximin commanded that the new christians be burned; and catherine comforted them, since they could not be baptized, by telling them that their blood should be their baptism and the flames their crown of glory. the emperor then tried other means to overcome the virtue of the noble princess; but, failing to do this, he ordered her to be cast into a dungeon and starved to death. twelve days later, when the dungeon was opened, a bright light and fragrant perfume filled it, and catherine, who had been nourished by angels, came forth radiant and beautiful. on seeing this miracle, the empress and many noble alexandrians declared themselves christians, and suffered death at the command of the emperor. catherine was not spared, for maximin made a further attempt to win her. he offered to make her mistress of the world if she would but listen to him, and when she still spurned his proposals, he ordered her to the torture. she was bound to four spiked wheels which revolved in different directions, that she might be torn into many pieces. but an angel consumed the wheels by fire, and the fragments flying around killed the executioners and many of the spectators. the tyrant then ordered her to be scourged and beheaded. the sentence was carried into effect on november , . a pious legend, recognized by the church, says that angels bore catherine's body to mount sinai, and buried it there. lesson st. catherine, for her erudition and the spirit of piety by which she sanctified it, was chosen the model and patroness of christian philosophers. learning, next to virtue, is the noblest quality and ornament of the human mind. profane science teaches many useful truths, but when compared with the importance of the study of the science of the saints, they are of value only inasmuch as when made subservient to the latter. the study of the saints was to live in the spirit of christ. this science is taught by the church, and acquired by listening to her instructions, by pious reading and meditation. be intent on learning this science, and order your life according to its rules. it is the "one thing necessary," for it is the foundation of all wisdom and true happiness. "the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom" (_ps._ cx. ). _prayer of the church_ o god, who didst give the law to moses on the summit of mount sinai, and by the holy angels didst miraculously transfer there the body of blessed catherine, virgin and martyr; grant us, we beseech thee, to come, through her intercession, to the mountain which is christ. through the same christ our lord. amen. xiv st. barbara, virgin and martyr legend nicomedia, a city in asia minor, was st. barbara's birthplace. her father dioscurus was a pagan. fearing that his only child might learn to know and love the doctrines of christianity, he shut her up in a tower, apart from all intercourse with others. nevertheless barbara became a christian. she passed her time in study, and from her lonely tower she used to watch the heavens in their wondrous beauty. she soon became convinced that the "heavens were telling the glory of god," a god greater than the idols she had been taught to worship. her desire to know that god was in itself a prayer which he answered in his own wise way. the fame of origen, that famous christian teacher in alexandria, reached even the remote tower, and barbara sent a trusty servant with the request that he would make known to her the truth. origen sent her one of his disciples, disguised as a physician, who instructed and baptized her. she practised her new religion discreetly while waiting for a favorable opportunity of acquainting her father with her conversion. this opportunity came in a short time. some workmen were sent by dioscurus to make another room in the tower, and when they had made two windows she directed them to make a third. when her father saw this additional window, he asked the reason for it. she replied, "know, my father, that the soul receives light through three windows, the father, the son, and the holy ghost, and the three are one." the father became so angry at this discovery of her having become a christian, that he would have killed his daughter with his sword, had she not fled to the top of the tower. he followed her, and finally had her in his power. first he wreaked his vengeance on her in blows, then clutching her by the hair he dragged her away and thrust her into a hut to prevent her escape. next he tried every means to induce her to renounce her faith; threats, severe punishments, and starvation had no effect on the constancy of the christian maiden. finding himself powerless to shake his daughter's constancy, dioscurus delivered her to the proconsul marcian, who had her scourged and tortured, but without causing her to deny the faith. during her sufferings, her father stood by, exulting in the torments of his child. next night, after she had been taken back to prison, our lord appeared to her and healed her wounds. when barbara appeared again before him, marcian was greatly astonished to find no trace of the cruelties that had been perpetrated on her body. again she resisted his importunities to deny the faith, and when he saw that all his efforts were in vain, he pronounced the sentence of death. barbara was to be beheaded. her unnatural father claimed the privilege to execute it with his own hands, and with one blow severed his daughter's head from her body, on december , . at the moment of the saint's death a great tempest arose and dioscurus was killed by lightning. marcian, too, was overtaken by the same fate. lesson since early times st. barbara is invoked as the patroness against lightning and explosions, and is called upon by those who desire the sacraments of the dying in their last illness, and many are the instances of the efficacy of her intercession. we all wish for a happy and blessed death. to attain it, we must make the preparation for it the great object of our life; we must learn to die to the world and to ourselves, and strive after perfection in virtue. there is no greater comfort in adversity, no more powerful incentive to withdrawing our affections from this world, than to remember the blessing of a happy death. well prepared, death may strike us in any form whatsoever, and however suddenly, it will find us ready. we can be guilty of no greater folly than to delay our preparation for death, repentance, the reception of the sacraments, and the amendment of our life, from day to day, from the time of health to the time of illness, and in illness to the very last moments, thinking that even then we can obtain pardon. st. augustine observes: "it is very dangerous to postpone the performance of a duty on which our whole eternity depends to the most inconvenient time, the last hour." and st. bernard remarks: "in holy scripture we find one single instance of one who received pardon at the last moment. he was the thief crucified with jesus. he is alone, that you despair not; he is alone, also, that you sin not by presumption on god's mercy." if you, therefore, wish for a happy death, prepare for it in time. _prayer of the church_ o god, who among the wonders of thy might didst grant the victory of martyrdom also to the weaker sex, graciously grant us that we, by recalling the memory of thy blessed virgin and martyr barbara, through her example may be led to thee. through christ our lord. amen. part iv i novenas to the holy helpers ii prayers and petitions "in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to god" (_philipp._ iv. ). "god is wonderful in his saints. the god of israel is he who will give power and strength to his people; blessed be god" (_ps._ lxvii. ). novena to each of the holy helpers preparatory prayer _for each of the following novenas_ almighty and eternal god! with lively faith and reverently worshiping thy divine majesty, i prostrate myself before thee and invoke with filial trust thy supreme bounty and mercy. illumine the darkness of my intellect with a ray of thy heavenly light and inflame my heart with the fire of thy divine love, that i may contemplate the great virtues and merits of the saint in whose honor i make this novena, and following his example imitate, like him, the life of thy divine son. moreover, i beseech thee to grant graciously, through the merits and intercession of this powerful helper, the petition which through him i humbly place before thee, devoutly saying, "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." vouchsafe graciously to hear it, if it redounds to thy greater glory and to the salvation of my soul. amen. i novena in honor of st. george preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. george o god, who didst grant to st. george strength and constancy in the various torments which he sustained for our holy faith; we beseech thee to preserve, through his intercession, our faith from wavering and doubt, so that we may serve thee with a sincere heart faithfully unto death. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. george faithful servant of god and invincible martyr, st. george; favored by god with the gift of faith, and inflamed with an ardent love of christ, thou didst fight valiantly against the dragon of pride, falsehood, and deceit. neither pain nor torture, sword nor death could part thee from the love of christ. i fervently implore thee for the sake of this love to help me by thy intercession to overcome the temptations that surround me, and to bear bravely the trials that oppress me, so that i may patiently carry the cross which is placed upon me; and let neither distress nor difficulties separate me from the love of our lord jesus christ. valiant champion of the faith, assist me in the combat against evil, that i may win the crown promised to them that persevere unto the end. _prayer_ my lord and my god! i offer up to thee my petition in union with the bitter passion and death of jesus christ, thy son, together with the merits of his immaculate and blessed mother, mary ever virgin, and of all the saints, particularly with those of the holy helper in whose honor i make this novena. look down upon me, merciful lord! grant me thy grace and thy love, and graciously hear my prayer. amen. ii novena in honor of st. blase preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. blase o god, deliver us through the intercession of thy holy bishop and martyr blase, from all evil of soul and body, especially from all ills of the throat; and grant us the grace to make a good confession in the confident hope of obtaining thy pardon, and ever to praise with worthy lips thy most holy name. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. blase st. blase, gracious benefactor of mankind and faithful servant of god, who for the love of our saviour didst suffer so many tortures with patience and resignation; i invoke thy powerful intercession. preserve me from all evils of soul and body. because of thy great merits god endowed thee with the special grace to help those that suffer from ills of the throat; relieve and preserve me from them, so that i may always be able to fulfil my duties, and with the aid of god's grace perform good works. i invoke thy help as special physician of souls, that i may confess my sins sincerely in the holy sacrament of penance and obtain their forgiveness. i recommend to thy merciful intercession also those who unfortunately concealed a sin in confession. obtain for them the grace to accuse themselves sincerely and contritely of the sin they concealed, of the sacrilegious confessions and communions they made, and of all the sins they committed since then, so that they may receive pardon, the grace of god, and the remission of the eternal punishment. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). iii novena in honor of st erasmus preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. erasmus o god, grant us through the intercession of thy dauntless bishop and martyr erasmus, who so valiantly confessed the faith, that we may learn the doctrine of this faith, practise its precepts, and thereby be made worthy to attain its promises. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. erasmus holy martyr erasmus, who didst willingly and bravely bear the trials and sufferings of life, and by thy charity didst console many fellow-sufferers; i implore thee to remember me in my needs and to intercede for me with god. staunch confessor of the faith, victorious vanquisher of all tortures, pray to jesus for me and ask him to grant me the grace to live and die in the faith through which thou didst obtain the crown of glory. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). iv novena to st. pantaleon preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. pantaleon o god, who didst give to st. pantaleon the grace of exercising charity toward his fellow-men by distributing his goods to the poor, and hast made him a special patron of the sick, grant, that we, too, show our charity by works of mercy; and through the intercession of this thy servant preserve us from sickness. but if it be thy will that illness should afflict us, give us the grace to bear it patiently, and let it promote our soul's salvation. amen. invocation of st. pantaleon st. pantaleon, who during life didst have great pity for the sick and with the help of god didst often relieve and cure them; i invoke thy intercession with god, that i may obtain the grace to serve him in good health by cheerfully fulfilling the duties of my state of life. but if it be his holy will to visit me with illness, pain, and suffering, do thou aid me with thy powerful prayer to submit humbly to his chastisements, to accept sickness in the spirit of penance and to bear it patiently according to his holy will. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). [image: the blessed virgin receives holy communion from st. john.] v novena in honor of st. vitus preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. vitus grant us, o god, through the intercession of st. vitus, a due estimation of the value of our soul and of its redemption by the precious blood of thy son jesus christ; so that, for its salvation, we bear all trials with fortitude. give this thy youthful servant and heroic martyr as a guide and protector to christian youths, that following his example they may after a victorious combat receive the crown of justice in heaven. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. vitus st. vitus, glorious martyr of christ; in thy youth thou wast exposed to violent and dangerous temptations, but in the fear of god and for the love of jesus thou didst victoriously overcome them. o amiable, holy youth, i implore thee by the love of jesus, assist me with thy powerful intercession to overcome the temptations to evil, to avoid every occasion of sin, and thus to preserve spotless the robe of innocence and sanctifying grace, and to bring it unstained to the judgment-seat of jesus christ, that i may forever enjoy the beatific vision of god which is promised to the pure of heart. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). vi novena in honor of st. christophorus preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. christophorus o god, who didst make st. christophorus a true christ-bearer, who converted multitudes to the christian faith, and who didst give him the grace to suffer for thy sake the most cruel torments; through the intercession of this saint we implore thee to protect us from sin, the only real evil. preserve us, also, against harmful elementary forces, such as earthquake, lightning, fire, and flood. amen. invocation of st. christophorus great st. christophorus, seeking the strongest and mightiest master thou didst find him in jesus christ, the almighty god of heaven and earth, and didst faithfully serve him with all thy power to the end of thy life, gaining for him countless souls and finally shedding thy blood for him; obtain for me the grace to bear christ always in my heart, as thou didst once bear him on thy shoulder, so that i thereby may be strengthened to overcome victoriously all temptations and resist all enticements of the world, the devil, and the flesh, and that the powers of darkness may not prevail against me. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). vii novena in honor of st. dionysius preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. dionysius o god, who didst confer thy saving faith on the people of france through thy holy bishop and martyr dionysius, and didst glorify him before and after his martyrdom by many miracles; grant us through his intercession that the faith practised and preached by him be our light on the way of life, so that we may be preserved from all anxieties of conscience, and if by human frailty we have sinned, we may return to thee speedily by true penance. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. dionysius glorious servant of god, st. dionysius, with intense love thou didst devote thyself to christ after learning to know him through the apostle st. paul, and didst preach his saving name to the nations, to bring whom to his knowledge and love thou didst not shrink from martyrdom; implore for me a continual growth in the knowledge and love of jesus, so that my restless heart may experience that peace which he alone can give. help me by thy powerful intercession with god to serve him with a willing heart, to devote myself with abiding love to his service, and thereby to attain the eternal bliss of heaven. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). viii novena in honor of st. cyriacus preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. cyriacus o god, who didst grant to st. cyriacus the grace of heroic charity and trustful resignation to thy holy will; bestow upon us, through his intercession, the grace to walk before thee in self-denying charity and to know and fulfil thy will in all things. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. cyriacus st. cyriacus, great servant of god, loving christ with all thy heart, thou didst for his sake also love thy fellow-men, and didst serve them even at the peril of thy life, for which charity god rewarded thee with the power to overcome satan, the arch-enemy, and to deliver the poor obsessed from his dreadful tyranny; implore for me of god an effective, real, and true charity. show thy power over satan also in me; deliver me from his influence when he tries to tempt me. help me to repel his assaults and to gain the victory over him in life and in death. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). ix novena in honor of st. achatius preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. achatius o god, who didst fortify thy holy martyr achatius with constancy and trustful reliance on thee in death; grant us through his intercession at the hour of our death to be free from all anxiety and victorious in our last combat with the enemy. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. achatius valiant martyr of christ, st. achatius, who preached christ faithfully before kings and judges, and didst gain the victory over the enemies of god; help me through thy powerful intercession to resist and gain the victory over all the enemies of my salvation, over the world and its allurements, over the concupiscence of the flesh, and over the temptations of satan. i implore thee particularly to assist me in my agony, when the powers of hell rise against me to rob my soul. then do thou come to my aid and repel the assaults of the enemy, so that i surrender my soul into the hands of my redeemer in faith, hope, and charity, and confiding in his infinite merits. through the same christ our lord. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). x novena in honor of st. eustachius preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. eustachius o god, who didst lead thy holy martyr eustachius safely through many trials and dangers to the glorious crown of martyrdom; enlighten and strengthen us through his intercession, that we persevere in thy love amid the trials of this life, and by resignation to thy holy will come forth from the darkness of this earth into the light of thy eternal glory. amen. invocation of st. eustachius heroic servant of god, st. eustachius, cast from the height of earthly glory and power into the deepest misery, thou wast engaged for a long time in the labor of a menial servant, eating the bitter bread of destitution; but never didst thou murmur against the severe probation to which god subjected thee. i implore thee to aid me with thy powerful intercession, that in all conditions i may resign myself to the holy will of god, and particularly that i may bear poverty and its consequences with patience, trusting in god's providence, completely resigned to the decrees of him who humbles and exalts, chastises and heals, sends trials and consolations, and who has promised to those who follow him in the spirit of poverty his beatific vision throughout all eternity. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). xi novena in honor of st. giles preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. giles o god, we beseech thee to grant us through the merits and intercession of st. giles to flee from the vanity and praise of this world, to avoid carefully all occasions of sin, to cleanse our hearts from all wickedness by a sincere confession, to leave this world in thy love and rich in good works, and to find thee gracious on the day of judgment. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. giles zealous follower of christ, st. giles; from early youth thou didst take to heart the words of our saviour: "learn of me, because i am meek and humble of heart." therefore thou didst flee from the praise and honors of the world, and wast rewarded with the grace to preserve thy heart from all sin and to persevere in a holy life to a ripe old age. i, on my part, through pride, self-confidence, and negligence, yielded to my evil inclinations, and thereby sinned grievously and often, offending my god and lord, my creator and redeemer, my most loving father. therefore i implore thee to help me through thy mighty intercession to be enlightened by the holy ghost, that i may know the malice, grievousness, and multitude of my sins, confess them humbly, fully, and contritely, and receive pardon, tranquillity of heart, and peace of conscience from god. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). xii novena in honor of st. margaret preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. margaret o god, grant us through the intercession of thy holy virgin and martyr margaret, undauntedly to confess the faith, carefully to observe the chastity of our state of life, and to overcome the temptations of the world, the devil, and the flesh, and thereby escape the punishments of eternal damnation. amen. invocation of st. margaret st. margaret, holy virgin and martyr, thou didst faithfully preserve the robe of holy innocence and purity, valiantly resisting all the blandishments and allurements of the world for the love of thy divine spouse, jesus christ; help me to overcome all temptations against the choicest of all virtues, holy purity, and to remain steadfast in the love of christ, in order to preserve this great gift of god. implore for me the grace of perseverance in prayer, distrust of myself, and flight from the occasions of sin, and finally the grace of a good death, so that in heaven i may "follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth." amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). xiii novena in honor of st. catherine preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. catherine o god, who didst distinguish thy holy virgin and martyr catherine by the gift of great wisdom and virtue, and a victorious combat with the enemies of the faith; grant us, we beseech thee, through her intercession, constancy in the faith and the wisdom of the saints, that we may devote all the powers of our mind and heart to thy service. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. catherine st. catherine, glorious virgin and martyr, resplendent in the luster of wisdom and purity; thy wisdom refuted the adversaries of divine truth and covered them with confusion; thy immaculate purity made thee a spouse of christ, so that after thy glorious martyrdom angels carried thy body to mount sinai. implore for me progress in the science of the saints and the virtue of holy purity, that vanquishing the enemies of my soul, i may be victorious in my last combat and after death be conducted by the angels into the eternal beatitude of heaven. amen. prayer (located in st. george's novena). xiv novena in honor of st. barbara preparatory prayer (located at the start of part iv). prayer in honor of st. barbara o god, who didst adorn thy holy virgin and martyr barbara with extraordinary fortitude in the confession of the faith, and didst console her in the most atrocious torments; grant us through her intercession perseverance in the fulfilment of thy law and the grace of being fortified before our end with the holy sacraments, and of a happy death. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of st. barbara intrepid virgin and martyr, st. barbara, through thy intercession come to my aid in all needs of my soul. obtain for me the grace to be preserved from a sudden and unprovided death; assist me in my agony, when my senses are benumbed and i am in the throes of death. then, o powerful patroness of the dying, come to my aid! repel from me all the assaults and temptations of the evil one, and obtain for me the grace to receive before death the holy sacraments, that i breathe forth my soul confirmed in faith, hope, and charity, and be worthy to enter eternal glory. amen. st. barbara, at my last end obtain for me the sacrament; assist one in that direst need when i my god and judge must meet: that robed in sanctifying grace my soul may stand before his face. prayer (located in st. george's novena). novena to all the fourteen holy helpers preparatory prayer _(by st alphonsus liguori.)_ great princes of heaven, holy helpers, who sacrificed to god all your earthly possessions, wealth, preferment, and even life, and who now are crowned in heaven in the secure enjoyment of eternal bliss and glory; have compassion on me, a poor sinner in this vale of tears, and obtain for me from god, for whom you gave up all things and who loves you as his servants, the strength to bear patiently all the trials of this life, to overcome all temptations, and to persevere in god's service to the end, that one day i too may be received into your company, to praise and glorify him, the supreme lord, whose beatific vision you enjoy, and whom you praise and glorify for ever. amen. first day the devotion to the fourteen holy helpers preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation the practice of honoring and invoking the saints to obtain, through their intercession, help in the various needs of body and soul, is as old as the church. at what period, however, the custom of having recourse to the fourteen saints called holy helpers originated, is unknown. nevertheless it is certain that each one of them was invoked for his intercession with god since his entrance into heaven. prayer is the christian's resource in every difficulty: and difficulties and trials are never wanting on earth. because the needs of mankind on earth are various, the faithful selected certain saints as intercessors in certain cases of distress, and obtained relief; hence these saints came to be regarded as special patrons in such trials, and were called holy helpers. practice make this novena with full confidence in the power of the intercession of the fourteen holy helpers. during their earthly life they devoted their whole energy to the spreading of god's kingdom and the relief and succor of their fellow-men. much more efficiently can they do so now when they are in the enjoyment of eternal happiness, and can supplicate for us at the very throne of god. the saints _can_ help us through their intercession. god hears their prayers and he wrought miracles to confirm us in this belief, even whilst his servants sojourned here on earth. they _desire_ and are willing to help us. st. bernard says: "in heaven hearts do not grow cold; they are rather rendered more affectionate and tender. by receiving the crown of justice the saints were not hardened against the sufferings of their brethren on earth." therefore, in calling on them, have full confidence in their power and ability to come to your aid. _prayer_ we beseech thee, o lord, to hear the prayer which we send up to thee in honor of thy glorified servants, the fourteen holy helpers: and as we can not rely upon our own justice, grant our petition through the intercession of those whose merits have made them especially dear to thee. through christ our lord. amen. [image: death of the blessed virgin] litany of the fourteen holy helpers lord, have mercy on us. christ, have mercy on us. lord, have mercy on us. christ, hear us. christ, graciously hear us. god the father of heaven, have mercy on us. god the son, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. god the holy ghost, have mercy on us. holy trinity, one god, have mercy on us. holy mary, queen of martyrs, pray for us. st. joseph, helper in all needs, pray for us. fourteen holy helpers, pray for us. st. george, valiant martyr of christ, pray for us. st. blase, zealous bishop and benefactor of the poor, pray for us. st. erasmus, mighty protector of the oppressed, pray for us. st. pantaleon, miraculous exemplar of charity, pray for us. st. vitus, special protector of chastity, pray for us. st. christophorus, mighty intercessor in dangers, pray for us. st. dionysius, shining mirror of faith and confidence, pray for us. st. cyriacus, terror of hell, pray for us. st. achatius, helpful advocate in death, pray for us. st. eustachius, exemplar of patience in adversity, pray for us. st. giles, despiser of the world, pray for us. st. margaret, valiant champion of the faith, pray for us. st. catherine, victorious defender of the faith and of purity, pray for us. st. barbara, mighty patroness of the dying, pray for us. all ye holy helpers, pray for us. all ye saints of god, pray for us. in temptations against faith, pray for us. in adversity and trials, pray for us. in anxiety and want, pray for us. in every combat, pray for us. in every temptation, pray for us. in sickness, pray for us. in all needs, pray for us. in fear and terror, pray for us. in dangers of salvation, pray for us. in dangers of honor, pray for us. in dangers of reputation, pray for us. in dangers of property, pray for us. in dangers by fire and water, pray for us. be merciful, spare us, o lord! be merciful, graciously hear us, o lord! from all sin, deliver us, o lord. from thy wrath, deliver us, o lord. from the scourge of earthquake, deliver us, o lord. from plague, famine, and war, deliver us, o lord. from lightning and storms, deliver us, o lord. from a sudden and unprovided death, deliver us, o lord. from eternal damnation, deliver us, o lord. through the mystery of thy holy incarnation, deliver us, o lord. through thy birth and thy life, deliver us, o lord. through thy cross and passion, deliver us, o lord. through thy death and burial, deliver us, o lord. through the merits of thy blessed mother mary, deliver us, o lord. through the merits of the fourteen holy helpers, deliver us, o lord. on the day of judgment, deliver us, o lord! we sinners, beseech thee, hear us. that thou spare us, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou pardon us, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou convert us to true penance, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou give and preserve the fruits of the earth, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou protect and propagate thy holy church, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou preserve peace and concord among the nations, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou give eternal rest to the souls of the departed, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou come to our aid through the intercession of the holy helpers, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. george thou preserve us in the faith, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. blase thou confirm us in hope, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. erasmus thou enkindle in us thy holy love, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. pantaleon thou give us charity for our neighbor, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. vitus thou teach us the value of our soul, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. christophorus thou preserve us from sin, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. dionysius thou give us tranquillity of conscience, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. cyriacus thou grant us resignation to thy holy will, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. eustachius thou give us patience in adversity, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. achatius thou grant us a happy death, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. giles thou grant us a merciful judgment, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. margaret thou preserve us from hell, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. catherine thou shorten our purgatory, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of st. barbara thou receive us in heaven, we beseech thee, hear us. that through the intercession of all the holy helpers thou wilt grant our prayers, we beseech thee, hear us. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, o lord. v. pray for us, ye fourteen holy helpers. r. that we may be made worthy of the promise of christ. _let us pray_ almighty and eternal god, who hast bestowed extraordinary graces and gifts on thy saints george, blase, erasmus, pantaleon, vitus, christophorus, dionysius, cyriacus, eustachius, achatius, giles, margaret, catherine, and barbara, and hast illustrated them by miracles; we beseech thee to graciously hear the petitions of all who invoke their intercession. through christ our lord. amen. o god, who didst miraculously fortify the fourteen holy helpers in the confession of the faith; grant us, we beseech thee, to imitate their fortitude in overcoming all temptations against it, and protect us through their intercession in all dangers of soul and body, so that we may serve thee in purity of heart and chastity of body. through christ our lord. amen. invocation of the holy helpers fourteen holy helpers, who served god in humility and confidence on earth and are now in the enjoyment of his beatific vision in heaven; because you persevered till death you gained the crown of eternal life. remember the dangers that surround us in this vale of tears, and intercede for us in all our needs and adversities. amen. fourteen holy helpers, select friends of god, i honor you as mighty intercessors, and come with filial confidence to you in my needs, for the relief of which i have undertaken to make this novena. help me by your intercession to placate god's wrath, which i have provoked by my sins, and aid me in amending my life and doing penance. obtain for me the grace to serve god with a willing heart, to be resigned to his holy will, to be patient in adversity and to persevere unto the end, so that, having finished my earthly course, i may join you in heaven, there to praise for ever god, who is wonderful in his saints. amen. second day the destiny of man preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation the holy helpers faithfully co-operated with god's designs concerning their eternal destiny. no obstacle could prevail on them to stray from the path of duty. always and everywhere they fulfilled the will of god. you, too, have an eternal destiny. you are not your own master, but belong to god, whose servant and property you are. therefore you must obey him, and not your own inclinations; you must do his will, and not your own. god had the right of requiring our submission to him without giving us a reward, because he is our lord; nevertheless he promised to give us himself in reward for our faithful service. ought this not be sufficient inducement for us to serve him zealously and gratefully? remember, moreover, that you shall be unhappy both in this and in the next world if you do not give yourself entirely to god, for whom you were created. st. augustine says: "thou hast created us for thee, o lord, and our heart remains restless till it rests in thee." practice thank god for the undeserved grace of creation and redemption. make an act of contrition for having served him so negligently. promise amendment, and invoke the aid of god's grace through the intercession of the holy helpers. _prayer_ o god, who according to the decrees of thy providence hast created man for eternal bliss; grant, through the intercession of the holy helpers, that i may attain to my destiny by being united with thee in this life and loving and praising thee for ever in heaven. amen. litany and prayers (located on the first day of the novena). third day the virtue of faith preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation the holy helpers were so thoroughly imbued with the virtue of divine faith, that they believed its sacred truths with perfect abandonment of their intellect, will, liberty, and whole being. they wavered not amid the severest torments, but remained firm until death in the confession of christ. our time is noted for assaults on the faith and on the church that teaches it. the church, the depository of divine revelation, is blasphemed in her doctrine, in her precepts, in her sacraments, in her ministers, in her cult, in her entire essence. were you never ashamed of your catholic name? what cowardliness, what timidity, what downright malice! practice revive your faith by the consideration of the example of the holy helpers. do not, from human respect, neglect the sanctification of the lord's day, the observance of days of fast and abstinence, the reception of the holy sacraments, the profession of your belief in the real presence of our lord in the blessed sacrament, etc. meditate frequently on the words of christ: "he that shall deny me before men, i will also deny him before my father who is in heaven" (_matt._ x. ). _prayer_ o god, i beseech thee, through the faith of the holy helpers, grant me the grace to treasure in my heart the doctrines of our holy faith, to believe them firmly, to confess them bravely, and to live according to their precepts, that through that same faith i may become worthy to be admitted to thy beatific vision in heaven. amen. litany and prayers (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day the virtue of hope preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation "hope confoundeth not" (_rom._ v. ). according to the commentators these words of holy scripture are to be understood in the sense that our works must be in conformity with that which is the object of our hope; that is, we must live in such a manner that we really merit the reward of heaven. we sin against hope also by presumption in god's mercy, by despair, and by over-confidence in our own righteousness. according to holy scripture we can not, of our own efficacy, perform a good act, but can do all in him that strengthens us. all these truths are exemplified in the lives of the holy helpers. their hope was based on the firm foundation of faith, and consequently, like it, firm, constant, and unwavering. practice like the holy helpers, hope to obtain from god all things necessary to salvation, for "the lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him" (_lam._ iii. ). live so that he can fulfil his promises. place no obstacle to his bounty and might by a sinful life. _prayer_ eternal god of love and mercy, i thank thee for all the benefits thou hast conferred upon me, and hope to obtain, through the intercession of the holy helpers, all the graces necessary for my salvation. through christ our lord. amen. litany and prayers (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day the love of god preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation the love of god which inflamed the holy helpers showed forth in their whole life, and particularly at their death. we, too, ought to be inflamed with such love, for without it faith, wisdom, the gift of tongues, and good works in general, avail nothing; for the love of god must inspire them all. "and we know that to them that love god, all things work together unto good" (_rom._ viii. ). such, and such alone, will receive the crown of life. did not god love us first? to redeem us from sin and eternal death he spared not his only begotten, divine son. all goods of life and fortune are gifts of his love, evidences of his infinite love. and we find it difficult to return this love? how ungrateful not to love god with your whole heart! practice imitate the holy helpers in their ardent love of god. implore their intercession to obtain it. meditate often on god's love for you, and your heart will be enflamed with love for him. _prayer_ o god of mercy and love, i thank thee from all my heart for the countless graces which thy infinite love has bestowed on me. by the ardent love which the holy helpers had for thee, i implore thee to enkindle in my heart the flame of thy love, so that i may remain in thee and thou in me. amen. litany and prayers (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day the virtue of charity preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation charity is one of the fundamental virtues of the christian religion. the moral doctrine preached by christ is comprised in the words: "thou shalt love the lord thy god with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. this is the greatest and the first commandment. and the second is like to this. thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. on these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets" (_matt._ xxii. - ). as in everything else, the holy helpers are our exemplars also in charity. charity consists in wishing well to our fellow-men, rejoicing with the glad and sympathizing with the sad, doing good to all, excusing their faults whenever possible, disclosing them only when necessary, being friendly, indulgent, meek, and helpful toward them. we love our neighbor if we succor the poor and distressed, if we harbor no envy for the rich, if we esteem the just for their virtue, and hate--not the sinner--but sin. we love our neighbor if we are not content with harboring these sentiments in our heart, but show them by our actions. practice endeavor to exercise this charity according to the spirit of christ. the love of your neighbor must not be a sentimental affection; it must not originate in casual qualities of character or rank, in inclination, etc., but must have the love of god for its motive. we must exercise charity toward all because god wills it, and in the manner in which he wills it. "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." _prayer_ o god of charity, who dost will that i love my neighbor for thy sake, grant me the grace, through the intercession of the holy helpers, to be animated with that spirit of charity which embraces all and excludes none, which "is patient, kind, envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things, and never falleth away" ( _cor._ xiii. - ). amen. litany and prayers (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day human respect preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation by the conscientious fulfilment of the duties of their state of life the holy helpers show us that the will of god alone was the motive of all their actions. human respect, regard for the opinion of others, did not influence them. the cowardly fear, "what will people say?" was the ruin of many a soul. the enemy of mankind is ever intent upon preventing us from doing good through human respect. he insinuates that virtue and piety are out of date and ridiculed. from human respect many a person boasts of that which ought to make him blush; he thinks it discreditable to be less remiss in his religious obligations than others. ought the opinion and ridicule of the world influence us to prevent our pleasing god? st. paul says: "if i yet pleased men, i should not be the servant of christ" (_gal._ i. ). our lord himself tells us, "he that shall deny me before men, i will also deny him before my father who is in heaven" (_matt._ x. ). practice our lord says: "so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven" (_matt._ v. ). do not stray from the path of duty on account of human respect; do not let yourself be influenced by the judgments of the world. _prayer_ merciful god, who gavest the holy helpers the grace to fulfil thy will regardless of human respect; grant that we may obtain through their intercession and merits the courage to despise the opinion of men, and ever serve thee with a fearless heart. amen. litany and prayers (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day prayer preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation the holy helpers, well knowing the efficacy of prayer, assiduously devoted themselves to it. from it they drew that wonderful strength which sustained them in their combat for the faith. prayer is the elevation of the mind to god, intercourse with him by acts of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and petition. st. chrysostom says of prayer: "without prayer it is impossible to lead a good life; for no one can practise virtue except he humbly implores god for it, who alone can give him the necessary strength. who ceases to love and practise prayer, no longer possesses the gifts of the spirit. but he that perseveres in the service of god, and deems it an irreparable loss to miss constant prayer, possesses every virtue and is a friend of god." practice offer yourself at the beginning of each day to god, and thereby you will belong to him throughout its whole course. renew your consecration to him frequently during the day by short acts of virtue and especially by a good intention, thus rendering all your work a prayer, and you will attain perfection. _prayer_ o god, i implore thee through the merits and intercession of the holy helpers, to grant me the spirit of prayer, that following their example i may walk in thy presence and ever enjoy the consolation of intercourse with thee. through christ our lord. amen. litany and prayers (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day perseverance preparatory prayer (located at the start of the novena). meditation a victorious death was the reward of the holy helpers' perseverance in the service of god. during this novena you have, no doubt, formed many good resolutions, exclaiming with the royal prophet, "and i said, now i have begun" (_ps._ lxxvi. ). but it happens that many, despite their good will, become remiss in the pursuit of virtue. satan is assiduously trying to accomplish their ruin, representing to them and exaggerating the difficulties to be encountered on the path of virtue. they hesitate, falter, and finally turn back. this is the most unfortunate happening that can occur. of the condition of such a one our lord himself says: "when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest; and not finding, he saith: 'i will return into my house whence i came out.' and when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. then he goeth and taketh with him seven spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there. and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first" (_luke_ xi. - ). are these words not a sufficient warning to encourage us to persevere in our good resolves? [image: assumption of the blessed virgin into heaven.] practice in concluding this novena, survey again the depth of that incomprehensible eternity which is awaiting you. contemplate in spirit the endless chain of centuries following each other there in reward or in punishment. does this thought not banish all the difficulties of perseverance? _prayer_ o god, whose mercies are infinite and whose goodness is without limit, i beseech thee through the merits and intercession of the holy helpers, grant me the grace of perseverance in thy love and service to the end. thou, who dost dispense so many favors through the holy helpers, despise not my prayer, but graciously hear and grant it. amen. litany and prayers (located on the first day of the novena). concluding prayer o faithful servants of god and powerful protectors of man, holy helpers! since our lord appointed you the heavenly advocates for our needs on earth, i confidently turn to you for help in my distress. countless numbers praise you for aiding them with counsel in doubt, with consolation in anxiety, with health in illness, with safety in danger, with delivery from prison, and with help and assistance in all tribulations. therefore i, too, have recourse to you, and implore you not to refuse me your aid. give thanks to god for me for all the graces he granted me during this novena. i ascribe them to your great merits and powerful intercession. i thank you all together, and each one in particular, for your interest in my favor before the throne of god. i commend myself to your continued protection, that i may one day be united with you in heaven, there to thank the giver of all good things and to praise him for all eternity. amen. prayers of petition and intercession i. three invocations . great friends of god, holy helpers, humbly saluting and venerating you, i implore your help and intercession. bring my prayers before the throne of the most holy trinity, so that i may experience in all the difficulties and trials of life the mercy of the eternal father, the love of the incarnate divine son, and the assistance of the holy ghost; that despondency may not depress me when god's wise decree imposes on my shoulders a heavy burden. above all, i implore your assistance at the hour of death. help me then to gain the victory over the temptations and assaults of satan, and to leave this world hopefully trusting in god's mercy, to join you in heaven, there to praise him for ever and ever. amen. . with confiding trust i turn to you, holy helpers, who were selected by god before many other saints to be the special intercessors and advocates of the distressed. obtain for me strength and courage to struggle and suffer on earth for the glory of god, for the propagation of our holy faith, and for my own perfection. you are fruitful branches of the true and living vine, jesus christ, for whom you heroically suffered hunger and thirst, persecution and ignominy, afflictions and adversity, tortures and death. here on earth you were true disciples and dauntless martyrs of christ. assist me to follow your example and to suffer for his sake, so that i may not be parted from him as a useless member, but persevere in his service despite all trials and tribulations of life. knowing my inconstancy and weakness, i have recourse to you, o glorious members of the church triumphant, and implore you to support my feeble prayers, and to bear them before the throne of the almighty, who, for your sake, will hear them. amen. . great friends and servants of god, holy helpers! humbly saluting and venerating you, i implore your help and intercession. god has promised and granted that whosoever invokes your aid shall be relieved in his needs and succored at the hour of death. therefore i have recourse to you and confidently implore your aid. i am surrounded by difficulties and my soul is oppressed with grief. burdened with sins, the fear of god's rigorous judgment appalls me, whilst satan ceases not to exert all his power to accomplish my eternal ruin. therefore i implore your assistance, powerful holy helpers, in my dire distress. by the penitential life you led, by the cruel tortures you suffered, and by your holy death i entreat you to pray for me. obtain for me the remission of my sins and perseverance to the end in god's grace. assist me in my agony and protect me against the wily assaults of satan, that through your help i may die a happy death and enter a blissful eternity. amen. ii. prayer in illness compassionate holy helpers, who restored health to so many through the power of the name of jesus; behold me suffering from bodily illness and from wounds of the soul. implore the kind, merciful good samaritan, your and my lord jesus christ, to heal the wounds of my soul by washing them in his most precious blood, and to quicken my spirit by his sanctifying grace. if it, then, be god's holy will and for the welfare of my soul, let me experience the powerful effect of your intercession, that, restored to health, i may serve god with greater fervor, and promote your veneration together with so many who experienced your help in illness and suffering. amen. iii. prayer for the sick merciful holy helpers, look benignly upon me, who implore your intercession for a sick person. our lord and redeemer jesus christ, who himself went about healing and doing good, appointed you the special protectors and intercessors of the sick, and restored to bodily and spiritual health many for whom you prayed. encouraged thereby to invoke you, i implore you to offer up to his sacred heart all the pains and torments he suffered during his bitter passion. offer up to him also your own sufferings for god's glory, which you underwent during life, and in death; offer up to him all the anguish and distress suffered by the sick person for whom i invoke your intercession. ask him to restore him to health of body, and to infuse into his soul the grace of salvation, so that he may devote his life with renewed vigor to the service of god and to the fulfilment of his duties, and thereby gather rich merits for eternity. but if god, in the designs of his providence, should otherwise dispose, implore for the sick person patience in his illness, resignation to the divine will, and the grace of a happy death. assist him in his agony, and conduct his soul to the throne of the almighty. amen. iv. prayer of parents for their children holy helpers, assist me to give thanks to god for blessing me with children. having received them from him, it is my duty to train them for his service. therefore i commend them to your special protection. guard them from sin, help them to know and fulfil their duties, preserve them from all harm of body and soul; pray for them that they may be and remain children of god. for me, obtain the grace always to take good care of them, to edify them by good example, to punish their faults wisely, to preserve their innocence, and to instruct them unto piety, so that they and i may together enjoy the eternal happiness of heaven. amen. v. prayer of children for their parents holy helpers, mighty intercessors with god in all necessities; god strictly commanded that children should love, honor, and obey their parents. our lord and saviour jesus christ himself gave them the example of submission and obedience by being subject to his mother and foster-father. i commend myself to your powerful intercession and implore you to obtain for me the grace to follow his example. for my parents i implore protection from all evil of body and soul, a long and prosperous life, and a happy death. reward them for all the care, anxiety, labor, and trouble which they underwent patiently for my sake with the eternal crown of heavenly glory. amen. vi. prayer of married people holy helpers, powerful intercessors at the throne of god, by whose providence we were indissolubly joined in holy wedlock through the sacramental bonds of matrimony; obtain for us, through your intercession, the grace to dwell together in mutual love and peace, and to fulfil faithfully the duties of our state of life; that following the example of the saints and elect who lived in wedlock, we may merit god's grace and blessing by a virtuous life here on earth, and united in heaven praise and bless him for ever. amen. part v general devotions "the lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. he will do the will of them that fear him, and he will bear their prayer and save them" (_ps._ cxliv. , ). "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, instant in prayer" (_rom._ xii. ). morning prayers on awaking, sign yourself with the sign of the cross, saying: in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. amen. i rise in the name of our lord jesus christ, who redeemed me by his precious blood. bless, guide, and protect me from all evil, o lord! strengthen me to all good and lead me to eternal life. amen. after dressing, kneel and say: my lord and my god! i prostrate myself before the throne of thy divine majesty, and give thee infinite thanks, o lord, that i have passed this night safely and have not died in my sins, but was preserved by thy bounty for thy further service. i offer up to thee all that i shall do and suffer to-day, and unite it with the prayers, labors, and sufferings of our lord jesus christ and of his blessed mother mary. offering take, o lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my whole will. thou hast given me all that i am and all that i possess; i surrender it all to thee that thou mayest dispose of it according to thy will. give me only thy love and thy grace; with these i will be rich enough, and will have no more to desire. indulgence. days, once a day. (leo xiii, may , .) acts of faith, hope, and charity my lord and god! i most firmly believe all that thou hast revealed and all that thy holy church believes and teaches, because thou, who art infallible truth, hast so revealed and commanded. my lord and god! because thou art almighty, infinitely good and merciful, i hope that by the merits of the passion and death of jesus christ, our saviour, thou wilt grant me eternal life, which thou hast promised to all who shall do the works of a good christian, as i purpose to do by thy help. my lord and god! because thou art the highest and most perfect good, i love thee with my whole heart, and above all things; and rather than offend thee, i am ready to lose all things else; and for thy love, i love and desire to love my neighbor as myself. indulgence. ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, for devoutly making these acts daily; under the usual conditions. ( ) a plenary indulgence at the hour of death, under the same conditions. ( ) seven years and seven quarantines, every time. (benedict xiv, january , .) the same pope declared that it is not necessary to use any set formula, but that any form of words may be used, provided it expresses the particular motive of each of the three theological virtues. to the blessed virgin mary hail mary, etc. my queen, my mother! i give myself entirely to thee; and to show my devotion to thee i consecrate to thee this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my whole being, without reserve. wherefore, good mother, as i am thine own, keep me, guard me, as thy property and possession. indulgence. ( ) days, once a day. ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, for saying it every day; under the usual conditions. (pius ix, aug. , .) to the angel guardian angel of god, my guardian dear, to whom his love committed me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide! amen. indulgence. ( ) days, every time. ( ) a plenary indulgence on the feast of the holy guardian angels, for saying it morning and evening throughout the year; under the usual conditions. ( ) a plenary indulgence at the hour of death, for saying it often during life. (pius vi, oct , , and june , .) ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, for saying it daily; under the usual conditions. (pius vii, may , .) evening prayers eternal and merciful god! i adore thee and give thee thanks for all the graces and benefits which thou hast conferred upon me during my whole life, and particularly during this day. may the saints and elect, especially the holy helpers, praise and thank thee for me. enlighten me now through thy holy spirit, and let me know whether and how i have offended thee to-day in thought, word, deed, and omission of duty. examine your conscience. an act of contrition o my god! i am deeply sorry for all my sins, for those i committed to-day, and for those of my whole life, because thereby i offended thy supreme and most loving goodness. pardon me for the sake of jesus, thy son, who shed his most precious blood on the cross for our sins. with the help of thy grace, i firmly resolve to amend my life, and rather to die than again offend thee by a mortal sin. petition protect me and mine and all men during this night, and through the intercession of the blessed virgin mary and of the holy helpers preserve us from all dangers of body and soul. keep away from us sickness, fire, and calamities of every kind. protect us against the assaults of the wicked and of satan. into thy hands i commend my body and soul; let me rest in thy most holy wounds. visit, we beseech thee, o lord, this habitation, and repel from it all the snares of the enemy; let thy holy angels dwell herein to preserve us in peace, and may thy blessings be upon us for ever. through christ our lord. amen. to the sacred heart of jesus (_prayer of st alphonsus._) adorable heart of my jesus, heart created expressly for the love of men! until now i have shown toward thee only ingratitude. pardon me, o my jesus! heart of my jesus, abyss of love and of mercy, how is it possible that i do not die of sorrow when i reflect on thy goodness to me and my ingratitude to thee? thou, my creator, after having created me, hast given thy blood and thy life for me; and, not content with this, thou hast invented a means of offering thyself up every day for me in the holy eucharist, exposing thyself to a thousand insults and outrages. o jesus, do thou wound my heart with a great contrition for my sins, and a lively love for thee. through thy tears and thy blood give me the grace of perseverance in thy fervent love until i breathe my last sigh. amen. to the blessed virgin mary remember, o most gracious virgin mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, and sought thy intercession, was left unaided. inspired with this confidence, i fly unto thee, o virgin of virgins, my mother! to thee i come; before thee i stand, sinful and sorrowful. o mother of the word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. amen. indulgence. ( ) days, every time, ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, for having said it daily; under the usual conditions. (pius ix, december , .) litany of loreto (located in the list of litanies). to st. joseph guardian of virgins and father, holy joseph, to whose faithful care christ jesus, very innocence, and mary, virgin of virgins, were committed; i pray and beg of thee by these dear pledges, jesus and mary, free me from all uncleanness, and make me with spotless mind, pure heart, and chaste body, ever most chastely to serve jesus and mary all the days of my life. amen. indulgence. days, once a day. (pius ix, feb. , .) [illustration: the crowning of the blessed virgin in heaven.] before retiring (_prayer of st. alphonsus._) my lord and god jesus christ! i adore thee and give thee thanks for all the graces which thou hast granted me to-day. i offer up to thee my rest and every moment of this night, and implore thee to preserve me from all sin. therefore i place myself into the wound of thy sacred side, and beneath the protecting mantle of my mother mary. may thy holy angels assist me and watch over my peace, and may thy holy blessing remain with me. indulgence. days, once a day, also for the souls in purgatory. (leo xiii, june , .) invocation jesus, mary, and joseph, i give you my heart and my soul. jesus, mary, and joseph, assist me in my last agony. jesus, mary, and joseph, may i breathe forth my soul in peace with you. indulgence. days for the recital of any one of these invocations, days for all three. (pius vii, aug. , .) prayers at holy mass preparatory prayer almighty and eternal god! i appear in thy presence to assist at the most holy sacrifice of the body and blood of jesus christ, thy son, my redeemer, and to offer it up jointly with the priest and the faithful here present, in grateful remembrance of his passion and death, for the promotion of thy glory, and for my salvation. together with all the holy masses that are celebrated throughout the world, i offer up this august sacrifice for the following intentions: to adore thee, o my god, as thou dost deserve to be adored; to give thee due thanks for the innumerable benefits which i owe to thy bounty; to make reparation for the many offenses i have committed; to appease thy just anger, and to invoke thy infinite mercy for me, for thy holy church, for the whole world, and for the souls in purgatory. amen. at the beginning of mass o heavenly father! hear the prayer of thy holy church invoking thy divine majesty in the name of our lord jesus christ, to come to the aid of thy children in all their needs. turn not from us thy gracious eyes, but deliver us from all evil, so that we may live to please thee, die in thy love, and enter the kingdom of glory. amen. at the gospel almighty god, thou source of all truth, holiness, and justice; having spoken in the old law by the mouth of thy prophets, thou spokest in the fulness of time through thy divine son jesus christ, and speakest now through thy holy church, appointed by thee the teacher of truth. we thank thee for the saving doctrines entrusted to her for our good, and implore thy grace to practise them and to please thee by all our actions. at the credo say the apostles' creed. at the offering almighty and eternal god! look graciously on the forms of bread and wine offered up to thee on the altar by the priest, imploring thee to bless and sanctify them for the eucharistic sacrifice of the new law. with this sacrifice, o my god, i offer up to thee my heart with all its affections, desires, and inclinations. sanctify my thoughts, words, and deeds, that they may become a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to thee. at the preface to thee, o lord, i raise my heart in gratitude for all thy mercies. for truly meet and just, right and salutary is it for us to give thee always and everywhere praise and thanks, o holy lord, almighty father and eternal god, through christ our lord; through whom the angels and archangels, the cherubs and the seraphs praise thy majesty and adore thy might. with them i unite my voice, joining in their hymns of praise, and saying: at the sanctus holy, holy, holy, lord, god of hosts. heaven and earth are filled with thy glory. hosanna in the highest. blessed is he that cometh in the name of the lord. hosanna in the highest. at the canon o god! let my prayer be acceptable to thee, and graciously hear the intercession which i make confiding in the virtue of this holy sacrifice. i commend to thy mercy our holy father, n., our bishop, n., and all bishops and priests of thy holy church. let thy kingdom be spread more and more all over the earth; grant peace and concord to the nations; protect our country; preserve peace and love in all families. remember graciously my parents, brothers, sisters, and relatives, my benefactors, my enemies, and all for whom i am in justice or charity bound to pray. at the elevation hail, thou body of my saviour, conceived by the holy ghost, born of mary the immaculate virgin! with profound humility i adore thee. lord, have mercy on me! eternal father, i offer thee the precious blood of jesus, in satisfaction for my sins, and for the wants of holy church. indulgence. days, every time. (pius vii, sept. , .) after the elevation most amiable jesus! thou art now present on the altar, god and man, really, truly, and essentially. divine victim for our sins, have mercy on us! be our mediator with thy father; avert from us the punishment we have deserved for our sins, deliver us from all dangers that threaten us, and from all evil. promote the welfare of thy church, and remember in thy mercy those who have gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in peace. (_remember the departed for whom you intend to pray._) to these, o lord, and to all that sleep in christ, grant, we beseech thee, a place of refreshment, light, and peace. also to us sinners, thy servants, confiding in the multitude of thy mercies, grant some part and fellowship with thy saints, through whose intercession we invoke thy favor, and into whose company we beseech thee to admit us, not in consideration of our merit, but of thy own pardon. through christ our lord. amen. at the pater noster instructed by thy saving precepts and following thy divine directions, we presume to say: our father, etc. at the agnus dei lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world, give us peace. at communion lord, i am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof; say but the word, and my soul shall be healed. (_three times._) spiritual communion o jesus, i firmly believe that thou art truly present in the blessed sacrament. i see thee therein full of love, willing to pardon us, anxious to be united with us. i wish most earnestly to respond to this thy desire and love. i detest all the sins by which i have ever displeased thee. pardon me, o lord! i desire to receive thee into my heart, and since i now can not receive thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually to me. i embrace thee, i unite myself with thee as if thou wert really present in my heart. with all my love i cling to thee. preserve me from sin, that i may never be separated from thee, but remain united with thee for ever. indulgence. days, once a day. also for the suffering souls. (leo xiii, june , .) at the blessing bless me, o lord, by the hand of thy priest, and let the power of this blessing remain upon me for ever. in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. amen. at the last gospel o jesus, incarnate word of the eternal father, thou true light which enlightens the world! i give thanks to thee at all times for having dwelt among us, the only-begotten son of the father, full of grace and truth. amen. prayers after mass hail mary, etc. (_three times._) salve regina hail, holy queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope! to thee do we cry, poor banished children of eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, jesus. o clement, o loving, o sweet virgin mary! v. pray for us, o holy mother of god. r. that we may be made worthy of the promises of christ. _let us pray._ o god, our refuge and our strength! look down with favor upon thy people crying to thee; and through the intercession of the glorious and immaculate virgin mary, mother of god, of her spouse, blessed joseph, of thy holy apostles peter and paul, and all thy saints, mercifully and graciously hear the prayers which we pour forth to thee for the conversion of sinners and for the liberty and exaltation of holy mother church. through christ our lord. amen. st. michael the archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. command him, o god, we humbly beseech thee, and do thou, o prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, cast into hell satan and the other evil spirits who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. amen. indulgence. days. (leo xiii, september , .) prayers for confession before confession merciful god! i give infinite thanks to thee for the many and great graces thou hast bestowed upon me during my whole life. would that i had never been ungrateful to thee, that i never had offended thee. but i have sinned exceedingly and often, and have done so again since my last confession. therefore i come to thee, imploring thee in profoundest humility to give me thy light and thy grace, that i may know and acknowledge all my sins, faults, and transgressions, be truly sorry for them, sincerely confess them, do penance, and amend my life; for thy greater glory and for the salvation of my soul. examine your conscience. supreme god and lord! a poor sinner, i cast myself at the throne of thy divine majesty, and contritely confess that i have sinned in thought, word, and deed, and through the omission of my duties. i am heartily sorry that i was ungrateful to thee and have deserved to be punished in this life and in the life to come. above all i am sorry because by my sins i have offended thee, my supreme and infinite god, who art worthy to be loved and honored above all else for thy supreme goodness and mercy. i detest and abhor my sins above all other evils, and wish i had never committed them. humbly i implore thy pardon, and confidently hope to obtain it through the merits of the blood of jesus christ shed for us poor sinners, and through those of the blessed virgin mary, of the holy helpers, and of all the saints. i firmly purpose to amend my life, to avoid all occasions of sin, to use the means for conquering my passions, and to practise virtue by ordering my life according to thy divine will and pleasure, and rather to die than to offend thee again, my god and lord. i am now ready to make reparation to thy divine justice for all the offenses of which i have been guilty against thee, as far as is in my power. therefore i will confess my sins sincerely, contritely, fully, and perform the penance imposed upon me. before entering the confessional. the lord be in my heart and on my lips that i may worthily and competently confess my sins. after confession o god of infinite mercy! i give thee due thanks, and praise thee for having admitted me to the confession of my sins and for having, through thy minister, granted me absolution for them. i implore thee by the merits of jesus christ, thy son, of mary, his most blessed mother, of the holy helpers, and of all the saints, to accept my confession, and in thy infinite mercy to condone and amend all the defects and faults i committed in making it, and to ratify in heaven the absolution i received on earth. o my jesus! how blind i was in not knowing thee and preferring transitory beauty and earthly attractions to thy grace and love, and thereby offending thee! now i acknowledge my fault, and am convinced that it is my duty and privilege to love thee above all things. too late i have learned it, but i shall zealously strive to make reparation for my past neglect. therefore i renounce the pleasures, vanities, and joys of this deceitful world, and abhor sin and all that leads to it. in the future nothing shall ever part me from thy love. from this moment on i am resolved nevermore to offend thee. confirm, o jesus, this my resolution, and with thy almighty power strengthen my frailty. seal my purpose of amendment with the bestowal of thy grace, and preserve me in thy grace and love unto the end. amen. prayers for holy communion before communion an act of faith my lord and saviour jesus christ! i firmly believe that thou art really present in the blessed sacrament. i believe it contains thy body and blood, thy soul and divinity. i acknowledge these truths, i believe these wonders. i adore thy power which has wrought them; i praise thy infinite goodness which has prepared them for me. "i will praise thee, my god, with my whole heart, and will recount all thy admirable works; i will rejoice in thee, and bless thy holy name" (_ps._ ix. , ). in this faith, and with this acknowledgment, i presume to approach this adorable banquet, wherein thou bestowest on me the divine food of thy body and blood to nourish my soul. grant, o jesus, that i may approach thee with such a sense of reverence and humility as is due to thy divine majesty. who am i, o god, that thou shouldst work such wonders for my sake? grant, o lord, that i be not altogether unworthy of them, and that i may now receive thee with a pure heart, a clean conscience, and a sincere and lively faith. pardon my sins, which have rendered me most unworthy to approach thee. i detest them from the bottom of my heart, because they are displeasing to thee, my god. i renounce them for ever, and promise to be faithful to thee. an act of hope in thee, sweet jesus, i place all my hope, because thou alone art my salvation, my strength, my refuge, and the foundation of all my happiness. were it not for the confidence i place in thy merits, and in the precious blood thou didst shed for my redemption, i would not presume to partake of this banquet. encouraged, therefore, by thy goodness, i come to thee as one sick to his physician, as a condemned criminal to his powerful intercessor. heal me as my physician, and as my powerful advocate deliver me from the sentence of sin and death. it is in thy mercy that i put all my trust. have pity, therefore, o jesus, on me, and save me, for thou forsakest none that place their hope in thee. an act of love o divine redeemer, how strong was the force of thy love, that, being about to depart from this world to thy eternal father, thou didst provide for us this divine banquet, enriched with all heavenly sweetness! it was through an excess of thy love that thou hast left us thy body and blood for the food and nourishment of our souls; that, as thou didst unite thyself to our humanity, so we might be partakers of thy divinity. i desire to love thee, my jesus, who art my only comfort in this place of banishment, the only hope of my infirm soul, my happiness above all i can enjoy in this life. i love thee, my god, with my whole heart, with my whole soul, and with all my mind and strength. i wish that, as every moment is an increase of my life, so it may also be of my love toward thee. i desire, with all the affections and powers of my soul, that, as the inmost thanks are due to thee, so they may be returned to thee by all the faithful, for this divine food, which is our refreshment, support, strength, armor, and defense in all our miseries; and that my love may never cease, inflame my heart with the fire of heaven, that it may continue burning till, nature and corruption being consumed, i may at length be transformed into thee. come, o lord, hasten to release me from the bonds of sin, and prepare me for the blessing thou art now about to bestow on me. an act of desire my lord and saviour, jesus christ! "as the heart panteth after the fountains of waters so my soul panteth after thee, o god!" (_ps._ xlii. ). tired with my own evil ways, i now return to thee, to taste thy banquet, that my soul may be refreshed. i henceforth despise all human consolations, that i may be comforted by thee, my only good, my god and saviour, whom i love above all things and desire to entertain within my heart with as much devotion and affection as is conceived by thy chosen servants, who now sit at thy table in celestial bliss. and however i may have been wanting hitherto in my duty, i now for ever renounce my folly and weakness, and from my heart request that for the future my joy, my relief, my treasure, and rest may be entirely centered in thee. may i never desire anything besides thee, and may all things seem contemptible and as nothing without thee, o my god! an act of fear o my god and saviour, it is with fear and trembling that i approach thy banquet, having nothing to confide in but thy goodness and mercy, being of myself a sinner, destitute of all virtue. my soul and body are defiled with many crimes, my thoughts and tongue have been under no restraint. i have frequently resolved to amend, and yet where do i remain but in the midst of sin and vice? how little pains do i take to recover from this misery and return to thee, to whom i have repeatedly promised to be faithful! these thoughts cause me to fear that what thou hast mercifully ordained for my salvation, i should now receive to my judgment and condemnation. in this wretched condition i hasten to thee; to thee i expose all my wounds, to thee i disclose my depravity. look, therefore, on me with the eyes of compassion, and have mercy on me, o lord and saviour! [illustration: the mother of our saviour.] an act of humility o immense, almighty, and incomprehensible god, who am i, that thou shouldst vouchsafe to come to be my food, and to take thy habitation within my soul? the consideration of thy greatness and my unworthiness penetrates me with awe and confusion. with the utmost sincerity i can only declare the extent of my misery, and admire that infinite goodness which induces thee to visit personally the lowest and basest of thy creatures. receive, then, thy unworthy servant into the compassionate arms of thy mercy. cast all my sins out of thy sight, and with the tenderness of a loving father extend thy arms to receive me; and let me effectually experience the truth of thy prophet's words: "a sacrifice to god is an afflicted spirit; a contrite and humble heart, o god, thou wilt not despise" (_ps._ l. ). immediately before communion lord, i am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: say but the word, and my soul shall be healed. the body of our lord jesus christ preserve my soul to life everlasting. after communion an act of thanksgiving o jesus, my god and saviour! i return thee thanks for having, out of thy pure mercy, without any desert of mine, been pleased to feed my soul with thine own most sacred body and blood. suffer me sooner to be forgetful of myself than to be ever unmindful of this great favor. although i have hitherto been ungrateful, with the help of thy grace i shall be so no more. but what return can i make thee, being of myself insolvent, indigent, and miserable? the sacrifice of all that i am or have is not worthy to be presented to thee; but, behold i offer thee thyself, and consider all my debts as abundantly discharged. may thy infinite mercy be for ever exalted for having given me such an excellent means of repaying thee to the full. o that i could ever remember thee, think of thee, ever love thee alone! imprint the memory of what thou didst for me so deeply in my heart, that i spend my whole life in thanking thee for all thy benefits, but especially for this banquet of thy love. amen. an act of adoration under the sacred veil of thy eucharistic presence, where thy love of man conceals the splendor of thy majesty, i most humbly adore thee, o almighty god! the grandeur of the heavens is as nothing in thy sight; they shall perish, but thou shalt remain for ever. the earth thou hast poised in thy hand. the ocean is before thee but as a drop of water. all nature bows and trembles in thy presence. how, then, shall i extol thee, immortal king of glory? what homage can i give in proportion to thy greatness? thou art the perfect image of thy father's substance. thou art the splendor of his glory. thou art his almighty word, supporting all things. thee he has seated at his right hand. thy throne, o god, is for ever and ever; a scepter of justice is the scepter of thy reign. i bow before thy sacred majesty. i acknowledge with the sincerest gratitude that thou art my redeemer, my creator, the supreme arbiter of my eternal destiny. i desire to humble myself as profoundly for thy sake as thou art humbled for my love in the center of my soul, and to consecrate to the glory of thy name the whole extent of my being. amen. an act of oblation o my saviour! what pledge can i give as an earnest of the gratitude i owe to thee? i have nothing worthy of thee, and if i had, i have nothing but what is thine on several accounts. but such is thy goodness as to be content to accept from us what is already thine. wherefore, behold, i offer to thee my body and soul, which are both now sanctified by the honor of thy divine presence. i consecrate them to thee for ever, since thou hast chosen them for thy temple; my body to be continually employed in thy service, and nevermore to become an instrument of sin; my soul to know thee, to love thee and be evermore faithful to thee. and as i am now resolved to serve thee with body and soul, i will take pains to correct their evil inclinations. i will declare war against myself, renounce my wonted pleasures, my delights, my passions, my anger, my self-love, my pride, my own will, and, in fine, whatever may offend thee. offering and petition almighty god, i offer thee this holy communion in union with the superabundant merits of jesus christ, thy beloved son, and the infinite love of his adorable heart; in union with the blessed virgin and the ardent love of her immaculate heart; in union with the holy helpers and all the happy souls who enjoy thy glorious vision in heaven, and with all the just on earth. o my god and saviour, jesus christ, present in me in the eucharistic species; fill me with that lively faith, profound humility, tender confidence, pure conscience, and ardent love, with which so many happy souls are inflamed in partaking of this sacred banquet, and supply by thy mercy all my deficiencies. i offer my communion to render thee the honor and glory which are due to thy infinite majesty; to satisfy thy justice, which i have provoked by my sins; to thank thee for the innumerable benefits which i have received from thy bounty; and to obtain from thy infinite mercy the graces necessary for me; particularly the grace to subdue my predominant passion and to acquire the virtue in which i am most deficient; but especially the grace of a happy death. i likewise offer my communion, o merciful father, in memory of the passion and death of thy dear son, my divine redeemer, to love him with more ardor and perfection; to participate in the merits of his labors and sufferings; to acquire his spirit; to imitate his virtues; to model my life on his, and to make his adorable heart a public reparation for all the sacrilegious communions, irreverences, and profanations which are committed against him in this sacrament of his love. i offer it to thank thee, o god, for all the graces thou hast bestowed on mankind, particularly for all those thou hast conferred on thy blessed mother, on all the angels and saints, especially on my guardian angel, on my holy patron, and on the holy helpers. i offer it, likewise, for the triumph of our holy religion, for the exaltation of the catholic church, for the conversion of infidels, heretics, schismatics, and all those who are in the unhappy state of sin. also for the needs of my relatives, friends, benefactors, and enemies; for the perseverance of the just, the comfort of the afflicted, and the deliverance of the souls in purgatory; in a word, for all those for whom i am bound to pray; and i desire to enter into the intentions requisite for gaining the indulgences granted by the church to-day for worthy communicants. invocations soul of christ, sanctify me! body of christ, save me! blood of christ, inebriate me! water from the side of christ, wash me! passion of christ, strengthen me! o good jesus, hear me! within thy wounds, hide me! permit me not to be separated from thee! from the malignant enemy defend me! in the hour of my death call me! and bid me come to thee, that, with thy saints, i may praise thee for ever and ever. amen. indulgence, ( ) days, every time. ( ) years, once a day, after receiving communion. ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, to all who have the pious custom of saying it at least once a day for a month; under the usual conditions. (pius ix, january , .) prayer to jesus crucified [illustration: a crucifix] look down upon me, good and gentle jesus, while before thy face i humbly kneel, and with burning soul pray and beseech thee to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment; while i contemplate with great love and tender pity thy five wounds, pondering over them within me, and calling to mind the words which david thy prophet said of thee, my jesus: "they pierced my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones" (_ps._ xxi. , ). indulgence. a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, if said before an image or picture of the crucified redeemer, after holy communion. (pius ix, july , .) visit to the blessed sacrament (_prayer of st. alphonsus._) lord jesus christ, who through the love which thou bearest to man, dost remain with them day and night in this sacrament, full of mercy and love, expecting, inviting, and receiving all who come to visit thee; i believe that thou art present in the sacrament of the altar. from the abyss of my nothingness i adore thee, and i thank thee for all the favors which thou hast bestowed upon me, particularly for having given me thyself in this sacrament, for having given me for my advocate thy most holy mother mary, and for having called me to visit thee in this church. i this day salute thy most loving heart, and i wish to salute it for three ends: first, in thanksgiving for this great gift; second, in compensation for all the injuries thou hast received from thy enemies in this sacrament; third, i wish by this visit to adore thee in all places in which thou art least honored and most abandoned in this holy sacrament. my jesus, i love thee with my whole heart. i am sorry for having hitherto offended thy infinite goodness. i purpose, with the assistance of thy grace, nevermore to offend thee; and at this moment, miserable as i am, i consecrate my whole being to thee. i give thee my entire will, all my affections and desires, and all that i have. from this day forward, do what thou wilt with me and with whatsoever belongs to me. i ask and desire only thy holy love, the gift of final perseverance, and the perfect accomplishment of thy will. i recommend to thee the souls in purgatory, particularly those who were most devoted to the blessed sacrament and to most holy mary; and i also recommend to thee all poor sinners. finally, my dear saviour, i unite all my affections with the affections of thy most loving heart; and thus united i offer them to thy eternal father, and i entreat him, in thy name and for thy sake, to accept them. indulgence. ( ) days, every time this prayer is said before the blessed sacrament. ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, for saying it every day for a month; under the usual conditions. (pius ix, sept. , .) an act of oblation to the sacred heart divine heart of my jesus! i adore thee with all the powers of my soul, which i consecrate to thee for ever, with my thoughts, my words, my works, and my whole self. i purpose to offer to thee, as far as i can, acts of adoration, love, and glory, like unto those which thou offerest to thy eternal father. be thou, i beseech thee, the repairer of my transgressions, the protector of my life, my refuge and asylum in the hour of death. by thy sighs, and by that sea of bitterness in which thou wast plunged for me throughout thy whole mortal life, grant me true contrition for my sins, contempt of earthly things, a burning desire of eternal glory, trust in thy infinite merits, and final perseverance in thy grace. heart of jesus, all love! i offer thee these humble prayers for myself and for all who unite with me in spirit to adore thee. vouchsafe out of thy great goodness to hear and answer them, chiefly for that one among us who will first end this mortal life. sweet heart of jesus! pour into his heart, in his death agony, thine inward consolations; receive him within thy sacred wound; cleanse him from all stains in that furnace of love, so that thou mayest soon open to him the gates of thy eternal glory, there to intercede with thee for all those who tarry yet in this land of exile. most holy heart of my most loving jesus! for myself, a wretched sinner, and for all who unite with me in adoring thee, i purpose to renew and offer to thee these acts of adoration and these prayers at every moment and to the last instant of my life. i recommend to thee, my jesus, our holy church, thy well-beloved spouse and our true mother; the souls who are following the path of justice, poor sinners, the afflicted, the dying, all men on the face of the entire earth. let not thy blood be shed in vain for them; and vouchsafe, lastly, to apply it for the relief of the souls in purgatory, and above all, for those who in life were foremost in their devotion to thee. most loving heart of mary, which, amongst the hearts of all god's creatures, is at once the purest and the most inflamed with love for jesus, and the most compassionate toward us poor sinners, obtain for us from the heart of jesus, our redeemer, all graces which we ask of thee. mother of mercies, one throb, a single beat of thy burning heart, offered by thee to the heart of jesus, has power to console us to the full. grant us, then, this favor. and then the heart of jesus, through the filial love he had for thee, and will ever have, will not fail to hear and answer our request. amen. daily offering o lord jesus christ! in union with that divine intention, with which thou, whilst on earth, didst give praise to god through thy most sacred heart, and which thou dost still everywhere offer to him in the holy eucharist, even to the consummation of the world; i, in imitation of the most sacred heart of the ever-immaculate virgin mary, do most cheerfully offer to thee, during this entire day, all my thoughts and intentions, all my affections and desires, my words and all my works. indulgence. days, once a day. (leo xiii, dec. , .) _ejaculation_ jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine! indulgence. days, once a day. (pius ix, january , .) prayers to jesus suffering the stations of the cross preparatory prayer most merciful jesus! with a contrite heart and penitent spirit i bow down in profound humility before thy divine majesty. i adore thee as my supreme lord and master; i believe in thee, i hope in thee, i love thee above all things. i am heartily sorry for having offended thee, my supreme and only good. i resolve to amend my life; and though i am unworthy to obtain mercy, yet the sight of thy holy cross, on which thou didst die, inspires me with hope and consolation. i will therefore meditate on thy sufferings, and visit the stations of thy passion in company with thy sorrowful mother and my guardian angel, with the intention of promoting thy glory and saving my soul. i desire to gain all the indulgences granted for this exercise, for myself and for the suffering souls in purgatory. o merciful redeemer, who hast said; "and i, if i be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself," draw my heart and my love to thee, that i may perform this devotion as perfectly as possible, and that i may live and die in union with thee. amen. _before every station_ we adore thee, o christ, and praise thee: because by thy holy cross thou hast redeemed the world. _after every station_ lord jesus, crucified: have mercy on us. first station jesus is condemned to death jesus, most innocent, who neither did nor could commit sin, was condemned to death, and, moreover, to the ignominious death of the cross. to remain a friend of caesar, pilate delivered him to his enemies. a fearful crime--to condemn innocence to death, and to offend god, in order not to displease men. _prayer_ o innocent jesus, having sinned i am guilty of eternal death, but thou dost willingly accept the unjust sentence of death, that i might live. for whom, then, shall i henceforth live, if not for thee, my lord? should i desire to please men, i could not be thy servant. let me, therefore, rather displease men and all the world than not please thee, o jesus. our father, etc. hail mary, etc. second station jesus carries his cross on beholding the cross, our divine saviour most willingly stretched out his bleeding arms, lovingly embraced it, tenderly kissed it, and placing it on his bruised shoulder, despite his exhaustion joyfully carried it. _prayer_ o my jesus, i can not be thy friend and follower if i refuse to carry the cross. o dearly beloved cross, i embrace thee, i kiss thee, i rejoice to receive thee from the hands of god. far be it from me to glory in anything save in the cross of my lord and redeemer. by it the world shall be crucified to me, and i to the world, that i may be thine for ever. our father, etc. hail, mary, etc third station jesus falls the first time our dear saviour carrying the cross was so weakened by its heavy weight as to fall exhausted to the ground. our sins and misdeeds were the heavy burden which oppressed him; the cross was to him light and sweet, but our sins were galling and insupportable. _prayer_ o my jesus! thou didst bear my burden and the heavy weight of my sins. should i, then, not bear in union with thee my easy burden of suffering and accept the sweet yoke of thy commandments? thy yoke is sweet and thy burden light; i therefore willingly accept it. i will take up thy cross and follow thee. our father, etc. hail mary, etc, fourth station jesus meets his afflicted mother how painful and how sad it must have been for mary, the sorrowful mother, to behold her beloved son laden with the burden of the cross! what unspeakable pangs her most tender heart experienced! how earnestly she yearned to die instead of, or at least with, jesus! implore this sorrowful mother that she assist you in the hour of your death. _prayer_ o jesus, o mary! i am the cause of the great and manifold pains which pierce your loving hearts. o that my heart also would feel and experience at least some of your sufferings! o mother of sorrows, let me participate in the sufferings which thou and thy son endured for me, and let me experience thy sorrow, that, afflicted with thee, i may enjoy thy assistance in the hour of my death. [illustration: the immaculate conception.] our father, etc. hail mary, etc. fifth station simon of cyrene helps jesus to carry the cross simon of cyrene was compelled to help jesus carry his cross, and jesus accepted his assistance. how willingly he would permit you also to carry the cross! he calls you, but you hear him not; he invites you, but you decline. what a reproach, to bear the cross reluctantly! _prayer_ o jesus! whosoever does not take up his cross and follow thee is not worthy of thee. behold, i join thee in the way of thy cross; i will be thy assistant, following thy footsteps, that i may come to thee in eternal life. our father, etc. hail mary, etc. sixth station veronica wipes the face of jesus impelled by devotion and compassion, veronica presents her veil to jesus to wipe his disfigured face. and jesus imprints on it his holy countenance; a great recompense for so slight a service. what return do you make to your saviour for his great and manifold benefits? _prayer_ most merciful jesus! what return shall i make for all the benefits thou didst bestow on me? behold, i consecrate myself entirely to thy service. i offer and consecrate to thee my heart. imprint upon it thy sacred image, never to be effaced again by sin. our father, etc. hail mary, etc. seventh station jesus falls the second time jesus, suffering under the weight of his cross, again falls to the ground; but his cruel executioners do not permit him to rest a moment. pushing and striking him, they urge him onward. it is the frequent repetition of our sins which oppresses jesus. witnessing this, how can i continue to sin? _prayer_ o jesus, son of david, have mercy on me! offer me thy helping hand, and aid me that i may not fall again into my former sins. from this very moment i will earnestly strive to reform; nevermore will i sin. do thou, o sole support of the weak, by thy grace, without which i can do nothing, strengthen me to carry out faithfully this my resolution. our father, etc. hail mary, etc. eighth station the daughters of jerusalem weep over jesus these devoted women, moved by compassion, weep over the suffering saviour. but he turns to them, saying, "weep not for me, who am innocent, but weep for yourselves and for your children." weep thou also; for there is nothing more pleasing to our lord, and nothing more profitable for thyself, than tears shed from contrition for thy sins. _prayer_ o jesus, who shall give to my eyes a torrent of tears, that day and night i may weep for my sins? i beseech thee through thy bloody tears to move my heart by thy divine grace, so that from my eyes tears may flow abundantly, and i may weep all days over thy sufferings, and still more over their cause, my sins. our father, etc. hail, mary, etc. ninth station jesus falls the third time jesus, arriving exhausted at the foot of calvary, falls for the third time to the ground. his love for us is not exhausted, not diminished. what a fearfully oppressive burden our sins must be to cause jesus to fall so often! had he, however, not taken them upon himself, they would have plunged us into the abyss of hell. _prayer_ most merciful jesus! i return thee infinite thanks for not permitting me to continue in sin, and to fall, as i have so often deserved, into the depths of hell. enkindle in me an earnest desire of amendment. let me never again relapse, but vouchsafe me thy grace to persevere to the end of my life. our father, etc. hail mary, etc. tenth station jesus is stripped of his garments after arriving on calvary, our saviour was cruelly despoiled of his garments. how painful must this have been, because they adhered to his wounded and torn body, and with them parts of his bloody skin were removed! all the wounds of jesus are renewed. he is despoiled of his garments that he might die possessed of nothing. how happy shall i die after laying aside my former self with all evil inclinations and desires! _prayer_ induce me, o jesus! to lay aside my former self, and to be renewed according to thy will and desire. i will not spare myself, however painful this should be for me; despoiled of things temporal, of my own will, i desire to die, in order to live for thee for ever. our father, etc. hail mary, etc. eleventh station jesus is nailed to the cross jesus, being stripped of his garments, was violently thrown upon the cross, and his hands and feet were most cruelly nailed thereto. in such excruciating torments he remained silent, because it thus pleased his heavenly father. he suffered patiently because he suffered for us. how do i act in suffering and affliction? how fretful and impatient, how full of complaints i am! _prayer_ o jesus, gracious lamb of god! i renounce for ever my impatience. crucify, o lord, my flesh and its concupiscences. scorch, scathe, and punish me in this world; do but spare me in the next! i commit my destiny to thee, resigning myself to thy holy will; may it be done in all things. our father, etc. hail mary, etc. twelfth station jesus is raised upon the cross, and dies behold jesus crucified! behold the wounds he received for the love of you! his whole appearance betokens love. his head is bent to kiss you; his arms are extended to embrace you; his heart is open to receive you. o superabundance of love! jesus, the son of god dies that man may live and be delivered from everlasting death. _prayer_ o most amiable jesus! who will grant me that i may die for love of thee? i will at least endeavor to die to the world. how must i regard the world and its vanities, when i behold thee hanging on the cross, covered with wounds? o jesus, receive me into thy wounded heart; i belong entirely to thee; for thee alone do i desire to live and to die. our father, etc. hail mary, etc thirteenth station jesus is taken down from the cross, and placed in the arms of his mother jesus did not descend from the cross, but remained on it till after his death. and when taken down from it, he, in death as in life, rested on the bosom of his mother. persevere in your resolutions of reform, and do not part from the cross; he that persevereth to the end shall be saved. consider, moreover, how pure the heart should be that receives the body and blood of christ in the adorable sacrament of the altar. _prayer_ o lord jesus! thy lifeless body, mangled and torn, found a worthy resting-place on the bosom of thy virgin mother. have i not compelled thee often to dwell in my heart, full of sin and impurity as it was? create in me a new heart, that i may worthily receive thy most sacred body in holy communion, and that thou mayest remain in me, and i in thee, for all eternity. our father, etc. hail mary, etc fourteenth station jesus is laid in the sepulcher the body of jesus is laid in a stranger's tomb. he who in this world had not whereupon to rest his head, would not even have a grave of his own, because he was not of this world. you, who are so attached to the world, henceforth despise it, that you may not perish with it. _prayer_ o jesus, thou hast set me apart from the world; what, then, shall i seek therein? thou hast created me for heaven; what, then, have i to do with the world? depart from me, deceitful world, with thy vanities! henceforth i will follow the way of the cross traced out for me by my redeemer, and journey onward to my heavenly home, there to dwell for ever and ever. our father, etc. hail mary, etc. conclusion almighty and eternal god, merciful father, who hast given to the human race thy beloved son as an example of humility, obedience, and patience, to precede us on the way of life, bearing the cross; graciously grant, that we, inflamed by his infinite love, may take up the sweet yoke of his gospel, together with the mortification of the cross, following him as his true disciples, so that we shall one day rise gloriously with him, and joyfully hear the final sentence: "come, ye blessed of my father, and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning," where thou reignest with the father and the holy ghost, and where we hope to reign with thee throughout all eternity. amen. prayer to our suffering redeemer o my lord jesus christ! who, to redeem the world, didst vouchsafe to be born amongst men, to be circumcised, to be rejected and persecuted by the jews, to be betrayed by the traitor judas with a kiss, and as a lamb, gentle and innocent, to be bound with cords and dragged, in scorn, before the tribunals of annas, caiphas, pilate, and herod; who didst suffer thyself to be accused by false witnesses, to be torn by the scourge and overwhelmed with ignominy; to be spit upon, to be crowned with thorns, buffeted, struck with a reed, blindfolded, stripped of thy garments; to be nailed to the cross and raised on it between two thieves; to be given gall and vinegar to drink, and to be pierced with a lance; do thou, o lord, by these thy most sacred pains, which i, all unworthy, call to mind, and by thy holy cross and death, save me from the pains of hell, and vouchsafe to bring me whither thou didst bring the good thief who was crucified with thee, who with the father and the holy ghost, livest and reignest god, for ever and ever. amen. our father, hail mary, and glory be to the father, etc., five times. indulgence. ( ) days, once a day. ( ) a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, on any one of the last three days of the month, after saying this prayer daily for a month. (pius vii, august , .) prayer to the blessed virgin mary (_by st. alphonsus._) most holy and immaculate virgin, o my mother, thou who art the mother of my lord, the queen of the world, the advocate, hope, and refuge of sinners! i, the most wretched among them, come now to thee. i venerate thee, great queen, and give thee thanks for the many favors thou hast bestowed on me in the past. most of all do i thank thee for having saved me from hell, which i so often deserved. i love thee, lady most worthy of love, and by the love which i bear thee i promise ever in the future to serve thee, and to do what in me lies to win others to thy love. in thee i put all my trust, all my hope of salvation. receive me as thy servant, and cover me with the mantle of thy protection, thou who art the mother of mercy! and since thou hast so much power with god, deliver me from all temptations, or at least obtain for me the grace ever to overcome them. from thee i ask a true love of jesus christ, and the grace of a happy death. o my mother, by thy love for god i beseech thee to be at all times my helper, but above all at the last moment of my life. leave me not until thou seest me safely in heaven, there for endless ages to bless thee and sing thy praises. amen. indulgence, ( ) days, every time. ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, for having said it daily during the month; under the usual conditions. (pius ix, sept. , .) prayer for all things necessary for salvation o my god! i believe in thee; do thou strengthen my faith. all my hopes are in thee; do thou secure them. i love thee with my whole heart; teach me to love thee more and more. i am sorry that i have offended thee; do thou increase my sorrow. i adore thee as my first beginning; i aspire after thee as my last end. i give thee thanks as my constant benefactor; i call upon thee as my sovereign protector. vouchsafe, o my god, to conduct me by thy wisdom, to restrain me by thy justice, to comfort me by thy mercy, to defend me by thy power. to thee i desire to consecrate all my thoughts, my actions, and my sufferings, that i henceforward may think only of thee, speak only of thee, and ever refer all my actions to thy greater glory, and suffer willingly whatever thou shalt appoint. o lord, i desire that in all things thy will be done, because it is thy will, and in the manner that thou willest. i beg of thee to enlighten my understanding, to inflame my will, to purify my body, and to sanctify my soul. give me strength, o my god, to expiate my offenses, to overcome my temptations, to subdue my passions, to acquire the virtues proper for my state. fill my heart with tender affection for thy goodness, a hatred of my faults, a love for my neighbor, and a contempt for the world. let me always be submissive to my superiors, condescending to my inferiors, faithful to my friends, and charitable to my enemies. assist me to overcome sensuality by mortification, avarice by almsdeeds, anger by meekness, and tepidity by zeal. o my god, make me prudent in my undertakings, courageous in dangers, patient in affliction, and humble in prosperity. grant that i may be ever attentive at my prayers, temperate at my meals, diligent in my employments, and constant in my resolutions. let my conscience be ever upright and pure, my exterior modest, my conversation edifying, my comportment regular. assist me, that i may continually labor to overcome nature, correspond with thy grace, keep thy commandments, and work out my salvation. discover to me, o my god, the nothingness of this world, the greatness of heaven, the shortness of time, the length of eternity. grant that i may be prepared for death, fear thy judgments, escape hell, and, in the end, obtain heaven. all that i have asked for myself i confidently ask for others; for my family, my relations, my benefactors, my friends, and also for my enemies. i ask it for the whole church, for all the orders of which it is composed; more especially for our holy father, the pope; for our bishop, for our pastors, and for all who are in authority; also for all those for whom thou desirest that i should pray. give them, o lord, all that thou knowest to be conducive to thy glory and necessary for their salvation. strengthen the just in virtue, convert sinners, enlighten infidels, heretics, and schismatics; console the afflicted, give to the faithful departed rest and eternal life; that together we may praise, love, and bless thee for all eternity. amen. the four approved litanies litany of the most holy name of jesus lord, have mercy on us. christ, have mercy on us. lord, have mercy on us. jesus, hear us. jesus, graciously hear us. god the father of heaven, have mercy on us. god the son, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. god the holy ghost, have mercy on us. holy trinity, one god, have mercy on us. jesus, son of the living god, have mercy on us. jesus, splendor of the father, have mercy on us. jesus, brightness of eternal light, have mercy on us. jesus, king of glory, have mercy on us. jesus, sun of justice, have mercy on us. jesus, son of the virgin mary, have mercy on us. jesus amiable, have mercy on us. jesus admirable, have mercy on us. jesus, powerful god, have mercy on us. jesus, father of the world to come, have mercy on us. jesus, angel of the great council, have mercy on us. jesus most powerful, have mercy on us. jesus most patient, have mercy on us. jesus most obedient, have mercy on us. jesus meek and humble of heart, have mercy on us. jesus, lover of chastity, have mercy on us. jesus, lover of us, have mercy on us. jesus, god of peace, have mercy on us. jesus, author of life, have mercy on us. jesus, model of all virtues, have mercy on us. jesus, zealous for souls, have mercy on us. jesus, our god, have mercy on us. jesus, our refuge, have mercy on us. jesus, father of the poor, have mercy on us. jesus, treasure of the faithful, have mercy on us. jesus, good shepherd, have mercy on us. jesus, true light, have mercy on us. jesus, eternal wisdom, have mercy on us. jesus, infinite goodness, have mercy on us. jesus, our way and our life, have mercy on us. jesus, joy of angels, have mercy on us. jesus, king of patriarchs, have mercy on us. jesus, master of the apostles, have mercy on us. jesus, teacher of the evangelists, have mercy on us. jesus, strength of martyrs, have mercy on us. jesus, light of confessors, have mercy on us. jesus, purity of virgins, have mercy on us. jesus, crown of all saints, have mercy on us. be merciful, spare us, o jesus. be merciful, graciously hear us, o jesus. from all evil, deliver us, o jesus. from all sin, deliver us, o jesus. from thy wrath, deliver us, o jesus. from the snares of the devil, deliver us, o jesus. from the spirit of fornication, deliver us, o jesus. from eternal death, deliver us, o jesus. from the neglect of thy inspirations, deliver us, o jesus. by the mystery of thy holy incarnation, deliver us, o jesus. by thy nativity, deliver us, o jesus. by thy infancy, deliver us, o jesus. by thy most divine life, deliver us, o jesus. by thy labors, deliver us, o jesus. by thy agony and passion, deliver us, o jesus. by thy cross and dereliction, deliver us, o jesus. by thy languors, deliver us, o jesus. by thy death and burial, deliver us, o jesus. by thy resurrection, deliver us, o jesus. by thy ascension, deliver us, o jesus. by thy joys, deliver us, o jesus. by thy glory, deliver us, o jesus. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: spare us, o jesus. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: graciously hear us, o jesus. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us, o jesus. jesus, hear us. jesus, graciously hear us. _let us pray_ o lord jesus christ, who hast said: ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: mercifully attend to our supplications, and grant us the gift of thy divine charity, that we may ever love thee with our whole hearts, and never desist from thy praise. give us, o lord, a perpetual fear and love of thy holy name, for thou never ceasest to direct and govern by thy grace those whom thou instructest in the solidity of thy love; who livest and reignest world without end. amen. indulgence. days, once a day. (leo xiii, january , .) [illustration: the children's offering.] litany of the sacred heart of jesus (_approved by pope leo xiii, april , ._) lord, have mercy on us. christ, have mercy on us. lord, have mercy on us. christ, hear us. christ, graciously hear us. god, the father of heaven, have mercy on us. god the son, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. god the holy ghost, have mercy on us. holy trinity, one god, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, son of the eternal father, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, formed by the holy ghost in the womb of the virgin mother, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, substantially united to the word of god, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, of infinite majesty, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, sacred temple of god, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, tabernacle of the most high, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, house of god and gate of heaven, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, burning furnace of charity, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, abode of justice and love, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, full of goodness and love, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, abyss of all virtues, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, most worthy of all praise, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, king and center of all hearts, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, in whom dwells the fulness of divinity, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, in whom the father was well pleased, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, of whose fulness we have all received, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, desire of the everlasting hills, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, patient and most merciful, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, enriching all who invoke thee, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, fountain of life and holiness, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, propitiation for our sins, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, loaded down with opprobrium, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, bruised for our offences, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, obedient unto death, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, pierced with a lance, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, source of all consolation, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, our life and resurrection, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, our peace and reconciliation, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, victim for sin, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, salvation of those who trust in thee, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, hope of those who die in thee, have mercy on us. heart of jesus, delight of all the saints, have mercy on us. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: spare us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: graciously hear us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us, o lord. v. jesus, meek and humble of heart: r. make our hearts like unto thine. _let us pray_ o almighty and eternal god! look upon the heart of thy dearly beloved son, and upon the praise and satisfaction he offers thee in the name of sinners and of those who seek thy mercy; be thou appeased, and grant us pardon in the name of the same jesus christ, thy son; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the holy ghost, world without end. amen. indulgence. days. (leo xiii, april , .) the litany of loreto _in honor of the blessed virgin mary_ lord, have mercy on us, christ, have mercy on us. lord, have mercy on us, christ, hear us. christ, graciously hear us. god the father of heaven, have mercy on us. god the son, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. god the holy ghost, have mercy on us. holy trinity, one god, have mercy on us. holy mary, pray for us. holy mother of god, pray for us. holy virgin of virgins, pray for us. mother of christ, pray for us. mother of divine grace, pray for us. mother most pure, pray for us. mother most chaste, pray for us. mother inviolate, pray for us. mother undefiled, pray for us. mother most amiable, pray for us. mother most admirable, pray for us. mother of good counsel, pray for us. mother of our creator, pray for us. mother of our redeemer, pray for us. virgin most prudent, pray for us. virgin most venerable, pray for us. virgin most renowned, pray for us. virgin most powerful, pray for us. virgin most merciful, pray for us. virgin most faithful, pray for us. mirror of justice, pray for us. seat of wisdom, pray for us. cause of our joy, pray for us. spiritual vessel, pray for us. vessel of honor, pray for us. singular vessel of devotion, pray for us. mystical rose, pray for us. tower of david, pray for us. tower of ivory, pray for us. house of gold, pray for us. ark of the covenant, pray for us. gate of heaven, pray for us. morning star, pray for us. health of the sick, pray for us. refuge of sinners, pray for us. comforter of the afflicted, pray for us. help of christians, pray for us. queen of angels, pray for us. queen of patriarchs, pray for us. queen of prophets, pray for us. queen of apostles, pray for us. queen of martyrs, pray for us. queen of confessors, pray for us. queen of virgins, pray for us. queen of all saints, pray for us. queen conceived without original sin, pray for us. queen of the most holy rosary, pray for us. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: spare us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: graciously hear us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us, o lord. v. pray for us, o holy mother of god: r. that we may be made worthy of the promises of christ. _let us pray_ pour forth, we beseech thee, o lord, thy grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of christ thy son was made known by the message of an angel, may by his passion and cross be brought to the glory of his resurrection. through the same christ our lord. amen. v. pray for us, o holy mother of god. r. that we may be made worthy of the promises of christ. _let us pray_ vouchsafe, o lord, that we may be helped by the merits of thy most holy mother's spouse; that what of ourselves we can not obtain may be given us through his intercession. who livest and reignest, world without end. amen. indulgence. ( ) days, every time. ( ) a plenary indulgence on the following five feasts of the blessed virgin: immaculate conception, nativity, purification, annunciation, and assumption; under the usual conditions, to all who shall have said it daily during the year. (pius vii, september , .) these indulgences are granted for the litany alone; hence the prayers following it may be omitted. litany of the saints lord, have mercy on us. christ, have mercy on us. lord, have mercy on us. christ, hear us. christ, graciously hear us. god the father of heaven, have mercy on us. god the son, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. god the holy ghost, have mercy on us. holy trinity, one god, have mercy on us. holy mary, pray for us. holy mother of god, pray for us. holy virgin of virgins, pray for us. st. michael, pray for us. st. gabriel, pray for us. st. raphael, pray for us. all ye holy angels and archangels, pray for us. all ye holy orders of blessed spirits, pray for us. st. john baptist, pray for us. st. joseph, pray for us. all ye holy patriarchs and prophets, pray for us. st. peter, pray for us. st. paul, pray for us. st. andrew, pray for us. st. james, pray for us. st. john, pray for us. st. thomas, pray for us. st. james, pray for us. st. philip, pray for us. st. bartholomew, pray for us. st. matthew, pray for us. st. simon, pray for us. st. thaddaeus, pray for us. st. mathias, pray for us. st. barnabas, pray for us. st. luke, pray for us. st. mark, pray for us. all ye holy apostles and evangelists, pray for us. all ye holy disciples of our lord, pray for us. all ye holy innocents, pray for us. st. stephen, pray for us. st. lawrence, pray for us. st. vincent, pray for us. ss. fabian and sebastian, pray for us. ss. john and paul, pray for us. ss. cosmas and damian, pray for us. ss. gervaise and protaise, pray for us. all ye holy martyrs, pray for us. st. sylvester, pray for us. st. gregory, pray for us. st. ambrose, pray for us. st. augustine, pray for us. st. jerome, pray for us. st. martin, pray for us. st. nicholas, pray for us. all ye holy bishops and confessors, pray for us. all ye holy doctors, pray for us. st. anthony, pray for us. st. benedict, pray for us. st. bernard, pray for us. st. dominic, pray for us. st. francis, pray for us. all ye holy priests and levites, pray for us. all ye holy monks and hermits, pray for us. st. mary magdalen, pray for us. st. agatha, pray for us. st. lucy, pray for us. st. agnes, pray for us. st. cecilia, pray for us. st. catherine, pray for us. st. anastasia, pray for us. all ye holy virgins and widows, pray for us. all ye men and women, saints of god: make intercession for us. be merciful: spare us, o lord. be merciful: graciously hear us, o lord. from all evil, o lord, deliver us. from all sin, o lord, deliver us. from a sudden and unprovided death, o lord, deliver us. from the snares of the devil, o lord, deliver us. from anger, hatred, and ill will, o lord, deliver us. from the spirit of fornication, o lord, deliver us. from lightning and tempest, o lord, deliver us. from the scourge of earthquake, o lord, deliver us. from pestilence, famine, and war, o lord, deliver us. from everlasting death, o lord, deliver us. through the mystery of thy holy incarnation, o lord, deliver us. through thy coming, o lord, deliver us. through thy nativity, o lord, deliver us. through thy baptism and holy fasting, o lord, deliver us. through thy cross and passion, o lord, deliver us. through thy death and burial, o lord, deliver us. through thy holy resurrection, o lord, deliver us. through thy admirable ascension, o lord, deliver us. through the coming of the holy ghost, the comforter, o lord, deliver us. in the day of judgment, o lord, deliver us. we sinners, beseech thee, hear us. that thou spare us, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou pardon us, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe to bring us to true penance, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe to govern and preserve thy holy church, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe to preserve our apostolic prelate and all ecclesiastical orders in holy religion, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe to humble the enemies of thy holy church, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe to give peace and true concord to christian kings and princes, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe to grant peace and unity to all christian people, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe to confirm and preserve us in thy holy service, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou lift up our minds to heavenly desires, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou render eternal good things to all our benefactors, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou deliver our souls and those of our brethren, kinsfolk, and benefactors from eternal damnation, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe to give and preserve the fruits of the earth, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe eternal rest to all the faithful departed, we beseech thee, hear us. that thou vouchsafe graciously to hear us, we beseech thee, hear us. son of god, we beseech thee, hear us. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: spare us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: graciously hear us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us, o lord. christ, hear us. christ, graciously hear us. lord, have mercy on us. christ, have mercy on us. lord, have mercy on us. our father, etc. v. and lead us not into temptation. r. but deliver us from evil. psalm lxix incline unto my aid, o god: o lord, make haste to help me. let them be confounded and ashamed: that seek after my soul. let them be turned backward and blush for shame: that desire evils unto me. let them be presently turned away blushing for shame, that say to me: tis well, 'tis well. let all that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say always, the lord be magnified. but i am needy and poor: o god, help thou me. thou art my helper and my deliverer: o lord, make no delay. glory be to the father, etc. v. save thy servants: r. trusting in thee, o my god. v. be unto us, o god, a tower of strength: r. from the face of the enemy. v. let not the enemy prevail against us: r. nor the son of iniquity have power to hurt us. v. o lord, deal not with us according to our sins: r. neither reward us according to our iniquities. v. let us pray for our chief bishop, n. r. the lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. v. let us pray for our benefactors: r. vouchsafe, o lord, for thy name's sake, to reward with eternal life all those who have done us good. v. let us pray for the faithful departed: r. eternal rest give to them, o lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. v. may they rest in peace. r. amen. v. for our absent brethren: r. o my god, save thy servants trusting in thee. v. send them help, o lord, from thy holy place: r. and from sion protect them. v. o lord, hear my prayer: r. and let my cry come unto thee. _let us pray_ o god, whose property it is always to have mercy and to spare, receive our petitions, that we, and all thy servants who are bound by the chain of sin, may, in the compassion of thy goodness, mercifully be absolved. hear, we beseech thee, o lord, the prayer of thy suppliants, and pardon the sins of them that confess to thee, that of thy bounty thou mayest grant us pardon and peace. out of thy clemency, o lord, show thy unspeakable mercy to us, that so thou mayest both acquit us of our sins and deliver us from the punishment we deserve for them. o god, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of thy people who make supplication to thee, and turn away the scourges of thy anger, which we deserve for our sins. o almighty and eternal god, have mercy on thy servant n., our chief bishop, and direct him, according to thy clemency, in the way of everlasting salvation, that, by thy grace, he may desire the things that are agreeable to thy will, and perform them with all his strength. o god, from whom all holy desires, righteous counsels, and just works do come, give to thy servants that peace which the world can not give; that, our hearts being disposed to keep thy commandments, and the fear of enemies being taken away, the times, by thy protection, may be peaceable. inflame, o lord, our reins and hearts with the fire of the holy spirit; to the end that we may serve thee with a chaste body, and please thee with a clean heart. o god, the creator and redeemer of all the faithful, give to the souls of thy servants departed the remission of all their sins, that by pious supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired. direct, we beseech thee, o lord, our actions by thy holy inspirations, and carry them on by thy gracious assistance; that every prayer and work of ours may always begin from thee, and by thee be happily ended. almighty and eternal god, who hast dominion over the living and the dead, and art merciful to all whom thou foreknowest shall be thine by faith and good works; we humbly beseech thee that they for whom we have purposed to offer our prayers, whether this present world still detains them in the flesh, or the next world has already received them divested of their bodies, may, by the clemency of thine own goodness and the intercession of thy saints, obtain pardon and full remission of all their sins. through our lord jesus christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the holy ghost, world without end. amen. v. o lord, hear my prayer. r. and let my cry come unto thee. v. may the almighty and merciful lord graciously hear us. r. amen. v. may the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of god rest in peace. r. amen. [illustration: mary, help of christians.] part vi thoughts and counsels of the saints for every day of the year "every day will i bless thee, and i will praise thy name forever" (_ps._ cxliv. ). thoughts and counsels of the saints for every day in the year january there are two guarantees of a wise rule of conduct: the thought before action, and self-command afterward.--st. ignatius. when we receive with an entire and perfect resignation the afflictions which god sends us they become for us favors and benefits; because conformity to the will of god is a gain far superior to all temporal advantages.--st. vincent de paul. all perfection consists in the love of god; and the perfection of divine love consists in the union of our will with that of god.--st. alphonsus. leave to every one the care of what belongs to him, and disturb not thyself with what is said or done in the world.--st. thomas aquinas. place before your eyes as models for imitation, not the weak and cowardly, but the fervent and courageous.--st. ignatius. prayer is a pasturage, a field, wherein all the virtues find their nourishment, growth, and strength.--st. catherine of siena. a single act of resignation to the divine will in what it ordains contrary to our desires, is of more value than a hundred thousand successes conformable to our will and taste.--st. vincent de paul. the shortest, yea, the only way to reach sanctity, is to conceive a horror for all that the world loves and values.--st. ignatius. as long as we are in this mortal life, nothing is more necessary for us than humility.--st. teresa. learning without humility has always been pernicious to the church; and as pride precipitated the rebellious angels from heaven, it frequently causes the loss of learned men.--st. vincent de paul. why remain sad and idle? why exhaust thyself in the anguish of melancholy? have courage, do violence to thyself; meditate on the passion of jesus christ, and thou shalt overcome thy sorrow.--bl. henry suso. here is the difference between the joys of the world and the cross of jesus christ: after having tasted the first, one is disgusted with them; and on the contrary, the more one partakes of the cross, the greater the thirst for it.--st. ignatius. when the sky is free from clouds we can see more clearly the brightness of the sun. in like manner, when the soul is free from sin and the gloom of passion, it participates in the divine light.--ven. louis de granada. our works are of no value if they be not united to the merits of jesus christ.--st. teresa. if we are very determined to mortify ourselves and not to be too much occupied with our corporal health, we will soon, by the grace of god, become masters of our bodies.--st. teresa. in every creature, however small it be, we may see a striking image of divine wisdom, power, and goodness.--ven. bartholomew of martyrs. time is but a period. it passes like the lightning flash. suffering passes with time; suffering, then, is very short.--bl. henry suso. in order to bear our afflictions with patience, it is very useful to read the lives and legends of the saints who endured great torments for jesus christ.--st. teresa. open thine ears to the voices of nature, and thou shalt hear them in concert inviting thee to the love of god.--ven. louis of granada. on the feasts of the saints consider their virtues, and beseech god to deign to adorn you with them.--st. teresa. when faith grows weak, all virtues are weakened. when faith is lost, all virtues are lost--st. alphonsus. a precious crown is reserved in heaven for those who perform all their actions with all the diligence of which they are capable; for it is not sufficient to do our part well; it must be done more than well.--st. ignatius. nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. god alone can fill it infinitely.--st. thomas aquinas. we should only make use of life to grow in the love of god.--st. alphonsus. in vain men try. they can never find in creatures sincere affection, perfect joy, or true peace.--bl. henry suso. god is supreme strength, fortifying those who place their trust and confidence in him.--st. catherine of siena. god gives each one of us sufficient grace ever to know his holy will, and to do it fully.--st. ignatius. shun useless conversation. we lose by it both time and the spirit of devotion.--st. thomas aquinas. the upright intention is the soul of our actions. it gives them life and makes them good.--st. alphonsus. the truth of faith alone, deeply graven in the soul, is sufficient to encourage us to very perfect works; for it strengthens man and increases his charity.--st. teresa. it is folly not to think of death. it is greater folly to think of it, and not prepare for it.--st. alphonsus. february the most perfect and meritorious intention is that by which, in all our actions, we have in view only the good pleasure of god and the accomplishment of his holy will.--st. alphonsus. mary's sorrow was less when she saw her only son crucified, than it is now at the sight of men offending him by sin.--st. ignatius. there is nothing more unreasonable than to estimate our worth by the opinion of others. today they laud us to the skies, to-morrow they will cover us with ignominy.--ven. louis of granada. act as if every day were the last of your life, and each action the last you perform.--st. alphonsus. perfection consists in renouncing ourselves, in carrying our cross, and in following jesus christ. now, he who renounces himself most perfectly carries his cross the best and follows nearest to jesus christ is he who never does his own will, but always that of god.--st. vincent de paul. that which would have easily been remedied at first, becomes incurable by time and habit--st. ignatius. among the gifts of grace which the soul receives in holy communion there is one that must be numbered among the highest. it is, that holy communion does not permit the soul to remain long in sin, nor to obstinately persevere in it.--st. ignatius. be assured that one great means to find favor when we appear before god is to have pardoned the injuries we have received here below.--ven. louis of granada. woe to him who neglects to recommend himself to mary, and thus closes the channel of grace!--st. alphonsus. it is folly to leave your goods where you can never return, and to send nothing to that place where you must remain for ever.--ven. louis of granada. discretion is necessary in spiritual life. it is its part to restrain the exercises in the way of perfection, so as to keep us between the two extremes.--st. ignatius. by denying our self-love and our inclinations in little things, we gradually acquire mortification and victory over ourselves.--st. teresa. should we fall a thousand times in a day, a thousand times we must rise again, always animated with unbounded confidence in the infinite goodness of god.--ven. louis of granada. god's way in dealing with those whom he intends to admit soonest after this life into the possession of his everlasting glory, is to purify them in this world by the greatest afflictions and trials.--st. ignatius. after the flower comes the fruit: we receive, as the reward of our fatigues, an increase of grace in this world, and in the next the eternal vision of god.--bl. henry suso. god refuses no one the gift of prayer. by it we obtain the help that we need to overcome disorderly desires and temptations of all kinds.--st. alphonsus. to establish ourselves in a virtue it is necessary to form good and practical resolutions to perform certain and determined acts of that virtue, and we must, moreover, be faithful in executing them.--st. vincent de paul. love ought to consist of deeds more than of words.--st. ignatius. there are many things which seem to us misfortunes and which we call such; but if we understood the designs of god we would call them graces.--st. alphonsus. let us abandon everything to the merciful providence of god.--bl. albert the great. jesus christ, our great model, suffered much for us; let us bear our afflictions cheerfully, seeing that through them we have the happiness of resembling him.--bl. henry suso. remember that virtue is a very high and rugged mountain, difficult to ascend, and requiring much fatigue and exertion before we arrive at the summit to rest.--bl. henry suso. labor to conquer yourself. this victory will assure you a brighter crown in heaven than they gain whose disposition is more amiable.--st. ignatius. we should not examine articles of faith with a curious and subtle spirit. it is sufficient for us to know that the church proposes them. we can never be deceived in believing them.--st. vincent de paul. we should guard against jealousy, and even the slightest sentiment thereof. this vice is absolutely opposed to a pure and sincere zeal for the glory of god, and is a certain proof of secret and subtle pride.-- st. vincent de paul. charity requires us always to have compassion on human infirmity.--st. catherine of siena. when one does not love prayer, it is morally impossible for him to resist his passions.--st. alphonsus. docility and easy acquiescence with good advice are the signs of a humble heart.--ven. julienne morel. there is nothing richer, nothing surer, nothing more agreeable than a good conscience.--bl. bartholomew of martyrs. march it seems as if god granted to other saints to free us from some particular needfulness; but i know by experience that the glorious st. joseph assists us generally in all our necessities.--st. teresa. a most powerful and efficacious remedy for all evils, a means of correcting all imperfections, of triumphing over temptation, and preserving our hearts in an undisturbed peace, is conformity with the will of god.--st. vincent de paul. it often happens that when we take less care of our body, we have better health than when we bestow upon it too much care.--st. teresa. do nothing, say nothing before considering if that which you are about to say or do is pleasing to god, profitable to yourself, and edifying to your neighbor.--st. ignatius. sometimes god leaves us for a long time unable to effect any good, that we may learn to humble ourselves, and never to glory in our efforts.-- st. vincent ferrer. we easily lose peace of mind, because we make it depend, not on the testimony of a good conscience, but on the judgment of men.--bl. bartholomew of martyrs. you may fast regularly, give alms, and pray without ceasing, but as long as you hate your brother, you will not be numbered among the children of god.--ven. louis de blois. he who at the hour of death finds himself protected by st. joseph, will certainly experience great consolation.--st. teresa. take care that the worldling does not pursue with greater zeal and anxiety the perishable goods of this world than you do the eternal.--st. ignatius. we should consider our departed brethren as living members of jesus christ, animated by his grace, and certain of participating one day of his glory. we should therefore love, serve, and assist them as far as is in our power.--st. vincent de paul. control thy senses, guard thy mouth, bridle thy tongue, subjugate thy heart, bear all provocation with charity, and thou shalt perfectly fulfil the will of god.--bl. henry suso. our perfection consists in uniting our will so intimately with god's will, that we will only desire what he wills. he who conforms most perfectly to the will of god will be the most perfect christian.--st. vincent de paul. humility, modesty, sobriety, purity, piety, and prudence, with meekness, ornament the soul, and make us live on earth a truly angelic life.--bl. jordan of saxony. in recalling to mind the life and actions of the saints, walk in their footsteps as much as possible, and humble thyself if thou canst not attain to their perfection.--st. thomas aquinas. when the devil again tempts you to sin, telling you that god is merciful, remember that the lord showeth mercy to them that fear him, but not to them who despise him.--st. alphonsus. in prayer we should particularly combat our predominant passion or evil inclination. we should devote continual attention to it, because when it is once conquered we will easily obtain the victory over all our other faults.--st. vincent de paul. i will carefully consider how, on the day of judgment, i would wish to have discharged my office or my duty; and the way i would wish to have done it then i shall do now.--st. ignatius. it is well to deny ourselves that which is permitted, in order to avoid more easily that which is not.--st. benedict. i have noticed that all persons who have true devotion to st. joseph and tender him special honor, are very much advanced in virtue, for he takes great care of souls who recommend themselves to him; and i have never asked of him anything which he did not obtain for me.--st. teresa. he who forgets himself in the service of god may be assured that god will not forget him.--st. ignatius. let all our actions be directed to the end that god may be glorified in all things.--st. benedict. he who suffers in patience, suffers less and saves his soul. he who suffers impatiently, suffers more and loses his soul.--st. alphonsus. when we remember or hear that the enemies of the church burn and destroy god's temples, we should grieve therefor; but we should also rejoice much when we see new ones built, and we should co-operate in their erection as much as we possibly can.--st. teresa. we should carefully beware of giving ourselves so completely to any employment as to forget to have recourse to god from time to time.--st. teresa. our lady, deign to intercede for us sinners with thy divine son, our lord, and obtain of him a blessing for us in our trials and tribulations!--st. ignatius. whoever would follow jesus christ, must walk in his footsteps, if he would not go astray.--st. teresa. let us thank god for having called us to his holy faith. it is a great gift, and the number of those who thank god for it is small.--st. alphonsus. the trials of life cease to oppress us if we accept them for the love of god.--ven. louis de granada. if you wish to take up your abode in the tabernacle of the heavenly kingdom, you must reach there through your good works, without which you can not hope to enter.--st. benedict. it is a great folly to be willing to violate the friendship of god, rather than the law of human friendship.--st. teresa. when the afflictions of this life overcome us, let us encourage ourselves to bear them patiently by the hope of heaven.--st. alphonsus. april to put into practice the teachings of our holy faith, it is not enough to convince ourselves that they are true; we must love them. love united to faith makes us practise our religion.--st. alphonsus. unite all your works to the merits of jesus christ, and then offer them up to the eternal father if you desire to make them pleasing to him.-- st. teresa. god pardons sin; but he will not pardon the will to sin.--st. alphonsus. it is a fault, not a virtue, to wish your humility recognized and applauded.--st. bernard. before engaging in your private devotions, perform those which obedience and your duty toward your neighbor impose upon you in such a manner as to make an abnegation of self.--ven. louis de blois. the world is full of inconstancy; its friendship ceases the moment there is no advantage to be expected from us.--bl. john tauler. there is nothing better to display the truth in an excellent light, than a clear and simple statement of facts.--st. benedict. be careful and do not lightly condemn the actions of others. we must consider the intention of our neighbor, which is often good and pure, although the act itself seems blameworthy.--st. ignatius. he who does not overcome his predominant passion is in great danger of being lost. he who does overcome it will easily conquer all the rest.-- st. alphonsus. to conquer himself is the greatest victory that man can gain.--st. ignatius. a soul which does not practise the exercise of prayer is very like a paralyzed body which, though possessing feet and hands, makes no use of them.--st. alphonsus. when you do a good action, have the intention of first pleasing god, and then of giving good example to your neighbor.--st. alphonsus. the grace of perseverance is the most important of all; it crowns all other graces.--st. vincent de paul. prayer is the only channel through which god's great graces and favors may flow into the soul; and if this be once closed, i know no other way he can communicate them.--st. teresa. to acquire courage it is very useful to read the lives of the saints, especially of those who, after living in sin, attained great sanctity.-- st. alphonsus. the truly humble reject all praise for themselves, and refer it all to god.--st. alphonsus. prayer should be effective and practical, since it has for its end the acquisition of solid virtue and the mortification of the passions.--st. vincent de paul. we do not keep an account of the graces which god has given us, but god our lord keeps an account of them. he has fixed the measure thereof.-- st. alphonsus. the more guilty we are, the greater must be our confidence in mary. therefore, courage, timid soul; let mary know all thy misery, and hasten with joy to the throne of mercy.--bl. henry suso. evil is often more hurtful to the doer than to the one against whom it is done.--st. catherine of siena. during life despise that which will avail you nothing at the hour of death.--st. anselm. he who fails to reflect before acting, walks with his eyes shut and advances with danger. he also falls very often, because the eye of reflection does not enable him to see whither his footsteps lead.--st. gregory the great. sanctity and perfection consist not in fine words, but in good actions.--bl. henry suso. as patience leads to peace, and study to science, so are humiliations the path that leads to humility.--st. bernard. do not disturb yourself with vain curiosity concerning the affairs of others, nor how they conduct themselves, unless your position makes it your duty to do so.--ven. louis de blois. the deceitful charms of prosperity destroy more souls than all the scourges of adversity.--st. bernard. the first degree of humility is the fear of god, which we should constantly have before our eyes.--ven. louis de blois. he who cheerfully endures contempt and is happy under crosses and affliction, partakes of the humility and sufferings of our lord.--st. mechtildis. he who is resigned to the divine will shall always surmount the difficulties he meets with in the service of god. the lord will accomplish his designs concerning him.--st. vincent de paul. consent to suffer a slight temporary pain, that so thou mayst avoid the eternal pains which sin deserves.--st. catherine of siena. may mary was the most perfect among the saints only because she was always perfectly united to the will of god.--st. alphonsus. after the love which we owe jesus christ, we must give the chief place in our heart to the love of his mother mary.--st. alphonsus. when we feel our cross weighing upon us, let us have recourse to mary, whom the church calls the "consoler of the afflicted."--st. alphonsus. the devotions we practise in honor of the glorious virgin mary, however trifling they be, are very pleasing to her divine son, and he rewards them with eternal glory.--st. teresa. there is nothing which is more profitable and more consoling to the mind than to frequently remember the blessed virgin.--st. teresa. blessed are the actions enclosed between two hail marys.--st. alphonsus. let us consider what the glorious virgin endured, and what the holy apostles suffered, and we shall find that they who were nearest to jesus christ were the most afflicted.--st. teresa. the servants of mary who are in purgatory receive visits and consolations from her.--st. alphonsus. if you persevere until death in true devotion to mary, your salvation is certain.--st. alphonsus. he who remembers having invoked the name of mary in an impure temptation, may be sure that he did not yield to it.--st. alphonsus. mary being destined to negotiate peace between god and man, it was not proper that she should be an accomplice in the disobedience of adam.--st. alphonsus. mary having co-operated in our redemption with so much glory to god and so much love for us, our lord ordained that no one shall obtain salvation except through her intercession.--st. alphonsus. he who wishes to find jesus will do so only by having recourse to mary.--st. alphonsus. mary having always lived wholly detached from earthly things and united with god, death, which united her more closely to him, was extremely sweet and agreeable to her.--st. alphonsus. mary being in heaven nearer to god and more united to him, knows our miseries better, compassionates them more, and can more efficaciously assist us.--st. alphonsus. the virgin mother, all pure and all white, will make her servants pure and white.--st. alphonsus. to assure our salvation it does not suffice to call ourselves children of mary, therefore let us always have the fear of god.--st. teresa. let us offer ourselves without delay and without reserve to mary, and beg her to offer us herself to god.--st. alphonsus. such is the compassion, such the love which mary bears us, that she is never tired of praying for us.--st. alphonsus. o queen of heaven and earth! the universe would perish before thou couldst refuse aid to one who invokes thee from the depth of his heart.--bl. henry suso. o most blessed virgin, who declarest in thy canticle that it is owing to thy humility that god hath done great things in thee, obtain for me the grace to imitate thee, that is, to be obedient; because to obey is to practise humility.--st. vincent de paul. may the two names so sweet and so powerful, of jesus and mary, be always in our hearts and on our lips!--st. alphonsus. whatsoever we do, we can never be true children of mary, unless we are humble.--st. alphonsus. let us highly esteem devotion to the blessed virgin, and let us lose no opportunity of inspiring others with it.--st. alphonsus. as a mother feels no disgust in dressing the sores of her child, so mary, the heavenly infirmarian, never refuses to care for sinners who have recourse to her.--st. alphonsus. each of our days is marked with the protection of mary, who is exceedingly anxious to be our mother, when we desire to be her children.--st. vincent de paul. when the devil wishes to make himself master of a soul, he seeks to make it give up devotion to mary.--st. alphonsus. let us have recourse to mary; for of all creatures she is the highest, the purest, the most beautiful, and the most loving.--bl. henry suso. let the name of mary be ever on your lips, let it be indelibly engraven on your heart. if you are under her protection, you have nothing to fear; if she is propitious, you will arrive at the port of salvation.-- st. bernard. know that of all devotions the most pleasing to mary is to have frequent recourse to her, asking for favors.--st. alphonsus. let the servants of mary perform every day, and especially on saturday, some work of charity for her sake.--st. alphonsus. june can we, amongst all hearts, find one more amiable than that of jesus? it is on his heart that god looks with special complacency--st. alphonsus. one must wage war against his predominant passion, and not retreat, until, with god's help, he has been victorious.--st. alphonsus. an act of perfect conformity to the will of god unites us more to him than a hundred other acts of virtue.--st. alphonsus. the love of god inspires the love of our neighbor, and the love of our neighbor serves to keep alive the love of god.--st. gregory the great. live always in the certainty that whatever happens to you is the result of divine providence; because nothing hard or laborious falls to your lot without the lord permitting it.--ven. louis de blois. whatsoever good work you undertake, pray earnestly to god that he will enable you to bring it to a successful termination.--st. benedict. what is a fruitless repentance, defiled almost immediately by new faults?--st. bernard. you propose to give up everything to god; be sure, then, to include yourself among the things to be given up.--st. benedict. if you can find a place where god is not, go there and sin with impunity.--st. anselm. he can not err who is constantly with the visible head which jesus christ has left to his church, as its foundation, rule, teacher, and defender of the faith.--st. alphonsus. the more numerous the gifts we have received from god, the greater the account we must render to him.--st. gregory the great. true penance consists in regretting without ceasing the faults of the past, and in firmly resolving to never again commit that which is so deplorable.--st. bernard. [illustration: the sacred heart of mary.] we are not raised the first day to the summit of perfection. it is by climbing, not by flying, that we arrive there.--st. bernard. what we do for ourselves during life is more certain than all the good we expect others to do for us after death.--st. gregory the great. idleness begets a discontented life. it develops self-love, which is the cause of all our misery, and renders us unworthy to receive the favors of divine love.--st. ignatius. have death always before your eyes as a salutary means of returning to god.--st. bernard. if the devil tempts me by the thought of divine justice, i think of god's mercy; if he tries to fill me with presumption by the thought of his mercy, i think of his justice.--st. ignatius. in time of temptation continue the good thou hast begun before temptation.--st. vincent ferrer. in the eyes of the sovereign judge the merit of our actions depends on the motives which prompted them.--st. gregory the great. the benefits to be derived from spiritual reading do not merely consist in impressing on the memory the precepts set forth, but in opening the heart to them, that they may bear fruit.--ven. louis de blois. as clouds obscure the sun, so bad thoughts darken and destroy the brightness of the soul.--ven. louis of granada. to judge rightly of the goodness and perfection of any one's prayer, it is sufficient to know the disposition he takes to it, and the fruits he reaps from it.--st. vincent de paul. to commence many things and not to finish them is no small fault; we must persevere in whatever we undertake with upright intention and according to god's will.--bl. henry suso. the perfect champion is he who establishes complete control over his mind by overcoming temptations and the inclination of his nature to sin.--ven. john tauler. if the love of god is in your heart, you will understand that to suffer for god is a joy to which all earthly pleasures are not to be compared.--st. ignatius. the world around us is, as it were, a book written by the finger of god; every creature is a word on the page. we should apply ourselves well to understand the signification of the volume.--ven. bartholomew of martyrs. a man of prayer is capable of everything. he can say with st. paul, "i can do all things in him who strengthened me."--st. vincent de paul. whilst here below our actions can never be entirely free from negligence, frailty, or defect; but we must not throw away the wheat because of the chaff.--ven. john tauler. strive always to preserve freedom of spirit, so that you need do nothing with the view of pleasing the world, and that no fear of displeasing it will have power to shake your good resolutions.--ven. louis de blois. wo to us poor sinners if we had not the divine sacrifice to appease the lord!--st. alphonsus. july how few there are who avail themselves of the precious blood of jesus to purchase their salvation!--st. ignatius. o queen of heaven and earth! thou art the gate of mercy ever open, never closed. the universe must perish before he who invokes thee from his heart is refused assistance.--bl. henry suso. our faith will never be true unless it is united to that of st. peter and the pontiff, his successors.--st. alphonsus. short pleasures and long sufferings are all the world can give.--ven. john tauler. learn to be silent sometimes for the edification of others, that you may learn how to speak sometimes.--st. vincent ferrer. gratitude for graces received is a most efficacious means of obtaining new ones.--st. vincent de paul. to a useless question we should answer only by silence.--st. vincent ferrer. we should not judge things by their exterior or appearance, but consider what they are in the sight of god, and whether they be according to his good pleasure.--st. vincent de paul. preserve purity of conscience with care, and never do anything to sully it or render it less agreeable to god.--st. thomas aquinas. give not thyself too much to any one. he who gives himself too freely is generally the least acceptable.--bl. henry suso. affliction strengthens the vigor of our soul, whereas happiness weakens it.--st. gregory the great. to acquire purity of the soul, it is necessary to guard against passing judgment on our neighbor, or useless remarks on his conduct.--st. catherine of siena. turn away the eyes of thy body and those of thy mind from seeing others, that thou mayest be able to contemplate thyself.--st. vincent ferrer. the brightest ornaments in the crown of the blessed in heaven are the sufferings which they have borne patiently on earth.--st. alphonsus. we are not innocent before god if we punish that which we should pardon, or pardon that which we should punish.--st. bernard. is there any one in the world who has invoked thee, o mary, without having felt the benefit of thy protection, which is promised to those who invoke thy mercy?--st. bernard. it is the key of obedience that opens the door of paradise. jesus christ has confided that key to his vicar, the pope, christ on earth, whom all are obliged to obey even unto death.--st. catherine of siena. it is true that god promises forgiveness if we repent, but what assurance have we of obtaining it to-morrow?--ven. louis de blois. we should offer ourselves and all we have to god, that he may dispose of us according to his holy will, so that we may be ever ready to leave all and embrace the afflictions that come upon us.--st. vincent de paul. no one has a right to mercy who can not himself show mercy.--ven. louis de granada. we should reflect on all our actions, exterior and interior, and before we commence, examine well if we are able to finish them.--ven. john tauler. the reason why the lukewarm run so great a risk of being lost is because tepidity conceals from the soul the immense evil which it causes.--st. alphonsus. we should learn of jesus christ to be meek and humble of heart, and ask him unceasingly for these two virtues. we ought, particularly, to avoid the two contrary vices which would cause us to destroy with one hand what we seek to raise with the other.--st. vincent de paul. the sufferings endured for god are the greatest proof of our love for him.--st. alphonsus. it is in vain that we cut off the branches of evil, if we leave intact the root, which continually produces new ones.--st. gregory the great. how little is required to be a saint! it suffices to do in all things the will of god.--st. vincent de paul. wouldst thou know what thou art? thou art that to which thy heart turns the most frequently.--ven. bartholomew of martyrs. when you covet that which delights you, think not only of the sweet moments of enjoyment, but of the long season of regret which must follow.--st. bernard. they who voluntarily commit sin show a contempt for life eternal, since they willingly risk the loss of their soul.--st. gregory the great. it suffices not to perform good works; we must do them well, in imitation of our lord jesus christ, of whom it is written, "he doeth all things well."--st. vincent de paul. put not off till to-morrow what you can do today.--st. ignatius. august christ himself guides the bark of peter. for this reason it can not perish, although he sometimes seems to sleep.--st. antoninus. prayer teaches us the need of laying before god all our necessities, of corresponding with his grace, of banishing vice from our heart and of establishing virtue in it.--st. vincent de paul. take this to heart: owe no man anything. so shalt thou secure a peaceful sleep, an easy conscience, a life without inquietude, and a death without alarm.--ven. louis de granada. if you would know whether you have made a good confession, ask yourself if you have resolved to abandon your sins.--st. bernard. he who does that which is displeasing to himself has discovered the secret of pleasing god.--st. anselm. an ordinary action, performed through obedience and love of god, is more meritorious than extraordinary works done on your own authority--ven. louis de blois. vigilance is rendered necessary and indispensable, not only by the dangers that surround us, but by the delicacy, the extreme difficulty of the work we all have to engage in the work of our salvation.--ven. louis de granada. among the different means that we have of pleasing god in all that we do, one of the most efficacious is to perform each of our actions as though it were to be the last of our life.--st. vincent de paul. i have to seek only the glory of god, my own sanctification, and the salvation of my neighbor. i should therefore devote myself to these things, if necessary, at the peril of my life.--st. alphonsus. idleness is hell's fishhook for catching souls.--st. ignatius. whoever imagines himself without defect has an excess of pride. god alone is perfect.--st. antoninus. as we take the bitterest medicine to recover or preserve the health of the body, we should cheerfully endure sufferings, however repugnant to nature, and consider them efficacious remedies which god employs to purify the soul and conduct it to the perfection to which he called it.--st. vincent de paul. to give up prayer because we are often distracted at it is to allow the devil to gain his cause.--st. alphonsus. curb the desire of display, and do nothing from human respect.--st. vincent de paul. o mary, vessel of purest gold, ornamented with pearls and sapphires, filled with grace and virtue, thou art the dearest of all creatures to the eyes of eternal wisdom.--bl. henry suso. we must be careful not to omit our prayers, confession, communion, and other exercises of piety, even when we find no consolation in them.--st. vincent ferrer. let us leave to god and to truth the care of our justification, without trying to excuse ourselves, and peace will truly spring up within us.-- ven. john tauler. read good and useful books, and abstain from reading those that only gratify curiosity.--st. vincent de paul. so great is the goodness of god in your regard, that when you ask through ignorance for that which is not beneficial, he does not grant your prayer in this matter, but gives you something better instead.--st. bernard. men can use no better arms to drive away the devil, than prayer and the sign of the cross.--st. teresa. he who knows well how to practise the exercise of the presence of god, and who is faithful in following the attraction of this divine virtue, will soon attain a very high degree of perfection.--st. vincent de paul. one of the most admirable effects of holy communion is to preserve the soul from sin, and to help those who fall through weakness to rise again. it is much more profitable, then, to approach this divine sacrament with love, respect, and confidence, than to remain away through an excess of fear and scrupulosity.--st. ignatius. let us remember that every act of mortification is a work for heaven. this thought will make all suffering and weariness sweet.--st. alphonsus. correction should be given calmly and with discernment, at seasonable times, according to the dictates of reason, and not at the impulse of anger.--ven. louis de granada. there is nothing more certain, nothing more agreeable, nothing richer than a good conscience.--ven. bartholomew of martyrs. god, to procure his glory, sometimes permits that we should be dishonored and persecuted without reason. he wishes thereby to render us conformable to his son, who was calumniated and treated as a seducer, as an ambitious man, and as one possessed.--st. vincent de paul. all that god gives us and all that he permits in this world have no other end than to sanctify us in him.--st. catherine of siena. if you can not mortify your body by actual penance, abstain at least from some lawful pleasure.--st. alphonsus. one whose heart is embittered can do nothing but contend and contradict, finding something to oppose in every remark.--ven. julienne morel. without prayer we have neither light nor strength to advance in the way which leads to god.--st. alphonsus. i have never gone out to mingle with the world without losing something of myself.--bl. albert the great. september he who perseveres with constancy and fervor will, without fail, raise himself to a high degree of perfection.--bl. henry suso. an upright intention is the soul of our actions. it gives them life, and makes them good.--st. alphonsus. you wish to reform the world: reform yourself, otherwise your efforts will be in vain.--st. ignatius. let all thy care be to possess thy soul in peace and tranquillity. let no accident be to thee a cause of ill-humor.--st. vincent ferrer. humility is a fortified town; it repels all attacks. the sight of it obliges the enemy to turn and flee.--ven. louis of granada. the world is deceitful and inconstant. when fortune forsakes us, friendship takes flight.--bl. henry suso. perform all your actions in union with the pure intention and perfect love with which our lord did all things for the glory of god and the salvation of the world.--st. mechtildis. an air of meekness and a modest speech are pleasing alike to god and men.--ven. john tauler. the saints owed to their confidence in god that unalterable tranquillity of soul, which procured their perpetual joy and peace, even in the midst of adversities.--st. alphonsus. look not to the qualities thou mayest possess, which are wanting to others; but look to those which others possess and which are wanting to thee, that thou mayest acquire them.--ven. louis de granada. your heart is not so narrow that the world can satisfy it entirely; nothing but god can fill it.--st. ignatius. if you wish to raise a lofty edifice of perfection, take humility for a foundation.--st. thomas aquinas. it ordinarily happens that god permits those who judge others, to fall into the same or even greater faults.--st. vincent ferrer. raise thy heart and thy love toward the sweet and most holy cross, which soothes every pain!--st. catherine of siena. often read spiritual books; then, like a sheep, ruminate the food thou hast taken, by meditation and a desire to practise the holy doctrine found therein.--st. antoninus. love others much, but visit them seldom.--st. catherine of siena. god sends us trials and afflictions to exercise us in patience and teach us sympathy with the sorrows of others.--st. vincent de paul. armed with prayer, the saints sustained a glorious warfare and vanquished all their enemies. by prayer, also, they appeased the wrath of god, and obtained from him all they desired.--ven. louis de granada. all souls in hell are there because they did not pray. all the saints sanctified themselves by prayer.--st. alphonsus. the thought of the presence of god renders us familiar with the practice of doing in all things his holy will.--st. vincent de paul. if we consider the number and excellence of the virtues practised by the saints, we must feel the inefficiency and imperfection of our actions.-- st. vincent ferrer. prayer without fervor has not sufficient strength to rise to heaven.-- st. bernard. the path of virtue is painful to nature when left to itself; but nature, assisted by grace, finds it easy and agreeable.--ven. louis of granada. always give the preference to actions which appear to you the most agreeable to god, and most contrary to self-love.--st. alphonsus. as the branch separated from the roots soon loses all life and verdure, so it is with good works which are not united with charity.--st. gregory the great. we should constantly thank the lord for having granted us the gift of the true faith, by associating us with the children of the holy catholic church.--st. alphonsus. we should not spare expense, fatigue, nor even our life, when there is a question of accomplishing the holy will of god.--st. vincent de paul. some are unable to fast or give alms; there are none who can not pray.-- st. alphonsus. we meet with contradictions everywhere. if only two persons are together they mutually afford each other opportunities of exercising patience, and even when one is alone there will still be a necessity for this virtue, so true it is that our miserable life is full of crosses.--st. vincent de paul. we should bear our sufferings in expiation for our sins, to merit heaven, and to please god.--st. alphonsus. october always give good example: teach virtue by word and deed. example is more powerful than discourse.--bl. henry suso. if thou wouldst glory, let it be in the lord, by referring everything to him, and giving to him all the honor and glory.--ven. louis de granada. there is nothing more holy, more eminently perfect, than resignation to the will of god, which confirms us in an entire detachment from ourselves, and a perfect indifference for every condition in which we may be placed.--st. vincent de paul. prayer consists not in many words, but in the fervor of desire, which raises the soul to god by the knowledge of its own nothingness and the divine goodness.--bl. henry suso. let us make up for lost time. let us give to god the time that remains to us.--st. alphonsus. when thou feelest thyself excited, shut thy mouth and chain thy tongue.--bl. henry suso. if it was necessary that christ should suffer and so enter by the cross into the kingdom of his father, no friend of god should shrink from suffering.--ven. john tauler. we should grieve to see no account made of time, which is so precious; to see it employed so badly, so uselessly, for it can never be recalled.--bl. henry suso. every time that some unexpected event befalls us, be it affliction, or be it spiritual or corporal consolation, we should endeavor to receive it with equanimity of spirit, since all comes from the hand of god.--st. vincent de paul. there are some who sin through frailty, or through the force of some violent passion. they desire to break these chains of death; if their prayer is constant they will be heard.--st. alphonsus. "thy will be done!" this is what the saints had continually on their lips and in their hearts.--st. alphonsus. he who would be a disciple of jesus christ must live in sufferings; for "the servant is not greater than the master."--ven. john tauler. he who submits himself to god in all things is certain that whatever men say or do against him will always turn to his advantage.--st. vincent de paul. if he be blind who refuses to believe in the truths of the catholic faith, how much blinder is he who believes, and yet lives as if he did not believe!--st. alphonsus. there is no affliction, trial, or labor difficult to endure, when we consider the torments and sufferings which our lord jesus christ endured for us.--st. teresa. outside of god nothing is durable. we exchange life for death, health for sickness, honor for shame, riches for poverty. all things change and pass away.--st. catherine of siena. if you would keep yourself pure, shun dangerous occasions. do not trust your own strength. in this matter we can not take too much precaution.-- st. alphonsus. after knowing the will of god in regard to a work which we undertake, we should continue courageously, however difficult it may be. we should follow it to the end with as much constancy as the obstacles we encounter are great.--st. vincent de paul. in your prayers, if you would quickly and surely draw upon you the grace of god, pray in a special manner for our holy church and all those connected with it.--ven. louis de blois. prayer is our principal weapon. by it we obtain of god the victory over our evil inclinations, and over all temptations of hell.--st. alphonsus. we should never abandon, on account of the difficulties we encounter, an enterprise undertaken with due reflection.--st. vincent de paul. being all members of the same body, with the same head, who is christ, it is proper that we should have in common the same joys and sorrows.-- ven. louis de granada. we should be cordial and affable with the poor, and with persons in humble circumstances. we should not treat them in a supercilious manner. haughtiness makes them revolt. on the contrary, when we are affable with them, they become more docile and derive more benefit from the advice they receive.--st. vincent de paul. let not confusion for thy fault overwhelm thee with despair, as if there were no longer a remedy.--st. catherine of siena. as all our wickedness consists in turning away from our creator, so all our goodness consists in uniting ourselves with him.--st. alphonsus. that which we suffer in the accomplishment of a good work, merits for us the necessary graces to insure its success.--st. vincent de paul. we ought to have a special devotion to those saints who excelled in humility, particularly to the blessed virgin mary, who declares that the lord regarded her on account of her humility.--st. vincent de paul. he who wishes to find jesus should seek him, not in the delights and pleasures of the world, but in mortification of the senses.--st. alphonsus. let us not despise, judge, or condemn any one but ourselves; then our cross will bloom and bear fruit.--ven. john tauler. it is rarely that we fall into error if we are humble and trust to the wisdom of others, in preference to our own judgment.--ven. louis de blois. the best of all prayers is that in which we ask that god's holy will be accomplished, both in ourselves and in others.--ven. louis de blois. november we should honor god in his saints, and beseech him to make us partakers of the graces he poured so abundantly upon them.--st. vincent de paul. we may have a confident hope of our salvation when we apply ourselves to relieve the souls in purgatory, so afflicted and so dear to god.--st. alphonsus. the example of the saints is proposed to every one, so that the great actions shown us may encourage us to undertake smaller things.--ven. louis de granada. let us read the lives of the saints; let us consider the penances which they performed, and blush to be so effeminate and so fearful of mortifying our flesh.--st. alphonsus. the greatest pain which the holy souls suffer in purgatory proceeds from their desire to possess god. this suffering especially afflicts those who in life had but a feeble desire of heaven.--st. alphonsus. death is welcome to one who has always feared god and faithfully served him.--st. teresa. true humility consists in being content with all that god is pleased to ordain for us, believing ourselves unworthy to be called his servants.-- st. teresa. the best preparation for death is a perfect resignation to the will of god, after the example of jesus christ, who, in his prayer in gethsemani prepared himself with these words, "father, not as i will, but as thou wilt."--st. vincent de paul. the errors of others should serve to keep us from adding any of our own to them.--st. ignatius. there is more security in self-denial, mortification, and other like virtues, than in an abundance of tears.--st. teresa. a resolute will triumphs over everything with the help of god, which is never wanting.--st. alphonsus. if humble souls are contradicted, they remain calm; if they are calumniated, they suffer with patience; if they are little esteemed, neglected, or forgotten, they consider that their due; if they are weighed down with occupations, they perform them cheerfully.--st. vincent de paul. when we have to reply to some one who speaks harshly to us, we must always do it with gentleness. if we are angry, it is better to keep silence.--st. alphonsus. the two principal dispositions which we should bring to holy communion are detachment from creatures, and the desire to receive our lord with a view to loving him more in the future.--st. alphonsus. in doing penance it is necessary to deprive oneself of as many lawful pleasures as we had the misfortune to indulge in unlawful ones.--st. gregory the great. in raising human nature to heaven by his ascension, christ has given us the hope of arriving thither ourselves.--st. thomas aquinas. it is useless to subdue the flesh by abstinence, unless one gives up his irregular life, and abandons vices which defile his soul.--st. benedict. no prayers are so acceptable to god as those which we offer him after communion.--st. alphonsus. it avails nothing to subdue the body, if the mind allows itself to be controlled by anger.--st. gregory the great. what is it that renders death terrible? sin. we must therefore fear sin, not death.--st. alphonsus. the blessed virgin is of all the works of the creator the most excellent, and to find anything in nature more grand one must go to the author of nature himself.--st. peter damian. if we would advance in virtue, we must not neglect little things, for they pave the way to greater.--st. teresa. when one has fallen into some fault, what better remedy can there be than to have immediate recourse to the most blessed sacrament?--st. alphonsus. afflictions are the most certain proofs that god can give us of his love for us.--st. vincent de paul. is it not a great cruelty for us christians, members of the body of the holy church, to attack one another?--st. catherine of siena. the church is the pillar and ground of truth, and her infallibility admits of no doubt.--ven. louis de granada. he who truly loves his neighbor and can not efficaciously assist him, should strive at least to relieve and help him by his prayers.--st. teresa. we should blush for shame to show so much resentment at what is done or said against us, knowing that so many injuries and affronts have been offered to our redeemer and the saints.--st. teresa. the reason why so many souls who apply themselves to prayer are not inflamed with god's love is, that they neglect to carefully prepare themselves for it.--st. teresa. it is absolutely necessary, both for our advancement and the salvation of others, to follow always and in all things the beautiful light of faith.--st. vincent de paul. december if we consider all that is imperfect and worldly in us, we shall find ample reason for abasing ourselves before god and man, before ourselves and our inferiors.--st. vincent de paul. no one should think or say anything of another which he would not wish thought or said of himself.--st. teresa. we should study the interests of others as our own, and be careful to act on all occasions with uprightness and loyalty.--st. vincent de paul. it is god himself who receives what we give in charity, and is it not an incomparable happiness to give him what belongs to him, and what we have received from his goodness alone?--st. vincent de paul. let your constant practice be to offer yourself to god, that he may do with you what he pleases.--st. alphonsus. it is not enough to forbid our own tongue to murmur; we must also refuse to listen to murmurers.--ven. louis de granada. we can obtain no reward without merit, and no merit without patience.-- st. alphonsus. no harp sends forth such sweet harmonies as are produced in the afflicted heart by the holy name of mary. let us kneel to reverence this holy, this sublime name of mary!--bl. henry suso. the life of a true christian should be such that he fears neither death nor any event of his life, but endures and submits to all things with a good heart.--st. teresa. we should abandon ourselves entirely into the hands of god, and believe that his providence disposes everything that he wishes or permits to happen to us for our greater good.--st. vincent de paul. regulate and direct all your actions to god, offering them to him and beseeching him to grant that they be for his honor and glory.--st. teresa. [illustration: hail, virgin most pure!] conformity to the will of god is an easy and certain means of acquiring a great treasure of graces in this life.--st. vincent de paul. do not consider what others do, or how they do it; for there are but few who really work for their own sanctification.--st. alphonsus. to-day god invites you to do good; do it therefore to-day. to-morrow you may not have time, or god may no longer call you to do it.--st. alphonsus. to advance in the way of perfection it does not suffice to say a number of weak prayers; our principal care should be to acquire solid virtues.--st. teresa. humility is the virtue of our lord jesus christ, of his blessed mother, and of the greatest saints. it embraces all virtues and, where it is sincere, introduces them into the soul.--st. vincent de paul. it will be a great consolation for us at the hour of death to know that we are to be judged by him whom we have loved above all things during life.--st. teresa. humble submission and obedience to the decrees of the sovereign pontiffs are good means for distinguishing the loyal from the rebellious children of the church.--st. vincent de paul. the devil attacks us at the time of prayer more frequently than at other times. his object is to make us weary of prayer.--bl. henry suso. it is an act as rare as it is precious, to transact business with many people, without ever forgetting god or oneself.--st. ignatius. god is our light. the farther the soul strays away from god, the deeper it goes into darkness.--st. alphonsus. true christian prudence makes us submit our intellect to the maxims of the gospel without fear of being deceived. it teaches us to judge things as jesus christ judged them, and to speak and act as he did.--st. vincent de paul. remember that men change easily, and that you can not place your trust in them; therefore attach yourself to god alone.--st. teresa. if we secretly feel a desire to appear greater or better than others, we must repress it at once.--st. teresa. the king of heaven deigned to be born in a stable, because he came to destroy pride, the cause of man's ruin.--st. alphonsus. to save our souls we must live according to the maxims of the gospel, and not according to those of the world.--st. alphonsus. be gentle and kind with every one, and severe with yourself.--st. teresa. if you wish to be pleasing to god and happy here below, be in all things united to his will.--st. alphonsus. in proportion as the love of god increases in our soul, so does also the love of suffering.--st. vincent de paul. he who keeps steadily on without pausing, will reach the end of his path and the summit of perfection.--st. teresa. the past is no longer yours; the future is not yet in your power. you have only the present wherein to do good.--st. alphonsus. part vii reasonableness of catholic ceremonies and practices "let the children of israel make the phase in due time . . . according to all the ceremonies thereof" (_num._ ix , ). reasonableness of catholic ceremonies and practices "the priest shall be vested with the tunic" (_lev._ vi. ). "and he made, of violet and purple, scarlet and fine linen, the vestments for aaron to wear when he ministered in the holy places, as the lord commanded moses" (_ex._ xxxix. ). "in every place there is sacrifice and there is offered to my name a clean offering" (_malach._ i. ). "and another angel came and stood before the altar, having a golden censer: and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of god" (_apoc._ viii. ). the ceremonies of the catholic church the catholic church in the celebration of mass and in the administration of the sacraments employs certain forms and rites. these are called ceremonies. by these ceremonies the church wishes to appeal to the heart as well as to the intellect, and to impress the faithful with sentiments of faith and piety. what is more capable of raising the heart and mind of man to god than a priest celebrating mass? what more inspiring than some of our sacred music? how beneficial and how lasting the impression formed by the ceremonies of the church, the following incident will show: one of our missionaries once went to visit a tribe of indians who had been deprived of a priest for nearly half a century. after traveling through the forest for some days he came near their village. 'twas sunday morning. suddenly the silence was broken by a number of voices singing in unison. he stopped to listen. to his great astonishment he distinguished the music of a mass, and of catholic hymns well known to him. what could be more touching than this simple, savage people endeavoring to celebrate the lord's day as they had been taught by the priest fifty years before? what more elevating than those sacred songs--the _stabat mater_, the _o salutaris_, or the _te deum_--uttered by pious lips and resounding through the forest primeval? what better evidence could we have of the beneficial effects of our ceremonies in raising the heart to god? and yet few things connected with our holy religion have been more frequently subjected to ridicule than her ceremonies. people scoff at them, laugh at them, call them foolish and unreasonable. those people do not stop to consider that by doing so they, themselves, are acting most unreasonably. for no reasonable person, no judge, will condemn another without hearing both sides of the question. these wiseacres, however, flatter themselves that they know all about the catholic church and her ceremonies without hearing her side of the case. hence the misunderstandings and misrepresentations regarding her that exist among well-meaning people. if people would but learn to speak about that which they knew and understood; if they would accord to the catholic church the same treatment as to other institutions; if they would examine both sides of the question before criticising and ridiculing her teachings and her ceremonies; if they would but treat her with that openness, that fairness, that candor, that honesty characteristic of the american citizen when dealing with other questions--what a vast amount of ignorance, of prejudice, of sin would be avoided! we claim that ceremonies used in the worship of god are reasonable, because they were sanctioned by god in the old testament and by jesus christ and his apostles in the new law. i. ceremonies necessary to divine worship the angels are pure spirits. they have no body. consequently the worship they render god is spiritual, interior. the heavenly bodies are not spiritual, but entirely material substances. they render god a sort of external worship according to the words of the prophet daniel, "sun and moon bless the lord, . . . stars of heaven bless the lord. praise and exalt him forever." man has a soul, a spiritual substance similar to the heavenly bodies. he should, therefore, honor god by the twofold form of worship, interior and exterior. "god is a spirit; and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth" (_john_ iv. ). from these words of the beloved disciple we are not to conclude that interior worship is prescribed as the only essential, and exterior worship condemned. true piety must manifest itself externally. man naturally manifests his feelings by outward signs and ceremonies. the catholic church recognizes that man has a heart to be moved as well as an intellect to be enlightened. she enlightens the intellect by her good books, sermons, etc.; and she moves the heart by the grandeur of her ceremonies. if any one doubts that god considers ceremonies necessary to divine worship, let him read the books of leviticus and exodus. almost the whole of these books treats of the rites and ceremonies used by the then chosen people of god in their public worship. the th, th, and th chapters of exodus prescribe the form of the tabernacle and its appurtenances, the size of the altar and the oil for the lamps, and the holy vestments which aaron and his sons were to wear during the performance of the public ceremonies. the book of leviticus treats more particularly of the sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies of the priests and levites. "and the lord called moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of the testimony, saying: speak to the children of israel, and thou shalt say to them: the man among you that shall offer to the lord a sacrifice of the cattle, that is, offering victims of oxen and sheep, if his offering be a holocaust and of the herd, he shall offer a male, without blemish, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, to make the lord favorable to him. and he shall put his hand upon the head of the victim, and it shall be acceptable and help to his expiation" (_lev._ i. _ et seq._). after enumerating all the sacrifices and ceremonies, the sacred writer closes the book of leviticus with the words, "these are the precepts which the lord commanded moses for the children of israel in mount sinai," thus showing that he considers ceremonies necessary to divine worship. the religion instituted by our lord and saviour jesus christ is more spiritual than that of the old law. nevertheless he did not discard ceremonies. in the garden of gethsemani he fell upon his knees in humble supplication. he went in procession to jerusalem preceded by a great multitude strewing palm-branches on the road and singing, "hosanna to the son of david." before he cured the deaf and dumb man, he put his fingers into his ears and touched his tongue with spittle, and looking up to heaven he groaned and said, "ephpheta," which is, "be thou opened." at the last supper he invoked a blessing on the bread and wine, and after the supper he chanted a hymn with his disciples--ceremonies similar to those used in the mass. when he imparted the holy ghost to his apostles, he breathed upon them. in a similar way they and their successors communicated the holy ghost upon others by breathing upon them, laying their hands upon them and praying over them, when conferring the sacrament of holy orders. st. james directs that if any man is sick he shall call in a priest of the church, who shall anoint him with oil, as is done in the sacrament of extreme unction. we must, therefore, admit that ceremonies used in the worship of god are reasonable, since they are sanctioned by god in the old law and by jesus christ and his apostles in the new testament. all these acts of our saviour--the prostration in the garden, the procession to jerusalem, the touching of the deaf man's ears, the chanting of the hymn, the laying on of hands, the anointing of the sick--are but so many ceremonies serving as models of the ceremonies used by the catholic church in her public worship and in the administration of her sacraments. ii. vestments used by the priest at mass before entering upon an explanation of the ceremonies of the mass, which is our principal act of public worship, let us examine the meaning of the vestments worn by the priest during the celebration of that august sacrifice. first, it is well to remember that these vestments come down to us from the time of the apostles, and have the weight of antiquity hanging upon them. hence, if they did not demand our respect as memorials of christ, they are at least deserving of attention on account of their antiquity. the th chapter of exodus tells us the sacred vestments god wished the priests of the old law to wear during the public worship. "and these shall be the vestments which they shall make: a rational and an ephod, a tunic and a straight linen garment, a mitre and a girdle. they shall make the holy vestments for thy brother aaron and his sons, that they may do the office of priesthood unto me." as god in the old law prescribed vestments for the priests, so the church, guided by god, prescribes sacred vestments to be worn by the priest of the new law while engaged in the sacred mysteries. the long black garment which the priest wears around the church in all the sacred functions is called a _cassock_. kings and officers of the army wear a special uniform when performing their public duties; priests wear _cassocks_ and other special garments when performing their public duties. these vestments are used to excite the minds of the faithful to the contemplation of heavenly things. who, for example, can behold the cross on the chasuble the priest wears without thinking of all christ suffered for us on the cross? as the priest in celebrating mass represents the person of christ, and the mass represents his passion, the vestments he wears represent those with which christ was clothed at the time of the passion. the first vestment the priest puts on over the _cassock_ is called an _amice_. it is made of linen, and reminds us of the veil that covered the face of jesus when his persecutors struck him. (_luke_ xxii. .) when the priest puts on the _amice_ he first places it on his head, thus recalling to mind the crown of thorns that pierced the head of jesus. the _alb_ (from _albus_, white) represents the white garment with which christ was vested by herod when sent back to pilate dressed as a fool. (_luke_ xxii. .) white is emblematic of purity. hence the wearer is reminded of that purity of mind and body which he should have who serves the altar of the most high. the _cincture_, or girdle, as well as the _maniple_ and _stole_, represent the cords and bands with which christ was bound in the different stages of his passion. st. matthew says in the d verse of the th chapter, "they brought him _bound_ and delivered him to pontius pilate, the governor." the _chasuble_, or outer vestment the priest wears, represents the purple garment with which christ was clothed as a mock king. "and they clothed him with purple" (_mark_ xv. ). upon the back of the _chasuble_ you see a cross. this represents the cross christ bore on his sacred shoulders to calvary, and upon which he was crucified. in these vestments, that is, in the _chasuble_, _stole_, and _maniple_, the church uses five colors--white, red, purple, green, and black. white, which is symbolic of purity and innocence, is used on the feasts of our lord, of the blessed virgin, of the angels, and of the saints that were not martyrs. red, the symbol of fortitude, is used on the feast of pentecost, of the exaltation of the cross, of the apostles and martyrs. purple, or violet (the color of penance), is used in advent and lent. green (the color of hope) is used on all sundays when no special feast is celebrated, except the sundays of lent and advent. black (the color of mourning) is used on good friday and during the celebration of mass for the dead. thus we see that each vestment and color used has a special significance. all are calculated to attract our attention, elevate our minds to god, and fill us with a desire to do something for him who has done so much for us--to at least keep his commandments. one word about the use of latin in the celebration of mass will perhaps be appropriate here. history tells us that when christianity was established the roman empire had control of nearly all of europe, asia, and africa. wherever the roman flag floated to the breeze the latin language was spoken, just as english is spoken where the sovereign of great britain or the president of the united states holds sway. the church naturally adopted in her liturgy the language spoken by the people. in the beginning of the fifth century vast hordes of barbarians began to come from the north of europe and spread desolation over the fairest portions of the roman empire. soon the empire was broken up. new kingdoms began to be formed, new languages to be developed. the latin finally ceased to be a living language. the church retained it in her liturgy, st, because, as her doctrine and liturgy are unchangeable, she wishes the language of her doctrine and liturgy to be unchangeable; d, because, as the church is spread over the whole world, embracing in her fold children of all climes, nations, and languages--as she is universal--she must have a universal language; d, because the catholic clergy are in constant communication with the holy see, and this requires a uniform language. besides, when a priest says mass the people, by their english missals or other prayer-books, are able to follow him from beginning to end. the mass is a sacrifice. the prayers of the mass are offered to god. hence when the priest says mass he is speaking not to the people, but to god, to whom all languages are equally intelligible. are not these sufficient reasons for the use of the latin language? are not good catholics more attentive, more devout at mass than others at their prayer-meetings? the good catholic knows that the mass represents the passion and death of christ; that the passion and death of christ are the sinner's only refuge, the just man's only hope; that it can not but be good and wholesome to turn our minds and our hearts toward this subject; that frequent meditation on christ's passion will move us to avoid sin, which caused it; and that nothing can more efficaciously cause us to think of christ's passion and death than the holy sacrifice of the mass. iii. ceremonies of the mass the mass is the great sacrifice of the new law. it was foreshadowed by all the sacrifices ordained by god in the old law. they were shadows; it is the substance. we learn from genesis of the fall of man. universal tradition, as well as scripture, informs us that the creature formerly became guilty in the eyes of the creator. all nations, all peoples, endeavored to appease the anger of heaven and believed that a victim was necessary for this purpose. hence sacrifices have been offered from the beginning of the human race. cain and abel offered victims; the one the first fruits of the earth, the other the firstlings of the flock. abraham, isaac, jacob, and melchisedech worshiped this way, and their worship was acceptable to god. everywhere, even among the heathen, you find the altar, the priest, and the sacrifice. as we learn from leviticus and other portions of the old testament, god himself carefully prescribed the quality, manner, number, and place of the various sacrifices which he was pleased to accept from the hands of his chosen people. from this fact that sacrifice has ever formed a prominent feature in the worship of all people, we conclude that it belongs to the essentials of religion, and that christians to-day should have an altar of which, as st. paul says, "they can not eat who serve the tabernacle." the sacrifices of the old law were provisional and prefigured the great sacrifice of the new law foretold by the prophet malachy. this glorious prophecy of malachy, "from the rising of the sun even to the going down my name is great among the gentiles; in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean offering; for my name is great among the gentiles, saith the lord of hosts"--this glorious prophecy is fulfilled only by the great sacrifice of the catholic church. we alone can say with st. paul, "_habemus altare_" "we have an altar" and a true sacrifice. of all the blessings bequeathed by jesus christ to his church, there is none better, none greater, none holier than the holy sacrifice of the mass. it is the sacrifice of his own body and blood offered to the heavenly father under the appearances of bread and wine. it was instituted by our lord at the last supper, when he took bread and wine in his sacred hands and blessed them, saying, "this is my body. . . . this is my blood. . . . do this for a remembrance of me." he instituted the holy mass in order to represent and continue the sacrifice of calvary. st paul says, in his first epistle to the corinthians, xi. , that it was instituted to show the death of the lord until his second coming. after the consecration, which the priest effects by saying over the bread and wine the same words which jesus christ said at the last supper, there is no longer bread and wine, but the true and living jesus christ, god and man, hidden under the appearances of bread and wine, just as in the manger he was hidden under the appearance of an infant. the priest offers him up to his heavenly father in the name of the catholic church, or rather he offers himself up, and we can confidently hope that we will obtain more through prayers at the holy mass than through our own unaided prayers. in order to have part in the holy sacrifice of the mass a person should follow the actions and prayers of the priest, especially at the offertory, consecration, and communion; meditate on the passion of christ; say the rosary or the prayers in the prayer-books, at the same time uniting his intention with the intention of the sacrificing priest. the sacrifice of the mass is a true sacrifice, because it is the oblation of a victim to god to represent by its destruction or change his supreme dominion over life and death. it is offered to satisfy our four great debts and wants in adoration to god on account of his omnipotence, in thanksgiving for his benefits, in atonement for our sins, and to obtain his assistance in difficulties and temptations. the holy mass obtains for us all graces and blessings, temporal and spiritual. since the mass is the highest act of public worship, it is proper that it should be celebrated with fitting sacred ceremonies. every ceremony which the church prescribes has its deep significance. all tend to bring before our minds the mystery of the passion. the _altar_, which is reached by means of steps, represents mount calvary, upon which christ died with his arms extended as if to enfold all men as brothers. the _crucifix_ recalls jesus dying on the cross. the _lighted candles_ are symbols of the faith and devotion which ought to burn in the hearts of the faithful when present at mass. the _sacred vestments_, embroidered with the sign of the cross, indicate that the priest is the minister and visible representative of jesus christ, the invisible priest. the sign of the cross made many times by the priest over the host and chalice reminds us that we offer to god the divine victim of the cross, and that we ought to unite ourselves to him by loving the cross, by patience and christian penance. we genuflect because our lord is really present. if we know he is not present on the altar we bow in honor of the place where he sometimes reposes. _holy water_ is used to signify that our souls must be pure if we wish god to answer our prayers. _incense_ is used at solemn high mass and at vespers. it is symbolic of prayer, agreeably to the words of the th psalm: "let my prayer, o lord, be directed as incense in thy sight." and st. john, describing the heavenly jerusalem in the th chapter of the apocalypse, says: "another angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne of god." the sacrifice of the mass, then, is the sacrifice of calvary, since the same victim is offered up and by the same high priest, jesus christ. the emanuel, the god with us, the thought of whom made the prophets tremble centuries before he came, that divine teacher who loves to dwell with the children of men, the catholic church beholds dwelling in the midst of us on our altars. if you have visited some of our ancient cathedrals, or any of our magnificent modern churches, and admired the varied ornaments or artistic wonders therein; if you have ever been present at our religious solemnities and witnessed the gravity of our ceremonies, the beauty of the chants, the piety of the adorers; if you have reflected upon the spirit of sacrifice and self-forgetfulness so common to catholicism and so unknown elsewhere--that spirit which moves thousands of the young of both sexes to forsake the world and devote themselves to the care of the sick, the education of the young, and to other works of charity--if you have witnessed these things and reflected upon them, you can not but have asked yourself why are such gorgeous temples built; why such magnificent works of art as displayed on the altar, the sacred vessels, paintings, and other things in the church? what prompts such sacrifices? and the answer will be, because the church is the edifice where god in the holy mass daily renews the prodigies of his mercy, and it can never be worthy of his love; because god, who sacrificed himself for us, is ever with us in the blessed sacrament of the altar, to soothe our cares and answer our prayers. yes, the grand feature of the catholic church is the holy altar. on the altar is the tabernacle for the residence of the lord of hosts. there our "hidden god," jesus in the eucharist, dwells night and day in the midst of his people, saying to them with words of love, "come to me all you that are burdened and heavy laden, and i will refresh you." the mass, independent of its sacrificial aspect, consists of the best prayers ever uttered. the priest begins by making the sign of the cross, "in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost." this sign is an epitome of the christian's belief in the unity and trinity of god and in the incarnation and death of jesus christ. after making the sign of the cross he repeats the d psalm, "judge me, o god," and then makes an humble confession of his sins to god. he ascends the altar and nine times asks god to have mercy on him, _kyrie eleison_; then follows the beautiful hymn the shepherds heard the angels singing at the birth of the saviour, _gloria in excelsis deo_. the prayer of the feast, the epistle and gospel follow, and then the sermon in the vernacular is usually preached. after the nicene creed, _credo in unum deum_, the priest makes the offering of bread and wine. he then washes the tips of his fingers, saying: "i will wash my hands among the innocent," by which he is reminded to be free from stain to offer worthily the holy sacrifice. the preface, canon, and solemn words of consecration follow, during which the bread and wine are changed by the power of jesus christ into his body and blood. in a short time he comes to the best of all prayers, the prayer taught us by our lord and saviour jesus christ, the our father, _pater noster_. the _agnus dei_ follows, then the communion, when he partakes of the consecrated bread and wine, and afterward gives holy communion to the faithful. he then continues the mass, gives his blessing, and finishes the mass with the beginning of the gospel of st. john. hence you see that, besides the great sacrifice which makes it an act worthy of god, the mass consists of the best of all prayers. from what has been said it is evident that ceremonies in the worship of god are reasonable, being sanctioned by god in the old and new testaments; that the holy sacrifice of the mass is the greatest of all acts of worship; and that the catholic church in using ceremonies is but following the example of our lord and saviour jesus christ and his apostles. st. john in the book of revelations tells us that before the throne of god angels stand with golden censers, multitudes from all nations follow and adore the lamb, while virgins sing the new song which they alone can utter. so, too, before the throne of god on earth we swing our censers, multitudes from all nations prostrate themselves in adoration, the sweet incense of their praise and prayer ascends to the throne of grace, their minds are enlightened by god's word, while their hearts are raised to god by the grandeur of our ceremonies. the son of god, after having taught us by his word, shown us by his example, and merited for us by his grace the virtues necessary for salvation, wished to institute the holy sacrifice of the mass, that he might come himself in the holy sacrament and imprint them upon us. of these virtues, the most important are _humility_, _purity_, _obedience_, _patience_, and _charity_. let us always ask god when present at the holy mass for a lively faith in his _real presence_, an ardent love for him in the blessed sacrament of the altar, and the grace to imitate his humility, his purity, his meekness, obedience, patience, and charity _here_, and enjoy his presence forever _hereafter_. the following beautiful words of cardinal newman show that the mass is something more than a mere form of words, and that ceremonies are reasonable as well as necessary in its celebration: "to me nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the mass said as it is among us. i could attend masses forever and not be tired. it is not a mere form of words--it is a great action, the greatest action that can be on earth. it is not the invocation merely, but, if i dare use the word, the evocation of the eternal. he becomes present on the altar in flesh and blood, before whom angels bow and devils tremble. this is that awful event which is the scope and the interpretation of every part of the solemnity. words are necessary, but as means, not as ends; they are not mere addresses to the throne of grace, they are instruments of what is far higher, of consecration, of sacrifice. "they hurry on as if impatient to fulfil their mission. quickly they go, for they are awful words of sacrifice; they are a work too great to delay upon, as when it was said in the beginning, 'what thou doest, do quickly.' quickly they pass, for the lord jesus goes with them, as he passed along the lake in the days of his flesh, quickly calling first one and then another; quickly they pass, because as the lightning which shineth from one part of the heaven unto the other, so is the coming of the son of man. "quickly they pass, for they are as the words of moses, when the lord came down in the cloud, calling on the name of the lord as he passed by, 'the lord, the lord god, merciful and generous, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.' and as moses on the mountain, so we, too, make haste and bow our heads to the earth and adore. "so we, all around, each in his place, look for the great advent 'waiting for the moving of the water,' each in his place, with his own heart, with his own wants, with his own prayers, separate but concordant, watching what is going on, watching its progress, uniting in its consummation; not painfully, and hopelessly following a hard form of prayer from beginning to end, but like a concert of musical instruments each different, but concurring in sweet harmony, we take our post with god's priest, supporting him, yet guided by him. there are little children there, and old men, and simple laborers, and students in seminaries, priests preparing for mass, priests making their thanksgiving, there are innocent maidens, and there are penitent sinners; but out of these many minds rises one eucharistic hymn, and the great action is the measure and the scope of it." the practices of the catholic church i. vespers and benediction "remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day" (_ex_. xx. ). this commandment teaches us that god wills the whole sunday to be spent in his honor. we should sanctify it by good works, and by assisting at divine service. on that day servile works and improper amusements are forbidden. a salutary rest and moderate recreation are allowed, but never at the expense of duties of obligation. after hearing mass on sunday morning, which is obligatory on all catholics, there is no better way of sanctifying the remainder of the day than by attending vespers and benediction. the vesper service is a small portion of the divine office, which priests must recite daily, for god's honor and glory. it consists of five of the psalms of david (dixit dominus, ps. ; confitebor tibi, ps. ; beatus vir, ps. ; laudate pueri, ps. ; in exitu israel, ps. , or laudate dominum, ps. ), a hymn, the magnificat, or canticle of the virgin mary, from the first chapter of st. luke, and some prayers. is it not reasonable thus to praise god in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles? benediction of the blessed sacrament usually follows vespers. the catholic church teaches that jesus christ is really present in the blessed sacrament. the reasonableness of this teaching will be seen in the following article. since jesus christ is present, he ought to be adored by the faithful. faithful adorers frequently visit him in the blessed sacrament and worship him in "spirit and in truth." hence, the blessed sacrament is kept in the tabernacle on our altars to soothe our cares, answer our prayers, and be ready at any time to be administered to the sick and dying. besides our private devotion to the blessed sacrament, the church has appointed solemn rites to show publicly our faith and devotion toward the real presence of jesus christ. these rites are processions on corpus christi, the forty hours' devotion, and, especially, the rite called benediction. when it is time for benediction many candles are lighted on the altar. this is done to show our faith in the real presence of jesus christ. if he were not present, this display would be unreasonable, unnecessary, and meaningless. but the candles we light, the incense we burn, the flowers and other ornaments we use to decorate the altar, and all that we do for our lord and saviour jesus christ can not be too much. everything being prepared, the priest takes the blessed sacrament out of the tabernacle, and, placing it in the ostensorium, exposes it on an elevated throne, while the choir sings in honor of the blessed sacrament the hymn "o salutaris hostia," "o saving host." the priest incenses our lord in the blessed sacrament, as, according to the apocalypse, angels do in heaven. another hymn or a litany follows; after which is sung the "tantum ergo," "down in adoration falling," followed by a prayer by the priest. then in the midst of a solemn silence (except that a small bell is tinkled) the priest takes the monstrance, or ostensorium, containing the blessed sacrament, and, turning toward the people, makes with it the sign of the cross over them, thus blessing the faithful with the most holy one. this is certainly a most touching and impressive rite even to those who do not believe in it. cardinal newman calls it one of the most beautiful, natural, and soothing practices of the church. no one will deny that this practice, or rite of the church, is reasonable, if jesus christ is really present in the blessed sacrament. that he is really present is our belief. this being our belief, is it not reasonable to light candles as a sign of spiritual joy, and thus to show our faith in him who is the light of the world? he gave us all that we have. he gave us the beautiful world we dwell upon with its variety of scenery--with its snow-capped mountains, its green-carpeted hills, and its blooming valleys. he has no need of our gifts; for the earth is his "and the fulness thereof." yet as he was pleased to receive the gifts of the magi and the precious ointment of mary, so, too, is he pleased to receive our offerings. and is anything too good, too beautiful, too precious, for him? can the altar on which he dwells be too richly adorned? are the pure candles we light, the sweet incense we burn, the choice flowers and costly ornaments with which we decorate the altar, too much to use in honor of our lord and our god? yes, the catholic practice or rite of benediction is dictated by right reason. everything connected with benediction is reasonable, beautiful, and suggestive of the _noblest sentiments of the heart of man_. [illustration: mary, star of the sea.] ii. devotion to the blessed sacrament "and whilst they were at supper, jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke, and gave to his disciples, and said: take ye and eat. this is my body" (_matt_. xxvi. ). perhaps no mystery of revelation has been so universally attacked as the real presence of jesus christ in the blessed sacrament of the altar. by the real presence is meant that jesus christ is really and truly, body and blood, soul and divinity, present in the blessed sacrament, under the form and appearance of bread and wine. this teaching of the church is in perfect agreement with scripture, tradition, and reason. if the reader will take up his bible and read carefully the th chapter of the gospel according to st. john; the th chapter, th, th, and th verses of st. matthew; the th chapter, d verse of st. mark; the first epistle of st. paul to the corinthians, th chapter, th verse, as well as other portions of the new testament, he will certainly see that the catholic teaching and practice concerning the real presence of jesus christ in the blessed sacrament are founded on scripture. in this th chapter of st. john, we learn that before instituting the blessed sacrament our saviour wished to announce or promise it to his disciples in order to prepare them for it. he first gave them a figure of the blessed sacrament in the multiplication of the five loaves of bread by which he fed five thousand persons. after this miracle he told them that he would give them bread superior to that which they had eaten, and that this bread was his own flesh and blood. "the bread that i will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." it is almost impossible to understand these words of our lord in any other than a literal sense. he was so understood by those who heard him. "how can this man give us his flesh to eat?" they said, and many withdrew from him. it is but reasonable to believe that if he did not wish to be understood in a literal sense he would have told his hearers so, rather than have them leave him. this promise of a doctrine so difficult to understand was fulfilled at the last supper. then jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke, and gave to his disciples, and said: "take ye and eat. this is my body." and taking the chalice he gave thanks; and gave to them, saying: "drink ye all of this. for this is my blood of the new testament which shall be shed for many for the remission of sins." "do this for a commemoration of me." these are substantially the words of ss. matthew, mark, luke, and of the apostle paul. in the th chapter of the first epistle to the corinthians, st. paul says: "the chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of christ? and the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the lord?" any one of these texts abundantly proves the catholic doctrine of the real presence, and shows the reasonableness of the catholic practice regarding the blessed sacrament. reflect upon them. reflect especially upon the words of christ, "this is my body." think what an insult it is to the divinity and veracity of christ to doubt his word, because you can not understand how what appears to be bread is in reality his own body and blood. if you remember that jesus christ is god, that he had the power to make this change, that he could confer this power on others, as the apostles and their successors, that he did so when he said: "do this in commemoration of me," and that this change at the present time as at the time of the apostles is made by his almighty power, you will have no difficulty in believing it. the belief and practice of the catholic church of to-day regarding the blessed sacrament is the same as it was in every age since the time of christ. the history of every century tells us this. the fathers, doctors, and church writers of every age say the same. if it were not so, some one ought to be able to find the time when the doctrine was invented, and the person who invented it. but, since no one has been able to find the inventor of this doctrine and practice, the time or place of the invention, we rightly conclude that they came down to us from the time of christ, and had christ for an author. (berengarius, in the eleventh century, was the first who denied this doctrine.) if, then, christ is the author, is not the catholic practice reasonable? but i don't understand the catholic doctrine regarding the blessed sacrament, some one may say; therefore it is contrary to reason. dear reader, did the consummate puerility, silliness, foolishness of such an objection ever present itself to you? do you understand the blessed trinity? and is it contrary to reason? no. although above reason, it is not against it. do you understand how jesus christ is both god and man? do you understand any mystery? no. if you did it would no longer be a mystery. for a mystery is something above human intelligence. it is something incomprehensible to us, for it pertains to the divine intelligence. and as well might you attempt to pour the mighty ocean into a small hole on the shore, as attempt to hold with your limited capacity the illimitable ocean of divinity. the proper office of reason is to examine the evidences of revelation, and see if god has spoken. but it constitutes no part of its office to dispute the word of god. that god has spoken is evident from the fulfilment of many prophecies and the authority of many miracles. that these prophecies have been fulfilled, and these miracles performed, is as certain as is any historical fact. reason teaches us this. it teaches us, too, that no one but god (or by the power of god) can prophesy; no one but god can derogate from the order of nature, by the performance of a miracle. reason teaches us, then, that god has spoken. when we know god speaks, genuine reason will dictate that we humbly believe his holy word. thus will true reason ever act. and when god says, "this is my body," it will not hesitate to believe. we all believe that at the baptism of our saviour by st. john baptist, the holy ghost appeared in the form of a dove. now, is it not as reasonable for jesus christ, the second person of the blessed trinity, to appear in the form of bread as it was for the holy ghost, the third person of the trinity, to appear in the form of a dove? we must therefore admit that the catholic doctrine of the real presence of jesus christ in the blessed sacrament is reasonable; that it has been believed by the christian church of every age from the time of christ until the present time; and that it is taught by ss. matthew, mark, luke, and john, and by st. paul in clear and unmistakable terms. now, dear reader, since jesus christ is really present, is not the catholic practice regarding the blessed sacrament reasonable? should we not honor our lord and our god? should we not adore him as really present in the blessed sacrament? should we not frequently receive him with pure and contrite hearts? should we not, when we enter the church, genuflect, bend the knee in his honor? should we not show him every mark of respect and devotion? can we do too much in his honor? let us, then, adore our lord and our god, for we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. let us return love for love to the great king of suffering, who was born for love of us, who died for love of us, and who, for love of us, remains ever with us in the blessed sacrament. let us ask that our faith and love may persevere to the end; that loving and adoring him here in the blessed sacrament of his love, _we may be united with him forever hereafter_. iii. holy communion "he that eateth this bread shall live forever" (_john_ vi. ) holy communion is receiving the body and blood of christ in the blessed sacrament. the clergy when saying mass, except on good friday, receive under both forms. when not celebrating mass, they receive only the one kind, the consecrated bread. in the early ages of the church communion was given to the people under both forms. the faithful, however, could, if they wished, dispense with one form and receive under the form of bread. this shows that the church always taught that christ is entire both under the form of bread and under the form of wine. at one time the faithful received under both forms; now they receive under one form, the form of bread. it is merely a matter of discipline, which the church could change, if circumstances demanded it. whether you receive under one form or both, you receive whole and entire the body and blood of christ. this is clearly taught by st. paul in the th chapter of the first epistle to the corinthians, where he says: "whosoever shall eat this bread, _or_ drink the chalice of the lord _unworthily_, shall be guilty of the body _and_ blood of the lord." how could a person eating that bread unworthily be guilty of the body and blood of the lord, unless the body and blood of the lord were there under the form of bread? since jesus christ is whole and entire under the form of bread, as well as under the form of wine, the practice of the catholic church of giving holy communion under one form is reasonable. good christians frequently receive their lord and their god in holy communion. he inspires them with feelings of love, gratitude, and adoration. he reminds them to think frequently of their creator--to give him their first thoughts in the morning and their last in the evening. he gives them strength to restrain their guilty passions. holy communion is the seed of immortality. "he that eateth this bread _shall live forever_." iv. confirmation "then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the holy ghost" (_acts_ viii. ). before the coming of the holy ghost on pentecost, the apostles were weak and vacillating. one of them betrayed his master for thirty pieces of silver; another--the prince of the apostles, he whom christ afterward made head of his church--thrice denied his lord and his god. after the descent of the holy ghost, what a change! what a wonderful transformation! they who before had been as timid as the lamb, as changeable as the chameleon's hue, became now as bold as the lion, as firm as gibraltar's rock. in a similar way does confirmation act on the receiver. confirmation is that sacrament in which, by the imposition of the bishop's hands, we receive the holy ghost to make us strong and perfect christians and soldiers of jesus christ. it is the second in the order of the sacraments, because the early christians were accustomed to receive it immediately after baptism. in the th chapter of the acts of the apostles we find the first recorded instance of the administering of confirmation by the apostles. here we are told that st. peter and st. john confirmed the samaritans who had been baptized by philip. "they prayed for them that they might receive the holy ghost. . . . then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the holy ghost." in a similar way does the bishop, the successor of the apostles, administer confirmation at the present day. first, he turns toward those to be confirmed and says: "may the holy ghost come down upon you and the power of the most high keep you from sin." then extending his hands over them he prays that they may receive the holy ghost. in the th verse of the th chapter of the acts the sacred writer, after telling about the baptism of the disciples at ephesus, adds: "and when paul had laid his hands upon them the holy ghost came on them." in the th chapter of the epistle to the hebrews st. paul mentions confirmation, the laying on of hands, with baptism and penance, as among the principal practices of christianity. the sacrament of confirmation has been administered to the faithful of every age from the time of christ until the present. we learn this from the fathers and writers of the various ages. among them st. clement says: "all must make haste to be confirmed by a bishop, and receive the sevenfold grace of the holy ghost." the practice of administering confirmation is founded on tradition, then, as well as on scripture. is it not reasonable to believe and practise that which the christian church of every age believed and practised? the apostles of christ administered confirmation by praying that the faithful may receive the holy ghost and laying their hands upon them. the successors of the apostles do likewise. who will say that this practice is not reasonable? baptism gives spiritual life; confirmation increases it. baptism makes persons children of god; confirmation strengthens them, causes them to grow, and makes them strong men and soldiers of jesus christ. all the morality of life is implied in the sacrament of confirmation. it strengthens man, it gives him courage to confess god; and as sin is the denial of god, whoever has courage to confess _god will practise virtue_. v. honoring the blessed virgin "the angel gabriel was sent from god . . . to a virgin . . . and the virgin's name was mary. and the angel being come in said to her: hail, full of grace, the lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women" (_luke_ i. , ). "from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (_luke_ i. ). these words from st. luke show that the catholic practice of honoring mary is scriptural. we alone fulfil the prophecy, "from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." if mary was so pure that the archangel gabriel could salute her as full of grace; if she was so perfect as to be honored, respected, and loved by her divine son, jesus christ, is it not reasonable that we, too, should honor, respect, and love her? how we honor the sword of washington! what a cluster of tender recollections clings to the staff of franklin! is there a loyal american citizen who does not think with feelings of love and respect of the mother of our revolutionary hero, or who would not doff his hat at the unveiling of a statue of the sage of monticello? and why? is it on account of their intrinsic merit? no. we honor them principally on account of the relation they bear to those three brightest stars in the american firmament. so it is with the honor we show to mary, the mother of god. although she was an example of all virtues, we honor her principally because it was through her instrumentality he was born by whom we achieved not civil liberty, but the liberty of the children of god. she did not draw lightning from heaven, nor the scepter from kings; but she brought forth him who is the lord of heaven and king of kings. the principal reason, then, why we honor mary is because she is the mother of our lord and saviour jesus christ. this honor consists of love, respect, and veneration. we love her with an interior love, a love proceeding from the heart; nor should we fear to let this love appear outwardly. when others revile her, speak disrespectfully of her, we should shrink from the very idea of acting similarly toward her. we should then remember that she is the mother of our saviour, and should ask ourselves how we would have acted toward her had we lived in her day and been witnesses of the honor shown her by her divine son. by so doing we will show her that love which is her due. our respect, our veneration for her, should be affectionate and deep. when we remember that it was her hand that first lifted from the ground and received in maternal embrace the sacred body of jesus, just born and just dead; when we think how respectfully elizabeth greeted her; when we recall to mind the reverent salutation of the archangel; when we consider the honor shown her by the apostles and by her own divine son, can we help feeling a deep love, respect, and veneration for her? you see, dear reader, honoring mary is scriptural and reasonable. but if we should honor her principally because she is the mother of god, we should also honor her because she is the peerless glory, the matchless jewel of her sex. she constitutes a sole exception to a general law. sin never contaminated, never touched her fair soul. this is what we mean by the immaculate conception. god created the first man free from sin. but he transgressed the law of god, and, by his transgression, all his posterity are born in sin and conceived in iniquity. for st. paul says: "by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned" (_rom._ v. ). but god promised that the woman, mary, should crush the head of the serpent. now if she was to crush the head of the serpent, it was fit that she should never be under his power, that she should be pure, free from sin of every kind. there have been exceptions to all general laws. at the time of the deluge noe was saved. lot was saved from the destruction of sodom. in like manner, the blessed virgin is an exception to the general law that all sinned in adam. isaias and st. john baptist were sanctified in their mother's womb. was it any more difficult for god to sanctify mary at the moment of her conception, at the moment of the union of her soul with her body? god chose his own mother. if he had the power to choose her did he not also have the power to preserve her from original sin? and does it not appear to you most fitting that god, the holy ghost, should preserve his spouse, and god, the son, his mother, from sin of every kind? "hail, full of grace," the angel said to her. if she was full of grace, no vacancy was left for sin. grace denotes the absence of sin, as light denotes the absence of darkness. hence if mary was full of grace, she was never subject to sin; she was always pure and her conception immaculate. it is but natural, then, that we arrive at the belief in the immaculate conception, at the belief in the sinlessness, the spotlessness of the blessed virgin from the very beginning of her existence. if we honor mary principally because the angel honored her, because god honored her, we honor her, also, because of her immaculate conception and total freedom from sin. she was a model of all virtues. is it not reasonable, then, to honor mary, to love her, and to believe that she loves us? if we honor the good and virtuous, where can we find a nobler example of virtue than mary? what a beautiful model mary is for christians, and especially for christian women! good catholic mothers are continually urging upon their daughters the necessity of choosing as a model mary, the true type of female excellence. in mary you find all that is tender, loving, constant, and true. in her you find all virtues. in her humility she refused the highest honors; while in patience she endured more anguish and agony than any other creature on earth. mary is a creature of god. as the praise we bestow on a beautiful picture redounds to the glory of the artist, so the honor we give mary redounds to god, since we honor her for his sake. let us honor her. that person who honors the blessed virgin; who loves, respects, and venerates her as the mother of god; who takes her as a model and imitates her virtues; who prays to her in trials and afflictions and asks her intercession with her divine son, does not only act in a reasonable manner, but such action is certain to make the path through this world smooth and easy and at the same time safe to a life of _eternal happiness_. vi. confession of sin "whom when he saw he said: go, show yourselves to the priests" (_luke_ xvii. ). "receive ye the holy ghost; whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained" (_john_ xx. ). the whole of the life of our lord and saviour jesus christ may be summed up in these words of the acts: "he went about doing good." he healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and raised the dead to life. the healing of the body, however, was to him a secondary object. the healing of the soul was his mission on earth. he frequently called the attention of his followers to this. for example, he cured the man of the palsy to prove that as man he had the power to forgive sins. another example is when he gives us in the cure of the lepers a figure of sin and its cure. leprosy has always been considered a figure of sin. as leprosy covers the body and makes it disgusting and frightful to behold, so sin covers the soul and makes it hideous in the sight of god. the old law required lepers to separate themselves from society until their cure was certified to by the priests who were appointed for this purpose. our lord has been pleased, in the new law, to institute a similar method for the cure of the more fatal leprosy of sin. the spiritual leper, the sinner, is to show himself to the priest, make known the diseased state of his soul, and submit to the inspection and treatment of the priest, who is the divinely appointed physician of the soul. but should we not go directly to god, since god alone has power to justify us? it is true, god alone can effect our justification; but he has appointed the priest to judge in his place and pass sentence in his name. to the priests he has said: "whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven" (_matt._ xviii. ); and again: "whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" (_john_ xx. ). these two texts clearly show that auricular confession as practised in the catholic church was taught by christ. for how could the apostles and their successors, the pastors of the church, know what sins to bind and retain and what sins to loose and forgive unless the sins were confessed to them and they were allowed to judge? no matter how numerous or how great these are, provided they are confessed with a sincere repentance, they will be forgiven. and they will be forgiven by the power of the priest. properly speaking, god alone has power to forgive sins. but no one will deny that he has power to confer this power on others. he communicated this power to his apostles and commanded them, in turn, to communicate it to others by means of the sacrament of holy orders. that our saviour communicated this power to his apostles is evident from the words of st. john: "as the father hath sent me i also send you. receive ye the holy ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven." but sin was to continue till the end of the world. hence the necessity of the means of forgiving sin being coextensive with sin. as the people receive from the priests the word of god and the cleansing from sin in baptism, so also do they receive from them the cleansing from sin in confession. it is certain that the apostles conferred the power of forgiving sins upon others, if we find that those whom the apostles ordained this power. but we find this to be the case. from the time of christ until the present the writers of every age tell us that confession of sins was practised. st. john, who lived until the beginning of the second century, says in the st chapter of his first epistle: "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity." st. cyprian, who wrote in the third century, says: "let each of you confess his faults, and the pardon imparted by the priest is acceptable before god." st. ambrose, in the fourth century, wrote: "the poison is sin; the remedy, the accusation of one's crime. the poison is iniquity: confession is the remedy." st. augustine, who lived in the fifth century, seems to be talking to some people of the present day, who say they confess in private to god, when he says: "let no one say to himself, i do penance to god in private, i do it before god. is it then in vain that christ hath said: 'whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven'? is it in vain that the keys have been given to the church? do we make void the gospel? void the words of christ?" these first five centuries were the golden age of christianity. all admit that the doctrines and practices of those early centuries were pure and undefiled, as they came from christ. but among the practices of the time we find confession. hence it is a reasonable practice, because conformable to christ's teaching. we might continue quotations from writers of every century from the sixth to the nineteenth, showing that the teaching and practice of confession did not vary through the lapse of ages from the time of christ until the present day. but this is unnecessary. the quotations from the first five centuries show that the power of forgiving sin was not only communicated by christ to his apostles, but by them to their successors by means of the sacrament of holy orders. what would be the necessity of this power if they could not exercise it in confession? if, as some say, priests invented confession, some one ought to find out and tell us when and where it was invented, and why they did not exempt themselves from such a humiliating practice. confession alone, however, will be of no avail without contrition. contrition is a sincere sorrow and detestation for sin with a firm determination to sin no more. to the truly humble and sorrowful sinner confession is not a punishment, but a remedy for a tortured conscience. the most painful secret to be kept by a heart not yet corrupted by disease is the secret of sin and crime. the soul that loves god hates sin and desires to separate herself from it. to this desire is associated the desire of expiating it. all, from the mother who questions her child about wrongdoing to the judge who interrogates the criminal, recognize in spontaneous confession an expiatory power. confession, it is true, is necessarily accompanied by shame and humiliation. this humiliation is diminished by the knowledge that it is of divine origin and that eternal silence is divinely imposed upon him who receives it. priests never divulge what they know from the confessional. they have been ill-treated, as was father kohlmann in this country; have even been tortured and cruelly put to death, as was st. john nepomucene, in order to extort from them knowledge they gained in the confessional, but without avail. for what they knew through the tribunal of penance, they knew as ministers of god. and as it is better to obey god than man, no minister of state could force them to divulge that which the laws of god forbid. only sinners, who after a thorough preparation, a sincere sorrow, and a good confession, can realize the soothing and beneficial effects of confession, and feel with david, "blessed are they whose sins are forgiven." if you have ever noticed such after leaving the confessional you could see joy beaming on their countenances, as if a heavy burden had been removed. confession quiets the conscience. but this is only one of the benefits it confers upon those who practise going to confession. it has also a salutary influence upon their morals; for one of its necessary conditions is promise of amendment. the pagans of the first centuries were aware of the guiding and reforming power of the confessional. voltaire, the leading infidel of the last century, one who made sport of everything christian, says that "there is, perhaps, no wiser institution, and that confession is an excellent thing, a restraint upon inveterate crime, a very good practice to prevent the guilty from falling into despair and relapsing into sin, to influence hearts full of hate to forgive and robbers to make restitution--that the enemies of the _romish_ church who have opposed so beneficial an institution have taken from man the greatest restraint that can be put upon crime." while his everyday experience forced these words of praise from the arch-infidel, his hatred of the church creeps out in the word "romish." confession of sin, as we have seen, is a _reasonable practice_, because it was taught by jesus christ, and by his apostles and their successors from christ's time until the present; but _especially_ because it has the power of soothing and pacifying the conscience by freeing it from the torture of sin, the poison of crime. it is not strange, then, that it is so dear to virtuous souls. it is offensive only to those whose hearts are so hardened as to blunt the sting of remorse. confession is christianity using its moral power to correct and perfect the individual. in the confessional the minister of god is continually coming in contact with hearts in which reigns an idol that he overthrows, a bad practice that he causes to cease, or some injustice that he has repaired. confession is one of the gates by which christianity penetrates the interior man, wipes away stains, heals diseases, and sows therein the seeds of virtue. the lives and experience of millions are witness of the truth of this. is it not, then, a reasonable, a beneficial practice? it is only the malicious or the ignorant who calumniate the practice and the consecrated minister who sits in judgment in the sacred tribunal. those who lay aside their prejudice and study the question soon become convinced of its divine origin. a little study and reflection will show them that confession of sin benefits society by preventing crimes that would destroy government, cause riots, and fill prisons; that it promotes human justice, makes men better, nobler, purer, higher, and more godlike; that it soothes the sorrowful heart whose crime might make the despairing suicide; and that individuals and families who frequently, intelligently, and properly approach this fountain of god's grace will receive his blessing here _and a pledge of his union hereafter_. vii. granting indulgences "whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven" (matt xviii. ). of the many practices of the church, few have been the cause of more controversy than that of granting indulgences. though not the cause, the granting of an indulgence furnished a pretext for luther's apostasy. leo x, who was pope at that time, desiring to complete st. peter's at rome, appealed to all catholics for financial aid. there was certainly nothing wrong in this. with these alms it was intended that the most magnificent christian temple in the world would be completed. "majesty, power, glory, strength, and beauty, all are aisled in this eternal ark of worship undefiled." all who contributed toward the completion of st. peter's and complied with the necessary conditions were granted an indulgence. the alms were not one of the indispensable conditions. those conditions were a sincere repentance and confession. hence, those who did not contribute could gain the indulgence. perhaps the dominican tetzel, who was chosen to announce the indulgence, exceeded his powers and made them serve his own ends. his action in the affair was not approved by rome. if it is certain that the pope did nothing wrong in asking for aid to build that beautiful monument to religion, it is equally certain that he did nothing wrong, that he did not exceed the limits of his powers when he granted the indulgence. in order to understand this, we must have a clear idea of what is meant by an indulgence. you frequently hear it said that it is the forgiveness of sin, or that it is a permission given to commit sin. it is neither the one nor the other. an indulgence is not the forgiveness of sin. in fact, an indulgence can not be gained until sin has been forgiven. one of the necessary conditions for gaining an indulgence is confession. neither is an indulgence a license, a permission to commit sin. no one, not even god himself, could give permission to commit sin. for god is all good, and although all powerful he can not sanction that which is evil in itself. it would be contrary to his very nature. an indulgence, then, is not what it has been painted. having seen what an indulgence is not, let us see what it is. it is a remission of the whole or a part of the debt of temporal punishment due to sin after the guilt and eternal punishment have been forgiven in the sacrament of penance. in the early ages of the church notorious sinners, after being absolved, were sentenced to long public penances. by sincere sorrow, an indulgence or remission of some of the time was granted them. public confession and public penances have passed away. these public penances are replaced by pious devotions. upon the performance of certain pious devotions the church at times grants an indulgence; that is, a remission of such temporal punishment as is equivalent to the canonical penances corresponding to the sins committed. attached to every mortal sin, besides the guilt, is the punishment incurred. this punishment is eternal and temporal. that there is this twofold punishment we learn from various places in the bible. we have an example in the sin of david. god sent the prophet nathan to warn him of his guilt. when nathan rebuked the king, he confessed his sin with signs of true contrition. then nathan told him that god had forgiven his sin, but that many temporal punishments would follow. when god forgave the sin, the guilt and eternal punishment were taken away; but temporal punishment remained. other examples could be cited, but this is sufficient to show that there is a twofold kind of punishment--eternal and temporal. in confession the guilt and eternal punishment are taken away, but not always the temporal punishment. this temporal punishment is what is taken away in whole by a plenary and in part by a partial indulgence. in a similar manner we have a twofold punishment attached to crime in this world. a man commits a crime. he is sentenced to a term in the penitentiary. after spending his time of punishment he comes back to society, but finds he has another punishment to undergo in being avoided by his friends and others. the practice of granting indulgences was founded on many passages of scripture, both of the old and new testament. in the th chapter of the book of numbers we learn that mary, the sister of moses, was forgiven a sin which she had committed. but god inflicted upon her the penalty of leprosy. this was a temporal punishment. by the prayer of moses an indulgence was granted; for god took away the temporal punishment. our divine lord left with his church the power of granting indulgences, as we learn from his words taken from st. matthew: "whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven." this promise implies the power of loosing not only from sin and its eternal punishment, but also the power of releasing the bond of temporal punishment, of freeing from everything that would prevent the soul from entering the kingdom of heaven. st. paul granted an indulgence to the incestuous corinthian, as we learn from the d chapter of his second epistle to the corinthians. by the power and authority which he received from christ, he granted the corinthian pardon from performing a certain penance. this penance was a temporal punishment. the apostle took away the temporal punishment. that is an indulgence. non-catholics grant a kind of plenary indulgence to every one by saying that works of penance are unnecessary. the practice of the catholic church of granting an indulgence only to the deserving is certainly more conformable to scripture as well as more reasonable. experience teaches us the utility of indulgences. they encourage the faithful to frequent the sacraments, to repent, to do acts of penance, and perform works of piety, charity, and devotion. a practice productive of such beneficial results is reasonable; it is also reasonable because it is sanctioned by scripture and the church of every age. for god would not sanction it nor could the church practise it if it were _not conformable to reason_. viii. the last sacraments "is any man sick among you? let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and the lord shall raise him up, and if he be in sins they shall be forgiven him" (_james_ v. , ). by these words st. james admonishes christians when sick to do that which our saviour had previously directed to be done. this you will learn from the th chapter of st. mark: "and [the apostles] anointed with oil many that were sick." the historians of the first centuries tell us that the early christians were as anxious to receive the last sacraments as are the catholics of our own day. st. cesarius, in the fifth century, writes: "as soon as a person falls dangerously sick, he receives the body and blood of jesus christ. then his body is anointed, and thus is fulfilled what stands written: 'is any man sick among you? let him call in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil.'" what the christians of the first centuries did, we do; and we do it by the direction of jesus christ and of st. james. penance, holy eucharist, and extreme unction are administered to the sick and are known as the last sacraments. the priest first hears the sick person's confession, then he administers holy communion. afterward he administers the sacrament of extreme unction--last anointing. this sacrament aids the sick to bear their sufferings with patience. it wipes away sin, even mortal sin if the person is unable to confess; and it purifies the soul for its entrance into heaven. the other sacraments assist us in making our lives holy like the life of our divine model. this sacrament assists in making our death holy, like the death of jesus. the sacrament of baptism met us at our entrance into this world; the sacrament of extreme unction will be our guide at our departure to the other world. religion, which rocked us in the cradle of life, will lull us to sleep in the cradle of death. go to the bedside of the dying catholic and you will see the reasonableness of the practice of calling the priest to administer the last sacraments. after the sacraments have been administered, peace and joy and contentment are visible on the countenance of the sick person. he clings no more to the things of earth. his thoughts are centered in heaven. the minister of god consoles him with the thought of immortality and the resurrection of the body. he soon hears the singing of the angelic choir; and breathing the sweet names of jesus, mary, and joseph, his soul takes its flight to the _regions of eternal bliss_. ix. praying for the dead "it is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins" (_ mach_. xii. ). no one will deny that the practice of praying for the dead is reasonable, if the dead are benefited by our prayers. that our prayers are beneficial to the departed we will endeavor to show. we are taught by revelation that besides heaven and hell, a state of everlasting pleasure and a state of eternal pain, there also exists a middle state of punishment for those who die in venial sin, or who have not sufficiently satisfied the justice of god for mortal sins already forgiven. the people of god in the old law believed, and jesus christ and his apostles in the new law taught, the existence of this middle state. in the second book of machabees, quoted above, we read that the pious general judas machabeus having made a collection, "sent twelve thousand drachmas of silver to jerusalem for sacrifices to be offered for the dead [soldiers], thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection [for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead], and because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them. it is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins." if prayers were not beneficial to the dead, god would not have sanctioned them. this is exactly the practice of the catholic church. we pray and offer sacrifices for the souls in purgatory, just as judas machabeus did. even if the books of machabees were not inspired, it is historically true that the jews and almost all nations of antiquity believed in the existence of purgatory and the utility of prayers for the souls detained there. this universal consent is the voice of nature and of god. hence we see that the practice of praying for the dead is reasonable. this practice is in accordance with the teaching of christ. in the th chapter, d verse, of st. matthew, he says: "he that shall speak against the holy ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come." these words teach us that some sins will be pardoned in the life to come. they can not be pardoned in heaven, since nothing defiled can enter heaven; nor can they be pardoned in hell, out of which there is no redemption, for "their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched." therefore, there must be a state in the next world where sins will be forgiven, and we call that place or state purgatory. and the existence of purgatory implies the necessity of praying for those detained there. the belief in the existence of purgatory and the practice of praying for the faithful departed have existed in the church from the time of its foundation. tertullian, who lived in the second century, considered it a solemn duty, whose obligation came down from the apostles, to offer sacrifices and prayers for the faithful departed. st. augustine says: "the whole church received from the tradition of the fathers to pray for those who died in the communion of the body and blood of christ." the dying request of st. monica, the mother of st. augustine, is well known. "i request you," she said, "that wherever you may be, you will remember me at the altar of the lord." and he assures us that he frequently and fervently prayed for her soul. the teaching of the church of every age confirms the teaching of the old and new testament regarding purgatory and praying for the dead. to one who believes in heaven and hell, a place of eternal pleasure and of eternal punishment, the doctrine of purgatory must appear as a necessity, and the practice of praying for the dead reasonable. for it is certain that nothing defiled can enter heaven. but it is possible that many die guilty of but slight sins. therefore, it must be said that these are damned, which is impious and absurd; that what is defiled can enter heaven, which is unscriptural; or that there is a purgatory, a state in which such souls are made pure as the driven snow, so that they can enter into the presence of their maker. for an infinitely just god can not condemn to the same eternal punishment the child who dies guilty of a slight fault and the hardened murderer. no. he will render to every one according to his works. the doctrine of purgatory, then, is reasonable as well as scriptural and traditional. reasonable, too, is the practice of praying for the dead, for they are still members of the church. all the members of the church, consisting of the church militant on earth, the church triumphant in heaven, and the church suffering in purgatory, are one family bound together by the bond of charity. the members of the church on earth pray to those in heaven, who love us and pray for us; and we pray for those in purgatory. they are god's friends deprived of heaven for a time. as those in heaven rejoice when one sinner does penance, so those in purgatory hear us, see us, love us, and are helped by our prayers. we love them and never cease to pray for them and offer the holy sacrifice for them. even the unbeliever will stand or kneel by the remains of his departed friend and offer a prayer for him, thus showing that praying for the dead is reasonable and the natural dictate of the human heart. x. praying to the saints "and may the angel that delivereth me from all evils bless these boys" (_gen_. xlviii. ). "so i say to you there shall be joy before the angels of god upon one sinner doing penance" (_luke_ xv. ). "for in the resurrection they [the saints] shall be as the angels of god in heaven" (_matt_. xxii. ). the saints are friends of god. they are like the angels in heaven. we honor them, not as we honor god, but on account of the relation they bear to god. they are creatures of god, the work of his hands. when we honor them, we honor god; as when we praise a beautiful painting, we praise the artist. we do not believe that the saints can help us of themselves. but we ask them to "pray for us." we believe that everything comes to us "through our lord jesus christ." with these words all our prayers end. it is useful, salutary, and reasonable to pray to the saints and ask them to pray for us. no doubt all will admit the reasonableness of this practice if the saints can hear and help us. that they hear and help us is evident from many passages of scripture. the patriarch jacob would not have prayed to the angel to bless his grandchildren manasses and ephraim (as we learn he did from _gen_. xlviii.), unless he knew the angel could do so. we are informed (_luke_ xv.) that the angels rejoice when one sinner does penance. we are also informed (_matt_ xxii.) that the saints are like the angels--_i.e._, have the same happiness and knowledge. hence the saints, as well as the angels, can hear us, can help us, and are acquainted with our actions, words, and thoughts. it is generally conceded that it is reasonable to ask pious persons on earth to pray for us. st. paul, in his epistles, frequently asks the christians to pray for him. "brethren," he says, "pray for us." it is well known that god was pleased to answer the prayer of abraham in favor of abimelech. "more things are wrought by prayer than this world knows of." now, if we poor sinners here on earth do not pray in vain for one another, will the saints in heaven, the friends of god, who rejoice when a sinner does penance, pray in vain for us? no. we have hosts of friends in heaven to speak a good word for us. and as a child who has disobeyed his parents wisely asks a better brother or sister to intercede with his parents for mercy, so, too, having disobeyed our heavenly father by sin, we have recourse to others better than ourselves, to our better brothers and sisters, the blessed virgin and saints, to intercede with god for us. is not this a reasonable practice? if your mother or sister crosses the sea she will continue to pray for you. and if she crosses the sea of death will she forget you? no. the love she bore you here will continue in heaven. she will pray for you, and the "lord will hear the prayers of the just." ask the saints to pray to your god and their god for you. honor god by honoring his friends and asking their intercession. and all your friends in heaven will unite in praying to the father of us all that one day all who love god and his friends, the saints, may be admitted with them into the _company of the saint of saints, our lord and saviour jesus christ._ xi. crucifixes, relics, and images "thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. thou shalt not adore them nor serve them" (_ex_. xx. , ). this first commandment teaches us to adore god alone. it does not forbid the making of images, but it forbids the adoring of them, worshiping them as gods. this would be idolatry. if the making of images were forbidden, it would be improper to have images or pictures of our friends. it has frequently been said that catholics ate idolaters, because they have in their churches crucifixes, relics, and images of the saints, which they honor. perhaps many of those who accuse us of idolatry, if asked, could not tell what idolatry is. idolatry is giving to a creature (whether a crucifix, an image, or any created thing) that honor which belongs to god. the honor we give those sacred things is a relative honor. we honor them on account of the relation they bear to god and his friends, the saints. every catholic, even the child, is taught the difference between the idol of the pagan and a catholic image. pagans looked upon their idols as gods. they thought these senseless objects had power, intelligence, and other attributes of the deity. they worshiped them as gods and thought they could assist them. hence they were image-worshipers or idolaters. catholics know full well that images have no intelligence to understand, no power to assist them. they do not adore nor serve them. that would be idolatry. it would be breaking the first commandment. they do not say when praying before the crucifix or image of a saint, "i adore thee, o crucifix"; nor "help me, o image," but they say, "i adore thee, o god, whose cruel death is represented by this crucifix," or "pray for me, o saint represented by this image." we have images, pictures, and relics of our lord, his blessed mother, and the saints, for the same reason that we have relics and portraits of george washington, abraham lincoln, or of our relatives and friends. they remind us of the original. who can look upon the crucifix or upon a picture of the crucifixion without being reminded of all the sufferings of our lord and saviour jesus christ? and who can seriously contemplate those sufferings, borne for us so patiently, without being moved to pity and to repentance? such a person will be moved to say with the heart if not with the lips: "oh, my god, i am sorry for having offended thee and caused thee such suffering. grant that i may love thee with my whole heart and never more offend thee." catholics, as we have seen, adore god alone. they honor the blessed virgin and saints represented by images. they use these holy pictures and statues to beautify the house of god. these pictures are also a source of instruction. they are a profession of our faith. if you enter a house and see on one side of the room a picture of the blessed virgin, cardinal gibbons, or of pope leo xiii, and on the other a picture of lincoln, cleveland, or washington, you will at once know the religious faith as well as the political belief or patriotism of the occupant. by the aid of the relics of the martyrs we are reminded of all they suffered for the faith. by the use of religious pictures, our devotion is increased and we are stimulated to imitate the virtues of the saints represented. if it is reasonable to have pictures of our martyred president and relics of our revolutionary heroes that we may be reminded of their patriotism, it is none the less reasonable to have pictures and relics of our lord, the blessed virgin, and the saints, that we may be reminded of their virtues. by imitating their virtues here, we may be _happy with them hereafter_. xii. some sacramentals "pray without ceasing" (_ thess_. v. ). "every creature is sanctified by the word of god and prayer" (_ tim_. , ). by sacramentals we mean the various prayers, blessings, ceremonies and pious practices of the church. here mention will be made of some of the most common of the sacramentals that have not already been treated. sacramentals, like sacraments, have an outward sign; the latter, however, were instituted by christ, the former by the church, and while the latter always give grace if we place no obstacle in the way, the former do not give grace, but excite good thoughts, increase devotion, and raise the mind to god. the chief sacramentals that have not been mentioned are the books used by the priest in the performance of his sacred duties, the sign of the cross, holy water, blessed candles, blessed palm and ashes, holy oils, scapulars, medals, agnus dei, prayers, litanies, rosary, the angelus, stations, the funeral service, and various blessings. the books used by the priest in the performance of his sacred duties are the _missal_, which contains the masses for the various feasts of the ecclesiastical year; the _breviary_, in which is the office recited by the priest every day; and the _ritual_, where is to be found the form of administering the different sacraments, the funeral service, and the various benedictions. the sacramental of most frequent use in the church is the _sign of the cross_. it is used to remind us of the passion and death of our lord and saviour jesus christ on the cross. the cross is the emblem of the christian, the "sign of the son of man." it is an act of faith in the principal truths of christianity. when we say the words, "in the name," we profess our faith in the unity of god, which means that there is but one god; "of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost," are a profession of faith in the trinity--_i.e._, that there are three divine persons in one god. the form of the cross which we trace with our right hand from our forehead to our breast, and then from the left to the right shoulder, is a profession of faith in the incarnation of the son of god, who became man and died on the cross for our redemption. tertullian and other writers of the early ages of the church tell us that before every action, before rising or retiring, before meals, at every step, "we impress on our forehead the sign of the cross." the catholic church of to-day, in accordance with the teachings of christ, his apostles, and their successors of all time, teaches her children to put their trust in the merits of jesus christ's sufferings on the cross, and to do everything "in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost." _holy water_ is water blessed by a priest. during the blessing beautiful prayers are recited. these prayers express the spiritual blessings the church wishes to follow all who use it. the church uses holy water in all the benedictions and some of her sacraments. it is placed at the doors of her churches, that all who enter may use it and be reminded of that purity of heart which it symbolizes. holy water is also kept in the houses of catholics, to be used in times of trial and when the priest comes to administer the sacraments. the _blessed candles_ used in the service of the church receive their special blessing on candlemas day. we use these lighted candles at different times to remind us of jesus, who is the "light of the world." catholics always keep a blessed candle in the house. the church puts a lighted candle in our hand at our baptism, and wishes us to die with one in our hand, to remind us to hope in him who is our light and the light of the world. on ash wednesday _ashes_ are blessed and put on the forehead of the faithful in the form of a cross, with the words, "remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return," to remind them that they are only dust and ashes. these are the ashes of burnt _palms_ blessed the palm sunday of the previous year. these palms are blessed in memory of the triumphal entry of jesus into jerusalem, when the people spread palm branches along the way. this palm should remind us to perform faithfully our duty if we wish to enjoy the palm of victory. the _holy oils_ are blessed by the bishop on holy thursday of each year. they are of three kinds: oil of the sick, used in the sacrament of extreme unction; oil of the catechumens, used in blessing baptismal water and in the sacrament of baptism; and holy chrism, used in the preparation of baptismal water in the ceremonies of baptism, confirmation, and at the consecration of a bishop, of churches, altars, bells and chalices. the olive oil used should remind us of our saviour's _passion_ in the garden of olives. _agnus deis_ (blessed by the pope), _scapulars_, and _medals_ are small articles worn by catholics to remind them of our lord (the lamb of god), of the blessed virgin, and of the saints. they are emblems of the christian, as the starry banner is the emblem of the american; and as the flag of our country shows that we are under the protection of the government of the united states, so the agnus dei, scapulars, and medals show that we are under the protection of jesus christ, his blessed mother, and his saints. _prayer_ is the elevation of our mind and heart to god to ask him for all blessings, temporal and spiritual. prayer is necessary to salvation. we are taught in st. luke (xviii.) to pray always and faint not. we should pray with attention and devotion, with confidence and humility. we are told in the lord's prayer to pray for others as well as for ourselves, and god's choicest blessings will be granted us through jesus christ our lord. the best of all prayers is the one god taught us--the lord's prayer. other prayers common in the church are litanies, rosaries, the angelus, stations, and the funeral service for the dead. the litanies most in use in the church are the litany of all saints, of the blessed virgin, of the holy name of jesus. in these litanies we ask god to have mercy on us and the saints to pray for us; but we ask everything through jesus christ our lord. few practices of the church are more widespread than the _rosary_ of the blessed virgin. it consists of the best of all prayers--the apostles' creed, the our father, three hail marys, and the glory be to the father; then the our father and ten hail marys repeated five times. this constitutes the beads, or one-third part of the rosary. during the recitation of these prayers the mind should be occupied meditating on the principal mysteries of the life of our lord. these mysteries are divided into the five joyful mysteries: the annunciation by the angel gabriel, the visitation of the blessed virgin to st. elizabeth, the birth of our lord, the presentation, and the finding in the temple; the five sorrowful mysteries: the agony in the garden, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the cross, and the crucifixion; and the five glorious mysteries: the resurrection, the ascension, the descent of the holy ghost, the assumption of the blessed virgin, and the crowning of the blessed virgin in heaven. any one of these mysteries furnishes sufficient material to occupy the mind of man for hours. these mysteries contain the whole history of the redemption. the prayers and meditations of the rosary satisfy the minds of the humblest, while they are sufficient to occupy the attention of the most exalted and most cultivated. the _angelus_ is a beautiful prayer, said morning, noon, and night. in catholic countries the bell is rung, when all cease their occupations, kneel, and recite: "the angel of the lord declared unto mary, and she conceived by the holy ghost"--a hail mary. "behold the handmaid of the lord--be it done unto me according to thy word"--a hail mary. "and the word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us"--a hail mary. the prayer: "pour forth, we beseech thee, o lord, thy grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of christ, thy son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by his passion and cross be brought to the glory of his resurrection, through the same christ our lord. amen." by this beautiful practice we show in a special manner our faith in the incarnation of our lord and saviour jesus christ. the _stations of the cross_ are fourteen paintings representing the various stages of the passion and death of our redeemer. the faithful pass from station to station and meditate upon that feature of the passion represented by each station. tradition tells us that from the beginning pious pilgrims were accustomed to tread the path and bedew with their tears the way sanctified by our saviour on that sorrowful journey from pilate's tribunal to calvary's heights. but jerusalem falling into the hands of infidels, and many being unable to visit those holy places, permission was obtained to erect in churches fourteen crosses and pictures commemorating these sorrowful acts. from these stations all can meditate upon the sufferings of our saviour, and learn from him submission to god's holy will, patience, charity, and forgiveness of injuries. the _funeral service_ of the catholic church is beautiful, touching, and instructive. after blessing, strengthening, and encouraging us through life with her sacraments; after fortifying our souls for the last great struggle, she follows us beyond the grave with her blessings, her prayers, and her sacrifices. "eternal rest give unto them, o lord," she prays; "and let perpetual light shine upon them. may they rest in peace." there are various other prayers and blessings used by the church on special occasions. in fact, the church blesses everything she uses. this blessing of the priest is not such an absurd thing as some imagine it to be; it is rather a most reasonable practice. it is simply a prayer said by the priest, asking god to send his blessing upon the person or thing indicated. people of all denominations say grace before meals, asking god to bless the food they are about to use. this is precisely what the priest does when blessing anything. he uses different forms of prayer ordained by the church to implore god's blessing upon the water, candles, and other things before using them. this blessing of churches, water, candles, and other things has its foundation on scripture. we read in the old testament of the solemn blessing of the temple of solomon. st. paul tells us that "every creature is sanctified by the word of god and prayer." churches, water, candles, bells, books, persons, and other things blessed by the church are creatures. therefore we are following st. paul in blessing them, for every creature is sanctified by the word of god and prayer. we do not claim that those articles that are blessed have any efficacy in themselves; but we hope and pray that god in his infinite goodness and mercy may render those blessed articles beneficial to those using them, may protect them and lead them to _his blessed abode above, where all is peace and light and love._ xiii. the celebration of feasts "seven days shalt thou celebrate feasts to the lord thy god, in the place which the lord shalt choose" (_deut_. xvi. ). "if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican" (_matt._ xviii. ). from these texts we learn that besides the sunday god wishes certain other days to be observed religiously, and that the church has the power of designating these days. as the state sets aside certain national holidays in commemoration of its founder or of the declaration of independence, so the church sets aside these holidays in honor of jesus christ, the blessed virgin, and the saints. besides the feasts celebrated on sundays, there are in this country but six holidays of obligation. three of these are commemorative of events in the life of our lord: christmas, the circumcision, and the ascension; two, the immaculate conception and the assumption, in honor of the blessed virgin; and one in honor of god's saints--the feast of all saints. the ecclesiastical year begins in advent. advent is a period of about four weeks of penance and prayer preparatory to the great feast of christmas and corresponding to the penitential season of lent before easter. during the ecclesiastical year, the first of the feasts of obligation in the order of time is the feast of the _immaculate conception_. it is celebrated on the th of december. on this day we commemorate the fact that mary was immaculate when she first came into being in her mother's womb; that she was always pure; that sin never touched her fair soul. immaculate conception, as you will see in the article on the blessed virgin, means that she was always free from sin. the great feast of _christmas_, in honor of the birth of jesus christ, is celebrated on december th. this feast is a time of joy and peace to all mankind, and is celebrated by the church with much pomp and ceremony. the festival of the _circumcision_ is kept on the first day of the new year. it is commemorative of our lord's strict observance of the law by submitting to the jewish ceremony of circumcision. we solemnly celebrate the day in honor of our merciful lord, who is our model in all things. next in the order of time is the feast of the _ascension_. it is kept forty days after the grand feast of easter, and is in honor of our lord's glorious ascension into heaven. the _assumption_ of the blessed virgin, celebrated the th of august, is commemorative of the glorious taking up to heaven of mary, soul and body. (this is a pious tradition.) _all saints'_ day is november st. every day is a saint's day. there is not a day that the catholic church does not celebrate a feast in honor of some special mystery or saint. but as there are more saints in heaven than could be thus specially honored, she sets aside this one day every year in honor of all the saints in heaven. there are various other important feasts, some of which fall on sunday; but these we have mentioned being feasts of obligation to be observed as sunday, it was thought that it would not be uninteresting to give a short explanation of them. on them we honor god and his special friends. let us always, by faith, hope, and love, _bear jesus in our minds and hearts_. xiv. infant baptism "amen, amen, i say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the holy ghost, he can not enter into the kingdom of god" (_john_ iii ). while most christians admit the necessity of baptism for adults, the catholic church is alone in insisting upon the practice of infant baptism. this practice is in accordance with the teaching of st. john, quoted above. it is also in accordance with apostolic teaching and practice. we read in the th chapter of the acts of the apostles that st. paul baptized lydia "and her household," and that the keeper of the prison was converted and "was baptized and presently all his family." among these families it is but reasonable to suppose that there were some infants. infant baptism was the practice of the apostles; it was the practice of the christians of the early church, as origen tells us. the church received the tradition from the apostles to give baptism to infants, and it has been the practice of the church from the time of christ until the present. st. paul tells us that adam's sin was transmitted to all his posterity. "wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death, and so death passed unto all men in whom all have sinned" (_rom_. v. ). every infant, according to st. paul, is born to sin--original sin. but as baptism takes away original sin, and as nothing defiled can enter heaven (_apoc_. xxi.), baptism of infants is necessary to open for them the gates of heaven. baptism may be validly administered by dipping, sprinkling, or pouring. the method practised in this part of christendom is pouring the water on the head of the person to be baptized, saying at the same time: "i baptize thee in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost." the reasonableness of the practice of baptizing infants will be evident if we remember that christ taught the necessity of baptism for all when he said: "unless a man be born again of water and the holy ghost, he can not enter into the kingdom of god"; and that he declared little children capable of entering into the kingdom of god when he said: "suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." now, if infants are capable of entering heaven (and christ so declares), they must be capable of receiving baptism, without which christ says no one can enter the kingdom of god. while in adults faith and sorrow for sin are required before receiving baptism, no disposition is required in infants. they contracted original sin without their knowledge; without their knowledge they are freed from it. by baptism they are made heirs of the kingdom of heaven. they can be made heirs of property, of a kingdom on earth without their consent; why not also of the kingdom of heaven? baptism is the first of the seven sacraments which the church confers upon man. it cleanses us from original sin (actual sin also if the recipient be guilty of any), makes us christians, children of god, and heirs of heaven. it prepares us for the reception of the other sacraments. by baptism we all contracted the obligation of believing and practising the doctrines of jesus christ as taught us by the true church. we fulfil this obligation by _leading a truly christian life_. xv. the marriage tie--one and indissoluble "but i say to you that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery; and he that shall marry her that is put away committeth adultery" (_matt_. v. ). "what, therefore, god hath joined together, let no man put asunder" (_matt_. xix. , ). few practices of the church have been productive of more good to society than that concerning christian marriage. the christian family is the foundation of christian society, and christian marriage is the basis of the christian family. without marriage neither the family nor society could exist. marriage was instituted by god before society existed, and, as a natural consequence, it is subject not to the laws of society, but to the laws of god and his church. the principal law and necessary condition of christian marriage is its unity and indissolubility. it is the union of one man with one woman for the purposes intended by the creator, which union is to last as long as both survive. such was marriage in the beginning; to such it was restored by our saviour when he made it a sacrament of his law and a type of his union with his church. the practice of the catholic church in not permitting a divorce that will allow either party to marry during the life of the other, is clearly taught by jesus christ in the th chapter of matthew: "he who puts away his wife maketh her to commit adultery, and he that marrieth her committeth adultery." no human power can break the bond of marriage. "what god hath joined together, let no man put asunder." it is the work of god. let no man dare meddle with it. st. paul teaches the same when he says in the th verse of the th chapter of the first epistle to the corinthians: "a woman is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband die, she is at liberty, let her marry whom she will." the practice of the catholic church is conformable to this teaching of christ, st. paul, the apostles, and their successors. in defence of this practice of forbidding divorce, since marriage is one and indissoluble, the catholic church has had many a severe conflict. and had she not fought this battle bravely for the sanctity, the unity, and the indissolubility of the marriage tie, europe and america would today be in as degraded a condition as are the mahometan and other nations where the laws of marriage are disregarded. for divorces are not only contrary to christ's teaching concerning the sanctity, unity, and indissolubility of the marriage tie, but are also subversive of society. they sever the marriage tie inasmuch as the law of man can do it. if the marriage tie is loosened, the family is dissolved; and if the family is dissolved, society, the state, falls to ruin. divorce destroys conjugal love, causes unhappiness, renders the proper education of children impossible, and often leads to terrible crimes. is it not reasonable as well as scriptural to forbid it? the christian husband and wife, knowing the sanctity, the unity, and the indissolubility of the marriage tie, live in love and peace and honor together; together they rear the issue of their union, teaching them to be good children, good citizens, and good christians; together, after a long, a prosperous, and a happy union, they return to dust; and together they will meet again beyond the confines of the tomb--_yes, they will meet to part no more_. xvi. respect shown to ecclesiastical superiors "we are ambassadors for christ; god, as it were, exhorting by us" (_ cor_. v. ). "as the father sent me, i also send you" (_john_ xx. ). "go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature" (_mark_ xvi. ). the respect catholics have for the bishops and priests of the church is often a matter of surprise to those not of the faith. they do not understand, as catholics do, that the priests are "ambassadors for christ" sent to "preach the gospel to every creature." for christ instituted the priesthood to carry on divine worship, to govern the church, to preach his doctrine, and to administer the sacraments. as in the old law god chose his priests from among the family of aaron, so in the new law he chooses them from among those whom his apostles and their successors see fit to ordain. priests and other ministers of the church receive in the sacrament of holy orders the power and grace to perform their sacred duties. if we would but consider seriously for a moment the importance of these duties and the great dignity of the minister of god, we would have no difficulty in understanding the reasonableness of the catholic practice of showing profound respect to god's priesthood. the priest is the minister of jesus christ, who chose him that he might obtain for himself the greatest good and in return bestow this good upon his fellow-man. jesus christ chose him that he might aid him in the work for which he came on earth. what a noble mission! what important duties! what a great dignity! to aid jesus christ in saving souls, to teach them the truths of salvation, to loose them from their sins, to offer the eucharistic sacrifice for them, to pray for them, to minister unto them, and to fill them with heaven's choice blessings; for such a high mission, for such important duties did jesus christ choose the priest. if his duties are so important, his dignity must be correspondingly great. on the banks of the lake of genesareth the great teacher chose peter as his vicar and head of his church. as the pontiff could not be everywhere, peter and the other apostles imposed hands on others as the needs of the growing church demanded. they understood that it was by a living, teaching ministry this work of salvation was to be carried on. for we find it recorded in the th chapter of the acts that paul and barnabas ordained priests in lystra and iconium. paul also consecrated titus bishop of crete, for the express purpose of ordaining others. thus we see that as christ was sent by the father, the apostles by christ, so, too, is the priest invested with the same power "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry and for the edification of the body of christ" (_eph_. iv. ), and that no one but a priest divinely called, rightly ordained, and legitimately sent has power from god to teach god's words to the faithful. he is the ambassador of god, commissioned to do his work with his authority; the vicar of christ continuing the work he commenced; and the organ of the holy ghost for the sanctification of souls. he is ever imitating his model, going "about doing good." he devotes his life to alleviate the sufferings of men. to spend one's life instructing man is but second in importance to alleviating his sufferings. this the priest is ever doing. he rescued us from barbarism; saved for us at the risk of his life the holy scriptures, the classics of greece and rome, and the writings of the fathers; founded the great universities of europe; and is to-day, as in the past, the greatest educator in the world. he does all this for love of god. do you wonder, then, that catholics love and revere their priests? nowhere can there be found a body of men or a series of rulers so venerable, so renowned for wisdom, justice, charity, and holiness, as the popes, bishops, and priests of the catholic church in every age, _from the time of christ until the present_. xvii. celibacy "he who is unmarried careth about the things of the lord, how he may please god" (_i cor_. vii. ). the catholic church recognizes matrimony as a holy state. she recommends celibacy to those desiring greater perfection, and enjoins it on her priests because, as st. paul says, "he who is unmarried careth about the things of the lord." it is said that the life of the priest is a hard, lonely one, and that it is unscriptural. let us see. that his life is one of hardships is certain. his path is by no means one of roses; it is rather one covered with thorns. the young man knows this well before he enters it. with a full knowledge of its duties and responsibilities, he willingly enters the priesthood. he knows well that it is a life full of trials and crosses. he knows, too, that the whole life of jesus christ, from the stable of bethlehem to the cross on calvary's heights, was one continuous trial, cross, mortification; and that the life of every follower, especially every minister, of jesus christ should be fashioned after that of his divine model. "if any man will come after me," he says in the th chapter of st. matthew, "let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." the disciple, the minister of christ, is not above his master; and it is not becoming that the path of the disciple or minister should be covered with flowers while that of the master was strewn with thorns and sprinkled with his own precious blood. yes, the priest's life is one of trials, crosses, and hardships. but the more trials he has to bear, the more crosses he has to carry, the more hardships he has to endure, the greater is his resemblance to his model, jesus christ; and if he bears those trials, crosses, and hardships, which he shares with his master here, with a proper spirit, the more certain he is of sharing with him a happy eternity hereafter. but is the life of celibacy unscriptural? no. in fact, few questions are more clearly defined in holy scripture than that of religious celibacy. st. paul, in the th chapter of the first epistle to the corinthians, says: "i would have you without solicitude. he who is unmarried careth for the things of the lord, how he may please god; but he who is married careth about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and is divided. and the unmarried woman and virgin thinketh about the things of the lord, how she may be holy in body and spirit. but she that is married thinketh about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. therefore," he concludes, "he that giveth his virgin in marriage doth well; and he who giveth her not doth better." could language be clearer? marriage is good; celibacy is better. "he that is unmarried careth about the things of the lord, how he may please god." this teaching of st. paul is the teaching of the church-- that marriage is honorable, is good, but that there is a better, a holier state for those who are called by the grace of god to embrace it. religious celibacy is one of the principal reasons why the catholic priest and missionary will risk all dangers, overcome all obstacles, face all terrors, and in time of plague expose himself to death in its most disgusting forms for the good of his fellow-man. all are acquainted with the noble examples of numbers of priests and sisters of charity who, at the risk of their own lives, voluntarily nursed the sick and dying during the yellow-fever scourge in the south a few years ago. do you think they would have done so had they families depending upon them? no; they would have cared for the things of this world. jesus christ has said: "greater love than this no man hath, that a man give up his life for his fellow-man." this the good priest is ever doing, ever ready to do. although death stares him in the face, he never shrinks from his post of duty, never abandons his flock while there is a wound to heal, a soul to save. when his duty calls him, he is not afraid of death, because st. paul says: "_he who is without a wife is solicitous about the things of the lord._" xviii. conclusion "if thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments" (_matt_. xix. ). when jesus christ died on the cross for us, he did so in order to lead us into life, to open heaven for all mankind. how important our salvation must be, then, for which christ shed his precious blood. if it is important, he must have taught us how to attain it. this, too, he did by the words, "keep the commandments." to assist us in keeping the commandments he left a representative on earth. his church, whose ministers were to teach all nations, is this representative. to her he said: "he that hears you, hears me." the night before he died he instituted the adorable sacrifice of the mass, saying: "this is my body . . . this is my blood which shall be shed for you." he then gave the apostles and their successors power to do what he had just done: "do this in commemoration of me." he also gave them power to baptize, to forgive sins, to bless, to be "dispensers of the mysteries of god." he gave them power to confer these powers on others. "as the father sent me [_i.e._, with the same power] i also send you." to these apostles and their successors he spoke when he said that he would remain with them until the consummation of the world. to them and the church he said: "he that hears you hears me." what the church teaches, then, christ teaches. as, in the natural order, man is born, grows to manhood, is nourished, and if sick needs proper food and remedies: so, in the supernatural order, there is a birth, it is baptism; there is a manly growth, it is confirmation; there is a nourishing food, it is the holy eucharist, the bread of life; there is a medicinal remedy against death, it is penance; and there is a balm to heal the wounds, the scars of sin, it is extreme unction. these are some of the channels through which god's grace flows into our souls to assist us to keep the commandments. the practices of the church naturally flow from her teachings. she teaches that there is but one god, the creator and lord of heaven and earth and all things; that man by his reason alone can find out this truth; that the order, beauty, and harmony of the works of nature show god's work; but that there are some truths which the deepest intellect of man can never fathom. hence she teaches that god has revealed certain truths; such as the mysteries of the holy trinity, the incarnation, and the blessed sacrament. when we know that god has revealed these truths we are acting reasonably not only in believing them, but also in showing our belief by practices of respect, adoration, and love. the church teaches that we must not only believe, but practise our religion. for faith alone will not save us. "faith without works is dead." to have these works we must "keep the commandments." we must love god above all things and our neighbor as ourselves. all the commandments are comprised in this. in fact, the essence of christianity is charity. where will you find charity practised in reality except in the catholic church? if you wish to see the truth of this, visit our larger towns and cities, and you will find hundreds of hospitals, asylums, schools, and other charitable institutions in which are thousands of the children of the catholic church, who have left everything to alleviate every ill that flesh is heir to, and follow the meek and humble jesus in his mission of love. the catholic church alone teaches, as jesus taught while on earth, the duty of penance. "if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." according to christ's teaching, the church sets aside the penitential season of lent and other times of mortification. the church also teaches that we must not only be faithful in the observance of the practices of religion, but that we must also live in peace and justice and charity with all mankind, and die with a hope beyond the grave. if we love god we will faithfully observe the practices of the church; these practices will assist us in keeping the commandments, by which we will enter into life. we have seen that the various ceremonies and practices of the catholic church are dictated by right reason; that they are the rational deduction from christ's teaching; that they obtain for us divine grace, excite pious thoughts, and elevate our minds to god; and that a true christian is one who not only believes but also practises the teachings of christ and his church. the observance of these pious practices of the church makes us christians in fact as well as in name. they assist us to keep the commandment and to live in accordance with our faith. by faithfully observing them, we show that we are not ashamed to be christ's followers. and if we follow him, who is the way, the truth, and the life, we will not walk in darkness; but will enter by the narrow way into the presence of truth itself, _in the regions of eternal light_. printed by benzinger brothers, new york mary, the help of christians novenas in preparation for the principal feasts of the blessed virgin [illustration: the sacred heart of mary] compiled by rev. bonaventure hammer, o.f.m. --- new york, cincinnati, chicago benziger brothers printers to the holy apostolic see publishers of benzinger's magazine imprimi permittitur. fr. chrysostomus theobald, o.f.m., _minister provincialis._ cincinnati, ohio, die , martii, . nihil obstat. remy laport, s.t.l., _censor librorum._ imprimatur. john m. farley, archbishop of new york. new york, march , . copyright, , by benziger brothers. contents rules for the proper observance of novenas on the manner of reading the meditations and observing the practices introduction: mary, the help of christians i. novena in honor of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary first day.--the predestination of the blessed virgin mary second day.--mary's immaculate conception third day.--mary, the victrix of satan fourth day.--mary without actual sin fifth day.--mary, full of grace sixth day.--mary, our refuge seventh day.--mary, the mother of chastity eighth day.--the image of the immaculate conception ninth day.--the feast of the immaculate conception ii. novena in honor of the nativity of the blessed virgin mary first day.--the birth of mary second day.--mary, the elect of god third day.--mary, the child of royalty fourth day.--mary, the child of pious parents fifth day.--mary's supernatural prerogatives sixth day.--mary, the joy of the most holy trinity seventh day.--the angels rejoice at mary's birth eighth day.--the joy of the just in limbo at mary's birth ninth day.--the holy name of mary iii. novena for the feast of the annunciation of the blessed virgin mary first day.--the annunciation second day.--the import of the angel's salutation third day.--the effect of the angel's salutation fourth day.--mary's question fifth day.--the solution sixth day.--mary's consent seventh day.--mary's fortitude in suffering eighth day.--mary, the mother of god ninth day.--mary our mother iv. novena in honor of the seven sorrows of mary first day.--devotion to the seven sorrows of mary second day.--mary's first sorrow: simeon's prophecy in the temple third day.--mary's second sorrow: the flight into egypt fourth day.--mary's third sorrow: jesus lost in jerusalem fifth day.--mary's fourth sorrow: she meets jesus carrying his cross sixth day.--mary's fifth sorrow: beneath the cross seventh day.--mary's sixth sorrow: the taking down of jesus' body from the cross eighth day.--mary's seventh sorrow: jesus is buried ninth day.--why mary had to suffer v. novena for the feast of the assumption of the blessed virgin mary first day.--mary's death was without pain second day.--at mary's tomb third day.--the empty tomb fourth day.--reasons for the bodily assumption of mary into heaven fifth day.--mary's glorious entrance into heaven sixth day.--mary crowned in heaven seventh day.--mary's bliss in heaven eighth day.--mary, the queen of mercy ninth day.--mary in heaven the help of christians on earth litany of loreto, in honor of the blessed virgin mary list of illustrations the sacred heart of mary virgin most pure the immaculate conception the presentation of mary in the temple the annunciation mary, the mother of sorrows simeon's prophecy in the temple the flight into egypt the finding of jesus in the temple jesus' body, taken down from the cross the assumption mary's death mary crowned in heaven mary, the help of christians on earth mary, the help of christians novenas in preparation for the principal feasts of the blessed virgin [illustration: virgin most pure] "holy mary, aid the miserable, assist the desponding, strengthen the weak, pray for the people, plead for the clergy, intercede for the devout female sex. let all who have recourse to thee experience the efficacy of thy help!"--holy church. rules for the proper observance of novenas _by st. alphonsus liguori_ . the soul must be in the state of grace; for the devotion of a sinful heart pleases neither god nor the saints. . we must persevere, that is, the prayers for each day of the novena must never be omitted. . if possible, we should visit a church every day, and there implore the favor we desire. . every day we ought to perform certain specified acts of exterior self-denial and interior mortification, in order to prepare us thereby for the reception of grace. . it is most important that we receive holy communion when making a novena. therefore prepare yourself well for it. . after obtaining the desired grace for which the novena was made, do not omit to return thanks to god and to the saint through whose intercession your prayers were heard. on the manner of reading the meditations and observing the practices holy scripture says, "before prayer prepare thy soul; and be not as a man that tempteth god" (_eccles._ xviii. ). therefore place yourself in the presence of god, invoke the assistance of the holy ghost, and make a most sincere act of contrition for your sins. offer up to god your will, your intellect, and your memory, so that your prayer may be pleasing to god and serve to promote your spiritual welfare. then read the meditation slowly, reflecting on each point of the thought or mystery treated, and consider what you can learn from it, and for what grace you ought to implore god. this is the principal object to be attained by mental prayer. never rise from your prayer without having formed some special resolution for practical observance. the practices at the end of each consideration in the following novenas will aid you to do so. finally, ask for grace to carry out effectively your good purposes, and thank god for enlightening your mind during the meditation. introduction mary, the help of christians no catholic denies that our lord jesus christ is the only mediator through whose merits we became reconciled to god. nevertheless, it is a doctrine of our faith that god willingly grants us grace if the saints, and especially the blessed virgin mary, the queen of saints, intercede for us. if the saints, during their life on earth, were so potent with god that through their prayers the blind obtained sight, the deaf hearing, and the dumb speech, that the sick of all conditions were healed, the dead restored to life, and the most obstinate sinners converted; if thousands of other miracles in the order of nature and of grace were performed through their intercession; what, then, will not she obtain for us from god, whose virtue and merits transcend those of all the saints, and who did more for the greater honor and glory of god than they all? mary is the queen of saints not only because she is the mother of the most high, but also because her sanctity is more perfect than theirs, and she therefore thrones above them all in heaven. hence the favor with which god regards her, and consequently the power of her intercession with him is so much the greater. if mary's sanctity thus impressively illustrates the potency of her intercession, the contemplation of her dignity as the mother of god does still more so. mary brought forth him who is the almighty. she calls him her son, who by the word of his omnipotence created from out of nothing the whole world with all its beauties, and who can call into being countless millions of other worlds. she calls him her son, whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth, who governs all nature with almighty power and reveals his name to mankind through the most astounding miracles. in a word, mary calls him her son, whose omnipotence fills heaven and earth; and this great, almighty god, who honors her as his mother and has wrought in her such great things, will he not heed her word of intercession, and hear her pleading for those who have recourse to her? on earth he was subject to her. her intercession moved him to exercise his omnipotent power at the wedding feast at cana; and now, when he has glorified and raised her up so high he would let her invoke him in vain? no, it is inconceivable that god should not hear the prayers of his mother! the holy fathers and doctors of the church vie with each other in proclaiming the power of mary's intercession with the heart of her divine son. some say that having been subject to her on earth, he desires to be so in heaven, inasmuch as to refuse her nothing she asks. hence st. bernard calls her the "intercessory omnipotence." indeed, when all the angels and saints in heaven join in supplication to god, their prayers are but those of servants; but when mary prays her intercession is that of his mother. therefore we can not sufficiently thank god for having given us in mary so powerful an advocate. st. bernard aptly says: "the angel announces, 'thou hast found grace before god.' o supreme happiness! mary shall always find grace. and what else could we wish? if we seek grace, let us seek it through mary; for what she seeks, she finds. never can she plead ineffectually." god, then, who in his infinite mercy has been pleased to provide for all our needs, desires through mary to console us, to comfort us, to remove all distrust, to strengthen our hope. how consoling to him who calls upon god in sore distress, or implores his pardon for sins committed, is the thought that at the throne of divine mercy he has in mary an advocate as mighty as she is gracious, who supplements his great unworthiness by her sublime dignity, and who makes good the defects of his prayer by her intercession! therefore st. bonaventure exclaims: "verily, great is our lord's mercy! that we, through fear of our divine judge, depart not forever from him, he gave us his own mother for our advocate and mediatrix of grace." i. novena in honor of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary [illustration: the immaculate conception] indulgences to all the faithful who by themselves or with others, in church or at home, with at least contrite heart and devotion, shall make this novena: ( ) days indulgence for each of the nine days; ( ) a plenary indulgence on one day of the novena or of the eight days following it. (pius ix, january , .) conditions: confession, communion, and prayer, according to the intentions of the holy father. _remark._--whenever, in the following pages, an indulgence is said to be granted "under the usual conditions," these conditions are the same as above. _note._--the above indulgences may also be gained for making the novena at any other time of the year, and are not attached to any prescribed formula of prayer. the same applies to all other novenas in honor of the blessed virgin. first day predestination of the blessed virgin mary preparatory prayer in thy conception, o virgin mary, thou wast immaculate; pray for us to the father, whose son jesus, conceived in thy womb by the holy ghost, thou didst bring forth. indulgence. days, every time. (pius vi, november , .) meditation holy church, our mother, purposely gathered into the season of advent everything which might contribute to assist us in preparing for the coming of the redeemer. purity of heart is the most necessary and helpful requirement for receiving god worthily, and for participating in the fruits of our redemption through christ. to remind us of this, holy church celebrates the feast of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary, this primary feast of purity, in advent. the church, moreover, intends to remind us that the coming of christ, our promised redeemer, depended on the consent of the blessed virgin. the redeemer could not appear before she was born of whom he was to be born. the aurora must precede the rising sun. thus also mary, the spiritual aurora, had to be conceived and born before the appearance of the sun of justice in this world. practice in mary appeared the woman who was to crush the serpent's head, who was to repair by her willing co-operation with god's designs the damage wrought by the disobedience of our first parents, and who was to become our mother and mighty advocate with god. the designs of god concerning mary were fully accomplished. god also has designs concerning us. our life was planned by him from all eternity, and we were destined to co-operate with him harmoniously and conscientiously in working out our salvation. have we corresponded with god's designs? did we not oppose them by yielding to our evil inclinations and passions? what a disparity between god's intentions concerning us and our own co-operation, between his merciful designs and our cowardly resistance to them! prayer of the church o god, who through the immaculate conception of the virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for thy divine son; grant that, as in view of thy son thou didst preserve her from all taint, so thou wouldst vouchsafe unto us that cleansed from all sin by her intercession we too may arrive at thine eternal glory. through the same christ our lord. amen. litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ behold, virgin immaculate, at thy sacred feet i bow, while my heart overflows with joy in union with thine own, because from eternity thou wast the mother-elect of the eternal word, and was preserved stainless from the taint of adam's sin. forever praised, forever blessed be the most holy trinity, who in thy conception poured out upon thy soul the riches of that matchless privilege. i humbly pray thee, most gracious mother, obtain for me the grace to overcome the bitter results of original sin. make me victorious over them, that i may never cease to love my god. hail mary, etc. _ejaculation_ o mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee! indulgence. days, once a day. (leo xiii, march , .) second day mary's immaculate conception preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation according to the definition of pope pius ix, the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary is that privilege by which she was preserved, in view of the merits of our saviour jesus christ, from original sin in the first moment of her conception. by solemnly proclaiming the dogma of mary's immaculate conception, the church confirmed anew the fundamental principles of christianity which in our times are so frequently attacked, derided, or forgotten. god reserved the solemn proclamation of this dogma, which seemingly has no practical bearing on the christian life, for our age, to recall to our mind the doctrines resulting from it. practice the most important of these doctrines is that of original sin, which to-day is rejected by many as a debasement of human nature, and is forgotten by others as having no practical influence on our moral state. by the promulgation of the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary, the church solemnly declares and defines as an article of faith, that the blessed virgin mary is conceived without the stain of original sin by a special privilege and grace of god. if, then, mary's sinlessness is an exception, the general rule remains in force, and all other human beings enter this world in the state of original sin. thus, by the proclamation of the dogma of the immaculate conception, the church combats human pride and sensuality, the foremost vices of the age. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ mary, unsullied lily of heavenly purity, i rejoice with thee, because at thy conception's earliest dawn thou wast full of grace and endowed with the perfect use of reason. i thank and adore the ever-blessed trinity, who gave thee such high gifts. i am overwhelmed with shame in thy presence, to see myself so poor in grace. o thou who wast filled with heavenly grace, impart some portion of it to my soul, and make me share the treasures of thy immaculate conception. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day mary, the victrix of satan preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary inaugurated the fulfilment of the divine promise made to our first parents in paradise in the words addressed to the serpent: "i shall put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head" (_gen._ iii. ). mary is the woman in whom satan never had a part. her intimate connection with god was announced by the angel: "hail, full of grace; the lord is with thee." now was fulfilled the saying of the psalmist, "the most high hath sanctified his own tabernacle. god is in the midst thereof, it shall not be moved: god will help it in the morning early" (_ps._ xlv. - ). mary was chosen to be the glorious tabernacle of the son of god "in the morning early," that is, in the first moment of her existence. god called her into being that she might assume the exalted dignity of the mother of his son, and therefore granted her the singular privilege of exemption from original sin. in her were fulfilled solomon's prophetic words of praise, "thou art all fair, o my love, and there is not a spot in thee" (_cant._ iv. ). it was in view of her son's merits applied to her beforehand that god thus produced in her the image of the new man regenerated in the holy ghost. practice the spirit of darkness holds mankind enslaved, but one human being escapes him. a destructive fire lays waste the whole earth, but one tree remains unscathed. a terrible tyrant conquers the whole world, but one fortified city repels his assaults. this human being retaining liberty, this tree escaping destruction, this city repelling the enemy's attack is the blessed virgin mary. will the almighty and merciful god, who has accomplished such great things in mary, who has selected her for his mother, not listen to her prayers when she intercedes for us? st. william of paris exclaims: "no other created being can obtain for us so many and so great graces from god as his mother. by the all-powerful might of her intercession he honors her not only as his handmaid, but also as his mother." therefore we ought not be surprised when the holy fathers maintain that a single sigh of mary is more effective with god than the combined intercession of all the angels and saints. if, then, mary's power is so great, she will surely hear us when we invoke her help in our combat with satan. having conquered him herself, she will also help us to conquer him. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ mary, thou mystical rose of purity, my heart rejoices with thine at the glorious triumph which thou didst gain over the infernal serpent by thy immaculate conception, and because thou wast conceived without stain of original sin. i thank and praise with my whole heart the ever-blessed trinity, who granted thee this glorious privilege; and i pray thee to obtain for me strength to overcome all the wiles of the infernal foe, and never to stain my soul with sin. be thou mine aid; make me, by thy protection, victorious over the common foe of our eternal welfare. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day mary without actual sin preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary conceived without sin is the most blessed daughter of the eternal father, the real and true mother of the divine son, the elect spouse of the holy ghost. but in the world, in what condition do we behold her? she dwells not in a splendid palace; she is not surrounded by a retinue of servants ready at every moment to do her bidding; she is not exempt from trials and suffering. on the contrary, she is poor; she lives in obscurity, and suffered so much on earth that, without shedding her blood, she merits to be styled the queen of martyrs. her heart was transfixed with the sword of sorrow. mary is not exempt from tribulations and adversity; but one thing god does not permit to touch her, _i.e.,_ sin. hence holy church applies to her the words, "thou art all fair, o my love, and there is not a spot in thee" (_cant._ iv. ). practice though we were not preserved from sin like mary, yet god in his ineffable goodness and mercy granted us the grace to be cleansed from sin and to be clothed with the garment of sanctifying grace in baptism. no treasure of the world can be compared with this prerogative. but as we bear this grace in a fragile vase, we must be most careful to protect and preserve it in ourselves and others from all danger. let the blessed virgin mary be our example. well knowing the inestimable value of the grace conferred upon her, she guarded it with the greatest care. although exempt from concupiscence and "full of grace," she was so distrustful of herself as if she were in continual danger. how much more, then, must we use precaution to preserve in ourselves and in others this treasure of grace, since we feel in ourselves constantly the law of the flesh, which resists the law of the spirit, and urges us on to evil, whilst the world and the devil never weary in placing snares for us in order to accomplish our ruin. therefore let us have recourse to mary, and invoking her aid bravely resist all temptations. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ mirror of holy purity, mary, virgin immaculate, great is my joy while i consider that, from thy immaculate conception, the most sublime and perfect virtues were infused into thy soul, and with them all the gifts of the holy ghost. i thank and praise the most holy trinity, who bestowed on thee these high privileges. i pray thee, gentle mother, obtain for me grace to practise virtue, and to make me worthy to become partaker of the gifts and graces of the holy ghost. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day mary, full of grace preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation satan's relation to god as his child was severed by sin. the beautiful image of god imprinted on man's soul was disfigured by it. but with the immaculate conception of mary, a being full of grace, an object of god's supreme complacency entered this world. after the lapse of four thousand years god, in his wisdom, power, and love, for the first time again created a human being in that state in which he had originally created our first parents. mary, from the first moment of her existence was, in virtue of the sanctifying grace infused into her soul, most intimately united with god, and endowed with the most precious gifts of heaven. because she was predestined to become the mother of the redeemer of mankind, it was befitting that she should unite in herself all the gifts becoming to such an ineffable dignity. hence she surpassed in grace and holiness all other created beings, and was consecrated a worthy temple of the incarnate word. therefore she was saluted by the angel as "full of grace," and the church, in our behalf, addresses the almighty: "o god, who through the immaculate conception of the virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for thy divine son; grant, that, as in view of the death of that son thou didst preserve her from all taint, so thou wouldst vouchsafe unto us that, cleansed from all sin by her intercession, we too may arrive at thine eternal glory." practice the world considers men according to their rank and station, their wealth and knowledge. god recognizes in them but one difference, that caused by the presence or absence of sanctifying grace in their soul. a soul in the state of sanctifying grace is god's friend; without it, his enemy. a man dying in the state of sanctifying grace is sure of eternal bliss. therefore we ought to prize this grace above all else, and do everything in our power to preserve it. st. leo exhorts us, "recognize, o man, thy dignity! as thou hast received divine grace, beware of returning to your former sinful condition by a wicked life." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ mary, bright moon of purity, i rejoice with thee, because the mystery of thy immaculate conception was the beginning of salvation for the race of man and the joy of the whole world. i thank and bless the ever-blessed trinity, who thus did magnify and glorify thee; and i beg of thee to obtain for me the grace so to profit by thy dear son's death and passion, that his precious blood may not have been shed in vain for me upon the cross, but that, after a holy life, i may reach heaven in safety. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary, our refuge preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation we carry the precious treasure of sanctifying grace in a frail vessel. our inclination to evil remains with us, and continues to impel us to that which is forbidden. on whom shall we call for aid? call on mary! she is conceived without sin. she, the lily among thorns, who never lost god's friendship, is our advocate. let her, who was found worthy to become the mother of our redeemer, inspire you with trust and confidence. the church invokes her as the refuge of sinners, and under no other title does she show her love for us more convincingly and her power with god more efficiently. practice we may trust confidently in mary's intercession and aid in all temptations and trials, if we but have recourse to her. therefore st. john damascene writes: "come to my aid, o mother of my redeemer! thou art my help, my consolation in life. come to my aid, and i shall escape unscorched from the fire of temptation; amongst a thousand i shall remain unharmed; i shall brave the storms of assault unwrecked. thy name is my shield, thy help my armor, thy protection my defense. with thee i boldly attack the enemy and drive him off in confusion; through thee i shall achieve a triumphant victory." in all temptations, therefore, let us have recourse to mary and through her intercession we shall overcome them. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ mary immaculate, most brilliant star of purity, i rejoice with thee because thy immaculate conception has bestowed upon the angels in paradise the greatest joy. i thank and bless the ever-blessed trinity, who enriched thee with this high privilege. o let me, too, one day enter into this heavenly joy, in the company of angels, that i may praise and bless thee, world without end. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day mary, the mother of chastity preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation holy scripture and the fathers agree in the statement that the blessed virgin mary made the vow of perpetual virginity. for when the archangel gabriel brought god's message to the immaculate spouse of st. joseph, that she was to become the mother of the most high, she asked, "how shall this be done, because i know not man?" (_luke_ i. .) indeed, mary would not have been, in the full and most excellent sense of the word, the "virgin of virgins," had she not from her own free choice vowed her virginity to god. during the whole christian era there have been heroic souls who made the vow of perpetual chastity, consecrating themselves to god. trusting in the powerful protection of the immaculate virgin, they persevered in their resolve to bear this priceless treasure before god's throne despite the dangers of the world, the temptations of concupiscence, and the assaults of hell, and with the help of the queen of virgins they achieved a triumphant victory. practice since the fall of adam our senses are in rebellion against the law of god. "i see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin" (_rom._ vii. ). chastity is the virtue which causes us the greatest struggles. st. augustine says: "the fiercest of all combats is the one for the preservation of chastity, and we must engage in it every day." fierce as this combat is, the aid which mary gives her children to achieve victory is all-powerful. she sustains them by her maternal love and protection. those who lead a chaste life receive the divine spirit, are happy in this life, and will receive a special crown in heaven. among the means for the preservation of chastity, the following are specially recommended: the assiduous and constant practice of self-denial; the frequentation of the sacraments; the daily invocation of mary for her aid and protection; scrupulous avoidance of the occasions of sin. st. chrysostom writes: "he errs who believes that he can overcome his sensual propensities and preserve chastity by his own efforts. god's mercy must extinguish nature's ardor." have recourse to the intercession of the immaculate virgin and rest assured that you will obtain this mercy. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ mary immaculate, rising morn of purity, i rejoice with thee, gazing in wonder upon thy soul confirmed in grace from the very first moment of thy conception, and rendered inaccessible to sin. i thank and magnify the ever-blessed trinity, who chose thee from all our race for this special privilege. holy virgin, obtain for me utter and constant hatred of all sin above every other evil, and let me rather die than ever again fall into sin. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day the image of the immaculate conception preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation christian art represents the immaculate conception as follows: the blessed virgin appears standing on a globe, about which is coiled a serpent holding an apple in its mouth. one of mary's feet rests upon the serpent, the other is placed on the moon. her eyes are raised toward heaven; her hands are either joined in prayer, or she holds a lily in her right, and places the left on her breast. her dress is white; her ample mantle is of blue color. a crown of twelve stars encircles her head. these emblems typify in a most striking manner mary's power and glory. "and a great sign appeared in heaven. a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (_apoc._ xii. ). practice the representation of the immaculate conception is very instructive. ( ) mary appears standing on the globe. this signifies that being human, she belongs to the earth, and yet is exalted above the world and sin; also, that she trampled under foot earthly possessions, vanities, and joys. ( ) a serpent is coiled about the globe, bearing an apple in its mouth. this reminds us of the fall of our first parents, and of the consequences of their sin. ( ) mary's foot rests on the serpent, indicating that she never was under satan's dominion, but was preserved from sin in the first moment of her existence. ( ) mary stands on the moon. the moon, on account of its changes, is an emblem of inconstancy. we see it at mary's feet, to be reminded that we ought to be constant in faith and virtue. ( ) mary wears a crown, to indicate that she is a queen. the crown is composed of twelve stars: she is the queen of heaven. ( ) mary's dress is white, to denote her spotless purity and innocence. ( ) she folds her hands in prayer, reminding us to imitate her example. ( ) or she holds a lily in her right hand, to indicate her virginity and chastity, and the sweet odor of her virtues. ( ) mary's mantle is blue, which color is emblematic of humility. its folds are ample, to remind us that all who have recourse to her find a secure refuge in all dangers and necessities. therefore let us invoke her intercession in the words of holy church: "we fly to thy patronage, o holy mother of god. despise not our petitions, and deliver us from all danger, o ever glorious and blessed virgin!" prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o spotless sun! o virgin mary! i congratulate thee. i rejoice with thee because in thy conception god gave thee grace greater and more boundless than he ever shed on all his angels and all the saints, together with all their merits. i am thankful and i marvel at the surpassing beneficence of the ever-blessed trinity, who conferred on thee this privilege. o make me correspond with the grace of god and never abuse it. change this heart of mine; make me now begin to amend my life. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day the feast of the immaculate conception preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation early in the christian era the feast of mary's immaculate conception was observed in several countries. st. anselm, bishop of canterbury, introduced it in england. a great number of popes favored the doctrine of mary's absolute sinlessness, and the adversaries of the immaculate conception were bidden to be silent and not publicly assert or defend their view. in , pope sixtus iv prescribed the feast of the immaculate conception to be observed in the whole church, and made it obligatory on priests to recite the special canonical office and to use the mass formula published for the purpose. in , the bishops of the united states assembled in plenary council in baltimore elected the blessed virgin under the title of her immaculate conception patroness of the church in their country. finally, pope pius ix, after consulting with the bishops throughout the world, and having implored the holy ghost for his guidance in prayer and fasting, promulgated, on december , , the dogma which teaches that the blessed virgin mary was in her conception, by a special grace and through the merits of her divine son, preserved from the stain of original sin. this doctrine was received throughout the world with ineffable joy; and, indeed, no one who loves the blessed virgin can help rejoicing at this her most glorious privilege. the invocation, "queen conceived without the stain of original sin," was added to the litany of loreto. in , at the second plenary council in baltimore, the feast of the immaculate conception was raised to the rank of a holyday of obligation for the church of the united states. practice in the inscrutable designs of his providence god ordained that the mystery of the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary should be proclaimed an article of faith as late as the middle of the nineteenth century. but, then, its proclamation was attended by circumstances that undeniably proved that the holy father in pronouncing the dogma had been inspired and guided by the holy ghost. let us praise god and thank him for bestowing this glorious privilege on our beloved mother, and let us often invoke her under her favorite title, the immaculate conception. st. alphonsus liguori tells us that the devotion to this mystery is especially efficacious in overcoming the temptations of impurity. therefore he was accustomed to recommend to his penitents thus tempted to recite three times every day the hail mary in honor of mary immaculate. and the venerable john of avila assures us that he never found any one who practised a true devotion to the immaculate conception of mary, who did not in a short time obtain the gift of that virtue which renders us so dear to her immaculate heart. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o living light of holiness, model of purity, mary immaculate, virgin and mother! as soon as thou wast conceived thou didst profoundly adore thy god, giving him thanks that in thee the ancient curse was revoked, and blessing came again upon the sinful sons of adam. o make this blessing kindle in my heart love for god; and do thou fan this flame of love within me, that i may love him constantly and one day in heaven eternally enjoy him, there to thank him more and more fervently for all the wondrous privileges conferred on thee, and to rejoice with thee for thy high crown of glory. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ii novena in honor of the nativity of the blessed virgin mary [illustration: the presentation of mary in the temple] first day the birth of mary preparatory prayer we fly to thy patronage, o holy mother of god. despise not our petitions in our necessities, and deliver us from all dangers, o ever glorious and blessed virgin! meditation mary is born! the dawn announcing the coming salvation of mankind is at hand. the deep significance of mary's birth is expressed in the words of the church: "thy birth, o virgin mother of god, has brought joy to the world; for from thee is to come forth the sun of justice, christ our lord, to dispel the curse and bring the blessing, to conquer death and bring us everlasting life. on this day a light broke forth to brighten the paths of men through all time. let us, then, rejoice in mary's coming." equally expressive and touching are the reflections of that great doctor of the church, st. augustine: "the day has dawned, the long-wished-for day of the blessed and venerable virgin mary. well may this earth of ours rejoice and be glad for having been honored and sanctified by the birth of such a virgin." practice let us, then, rejoice in mary's coming. let us hail the birth of her who attained the dignity of mother without losing the high privilege of a virgin. let us imitate her holy life, that she may become our intercessor before the throne of her son, our judge and redeemer. by becoming the mother of god she became also our mother. as mother of the redeemer she is also the mother of the redeemed. richard of st. lawrence writes: "if we desire grace and help, let us have recourse to mary and we shall obtain what we desire." for, as st. alphonsus remarks: "all graces and gifts which god has resolved to bestow upon us he gives us through the hands of mary." prayer of the church grant to us, thy servants, we beseech thee, o lord, the gift of heavenly grace; that to those for whom the delivery of the blessed virgin was the commencement of salvation, the commemoration of her nativity may give increasing peace. through christ our lord. amen. litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ most lovely child, who by thy birth hast comforted the world, made glad the heavens, struck terror into hell, brought help to the fallen, consolation to the sad, health to the sick, joy to all; we pray thee with all fervent love, be thou born again in spirit in our souls through thy most holy love. renew our fervor in thy service, rekindle in our hearts the fire of thy love, and bid all virtues blossom there, which may cause us to find more and more fervor in thy gracious eyes. o mary, may we feel the saving power of thy sweetest name! let it ever be our comfort to call on that great name in all our troubles; let it be our hope in dangers, our shield in temptation, and in death our last aspiration. _ejaculation_ o mary, who didst come into the world free from stain: obtain of god for me that i may leave it without sin! indulgence. days, once a day. (pius ix, march , .) second day mary, the elect of god preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation we find the explanation of the great prerogatives and privileges which god bestowed upon the blessed virgin mary by reflecting on her singular and glorious predestination. from all eternity she was predestined to become the mother of his divine son; therefore, says pope pius ix, god loved her above all created beings, and in his special predilection made her the object of his divine complacency. with singular appropriateness we may apply to her the words of holy scripture, "i have loved thee with an everlasting love" (_jer._ xxxi. ). the eternal father regarded mary as his beloved daughter; the divine son honored her as his dearest mother; the holy ghost loved her as his spotless spouse. "and," says st. anselm, "they loved each other with an affection unsurpassed by any other." practice inspired by the contemplation of mary's extraordinary privileges, st. anselm exclaims: "thou, o mary, art more exalted than the patriarchs, greater than the martyrs, more glorious than the confessors, purer than the virgins, and therefore thou, alone, canst achieve more than they can without thee." let us, then, rejoice that we possess such a powerful advocate in heaven, and let us place implicit trust in her. but let us also co-operate with the graces and favors which she obtains for us. moreover, let us remember that we grievously offend god and mary if we abuse what we obtain through her intercession to gratify our evil inclinations, and that the graces she obtains for us for our salvation will redound to our ruin if we do not use them for the glory of god and the promotion of our soul's welfare. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ we hail thee, mary, who, sprung from the royal line of david, didst come forth to the light of heaven with high honor from the womb of holy anna, thy most happy mother. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day mary, the child of royalty preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation according to her lineage, as traced in two gospels, mary numbers among her paternal and maternal ancestors the holiest and most renowned personages of the old testament. we find amongst them abraham, the friend of god, the father of israel and of all the faithful; then david, the man after god's own heart, the inspired royal prophet; and solomon, the wise and mighty king, and the whole line of the kings of juda. on her mother's side she belonged to the tribe of levi, and was descended from its noblest and most prominent family, that of aaron the high priest, and was therefore a relative of the high priests of the old testament. thus royal and sacerdotal prestige distinguished mary's lineage. practice the blessed virgin was not proud of her illustrious ancestry, and not depressed because of the downfall of her family, but applied herself diligently to adhere to the faith and follow the example of her ancestors. remembering the wicked members of her family, she learned from them that temporal greatness, success, wealth, and glory are more dangerous to virtue than poverty, retirement, and work. let us imitate mary's example. even possessed of the most excellent prestiges of the natural order, of ourselves we are nothing. "what hast thou that thou hast not received? and if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?" ( _cor._ iv. .) therefore do not overestimate yourself; do not be conceited; do not strive for praise, honors, and high station; be not boastful or arrogant; do not presume on your merits; rather be distrustful of yourself and patiently bear affronts, neglect, and humiliations. however poor you may be, be content with your lot, remembering the words of the apostle: "they that will become rich fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires which draw men into destruction and perdition. for the desire of money is the root of all evils: which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows" ( _tim._ vi. , ). prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ we hail thee, o mary, heavenly babe, white dove of purity, who, despite the infernal serpent, was conceived free from the taint of adam's sin. with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to come down again and be born in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day mary, the child of pious parents preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation tradition tells us that mary's parents were called joachim and anna. the holy fathers rival each other in praising the virtue of this holy couple. st. epiphanius writes: "joachim and anna were pleasing in the sight of god because of the holiness of their lives." st. andrew of crete remarks: "joachim was eminent for the mildness and fortitude of his character. the law of god was his rule of life. he was just, and never relaxed in the fervor of his love of god. anna was no less noted for her meekness, continence, and chastity." st. jerome relates: "the life of this holy couple was simple and just before the lord, edifying and virtuous before men." st. john damascene exclaims: "o happy, chaste, and immaculate couple, joachim and ann! you are known, according to the lord's word, by your fruit. your life was pleasing in the sight of god, and worthy of her who was born of you." practice it is a great blessing, and one to be esteemed more highly than wealth and high station, to have god-fearing, pious parents. for their sake god is gracious to the children and lavishes his gifts on them. it is certainly a great privilege to be offered up to god immediately after birth by the hands of a pious mother. to have, from childhood up, the example and guidance of virtuous parents is certainly of the greatest importance. st. chrysostom writes: "the parents' example is the book from which the child learns." a pious bishop was wont to say: "the good example of the parents is the best catechism and the truest mirror that a family can have." if christian parents imitate the example of joachim and ann the blessing of god will rest on them and on their children; for because her parents were so dear to mary, she will not refuse to join them in their prayers for us. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ we hail thee, brightest morn, forerunner of the heavenly sun of justice, who didst first bring light to earth. humbly prostrate, with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day mary's supernatural prerogatives preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary was the masterpiece of god's creation; her soul was the most perfect ever dwelling in a human body. a pious tradition tells us that she possessed the use of reason much earlier than other children. her intellect was illuminated by supernatural light; her will was exempt from concupiscence. being preserved from original sin, she surpassed in holiness, from the first moment of her existence, all angels and men. she possessed all virtues in the highest degree, because of her faithful co-operation with sanctifying grace and with the countless actual graces granted to her. she lived in constant communion with god, undisturbed by evil inclinations from within or temptations from without. practice through the effects of original sin we have lost the supernatural prerogative of original justice, and even after receiving sanctifying grace in holy baptism we are exposed to many temptations. our life is a constant warfare. we must, however, not despair in this struggle, for if we are true children of mary she will come to our aid. in all temptations mary is the "help of christians" if we have recourse to her. but if we wish her to help us, we must not expose ourselves unnecessarily to temptation. "he that loveth danger shall perish in it" (_ecclus._ iii. ). this sad experience has come to many. let us, therefore, avoid the danger and occasion of sin; and whenever evil approaches us in any shape, let us call upon mary, and we may rest assured that she will assist us. "i shall certainly triumph over my enemies," exclaims st. alphonsus, "if i place my trust in thee, o mary, and if thou art my shield and protection against them." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ we hail thee, o chosen one! who like the untarnished sun didst burst forth into being in the dark night of sin. humbly prostrate at thy feet, o mary, we give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary, the joy of the most holy trinity preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation in the child mary the eternal father beheld his unsullied glorious image, which image had been defaced in all other human beings by original and actual sin. what a joy to him to behold this stainless, immaculate child! and how great must have been the joy of the son of god at the birth of her who was to be his mother! from her he was to take that sacred body in which he was to dwell on earth, the blood of which he was to shed on the cross for our redemption, and in which he was to return to heaven to sit at the right hand of the father. he will call her mother, and regard her with all the filial tenderness of a child for his mother. she will love him in return with a true mother's affection and devotion. as the mother of sorrows she will weep over his inanimate body taken down from the cross. but like himself, she will leave the tomb, and reign at his side as the queen of heaven. how great, then, must have been his joy at the birth of this child! the holy ghost, too, rejoiced at mary's birth. he infused into her the plenitude of his holy love, for she was destined to become the mother of god. and how mary will love god, from whom she received so many and so great graces, and whom she is to bear in her arms as her real and true son! this, her divine son's love for mankind, will be imparted also to her. therefore the holy ghost rejoices at this child, who received into her heart the fulness of his grace, and shall be the helper of those who have recourse to her. practice raise your spirit above time and space; try to contemplate well the mystery of mary's predestination. to make us realize the great privileges conferred upon her, the church applies to her the words of holy scripture, "he that shall find me, shall find life, and have salvation from the lord" (_prov._ viii. ). only when we consider mary as the mother of god, do we arrive at a right conception of her great dignity. hence st. bonaventure exclaims, "god might have created a more beautiful world; he might have made heaven more glorious; but it was impossible for him to exalt a creature higher than mary in making her his mother." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ we hail thee, beauteous moon, o mary most holy, who didst shed light upon a world wrapped in the densest darkness of sin. humbly prostrate at thy feet, we give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day the angels rejoice at mary's birth preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation describing god's power and wisdom as shown in creation, holy scripture, according to the explanation of the fathers, introduces him as saying, "when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of god made a joyful melody" (_job_ xxxviii. ), and by these words intends to convey with what joy the angels praised god's omnipotence on beholding the wonders of creation. what, then, must have been their joy on beholding this new wonder of divine power and wisdom, the child mary, destined to be their queen. filled with admiration they exclaimed, "who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?" (_cant._ vi. .) and moreover, if, as our lord declares, the angels rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, how great must have been their joy at the birth of her who was to be the refuge of sinners and the mother of him who was to be the redeemer of sinners? again, the angels rejoiced at mary's birth, because she would fill, through the salvation of mankind by her divine son, the places made vacant in heaven by the apostate angels. practice good children rejoice on the birthday of their parents and gratefully remember all the benefits they have received from them. thus should we, also, celebrate the nativity of the blessed virgin by a grateful remembrance of the innumerable graces, individual and general, we received through her intercession. in acknowledging mary's co-operation with our salvation, holy church calls her our mediatrix, and greets her as the "cause of our joy," because, though we receive grace from christ, it comes to us through her mediation. what cause, then, have we not for rejoicing at her birth! again, greeting mary as the cause of our joy, let us remember the protection she extended to the church in times of adversity and persecution; let us, furthermore, remember all the graces which, according to the holy fathers, are dispensed to us by mary's hands. "of her plenitude," says st. bonaventure, "we have all received; the captive liberty, the sick health, the sad consolation, the sinner pardon, the just grace." therefore the church invokes mary as the mother of mercy, the health of the sick, the comforter of the afflicted, the refuge of sinners, the help of christians, in a word, as the cause of our joy. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ we hail thee, fair soul of mary, who from all eternity wast god's, and god's alone; sanctuary and living temple of the holy ghost; sun without blemish, because free from original sin. with all our hearts we pray to thee, o mary, to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day the joy of the just in limbo at mary's birth preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation for four thousand years the just in limbo sighed for redemption, and sent up to heaven the plaintive cry, "o that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down!" (_is._ xiv. .) "drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened and bud forth a saviour" (_is._ xlv. ). what joy must have filled the souls of the just when they heard the welcome tidings of the birth of mary, the virgin mother of the promised messias; how great their consolation at the rising of that dawn which preceded the sun of justice, whose splendor was to illuminate the darkness of them that sat in the shadow of death! practice a joy similar to that which filled the captive souls in limbo at mary's birth now fills the souls in purgatory when we implore her to come to their relief. contemplating the immense love of the most holy trinity for mary, we may not doubt but that, by her intercession, she might at once deliver all the suffering souls from their prison, if such were in accordance with god's will. but god's wisdom and providence have decreed otherwise. therefore mary does not pray for the release of all souls in purgatory, but recommends them, in conformity with god's will, to his mercy. st. bernardine of sienna applies to mary the words of holy scripture, "i have penetrated into the bottom of the deep and have walked in the waves of the sea" (_ecclus._ xxiv. ), and says: "she descends into that sea of suffering and soothes the pains of the poor souls." st. denis the carthusian remarks, that when the name of mary is mentioned in purgatory, the souls there imprisoned experience the same relief as when a sick person hears words of consolation on his bed of pain. therefore let us entrust our prayers for the souls in purgatory to mary. she will present our petitions to god, and thus presented, he will speedily hear and graciously grant them. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ we hail thee, strong child, who didst put to flight all hell and the powers of darkness. we give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day the holy name of mary preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation st. alphonsus writes of the name of mary: "this name was neither invented on earth, nor imposed by human agency. it came from heaven and was given to the mother of god by divine command." just as it is a peculiar glory of our saviour's name, that "god hath given him a name which is above all names, that in the name of jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" (_philipp._ ii. ), thus it also behooves that mary, the most perfect, the most pure, and most exalted of all created beings, should receive a most holy, lovely, and powerful name. st. methodius declares that the name of mary is so rich in grace and blessing, that no one can pronounce it devoutly without at the same time receiving a spiritual favor. bl. jordan exclaims: "let a heart be ever so obdurate, let a man even despair of god's mercy, if he have recourse to thee, o mary, virgin most clement, he can not fail to be softened and filled with confidence if he invokes thy name; for thou wilt inspire him with hope in god's mercy, pardon, and grace." practice it is, then, meet and just that we should devoutly honor and praise the name of mary. let us never mention it except in reverence and devotion. let us invoke mary by it in all dangers of body and soul, mindful of the words of st. bernard: "o sinner, when the floods and tempests of this earthly life overwhelm thee so that thou canst not firmly set thy foot, turn not away thy gaze from the light of this guiding star. when the storms of temptation assail thee, and the rocks and quicksands of vexation and trial threaten to shatter thy bark of hope, look up to that bright star in the heavens, and call on the name of mary. when the billows of pride and of ambition, when the floods of calumny are about to submerge thee, look up to this star and call on the name of mary. when anger, avarice, and concupiscence convulse the peace of thy soul, look up to this star and call on mary. when thy sins rise up like hideous monsters before thy troubled vision, when thy conscience stings thee, when the terrors of future judgment fill thee with deadly anguish, when gloom and sadness overpower thee, when thou findest thyself on the brink of hellish despair, take courage; think of mary, and thou wilt find from thy own inward experience how true are the sayings of those who tell thee that the name of the blessed virgin is 'star of the sea,' the name of the virgin is mary." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ we hail thee, beloved child mary, adorned with every virtue, immeasurably above all the saints, and therefore worthy mother of the saviour of the world, who by the operation of the holy ghost didst bring forth the incarnate word. we give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness, they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). iii novena for the feast of the annunciation of the blessed virgin mary [illustration: the annunciation] first day the annunciation preparatory prayer my queen, my mother, remember i am thine own. keep me, guard me, as thy property and possession! indulgence. days, every time. (pius ix, august , .) meditation at nazareth, a mountain village in judea, lived poor and in obscurity mary, the virgin selected by god to become the mother of his son. on march th she was in prayer in her chamber, and perhaps sent up to heaven the yearning petition, "drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened and bud a saviour" (_is._ xlv. ). behold, suddenly the chamber is suffused by a heavenly light. the archangel gabriel stands reverently before her and says, "hail, full of grace, the lord is with thee. blessed art thou among women. and when mary heard the angel's words, she was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be" (_luke_ i. , ). practice the angel's salutation comprises two titles of ineffable greatness. mary is called "full of grace," because of her innocence and purity; she is called "blessed among women," because she is the elect mother of god. never before was a human being thus greeted. it was god himself who sent the message to mary. a good angel now repaired the harm once done by a bad angel. for lucifer, the fallen angel, seduced eve to sin and thereby caused the ruin of the whole human race; now another angel, gabriel, was sent to announce the glad tidings to mary, that she was to conceive the redeemer from sin, who was to accomplish the salvation of mankind. mary was troubled at the angel's words, and reflected on the meaning of the message. st. ambrose writes: "mary was troubled, not because the angel was a heavenly spirit, but because he appeared to her in the form of a youth. still more was she troubled at the praises spoken to her. she was innocent and humble, and therefore reflected on the meaning of the message. she had always considered herself as a poor and unknown virgin; she deemed herself unworthy of god's grace; therefore she was troubled at the salutation. in that decisive moment she was and remained our model." prayer of the church pour forth, we beseech thee, o lord, thy grace into our hearts, that we unto whom the incarnation of christ thy son was made known by the message of an angel, may, by his passion and cross, be brought to the glory of the resurrection. through the same christ our lord. amen. litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ with wonder i revere thee, holiest virgin mary; for of all god's creatures thou wast the humblest on the very day of thy annunciation, when god himself exalted thee to the sublime dignity of his own mother. o mightiest virgin, make me, wretched sinner that i am, know the depths of my own nothingness, and make me humble myself at last with all my heart, beneath the feet of all men. hail mary, etc. _ejaculation_ virgin mary, mother of god, pray to jesus for me! indulgence. days, once a day. (leo xiii, march , .) second day the import of the angel's salutation preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation "hail, full of grace!" mary was greeted as full of grace by the giver of grace himself. the angel's salutation meant: "the grace of god has preserved thee from all sin. neither the stain of original sin, nor the guilt of actual sin, ever obscured the mirror of thy soul. by the special favor of god the most sublime virtues were infused into thy soul." "the lord is with thee." from all eternity the lord was with mary. he was with her not only as he is with his whole creation, but he was with her in a special manner. the eternal father was with her from all eternity as with his beloved daughter. the divine son was with her from all eternity as with his chosen mother. the holy ghost was with her from all eternity as with his beloved spouse. this intimate union never was disrupted. therefore mary is "blessed among women," and ever was, and ever shall be the beloved of the lord. practice consider how mary receives the angel's message. she is troubled, she is disturbed at the praise, at the reverence of the angel. what an example of humility! let us imitate her in this virtue by the acknowledgment before god of our weakness, our unworthiness, our nothingness, and by ordering our whole being accordingly. humility renders us pleasing in the sight of god and makes us susceptible of his grace. hence st. augustine writes: "god resists the proud and gives his grace to the humble. what a terrible punishment for the proud, what a splendid reward for the humble! the proud man resembles a rock, the humble man a beautiful valley. the grace of god descends from heaven like a gentle rain. it can not penetrate the rock of pride, and hence the proud man loses god's grace and love. but in the valley of humility the waters of divine grace can diffuse themselves and fructify the soul of the humble man, so that it may bring forth fruit unto eternal life." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o mary, holiest virgin, who, when the archangel gabriel hailed thee in thy annunciation, and thou wast raised by god above all choirs of the angels, didst confess thyself "the handmaid of the lord"; do thou obtain for me true humility and a truly angelic purity, and so to live on earth as ever to be worthy of the blessings of god. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day the effect of the angel's salutation preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the effect of the angel's salutation on mary was striking. imbued with sentiments quite different from ours, she was troubled at the praise addressed to her. meanwhile she is silent and considers within herself what might be the meaning of these words. and now the angel calls her by name, saying, "fear not, mary, for thou hast found grace with god. behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name jesus. he shall be great, and shall be called the son of the most high, and the lord god shall give unto him the throne of david his father: and he shall reign in the house of jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (_luke_ i. - ). practice let us admire the prudence shining forth in mary. after hearing the angel's words of praise she was silent and thought within herself what kind of a salutation this was. she is very careful and prudent. on this her conduct st. thomas aquinas remarks: "mary did not refuse to believe, nor did she receive the message with credulity. she avoided eve's gullibility and the distrust of zachary the high priest." and st. bernard writes: "mary preferred to remain silent in humility, rather than to speak inconsiderately." let us strive always to speak and act with deliberation. our conversation ought always to be judicious; for often a word spoken inconsiderately causes bitter regret. st. thomas aquinas observes: "song was given to a number of creatures, but human beings alone were endowed with the faculty of speech, to indicate that in speaking we should use our reason." and st. chrysostom says: "let us always guard our tongue; not that it should always be silent, but that it should speak at the proper time." prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i rejoice with thee, o virgin ever blessed, because by thy humble word of consent thou didst draw down from the bosom of the eternal father the divine word into thy own pure bosom. o draw, then, ever my heart to god; and with god bring grace into my heart that i may ever sincerely bless thy word of consent, so mighty and so efficacious. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day mary's question preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation well versed as mary was in holy scripture, she fully understood the words she had heard and knew their great import. she was destined to become the mother of the most high, the son of god. but there is an obstacle which prevents her from giving immediate assent. she has solemnly vowed her virginity to god. not knowing how the mystery announced to her was to be accomplished, and intent above all on keeping inviolate her vow, she interrupts her silence by the short but comprehensive question, "how shall this be done, because i know not man?" (_luke_ i. .) this is the first word of mary recorded in the gospel. practice "how shall this be done, because i know not man?" truly a momentous question, proceeding from her knowledge of the great excellence and value before god of virginity, which, before mary, was unknown to the world. let us follow mary's example and esteem holy purity and chastity above all things. let us remember how highly holy scripture extols this virtue. "o how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory; for the memory thereof is immortal, because it is known both with god and with men" (_wis._ iv. ). st. athanasius writes: "o chastity, thou precious pearl, found by few, even hated by some, and sought only by those who are worthy of thee! thou art the joy of the prophets, the ornament of the apostles, the life of the angels, the crown of the saints." let us therefore carefully guard this inestimable treasure. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ mary, mighty virgin, thou who on the day of thy annunciation wast found by the archangel so prompt and ready to do god's will, and to correspond with the desires of the august trinity, who wished for thy consent in order to redeem the world; obtain for me that, whatever happens, good or ill, i may turn to my god, and with resignation say, "be it done unto me according to thy word." hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day the solution preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the angel explains to mary how, without detriment to her virginity, she will become a mother. he says, "the holy ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most high shall overshadow thee. and therefore also the holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god" (_luke_ i. ). st. bernard remarks: "let him who can, comprehend it. who, but that most happy virgin who was worthy to experience the influence and effect of the power of the most high and to penetrate this sublime mystery, can understand how the divine light was poured into the virgin's womb? the most holy trinity alone co-operated in the sacred act, and it remains an impenetrable mystery to all, except to her who was called to so sublime a destiny." practice mary did not entertain a single doubt concerning the wonders which the angel announced to her about the coming messias and his kingdom. she believed with simple faith the words of the heavenly messenger. only about that which concerned her personally she asked a question. when the wonderful mystery was explained to her, she did not ask how this _can_ be done, but only how it _shall_ be done. and after the angel had declared to her that she shall conceive by the holy ghost, she was fully resigned and announced her implicit belief in these humble words: "behold the handmaid of the lord; be it done to me according to thy word" (_luke_ i. ). therefore the holy ghost himself praised her by the mouth of elizabeth: "blessed art thou that hast believed" (_luke_ i. ). let us remain steadfast in the profession of all articles of faith, and let us oppose, like a strong shield, the words, "nothing is impossible with god," to all attacks of unbelievers, and to all doubts that may arise in our own minds. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ mary most holy, i see that thy obedience united thee so closely to god, that all creation never shall know again union so fair and so perfect. i am overwhelmed with confusion in seeing how my sins have separated me from god. help me, then, gentle mother, to repent sincerely of my sins, that i may be reunited to thy loving jesus. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary's consent preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation we admire the creative word of god, by which heaven and earth were called into existence. but mary's word, "be it done to me according to thy word," is even mightier and more efficacious; for it commands the obedience even of the almighty creator. without this word of humility and obedience the incarnation of our divine saviour would not have been accomplished. mary does not say, "i accept the proposal, i agree to the proposition," nor does she use other words of similar import. she simply says, "be it done to me according to thy word." it was not her own choice, nor her own decision, but a voluntary, full, and complete surrender to the will of god that the message found in mary's soul, which was expressed in these words. what a source of consolation to her in the subsequent sorrowful and afflicted stages of her life was this complete surrender to god's will! it comprised the tranquilizing assurance that he to whose designs she submitted, would endow her with the fortitude and strength necessary to co-operate with them. practice just as our divine lord himself became obedient unto death, thus also his incarnation and the motherhood of mary were the result of obedience. again, in contemplating the works that in the course of time were undertaken in the church for the glory of god and the salvation of man, we find that only those were really great, effective, and enduring, which had their beginning, continuation, and consummation in obedience. rejoice, then, if it is your happy lot to walk in the safe path of obedience. avail yourself of every opportunity to submit your will to the will of your superiors. they are the representatives of god. by obeying them we fulfil his will, not the will of men. st. bonaventure calls obedience the key of heaven. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ holiest mary, if through thy modesty thou wert troubled at the appearance of the archangel gabriel in thy dwelling, i am terrified at the sight of my monstrous pride. by thy incomparable humility, which brought forth god for men, reopened paradise and let the captive souls go free from their prison, draw me, i pray thee, out of the deep pit into which my sins have cast me, and make me save my soul. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day mary's fortitude in suffering preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation although mary's consent was free, and freely given, she was clearly convinced and perfectly conscious of the responsibility, the obligations, and the duties involved by that consent, and which she now assumed. great are the duties and tearful the days of a mother who has to raise her son, who is also god, to be sacrificed on the cross. mary assumes with the dignity this responsibility. she consents to conceive the son of god, to give birth to him, to nourish him, to educate him for the ignominious death of the cross. when she pronounced the words, "be it done," her eyes were fixed on the distant tragedy of golgotha, on the cross towering upon its height. yet she accepts it, together with the dignity of mother of god. practice mary, in consenting to become the mother of jesus, became not only his mother, but the mother of all mankind. she became, for all time, the refuge of sinners, the health of the sick, the intercessor with god for man; she consented to exercise a mother's love for suffering and sinful humanity. but alas, how many of those adopted by mary as her children under the cross of her dying son are unworthy of her mother love! how many are rebellious children, who fill her heart with sorrow and anguish! others, faithless and obdurate, become a reproach to her. have you, during your past life, always been a good child of this loving mother? are you to her an honor or a disgrace, a joy or a sorrow? prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ though my tongue is unhallowed, yet, purest virgin, i presume to hail thee every day with the angel's salutation, "hail mary, full of grace!" from my heart, i pray thee, pour into my soul a little of that mighty grace wherewith the holy spirit, overshadowing thee, filled thee to the full. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day mary, the mother of god preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary's true greatness consists in her having been chosen the mother of god. this sublime dignity, pre-eminently her own and shared by no other creature, elevates her to a station inconceivably exalted. mother of god! st. peter damian thus gives expression to his conception of this dignity: "in what words may mortal man be permitted to pronounce the praises of her who brought forth that divine word who lives for all eternity? where can a tongue be found holy and pure enough to eulogize her who bore the author of all created things, whom the elements praise and obey in fear and trembling? when we essay to extol a martyr's constancy, to recount his heroic acts of virtue, to describe his devotion to his saviour's cause and honor, we are supplied with words by facts and occurrences that belong to the province of human experience. but when we undertake to describe the glories of the blessed virgin, we are on unknown ground, on a subject transcending all human effort. we fail to find words suitable to portray her sublime prerogatives, privileges, and mysteries." practice st. anselm, writing on the motherhood of mary, says: "it was eminently just and proper that the creature chosen to be the mother of god should shine with a luster of purity far beyond anything conceivable in any other creature under heaven. for it was to her that the eternal father decreed to give his only-begotten son, whom he loves as himself; and to give him in such a mysterious manner that he should be at the same time the son of god and the son of the virgin mary. she must indeed be purity itself, whom the son of god elected as his mother, and who was the chosen spouse of the holy ghost, to be overshadowed by him to bring forth the second person of that most blessed trinity from whom he himself proceeds." let us honor the virgin mother with filial devotion, gratefully greeting her often in the words of the angel, "hail mary, full of grace!" let us remember that god alone is above mary, and beneath her is all that is not god. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i believe, holiest mary, that almighty god was ever with thee from thy conception, and is, by his incarnation, still more closely united to thee. make it thy care, i pray thee, that i may be with that same lord jesus ever one heart and soul by means of sanctifying grace. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day mary, our mother preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary could not consent to become the mother of the redeemer without including in her consent those to be redeemed. "she bore one man," says st. antonine, "and thereby has borne all men again. beneath the cross of her divine son she has reborne us to life with great pain, just as eve our first mother, has borne us under the tree of forbidden fruit unto death. that there be no doubt concerning it, her divine son made this declaration in his last will." "when therefore jesus had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother, woman, behold thy son. after that he saith to the disciple, behold thy mother" (_john_ xix. ). she gave up her son for the redemption of mankind, and he gave us, in the person of his beloved disciple st. john, to her as her children, declaring her our mother. from that moment we belong to mary, and mary belongs to us: "behold thy mother!" practice mary loves us because she loves god, and because god loves us. she loves us as her brethren who share human nature with her. she loves us as her children, whom she has borne to eternal life. she loves us because we are miserable and helpless. true, we offended her divine son, but she knows our frailty, our blindness, the assaults of the flesh and the devil to which we are exposed; and by all this she is moved to come to our aid. do not, however, imagine that this good and amiable mother will hear your call for assistance if you continue to offend her divine son with malice prepense. to obtain her aid you must make yourself in a manner worthy of it. this you do by striving to imitate her virtues. or is there anything in her example that we are unable to imitate? true, we can not attain to her perfection in virtue, but we can copy it to a certain degree. to follow mary's example there is no need of performing miracles, of having ecstasies, or of doing any other extraordinary deeds. all that is necessary is to persevere faithfully in the ordinary duties of life, and to perform them to the best of our ability. "behold thy mother!" these words of our dying lord were addressed to the beloved disciple st. john, but were intended for all mankind. even as mary never ceases to be the mother of god, she never will cease to be our mother. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o holiest mary, bless me, my heart and my soul, as thou thyself wast ever blessed of god among all women; for i have this sure hope, dear mother, that if thou bless me while i live, then, when i die, i shall be blessed of god in the everlasting glory of heaven. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). iv novena in honor of the seven sorrows of mary [illustration: mary, the mother of sorrows] note.--besides the indulgences granted for every novena in honor of the blessed virgin mary by pius ix, pope leo xiii, january , , granted that all the faithful may gain, on the _third sunday in september_, being the second feast of the seven sorrows of mary (the other is observed on the friday before palm sunday), a plenary indulgence _as often_ as they visit, after confession and communion, a church where the archconfraternity of the seven sorrows is canonically established, and pray there for the intentions of the holy father. this indulgence is applicable to the souls in purgatory. first day devotion to the seven sorrows of mary preparatory prayer bid me bear, o mother blessed, on my heart the wounds impressed suffered by the crucified! indulgence. days, once a day. a plenary indulgence, on any one day, in each month, to those who shall have practised this devotion for a month, saying besides seven hail marys, followed each time by the above invocation. conditions: confession, communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope. (pius ix, june , .) meditation from the dolorous way of our lord's passion holy church selected fourteen incidents to place before us for consideration, which are called the stations of the cross. in the same manner the pious devotion of the faithful selected seven events in the life of the blessed virgin mary, and gives itself to their religious contemplation. they are: ( ) simeon's prophecy in the temple; ( ) the flight into egypt with the divine child; ( ) the loss of the divine child at jerusalem; ( ) mary's meeting with her son bearing the cross; ( ) mary beneath the cross; ( ) mary receives the body of her son from the cross; ( ) the placing of jesus' body in the tomb. practice "forget not the sorrows of thy mother" (_ecclus._ vii. ). according to this exhortation of holy scripture it is our duty to remember and meditate often on the sorrows of the blessed virgin mary. we ought never to forget that our sins were the cause of the sufferings and death of jesus, and therefore also of the sorrows of mary. holy church celebrates two feasts in honor of the sorrows of mary; she approved of the rosary and of many other devotions in honor of the seven dolors, and enriched them with numerous indulgences. let us practise these devotions to enkindle in our hearts a true and ardent love for our sorrowful mother. prayer of the church grant, we beseech thee, o lord jesus christ, that the most blessed virgin mary, thy mother, may intercede for us before the throne of thy mercy, now and at the hour of our death, through whose most holy soul, in the hour of thine own passion, the sword of sorrow passed. through thee, jesus christ, saviour of the world, who livest and reignest with the father and the holy ghost, for ever and ever. amen. litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ ever glorious blessed virgin mary, queen of martyrs, mother of mercy, hope, and comfort of dejected and desolate souls, through the sorrows that pierced thy tender heart i beseech thee take pity on my poverty and necessities, have compassion on my anxieties and miseries. i ask it through the mercy of thy divine son; i ask it through his immaculate life, bitter passion, and ignominious death on the cross. as i am persuaded that he honors thee as his beloved mother, to whom he refuses nothing, let me experience the efficacy of thy powerful intercession, according to the tenderness of thy maternal affection, now and at the hour of my death. amen. hail mary, etc. _ejaculation_ mother of sorrows, queen of martyrs, pray for us! second day mary's first sorrow: simeon's prophecy in the temple [illustration: simeon's prophecy in the temple] preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation forty days after the birth of our divine saviour, mary his mother fulfilled the law of moses by offering him to his divine father in the temple. "and behold there was a man in jerusalem named simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of israel, and the holy ghost was in him. and he received an answer from the holy ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the christ of the lord. and he came by the spirit into the temple. and when his parents brought in the child jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he also took him into his arms, and blessed god, and said: now dost thou dismiss thy servant, o lord, according to thy word, in peace; because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples. a light to the revelation of the gentiles and the glory of thy people israel. and his father and mother were wondering at these things which were spoken concerning him. and simeon blessed them, and said to mary his mother: behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; and thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed" (_luke_ ii. - ). practice mary was familiar with the predictions of the prophets and knew that ignominy, sorrow, and suffering would be her divine son's portion throughout his earthly career. but to have this secret of her anxious soul thus publicly and solemnly declared by simeon, was a sharp thrust of that seven-edged sword which was to pierce her loving heart. in spirit she viewed that boundless, surging sea of trials, pain, and death on which her son was to be tossed about, and was willing to be engulfed in its bitter waters. her affliction would have scarcely been greater had the death sentence of her divine son been pronounced then and there and put into execution. what a sorrow, what an affliction, what a trial for such a tender mother! well might she exclaim with the royal prophet: "my life is wasted with grief, and my years in sighs" (_ps._ xxx. ). let us often contemplate this sorrow, and excite our hearts to a tender compassion with the mother of sorrows. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, in the grief thy tender heart underwent when the holy old man simeon prophesied to thee. dear mother, by thy heart then so afflicted, obtain for me the virtue of humility and the gift of the holy fear of god. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day mary's second sorrow: the flight into egypt [illustration: the flight into egypt] preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation for the second time the sword of sorrow pierced mary's heart when she was commanded to fly into egypt with her divine child. without manifesting undue perplexity or discontent, she hastily gathered a few necessaries for the journey, while st. joseph saddled the beast of burden. then taking the infant jesus into her arms and pressing him to her throbbing heart, the holy pilgrims set forth into the cold, starry night, away to a foreign land, through the trackless desert, and into a heathen country. arrived in egypt, the experience of bethlehem was renewed; no one gave them shelter. practice during this second great sorrow, what was mary's behavior? she was content to fulfil the will of god; she did not ask for reasons, or complain of the fatigues of the journey, but preserved her peace of heart amid all the trials of this severe probation. she is poor, but her poverty does not render her unhappy or querulous. if god sends us trials, we ought not murmur or complain. following the example of mary, let us bear them submissively. if we suffer patiently with mary on earth, we shall enjoy eternal bliss with her in heaven. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the anxiety which thy most tender heart underwent during thy flight into egypt and thy sojourn there. dear mother, by thy heart then so sorrowful, obtain for me the virtue of liberality, especially toward the poor, and the gift of piety. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day mary's third sorrow: jesus lost in jerusalem [illustration: the finding of jesus in the temple] preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation who can describe mary's sorrow when, returning from jerusalem, she missed her divine son? with st. joseph she retraced her steps in anxious search of him whom her soul loved. she went to all her relatives and acquaintances in jerusalem, but heard no tidings of her lost child. she passed three long days of anxiety in her search, and this constitutes her third sorrow. of it, origen writes: "on account of the ineffable love of mary for her divine son, she suffered more by his loss than the martyrs suffered amid the most cruel tortures." practice in meditating on this sorrow of mary, we ought to remember how indifferent so many christians are after having lost god by sin. they feel no compunction, no sorrow at having offended him, and yet they can weep at the loss of a trifle; they shed copious tears when their will is crossed, or when they receive a deserved reprimand; but for the loss of their god they have not a tear. they have lost him, perhaps years ago, and never make the least effort to find him. pray to the sorrowful mother that she preserve you from such a deplorable fate! prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the terrors felt by thy anxious heart when thou didst lose thy dear son, jesus. dear mother, by thy heart, then so agitated, obtain for me the virtue of chastity, and with it the gift of knowledge. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day mary's fourth sorrow: she meets jesus carrying his cross preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the time was at hand when mankind's redemption was to be accomplished. already the divine victim of our sins is bearing the instrument of our salvation. torn by the cruel scourging, crowned with thorns, and covered with blood he proceeds on his way to calvary, and in this pitiful condition meets his blessed mother. what a spectacle, what a sight for a mother such as mary! anxious to look upon her, and with one fond glance to thank her for her heroic, unselfish love, he made an effort to change his bowed position beneath the cross, feebly raised his head, and directed toward her one loving glance of ineffable anguish, mingled with grateful recognition and humble resignation. then the sad procession moves on, mary following her divine son on his way to death. practice we, by our sins, placed into the hands of the jews and executioners the weapons by which jesus suffered, and thus we thrust the sword of sorrow into mary's heart. we repeat this, in a certain sense, as often as we commit a grievous sin, because we thereby number ourselves among those whom the apostle describes as "crucifying again to themselves the son of god, and making him a mockery" (_heb._ vi. ). cardinal hugo writes: "sinners crucify, as far as is in them, christ our lord, because they repeat the cause of his crucifixion." doing this, we thrust anew the sword of sorrow into mary's heart. let this consideration fill us with hatred for and fear of sin. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the shock thy mother heart experienced when jesus met thee as he carried his cross. dear mother, by that heart of thine, then so afflicted, obtain for me the virtue of patience and the gift of fortitude. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary's fifth sorrow: beneath the cross preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation at the crucifixion of jesus the soul of mary was plunged into a sea of sorrow when she stood three hours under the cross. writhing in excruciating pain, the son of god hung upon the tree of disgrace and infamy, yet mary continued to stand at its foot, tearful, grieving, yet persevering, filled with anguish because she could do nothing to help him. another great sorrow befell the heart of mary when she slowly withdrew her tearful gaze from the face of jesus, and cast her weeping eyes upon the cold and indifferent world that lay in darkness around and about calvary. and yet, "when jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother, woman, behold thy son. after that he saith to the disciple, behold thy mother" (_john_ xix. , ). practice these words, "behold thy son, behold thy mother," contain and express the mystery of unbounded love, which jesus has for all mankind, but more especially for the church which is appointed and authorized to lead men to salvation. o blessed, o happy bequest! it was not enough for the love of jesus to have restored heaven to us by his atoning death; he wished also to give us his dearest mother. and she has always shown herself as such. to each of us individually she was and is a kind and loving mother. give thanks to her, bless and praise her for having adopted you as her child, and strive to become worthy of so great a privilege. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the martyrdom thy generous heart bore so nobly whilst thou didst stand by jesus agonizing. dear mother, by thy heart then so cruelly martyred, obtain for me the virtue of temperance and the gift of counsel. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day mary's sixth sorrow: the taking down of jesus' body from the cross [illustration: jesus' body, taken down from the cross] preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation who can describe the sorrow and anguish of mary's heart when the body of jesus was taken from the cross, when her tearful eyes fell upon his disfigured features! the pure and holy and beauteous form of her son was a mass of clotted blood and unsightly wounds; and yet, disfigured as it was, there shone in his countenance a clear, calm expression of divine majesty. now mary views the wounds of that sacred body; she looks at the gap made in his side by the cruel spear, and can almost see the sacred heart of jesus, all bruised and broken for love of man. before her vision passes in detail his life and her own. memory presents to her mind every day and hour of their quiet, happy life at nazareth. is it to be wondered, then, that at this bitter moment her sorrow was so great that, as st. anselm observes, she should have died had she not been sustained by a miracle of divine omnipotence? practice ought not the contemplation of the sorrows of our blessed mother confirm us in patience, in resignation to the will of god in our trials and sufferings? if the son of god said of himself: "ought not christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?" (_luke_ xxiv. ); if the most pure and holy mother of god, despite her great prerogatives and merits, had to suffer a sorrow so ineffable, do not murmur if the word of christ is addressed also to you: "and he that taketh not up his cross and followeth me, is not worthy of me" (_matt._ x. ). prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the pain thou didst suffer when the body of thy divine son, taken down all torn and bloody from the cross, was placed in thy arms. dear mother, by thy heart pierced through, obtain for me the virtue of fraternal charity and the gift of understanding. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day mary's seventh sorrow: jesus is buried preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the sacrifice for the redemption of the world was accomplished. "and joseph, taking the body, wrapt it up in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewed out in a rock. and he rolled a great stone to the door of the monument, and went his way" (_matt._ xxvii. ). mary also took part in the burial of her beloved son, though the evangelists do not mention her name amongst those who were present on that mournful occasion. never, most assuredly, was human soul visited by such woe and desolation, as that which overwhelmed hers as she cast a last glance on the precious remains of her dead son. practice let us learn of the sorrowful mother at the tomb of her divine son submission to god's holy will in all things, but especially when he takes from us one of our dear ones. again, the contemplation of the sufferings of mary should fortify us in patience, whenever god is pleased to visit us with a light and small cross of affliction, or even with a sorrow that causes our heart to bleed. it should inspire us with a filial confidence in mary, who thus suffered for us and gave her divine son for our salvation. we can and ought to prove our love for her, not by sentimental feelings of affection, but by a sincere hatred of sin and great fervor in the service of her divine son. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for the anguish felt by thy loving heart when jesus' body was laid in the sepulcher. dear mother, by all the bitterness of desolation thou didst know, obtain for me the virtue of diligence and the gift of wisdom. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day reasons why mary had to suffer preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation the reasons why god permitted mary to suffer so much may be briefly stated as follows: he did so from his love for mary and from his love for us. he did so from his love for mary, because by suffering she merited greater glory in heaven. as mother of the crucified she persevered beneath the cross, and now she thrones in heaven as the glorious mother of the risen redeemer. because she shared in his suffering, she now shares his glory. again, god permitted mary to suffer because he loved us. if she had not experienced such bitter sorrow, we would not have recourse to her, for whosoever has not suffered himself can not have sympathy with the sufferings of others. mary knows the pangs of sorrow by experience, and therefore knows also how to console and help us. practice because she herself drained the most bitter cup of sorrow, mary is always willing to help those who invoke her aid. but above all she is inclined to help repentant sinners, because she knows how great the price of their redemption was, paid by the blood of her divine son. she is able to help us, because, after god, she is most powerful; she is most willing to help us, because she loves us, whom god so has loved "as to give his only-begotten son" (_john_ iii. ). let us, therefore, have recourse to her in all our needs, and we shall experience the power of her help in life and death. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ i compassionate thee, sorrowing mary, for all thy sorrows. i beseech thee, dear mother, by thy heart pierced through by them, obtain for me full abandonment to the will of god in everything and perseverance to the end. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). v novena for the feast of the assumption of the blessed virgin mary [illustration: the assumption] first day mary's death was without pain [illustration: mary's death] preparatory prayer o mary, virgin most blessed and mother of our lord and redeemer jesus christ, through thy mercy i beseech thee to come to my aid, and to inspire me with such confidence in thy power, that i may have recourse to thee, pray to thee, and implore thy aid in all needs of soul and body. meditation mary, the virgin mother of god, was conceived without original sin. she never dimmed the luster of sanctifying grace which beautified her soul by actual sin. nevertheless she had to pass through the dark portal of death before she was assumed, body and soul, into heaven. she had not been endowed with the privilege of immortality with which god had invested our first parents in paradise. it was meet that she should be like unto her divine son in everything, even in death. but as she had drained the bitter cup of suffering during her whole life, and especially when standing beneath the cross, her death was to be free from pain and suffering. she quietly passed away yielding up her spirit in a yearning desire to be united forever with her divine son in heaven. practice if you have dispossessed your heart of all unruly attachment to the goods and enjoyments of this earth, you, too, may hope for a happy and tranquil transition from this land of exile to your home in heaven. therefore, if you are still attached to the transitory things of this life, disengage your heart from them now. the voluntary renouncement of earthly goods alone is meritorious before god. the separation from them enforced by the strong hand of death is of no supernatural value. prayer of the church we beseech thee, o lord, pardon the shortcomings of thy servants; that we who, by our own works, are not able to please thee, may be saved by the intercession of the mother of thy son, our lord jesus christ. amen. litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o most benign mother mary! i rejoice that by thy happy and tranquil death the yearning of thy heart was appeased, and thy life, so rich in merit and sacrifice, received its crown. i rejoice that after passing from this life, thou, o most loving mother, wast made the glorious and powerful queen of heaven and dost exercise thy influence as such for the benefit of thy frail, exiled children on earth. obtain for me, i beseech thee, a happy death, that i may praise and glorify thy might and kindness forever in heaven. hail mary, etc. _ejaculation_ sweet heart of mary be my salvation! indulgence. ( ) days, every time. ( ) a plenary indulgence, once a month, on any day, to all who shall have said it every day for a month, under the usual conditions. second day at mary's tomb preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation an ancient legend relates that, led by heaven, all the apostles, except st. thomas, assembled at the blessed virgin's death-bed. after she had breathed forth her pure spirit, her sacred remains were prepared for the grave by wrapping the body in new white linen and decking it with flowers. meanwhile the apostles, assembled in another room, sang psalms and hymns in praise of their departed mother. the apostles, all the disciples, and the faithful dwelling in jerusalem followed the blessed remains to the grave chanting psalms and hymns. arrived in the valley of josaphat, the body was gently placed in a sepulcher of stone not far from the garden of olives. after the entombment the apostles and crowds of the faithful lingered near the sacred spot in prayer, meditation, and chanting of psalms in which angels' voices were heard to mingle. practice join in spirit with the apostles and faithful in their prayer and meditation at the grave of our blessed mother. contemplate and review her whole life. could a course like hers have terminated more appropriately than with so beautiful, painless, and tranquil a passing away? prepare yourself even now for your departure from this life. do not postpone the settlement of your affairs, spiritual and temporal, until the last uncertain hours. above all, remove now, or as soon as possible, all doubts, anxieties, and irregularities of conscience, because delay is dangerous and leads to impenitence, and because in the last hours the powers of hell usually assail the departing soul with all their might. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ glorious virgin, who for thy consolation didst deserve to die comforted by the sight of thy dear son jesus, and in the company of the apostles and angels; pray for us, that at that awful moment we, too, may be comforted by receiving jesus in the most holy eucharist, and may feel thee nigh when we breathe forth our soul. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). third day the empty tomb preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation st. john damascene writes: "st. thomas was not with the other apostles when the blessed virgin died, but arrived in jerusalem on the third day after that event. ardently desiring to see once more and to venerate the sacred body which had given flesh and blood to his beloved master, the grave was opened for this purpose. the body could nowhere be seen, and a delicious perfume filled the empty tomb. the apostles then became convinced that as god had preserved the body of mary free from sin before, in, and after the birth of his son, he was pleased likewise, after her death, to preserve that same body from corruption, and to glorify it in heaven." a council held in jerusalem in the year declared: "it is beyond all doubt that the blessed virgin is not only a great and miraculous sign on earth, because she bore god in the flesh and yet remained a virgin, but she is also a great and miraculous sign in heaven, because she was taken up thither with soul and body. for although her sinless body was enclosed in the tomb, yet, like the body of our lord, it arose on the third day and was carried up to heaven." although the doctrine of the bodily assumption of mary into heaven was not defined by the church as an article of faith in the strict sense, yet the learned pope benedict xiv remarks, "it would be presumptuous and blameworthy in any one to call into doubt or to question this beautiful and consoling belief of ages." practice let us rejoice at the thought of the glorious resurrection of our dear mother. let us unite ourselves in spirit with the apostles in heaven and with holy church to congratulate her on this extraordinary privilege. but let us also rejoice at the thought of our own resurrection. true, it shall not take place immediately after death, but it is therefore not the less certain, and it depends on us to make it glorious and blessed. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! as thy sacred body after death was preserved from corruption, and united with thy sinless soul was borne to heaven by the angels; obtain for me the grace that my life and death be holy, so that on the day of judgment i may arise to glory everlasting. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fourth day reasons for the bodily assumption of mary into heaven preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation . the wages of sin is death. now, as the blessed virgin from the first moment of her existence was preserved from all sin, and even from original sin, it necessarily follows that death could have no permanent dominion over her, and that her body would not be permitted to see corruption. . this sinless body had been the medium by which the body of our lord jesus christ, who was the conqueror of death, had been formed. how, then, could such a highly privileged body, a pure and virginal body, be permitted to pass through corruption and decay? . as mary had yielded up her sacred person to be a dwelling-place for the lord of heaven, it seems fitting that this same lord, in his turn, should give the kingdom of heaven to her as her resting-place. st. bernard expresses this sentiment as follows: "when our lord came into this world, mary furnished him with the noblest dwelling on earth, the temple of her virginal womb. in return, the lord on this day raises her up to the highest throne in heaven." practice if you desire to look forward to death without fear, and to expect your dissolution with confidence, follow the apostle's injunction, "therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good" (_gal._ vi. ). avoid sin, perform good works, be patient in affliction, and strive to expiate the punishment due to your sins by voluntary acts of penance, thus reducing your inclination to sin. therefore offer up to god every morning, in a spirit of penitence, all your labors, trials, and sufferings. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! i beseech thee through the ineffable glory thou didst make for thy departure from this world by a life of retirement, full of merits and virtue, dedicated to god alone; obtain for me the grace that, following thy example, i may detach my heart from this world, and patiently bear affliction and adversity, carefully avoid sin, and always strive to advance in the love of god. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). fifth day mary's glorious entrance into heaven preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation a joy greater than human heart can conceive fills the heavenly spirits when a soul enters heaven to receive her reward. what jubilant transports, then, must those have been with which they hailed the entrance into heavenly bliss of the most pure and holy virgin, the mother of the son of god, body and soul, transfigured in glory! and she is, and shall be, for all eternity, their mistress and queen! what an ineffable joy, too, for the blessed virgin, to behold the countless numbers of angels, to admire their beauty, their purity, their intense love of god! but as the feeble light of a candle disappears before the splendor of the sun's rays, thus are these choirs of angels obscured by the ineffable glory of her divine son coming to welcome his mother. who can describe this affecting meeting? what a superabundant reward for affliction and suffering! what an ocean of joy and bliss, when the son of god presented his mother before the throne of his heavenly father, who greeted her as his beloved daughter! what a joy to behold the holy ghost, whose pure spouse she had been even on earth! these transports of bliss baffle all attempts at description. practice though we are unable to have an adequate perception of mary's glory in heaven, by which she is raised above all angels and saints, yet it is in our power to do one thing; we can rejoice at the glory of our blessed mother, and join the heavenly spirits and the saints in paying homage to her. let us resolve to do this, and never to forget that mary attained to the largest share of her divine son's glory because she was foremost in sharing his sufferings. let this encourage us to bear our cross, to bear it with our saviour even to the height of calvary, there to die with him. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! i beseech thee through the preparation with which thou wast glorified by god--by the father as his most beloved daughter, by the son as his immaculate mother, and by the holy ghost as his most pure spouse--in heaven; obtain for me the grace to share to some extent this thy glory, and therefore to live so that i may deserve it. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). sixth day mary crowned in heaven [illustration: mary crowned in heaven] preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary's glory received its culmination by her coronation as queen of heaven and earth. it was meet that in her should be fulfilled the words of holy scripture: "come from libanus, my spouse, come, thou shalt be crowned" (_cant._ iv. ), and that her own prophetic words, "he hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble" (_luke_ i. ), should be exemplified in her. for it was reasonable and becoming that she, who once with jesus wore the crown of shame and contempt, should now share with him the crown of immortal glory. it was but fair and just that the immaculate being who was chosen, above all inhabitants of heaven and earth, to be the true and worthy mother of god, should now be solemnly installed over all creatures in heaven and on earth as the queen of angels and men, and that to her should be offered homage, praise, and honor by the blessed spirits and by the souls of the saints. but the crown which she received is not one made of gold and precious stones; it is composed of the virtues with which mary, in faithful co-operation with divine grace, embellished herself; it consists, too, of all the homage and glory which she receives as queen of heaven. the most precious gem in this crown is the filial love and gratitude jesus shows toward his mother in heaven. practice indeed, "eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man," what the heavenly father has prepared in the mansions of eternal bliss for his beloved daughter, the son for his blessed mother, and the holy ghost for his chosen spouse. she is now queen of heaven and earth; of heaven, for she is the queen of all angels and saints; of earth, for as mother of god she is the mother of all mankind, the mediatrix between the redeemer and the redeemed. you, too, may contribute a gem toward the crown of your heavenly mother by paying her filial homage, imitating her virtues, and preserving, for the love of her, your innocence and purity of heart. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! i beseech thee through the everlasting crown of glory with which god has crowned thee queen of heaven and earth; obtain for me through thy mighty intercession the grace to persevere in virtue to the end, so that finally i may attain the crown of bliss prepared by god for those that love him. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). seventh day mary's bliss in heaven preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation according to holy scripture and the doctrine of the church, there are in heaven various grades of glory and bliss, according to the rank and merit of the saints. they probably attain this higher grade of glory and bliss by the increase of their ability to enjoy the happiness of heaven. their intellect is enabled to contemplate more profoundly the incomprehensible essence of god; their power of perception is augmented so that they may more readily recognize and admire the splendor of the angels, saints, and heavenly mansions; their will is enabled to be united, in a higher degree, with god. from this we may conclude that mary's bliss in heaven transcends all human conception. her heavenly glory and reward consists in the perfect adaptation of her whole being to the enjoyment of god and of eternal bliss. practice look up, christian soul, to this great and brilliant queen of heaven. she is your gentle mother and assures you of her help, and the diadem she wears upon her brow is a proof that she has the power to help you. do not, therefore, refuse the hand of this mighty friend in heaven, for she will lift you from the depths of your misery, from the rocky shoals of temptation, and lead you strong and victorious into the presence of her divine son. thus you will enter into a new and supernatural life in christ, to share in the grace-laden mysteries of his life, passion, and triumph. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o great and glorious queen of heaven, mary! i beseech thee by that exalted throne upon which god has raised thee above all angels and saints; let me one day appear amongst them to join them in their praise of thee. obtain for me the grace that i may never cease to honor thee as thou dost deserve to be honored, and thereby to become worthy of thy mighty protection in life and death. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). eighth day mary, the queen of mercy preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary is, then, a queen, but--what a consolation to know it!--a queen always mild and gentle, always willing to confer benefits upon us. hence the church teaches us to call her the mother of mercy. the pious and learned author gerson says: "god's dominion comprises justice and mercy. he divided it, retaining the administration of justice for himself, and relinquishing, in a certain sense, the dispensation of mercy to mary, by conferring through her hands all graces he grants to mankind." how consoling, then, the assurance that our merciful mother is so mighty and so loving a queen! practice so great is the tenderness of mary's maternal heart "that never was it heard that any one who fled to her protection, implored her help, and sought her intercession was left unaided." how many prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings ascend daily to the throne of this our exalted and merciful protectress! there is not a cry of an afflicted, struggling, and suffering soul that she does not graciously hear. join, therefore, confidently in the prayer of holy church, "hail, holy queen, mother of mercy!" approach her with filial trust. neglect not to honor her yourself, and do all in your power to lead others to do her honor. prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary! holy church teaches me that despite the glory to which thou wast exalted, thou didst not forget thy miserable clients, and that in heaven thy mercy is still greater than it was during thy life on earth. therefore i come to thee and trustingly lay at thy feet all my needs, miseries, and petitions. my queen, my mother, turn not thy gracious eyes from me. remember me with thy divine son; cease not to pray for me and take me under thy protection, so that i may finally have the happiness to see and praise thee in thy glory for ever and ever. hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). ninth day mary in heaven, the help of christians on earth preparatory prayer (located on the first day of the novena). meditation mary's help as mother of mercy is not confined to individuals. she is the protectress and helper of the whole church. all over the earth, wherever we cast our glance, in the records of the history of times long past and those of recent occurrence, we find testimony of the graces and benefits obtained through her intercession. the feasts celebrated by the church throughout the year, what are they but evidences of gratitude offered to the queen of heaven for the oftentimes miraculous delivery from war, pestilence, and other great afflictions? hence she is rightly invoked as the "help of christians." practice in our days, too, storms and dangers threaten the church. let us, therefore, by calling on mary for help, do our part toward shortening the days of visitation and trial. let us not confine our petitions to her within the narrow limits of our own personal needs, but let us join in the cry for help ascending to the mother of mercy throughout all christendom. let us daily, for holy church, send up our petition to mary's heavenly throne: "help of christians, pray for us!" prayer of the church (located on the first day of the novena). litany of loreto (located in the final section of the book). _prayer_ o glorious virgin and mother of god, mary, queen of heaven! forget us not. thou art the help of christians; lighten our tribulations, and help us with motherly intercession at the throne of thy divine son. with holy church i join in the petition to thee: "holy mary, aid the miserable, assist the desponding, strengthen the weak, pray for the people, plead for the clergy, intercede for the devout female sex. let all who have recourse to thee experience the efficacy of thy help!" hail mary, etc. ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena). the litany of loreto _in honor of the blessed virgin mary_ [illustration: mary, the help of christians on earth] lord, have mercy on us, christ, have mercy on us. lord, have mercy on us, christ, hear us. christ, graciously hear us. god the father of heaven, have mercy on us. god the son, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. god the holy ghost, have mercy on us. holy trinity, one god, have mercy on us. holy mary, pray for us. holy mother of god, pray for us. holy virgin of virgins, pray for us. mother of christ, pray for us. mother of divine grace, pray for us. mother most pure, pray for us. mother most chaste, pray for us. mother inviolate, pray for us. mother undefiled, pray for us. mother most amiable, pray for us. mother most admirable, pray for us. mother of good counsel, pray for us. mother of our creator, pray for us. mother of our redeemer, pray for us. virgin most prudent, pray for us. virgin most venerable, pray for us. virgin most renowned, pray for us. virgin most powerful, pray for us. virgin most merciful, pray for us. virgin most faithful, pray for us. mirror of justice, pray for us. seat of wisdom, pray for us. cause of our joy, pray for us. spiritual vessel, pray for us. vessel of honor, pray for us. singular vessel of devotion, pray for us. mystical rose, pray for us. tower of david, pray for us. tower of ivory, pray for us. house of gold, pray for us. ark of the covenant, pray for us. gate of heaven, pray for us. morning star, pray for us. health of the sick, pray for us. refuge of sinners, pray for us. comforter of the afflicted, pray for us. help of christians, pray for us. queen of angels, pray for us. queen of patriarchs, pray for us. queen of prophets, pray for us. queen of apostles, pray for us. queen of martyrs, pray for us. queen of confessors, pray for us. queen of virgins, pray for us. queen of all saints, pray for us. queen conceived without original sin, pray for us. queen of the most holy rosary, pray for us. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: spare us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: graciously hear us, o lord. lamb of god, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy on us, o lord. v. pray for us, o holy mother of god: r. that we may be made worthy of the promises of christ. _let us pray_ pour forth, we beseech thee, o lord, thy grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of christ thy son was made known by the message of an angel, may by his passion and cross be brought to the glory of his resurrection. through the same christ our lord. amen. v. pray for us, o holy mother of god. r. that we may be made worthy of the promises of christ. _let us pray_ vouchsafe, o lord, that we may be helped by the merits of thy most holy mother's spouse; that what of ourselves we can not obtain may be given us through his intercession. who livest and reignest, world without end. amen. indulgence. ( ) days, every time. ( ) a plenary indulgence on the following five feasts of the blessed virgin: immaculate conception, nativity, purification, annunciation, and assumption; under the usual conditions, to all who shall have said it daily during the year. (pius vii, september , .) these indulgences are granted for the litany alone; hence the prayers following it may be omitted. the month of mary. the month of mary, according to the spirit of _st. francis of sales;_ or, thirty-one considerations with examples, prayers, etc. by don caspar gilli. translated and abridged from the italian by a sister of the institute of charity. robert washbourne, paternoster row, london. . nihil obstat fr. t. a. smith, o.p. censor deputatus imprimatur henricus eduardus, card. archep. westmonast. die martii, . contents. author's preface protestation preliminary instruction the eve of the month of mary: the immaculate conception example: devotion of st. francis of sales to the blessed virgin mary first day: mary, a model of perfect self-denial from her birth example: the miraculous medal of the immaculate conception second day: mary consecrates herself to god in the temple example: the two invocations of st. philip neri third day: continuation of the preceding subject example: the feasts of the blessed virgin fourth day: fidelity of mary in following the call of god example: lamps and candles burnt in honour of mary fifth day: mary is a model to religious persons in her presentation in the temple example: the edifying death of st. jane frances de chantal sixth day: the annunciation of the most holy virgin example: st. bernard's love for mary seventh day: the excellence of the virginity of mary example: the love of st. alphonsus for mary eighth day: the visitation example: the pilgrimage of st. francis of sales to loreto ninth day: the charity of mary in the visitation example: consecration of the saturday to mary tenth day: by the visit of mary, elizabeth is filled with the holy ghost example: devotion of st. thomas aquinas to the 'ave maria' eleventh day: humility of mary example: origin of the rosary twelfth day: through the blessed virgin mary, st. john the baptist receives the most special graces example: conversion of the celebrated pianist, hermann cohenn thirteenth day: the trials and consolations of the blessed virgin example: a fortunate mistake fourteenth day: mary at bethlehem example: the devotion of the saints to the 'angelus' fifteenth day: the union of charity and humility in the heart of mary at the incarnation example: the efficacy of the 'salve regina' sixteenth day: the purification of the blessed virgin example: punishment of the profaners of a sanctuary of the blessed virgin seventeenth day: mary, the model of perfect obedience, in the mystery of the purification example: a conquest of the blessed virgin's eighteenth day: the flight into egypt.--trust in providence example: the excellence of the 'hail mary' nineteenth day: mary, at the marriage of cana, teaches us the best method of prayer example: the advantages of the 'hail mary' twentieth day: the petition of mary at the marriage of cana was full of confidence example: further advantages of the 'hail mary' twenty-first day: mary obtains the first miracle from jesus by her lively faith example: most pleasing to our blessed lord is our devotion to his mother twenty-second day: mary chose the better part example: beauty of the 'ave maris stella' twenty-third day: the blessed virgin did not neglect the duties of martha example: the 'magnificat' twenty-fourth day: mary in her sleep example: devotion to the 'salve regina' twenty-fifth day: mary on calvary is the mother of all christians example: the 'regina coeli' twenty-sixth day: mary after the ascension of christ example: a courageous son of mary twenty-seventh day: mary in the upper room at jerusalem example: the prayer 'memorare' twenty-eighth day: how precious in the sight of god was the death of mary example: letters addressed to the most holy virgin twenty-ninth day: mary, like jesus, dies of divine love example: the fourteen joys of the most holy virgin thirtieth day: the death of mary was sweet and tranquil example: novenas in honour of the blessed virgin thirty-first day: the resurrection and assumption of the blessed virgin example: the novena of st. gertrude to the blessed virgin act of consecration of st. francis of sales to the most holy virgin preface. of the many who by their writings have laboured to celebrate the sublime prerogatives and virtues of the mother of god, there is not one whose language is more adapted to the devotions of the month of mary than st. francis of sales. everything, says a pious author, in this admirable saint enchants and fascinates us; whoever reads his writings attentively, feels constrained, not only to honour and venerate him, but also to love him. with him there is a peculiar grace to console, as well as to perfect, the soul. he adapts himself to the capacities of humble minds, whilst no one has more knowledge than he of the most exalted perfection. the sweet mildness of this saint sprang from the meekness of which his soul was full. it is a difficult task to preserve peace in the soul, and well he knew it, declaring that he 'lived in a continual fear of losing, in one quarter of an hour, all that meekness which he had acquired by twenty years of combat.' st. bonaventure learnt all his science at the foot of the crucifix, and it was there, also, that st. francis acquired all his benignity, fighting for it, we may say, hand- to-hand against his natural impetuosity. this virtue by degrees penetrated the inmost parts of his soul, so that it was not only manifested in all the actions of his life, but it directed also his pen, and enabled him to make use of the most delicate comparisons and ingenious images. all that is sweet, and pure, and amiable in nature-- doves, bees, flowers, all took hold of his imagination. from his lips, as well as from his pen, issued loving invitations to perfection. his singular privilege, however, is that this meekness and grace appear always fresh to the devout reader, and are ever pleasing, even when he lays open the festering wounds of the heart. the great fenelon, whose spirit and heart so vividly retraced the holy bishop of geneva, thus wrote to a lady: 'the books most useful for you are those of st. francis of sales. everything in them is amiable and consoling; everything is solid experience, simple practice, and the feeling and light of grace. _to have become accustomed to this kind of food is a mark of great perfection._' bishop parisis also says: 'everything that can contribute to make this most amiable of saints more known to the world, is of the greatest utility to the cause of religion.' for this reason we have composed this little work. it is a sort of resume of the doctrine of st. francis of sales upon the prerogatives and virtues of the august queen of heaven, and we may gather a delicious bouquet for her month of may. hence the devout reader will always meet with the genuine text of the saint without any paraphrase, though not always in consecutive order. in each of the thirty-one considerations we have been obliged to discard those matters which did not relate to our subject. however, such suppressions only produce greater clearness in the whole work. we must say two words upon the manner in which this exercise can be rendered fruitful: . if you are not able to assist at the public services or devotions in honour of the blessed virgin in your own church, erect a little altar to mary in your house, and adorn her picture, or statue, with flowers, and there, every day, either alone or with others of your household, meditate upon her virtues, and implore her powerful intercession. . it will be an excellent preparation to spend the last day of april in holy recollection, and to examine what is the principal passion that you will sacrifice to mary during the course of the month, and the grace or virtue that you propose to obtain from god by recurring to her intercession. do not fear to ask too much, she is the mother of god, and our mother also. . read every day the appointed meditation, with tranquillity and recollection, that your soul may relish the subject, and apply what is read to its own necessities. after your lecture, follow this advice of st. francis of sales: 'when you have concluded your prayer, take a little walk and gather a small nosegay of devotion from the considerations you have made, that you may inhale its spiritual odour throughout the day.' . you should consider it a duty to approach the holy sacraments more frequently than usual during the month, and never leave the altar of mary without having made a spiritual communion. . let no day pass, or, at least, no saturday, without practising some mortification, sanctified and directed by obedience. 'our devotion, however small,' said st. john berchmans, 'is always pleasing to mary, provided it be constant.' but let us not forget that interior mortifications are the most perfect; such as to abstain from speaking or looking about without necessity, etc., because in such mortifications there is less danger of vainglory, and they attack our passions in the innermost depths of the heart. . endeavour also to become familiar with ejaculatory prayers to mary. 'this kind of prayer,' says st. francis of sales, 'may supply for every other kind, but no other kind of prayer can supply for this. spiritual exercises without aspirations are like a firmament without stars, or a tree without leaves.' . the month should be concluded by an offering of the heart to jesus and mary, after holy communion. and that you may more securely persevere in the service of the best of all mothers, let it be your care to renew your resolutions every saturday, to examine in what manner you have kept them, and by a protestation of sorrow for past omissions, and a determination of greater fidelity for the future, to repair the failings of the week. the sovereign pontiff pius vii. has granted to all who shall say some public or private prayers in honour of the most holy virgin mary during the course of the month of may, three hundred days indulgence each day, and a plenary indulgence once in the month if, having confessed and communicated, they pray for the holy church. the same sovereign pontiff has granted to all the faithful who, with a contrite heart, shall recite the litany of loreto, three hundred days indulgence each time. all these indulgences are applicable to the souls in purgatory. protestation. in conformity with the decree of the sovereign pontiff urban viii., i declare that i wish to give only a purely human authority to all the miraculous facts related in this work, excepting those that are confirmed by the decisions of the holy, catholic, apostolic, and roman church, to whose infallible judgment i intend to submit my person and my writings; nor shall i cease to declare myself her respectful son, believing all that she proposes to my belief, because she is the sole depositary here on earth of sound doctrine, of faith, and of catholic unity. preliminary instruction. doctrine of st. francis of sales upon devotion to mary. holy church, speaking of the most blessed virgin, says that she went up from the desert of this world _flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved_. in fact, all the praises bestowed upon the saints, and upon mary in particular, terminate in christ our lord; because all these praises should be directed to the glory of her divine son, who led her by his grace to the most exalted degree of merit and happiness. it is related in scripture that the queen of saba, taking a multitude of gifts to jerusalem, offered them _all_ to solomon. it is thus that all the saints act--and the mother of god especially. she is ever attentive to recognise that her virtues, her perfections, her merits, and her happiness proceed from the mercy of her divine son, who is alone their source, their origin, and perfection: _soli deo honor et gloria_. all honour and glory to god alone; all should return to him, because _from him alone is every perfect gift_. if mary be holy, who is it that sanctified her but her divine son? if she be saved, who was her saviour but jesus christ?--_innixa super dilectum suum_. her whole happiness has its foundation in the mercy of her divine son. she may be called a lily of purity and innocence. this lily has acquired all its purity by being washed in the blood of the immaculate lamb. she is a rose, on account of the ardour of her love, and her rich vermilion can be nought else than the blood of her son. if she is likened to fumes of odoriferous sweetness, the fire which produces them is the charity of her divine son and the wood of the cross; in a word, everywhere and in everything, mary is leaning upon her beloved. behold, devout souls, how we ought to be jealous of the honour of jesus christ. do not imitate the enemies of holy church, who think that they honour the son more perfectly by refusing all honour to the mother. on the contrary, the worship of the mother is referred to the son, and thus exalts his glory and mercy all the more. in order to show more clearly the purity of the worship which holy church pays to the most blessed virgin, i will mention two contrary heresies, both equally injurious to the veneration deservedly due to our lady. one of these heresies sinned by excess; calling mary _the goddess of heaven_, and offering sacrifices to her as such; the other sinned by default, condemning all honour paid to our lady. the church, who walks in the royal road of moderation, in which virtue consists, condemned both these heresies, defining against the former that no sacrifice whatever could be offered to mary, as she was a pure creature; and against the latter, that this holy virgin, being mother of god the son, was worthy of special worship, infinitely less than that of her son, but incomparably greater than that of all the other saints. to the first, she says, that the virgin is simply a creature, yet so holy, so perfect, so closely united to her son, and so much loved by god, as to render it impossible to love the son sincerely without loving and honouring the mother. to the second, she says, sacrifice is the supreme worship of latria, due to the creator alone, and the blessed virgin is simply a creature, although most excellent. indeed, in speaking of mary, i call her more the creature of god and of her son than the rest of creation; because god created greater perfections in her than in all other creatures, and she had a greater share in the redemption than all others, being rescued not only from sin but from the power and inclination to sin. and who does not know that it is a greater benefit to rescue a person from slavery before he is made a slave, than to deliver him after he has become captive! how far are we then from placing the son and the mother on an equality, as our adversaries falsely assert? it is true that we call her beautiful, and the most beautiful amongst creatures; but she is beautiful _as the moon_, which receives its light from the sun; because all her glory is communicated to her by her son. pliny writes that the thorn, named _aspalathum_, is not naturally odoriferous, but that if the rainbow rests upon it, it quickly exhales a rare and sweet odour. the holy virgin is a thorn of that burning bush which moses saw and which was not consumed, as the church says: '_rubum quem viderat moyses incombustum, conservatam agnovimus tuam laudabilem virginitatem_'. of herself alone, she is certainly unworthy of our worship, for she is without odour. but when the great sign of reconciliation between god and men came and rested upon this holy thorn--first, by his grace in her immaculate conception, and afterwards at the incarnation, when god became her son, and reposed in her immaculate bosom--then, indeed, so great became the fragrance of this thorn that no other plant ever could produce before god so sweet and pleasing an odour. nor will he ever reject the prayers that are perfumed in this fragrance. we repeat that all this perfume came to her from her divine son. jesus christ is our advocate, and so is mary; but with what difference! in right of justice, the saviour is alone our advocate, because when he pleads our cause he justifies his petition by showing his blood and his cross. he does not hide our debts from his father; but at the same time he urges the value of the price that he has laid down for our salvation. mary and all the saints exercise, also, the office of advocate in our favour; it is only by way of intercession. they entreat the divine justice to pardon our iniquities; but it is through the merits of the passion of jesus christ. in a word, they do not add their prayers to the prayers of the saviour, but to ours; in order to help us to obtain the graces which are necessary for our eternal salvation. the month of mary. --- the immaculate conception. the wonderful variety which is observable in the works of nature gives us a very high idea of the immeasurable riches of the almighty creator. and yet he manifests his power still more in the supernatural order, and the wonderful diversity of the works of grace preaches more loudly the munificence of his mercy. god, in the excess of his goodness, did not merely grant a general redemption to men, sufficient for the salvation of each one, but he diversified and multiplied the supernatural gifts which accompany this redemption with infinite liberality and wonderful variety. but his highest favours were lavished upon the most holy virgin. from all eternity the heavenly father had ordained in his love to form her heart to the perfection of charity, that she might love his divine son with the most perfect maternal love--as he had loved him from all eternity with the most perfect paternal love. the son of god cast his eyes upon this virgin, and chose her for his mother, and co-operator in the great work of the world's redemption, a merciful mother, a most powerful advocate of mankind--the most amiable, the most loving, and the most beloved of all creatures. it is the opinion of many theologians that our lord sanctified st. john the baptist in the womb of st. elizabeth, by a ray of his light and grace, and gave him the use of reason together with the gift of faith, so that he knew his god, hidden in the immaculate womb of mary, adored him, and consecrated himself to his service. if such a grace were granted by our lord to his precursor, who can doubt for a moment that he should have granted not only a similar, but a much greater privilege to her whom he himself had chosen for his mother, and that he should not only have sanctified her in the womb of her mother, st. anne, but should have, moreover, raised her from the very first instant of her conception to a state of purity and sanctity? the adorable redeemer of the human race, the eternal object of the love of his heavenly father, considered his mother from that first moment, as a delicious garden which was to produce the fruit of eternal life, and he cultivated this garden in order that every kind of perfection should flourish therein. he adorned her with the gold of charity and with a wondrous variety of virtues, that she might be able to sit at his side as a queen--that is to say, occupy the first place amongst the elect, and, in this manner, enjoy the delights that are found at the right hand of the eternal god. this divine mother was redeemed, therefore, in a manner becoming the dignity of the son, for whom she was created. hence she was preserved from reprobation and from all danger of it, because she was enriched with the perfection of grace and with everything necessary for its preservation. well is she compared to a beautiful aurora, or dawn, which, from its very beginning, went on increasing until it reached its perfect day. o first-fruit of the redemption! o masterpiece of the redeemer! it is just, indeed, o my divine saviour, that as a son full of love and devotion towards thy mother, in preventing her with the blessings of heaven, thou shouldest have preserved her, not only from sin like the angels, but even from every danger of sinning, and shouldest, moreover, have removed from her path all that could hinder or even retard her in the exercise of thy holy love. it was written in thy eternal decrees that thou wouldest at one day prefer her to all rational creatures who were dear to thy divine heart, and that thou wouldest call her _the beloved object of thy predilection, thy dove, thy spotless and beautiful one, perfect beyond compare_. a special privilege was reserved for mary, worthy of a son who loved her with an infinite love, and who, being infinitely good, wise and perfect, was to choose for himself a mother, and form her according to his own heart. he willed then that the grace of redemption should be applied to her as a preservative remedy. like the waters of the jordan that, in the days of josue, interrupted their course through respect for the ark of the covenant, so the stream of original corruption stayed its course at the feet of mary, at the conception of this living tabernacle of the eternal covenant. from the first instant of her conception, mary knew her god, and loved him sovereignly; from that moment she became impeccable, through the special assistance of the divine protection, and through the continual inflow of efficacious and preventing graces, to which she never offered the slightest resistance. god not only adorned her with the most abundant habitual grace, but he preserved it in her, keeping her always free from every evil inclination, every idle thought, and every feeling in the slightest degree contrary to the most perfect sanctity. as to her body, we may believe it was endowed with singular perfections. st. joachim and st. anne received her from god through a particular, and we may say, even a miraculous grace, so that she was one of the most excellent works of the holy ghost, and breathed only sanctity and purity. this queen loved, then, her virginal body, not only because it was docile, humble, pure and obedient to divine love, but still more because from it was formed the body of her saviour. truly has this holy virgin been called _elect as the sun_, because as the sun shines resplendent above all the stars, through the excellence of its prerogatives, so there is no one amongst all the saints who has obtained, or can ever obtain, graces superior to those bestowed upon mary. there are saints who have received signal graces from our lord, and these, compared with the rest of the world, are like queens crowned with charity, and occupy a distinguished position in the love of our divine saviour. but his most blessed mother is the queen of all queens, for she is not only crowned with charity, but with the perfection of charity, and to use an expression of the holy spirit, who says that _the son is the crown of the father_; her crown is in truth her son; that is to say, the sovereign object of charity, the eternal love, forms her crown. spiritual flowers. how lovely is the rose! and yet it causes great sadness in my soul. it reminds me of my sin, on account of which the earth was condemned to produce thorns.--_st. basil._ mary, conceived without sin, is compared to the incorruptible cedar, the scent of which puts serpents to flight.--_st. alphonsus liguori._ how great will be our happiness in heaven, where we shall be able to contemplate mary, to love her and be loved by her; for she alone forms a paradise of delights. mary is truly, after god, all that is beautiful, sweet, glorious and amiable in that celestial realm; all is in mary, all through mary, all, in fine, is hers.--_st. bonaventure._ nothing is of greater service to our soul, nor more sustains and strengthens it, than the frequent thought of mary.--_st. teresa._ example. _devotion of st. francis of sales to the blessed virgin mary._ of all the festivals of the most holy virgin there was none more dear to the tender piety of st. francis of sales than the immaculate conception. when but a subdeacon he instituted a confraternity of penitents, under the title of the immaculate conception. every year he prepared for this feast by fasting and prayer, and his zeal induced him to proclaim this day a festival of obligation throughout his diocese. in order to place his episcopate under the protection of the immaculate virgin, he chose this solemnity for the day of his consecration, and during the ceremony he was rapt in ecstasy, and saw the most holy trinity working in his heart all that the bishops were doing exteriorly, and moreover, he saw the most holy virgin take him under her protection. once, as he was making the visitation of his diocese, he arrived at the foot of a steep and rugged hill, upon the summit of which was the church of the most blessed virgin of nancy-sur-cluses. he climbed it with great difficulty, whilst blood streamed from his feet; but in reply to those who would dissuade him from the attempt, he said: 'it is true that i am almost sinking from fatigue, but whilst i am ashamed to be so unaccustomed to labour for the service of god, i feel the greatest joy to shed my blood in honour of the mother of god.' continuing his visitation he found three parish churches in succession which were dedicated to mary. 'what a consolation i feel,' said he, 'to see so many churches in my diocese dedicated to the mother of god! whenever i enter a place consecrated to this august queen, well do the beatings of my heart tell me that i am in the house of my mother; for i am the son of her who is the refuge of sinners.' _prayer._--o mary! immaculate lily of purity, i rejoice with you that you have been filled with grace, endowed with the use of reason, and have loved god more than the seraphim from the first instant of your immaculate conception. may the most holy trinity be eternally thanked and adored for so many and such rare privileges bestowed upon you. i humble myself profoundly before you, seeing that i am so devoid of graces and poor in merits. o my most loving mother, make me a partaker of the graces which you have received so abundantly, that i also may be able to love god ardently during life, and not be separated from him in death. amen. _practice._--recite three _paters_, three _aves_, and three _glorias_, to thank the most holy trinity for the grace of the immaculate conception conferred upon mary. _aspiration._--o mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you. first day. mary, a model of perfect self-denial from her birth. let all who are devout to the most holy virgin approach the cradle in which lies the royal infant, mary. consider attentively this sacred child, and you will see how perfectly she practises every virtue. ask the angels, the cherubim and seraphim, who surround her, if they equal this little creature in perfection, and they will all reply that they are immensely inferior to her in graces, in merits, and in virtue. contemplate, children of mary, those heavenly spirits around her cradle, and you will hear them repeat in ecstasies of admiration of her beauty the words of the canticle of canticles: _who is she that goeth up by the desert as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices of myrrh, and frankincense . . . who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?_ this virgin child is not yet glorified, but glory is already promised her; she expects it, not like others, in hope, but with certainty. on this account the celestial spirits, enraptured by such incomparable perfection, cease not to celebrate her praises. meanwhile, this most perfect virgin lies in her poor crib, and there practises, in a most special manner, the virtue of self-abnegation. consider, i beseech you, how, amidst angelic praises, she wishes to appear like all other children of adam. who will not be filled with admiration and love, to behold mary in her cradle, full of grace, endowed with the perfect use of reason from the first instant of her immaculate conception, able to meditate upon the perfections of god, filled with his love, and entirely resigned to his holy will; and yet, notwithstanding such privileges, wishing to be considered and treated as a poor little infant, without in any way manifesting the precious gifts she possessed? o my god! how attractive is such a spectacle; and not only attractive, but wonderful; and how clearly does it convince us of her perfect renunciation of all that savours of worldly pomp and glory and ambition! the second kind of abnegation which this august virgin teaches us to practise, is the renunciation of the flesh, of which in her nativity and infancy she offers us most moving examples. children are obliged to make many sacrifices, and the more they are attended to, the more are their affections and inclinations opposed. these mortifications, nevertheless, are not occasions of merit to them, for they have not yet acquired the use of reason. but the most holy virgin, being endowed from her infancy with the perfect use of reason, exercised the virtue of self-abnegation in a wonderful degree, enduring voluntarily all these contradictions and mortifications. the third kind of renunciation is that of our own judgment and will, even in things which seem to us better than those that are commanded us. this includes what is most difficult and meritorious in the way of christian perfection. how excellently did the most holy virgin practise this abnegation in her nativity! although possessed of the use of reason, she never made use of her liberty to manifest it. we always see in her a constant state of dependence. when she goes to the temple she is led by her parents; through obedience to them she gives her hand to a humble carpenter, although she had consecrated her virginity to god. she leaves nazareth for bethlehem, flees into egypt, and returns to nazareth; and in all these journeys, as well as in all the other vicissitudes of her life, she maintains perfect subjection and docility. she even assists at the death of her son and her god, through submission to the decrees of heaven, her will being perfectly united to that of the eternal father. it was not by constraint, but with the full concurrence of her will, that she assented to the death of this divine son, and with humble resignation embraced and adored a hundred times that cross upon which she saw, without shedding a tear, her only son expire. what abnegation do we not find in the most holy virgin! the tender loving soul of this most sorrowful mother was pierced by unheard-of dolours; indeed, who can ever describe the pains and anguish of her most sacred heart, as she stood immovable at the foot of the cross? she knew that the eternal father willed that jesus christ should thus die, and that she should be present at his death, and this knowledge gave her strength to stand there and endure it all. in imitation of mary, let us resolve to die to everything and to our own will, that we may live for god alone. jesus christ tells us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and to follow him. the way of perfection is a calvary, where it is necessary to crucify ourselves continually, in company with our saviour; thus forcing nature to die, that grace may live and reign within us. in a word, it is necessary to strip ourselves of the old adam, and clothe ourselves with the new adam, and this cannot be done without suffering. i will not deceive you; christian perfection is difficult, and very great courage is required for so high an undertaking. this perfection consists in an entire self-abnegation, and in a total renunciation of all earthly things. [ ] o my god! when will our lady be, as it were, born in our hearts? as for myself i see clearly that i am quite unworthy of such a favour; and as for you, what are your sentiments? her divine son was born in a stable. let us take courage and prepare him a place in our hearts; a place made deep by humility, low by simplicity, and wide by charity. it is such a heart as this that our lady loves to visit, she dwells willingly near the manger and at the foot of the cross. little matters it to her that she lives unknown in egypt, provided her divine child lives with her. whether our lord sends us to the right or to the left, or howsoever he treats us, or makes us as a sign against which all the evils of the world are turned, we will never abandon him until he has blessed us with eternal blessing. let us be assured that he is never so near to us as when he appears to be furthest from us; never does he guard us with more jealousy than when he seems to abandon us, and never does he engage in combat with us, but to take more intimate possession of our heart, and load us with his blessings. meanwhile, let us go on; let us walk through the valley of humble virtues, and how many roses shall we not find amongst the thorns! charity, which shines in the midst of the most trying afflictions, as well interior as exterior, the lily of purity, the violet of mortification, and how many more! but the lowly virtues that are dearest to me are these three: meekness of heart, poverty of spirit, simplicity of life, together with the practices of visiting the sick, serving the poor, consoling the afflicted, and such like. however, all must be done without solicitude, and in true liberty of spirit. our arms are not long enough to reach to the cedars of lebanon--let us then be content with the hyssop that grows in the valleys. [ ] in the way of prayer, at first everything seems painful, and with good reason; because it is a continual war against ourselves. but when we set to work, our lord on his side assists us so powerfully, and loads us with so many favours, that all the pains and labours of this life become as nothing.--_st. teresa_. spiritual flowers. there shall come forth a rod from the root of jesse, says isaias, and a flower shall rise up from its root. this root, writes st. jerome, is the mother of the saviour; a plain and simple root, but fruitful in its unity, like the eternal father. the flower of this root is jesus christ, _like to a flower of the field and to a lily of the valley_. this flower is possessed of as many leaves as there are functions and examples. if you wish to have the flower you must first bend the stem by your prayers. if this flower rises high through the excellence of its divinity be not afraid; because through excess of love its stem may be bowed.--_st. bonaventure_. i am firmly resolved to desire no other heart than that which shall be given me by this mother of hearts, this mother of holy love. o my god! how much do i desire not to lose sight, not even for an instant, of this gracious star, during the whole course of my journey!--_st. francis of sales_. as the lily has no fixed season for its growth, but flowers sooner or later, according to its depth in the earth, in like manner the heart which aspires to divine love will blossom very late, and with much difficulty, if it be absorbed in earthly cares. however, if it be attached to the world only so far as is necessary for its engagements in life, it will flourish in charity and spread around it gracious fragrance.--_the same_. example. _the miraculous medal of the immaculate conception._ perhaps i can relate nothing more suitable in regard to the origin of this celebrated medal, so justly styled _'miraculous,'_ than by transcribing the letter addressed to the author of the book, 'mary conceived without sin,' by the spiritual director of the sister of charity to whom the medal was revealed: 'paris, th march, . 'towards the close of the year , sister m., a novice of one of the communities in paris, dedicated to the service of the poor, saw, whilst in prayer, a picture representing the blessed virgin, standing with her arms extended. she wore a white garment, a blue and silver cloak, and a veil coloured like the aurora, whilst rays of dazzling splendour issued from her hands. at the same time the sister heard these words: "these rays are the symbol of the graces which mary obtains in favour of mankind; and that part of the globe upon which they fall with greater abundance is france." around the picture was written the invocation, _"o mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you."_ the sister having considered it for a moment, cast her eyes upon the other side of the picture, and saw the letter _"m"_ surmounted by a cross, and below it, the sacred hearts of jesus and mary. then the voice said again: _"a medal must be struck according to this model; and whoever shall wear it, properly blessed and indulgenced, shall be protected by the mother of god in a most special manner."_ 'the novice came quickly to narrate the vision to me; and i, supposing it to be a mere pious illusion, simply addressed a few words to her upon true devotion to mary, pointing out to her that the imitation of her virtues ever was, and will be, the true means of honouring her. 'after about six months, she had the same vision, and i made her the same reply. finally, after another interval of six months, she saw the picture again, and heard the same words, except that the voice expressed how much it displeased the blessed virgin that there was so much delay in having the medal struck. 'this time, however, i attached greater importance to the revelation, without allowing the novice to perceive it; and i began to reflect and fear lest i was not seconding the designs of her who is so justly invoked by the church under the sweet name of "refuge of sinners." 'a short time afterwards i had the opportunity of seeing the archbishop, and gave him an accurate account of these visions. he answered me that "he saw nothing whatever objectionable in this medal being struck, as it was conformable to the faith of the church and to the piety of the faithful towards the mother of god; and that it might certainly contribute to the promotion of her honour." the medal was finally struck in the month of june, . 'in one of the three visions, the novice asked if it were not necessary to insert some words on that part of the medal where the letter _"m"_ and the cross, with the two hearts, are represented; but she was answered that these objects spoke with sufficient eloquence to the faithful soul. 'when the medal was struck, it was quickly circulated amongst the sisters of charity, who, when they learnt its origin, wore it with much devotion, and began to hang it on the necks of the sick under their charge, and these shortly experienced happy results. three cures and three conversions were wrought in a miraculous manner in paris, and in the diocese of meaux. then the desire to possess the _miraculous medal_, or the medal _that cures_, became universal. mothers of families gave it as a new year's gift to their children, and as a preservative to their innocence. as soon as it became known in a place, pious persons hastened to become possessed of it. but what greatly surprised and edified me, from the beginning of its propagation, was that all the children of two of our provinces agreed together to take this medal as the protection of their youth. in many places entire populations addressed themselves to their pastor to procure it; and, at paris, an officer purchased sixty for as many private soldiers who had asked him for it. 'whilst the medal was miraculously propagated in all classes and provinces, the most consoling accounts were sent me by the parish priests, vicar-generals, and even by bishops. they say that _"it reanimates fervour in populous towns as well as in the country; it gains our entire confidence; we look upon it as a means sent by providence to enkindle faith, which in our days has so visibly decreased; and in reality it daily awakens this faith in many hearts, in which it seemed to be extinguished; it re-establishes peace and concord in many families; and there is no one who wears this medal who does not experience its salutary effects."'_ not only in france which is specially under the protection of mary most holy did the faithful of every age, sex, and condition, rival one another in zeal and solicitude to possess the _miraculous_ medal; it spread also like lightning throughout switzerland, piedmont, spain, italy, belgium, england, america, in the levant, and even in china; and we can certify that in the present day the number of these medals exceeds thirty millions. in every place it is asked for by indifferent christians, by obstinate sinners, by the impious, by protestants, jews, and turks, and worn with veneration. heaven grant that it may not be without fruit!--that she, to whom the church applies those words of holy scripture, _'he who shall find me shall find life, and have salvation from the lord,'_ may conduct and confirm us in the way of salvation! plenary indulgences at the hour of death, and on all the principal festivals of the year, and on the feasts of the apostles are attached to this medal when blessed by anyone who possesses the faculty. _prayer._--o lovely child, who, in your happy nativity, didst console the world, rejoice heaven, terrify hell, and become the relief of sinners, the consolation of the afflicted, the health of the sick, and the joy of all men, i entreat you, with all the fervour of my soul, to be spiritually born in my heart through your holy love. attach my soul once for all to your happy service, and my heart to yours, that my life may be adorned with the virtues which will render me dear to you. o mary! produce in me the salutary effects of your sweet name, and obtain that the invocation of this holy name may be my strength in sufferings, my hope in dangers, my shield in spiritual conflicts, and my support and comfort in the agonies of death. may it be honey to my mouth, music to my ears, and the only joy of my heart! amen. _aspiration._--morning star, pray for me. _practice._--visit the altar of the blessed virgin, after having adored the most holy sacrament of the altar. second day. mary consecrates herself to god in the temple. mary was no sooner born than she consecrated her entire being to the service of divine love, and as soon as she acquired the use of her tongue she employed it in chanting the praises of the lord. he inspired her, when she had attained the age of three years, to leave the home of her parents and retire into the temple to serve him more perfectly. during her tender years the life of this glorious virgin was full of wisdom and discretion, and the cause of astonishment to her parents, for her actions and words were very different from those of other children, since she had the full use of her reason. it was therefore necessary to hasten the period for taking her to the temple and consecrating her to the divine service, amongst the other maidens already consecrated. they, therefore, took the little virgin and partly led and partly carried her to the temple of jerusalem. mary certainly had nothing to fear from the influences of her home, but she wished to teach us by her example that we should omit nothing, as st. paul so earnestly teaches, to make our calling and election sure. all who repaired to the temple to present their offerings chanted as they went the psalm: _beati immaculati in via qui ambulant in lege domini--'blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the lord'_. with what grace and melody must not our glorious queen and mistress have intoned this canticle when she walked towards the sanctuary where her god wished to prepare her to become, not only his spouse, but his mother, the blessed among all women! the very angels were so pleased at the sight of such love, fervour, and humility, that they descended in choirs to listen to the harmony. with what joy was she not filled when she arrived at the threshhold of the temple, and when she mounted the fifteen steps of the sanctuary! she came to dedicate herself unreservedly to god. if her youth had not forbidden it, she might thus have addressed the holy matrons who had charge of the consecrated children in the temple: here am i; consider me in your hands as a piece of soft wax; dispose of me as you will, i shall never make any resistance. she was so docile that she allowed herself to be guided by others in such a manner as never to show the slightest inclination to one thing more than another. she abandoned herself totally and perfectly to the divine will, so that she was a marvel to all who knew her. in order to profit in a christian manner by the example that mary gives us in this mystery, three points can be considered: firstly, that mary was presented to god in his temple from her tenderest infancy, and thus separated from her parents; secondly, that she makes a great part of the journey on foot, and the rest of the journey she is carried in the arms of her parents; thirdly, that she dedicates and offers herself entirely to god, without any reserve. as to the first point, which is to dedicate one's self to god from one's infancy, how, you will ask, can we imitate mary in this, for we have already passed the age of childhood, and it is impossible to recover lost time? you are deceived. if virginity can be repaired by means of humility, cannot lost time be repaired by making a fervent and good use of the present? i acknowledge that the happiness of those who have dedicated themselves entirely to god from their infancy is, indeed, enviable, and he seems to receive such an offering with special complacency. he complains, through one of his prophets, that '_men had so perverted their way, that even from their youth they had abandoned the path of salvation for that of perdition_.' children are neither good nor bad so long as they are incapable of distinguishing good from evil. but when they have attained the use of reason, too often they turn to that which is evil. hence god says by his prophet: _dereliquerunt me fontem aquae vivae--'they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, to follow the way of iniquity_.' another proof of the ardent desire of the divine goodness for our youthful service is found in the words of the same prophet; _bonum est viro cum portaverit jugum ab adolescentia sua--'it is good for a man to have borne the yoke from his youth_.' but it need not be supposed that the youth of which the prophet speaks is only that of years. when the beloved in the canticle of canticles turns to her spouse and says to him: _oleum effusum nomen tuum, ideo adolescentulae dilexerunt te-- 'thy name is as oil poured out, therefore young maidens have loved thee_,' do you believe she speaks of maidens who are young in years? no; but of those who are young in fervour and courage, but who have consecrated to the service of holy love all the moments of their life and all the affections of their hearts. it is the present time, the present moment, that we should turn to profit; because the past has escaped us, and the future is not in our power. but you ask, how can we repair lost time? you can do it by the use of fervour and diligence during the time that remains for your pilgrimage upon earth. stags do not always run at an extraordinary speed, but yet, when pursued by the hunter, they quicken their movement and seem rather to fly than to run. this is a model for us. we must not only run, but fly in the way of perfection. therefore let us, with holy david, beg our lord to give us _the wings of a dove_, that we may fly without stopping, until we gain our hiding-place in the walls of the holy city of jerusalem; that is to say, until we find ourselves united to our lord crucified upon calvary, through an entire and perfect mortification of all our inclinations and affections. oh, how happy are those souls who follow the example of this sacred virgin, and dedicate themselves from their tender years to the service of god! fortunate are they to have retired from the world before they were known to it! like delicate flowers scarcely yet open, nor touched by the heat of concupiscence, they exhale a most sweet odour in the divine presence by means of their virtues and innocence. spiritual flowers. mary was like a most beautiful flower, which diffuses its perfume from its very first budding. flowers differ in their method of diffusing fragrance, as, for instance, roses and carnations. roses smell sweeter in the morning before mid-day; but carnations and pinks shed a more pleasing scent in the evening. the glorious virgin was like a most beautiful rose amongst thorns, and although never for an instant did she cease to diffuse an odour of surpassing sweetness, yet the fragrance of her infancy was the most acceptable to the divine majesty.--_st. francis of sales._ chastity is the lily of virtues, because it renders men equal to the angels; if virtues be separated from purity, they are no longer virtues. purity is chastity, and it possesses a glory of its own, for it clothes both soul and body with its beauty.--_the same._ as the busy bee flies to all the flowers, and sucks from each its purest juice with which to form honey, so should a religious soul observe the virtues of others, and learn, for instance, modesty from one, science from another, and obedience from a third; in a word, he should take from each one that which he perceives to be most perfect, and copy it in his own person.--_st. antony._ example. _the two invocations of st. philip neri._ of the many ejaculatory prayers of st. philip neri to the most holy virgin, two were very familiar to him. the first was, 'virgin mary, mother of god, pray to jesus for us'; the second consisted in the two words, 'virgin and mother'. he used to say that they contain all the panegyrics of mary, both because they express her admirable name, and because they declare her two miraculous privileges of _virginity_ and _maternity_, and the incomparable title of _mother of god_. he composed a rosary with these two invocations, which he recited frequently with his penitents, and had always in his hands. a pious person, who was continually tormented by evil thoughts, asked him one day for a remedy. the saint counselled her to recite this rosary of his, which consisted in repeating these two invocations alternately, sixty-three times. she followed his advice, and in a short time recovered her peace of soul. _prayer of st. gertrude_.--o mary, mother of jesus, and my own dear mother! clothe me with the fleece of the true lamb, your son jesus, that his love may receive me, nourish me, possess me, and sanctify me. shining lily, my only hope, after god, deign to speak to your beloved son in my favour; say an efficacious word to him, and faithfully and earnestly plead my cause. i beseech you, o my mother! by your love for jesus, to accept me as your child; be solicitous for my welfare throughout the whole course of my life, and especially at the hour of my death take me entirely under your protection. amen. _ejaculation_.--mary, virgin and mother! make me a saint. _practice_.--let all your actions this day be done in union with jesus and mary. third day. continuation of the preceding subject. the second point presented to our consideration in the presentation of our lady is that in order to consecrate herself to god in the temple she was carried part of the way by her parents, and walked the remainder, being, however, always assisted by them. when st. joachim and st. anne arrived at a spot where the road was level they placed the little maiden on the ground, and allowed her to walk, but even then she lifted up her little hands to clasp theirs, that she might not stumble, and when they came to the rougher parts of the road they again took her in their arms. it should not be supposed that the intentions of her parents in allowing her to walk was to relieve themselves; they allowed it because of the satisfaction which they experienced in seeing their little daughter directing her first steps to the temple of the lord. now, it is in these two ways that our lord leads his faithful servants in their pilgrimage through this miserable life. at times he conducts us by the hand, making us walk with him; and very often he carries us in the arms of his providence. he leads us by the hand when he makes us walk along the path of the exercise of virtues, because if he did not help us it would be impossible for us to take one step along this blessed road. and do we not perceive that the steps of those who have abandoned the paternal hand of providence are almost always so many falls? the divine goodness wishes to lead us by the hand along our road, but he also wishes us to make use of our feet; that is to say, that we ourselves do all that is in our power, by the assistance of his grace. therefore holy church, like a tender mother desirous of the good of her children, teaches us to recite daily a prayer by which we beg god to deign to accompany us during the whole course of our pilgrimage upon this earth, and to succour us by his preventing and by his accompanying grace, because without both these graces all our efforts to make one step in the way of virtue would be unavailing. but after our lord has led us by the hand along the road of good works which require our co-operation in order that they may become meritorious, he carries us in his arms, producing certain effects within us, in which we seem to take no part, as, for instance, in the sacraments. tell me candidly, what is it that we do in order to merit the reception of the most holy sacrament of the altar, which contains all the sanctity and sweetness of heaven and earth? does not our lord carry us in his arms in permitting us to receive him in this sacrament? oh, how happy are those souls who so pass through this mortal life as never to leave the arms of his divine majesty, except to do all in their power to labour in the practice of virtue, still keeping hold of the hand of their lord! let us never believe ourselves capable of doing the least good of ourselves. the sacred spouse of the canticles teaches us this truth when she says to her beloved: _trahe me post te in odorem curremus unguentorum tuorum--'draw me, and we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments_.' she says '_draw me_,' to teach us that our soul can do nothing of itself unless it be drawn, assisted, and anticipated by divine grace. but to show us that she corresponds voluntarily to this attraction, she quickly adds: '_we will run_,' as if she wished to say: if only, my beloved, thou stretch out thy hand to draw me, i shall not cease to run, until thou hast received me into thine arms, and united me to thy divine will. let us now pass to the third point: the consecration and dedication our glorious lady made of her whole self unreservedly to the divine majesty; it is this, o faithful souls, that we should try to imitate. our lord does not certainly expect us to be more liberal to him than he is to us; nevertheless, if he shows the greatness of his goodness to us by giving us his whole self, is it not just that he should require of us the total dedication of ourselves to him? but what means this total dedication of ourselves to god? it means that we make no reserve whatever in our consecration, not even of the least of our affections or desires; it is this that he requires of us. listen, in fact, to this divine saviour of our souls: _fili praete mihi cor tuum--'my son,'_ says he to each one of us in particular--_'my son, give me thy heart.'_ 'ah!' you will add, 'how shall i dare to give my heart to god when it is so full of imperfections and sins? how can he accept the offering of this heart in which he finds nothing but disobedience to his most holy will?' ah! be not troubled on this account, but offer it to him all the same, because he does not require of you a pure and spotless heart, like that of the angels and of our lady, but he says: 'give me thy heart,' such as it is. ah! let us not refuse it to him then, although it be full of miseries, weaknesses, and imperfections, for we know that all that is placed in the hand of his divine goodness is converted into good. let us not fear, then, for when he holds this heart of ours in his hands he will know well how to render it perfect. to make it less unworthy of god let us resolve to imitate mary; for amongst all the saints who are proposed to us as a model we should in a special manner consider our most glorious and dear patroness, the queen of all saints. what mirror more beautiful, more precious, or purer, can we place before our eyes? is she not the most excellent example of evangelical teaching? who amongst creatures is more adorned and enriched with every kind of virtue and grace? _multae filiae congregaverunt divitias, tu supergressa es universus--'many daughters have gathered riches, but thou hast surpassed them all.'_ certainly it is beyond all doubt that there is no saint comparable to her, because this glorious virgin surpasses in dignity and excellence not only the greatest saints, but the very cherubim and seraphim. she consecrated herself perfectly to the divine service, from the very first instant of her immaculate conception. spiritual flowers. when the senses are not well guarded, they are mysterious inlets by which our enemies insinuate themselves into our souls. a glance of curiosity changed holy king david into an adulterer and a murderer. how many have reason to exclaim with jeremiah, _'my eye hath been the thief that has robbed my soul of every good'!--riva_. the choice of a state of life is so important that it constitutes the only foundation of a good or of a bad life.--_st. greg. naz._ the christian who abandons himself into the hand of god, lives for god alone.--_st. francis of sales._ example. _the feasts of the blessed virgin._ the days upon which the blessed virgin mary shows herself bountiful of her favours, are the feasts celebrated in her honour; and if we desire to profit by them, we must sanctify them fervently. let us approach the sacraments on those days, and propose to practise some particular virtue of the blessed virgin, adapted to the mystery of the day. for instance, on the feast of the immaculate conception, let us propose to practise purity of intention; on that of her nativity, a renewal of fervour, banishing all tepidity from our soul; on that of the presentation, detachment from those desires which require to be mortified; on the feast of the annunciation, of the visitation, on the feast of the purification, obedience to superiors; and on the feast of the assumption, preparation for death. such was ever the practice of all the true servants of mary; amongst others, of st. bernardine of siena, of st. gertrude, and of st. vincent ferrer. mary herself made known to st. gertrude, as we read in the tenth chapter of the 'revelations' of this saint, that she rewards this practice with every kind of favour. on the feast of the assumption, whilst the divine sacrifice of the mass was being celebrated, the blessed virgin showed the saint a great number of young girls, whom she carefully guarded under her rich mantle. 'my dear daughter,' said she to her, 'behold here those souls who do all in their power to celebrate this festival worthily.' brother gerard, one of the first lay-brothers of the congregation of st. alfonso de liguori, had the most tender confidence in mary. at the approach of her feasts he took care to adorn all the altars of the monastery, and his devotion was especially great to the immaculate conception. he wished that the faithful would fast on all the vigils of her feasts; on which days his nourishment was but a little bread and water, and he gave himself the discipline to blood. during all her novenas, he performed some abstinence or good work in her honour. when he was allowed by his superior, he spent the night preceding her festivals prostrate before her altar in fervent prayer. it is narrated by fathers petrella and giovenale that the blessed virgin, touched by the love of her servant, appeared to him during one of those nights, and enriched him with favours of many kinds. _prayer of st. gertrude to the sacred heart of mary._--o immaculate heart of mary, i have nothing to offer you that is worthy of you; yet how many thanks should i not render you for all the favours that you have obtained for me from the heart of jesus! what reparation should i not offer you for my languor during divine service! i would wish to render you love for love: the only good that i possess is the sacred heart of jesus, which you have yourself given to me. i offer you, then, this treasure of infinite value--i can do nothing more, and nothing less do you merit from me. accept, then, this gift, which is so dear to you; and nothing more do i desire except that you will deign to accept, also, my poor heart. amen. _ejaculation._--mother of good counsel, pray for me. _practice._--make a sincere act of contrition for the time that you have spent away from god. fourth day. fidelity of mary in following the call of god. let us consider in this meditation the punctual care with which mary always followed her vocation. god had uttered in her ears, or rather in the interior of her heart, the words of the psalm: _audi fili, inclina aurem tuam, et obliviscere populum tuum, et domum patris tui et concupiscet rex decorem tuum-- 'hearken, my child, incline thine ear to me; forget thy people and thy father's house, and the king shall desire thy beauty_.' ponder attentively these words: '_hearken, child_'--_audi fili_. they imply that, in order to hear well, it is necessary to listen, first, very attentively--'_inclina aurem tuam_;' it is to the humble alone that god deigns to make known his will. '_forget thy people and thy fathers house, and the king will greatly desire thy beauty_.' this is as if he would say, do not confine thyself to listening to the word of inspiration, and abasing thyself in order that thou mayest understand it, but further strip thy heart of all affection for thy country and thy relations, and then i shall be delighted with thy beauty. o, holy and divine seed which our lord sows in the hearts of so many! and yet how many there are who hear the divine call, without making one step to leave their country and go whither god calls them! diligence is taken to examine and consider attentively whether the inspiration comes from god, or from the enemy of all good, or if it be the deception of self-love; and meanwhile, through our own fault, the divine vocation fails in its effect. i do not wish to condemn the considerations which ought to be made in order to discern well the nature of the inspiration. by no means; but after having made your examen with simplicity, in the presence of god, and recognised his voice, go forth quickly and enter the land which he points out to you. listen no longer to so many discourses and reasonings suggested by the spirit of the world, because procrastination under such circumstances exposes you to very serious dangers. do not, then, lull yourself to sleep, but follow diligently the divine attraction. with what assiduity and with what solicitude did not the glorious virgin obey the sacred call of god! she had no need of protracted self-examination, because she was endowed with the grace of discernment. therefore, although but a child, she repaired without delay whither her god led her, and the king of heaven, won by her beauty, chose her not only for his spouse, but also for his mother. '_blessed are they that hear the word of god and keep it_.' certainly, all are not called to follow the same path, and yet they may all follow the divine inspirations. we will explain. the church may be considered as the court of a great prince or king, in whose kingdom are many vassals or under-lords. all these vassals are invited to court, and all share in the favours of their sovereign, but differently. some are favoured in a very special manner, and he treats them with greater confidence than the rest, and repeats to them his secrets. but besides the graces which he grants in general to all the members of his church, to some amongst them he bestows more precious favours; for instance, religious persons, whom he admits into his cabinet--that is to say, into holy religion--in order to entertain himself with them familiarly, and disclose his secrets to them in the closest union of heart. amongst those who have received this grace, the most holy virgin has been singularly privileged, our lord having made known to her secrets and mysteries which have been revealed to no other creature. happy was she to have heard the word of god and kept it, and how happy also will you be, pious souls, if you endeavour, in imitation of her, to follow promptly the inspirations by which god manifests to you his most holy will! i am well aware that for many it is necessary that they should live in the world. these persons should use, but not abuse the riches, honours and dignities which they are allowed by the law of god to possess; and if they endeavour, in the use of these possessions, to conform their affections to the commandments of god, without following the counsels, they will be as truly blessed, and will attain to the joys of eternal life. there are many persons who wish to consecrate themselves to god, but at the same time wish to reserve always something for themselves. they will say, for instance, i will give to god what belongs to god, and reserve for the world what is due to the world, without however doing what would be an offence to his divine majesty, or contrary to his most holy law. such as these listen, it is true, to the inspirations of god, but do not correspond to them with their whole heart, and although they may be saved, yet they never will reach a high degree of perfection and glory. there are others who are quite resolved to follow steadily the inspirations and will of god, and also desire to live united to him, but not in a _perfect manner_. observe well that there is a great difference between being _all_ given to god and _wholly_ given to god. these persons of whom we speak wish to reserve to themselves the choice at least of their spiritual exercises, in order, as they say, that they may the better serve god. but to how much danger of being deceived do not they expose themselves! regulating themselves according to their own notions, they refuse to submit to others, and they mark out for themselves a mode of life according to their own caprices. i would say to such souls: do you not perceive that with these ideas you do not belong _wholly_ to god? their answer would be: but i act so in order to serve god. but this is not the example that our most blessed lady, the glorious virgin, gives us. on the day of her presentation she consecrated herself to god entirely, without any reserve, and never again made use of her own will or choice. o faithful souls, you ought continually to keep before your eyes the life of our dear lady, and meditate upon it, so as to be able to conform all your actions and affections to this perfect model. you are her children, and therefore you ought to follow her, to imitate her, and make use of her as a mirror in which you should always view and study yourselves well. the sweetness which will flow from the consideration of her virtues will be received in earthen vessels; nevertheless, its fragrance will be none the less sweet. the balsam that is contained in an earthen vase is as sweet as that in a vase of crystal. spiritual flowers. most yellow flowers keep turned continually to the sun, but the sunflower turns not only its flowers but also its leaves towards the great luminary. in like manner the elect turn the flower of their hearts--that is, their obedience--to the commands of god's will.--_st. francis of sales_. the virtues of the friends of god are ennobled and raised to the dignity of holy works by the excellence of the heart which produces them. all their virtuous actions are dedicated to god, for how can a heart that has given him itself not give to him all that belongs to it? does not he who gives a whole tree give also the leaves, and flowers, and fruit?--_the same_. the rose possesses the property of killing by its odour all the snails that come around it. similarly, the devout soul, who is as a rose before god, should chase away and destroy all the creeping things that gather around her heart--that is to say, the coldness and tepidity which are an obstacle to her advancement in the way of god.--_the same_. example. _lamps and candles burnt in honour of mary._ it is a custom amongst catholics to have lamps or candles burning upon altars, or before pictures of the august mother of god for one, or three, or nine consecutive days, so as to obtain spiritual or temporal favours. this touching practice, springing from the love of mary, comes down from the remotest antiquity. oil and wax, as all know, have a deep signification. the flame is a symbol of the vivacity of our faith and of the firmness of our confidence; fire symbolizes the ardour of charity, and the ascent of the flame is a type of our hope. these flames intimate that we must keep the fire of charity ever burning in our hearts, so as to be always ready to receive our divine master whensoever he shall call us to the nuptials of the lamb. lamps lighted before the statues or pictures of mary represent to us more specially the prayer of intercession, which goes direct to the heart of god. they awaken a singular emotion in the heart of him who has faith. the oil that feeds the flame has often cost the poor man the sweat of hard labour, but he thinks little of this voluntary sacrifice, because it was the fruit of love. no one who has not visited italy, and in particular rome and naples, can form an idea of the honour that is paid to the blessed virgin. you will find her image on all the roadsides, in the public squares, houses and shops, with lamps, often many at a time, burning before them, and the amount of oil that is consumed in this manner is considerable. this is a voluntary contribution of the poor as well as of the rich, and it is an expense that every pious family considers as necessary as their daily bread. at rome there exists a sweet custom of writing a short prayer, often with the indulgence attached to its repetition, under each image or picture, and it is repeated by the passers-by. who can say how many passions are repressed, how many unhappy creatures consoled, and how many hopes aroused by this short invocation? _prayer of st. germanus_.--o you, who are, after god, my powerful protectress and my true consolation in this world, you who are the celestial dew that sweetens my pains; the light of my soul when plunged in darkness, my guide in my journeys, my strength in my weaknesses, my treasure in poverty, the remedy of my wounds, my joy in all my sorrows, my refuge in all dangers, the hope of my life and of my salvation, deign to hear my prayers, to take an interest in my woes, and to show me that compassion which peculiarly belongs to the mother of a god who entertains such love and goodness towards men. he is their father, and he has constituted you their mother. ah! place me then amongst the number of your dearest children, and obtain for me from god all the graces which you know to be necessary for the salvation of my soul. amen. _ejaculation_.--o mary! be my guiding star. _practice_.--examine what has been your fidelity in following your vocation, and how its obligations have been fulfilled. fifth day. mary is a model to religious persons in her presentation in the temple. [ ] god had commanded all the hebrews to visit the temple, but all, rich and poor, were forbidden to enter it empty-handed: _non apparetis in conspectu meo vacuus_. the offering, however, was not the same for all. the rich were to give according to their riches, the poor according to their poverty, and thus all were able to observe the precept. from this we may understand that when seculars come to god and offer him the desire and will, they entertain to follow and observe his divine commandments. he will be satisfied with this offering, and if they put it in practice faithfully, they will obtain eternal life. but let those souls who are rich in means for doing great things for the glory of god, such as religious persons, beware lest they present themselves with the offering of the poor--that is, of seculars; for god will not be satisfied with such an offering. our lord, in calling you, my dear sisters, into holy religion, enriched you with his graces, and on this account he requires much from you; that is, he will have your offering to be of all that you are, and of all that you possess, without any reserve. the blessed virgin, in her presentation, made an offering pleasing to god; offered not only the dignity of her person (the most excellent amongst pure creatures), but all that she possessed. how happy are the religious who, by means of their vows, have consecrated all to god, dedicating to him their bodies, their hearts, and all that they possess; renouncing riches by the vow of poverty, pleasures by the vow of chastity, and their whole will by the vow of obedience! worldlings, you may enjoy your riches if you will, but do not abuse them, nor wrong anyone. the pleasures that holy church permits are lawful; you are not prohibited in a thousand circumstances from following your own will, provided it be not contrary to that of god. but you, religious, should offer all to god, without any reserve. he wishes your offering to be entire, such as is the gift he makes to you of himself in the divine sacrament of the altar. forget not that you cannot deceive him, and if you say that you wish to consecrate yourselves perfectly to his divine majesty, and do not really do so, you are in danger of being punished like ananias and sapphira, who lied to the holy ghost. now, the blessed virgin was always perfectly obedient to the will of god, from the first instant of her conception, without ever changing or suspending for a moment the resolution she had formed to serve him. do we not daily experience how changeable is man in his good resolutions? how often, even in one hour, do we not like and dislike the same thing, and allow ourselves to be moved by excessive joy or excessive sadness! this was not the case with our lady; she hourly became more perfectly united to god, and merited fresh graces, and the more she received, the more did she render her soul worthy to receive them. by these means she was always strengthening her first resolution, so that the only change that could have been perceptible in her was the progress she made from one degree of perfection to another, through the practice of every virtue. it was for this purpose that she wished to retire into the temple, not through any need she had of this retreat, for her perseverance was assured by her consecration at the first moment of her existence, but in order to instruct us, who are so changeable and inconstant, that it is our duty to make use of every means in our power to strengthen and preserve our good resolutions. imitate the most holy virgin also in this. dedicate, therefore, yourselves entirely to god; and whenever you renew your consecration, you will acquire new strength and vigour in the service of his divine majesty. renew your resolutions, renew them frequently and with fidelity, to the end of your life. this was the careful practice of all the saints of both the old and of the new testament. our nature is of itself weak and easily depressed when there is a question of virtuous resolutions. the earth itself has its periods of weakness, and refuses to be always yielding its produce; so it lies barren in winter. but when the spring arrives it renews itself, and having recovered fresh vigour, it gives us the benefit of its fruits. for this reason holy church, like a wise mother, puts before us from time to time, during the course of the year, special festivals, to animate us to renew our good resolutions. who will not renew his soul on the solemn festivals of easter, pentecost, and christmas, by holy affections and firm resolutions to live more virtuously? but besides the observance of all these festivals, it has ever been a laudable custom for persons more especially consecrated to god, such as religious, to choose one day in particular during the course of the year upon which to renew their vows, and by so doing to obey the great apostle, who counsels us to confirm our vocation. divine providence has permitted for our instruction, that our lady should renew in her presentation the sacrifice which she had made of her whole self at the moment of her immaculate conception. do you, then, religious souls, make this renewal in imitation of her, and do it with great fervour of spirit, with profound humility, and ardent charity. place your hearts, your souls, and your entire being in the hands of this holy virgin; she will present you to the most holy trinity, and you will obtain a thousand blessings in this life, and will be enabled to arrive at eternal glory in the next. [ ] it is an ancient and well-grounded tradition that mary was led to the temple to be presented to the lord at three years of age, and that she dwelt in that sacred abode until the age of fourteen that is to say, as long as was permitted by the laws of the sanhedrim. st. bonaventure relates to us the life led by the most holy virgin in that voluntary retirement. 'we may learn,' says this father, 'what mary did in the temple from her own revelations to one of her faithful servants, supposed to be st. elizabeth.' amongst other things we read as follows: 'as soon as i was left in the temple by my parents, i determined in my heart to look upon god as my father. i often considered what i could do to merit his grace, and i began to instruct myself in his holy law. but of all the divine precepts, these three principally occupied my attention: ( ) thou shalt love the lord thy god with thy whole heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength; ( ) thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; ( ) thou shalt hate thy enemy. 'i kept the commandments in my heart, and i quietly embraced all the virtues that they contain. it is thus that i wish you to conduct yourself. in fact, the soul can possess no virtue whatever if it do not love god with all its powers, because it is from this love alone that the fulness of grace (without which virtue will never be preserved in the soul) descends to us; but it will pass like running water and vanish if the _soul hates not its enemies_, which are _sin and vice_. he who desires to acquire and preserve grace must accustom his heart, then, to the exercise of this love and of this hatred, and it is in this that i wish to be imitated by you.' the faithful servant of mary, having heard these words, replied: 'my sweetest lady, wast thou not already full of grace and virtue?' the blessed virgin replied: 'be certain that i believed myself to be the vilest sinner, and, like you, unworthy of grace. you perhaps believe, my daughter, that all the grace which i possessed was acquired without difficulty. but it was not so. on the contrary, i received no grace or favour without constant prayer, ardent desire, deep devotion, and many tears, with long afflictions, excepting, however, the grace of sanctification, which was given to me from my conception in my mother's womb, and, as far as i knew, i never said or thought of anything but what was pleasing to my god.' she added: 'be assured also that no grace descends into the soul, except through the channel of prayer and corporal mortification. but as soon as we have given to god all that we possess, he himself comes quickly to dwell within us, bringing with him such inestimable gifts that the soul feels her heart to fail; she loses the remembrance of having ever done or said anything acceptable to god, and she becomes more and more vile and contemptible in her own eyes.'--_maria regina e madre dei santi_, by l'abate guyard, vic. gen. of montalbano. spiritual flowers. flowers fade quickly if they are much handled, but if they are not touched they may be preserved a long time.--_a kempis_. the root of the plant is hidden under ground and trodden under foot; it has neither odour nor beauty, and yet it gives life to the flower. thus a humble soul may, like mary, be despised, it may be trodden upon, forgotten; but this is the way for it to produce flowers and fruits for eternal life.--_nouet_. the lily is the symbol of chastity; it preserves its whiteness and sweetness in the midst of thorns, so long as it is left untouched, but as soon as ever it is plucked it emits so overpowering an odour that it causes headache.--_st. francis of sales_. whiteness is not an essential property of the rose--indeed, red roses are more beautiful and of sweeter odour; but it is the property of the lily. let us endeavour to be what we are, and as justly and perfectly as possible, that we may do honour to our maker.--_the same_. example. _the edifying death of st. jane frances de chantal._ it was on the feast of the immaculate conception of mary that this saint was attacked by the first serious symptoms of her fatal illness. on the eve of the feast she was in the refectory, and after the blessing of the table she knelt down, and with her arms in the form of a cross repeated twice these words: _o mater dei, memento mei_. she then commented upon these words thus: 'holy mother of god, by your immaculate conception, remember me and assist me always, especially at the hour of my death.' she remained for a long time afterwards in the same posture, absorbed in profound recollection. the following day she was confined to her bed to rise no more. her illness increasing every hour, she knew that her end approached, and thought only of preparing herself to appear before god. she received the last sacraments with striking fervour, and preserved her calmness and serenity amidst the tears and sobs of all the community. during her intense sufferings she was heard to address the following prayer to the most holy virgin: 'o mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, defend me from the snares of the infernal enemy, and receive my soul into your hands at the moment of my death.' she kept a picture of her protectress always near her bed; and when her speech failed she made great efforts to turn her eyes frequently towards this dear picture, and before she breathed her last asked to kiss it once more, and to have it buried with her in the tomb. _prayer._--o mary, the purest of virgins! terrified at my weakness and at the dangers that surround me, i recommend to thy loving care with all confidence the chastity of my soul and body. permit me not, o queen of the angels, to be defiled by the least stain after having been adorned with purity and innocence, like a vessel of honour and glory. banish from my heart all sensual desires, evil thoughts, and irregular affections. to thy love, o my good mother, do i confide my heart; purify it, render it worthy to be offered to thy beloved son, that, having here on earth imitated thee in the most beautiful of thy virtues, i may enjoy with thee for ever in heaven the happiness promised to the clean of heart. amen. _ejaculation._--grant, o my god, that through mary i may belong entirely to jesus! _practice._--if you should meet with any contradiction to-day, preserve your peace of soul. sixth day. the annunciation of the most holy virgin. we read in the gospel that the angel gabriel visited our lady in the town of nazareth; and, as the word 'nazareth' signifies 'flowers,' well is the church represented in this town! what, in fact, is the church but a house or a town adorned with flowers? all actions performed according to her laws are as so many flowers. mortifications, humiliations, prayers--in short, all pious exercises are acts of virtue, which, like most beautiful flowers, diffuse a pleasing fragrance before god. most justly, then, may we call the christian religion a garden of flowers, that are delightful to the sight and most salutary to those who breathe the air impregnated by their fragrance. our lady herself was a flower distinguished for beauty and excellence above all other flowers--a flower of incomparable fragrance, possessed of the power of producing many other flowers: _hortus conclusus, soror mea, sponsa--'thou,'_ says the sacred spouse in the canticles, _'art a garden enclosed:'_ a garden all studded with the most magnificent flowers that can be produced. now, tell me to whom belong so many charming and sweet-scented flowers, with which the church is so gloriously adorned, but to the most holy virgin, since they were produced by her example? it is through her that holy church is so well furnished with roses in the martyrs who were invincible in their constancy; with every kind of flower, in the confessors who were nursed in her bosom; and with sweet violets, in so many holy widows, who lowly, humble, and hidden, diffuse the most odoriferous sweetness. in fine, is it indeed not to her that belong, in a special manner, so many lilies of purity and spotless virginity, innocent souls, bright and clear as a resplendent mirror? there can be no doubt, that if so many virgins have consecrated their hearts and bodies to his divine majesty, by indissoluble vows, it was that they might imitate the example of the most holy virgin. she was the first to consecrate her body, her heart, and her whole self to god, by the vow of virginity. hardly had she been _drawn_ by god than she quickly drew after her a large number of souls who consecrated themselves to god in like manner, under her sacred auspices, in order that they might run in the way of inviolable chastity and virginity: _adducentur regi virgines post eam_. you, beloved souls, were seen by the glorious virgin, when she exclaimed: _curremus--'we shall run,_ thus assuring her beloved that many would follow her standard, and that under her protection they might combat and vanquish every kind of enemy. what an honour for us to be able to walk under the standard of the queen of virgins! our lady is undoubtedly the honour, the protectress, and model of all christians, of men and women of all classes who live virtuously; yet, undoubtedly, young virgins contract by their virginity a closer alliance with her than other christians, for their resemblance to her in purity enables them more easily and more closely to approach her. [ ] it is said that when the angel came down from heaven to venerate the spotless virgin, and announce to her the incarnation of the son of god in her most chaste womb, she was alone in her room. faithful souls are here instructed to have a love of retirement from the world, but this is not enough; they ought also to retire within themselves that they may lead a solitary life, and thus render themselves better prepared to enjoy the conversation of their beloved. each should look upon his heart as a celestial cabinet where he lives alone with him. o faithful souls, if you conceal yourselves thus, the angels will know how to find you, as the archangel gabriel found mary because she was alone. nothing should be so pleasing to holy virgins and to true religious as this state of withdrawal, because they then contemplate better the beauty of their divine spouse dwelling in the depths of their hearts. on this account the psalmist said that 'all the beauty of the king's daughter is within'--_omnis gloria filiae regis ab intus_. the greatest diligence is necessary to preserve and increase this interior beauty, and at the same time to guard it continually from everything that could tarnish it, remembering that although men see only the exterior, the divine spouse penetrates into the inmost recesses of the heart. this is the motive which induces the loving spouse (i speak of a soul consecrated to the divine service, in order to please god alone), to live retired within her own heart, and thus prepare an acceptable abode for his divine majesty. it is on this account that solitude is so much recommended to religious persons; its utility is seen by the diligence with which our lady practised it, and which merited for her the sublime privilege of being chosen to be the mother of god! our lord being the only rest of those who have abandoned all worldly cares in order to listen to him speaking to their hearts in solitude, it follows that if they do not attend to the interior word of jesus christ that solitude becomes a long martyrdom to them. instead of being the habitation of peace and tranquillity their solitude is a cause of sadness and disquiet. those who lead like martha a life of great activity may still enjoy the tranquillity of mary, if they are careful to refer all their works to god: this _one aim_ being _the eye which touches the heart of the divine spouse_. in order not to lose the security of our habitation, we must seek it, not so much in a _cell_, as in _god himself_. thrice happy are they who dwell in this house, which not only belongs to god, but is god himself, for he will be their abiding rest throughout ages of ages. [ ] _it is the opinion of a doctor of the church that the holy virgin mary instituted some congregations of young girls, and that when she lived at ephesus with the apostle st. john she gave rules and constitutions to one of them. how happy were those religious to have been instituted by the queen of doctors, who gathered her wisdom from her son, who is the wisdom of the eternal father!_--'month of mary.' _st. francis of sales._ spiritual flowers. whatever flower the bee rests upon, it always extracts honey from it. so will it be with an interior soul: if she never leave her home but when it is necessary for the glory of god, she will always return to it laden with the honey of good works.--_a father of the desert._ when grace speaks it is time to act, not to hold discourse. long prayers unaccompanied by mortification are nothing in the sight of god, but time spent uselessly.--_st. teresa._ whoever abandons prayer casts himself into hell.--_the same._ holy prayer is a water of benediction, which refreshes the plants of our good desires and makes them flourish. it washes our souls from their imperfections, and extinguishes the fire of passion in our hearts.--_st. francis of sales._ example. _st. bernard's love for mary._ the luminous star of the middle ages, st. bernard, who was the soul of the crusades instituted for the defence of religion and of civilized europe, the counsellor of bishops, popes, and kings, may be said to have had infused into him at his baptism a special devotion to the most holy virgin. in his tenderest infancy he leaped for joy when he saw by chance a picture of mary, or when he heard her name pronounced. he was ever thinking of her, and wished everyone to be speaking to him always of her. to correct in him those defects which are common to childhood, it sufficed to tell him that such and such a thing was displeasing to mary, and he immediately took care not to repeat the fault, and he eagerly embraced those practices of piety which he was told were dear to her. she, on her side, did not delay to manifest the care she took of him, and undoubtedly the great love he had for holy purity was a special gift from the queen of virgins. other favours, however, were in store for him in the hands of his powerful benefactress. on christmas eve the young bernard was waiting in the church with his relations for the commencement of the midnight service, when, having inclined his head, he fell into a kind of ecstasy, and saw in spirit, by means of supernatural light, the mystery of bethlehem, and he quietly contemplated the divine infant miraculously born from the virginal womb of his mother. this vision penetrated him with so warm a feeling of gratitude towards jesus and mary, that he immediately promised to consecrate himself entirely to their love and service henceforth. the writings of st. bernard breathe a tender piety towards mary, and unite all the most beautiful and moving expressions of love and veneration for her, which were written in former ages, and he united in his heart all the affections of the most zealous of her servants. with what respect, confidence, and love towards this good mother are we penetrated when we read the pious works that he has written for her glory! his emotion, when under the influence of these sentiments, frequently rapt him in ecstasy. _prayer of st. andrew of crete._--hail, mary, full of grace, the lord is with you! hail you, o source of our joy! through you the sentence of our condemnation was changed into a sentence of benediction! hail, o temple of the glory of god, sacred dwelling of the king of the heavenly kingdom! you are truly blessed amongst all women, because you were chosen to be the mother of your creator, and all nations shall call you blessed. o mary, i place in you a holy confidence, and from you i expect my salvation. i shall walk without fear in the midst of all my enemies, if you will deign to number me amongst those whom you protect. sincere love of you is the safest weapon with which to fight and overcome; number me, then, amongst your children, for i have chosen you for my tender mother. amen. _ejaculation._--_sub tuum praesidium confugimus, sancta dei genitrix_--we put ourselves under your powerful protection, o holy mother of god! _practice._--recite to-day the _angelus_ with great fervour. seventh day. the excellence of the virginity of mary. let us consider attentively the virtues that were practised by the most holy virgin on the day of her glorious annunciation. the first was virginity and purity so perfect that nothing can be compared to it amongst the purest creatures. secondly, a most profound humility, united with a most ardent charity. although the angelic virtue of perfect chastity belongs more particularly to angels than to men, nevertheless, our lady infinitely surpassed all the angels in this virtue, because it possessed three great excellences not conceded to the angels. the first is that in mary it is fruitful, whilst in the angels it is sterile. the virginity of mary is not only fruitful in having produced and borne the sweet fruit of life, our blessed saviour, but it is fruitful also because it produces a multitude of virgins, for (as we observed in the preceding consideration) if so many young persons dedicate and consecrate their purity to god, it is that they may follow her example. but the pure virginity of mary not only possesses the property of being fruitful, it can also restore virginal purity in those souls who have defiled this virtue by the contrary vice. in her lifetime she had already called many virgins to follow her, who became her inseparable companions; among others, st. martha and st. marcella. but it was also through her means that st. mary magdalen, who had been the scandal of jerusalem, was enrolled after her conversion under the standard of virginal purity, and became like a brilliant crystal vase, capable of receiving and containing the most precious waters of grace. the virginity of our lady, therefore, is not sterile, like that of the angels, but it is so fruitful that from the moment she vowed it to god, until the present time, it has always borne its fruit. a soul that is perfectly dedicated to the service of god is never alone; many others, drawn by the sweetness of its perfumes, flock after to copy its example. it is on this account that the spouse says to her beloved: _trahe me post te, curremus--'draw me and we shall run.'_ secondly, the virginity and chastity of the blessed virgin surpassed that of the angels in this, that they are chaste by nature; and we do not, properly speaking, praise a person for the gifts of nature, since praise is not due where there is no merit. but the virginity of the most holy virgin is, on the contrary, worthy of praise, because it was chosen and preferred by her, and consecrated by her to god. although she was united in marriage to st. joseph, it was without any prejudice to her virginity, because he to whom she was espoused had also consecrated his virginity to god. thirdly, the virginity of our lady surpassed that of the angels, because it was subjected to the severest trials, whilst that of the angels could never be tempted or tried. in this sense st. augustine, addressing the angels, says: 'it is not difficult for you, o blessed spirits! to be pure and remain virgins, because you neither are, nor can be, tempted.' some may, perhaps, wonder that i have said that the purity of our lady was exposed to the severest trials; and yet so it was. but we must not suppose that these trials were similar to our own. as she was all purity, these assaults could not be like our own. the temptations which come to us, who, unhappily, bear their incentives within our hearts, could never have ventured to approach that wall of her virginal integrity. but was it not a great trial for our lady when the angel appeared to her in human form? and did she not manifest this in the fear and perturbation which assailed her, so that the angel was obliged to reassure her in these words: _ne timeas, maria--'fear not, mary'?_ by them he wished to remove the disquiet which her virginal purity suffered; it was as if he were to say: you see me in human form, but i am no man, nor do i come to you on the part of any man. modesty, says a holy doctor, is, as it were, the sacristan of chastity. the sacristan of a church keeps an eye always to the altars, that nothing may be stolen, and he fastens the door with care. in like manner virginal souls are jealous to preserve this virtue unspotted, and no sooner do they perceive danger, or even the shadow of danger, than they are quickly alarmed. thus it was with the most blessed virgin, who was not only the virgin _par excellence_ of all in heaven and on earth, but also the most humble of all, and she manifested in this mystery of the annunciation, the most sublime act of humility that a pure creature could make. when she heard herself called by the angel _full of grace_, and received the announcement that she should become the mother of a son who was to be both god and man, she was troubled, and filled with fear; because, although she had conversed familiarly with the angels, she had never heard them utter a single word in her praise. the most holy virgin would here teach us the dangers to which purity is exposed by the desire of praise. humility is the inseparable and necessary companion of virginity, which could not long be maintained in a soul that was not humble. it is true that in persons who live in the world one of these virtues may subsist without the other, as we see in the married life, but in regard to virgins, it must be absolutely asserted that one who does not profess both these virtues has neither of them except in appearance. our lady, being reassured by the angel, and having understood what her lord had decreed to work within her, made a sublime act of humility, saying: _ecce ancilla domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum--'behold the handmaid of the lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.'_ it was thus she expressed herself at the very moment when she saw herself raised to the sublimest dignity that can be imagined. an incomparable dignity, indeed, is that of mother of god, but it does not disturb the humility of mary. although she is raised above all creatures, nevertheless she simply declares that she is, and ever will be, the servant of his divine majesty; and to show the truth of her protest she adds: _fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum:_ 'be it done unto me according to thy word.' she abandons herself to the divine will, and proclaims that of her own choice she would never have come forth from her state of humility and lowly self-esteem. how well did the most holy virgin know that humility is ever the inseparable and necessary companion of virginity! although, as we have said, humility and virginity can dwell singly in persons who live in the world, yet such a separation can never be made between humility and charity, these virtues being absolutely inseparable. they are like the ladder of jacob, by which the angels ascended and descended. this was not done simultaneously, but alternately; the angels descending first, and then ascending afterwards. similarly, as soon as humility has abased us, charity quickly raises us up towards heaven. it might seem that the virtue of humility in some degree removes us from god, who is at the summit of this mysterious ladder, because it causes us to descend very low in self-abasement. on the contrary, however, in proportion as we lower ourselves we become more and more worthy to mount towards the summit of this mystical ladder of perfection, where our heavenly father awaits us. our lady, then, obtained the dignity of mother of god by abasing herself, and acknowledging herself unworthy of it; for scarcely had she protested her lowliness, and abandoned herself, by an act of incomparable charity, to the divine will, than the mystery was accomplished. if we thus regulate our conduct, and, in imitation of mary, unite virginity with humility, we shall be certainly helped by charity. this divine gift will lift us up the mystical ladder of jacob, and introduce us into the presence of the eternal father, who will enrich us with every kind of heavenly consolation. we shall sing canticles of divine praise with our most holy patroness, and eternally glorify our lord for the grace we have obtained to imitate her virtues, and fight under her standard. spiritual flowers. humility made the son of god descend from heaven into the immaculate bosom of mary, and by the same virtue we may also cause him to descend into our souls.--_st. teresa._ it is not humility to acknowledge ourselves to be miserable, for this needs but a little understanding of our condition, but to _wish_ and _desire_ to be treated as such is true christian humility.--_st. francis of sales._ we ought never to make use of our heart, eyes, and words for the indulgence of our own humours and inclinations, but only for the service of the celestial spouse.--_the same._ example. _the love of st. alphonsus for mary._ the love of st. alphonsus liguori for the blessed virgin mary was so burning that he desired to inflame with it the hearts of all mankind. he was often heard to say: 'o men, what are you doing? why so much affection for earthly creatures, for false deceivers, who make you lose both body and soul, both paradise and god? how is it you love not mary, who is ever most amiable, most loving, and most faithful; and who, after having enriched you with consolations and graces in this life, will obtain for you from her divine son the eternal glory of paradise?' he loved her so tenderly from his childhood, that one day he said to her quite simply: 'o my sweet virgin mary, i do not wish that there should be anyone in the world who loves and hononrs you more than i do;' and this desire of his heart was fully gratified. he thought of her even in sleep, and made use of this tender aspiration: 'o mary, how beautiful you are! o how beautiful you are!' no one could speak to him without receiving a recommendation to be devout to mary. 'be devout to the holy virgin mary,' he would say; 'whoever is devout to her will certainly be saved.' he inculcated the pious practices of visiting her images, reciting the rosary, and fasting in her honour, on saturdays and on the vigils of her festivals. but in a special manner he wished all to recite, every morning and evening, three _ave marias_ in commemoration of her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity, adding this ejaculation to each ave maria: 'by your sacred virginity and immaculate conception, o mary, obtain for me purity and sanctity of soul and body.' he gave pictures of her to everyone, saying: 'here is the image of your heavenly mother; give her your love and confidence.' at other times he repeated: 'love the good virgin much, because mary is the mother of perseverance; and whoever loves jesus and mary will become holy.' _prayer._--o mary! you are truly the valiant woman in whom the lord found rest, and whom he has chosen to be the depositary of all his treasures. the universe honours you as the most pure sanctuary of the divinity, the true temple of the lord, in which was begun the salvation of the world, and in which took place the grand reconciliation between god and man. you are that privileged field which sin could not enter and devastate; you are that magnificent garden in which our lord planted all the flowers that adorn his church. you, o mary, are the paradise of god, whence springs the fountain of living water which waters and fructifies the earth: obtain for me, by your powerful intercession, that, being washed in this most pure water, i may be admitted with you to the nuptials of the immaculate lamb. amen. _ejaculation._--most pure virgin, pray for us. _practice._--in temptations against holy purity invoke mary, virgin and mother. eighth day. the visitation. though mary had thus humbled herself before god, she did not stop there, because she knew that humility and charity do not attain their highest degree of perfection until, for god's sake, they are exercised in behalf of our neighbour. true fraternal charity proceeds from the love of god, and in proportion as this increases, the love of our neighbour becomes more intense. the apostle of charity teaches us this truth, when he says: _qui enim non diliget fratrem suum quem vidit, deum quem non videt, quomodo potest deligere?_--'for he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love god whom he seeth not?' if we desire, then, to show our love to god, we must love our neighbour, we must serve him, help him, and relieve him in his necessities according to our power. how profoundly was the blessed virgin penetrated with this truth! no sooner had she heard that her cousin had conceived in her old age, than she arose and went with haste (the gospel says, _cum festinatione_) over the mountains of judea to the city of ephrem. consider that mary is become the mother of the son of god, and having with all humility and sweetness obtained leave of her holy spouse to go and visit her cousin elizabeth, she bade a painful adieu to all her neighbours. with great eagerness did the most holy virgin undertake her long and fatiguing journey, as the gospel says, she _went with haste!_ the first movements of him whom she bears in her womb increased her fervour, and she began her journey with haste but without mental flurry. the angels are ready to accompany her, and st. joseph gladly conducts her. one would wish to have known something of the conversation of these two great souls, and willingly should we listen to the account thereof. it is probable that the holy virgin conversed only of him whom she bore within her, and breathed only for her saviour. st. joseph, on his side, thinks only of his redeemer, who moves his heart with a thousand sentiments and affections. as wine locked up in the cellar acquires the scent of the flowery vines, so the heart of this holy patriarch insensibly participates in the perfume and the vigour of the divine infant who blooms in his beautiful vineyard. the profound humility which mary exercised in serving one who was in every respect her inferior, is indeed most worthy of our admiration. it is true that elizabeth was of noble birth, because she was of the royal race of david, and was, moreover, united in marriage to the high priest of the tribe of levi. however, this nobility is nothing in comparison with that of the most holy virgin, whose incomparable greatness can only be expressed by the title of mother of god--_mater dei_--and yet where can we find more profound humility? her humble heart is not satisfied with calling herself the handmaid of the lord, but she leaves her house, and for three entire months is as a handmaid to her venerable cousin. the gospel, moreover, gives us to understand that when the divine mother entered the house of zacharias she was the first to give the salutation, and this through her great humility: _intravit in domum zachariae et salutavit elizabeth_. remark also the conduct of our lady amidst the praises and blessings which elizabeth bestowed upon her. assuredly it was very different from that of women in the world, who instead of humbling themselves when they are praised, become more puffed up. was it not vanity that possessed our poor mother eve, who, on hearing that she was created to the image and likeness of god, became thereby so presumptuous that she strove to become equal to him, and gave ear to all the suggestions of the infernal enemy? but as the most holy virgin had come into the world to regain all that eve had lost by her vanity and pride, she thinks only of the abyss of her nothingness, and calls herself the handmaid of the lord, although proclaimed by the angel his mother; when she is declared by elizabeth to be the most blessed of women, she replies that her blessings are accorded because the lord has looked down upon her lowliness and her littleness: _quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae_. what an excellent sign is humility of heart in a soul that has made progress in the spiritual life! when such souls humble themselves before god and before all creatures, in proportion to the greatness of the favours received, and place all their happiness, like mary, in this alone, that the divine goodness has looked down upon their lowliness and misery, it is a sure indication that the graces of god are not received in vain. the effects of grace in the heart of the most blessed virgin were a profound humility and a burning charity towards god and towards her neighbour. the apostle st. paul in relating to us the love that our saviour bore to the virtue of humility, says that 'he humbled himself unto death, even to the death of the cross'--_humiliavit semetipsum usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis;_ and he would have us learn from this that we should not be satisfied to have practised this virtue in some particular circumstances, nor for a certain time, but that we must practise it always and on all occasions. we must practise this virtue not only _until death_ but _unto the death of the cross;_ that is to say, unto the perfect mortification of ourselves, humbling our self-esteem and our self-love. let us not deceive ourselves by a certain appearance of humility; as, for instance, in speaking of our imperfections, or in performing external acts of reverence and humility, for the virtue of humility does not consist in this. true and christian humility makes us esteem ourselves absolutely as nothing, as unworthy to live, as deserving only of universal contempt. it moves us to embrace generously the precept of our saviour, that we renounce ourselves if we wish to follow him: _si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum._ spiritual flowers. humility is the root of every virtue. as the flower receives its nourishment from the root, and withers when it is cut off from it, so virtue, however perfect it may be, languishes and dies if it be not rooted in humility.--_nouet._ bees suck honey from the lily, the iris and the rose; but they draw it also from the smallest flowers, such as rosemary and thyme. indeed, they gather more honey from the latter, and it is of a better quality; because more closely confined in the smaller flowers and better preserved. thus is charity practised, both more frequently and with more humility, in lowly exercises of devotion, and consequently with greater perfection and holiness.--_francis of sales._ example. _the pilgrimage of st. francis of sales to loreto._ st. francis of sales was always thinking of the honour of the most blessed virgin, and had made a vow from his youth to visit the holy chapel of loreto. in his travels through italy, made by order of his father, his great desire was to fulfil the promise he had made to venerate the most holy virgin in the sanctuary where she had received the visit of the angel and the sublime dignity of becoming the mother of god, and he did so with wonderful piety. he was rapt in admiration in beholding those walls that had enclosed such wonders. he prayed motionless for a long time before the altar of the queen of heaven, thanking her devoutly for all she had done for himself, exhorting her to continue her holy protection, and renewing his promise to imitate her angelic virtue of purity during his whole life. ineffable were the graces and consolations that he then received; his mind was illumined by celestial light, and his heart was inflamed with such ardent charity, that from that moment nothing appeared to him impossible, when there was question of the glory of god and the salvation of souls. _prayer of st. germanus._--hail mary! you are the hope of christians, and it is in this quality that i turn myself to you. receive, o tender mother, the prayer addressed to you by a poor sinner, but a penitent sinner, who honours you, and who, after god, places in you all his hope for his conversion and salvation. i am indebted to you for so many graces, but grant me, i beseech you, one grace more. confirm me and establish me in the grace and love of your divine son. you are the consolation of the afflicted; deign, then, to intercede in my favour with your divine son, my saviour, jesus, that he may deliver me from the burden of my sins, dissipate the darkness of my understanding, remove every irregular affection from my heart, and restrain all the efforts and temptations of my enemies, that, being aided by this grace, i may henceforth so order my life that, under your protection, i may arrive at the happy port of eternal life. amen. _ejaculation._--o holy virgin! may i always remember you, and have recourse to you in all my necessities. _practice._--visit the altar of mary, either in the church or in your room, to obtain from her sorrow for your sins. ninth day. the charity of mary in the visitation. we must not imagine that the blessed virgin mary was moved to undertake this long journey to visit her cousin, st. elizabeth, by curiosity to know if what the angel had told her were true, for she had not the slightest doubt of it. our blessed lady was moved by a secret impulse of god, who wished to commence the work of redemption and the sanctification of souls in this visit, by the sanctification of the infant st. john. the most ardent charity and most profound humility animated her, and gave her wings to fly across the mountains of judea, and these two virtues were also the cause of her journey. as st. ambrose says, charity or grace knows no delays nor cold deliberations: _nescit tarda molimina sancti spiritus gratiae_. it need not therefore surprise us if the most holy virgin, filled as she was with charity (because she bore in her womb him who is love itself), should exercise it in continual acts towards god, to whom she was closely united by the sacred bond of perfect love, and towards her neighbours, whom she loved so tenderly and sincerely that she sighed for the salvation and sanctification of the whole world. she went with all alacrity, because she knew with what happy results her visit would be attended, in the person of st. john, and also because she wished to congratulate her cousin who, notwithstanding her age and sterility, had conceived the long-predicted precursor of the word incarnate. she went that they might rejoice together, and excite each other to glorify the god of all mercy, and to thank him for so many favours and benedictions. st. luke would teach us by the words, _exurgens maria abiit cum festinatione in montana in civitatem juda_--'mary arose and went into the mountain country with haste, into a city of judea'--the care and readiness with which we also ought to correspond to the divine inspirations. as it is the work of the holy spirit to banish all tepidity and negligence from the heart, so he would have us execute his divine will with all care and diligence, and he is offended by any kind of delay. the virginal purity of mary, which so dearly loved solitude, also caused her to go with haste, for the best protection for virginal purity is to appear as little as possible in the tumult of the world. having reached the house of zachary, she entered it. she saluted elizabeth. the evangelist does not relate that she saluted zachary also, for her love of purity was so great that she spoke little with men. let virgins learn from this that they cannot take too great care for the preservation of this virtue. who can imagine the sweet fragrance of this most beautiful lily in the house of zachary during the three months that she remained there? how well did she spend every instant! what honey, what precious balsam, must those sacred lips have distilled in the few but excellent words that they uttered! indeed, mary could speak only that which filled her heart, and _that_ was jesus! let us consider the meaning of the words, that 'elizabeth was filled with the holy ghost'--_et repleta est spiritu sancto elisabeth_--that elizabeth, who had already received the holy ghost with all his gifts, received a new fulness and a new increase of grace by this visit. although the lord grants his graces to the just _in full measure_, yet, as the gospel says, this measure can be so augmented as to overflow on all sides: _mensuram bonam confertam et coagitatam et supereffluentem dabunt in sinum vestrum._ let us well understand this important truth. the grace of the holy ghost can never be granted to us in this life in such full measure that it cannot be augmented; therefore, let us beware of saying: 'it is enough; i am sufficiently enriched with graces and virtues. _mensura conferta est_--the measure is filled up, further progress in mortification is unnecessary.' he who should speak thus would only show too clearly his misery, or, rather, his presumption, and the great danger to which he exposes himself. _omni habenti dabitur et abundabit, ei autem qui non habet et quod videtur habere auferetur ab eo_. this text signifies that to him who has received much--that is to say, who has laboured much, and never gives up--much shall be given. such a one believes that he has never done enough; but, conscious of his own misery, he continues to labour with holy and sincere humility. _he, then, who possesses much, shall receive with usury, and superabundantly;_ but from him who profits not by the grace received, letting it lie idle and fruitless, because he believes he is rich enough, _from him shall be taken that which he thinketh himself to possess and that which he does not possess_. this means, that graces already received shall be taken away, because he has not traded with them, and those which have been prepared for him shall not be bestowed upon him, since he has rendered himself unworthy of them by his negligence. all this, however, is not to be understood of _sufficient_ grace, which is never denied by god to anyone, but of _efficacious_ grace, which, by a just judgment of god, is not granted to tepid and ungrateful souls. the thirst for riches and honours, by which worldlings are tormented, never allows them to say, _enough_. and yet they ought to be contented with a little, for experience teaches us that the highest dignities and honours and great wealth frequently occasion the loss of souls. it is in regard of such temporal matters that we should say, _i have sufficient_. but, with regard to spiritual goods, let us never believe that we possess them in sufficient abundance, so long as we remain in this land of exile, but let us make every possible effort _to advance day by day from virtue to virtue_. experience teaches us that plants and fruits do not attain maturity until they have produced their seeds, which are necessary for the reproduction of their species. in the same way our virtues will never be sufficiently perfected, or reach their maturity, until they produce within us an ardent desire to make further progress. this desire is the spiritual seed which produces new degrees of virtue. spiritual flowers. mary is a most beautiful rose, which dared not open its petals even to the gentle breeze of an angel!--_st. ambrose._ how precious and how delicate a flower is purity! a sigh, a look, a word is enough to wither it! on this account chaste souls continually distrust themselves, and flee from the slightest occasions of danger.--_nouet._ the rose is the symbol of love and charity; its petals are red, and formed like a heart. such should be the actions of the spouses of jesus christ. they should have as many hearts as they have petals-- that is to say, hearts full of love, and like petals in the little esteem they should have of their actions.--_st. francis of sales._ example. _consecration of the saturday to mary._ holy church is ever desirous to maintain a tender devotion in the hearts of the faithful towards the most blessed virgin, and from the earliest ages of christianity she has encouraged the consecration of the saturday to her. it is related that there was in the church of santa sofia at constantinople a picture of the mother of god which was veiled during the rest of the week, but on friday evening the veil was raised without human aid, and lowered on the evening of saturday. thus did almighty god manifest his will that _saturday_ should be dedicated to mary. it was on saturday she took so great a part in the work of our redemption, and it was fitting that on the morrow of the day when she so bitterly wept over the sorrowful scene of calvary we should remember her tears shed for us in a special manner. again, on saturday god rested from his work in the creation of the world, and the church consecrates this day to her, to honour the mysterious repose of the holy ghost in her immaculate heart, and that of our blessed saviour in her chaste womb. saturday is the introduction to sunday--the symbol of eternal rest--and the holy virgin is truly invoked under the title of 'gate of heaven'--_janua coeli_. saturday, moreover, is the day between friday, the day of mourning, and sunday, the day of joy--and the holy virgin is the mediatrix between god, who is eternal beatitude, and man, who is subject to endless evils and miseries. mary is the way to arrive at jesus, and saturday is a prelude to the solemnity of sunday. saturday is as a magnificent portal consecrated to the mother of god, by which we enter the sanctuary of god himself. the saints held this day in great esteem--on it they redoubled their pious exercises--and many begged, as a signal favour, that they might die on a saturday. _prayer._--o sovereign queen of angels! you are the mother of orphans, as your faithful servant, st. bonaventure, says: _mater orphanorum_. sinners are truly orphans--for they have had the misfortune to lose their god, the most tender of fathers. to you, therefore, i have recourse, o mother of mercy. i have had the misfortune to lose my true father, by sin; and yet, since you have not abandoned me, o my mother, i feel a lively hope that through your goodness you will deign to intercede for me, and reconcile me to my father, whom i have so grievously offended. o holy virgin! he alone can perish who does not have recourse to you. i confess, indeed, that i am a most unworthy sinner, and, nevertheless, to you do i fly, animated by sweet confidence in your love. your mercy is greater than all my miseries; and, although my iniquities are enormous, they will never exhaust the treasures of your son's mercy, nor your own. i sincerely detest, from my heart, all my sins, and hope, through your intercession, for a general pardon. amen. _ejaculation._--o mother of god and my mother, the confidence i place in you is to me a pledge of my eternal salvation. _practice._--let all your prayers and actions this day be offered in suffrage for the holy souls in purgatory. tenth day. by the visit of mary, elizabeth is filled with the holy ghost. let us continue our meditation on the sweet mystery of the visitation. the visit which this incomparable virgin made to st. elizabeth was not useless, nor, like the visits of worldly people, a matter of ceremony. such visits result in harm to the conscience, in offences against chastity or charity. the most holy virgin was induced to visit her cousin elizabeth from pure motives of charity, and the days she spent with her were not employed in useless occupations, but in praising and magnifying god. how holy, pious, and devout was not this visit! it filled the whole house of zachary with the holy spirit, and admirable effects were produced in st. elizabeth. the first effect was humility. as soon as our lady appeared in the house of her cousin the saint was filled with astonishment at such a favour, and exclaimed: _unde hoc mihi ut veniat mater domini mei ad me?_--'whence is this to me, that the mother of my god should come unto me?' this is the virtue that the holy ghost first produces within us; a profound humility, which forces us to annihilate ourselves in the sight of the infinite greatness of god, and acknowledge our own baseness and worthlessness. the second effect was to confirm st. elizabeth in faith, as is gathered from the words she ad dressed to the most holy virgin: 'blessed art thou that hast believed; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb'--_beata es quae crededisti; benedicta tu inter mulieres, et benedictus fructus ventris tui_. indeed, one of the chief operations of the holy spirit is to ground us in faith and convert us entirely to god, and make us acknowledge him as the source of all the graces and blessings granted to mortal beings. truly may st. elizabeth have said, you are blessed amongst all women, but your blessedness proceeds from the fruit of your womb, the god of blessings. we do not usually praise the fruit on account of the tree, but the tree on account of the excellence of its fruit. thus, although we ought to render to the most holy virgin a worship or veneration beyond that which we render to the saints, yet our homage and veneration should never equal that which we give to god. god alone should be sovereignly adored; but, as the most holy virgin is the mother of our saviour, and a co-operator in our redemption, she is worthy of such a special worship as all true christians have ever given to her. when the holy spirit dwells within us, we love and praise god alone above all things, as our sovereign creator; and after him, mary, his most holy mother. the third effect that the holy ghost produces in those upon whom he descends is a complete change of heart, as is represented in the joy of the baptist yet unborn: _ecce enim ut facta est vox salutationis tuae in auribus meis, exultavit infans in utero meo_--'behold, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears,' said elizabeth to our lady, 'the infant leaped in my womb.' thus was st. john sanctified, going forth as it were out of himself, and casting himself before his maker. and so it is with those who receive the holy spirit: they go out of themselves and lose themselves in god; that is to say, they live no longer according to nature and the senses, but they follow the inspirations of grace. if you desire, then, to know whether you have received the holy ghost, examine your actions. it was through the intervention of most holy mary that st. elizabeth received the holy spirit. this teaches us that we should make use of her as a mediatrix with her divine son in order to obtain heavenly graces. it is true that we can address ourselves directly to god in our petitions, without employing the mediation of the most holy virgin or the saints; but this is not according to the order ordained by god, who wished that there should be a communication between us and his saints. hence the church militant and triumphant form but one church, directed and governed equally, though differently, by god himself; and he wishes us to have recourse to him through the most holy virgin and the saints, and he bestows the most precious graces upon us by their intercession. for the concluding point of this meditation we may add that it is of the greatest advantage to our souls to be visited by the most blessed virgin; and her visits are always accompanied by many blessings and graces, as in the case of st. elizabeth. o god! you will say, i do, indeed, desire that she would deign to honour me with one of her visits during prayer, since her visits fill the soul with sweet consolation. however, we must bear in mind that mary often visits us with inspirations and interior lights, to aid our progress in perfection; and these are precisely the visits that we are unwilling to receive. endeavour to receive holy communion devoutly, and you will contract a spiritual relationship with the most holy virgin, since the most precious body of our saviour, which we receive in holy communion, was formed by the holy ghost of her most pure blood. in this manner, and by the imitation of her virtues, the relationship which you will contract with her will be much more excellent and more pleasing to her than that of elizabeth, which was merely of flesh and blood. our lord says: 'whosoever shall do the will of my father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother' (matt. xii. ). in order to have some share in the visits of this holy virgin, we must not look for consolations, but generously resolve to accept even contempt and sorrow. in fact, mary did not visit st. elizabeth until she had suffered the ignominy and humiliation of her sterility. it is impossible to lead a devout life without trouble, and merit is in proportion to suffering. finally, if we desire to receive the favour of this visitation, we must be transformed; we must die to self, and live only to god and for god: in a word, we must humble ourselves profoundly, according to the example of st. elizabeth. be faithful then, pious souls, in this exercise, during this short and miserable life, that you may afterwards chant eternally in heaven with the most holy virgin: _magnificat anima mea dominum!_--'my soul doth magnify the lord!' my god! how ashamed i am to be still so full of myself, when i have so often come to holy communion! o dear jesus! may we always bear thee in our hearts, that we may no longer breathe but thee? how is it that i am so little united to thee, since thou art always in me? why do i stray so far from thee, whilst thou art always close to me? thou dwellest in my heart, how is it that i do not abide in thine? spiritual flowers. chastity is the unblemished beauty of the saints, which, like the rose, adorns the soul and body, and fills them with sweet and pleasing fragrance.--_st. ephrem._ a slight breath of wind suffices to make the flowers fall from the trees in spring; and sometimes one flattering word, of itself, is enough to ruin a chaste soul, which is infinitely more delicate and tender than any flower.--_nouet._ as the bee gathers from flowers the dew of heaven and the sweetest juice of the earth, forming it into honey and carrying it to its hive, so the priest takes from the altar our blessed saviour (the true son of god, who descended like dew from heaven, and came forth from the virgin mary as a flower from the earth of our humanity), and places him in your mouth, and he becomes to you a delicious and spiritual food.--_st. francis of sales._ example. _devotion of st. thomas aquinas to the 'ave maria.'_ the most tender devotion towards mary was, as we may say, innate in st. thomas aquinas. one day, when he was a little child, his nurse observed that he kept a piece of paper in his hands, which she wished to take from him: but the child resisted with loud cries, and made every effort to retain it. this singular resistance excited the curiosity of his pious mother, the countess theodora. she therefore took hold of the piece of paper, opened it, and found, to her surprise, written upon it the angelical salutation. whilst she was reading it, the infant redoubled his cries and tears, so that she was obliged to return it to him. thomas had no sooner received it, than putting it into his mouth he swallowed it with great eagerness. this fact foreshadowed the devotion which the saint ever had for the angelical salutation, on which he has left us a most pious and learned commentary, full of the praises of mary. _prayer._--holy virgin and my tender mother! you are the channel by which the graces of god reach us; you are the depositary of all celestial treasures, and you yourself declare to us that you possess all the wealth of heaven, to enrich those that love you: _ut ditem diligentes me_. o divine mother! you see that my poverty is great, and my indigence extreme; but remember, i beseech you, that i trust in you, and hope that you will be moved to compassionate my miseries, and to obtain for me a remedy. i love you, o holy virgin; you are, after god, the great object of my affections. have compassion on me then, and never abandon me to the snares of the enemies of my salvation, but succour me during the whole course of my life, and above all at the moment of my death, so that i may come one day to your feet, in the abode of eternal happiness. amen. _ejaculation._--o holy virgin, help those who groan in misery! _practice._--mortify self-love, by some act of obedience or meekness. eleventh day. humility of mary. the blessed virgin mary surpassed all the angels and saints in perfection and merit; and of all creatures none as she was so pleasing to god. who, indeed, ever possessed so ardent a charity and so profound a humility? where shall we find humility equal to that which appeared in mary when, in answer to elizabeth, she confessed that the cause of her happiness was that the lord had deigned to regard the humility of his handmaid, and that therefore all generations should call her blessed?--_quia respexit humilitatem anciliae suae; ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generations_. many doctors of the church are of opinion that, when mary said, 'the lord hath regarded the humility of his handmaid,' it was not her intention to speak of her virtue of humility, because, although she was profoundly humble, she did not believe herself to be so; but that she thought only of her lowly state, her baseness, and abjection as a creature of god, and of the nothingness from which she had been drawn. there are others, however, who hold a contrary, and perhaps more probable, opinion, and say that our lady intended to speak of her virtue of humility, being well aware that it was this virtue that had attracted our saviour to her chaste womb. we may well believe that mary was aware that she possessed this virtue, and that she had no fear of losing it, being intimately persuaded that it was the effect of the grace of god within her and not of her own merits. indeed, we find the great st. paul acknowledging that he possessed the virtue of charity, and in such decisive terms as would seem in others presumptuous rather than humble. he writes: 'who shall separate me from the charity of christ?'--_quis me separabit a charitate christi?_ 'shall tribulation, or distress, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or the sword? i am sure that neither death nor life nor angels shall be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in christ jesus our lord.' see rom. viii. - . notice the confidence with which this great apostle speaks when he protests that there is no power in the world, or in hell, that is capable of separating him from the charity of his god. he believed that he possessed this virtue of charity; and in speaking thus he confided entirely in grace, and in his own merits _by grace_. the glorious virgin knew well that the virtue of humility has more power to attract the heart of god to our hearts than all other virtues. the divine spouse in the canticles seems to signify this, when he expresses his admiration for the beauty of the footsteps of his beloved: _quam pulchri sunt gressus tui in calceamentis, filia principis!_--'how beautiful are thy steps in shoes, o prince's daughter!' (cant, vii. ), and then enumerates her other beauties. judith did not captivate holofernes so much by the rare beauty of her countenance and the splendour of her attire as by her sandals, or her shoes, which were probably embroidered with gold. in like manner the eternal father, considering the variety of virtues that adorned our lady, was in admiration of her beauty; but when he cast his eyes upon her sandals he was so pleased that he sent his only son to become incarnate in her chaste womb. what is signified by these sandals or shoes of mary but her humility? these articles are the least valuable part of our attire, and the soonest covered with dust. now, the spirit of true humility continually abases the souls who possess it, and annihilates them in their own eyes, and keeps them under the feet of everyone. such is the property of this virtue of humility, which is the foundation of the whole spiritual life. it was this lowliness that the lord looked upon in the most holy virgin with so much complacency, and this look of his formed her whole greatness: _quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae, ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generations_. all generations shall call her blessed _because_ god had regarded her. whichever of the two significations given to these words: god hath regarded _the humility of his handmaid_ be accepted, we find that the holy virgin always spoke with so much humility as to leave no doubt whatever that she considered all her happiness to proceed from her lord having looked upon her lowliness. on this account the words of the spouse of the canticles are applied to her: _dum esset rex in accubitu suo nardus mea dedit odorem suum_--'while the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent forth the odour thereof.' the plant on which the spikenard grows does not grow up high like the cedars of lebanon. but lowly as it is, it delights all by the sweetness it diffuses around. what a precious plant was the most holy virgin, who never sought to exalt herself, although enriched by god with the most signal favours! she was always penetrated by the sense of her own abjection and nothingness; and in virtue of this humility she spread around, like the spikenard plant, so sweet a perfume that it ascended to the throne of the divine majesty, and attracted the son of god to descend and take flesh in her immaculate womb. we see, then, how dear humility is to god! our saviour taught this truth in his memorable reply to the woman who exclaimed aloud: _beatus venter qui te portavit et ubera quae suxisti_--'blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.' 'yea,' said our lord, 'rather, blessed are they that hear the word of god and keep it'--_quinimmo beati qui audiunt verbum dei et custodiunt illud_. that is to say: 'my mother is indeed blessed on account of having borne me in her womb; but more blessed is she on account of the humility with which she listened to the words of my heavenly father, and kept them.' and this he again taught when he said that they who heard the word of god and practised it were to him as his mother and his brethren. spiritual flowers. jesus christ built his throne upon the ruins of the world. before the fruits of grace can be gathered the flowers of prosperity must fall. the present moment's grace may be that which will decide our eternity.--_nepveu._ the heart of mary is a garden of delights, in which we can gather the most precious fruits. this most beautiful garden is closed against the impure spirit; it is full of divine perfumes, cultivated by a heavenly hand, and adorned with the most charming flowers of virtue. of these there are three which particularly attract our admiration, and fill the house of god with the sweetest fragrance--they are the violet of humility, the lily of chastity, and the rose of charity.--_st. bernard._ the less you seek after praise and your own interests, the more do you deserve to be praised and rewarded by god. example. _origin of the rosary._ the rosary of the b. v. m. in its present form was instituted by st. dominic. but as early as the year peter the hermit had invented a kind of rosary of beads of wood, upon which the crusaders, who were generally uneducated men, recited a certain number of _paters_ and _aves_, varied according to the solemnity of the feasts. historians also relate that even before that time pious persons were in the habit of reciting a series of _paters_ and _aves_ upon knotted cords. in the east it was the custom to present crowns of roses to persons of distinction. st. gregory nazianzen, moved by ardent piety towards the mother of our redeemer, offered to her, instead of a material crown of roses, a spiritual crown of prayers. it consisted of a long string of the highest praises and most glorious titles and excellent prerogatives of mary. st. bridget, patroness of ireland, who lived in the fifth century, developed this pious idea of st. gregory by substituting for those prayers which were unknown to the people the more popular and more beautiful prayers of the _credo_, the _pater_, and the _ave maria_. and to regulate the number of prayers to be recited, the saint adopted the method of the anchorets of threading beads of stone or of wood together in the form of a crown or chaplet. the word 'rosary' signifies a crown of roses, and the prayers, the expression of the heart's affections, of which it is composed, are spiritual roses with which we adorn the head of our dear blessed mother. it is said that a holy solitary was watching one day a poor old woman reciting her rosary with great devotion, when he observed an angel by her side holding a golden thread, upon which he strung a rose for every _ave_, and a lily for every _pater_; afterwards he placed this garland in the form of a crown upon the head of the old woman, and disappeared, leaving behind him a sweet fragrance of roses. this fragrance was often perceived in former days in churches, after the recital of the rosary. _prayer._--o mary, my good mother! obtain for me an ardent love for your divine son, my saviour jesus christ. from him you can obtain all that you desire; obtain, then, for me the grace to be always so united to the divine will that i may never again be separated from it. i ask you not, my mother, for earthly goods, nor honours, nor riches; but i ask of you that which you have much more at heart, the grace to love my god. is it possible that you should refuse to assist me in a work which is so agreeable to you? no; you will help me, my good mother-- you will pray for me. pray then, o sacred virgin, and cease not to pray for me, until you see me in heaven, out of danger of losing my god, and certain of loving him throughout eternity. may i be able to thank him for ever, with you, my good and charitable mother, for so great a mercy. amen. _ejaculation._--make me like unto you, o mary, who were so sweet and humble of heart. _practice._--make an act of external humility in union with mary. twelfth day. through the blessed virgin mary, st. john the baptist receives the most special graces. who could number all the graces and favours showered upon the house of zachary, when the holy virgin entered it? if abraham received many graces for the hospitality he gave to three angels; if jacob was the cause of so many blessings to laban, an idolater, in whose house he dwelt; if lot was saved from the fire of sodom, for having given shelter to two angels; if the prophet elias filled with oil all the vessels of the poor widow who entertained him; if eliseus raised to life the son of the sunamitess his hostess; if obededom obtained so many favours from heaven, for receiving into his house the ark of the covenant--how great and precious must have been the graces and blessings poured upon the house of zachary for having lodged for three months the angel of the great council, the divine prophet, the real ark of the covenant, our lord jesus christ inclosed in the immaculate womb of mary! who could understand the divine sweetness poured into the heart of elizabeth during the time of that divine visitation? how profound must have been her meditation on the mystery of the incarnation, and what thanks must she have offered to god for all the favours bestowed upon her. but, above all, very special favours were conferred by our lord upon his precursor st. john baptist. firstly, according to the common opinion of the fathers, st. john received the use of reason; secondly, from that moment he was sanctified; and thirdly, he was filled with the knowledge of god and of his divine mysteries. even then he loved his saviour, he adored him, and leaped for joy in his presence, as we learn from elizabeth herself, in the words she addressed to the holy virgin: _ecce enim ut facta est vox salutationis tuae in auribus meis, exultavit infans in gaudio in utero meo_--'behold, as soon as the voice of the salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.' such extraordinary joy was not surprising. jesus christ, speaking to the jews, says: _abraham frater vester, exultavit ut videret diem meum_--'abraham, your father, rejoiced to see my day.' all the prophets desired ardently the promised messiah, and rejoiced that at his coming their predictions would be fulfilled. we may well believe, therefore, that st. john rejoiced at the presence of this long-desired messiah, in the immaculate womb of the holy virgin, who had come to visit him and begin the work of redemption, delivering him from original sin. it would not have been fitting that he, who was chosen to prepare the way of the lord, should, at his birth, bear the stain of original sin. on this account, therefore, our lady repaired to the house of st. elizabeth, that the child, whom she bore and who was the sanctifier of souls, might, in this visit, purify the glorious st. john from original sin and sanctify him. this he did with such fulness of grace that many doctors are of opinion that he never sinned even venially. the charity, of which the heart of our glorious queen was full, caused her to co-operate in this work of sanctification. no wonder that she should have been so ardent in love and zeal for the salvation of men when she bore in her bosom charity itself, the saviour and redeemer of the world! all faithful souls should rejoice when they are visited by our divine saviour in the most holy sacrament of the altar, or by the interior graces which are so often vouchsafed them, or by the many inspirations and loving words which he addresses to them when knocking at the door of their hearts. under what an obligation are they not to correspond to so many favours, and with what care and fidelity should they not fulfil the most holy will of their divine saviour! o my dear sisters, daughters of the visitation of our lady and of st. elizabeth, since you have mary for your mother, you should have nothing so much at heart as to imitate her particularly in her humility and charity. these are the two virtues which especially animated her when she visited the house of zachary. like her, you should visit, diligently and joyfully, your sisters, when they are suffering, and endeavour to aid each other in your spiritual and temporal infirmities. be most careful and diligent in those things in which humility and charity are most required. to be numbered amongst the daughters of our lady, it is not sufficient to live in a house of the visitation and wear the religious habit. if you would not wrong such a mother, you must imitate her in her virtues and the sanctity of her life. be careful, then, to conform your life to hers. be mild, sweet, humble, charitable, good; magnify our lord continually with her, and be assured, beloved souls, that, if you fulfil your duties with humility and fidelity during the whole course of your life, you will, after death, be admitted to the holy virgin in heaven, singing, '_magnificat anima mea dominum_.' [ ] [ ] as soon as the most humble virgin heard herself praised by st. elizabeth, she humbled herself, and referred all the glory to god in that most beautiful and admirable canticle of the _magnificat_, which far surpasses the canticles by the women of the old law. it is far more excellent than that of judith; more beautiful than that of the sister of moses, after the passage of the red sea; more sublime than that of deborah and baruch, after the victory gained over the enemies of the hebrew people. the canticles of zachary and of simeon, with all those of the old testament, cannot be put in comparison with this divine canticle. spiritual flowers. a soul dedicated to god entirely, in act and in will, deserves that god should give himself entirely to her.--_st. john of the cross._ we ought always to have our eye fixed upon the will of god alone, recognising it, and with all joy, or at least courage, following it carefully in all our actions. but even this is not enough; we should also love this will of god, whatever it may cost us.--_st. francis of sales._ it is a highly valuable exercise of piety, to follow always the will of god, instead of our own natural humours and inclinations.--_the same._ example. _conversion of the celebrated pianist, hermann cohenn._ the compassionate mercy of the most holy virgin has at times been admirably displayed in behalf of the sons of israel. to the name of the abbe ratisbonne, so well known to the servants of mary, we must add that of another jew, converted by the mother of divine grace. hermann cohenn, a german by birth, and a jew in religion, had acquired great fame in paris as a pianist and composer of music. he says of himself: 'i was courted and applauded in society, and as i possessed understanding beyond my years, i soon had instilled into me all the fearful doctrines that the powers of hell have taught in the earthly hell of paris. atheism, pantheism, socialism, licentiousness of manners, etc., all found a place in me, so that i had become one of the most zealous propagandists, and therefore a great favourite of all the new prophets of hell. . . . ' whilst this second saul was thinking out ingenious projects for the perversion of innocent hearts, he was requested by the prince of moscow to take the direction, during his absence, of a choir of singers who were going to sing the praises of the blessed virgin mary at a church in paris during the month of may of . although he was a jew, still he consented; and it was there, before the altar of mary, that grace awaited him. whilst he was rendering external honour to the august mother of god, she pleaded his cause before her divine son. his moment of grace and benediction came at the very moment when he was looking with scorn and derision upon the piety of the faithful. . . suddenly he feels an invisible weight upon his shoulders, which forces him, in spite of the obstinate resistance of his will, to bow his head and bend his knees; his mind is quickly illuminated by the light of faith, and he feels his heart opening to the salutary impressions of grace. it would take too long to narrate the many obstacles which hell opposed to his conversion, but at last he triumphed over all, and on the feast of st. augustine, he was washed in the waters of baptism, with the most heart-felt emotion; and upon the feast of the nativity of mary, had the ineffable consolation of making his first communion, and of receiving the scapular. some time afterwards, finding himself called to religion, he retired into a community of marist fathers, that he might there meditate seriously on his vocation; and finally, by the counsel of his director, he chose to enter the austere order of carmel. having visited rome and obtained the necessary dispensation, he was afterwards ordained priest, and consecrated himself entirely to the glory and honour of jesus and mary. he employed his great musical talent for the honour of the queen of angels. in order that all christian tongues might bless the mercy of that divine mother, who had delivered him so wonderfully from the darkness of error, he composed _a collection of hymns for the month of may, and for the principal festivals of the year,_ set to music for the organ or pianoforte. the following extract from the dedication of these compositions will show his tender devotion to the blessed virgin: 'morning star! you appeared to me in the obscure night, in which i was lost! health of the sick, you cured the mortal wounds of my heart! refuge of sinners, you opened to me an asylum in your immaculate heart! . . .' glory then to mary, and to the sweet and salutary devotion of the month of may, which procured us a new brother in christ, and a new masterpiece of the grace of god and of the mercy of mary! _prayer_ (from st. augustine and st. bernard).--remember, o most compassionate virgin mary! that it was never heard in any age that anyone who implored your protection has been abandoned by you. animated by this confidence, i have recourse to you, o mother of god, virgin of virgins. do not despise my prayers, mother of the divine word, but graciously hear and answer me. o mother of god! you pray for all, and above all, for sinners; deign, then, to pray for me, a more obstinate sinner than any other, and therefore a more worthy object of your pity! you see plainly the urgent need i have of your intercession; therefore interest yourself in my regard, and obtain for me, from your divine son, the grace of sincere conversion and holy perseverance. amen. _ejaculation._--i place myself for the whole of my life under your protection, o mother of my god! o show that you are my true mother! _practice._--be very attentive in all your exercises of piety during the day. thirteenth day. the trials and consolations of the blessed virgin. we can never meditate too much upon the great and cruel sorrows with which the heart of the august virgin mary was afflicted during the whole course of her life; yet she was the most holy of creatures, the most beloved by god. 'you,' exclaims st. chrysostom, 'who bitterly weep and lament, under the contradictions and afflictions that assail you, are you not ashamed to desire and seek for such a happiness as even the holy family did not enjoy? ponder, i beg of you, the vicissitudes and changes to which they were exposed!' mary receives the glad tidings that, by the operation of the holy ghost, she should conceive a son, the lord and saviour of the world. what a joy to her heart is this! and what rapturous delight filled her soul at the moment of the incarnation of the word in her most chaste womb! but this celestial joy is quickly followed by sorrow. her spouse, st. joseph, is alarmed at the prodigy, and thinks of secretly abandoning her. oh! the affliction of mary when she sees the perplexity of st. joseph, whom, through her humility and modesty, she is unable to comfort. after this most excruciating trial, the angel discloses the celestial secret to her spouse, and orders him to remain with her. what consolation fills the heart of these two angelic spouses at this announcement! but god had prepared new afflictions for them. they must abandon their happy retirement, and journey to bethlehem in obedience to the order of the emperor augustus. faithful souls, lose not sight of mary in this mystery; remain near this mother, and abandon her not for an instant, whilst she journeys from nazareth to bethlehem. without any painful solicitude, but with most ardent desires, she awaits the birth of the blessed fruit of her immaculate womb. you will see this beautiful lady, the fortunate daughter of sion, beg hospitality, and not find a shelter in the whole of bethlehem, although she is the mother of the king of glory. however, she blushes not for her poverty and misery, but considers it rather an honour to have to endure it. many holy affections are awakened in our hearts by this divine birth; but we are especially taught the spirit of perfect detachment from all worldly pomps and worldly gratifications. it seems as if there were no mystery that so much unites tenderness with austerity, love with rigour, bitterness with sweetness, as this mystery of the nativity. where can we find a poorer, and yet a more illustrious birth, or a mother so blessed? she who gives birth to the son of god has certainly no need of the consolations of the world! let us then delight to dwell near the sacred manger, where the saviour of our souls so powerfully speaks to us in his silence and teaches us so many virtues; and let the joy and consolation of the son and of the mother form all the happiness of our souls! how well it becomes mary to caress this infant! how enchanting her charity in allowing all who wish it to look at him, to touch and embrace him! do you also ask her to give him to you, and she will do so. o my jesus! what a sweet night is this! the church sings that the heavens everywhere distil honey. it would seem that those blessed angels, who make the air resound with their song, gather this celestial honey from the breast of the sweet virgin mary, and from her chaste spouse st. joseph. what is there that we can give to our little king that we have not received from his divine abundance? let us, then, give him our hearts, which he prizes above all. o saviour of our souls, transform our hearts into gold, through charity; into myrrh, through mortification; into incense, by prayer; and then receive us within the arms of thy divine protection, and let us hear thee say, from thy sacred heart, 'i am thy salvation for ages of ages.' spiritual flowers. 'a bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me. he shall abide between my breasts' (_cant_. i. ), in order that i may incessantly inhale its bitterness. the afflictions of this life are like the flowers that precede the fruits of glory; and the blood which we shed is as a royal unction which consecrates us to immortality.--_st. greg. nyssen._ the rose grows amidst thorns; and the most beautiful and most solid virtues grow amidst the severest contradictions.--_st. francis of sales._ no one will be crowned with roses, if he be not first crowned with the thorns of our saviour.--_the same._ our actions are like roses, which, though more pleasing when fresh, are yet sweeter and more agreeable when faded. thus, although works performed with consolation are more pleasing to us; yet if they be done in the state of aridity, they have a sweeter odour, higher value before god.--_the same._ example. _a fortunate mistake._ the following is related by an eye-witness of the event: 'one evening, in december, , a priest named b---, having returned to his house after a hard day's work, sat down and began to recite his office, when he heard a knock at his door. he opened it, and saw a young girl, who asked him to go and visit a dying lady, living at no. , --- street. . . . the good priest was ready to interrupt his prayer to follow the little messenger, but she told him there was no hurry, provided he went in the course of that evening; so he wrote down the address of the sick person, and told her to say that he was coming shortly. 'after finishing his office, the good priest went to the street named, and entered no. , thinking this was the number mentioned. it was a wretched house, and as there was no one in charge of the door he walked in, groped up the poor staircase, and knocked at the first door that he came to. a man opened it, and at the sight of the ecclesiastical dress, fell into a passion, and to the inquiry made as to whether this were the house of the sick lady, he made an impudent answer, and shut the door in the face of the priest. patient and mild, like his divine master, the priest knocked at the next door, and met with no better reception. he then went up to the second story, where he found a boy playing in a passage. "can you tell me, my child," said he, "where i can find a poor lady dangerously ill, who lives in this house, and is called g---?" "yes; down there, reverend sir; my father said that she would not be able to live through the night; but i do not think that you have said her name correctly." "never mind the name; lead me, i beg of you, to her door." 'the priest, preceded by the child, entered the room and found a woman in her agony; a man about fifty was sitting near her bed, and at the sight of the priest he immediately arose, evidently annoyed. "are you mr. g?---" said the priest; "how is your sick wife?" "no," replied the man bluntly, "i am not; who has sent you here to meddle with other people's affairs?" "i was requested to come," replied the priest with surprise. "i was told that a poor lady, named g---, was seriously ill, and wished for the last consolations of religion. i may have mistaken the street, or the house, or room; but undoubtedly this sick woman has much need of my ministry. the divine mercy has certainly led me here, and allowed this mistake to occur." "yes, man of god!" murmured the dying woman, "yes, it is god who has led you hither." "nothing of the sort," said the husband angrily; "for ten years no priest has set his foot in my house; you shall not confess my wife. i am her master; mind your own business." "you are much mistaken, sir," answered the priest, firmly and mildly; "the first master of your wife is god, and you have no right over her soul. if she desire, i shall hear her confession, and i can only withdraw when she freely and of her own will refuses my ministry." then, approaching the sick woman, he said: "madam, do you desire to be reconciled with god, and die a christian death?" the poor woman raised her hands to heaven, and shed tears of joy, exclaiming: "blessed be the divine goodness that has allowed this mistake! for three days i have been asking my husband for a priest, and he has answered me only with insults. i do truly wish to be reconciled to my god, who has had so much compassion on my poor soul." "do you hear, sir?" said the priest to the husband; "be pleased to leave me alone with her for a few moments." these words, pronounced with much firmness and resolution, forced the man to retire, although he did so grumbling. 'the dying woman then pointed to a rosary hanging over her bed, and said: "see, this has saved me; i had the weakness to fear my husband more than god, and to avoid disturbances and quarrels, for ten years i have given up every practice of religion. one only thing have i preserved--the love of the most holy virgin, and confidence in her intercession. i have recited her rosary almost every day; it is she alone who has led you here, and she, the true mother of mercy and refuge of sinners, saves my soul." the priest was deeply moved by this touching narrative. he consoled the sick woman, helped her to make her confession, and then told her to prepare to receive the holy viaticum and extreme unction, whilst he went to give notice thereof to the parish priest. 'on leaving the house he looked at the address which the little girl had given him, and saw that the number was not but . blessing god for this fortunate misunderstanding he hastened to no. , where he found the sick lady expecting him. after complying with the duties of his sacred ministry here also he immediately went to the parish priest to see about the other sacraments which the two sick persons required; but meanwhile, the poor woman at no. died. she had received the pardon of her sins by the sacramental absolution, and the fervour of her will would assuredly supply before the god of all mercies for the other succours of religion. 'the man of god, full of faith and gratitude towards the most holy virgin--the refuge of sinners and consolation of the afflicted--then proceeded to fulfil the duties of his sacred ministry towards the other dying lady.' this most touching fact shows once again the treasures of benediction that result from piety towards the most blessed virgin, and the great mercy of our adorable saviour towards those who love his holy mother. _prayer of st. bernard._--o mother of mercy! even when on earth you were deserving of our veneration and confidence; but now that you are raised to the highest heavens your faithful servants look to you as the help of all nations. we beseech you, then, all holy virgin, to succour us by your patronage and prayers. your prayers are more dear to us and more valuable than all the treasures of earth; they are so efficacious that they obtain from god the abundance of his graces; so powerful that they suppress and bring to naught all the efforts of our enemies, who labour for our destruction. scatter them, o mother of mercy! confound all their designs, strengthen our weakness against their malice, and show yourself the true mother of all the faithful who place their confidence in you. you are all my hope, and will be so as long as i have breath. amen. _ejaculation._--i place all my confidence, after god, in you, o mary, my dear mother. _practice._--bear patiently, and in a spirit of penance, all the contradictions you may meet with this day. fourteenth day. mary at bethlehem. god resolved to confer on mankind the most signal and loving benefit of the incarnation, and came down upon earth into the desert of this world like a celestial manna, that he might become our food, during our journey to the promised land of paradise. our adorable saviour rendered himself visible to us at his birth, as a beautiful little infant, lying in a manger, and this was in the night, when the world was covered with darkness. the divine nature of our lord jesus christ is represented by the honey contained in the manna--because honey is a celestial liquor gathered by the bees from flowers, and it is not distilled from their sap, but collected by them as it descends from heaven with the dew. in like manner the divine nature of our adorable redeemer came down from heaven, at the moment of the incarnation, upon this blessed flower of the earth, the most holy virgin, and, having become united with a human nature, preserved it in the bosom of the most chaste mary, as a sweet hive, during the space of nine months. but let us consider more at length this miracle of divine mercy. the most holy mother of god gave birth to her divine son as the stars produce their light; and on this account her name mary truly signifies star of the sea, or morning star. the star of the sea is the polar star, towards which the mariner's needle continually turns; and through this star those who navigate the ocean know how their course is directed. the patriarchs, prophets, and fathers of the church turned their eyes towards the most holy virgin, and she was ever the polar star and the chosen port for all poor mortals who navigate the sea of this miserable world, and by her means they may avoid those shipwrecks which occur so often on the rocks and precipices of sin. mary was, also, that beautiful morning star which brought the joyful news of the coming of the sun of justice. the prophets knew well that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son, at once god and man, through the operation of the holy ghost, and would still remain a virgin, though she became a mother: _ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium et vocabitur ejus emanuel._ how should he who selected her for his mother, on account of her virginity, impair her integrity? how could the eternal word, purity itself, lessen the virginal purity of his mother? from eternity he is generated and virginally produced in the bosom of his father; and although receiving from him the divinity, it is not divided, but the word is always one and the same god with the father. the most holy virgin here on earth also produces virginally her divine son, our lord. there is this difference, however, that he will never again enter the bosom of mary, but he will be eternally generated in the bosom of his father, being one with him, in virtue of the unity of the divine essence. this divine generation may indeed be made the foundation of our meditations on the mystery of our lord's nativity; but it does not admit of a curious inspection, nor should we weary our mind by endeavouring to examine into that which is too sublime for our weak understanding: _generationem ejus quis enarrabit?_--'who shall declare his generation?' says the prophet isaiah. but now, after having considered the virginal purity of the most holy virgin in giving birth to her divine son, let us turn our eyes to this divine infant, and see how he allows himself to be cared for by his holy mother, as if he could not do otherwise. why is this? it is to teach us how to act, religious especially, who are bound by the sweet chains of the holy vow of obedience. our lord certainly could not make bad use of his will, or of his liberty, being the eternal wisdom; nevertheless he concealed his knowledge, and all his perfections as god and those of his perfect human intellect, under the swathing bands of infancy. he keeps hidden under the veil of holy obedience to the eternal father, who had willed that he should be, as st. paul says, in all things like to his brethren, excepting sin. behold our model! let us often visit this child, lying in a manger; and let us learn from him how to act in all things according to his most holy will. but shall we visit him empty-handed? the shepherds took with them some of their little lambs to present to him. what can we offer more acceptable to this divine pastor of our souls than our hearts as a little offering of our love and the choicest part of our spiritual flock? how dear will this offering be to him! he will look upon us with mercy in return for our gift; and we shall gladden the most holy virgin, who so much desires our welfare. let us take with us from her divine infant one of his precious tears, the sweet dew of heaven, and place it on our heart, that it may henceforth feel no other sorrow than that which rejoices this blessed infant--that is, sorrow for sin! we should all be like so many simple shepherds watching over the flocks of our affections, ready to adore this our infant saviour, as soon as the angels call us. we should offer him, as a pledge of our eternal service, the finest lamb we possess; that is, all our love, without any reserve or exception. oh, how happy shall we be, and what great consolation shall we receive, if we thus visit the saviour of our souls! as the manna had the taste of every kind of food, so this divine infant contains in himself every kind of consolation. each one can find in him what he desires, and proportionate to his capacity, provided that he possess the requisite dispositions. spiritual flowers. no flower could be a better emblem of the resplendent virtue of mary and her singular privilege than the lily; whose three petals may signify that she was a virgin in her conception of jesus, a virgin at his birth, and a virgin ever afterwards._--nouet._ mary is the mystical lily without spot, in which the eternal word espoused our nature.--_the same._ the flower falls from the tree when the fruit is formed; but the mother of god, who is the tree of life, preserves her flower and her fruit, and by an unheard-of miracle unites maternity to virginity.-- _the same._ as the lily lifts its stem on high, so the soul who often receives jesus christ should direct its hopes towards heaven in imitation of jesus, who is the flower of the field and the lily of the valley. the virtue of such a soul has roots deeper than the cedars of lebanon, which defy the winds and the storms. in the fruitfulness of her good works and in her charity towards the poor, her glory is like that of the olive. the fragrance of her holy life and of her sweet conversation is spread around like the odour of the flowers which bud forth on mount lebanon in spring-time.--_st. cyril._ example. _the devotion of the saints to the angelus._ . st. alfonso di liguori omitted no favourable opportunity for showing his tender devotion to the most blessed virgin. whenever he heard the clock strike, whatever might be his occupation or conversation, he interrupted it to recite the angelical salutation, saying that one _ave maria_ was more valuable than the entire world. he was most exact in the recital of the _angelus_. as soon as he heard the sound of the bell, he went down on his knees, even when he happened to be in the public streets. when he became deaf he desired to be warned of the ringing of the bell, and even when at his meals he would break off and kneel down to recite it. often was he rapt in ecstasy during this prayer from the fervour of his devotion. . st. charles borromeo, who was so celebrated for piety and learning, was not ashamed, when archbishop of milan, to descend from his carriage or his horse in the open streets to recite the _angelus_ in honour of mary. . st. vincent de paul, wherever he might be, or in whatever society, even at court, would recollect himself, and kneel down as soon as he heard the sound of the angelus. he considered himself happy to be able to give public testimony of his filial love of the most holy virgin mary, and those who were present always followed his example. all who devoutly recite the _angelus_ on their knees morning, noon, and evening at the ringing of the bell gain a hundred days' indulgence each time, and if they continue to say it at least once a day during the course of a month, they may gain a plenary indulgence on the usual conditions. those who are unable to hear the sound of the bell may gain the same indulgence by reciting the _angelus_ at the time that it is usually rung. as to those who are much engaged, and who wish to supplicate the blessed virgin thrice a day, they can supply for the _angelus_ the following invocations: virgin before the birth of your divine son, pray for us; virgin at his birth, pray for us; virgin after his birth, pray for us. lastly, those who do not know the prayers can say the _paters_ and _aves_ in memory of the incarnation of the word in the womb of mary. _prayer of st. anselm._--we beseech you, o queen of heaven and sovereign of the universe, by the grace which our lord conferred upon you in raising you to so sublime a degree of glory, to intercede for us, that the fulness of grace with which you were enriched may render us one day partakers of your glory and happiness. o mother, full of mercy, interest yourself in our behalf, that we may be able to enjoy the ineffable happiness for which our god deigned to inclose himself for nine months in your most holy womb. if you deign to pray for us to your divine son, you will be assuredly heard. let the bowels of your maternal mercy speak in our favour. if you, our tender mother, have no compassion for us, what will become of your most miserable children? what will be our destiny when your divine son, as judge of the living and the dead, will call us to his judgment-seat? have pity on us then, o mother of mercy! amen. _ejaculation._--see, o mary, the many dangers by which we are surrounded, and have pity on our miserable condition. _practice._--let all your actions be done this day for the sole end of pleasing god, that you may thus be able to offer him the tender lamb of your love. fifteenth day. the union of charity and humility in the heart of mary at the incarnation. god is one; hence he loves unity and union, and hates all that is not in accordance with this unity. the reason is this--that as he is perfect in all his attributes, he must have a sovereign love for all that is perfect, and unity is perfection. he must also be averse to all disunion, because whatever is disunited is so far imperfect. as then god wished to show us how dear to him is union, he effected three distinct modes of union in the most holy virgin on the day of his incarnation. firstly, he united the divine to the human nature; and so admirable and sublime is this union, that it infinitely surpasses all that human or angelic intelligence can comprehend. nor could the seraphim or cherubim have ever imagined anything so wonderful. indeed, two opposite extremes were to meet--the divine nature, which is essential perfection, and human nature, the deepest misery: the contraries being the greatest that can be conceived. nevertheless, god in his wisdom and infinite goodness was able to find a method of uniting the two natures so intimately through his incarnation in the womb of our lady that in one person man was made god and god became man, without disparagement to his deity. the second union was that of maternity with virginity. this certainly is most admirable and beyond all the laws of nature. a virgin becomes a mother, and remains still a virgin after maternity. this miraculous and supernatural union could only be effected by the omnipotent hand of god, who granted this privilege to mary; and as this union has been effected in her alone, so she alone will be eternally both a virgin and a mother, and the mother of a son who is both god and man. the third union accomplished by god in our glorious lady was that of the most ardent charity with the most profound humility. reflect on these two virtues, and you will ask how it is possible that charity can be united with humility, if the nature of one is to soar on high, and that of the other to abase itself? naturally, indeed, it is impossible but god, who is one, and who loves and desires unity, manifested the greatness of his power by uniting these two dissimilar virtues in the soul of mary. in her, charity was so united to humility that one depended on the other, and whilst her charity continues humble, her humility is ever full of charity. charity raised her soul above all creatures, and humility abased it below them all, and yet the union of these two virtues was continuous. to what a high degree of humility and charity did not the most holy virgin attain at the moment of the incarnation! ponder her words to the archangel: _ecce ancilla domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum_-- 'behold the handmaid of the lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.' no sooner did she hear herself proclaimed the mother of god, the queen of angels and of men, than she abased herself beneath all, saying: 'behold the handmaid of the lord!' this is a great act of humility. the most holy virgin in that moment had so clear a knowledge of the misery and nothingness of human nature, and of the infinite distance between god and man, that, seeing herself raised above all creatures, she abased herself beneath them all, considering her own nothingness and the infinite greatness of god who had chosen her for his mother. true it is, then, that mary never humbled herself so profoundly as when she pronounced these words: _ecce ancilla domini_--'behold the handmaid of the lord!' but see how the most blessed virgin united the most perfect charity to her humility when consenting to the proposal the angel made her in the name of god: _fiat mihi secundum verbum_--'be it done unto me according to thy word'--were her words; and thus, by charity, she was raised above the cherubim and seraphim, and at that very moment the eternal son of god took flesh in her virginal womb, and she became his mother! let us learn from the example of our lady that humility does not merely consist in diffidence in ourselves, but it must be accompanied by confidence in god. this confidence in god is produced by this diffidence in ourselves and in our own powers. this confidence is also the source of generosity of soul, of which our blessed lady gives an example on this occasion when she says the words: 'be it done unto me according to thy word.' it is true, would she say, that i am unworthy of this grace, in regard to what i am only in myself; but as all that is good in me is from god, and as that which you announce to me is his most holy will, i believe that it can and will be done, and, therefore, let it be accomplished in me! humility conceals the virtues of a soul, in order the better to preserve them; nevertheless, when charity requires, it allows them to be known for their increase and perfection. thus it resembles those plants which close their beautiful flowers at night and open them only when the sun is high, so that people speak of those flowers as sleeping during the night. humility, in the same way, conceals all our virtues, and never allows them to appear, except for the exercise of charity, which, being a celestial, divine gift, not an acquired virtue, is truly as a sun amidst all the virtues, and should always rule over them. hence the humility, which is prejudicial to charity, is undoubtedly a false humility. spiritual flowers. let us have a supreme contempt for all that is not god. oh, how sweet it is to abandon one's self into his hands! daily experience proves to us that the less we trust in our miserable efforts, the more does god work in us by his omnipotent virtue. all consists in being a docile instrument in his hands, and seemingly dead.--_p. milley._ it is good to leave our lord sometimes to serve others for his sake; and we should do so, if we can prevent our devotion from causing annoyance.--_st. francis of sales._ as the olive, when planted in vineyards, communicates its savour to the vine, so charity communicates its perfection to the virtues amidst which it flourishes. it is also true that when the vine is engrafted on the olive, it not only receives its taste, but also its sap; thus we should not be satisfied with the possession of charity and with the exercise of all other virtues, but it is necessary that all our virtues be accompanied and produced by charity, and be attributed to this virtue alone.--_the same._ example. _the efficacy of the 'salve regina.'_ the following appeared in the french journal, the _univers:_ 'we have already announced the departure of five nuns of the cross, on their way to apply their admirable spirit of unselfishness to the exercise of works of charity in the diocese of natchitoches, in america. 'after a painful misfortune at sea, these worthy sisters have landed at havre. they were to set out from this port, and in a letter addressed to the bishop of saint brieux, the mother superior of the sisters of the cross thus writes: '"our sisters started about eleven, on the morning of the th of november, . they had received the blessing of our chaplain, and did not expect ever to return; but divine providence had disposed otherwise. the steamer was already before cherbourg, when, at about eleven o'clock in the night following their departure, a fearful noise was heard throughout the steamer. all the passengers were called to go on deck, and they came up exclaiming: 'we are lost! we are lost!' '"one of the boilers had burst, and the explosion had wounded six men and set fire to the vessel. 'have you a priest on board?' said a lady to one of our sisters. 'no,' she replied. 'so much the worse,' said the lady, 'because our death is certain.' 'no, madam,' calmly and confidently replied sister mary agatha; 'let us invoke the most holy virgin, and she will save us.' our sisters immediately went down on their knees, with their hands crossed on their breast, and recited the _salve regina_. many passengers and sailors joined them, and their cries reached the heart of the mother of god. a few moments after, when the sisters, who had gone down into a cabin, were continuing their prayers, they were informed that the fire had been miraculously extinguished, and that there was no further danger. no one doubted that their salvation was owing to the prayers which had been addressed to the blessed virgin mary."'--_univers,_ th november, . _prayer._--o most humble of virgins, holy mother of god, mistress of life and lady of the universe, teach me humility and the true love of this precious virtue. how great is the pride of my heart, who am but dust and ashes; i have eagerly sought for the praises of men, when shame and confusion for my innumerable infidelities should have made me feel my nothingness! take pity on me, o holy virgin; banish the proud thoughts that arise in my soul, and let me imitate your humility here on earth, that i may be worthy to experience, with you, the truth of these words: 'the humble shall exult in the abundance of peace.' amen. _ejaculation._--pray for us, o most humble of all virgins! _practice._--endeavour to-day to neglect no opportunity of practising humility and charity. sixteenth day. the purification of the blessed virgin. let us meditate attentively upon the virtues of which mary gives us so moving an example in the mystery of her purification in the temple. first of all, what more profound humility can be imagined than that practised by our saviour and our lady in their visit to the temple? he comes to be offered, like all the sons of sinful men; she, to be purified like all other women. with regard to our adorable redeemer, it is of faith that he, being essential purity, could not be under the obligation of this law, which was promulgated for sinners. with regard to the most holy virgin, what need had she to purify herself, who, from the instant of her immaculate conception, had been endowed with purity so excellent, and with such a fulness of grace, that the highest seraphim and cherubim could not be compared to her? and yet, behold, the son and the mother, notwithstanding their incomparable purity, present themselves in the temple, as if they were sinners like other children of adam! o truly wonderful act of humility! if the value of this act increases in proportion to the dignity of the person who humbles himself, how full of useful instruction to souls tending to perfection is the humility practised by the sovereign creator of all things. he shows us that this virtue was so dear to him that he preferred death rather than relinquish its practice; for after teaching that there can be no greater love than to give one's life for the object beloved, he lays down his life for the exercise of humility. by submitting to die he, the immortal god, practised the most excellent and most sublime act of humility that can be conceived. some persons deceive themselves by regarding humility as a virtue necessary merely to novices and beginners in the spiritual life, and the practice of which can be laid aside after some advance. but our adorable saviour shows us how erroneous is this opinion, by humbling himself unto death. oh if we could well understand the necessity of perseverance in this virtue! how many, after beginning well, have miserably fallen away because they did not persevere in the practice of humility! but jesus christ did not say he who _shall begin_, but he who _shall persevere_ until death, shall be saved: _qui perseveraverit usque in finem hic salvus erit._ genuine virtue may be distinguished from that which is only apparent, as true balsam is distinguished from false. balsam is tested by dropping it into water; if it sinks to the bottom of the vessel it may be considered very pure and precious. we may know if a person be truly prudent, generous and noble, by observing if these virtues tend to make him humble, modest, submissive; for in such a case they are truly valuable gifts; but if they stay only on the surface, and love to show themselves and to win admiration, they are so far false and counterfeit. the angels, and, after them, our first parents, prevaricated through pride. upon this account, our lord, like a wise and loving physician of our souls, applied the remedy to the root of the evil, and came into the world to plant in the place of pride the beautiful and useful virtue of divine humility, become very necessary on account of the contrary vice being so general. indeed, so common an evil is pride, that humility can never be sufficiently inculcated; and on this account, our adorable saviour and our immaculate lady would obey the law, not made for them, to teach us to esteem this virtue. for us, who deserve only humiliation and contempt, to abase ourselves is no great thing. however, humiliation acquires an inestimable value when embraced by jesus christ and his most holy mother; and this humiliation was continual with them throughout the whole course of their life. wherefore the apostle, speaking of the humility of our redeemer, said that 'he humbled himself unto death, even to the death of the cross'--_humiliavit semitipsum usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis_. but if we miserable creatures humble ourselves on some slight occasion, we quickly seek by every means in our power to indemnify ourselves for the transient exercise of this virtue, and the very thought of persevering in the practice of it alarms us. we are convinced, it is true, that we are very imperfect, and yet we desire to be looked upon as holy and perfect, notwithstanding the example of mary, who consented to be clothed in the semblance of a sinner, although confirmed in grace and possessed of a more than angelic purity. observe any other daughter of eve, and see how eagerly she seeks for honour and esteem; and although this defect be common to all mankind in general, it seems to be more marked in the female sex. now, our lady and glorious mistress is not the daughter of eve according to the spirit, but only according to the flesh, and therefore she always persevered in the most profound humility, and could say in her sacred canticle of the _magnificat_ that on this account 'all generations would call her blessed'--_beatam me dicent omnes generationes_. how beautiful is it to behold the holy virgin presenting herself and the infant jesus in the temple, and making her offering of two doves! happier is she than all the princes of earth! and what shall i say of the aged simeon, who takes the divine infant in his arms? let us also embrace him, let us live and die in these tender embraces. place this sweet jesus in your heart, like another solomon upon his ivory throne. let your soul follow his steps, that you may hear the holy words he continually breathes. remember that your heart should be like ivory in purity and firmness; firm in its resolutions, and pure in its affections. spiritual flowers. anything we do, however little, will have an inestimable value if it be done for the love of god.--_st. teresa._ it is an exalted degree of perfection to assimilate and conform ourselves to the spirit of the sacred infancy of our most humble and most obedient saviour.--_st. francis of sales._ whoever wishes to acquire virtue, and does not possess humility, is like to one who carries dust in his hands when there is a high wind.-- _the same._ example. _punishment of the profaners of a sanctuary of the blessed virgin._ the holy hermitage of voiron did not escape the profanations of the heretics. they invaded it with arms in their hands, as if they were going to besiege a fortress; they ill-treated and expelled the monks, took away the sacred vessels, the papers, documents, indulgences, etc., committed horrible sacrileges, and at last set fire to the place and entirely destroyed it, and rolled the remaining stones down the mountain. this atrocious impiety was not left unpunished, for soon afterwards all who had taken part in the destruction of the hermitage perished miserably. it is remarkable, however, that in spite of all the devastation effected by these impious men, they could not gain their principal object, which was to carry off the statue of the most holy virgin, which was preserved miraculously. john burgnard, a native of chablais, who had embraced the heresy of the bernese, and was the leader of these profaners, had no sooner reached the hermitage, than he mounted the altar to carry away the statue of the most blessed virgin. he threw a rope round its neck, and descending from the altar was walking out of the church, dragging the statue after him, and uttering at the same time these words: 'come along with me, come along with me, little black woman' (the face of the statue was black); 'if you are as powerful as the papists say, let me now have a proof of it. why do you allow yourself to be thus shamefully dragged on the ground? why do you not defend yourself?' he had no sooner uttered these blasphemies than the statue became immovable. the wretched man, finding that he was unable to drag it further, turned his head round to see what was hindering him, and by a second miracle his head remained turned in that direction, so that he could never again place it in its right position; and, moreover, he became crippled in an arm and a shoulder. being obliged to leave the statue, he left the spot with great difficulty, and bore the chastisement of his impiety throughout his life, giving an undeniable proof of the sovereign power of the queen of heaven. but more terrible is the fact that he persevered in heresy, and died in despair in the presence of many of the parishioners of bons. amongst these were michael novello and claude ippolito cortager, who gave testimony of this fact on oath a.d. . his highness duke charles emmanuel, when at tortona during the time that st. francis of sales was converting the people of chablais, verified the fact we have related, and ordered the secretary of the town corporation to register it, that the miracle might be transmitted to posterity. (see 'life of st. francis of sales,' by augustus de sales.) _prayer._--holy virgin! when you presented your divine son to the eternal father, you became dear to all the heavenly court. o present also our hearts, that, fortified by grace, we may never fall into mortal sin! most humble virgin! when you placed the adorable jesus in the arms of the aged simeon, you filled his soul with, heavenly sweetness. o place our hearts in the hands of god, that he may fill them with his divine spirit! most diligent virgin, you co-operated in the redemption of the world, when you redeemed your son jesus with two turtle-doves; be pleased to redeem our hearts from the slavery of sin, that they may be always pure and holy before god. most clement virgin! when you heard from the lips of the holy simeon the prophetic announcement of all your dolours, you submitted yourself quickly and perfectly to the will of god. o help us to support always with patience and resignation all the tribulations of life! most merciful virgin! bymeans of your divine son you illuminated the prophetess anna with supernatural light, so that she magnified the mercies of god and acknowledged and proclaimed jesus as the saviour of the world. o fill us with heavenly grace, that in the abundance of joy we may be able to reap the precious fruits of redemption. amen. _ejaculation._--o mary! watch over me. _practice._--take every possible care to-day not to commit any sin, however venial it may seem. seventeenth day. mary, the model of perfect obedience, in the mystery of the purification. let us consider in this meditation how our adorable saviour and his most holy mother united perfect obedience to profound humility. our lord preferred the death of the cross rather than fail in obedience. 'jesus christ,' says the great apostle, 'was obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross'--_factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis_. and what signal obedience did not mary exercise at the death of her son, the only object of her heart's affection! she stood firm and constant at the foot of the cross, pierced with the sword of sorrow, perfectly resigned to the will of the eternal father. all the actions of our divine saviour were regulated by obedience, as he himself declared, saying: 'i am come not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me'--_descendi de coelo non ut faciam voluntatem meam sed voluntatem ejus qui miset me_. thus he teaches us that the will of his heavenly father was the sole guide of all his thoughts. notice our lady's life, and you will always see her obedient. so highly did she esteem this virtue of obedience, that she obeyed the command to espouse st. joseph, although she was bound by a vow of virginity. she always persevered in the practice of this virtue, and as the mystery of the purification shows us, she presented herself in the temple, that she might observe the law she was not bound to observe. thus her obedience was the more precious as it was voluntary. indeed, this is the only virtue that she has recommended to the practice of mankind. the gospel tells us that when she spoke to the attendants at the marriage of cana, she said to them: 'whatsoever he shall say to you, do'--_quodcumque dixerit vobis facite_. here she teaches the practice of holy obedience, which is inseparable from the virtue of humility, because it springs from this virtue. only those who are truly humble subject themselves to the will of god. our lady had no fear of being disobedient, because she was not obliged to obey the law, but she shunned its very shadow. many would have misunderstood her conduct, if she had not gone to the temple to offer her divine son and perform the ceremony of her purification. she would, therefore, remove all suspicion of disobedience, and at the same time teach us not merely to avoid sin, but also its very appearance, and the occasions which may expose us to it. let us learn, also, not to be satisfied with the testimony of our conscience alone, but to try to remove from others every occasion of thinking ill of us and of our actions. the example of our saviour and of his most holy mother should animate us to submit not only in those things that are commanded us, but in those that are merely of counsel, that we may thus become more dear to the divine goodness. o god! is it then so great a work to subject ourselves to obedience, when for this alone we have been sent into the world, and when the supreme king, to whom all things should be subject, practised it? we must learn then from the example of our adorable saviour and of his most holy mother, to be docile, pliable, and easily ruled, not only for a certain time, and in some actions, but even unto death. but two fundamental conditions of this virtue of obedience must be observed. these are--firstly, that to obey perfectly we must love god who commands; and secondly, we must love the action that is commanded. all the faults committed against obedience proceed from the want of one of these conditions. many love the thing commanded, but not god who commands it. for instance, some will perform their devotions, not out of obedience to the will of god, but on account of the consolation they experience in this exercise. in this there is nothing but self-love; and it will be perceptible by the repugnance, or discontent, which is felt in the performance of those observances that are not according to our inclinations. in this case, it is plain that it is not god whom we love, but only the thing that he commands. if we loved god who commands, our hearts would be indifferent as to our occupation, because in all we should be equally sure to find the will of god. others will love god who commands, but not the action commanded. these will say: i know very well that it is the will of god that i should do this or that, but i feel so great a repugnance, that i cannot resolve to do it, and were i to strive to obey, the person who, in the name of god, desires me to perform the action, enjoins it so ungraciously, as to rob me of all the satisfaction i might experience in an act of obedience. the source of all our difficulties is that we obey readily only when our superiors accommodate themselves to our natural inclinations. on all other occasions, the smallest obligations appear to us difficult and disagreeable. it is therefore evident that we do not regard god who commands us through another, but we look at the person who speaks to us in his name, to see how he is clothed so to speak; that is to say, we look only at his external deportment. o god! what a mistake! we ought to submit to the will of god in obedience, without any exception, and from whatever quarter the order may come; and not only love god who commands, but also the thing that is commanded; _taking the command and placing it upon our heads_--that is, in our inmost heart, to execute it with all fidelity and sincere goodwill. spiritual flowers. bless god for having given you mary as your mother. imitate her, and consider what a blessing it is for you to have so powerful an advocate in heaven.--_st. teresa._ humility cannot subsist without love, nor love without humility--and one can never be acquired without the other.--_the same._ the more we mortify our natural inclinations, so much the more do we merit to receive supernatural inspirations.--_francis of sales._ example. _a conquest of the blessed virgin's._ father paul stub, a barnabite, became a conquest of grace, and an angel in virtue and learning, through the intercession of the blessed virgin mary. he himself thus relates his conversion in his excellent book for the month of mary, entitled 'the school of mary': 'a protestant youth set out from the north, in , to take a post at genoa, in the family of the consul of sweden and norway, who was a very good catholic. but the wife of the consul, fearing that this youth might by his conversation have an evil influence on a nephew who lived with them, went to the sanctuary of our lady of graces, and made the following prayer to the queen of heaven and earth: "'o mary! if you see that this protestant youth will become a catholic and be virtuous, then let him arrive, but if otherwise, send his ship to america." 'the ship arrived safely at genoa, and the boy entered on his situation. he was edified by the examples of virtue that he witnessed, but had no thoughts whatever of becoming a catholic--until after some time, when he was in trouble, calling to mind the devotion which catholics bear to our lady, he said to her: "o mother of jesus! it is the first time that i invoke you, but if you do me the favour i desire i will invoke you all my life." 'the favour was obtained most completely, and after that time the young man began to pray to god to know the truth, entered upon the study of religion, and became a catholic in , to his own great joy and that of many others. he afterwards took the religious habit, and has since exercised his zeal for the glory of the most blessed virgin in preaching; and, to give her a new proof of his gratitude, he composed this little book in her honour.' _prayer._--most pure virgin! obtain for me the grace to understand henceforth the divine sweetness of union with god. may my adorable saviour abide with me under the veil of faith as he dwelt with you in the seclusion of a hidden life! may he live in me through the union of my heart with his adorable heart as he lived in you, forming one heart and soul with you! oh that henceforth i may know how to love, to desire, and to relish only jesus! may he alone, during the whole course of my life, be my strength, my life, the heart of my heart, the soul of my soul, that after having been frequently nourished with his virginal body, which was conceived and born of you a virgin, i may be able to say with the apostle: '_i live now, not i, but christ liveth in me_.' amen. _ejaculation._--my heart is prepared to obey you in everything, o my mother! _practice._--do everything you do to-day be done in the spirit of obedience. eighteenth day. the flight into egypt.--trust in providence. the unspeakable joy which mary and joseph experienced after the birth of jesus was of short duration. the angel of the lord came again to visit joseph in sleep, and said to him, 'arise, and take the child and his mother and fly into egypt, and be there until i shall tell thee, for it will come to pass that herod will seek the child to destroy him.' see how the heavenly messenger treats mary and joseph, precisely as if they were true religious! how many pretexts might they not have found to be dispensed from obeying? could we not wait till to-morrow? might they have said. what provisions have we for so long and tedious a journey? who knows what we may have to suffer from the egyptians, the declared enemies of the israelites? who will give us shelter in that country? these and a thousand other excuses would have been made by us had we been in their place. but perfect models as they were of submission and of confidence, they set out without delay, certain that god would provide for all their necessities. and so it proved, for they found lodging and food, either by means of the trade exercised by st. joseph, or by the alms bestowed upon them. that we may not lose even one of the many instructions given us in this touching mystery, let us consider first that our lord, the eternal wisdom, does not himself take the charge of his family. being perfect god and perfect man, he already possessed the use of reason, and from the first instant of his conception he could have made known to joseph and to his blessed mother all that was to happen to them. however, god the father had conferred upon the angel gabriel the care of the holy family, and therefore our lord would take no part in it. the angel commands and is obeyed most faithfully, although he was inferior to jesus and also to mary, who, as mother of god, was endowed with greater graces and perfections than all the celestial spirits. but this is not all. observe the order that reigns in this holy family. who can doubt that our lady was superior to st. joseph in discretion, as well as in all the other qualities required for good government? and, nevertheless, the angel does not inform her of all that is to be done, but he informs her spouse, st. joseph. it might appear strange that he addresses himself to him rather than to mary, the mistress of the house, who carries the treasure of the eternal father. had she not every reason to be offended at this proceeding of the angel, who seemed thus to ignore her? she could undoubtedly have said to her spouse, 'why should i go into egypt, when neither my son nor the angel have made it known to me?' but our lady is silent, and obeys with all simplicity, without being in the least concerned that the angel had only spoken to st. joseph. she knew well that all had been ordained by god; she does not even inquire the reason, but the knowledge that such is the will of god is sufficient to secure her prompt submission. it is thus god acts towards men--to teach them holy and loving submission. a merely human mind does not wish to yield and to adore the secret mysteries of god and of his most holy will until it is able to ascertain _the why and the wherefore of this and that_. a thousand reasons are brought forward as of greater discernment or experience, and so on; but they only cause disquiet, ill-temper, and complaints. from the time we begin to criticise everything disturbs us. let us be satisfied to know what god wants of us, and let this suffice. but (some will say) who can assure us that such is the will of god? this shows that our hearts would prefer that god should manifest everything directly to us by means of secret inspirations, or that he should send an angel to announce to us his will. and yet he did not thus reveal it even to our lady, but wished her to come to the knowledge of it through st. joseph, to whom she was subject, as to her superior. our self-love would like to be instructed sometimes by god himself by means of ecstasies, visions, etc. we indulge ourselves in follies such as these that we may not be subject to the common and ordinary path of subjection to our rules and our superiors. let it suffice for us to know that god wills our obedience without reflecting on the mental capacities of those who command us, and we shall accustom ourselves to walk with all simplicity in the happy road of holy and tranquil humility, which will render us pleasing to god. o! how many wonderful examples of obedience to the will of god did not this glorious virgin leave us during her whole life, and, above all, in her flight into egypt! whither, o glorious virgin, do you direct your steps with that little infant in your arms? i am going into egypt, she replies. but why do you go there? because it is the will of god. for how long? as long as it pleases god. when will you return? when he shall command me to do so. but when you return will your heart be more happy than at present? o no, certainly not. and why? because i fulfil the will of god equally in going, in remaining there, and in returning. when you return, will you go into your own country? she replies, i know no country but the accomplishment of the will of my god in everything. o admirable example of obedience! let us, in imitation of the blessed virgin, endeavour to submit to authority at all times and in every circumstance, whether it be pleasing to us or not. let us go with all simplicity even as far as egypt--that is, into the midst of enemies-- because god who sends us there will know how to protect us, and assuredly we shall not perish. on the contrary, if we remain in israel with our enemy, self-will, it will certainly be the destruction of us. in imitation of mary and joseph, let us answer the suggestions of the enemy of our soul when he urges us to disobedience in these words: _deus providebit_--'god will provide.' o my god! happy we if we could accustom ourselves to answer our heart always thus when it becomes anxious, and thus banish all solicitude and trouble. great indeed is the confidence which god asks of us in his paternal care and providence; but why do we refuse it to him when we know that no one has ever been deceived in him, but, on the contrary, has always reaped therefrom the most copious fruits? and was not this the promise which our saviour made to his apostles when he urged them to this loving confidence? 'your father in heaven knoweth that ye have need of these things.' spiritual flowers. obedience has the property of changing the flower of our desires into the fruits of good works. shun singularity as far as possible, and do not make yourselves different exteriorly in any way from others.--_st. teresa._ as the best honey is gathered from the flowers of the thyme, which is a small and bitter herb, so when virtues are exercised in the bitterness of the most humble tribulations, they become truly excellent.--_st. francis of sales._ as the sun gives its heat no less to a rose amidst a thousand other flowers than if it were alone, so our lord does not diffuse his love the less upon one soul because he also loves an infinity of others. the power of his love never diminishes on account of the multitude of rays that it diffuses, but is always unchangeable in its immensity.-- _the same._ example. _the excellence of the 'hail mary.'_ the first hail mary pronounced by an angel produced the greatest of all miracles, and was the source of the salvation of sinful men. if our redemption began with the angelic salutation, it follows that our salvation depends in a special manner upon this prayer. if it gave birth to the fruit of eternal life upon this dry and barren earth when it was brought by the messenger of heaven, it will, if we recite it devoutly, give birth to jesus christ in our soul. it is a celestial dew which fertilizes souls, and those that are not refreshed by it do not produce fruit but only briars and thorns. the most holy virgin made the following revelation to the blessed alan: 'know, my son, and do not forget to make it known, that it is a probable sign of damnation to have tepidity, aversion, and negligence in the recital of the angelical salutation which brought salvation to the world.' i know nothing, o mary, says thomas a kempis, that is so glorious for you and so consoling for us as the angelical salutation: its sweetness is so great that no words can express it. most certain it is, says another servant of mary, that this prayer never ascends to heaven without obtaining great favours for the body as well as the soul; because this tender mother always responds with some grace when we salute her with the _hail mary_. the blessed virgin promised st. gertrude as many favours at the hour of her death as she had recited _ave marias_ during her life; and she also counselled st. bridget to recite this prayer to obtain the pardon of some acts of impatience. we know that this mother of mercy taught st. dominic the holy rosary as the most efficacious means for obtaining the conversion of heretics and sinners. and, in fact, the historians of that period relate that the first-fruits of this new devotion were manifested by the abjuration of more than a hundred thousand heretics, and the conversion of an incredible number of sinners. let us also quote the beautiful words of a saint. 'the "_ave maria_," well recited, is the enemy that puts the devil to flight, and the weapon that kills him. it is the sanctification of the soul, the gladness of angels, the melody of the predestinated, the canticle of the new testament, the joy of mary, and the glory of the most holy trinity. the _ave maria_ is a celestial dew that fertilizes the soul, a beautiful rose which we present to mary, and a precious pearl which we bestow upon her. finally, it is the most magnificent eulogium which can be offered in her honour, and the attractions it possesses have so much power over her heart, that she is constrained to love him who recites it well.' another great servant of the immaculate virgin says of himself, that whenever he pronounced these words, _hail mary_, the world in his eyes lost all beauty, he felt an increase of divine love, a more fervent devotion, more firmness in hope, greater joy, and a renewal of virtue and strength in his whole being. _prayer of st. bernard._--o sovereign mistress of angels and of men, to you do we turn our eyes! we must all appear one day before the eternal judge; alas! how shall we dare to present ourselves before him, loaded as we are with so many sins, and who shall appease his just indignation? no one, o mother of mercy, can so assuredly do this but you who loved him so much, and who were so tenderly loved by him. open then, o mother of grace, your compassionate ears to our sighs, and the bowels of your mercy to our tears; to you do we run as to our dear mother. ah! appease the just indignation of your divine son, and restore us to his favour. you do not abhor the sinner, nor do you reject him, however unworthy he may be, if, repentant, he implores your patronage. to you, then, do i have recourse, o my mother; animate me to hope, sustain my weakness, abandon me not for a single instant, and reconcile me to my eternal judge, that i may be able to find mercy at the moment of my death. amen. _ejaculation._--_monstra te esse matrem_--show me, o mary, that you are my mother! _practice._--whatever contradiction you may meet with this day, accept it with resignation, and with the reflection that _god wills it_. nineteenth day. mary, at the marriage of cana, teaches us the best method of prayer. 'there was a marriage,' says st. john, 'in cana of galilee, and the mother of jesus was there. and jesus also was invited and his disciples.' let us consider the goodness of our adorable saviour in not refusing the invitation to the wedding. he had come to redeem and reform man, and therefore would not assume a rigid and austere manner. he was always gentle and courteous, so as to draw men to follow him. his presence at the wedding was a restraint upon all levity and excesses that so often occur on these occasions. o faithful souls! what modesty must have reigned at these nuptials, in the presence of our lord and of the most holy virgin! the failing of the wine was pre-ordained by the will of god, who wished, by a miracle, to manifest his power to those assembled, and in particular to his apostles. the most holy virgin, in her wisdom and prudence, knowing that the wine failed, was moved by the most ardent charity to find an expedient for supplying it. and how does she act? well aware of the power and goodness of her divine son, and of his charity and mercy, she was certain that he would supply what was required, all the more as the married couple were not rich, and she knew he took pleasure in relieving the poor and conversing with them. she turned, therefore, to her divine son; and notice well how our blessed lady acted, and what she said: _vinum non habent_--'they have no wine.' these words imply, 'these good people are poor, and although their poverty is pleasing and dear to you, nevertheless, in itself, it is a misfortune, and is often the cause of confusion before men. you are omnipotent, and can relieve their wants, and i doubt not your charity and mercy will make some return for the kind invitation they have given us to assist at this feast by providing for them in their present need.' the holy virgin, however, did not utter so many words when she asked this miracle; she was most skilled in the art of praying well, and made use of the shortest and most suitable method that could be found, saying: 'they have no wine.' mary speaks to our lord with the greatest possible reverence. she does not address him in terms of arrogance or presumption, like many thoughtless and indiscreet persons when they ask, but she simply represents to him the need of the guests, sure that he would hear her petition. what an excellent manner of prayer is this, to expose our necessities simply to god, and then abandon ourselves into his adorable hands, certain that he will succour us in that way which is most to our advantage! for instance, to say to him: lord, behold one of thy poor creatures, who is desolate, afflicted, full of aridity, of miseries and sins, but thou knowest my wants, and it is enough for me to manifest to thee my state. to thee it belongs to deliver me from so many miseries, in the manner and at the time that thou knowest to be most conducive to thy glory and my salvation. we may ask god, also, for temporal blessings; of this there is no doubt; for our lord himself has taught us, in the _our father_ to ask first that _the kingdom of god may come_ as the _end_ to which we aspire, and that _his holy will be done_ as the sole means to attain this _end_; and afterwards to ask almighty god to _give us our daily bread_ (_panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie_). therefore holy church has authorized particular prayers for temporal blessings; for peace, in times of war; rain, in seasons of drought, and so on; and also special masses for procuring relief in times of pestilence, and in other necessities. no doubt we can have recourse to god in all our wants, both spiritual and temporal, in two ways: by merely exposing to him our necessities, as did the most holy virgin, or by asking him for that grace which in particular we require, but always with this condition, that _his will be done and not ours_. and yet, in general, even when spiritual persons ask god for his holy love, which softens and lightens every difficulty, they take care not to include in their petition those virtues that mortify nature. spiritual flowers. however slight the services we render to the blessed virgin mary, they are always dear to god, and he rewards them with eternal glory.--_st. teresa._ when you find yourself in any great difficulty, do not take any step without having first considered eternity.--_st. francis of sales._ he who is capable of exercising mildness in sufferings, generosity under ill-treatment, and peace amidst discord, is almost perfect. mildness, sweetness of heart, and evenness of temper are virtues as rare as is the virtue of chastity.--_the same._ example. _the advantages of the 'hail mary.'_ after having considered in the preceding example the esteem in which this prayer was held by the saints, let us now consider its advantages. mary rejoices greatly when she is addressed in the angelical salutation, as she herself revealed to st. mechtild, saying that of all the honours that can be rendered her none is more pleasing, or gives more joy, than this prayer, to which are added the words, 'holy mary, mother of god, pray for us sinners, etc.' this prayer reminds her of the obligation she is under to have compassion on poor sinners, to pray for them, to love them. sinners are the occasion of all her happiness, 'because,' said she, 'i should not have found grace if they had not lost it; i should not have been chosen to be the mother of the saviour if it had not been necessary to save them; and lastly, i should not have received such an abundance of graces had it not been necessary that i should become the mother of mercy and the refuge of sinners.' but the recitation of the _hail mary_ does not form the joy of mary alone; it is also the joy of the angels and of the saints. blessed alan says that the words of this prayer convey joy to all the inhabitants of heaven. the angelical salutation is the distinctive salute of the angels to mary; and these blessed spirits enjoy a special delight in offering it to her frequently every day. but whilst this admirable prayer causes all paradise to exult with joy, and is a source of grace to faithful souls, it is also the terror of the demons, who take flight as soon as they hear it pronounced. when the _hail mary_ was brought from heaven by an angel, the earth leapt for joy, on account of its approaching deliverance. but hell seemed already to foresee the formidable presence of the omnipotent who was to destroy the empire of satan; and it trembled with fear when this salutation was uttered. no wonder, then, that the impious, who are children of the accursed spirits, should adopt their sentiments and hate all that relates to the mystery of the incarnation, and speak contemptuously of the holy rosary and of devotion to the blessed virgin. however, experience shows us that the more a soul gives signs of predestination, the more does she love, relish, and gladly recite the _hail mary_; and the more she loves god, the more does she love this prayer. 'i have no surer secret for ascertaining if a person love god,' says the venerable louis marie de montfort, 'than to examine if he love to recite the _ave maria_ or the rosary.' _prayer._--help us, o mother full of mercy, and do not allow the multitude of our sins to weaken your love for us. remember that our adorable saviour deigned to take from you a mortal body, not to condemn but to save sinners. if it were for your own personal glory alone that you were chosen to be the mother of god, it might be said that our eternal salvation, or damnation, matters but little to you; but it was for the salvation of all men that your divine son clothed himself with our flesh. what advantage would accrue to us from your happiness and power if you did not make use of your power to render us partakers of your happiness? you know the need we have of your assistance; and therefore we recommend ourselves earnestly to you. help us, that we may not have the misfortune to lose our souls, but may eternally love and serve your divine son with you in his kingdom of glory. amen. _ejaculation._--obtain for us, o mary, by your powerful intercession, the grace not to lose the place which our saviour has prepared for us in paradise. _practice._--ask mary to obtain for you from god all the graces you are in need of to-day. twentieth day. the petition of mary at the marriage of cana was full of confidence. let us endeavour, by the divine assistance, to discover all the lessons contained in the petition of mary and in the answer of jesus. mary turns to jesus, and says to him: _vinum non habent_--'they have no wine;' and he replies: _quid mihi, et tibi est, mulier? nondum venit hora mea_--'woman, what is there in common between me and thee? my hour is not yet come.' this reply at first sight seems harsh, and it surprises us, coming from such a son and addressed to such a mother. is it possible that so respectful a son should reject with asperity a prayer made with so much reverence and humility by the most loving and the most loved of mothers? has the creature no part with her creator from whom she receives her being and her life? has the mother nothing to do with her son, nor the son with the mother, from whom he received his body and his blood? these words seem, as i have said, somewhat strange, and are difficult to understand; indeed, they have been misinterpreted by some who, having kept merely to the letter, have unhappily originated several forms of heresy. however, the reply was most loving, and the holy virgin, who well understood its genuine sense, considered herself the happiest of mothers. this she expressed, with a heart full of confidence, in her answer to the waiters. 'you have heard,' she said, 'the reply my son has made me, and perhaps, not understanding the language of love, you fear that he is indignant at my petition; but it is not so, fear not; whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye'-- _quaecumque dixerit vobis, facite._ the opinions of the doctors upon the words of our blessed saviour are various; many think that his meaning was: 'it does not belong to us to meddle in this affair; as we are merely amongst the invited, we should not observe what is required or not required at the wedding.' however, the greater number of the holy fathers of the church think that our lord thus replied to his most holy mother, in order to teach those of high position in the church not to make use of their influence in favour of their relations, in things which are contrary to the law of god or to the perfection of their state. to give this lesson to the world, he made use of the tender heart of mary, and, in doing so, he certainly gives us a very great proof of his love. his words signified that he knew well the tenderness and perfection of the love his mother bore him, and the firmness of her will, and therefore was well assured that the apparent harshness of his words would in no way trouble her soul. on this account the most holy virgin did not lose confidence when she received his answer, but said to the waiters: 'whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye.' our lord loves most tenderly those who abandon themselves, like his most holy mother, completely to his care, allowing themselves to be governed by his divine providence, without caring whether the result be sweet or bitter, certain that the parental heart of god will never permit the least thing to happen which will not turn to their advantage, if they have a perfect and filial confidence in him. we ought, then, to imitate this example of mary on all occasions, whether prosperous or adverse; allowing ourselves to be led by the divine will without ever seeking the accomplishment of our own. it is true that great confidence is necessary to enable us to abandon ourselves thus unreservedly to divine providence; but, if we do so, our lord takes care of everything, and conducts all for our advantage; while if we reserve something to ourselves, not confiding entirely in him, then he abandons us. it is as if he were to say: you believe that you are capable of succeeding without my succour, therefore i shall withdraw, and you will see what will be the result. this perfect abandonment must be grounded upon the infinite goodness of god, and upon the merits of the passion and death of our lord jesus christ, and accompanied by a firm and perfect resolution to give ourselves entirely to god leaving all things to his loving providence. spiritual flowers. in arabia felix, not only the plants which are called aromatical are sweet scented, but all plants without distinction, because they all experience the influence of the sun's intense heat. so all the works of a soul that is replenished with charity or the virtue of holy love, even the very least, have a most pleasing fragrance before the divine majesty, who rewards them with an increase of charity.--_st. francis of sales._ if you sincerely love god, you will often speak of him. as bees gather honey only with their mouths, so your tongue will be always honeyed with the words you speak of your god; and never will your mouth taste such sweetness as when you sing the praises and blessings of his most holy name.--_the same._ as some herbs, when well masticated, produce so great sweetness as to appease hunger and thirst, so one who receives from god the celestial manna of interior consolation cannot in any way desire the consolations of the world, though it be only to receive a momentary satisfaction.--_the same._ example. _further advantages of the 'hail mary.'_ let us glory, says a pious author, in repeating this salutation with the angel gabriel, the apostles, the martyrs, and all the christian world. let this _ave maria_, which comes to us fragrant as a canticle of heaven, and repeated by as many echoes as there are faithful souls on earth, be sweet to our lips, and sweeter still to our hearts. it is a rare and enviable favour indeed to be able to salute a queen, and yet every day, at every moment, men and women, old and young, all of every condition, can salute the queen of heaven and earth, who contains in her hands all the treasures of god, and can be sure of being always heard, and that each salutation addressed to her will meet with a corresponding benefit. . . . but can the sinner also dare to approach her? yes, certainly; let him also come with humble confidence and salute her who is his refuge, for she will in no wise be offended by his prayer; and if the _hail mary_ from his lips be a cry of sorrow and repentance, it will become omnipotent, and will obtain mercy, pardon, grace, and salvation. hail mary! _ave maria!_ . . . a sweet and beautiful word it is, which heaven sent to earth, and earth again returns so frequently to heaven! the _ave maria_ is the universal prayer of each and all. the infant begins to lisp it, and on his knees, with his hands raised to heaven, says _ave maria!_ the aged, weakened by infirmity, may be incapable of reciting long prayers, but they will always have sufficient strength to repeat devoutly the _ave maria_. this is the favourite prayer of just souls. oh, how many times in the day does it rise from their hearts full of burning love, and ascend, like purest burning incense to the throne of mary! _ave maria!_ . . . it is also the prayer of sinners, and perhaps their only prayer. in the great number of these there are some, alas! who have forgotten all other prayers, but they still know and repeat the _ave maria_. yes; amidst the universal wreck of all other prayers and practices of religion, the _ave maria_ or _hail mary_ has remained for them ever a means of salvation. . . . how many poor wrecked souls have been led back to the haven of salvation by this means! _prayer._--o jesus! only son of god, who from the bosom of thy eternal father, descended into the bosom of mary, thy mother, receive the homage of my adoration and love. through thee i go to thy father, and through thy mother i come to thee. like the spouses at cana, i dare not address my prayer directly to thee, but i fear nothing when i direct it through thy blessed mother. o lord! well thou knowest that i have no wine, no courage, nor strength, nor holy and generous resolutions; i have lost all! ah! say not to thy mother, who intercedes in my favour: 'woman, what is there in common between us?' because i know for certain that she is all-powerful over thy filial heart. add not 'my hour is not yet come!' ah, no; thy hour, o my god, to benefit those who pray to thee, through thy blessed mother, is ever at hand. o lord! behold, the vessel of my heart is full of the insipid waters of earth; change this water into the delicious wine of holy affections for heaven, where the saints celebrate the nuptials of the lamb amidst eternal joys. amen. _ejaculation._--succour my weakness, o most powerful virgin! _practice._--endeavour to preserve confidence in god, when he delays the graces you desire. twenty-first day. mary obtains the first miracle from jesus by her lively faith. that we may conceive a just idea of the power the most holy virgin possesses over the heart of jesus, let us meditate upon those other words which he addressed to her at the marriage of cana: _nondum venit hora mea_--'my hour is not yet come.' without discussing the opinion of certain doctors, who think that our lord, by these words, meant to say that the wine was not yet wanted, i shall call your attention to this reflection: that there are certain times ordained by divine providence upon which our conversion and salvation depend. it is certain that god had from all eternity determined the hour and moment when he would work the great miracle of his incarnation, and give to the world the first sign of his power, but yet this determination could be accelerated by prayer. the greater number of the fathers assert that mary, by her loving sighs and aspirations, merited the acceleration of the incarnation of our lord. not, indeed, that he became incarnate before the time that he had determined, but that, from all eternity he foresaw that the holy virgin would beg him to hasten the time of his coming into the world; and therefore, in consideration of the great merit of her intercession, he ordained to become man sooner than he would have done had he not been petitioned to do so. the same may be said of the first miracle, wrought by our lord at the wedding of cana. _nondum venit hora mea_--'my hour is not yet come,' said jesus to his holy mother, but as i can refuse you nothing, i shall hasten to hear your prayer. oh, how precious is that hour in which divine providence wills to impart to us those special graces and blessings that are necessary for our salvation, happy the soul who awaits this hour patiently, and who endeavours to prepare herself for it when it arrives. the samarian woman assuredly was converted at this hour, and upon its arrival will depend also our own conversion and spiritual regeneration. we will now consider how our lord acted when he worked this miracle. in the hall were seven stone urns, prepared for the purification, practised by the jews. our lord ordered them to be filled with water, _implete hydrias aqua_; and as the waiters had already been directed by mary to follow punctually the orders of her divine son, they filled them 'up to the brim,' as the sacred text expresses it. afterwards our saviour said something interiorly, not understood by anyone, and the water was instantly changed into most excellent wine. these words which he spoke were similar, without doubt, to those by which he drew all things out of nothing, or by which he gave being and life to man, or by which, also, at his last supper with his disciples, he changed wine into his adorable blood, and thus instituted the most holy sacrament of the eucharist, giving to us, through it, that most excellent wine which nourishes us for eternal life. this fact in the gospel shows us, moreover, the great confidence we should have in the powerful intercession of our lady. but in order that she may represent our necessities to her divine son, we must invite her and our adorable saviour to our banquet, because wine can never fail when jesus and mary are present; this mother of mercy being ever prepared to ask it for us, and her divine son ever ready to bestow it. however, if we desire our lady to intercede with her divine son that he may change the water of our tepidity into the wine of his fervent love, we must imitate the waiters at the marriage of cana, and do all that our lord shall tell us. obey him, then, with fidelity, o ye servants of god, fill your hearts well with the penitential water of repentance, and he will change it into the wine of his holy love. in order to obtain the spirit of fervour, nourish your mind with holy thoughts; make frequent ejaculations, and, as a general rule, if you wish to be recollected in time of prayer, avoid dissipation during the day, and waste no time in useless reflections upon yourself, or on what happens around you. keep yourself in the presence of god, and repose in the loving arms of his providence. bless this adorable providence continually during life, and you will glorify it eternally in heaven, with all the saints and blessed spirits. spiritual flowers. the spouse in the canticles says that her hands distil myrrh--a liquor which preserves from corruption; her eyes are like those of the dove, in their purity; from her ears hang pendants of gold, as a sign of chastity; her lips are vermilion, the symbol of her modesty in speech; and her nose like the tower of lebanon, of incorruptible wood. such should be the devout servant of god--chaste, pure and unspotted in her whole soul and body.--_st. francis of sales._ clasp jesus closely to your breast; let him be a beautiful and sweet bouquet of flowers upon your heart, so that whoever approaches you may be conscious of the perfume, and know that the fragrance of your life should be of myrrh--the symbol of mortification.--_the same._ keep always close to jesus crucified, in spirit, in meditation, and in reality by holy communion. as he who is accustomed to lie down upon a certain species of herb becomes chaste and pure, so your soul and your heart will be very quickly purified from every spot and from every unruly desire when our lord, who is the true lamb of god, reposes upon your heart.--_the same._ example. _most pleasing to our blessed lord is our devotion to his mother._ st. teresa relates the following: 'don bernadino de mendoza, to testify his devotion to the most holy virgin, came to offer me his house, at pico de olmos, near valladolid, for a convent of our lady of carmel. to say the truth, i felt some repugnance to found a religious house far from a town, yet the offering had been made so cordially, and for so holy a purpose, that i considered i ought not to refuse it, and thus deprive the young gentleman of so much merit. 'about two months afterwards he was seized by a mortal illness, deprived of the power of speech, and died without having been able to make his confession. the divine master then said to me: "his salvation, my dear daughter, was in great danger; but i showed him mercy, in reward of the house he had made over for the foundation of a convent consecrated to my mother, under the title of carmel. however, he will not be released from purgatory until the first mass is celebrated in that convent." 'from that time my mind was ever occupied with the thought of his sufferings. the foundation of valladolid could not be formed as quickly as i desired. one day, when i was stopping at st. joseph's, at medina del campo, whilst i was at prayer, our lord said to me: "make haste, because this soul suffers much." after this nothing could induce me to delay. being arrived at valladolid, although the house was unhealthy, i prepared some cells, just for the time being, and provided merely what was absolutely necessary. when sunday arrived, notwithstanding the delay of the formal authorization, permission was granted to have mass celebrated on the spot which was destined for the church. i did not, indeed, believe that the promise of our lord regarding this gentleman would be fulfilled then; on the contrary, i was persuaded that the words, _until the first mass_, related to that mass when the blessed sacrament would be reserved for the first time in the church. but when the priest turned towards us, with the sacred ciborium in his hand, to communicate us, and i had approached the altar to receive the sacred host, i saw the gentleman by the side of the priest, full of joy and resplendent with light. he thanked me for all i had done to deliver him from the flames of purgatory, and then ascended to heaven. 'oh, how precious is any service, however small, that we are able to render the most holy virgin! who can tell how pleasing it is to our lord, and how mercifully he rewards it?' _prayer._--o mother! full of love and clemency towards us, you are penetrated with the same sentiments as your divine son, and you also say with him: 'whenever the sinner returns to me with sincere sorrow for his offences, he always finds me ready to receive him with kindness and tenderness. i think not of the malice, or the number of his sins, but i only look at the desire he has to be converted; and i am always disposed to implore a remedy for his wounds, because i am, in deed and in name, the mother of grace and of mercy!' o mary! since you never reject the sinner who returns to you with a resolution to amend, and since you have the power, as well as the will, to obtain the cure of all the wounds of the heart, behold me at your feet, full of confidence. behold, i beseech you, the deep and cankered wounds of my soul, and if you will deign to offer your prayers to your divine son for me, i shall hope everything for my eternal salvation. amen. _aspiration._--through your intercession, o tender mother, i hope to obtain the eternal happiness of heaven! _practice._--let all the good works of this day be directed to obtain the conversion of sinners. twenty-second day. mary chose the better part. we read in the gospel that martha, into whose house our lord had entered, was busy and troubled about many things in her anxiety to serve him, whilst her sister mary remained at his feet, listening to his words. martha was concerned about our lord's bodily comfort, but mary, laying aside every other thought, nourished her soul with the sacred instructions of her divine master. a soul, recollected interiorly before god, is sometimes so sweetly attentive to the goodness of her beloved as not even to be aware of its attentiveness, so simply and gently is it exercised. such souls are like those who navigate rivers the waters of which flow on so calmly that they neither see nor feel any motion. this delightful repose of the soul is called by st. teresa 'the prayer of quiet.' martha, moved by a slight sentiment of envy (which is an almost universal vice, affecting even devout souls), complained thus to our lord: 'master, hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? speak to her, therefore, that she help me.' our lord, who is infinite goodness, would not reprehend her seriously, although he knew the imperfection of her sentiments, but he called her by name, gently and affectionately (for the whole gospel is love), and said to her: 'martha, martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is necessary. mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her!'--_martha, martha, sollicita es et turbaris erga plurima; porro unum est necessarium. maria optimam partem elegit, quae non auferetur ab ea._ whilst martha was thus busy serving our divine saviour, mary had but one thought--to remain with him and hear his words. this was also the one thought of our blessed lady, the most holy virgin. observe her at bethlehem, where all her efforts to find a lodging were vain; she says not a word, utters no complaint, but retires into a stable and places the newborn infant in a manger! after a few days the magi come to adore him, and she receives in silence the praises addressed to her. she flies into egypt, but shows no sign of grief; she returns to judea without any manifestation of joy. on calvary, at the feet of her divine son, she opens not her mouth, but listens to his words, for to hear them is all her desire. indifferent to all things else, 'happen what will,' says she, 'whether he console me or afflict me, i am equally contented, provided i be near him and possess him.' thus does a soul abandoned to the will of god remain in his arms, like a child on the bosom of his mother. when she places him on the ground he walks, and when she takes him again in her arms he allows himself to be carried, and is in no way troubled to know whither he is taken. thus the soul cultivates tranquillity of heart, and advances continually in union with the divine goodness. the exercise of union with god can be practised by means of short but frequent aspirations of the soul to god, such as: 'ah, jesus, who will give me to be but one spirit with thee? i renounce all creatures and desire thee alone, for this is the one thing needful. ah! plunge my soul into the ocean of thy goodness, from whence it proceeds, and make me, o lord, wholly thine. draw me, and i will run after thy attractions, casting myself into thy paternal arms, and never again withdrawing myself from them.' a soul immersed in god dies not. how could it die if immersed in him who is life? it lives, then, but not in itself. as the planets do not shine in the presence of the sun, but the sun shines in them, so does it live, not, indeed, a natural life, but the life of jesus christ, who lives in it. in imitation of the blessed virgin we must make it our whole study to unite ourselves to our lord by advancing in perfection. let us not, however, forget that our best means for attaining to this is to remain tranquil, and place all our confidence in him who alone can give increase to that which we have sown and planted. our lord desires from us a peaceful solicitude, which will lead us to obey those who direct us and walk with all fidelity in the paths they point out. we should abandon ourselves in all things to his paternal care, and maintain peace of soul as far as possible, because our lord reposes in tranquil and peaceful hearts. when the waters of a lake are not agitated by the wind, the firmament with its stars is so vividly represented therein that, looking down into the deep, we can see its beauty as perfectly as if we were looking up to the heavens. so also when our souls are tranquil and undisturbed by superfluous cares or distractions, we are then well prepared to receive within us the image of our lord. but if the soul be disquieted, darkened, and agitated by the various tempests of the passions, and allows itself to be guided by them, and not by reason, which renders us like to god, it cannot reflect the beautiful image of jesus christ crucified and his most excellent virtues, nor can he rest in the soul. we must abandon the thought of ourselves to divine providence, for anxiety of mind and the desire to know if we advance in virtue is not pleasing to god, and serves only to satisfy self-love, which is a great busybody that seeks to have a hand in everything. one work well done with peace of mind is more meritorious than many works performed with agitation and anxiety. spiritual flowers. when the lily springs up from the earth it produces a number of long leaves, but as it grows higher the leaves near the flower are fewer and much smaller. these leaves represent our words. the more a soul progresses in the way of god and of perfection the fewer are her words.--_pere st. jure._ as the bees go all round their hive gathering honey here and there, and when they have collected it take pleasure in working it up, on account of its sweetness, so we meditate that we may acquire the love of god; and then we contemplate him, and are attracted by his goodness through the sweetness which his love causes us to experience. hence the soul is never satiated with considering and looking upon the divine beauty.--_st. francis of sales._ the occupations that are necessary for each one in his state of life are no hindrance to piety, but increase it and adorn the work of devotion. the nightingale loves its own melody when it is silent as much as when it sings; the devout heart also cherishes divine love no less when it is distracted by the external duties of life than when it prays. its action and its contemplation, its occupation, as well as its repose, equally chant the canticle of love.--_the same._ example. _beauty of the 'ave maris stella.'_ in this hymn are celebrated all the prerogatives of mary. she is the powerful mother of god and the most glorious of virgins--_dei mater alma atque semper virgo_--and at the same time the most sweet and humble of virgins--_virgo singularis inter omnes mitis._ the most holy virgin performs the function of advocate with her divine son in our favour, and offers him our prayers--_monstra te esse matrem._ she is the gate of heaven. she loosens the chains of sinners, guides the blind in the way of virtue, removes every kind of evil from us, and asks in our name for every grace necessary for us to reach the port of eternal life.--_solve vincla reis._ nothing is more appropriate to inspire us with a tender confidence in mary than the _ave maris stella_, for its verses contain considerations of time and eternity. let us, then, repeat it often, and mary will load us with benedictions, as many miraculous facts in the lives of the saints attest. indeed, this queen of heaven herself showed how dear to her is this hymn when she appeared one day to st. bridget, and thus addressed her: 'my son, the sovereign master of heaven, of earth, and of hell, can himself alone suppress all the powers of evil, from whatever source they may arise. i shall henceforth be a shield of defence for you and for the others against all the attempts of the enemies of your souls and bodies, on condition, however, that all your community meet together to sing every evening the _ave maris stella_.' the saint did not fail to fulfil punctually the will of the most holy virgin, and her example was followed by her confessor, and her daughter, st. catherine of sweden, who caused this pious practice to be adopted by all the convents of the order of st. saviour. let us then be glad to salute our most amiable mother frequently with this hymn of the holy abbot of clairvaux. however, we must not be satisfied with merely singing it; let us also carry it in our minds and in our hearts; and, above all, strive to be penetrated with all the affectionate sentiments it contains. let us pray to st. bernard to recommend us himself to the queen of angels, and obtain for us that she may be to us all that she was to him to the last instant of his life. most blessed virgin! be my strength, my guide, my mother! and let me never become unworthy to bear the beautiful title of child of mary. _monstra te esse matrem._ _prayer._--o holy virgin and mother of god! deign to succour those who implore your assistance. cast an eye of compassion upon us, and be moved at the sight of our miseries. o mother of grace! have you forgotten men in their tribulations and need, by reason of the sublime dignity to which you have been raised? no, without doubt your heart will be ever interested in our favour, nor can your great mercy ever forget misery so profound as ours. turn then towards us, and consider the many dangers to which we are continually exposed. god almighty has constituted you the depositary of his power and of his graces; pour them upon us in abundance, we beg of you. the more powerful you are, the more do i trust, o mother of mercy, that you will be singularly merciful to your afflicted children who have recourse to you. amen. _ejaculation._--o mary! you are able to succour me, and i hope your goodness will not refuse me this favour. _practice._--endeavour to recollect yourself frequently during the day, that you may act with greater purity of intention. twenty-third day. the blessed virgin did not neglect the duties of martha. the conduct of martha and mary give us another touching subject for our meditation. these two sisters well represent to us our lady. like martha the blessed virgin mary received her son our lord into her house, and into her most chaste womb, when he came into this world, and with incomparable care she always served him whilst he lived on earth, in reward of which he exalted her in heaven to an unparalleled glory. like mary, she listened to his words in uninterrupted silence, and occupied herself only in loving him. this glorious virgin exercised admirably in the course of her life the offices of both of these sisters. but as regards the office of martha, with what care and attention did she not serve our lord when an infant! what diligence did she employ in avoiding the anger of herod, and all the dangers with which his life was threatened! take notice that our lord reprehended martha because she was disturbed and troubled, not because she was careful. our lady, like martha, took great care to serve our divine master well--but her care was devoid of all disquiet and anxious trouble. the saints in heaven are zealous for the glory of god, but are not disquieted. the angels are careful in all that regards our salvation, and god himself has care of his creatures, but always in peace and undisturbed calm. to us, miserable creatures, however, this is difficult. some become suddenly disturbed because they cannot do what they desire; others wish to console and visit the sick, but if they meet with some hindrance they are immediately troubled; others will have a great affection for mental prayer, and although this relates only to god, yet even here human nature enters, and they will be disturbed and troubled if they are constrained to occupy themselves in some other employment. now would martha have been so much troubled if she had had no other end in view than to please our lord? no, certainly; because one only kind of food, well prepared, was sufficient for his nourishment, and, moreover, because she saw that the whole pleasure of her divine master was to be listened to, as was done by her sister mary. but martha mingled a little self-esteem with her desire to provide all that was necessary for our divine master; and this moved her to wish that her hospitality, in receiving those who honoured her with their visits, should be recognised. the good lady believed that by this external service she would become a great servant of god, and surpass others; and through love for her sister she wished that she also should be solicitous to serve the beloved master, and thus, as she thought, acquire more merit. but our divine redeemer was more pleased with the practice of mary, into whose heart he poured forth, through his divine words, graces surpassing all conception. this was the truth he wished also to inculcate, when he said, that those alone were blessed who should have listened to his word and practised it. all that anxious restlessness and eager desire to do something for our lord, which some devout persons look upon as real virtue, is then a manifest error, reproved by our divine master, when he said: _porro unum est necessarium_--'but one thing is necessary.' you may ask, in reply, but how are we to prevent being uneasy when we are under an obligation of practising virtue? this solicitude is certainly not blamable, provided it be not overanxious and troubled. invoke frequently the one beautiful dove of the heavenly spouse, that she may truly obtain for you the heart of a dove, and that you may not only be a dove in your flight towards heaven, by prayer, but also a dove in your nest, and with all those who surround you. unite the office of mary with that of martha: diligently fulfil the duties of your state. often cast yourself at the feet of jesus, and say to him from your heart: o my divine master, whether i go or stay, i am all thine and thou art all mine. thou art my only spouse, and all that i am going to do shall be for thee. as the birds have their nests in which to hide themselves when needful, so our heart should select and take possession of some spot every day, either on calvary or in the sacred wounds of our lord, or near him, whither it may retire on every occasion to defend itself in temptations and recreate itself after the many exterior affairs of the day. happy the soul that can truly say to our lord: you are my house of refuge, my secure home; my roof, in time of rain, and my refreshment under burning heats. a remedy, however, against so many anxious cares and troubles is to copy the practice of mary, because it was praised by our lord himself, who called it the best and the one thing necessary. now, this one thing necessary is nothing else than the exercise of divine love, which, as it contains in itself the perfection of all other virtues, produces their acts in due time and place, according to circumstances. in one word, then: _possess holy charity, and no virtue will be wanting to you, because all virtues are comprised in charity._ spiritual flowers. the most holy virgin mary is compared to an orange-tree laden with fruit, and diffusing the sweetest odour of lebanon. this means that all her thoughts, words, and actions were so perfect that, like an exquisite perfume, they delighted both heaven and earth: and that, like the pomegranate, they wore the crown of perfection.--_pere s. jure._ the bee sucks honey from flowers without injuring them, and leaves them as entire and fresh as he found them. devotion has this higher excellence, that it adds new beauty to all that it touches.--_st. francis of sales._ remember that when the bees make honey, they take bitter food; so, also, we can never make acts of greater patience and sweetness, nor form better the honey of excellent virtues than by eating the bread of bitterness and living a life of tribulation.--_the same._ example. _the 'magnificat.'_ the _magnificat_ is the first canticle of the new testament and the most magnificent canticle of holy scripture. it presents us with most sublime ideas of the greatness of god, and is sung on solemn festivals, whilst priests stand and incense the altar. we recite the _magnificat_ to thank god for all the graces bestowed upon the most holy virgin. it is the only work she ever composed, and contains mysteries far surpassing our understanding. hence this proverb was familiar amongst the ancient authors when they spoke of one who meddled with things beyond his capacity; such a one would _correct the magnificat._ the blessed juliana had a special affection for this canticle. speaking of it one day to the superior of a convent, she declared that she would not sacrifice the sweetness she experienced in reciting it for all the gold that the convent could contain. she repeated it nine times a day, in memory of the nine months that the most holy virgin bore the redeemer of the world in her womb; and she desired ardently that all would follow her example, believing it impossible that mary would not hear those who share in the joy she manifests in this canticle. cardinal j. de vitry, in the life of ste. marie de ogniez, relates that when this saint was near death, and was singing the _magnificat_, the mother of god appeared to her and told her to receive extreme unction, and she remained by her bedside in company with her divine son until the saint expired. st. anselm relates of himself that when he was afflicted with various infirmities, which occasioned him the most acute suffering, he was perfectly cured by reciting the _magnificat._ _prayer._--august mother of god, you are the queen of mercy, and i am the most miserable of sinners, and consequently your subject. you should then have greater compassion for me than for anyone less sinful. _eia ergo advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte._ o, our refuge and our advocate, turn one look of mercy towards us; interest yourself in our behalf; be moved to compassion for our evils, and obtain their cure. deliver us from our miseries, and we shall never cease to sing the hymn of praise to your mercy, of which we have experienced the salutary effects. amen. _ejaculation._--pray for me, o mother of grace, o mother of mercy! _practice._--whilst you fulfil the duties of your state in imitation of martha, endeavour to have your mind and heart turned to jesus as mary had. twenty-fourth day. mary in her sleep. we can begin to love god in this life, but it is only in the next that we shall be able to love him perfectly. in the expression _we_ i do not intend to speak of the most holy virgin, because she is the daughter of beautiful love, the one only dove, the perfect spouse. yes; the charity of mary surpassed that of the seraphim. 'if all the daughters have gathered riches, thou hast surpassed them all.' the saints and angels are compared to stars, but mary is beautiful as the moon, distinguished amidst the saints as the moon amidst the stars. as her charity surpasses in heaven that of all the blessed, so did she exercise it with greater excellence on earth; for never having sinned, even venially, her love never met with any obstacle, and thus increased at every instant. what progress, then, must she not have made in the exercise of holy love? say not that the most holy virgin, like all men, was subject to the necessities of life. it may be said, in the words of the canticles, that her sleep was the sleep of love, the celestial spouse saying, _'i adjure you, daughters of jerusalem, that you stir not nor awake my love till she please.'_ the queen of heaven and earth granted to her chaste body that repose only which was necessary to restore its strength, in order to serve god more perfectly; and we may say that her sleep never interrupted the exercise of holy love, because it proceeded from an act of most excellent charity. does not st. augustine teach that we must love our body, that it may serve us in those works which god requires of us, and because it forms part of ourselves, and is one day to share our eternal felicity? the most holy virgin, indeed, had other reasons to love her body with a virtuous love, because it was not only pure, submissive, and docile to all the functions of holy love and embalmed by divine sweetness, but it was, moreover, the living source of the sacred body of our saviour. thus it belonged to her in an incomparably singular manner, so that before yielding to sleep she could truly say to it, 'rest from your fatigues, o throne of the divinity, tabernacle of the new covenant, ark of all sanctity; recruit your strength through the repose which i allow you to take.' ah! sweet jesus! what must have been the thoughts of your most holy mother whilst sleep refreshed her body and her heart was watching! we may imagine that her most frequent thought was of her divine son, who had so often slept upon her bosom as the lamb reposes upon the soft wool of its mother. she would also feel that she rested in his adorable side, opened by the lance on calvary, as a white dove rests in the cleft of a rock. thus her sleep, which was a sweet repose and an agreeable solace to her body, became a kind of ecstasy to her soul, through the spiritual effects and operations it produced. if she also represented to herself her future glory, like joseph, the saviour of egypt, and saw herself clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet--that is to say, surrounded by the glory of her divine son, and resplendent with the glory of the saints who form her crown as she rules over the universe, of which she is the queen; or if, like jacob, she foresaw the wonderful fruits that angels and men would obtain through the redemption, o! conceive, if possible, children of mary, the delights caused by such spiritual entertainments! there is one kind of diamond which has this special property--that nothing can diminish its fine water or the brilliancy which nature has given it. the heart of the virgin mother, like this diamond, never ceased to glow with the sacred fire of love that she had received from her divine son. however, though the brilliancy of precious stones does not diminish, yet it does not increase; whilst the love of the most holy virgin never remained in the same state, but made continual and incredible progress until she entered heaven. with good reason, then, is our lady called the mother of pure love--that is to say, the most lovable amongst all creatures, and the most beloved by her only son, who is loved by her as the most lovable and loving of sons. spiritual flowers. forgetfulness of god is the sleep of the soul. the soul has been asleep all the time that it has forgotten its god.--_st. augustine._ the sleep of the saints is a prayer before god.--_st. jerome._ it is great blindness and misery to seek repose where it is impossible to find it.--_st. teresa._ example. _devotion to the 'salve regina.'_ st. bernard is celebrated for his love of the blessed virgin and for the praises he has rendered to her. his language is of such sweetness, that it surpasses that of all preceding ages for beauty and tenderness in discoursing of the blessed virgin mary. this saint seems to have gathered together and made his own all the most loving affections of the most fervent servants. mary was his ruling thought, and he could not restrain the transports of his heart when he spoke of her. the very mention of her name sufficed to render him ecstatic. with good reason, then, did peter the abbot of st. remigius, at rheims, say to one of st. bernard's adversaries: 'if you have the courage to touch the pupil of mary's eye, write against st. bernard.' this saint was commissioned to preach the second general crusade throughout europe, and when he had traversed france, belgium and the rhenish countries, he retired to the abbey of effinghem, to recollect his soul in that pious solitude. one evening the monks were moved to tears by a discourse of st. bernard's in praise of mary, and they begged him to intone the _salve regina_, which they sang every evening before her image. as the saint could not excuse himself, he devoutly intoned the _salve_ with his powerful voice, and was accompanied by all the monks. when the sweet words _et jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exilium ostende_ had been sung, all were silent (because at that time the anthem ended with these words). however, the inspired voice of bernard continued, and he gave expression to the sentiments of his heart in the three invocations with which it is now concluded: _o clemens, o pia, o dulcis virgo maria!_ these words were afterwards adopted by the whole church. it is in commemoration of this event that the _salve regina_ is solemnly sung every evening in the cathedral of spire. st. vincent de paul used to say that no prayer is so suitable to us miserable exiles in this valley of tears as this: _salve regina, mater misericordiae . . . ad te clamamus, exules filii hevae._ st. philip neri, having heard the confession of a famous criminal, spoke thus to him: 'my son, i shall require but little from you, and if you fulfil it i assure you that you will be saved. promise me to place all your confidence in the most blessed virgin, the mother of divine grace, and for this purpose recite the _salve regina_ seven times every day in her honour, and kiss the ground the same number of times, saying: "i may die this moment."' the penitent made the promise and kept it. he died holily fourteen years after, full of gratitude and love towards his good mother mary. _prayer._--most amiable heart of mary, object of the complacency of the adorable trinity, and worthy of the veneration of angels and of men; heart like unto that of jesus christ and its most perfect image; heart full of goodness and compassion for our miseries! oh, break the ice of our hearts, turn our affections towards the adorable heart of our saviour, and impress on them the love of your virtues. watch over holy church, protect it, and be to it an impregnable fortress, so that it may be secure amidst all the assaults of its enemies. be you our way to god, our succour in our trials, our consolation in sufferings, our strength in temptations, and our refuge in persecutions. above all things assist us at the point of death, when hell will exert all its efforts for our eternal ruin. let us then, indeed, experience the power you have over the heart of jesus, that we may find a secure asylum in the bosom of his mercy, and then, with you, praise him throughout ages and ages. amen. _ejaculation._--i sleep, o mother, but my heart watches. _practice._--endeavour to be reflecting upon some eternal truth when you fall asleep. twenty-fifth day. mary on calvary is the mother of all christians. our beloved saviour had instituted the sacrament of love that he might remain amid his children. he had poured forth all his blood for us, and he wished moreover to bequeath us a legacy in the last testament of his love. but what more could he give us? he casts a compassionate look upon his tender mother, who stands immovable at the foot of the cross with his beloved disciple. it is not to enrich her with his grace, for she already possessed it most excellently; nor is it to promise her glory, she was sure of it; but it is to infuse into her heart, before he died, a more tender and ardent love for men than she yet possessed. 'woman,' says he to her, pointing to the beloved disciple, _'behold your son!'_ what an exchange was this! the servant instead of the only son--the creature in place of the creator! and yet she does not refuse it, well knowing that she accepted for her children, in the person of john, all the followers of the cross of jesus, and that she was to become the beloved mother of all christians. although our lady gave birth to none but our adorable saviour, yet, in a spiritual sense, she brought forth all christians in the person of our saviour; because this blessed seed has begotten us all by his death. a seed when planted produces a tree, from which are produced other seeds, all of which may be said to belong to the original fruit from which the tree came forth. thus, as the most holy virgin brought forth this mystic seed, which when cast on earth, budded and brought forth many other seeds, she has consequently brought us all forth and has become the mother of us all. how much we ought to love the son and the mother! for they are our divine parents, and it is impossible to love one without loving the other. [ ] as holy church wishes to teach us to go to jesus through mary, she directs that the angelical salutation should follow the _our father_, that we may thus petition, through her, for all benefits, both spiritual and temporal, as far as these latter are conducive to our eternal salvation. we also implore the intercession of mary in order to receive the holy ghost, as it was through her that st. elizabeth received his gifts. honour and revere with especial love the holy and glorious virgin mary, for she is the mother of our god and saviour jesus christ, and therefore our most excellent mother. let us then have recourse to her as little children; let us cast ourselves upon her bosom on every occasion, and at every moment, with perfect confidence. let us appeal to her maternal love, endeavour to imitate her virtues, and cherish in our heart the true sentiments of children. in the ancient law much honour was paid to the ark, in which were preserved the manna, the rod of aaron, and the tables of the law. with much greater reason should we honour this living ark of the new covenant. indeed, what does the manna prefigure but the divinity of the son of god, come down from heaven to unite himself with our humanity? he is, also, the miraculous rod and the living stone upon which the commandments of the law of grace were written, being engraved upon his sacred body by the scourges, the thorns, the nails, and the lance. the immaculate bosom of our lady is then incomparably more worthy of honour than the ancient ark which prefigured it. o most holy and most happy lady, raised in paradise to the highest degree of beatitude and happiness! we beg you to have compassion on us who groan in the desert of this world. you are in the abundance of delights, and we in the abyss of miseries; obtain for us strength to endure our tribulations virtuously, always leaning on your beloved son, the only pledge of our hopes and remedy of our evils. o glorious virgin, pray for the church, assist the holy father, the prelates, bishops, and all superiors; and assist england especially, which by your devoted servant st. edward, was consecrated to you as your dowry: _dota mariae_. (translator.) you are the mother of jesus, who has deigned to become our brother, and hence you are our mother; why, then, shall we not cast ourselves into your arms with perfect confidence, invoking your maternal love and imitating your virtues? o god, what a blessing for us to be sons of such a mother! if we love and serve her with a truly filial love, she will enrich us with her favours. and, meanwhile, let us present her with the flowers of every virtue: but, above all, with the lily of purity, the rose of ardent charity, and the violets of holy humility and simplicity. she loves nothing so much as hearts deepened by humility, opened by simplicity, and enlarged by charity; and she prefers to be in the company of souls near the manger and at the foot of the cross; that is, with the poor and the afflicted, in order to succour and console them. [ ] happy the soul who, like a good child in regard of her parents, sees only jesus and mary, converses only with jesus and mary, and whose only joy and desire in this world is to know mary in jesus and jesus in mary. this is a wonderful means, given us by god, of spending our lives holily during our sorrowful sojourn in this present life.-- (j. j. olier.) spiritual flowers. mary is like a lily amidst thorns: she loves and suffers at the same time. when the thorns are blown about by the wind, they tear the lily on all sides; but it revenges itself by causing to exhale, through the apertures of its wounds, a sweet fragrance, which perfumes the thorns that have so cruelly wounded it. in imitation of mary, figured by the lily amidst thorns, let your only revenge for your afflictions be to increase your love for those who are the cause of your pains.--_pere avrillion._ mary is compared to the white lily, on account of her innocence and exemption from all sin; and as the lily is beautiful amongst the thorns where it has sprung up, so was mary distinguished amidst the women of judea. the lily loses nothing of its whiteness, although amongst thorns, and the august virgin, tortured in the person of her son, by the jewish deicides, preserved the innocency of her soul and the purity of her heart, rendering good for evil.--_st. francis of sales._ mary is that most beautiful and lofty cedar, from which god detached the finest branch, to transplant it on calvary.--_the same._ lose not sight of eternity, and the adversities of this life will not trouble you.--_the same._ example. _the 'regina coeli.'_ baronius and st. gregory of nyssa relate that in the year the city of rome was in danger of becoming a desert, on account of the number of persons who became victims to a terrible pestilence. st. gregory, surnamed the great, successor to pope gelasius ii., who had fallen a victim to this disease, saw that all human precautions and resources were of no avail, and he resolved to have recourse to the mother of god. he gave orders that the picture of the most holy virgin--which is believed to have been painted by st. luke--should be carried in a general procession of all the clergy and laity, as far as santa maria maggiore. the violence of the plague was such that eighty persons perished during the procession; but before its termination an angel was seen in human form above adrian's tower (called afterwards the castle of st. angelo, in memory of this event), sheathing a sword tinged with blood, as in the time of david; and from that moment the pestilence completely ceased. at the same time many voices were heard in the air, singing: _regina coeli, laetare, alleluia; quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia; resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia_-- 'rejoice, o queen of heaven, for he whom you deserved to bear has risen, as he said, from the grave; god be praised.' the holy pontiff immediately added: _ora pro nobis deum, alleluia_--'pray to god for us, god be praised.' this having occurred at easter, the church from that time ordered all the clergy and faithful to recite this antiphon during paschal season. _prayer._--oh! most desolate of mothers! what a sword has pierced your heart! all the blows which wounded your son jesus fell upon you. by his pains you were tortured, by his wounds you were torn. his last adieu renewed all your sorrows; but when he breathed his last sigh with what anguish was your heart oppressed, o mother of love and of sorrow! obtain, i beg of you, that i may follow your example in loving and suffering! yes, queen of martyrs, let me share your martyrdom. love gave you the cross, let the cross fill my heart with love; and if, to enable me to love, it be necessary that i suffer and die, obtain for me this grace, that i may love all that comes to me from god, whether it be sorrows, afflictions, or death. amen. _ejaculation._--pray for me, o queen of martyrs! _practice._--when you are tempted to complain, or to be impatient under opposition, reflect upon mary at the foot of the cross. twenty-sixth day. mary after the ascension of christ. god placed two beautiful luminaries in the heavens on the fourth day of the creation; one called the _greater_, the other the _lesser light_; the former to rule over the day, the latter, over the night. although god decreed that darkness should succeed the day, he, the increated light, would not allow the night to be entirely deprived of light. when, in his providence, he wished to create the spiritual world in his church, he placed in it, as in a divine firmament, two great luminaries. the greatest is jesus christ, our saviour and master--an abyss of light, and the source of splendour, the true sun of justice; the lesser luminary is the most holy mother of this divine saviour; a most glorious mother, resplendent and beautiful as the moon. the son of god came down upon earth, like the sun upon our atmosphere, to clothe himself with our humanity, and formed our light and day; a most longed-for day, which lasted about thirty-three years, during which time he illumined the church with the splendour of his miracles, his example and his doctrine. but the hour having at last arrived when this precious sun was to set and cast its rays over the other hemisphere--that is, heaven--what else could remain on earth but darkness and obscurity? and, in fact, night quickly spread around--the night of the many persecutions raised against the apostles. but that its darkness might be more tolerable, it also had its luminary in the person of the most holy virgin, who remained with the disciples and the faithful, after the ascension of her divine son. this we learn from st. luke: the most holy mary was with the disciples in the upper room on the day of pentecost, and persevered with them in communion and prayer. jesus christ would leave her still in the world: firstly, that as a luminary she might be the comfort of the faithful immersed in the night of tribulations; secondly, that by surviving her divine son she might acquire greater merit, so that it might be truly said of her-- many daughters have gathered riches, you have surpassed them all; thirdly, that her presence might be a convincing proof against the heresy that arose after the ascension of our lord, which held that he had not taken a natural body but one merely in appearance. thus, even in her lifetime, were verified in her regard the words of holy church, 'you, august virgin, have destroyed all heresies.' the most holy virgin lived after the ascension of her divine son until she reached the age of sixty-three; and thus this mystic ark of the new covenant dwelt under tents in the desert of this world. our divine lord, wished that his most holy mother should, after having been an example to virgins and to mothers, become the model of widows by her modesty and her love for the hidden life. widows may be compared to the little lowly violet, which has no brilliancy in its colour but has a scent which, without being too strong, is marvellously sweet. oh, what a beautiful flower in the church is the christian widow! lowly, through humility, and without splendour in the eyes of the world, since she flies from it; she is unable to meet the gaze of men when her heart no longer desires their love. the apostle st. paul orders his disciple st. timothy, to honour those _who are widows indeed;_ that is, those who are so in heart and mind. 'blessed,' says our lord, 'are the pure of heart and poor in spirit.' widows in spirit and in desire are deserving of the highest esteem; for what means the word 'widow' but need and destitution. honour, then, be rendered to those who are such in mind and heart, for they are humble and their protector is the lord! spiritual flowers. let it be your desire to see god, your fear to lose him, your sorrow not yet to possess him, and your joy to do everything that can lead you to him; you will then live in the abundance of peace.--_st. teresa._ remember that you have but one soul; that you will die but once; that you have but one life, and that a very short one; but one glory, and that eternal; your heart will then detach itself from everything.-- _the same._ the soul that loves god lives more in the next world than in this; because the soul lives more in the object of its love than in the subject which it animates.--_st. john of the cross._ the true widow of the church is a little march violet. by her devotion she spreads a sweet perfume. she usually keeps herself hidden under the leaves of her abjection, and her mortification is seen by her quiet, modest demeanour.--_st. francis of sales._ example. _a courageous son of mary._ the saints are accustomed to say 'my mother' when speaking of the blessed virgin mary; and some time ago, under the influence of this idea, a touching scene took place. a countryman was at leipsic, a town which may be called the heart of protestantism, where he entered by mistake the hall of a university, in which some lutheran doctors were disputing upon religion. he was recognised as a fervent catholic, by a medal attached to his rosary hanging from his pocket; and he soon became the object of the bitter derision of the lutherans. the good man, without being disconcerted, took a dollar from his old purse, and, throwing it on the table where the doctors were seated, exclaimed, 'well, then, who will bet with me which of us is the most learned in matters of religion?' the president laid down his piece of money; and then casting a glance of contempt upon the peasant's rosary, said to him, 'what is the name of the mother of god?' the pious peasant replied, in a most respectful tone of voice, 'her name is mary.' then, quickly turning to the doctor, he said, 'tell me the name of _my_ mother.' this question contained a mystery; a catholic would have penetrated it. and would have replied, 'she is called mary.' however, the protestant doctor was not sufficiently instructed to understand it. he remained silent, filled with spite at the ingenious and pious trick of the countryman, who, judging that he had come off victor, took up the two pieces of money, and said, with admirable calmness, 'gentlemen, when you dispute again upon religion, i beg of you to let me know.' he then retired; and the lesson was as perfect as it was well merited. _prayer._--o mary, my sovereign! o mother of my saviour! you are blessed amongst all women, pure amongst all virgins, the queen of all creatures. all nations call you blessed. let me exalt your greatness as much as it is possible for me to exalt it, and love you, as much as i can love you. may i call upon you continually and contribute to make you honoured, as far as i am able. i should wish to see the whole universe prostrate at your feet, and all hearts burning with your love, that they may all love your divine son, as you loved him in this world, and will love him for all eternity. i earnestly entreat this grace, o my mother, although i acknowledge and confess myself unworthy to obtain it. _ejaculation._--o holy virgin, enable me to speak of your greatness. _practice._--examine if the virtues of mary are to you as that lesser luminary in whose light you walk on in the way that leads to paradise. twenty-seventh day. mary in the upper room at jerusalem. the eternal father bestowed an incomparable gift upon the world when he gave it his only son. jesus christ himself said: 'god hath so loved the world as to give it his only son;' and st. paul exclaims: 'how has he not with him given us all things?'--_quomodo non etiam omnia cum illo nobis donavit?_ almighty god, in the ancient law, had bestowed an infinity of blessings upon his chosen people; but they were given according to measure. in the law of grace, however, he had no sooner seen his beloved son ascended into heaven than he opened his hands to pour forth his graces and gifts upon all the faithful, according to the prophecy of joel, that _supra omnem carnem_--'over all men' would he diffuse his holy spirit. if we desire to receive this divine spirit, let us beg our lord to bestow him upon us through the merits of his most holy mother, the glorious virgin mary, and through the love he bore to her; and we shall thus, like the apostles, be with _mary the mother of jesus_. we shall never understand how necessary is this condition. st. elizabeth had no sooner spoken to the most holy virgin than she was immediately, says st. luke, 'filled with the holy ghost.' nor is this a subject of wonder, because mary is the spouse of the holy ghost, the daughter of the eternal father, and the mother of the eternal son. the evangelist st. luke, by observing that men and women were assembled in the room, admonishes us that we must all hope to receive the holy ghost; but he mentions in particular the presence of _mary the mother of jesus_, to insinuate that she was there as the queen of the apostles. how mistaken, then, are those who say that we honour the most holy virgin too much! this august virgin, it is true, had already received the holy spirit and the fulness of grace in the annunciation, but in the upper room she received a great superabundance of grace. whoever, then, desires to receive the holy ghost, let him unite himself to mary; because he who separates himself from her, does not gather but scatters. let us serve her, honour her, that he who comes into our hearts, by her mediation, may also receive us by the same mediation. to conclude, we may learn a very useful lesson from the words of st. luke about the disciples when they had received the holy ghost: 'all spoke in divers tongues according as the holy ghost gave them to speak'--_prout spiritus sanctus dabat eloqui illis;_ that is, that though all spoke, yet they did not speak in the same manner. the apostles preached the new law; and those who did not preach publicly, animated one another to praise and magnify the lord. let us, however, understand that there is an efficacious method of speaking without even uttering a word, and it is by the good example which we give to our neighbour. david says: 'the heavens declare the glory of god. day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.' these words signify that the beauty of the heavens invites men to admire the magnificence of the creator. indeed, when on a clear night we contemplate the beauty of the heavens, we do not feel less animated to admire and adore the omnipotence and wisdom of god, who has studded it with such beautiful stars, than when we observe the inaccessible light of the sun in its full meridian splendour. what conclusion are we to draw from all this but that we, who are something more than all the rest of creation (since all things were made for us, and not we for them), should, by our good example, announce the glory of god more perfectly than the heavens and the stars. good example is a silent but a most efficacious influence. in this manner we can all preach, although we have not all received the gift of tongues. is it a less wonder to see a soul adorned with many sublime virtues than to see the heavens decorated with magnificent stars? how much, my god, do i need the spirit of strength when i feel myself so weak and infirm! however, i glory in my infirmity _that the power of my god may dwell in me_. let us glory in our weakness, which makes us fitting receptacles of the power of god. may he grant that this sacred fire, which can entirely change us into him, may transform our hearts into his pure love, that we may be all love and not lovers only. may he grant me also to receive and make good use of the gift of understanding, that my mind may be more enlightened to penetrate clearly the sacred mysteries of our holy faith; for this understanding has a wonderful power to subjugate the will to the service of him whom it recognises to be so good and so worthy of love, yet, as true love is active, we need counsel, that we may be able to discern how to exercise this love; and then our soul is excellently endowed with the sacred gifts of heaven. may the holy spirit, who favours us with his gifts, form our whole consolation, and be eternally adored by my mind and by my heart! may he be always our wisdom and our understanding, our counsel and our fortitude, our knowledge and our piety, and fill us with the spirit of the fear of the lord. spiritual flowers. mary is the root of jesse, upon whom the holy spirit rested. the son of the virgin is the flower thereof; a red and white flower, chosen amongst thousands--the flower upon which the angels gaze with continuous desire; a flower whose fragrance renews life; a flower of everlasting bloom, whose beauty is incorruptible, and whose glory will never fade.--_st. bernard._ mary is the root of that beautiful flower upon which the holy spirit rests with the fulness of his gifts. whoever then desires to obtain the seven gifts of the holy ghost, must seek the flower upon the stem; because we reach the flower through the stem, and through the flower we find the holy spirit, who thereon reposes. let us go to jesus, through mary; and by means of jesus, we find the grace of the holy spirit.--_st. bonaventure._ give your soul to god a thousand times in the day; fix your interior eyes upon his sweetness, in imitation of mary; place him upon your breast as a delicious nosegay, and make every possible effort to excite within you an impassioned love for this divine spouse.--_st. francis of sales._ there is no doubt that he who perfumes the world by the odour of his good example, thus teaching others the way of justice, will one day shine in eternity as a most splendid star in the firmament.--_the same._ example. _the prayer 'memorare.'_ st. francis of sales had received, in his youth, a miraculous proof of the protection of mary. being assaulted by a violent temptation to believe himself reprobated by god, he experienced such anguish that he compared it to the sorrows of death and the torments of hell. after a month passed in these desolating trials, earnestly desiring to be delivered from them, he humbly prostrated himself before a statue of the blessed virgin, and with great confidence recited the _memorare_, beseeching our lady to obtain from her divine son that, if he should ever have the misfortune of being eternally separated from his god, he might at least love him during the present lifetime with all his powers. the most holy virgin could not be deaf to such a petition, and francis quickly recovered the peace of heart he had lost. from that time he had the greatest confidence in this prayer, and recited it in every difficult undertaking, and recommended it warmly to all whom he directed. 'i remember,' says the bishop of belley, 'to have learnt this prayer from him, and in order to impress it more deeply in my heart, and to make use of it in all my afflictions, i wrote it down at the beginning of my breviary. i know, moreover, that he commended it much to the nuns of the visitation. he wished it to be repeated above all in times of great temptations, because the mother of god is as terrible to the enemy as an army in battle array; the blessed fruit of her womb having crushed the head of the infernal serpent.' it is generally believed that st. bernard was the author of this prayer. _prayer to ask for the seven gifts of the holy ghost._--august spouse of the holy ghost, most holy virgin mary, the inexhaustible source of grace, deign to obtain for me from your divine spouse the gift of wisdom, which may detach me from the goods of the world, and make me love those of heaven; the gift of understanding, which may teach me my duties; the gift of counsel, which may enlighten me in the way of salvation; the gift of fortitude, which may sustain my weakness; the gift of knowledge, which may teach me the eternal truths; the gift of piety, which may render the service of god sweet to me; and the gift of fear, which may inspire me with a holy respect and tender love towards the god of infinite mercy. ah! my continued resistance to the inspirations of the holy spirit have rendered me unworthy of such a benefit, but, aided by your prayers, i confidently hope to obtain from the author of _every perfect gift_ the graces that are necessary to live holily in this life, and thus one day attain to the eternal beatitude of heaven. amen. _ejaculation._--pray for me, o spouse of the holy ghost. _practice._--accustom yourself in every difficulty to say at once: _o mother of good counsel, inspire me!_ twenty-eighth day. how precious in the sight of god was the death of mary. according to the common opinion of the doctors of the church, when the blessed virgin mary had attained the age of sixty-three she died, or rather, she slept the sleep of death. but how is it, some will say, that our lord, who loved his holy mother so tenderly, did not grant her the privilege of exemption from death, since death is the wages of sin, and she had never sinned? how contrary are such thoughts to those of god, and how far removed are such judgments from his! we know that death became precious when our lord permitted that its blow should fall upon him, on the tree of the cross. certainly, the most holy virgin thought it no advantage or privilege not to die, but she always desired death, for she saw it lovingly embraced by her divine son. he had rendered it so sweet and desirable that the angels would consider themselves most fortunate to be able to die, and the saints looked upon it as a happiness, and therefore experienced great consolation in it. our adorable saviour, who is life itself, gave life to death by his own death, so that to those who die in the grace of god, it is the beginning of eternal life. consider this queen, dying of a fever, that was sweeter to her than health, because it was the fever of divine love, which, by burning up her heart, consumed it so completely as to open to her soul the way by which it flew into the arms of her divine son. all the saints die in the habit of holy love; but some amongst them die in the exercise of this divine love; others, on account of it, as the martyrs; and others, by its power. but the most sublime degree of holy love is to die of love itself; and this occurs when the soul is so inflamed by charity that it can no longer be detained by the bonds of the flesh. if it be true that such as is _the life of a man such will be his death_, what else can have been the death of the most holy virgin but the death of love? this is certain; because she who is called in the language of sacred scripture, the _mother of fair love_ could only die the death of love. we read not of ecstasies and raptures in the life of our lady, and for this reason, that they were continual. she loved god with so tender, so strong, and so ardent a love, at the same time so tranquilly, and with so much peace, that although her love went on increasing, the increase was not impetuous, but she continually, and almost imperceptibly, hastened towards this so greatly desired union of her soul with god, like a river that calmly flows to the ocean. the hour having then arrived when the most holy virgin was to leave the earth, divine love separated her soul from her body, and incomparably pure as it was, it flew directly to heaven. ah! what obstacle could detain her whom the celestial spouse calls 'his beloved, all fair and without spot'? our imperfections and the stains of our sins are the only obstacle to our entrance into heaven at the moment of our death; and it is these that are the origin of the flames of purgatory. the saints are ever burning with the fire of divine love; and by their exemplary lives spread a continual odour of sanctity in the presence of men and of god. this odour is incomparably increased at their death; hence the prophet says: 'precious in the sight of the lord is the death of the saints.' if, then, the saints are odoriferous and burning lamps, what shall we say of the most holy virgin, whose perfection immeasurably surpassed that of all the saints united together? if in life she was a burning lamp, fed with the perfumed oil of every virtue, what a fragrance must she have exhaled at the hour of her death! so great was this fragrance that young virgins, as we read in the canticles, were attracted by it: 'we will run after thee to the odour of thy perfumes,' 'the young maidens have loved thee.' spiritual flowers. the soul of mary was released from her body as naturally as fragrance sent from a flower and as the ripe fruit falls from the tree.--_st. francis of sales._ as the palm conceals its flower until the heat of the sun causes it to expand, so the just soul conceals the flowers of its virtue by humility, until our lord, by calling her to paradise, gives the highest degree of perfection to her love.--_the same._ the thought of death is not sad for a soul who loves god, because it is the beginning of her eternal happiness.--_st. john of the cross._ o death, most beautiful death! wherefore shall we fear thee, if in thee is found life? he alone should fear thee who has persevered in sin until his last breath.--_st. teresa._ example. _letters addressed to the most holy virgin._ persons filled with lively faith often write letters to the blessed virgin mary, placing them at the feet of her image, or upon their heart, on some solemn occasion; and this practice is very dear to her. it is no new practice: for we see, from the sacred books and the history of the church, that the most remarkable men made use of it to obtain some special grace. king ezechias carried into the temple the insulting letter addressed to him by zennacherib, and laid it on the altar as if to invite almighty god to read it, and his prayer was heard, as we read in the fourth book of kings. the emperor theodosius, about to fight against eugenius, wrote to st. ambrose, to beg him to recommend the expedition to the god of armies. the saint, during mass, took the letter into his hands, and presented it to god. the result of the battle is well known. when the angelic doctor, st. thomas, met with some difficult passage in holy scripture, he wrote down the difficulty and placed it on his heart when he went to celebrate mass, and the difficulties vanished. our lord looks upon prayers addressed to the blessed virgin and to the saints as though they were made to himself. if we wish to obtain some grace, let us write a letter to mary, and place it upon our heart before we approach holy communion. st. stanislaus kostka, desired to die on the eve of the assumption, that he might assist at its celebration in heaven. he wrote a letter to our blessed lady for this purpose, and, on the feast of st. lawrence, placed it on the altar, asking the saint to present it to the queen of heaven. the same day he was attacked by a most burning fever, and after four days went to celebrate the feast of his dear mother mary in heaven. _prayer_ (of st. alphonsus liguori to obtain a happy death).--o mary! what will be my death? when i think of the moment which is to decide my eternal destiny, i fear and tremble at the sight of my sins. o mother, full of goodness, the blood of jesus christ and your patronage are alone my hope. ah, console me in that terrible moment, o consoler of the afflicted! if i am now tormented by remorse for my offences, through the uncertainty of pardon, the danger of falling again, and the judgments of god, what will it be at that moment? i am lost if you do not fly to my relief. o my sovereign lady, obtain for me, before my death, lively sorrow for sin, true amendment, and entire fidelity to god; and may i at that moment invoke you more frequently, that i may not despair at the sight of my sins. pardon me my rashness, o my queen; but i beg you also to come yourself to console me by your presence, you have granted this favour to so many of your servants, and why should not i also hope for it? it is true i do not merit it; but i love you, o mary, and confide in you. i expect then your presence and assistance, that i may go forth from this world loving god, and you also, my holy mother, and never cease to love you through all eternity. amen. _ejaculation._--do not abandon me at the hour of my death, o my most holy mother! _practice._--spend this day as if it were the last of your life. twenty-ninth day. mary, like jesus, dies of divine love. our lady died of divine love, like her adorable son. the foundation of this belief is, that having but one life with her divine son, she could have but one and the same death. in reality, they were two distinct persons; but they had one heart, one soul, one mind, one life! if this was said of the first christians; if jesus christ lived in st. paul, because his spirit was dead in the heart of his saviour, with much greater truth could it be said that jesus christ and his most holy mother had but one heart and one soul, and, consequently, one life; for there never was a mother so loving or so much loved; and the quality of mother and only son gives us the idea of all that is most perfect and most excellent in love. if the apostle st. paul could say that he had no other life than that of his divine master, with greater reason could mary, the mother of this amiable master, say: 'i have no other life than that of my divine son: he lives in me and i in him.' and having lived the life of her son, she must have died the death of her son. this death was prophesied to her, by holy simeon, in these words: 'thy own soul a sword shall pierce.' three kinds of swords can pierce the soul: the first, the sword of the word of god, which, in the saying of the apostle, 'is more penetrating than a two-edged sword'; the second, the sword of suffering and sorrow, according to the prophecy of simeon; and the third, the sword of divine love, of which jesus christ speaks: 'i came not to bring peace, but the sword.' now, the soul of our lady was pierced by all these three kinds of swords in the death of her son. when a heavy blow falls upon an object, everything near it feels its effects. thus, although the body of the most holy virgin was not united to that of her divine son in his passion, yet, her soul being inseparably united to him, it follows that all the blows with which his blessed body was bruised wounded her soul. love causes us to feel the afflictions of those we love, as we see in st. paul, who was weak with the weak, afflicted with those in tribulation; and yet the soul of this apostle certainly was not so closely united to the faithful as the soul of our lady to the soul and body of jesus. no wonder, then, that the thorns, the nails and lance, which pierced the head, hands, feet and side of our lord, pierced also through and through the soul of his mother. truly may we exclaim: o most holy virgin! how deeply was your soul pierced by the love, the suffering, and the words of your son! and, oh, how deep a wound love gave you, when you saw the son, who loved you so much, and who possessed all the affections of your heart, expiring through love! how bitterly did sorrow, too, wound your soul, when you saw the sufferings that led your only son to death! and, as for his words, like a strong wind they inflamed your love, excited your sorrow, and almost engulfed the vessel of your heart in an ocean of grief. love caused mary to be penetrated with sorrow; and the sufferings of her son were expressed in words that pierced her heart like darts. and, as a stag wounded by the hunter, flees with the arrow fixed in the wound, to die afar off, and sometimes, long after it has received the blow; so our lady, wounded by the sword of sorrow in the passion of her son upon calvary, survived the wound she had received many years, but at last it caused her death. oh, loving wound! oh, sword of charity! how dear and beloved wast thou to the tender heart which thou didst pierce! the philosopher aristotle narrates that when the wild goats of candia are wounded by a dart, they have recourse to the herb dittany, and by means of this plant the dart comes out of the wound. ah! who is there that does not feel his heart wounded by the thought of the passion of jesus christ, contemplating him scourged, crowned with thorns and crucified? but, alas! i scarcely dare to say it: the greater number who are pierced by this dart run quickly, like those goats, to the dittany of worldly consolations in order to remove from their heart the wound of divine love. the blessed virgin, on the contrary, zealously preserved this dart, and it formed all her glory and her triumph. spiritual flowers. thorns are the flowers of calvary, and sufferings the flowers of the cross; and this is the support sought for by the languishing love of mary.--_bossuet._ oh how sweet will death be to the christian who has done penance for his sins during life! he will pass instantly to the ineffable joys of paradise.--_st. teresa._ mystical death is accompanied by a sweetness and a satisfaction a thousand times greater than the full life of the senses.--_p. milley._ the more a soul knows the perfections of god, the more does the desire to see him increase within itself.--_st. john of the cross._ the happiness of dying without regret well repays us for living without pleasures.--_the same._ example. _the fourteen joys of the most holy virgin._ st. thomas of canterbury had the pious custom of reciting seven _ave marias_ every day in honour of the seven joys of our lady upon earth: the annunciation, the visitation, the birth of our lord, the epiphany, the finding in the temple, the resurrection, and the ascension. one day the blessed virgin appeared to him, and said: 'thy devotion, thomas, is very pleasing to me; but why dost thou commemorate only the joys i experienced whilst on earth? henceforth, be mindful also of those that i enjoy in heaven; i assure thee that i will console and present to my son, at the hour of their death, all those who during life shall have honoured the latter, as well as the former joys.' the holy archbishop, filled with consolation at these words, exclaimed: 'but how can i do so, most holy virgin, when i know not these joys?' the august mother of god then taught the saint to recite seven _ave marias_ in honour of the following joys: the honour that the most holy trinity conferred upon her above all creatures; the excellence of her virginity, which raised her above the angels and the saints; the splendour of her glory, which illuminates heaven; the veneration paid to her by the blessed, on account of her dignity of mother of god; her power with her divine son in our behalf; the graces with which she was enriched when on earth, and the reward reserved in heaven for those who are devout to her during life; finally, her accidental glory, which will continually increase until the day of judgment. many saints have practised this devotion with fruit, and a great number of the devoted servants of mary have made use of it to honour their august mother. _prayer of st. alfonso maria di liguori._--mary! i acknowledge that you are the most beautiful, the most holy, and most amiable of all creatures. ah! would that all knew you, o holy virgin, and loved you as you deserve. i rejoice that you are so revered by all the blessed in heaven, and by so many faithful souls on earth, but especially that you are so much loved by god. most amiable queen! i also love you, miserable sinner that i am, and i desire to love you more; obtain for me, then, this love, o my dear mother, because it is a sign of predestination. i know that you will help me, and by your help i shall conquer, if i cease not to recommend myself to you. but i fear that i may not always invoke you in occasions of danger; succour me then always, o mary, my good mother, and never permit me to offend my god. amen. _ejaculation._--in your love do i wish to live and die, my blessed mother! _practice._--offer an act of mortification to god, through the blessed virgin, for those who are to die this day. thirtieth day. the death of mary was sweet and tranquil. as the peaceful morning dawns, not by fits and starts, but steadily and gradually, so that its progress is scarcely perceptible, so did divine love increase in the heart of our lady, the glorious virgin mary. her progress in charity was tranquil, uniform and uninterrupted, so that she continually pursued her course towards the divinity whom she loved. consider that love is, in its nature, calm, tranquil, and full of sweetness, and becomes violent only when it meets with some opposition. but if its dominion in a soul be undisputed, and if nothing oppose its progress, then it works steadily and gains its victories with ease. we may understand, then, how the heart of the mother of pure love experienced all its power, without any impetuous movement, for in her there was no resistance to overcome. observe the course of great rivers: when the bed is not level and the current is encumbered with masses of rock, the waters splash and foam, and roll back again with a great noise; but when the bed is smooth the waters flow on placidly and without effort. such is the case with holy love, when it meets with obstacles,--and where does it not find them? it is constrained to struggle with a kind of violence against the human inclinations that oppose it; to use force, and make great efforts in order to bend the will, to remove impediments, and to open a passage for itself to the heart it seeks to possess. in the blessed virgin, however, everything favoured and seconded the attractions of grace and of divine love, and although her love was incomparably greater than that of any other creature, it continually went on increasing with the greatest calm and sweetness. if iron were not held down by its weight it would find no obstacle to the continued attraction of the magnet, and its strong and even motion would continually increase in proportion as the iron and magnet drew nearer to each other. thus it was with the most holy virgin at her death. as there was nothing in her that could impede the action of divine love, she became more and more closely united to her adorable son through sweet ecstasies, until she became, so to speak, immersed in the bosom of his goodness; and thus, without even knowing it, she quitted her body and was reunited to her divine son in heaven. it was fitting that as love had produced the sorrows of death in this divine mother at the foot of the cross, so death should in its turn, produce the sovereign delights of love. ah! may this most holy virgin obtain for us, by her prayers, grace to live in holy love, and may it alone be the object of all our desires, and of all the affections of our hearts! spiritual flowers. st. gregory says that the pomegranate, by its bright red colour, its beautiful corona, and numerous seeds so well arranged, sweetly represents charity. charity is red, by the ardour with which it burns for god, is adorned with the variety of every virtue, and obtains and wears for ever the crown of eternal rewards.--_st. francis of sales._ bees never sting so sharply as when they are themselves mortally wounded. how can we fail to be wounded with love for our adorable saviour, when we contemplate him wounded for us, even unto death and the death of the cross; to be wounded, i say, with a wound the more painfully loving, as his was more lovingly painful; nor can we ever love him as much as his death and his love merit.--_the same._ example. _novenas in honour of the blessed virgin._ in the various tribulations of life, in great afflictions, dangers and temptations, when we require special assistance from god, an almost certain means to obtain it is to make a novena in honour of the most blessed virgin mary. how many souls have been heard by god, by having had recourse to the most holy virgin through a novena! the children of mary apply themselves with special devotion and fervent piety to the celebration of her festivals, and, in return, the blessed virgin obtains for them an abundance of heavenly blessings. st. gertrude saw one day a great number of souls under the mantle of mary, guarded by her with warm affection, and she understood that they had prepared themselves, by devout exercises of piety, for celebrating the feast of the assumption of our lady. _prayer._--o queen of paradise! raised above all the heavenly choirs, seated at the right hand of your divine son, i prostrate myself at your feet, miserable sinner that i am, and conjure you to cast upon me those eyes of mercy which bring grace and the friendship of almighty god wherever they are turned. observe, o most holy mary, in how many dangers i am of losing my soul, and shall always be as long as i am on earth; but i place all my hopes in you. i love you, my mother, with all my heart, and wish to love you for ever. ah! pray to your divine son for me; tell him to protect me, and he will assuredly have compassion on my poor soul. o my sweetest and most compassionate mother, in this hope do i rest, and wish also to live and die. amen. _ejaculation._--o mary! love gave you the cross! may the cross give us love! _practice._--examine what would give you most fear if you were going to die now, and begin earnestly to amend. thirty-first day. the resurrection and assumption of the blessed virgin. there can be no doubt whatever that our lord fulfilled towards mary the precept which he gave in general to all children to honour their parents. indeed, where is the son who would not raise his mother from the grave to lead her to paradise, if he had it in his power? the great triumph of the assumption of the blessed virgin is celebrated by all the saints, and by the whole church militant. after the ark of the covenant had dwelt for a long period under tents and pavilions, king solomon ordered it to be placed in the marvellous temple he had prepared for it. the joy of the hebrews on that occasion was so great that the blood of the sacrifices flowed through the streets of jerusalem; the air was filled with clouds of incense, and the houses and public squares resounded with harmonious music. but, o god! if the solemnity of the reception of the ark was so great, what must have been that of the most glorious virgin, mother of the son of god, the true ark of the new covenant, upon the day of her assumption! o incomprehensible joy! festival of wonders! which makes all devout souls who are the true daughters of jerusalem, exclaim: 'who is she that goeth up from the desert leaning upon her beloved?' the entrance of the most blessed virgin into heaven was the most magnificent that ever could or can be witnessed after that of jesus christ. she ascends from the desert of this lower world, so perfumed with spiritual gifts that, except in the person of her divine son, she has no equal in heaven. the queen of saba, coming to jerusalem to have a proof of the wisdom of solomon, brought with her a great quantity of perfumes, gold, and precious stones. but, when the most holy virgin entered heaven, she carried with her such an amount of the pure gold of charity, so much perfume of devotion and of virtue, and so many precious gems of patience and of suffering, that we can safely say no one ever had so great an accumulation of merits to offer her divine son! yes, indeed, she abounded in delights, because during her life on earth she had abounded in good works and in sufferings. we may say that, in one sense, the assumption of our lady was even more glorious than the ascension of jesus christ; because the angels only were present at the ascension, whilst at the assumption of our lady the king of angels himself attended her. what a triumph was it for heaven, and what a consolation for earth! ah, let us in spirit dwell and live in heaven, because there is our treasure and our life. o my god! how beautiful is heaven now that its sun is our blessed saviour, and his bosom is the source of love, where the blessed drink and quench their thirst! if we look up there, we shall see our names written in characters of love, which can be read only by love, and engraved only by love. o god! and will my name also be there? let me trust so; because although my heart burns not with ardent charity, it has, however, its desire and its principle, and bears written upon it the sacred name of jesus, which i hope nothing will be able to cancel. o what a joy for us when we shall see those characters denoting our eternal happiness! as for me, although those eternal blessings occupy all my desires and affections, yet all paradise would be nothing to me if i did not find there the never-ending love of the eternal god, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. let us bear in mind that jesus christ looks upon us from heaven, and sweetly invites us to come and enjoy the delights of his goodness and the abundance of his love. the most holy virgin also invites us as a mother, saying to each of us: 'courage, my child; despise not the ardent desires of my son, and my sighs and petitions for thy salvation.' and yet, how often have we not preferred the miserable vanities and bitter pleasures of earth to those incomparable joys! ah, faithful souls; let us henceforth accept the favours which the most holy virgin and the saints offer us. let us promise them to walk quickly on towards heaven; and let us take hold of the hand of our good angel-guardian, that we may never again stumble, but happily reach the gates of a blessed eternity. spiritual flowers. the qualities of the material rose vividly represent the attributes of mary, the mystical rose. the perfume of the rose signifies the joys of the most blessed virgin; its thorns represent to us her sorrows; and the beauty of its colour her glory in heaven. mary is the beautiful lily who looks down from her high throne upon all other flowers, and sees them inferior to herself.--_st. john damascen._ the difference between material and spiritual rose-trees is this, that in the former, the roses fade and the thorns remain; whilst, in the latter, the thorns pass away and the roses remain.--_st. francis of sales._ example. _the novena of st. gertrude to the blessed virgin._ st. gertrude, a benedictine nun, cherished a great devotion to the most blessed virgin. on the eve of the annunciation she had a vision, in which she seemed to see her religious sisters offering nosegays of sweet flowers to our lady. these were collected by our lady and placed on her bosom, and she then adorned them with precious stones, and offered them to her divine son. the saint understood that those flowers were the afflictions which these daughters of mary and spouses of jesus had endured with christian resignation, during the course of the novena, preceding the festival. another time, whilst st. gertrude was reciting the _ave maria_ in choir with her religious sisters, she saw three streams come forth from the most holy trinity and meet together in the heart of the blessed virgin, descending from her and flowing over those who during these days recited this angelical salutation. it was on this occasion that she was taught to salute our lady, at least once a day, in these words: _illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte_, and was promised that, if she per severed in this practice during her whole life, she would receive the greatest consolations at the hour of her death. _prayer._--o mary, sovereign of the universe! our joy, our support and our defence! interest yourself in my favour before god, and obtain that i may be one day called to enjoy the happiness of heaven! i beseech you, o ever immaculate virgin; i know you to be omnipotent with your divine son, for the salvation of sinners, and for the consolation of the afflicted, and i also know that you have need of no other recommendation than that of our miseries, for you are by excellence the mother of mercy. amen. _ejaculation._--o my tender mother! help me to live always united to your divine son jesus. _practice._--consecrate yourself generously to mary, and renew this consecration every saturday. act of consecration of st. francis of sales to the most holy virgin. _in concluding these pious exercises of the month of mary let us, in the spirit of st. francis of sales, recite the following act of consecration, which he often repeated to the queen of heaven, and in which the beauty of his soul and the purity of his heart are well depicted._ i salute you, most sweet virgin mary, mother of god; you are my mother and my mistress; and therefore, i entreat you to accept me as your son and your servant; i wish to have no other mother than you. i beg you, then, my good, and gracious, and most sweet mother, to deign to console me in all my troubles and tribulations, both spiritual and corporal. remember, most sweet virgin mary, that you are my mother, and that i am your son. you all powerful, and i poor, weak and vile. nevertheless, i beseech you, o sweetest mother, to keep me and defend me in all my ways and in all my actions, for, alas! i am poor and wretched, and in need of your most holy protection. do, then, my beloved mother, preserve and deliver my soul and body from all dangers and evils, and make me share in your blessings, your virtues, and, in particular, in your holy humility, your surpassing purity and your ardent charity. tell me not, gracious virgin, that you cannot do so, because your son gave you all power in heaven and on earth. neither tell me that you ought not to hear me, for you are the common mother of all poor mortals, and of me in particular. if you could not grant my prayer, then i should excuse you, saying: it is true that she is my mother, and that i am her son, but she is not able to help me. if you were not my mother, then, indeed, i should have patience, saying: she is rich enough to be able to assist me, but, alas! not being my mother, she does not love me. but since, most sweet virgin, you are not only my mother, but are also powerful, how can you be excused if you do not console me, and come to my relief and assistance? you see, my mother, that it is difficult for you to reject any request that i may make you. be, then, exalted in heaven and on earth, glorious virgin and dear mother mary, and, for the honour and glory of your divine son jesus, accept me for your son, without regard to my miseries and sins. deliver me from all evil of soul and body, obtain for me every virtue, and first of all humility; and bestow upon me all the benefits and graces necessary to make me pleasing to the most holy trinity, father, son, and holy ghost. amen. the end. --- r. washbourne, printer, paternoster row, london. miraculous prayer. august queen of heaven! sovereign mistress of the angels! thou, who from the beginning hast received from god the power and mission to crush the head of satan; we humbly beseech thee to send thy holy legions that, under thy command and by thy power, they may pursue the evil spirits; encounter them on every side: resist their bold attacks, and drive them hence into the abyss of everlasting woe. amen. _'who is like unto god!'_ an indulgence of days is attached to the devout recital of this prayer. etienne, _bishop of lausanne_. --- all ye holy angels and archangels keep us and defend us. amen. --- o good and tender mother! thou shalt ever be our love and our hope. --- a prayer in time of temptation. o divine mother! send thy angels to defend me, and drive the cruel enemy from me. _these prayers were approved by the archbishop of tours, and the bishops of bayonne and nantes in the year ._ --- origin of the miraculous prayer. a pious priest of the diocese of bayonne, the abbe cestac, is the founder of two religious congregations in the aforesaid city, viz., the servants of mary, who devote themselves to the work of the sisters of the good shepherd, though not cloistered: and the bernardines, who are contemplatives. to one of these devout religious the blessed virgin deigned to make the following communication, which is contained in a letter from the abbe cestac to m. dupont of tours. '_anglet, near bayonne._ 'sir, 'it is not exactly correct to say that the blessed virgin appeared to a good, simple saint of the community, but rather, i should say, that this soul received a supernatural communication from this divine mother, or at any rate conceived she had received such communication from on high. she was at prayer, when a ray of divine light illumined her soul. she saw in spirit the vast desolation caused by the devil throughout the world, and at the same time she heard the divine mother telling her that it was true that hell had been let loose upon the earth; but that the time had come when we were to pray to her as queen of angels, and when we were to ask of her the assistance of the heavenly legions to fight against these deadly foes of god and of men. '"but, my good mother," answered this soul, "you who are so kind, could you not send them without our asking you?" '"no," she answered; "because prayer is one of the conditions required by god himself for obtaining favours." 'and the soul believed she heard the prayer i send you. naturally, i was made the depositary of this prayer, and my first duty was to submit it to my lord bishop, who has benignly deigned to approve of it. it was then that our lady made known to me that i should get it printed at the expense of her work, and distribute it gratis. since that time, this prayer has received the approbation of their lordships the archbishops and bishops of tours, of toulouse, of besancon, of tarbes. it is being reprinted at lille, it is being translated into spanish, and spread far and wide. (signed) 'cestac, 'priest of the diocese of bayonne.' it would appear that the devil was terribly enraged at the publication of this prayer, for the abbe cestac in a recent letter to m. dupont tells him that the very day on which he sent to tours , copies with an offering of francs for the tomb of st. martin (sent to him for that purpose), a large building three storeys high, was cast to the ground: while a similar misfortune befell the same community at another of their establishments, some distance off. in neither case, however, was anyone hurt! this occurred on the th of november, , feast of st. martin of tours. the abbe cestac adds that providence came to the aid of the good religious, and enabled them to restore their injured property. it is likewise affirmed that seven printing presses were broken while in the act of printing the prayer, and that the only place at which it could be printed was at le puy, where there is a celebrated shrine of our blessed lady, to which crowds of devout pilgrims flock. --- _copies of this "miraculous prayer" at s. the can be had of_ r. washbourne, paternoster row, london. concise portrait of the blessed virgin. she was:-- . a true admirer of god. . a real lover of her son. . a virgin, both in body and mind. . humble of heart. . grave in speech. . prudent in counsel. . given to labour. . reserved in discourse. . fond of reading. she excelled:-- . in faith. . in modesty. . in piety. . in silence. never did she:-- . offend her parents. . despise little ones. . deride the weak. . slight the poor. it was a principle with her:-- . to serve god above all. . to live in retirement. . to cause nobody trouble. . to do good to all. . to honour the aged. . not to envy her equals. . to shun vainglory. . to love virtue. . to follow right reason in all things. there never appeared anything light or frivolous: . in her gait. . in her air. . in her discourse. . in her behaviour . in her looks. . in her actions. --- _copies of this "concise portrait" at s. the can be had of_ r. washbourne, paternoster row, london. books for the month of may. --- our lady's month; or, short lessons for the month of mary, and the feasts of our lady. by very rev. a. p. canon bethell. mo., cloth, s. our lady's month; extracts from the writings of cardinal manning, cardinal newman, the saints, and others. by j. s. fletcher. mo., cloth, d.; better bound, s. corona beatae mariae virginis. thoughts about the blessed virgin, for every day in the year, taken from the writings of the saints. mo., cloth, s. regina saeculorum; or, mary venerated in all ages. devotions to the blessed virgin from ancient sources. fcap. vo., cloth, s. mary foreshadowed; or, considerations on the types and figures of our blessed lady in the old testament. by the very rev. father thaddeus, o.s.f. fcap. vo., cloth, s. the child of mary's manual. compiled from the french. with ordinary of the mass. mo., cloth, d. rules of the children of mary in the world. d. children of mary card of enrolment. beautifully designed, exquisitely coloured. with inscription. folio, s. little office of the immaculate conception. in latin and english. the latin text has the approval of the congregation of sacred rites ( th may, ), and to which the indulgence is attached. the english version is by provost husenbeth. with imprimatur of the cardinal archbishop of westminster. mo., cloth, d. chats about the rosary. by margaret plues. fcap. vo., prettily bound, s. d. the lord's prayer and the hail mary. tales for the young. by edward cox. fcap. vo., prettily bound, s. --- london: r. washbourne, paternoster row.