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loving. Seeing when her friends wanted, perhaps before they were keenly alive themselves to their extremity, as may be said, rising from the symbol of her circumstances and conduct to spiritual considerations and interests, she told their situation in prudent, quiet prayer to the Lord. Charity to man is supplication to God. It is invocation followed by action. They who would have the grace must use the means, and be content to take the blessing in the Lord's form and season. Though He did not meet Mary's request in her way and moment, yet she would be prepared, and get others ready to hear and obey His command, whatever it might be, and whenever spoken. Having consulted the Master of masters, she addressed the servants of His servants, and kept them awake and expecting to serve Him. Speak first to God, and then accordingly to man. They have all in readiness for the profit of themselves and others, who have all in readiness for His pleasure. Observe and recommend the golden rule of the mother of our Lord, "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." His part is to direct; and every instruction from Him is a benediction. We are to wait or work, according to His will.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BLESSED.

"And it came to pass, 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. But He said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it."-LUKE xi. 27, 28.

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"AFTER this,” soon after the Lord's "beginning of miracles at the wedding-feast, "He went down" from the higher ground on which Cana stood, to the lovely fertile plain fourteen miles below, "to Capernaum," famous in His subsequent history, at the northern extremity of the western shore of the Galilean Sea; "He and His mother and His brethren and His disciples." The brethren of Jesus, now mentioned for the first time, but frequently afterwards, were at least four-James, Joses, Simon, and Jude. We read also of His sisters, two or more, the plural being used; but their names are not recorded. As James and Joses were common names, it is not certain that the so-named sons of a Mary who witnessed the crucifixion were the two brethren of Christ so called; but this is not unlikely, no statement occurring to the contrary, and considering the fact that cousins and other near relatives were often denominated brothers and sisters. The Mary referred to was not the Lord's mother; for in that case she would have been so distinguished, and not as the mother of James and Joses.

She must have been one of the Marys mentioned in a list with the mother of Christ in the parallel passage—“There stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." It is not probable that daughters of one mother, living at the same time, would be named alike; and it is not necessary to conclude, as a first reading of the passage suggests, that the wife of Cleophas was the Virgin's sister. Four women may be spoken of, the name of the second, her sister, not being given. If the mother of Jesus had other sons, would not our Lord, when dying, have commended her to their care, and not to that of the beloved disciple? It is needless to remark that He could not have had brothers older than Himself; but the men who are called His brethren seem to have been older. Whenever introduced, they have the aspect of mature age; and their demeanour towards Him on several occasions implies that they were His seniors. They endeavoured to wield authority over Him, appearing to have assumed, perhaps at first on the ground of His youth, a protectorship of Himself and Joseph's widow. The Apocryphal Gospels, which mention sons of the carpenter by a former marriage, ascribing to them the same names as those of Christ's brethren, have too evidently taken those names from St Matthew, and created the half-brothers to escape a supposed difficulty in regard to the non-essential doctrine of the perpetual virginity. If they were older sons of Joseph, it would have been a question whether Jesus was the legal heir to David's sceptre. The fact that they are always plainly called the brethren, not once the cousins of the Lord, may be attributed to their close association with Him in the observation of the public. Of two of them, from their mother being named Mary, it may be inferred, that their

relationship to Jesus was not on His mother's side. His so-called brethren were most likely nephews, or other near kinsmen of His foster-father. As Simon and Jude are not mentioned with James and Joses as children of the second Mary, they may have been the offspring of another sister, or of a brother of Joseph.

The Lord's motive in going to Capernaum was not only or chiefly to accompany Simon, Andrew, John, and Philip, whose homes were in the neighbouring town of Bethsaida. For His relatives and Nathanael there was certainly another inducement. As appears from the account immediately following, they were proceeding to the Passover. It is true that Capernaum was north-east of Cana, whereas the holy city lay far away in the south; but the sea-town of Galilee would be the meeting-place of pilgrims. "And they continued there not many days," only long enough for the caravan to be assembled and constituted. The permanence of Mary's piety is seen as a member of the Hebrew Church. A favourite psalm with her may have been that beginning, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem."

At that Passover Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, conversed with Nicodemus, wrought miracles, and was believed in by many. Not a word is on record as to how it fared with Mary. Leaving Jerusalem, but remaining awhile in Judea, the Lord taught His disciples, and permitted them to administer baptism. To prevent dissension between them and John's followers, He returned to Galilee, travel. ling through Samaria, where He instructed the woman at Jacob's well. On His arrival in the tetrarchate, He dismissed His five disciples to their homes. Once more in Cana, not leaving the town for the purpose, He healed a

in the

nobleman's son dying in Capernaum. The Galileans gene-
rally received Him with honour, on account of His wonderful
works at Jerusalem; but when He preached in Nazareth,
which had been blessed for so many years
synagogue
with His visits, His undiscerning townspeople tried to
throw Him over a precipice, and compelled Him to remove
from the house on the hill-side where He had spent most of
His life with His mother. She undoubtedly accompanied
or followed Him; but nothing is said about her. He now
sought "where to lay His head" in Capernaum, exalting it
unto heaven. There He gathered His disciples again, and
added Matthew to their number; not far thence He
preached the Sermon on the Mount; and from that town
He repeatedly made the circuit of Galilee. His mother
must have heard many of His discourses, and witnessed
not a few of His miracles, in and around what was now
"His own city" or headquarters; but she is as if laid in the
tomb with Joseph. The month of the Passover recurred,
and again the voice and hand of the Lord electrified
Jerusalem. Going back to Galilee, He taught, itinerated
and did wonders as before, and made up His band of
apostles. In organising His incipient kingdom and Church,
did He not give Mary a position of the highest rank and
honour? Her name all the while is not mentioned. He
left her a private disciple.

At length we hear of her again. Jesus spoke about her twice in the same day. As He was publicly teaching in Capernaum, a woman in the crowd exclaimed, "Blessed is she who bore Thee!" This expression of approval and regard, proverbial among Gentiles as well as Jews, and not unmatched in popular sayings of the present day, was the natural utterance of what she felt and thought. Her heart was in her mouth. If we had not on record the Lord's

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