Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

and walked in triumph over the threatening sea. Now He had not eluded His persecutors. If He should die, what would become of her? She had survived the loss of Joseph, but could she live after the decease of Jesus? It would be wrong to give way to unavailing lamentation. Weep she might, but not in frenzy and despair, like a bereaved heathen wife and mother. Was there no God in heaven? Was there no help on earth? Had this Marah of Bethlehem no remaining friend towards whom she might be allowed to cherish a mother's love? no faithful Ruth? no honourable Boaz? no devoted John? The Judge and Husband of the widow would throw around her His providence, and comfort her with His love. She should sing as before, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour;" and Elisabeth's remembered words. would come to pass again, "Blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord." While none can be so troubled

as she was, all who have trouble may, by the grace of God, imitate her silence and self-command. With more light upon and from the cross, they should have a shield of loving faith to resist whatever sword. "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." "Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."

In the Son as well as the mother the troubled may see themselves, and what they ought to be; and happy they are if in them Jesus sees Himself. He was not so taken up with even His unequalled sufferings that He could think and speak of nothing else. Having wept for those who wept for Him, prayed for those who murdered Him, and felt for those who were crucified with Him, now He sympathised with His sorrowing mother. He Who in

Capernaum called His disciples His nearest relatives, on the point of death gave two of them His farewell commands. Not only like Mary, they are like Jesus who, bowing to the will of God, remember the afflictions of their neighbours, and say as little as possible of their own. "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." He never moved His lips on Calvary to curse, but used them to intercede, advise, and bless. His heart yet throbs. He is still the Divine Man, and "claims a share in all our pain." He would have us as nearly as possible like Himself. The second table of the Decalogue shines on our High-Priest's breast. From the cross, the monument and throne of perfect charity, He commands the Church in John and Mary, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." He instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Communion to keep us close to His bleeding feet, and make us one in Him. He says with His dying breath to this disciple, Regard such an one as thy son; to that, Treat such an one as thy mother; to the assembly, "Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous." By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another." Reconciliation, concord, and affection, in the name of the crucified Master and Saviour, are the title of admission to the sacred repast, and of ultimate entrance into heaven. Christ's Spirit is in His people. They are not oppressors, slaves, aliens to one another, but fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, a family of heavenly love. The Church is home.

66

CHAPTER XIV.

THE UPPER ROOM.

"And when they were come in, 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 Alphæus, 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. 13, 14.

ALL the words of Jesus Christ on record respecting the Virgin Mary have been considered; and it has been seen that in every case, with tone no doubt gentle and unoffending, He made use of decisive language. Speaking to her and of her, He repeatedly, directly and indirectly, positively and negatively, proclaimed His official independence. It is written plainly that He appeared to other women after His resurrection, and we readily own it probable that Mary more than once saw and heard her risen Son and Saviour, and was among the witnesses of His ascension; but, as if to confine our gaze to the Living and True Way, the inspired volume keeps her now entirely out of sight till He Who burst the sepulchre ceases to be visible. It is not the so-called Queen of Heaven, but "the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle," Whom the inhabitants of the celestial City welcome. Scripture intimates, not that she had the least part in winning and wearing the great victory, but only that, in common with

all disciples, she enjoyed its blissful consequences. She was not at the side of the "King of Glory" in His ascending chariot, nor did she at the same time enter the everlasting doors; she was left behind to follow in her turn with other believers.

Do they who record the Saviour's doctrine adopt and perpetuate it? What more has the Holy Ghost caused to be written concerning Mary? If she is to the Church what Papists say she is, the writers of the New Testament, especially St John, must have published many particulars of her life and death. The passage prefixed to the present chapter is the first and last allusion to her after the notice of her appearance upon Calvary, and therefore the only chance left of scriptural authority for her adoration.

Romanists say that the very fact that no inspired record exists of any appearance of Jesus to her after His resurrection is a proof of her pre-eminence, contending that every person to whom it is testified that He showed Himself after quitting the grave required the manifestation as a means of correction. "Not a single person is recorded to have had any share in the appearances of our risen Saviour, upon whom the sacred narrative has not set some mark of blame with reference to them; either for error or for ignorance, for weakness of faith or for positive incredulity; and it would seem that the sight of Jesus which was vouchsafed to them was intended as a distinct remedy for the evils under which they laboured."1 Therefore, it is argued, it was not necessary that it should be written that the risen Lord was seen by Mary. But if we accept the assertion and the reasoning founded on it, it was necessary; for, as we have seen, Mary had been on several 1 Northcote.

[ocr errors]

occasions checked and reproved by the Master. If like others she had needed being put right before His death, she was likely with the rest to want assistance and instruction afterwards. "We are told of Peter and John, when they had visited the empty sepulchre, that as yet they knew not the scriptures, that Jesus must rise again from the dead.' John says, however, in the verse preceding that containing this statement, that he understood this prophecy before actually beholding the risen Lord. "Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed." Why should the Virgin know more than other disciples "the scripture, that He must rise again from the dead"? She needed as much as any its interpretation by a sight of the risen Redeemer. If, on the other hand, it had been written, what we are far from denying to have taken place, that the Lord did appear to her for her illumination and comfort, this, no doubt, would have served her votaries equally well as a demonstration of her immeasurable pre

eminence.

In ten days will be the feast of Pentecost; and strangers are therefore coming from all quarters to the holy city. We do not know whose house this is, in a street comparatively retired, though busy enough at present, like every other in Jerusalem; but suppose it to belong to the mother of John surnamed Mark. At the top of it, projecting over, is the usual spare room, a commodious chamber reserved for private readings of the law, for the reception of company, and for being let to pilgrims at the national festivals. Strange that at such a season, but for the person in charge, the building seems vacant. It will be filled presently. Approaching the door are plain-looking men and women from the provinces, who have taken

« ZurückWeiter »