Christian canticle is undoubtedly suitable for Christian worship. Our faith destroying our fear, we may celebrate by means of it Jehovah's greatness and goodness. Have we not in our own circumstances, experiences, and anticipations, reason to praise the Lord and exult in God our Saviour? Has He not regarded our low estate, and raised us from sin and misery to holiness and blessedness, or to the possibility and hope of His salvation? If we sing or hear sung the Magnificat, let us learn in the use of it to worship God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Let us adore and serve the Lord our Saviour in the spirit of Mary's canticle.

Let us further strive to be like the Virgin in the recollection and use of Holy Scripture. Her hymn was founded on the Word of God treasured in her mind. Memory and heart should be stored with inspired sentences, that by them the Holy Ghost may inspire praising and praying thoughts. The Old and New Testaments bound in one, illuminated in every page with the Spirit of prophecy, and teaching throughout the merit and mediation of Jesus. Christ, are the true basis for devotional exercises. Derived from the Holy Bible, and chanted by the sincere soul, musical expressions of divine truth are God's heart throbbing as well as man's. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."

CHAPTER III.

THE NATIVITY.

"Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is, God with us."-MATT. i. 22, 23.

No law existed to prevent a betrothed Jewish maiden visiting her relatives; and all concerned knew that Mary could nowhere be safer than with Zacharias and Elisabeth, who "both were well stricken in years," and "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." She stayed with them till close upon the Baptist's birth; the anticipation of her presence then being inconvenient, and a desire to avoid the company which the event would occasion, giving her courage, we may suppose, to face her friends in Nazareth sooner than otherwise she would have ventured to return.1

Espousing was an engagement formally made in the presence of witnesses, and sacredly binding as marriage itself, of which it was a necessary preliminary. It took place at the woman's home, the residence of her father or guardian; and she was not removed to her husband's dwelling, when ready for her, till after the second and greater ceremony.2 Mary was not married, but still only betrothed, when she went 1 Luke i. 26, 56. 2 Deut. xx. 7; xxiv. 5; Judges xiv. 7, 8.

back to Galilee; for she "returned," not to the house of Joseph, but "to her own house."

1

In the abode of Zacharias, had she not been like the patriarch when, in his retreat from the Flood, he anxiously let fly the raven and the dove, "to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground"? Had she not more than once, or Elisabeth for her, sent to Nazareth, before she would leave her refuge in Judea? How could she have gone home again before making sure of a reception at least tolerant among initiated friends? It may reasonably be imagined that she had taken counsel with her cousin what to do; that Elisabeth had consulted the venerable priest, who, while dumb and deaf, still could write; that, by their advice, and with their help, communications had been opened with Joseph, giving him carefully the history of Gabriel's revelations to Zacharias and Mary, and information of what was accordingly coming to pass, and of the inspiration that had made his betrothed and Elisabeth divinely eloquent; and that his replies, at first expressive of indignation and shame, had gradually assumed more of the character of the dove, until at length had appeared the olive-leaf, perhaps the judicious and generous carpenter in person, inducing the maiden to forsake her ark.

Whether before she quitted Judea, or after her return to Galilee, it was a critical negotiation. Joseph was "minded to put her away." When common sense began to sleep in the Church, dreamers taught that he cherished this intention out of veneration for Mary. He was making her his wife; but, it is said, finding that she was the bride of Heaven, he would piously let her go. The true reason is stated by St Matthew. Grieved and perplexed, he believed that she had forfeited her claim upon him, and, "being a just man,” 1 Luke i. 62, 63.

felt that he must disown her in the manner prescribed by the law. His apparent duty was to give her a writing of divorcement; but that would be a dreadful step, and, his goodness including kindness, he could not take it without patient consideration. "He thought on these things." If the strange stories of Zacharias and the women did not quite satisfy him, they were entitled to respect. His chief concern was not to inflict needless degradation. Rather than brand Mary with infamy, he would himself incur a measure of reproach. There should be no more exposure or formality than was necessary. The least he could do was to give her, in the presence of two witnesses, without disclosing his reason for so doing, a bill of divorce. "Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily."

Providence and prophecy are angels in the path of Mary, and speak in turn as they guard and direct her course. God's special care of her is shown in the dispersion of the doubts of Joseph, whose continued friendship was of great importance. The saving of her character was a blessing; but for more than that her heavenly Father linked her to the carpenter. She would need an intimate human adviser, protector, and guide in many trying and painful circumstances, as on the occasion of her flight into Egypt, and during her sojourn in that idolatrous country. The reputation of her Offspring would be secured, people being enabled to speak of Him as "the Son of Joseph."1 And the Holy Child would be watched over and educated in a loving and godly home. Providence had betrothed the Virgin to "a just man," honourable, thoughtful, and devoted, qualified in every way to have charge of her and her Son; and now, when it seemed an impossibility, but was a necessity, their

1 John i. 45.

marriage was divinely brought about. By the grace of God, Joseph was kept from being precipitate, and infinite wisdom came to his help. Tempted to call Mary a dreamer, or worse, at last, like Joseph of the Old Testament, he was himself taught in a dream.

"While he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord," probably the same who had been seen and heard by Zacharias and Mary, "appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife" (so sacred was the bond of espousement among the Hebrews, that a man's betrothed was already called his wife 1); "for that which is conceived. in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and," as Gabriel had also instructed Mary, "thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins." "Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife." He now fully believed all that, with perhaps a degree of contempt, he had heard from Zacharias and Elisabeth and their gentle guest; and, instead of putting Mary away, resolved to have her under his immediate care. Far from being his disgrace, she and her Offspring would be his pride, exaltation, and honour. He would make her acquainted with his inspired dream without delay, and with his altered views and purposes; and then what a load would be removed from her mind, as from his own! To the Virgin it would be equivalent to God's saying again every word He had spoken by the angel to herself and Zacharias, and by the Holy Ghost to the mother of John the Baptist. Thus her faith was perfected.

Another demonstration of God's special providence is the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the House of Bread;

1 Deut. xxii. 24.