THE BLESSED AMONG WOMEN.

"Blessed art thou among women."-LUKE i. 28.

IN a former page we have inferred, upon the ground of an appositeness, the interposition of unfallen angels, as agents in ministering the will of God to the heirs of a blissful immortality. A similarly pleasing view may be taken of the part it has pleased Divine Providence to allot to woman in reference to the salvation of mankind. At first the instrument of the ruin of the human race, she is afterwards selected as the instrument of human redemption. At one time, the medium of the temptation of Satan; at another time, the medium of the mission of the Saviour; now, the channel of the enmity of hell; anon, the exalted and chosen receptacle of the grace of heaven; in the beginning of the first dispensation, the occasion to our species of death; at the commencement of the second, the occasion of life, even life everlasting.

Thus do we discover a peculiar meetness in this pleasing arrangement of a gracious Providence. And it will surely infuse into the hearts of all who desire to dwell on the delightful principle of moral restitution, a spirit of greater thankfulness to God, that she, who, through the temptations of Satan, sustained so prominently evil a position in the first paradise, has been since, by virtue of the incarnation, adopted to bear so exalted a part in the economy of redeeming love, as initiating, through the great event, the joys of the second and better paradise. Well might Elizabeth, being "filled with the Holy Ghost," re-echo the angelic salutation"BLESSED ART THOU AMONG WOMEN."

Very brief is the Scripture history of the mother of Jesus. Imagination, being fostered by superstition, has largely supplied the supposed deficiency of the sacred narrative. But, beyond the facts of inspiration, there is nothing at all reliable on as authentic record. No doubt, in this limitation of the revealed history of the virgin, the foreknowledge of the Spirit had in

view the diminution of every vestige of material which folly or wickedness might possibly work up into the idol Maryolatry. The Creator has done nothing to transfer the name of the mother of the Saviour to the "calendar of the saints," as an object of adoration, although the Divine Word has made it illustrious in connexion with the genealogies of man. She was of the city of Nazareth, of the tribe of Judah, and of the household of David. Besides being a descendant of royalty, she was connected by ties of blood with the line of the priesthood in the person of Zacharias. Her parentage, however, sustained an humble sphere of life. But the fact will serve as a noted illustration of how true rank and humility can dwell harmoniously together in the same breast, and lodge amicably in the one home. The blood of kings may flow in the veins of the inmate of the cot, as well as in those of the occupant of a throne. Never did palace display higher qualities of humanity, than did the lowly residence of Mary of Nazareth. She who lay in the manger of

Bethlehem had an ancestry famous among the

kings of Israel, and her first-born "Shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end."

Unlike her first-born, Mary of Nazareth had none of the essential elements of divinity in her person; humanity, unmixed and alone, was her portion. Infidelity has seized upon the admission, as unfavourable to the truth of the sinless humanity of the Saviour, alleging the impossibility of sinless flesh being made the medium of that which is sinless, as, also, of a Divine nature being in anywise evolved from one merely possessing human qualities. But let it be recollected that He, whose office is to sanctify, could so purify the "womb of the virgin," as that the person of Christ should be indeed entitled to be termed, "That holy thing." "She was found with child of the Holy Ghost," is the significant expression of the sacred historian. The Christian, besides, has all his surmises here set at rest by the express suggestion of the Spirit, when, as if

anticipating the objection, He records this address of the angel to the virgin-"For with God nothing is impossible." Luke i. 17. This is verily the Word which solves the enigmas of the incarnation. We know not how man, originally of the dust of the earth, became a living soul. Science is utterly unable to explain the process. The fact, however, cannot be disproved. We believe it on the Divine testimony, and our own consciousness re-echoes the angelic assurance, applicable to our own creation, as well as the incarnation of our Lord-with God nothing is impossible.

Popery, ever following, though, perhaps, unconsciously and reluctantly, in the track of infidelity, has, as if to place the question beyond the reach of the sceptic, identified the nature of the mother with the sinless character of that of her Son. The incarnate Son is immaculate, and, therefore, it is argued, the incarnate mother must have been immaculate. The solution, it must be confessed, would be as satisfactory as it is simple, provided only the basis of it were