I

LECTURE III.

MARY, THE MOTHER OF THE CHRIST-CHILD.

DIVIDE my lecture on "the Mother of our Lord,"

into two parts, the first exhibiting this wonderful woman from her first appearance on the stage of sacred history to the boyhood of her divine Son; and the second embracing the period from the entrance of her Son on his public ministry to the close of her eventful life.

Mary, as a figure in history, has been overdone and underdone.

Not the Venus of Grecian and Roman mythology, springing from the foam of the sea, wafted by the moist-blowing west wind along the waves to Cyprus, having the grass to spring up wherever her dainty foot touched the earth, clothed with immortal garments, led into the assembly of the gods where each one falls in love with her; having an embroidered girdle which possessed the power of inspiring love in all who beheld it; moving on a chariot drawn through the air by swans; worshipped in wood and stone in all the great cities; possessing more than angelic beauty, and presiding over all births and burials--not this Venus has had more absurd and ridiculous things said of her, written of her, believed of her, than the mythi

cal Madonna, the fancied mother of Jesus Christ. According to these "legends and traditions" she was immaculately conceived; at three years of age she was taken to the temple to receive the blessing of the high-priest, escorted by Israelitish women with burning tapers in their hands; there, like little Samuel, she was received as a servant of the house of the Lord and was fed by angels, they bringing her fruits to eat from the tree of life and water to drink from the river of life. In her fourteenth year the high-priest informs her that he has received a message from God that she must wed. All the widowers of the land are called to the temple, that she may from them select a husband. One by one with golden rod in hand they pass by the wondrous maiden till Joseph presents his rod, when a dove flew out of the end of it and alighted on his head; and that settled the question as to who her husband should be. At the birth of Christ angels poured the water to bathe the infant, held the towels, and acted as playmates for the heavenly child. In the flight to Egypt angels hovered along the route, and bent over to their reach the limbs of trees that they might have fruits. At her death the Apostles were summoned from all parts of the earth where they were living to receive her parting injunctions, and when she died Jesus Christ with a convoy of angels came down from heaven to receive her soul. After three days (this is properly called the assumption), she rose from the dead. and ascended to heaven surrounded by troops of angels, where she took her station at the right hand of God there to be associated with her son in the work

of intercession and redemption, one divine office after another having been ascribed to her. She commands her son with maternal authority, is transubstantiated with him into the bread and wine of the eucharist, and is honored as "the Queen of Heaven." She has often come down to earth to succor her devotees; innumerable chapels are erected in her name; and seven festivals are held in her honor-that of the annunciation, the conception, the purification, the nativity, the visitation, the presentation, and the assumption. Large numbers of minor festivals are locally celebrated; and all Saturdays of the year, and the month of May are sacred to her.

Dr. Smith, in his "Bible Dictionary," asks in regard to the Cultus of Mary, "What was its origin? Certainly, not the Bible. There is not a word there from which it could be inferred; nor in the creeds, nor in the fathers of the first five centuries." Whence, then, did this mythical view of Mary, the pure, excellent, but humble woman who bore the Saviour, arise? I answer alliteratively, from three sources; Paganism, Painting, and Poetry. The world was full of mythological ideas. The stories of gods and goddesses filled the brightest pages of classic literature, and were easily transferred to new religious objects. As many of the Jews converted to Christianity wished to engraft the principles of Judaism as to circumcision, the Sabbath, etc., on the simple principles of the gospel; so converts coming from paganism wished to associate ideas with which they had been long familiar with these plain principles.

When I was in Rome, I was struck with this disposition to paganize Christianity in the very edifices and monuments of antiquity. The temples where ancient gods and goddesses were worshipped have been converted into Christian churches, so-called, but really into Museums where gods in stone (very fine stone it is, true Parian marble, but still stone) are worshipped, the god most adored with many being the artist who chiselled the masterpiece. Michael Angelo's Christ, in the ancient temple of Minerva, is a notable illustration of this remark. In the church, where the ancient temple of Jupiter once stood, a wooden god is worshipped, called the Bambino, which is an image of the infant Christ. The superstitious believe that it can work wonders. The walls of the church are frescoed with scenes of sick people coming to the baby for cure, and receiving instant relief. It is covered over with diamonds that have been given by persons cured, and it is said it has been thus covered many times. When it gets full of these valuable jewels, the priests take them away to the treasury to make room for more. As a diamond gatherer that wooden baby has perhaps never had an equal.

If thus much is made of the baby, you may rest as sured that the mother is not neglected in that church. At Christmas, it is here that the great "manger" celebration takes place. The temple, which in ancient times was called the Pantheon, a wonderful building that has been at once the admiration and despair of the architects of all ages, which was then the temple of "all gods," is now the "Church of All Saints." On

pedestals where once stood statues of Jupiter now stand statues of Peter (Jew-Peter as Dean Swift has said), and in place of the finely chiselled statues of Venus now gleam the sculptured masterpieces of the Virgin Mary; for whatever else of paganism could be left out, the divine woman could not be. It is true that Mary is a very different goddess from Venus, the goddess of love, or from Minerva springing full armed form the sky, or Vesta keeping alive sacrificial fires; but she is a goddess still-a goddess of suffering, mortification, and motherhood. Can you not see how paganism has thus put its stamp on Christianity?

The second thing to which I attribute this exaltation of Mary is painting, that wonderful art that so wins upon the popular mind. Great artists must have great subjects. Pagan artists had as subjects gods and goddesses; Christian artists had Gods indeed, for they painted not only Christ, but God Almighty himself (as in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel at Rome by Michael Angelo); but they must have a goddess also, and a fit subject they found in the "Mother of God." Consequently thousands of grand paintings were everywhere to be seen of the Madonna. You may literally behold acres of such pictures this very day, and but for the effect they have had of encouraging Mariolatry we should be grateful for the enthusiasm which existed on the subject, for it gave rise to the golden day of art. The finest pictures in Europe are the pictures of the Madonna. Nay, the masterpiece of Raphael (which is the masterpiece of the world) is the Sistine Madonna in the Dresden Gallery,