V.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.*

"And it came to pass as He spake these things, that a certain woman lifted up her voice and said to Him, Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts that gave Thee suck."

LUKE, Xi. 27.

It is not unknown to you, my Brethren, that greatly as we Catholics love the Mother of our Lord, there are, on the other hand, many in the world who regard her with feelings of dislike or of disapproval. To our Protestant brothers she is not, unhappily, what she is to us. With them her name is a name to be, not, perhaps, exactly hated, but to be at all events in some sense ignored. Like her Son, she is

* This sermon was preached on the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it was preached in the Chapel of the Convent, George's-hill. The nuns of that Convent belong to the Presentation Order. In the congregation to whom the sermon was addressed were, firstly, the Sisters of the Convent; secondly, a number of the "Children of Mary;" and, thirdly, such other laics as the Convent Chapel could accommodate. These remarks will explain the bearing of some allusions made in the sermon.

set up for a sign to be contradicted. If every generation was to call, and has called her blessed, still, many in each generation have grudged her the name. And many are grudging it to her even now. Generally speaking, no clear, direct charge is preferred against her in those present days, as was very much the custom in past days of ignorant, unthinking prejudice-it being pretty well known now that, against her, no clear, direct charge can possibly be sustained— but, by sidelong sneer and cunning inuendo, attempts are often made to bring suspicion upon her character. The old, cowardly plan of winking and head-shaking where open accusation might possibly be dangerous, is a plan of calumny still very much in vogue. It is about the only plan that is now used against the Virgin Mary. She is made to answer for the sins or stupidities of others, when she cannot be made to answer for faults or follies of her own. No one denies the beauty of the moon; no one blames the moon if all her beauty is but the sun's reflection. But then, foolish people can come to say that the moon is wont to madden human brains. And so of our Blessed Mother. Every one has to admit her surpassing glory; we on our part have no desire to conceal that all her glory comes to her from her Blessed Son. But then, we insist that that glory shall be duly admitted. And indeed very few, if they are Christians at all, are hold enough to deny that glory now. But still many, very many-good Christians, perhaps, in other ways-are bold enough to insinuate that our Mother's

glory has dazed the minds of her devoted sons, and that for the folly of the children the Mother herself is much to blame.

Nevertheless, my Brethren, despite all this, it is still sublimely true, in the first place, that the Virgin Mother is blessed among all. In the whole list of God's mere creatures, there is not one that comes near to her. She is, not alone spotless-the angels are spotless too-but she is filled full of perfections to which neither angel nor archangel can make a claim. She is simply, after her Son's Humanity, the greatest work of God's hands. Many and marvellous things have these hands fashioned, but, save and except the human soul of Jesus, they never fashioned anything that even approached in excellence to the soul of Mary. Around the great white throne of God are gathered many angels and many saints, simply overwhelming in their riches of perfection. Love, and purity, and intelligence, and valour, have their choicest productions there. The Michaels, and the Josephs, and the Thomases, and the Pauls, are each wonderful enough, but far and away, above and beyond all, is Mary, the Queen and Mother of all for evermore.

And hence, my Brethren, does it come to pass that, heedless of unbelievers, the Church is ever straining herself to honour Mary more and more. Her heart is never at rest from thinking of God's mother. It is true enough that the first great problem of her life is to induce her sons to honour Jesus; but it is also

true that the second great problem of her life is to induce her sons to honour Mary. Rather, perhaps, I should say, that the first great problem of the Church's life is to induce her sons to honour Jesus, and that the main method-so closely are the Blessed Two associated in the Church's mind-the main method in which she proposes to honour Jesus is by gaining honour for His Mother, Mary. And hence is she perpetually putting before her sons the claims to honour that Mary owns. The purity, and humility, and kindliness of God's Mother are constantly recalled to the memories of the faithful. But to no point of view of the Virgin does the Church so often direct attention as to the general view of her unrivalled greatness.

And, my Brethren, not only, as I have said, is it sublimely true in the first place that all the greatness and all the glory of the Virgin are indisputable, and, nowadays one may almost say, undisputed facts, but it is also sublimely true in the second place that all her greatness and all her glory are but the fitting consequences of her divinely-appointed office. Throughout all God's universe there are, in so far as depends on God, a perfect order and a perfect harmony. Each one of God's creatures is, in so far as rests with its Creator, perfectly fitted to attain its end. And this is true not merely in respect of bees and trees, and flowers, and stars, and seas, but it is also true, and, as one would expect, true in a far grander way, in respect of the human soul and in

respect of the human family. The gifts of a man here are always proportioned to the office which God's will assigns him. The glory of a man hereafter is always proportioned to his greatness here. Now Mary was truly and really the Mother of God. Her womb bore Him and her breasts did give Him suck. Therefore, I say, Mary should be as perfect on earth and as glorious in heaven as, consistently with His everlasting designs, even God could make her. And this in some respects, my Brethren, not so much for Mary's sake as for God's own. In mere self-defence for instance, He could not permit her to be for a single instant soiled by sin. For did He permit it, then in that instant all hell would have the laugh

against Him; God's own pedigree would have a stain upon it; and evermore when Jesus would proclaim His Mother's praises,-calling her, for instance, the crusher of the serpent's head-these bitter lips of Lucifer would hint that matters had undergone a rather important change, that the memories of heaven did not appear to be quite so tenacious as the memories of hell, that boasting about the Blessed Virgin was not a very safe procedure, that neither ought her Son to be so bold of speech, for that once upon a time the Mother of this Lord of Glory had been company fitted not so much for the sinless spirits of heaven as for the sinful spirits of hell. God would be very unlikely to do anything which would expose Him to such taunts as these. To render such taunts impossible there was just one way. The Mother must