Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 483. The Elements of Mary's Character

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 483. The Elements of Mary's Character

Subjects in this Topic:

Mary the Virgin

II

The Elements of Mary's Character

Literature

Adeney, W. F., Women of the New Testament (1899), 29, 43.

Alexander, W., Verbum Crucis (1893), 53.

Brierley, H. E., The Pierced Heart.

Bushnell, H., Sermons on Living Subjects (1872), 9.

Gibbon, J. M., The Veil and the Vision (1914), 46.

Johnson, G. B., The Beautiful Life of Christ, 145.

Mackay, W. M., Bible Types of Modern Women (1912), 315.

Newman, J. H., Sermon Notes (1913), 21, 73, 90, 137.

Orchard, W. E., Advent Sermons (1914), 53.

Plummer, A., The Humanity of Christ, 132.

Robertson, F. W., Sermons, ii. (1875) 220.

Sanday, W., in Critical Questions (1903), 123.

Simpson, P. C., in Women of the Bible: Rebekah to Priscilla (1904), 139.

Spurr, F. C., The Holy Family, 13.

Vaughan, C. J., Doncaster Sermons (1891), 364.

Watson, J., The Life of the Master (1902), 53.

Whyte, A., Bible Characters: Joseph and Mary to James (1900), 1.

Williams, J. H., The Mother of Jesus (1906).

Churchman's Pulpit: Circumcision of Christ, iii. 103 (W. Bright).

Commonwealth, xviii. (1913) 326 (A. Gilchrist).

Dictionary of the Bible (Single-volume, 1909), 589 (C. T. P. Grierson).

Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, ii. (1908) 140 (J. M. Harden).

Encyclopœdia of Religion and Ethics, viii. (1915) (J. Cooper).

The Elements of Mary's Character

Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.- Luk_2:19.

That the Virgin Mary was a woman without character, feeble and featureless, one of those limp beings who come to be reckoned as cyphers in the world, is not for a moment to be supposed. On the rare occasions when the curtain is lifted we catch glimpses of a character not wanting in energy and power of initiation. Have we not all met with people who make their individuality felt within a very limited circle, while beyond that even their existence is scarcely noticed?

In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul speaks of the glory of the woman as of a thing distinct from the glory of the man. They are the two opposite poles of the sphere of humanity. Their provinces are not the same, but different. The qualities which are beautiful as predominant in one are not beautiful when predominant in the other. That which is the glory of the one is not the glory of the other. The glory of her who was highly favoured among women, and whom all Christendom has agreed in contemplating as the type and ideal of her sex, was glory in a different order from that in which her Son exhibited the glory of a perfect manhood. A glory different in degree, of course: the one was only human, the other more than human, the Word made flesh; but different in order too: the one manifesting forth her glory-the grace of womanhood; the other manifesting forth His glory-the wisdom and the majesty of manhood, in which God dwelt.

For my own part, I do not know the gift or the grace or the virtue any woman ever had that I could safely deny to Mary. The Divine congruity compels me to believe that all that could be received or attained or exercised by any woman would be granted beforehand, and all but without measure, to her who was so miraculously to bear, and so intimately and influentially to nurture and instruct, the Holy Child. We must give Mary her promised due. We must not allow ourselves to entertain a grudge against the mother of our Lord because some enthusiasts for her have given her more than her due. There is no fear of our thinking too much either of Mary's maidenly virtues, or of her motherly duties and experiences. The Holy Ghost in guiding the researches of Luke, and in superintending the composition of the Third Gospel, especially signalizes the depth and the piety and the peace of Mary's mind. At the angel's salutation she did not swoon nor cry out. She did not rush either into terror on the one hand or into transport on the other. But, like the heavenly-minded maiden she was, she cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And later on, when all who heard it were wondering at the testimony of the shepherds, it is instructively added that Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And yet again, when another twelve years have passed by, we find the same Evangelist still pointing out the same distinguishing feature of Mary's saintly character, “They understood not the saying which he spake unto them: … but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.”^{1 [Note: A. Whyte.]}Blest in thy lowly heart to store

The homage paid at Bethlehem;

But far more blessed evermore

Thus to have shared the taunts and shame-

Thus with thy piere'd heart to have stood

'Mid mocking crowds, and owned Him thine,

True through a world's ingratitude,

And owned in death by lips Divine.^{2 [Note: Elizabeth Rundle Charles.]}