Observe again how delicately and yet distinctly her purity of soul reveals itself in the Magnificat. It does not express itself in any words about either sin or holiness. There is no confession in Mary's song, and no consecration. How, then, does it exhibit the purity of her heart? Just because it is a song. By this quite unconscious revelation that God's coming thus so wonderfully and even overpoweringly near was to her a joy. Only a pure heart rejoices when God is very near. His nearness fills the bad with fear and even the good with awe. Mary felt the awe, but the joy was even greater-the joy of God near. Only a very pure soul could have felt that joy. It is this holy gladness because God was come very near that Fra Angelico and other great painters have sought to depict in the faces of their Madonnas.
In all Christian ages the especial glory ascribed to the Virgin Mother is purity of heart and life, implied in the term “Virgin.” Gradually in the history of the Christian church the recognition of this became idolatry. The works of early Christian art curiously exhibit the progress of this perversion. They show how Mariolatry grew up. The first pictures of the early Christian ages simply represent the Woman. By and by, we find outlines of the Mother and the Child. In an after-age, the Son is seen sitting on a throne, with the Mother crowned, but sitting as yet below Him. In an age still later, the crowned Mother on a level with the Son. Later still, the Mother on a throne above the Son. And lastly, a Romish picture represents the Eternal Son in wrath, about to destroy the Earth, and the Virgin Intercessor interposing, pleading by significant attitude her maternal rights, and redeeming the world from His vengeance. Such was, in fact, the progress of Virgin-worship. First the woman reverenced for the Son's sake; then the woman reverenced above the Son, and adored.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson.]
Mrs. Jameson showed me some exquisite forms of the Virgin by the elder painters, when feeling was religious-Perugino, Fra Angelico, Raphael. Afterwards the form became coarse, as the religious feeling died off from art. I asked her how it is that the Romish feeling now is developing itself so much in the direction of Mariolatry; and she said that the purer and severer conceptions of the Virgin are coming back again, and visibly marking Romish art. Briefly, I will tell you what I said in answer to her inquiries. I think Mariolatry was inevitable. The idea most strongly seized in Christianity of the sanctification of humanity attached itself to Christ as the man; but the idea naturally developed contained something more-the sanctification of womanhood. Until, therefore, the great truth that in Christ is neither male nor female-that His was the double nature, all that was most manly and all that was most womanly-could take hold of men, it was inevitable that Christianity should seem imperfect without an immaculate woman.1 [Note: Life and Letters of the Rev. F. W. Robertson, 304.]
But thou no longer art to-day
The sweet maid-mother, fair and pure;
Vast time-worn reverend temples gray,
Throne thee in majesty obscure;
And long aisles stretch in minsters high,
'Twixt thee, fair peasant, and the sky.
They seek to honour thee, who art
Beyond all else a mother indeed;
With hateful vows that blight the heart,
With childless lives, and souls that bleed:
As if their dull hymns' barren strain
Could fill a mother with aught but pain!2 [Note: Sir Lewis Morris, Songs of Two Worlds.]
