the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of his father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." If Mary had been astonished at the sight of the angel Gabriel, what must she have felt when she heard herself thus addressed!

E. Oh! Mamma, I am almost afraid that, like Zacharias, she will not be able to believe.

M. The faith of Mary was very great; she expressed no doubt of the angel's words, she asked no sign to convince her that they were true, she merely requested to be instructed as to the manner in which this strange event was to happen. "How shall this be?" was her short and simple answer. Nor was her humble inquiry displeasing to God. She asked “in faith, nothing doubting," and she obtained an immediate and gracious reply. The angel answered and said unto her, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; and that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." This was

enough for Mary: she did not wish to search into the purposes of the Almighty, nor yet to doubt, nor dispute his will; she simply answered, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word!" And the angel departed from her.

The angel's visit was over; and Mary was left alone, to think over the strange scene she had just witnessed, to adore the goodness of God which had passed over so many rich and noble in the world and conferred upon her an honour which all the holy women of her people for so many ages, even before the time of

Hannah, had so ardently desired. Mary had now a subject of thought, of which she could never tire: how could she ever sufficiently understand or adore God's dealings towards her! This was a subject to banish every other from her mind, and she must no doubt have longed to relieve her bursting heart by telling to others what great things God had done for her. But to whom should she speak of these things? who would believe such strange tidings? would not the greater part of those about her laugh at the unlikely tale, and look upon her as one who dreamed? Such most probably was the state of Mary's mind, when she recollected that the angel had told her, what favour God had shewn, not only to herself, but to her cousin Elizabeth also. To Elizabeth then she would go; to her she would tell her tale; she who had experienced so much of God's wonderful dealings herself, would be far more ready than any other person to enter into her feelings, and believe the words which she spoke. Therefore "Mary arose in those days," and leaving Nazareth, "went into the hill-country with haste, into a city of Judah," in which was the dwelling of Zacharias and Elizabeth; and when she was come to their abode she rejoiced with them in the happiness which God had so graciously promised them. But before she had time to mention what had happened to herself, her cousin Elizabeth, instructed by the Holy Ghost, understood that in Mary she beheld one whom God had honoured beyond all other women, and so greatly delighted in thinking that it was the mother of her Lord that visited her, that she spake out with a loud voice and said "Blessed art thou among women; and blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a

performance of those things which were told her from the Lord." How cheering must these words have been to the humble Mary! how must they have increased and strengthened her already great faith! And now we see what has been passing in her mind since the visit of the angel. In a sublime and affecting song she finds relief for all her mingled feelings of humility, and gratitude, and joy; and the dwelling of Zacharias and Elizabeth resounds with the sweetest music, even with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, expressed in a hymn of praise, in which the Church from that time to this has ever delighted to join. She now declared openly how her spirit had rejoiced in God her Saviour, and how she delighted in magnifying Him who had condescended to notice her in low estate, and so to notice her, that from henceforth all generations should call her blessed. This hymn of the blessed virgin, Edward, is one which you know; it is sung every Sunday in the evening service of our Church, between the lessons, or portions of Scripture, which are then read to us and most wisely and feelingly has it been chosen to form a part of our service, since we have full as much reason as Mary had to rejoice in the tidings of salvation conveyed to us in the Gospel; although, as we are not inspired as she was by the Holy Ghost, no words of ours could in any degree so well express half our joy and gratitude.

Perhaps you have not remarked before that this beautiful hymn is called the Magnificat, from the word with which it begins in Latin, as Papa will shew you if you ask him.

E. Mamma, we have not had the map since we began the New Testament: I want to see Nazareth,

where Mary was living when the angel appeared to her, and then that hill-country, to which she went to see Elizabeth.

M. I am glad you have reminded me of the map. You will find an excellent one of Judea in the "Family Bible," adapted particularly to the study of the New Testament; for it has all the places which we read most about during the life of our Saviour, marked out clear manner. You will find Nazareth in

in a very the most northern part of the Holy Land called Galilee, which was again divided into two parts, upper and lower Galilee. The upper part was also distinguished from the lower by being called Galilee of the Gentiles; because it bordered upon the Gentile nations, and indeed was partly inhabited by them.

E. Was Nazareth one of its chief cities?

M. No; it was a small city of mean repute even in those days, and is now reduced to a very low and contemptible condition. There was nothing in the country about it to give this city a bad name; for we are told by some of the old writers, that it was like a paradise, abounding with corn and fruits of all kinds; but it was a place which for some reason, not, I believe, very well known, was exceedingly despised by the Jews, amongst whom it became quite a proverb or saying "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" It seems therefore to have been a part of the voluntary humiliation of the Son of God, that his earthly parents should be Nazarenes, as that in itself was quite enough to make our Lord an object of hatred and contempt to the Jews.

But you wish to hear also of Hebron, that city in the hill-country of Judea, to which Mary went to

visit her cousin Elizabeth. You can see on the map what a long journey Mary must have had; as Hebron lay in the southern part of the Holy Land called Judea, at least seventy miles from Nazareth. The mountains which run from north to south of Judea were probably the cause of its being called the hillcountry.

But we must hasten to the birth of the Redeemer of the world. Mary appears to have remained with Elizabeth till after the birth of John the Baptist, when she returned to Nazareth to await in patience the fulfilment of God's promises towards her. And now there is no doubt that she would gladly have remained quietly with her husband in her own home, until the holy infant was born; but this was not to be: there were other prophecies to be still fulfilled; for no word of God can fall to the ground. Several hundred years before this, the prophet Micah had spoken of Bethlehem as the place in which the Messiah was to be born, saying, "And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel."

E. Was not Bethlehem the place where David was born?

M. It was; there was Christ the Son of David to be born too. But how, you will say, if Mary was living at Nazareth? I will tell you in how remarkable a manner the fulfilment of this prophecy was accomplished. We read in the Bible that "it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. You have not forgotten that the Jews were

2