About the year 1138 a solemn festival was inst.i.tuted to celebrate the immaculate conception of the Virgin, of whom it was pretended, that her own birth partook of a similar purity to that which attached to her divine offspring. This doctrine was opposed by St. Bernard; but the French churches adopted it, and the superst.i.tion of the people contributed to its establishment. The subject was again debated with extreme virulence in the seventeenth century, between the Franciscans and Dominicans, in which the pope interposed a mediatorial power. The opinion of the former, who maintained the doctrine, was declared to have a high degree of probability in its favour, and the latter were required not to oppose it publicly; while the Franciscans were prohibited from treating the Dominican doctrine as erroneous. [20]
It is lamentable to see the profusion of eloquence and ingenuity which some of the most penetrating minds have expended on this subject. In all the Catholic writings we meet with impa.s.sioned addresses to the Virgin, appeals on her behalf to the feelings of piety, and a frequent celebration of her matchless perfections. The theological oracle of the French church distinctly states that "as the innocence of Jesus Christ is the life and salvation of sinners, so, through the innocence of the holy Virgin, he obtains pardon for the guilty," exhorting his hearers to "cleanse away their sins in the glorious splendour of her incorruptible purity," and adding, that "to undertake to describe the perfections of Mary, would be to fathom a bottomless abyss."
After representing the Saviour as making particular choice of Mary for himself, Bossuet bestows upon her the epithets of _beloved creature, extraordinary creature, unique and privileged creature_; and continues thus: "The Saviour imparted to his apostles and ministers whatever was most adapted to promote the salvation of mankind; but he communicated to his holy mother whatever was most pleasing, most glorious, and most delightful to himself; consequently, I doubt not that he made Mary innocent. She is his unique, and he is hers. _Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi_ ("my beloved is mine and I am his.") I have only him, and he has only me." I know well that innocence ought not to be easily lavished on our corrupt nature, but it is no profuse expenditure to bestow it upon his mother only: while to refuse to her would surely be too great a reserve.
"No, my brethren, this is not my Saviour"s conduct: on Mary, from the moment of her birth, I behold the innocence of Jesus Christ shining and adorning her head. O honour this new ray of light which her divine Son already sheds upon her! "The night is far spent, the day is at hand;"
Jesus will quickly bring this day by his own blessed presence. O happy day! O day without cloud! O day, which the innocence of the divine Jesus will render so serene and pure, when wilt thou come to illuminate the world?--Christians, it approaches; let us rejoice in already discovering its dawn in the birth of the holy Virgin--_Nata Virgine surrexit aurora_, says the pious father Damien. Can you be astonished after this, if I a.s.sert that Mary was without spot from the first moment of her appearance in the world? As the great day of Christ was to be so clear and splendid, was it not proper that even its commencement should be beautiful, and that the serenity of the morning should indicate that of the day? "It is on this account," as father Damien observes, "that Mary, who introduced this ill.u.s.trious day diffused a brightness over the morning by her nativity--_Maria, veri proevia luminis, nativitate sua mane clarissimum serenavit_." Hasten then, brethren, hasten with joy to behold the beginnings of this new day: we shall see it shine in the attractive light of an untarnished purity!"......_Bossuet"s Sermon_.
Bossuet had sufficient ingenuity to construct a plausible defence of a sentiment which, however adapted to supply a theme for eloquent declamation, is not to be found in Scripture. "It must be admitted," says he, "that Mary would have been involved in the general ruin of mankind, had not the merciful Physician who heals our diseases determined to imbue her beforehand with his preventing grace. Sin, which like a torrent overflowed the world, would have polluted this holy Virgin with its poisonous waves; but Omnipotence can stop, whenever he pleases, the most impetuous force. Observe with what ardour the sun pursues the vast circuit which Providence has a.s.signed him; and yet you cannot be ignorant that G.o.d once caused him to stand still in the midst of heaven at the voice of a man. Those who inhabit the vicinity of Jordan, the celebrated river of Palestine, know with what rapidity it discharges itself into the Dead Sea, if I am correct as to the place; nevertheless, the whole Israelitish army saw it roll back to its source to form a pa.s.sage for the ark, where their omnipotent Sovereign resided. Is any thing more natural than the consuming effect of heat in fire issuing out of a furnace? And yet was not the impious Nebuchadnezzar surprised with the sight of three happy individuals rejoicing in the midst of the flames which his merciless minions had kindled--but kindled in vain? But notwithstanding all these examples, may we not truly say, that there is no fire which does not burn, that the sun performs his course with unceasing progress, and that no river flows back to its source? We are accustomed to a similar mode of speaking every day, without being checked by these extraordinary occurrences, of which no one is ignorant. Whence does this arise, Christians? Doubtless from the habit of conversing according to the ordinary course of things; though G.o.d chooses sometimes to act conformably to the dictates of his own omnipotence, independently of human notions.
"I am not astonished, therefore, that the apostle Paul has expressed himself in such general terms respecting the sin of our first parents"
having occasioned the death of all their posterity. According the natural course of things, which the apostle is stating in that place, to be born of the race of Adam necessarily includes, in the ordinary sense of the word, being born in sin. It is not more natural for fire to burn, than for this accursed depravity to infect every one it touches with corruption and death. No poison is more active, no plague more powerful and penetrating.
But I maintain, that this curse, however universal, that all these propositions, however general they may be, do not preclude the exceptions which may be made by the Supreme Disposer, or particular interpositions of his authority. And on what occasion, great G.o.d, could thine unlimited power, which itself is law, be more properly employed than in conferring peculiar favour upon Mary?" [21]
In the Litanies the Virgin is denominated "the Mother of G.o.d, the Queen of Angels, the Refuge of Sinners, the Mother of Mercy, the Gate of Heaven, the Mystic Rose, the Virgin of Virgins," &c. [22]
Father Barry, in his "Paradise opened to Philagia by a hundred Devotions to the Mother of G.o.d, of easy performance," says, "It is open to such as confine themselves to their chambers, or carry about them an image of the Virgin, and look steadfastly upon it--who, night and morning, beg her benediction, standing near some of the churches dedicated to her, or contribute to the relief of the poor for her sake--who, out of a pious regard for her, avoid p.r.o.nouncing the name of Mary when they read, but make use of some other instead of it--who beg of the angels to salute the mother of G.o.d in their name, who give honourable appellations to her images, and cast amorous glances at them," &c.
In this work it is expressly stated, that "as many separate devotions to the mother of G.o.d as you find in this book, are so many keys of heaven, which will open all paradise to you, provided you only practise them;" and afterward it is added, that "any _one_ of them is sufficient." Take the following specimen: "Salute the holy Virgin wherever you meet her image; repeat the little chaplet of the ten pleasures of the Virgin; often p.r.o.nounce the name of _Mary_; commission the angels to give your duty to her; cherish a desire to build more churches to her than all the kings of the world put together; wish her a good day every morning, and a good night every evening; say the _Ave Maria_ every day, in honour of the heart of Mary." [23]
In the earliest ages she was called Queen of angels and Mother of G.o.d; afterward, the spirit of controversy induced her advocates to adopt every possible device to make her considerable among heretics, and to accustom her devotees to extravagant expressions. She has been represented as the _disposer and depository of G.o.d"s favours, the treasurer and queen of heaven, the spring and fountain of salvation and life, the mother of light, the intercessor between G.o.d and man, the hope of mankind, the ocean of the Deity_! Almost an absolute and sovereign power over her Son our Saviour has been ascribed to her. The psalter, nay the whole Bible, has been applied to her, and proofs by miracles and apparitions furnished, that the virgin appeases the wrath of Christ against sinners, and possesses the power of absolving, binding, and loosening. Temples and altars have been erected, and invocations addressed to her.
The Jesuit, who published the Psalter of our Lady, in French, exhorts the devout Christian who p.r.o.nounces these words in the introduction, _Holy Lady, open thou my lips_, &c. "to make two signs of the cross when he repeats them, one upon his lips with his thumb, and the other upon himself with his hand, as the priests do when they begin their canonical hours."
This method, he a.s.sures us, will procure the devotee the honour and happiness of being canon or canoness of heaven; and our lady, to reward so conspicuous and instructive an act of devotion, will admit him into paradise. He gives a pattern of the vows which the devotee is to make "for Jesus and Mary"s sake, and for all the lovers of them both, whether male or female." He describes the alliance to be made by him with the _most amiable and honourable mother of all mothers_, the act of repentance and contrition for the reconciliation of himself with her, and all the ceremonies, great and small, by which he may devote himself to the blessed Virgin.
Whoever hopes to obtain the benedictions of the Virgin, must salute her every day, both at his going out and coming in. The legends have transmitted several remarkable instances of the advantages arising from the repet.i.tion of the _Ave Maria_--not to mention a thousand day"s indulgence granted by some of the popes (Leo X. and Paul V.) to those who shall repeat it at the hour of the _Angelus_.
St. Margarite, of Hungary, said an Ave kneeling before every image of the Virgin she met in her way--St. Catharine, of Sienna, repeated as many Aves as she went up steps to her house.
Fasting on _Sat.u.r.day_, in honour of the Virgin, is looked upon as a treasure of indulgences and delights, and as an excellent preservative against eternal d.a.m.nation.
Various festivals are inst.i.tuted to commemorate her, such as the Purification, the Annunciation, the Visitation, and others.
The fifth of August is the festival of _our Lady of the Snow_. We are informed that the solemnization of it was owing to a miracle. When Liberius was pontiff, a patrician, or Roman n.o.bleman, finding himself old and childless, resolved, with his wife"s approbation, to make the blessed Virgin his sole heiress. The vow being made with great devotion, their princ.i.p.al concern, in the next place, was to employ their inheritance conformably to our Lady"s will: and accordingly they applied themselves to fasting, praying, giving alms to the poor, and visiting the sick, to know her pleasure.
The Virgin at length appeared to each of them in a dream, and told them "it was her and her Son"s will, that they should employ their effects in erecting a church for her on a particular part of the _Mons Esquilinus_, which they should find covered with snow." The pious husband first communicated the revelation to his wife, who told him, with great surprise, that she had had the same revelation that very night. But, supposing the two dreams had not proved alike, an excess of zeal would have been sufficient to have given them all the _conformity_ that was requisite; These two devotees went immediately and declared their dreams to the pope, who perceived that he was a third man in the revelation; for his holiness had been favoured with the same vision. It was no longer questioned, but that heaven was engaged in this affair. The pontiff a.s.sembled the clergy together, and there was a solemn procession to Mount Esquiline, on purpose to find out whether the miracle were real or not; when the place specified in the dream was found covered with snow. The ground was exactly of a suitable extent to erect a church upon, which was afterward called _Liberius"s Basilica_, and _St. Mary ad praecepe_, (because the manger, which was used as a cradle for our Lady, was brought thither from Bethlehem,) and is now called _St. Mary Major_. Every festival day, the commemoration of this miracle is revived, by letting fall white jessamine leaves, after so artificial a manner, as to imitate the falling of snow upon the ground. [24]
It has even been a.s.serted, that the apostle Peter consecrated a chapel to the Virgin, a story which accords perfectly well with other absurdities.
The Spaniards attribute a similar act of devotion to James at _Saragossa_; and some add, that the angels were the architects of the chapel. It is decorated in the most costly manner with silver angels, lamps, and other furniture, with the Virgin magnificently dressed on a marble pillar. The walls are hung with feet, arms, hands, and other parts of the human body, as grateful oblations to the Virgin, for the miraculous cures she is supposed to have performed upon these members.
At _Madrid_, our lady of Atocha resides in a chapel which blazes with a hundred lamps made of gold and silver, and is celebrated for as many miracles as at Loretto and other places. The history of her first settlement at _Liesse_, in Picardy, is thus related. During the crusades, an Egyptian princess resolving to have an image of the Virgin, addressed herself to three gentlemen of Picardy, who were prisoners at Cairo, one of whom made an attempt to paint her, though ignorant of the art. Having failed, he and his companions presented earnest supplications to the Virgin, after which they fell asleep. As soon as they awoke, they found an image of our Lady, accurately performed, which they transmitted to the princess; who, in return, set them at liberty. She was, of course, converted to the Christian faith by this image; and the three gentlemen miraculously escaped out of Egypt, and on a sudden found themselves, by a continuation of the miracle, in Picardy, on the very spot where the church of _our Lady of Liesse_ is now erected.
Her devotees carry representations of the Virgin about them, deck her images with flowers, dress them in silks or other costly ornaments, burn tapers before them, kiss and look upon them with a languishing eye, touch them with their chaplets, rub their handkerchiefs upon them, and salute them with the profoundest veneration.
Her relics are innumerable--such as her wedding ring, handkerchiefs, combs, slippers and goods of every description, as kitchen furniture, toilette, earthenware, lamps; and even, as it is pretended, her gloves, bed, chair, head-clothes, with other rarities.
"Surely," says archbishop Tillotson, "if this _blessed among women, the mother of our Lord_, (for I keep to the t.i.tles which the Scripture gives her,) have any sense of what we do here below, she cannot but look down with the greatest disdain upon that sacrilegious and idolatrous worship which is paid to her, to the high dishonour of the great G.o.d and our Saviour, and the infinite scandal of his religion. How can she, without indignation, behold how they play the fool in the church of Rome about her; what an idol they make of her image, and with what sottishness they give divine honour to it; how they place her in their idolatrous pictures in equal rank with the blessed Trinity, and turn the salutation of the angel, _Ave Maria, hail Mary, full of grace_, into a kind of prayer; and, in their bead-roll of devotion, repeat it ten times, for once that they say the Lord"s prayer, as of greater virtue and efficacy? And, indeed, they almost justle out the devotion due to Almighty G.o.d and our blessed Saviour, by their endless idolatry to her.
"So that the greater part of their religion, both public and private, is made up of that which was no part at all of the religion of the apostles and primitive Christians; nay, which plainly contradicts it: for that expressly teacheth us, that there is but one object of our prayers, and one Mediator by whom we are to make our addresses to G.o.d. "There is one G.o.d, and one Mediator between G.o.d and man, the man Christ Jesus," says St.
Paul, when he gives a standing rule concerning prayer in the Christian church. And yet, notwithstanding all the care that our blessed Saviour and his apostles could take to prevent gross idolatry of the blessed mother of our Lord, how blindly and wilfully have the church of Rome run into it!
and, in despite of the clearest evidence and conviction, do obstinately and impudently persist in it, and justify themselves in so abominable a practice."
In the homage rendered to the Virgin Mary by the Catholics, the servility of superst.i.tion appears blended with the zeal of enthusiasm. Having departed from Scripture, that only light which shines upon the path of obedience, and conducts to G.o.d, they naturally lose themselves amidst the perplexities of error and the mazes of falsehood: it need not, therefore, occasion surprise though their course should be eccentric, or their conduct preposterous. The pa.s.sions being chiefly engaged in this service, and kept in exercise by fear or fondness, reason retires; and imagination, supported by these auxiliaries, sways the sceptre. The absurdities, however, to which under such circ.u.mstances the human mind becomes addicted, would seem utterly unaccountable, were it not for the gradual manner of their influence. The victory over judgment and common sense is not secured at a blow, but by perpetual insinuation. The hopes or fears of mankind are wrought upon _individually_ from the period of infancy, long previous to the age when reason attains its vigour and maturity,--and _nationally_ by a slow and almost insensible acc.u.mulation of frivolous or ridiculous observances from century to century. A natural consciousness of weakness renders man the dupe of deception, and an equal sense of guilt makes him the slave of terror. Hence he readily avails himself of every means which he fancies capable of alleviating his anxieties, and in his eagerness to escape the wretchedness of apprehension or the suffering of evil, flies to unscriptural resources.
The pre-eminence of man over the brute creation arises chiefly from his capacity of knowing G.o.d and serving him in the appointed exercises of religion; and yet the perversion of this capacity, by the invention of superst.i.tious ceremonies, has rendered him utterly contemptible. In the services of real piety, he appears elevated to the summit of creation, his nature seems enn.o.bled, and his character encircled with glory; but, in the practices of superst.i.tion, he is degraded to the lowest depth of meanness of which an intellectual and immortal being is capable. By the former he soars to "glory, honour, and immortality;" by the latter he sinks to wretchedness and ruin. In the one case he is useful and happy; in the other, inactive, isolated, and full of disquietude; and thus either rises into grandeur or falls into littleness,--is an angel or a brute!
Whoever reviews the several religious errors of the Pagan, Jewish, and Christian communities, will admit, that the history of superst.i.tion const.i.tutes one of the most offensive pages in the annals of mankind; he will see the object of worship misrepresented, the universe part.i.tioned into petty sovereignties, and Deity divided, contracted, and localized; religion turned into mockery, and mockery into religion.
It is somewhat difficult to trace the operations and to ascertain the true character of superst.i.tion, although it has prevailed so extensively in the world, and produced such extraordinary effects. Amongst other anomalies, this is observable, that it not only has led captive weak and ignorant minds, which being unable to detect a specious sophism, or to depart from a general practice, may easily be supposed incapable of resisting its fascination; but it has been known to seduce and enchain some of the n.o.blest orders of intellect, and the most cultivated of human understandings. Whole nations and successive generations have been subjected to its influence, furnishing ample evidence of that statement, which, if it be not repeated in every page of Scripture, lies at the foundation of all its truths; and into which many of the peculiarities of this principle may be resolved: "The world by wisdom knew not G.o.d."
Superst.i.tion is unquestionably founded in mean and absurd ideas of the moral attributes of the Deity, which produce corresponding actions, and in a.s.signing to him an arbitrary character, deriving pleasure from what has no connexion with the happiness of the worshipper. A consistent and dignified conduct can only result from a just estimate of the divine perfections, and a correct view of moral obligation. The worship we render to a superior being, must necessarily be shaped and regulated by our conceptions of the nature of G.o.d; consequently, mankind will degenerate into error and folly, proportionate to their departure from the representations of Scripture respecting the spirituality of his essence.
To this source may be traced especially the principles and practices of the Romish church, in which reason is outraged, religion caricatured, and G.o.d dishonoured. Transubstantiation is a doctrine manifestly absurd and impious; and the practice of presenting those supplications to dead saints, which the Supreme Being alone can hear and answer, is no less ridiculous, as well as subversive of true piety. Perhaps, however, no deviation from common sense is more remarkable than those extravagancies of the Catholics which respect the Virgin Mary; and yet these have not only been practised by the mult.i.tude, but defended by men of learning with the utmost subtlety and the warmest zeal. In fact, she has been praised by every Catholic pen for ages; and every term that language could supply has been put in requisition to extol her merits.
Let the view we have given of these misstatements excite us to self-examination, in order that we may discover any incorrectness or deficiency in our own apprehensions of religion, and become vigilant over those errors into which we may be apt to deviate. It will be studying man to some purpose, if the better we are acquainted with the history of the human mind, the greater the circ.u.mspection we exercise over ourselves. We shall then be less imposed upon by the speciousness of falsehood, and less betrayed by the weakness of our pa.s.sions; we shall be led to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G.o.d," and feel that it is our "_reasonable service_."
Elizabeth.
Chapter II.
The angelic Appearance to Zacharias--Birth of John--Characters of Elizabeth and Zacharias--Importance of domestic Union being founded on Religion, shown in them--their venerable Age--the characteristic Features of their Piety--the Happiness of a Life like theirs--the Effect it is calculated to produce on others--the Perpetuation of holy friendship through immortal Ages--the miserable Condition of the irreligious.
Obscure as were the circ.u.mstances in which Christ appeared, Infinite Wisdom saw fit to furnish miraculous attestations to his character and mission. This evidence attended him during the whole of his career, investing him with a heavenly glory, and rendering his pre-eminence distinctly visible to the eye of faith, notwithstanding his a.s.sumed inferiority.
It was in unison with this scheme of Providence to send the most exalted of angelic beings to announce the birth of Messiah, and to prepare the minds of Mary his mother, of the shepherds who were to circulate the intelligence, and of others more nearly or more remotely interested in the event, by celestial visitations. For similar reasons it comported with the nature of this wonderful event, to attach something peculiar and even miraculous to the birth of his precursor, whose destined office it should be to "prepare the way of the Lord," by uttering his "voice in the wilderness," and intimating to mankind the mighty transformations about to be effected in the moral state of the world. Six months, therefore, previously to the annunciation to Mary, the angel Gabriel descended to proclaim "glad tidings" to Zacharias. In the performance of his customary service as a priest, he had gone into the temple to burn incense, while the people were praying without the holy place. On a sudden, he perceived an angel standing on the right side of the altar, and became exceedingly agitated, till the benevolent spirit addressed him in affectionate and congratulatory terms. Ah! _they_ have no reason to dread a message from the world of spirits, or to be filled with apprehensions at the sight of other orders of beings than those with which they are conversant, who are engaged in the discharge of their duties, and live under the influence of religion! However new or extraordinary such revelations, they never could have been real causes of alarm to the servants of G.o.d; and were they not at present suspended, in consequence of the completion of the intended communications of truth to mankind, piety ought rather to welcome than to dread them.
Zacharias was a.s.sured that his prayer was heard, and that his wife Elizabeth should have a son to be named John. As a sign of the accomplishment of this prediction, and as a chastis.e.m.e.nt of the doubt with which the message was at first received, he was struck with dumbness, which continued only till the birth of his child.
The interview between Elizabeth and Mary, the mother of our Lord, has been already adverted to in the preceding narrative, where the salutations of these favoured relatives were recited. At the expiration of the appointed time, Elizabeth bare a son whom they would have called after the name of Zacharias, but his mother interposed; and the affair being finally referred to his father, he wrote, to the general astonishment of their neighbours and relatives, who had remonstrated in vain, "His name is John." Immediately his speech was restored, and he broke out in impa.s.sioned strains of praise: "Blessed be the Lord G.o.d of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. And thou, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our G.o.d; whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Reverting to the commencement of this history by the evangelist Luke, we shall be led to notice the domestic characters of Zacharias and Elizabeth, particularly as they ill.u.s.trate the excellence of a life of piety. While religion adorns every station, it teaches us to fulfil every relative duty; and acting under its influence, a person becomes a light in the world, diffusing through the family, the social circle, and the more extended sphere of busy life, a mild and beneficent radiance.
Our attention is first directed to the office of Zacharias, and the descent of his wife. He was a _priest_, and she "of the daughters of Aaron." The world affords too many evidences, that piety is neither created by station, nor hereditary in its transmission. As Zacharias was a minister of the sanctuary, it was both to be _desired_ and _expected_ that he should not approach the altar with a hardened and unsanctified heart.
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the G.o.d of his salvation."
Yet, alas! it is not always to be presumed that real religion accompanies either the brightest profession or the most dignified office! Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, offered "strange fire," Judas betrayed the Son of G.o.d, and Paul expresses an apprehension "lest, having preached to others," he should himself "be a castaway." The admonition, therefore, of G.o.d by Isaiah is appropriate and striking: "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." It is possible to be a preacher of righteousness, and yet a child of Satan--a priest, and yet a demon--a worker of miracles, and yet a "worker of iniquity:" but a pleasing exception to this remark occurs in the history of Zacharias, who was "a _priest_, and _righteous_ before G.o.d." His _office_ and his _character_ accorded, and the light of his example shone with unclouded brightness and attractive glory.
It is observable, that Elizabeth, the wife of this holy priest, was equally distinguished with himself for a sincere and active piety. "They were BOTH righteous before G.o.d;" and it was their privilege to live at that eventful moment when the clouds that obscured the past dispensations of Providence were tinged with the rising glory of the day which was just breaking upon the nations of the earth, and which lighted these pilgrims home to their eternal rest. They were some of the last of the Jewish and the first of the Christian economy, and their life seemed to form the bright line which bordered the typical ages and those of unshadowed truth and Christian revelation.
Zacharias and Elizabeth exhibit an attractive picture of union both natural and religious; the hymenial tie was intertwined with celestial roses, which diffused a fragrance over domestic life; their love to each other was strengthened and sanctified by their love to G.o.d.
The perfection of conjugal felicity with every good man depends upon the existence of similar religious principles and feelings with those which influence himself in the partner of his life; consequently, it will ever be his concern "to marry in the Lord." No language can express the bitterness of that pang which rends his heart when a dissimilarity of taste prevails in so important an affair. It is a worm for ever gnawing the root of his peace, and will prevent its growth even under the brightest sun of worldly prosperity. Let those especially who are forming connections in life, and who "love Christ in sincerity," reflect on the fatal consequences of devoting their affections to such as can never accompany them to the house of G.o.d but with reluctance, or to the throne of grace but with weariness and aversion. If the object of your fondest regard be an unbeliever, what a cloud will darken your serenest days, what unutterable grief disturb your otherwise peaceful sabbaths! Your pleasures and your pains of a religious kind, which are the most intense, will be equally unpartic.i.p.ated. You must walk alone in those ways of pleasantness which would be still more endeared by such sweet society; and you must suffer the keenest sorrows of the heart--_perhaps_ without daring to name them, and _certainly_ without one tear, one word, one look of soothing sympathy. How could you endure it that the very wife of your bosom should manifest the temper of those a.s.sa.s.sins that murdered your Lord, while in the exercise of a lively faith you hailed him as "the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely?" Would it not agonize your heart that she should be _indifferent_ only, not to say inimical, towards him in whom you daily "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory?"
In proportion to the wretchedness of such circ.u.mstances must be the felicity of the reverse, of which this narrative furnishes a pleasing exemplification. Zacharias and Elizabeth were _both_ righteous, and this union of spirit diffused a holy and gladdening radiance over all the scenes of life. In the family, in the social circle, in the house of G.o.d, they were ONE. Together they could bow the knee at the throne of grace, together go up to the temple! The grief or the joy of one was the grief or the joy of both; they could sing the same song, unite in the same prayer, feast on the same spiritual food! This was the perfection of love--this was the triumph of friendship! No contrary current of feeling on either side ruffled the pure stream of domestic and religious pleasure, but it flowed along in a clear, noiseless, and perpetual course. In this case the language of David might be applied with emphatic propriety: "Behold, how good and pleasant a thing it is to dwell together in unity."
Elizabeth and her partner were "both well stricken in years." There is something venerable in h.o.a.ry age, especially when adorned with the graces of the Spirit. The mind reposes with peculiar complacency on those who, having long "adorned the doctrines of G.o.d their Saviour in all things,"
are waiting quietly and confidently for their admission to heaven. They can see the shadows of the evening deepen upon them without a sigh; and while death is unlocking the doors of their appointed house, can sing, "Thanks be to G.o.d, that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." While the mind of a wicked man, in the near prospect of dissolution, is filled with distraction, and "a fearful looking for of judgment--while his