rward; the strong heart that has always
room for the distresses of others; the union with God which made Him a
medium to earth of God's superiority and availing compassion,--these
things had made the words "my Master" His proper designation in her
lips. And our spirit cannot be purified and elevated but by worthy love
and deserved reverence, by living in presence of that which commands our
love and lifts up our nature to what is above it. It is by letting our
heart and mind be filled by what is above us that we grow in abiding
stature and become in our turn helpful to what is at a still lower stage
than we are.

But as Mary sprang forward, and in a transport of affection made as
though she would embrace the Lord, she is met by these quick words:
"Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father." Various
conjectural reasons for this prohibition have been supposed,--as, that
it was indecorous, an objection which Christ did not make when at a
dinner-table a woman kissed his feet, scandalising the guests and
provoking the suspicions of the host; or, that she wished to assure
herself by touch of the reality of the appearance, an assurance which He
did not object to the disciples making, but rather encouraged them to
make, as He would also have encouraged Mary had she needed any such
test, which she did not; or, that this vehement embrace would disturb
the process of glorification which was proceeding in His body! It is
idle to conjecture reasons, seeing that He Himself gives the reason,
"for I am not yet ascended," implying that such "touching" would no
longer be prohibited when He was ascended. Mary seems to have thought
that already the "little while" of His absence was past, and that now He
was to be always with them upon earth, helping them in the same familiar
ways and training them by His visible presence and spoken words. This
was a misconception. He must first ascend to the Father, and those who
love Him on earth must learn to live without the physical appearance,
the actual seeing, touching, hearing, of the well-known Master. There
must be no more kissing of His feet, but homage of a sterner, deeper
sort; there must be no more sitting at table with Him, and filling the
mind with His words, until they sit down with Him in the Father's
presence. Meanwhile His friends must walk by faith, not by sight--by
their inward light and spiritual likings; they must learn the truer
fidelity that serves an absent Lord; they m