rejudice to
His majesty, surely Our Lady can stand as an advocate before Him without
infringing on His rights. If they can exercise the dread prerogative of
judges of angels and of men without trespassing on the Divine judgeship of
Jesus, surely Mary can fulfill the more modest function of intercessor
with her Son without intruding on His supreme mediatorship, for higher is
the office of judge than that of advocate. And yet, while no one is ever
startled at the power given to the Apostles, many are impatient of the
lesser privilege claimed for Mary.

III. Is It Lawful To Imitate Her As A Model?

But while the exalted privileges of Mary render her worthy of our
veneration, while her saintly influence renders her worthy of our
invocation, her personal life is constantly held up to us as a pattern
worthy of our imitation. If she occupies so prominent a place in our
pulpits, this prominence is less due to her prerogatives as a mother, or
to her intercession as a patroness, than to her example as a Saint.

After our Lord Jesus Christ, no one has ever exercised so salutary and so
dominant an influence as the Blessed Virgin on society, on the family and
on the individual.

The Mother of Jesus exercises throughout the Christian commonwealth that
hallowing influence which a good mother wields over the Christian family.

What temple or chapel, how rude soever it may be, is not adorned with a
painting or a statue of the Madonna? What house is not embellished with an
image of Mary? What Catholic child is a stranger to her familiar face?

The priest and the layman, the scholar and the illiterate, the prince and
the peasant, the mother and the maid, acknowledge her benign sway.

And if Christianity is so fruitful in comparison with Paganism, in
conjugal fidelity, in female purity and in the respect paid to womanhood,
these blessings are in no small measure due to the force of Mary's
all-pervading influence and example. Ever since the Son of God chose a
woman to be His mother man looks up to woman with a homage akin to
veneration.

The poet Longfellow pays the following tribute to Mary's sanctifying
influence:

"This is indeed the blessed Mary's land,
Virgin and mother of our dear Redeemer!
All hearts are touched and softened at her name
Alike the bandit with the bloody hand,
The priest, the prince, the scholar and the peasant
The man of deeds, the visionary dreamer
Pay homage to her a