ecord of an appearance to Mary after the
Resurrection must be accounted for by the belief that her faith did not
need this, in its assurance that death could not conquer her divine Son.

Nevertheless, the paucity of the reference to Mary in the New Testament,
after the Nativity, is perplexing. For the other legends concerning her
history and character, which have been cherished by a very large portion
of Christendom, we are wholly indebted to what are known as the
Apocryphal Gospels. These consist of writings which were extant, in some
cases, before the present New Testament books were selected as being
alone authentic, but were not deemed of sufficient worth to be included
in the canon. There is _The Gospel of the Birth of Mary_. In the very
early ages this book was supposed to be the work of Saint Matthew. Many
ancient Christians believed it to be authentic and genuine, and Jerome,
who lived in the fourth century, quotes it entire. Another book, of the
same description, known as the _Protevangelion_ of Saint James, is
mentioned by writers equally ancient. Then there is the _Gospel of the
Infancy_. This, we are told, was accepted by the Gnostic Christians as
early as the second century; but it is full of manifest absurdities,
outrageous even to the most compliant credulity. A fair sample of its
stories--not including the miraculous, which are exceedingly puerile--is
the one which relates that at the circumcision of Jesus an old Hebrew
woman took the part that was severed "and preserved it in an
alabaster-box of old oil of spikenard. And she had a son who was a
druggist, to whom she said, 'Take heed thou sell not this alabaster-box
of spikenard-ointment, although thou shouldst be offered three hundred
pence for it.' Now this is that alabaster-box which Mary the sinner
procured, and poured forth the ointment out of it upon the head and the
feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wiped it off with the hairs of her
head."

The _Gospel of Mary_ has been made the basis of much serious belief in
regard to the Blessed Virgin, and especially have Christian artists
drawn from its pages suggestions for their subjects. We will summarize
the account it gives of the Mother of Jesus. "The blessed and ever
glorious Virgin Mary, sprung from the royal race and family of David,
was born in the city of Nazareth, and educated at Jerusalem, in the
temple of the Lord. Her father's name was Joachim, and her mother's
Anna. The family of her father