's Strength and Tower,
The House of Gold, the Gate of Heaven's power,
The Morning-Star whose light our fall hath stay'd.

Great Queen of Queens, most mild, most meek, most wise,
Most venerable, Cause of all our joy,
Whose cheerful look our sadnesse doth destroy,
And art the spotlesse Mirror to man's eyes.

The Seat of Sapience, the most lovely Mother,
And most to be admired of thy sexe,
Who mad'st us happy all, in thy reflexe,
By bringing forth God's Onely Son, no other.

Thou Throne of Glory, beauteous as the moone,
The rosie morning, or the rising sun,
Who like a giant hastes his course to run,
Till he hath reached his two-fold point of noone.

How are thy gifts and graces blazed abro'd,
Through all the lines of this circumference,
T'imprint in all purged hearts this Virgin sence
Of being Daughter, Mother, Spouse of God?

Ben Jonson, 1573-1637.

PART TWO

CHAPTER XII

THE TEMPLE

And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Know ye
not that I must be in my Father's house?

S. Luke II, 49.

We give thanks unto thee, O Lord, who lovest mankind, Thou
benefactor of our souls and bodies, for that Thou hast this
day vouchsafed to feed us with Thy Heavenly Mysteries; guide
our path aright, establish us all in Thy fear, guard our
lives, make sure our steps through the prayers and
supplications of the glorious Mother of God and Ever Virgin
Mary and of all Thy saints.

RUSSIAN.

The time was come when by the law of His people the Boy Jesus must
assume the duties of an adult in the exercise of His religion. Therefore
His parents took Him with them to Jerusalem that He might participate in
the celebration of the Passover. It would be a wonderful moment in the
life of any intelligent Hebrew boy when for the first time he came in
contact with the places and scenes which were so familiar to him in the
story of his nation's past; and we can imagine what would have been the
special interest of the Child Jesus who would have been so thoroughly
taught in the Old Testament Scriptures, and who would have felt an added
interest in the places He was now seeing because of their association
with His great ancestor, David. Still His chief interest was in the
religion of His people, and it was the temple where the sacrificial
worship of God was ce