of
Mariolatry. Had he yielded in one instance, reasons for supporting the
claims of Romanism had been furnished. Mary was only a woman. She was
honored of God just as far as she served God, and when she turned
aside she was no more than any other person. Her perceptions of
Christ's work were not as distinct or comprehensive as were those of
Mary the sister of Lazarus, or of Mary Magdalene. In this Mary was not
peculiar. Very frequently women associated with great workers fail to
appreciate the character of the work committed to them to do. To the
world a worker may seem to be a wonder. To the one most intimately
associated with him he is a very ordinary individual. It is said a man
is never a hero to his servant. Is it not almost as true of his wife?
A living great man is ordinary in so many things in his daily life,
that the wife forgets his greatness. The wife of John Milton saw but a
blind man in the bard, dwelling upon his immortal thought and evolving
his world-renowned poem. As the eagle stirs up her nest, compelling
her broodlings to exert themselves, so God sometimes suffers a good
man to link his fortunes with a woman who is ill-mated with him in
every way. In the light of the fact that Jesus found little or
no appreciation in the society of Mary, and sought the home-joys
elsewhere, woman ought to learn a lesson. Is it not possible that you
mistake your mission, and strike the rock of stumbling in your home,
rather than avoid it by ignoring that which is grand and admirable in
the life of him with whom you are associated? Doubtless in a busy man,
now full of joy, and now morose; now engrossed by a thought or scheme
to such an extent that he forgets himself and his family, and now idle
and listless as a boy,--it may be hard, yet it is none the less a duty
for woman to love him for what he is, and to see to it that he be
ministered unto in his efforts. O, how dear to the heart of a working
man--no matter whether he toil with brain or hand--who feels that his
wife understands him, defends and protects him, and keeps the home
bright with love, though tempests may sweep across the path that leads
him into the world! There is a lesson here which belongs to men.
Mary's lack of appreciation did not turn Jesus from his work. It
permitted his true character to appear to better advantage. It tore
down the scaffolding of Mariolatry, and permitted the God-man to
stand forth in his grand proportions. "Wist ye not I must be ab