We hear no more of Mary till that most touching incident which occurred when her son was twelve years old, on the occasion of one of their annual visits to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover. Our Lord had attained time age when a boy was called by the Jews ) (Ben Ha-Torah), son of the law. Till now he had been in a more especial manner the child of his mother. We see the com parative independence into which he had grown by her indifference to the fact of his non-appearance in the company of herself and Joseph when they started from Jerusalem on their return. We also have in it an evidence of his undeviating rectitude of conduct and good sense. But when the even ing came without hint, their human feelings took alarm, an alarm which was not quieted till they saw him in the midst of the doctors—not teaching them, but, as an intelligent Jewish child, hearing them, and learning of them by asking questions. We may imagine how Mary's heart leaped up when she saw her divine son, and the reflections into which she would be thrown by his first re corded gentle, but serious rebuke, Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? ' We meet with no further mention of Mary till the marriage of Cana of Galilee, to which Mary, now probably a widow, seems to have been invited as an honoured relative. Lightfoot supposes the marriage to have taken place in the house of Alpheus, Mary's brother-in-law, as his son Symon is called the Canaanite, or man of Cana. Cana itself is identified with the modern Rana el jelil, or Kirbet Cana, about seven miles north of Nazareth, and ten south-west of Capernaum. It is clear that Mary felt herself to be invested with some autho rity in the house. Jesus was naturally there as her son, and the disciples as those whom he had called and adopted as his especial friends. As yet, the Lord had done no miracle ; and it has been ques tioned whether Mary, in drawing his attention to the failure of the wine, meant to invoke his mira culous powers, or merely to submit the fact to his judgment, that he might do what was best under the circumstances, either withdrawing from the feast with his disciples, or engaging the attention of the guests by his discourse. The better opinion, however, seems to be, that she knew he was about now to enter on his public ministry, and that miracles would he wrought by him in proof of his divine mission ; and the early fathers do not scruple to say, that a desire to gain éclat by the powers of her son, was one motive for her wish that he should supply the deficiency of the wine, and that by his reply he meant to condemn this feeling. The writers of the Church of Rome are very desirous to clear our Lord's answer of all intention of rebuke, and say that what he intended was to teach a general lesson that miracles were not to be performed from regard to human affinity, but solely from love, and his object of manifesting his glory. And this is true, but first among those to be taught this was she herself who had tempted him to work a miracle from that regard (Alford quoting Trench). But Mary having received this lesson, having heard from his lips the words, re spectful but decided, Woman, what have I to do with thee ? mine hour is not yet come,' is by no means shaken in her conviction that he will per form the miracle ; her faith triumphs over the apparent rebuke. She had been taught that, though she was the mother of his humanity, it was not to interfere with the exercise of his divine power, that what he wrought he would work at his own time and in his own way ; but still she was assured both of his power and of his will to perform, and accordingly she says to the servants, Whatsoever he may say unto you, do.' In what strange opposition to the whole spirit of this incident, and to the comments upon it, of Ire onus, Chrysostom, and Augustine, is the prayer offered to Mary by the Romish church—` Monstra to esse matrem, jure matris hnpera filio It was probably not long afterwards, and when he was in the full career of his Galilean ministry, teaching, preaching, and healing, in house, in synagogue, on the shore, on the mountain, and not having leisure so much as to eat, that his kindred were seized by the idea that he was beside himself. Even his mother seems to have been taken with the notion that he was doing too much. For we find her with his brethren pressing upon the skirts of the crowd which surrounded the house where he was at Capernaum, and desiring to speak with him. It is a natural picture of maternal anxiety. But when the circumstance was men tioned to our Lord, he once more taught the lesson that earthly relationships were as nothing compared with that new relationship which was to subsist be tween himself and his church Whoso heareth my word and keepeth it, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.' Chrysostom, however, and other fathers of the church, taking a different view of the transaction, animadvert in strong terms on the vainglory of the Virgin, who desired to share the honour which he gained by his miracles, and to show the people her connection with him and influence over him. Such comments show what
would have been the opinion of St. Chrysostom and the church in his age on the dogma now en forced by the Church of Rome as an article of faith—viz., that the blessed Virgin was exempt from original and actual sin' (Wordsworth an Matt. xii. 48).
The mention of our Lord's brethren naturally leads to the question whether Mary had children by Joseph after the birth of Jesus. On this point we cannot do better than quote the words of Pearson : We believe the mother of our Lord to nave been not only before and after his nativity, but also for ever, the most immaculate and blessed Virgin. For although it may be thought sufficient as to the mystery of the incarnation, that when out Saviour was conceived and born his mother was a virgin; . . . yet the peculiar eminency and un paralleled privilege of that mother ; the special honour and reverence due unto that Son, and ever paid by her ; the regard of that Holy Ghost who came upon her, and the power of the Highest which overshadowded her ; the singular goodness and piety of Joseph to whom she was espoused ; have persuaded the church of God in all ages to believe that she still continued in the same virginity, and therefore is to he acknowledged the Ever Virgin Mary.' As if the gate of the sanctuary in the Prophet Ezekiel were to be understood of her, This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.' In accordance with this view, the better opinion appears to be that the brethren of the Lord were (not, as was held by many, the sons of Joseph by a former marriage) but the sons of Alpheus by Mary the sister of the virgin.
But in that last and most touching interview between Mary and her divine Son, while he hung on the cross, it was to the care of none of these his kindred according to the flesh that Mary was con fided, but to that of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. This, according to Chrysostom, was that hour of weakness when he should again be subject to the ties and anxieties of human affinity, which he contemplated afar off when his mother seemed to exact from him a token of submission to her authority at Cana in Galilee. We see in it a proof that, as ever so now, he was perfect man, ever sympathizing with our wants, ever touched with a feeling of our infirmities : Woman,' said he to the weeping Mary, 'behold thy son !' and then turn ing to the beloved disciple, Behold thy mother r And from that day that disciple took her unto his own home.' Beyond the fact stated by St. Luke in the first chapter of the Acts, that she, with the eleven apostles and the women and the brethren of Jesus, continued in prayer and supplication in an upper room after our Lord's ascension into heaven, there is no further mention of Mary in the sacred volume. Other Marys attended at his sepulchre, and wit nessed his resurrection ; but Mary, the mother of our Lord, has passed from before us, and we see her no more.
Not so, however, in legendary story, and in the history of the church. Here the name of Mary bursts out afresh with new but artificial lustre. The legend says that when the apostles dispersed to spread the gospel through the world, Mary con tinued to reside near Mount Zion, and spent het days in visiting the places which had been made sacred by the most memorable events of her Son's life—his baptism, his fasting, his prayer, his sion, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension, whioh last event she survived twenty-four years, and died at the age of seventy-two ; others say she died at the age of sixty, having survived him twelve years. According to the legend of the assumption, her soul took flight in the presence of all the apostles, who were miraculously brought together to witness her departure. The soul flew, at his call, into the arms of her son ; but was afterwards, at his command, re-united with the body, that ab she had known no spot of carnal sin, so she should I suffer in the tomb no bodily decay ; and then she was carried up all glorious into heaven, accom panied by a multitude of angels (see the Golden Legend of Jac. de Voragine). A more unpretend ing tradition is that she went to Ephesus with St. John, and died there at the age of seventy-three ; and the general council which was held at Ephesus, A. D. 431, seems to support the belief that she was buried there. Another well-supported opinion is that she died at Jerusalem before the dispersion of the apostles, and that she was buried at Geth semane.