e.
God's Very Son of yore
Within her breast she bore;
And angels bright and fair,
Unseen, her fellows were.

She, ere she took her way,
An orison would say,
That God her steps might tend
Safe to their journey's end;
And there, in manner meet,
Her cousin she 'gan greet.

Elizabeth full fain
Eft bowed her head again;
She wist 'twas God's own Bride,
As, worshipful she cried:
'O Lady, Full of Grace,
Whence do I see thy face?'

O House and Home of bliss,
O earthly Paradis--
Nay, Heaven itself on ground
Wherein the Lord is found,
The Lord of Glory bright,
In goodness great and might--

Clean Maiden thou that art,
Come, visit this my heart;
And bring me chief my Good,
God's Son in Flesh and Blood;
Bless body, soul; and bide
For ever by my side.

From the Koeln Gesang-Buch. XVI Cent.

PART TWO

CHAPTER VI

S. JOSEPH

Joseph, her husband, being a just man--

S. Matt. I. 19.

O God, our refuge and our strength, look down in mercy upon
thy people who cry to thee; and by the intercession of the
glorious and immaculate Virgin Mary, mother of God, of St.
Joseph her spouse, and of thy blessed apostles Peter and
Paul, and of all saints, in mercy and goodness hear our
prayers for the conversion of sinners, and for the liberty
and exaltation of our holy mother the church. Through.

ROMAN.

When we read the Gospels, not simply as a record of events but as
revelation of the method of God, we are constantly impressed with what
we cannot otherwise describe than as the care of God for detail. There
is a curious type of mind which finds it possible to think of God as
Creator and Ruler of the universe, but impossible to conceive Him as
interested in or concerning Himself with the minutiae of human life; who
can conceive God as caring for a solar system or a planet, but not as
caring for a baby. Surely it is a strange notion of God that thinks of
Him as estimating values in terms of weight and measure: surely much
more intelligible is the Gospel presentation of Him as concerned with
spritual values and exercising that minute care over human life which is
best expressed by the word _Father_. It is very significant that as the
volume of revelation unrolls, the earlier notions of God as Ruler,
Governor, King, give way to