s
an event to have happened by no means unimportant--the presentation of
Christ in {277} the temple. "And when the days of her purification
according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to
Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. And he (Simeon) came by the Spirit
into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do
for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms,
and blessed God, and said, Lord, &c. And Joseph and his mother marvelled
at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and
said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and
rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign that shall be spoken
against, (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also) that
the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." [Luke ii. 28.] In this
incident it is worthy of remark, that Joseph and Mary are both mentioned
by name, that they are both called the parents of the young child; that
both are equally blessed by Simeon; and that the good old Israelite,
illumined by the spirit of prophecy, when he addresses himself
immediately to Mary, speaks only of her future sorrow, and does not even
most remotely or faintly allude to any exaltation of her above the other
daughters of Abraham. "A sword shall pass through thine own soul also,"
a prophecy, as St. Augustine interprets it, accomplished when she
witnessed the sufferings and death of her Son. (See De Sacy, vol. xxxii.
p. 138.)

The next occasion on which the name of the Virgin Mary is found in
Scripture, is the memorable visit of herself, her husband, and her Son,
to Jerusalem, when he was twelve years old. And the manner in which this
incident is related by the inspired Evangelist, so far from intimating
that Mary was destined to be an object of worship to the believers in
her Son, affords {278} evidence which exhibits strongly a bearing the
direct contrary. Here again Joseph and Mary are both called his parents:
Joseph is once mentioned by name, and so is Mary. If the language had
been so framed as on purpose to take away all distinction of preference
or superiority, it could not more successfully have effected its
purpose. But not only so, of the three addresses recorded as having been
made by our blessed Lord to his beloved mother (and only three are
recorded in the New Testament), the first occurs during this visit to
Jerusalem. It was in answer to the remonstrance made by Mary,