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THE SONGS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE HOLY [NTATIVITY 
 
'^ DFC 1 1 IQll 
 
 THE SONGS W ^.^^- \ 
 THE HOLY NATIVITY 
 
 CONSIDERED 
 
 I. AS RECORDED IN SCRIPTURE 
 
 II. AS IN USE IN THE CHURCH 
 
 BY y 
 
 THOMAS DEHANY BERNARD, M.A. 
 
 CANON AND CHANCELLOR OF WELLS 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT" (baMPTON 
 
 LECTURES, 1S64) AND "THE CENTRAL TEACHING OF JESUS CHRIST" 
 
 Eontiou 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 
 1895 
 
 The Right of Translation and Ueproduction is Eeseri-ed 
 
Richard Clav and Sons, Limited, 
 
 LONDON and BUNGAY. 
 
TO THE MEMORY 
 
 (honoured and beloved) 
 
 OF 
 
 LORD ARTHUR CHARLES HERVEY 
 
 for nearly twenty-five years 
 BISHOP of bath and avells 
 
 IN REMEMBRANCE 
 
 OF CONVERSATIONS WITH IIIM ON SUBJECTS OF WHICH IT 
 
 TREATS AND OF A FRIENDSHIP WHICH CONTRIBUTED NOa' 
 
 A LITTLE TO THE HAPPINESS OF YEARS THAT ARE GONE 
 
 T. D. B. 
 
 September, 1895 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Do not the Evangelical Canticles claim a separate 
 study and treatment ? Is it not meet that they should 
 have a book to themselves ? That is suggested by their 
 unique character ; being the only voices of their kind 
 in the New Testament ; all evoked by one event, and 
 contained in one record ; all alike in their theme and 
 in their tone ; in Scripture heard from afar, and in the 
 congregation sounding at our side. They have had 
 their various treatment. in commentaries and sermons, 
 but a more concentrated attention and a more com- 
 prehensive consideration are involved in the intention 
 of a separate work, and I am not aware that any .such 
 book is extant. 
 
 There is then nothing superfluous in making the 
 attempt, which has resulted in these pages. The 
 object with which they have been written and the hope 
 in which they are published will be accomplished, if 
 in their perusal they shall assist the reader, as in their 
 production they have assisted the writer, to a more 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 thankful appreciation of the value and use of these 
 priceless gems of prophecy and praise. 
 
 The book is therefore offered 
 
 To readers of Scripture as expository of a distinct 
 portion of the Holy Word ; 
 
 To worshippers in the congregation as a devotional 
 commentary on the hymns which they use ; 
 
 To those keeping Christmas as a contribution to the 
 ever-welcome thoughts of that blessed season ; 
 
 To all Christian people, avIio, in the midst of the 
 historical elaboration of Christianity, find it good to 
 re-enter from time to time the clear atmosphere of its 
 origin, and are fain in the heat of the day to recover 
 some feeling of the freshness of the dawn. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 Prefatory Words 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. The Gospel of the Nativity 1 
 
 II. Soukce and Channel of Information 7 
 
 III. The Families 14 
 
 IV, Expectation 19 
 
 V. Annunciation 29 
 
 VI. Inspiration 40 
 
 PART II 
 
 The Songs 
 
 I. The Visitation 47 
 
 II. Magnificat I. 
 
 Song of the Virgin 56 
 
X CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 III. Magnificat II. 
 
 Song of the Church 65 
 
 IV. Bexedictus I. 
 
 Song of Zacharias 78 
 
 V. Bexedictus II. 
 
 A Song of the Church 93 
 
 VI. Gloria in Excelsis. 
 
 SoxG of Axgels axd of the 'Church 10() 
 
 VII. Nunc Dimittis I. 
 
 Song of Simeon 120 
 
 VIII. Nunc Dimittis II. 
 
 SoxG OF the Church 131 
 
 IX. The Predictive Sequel 13!) 
 
 Ai'PEXDix A. The Kevelatiox of Axgels 14S 
 
 Appendix B. Ave Maria loO 
 
 Appendix C. Two Readixgs of Gloria ix Excelsis . . . 162 
 
PART I 
 
 PREFATORY WORDS 
 
SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE NATIVITY 
 
 So we may entitle the opening section of the Gospel 
 according to St. Luke, ch. i. 5 — ii. 41. 
 
 There we find ourselves in the early dawn, at the 
 
 breaking of the day — the great day of grace for the 
 
 world. 
 
 Sweet is the breath of morn ; her rising sweet, 
 With charm of earliest birds. ^ 
 
 Truly there is a sweetness and a charm in the be- 
 ginning of things, in change from what has been before, 
 in freshness and tenderness, in promise and hope. Li 
 the world the remembrance of this charm is often 
 touched with sadness, by failure afterwards, or by fulfil- 
 ments which become uninteresting, or which at least 
 disappoint the imagination. Not so in the Kingdom of 
 Heaven. There " the end of a thing is better than the 
 beginning thereof," and results surpass anticipations. 
 So we turn to the beginning of the Gospel of Christ, 
 
 ^ Paradise Lost, Bk. iv., 641. 
 
 B 
 
2 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 conscious of what has come and what is coming, in the 
 broadening light of the eternal da}^ With the more 
 pleasure we can revert to the comparative twilight of 
 the earliest hour, and feel the breath of the morning, 
 and hear the songs which salute the dawn. 
 
 This privilege St. Luke has given us; and the first 
 two chapters of his Gospel form a sort of prelude to the 
 story of the manifestation of Christ. That story begins 
 in the following chapter as a record of events that were 
 public, dated with historic accuracy from the year of 
 the Emperor, and with mention of the contemporary 
 potentates then ruling in the land. Those first chapters 
 are thus marked off as having a more private character, 
 rather archives of families than part of the public history 
 of the time. 
 
 This prelude also differs from the following narrative, 
 not only by the comparative privacy of the scenes, but 
 by their more transcendental character. Here are 
 appearances and announcements of angels, whereas, in 
 the days when Jesus was in the flesh, they are seen and 
 heard no more. Here are prophetic inspirations which, 
 save in the preliminary work of the Baptist, do not 
 recur. Here are Ipic utterances and songs in 
 earth and heaven, melodious voices which do not 
 mingle with events that follow. These characteristics 
 distinguish the opening section from the rest of 
 the Gospel, and give us the right to treat it as a 
 separate record with a special aspect of its own. 
 
 How precious is the prelude to the Gospel-story 
 thus contributed by St. Luke alone ! Unspeakable 
 would have been the loss if this book had begun (as 
 probably in its inception it did begin) with the first 
 
I THE GOSPEL OF THE NATIVITY 3 
 
 verse of the third chapter; if, like the narratives of 
 the second and the fourth Gospels, it had struck at 
 once into the course of public events in the action of 
 John and of Jesus, or had merely noted the miraculous 
 conception and holy Nativity in as few words as the 
 first Gospel employs. 
 
 Three points may be noted in which the proper 
 value of this brief document consists. 
 
 1. The first is the amount and importance of its 
 actual information. This we observe in the following re- 
 spects : in the two Annunciations by angelic messengers 
 and the terms in which they declare the destinies of 
 the children to be born ; in the preternatural birth of 
 the one and the supernatural birth of the other ; then 
 in the circumstances of the Nativity. St. Matthew only 
 says, " JVTien Jesus was bom in Bethlehem of Judaea in 
 the days of Herod the king," on his way to the story 
 of a public event, the visit of the Magi, in which 
 Herod and Bethlehem have their place. St. Luke, 
 telling how the event was announced beforehand, and 
 how it came to be at Bethlehem, relates the decree of 
 Csesar Augustus and the journey of the espoused pair 
 at the critical time, the birth in the stable and the 
 notification to the shepherds; then the circumcision and 
 naming of the holy Child, the presentation in the Temple, 
 with the incidents that attended it, and those inspired 
 songs and prophecies which are the subject for present 
 consideration. Finally, the document includes one scene 
 from the private life twelve years later, when the Child 
 Jesus becomes at his first Passover " a Son of the Coven- 
 ant," and gives by one deeply significant saying the first 
 intimation of the Divine consciousness which is in Him. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 It were useless to dilate on the interest and importance 
 of such information as this. 
 
 2. The second point in which this document has a 
 value peculiar to itself is its intermediate position and 
 consequently transitional character. We are here in the 
 New Testament, yet we are still in the Old. In the 
 events which succeed each other the new dispensation 
 has begun, but its nature is as yet undiscovered, or 
 dimly seen by the persons who have to do their parts 
 in its introduction. On that subject they know in part 
 and they prophesy in part. Their training, their habit 
 of mind, their ideas and language, are those of Jews of 
 their time, and accordingly even the heavenly messages 
 themselves are addressed to them as they would appre- 
 hend them. 
 
 This will appear in observations to be made further 
 on. Only here it is sufficient to observe that, numerous 
 as are the links of connexion with the Old Testament 
 in the other Gospels and elsewhere, yet this opening 
 record forms the most close connexion of all. By its 
 mention of Temple and ritual, of the priest at the altar 
 of incense, of the ceremonies of two circumcisions, of 
 purification of the Mother and presentation of the Child, 
 of all things accomplished according to the law of the 
 Lord, the narrative places itself in the heart of the old 
 dispensation, while relating the birth of Him who comes 
 to supersede it. And the persons think and speak of 
 mercy with the Fathers, the covenant with Abraham, 
 the promises to Israel, and the destinies of the house of 
 David, while welcoming the event which will fulfil them 
 in a higher sense than they suppose. 
 
 3. There is a third respect in which a distinct value 
 
I THE GOSPEL OF THE NATIVITY 5 
 
 attaches to these chapters. They constitute an ahnost 
 unique accession to what may be called the poetry of 
 the Gosj)el. I use the word, not only with reference to 
 the songs, which they alone in all the New Testament 
 (save the ApocaljqDse) contain, but to the scenes in 
 which those songs occur; and I use the word in the 
 same sense in which we speak of " the poetry of life," 
 meaning not fictions but facts, actual events and scenes, 
 but such as at once kindle the imagination and touch 
 the heart. In this sense the entire Gospel story has, 
 with all its deep seriousness, a poetic side. Thank God 
 it is so ; since thus it is better fitted to win its way to 
 the common heart of man. But it is obvious that the 
 poetic element belongs to the first section of St. Luke's 
 Gospel in an exceptional degree, and in this way, as in 
 others already mentioned, it brings the spirit of the 
 Old Testament across the threshold of the New by its 
 typical scenery, its angelic visitations, its lyrical utter- 
 ances and tones of prophecy. 
 
 Let us pass before our minds the successive scenes, 
 the annunciation to the priest in the holy place, the 
 greater Annunciation to the blessed Virgin, the meet- 
 ing of the two Mothers in the mutual confidences of 
 their mysterious secrets ; the Child born in the stable 
 and laid in the manger ; the shepherds abiding in the 
 field, surprised by the sudden glory, the great announce- 
 ment, and the multitude of the heavenly host ; and 
 lastly the scene in the Temple Court, where the aged 
 prophet and prophetess recognise in the Infant the 
 Salvation of God. 
 
 Suppose these things had not been written, what a 
 large proportion of the fairest works of art would never 
 
6 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap, i 
 
 have existed, from the absence both of inspiration and 
 material. There would have been no suggestion for the 
 Annunciations, the Holy Families, the serene aspects of 
 the Mother and Child, which have at least associated 
 the mysteries of the faith with pure thoughts and 
 tender affections, which have shed a softening influence 
 over rude races and dark ages, and blended healthful 
 feelings of another class with those of deeper kind 
 which arose in presence of the solemn scenes of Calvary. 
 How much would have disappeared from the provisions 
 for meditation, from the resources of the preacher, and 
 indeed from the literature of the world ! What a loss 
 in the absence of these very songs of the Nativity and 
 of the ideas with which they are connected ! How 
 many hymns, anthems, carols would never have been 
 heard ! What would children, the poor, indeed the 
 whole Church, and every one of us have lost in the 
 familiar scenery and sweet associations that recur with 
 each successive Christmas ! And how bare and silent 
 would those seasons then have been, compared with 
 what they are ! Such a supposition shows in a moment 
 how great a contribution these Scriptures have made to 
 the poetic side of religion ; Avhich itself consists not in 
 these forms and voices and celebrations, but in the 
 more tender feelings and pure imaginations which seek 
 in them some expression for themselves. This poetic 
 side of religion belongs to the poetic side of our nature, 
 a part of the constitution which God has given us, a part 
 on which his Spirit operates in the sanctification of the 
 whole man. For its spiritual education and its healthful 
 action to this end. He has made large provision in his 
 Word, and very notably in the Gospel of the Nativity. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 SOURCE AND CHANNEL OF INFORMATION 
 
 The information which bears these characters we 
 derive from a single evangelist. 
 
 So it has been ordered by the superintending pro- 
 vidence which has given the canonical Gospels to the 
 Church. 
 
 The task of perpetuating this information was 
 committed to a congenial hand. No writer could be 
 better qualified to give the record both with fidelity 
 and felicity than was St. Luke, whose instinct of selec- 
 tion, brevity of treatment, lightness of touch, and 
 graphic and graceful rendering of his incidents, we 
 know so well. In his treatment they appear as the 
 proverb has it, " apples of gold in a network of 
 silver." 
 
 1. But whence came the information itself? What 
 was its source ? and by what means obtained ? 
 
 Plainly, if it be information and not invention, there 
 could be but one source from which it was derived. 
 
 Not till thirty years later will events occur in public, 
 and the Lord show himself to the world, and have com- 
 panions to whom He can say, " Ye shall bear witness 
 
8 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 because ye have been with me from the begimiing." 
 Now, the things which happen are in the bosom of 
 families, or attract only brief neighbourly notice. It 
 was part of the Divine plan, that for those thirty years 
 the Son of God should walk in the shade until his hour 
 was come. But the few occurrences which, in private, 
 marked his birth were of such supreme importance in 
 themselves, and of such unspeakable interest to the 
 persons concerned in them, that it would have been 
 impossible for them to allow those memories to perish, 
 if they had only the most natural feelings and motives 
 common to mankind. How those precious recollections 
 of angelic announcements and prophetic words were 
 preserved in the families, we cannot tell, but that they 
 would be preserved is certain. Religious duty called 
 for it as Avell as natural feeling. If it were felt right to 
 put in writing revelations made to Zacharias, and the 
 inspired words which were uttered in his house, there 
 could be no man better qualified to do it than Zacharias 
 was himself, priest as he was, and prophet as he 
 became. Other memories, too, might be retentive, for 
 we read, " All these sayings were noised abroad 
 throughout the hill country of Judaea, and they that 
 heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What 
 manner of child shall this be ? " 
 
 But, whatever local and partial recollections might 
 exist in other quarters, there was one reticent and 
 thoughtful mind which received and retained the clear 
 impress of all that occurred. Not only did the Virgin 
 Mother know what none but herself could know, but in 
 regard to all significant facts and words it is noted as a 
 characteristic habit, that " Mary kept all these things 
 
II SOURCE AND CHANNEL OF INFORMATION 9 
 
 and pondered them in her heart." When the hour for 
 manifestation came, there is every reason to believe 
 that, of those who could have borne living witness to 
 the first events, she alone survived. When the Gospel 
 was being preached, she remained (we know not how 
 long) in the home of St. John, the sole depositary of 
 those earliest recollections. 
 
 The information then, which has been perpetuated in 
 the first chapters of the third Gospel, must have been 
 derived originally from the Blessed Virgin herself, some 
 of it confided (in all likelihood) to some written record 
 in which the family tradition was preserved. 
 
 2. For the source of the information there is scarcely 
 an alternative ; but a question follows as to the channel 
 by which it has been conveyed to us. 
 
 The little history, with its remarkable freshness of 
 Hebraistic character and expression, has come to us 
 through the one Evangelist who was not a Hebrew, and 
 who had no early connexion with scenes and persons in 
 the Holy Land. St. Luke was probably a proselyte of 
 Antioch, one perhaps of " the great number who believed 
 and turned to the Lord" at the first preaching of Christ 
 in that place, one of those disciples who were " first 
 called Christians," among whom, at different periods, 
 Paul and Barnabas were (as he himself records) " teach- 
 ing and preaching for no little time." Attaching him- 
 self closely to St. Paul, ho joins him on his second mis- 
 sionary journey, is left b}' him at Philippi, and passes, 
 as it would appear, some seven years in Macedonia, 
 Where was the opportunity for obtaining that ample, 
 fresh and living information which he has collected in 
 his Gospel ? In an undesigned manner his own narra- 
 
10 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 tive in the Acts supplies an answer. On St. Paul's 
 return from the third missionary journey the writer 
 joins him again. "We sailed away from Philippi after 
 the days of unleavened bread " ; and so the story con- 
 tinues in the first person plural through all stages of 
 voyage and journey to Jerusalem. There the writer is 
 an eye-witness of the scenes of violence which end in the 
 removal of Paul by night to Csesarea. Evidently he 
 followed his friend thither, and was present at the 
 public examination before Felix.^ 
 
 Then follow two years of Paul's confinement at 
 CaBsarea till (a.d. 60) Porcius Festus comes into Felix's 
 room, and the adjourned case is dealt with. Naturally, 
 the devoted friends of the accused would again be on 
 the spot. No appreciative reader can doubt that the 
 writer was present in the crowd, when " King Agrippa 
 and Bernice came with great pomp, and at Festus's 
 commandment Paul was brought forth," and the 
 animated defence was delivered, of which the changing 
 tones and the different effects on the auditors are given 
 with such dramatic effect. When it is over the language 
 of companionship recurs at once, and through voj'age 
 and shipwreck and arrival at Rome the Avriter is by the 
 Apostle's side. 
 
 Thus it appears that for two whole years and more 
 St. Luke is in the Holy Land, waiting for what mil 
 happen to his friend, and with his time at his own 
 disposal. Now was the opportunity to pursue on the 
 
 ^ The style of " a certain orator named Tertullus" could only 
 have been taken off in those few touches, by one who was listening 
 to him (and listening, I think, with some amusement). So of other 
 features in the narrative. 
 
II SOURCE AND CHANNEL OF INFORMATION 11 
 
 spot those inquiries to which he was directed by his 
 turn of mind and by his desire for accurate verification 
 of " those things wherein he [as well as Theophilus] had 
 been instructed." He had at hand, he tells us, previous 
 narratives, which he could use for what they were 
 worth ; but the man, who says he " has traced all things 
 accurately from the first in order to know the certainty 
 of things," is no literary copyist ; he is one who relies 
 on original investigations. With this agree the fresh 
 tone of his narrative and more distinctly the Hebraistic 
 turns of language which were not naturally his own, biit 
 which, with the true genius of a narrator, he would 
 appropriate from the communications of others. There 
 he was in the very scenes where the great events had 
 occurred about five-and-twenty years before, able to 
 converse with some of those five hundred brethren, of 
 whom St. Paul had said in a recent letter, " the greater 
 part remain unto this present," able to verify accounts 
 already known, able to follow out fresh lines of infor- 
 mation beside or beyond them, and able to consult the 
 best authorities then resident in the land. Thus he 
 might have access, and he would certainly seek it, to the 
 home where the Mother of Jesus had dwelt retired, 
 possibly was dwelling still, under care of the beloved 
 disciple, and where he might be graciously entrusted 
 with personal recollections and domestic archives of the 
 holy Nativity. 
 
 In such a matter, where we are told nothing, any 
 view is hypothetical ; but there are suppositions which 
 in themselves are probable, and with which results 
 correspond ; and both these conditions exist in the 
 
12 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 supposition here adopted, as to the means by which it 
 was provided that this particular information should be 
 given to the Church. 
 
 Not in a residence at Antioch, not in seven years in 
 Macedonia, not in the later sojourn in Rome, could 
 investigations be conducted with the same certainty, or 
 materials collected with the same facility, as in those 
 two years of leisure and opportunity which were spent 
 in Palestine. Neither would the desire to compose such 
 a narrative arise as naturally elsewhere as it would 
 here. Nor j-et could that living realisation of incident 
 and vernacular turns of expression have been contracted 
 in foreign and uncongenial scenes with anything like 
 the same assimilating power. 
 
 These observations bear upon the Gospel as a whole, 
 but we speak here of the first two chapters. These, if 
 they are not invention, could have but one source, from 
 which by some means they passed into the pages of St. 
 Luke ; and the internal evidence of their genuineness 
 and authenticity is of a kind which all can estimate. 
 It lies very much in that transitional character which 
 has been noted, and which could never have been im- 
 parted to the story at a later period. 
 
 The situation is historically distinct as belonging to 
 a definite time, and is so circumscribed within the 
 horizon of theocratic Israel, as to make it foreign to any 
 imagination in the sub-apostolic period. After the 
 Messianic drama was over, so contrary to all expectation 
 in its amazing external disappointments, after the King 
 had been rejected and crucified and the nation ruined 
 and effaced, it would have been well-nigh impossible for 
 
n SOURCE AND CHANNEL OF INFORMATION 13 
 
 any one to imagine a prediction by an angel from 
 heaven couched in such terms as are used in the 
 Annunciation, and equally impossible that responses to 
 that prediction should have been composed in songs, 
 which give no indication of the presence of the later 
 knowledge, or of ideas which must at that period have 
 been predominant in the mind of the composer. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FAMILIES 
 
 Passing from the Scripture in which the songs are 
 recorded, we enter the region of life in which they are 
 produced, and observe the conditions of thought which 
 make them what they are. 
 
 The region of life is that which lies at the centre and 
 heart of Israel, in families in which the national fibre 
 was strongest, and in the level of life which best repre- 
 sented the common intelligence. 
 
 There were two lines of descent in Israel, to which, 
 from their several offices, national feeling could gravitate 
 and national hope could cling — that of the Priests, the 
 sons of Aaron, and that of the house of David which 
 had the promise of the kingdom. From the first arises 
 the Herald, from the second the King. Zacharias is a 
 priest of the course of Abijah, and his wife is of the 
 daughters of Aaron. Joseph is a man " of the house 
 and lineage of David," presumably its rightful repre- 
 sentative, as no other such appears ; and as, in the days 
 of Domitian, the surviving members of his family were 
 examined as reputed heirs of the old royal house. The 
 maiden espoused to Joseph is also of the same stock, as 
 
CHAP. Ill THE FAMILIES 15 
 
 appears from the language of the Annunciation, which, 
 while setting aside all connexion with Joseph, assigns 
 to the Child to be born " the throne of his father 
 David." 
 
 These two families are nearly related, apparently 
 through a marriage in a preceding generation, which 
 made the elder and younger women cousins, as they 
 were dear friends, to each other. We know how care- 
 fully genealogies were preserved and traditions main- 
 tained in Jewish families, above all in those in which 
 they were of such exceptional importance. It would 
 be so all the more, because the existing powers dominant 
 in the country had superseded ancient claims to con- 
 sideration and left no scope for their development. 
 
 In religion, not the Priests as such, but the Scribes 
 and Lawyers were the recognised authorities ; and in 
 secular life the very existence of a house of David was 
 scarcely known to the ruling powers. It had in fact 
 through many generations shrunk quietly away, and 
 retired far, both from the centre of public life, and from 
 its own ancestral domicile. But the family traditions 
 and the high thoughts which they generated could not 
 be left behind. These would dwell deep in the hearts 
 of persons conscious of illustrious descent, especially in 
 a family which had destinies as well as memories, and 
 knew itself to be, if there was any truth in prophecy, 
 the inheritor of a future more glorious than its past. 
 All the more certainly would such thoughts be 
 cherished, if outward circumstances were in strong 
 contrast with them, and if the elevation of sentiment 
 was combined with the actual experiences of what 
 might seem by comparison a " low estate." 
 
16 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 In social standing the two families would be about on 
 the same level ; and what this was appears from the busi- 
 ness in which Joseph made his living. It was a level 
 which placed them in that middle rank of life, below riches 
 and above poverty, which in independence and simplicity 
 best represents the common mind of a people, which has 
 advantages of its own for true well-being, and in which 
 a large proportion of the worth and godliness of a com- 
 munity is apt to be found. 
 
 So it was here. Of Zacharias and Elizabeth it is 
 written : " They were both righteous before God, walking 
 in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord 
 blameless." That is a high character indeed (though 
 expressed, as everything here, in the manner of the Old 
 Testament). It was a righteousness of truth, not the 
 Pharisaic righteousness, then hardening into the shape 
 in which Jesus had to encounter it. They were both 
 righteous before God ; but " walking " before men in 
 habitual godliness, recognised as blameless observers of 
 all the commandments and ordinances (or justifications) 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Of Joseph we read in St. Matthew the brief but 
 satisfying character, "he was a just man;" and we see 
 him at a critical moment doing what the evangelist 
 thinks a just man would do, and after a distressing 
 discovery iDondering how the right course could be taken 
 in the most gentle and considerate manner. 
 
 As to the blessed Virgin herself it behoves us to say 
 but little. In the general history a veil of reserve rests 
 upon that saintly figure. Only two words come from her 
 lips when the manifestation of Jesus will begin (St. 
 John ii. 3 — 5), after that there is silence ; and on 
 
ni " THE FAMILIES 17 
 
 a few occasions her presence is mentioned, but that is all. 
 This reserve is in harmony with a just apprehension of 
 her own peculiar part in the history of grace. But in this 
 " Gospel of the Nativity " she is necessarily the principal 
 figure, and we recognise the purity of tone, the resig- 
 nation and surrender to the will of God, the unhesitat- 
 ing faith in his word, the mingled elevation and humility, 
 and the meditative thoughtfulness of a mind which 
 observes, reflects, and remembers, as watching the 
 unfolding of a divine mystery. 
 
 Very distinct also are the habits of mind which 
 appear in the songs themselves. These will be noted 
 in their place, but in the glad elation of the Magnificat, 
 the spiritual insight of the Benedictus, and the parting 
 outlook of the Nunc Dimittis, there is one common 
 aspect, that of minds formed by converse with the 
 Holy Scriptures, from which they have derived both 
 their lines of thought and their forms of expression. 
 In this fundamental respect all are Israelites indeed. 
 
 Such are the persons who meet us at the opening of 
 the Gospel story; such are the characters of the two 
 homes in the hill country of JudfBa and in Nazareth of 
 Galilee, whence came forth the Forerunner and the 
 Saviour. The little circle which surrounds them is all 
 of a kindred sort. The neighbours and cousins, who 
 rejoice with Zacharias and Elizabeth and lay up what 
 they hear in their hearts, add to the domestic scene. 
 The Shepherds who hasten to Bethlehem to see what 
 the Lord has made known to them, and depart glori- 
 fying and praising God, exhibit the simple piety of the 
 industrial class. In the Temple two other persons 
 appear, who are venerable for age and sanctity — a man 
 
 c 
 
18 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap, hi 
 
 "just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel," 
 and gifted with special inspirations — and a prophetess, 
 a widow indeed, dedicated to a life of devotion and in 
 godly communion with others of like spirit, who are 
 looking for redemption in Jerusalem. 
 
 Is it not refreshing to attend the birth of Christ in 
 such a circle as this ? and this " in the days of Herod 
 the King," dark and evil days as Ave know them to 
 have been. History would tell of the vices, jealousies, 
 and heartless cruelties of the king, the ambition and 
 intrigues in the high priestly family, the rancour and 
 violence of factions, the uneasiness of the masses under 
 the foreign domination, the insurrections and outbursts 
 of popular and fanatical passions, in fact all the seeth- 
 ing elements of that final ruin, which many born in 
 those daj^s would live to see. The public scene was 
 turbid, yet was there private life beneath, clear, calm 
 depths under that restless sea whose waters cast up 
 mire and dirt ; and as in the times of the Prophets, so 
 now also there was " the true Israel," " the remnant in 
 the land," " the holy seed which was the substance 
 thereof" 
 
 These fair annals " in the days of Herod the King " 
 have the refreshing effect of the idyl of Ruth in the 
 days of the Judges. 
 
 In these quiet and domestic scenes, in these modest 
 circumstances and average conditions of life, among 
 these worthy characters and godly habits, the Christ 
 is born ; and this is the region of life in which the 
 songs of the Holy Nativity arise. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 EXPECTATION 
 
 The songs are prompted by the knowledge of 
 the great event. They are voices of a little com- 
 pany which (so to speak) has been taken into the 
 confidence of God, and is in possession of the secret 
 unknown to all the world. These alone know that the 
 hour is come, the ages of expectation are over, and the 
 Messiah is entering the world. This consciousness 
 derives its character and its expression from three 
 conditions: (1) previous habits of thought, (2) direct 
 information communicated, (3) holy inspirations follow- 
 ing it. 
 
 The previous habits of thought must first be con- 
 sidered ; for these remain as the background of every 
 mental change. By them fresh information is assimi- 
 lated ; and on them special inspiration (if such be 
 granted) must operate. 
 
 What then was the condition of mind concerning the 
 hope of Israel in those who received the first evangeli- 
 cal tidings ? In other words, what were the Messianic 
 ideas and expectations already existing to which the 
 
 c 2 
 
20 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 announcements by Angels were addressed, and on which 
 the breath of inspiration passed ? These would be the 
 ideas and expectations which the persons in question 
 shared with the world around them, those prevailing at 
 the time, but Avhich would in each case take distinctive 
 character from the tendencies of individual minds. 
 
 The Messianic expectation in the Jewish people, as a 
 fixed and dominant idea, as a power which swayed the 
 multitude and with which governments had to reckon, 
 is a fact certain and notorious. Roman historians note 
 it as, at that time, recognised through all the East. 
 The general understanding on the subject is implied in 
 Herod's formal reference to the Priests and Scribes of 
 the question, " Where the Christ should be born ? " 
 It was the effect of the gradual working of the word 
 of prophecy, discussed in the schools, read in the 
 synagogues, diffused through the mind of the people. 
 And this effect had been intensified by all the later 
 history, which had brought this hope into prominence, 
 as a refuge for the heart of the nation, through the 
 agonies, conflicts, and successes of the Maccabasan 
 period, through the disappointments, usurpations, and 
 disasters of the Asmonean rojai priesthood, then 
 through subjugation to the Roman dominion, and the 
 days of the Idumean king. Where could piety, where 
 could patriotism turn but to the Christ who was to 
 come ? Here was a common centre to which all 
 feelings would gravitate, those of pious souls in secret 
 longing for national righteousness, those of fanatical 
 sectaries seeking the triumph of their own ideas, those 
 of the masses of the people chafing under alien 
 domination. 
 
IV EXPECTATION 21 
 
 Of this general prevalence and living power of the 
 Messianic hope at the date of the birth of Jesus there 
 is no question. Its particular features may be gathered 
 from the literature nearest to it in time, from epi- 
 graphical writings, and Rabbinic interpretations of 
 prophecy or deductions from it, traceable to the first 
 century B.C. In the latter there are some sayings 
 which dubiously imply for the Messiah a premundane 
 existence and bear close upon a true Divinity, but 
 these are fragmentary and incoherent, and are no 
 indications of settled views, certainly not of current 
 opinion. For that we have no precisely contempo- 
 raneous evidence but the very songs which we have to 
 consider; but we have definite expressions of the 
 popular expectation some fifty years earlier and some 
 thirty years later, at the former date in the (so-called) 
 Psalms of Solomon, and at the later in the voices which 
 we hear in the Gospels. 
 
 To the first of these sources of information we can 
 now turn with confidence, since the date, origin, and 
 character of the collection have been treated with such 
 thoroughness and judgment in the recent edition and 
 commentary which has issued from the Cambridge 
 Press.^ 
 
 The collection is assigned by its historical allusions 
 to the generation 70 to 40 B.C., and by its religious 
 and political spirit to the party of the Pharisees as then 
 representing zeal for the Law, the exclusive national 
 sentiment, and the religious fervour of the masses. In 
 
 ^ Psalms of the Pharisees, commonly called the Psalms of Solom^on. 
 By Herbert Edward Ryle, Hulsean Professor, and Montague 
 Rhodes James, Fellow of King's. 
 
22 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 Ps. xvii. we have very distinctly that of which we are in 
 search, namely a full expression of the Messianic ideas 
 of the time. It was a critical time indeed, when the 
 iron hand of Rome had just been firmly laid upon 
 Jerusalem ; and the first part of the Psalm dwells on 
 the historic circumstances past and present. We can 
 trace the course of events, the antagonisms of interest 
 and opinion, the denunciations of the party in power, 
 the advent of the Roman army, the crushing punish- 
 ment of a resisting faction, the entrance of Pompey 
 into Jerusalem, into the Temple, into the Holy of 
 Holies, and the ensuing state of things under the 
 foreign rule. It is felt as just punishment on a sinful 
 nation. The sad failure of the past under the Asmonean 
 dynasty is summed up in the words : — 
 
 From their ruler to the vilest of the people, 
 they were altogether sinful. 
 The King was in transgression, the Judge 
 in disobedience, and the People in sin. 
 
 What remains but to turn to the hope of Israel ? So 
 lifting up his eyes on the prospect which, by this time, 
 had been gathered from the whole range of prophecy, 
 the Psalmist prays for that coming of the Messiah, 
 Avhich must surely be at hand ; and his account of the 
 expectation of the King and of the Kingdom is so 
 ample, and so apt to the present purpose, that it will 
 best serve by a full citation : — 
 
 23 Behold, Lord, and raise up unto them their King the son of 
 David, in the time which thou, God, knowest, that he may reign 
 over Israel thy servant ; 
 
 24 And gird him with strength that he may break in pieces them 
 that rule unjustly. 
 
IV EXPECTATION 23 
 
 25 Purge Jerusalem from the heathen that trample clown to 
 destroy her, with wisdom and with righteousness. 
 
 26 He shall thrust out the sinners from the inheritance, utterly 
 destroy the proud spirit of the sinners, and as potter's vessels with 
 a rod of iron shall he break in pieces all their substance. 
 
 27 He shall destroy the ungodly nations with the word of his 
 mouth, so that at his rebuke the nations may flee before him, and he 
 shall convict the sinners in the thoughts of their hearts. 
 
 28 And he shall gather together a holy people, whom he shall 
 lead in righteousness ; and shall judge the tribes of the people that 
 hath been sanctified by the Lord his God. 
 
 29 And he shall not suffer iniquity to lodge in their midst ; and 
 none that knoweth wickedness shall dwell with them. 
 
 30 For he shall take knowledge of them, that they be all the 
 sons of their God, and shall divide them upon the earth according 
 to their tribes. 
 
 31 And the sojourner and the stranger shall dwell with them 
 no more. 
 
 He shall judge the nations and the peoples with the wisdom of his 
 righteousness. Selah. 
 
 32 And he shall possess the nations of the heathen to serve him 
 beneath his yoke ; and he shall glorify the Lord in a place to be seen 
 of the whole earth ; 
 
 33 And he shall purge Jerusalem and make it holy, even as it 
 was in the days of old. 
 
 34 So that the nations may come from the ends of the earth to 
 see his glory, bringing as gifts her sons that had fainted, 
 
 35 And may see the glory of the Lord wherewith God hath 
 glorified her. 
 
 And a righteous King and taught of God is he that reigneth over 
 them ; 
 
 36 And there shall be no iniquity in his days in their midst, for 
 all shall be holy, and their King is the Lord Messiah. 
 
 37 For he shall not put his trust in horse and rider and bow, nor 
 shall he multiply unto himself gold and silver for war, nor by ships 
 shall he gather confidence for the day of battle. 
 
 38 The Lord himself is his King, and the hope of him that is 
 strong in the hope of God. 
 
 And he shall have mercy upon all the nations that come before 
 him in fear. 
 
 39 For he shall smite the earth with the word of his mouth even 
 for evermore. 
 
24 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 40 He shall bless the people of the Lord with \\isdom and 
 gladness. 
 
 41 He himself also is pure from sin, so that he may rule a mighty 
 people, and rebuke princes and overthrow sinners bj' the might of 
 his word. 
 
 42 And he shall not faint all his days, because he leaneth upon 
 his God ; for God shall cause him to be mighty through the spirit of 
 holiness, and wise through the counsel of understanding, with 
 might and righteousness. 
 
 43 And the blessing of the Lord is with him in might, and his 
 hope in the Lord shall not faint. 
 
 44 And who can stand up against him ? he is might}' in his woiks 
 and strong in the fear of God, 
 
 45 Tending the flock of the Lord with faith and righteousness ; 
 and he shall sufi'er none among them to faint in their pasture. 
 
 46 In holiness shall he lead them all, and there shall no pride be 
 among them that any should be oppressed. 
 
 47 This is the majesty of the King of Israel, Mhich God hath 
 appointed to raise him up over the house of Israel, to instruct him. 
 
 48 His words shall be purified above fine gold, yea above the 
 choicest gold. 
 
 In the congregations will he judge among the peoples, the tribes 
 of them that have been sanctified. 
 
 49 His words shall be as the words of the holy ones in the midst 
 of the peoples that have been sanctified. 
 
 50 Blessed are they that shall be born in those days, to behold 
 the blessing of Israel which God shall bring to pass in the gathering 
 together of the tribes. 
 
 51 May God hasten his mercy toward Israel ! may he deliver us 
 from the al)omination of unhalloMcd adversaries ! 
 
 The Lord, he is our King from henceforth and even for evermore. 
 
 This is plain language and is evidently the utter- 
 ance of a popular voice. It shows how the dispersed 
 words of Psalmists and Prophets had become woven 
 together round the person of Messiah. The main 
 points to be observed will be best given in a note of the 
 Editors (p. 127) :— 
 
 The allusions to the Messianic King give a vivid description of 
 the hopes of the Pharisees half a century before Christ. The reader 
 
IV EXPECTATION 25 
 
 should carefully observe ( 1 ) the two external characteristics of the 
 Messianic reign, the overthrow and exclusion of the heathen (15, 
 17, 31, &c. ), and the restoration and reunion of the tribes (28, 30, 
 48) ; (2) the weapons of the Messiah's power, holiness, faith, wisdom, 
 and justice (15, 27, 33, 39, 42, &c.). 
 
 The prayers for the days of the Messiah contain no insinuation of 
 a resort to physical force or insurrection. Tlie faith of the pious 
 Pharisee has not degenerated to the fanaticism of the zealot. 
 
 How it shall come to pass is not a matter for consideration. But 
 the kingdom of Israel shall be established through holiness over the 
 whole world. The throne of David shall be set up, and the Son of 
 David, the Anointed of the Lord, shall administer justice, a holy 
 prince of a people, ruling as it were, on behalf of God, the King of 
 Kings. The picture is ideal, and is based on the thought which is 
 the refrain of the whole Psalm (1, 4, 38, 51) that God Himself is 
 Israel's King, that He is faithful, that His Kingdom is for everlasting, 
 and that He will in due time restore the throne to Israel. 
 
 Such then were the thoughts concerning Messiah 
 and his kingdom with which the persons who open 
 the evangelic story were familiar from their youth : 
 for the Psalm is written after the taking of Jerusalem 
 by Pompey, 63 B.C., but apparently before his assassina- 
 tion, 48 B.C. ; since that event, mentioned in other 
 Psalms as divine retribution, is not alluded to here. 
 Its composition would thus synchronise with the earlier 
 years of Zacharias and his contemporaries, while its 
 later translation into Greek and continued use make it 
 good evidence of the mind of the national party in 
 Israel at the time when the Christ was born, and so 
 of the character of previous expectation in the little 
 company who were cognisant of his birth. 
 
 It is some thirty years later that we again have 
 evidence of the prevalent sentiments and recognised 
 ideas concerning the Christ who was to come. It is 
 given by the incidental utterances from various quarters 
 which are heard round the path of Jesus. The expecta- 
 
26 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 tion is mainly the same as in the Psalm, but Ave can 
 note some tones that go beyond it. 
 
 The character of king is always prominent. " Thou 
 art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel " 
 (John i. 49). " They would take him by force to make 
 him king " (vi. 15). " Blessed be the King that cometh 
 in the name of the Lord " (Luke ix. 38). " Let Christ 
 the King of Israel descend now from the cross " 
 (Mark xv. 32). Even at last His disciples show their 
 fixed expectation, certainly not learned from Himself, 
 about which the only question is that of time : " Lord, 
 wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to 
 Israel ? " (Acts i. 6). His origin is certain, " The Christ 
 cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of 
 Bethlehem where David was " (John vii. 42). Yet is 
 there some further mystery in it : " When Christ 
 cometh no man knoweth whence he is " (vii, 27). And, 
 though the Son of David, he is in some peculiar sense 
 the Son of God : " Thou art the Son of God, thou art the 
 King of Israel " (John i.). " Art thou the Christ the 
 Son of the Blessed ? " (Mark xiv. 61). When he comes 
 he may be expected to baptize for cleansing of Israel 
 and admission to his kingdom, " Why baptizest thou 
 then if thou be not that Christ ? " He will also show 
 signs and wonders : " When the Christ shall come, will 
 he do more signs than those which this man hath 
 done ? " (John vii. 31). He will declare the truth and 
 decide controversies : " We know that Messias cometh 
 who is called Christ; when he is come he will tell us (de- 
 clare to us) all things " (John iv. 25). Finally, there will 
 be no limit of time to his reign : " We have heard out of 
 the Law that the Christ abideth for ever " (John xii. 34). 
 
IV EXPECTATION 27 
 
 Such we find to be the ideas diffused among the 
 people concerning the Christ who was to come, and 
 with these accepted ideas they compare what they see 
 or know of Jesus. Thus we learn from popular voices 
 at the later, and from national literature at the earlier 
 date, what was the generally accepted view at the 
 time of the birth of Jesus, and which therefore was in 
 possession of the minds of those to whom the announce- 
 ments came. 
 
 Doubtless different features of this exj)ectation would 
 be prominent in different minds (as in some the glory 
 of the kingdom, in some the reign of righteousness) ; 
 and even in the elect and holy company with which we 
 now converse there were of course the diverse shades of 
 apprehension incidental to individual minds ; yet was 
 it the same Christ, who was looked for by the priest in 
 the Temple, by the carpenter at Nazareth, by the young 
 maiden in her chamber, by the shepherds in the field, 
 by the aged prophet and prophetess, and by their 
 friends " who looked for redemption in Jerusalem." 
 
 Certainly there are Rabbinic sayings which surpass 
 these prevalent ideas, flashes of light from prophecies 
 which they interpret which almost anticipate the very 
 mystery of the Incarnation. But they are only flashes. 
 They express no conscious conclusions, and have no 
 effect on popular opinion. Men looked for a Christ 
 who should be sent of the Lord, but could not know in 
 what sense he would be the Lord himself On the 
 truth of the Incarnation of " the Son which is the Word 
 of the Father " everything depended ; redemption, 
 resurrection, heavenly kingdom, and life eternal. But 
 it was not prematurely disclosed while the necessary 
 
28 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap, iv 
 
 conditions were in progress. The Annunciation left it 
 unrevealed. Even in the days of the manifestation 
 only occasional intimations left the truth for after- 
 knowledge. The disciples, who beheld the glory as of 
 the Only-Begotten of the Father, saw it in partial dis- 
 coveries and with dim and gradual apprehensions. 
 They could not otherwise have been disciples and 
 companions of Jesus. In the wisdom of God the reve- 
 lation waited till the manifestation was completed, and 
 Jesus was glorified, and the Holy Ghost was come. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ANNUNCIATION 
 
 To minds in this state of expectation came the sudden 
 information that the time was fulfilled, and to this in- 
 formation the songs respond. This is done on three 
 occasions by the message of an angel, and on the fourth 
 by revelation of the Spirit. The narratives of the an- 
 nunciations to Zacharias and to the Virgin give scope 
 for some discussions which may be omitted here. We are 
 concerned only with the fact that the angel appeared, 
 and with the words which on each occasion become the 
 groundwork of the songs which are our present subject. 
 
 Very significant is the Divine ordering of things in 
 the evangelical history in respect of the employment 
 and withholding of this mode of supernatural agency. 
 When " the First-Begotten is being brought into the 
 world " angelic ministry is active. When He has 
 finished life in the flesh it again appears at the Resur- 
 rection and the Ascension. Through the earthly course 
 of Jesus the angels, largely spoken of in His discourses, 
 yet take no part. Only once at the beginning in the 
 wilderness, and once again at the end in Gethsemane, 
 after the trial is past and the victory won, a momentary 
 ministry, unseen by men, is mentioned. The manifes- 
 
30 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 tation in the flesh was kept clear of complications. The 
 human life was truly human. Its glory was emitted 
 from itself without extraneous aid. The intervention of 
 an angel, or of twelve legions of angels, instead of assist- 
 ing would have hindered the fulfilment of His mission. 
 " He trod the winepress alone, and of the people there 
 was none with Him " — none from the population of 
 heaven any more than from that of earth. 
 
 But at the beginning and before the birth this visible 
 and audible agency is needed for the information, not 
 of the world, but of those who had their own part to 
 take in the history of the Nativity. Inward revelation 
 by the Spirit, such as served for Simeon, would not 
 have been sufficient for Zacharias and Elizabeth, much 
 less for Mary and Joseph, in the crisis in which their 
 personal action was involved. Therefore in announce- 
 ments by an angel a direct message and full assurance 
 were given to their yet unpractised faith. 
 
 Since the appearance of angels is withheld from the 
 common life of the Church, as it was from the earthly 
 life of Jesus, it is natural for us to look doubtfully on 
 these records, and to share, so to speak, the startled 
 scepticism of Zacharias. But we soon observe that 
 these heavenly visits are related as simple facts, that 
 they occur on occasions which demand them, that they 
 are justified by the events which follow, and that they 
 are integral parts of an essentially supernatural scheme 
 of things. The revelation of the world of angels and 
 their relations with human history is a part of that 
 scheme, nowhere more distinctly present than in the 
 teaching of the Lord Himself. He lives in the con- 
 sciousness of another world of beings, surrounding that 
 
V ANNUNCIATION 31 
 
 in which He walks, beings whose mind He knows, who 
 are watching as friends and neighbours the work in 
 which they may not share, rejoicing in one sinner who 
 repents, and ready at the end of the days to serve in 
 the work of judgment and contribute to the glory of 
 His Coming. 
 
 It is in harmony with this revelation that the an- 
 nouncement of the Incarnation is made by a messenger 
 from heaven, and by one who gives a name importing 
 dignity and might, and who, in some special nearness, 
 " stands in the presence of God." 
 
 As the certainty of information from heaven prompts 
 the songs of Mary and Zacharias, so the character of 
 that information is reflected in the thought and lan- 
 guage of the songs. 
 
 The annunciation to Zacharias runs as follows : — 
 (1) the promise of the son; (2) the qualification for his 
 work ; (3) the work itself 
 
 1. Fear not, Zacharias ; because thy supplication is heard, and 
 thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name 
 John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice 
 at his birth. 
 
 What supplication was that ? Scarcely the prayer 
 made in common with all Israel for the coming of the 
 kingdom. The answer is too distinctly personal for 
 that. Scarcely a petition made then and there for a 
 gift of which all hope was now past. Perhaps a prayer 
 frequent in other days while hope of issue remained. 
 Now shall it be answered ; a son shall be born, and his 
 name is chosen in heaven, ^^nV' composed of two 
 
 words T^y^V and pn " Jehovah shews grace," in 
 Greek 'Icodvvrj'i, afterwards through the Latin diffused 
 
32 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 in shorter form through all modem languages. It was 
 a common name, as was the greater name of Jesus, 
 both adopted the more naturally on that account. If 
 the children of the prophets received strange names to 
 make them signs of God's " strange work," the pur- 
 poses of love and sjanpathy with human life are best 
 expressed by such as are in use. So at the head of 
 the preface to the Gospel stands the name John, 
 intimating grace from which salvation will proceed ; at 
 the head of the Gospel itself the name Jesus, signi- 
 fying salvation ^vrought and realised. 
 
 This birth will bring great joy, high thoughts of 
 gladness (dyaWtao-i^). in view of consequences to follow. 
 It will be more than family joy. " Many shall rejoice 
 at his birth." There is reason for it in what will 
 follow. " He shall be great in the sight of the Lord," 
 in God's own estimate of character and work. He is to 
 be consecrated from the womb by the Nazarite vow, 
 and by the movements of the Spirit. Then will come 
 a ministry of power and of true success. " Many of the 
 sons of Israel will he turn to the Lord their God." 
 
 2. So far it is the account of a gi'eat preacher and 
 prophet. Then the prediction rises. He will be more 
 than a prophet. He is himself the subject of prophecy, 
 as being in his work of preparation a part of the great 
 intervention of God. 
 
 He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to 
 tm'n the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to 
 the wisdom of the just, to make read}' a people prepared for the 
 Lord. 
 
 Few and pregnant are the words. Zacharias is re- 
 ferred to the last prophecy of ScriiDture, now, after more 
 
V ANNUNCIATION 33 
 
 than four centuries, to be fulfilled. Words of Malachi 
 (iii. 1 and iv. 5, 6) are joined together, half cited half in- 
 terpreted. In them Jehovah speaks as coming Himself 
 and sending His messenger to prepare the way before 
 Him, Yet He actually comes in One who represents 
 Him, called " the Lord ('j'^nt^n ha-adon) whom ye seek," 
 " the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in. 
 Behold he cometh, saith Jehovah of Hosts." Before Him 
 will go the Messenger, not actually Elijah, but " in the 
 spirit and power of Elijah " ; to do what Elijah sought to 
 do for Israel, " to turn their hearts back again " (1 Kings 
 xviii. 37). " He shall," says the Angel, " turn the hearts 
 of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the 
 wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared 
 for the Lord." So the prophet's words are changed 
 and explained. The fathers (dear familiar name to 
 the pious Israelite) are thought of as estranged from 
 their degenerate descendants; but on both sides the 
 true kinship and unity of spirit will be restored, when 
 the disobedient children return, and with converted 
 hearts walk in the (f)p6vr](Tt<;, right mind, the thoughtful 
 wisdom of the just. Then, whatever the issue for the 
 nation and the land, there will be in the midst of it 
 a people made ready for the Lord {Karao-Kevao-fiivov), 
 fashioned and fitted for His purpose of grace. 
 
 Thus the heavenly message links itself with prophecy, 
 as addressed to one who knows and believes the pro- 
 phets. Yet the message is met by hesitation of faith. 
 The Angel removes and reproves it by declaration of 
 his own name and mission, and by a sign which is also 
 a chastisement. Then Zacharias is left to study the 
 prophecies to which he has been referred, and to ponder 
 
 D 
 
34 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 the prospect opening for himself and for Israel, thiough 
 nine months of compulsory silence. The result of those 
 reflections will appear in his Song. 
 
 But meantime they will receive a sudden accession 
 of light, for there will be a visitor at his door, a guest 
 who comes to tell of a far greater annunciation. 
 
 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a 
 city of Galilee, named Nazareth, unto a virgin espoused to a man 
 whose name was Joseph, of the house of David ; and the virgin's 
 name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, 
 thou that art highly favoured. The Lord is with thee. (The 
 addition of the words ' ' Blessed art thou among women " is in this 
 place an uncertain reading. ) 
 
 It is a sudden appearance, a startling address, distin- 
 guishing her as an object of some special grace.^ " She 
 was greatly troubled at the saying, and " (it is the first 
 notice of her characteristic habit) " she cast in her mind 
 what manner of salutation this should be," what should 
 be its meaning and intention. Her trouble is dis- 
 pelled and the epithet is explained, and then the amazing 
 information comes. Thou art the chosen mother of the 
 Christ who is to come. Step by step the whole assur- 
 ance is given. 
 
 Fear not, Mary ; for thou hast found favour withGod. 
 And thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son ; and 
 .shalt call his name Jesus. 
 He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. 
 
 ^ The verb x^P^'''^'^ occurs elsewhere only once in the New Testa- 
 ment, Ephesians i. 6 : x^P'* ^'' ? exapiTaxref riftas, " grace wherewith 
 he graced us," "wherewith he made us accepted," A. V. ; "which 
 he freely bestowed on us," R. V. KexapiTai/xivn expresses one 
 made the object of Divine favour. The Vulgate "plena gratiaj " 
 may suggest personal graces of character (not thought of here) or 
 bestowal of grace (still farther from the meaning). 
 
V ANNUNCIATION 35 
 
 And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father 
 David : and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of 
 his kingdom there shall be no end. 
 
 A grave question is all the reply. She understands, 
 as it seems, that the fulfilment is immediate, and asks 
 explanation or direction. " How shall this be, seeing I 
 know not a man ? " Then a greater disclosure follows in 
 language of exalted strain : — 
 
 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most 
 High shall overshadow thee. 
 
 Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
 be called the Son of God. 
 
 One considerate Avord is added. A mind burdened 
 with such a secret as this needs some quarter to which 
 to turn for confirmation of faith and confidential relief. 
 There is one such. 
 
 And behold thy cousin Elizabeth. She also hath conceived a son 
 in her old age : and this is the sixth month with her that was called 
 barren ; for no word from God shall be powerless. 
 
 In the self-possession of unquestioning faith the 
 mystery is believed ; and in the dignity of submission 
 the unspeakable honour is accepted as simply an 
 appointed service, " Behold the handmaid (?/ BovXrj, the 
 bondmaid) of the Lord ; be it unto me according to 
 thy word." 
 
 In this annunciation, and in Mary's apprehension of 
 it (which is our present consideration), three points are 
 prominent : (1) the name Jesus ; (2) the Messianic 
 reign ; (3) the Divine Sonship. 
 
 1. The name, Jesus, i^^U^"', Saviour, contracted from 
 the longer form which meant Jehovah saves, being thus 
 
 D 2 
 
36 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 ordained in heaven, would be to her, as it is to us, the 
 declaration of the essential character of the work to be 
 done for man. But the salvation is left in its vague- 
 ness and vastness, not explained to her, as it was after- 
 wards interpreted to Joseph by the words, " He shall save 
 his people from their sins." The name was an implicit 
 prophecy, and events would not only fulfil but interpret 
 it. Time would show to her and to all believers in 
 what sense, in what measure, and by what means, He 
 whose name was called Jesus would prove the Saviour 
 of the world. 
 
 2. If the Salvation is left for the future to explain, 
 so also is the Messianic reign. The language adopts the 
 original promise of the kingdom, keeps in line with 
 national prophecy, and conforms to contemporary ex- 
 pectation. The throne which Jehovah will give to him 
 is that " of his father David," and " his reign will be 
 over the house of Jacob for ever." Thus the annuncia- 
 tion links the future to the past, and suits its intima- 
 tions to the mind to which they are addressed. Time 
 will prove what this Throne of David and House of 
 Jacob typify, and how they will be realised in a 
 " Kingdom which shall have no end." Meantime the 
 limitation of the language remains as evidence of the 
 truth of the narrative. No one could have thought of 
 putting such words into the mouth of an angel after 
 Israel had crucified its King, or after the great 
 catastrophe which made a Throne of David impossible 
 and left the House of Jacob a ruin. 
 
 3. The communication of the third mystery, that of 
 the Divine Sonship, is also under definite limitation. 
 " He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the 
 
V ANNUNCIATION 37 
 
 Highest." That might be as a title of special adoption 
 and exaltation among the sons of men. But explana- 
 tion follows. It shall be his by nature, by conception 
 and birth, by an immediate operation of " the power of 
 the Highest." " Therefore" it is said, " that holy thing 
 born of thee shall be called the Son of God." The 
 Church will know another reason for that title, and 
 confess Him in another sense as " the only-begotten Son 
 of God, begotten from everlasting of the Father, God of 
 God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten 
 not made, being of one substance with the Father." 
 But the annunciation makes no mention of this mystery. 
 There is nothing said of Divine nature or even of pre-ex- 
 istence. Here the Divine Sonship is that, not of eternal 
 generation in the Godhead, but of temporal generation 
 in the flesh. The mystery of the Incarnation is not 
 revealed to her who is its mediating instrument. The 
 sublime truth will be known when all is over, but cannot 
 now enter into the imagination of the thoughts of her 
 heart. It would have made impossible the cares and 
 duties and natural feelings of a mother, and would have 
 been incompatible with the normal development of the 
 human nature, and with the predestined course of the 
 manifestation in the flesh. That which transcends 
 thought is to make its way into the mind by steps 
 and proofs. There is nothing premature in the com- 
 munications of God, and therefore the secret of the 
 Incarnation of the Eternal Word is not made known to 
 the mother who brings Him into the world. 
 
 As it would have been premature to make it known 
 on earth, perhaps it might have been premature to 
 
38 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 make it known in heaven. We observe that the words 
 of annunciation go no further than a conception by 
 miracle, an heir of David and a fulfilment of prophecies. 
 Such limitation of the Angel's language is sufficiently 
 explained by its intended adaptation to the mind to 
 which it is addressed. Doubtless he knew more, but 
 how much more we cannot tell. Angels are servants, 
 and servants know not (in all respects) what their Lord 
 doeth. " I am thy fellow-servant," (said one of them) 
 " and of thy brethren the prophets, and of those that 
 have the testimony of Jesus." As that testimony was 
 in measure and by degrees delivered to Prophets and 
 Apostles, so perhaps was it in like manner communi- 
 cated to their fellow-servants above. 
 
 It may thus be a question how much beyond the 
 message which he delivered was known to the heavenly 
 messenger himself Angels " desired to look into " the 
 my.steries of the Gospel as they were unfolded; and 
 " unto principalities and powers in heavenly places was 
 made known through the Church the manifold wisdom 
 of God." So they could study prophecies and carry 
 messages and observe the indications of the counsels of 
 God towards men ; but we have no reason to ascribe 
 to them a full knowledge of the counsels and predestina- 
 tions which rested in the bosom of the Most High, or 
 even a perfect comprehension of the real nature of the 
 very events in which they ministered. 
 
 It is an interesting question and involves some 
 important consequences. Here, however, we are con- 
 cerned with the limitations of thought not in the 
 messenger, but in those who received the messages 
 
V ANNUNCIATION 39 
 
 We observe how the annunciations are suited to the 
 apprehensions of the aged priest and of the youthful 
 maiden, how they graft themselves on known prophecies 
 and previous expectations, and give in each case the key 
 note to the songs which follow. 
 
 On the mission of Gabriel see Appendix A, " The 
 Revelation of Angels." 
 
 On the Salutation to the Virgin and the misuse of it 
 see Appendix B, " Ave Maria." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 INSPIRATION 
 
 Besides expectation and annunciation, there is yet 
 another factor to be recognised in the production of 
 these canticles — that which we call inspiration. The 
 speakers utter their feelings concerning the event which 
 is their common theme, in the language of their 
 habitual thoughts, and with the certainty and definite- 
 ness derived from the information they have received. 
 But beside the thoughts and the knowledge which 
 have become their own, there is also the presence of a 
 power which is not their own, another spirit mingling 
 with their spirit. 
 
 Movements and influences which are not generated 
 from within, but which (as we say) come upon men, 
 impulses which prompt or sway them in speech or 
 action, are among the phenomenal experiences of 
 human nature. These are recognised in Holy Scripture 
 as of various kinds, good and bad, and some at first so 
 dubious as to their source and character that, both in 
 the Old and New Testaments, there is need to " try the 
 spirits whether they be of God." It is a large subject, 
 and not a little obscure, belonging to a side of our 
 
CHAP. VI INSPIRATION 41 
 
 nature which we do but faintly understand, and con- 
 necting it with a region of life which we cannot 
 penetrate or explore. But an exceptional influence of' 
 the Divine Spirit on the spirit of man is at least com- 
 prehensible, that which is expressed by the word 
 Theopneustia, a breath of God upon souls which He has 
 made. This has from its very nature an indefinable 
 and varying character, like the breath of heaven, the 
 wind, from which its name is borrowed. In the 
 canticles it bears the character which we call prophetic, 
 and its presence is a prominent feature in the story. 
 
 Of Elizabeth it is said, " Elizabeth was filled with 
 the Holy Ghost, and she lifted up her voice with a loud 
 cry." Not so of Mary. Of her it is simply written : "And 
 Mary said." For a mind so possessed by the Spirit no 
 sudden illapse was needed. Of the father of the Baptist 
 we read, " Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost 
 and prophesied." Of Simeon, that " the Holy Ghost 
 was upon him," and that " he came by the Spirit into the 
 Temple," and in his after-words he spake as a prophet. 
 
 It was thought, and naturally, that when Messiah 
 came the spirit of prophecy would return to proclaim 
 his advent and to accompany his steps. It did pro- 
 claim his advent, but it did not accompany his steps. 
 It was active at the Nativity, but only in the few 
 utterances of a small surrounding circle. It was mighty 
 in the harbinger who prepared his way. But through 
 his o^vn course on earth it was silent, save as dwelling 
 solely in Himself in perfect union with his own spirit. 
 
 In the instances cited above the prophetic spirit 
 manifests its presence in more ways than one. It 
 appears as a spirit of revelation, giving a second sight, 
 
42 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 which perceives more than sense discovers. So Elizabeth 
 knows at the sound of Mary's voice at her door that it 
 is the Mother of her Lord who is come. Simeon dis- 
 cerns without hesitation among all the groups w^hich 
 throng the Temple-court the one Child who is the 
 Salvation of God. This is the inspiration of perception, 
 an instinctive knowledge given at the moment. The 
 mspiration which speaks in prophecj^ psalm, or song is 
 of another kind. It consists in enlargement of thought, 
 elation of feeling, and impulsive utterance, prompting 
 expressions on which not only the hearers but the 
 speakers themselves might afterwards reflect, " search- 
 ing what the spirit which was in them did signify " in 
 the words they gave forth. This is the inspiration of 
 those who spake in the Spirit, or filled with the Holy 
 Ghost. Such inspiration does not supersede the im- 
 mediate meaning or conscious thought of the speaker, 
 but renders it more intense. All that characterises the 
 individual mind, all that reflects actual circumstances, 
 is there, but there is an abnormal sense of elevation. It 
 is probably felt at the time, it is certainly seen after- 
 wards, that another mind was in greater or less degree 
 mingling with the mind of the speaker, one Avhich with 
 an ampler range of vision treated things at hand as 
 symbols of things beyond, and things present as 
 earnests of things to come. 
 
 It is from this commingling of Divine and human 
 thought in varying measures that we derive the per- 
 petual use of psalm and prophecy for the devotion and 
 instruction of the Church. The human thought by its 
 immediate intention and definite limitation has always 
 the character of living reality and historic fact. The 
 
vr INSPIRATION 43 
 
 Divine thougiit, by its larger exjoansion and more 
 distant aim, has added to the words a capacity for 
 spiritual interpretation and manifold application which 
 makes them the voice of the Kingdom of God from 
 generation to generation. 
 
 So it is with these canticles. They belong to in- 
 dividual persons, to one moment, and to one event ; but 
 the persons are chosen of God, the moment is the com- 
 mencement of the Gospel, the event is the Birth of 
 Christ ; and therefore the words then spoken are words 
 for ever. The thought of God is in them, exalting the 
 thought of man. They mean what Mary, what Zacharias, 
 what Simeon meant from their own standpoint, but they 
 mean also what we understand, as involved in the event 
 which they celebrated, and as implied in the words 
 which they used. So these canticles become the voice 
 not only of those holy persons, but of the holy Church, 
 and have their place in its devotions as a leading note 
 for the perpetual choir. Thus, in using them as we do 
 in our services, we have the double advantage of hear- 
 ing the voices of the first evangelical singers and of 
 joining our own with them. There is distinction and 
 there is harmony ; distinction, because they, speaking at 
 the dawn of knowledge, had a cast of thought different 
 from ours ; harmony, because the Spirit who spake in 
 them is the same who speaks in the Church in the 
 fulness of the Gospel day. 
 
 This distinction and harmony will be best exhibited 
 by casting our reflections on the Songs into two divi- 
 sions, the one conversant only with the mind of the 
 speakers, the other directed to assist our present use 
 of them. Thus we shall read Magnificat first as the 
 
44 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap, vi 
 
 Song of the Virgin, then as a Song of the Church ; and 
 study Benedidus and Nunc Dimittis under a like separa- 
 tion of thought. Gloria in Excdsis, being a celestial 
 utterance, scarcely lends itself to such treatment. 
 
 The subjects briefly treated in these preliminary 
 chapters evidently claimed attention, before we could 
 rightly enter on the study of the Songs themselves. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE SONGS 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE VISITATION ^ 
 
 Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with 
 haste, into a city of Juda. 
 
 Evidently the journey was taken soon, yet not 
 instantly after the visit of the Angel, as appears from 
 the expression " in those days." Probably there was a 
 time for the expectation of faith to become a conscious 
 
 ^ I adopt the ecclesiastical title for this incident, which gives 
 occasion to the Magnificat, and furnishes its historical setting. In 
 the medieval 7eal for the cultus of the blessed Virgin, every circum- 
 stance connected with her, imaginary as well as real, was made the 
 occasion of a Festival in her honour. 
 
 " The Festival of the Visitation was instituted by Urban VI., 
 and was promulgated by his successor, Boniface IX., a.d. 1389. 
 It was again established by the Council of Basle 1441 ; no mention 
 being made of the previous institution, because Boniface's authority 
 was not acknowledged by all the members of the Council. The 
 whole of the session 43 is occupieil with the matter. Its purpose 
 is to commemorate the visit of St. Mary to Elizabeth before the 
 birth of the Baptist at Juttah, or, it may be, Hebron. Joachim 
 Hildebrand, 1652, says, that ' it was instituted at the Council 
 of Basle to supplicate Mary to trample down the Turks, as she trod 
 upon the mountains of Juda>a on her way to her cousin.' As it is a 
 scriptural fact commemorated by it, the Festival is retained in the 
 Anglican calendar in spite of its late date." (Canon Venables, 
 Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.) The reason given above is a 
 curious specimen of the associations of idea possible to ecclesiastical 
 ing enuity. The date in the calendar is July 2. 
 
48 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 experience. But she went with haste {jxera a7rovSi]<;). 
 No wonder. She was urged by the great secret which 
 could not be explained, and which, if explained, could 
 not be believed, thus bringing on her soul an oppressive 
 weight of glory, and on her name an impending burden 
 of reproach. Was there in all the world a person to 
 whom this confidence could be made, and to whose 
 sympathy it was possible to appeal ? Yes, there was 
 one. " Behold thy cousin Elizabeth." She, too, has a part 
 in the history which is begun. She will understand. 
 She will believe. Far ofif, in the hill country of Judaea, 
 there is a house where relief may be found from the 
 silence of secrecy and the-solitude of the heart. 
 
 Therefore she " arose and went wdth haste " ; setting 
 out, we must suppose, as soon as some sort of escort 
 could be found, and then pressing forward on her way. 
 For about four days she would travel through the 
 thickly-peopled land, passing, as is likely, through the 
 great city, to which her southward road would naturally 
 lead, and from which again it would proceed towards 
 the region which she sought. The secret in her heart 
 would cast a strange light on all she saw ; on the multi- 
 tudes scattered abroad, and the stir and movement of 
 the world ; on the haughtiness of spurious religion, and 
 the eagerness of money-making business ; on Pharisees 
 at their ostentatious devotions, and publicans at the 
 receipt of custom ; on the stately Herodian buildings, 
 and the cohorts marching by ; on the signs of Israel's 
 vassalage, in the pomp and circumstance of Roman 
 supremacy and Idumasan rule. She looked around in 
 the consciousness, confined to her solitary breast, that 
 the hour was about to strike which was (as she 
 
I THE VISITATION 49 
 
 expected) to change it all. He that should come was 
 at the door, and she was herself his mother. The scene 
 without and the thoughts within wrought together in 
 her soul, possessing it with the ideas and feelings which 
 her song reveals. 
 
 And now she has reached the Priests' city. 
 
 She entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 What an unexpected welcome met her ! No need to 
 think how she shall explain her coming, or how the 
 almost incredible communication will be received. It is 
 anticipated by an inspiration. At the first sound of 
 her voice, a sudden sensation has thrilled Elizabeth in 
 soul and body, stirring the new life which she bears 
 within her as with a transport of joy. Instinctively 
 she knew its meaning, in connection with the one great 
 thought which possessed her mind. In few words, we 
 may suppose, Mary told what she had to tell, for to 
 such information the blessing which follows seems in 
 one place to be responsive. Then " filled with the Holy 
 Ghost " with a great cry (/cpavyfj fieydXj}), an elevated 
 tone which bespeaks spiritual possession, Elizabeth lifted 
 up her voice, and said. 
 
 Blessed art thou among women, 
 
 and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 
 
 And whence is this to me, 
 
 that the Mother of my Lord should come to me ? 
 
 For lo ! when the voice of thy salutation came into 
 
 mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 
 
 And blessed is she that believed ; 
 
 for there shall be a fulfilment of the things which 
 
 have been spoken to her from the Lord. 
 
 E 
 
50 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 The words have the lyric tone which betokens in- 
 spiration : yet are they hardly a song, and have no place 
 among the Canticles, being strictly limited to the 
 occasion, and the mutual consciousness of maternity. 
 But the maternity, being in each case instrumental 
 to the revealed purpose of God and to the highest 
 interests of mankind, the expression of womanly fellow- 
 feeling becomes also one of prophetic blessing. 
 
 The blessing is expressed twice by two very different 
 words, which are rendered by one and the same in 
 English. In " Blessed art thou among women " there is 
 the occurrence of the word evXoyqfievi], (perhaps first 
 used by the Angel) announcing benediction from God. 
 In " Blessed is she that believed " there is the more 
 frequent word fiaKapia, declaring the happy condition 
 of the person to whom it is applied.^ The two together 
 
 ^ The participle evKoyriixivos is rare : it occurs elsewhere in the 
 Gospels in only two connections : " Blessed is he that cometh in the 
 Name of the Lord" (Matthew xxi. 9, and xxiii. 39) ; and, " Come, 
 ye blessed of mj' Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you " 
 (Matthew xxv. 34). The more familiar word fj.aKa.ptos is em- 
 ployed in the Beatitudes and is in frequent use. The one expresses 
 benediction, the other felicitation. The one is the equivalent of the 
 Hebrew Tf^"^^ (as in Genesis xiv. 19) : the other of 1'^tt*^ (^^ in 
 
 Psalm i. 1). The one is rendered in Latin Benedicfvs, the other 
 Beatus. In English they might be distinguished by the respective 
 use of Bhs.sed, and Haqyj^y ; but the latter word was probably felt 
 by our translators to be inadequate in dignity and sacred associa- 
 tions. So the word Blessed has in the New Testament been used 
 for both ideas. It may be observed in the present connection, 
 that in the Magnificat, the prophetic saying, "All generations 
 shall call me blessed," is expressed by the verb fiaKapioval fie, " shall 
 count and call me " happj' ; and so is rendered in the Vulgate 
 " Beatam me dicent omnes generationes," whence the perpetual title 
 " Beata Virgo Maria," 
 
I THE VISITATION 51 
 
 form the twofold character of blessing bestowed and 
 blessing enjoyed ; the one by the word of the Lord, the 
 other through the faith which receives it. 
 
 There is a perfect naturalness in this voice of 
 welcome. It is a genuine effusion of the heart, full of 
 womanly feeling, and of responsive assurance of the 
 supreme event at hand, in which these two participate 
 as depositaries of the secret, and, in their respective 
 measures, instruments of its fulfilment. 
 
 Elizabeth's own part is merely subsidiary. She does not 
 speak of herself but in one subordinate allusion. All her 
 thought is of Mary, as the mother of Him who was to come. 
 
 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed 
 is the fruit of thy womb. 
 
 And whence is this to me that the mother of 
 my Lord should come to me ? 
 
 It is a voice of recognition of the fact revealed, of 
 joy in the apprehension of its greatness, of wonder at 
 the honour to herself She recognises the fact as 
 already real, the maternity as actually begun. With 
 joy she sees in Mary the mother of Messiah ; as she 
 expresses it, ""the mother of my Lord," in the language 
 in which she spoke Adoni ("^pTSiV It is a word de- 
 claring the dignity (though not the divinity) of the 
 person intended, a word naturally applicable to Messiah, 
 and connected with Him in many a prophecy ; as for 
 instance in Psalm ex., " The oracle of Jehovah to my Lord 
 (Adoni), Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine 
 enemies thy footstool ; " and especially in the last word of 
 prophecy which the Angel has cited to Zachariah : " He 
 shall prepare the way before me : and the Lord (Adon), 
 
 E 2 
 
52 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his Temple " 
 (Malachi iii. 1). Naturally the name which has dwelt 
 in her mind in connection with the child she beai's 
 now comes to her lips ; in " Whence is this to me, that 
 the mother of my Lord should come to me ? " The 
 young kinswoman, who might at any time have been 
 welcome, is now come in a new character to unburden 
 her mind of the absorbing secret, to exchange holy 
 confidences, and to find in this friendly home relief for 
 her feelings and preparation for what may follow. It was 
 a high honour, well understood by the "cousin Elizabeth" 
 and the relative positions of the Precursor and the 
 Messiah are as clearly implied by the Baptist's mother 
 before his birth, as they are afterwards expressed by 
 the Baptist himself 
 
 The final word of blessing declares the happiness of 
 foith. This congratulation is naturally suggested by a 
 contrast which is in the mind of the speaker. Zacharias 
 is passing days of compulsory silence ; because (said 
 the Angel) " thou believedst not my words, which shall 
 be fulfilled in their season." " Blessed," says his wife, 
 " is she that believed ; for there shall be fulfilment of 
 those things which have been spoken to her from the 
 Lord." Even in a case where the issue will not be 
 affected by the manner of reception, there is loss and 
 unhappiness in unbelief, and blessedness in faith. An 
 instinctive recognition of the word of God, a frank 
 surrender to it, a sure reliance on it — these are con- 
 stituents of faith in its simplest, purest form. Happy 
 is this condition of mind, happy in its relation to God, 
 in its harmony with the course of things, and in its 
 own satisfying experience. Blessed therefore was she 
 
I THE VISITATION 53 
 
 that believed, with a faith which staggered not at a 
 stupendous promise, a faith which was the first to meet 
 and receive the Son of God at his entering into the 
 world, and which so became an illustrious example of 
 Christian faith for ever. 
 
 The added words, " for there shall be fulfilment of 
 those things which were told her from the Lord," may 
 seem superfluous. They are not so. The assurance of 
 another's faith may not be necessary to a believer ; but 
 it is welcome. It is part of God's way of strengthening 
 and maintaining faith. So the Apostle felt when he wrote 
 to the Romans, " I long to see you, that I may impart 
 to you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be estab- 
 lished ; that is, that I with you may be comforted in you, 
 each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine " 
 (Romans i. 12). 
 
 Thus the salutation of Elizabeth, an inspired ode of 
 benediction and felicitation, forms a worthy introduction 
 to the songs which follow. 
 
 1. It is the first resjDonsive voice in the prophetic 
 utterances which surround the birth of Jesus. 
 
 2. It is the first application to Him, yet unborn, of 
 the title now familiar and universal, which, in all creeds 
 and worship and common discourse, expresses through 
 all generations the fealty of the Christian Church, and 
 by which at last " every tongue shall confess that Jesus 
 Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 
 
 3. In " Blessed is she that believed," it is the first 
 utterance of that fundamental word of the New Testa- 
 ment, making the Virgin Mother the example for all 
 believers, and asserting the great principle of faith on 
 which all Christian life must rest. 
 
MAGNIFICAT^ 
 
 St. Luke I 
 
 My soul doth magnify the Lord ; and my spirit hath 
 rejoiced in God my Saviour. 
 
 For he hath regarded the low estate of his hand- 
 maiden. 
 
 For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall 
 call me blessed. 
 
 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things ; 
 and holy is his name. 
 
 And his mercy is on them that fear him from 
 generation to generation. 
 
 He hath shewed strength with his arm ; he hath 
 scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 
 
 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and 
 exalted them of low degree. 
 
 He hath filled the hungry with good things ; and 
 the rich he hath sent empty away. 
 
 He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance 
 of his mercy ; 
 
 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his 
 seed for ever. 
 
 ^ The Song of the Blessed Virgin is here given according to the 
 rendering of the A. V., changes for the -abetter to be noted 
 afterwards. 
 
MEFAATNEI 
 
 AOYKA2 a 
 
 KoX elire Mapcd/n, MeyaXvpec ^ "^^^X^ l^°" "^^^ 
 Kupcov, Kal i]yaWiaa6 to irvevixd fxov eVl rcS ©ecS to3 
 (Tcorrjpi fiov. on iire^Xeylrev eVt rrjv rairecvcoaiv T779 
 SouXtji; avTov. 
 
 IBoi) yap, diro rod vvv jiaKapiovcrl fie nrdaaL ac 
 yeveai. otl eirolrjcre fioc /j,eyd\a 6 SwuTOf;, Koi ayiov 
 TO ovofxa avTov. Kal to eXeo? avTOv et? yeveai Kal 
 yevea<; T0L<i (fio/3ov/j,evoc<; avTov. 
 
 eTToirjae KpaTO'i iv ^pa^iovL avTov- SieaKopTnaev 
 v7reprjcj)dvov<i Siavoia KapSca'i avTwv. KaOeiXe Svvdcr- 
 Ta<; diro Opovcov, Kal v-^wae Ta7reLvov<i. '7reivcovTa<; 
 eveirX^lcrev dyaOwv, Kal TrXovTovvTa^; i^aTreaTeiXe 
 Kevov<i. 
 
 dvTeXd^eTo 'IcrparfX iraiho'; avTov, fiviqaOrjvai, iXeov<i 
 {Kadoo<; iXdXt]ae tt/do? tov<; 7raT€pa<; rjficov) tS 'A/dpadfi 
 Kal TM cnrepiiaTL avTov eh top alcova. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MAGNIFICAT I 
 
 The Son J of the Virgin Mary 
 
 The st}lc and language are those which would be 
 natural to the speaker, as drawn from the storehouse of 
 faith and piety, the sacred writings of her people, 
 familiar to all by constant recitation, and dear to pious 
 souls by use in their own devotions. In the ten verses 
 there are as many repetitions or reminiscences of the 
 words of Scripture. Criticism of a certain type may 
 be able to read the song as an imitative composition, a 
 cento of Old Testament phrases. A true perception 
 recognises in the animated strain the tones of genuine 
 feeling, which finds its natural utterance in language 
 ever present to the mind. Do we not all know hoAv 
 sentences from the Bible or the Liturgy glide into our 
 prayers, and offer their unsought aid to express kindred 
 feelings of our own ? So here the words as well as the 
 thoughts are those of a high-souled Hebrew maiden of 
 devout and meditative habit, whose mind has taken 
 the tone of the Scriptures in which she has been 
 nurtured. We feel the breath of the Prophets ; we 
 
CHAP. II MAGNIFICAT I 57 
 
 catch the echoes of the Psalms ; we recognise most 
 distinctly the vivid reminiscences of the song of 
 Hannah, who, in her time, by special gift of God, had 
 been made the mother of the great restorer of Israel. 
 This is not a case of artificial imitation. Most natural 
 was it that there should be floating in Mary's mind the 
 words, which in all the Scriptures belonged to a situation 
 most nearly approaching to her own. 
 
 In respect of arrangement the song is divided into 
 two parts, presenting in natural succession two stages of 
 thought. The first is one of personal experience in 
 consciousness of the present fact ; the second is one of 
 prophetic foresight of its consequences to the world, 
 and each ends with the affirmation of a great principle ; 
 the first that of mercy to all generations, the second 
 that of faithfulness to the promises of old. Reading 
 them separately, we shall observe the character of the 
 sentiments, and take note of the suggestions of the 
 diction. 
 
 Part 1. 
 
 My soul doth magnify the Lord, 
 
 And my spirit rejoiced in God my Saviour. 
 
 For he looked on the lowliness of his handmaid : 
 
 For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me 
 
 blessed. 
 For the Mighty One did to me great things ; 
 And holy is his name. 
 And his mercy is on them that fear him unto generations 
 
 and generations. 
 
 Where in so few words shall we find blended together 
 such assured faith, exalted joy, reverential adoration, 
 and modest reserve ? These are feelings not easily to be 
 
58 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 combined in due proportions ; but here they breathe 
 together in entire unison, and express a mind attuned 
 to the perfect harmony of truth. A deep triumphant 
 joy is apparent, but chastened by the humility which 
 reverts immediately to " the low estate of his hand- 
 maid," and by the reverence which speaks in " God my 
 Saviour," " He that is mighty," and " Holy is His 
 name : " while a radiant veil is cast over the great fact 
 which remains unspoken, and is only implied in such 
 vague terms as " He looked upon me," " He did me 
 great things," " All generations shall call me blessed." 
 Swiftly too does the mind pass on from self to that 
 great company among whom she takes her place — the 
 fearers of God, who in all generations share his mercy. 
 The language which expresses these sentiments has 
 also its own suggestions. The opening words recall the 
 song of Hannah, the likeness to which reappears later 
 on. But the tone here is far more noble. It has been 
 well said that " whilst Mary celebrates her happiness 
 with deep humility and holy restraint, Hannah sur- 
 renders herself completely to the feeling of personal 
 triumph, with her very first words breaking forth into 
 cries of indignation against her enemies."^ There is no 
 thought of enemies here ; in the region of personal 
 feeling there is only the voice of praise, pure, lofty, and 
 serene. In the first verse (as often in Hebrew poetry) 
 the parallelism gives an ascending note to every word, 
 passing on from " soul " to " spirit," from '• magnifying " 
 to " rejoicing," from " the Lord " to " God my Saviour." 
 Saviour to Israel God was now pledged to be by 
 the name ordained in heaven for the child Her 
 1 Godet's Commentary on St. Luke. 
 
n Magnificat i 59 
 
 Saviour He was felt to be by present dealings and 
 experiences. " For he looked upon the low estate of 
 his handmaid." She speaks in lowliness of mind, in it, 
 but not of it. The word raTreivwai'i is rightly- 
 distinguished as " low estate," ^ yet as a state accepted 
 by the lowly mind, (as in another place, James i. 10, 
 the same word is used of a certain Christian experience, 
 humbling yet welcomed). 
 
 But now God has looked upon this low estate, and 
 an ineffable change has come. " For, behold, from 
 henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." All 
 generations, for these are things of universal and per- 
 petual interest, (fiaKapiovac yue) shall count and call 
 me happy. Indeed there is reason for it : " because he 
 that is mighty did me great things — and holy is 
 his name." Thus do reserve and reverence express the 
 miracle of grace. The power of God is celebrated in 
 this new creative act, even as it had been said, " The 
 power of the Most High shall overshadow thee." Then 
 the last ascription is that of holiness, the supreme 
 attribute, which characterises this, as all the acts of 
 God, and which closes the lips from further speech con- 
 cerning it in one adoring word, "And holy is his Name." 
 
 Enough has been spoken of herself This holy act 
 of power is also one of mercy and pity, such as is ever 
 shown " to them that fear him," and shall be shown 
 " unto generations and generations." Again the gener- 
 ations are in view from the stand-point of the present. 
 This is a mind which looks into the distance, and sees 
 all that is happening in its relation to the future of 
 mankind Thus there is a natural transition to the 
 
 1 As Tyndale, "poordegre." 
 
60 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 second part of the song, which foresees the consequences 
 of the coming event in the history of the world, and in 
 the fulfihnent of the covenanted promises. 
 
 Had not the Angel said, '" The Lord God will give to 
 him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign 
 over the house of Jacob for ever " ? This then is the 
 Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and the branch that 
 grows out of his roots, on whom rests the spirit of the 
 Lord, as a spirit of government in truth and righteous- 
 ness, and whose reign is the dynasty of God. If so 
 what a change is coming on the present aspect of the 
 world ! What an overthrow and dispersal of the powers 
 that now rule and triumph in it and count it all their own. 
 
 This self-contained mind has a reserve, not only of 
 quiet thoughtfulness, but of lively imagination : and 
 there is a true enthusiasm in the outburst of feeling, 
 which, beholding the outward world as a scene of 
 usurpations, sees as a present spectacle the changes 
 that must come. 
 
 Part 2. 
 
 He wrought strength with his arm ; 
 
 He scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart. 
 
 He put down princes from thrones, 
 
 And exalted them of low degree. 
 
 The hungry he filled with good things ; 
 
 And the rich he sent empty away. 
 
 He helped Israel his servant, 
 
 That he might remember mercy ; 
 
 (Even as he spake to our fathers), 
 
 Unto Abraham and his seed for ever. 
 
 Things are spoken of in the prophetic, which becomes 
 the historic, tense ; as if they had already happened, 
 because the train of events has begun. It has begun 
 
II MAGNIFICAT I 61 
 
 in such a manner as to prove the principle on which it 
 will proceed, and to manifest the will of God to use 
 the weak things of the world to overcome the things 
 that are mighty. The strain rises in animation as it 
 takes up the poetic imagery, with which prophets had 
 consoled themselves for the evil state of the world in 
 anticipating the revolutions of God. Partial and 
 transient have been the fulfilments hitherto, but the 
 Messianic revolution must be of another kind. The 
 outlook supposes a clear view of the world as in evil 
 state, the insolence of man exalted and the cause of 
 God depressed. It is not change for its own sake, but 
 change from this condition of things, which excites the 
 joy of hope. Here all is seen (it could not be otherwise) 
 from the point of view of the jjeople and the time. The 
 world-powers are the heathen who hold Israel in sub- 
 jection, and those within Israel itself who, in the seats 
 of power, or in pride and covetousness, lord it over the 
 true people of God. It is the actual scene which again 
 evokes the old tones of prophecy : yet with the 
 difference which is proper to the time. The rough 
 imagery of rudimentary civilisation in the song of 
 Hannah takes here the colouring of a more advanced 
 society. First character is represented, then condition. 
 The proud {v7repr](f)dvoi,) arrogant children of the world, 
 self-exalting " in the thought of their heart," are seen 
 as a host that is scattered. Then potentates (SwdaraL), 
 and the rich who seem to possess the earth, suffer the 
 consequences of divine rejection and scorn ; Avhile the 
 lowly and the hungry, the " poor among men," of whom 
 all prophets and psalmists loved to speak, inherit the 
 honours and blessings of the kingdom. 
 
62 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 But was this the turn of thought which might be 
 expected from such a person in such circumstances ? 
 It is a great revokition which rises before her imagina- 
 tion. Was it quite natural for her thus to sing, not 
 only of the lowly exalted and of the hungry filled, but of 
 the triumph of the arm of God, the overthrow of things, 
 as they are, the reversal of the world's judgment and 
 the confusion of its pride ? Yes, quite natural for a 
 Jewish maiden, who beheld the domination of the 
 heathen and the humiliation of her people Israel ; quite 
 natural for a daughter of the sunken and forgotten 
 house of David, who had been passing by the palaces 
 of Herod ; quite natural for a child of God who saw in 
 Israel itself the reign of worldliness, hypocrisy, and 
 pride ; and who knew that on all this scene the king« 
 dom of God was now coming, with that reversal of its 
 state of which all the Prophets had spoken. 
 
 And what these words imply, the following words 
 express — namely, that all is seen in the light of 
 prophecy and of the promise spoken to the fathers. 
 The exact expressions are of great interest — " He helped 
 Israel His servant" (avTeXd^ero la-pa-rfK 7rai86<; avTov) 
 So St. Luke gives it, using the Septuagint words for 
 Isaiah xli. 8, 9. " Thou, Israel, art my servant (Trat? fiov). 
 Thou whom I have tal-en hold of" — {ov avreXa^ofirjv, 
 a word aptly representing the Hebrew, which signifies 
 the taking firm hold in order to strengthen or support). 
 The concurrence of these two significant words directs 
 us to that passage, and so to the promises into which it 
 expands,promises entirely in harmony with the preceding 
 thoughts in the song (Isaiah xli. 8-14). But the 
 title (ttuU avTov) his servant, of itself recalls the whole 
 
II MAGNIFICAT I 63 
 
 range of prophecy in which it so frequently occurs, and 
 intimates the view which the speaker has learned to 
 take of the true office of her people, as the servant of 
 God appointed for the very purposes now at last to be 
 fulfilled. 
 
 The ''mercy " to be shown is nothing new, but that 
 which, though it might seem forgotten, is " remem- 
 bered " in its due time. The " remembrance of mercy 
 to Abraham and his seed for ever, as spoken to the 
 fathers," brings with it a cloud of references such as 
 Psalm xcvii., where (as in the song) the Lord's " holy 
 arm has gotten Him the victory, and He hath remem- 
 bered His mercy and truth towards the house of Israel ; " 
 or, more evidently, to the last words of Micah (vii. 20) ; 
 " Thou wilt perform the mercy to Abraham, which thou 
 hast sworn to our fathers from the days of old." 
 
 Finally, let it be observed that the closing words give 
 a vast expansion to the whole meaning of the Song. 
 If spoken within the circle of Jewish ideas, it yet looks 
 far beyond their horizon ; for the promise cited is, that 
 " in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth 
 be blessed"; and this too "for ever" (et? tov alwva). 
 The mind of the speaker ranges away into tlie un- 
 measured future, as the words of the Angel had taught 
 her, " He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, 
 and of his Kingdom there shall be no end." 
 
 The Virgin's thoughts are thus uttered once for all, 
 for they are never heard again. But we know the habit 
 of her mind (Luke i. 29 ; ii. 19-51.). This observant, 
 apprehensive, reflecting spirit, enlightened at the first 
 in the measure which this song discovers, has thence- 
 forth to follow the unfolding of the great history of 
 
64 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap, ii 
 
 grace. She who retires from our sight receives, through 
 the thirty unknown years, impressions which it is not 
 permitted us to divine, and afterwards watches, from 
 without, the course of the manifestation to the world ; 
 till " the sword pierces through her own soul," in the 
 sight of Israel rejecting and rejected, and of the cross 
 of shame in place of the throne of David. 
 
 Then all is interpreted by the Resurrection, the 
 Ascension, and the coming of the Holy Ghost. " The 
 darkness is past, and the true light shines." Nowhere 
 could it shine more serenely than in the silent home, 
 where Mary shared Avith the beloved disciple his clear 
 apprehension of the manifestation of the Son of God, 
 and his sublime intuition of the glory of the Incarnate 
 Word : " Who now liveth and reigneth with the Father 
 and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end." 
 Amen. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 MAGNIFICAT II 
 
 A Song of the Church 
 
 The Song of Mary has become a song of the Church. 
 It has been adopted by " the generations and genera- 
 tions " of which it speaks, and resounds from innumer- 
 able congregations. Is that a reasonable use to make 
 of it ? What is its fitness for such employment ? It 
 has a fitness of association and a fitness of adaptation. 
 
 1. The liturgical use of these Canticles associates the 
 Church with its origin, all its days and years and ages 
 with its birthday, and all its perpetual worship with 
 its first notes of praise. This living connection with 
 the origin of Christianity by the prolonged resonance 
 of its earliest voices is a Catholic principle, character- 
 istic of all branches of the Church which maintain the 
 lines of their descent ; the most obvious and eminent 
 instance being the verbal recital of the acts and words 
 of the institution of the Holy Sacrament as the effective 
 canon of consecration. So the Christian instinct has 
 rightly felt that the first utterances of faith and joy 
 at the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ should 
 
66 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 not be left as silent records in a book, but should sound 
 as living voices for ever, and that the breath of the Holy 
 Ghost which is in them should be felt in the congrega- 
 tion to the end of time. Thus they become both a 
 means of unity and a refreshment of faith. The devo- 
 tions of the ages are one with each other, through the 
 element which they all successively inherit from the 
 common source ; and in using the words every genera- 
 tion feels closer to the time when they were spoken 
 first, and renews its sense of the historic truth of the 
 events which it thus commemorates. In this way the 
 use of these Songs of the Holy Nativity in our Morning 
 and Evening Prayer is a kind of sacramental witness of 
 our present connection with the birth of Christ and our 
 descent from the little company which surrounded it. 
 
 The Mngnijicat has passed into Evensong from Vespers, 
 as it had passed into Vespers from previous use. Our 
 Prayer Book continues among us the history of the 
 Canticles which has lasted through the Christian ages ; 
 for, if in the sixth century more elaboration was used in 
 shaping services for the canonical hours, that was mainly 
 by re-arrangement of accustomed materials of devotion 
 inherited from many generations. Whatever novelties 
 were admitted in the darkening times, these Canticles 
 were part of the original stock, scriptural connections of 
 worship with the origin of Christianity and the Incar- 
 nation of Christ. 
 
 " They are," says Hooker, " the first gratulatious where- 
 with our Lord and Saviour was joyfully received at His 
 entrance into the world by such as in their hearts, arms, 
 and very bowels received Him ; being prophetical discoveries 
 of Christ already present, whose future coming the other 
 
Ill MAGNIFICAT II 67 
 
 psalms did but foresignify ; they are against the obstinate 
 incredulity of the Jews the most luculent testimony that 
 Christian religion hath : yea, the only sacred hymns they 
 are that Christianity hath peculiar to itself, the other 
 being songs too of praise and thanksgiving, but songs 
 wherewith, as we serve God, so the Jews likewise." ^ 
 
 Rightly do these words of Hooker combine the histori- 
 cal connection with the doctrinal testimony, as giving 
 to these Canticles a distinctive and unique character, 
 such as commends them for continual use in Christian 
 worship ; such as suits them, also, we may add, for the 
 particular place which they hold in our own service, 
 that is, in close relations with the Lessons and the 
 Creed. 
 
 2. Besides the reason now given for the liturgical use 
 of the Canticles, there is also a sufficient reason of adap- 
 tation, in the fitness of the words themselves to become 
 the perpetual voice of the Church. Has not this been 
 always felt ? Is it not felt now ? How many worship- 
 pers still breathe out their own emotions in " My soul 
 doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in 
 God my Saviour," knowing now the full meaning of 
 that word, as she who first uttered it could not at that 
 time have known it ! How many, with a larger intelli- 
 gence than was then possible for her, marvel and rejoice 
 at the " great things " which " He that is mighty has 
 done " for servants in such " low estate " ! How many 
 repeat the assurance that " His mercy is on them that 
 fear Him from generation to generation," with a thankful 
 consciousness that this mercy has now descended to 
 their own generation, and lightened on their own souls ! 
 
 1 Hooker, B. v. Ch. 40. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 Indeed, thiKS first strophe may be said to be our best 
 instruction in the true principles of praise. It shows 
 us that, if praise express itself in words, it is yet in its 
 essence an internal act, an act in my soul, and (going 
 yet deeper into my nature) an act in my spirit. 
 
 Soul and spirit, as distinguished from each other, 
 represent (so to speak) the two levels of our spiritual 
 constitution ; the soul, that which lies nearest to our 
 whole composite nature and all its varied life ; the spirit, 
 that which is elevated above it by kindred with the 
 spirit-world and conscious nearness to the Eternal. So 
 devotion, as the language of the soul, offers a more 
 distant worship ; as the language of the spirit it enjoys 
 a more immediate apprehension of God. When the one 
 passes into the other (as it does here) the spiritual 
 being is at unity in itself, and offers perfect prayer and 
 perfect praise.^ 
 
 ^ The discrimination of soul and spirit is a principle in Scripture. 
 It appears not only in such a passage as 1 Thess. v. 23, where they 
 are conjoined, or Hebrews iv. 12, where they are severed, or 1 Cor. 
 ii. 14, XV. 44-46, where the derived adjectives, jjsychic and 2}^ieu- 
 matic (natural and spiritual), are opposed to each other, but in the 
 discriminated use of the separate words in both Testaments. The 
 subject is treated in Delitzsch's elaborate and subtle work. The Sys- 
 tem of Biblical Psychology, with results difficult to seize, but some 
 of which may be stated as follows : — The Q^'^H n^lTi' breath 
 
 of life (lit. of lives), by which man became Jl^H tL^D2' ^ living 
 
 soul, includes both principles in unity, the soul, source of life to the 
 body, the spirit, source of life to the soul, or (as he quotes Tertullian) 
 "the soul is the body of the spirit, and the flesh is the body of the 
 soul." The soul is thus the mediating link between the spirit and 
 the body, and constitutes the peculiar form of the human person- 
 ality. The dualism of man is that of body and spirit, the soul 
 belonging to the side of the spirit. The division of soul and spirit, 
 under which man, considered ethically, is groaning, is a consequence 
 
in MAGNIFICAT II 69 
 
 Yet, further, when " magnifying deepens into rejoic- 
 ing," we learn that this perfect praise is not only 
 duteous homage, but also spontaneous joy ; and when 
 the great name, " the Lord," is followed by the sweeter 
 title, " God my Saviour," we are taught in what kind of 
 faith and experience the reasons for that joy will be 
 found. To us those reasons are clear. The Gospel has 
 interpreted the name Jesus. All that was implicit in 
 that name to Mary is explicit to us. God our Saviour 
 is " the Father who sent His Son to be the Saviour of 
 the world." We stand in the full light of that salvation. 
 Are we not, each of us, assisted to feel it as his own 
 by the word of personal relation which the blessed 
 Virgin has left for our use ? Does not a fresh glow of 
 joy come over many a worshipper as he breathes out his 
 own consciousness in " My spirit hath rejoiced in God 
 my Saviour " ? 
 
 In such cases it is needful help which the following 
 verses supply. They show how naturally the highest 
 apprehension of blessedness will ally itself with the 
 deepest sense of holiness, and how the view of " great 
 things done " to us will solemnise as well as elevate the 
 mind, disposing it to such reverential adoration as is con- 
 densed in the brief ascription, " and holy is His Name." 
 
 In the second division of the Song the truths pro- 
 claimed are also proper to be recorded through the 
 whole course of human history. So long as there is 
 
 of sin which has disunited the life-principle which he had received 
 immediately from God. When sin entered, the spirit had fallen 
 away from the love of God, and the soul from the dominion of the 
 spirit. The nature of the fall shows what must be the nature of 
 recovery, which is dealt with afterwards. See for these statements 
 Sections III. and IV. of the chapter on the Creation. 
 
70 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 vanity in the imaginations of men's hearts, and arro- 
 gancy comes out of their mouths ; so long as there is 
 unbelief in the seats of teaching and oppression on the 
 thrones of government ; so long as there is in the 
 common mind a worship of wealth and confidence in 
 the arm of flesh ; so long, in short, as the world con- 
 tinues what it always has been and still is, so long 
 should the prophetic strain be heard in the houses of 
 God: 
 
 He hath shewed strength with his arm ; 
 
 He hath scattei'ed the pi'oud in the imagination of their 
 
 hearts. 
 He hath put down the mighty from their seats ; and 
 
 hatli exalted the humble and meek. 
 He hath filled the hungry with good things ; and the 
 
 rich he hath sent empty away. 
 
 It is fit that, like the Psalmist,^ we should feel how 
 great a change passes on the outward scene when we 
 go into the sanctuary of .God ; " and how the high 
 things of this world shrink and wither under the 
 breath of the world to come. They pass before us here 
 in their chief forms : the pride of intellect and of the 
 imaginations of the heart; the pride of rank and 
 power and sway over others ; the pride of possession 
 and self-sufficiency which says, " I am rich and increased 
 with goods, and have need of nothing." The Song 
 presents these forms of pride as scattered, cast down, 
 or sent empty away, because at last the truth of things 
 is come. In so doing it celebrates no secondary acci- 
 dent of the Kingdom of Heaven, but its essential 
 principle, that " God resisteth the proud and giveth 
 1 Ps. Ixxiii. 17. 
 
in MAGNIFICAT II 71 
 
 grace to the lowly." ^ The same strain is heard from 
 all the voices of the prophets, who have told of the 
 day when " the lofty looks of man should be humbled, 
 and the haughtiness of men should be bowed down," 
 and when also " the meek should increase their joy in 
 the Lord, and the poor among men rejoice in the Holy 
 One of Israel." ^ With this exalting of the humble, 
 and this filling of the hungry, the Son of Man began 
 His whole course of teaching. 
 
 He opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 
 
 Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom 
 
 of heaven. 
 Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the earth. . . 
 Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after 
 
 righteousness : for they shall be filled. 
 
 The exaltation thus assigned to one moral state im- 
 plies a corresponding downfall in its opposite ; which 
 indeed, in other places, the Lord spares not to announce, 
 and the express declaration of which is added to these 
 very beatitudes in St. Luke's report (Luke vi. 24-6). 
 But the first place is occupied in the Lord's discourse 
 by the exaltation of the humble, and in the Virgin's 
 Song by the downfall of the proud, because He is " lifting 
 up his eyes on his disciples," and she is lifting up her 
 eyes on the world as it was ; He speaking in the midst 
 of a Church which was forming, she at a time when no 
 Church was gathered. But with us the two elements 
 are ever present ; the spirit of ' the world and the spirit 
 of the Gospel, working according to their several natures : 
 
 1 Proverbs iii. 34 quoted James iv. 6, 1 Peter v. 5. The word 
 avTiTaa-fffTai, sets himself against them, as in battle array. 
 - Isaiah ii. 11, xxix. 19. 
 
72 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 and to the one is administered a needful warning, to 
 the other a strong consolation, by ever-repeated words 
 which tell in effect that " he that exalteth himself shall 
 be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be 
 exalted." 
 
 How this effect of the Gospel was to be understood 
 and accepted by the Church we learn from the apostolic 
 writings, and most distinctly from the earliest of them 
 all. " Let the brother of low degree glory in his high 
 estate ; and the rich in that he is made low " (James i. 10). 
 This exaltation and abasement are in the region of 
 spiritual experience. The rich is thought of as still rich, 
 and the humbler brother as still in low degree ; but, as 
 a " brother" i.e., a Christian, each has found in Christ 
 a position other than that which the world assigns. In 
 Christ the low estate of the poor has become a high 
 estate indeed, and abasement from an unreal and 
 transient exaltation is a welcome consciousness to one 
 who has learned the estimates of truth in the Kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 But there are results to be taken into account besides 
 those in personal character and spiritual experience. 
 A habit of thought is generated, which has its effects on 
 social life and the secular scene. 
 
 In these days we have reached a period in the 
 history of society when the working of principles can 
 be better understood than ever before, because their 
 tendencies have become effects on a larger scale. In 
 public opinion, in recognised principles of political life, 
 in legislation, in administration of law, in institutions, 
 in the relations of classes to each other, how great a 
 change has been brought about in the direction of taking 
 
in MAGNIFICAT II 73 
 
 •the mighty from their seats and exalting them of low 
 degree ! We recognise too that this process of raising 
 on the one side and lowering on the other has its main- 
 spring and support from the prevalence in the general 
 mind of that altruistical feeling (as it is now called), 
 which, at the same time, legitimates claims which are 
 advanced, and saps the motives which would resist them. 
 Yet further, it is historically certain that this prevalence 
 of altruistic feeling is the result of the Gospel of Christ 
 in its action on the world} Men who reject that Gospel 
 itself are forward in applauding its ethical principles 
 as effective powers in this direction : but in fact those 
 ethical principles derive their life from the Incarna- 
 tion and the Cross and the person of Christ. Thence 
 have come the influences long working in the more 
 civilised masses of men, like the leaven in the three 
 measures of meal, and affecting with silent but in- 
 creasing power public sentiment and social develop- 
 ment. As far as we see such changes to be in the in- 
 terests of true humanity, we recognise them as an ex- 
 ternal aspect of the progressive Messianic revolution : 
 and in this respect a true Christian Socialism may find 
 some prophetic forecast and congenial utterance in the 
 hymn of the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 Finally, as the principle of divine government which 
 the Song celebrates is one to be rehearsed for ever, so 
 also is the testimony with which it concludes : 
 
 ^ This effect of Christianity in tlie humanising and equalising 
 evolution of society, has of late come more than ever into notice, 
 and is 'a frequent theme in literature. It is an ever present thought 
 in Bishop Westcott's writings, and in Mr. Kidd's Social Ecolxi- 
 tion has been worked out with effective force. 
 
74 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 He hath holpen Israel his servant 
 That he might remember mercy ; 
 (As he spoke to our fathers), 
 Towards Abraham and his seed for ever. 
 
 These thoughts also are all our own : unless we disown 
 the root from which we spring. " Thou art grafted," 
 says St. Paul, " into the good olive tree." " Thou bearest 
 not the root, but the root thee " (Rom. xi. 18). Abraham 
 and the Fathers, Israel and the covenant, the prophecies 
 and promises and former " oracles of God," — we hold 
 fast to them all ; and never was there more reason to do 
 so than there is now. The continuity of the plan of God 
 is vital to the Bible. Ten thousand links, some obvious, 
 some intricate, bind the New Testament to the Old. 
 As many as are the references in the pages of the Old 
 Testament to the things which should come after, so 
 many are the references in the pages of the New to 
 things which had been spoken before. It is of chief 
 moment to our appreciation of the Gospel of Christ 
 that we regard it as the scheme of God from the begin- 
 ning, in which the law itself was but j)arenthetic ; and 
 that we recognise the salvation which was once partially 
 disclosed, as the same which we enjoy at present, and 
 also as the same which is " ready to be revealed in the 
 last time," being three successive stages of one ever- 
 lasting covenant. 
 
 For us the Avords " Abraham and his seed for ever " 
 are associated with a voice, which echoed them, and a 
 teaching which explained them. The Apostle of the 
 Gentiles makes the Gentiles children of the common 
 Father of the faithful, contracting the seed of Abraham 
 into the single person of Christ, and so expanding it to 
 
Ill MAGNIFICAT II 75 
 
 all that are in him, in all nations and through all 
 ages: 
 
 Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to 
 his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many ; but as 
 of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ 
 
 Ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Chi'ist's, 
 then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. 
 (Gal. iii. 16 and 29.) 
 
 Thus, then, the last words of the Song become our 
 own ; we are ourselves included in " his seed for ever." 
 
 Surely there is both elevation and confirmation of 
 faith in the thought of this long spiritual descent, this 
 present inheritance according to an ancient promise, 
 this comprehensive scheme of merc}^ which unites the 
 Father of the faithful with the latest generation of 
 believers. In the use of the well-known words some 
 such feeling passes for the moment over minds which 
 are faintly conscious of it ; while on others a more 
 distinct impression remains of a part in a great history 
 of grace, which emerges first amid patriarchal shadows, 
 and is breaking into light when the Virgin sings, and 
 will end in glory when the Lord returns. 
 
THE BENEDICTUS 
 
 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath 
 visited and redeemed his people, 
 
 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us, in 
 the house of his servant David ; 
 
 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, 
 which have been since the world began : 
 
 That we should be saved from our enemies, and 
 from the hand of all that hate us ; 
 
 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and 
 to remember his holy covenant ; 
 
 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 
 
 That he would grant unto us, that we being 
 delivered out of the hand of our enemies might 
 serve him without fear, 
 
 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the 
 days of our life. 
 
 And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the 
 Highest : for thou shalt go before the face of the 
 Lord, to prepare his ways; 
 
 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people, by 
 the remission of their sins, 
 
 Through the tender mercy of our God ; whereby the 
 dayspring from on high hath visited us. 
 
 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in 
 the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of 
 peace. 
 
ETAOrHTOS 
 
 EuX-o'y^/TO? Hvpio^ 0eo9 rov 'Iapa7]\, ore iire- 
 aKeyjraTo Koi eiroiy^ae Xvrpwatv tm Xam avrov' 
 
 K.al r]yeip6 Kepa<; acoTtjpia^ tj/jlIp, iv tc3 o'Ikco Aa^lB 
 rov 7rai8o<; avTov' 
 
 K.a9(o^ iXaXrjae 8(,a crTO/u-aro? tmv ajKov roiv air 
 aloivo^ 7rpo(l)t]Ta)v avTov' 
 
 "^coTtjpiav e^ i')(6p(ov rj/iiMV, kol e'/c ')(etpo<i iravrcov 
 roiv /XLaovvTQiv rj/nd^;' 
 
 IIou](Tat eA,eo9 fiera tmv Trarepcov rj/xcov, koI fivTj- 
 adrjvai 8ia6i]Krj<; d<yta<i avrov, 
 
 "OpKov ov MfJbocre 7rpo<i 'A/3paafi rov irarepa rjyu-coi/, 
 rov hovvat rj/xiv, 
 
 'A0o/3ft)9, e'/c ')(eipo<i rcov i-^Opcbv rjfiMV pva$€vra<;, 
 Xarpeveiv avrw 
 
 'Ei/ oatorrjrt Kal StKaioavvrj ivoomov avrov irdcra'i 
 ra<i yfiepa^ rf]<i ^w*}? ^]fi(t)v. 
 
 Kat ai), irathlov, 7rpocj)rjrr]<; v'\Jrlarov KXrjdrjaj]' irpo- 
 TTopevaj) yap rrpo^ irpoadn'irov J^vpiov, eroLfidcrai 6hov<i 
 avrov, 
 
 Tou Sovvat yvcoaiv crcor'rjpca^ tc3 Xac5 avrov iv 
 d(f)€(7€i cifiapricov avrcov, 
 
 Aia (TTrXdy^va i\eov^ @eov rffxcbv, ev ol<; eTrea-Keylraro 
 rjfji,d<; dvaroXrj i^ ua^ou? 
 
 ^Fi7rc(f)dvat rol<i iv (TKoret, Kal aKia Oavdrov KaOr]- 
 fx,evoc<i, rod xarevOvvat rov<} TroSa? rjfiMv el<; 686v 
 elpijvrji;. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 BENEDICTUS I 
 
 The Song of Zacharias 
 
 Three months have passed ; and in the priest's house 
 in the hill country of Judea the three persons who 
 alone know the great secret of the time have remained 
 together. They have had leisure to meditate on the 
 communications which they have received, to study the 
 prophecies to which they have been referred, and to 
 forecast the expected change, to which, in their pre- 
 liminary ways, they are made instrumental. The 
 result of these reflections will appear in the Song of 
 Zacharias. 
 
 Then the first promise is fulfilled in the birth of his 
 son : and Mary has departed, or departs at once, to 
 avoid the publicity of the day of circumcision. She 
 departs, to meet, as she may, the trials which must 
 follow the disclosure of her own expectations, for which 
 however provision will be made in the most important 
 quarter by another angelic message. 
 
 Meantime the family and neighbourly gathering 
 takes place, with a more than usual interest in an event 
 
CHAP. IV BENEDICTUS I 79 
 
 SO unlooked for; and the story is told in the lively 
 touches and with the freshness of impression which 
 testify to contemporaneous originality. 
 
 Elisabeth's time was fulfilled that she should be 
 delivered, aud she brought forth a son. 
 
 And her neighbours and her kinsfolk heard that the 
 Lord had magnified his mercy towards her ; and they re- 
 joiced with her. 
 
 And it came to pass on the eighth day that they came 
 to circumcise the child ; and they were calling him 
 Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother 
 answered and said, Not so ; but he shall be called John. 
 And they said unto her. There is none of thy kindred that 
 is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, 
 what he would have him called. And he asked for a 
 writing tablet, and wrote, saying, His name is John. 
 And they marvelled all. And his mouth was opened 
 immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, blessing 
 God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them : 
 and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout the 
 hill countiy of Judea. And all that heard them laid 
 them up in their heart, saying, What then shall this child 
 be^ (i. 57-66.) 
 
 On this follows the Song, called in the Western 
 Church after its first word, the Bcnedichbs. Was it 
 uttered at the very moment when " his tongue was 
 loosed, and he spake blessing God " ? That is not stated ; 
 but it is certainly spoken under the inspiration of the 
 occasion, and, as it seems, from the congregational form 
 and from the public apostrophe to the child there 
 present, in the midst of the assembled company. 
 
 The hymn has two parts, the first starting from the 
 advent of Messias, the second from the mission of his 
 
80 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 Prophet ; the first celebrating the work of redemption, 
 the second the word of salvation. 
 
 We read them now in the sense of the speaker before 
 taking them in the sense of the Church. 
 
 In passing from the Magnificat to the Benedidus we 
 exchange the personal emotion and lively imagination 
 of a youthful mind for the mature thoughtfulness of an 
 old man and the spiritual insight of a priest. But the 
 thoughtfulness and insight receive the sudden succours 
 of inspiration and are raised to the tone of prophecy : 
 " Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and pro- 
 phesied." The result is a truly evangelical hymn 
 which anticipates a Gospel for Israel but serves to 
 express a Gospel for mankind. 
 
 The opening sentence gives vent to pent-up thoughts, 
 none the less spontaneous because framed in accustomed 
 words. 
 
 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited 
 and redeemed his people. 
 
 This formula of blessing would be natural in itself; 
 but it is also dear to the man's heart and familiar to 
 his lips. It is the same which closes three of the books 
 of the Psalms.^ It expresses the fundamental con- 
 sciousness of the old religion. Jehovah is God of 
 Israel ; and Israel is his people by whom his name is 
 
 ^ Book I. Psalm xli. 13, " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from 
 everlasting, and to everlasting. " Book II. Psalm Ixxiii. 18, "Blessed 
 be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things." 
 Bookiv. Psalm cvi. 48, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from 
 everlasting even to everlasting." 
 
IV BENEDICTUS 1 81 
 
 blessed. But now there is fresh cause for blessing, the 
 greatest cause of all, long a promise, now becoming 
 
 fact : — 
 
 He hath visited and wrought redemption for his people, 
 and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house 
 of his servant David. 
 
 "Visited " and " redeemed " are jfrequent words, the one 
 signifying that the action of God, long withheld, has 
 unmistakably appeared upon the scene in the way 
 either of judgment or of mercy ; the other represent- 
 ing decisive deliverance from evil, whether by purchase 
 or by power, and that by one- to whom the right of 
 redemption belongs. The expression, " he wrought (lit. 
 made) redemption {i-Troirja-e XvTpcoaiv)," has a fuller 
 meaning than " redeemed," as indicating some necessary 
 process or some deliberate method. So it is here : a 
 person appears to achieve the redemption, raised up of 
 God in the predestined quarter. " He hath raised up 
 an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant 
 David." 
 
 The conventional expression for a development of 
 might and honour, so common that it almost ceased to 
 be figurative, in its present connection recalls many words 
 of old. Most distinctly in Psalm cxxxii. 17, "There 
 will I make the horn of David to bud," is part of a 
 celebration of the happy state of Sion, consequent on 
 the fulfilment of the oath of promise : 
 
 The Lord hath sworn unto David, 
 It is truth, He will not depart from it : 
 Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne 
 (ver. 11). 
 
 G 
 
82 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 In a still more ample and exalted strain does 
 Psalm Ixxxix. tell how God had spoken in vision and 
 said: 
 
 I have laid help on one that is mighty, 
 I have exalted one chosen out of the people : 
 I have found David my servant, 
 With my holy oil have I anointed him. 
 
 My faithfulness also and my loving-kindness shall be with 
 
 him, 
 And in my name shall his horn be exalted. 
 
 And the prophecy, rising in tone, recognises and over- 
 passes intervening unfaithfulness and failure, in order 
 to take refuge in the promise which cannot lie and 
 still awaits fulfilment. 
 
 If we read these Psalms, which the figurative phrase 
 recalls, we see what is present to the mind of Zacharias. 
 The Davidic promises are before him ; his mind is full 
 of the purposes of God, predestined to take effect in the 
 house of his servant David. This title " his servant " 
 is specially appropriated to David, even as it is to 
 Moses, by designation not only of men but of God ^ — 
 David served the will of God, in his own generation, 
 and by his office in the whole histor}^ as type as well 
 as father of Messias ; for whom indeed from time to 
 time his name is used in prophecy. 
 
 But when Zacharias speaks, where is this house of 
 
 ^ E.g. Isaiah xxxvii. 35 : "I will defend this city for mine own sake 
 and for my servant David's sake (5ia AaulS rhv iraiha. ixov)." In the 
 Apostolic prayer (Acts iv. 24-30) the title is used both of David and 
 of Christ — 25: "by the moiith of thy servant David '" — and 27 : 
 " against thy holy servant Jesus," iraTs in each case. 
 
IV BENEDICTUS I 83 
 
 David ? Sunk in obscurity, vanished from public view. 
 By gradual decline from the days of Zerubbabel it has 
 lost all place and part in the national life. Great 
 movements have gone on through the centuries ; but it 
 has furnished no leaders. Asmonean and Idumean 
 dynasties have risen and reigned ; but the house of 
 David has made no sign. The names in its genealogies 
 are all unknown to fame ; and the legitimate heirs are 
 found to have withdrawn from Judea, the land of their 
 tribe, to carry on a quiet industry in a distant village 
 in Galilee. Probably it was safer in evil times to 
 remove ancestral claims from their own locality into 
 a region where they would be scarcely noticed or 
 understood. 
 
 And now on a sudden, in the hill country of Judea, 
 is heard the proclamation, " He hath visited and re- 
 deemed his people, and raised up an horn of salvation 
 for us in the house of his servant David." What must 
 have been the effect of this announcement on the 
 hearers, who knew nothing of what had happened ? 
 It gave matter for wonder, discussion, expectation. 
 But we know its origin and its warrant in the visit of 
 the Virgin and the communication she had to make. 
 The language of the Annunciation to the Virgin is 
 reflected here — " Thou shalt bring forth a son, and shalt 
 call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be 
 called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall 
 give unto him the throne of his father David." 
 
 Now promise is becoming fact. In the supernatural 
 conception the first act has occurred, and the march of 
 events has begun. All will be as predestined and 
 predicted. It comes to pass, 
 
 G 2 
 
84 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which 
 
 have been since the world began, 
 Salvation from our enemies and from the hand o all that 
 
 hate us. 
 To shew mercy towards our fathers, 
 And to remember his holy covenant. 
 The oath which he sware unto Abraham our father, 
 To grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand 
 
 of our enemies 
 Should serve him without fear 
 In holiness and righteousness befoi'e him all our days. 
 
 The retrospect of prophecy and the prospect of ful- 
 filment are commingled in the speaker's mind. Faith 
 keeps its hold on the unchanging purpose of God inti- 
 mated from time to time through the ages. Hope sees 
 the result in the light of accustomed anticipations and 
 fixed ideas. 
 
 Of these things God has spoken from the beginning 
 (dir' alSivo^). We have no equivalent for this expres- 
 sion of distant, unmeasured, undated time. It is He 
 who has spoken, though by the mouth of men, his holy 
 prophets in their several generations. But there Avas 
 more than partial intimation. There was a " holy 
 covenant," an " oath which he sware unto Abraham." 
 It is a case of Divine engagement, confirmed by an oath 
 to set the mind at rest. Its late performance is, in the 
 first place, a " doing mercy towards or with the 
 fathers." The expression is remarkable (Troifja-ai e\eo<; 
 fiera tmv irarepayv) " to show mercy towards our 
 fathers" (R.V.). More literal is Wycliffe's translation, 
 
 ^ The proper sense of the expression iroiriaai t\eos fiera. tIvos is 
 shown in Sept. 2 Sam. ix. 1, 3, 7, rendered in A.V. "to shew 
 kindness to him."' 
 
IV BENEDICTUS I 85 
 
 " To do merci with our fadris'and to have minde of his 
 holi testament." The words must mean that the final 
 mercy is (so to speak) a transaction with the same 
 persons to whom the oath was sworn and the word of 
 promise given ; and that the fathers are recipients of 
 God's work of grace, not only as wrought for their 
 children, but also as having effects of blessing on them- 
 selves. The same idea had been expressed in the 
 Magnificat, where it was said, " To remember mercy to 
 Abraham and to his seed," the father having his own 
 personal share in the blessing. Doubtless in such 
 passages the mercy to the fathers represents that to 
 the descendants in whose time the purpose is accom- 
 plished. Yet they are not to be so read, as if the 
 fathers received the promise only in word, and the 
 descendants the promise in fact. They are thought of 
 as living to God, and having their own present experi- 
 ence of hope fulfilled. 
 
 The language discloses a sense of unity with the 
 fathers and of common interest with them in what is 
 taking place. The wording of the whole recalls many 
 passages of prophecy, and most distinctly the closing 
 words of Micah, of which we felt a reflection also in the 
 Magnificat : — 
 
 Thou wilt perform the truthfulness to Jacob and the 
 mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our 
 fathers from the days of old (Mic. vii. 20). 
 
 ' The connection of thought is not with this saying 
 alone. The whole prophecy which precedes has evi- 
 dent relations with that view of the salvation which 
 Zacharias celebrates — 
 
86 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 As for me (it begins) I will look unto the Lord ; I will 
 wait for the God of my salvation. Rejoice not against me, 
 O mine enemy : when I sit in the darkness, the Lord shall 
 be a light unto me. 
 
 And it proceeds with the overthrow of enemies, the 
 humiliation of the nations, and the deliverance of a 
 forgiven people, whose sins are " cast into the depths of 
 the sea " (Mic. vii. 7-19). 
 
 In few words Zacharias describes the features of the 
 coming change for Israel ; one the deliverance from 
 disabling conditions, the other the life which will ensue. 
 It is the same view which we have seen more diffusely 
 expressed in the contemporaneous Psalm of expectation, 
 and it represents the prevalent conceptions of all who 
 were Israelites indeed. Only let the crushing weight 
 of heathen domination be cast off, and the baneful in- 
 fluences which prevail under its shadow, and then will 
 be realised the true character and ideal life of the 
 people of God. Then, rescued {pva6evre<i) out of the 
 hand of enemies and of all that hate them (whatever 
 powers these be) they will " serve God securely (d(f>6j3Q)<;) 
 in holiness and righteousness before him all their days." 
 The service (expressed by Xarpeveiv) is religious ser- 
 vice, that of worshippers ; it is offered " before God " 
 (ivdoTTLov avTov) in his felt presence ; it is rendered in 
 holiness (oa-toTrjTi), a pure sanctity, and in righteousness, 
 comprehending all worth and duty ; and it is enduring — 
 " all our days." [The reading, which adds (rrj^ ^o)r)<;) " of 
 our life," is disallowed, and the days are all the longer, 
 those of the nation rather than of the man.] This would 
 be the realisation by the people in general, on a grand 
 scale, and under congenial conditions, of that life which 
 
IV BENEDICTUS I 87 
 
 Zacharias and Elizabeth had themselves sought to live, 
 " both righteous before God, walking in all the command- 
 ments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." The Rab- 
 binic ideal of the days of Messiah was that of the glori- 
 fying and perfect keeping of the Law. The language 
 and the life of Zacharias represent a more human and 
 more spiritual view. As has been truly said ^ " its 
 leading feature is the indissoluble union of the two 
 deliverances, the religious and the political : it is a 
 glorious theocracy founded on national holiness." But 
 we must add to this the sacerdotal view, proper to the 
 priest who speaks, which recognises the original charter 
 and Divine intention — " Ye shall be to me a kingdom 
 of priests and an holy nation " (Ex. xix. 6). 
 
 II 
 
 From the redeeming work and righteous kingdom of 
 Messias the song proceeds to the prophetic preparation 
 for it, and so enters another region of thought. Here 
 a preaching and teaching ministry addresses itself to 
 the understanding and the conscience ; the Word is the 
 instrumental power for remission of sins, faith is the 
 means of its reception, and the national salvation is 
 based on the illumination of the people. This line of 
 thought has its starting point in the appointed messen- 
 ger ; the child lying there in unconscious infancy, 
 himself the subject of prophecy, his birth the earnest of 
 all that is coming, his name just bestowed, significant 
 of a dispensation of grace. 
 
 1 Godet : St. Luke v. 1, p. 113. 
 
88 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 Yea, and thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the 
 
 Most High ; 
 For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to make 
 
 ready his ways ; 
 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people 
 In the remission of their sins, 
 Because of the tender mercy of our God, 
 Whereby the dayspring from on high shall visit us, 
 To shine upon them that sit in darkness and the shadow 
 
 of death ; 
 To guide our feet into the way of peace (76-79). 
 
 The apostrophe to the child, so natural in the father's 
 mouth, has the happy effect of placing the whole song 
 in connection with the actual scene, and with the facts 
 and feelings of the moment. According to the words 
 of the Angel, here repeated, which are also the words 
 of Malachi, it is the immediate going before the face of 
 the Lord to prepare his ways which will make this 
 child, in a sense peculiar to himself, " the prophet of 
 the Most High." It will be the exceptional glory of 
 his ministry to announce the coming of the Lord as a 
 present fact, and to prepare his way. 
 
 And how will he prepare it ? Simply by the power 
 of the word of God for the purpose of " giving knowledge 
 of salvation to his people, in the remission of their sins." ^ 
 
 ' Godet's observations on this expression, "forgiving knowledge 
 of salvation in the remission of their sins " are well worth ap- 
 pending. 
 
 "The article toO before Sovvai to give, indicates a purpose. The 
 word in fact throws a vivid light on the aim of John the Baptist's 
 ministry. Why was tlie ministry of the Messiah preceded by that 
 of another divine messenger ? Because the verj^ notion of salvation 
 was falsified in Israel, and had to be corrected before salvation 
 could be realised. A carnal and malignant patriotism had taken 
 possession of the people and their rulers ; and the idea of a political 
 
IV BENEDICTUS I 89 
 
 The remission of their sins is the first necessity, without 
 which other blessings could not come ; ever a main part 
 of salvation and the condition of all the rest. It is the 
 knowledge of this which the prophet of the Most High 
 will give. How he will publish, impress, and apply it 
 time will show. 
 
 The source of all is in the tender mercies (aTrXdy^^ya 
 iXeov?, lit. bowels of mercy ; or as Wycliffe translates, 
 " bi the imvardnesse of the merci) of our God ; a truth 
 which Zacharias would apprehend in the name ordained 
 for the child. All is of grace. No merits of Israel, no 
 works of man, invite or secure this salvation, which 
 comes spontaneously and directly from the Divine com- 
 passions. In those compassions there breaks upon us 
 the dayspring from on high. It has visited us, eVeo-zce- 
 ■xjraro according to one reading. It shall visit us, 
 e7riaK€-\lreTat,, according to another, which is now pre- 
 ferred. But the fact is the same, for at daybreak 
 either word is true ; the light is come ; the light is 
 
 deliverance had been substituted for that of a moral salvation. If 
 the notion of salvation had not been'restored to its Scriptural purity, 
 before being realised by the Messiah, not only would He have had 
 to employ a large part of the time assigned to Him in this indis- 
 pensable task ; but further. He would certainly have been accused 
 of inventing a theory of salvation to suit His impotence to effect 
 any other. There was needed then another person, divinely 
 authorised, to remind the people that perdition consisted, not in 
 subjection to the Romans, but in divine condemnation ; and that 
 salvation, therefore, was not temporal emancipation, but the for- 
 giveness of sins. To implant once more in the hearts of the people 
 this notion of salvation was indeed to prepai'e the way for Jesus, 
 who was to accomplish this salvation, and no other." — Commentary 
 on St. Luke v. 1, p. 115. 
 
 Such a definite view of the Baptist's mission may be regarded as 
 implicitly contained in the words of Zacharias, but was not to be 
 introduced into the interpretation of them. 
 
90 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 coming. No figure of speech could so well describe the 
 change that is beginning; and it is described by a 
 lovely word (dvaToXr] i^ vy^rov^), in use for the rising of a 
 luminary or springing up of light : ^ and not less beautiful 
 is our English rendering which the A. V. inherited from 
 Tyndale — " the dayspring from on high." Zachariah 
 sees this light, not as kindled on earth, like those fires 
 which die into darkness (Is. 1. 11), but as " from on high," 
 breaking from heaven with a light which illuminates a 
 scene of gloom ; " to shine upon them which sit in 
 darkness and in the shadow of death," like wanderers 
 bewildered and unable to jsroceed. 
 
 It is of Israel he speaks. The great dark world is 
 scarcely in his thoughts, and the prophecy of Isaiah 
 which he cites had localised the rising of the light, and 
 the people on whom its earliest beams would fall. We 
 know how this feature of the prophecy was remembered 
 afterwards, when, in the first preaching of Jesus, the 
 new light fell on men's minds " by the sea in the regions 
 of Zabulon and Naphtali" (Matt. iv. 13-16).2 Though 
 that specification of locality is not here in view, the 
 nation in general is seen as " in darkness and the 
 shadow of death." It is a telling word — " the shadow 
 
 1 So in the Greek usage ; also in the Septuagint for the rising of 
 the moon, Is. Ix. 19 ; and the cognate verb is used for the spiritual 
 illumination foreseen in prophecy. Is. Ix. 1, " The Glory of the 
 Lord hath risen upon thee (avaTeVaAffei')," and Mai. iv. 2, " The sun 
 of righteousness shall rise (avareXet)." 
 
 - On this localisation see Delitzsch on Is. ix. 1. " By the land of 
 Naphtali we are to understand the upper Galilee of later times, and 
 by the land of Zehidun the lower Galilee. The road by the sea is 
 the tract of land on the western shore of the sea of Chiimereth ; 
 the other side Jordan, the country to the east of the Jordan ; the 
 circle of the Gentiles the northernmost borderland of Palestine. The 
 
IV BENEDICTUS I 91 
 
 of death " — often used (no less than eighteen times in 
 the Old Testament), making the gloom more intense as 
 cast by something darker than itself If that darkness 
 is the shadow of death, then the light which will break 
 upon it is the light of life, and it will shine for the 
 purposes of life — " to guide our feet into the way of 
 peace." It is light, not only to the eyes, but for the 
 feet, to guide actual conduct, the j)ractical course of life, 
 into a way not seen before, which will prove the way of 
 peace. So the song ends with that restful, satisfying 
 word, representing the Hebrew DiStZ? (Shalom) which 
 comprehends all good for man. 
 
 Certainly, by inevitable association, the whole pro- 
 phecy of Isaiah ix. is present to the mind of Zacharias, 
 as it is all reflected in his song. The great light to 
 those in darkness, the annihilation of hostile powers, 
 the happy deliverance of the people, the establishment 
 of the throne of David, all these topics of the prophecy 
 are also topics of the Song, evoked, as it is by the 
 knowledge that the great event, which its first words 
 announce, was then in actual occurrence. What triumph 
 must have filled his soul in the sense that now at last 
 those distant words are becoming present fact, for his 
 people and for himself. 
 
 " For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : 
 and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his 
 
 prophet's intention was to mention those provinces which had 
 suffered the greatest affliction and degi'adation. On the ground of 
 this prophecy Messianic hopes were directed towards Galilee." 
 Vol. i. p. 244. St. Matthew, a resident in Capernaum, quotes the 
 prophecy, and notes the fact that the true light first clearly shone 
 in those surrounding regions. 
 
92 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap, iv 
 
 name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, 
 Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
 
 " Of the increase of his government and peace there shall 
 be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his king- 
 dom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and 
 with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of 
 the Lord of hosts will perform this " (Isaiah ix. 6, 7). 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 BENEDICTUS II 
 
 A Song of the Church 
 
 The Benedidus celebrates salvation as already come, 
 and gives by anticipation a distinct and comprehensive 
 Gospel teaching, which justified the title it sometimes 
 bore of Hymmts Evangclieus. It was thus evidently 
 fitted to become a song of the Church of Christ, in 
 which it had its uses and occasions from very ancient 
 times. It was said in some early liturgies before " the 
 prophecy," that is, the reading of the Old Testament 
 lesson, then forming part of the Eucharistic service. 
 In the arrangement of the Hour Services its previous 
 use was testified, and its after use was fixed, by its 
 being part of the daily office at Lauds; and when 
 Mattins, Lauds, and Prime were combined in our 
 Order for Morning Prayer, the Te Deitm, Bcnedicite, and 
 Bcncdictus took their present places in it. In the first 
 book (1549) the rubric appointed it to be used through- 
 out the year, and in one edition it was entitled, " A 
 Thanksgiving for the performance of God's mercies." 
 In the second book (1552) Psalm c. was added as 
 an alternative ; but the present rubric of 1662 seems 
 
94 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 to designate Benedidus for the more ordinary use. 
 This intention is practically too little regarded ; for 
 though it has the foremost place, it has commonly not 
 the foremost use — the reason being, no doubt, the 
 comparative shortness of the Jubilate. But there can 
 be no question of the special fitness of this evangelical 
 hymn to attend, as a voice of mediation and praise, on 
 the lesson from the New Testament. 
 
 As adopted into Christian devotions, chanted in the 
 congregation, and rehearsed from generation to gene- 
 ration, the Song of Zacharias has of course larger 
 meaning than it had on his own lips on the day of 
 the circumcision of his son. He " was filled with the 
 Holy Ghost and prophesied " ; and the words have the 
 character which belongs to inspiration and prophecy, 
 which is, so to speak, an elastic character, now con- 
 tracted within the horizon of the speaker, now ex- 
 panded to that of the Spirit. We have already read 
 this devout effusion according to the mind of the time 
 and the ideas of Israel ; but these are rudimentary 
 forms of the larger scheme of things, and so the 
 original language of the t}^es becomes the perpetual 
 language of the fulfilments. We have indeed inherited 
 from the old dispensation a religious vocabulary, which 
 is both picturesque and dignified ; and, in using it, we 
 have the additional advantage of connecting the chil- 
 dren with the fathers, attesting our spiritual descent, 
 and affirming the continuity of the designs of God. 
 
 I 
 
 In this confidence and with this effect does the 
 Church sing in the Bcncdictus — 
 
V BENEDICTUS II 95 
 
 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; 
 For he hath visited and redeemed his people : 
 And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us 
 In the house of his servant David. 
 
 So we speak in a version slightly modified for pop- 
 ular use. It is now a blessing uttered by a spiritual 
 Israel, who can survey the whole work of God, and 
 know all the reasons they have for blessing His Name. 
 What a visiting of His people was that which took 
 place in the Incarnation and Epiphany of His Son 
 Jesus Christ ! What a Redemption was that which 
 Jesus wrought in taking up the cause of His adopted 
 family as its Goel or Redeemer, accomplishing it by 
 " the sacrifice of himself," " redeeming us to God by 
 his blood ! " It was indeed " a horn of salvation," 
 strong and mighty, which our God raised up for us in 
 the house of His servant David. 
 
 Those last words also, in their natural significance, 
 have their place in the Christian doctrine, which, 
 while glorifying the Eternal Son, maintains His true 
 humanity. His place in the generations of men, and 
 His consummation of a predestined history. So St. 
 Paul, in the opening of his greatest epistle, was careful 
 to define his own gospel as " concerning him who was 
 born of the seed of David according to the flesh — who 
 was declared to be the Son of God with power, accord- 
 ing to the spirit of holiness, by resurrection from the 
 dead — Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. i. 3, 4). The 
 tenacity with which he insisted on this point of faith 
 is further illustrated in his last epistle, by the brief, 
 abrupt charge to Timothy : " Remember Jesus Christ, 
 risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according- to 
 
96 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 my Gospel " (2 Tim. ii. 8). His Gospel is also ours, 
 and we recognise both the historical and doctrinal 
 significance of this title, using in public prayer the 
 invocation, " O Son of David, have mercy upon us." ^ 
 
 Even more are the next words our own, linking as 
 they do the faith of the Church with the predictions 
 of prophets since the world began, and with the holy 
 covenant of old, and the oath which was sworn to 
 Abraham. This remembrance also is impressed by the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, in the passage already quoted, 
 at the opening of the Epistle, which sets forth the 
 gospel of grace. It is, he says, " the gospel of God. 
 which he promised afore by his holy prophets " (Rom. 
 i. 2). And as at the beginning, so at the end ; after 
 ample illustration of the same principle throughout his 
 argument, the concluding doxology speaks of his gospel 
 and the " preaching of Jesus " as being " by the scrip- 
 tures of the prophets, and according to the command- 
 ment of the eternal God, made known to all nations 
 unto obedience of faith " (xvi. 26). Again I say, this 
 Gospel is our Gospel. The Church, which was started 
 with this hold upon the scriptures, prophecies, facts, 
 and persons of the Old Testament, will keep the same 
 hold firm unto the end. This continuity is of the 
 essence of revelation, and contributes not only to the 
 confirmation, but to the intei-pretation of it also. It 
 did so at first, as we see in the A\Titings of the 
 Apostles, and it has done so through all the inter- 
 vening ages. 
 
 ^ But nevei- "0 Son of Maiy," as some recent hymn writers 
 would teach, diverging from the guidance of Scripture, and inno- 
 vating on the language of the English Church. 
 
V BENEDICTUS II 97 
 
 An exceptional interest attaches to this subject now, 
 since the historical criticism of the Old Testament has 
 taken such a prominent place in the literature of our 
 time. Its unrestricted freedom is both rightful and 
 necessary to the worth of its final results ; but its varying 
 deductions, obtained by a combination of minute inves- 
 tigation with confident conjecture, await their gradual 
 sifting by the common sense of the Church, guided by 
 the Spirit of Truth, Hence the words of Benedidus, 
 valuable always, have a special value now. In view of 
 suggestions which go to eliminate from prophecy much 
 of its predictive element, and to cast mists of doubt over 
 the origin of Israel, and over the very persons of the 
 patriarchs, the Church will still commemorate, with as 
 simple assurance as Zacharias did, the promises given 
 through holy prophets since the world began, and the 
 oath of the covenant sworn to Abraham our father. 
 Moreover, those whom we commemorate as receivers 
 and transmitters of the word of promise are not to us, 
 any more than to Zacharias, mere names in dubious 
 histories. God has called Himself their God, and He is 
 not the God of the dead, but of the living. They all 
 live unto Him ; and if " He has provided some better 
 thing for us, that apart from us they should not be made 
 perfect," He yet knows how to associate them with us 
 in the present knowledge and fulness of salvation. 
 
 This salvation, as a present salvation to ourselves, we 
 celebrate in the spirit of the song, as (1) a deliverance 
 from enemies and (2) a life of service to God. 
 
 (1) Redemption from the hand of the enemy, of which 
 there was an earnest in the Exodus, of which there was 
 perennial need, and which is the theme of psalmists and 
 prophets, has its counterpart in the history of the 
 
 H 
 
98 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 spiritual Israel. Truly it is the foundation fact of that 
 history. Redemption would be an inappropriate word, 
 if there were no hostile and intrusive powers claiming 
 right of possession in the world. In the later still 
 more than in the earlier Scriptures it is felt, assumed, 
 and plainly affirmed, that for the evil state and strange 
 course of this world there is an origin behind the will 
 of man, a cause more operative than the imperfection 
 of his nature. The mystery of iniquity has its source 
 and supplies from the world of spirits, from which some 
 power has come forth to invade, infest, and appropriate 
 our race. So we are taught by revelation, with which 
 the facts of the situation correspond. 
 
 In the order of righteousness, as it appears, these 
 successes of an enemy could not be overcome by the 
 simple exertion of power ; for the consent of man had 
 given them, so to speak, a lawful claim. Could that 
 claim be cancelled, since man's impotence for the pur- 
 pose consisted in his very sinfulness ? It was an old 
 question, " Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or 
 the lawful captives be delivered ? " And it was an old 
 answer, " Even the captives of the mighty shall be 
 taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be de- 
 livered : for I will contend with him that contendeth 
 with thee, and I will save thy children" (Isaiah xlix. 
 24, 25). How this would be was intimated in other 
 prophecies (as Isaiah liii.), and was disclosed in the 
 events, as wrought by incarnation, sacrifice, and death. 
 In the cross was victory and deliverance. " Through 
 death he brought to nought him that had the power of 
 death, and delivered them who through fear of death 
 were all their lifetime subject to bondage " (Hebrews xi. 
 14, 15). In that final act the power of the enemy was 
 
V BENEDICTUS II 99 
 
 broken, because his claims over us were cancelled by 
 Him who " redeemed us to God by his blood." " The 
 prince of this world is judged." Thenceforth we have 
 to do with a discomfited enemy ; and in our personal 
 conflicts, serious as they are, victory and freedom are 
 ours of right, through the redemption which is in Christ 
 Jesus. So we sing jDraise to God who has " granted us, 
 that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies 
 should serve him without fear," as worshippers in a secure 
 temple and heirs of a kingdom that cannot be moved. 
 
 (2) This is the life which follows, a life of service unto 
 God without fear, in holiness and righteousness 
 before him all our days. This peaceful serving ' is 
 expressed by the ritual word which means properly 
 religious service as offered unto God. It includes all 
 observances of worship and definite acts of devotion, but 
 (in the Christian sense) these are but expressions of the 
 habitual service of a spiritual life. So St. Paul explains 
 the word, when he says, " We are the circumcision who 
 serve (or worship) by the Spirit of God " (Phil. iii. 3) ; 
 or again, in respect of the ministry, " Whom I serve in 
 my spirit in the gospel of his Son " (Romans i. 9) ; or 
 again, " Whose I am and whom I serve " (Acts xxvii. 
 23).^ In like manner St. Peter represents the Christian 
 life as one of consecration and religious service, saying 
 that we are " an holy priesthood to offer w^ spiritual 
 sacrifices," and again, " a royal priesthood, an holy nation, 
 a people of possession, that we should shew forth the 
 virtues of him who hath called us out of darkness into 
 his marvellous light " (1 Pet. ii. 5, 9). 
 
 This service to God by the Church collectively, and 
 severally by the members of it, is to be carried on " in 
 
 1 In all these passages, the same word, Xarpevu, is employed. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 holiness and righteousness before him all our days." 
 The two words characterise the spiritual and the moral 
 life of man as it is realised in his redeemed condition. 
 This is the restored humanity in which the prophecies 
 are fulfilled, and the enemy cast out, and the Redeemer 
 glorified. This is " the new man " which is indeed a 
 creation of God, and is yet to be accepted and assumed 
 by us. As it is our calling and privilege in Christ, so 
 be it our reigning desire and daily endeavour, " that we 
 put on the new man, which after God is created in 
 holiness and righteousness of truth." (Eph. iv. 24.) 
 
 11. 
 
 We enter the second part of the hymn with a sudden 
 turn of thought, 
 
 And thou, Child, shalt be called 
 the Prophet of the Highest : 
 
 For thou shalt go before the face of 
 the Lord to prepare his ways. 
 
 It is a reminder of the origin of the words we use, 
 but it at the same time rouses attention to the subject 
 which properly succeeds; namely, the Divine method 
 for giving effect to the Divine purpose. We are thus 
 in the same line of thought as before, but in another 
 division of it. The Lord who comes must have his 
 way prepared. The redemption he achieves must 
 be published. There must be a knowledge of salvation 
 given, and a declaration of what it is. There must 
 be proclamation of forgiveness and grace. In this way 
 light from heaven must break upon the darkness of 
 the world. This is the work of the Word, and the 
 office of the ministry of the Word, a ministr}^ of which 
 that child became the first leader and conspicuous 
 
V BENEDICTUS II 101 
 
 example. "The Law and the Prophets were until 
 John; since that time the Kingdom of God is 
 preached;" and the preaching will continue till the 
 Lord's return. May it be done with the same faithful- 
 ness and in the same spirit of power. 
 
 O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send 
 thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee ; grant that 
 the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise 
 so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts 
 of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy 
 second coming to judge the world we may be found an 
 acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest 
 with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world 
 without end. Amen. 
 
 The revelation of the Word, the ordinance of preach- 
 ing, the commission of the ministry, these constitute 
 a divine plan of preparation, " before the face of the 
 Lord," who comes Himself in the Spirit to believing 
 hearts, and soon in glory to an expectant Church. 
 
 The power of the Word to prevail and to prepare lies 
 essentially in its " giving the knowledge of salvation in 
 the remission of sins." Remission of sins is the first 
 necessity for awakened souls. It was the first proclam- 
 ation of John, who " preached the baptism of repentance 
 for the remission of sins." It was the parting charge of 
 Jesus that " repentence and remission of sins should be 
 preached in his name among all nations." It is the 
 single feature of the state of salvation which the Church 
 has incorporated into the Creed: "I believe the for- 
 giveness of sins," or " I acknowledge one baptism for the 
 remission of sins." Fitly is it rehearsed as an article of 
 faith, since the knowledge of salvation by remission of 
 sins is by revelation of God, and in no other way attain- 
 able. No merit claims it ; no reasoning proves it. 
 
102 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 Reasoning indeed from instincts of conscience and from 
 the natural consequences of things could only prove 
 the contrary. That in respect of sin the law of justice 
 should be stayed, and natural consequences intercepted, 
 can be due only to " the tender mercies of our God." 
 So we feel in the first apprehension of forgiveness, in the 
 daily appropriation of it, in the final peace of it. The 
 scheme of salvation in Christ, under which God is 
 " faithful and just to forgive us our sins," is itself the 
 greatest evidence of his mercy and grace. It is truth, 
 and it is joy, to trace the streams of blessing back to 
 their fountain head in the spontaneity of God, to his 
 mercies and compassions, and the desire that he has to 
 the work of his hands. Hence the word grace is the 
 first principle of Christian thought and the keynote of 
 Christian praise. 
 
 So in this song we ascribe it simply to the tender 
 mercies of our God, that 
 
 The dayspring from on high has visited us 
 
 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the 
 
 shadow of death, 
 And to guide our feet into the way of peace. 
 
 Thus we describe the gospel of grace as being from 
 heaven and not of men ; not a light kindled on earth 
 by human speculation or imagination or evolution of 
 thought, but a revelation from God of things which by 
 nature we could not have, and which by nature we 
 could not know. It came as a light to a world in 
 darkness — moral and spiritual darkness, which was really 
 the shadow of death. The dayspring from on high broke 
 on this darkness, and turned the shadow of death into 
 the morning. Now this light is reflected on all sides from 
 human institutions and forms of thought and the general 
 
V BENEDICTUS II 103 
 
 scene which it has illuminated ; but its origin remains 
 the same. It is still the dayspring frmn on high. 
 
 As its origin remains the same, so does its intention, 
 as yet so imperfectly fulfilled. The last Apostle said as 
 he looked out upon the world, " The darkness is passing 
 away, and the true light already shines " (1 John ii. 8). 
 Since that time eighteen centuries have elapsed, and 
 multitudes of the human race are still sitting in the 
 darkness and the shadow of death. As we repeat these 
 Avords in the daily service, it should be a daily reminder of 
 their condition, of the Lord's intention for them, and of 
 our consequent duty by participation in the great mission- 
 ary work which is the charge and glory of the Church. 
 
 The way of peace they have not known, and for this 
 they need the Gospel. For this also we enjoy it. Its 
 effects are practical — " to guide our feet into the way 
 of peace." The way of peace is the way in which peace 
 is found, — peace for the whole man, in a spirit reconciled 
 to God, in conscience set at rest, in thoughts settled 
 upon truth, in the quietness of a pure heart and the 
 satisfactions of duty and service. This way of peace 
 the Gospel sets before us, and, yet more, guides our feet 
 into it. By impulse in one direction, and by restraint 
 in another, by plain instructions and subtle influences, 
 the Gospel guides the movements of thought and the 
 steps of action and all the progress of life. Those who 
 place themselves under it know well this guiding power 
 by the peace which they enjoy in following it, and which 
 they lose if ever they forsake it. It is a needful admoni- 
 tion, as well as a refreshing assurance, which lingers on 
 our minds from those last words of the Bencdidus : 
 
 To guide our feet into the way of peace. 
 
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 
 
 Glory to God in the highest, 
 
 And on earth peace, good will toward men. 
 
 or 
 
 Glory to God in the highest, 
 
 And on earth peace in men of good pleasure. 
 
AOHA EN T^ISTOIS 
 
 Ao^a iv vy^l(TTOi<i OecS, 
 
 Kol iirl 7>;<f elpi'iviy ev avdpcoTroc^; euSoKca. 
 
 Ao^a iv v-ylrtcTTOi'i ©eoS, 
 
 Kal eVt 7>}9 elpi]vrj iv avOpwiroi^ evZoKta^. 
 
 See Appendix C. The two readings of the Gloria in excelsis. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 
 
 Song of Angeh and Song of the Church. 
 
 Magnificat anticipates the holy Nativity in con- 
 sciousness of its commencement. Bencdictiis proclaims 
 it as assured by the birth of the Herald. It is 
 become fact when celebrated by Gloi^ia in excelsis. 
 
 So it wap, that, while they were there, the days were 
 accomplished that she should be delivered. And she 
 brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swad- 
 dling clothes, and laid him in a manger. 
 
 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding 
 in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 
 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the 
 glory of the Lord shone round about them : and they were 
 sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not : 
 for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which 
 shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in 
 the city of David a Saviour, which is Chi'ist the Lord. 
 And this shall be a sign unto you ; Ye shall find the babe 
 wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And 
 suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the 
 heavenly host praising God, and saying. 
 
CHAP. VI GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 107 
 
 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good 
 will toward men. 
 
 Is there among all the idylls in the world a fairer 
 scene than this ? Behind it lies the mystery contained 
 in the event, stupendous in its nature, incalculable in 
 its consequences, the turning-point of the world's 
 history. But here the event itself is all. Could any 
 common birth be told more simply ? " She brought 
 forth her firstborn son : she wrapped him in swaddling 
 clothes, and laid him in a manger." 
 
 Nothing is known on earth. Yet it is not all 
 silence. At that same hour and near at hand the joy 
 of heaven is heard for a moment, yet in that manner 
 of selection and restriction which marks the com- 
 munications of God. The incident was quickly past, 
 but it was enough for its purpose, and that purpose 
 included all the ages. What a possession to the world 
 is this dear familiar story ! How it comes to us at 
 Christmas with ever-fresh effect, one by which the 
 heart is made better, as all sorts of people feel ! The 
 event is our own affair. " To us a Child is born, to 
 us a Son is given " : and we are present in spirit 
 at the announcement. We are away from the town 
 and from the world, in the open country in the silence 
 of the night. There are only some shepherds there, 
 with no thought but for their flock. Suddenly the 
 night is light about them. An angel of the Lord is 
 before them, round whom a glory streams. He tells 
 good tidings of great joy. So we receive from heaven 
 the blessed word, " Gospel " {€vayye\i^o/j,ai, evayyeXiov), 
 for evermore the title of the great message of God. 
 
108 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 The joy is announced to the shepherds, but it " shall be 
 to all the people " (iravTl rw \aw), the chosen people, 
 who await these tidings, that one should be born " in 
 the city of David, who should be ' a Saviour, Christ 
 the Lord.' " The birth is announced ; the titles are 
 proclaimed. The three names give his work, his 
 office, his glory, and are now understood by us, who 
 have received this Gospel, with a fulness of meaning 
 Avhich transcends the thoughts of Israel. 
 
 To these glad tidings and glorious titles there is 
 no articulate response from the astonished shepherds ; 
 none at all from the unprepared world ; but there is 
 response in heaven. There, it appears, events on earth 
 are watched and noted, and their relative importance is 
 understood.' The hour of the holy Nativity thrills 
 through the world of spirits, with apprehensions and 
 exultations which we could not have known, but for 
 this momentary flash of glory and burst of song. In 
 one respect it stands alone among voices from the 
 spirit-world, not heard in trance or vision as were the 
 ascriptions of the seraphim by Isaiah, or those of the 
 ten thousand times ten thousand by the Prophet- 
 Apostle, but by plain men tending sheep, who simply 
 knew what they saw and heard. As soon as the good 
 tidings have entered into their ears, " immediately there 
 was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, 
 praising God," and their hearers caught the few brief 
 words, which in the early dawn they were soon 
 repeating in Bethlehem, which in fact they repeat for 
 ever, and which are still our theme and our song. 
 
 The words are few, the form abrupt. It is but a 
 " fragment of the songs above." Yet is it a guide to 
 
VI GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 109 
 
 songs below, typical in its comprehension and in its 
 order of thought ; as embracing things in heaven and 
 things on earth, and as turning first to God, the source 
 of blessing, then to man the subject of it. Such is 
 the fit succession in holy thought, as the Decalogue 
 teaches in respect of duty, and the Lord's Prayer as 
 the example of petitions. 
 
 We cannot here, as in the other songs, distinguish 
 between the mind of the speaker in uttering the songs 
 and the mind of the Church in using them. For the 
 speaker here is a multitude of the heavenly host ; and 
 the mind is the mind of the world above, which we 
 have no power to gauge or interpret. We know that 
 the praise of angels must be more pure and lofty than 
 our own, seeing that in their case neither " flesh nor 
 sin control the sacred pleasures of the soul." Yet in 
 the birth of Christ the reasons for praise are more ours 
 than theirs ; and therefore our repetition of their song 
 is more than an echo. Then they saw the Gospel 
 begun ; now we see it finished ; and, in the dispensation 
 of the Spirit, our apprehensions have been raised above 
 the level of nature, as to the effects which that Gospel 
 has, both in glory in the highest and in peace on earth. 
 We learn from holy Scripture that beings above us had 
 themselves to watch and follow the unfolding of the 
 Divine designs ; and it may even be that we use, with 
 larger meaning than they could reach, the words of the 
 herald angels when giving glory to the new-born King. 
 They however are here our leaders and teachers, and we 
 reflect on words which we derive from heaven. The 
 keynote of praise for the coming of Christ is thus given 
 to his Church at the beginning, while man is silent in 
 his ignorance and heaven is vocal with joy. 
 
no SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chaf. 
 
 (1) Glory to God in the highest ! It is the first 
 doxology of the Gospel — brief words, yet bearing up 
 the soul into illimitable regions of thought ! Is it a 
 proclamation, " There is glory to God in the highest " ? 
 or is it an ascription " Glory be to God in the highest " ? 
 It is both ; for ascriptions of praise are also proclamations 
 of fact. Glory given to God is only some manifestation 
 and effluence of his own glory, recognised by created 
 intelligences, and reflected back in adoration and joy. 
 So it is here. In the birth of a Saviour which is 
 Christ the Lord, the mystery of the Kingdom has 
 begun, and the glory of God has appeared. It is a 
 glory of mercy to repair spiritual ruin, of wisdom to 
 solve problems of sin and righteousness, of judgment 
 to convict and condemn the powers of evil, of faith- 
 fulness to fulfil promises to prisoners of hope, of grace 
 to conduct a history of salvation, of love to be 
 manifested in the ages to come. This is the glory 
 recognised by the heavenly host in the holy Nativity 
 and celebrated in their responsive praise. 
 
 And the glory thus manifested, apprehended, and 
 given back, is " Glory in the highest." What is 
 intended by this superlative ? What noun shall we 
 read into this adjective ? Things, places, beings, 
 realms of space, regions of thought, worlds of life ? 
 The unexplained word embraces and exceeds all these. 
 At least the angels knew their meaning, cognisant as 
 they are of the gradations and levels of creation, the 
 lower and the higher, the higher and the highest. 
 Men may employ such a word with vague and partial 
 intention ; ^ but angels know Avhereof they affirm, and 
 
 ^ As the children crying in the Temjile " Hosanna in the liighest, 
 
VI GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 111 
 
 the single word declares the glory of God in this 
 nativity to be no secondary manifestation in the 
 common level of human history, but a fresh effulgence 
 of his highest attributes to which the highest heavens 
 respond. 
 
 If there was glory in the highest at the opening act 
 of the great plan of God, how much more is there in 
 its consummation, or as we should rather say, in that 
 stage of consummation which it has now reached, since 
 He who lay a Babe in the manger, having finished the 
 work which was given Him to do, " was raised up from 
 the dead by the glory of the Father," and " ascended 
 up far above all heavens that He might fill all 
 things." 
 
 Doubtless there is glory in the highest beyond what 
 we can know ; since it is revealed that this dispensa- 
 tion has effects on worlds above. " It was the good 
 pleasure of the Father that in him should all the 
 fulness dwell ; and through him to reconcile all things 
 unto himself, having made peace through the blood of 
 his cross ; through him, I say, whether they be things 
 upon the earth or things in the heavens" (Col. i. 19-20). 
 We then upon the earth, having our own special and 
 principal share in this partnership of grace, can well 
 join with angels and archangels and all the company of 
 heaven in whatsoever words of praise they have given 
 us to use. 
 
 they repeat, as it seems, a form sometimes in use at the Feast of 
 Tabernacles, the Hosanna expressing not only an appeal for salva- 
 tion, out a believing expectation that it is coming, and the addition 
 ' ' in the highest " = D^Di"^?;23,' indicating the heavenly heights to 
 which the appeal would reach and wlience the help come. 
 
112 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 And their words of praise are also words of j)resent 
 comfort and eternal hope. 
 
 And on earth peace, in men good pleasure ; or (if we so 
 read it), in men of good pleasure. 
 
 Christ is born ; and the first ascription of glory is 
 the first proclamation of peace. 
 
 (2) "Oncarthipe&ce." In this province of the universal 
 dominion, which is invaded by an enemy and in partial 
 revolt, full of conflict, disorder, and disquiet, under 
 tokens of wrath and a shadow of death, the proclama- 
 tion goes forth " on earth peace." What does this mean ? 
 It means that in the view of heaven the purpose of 
 peace is manifested, and the conditions of peace are 
 provided, when the Prince of peace is born. By what 
 means, in what measure, and in what time, this pui-pose 
 would be carried out was possibly unknown in heaven ; 
 but its accomplishment is begun on earth, and it is the 
 office of " herald angels " to proclaim it. Soon, when 
 all is achieved, it will be the office of other heralds to 
 proclaim it, carrying into all the world " the word 
 which God sent unto the children of Israel preaching 
 peace by Jesus Christ," and fulfilling the prophetic 
 foresight. " How beautiful upon the mountains are 
 the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that 
 publisheth peace" (Isaiah lii. 7). The power of this 
 publication lies in the quarter from which it comes, not 
 from the rebels who ask for peace, but from the King 
 who of his o^vn grace proclaims it. There is no peace 
 on earth of man's making or seeking. Its author and 
 giver is God. That is a first principle of the faith. 
 The desire and design were the Lord's in " good will 
 
VI GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 113 
 
 toward men." " The means taken were by Him ; 
 sending his Son who is our peace and who made peace 
 through the blood of his cross. The proclamation was 
 by his command, and is made for ever by his com- 
 mission : else it were a vain pretence. " All things are 
 of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, 
 and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation ; to 
 wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto 
 himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses." 
 This is " the word of reconciliation " committed to us in 
 virtue of which we can ask for reconciliation on the 
 part of man : " We pray you on behalf of Christ, be 
 ye reconciled to God." ^ Reconciliation is peace on 
 earth. The mere preaching of it creates for the world 
 a sort of atmosphere of peace ; and even from the 
 vaguer sense of it peaceful consequences follow, in the 
 state of society and the common life of men. But 
 the true peace is theirs only who, in a believing 
 apprehension of this preventing grace, are themselves 
 reconciled to God. In all congregations is heard the 
 benediction of " the peace of God which passeth all 
 understanding." It has its measures of effect in the 
 general mind, but its full realisation only " if the son 
 of peace be there." 
 
 Are we to think of such, as intended in the words 
 which are added to the proclamation " Peace on earth " ? 
 That depends on the reading which Ave follow. If 
 it be (eV avdp(t)iroi^ evBoKca) " in men good i^l'^ctsure" 
 then we contemplate men as such, the whole race of 
 mankind, as objects of Divine benevolence and of a 
 sovereign purpose of redemption. It is that " good will 
 ^ 2 Cor. V. 19, 20. 
 
 1 
 
114 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 toward men " which is (so to speak) antecedent to all 
 consequences and discriminations. It is that aspect of 
 the Eternal Wisdom of which it is written, " Rejoicing 
 in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights 
 were Avith the sons of men." ^ If, on the other hand, 
 we read (iv dv6pa)7roi<i €vBoKia<i) " in men of good 
 pleasure',' then, though it does not exclude the former 
 view, it rather suggests the elect company on whom 
 the light of Divine favour shines. It distinguishes 
 men, not indeed by their own good dispositions, 
 as the Vulgate translation {in hominibus honm volun- 
 tatis) has been taken to do ; but by a compla- 
 cency of the will of God, which has its reasons, 
 whether explained to us or not. Anyhow, we cannot 
 go behind it ; in it our minds must rest, as the mind of 
 Jesus did, when in the days of his flesh he observed 
 and concurred in the action of the Father, in hiding 
 from the wise and prudent things which He revealed 
 to babes. " Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in 
 thy sight " (oTt ovtco iytvero evBoKca efXTrpoadev crov) 
 lit. " for so it became good pleasure before thee 
 (Matt. xi. 26). This great word, combining sovereign 
 will Avith sovereign grace,^ is here dropped from heaven 
 on mankind ; and its sound, brief and abrupt, how- 
 ever reported by the shepherds, has been caught with 
 some uncertainty by the Church. But it is not an 
 uncertainty which affects the fundamental meaning. 
 Men are objects of this good pleasure of God, whether 
 that be thought of in the larger and more prelim - 
 
 ^ Prov. viii. 31. 
 
 ^ As elsewhere. E.g. Eph. i. 5, "Having predestinated us. . . . 
 according to the good pleasure of his will "' kuto. tV evSoKiav rod deA-l)- 
 fxaros avTov. 
 
 I 
 I 
 
VI GLORIA IN EXCELSIS ' 115 
 
 inary, or in the narrower and completer sense. Nor 
 does the expression, in either reading, decide for the 
 one sense or for the other. Brevity is free of limits 
 and definitions, and gives large liberty to thought, 
 which is happily left untrammelled in our English 
 form, which expresses the fundamental truth with an 
 exquisite simplicity and sweetness by the dear familiar 
 words, 
 
 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good 
 will toward men. 
 
 In its liturgical use the Gloria in Excelsis contributed 
 a precious element to the devotions of the Church, as 
 was natural from its heavenly origin and its tone of 
 glory and gladness. It was known as The Angelic 
 Hymn (the Sanctus being in later time distinguished as 
 the Seraphic Hymn). The name in course of time 
 intended not only the words of the angels as used 
 alone, but also the full form of praise and prayer and 
 creed, of which those words became the opening and 
 the groundwork. 
 
 There are traces of this noble hymn as used in the 
 Church from the most ancient times ; and the 
 Alexandrine Codex (close of fifth century) gives it at 
 length at the end of the thirteen Canticles of the 
 Greek Church, entitling it a " Morning Hymn." Early 
 Latin translations with differences are found in various 
 quarters, and " it seems clear that when the well- 
 known Latin form of the hymn was inserted in the 
 Latin Psalters it was used in the daily or weekly hour 
 services of the clergy." ^ 
 
 1 See Dr. Swainson's article " Gloria in Excelsis " in Smith's 
 Christian Antiquities ; also Bingham, vol. v. p. 29, 30. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 The introduction of the hymn into the Eucharistic 
 Office of the Western Church has been traditionally 
 assigned to different popes, but it was certainly a part 
 of that office in the fifth and sixth centuries, and 
 directions are given in the Sacramentaries ' as to 
 occasions for its use. At times and in places it 
 exhibited doctrinal variations, as in the form given in 
 the Apostolical Constihitions, where it has received a 
 shape possible for Arian use. On account probably of 
 doctrinal diversities the fourth Council of Toledo, 
 A.D. 633, directed that in churches only the primitive 
 angelic words should be sung without the additions 
 composed, as they said, " by the doctors of the Church." 
 But this was a local and temporary restriction. The 
 hymn, or " greater doxology " as it Avas sometimes 
 called, had its place at the opening of the service as it 
 now has with us at the close. There is a fitness in 
 either position. 
 
 Liturgical history and criticism are not within the 
 present purpose : but it is obvious that this removal was 
 no capricious change. It was part of a harmonious 
 plan. When, in the second Prayer-book of Edward VI., 
 the recital of the Ten Commandments Avith the 
 Responses was introduced into the ante-communion 
 service, it gave a more distant starting-point and a 
 more humble and chastened approach to the higher 
 worship which was to follow, and this made the line of 
 ascending thought more gradual and distinct. The 
 Gloria in Excdsis, which on this scheme would have 
 been out of place at the beginning, Avas a feature 
 admirably suited to the close and consummation of 
 deyotion. There is a sensible satisfaction to the mind 
 
VI GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 117 
 
 as well as a final elevation to the soul, in concluding the 
 great act of faith and worship as we do, by the hymn 
 commencing with words which fell from heaven, and 
 continuing in exalted tones of praise and prayer and 
 creed, giving glory to Him who takes away the sin of 
 the world, sits at the right of the Father, and now 
 receives our prayer. 
 
NUNC DIMITTIS 
 
 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace 
 according to thy word : 
 
 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
 
 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all 
 people ; 
 
 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy 
 people Israel. 
 
NTN AnOATEI^ 
 
 Nvv a7ro\v€L<; rov hovXov aov, BeaTVora, Kara to pfjfia 
 aov, ev elprjvy 
 
 on elhov ol 6(fida\/xoc [xov to crcoTrjpiov aov, 
 
 b rjToi/xaaa<; kuto, Trpoawjrov ttclvtcov twv Xacav. 
 
 <f)(o<; et9 airoKoXv^Lv idvoou, koX So^av Xaov aov 
 '\apa)'fK. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 NUNC DIMITTIS I 
 
 The Bong of Simeon 
 
 Holy parents, on the eve of the Nativity, have left 
 us their words of meditative joy and praise. From the 
 choir of angels, at the actual moment, we have caught 
 a fragment of heavenly song, sudden and brief, but to 
 the Church a leading note for ever. Another hymn 
 remains, which is the farewell voice of prophecy, now 
 departing from Israel because the salvation is come. 
 It is uttered in the Temple, on a fit occasion, and by 
 a worthy representative of the remnant who were 
 Israelites indeed. 
 
 The circumcision is simply recorded, with the im- 
 position of the appointed name — the name in which 
 hereafter every knee should bow of things in heaven, 
 and things on earth, and things under the earth. 
 
 When eight days were accomplished for the circum- 
 cising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was 
 so named of the angel before he was conceived in the 
 womb. 
 
CHAP. VII NUNC DIMITTIS I 121 
 
 And when the days of their pui'ification according to 
 the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him to 
 Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord ; (as it is written in 
 the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb 
 shall be called holy to the Lord ;) and to offer a sacrifice 
 according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a 
 pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. 
 
 Thirty-three days were ordained as the period of 
 separation after the birth of a son. The expression 
 " their purification " represents the association of the 
 husband in the observances legal for the wife. The 
 sacrifices specified mark the condition of the family as 
 one of humble means. 
 
 The point of interest in the narrative, and that which 
 bears upon the Song, is not the purification of the 
 mother but the presentation of the child.^ The 
 ceremonies of purification belonged to any birth, but 
 the ordinance of presentation was a distinction of a first- 
 born son. These were designated by the law as an 
 inner circle in Israel, in a peculiar sense " holy to the 
 Lord," and as such to be presented before Him, and 
 then redeemed by payment of five shekels, in recog- 
 nition of the transfer of their prerogative duties to the 
 Levites, their appointed substitutes. It is indeed a 
 first-born, " the first begotten of all creation," who is 
 now presented before God, as " born of a woman, made 
 under the law." 
 
 Most noticeable in the brief narrative are the ample 
 
 ^ Our Church commemorates the event in the latter sense. It 
 keeps the Feast of " The Presentation of Christ in the Temple," 
 commonly called " The Purification of Saint Mary tlie Virgin," re- 
 cognising and correcting the prevaiUng language, which was mis- 
 leading as to the reason for thus commemorating the event. 
 
122 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 and repeated references to the law, which is designated 
 both as the law of Moses and the law of the Lord It 
 appears that the family tradition had been careful in 
 noting the fulfilment of all legal observances in respect 
 of the holy child ; and for us this has the effect of 
 linking the life which then began with the law which 
 it was to fulfil and supersede. The starting-point of 
 the life and work of the Redeemer is thus in the bosom 
 of the old dispensation. He is to be first " a minister of 
 the circumcision to confirm the promises made unto 
 the Fathers," and then the Saviour of the world, in 
 whom " the Gentiles should glorify God for his mercy." 
 At the moment of this presentation the venerable 
 person appears, who in the spirit of prophecy recognises 
 and welcomes the infant as being in both these 
 capacities "' the salvation of God." 
 
 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name 
 was Simeon ; and this man was jtist and devout, looking 
 for the consolation of Israel : and the Holy Spirit was upon 
 i|iim. And it had been revealed unto him by the Holy 
 Spirit, that he should not see death, before he had seen 
 the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the 
 Temple : and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, 
 that they might do concerning him after the custom of 
 the law, then he received him into his arms, and blessed 
 God. 
 
 Of the author of the words Avhich we still rehearse 
 we need not to know more than is told us here. The 
 conjecture, which identifies him with an eminent Rabbi 
 of the same name who was living at the same time, is 
 set aside by considerations of age ; for it was thirteen 
 years later that Simeon, son of Hillel and father of 
 
VII NUNC DIMITTIS I 123 
 
 Gamaliel, became president of the Sanhedrim, and the 
 Simeon of this narrative regards himself as at the close 
 of life. In the story of the holy Nativity we are not 
 among distinguished persons known to the world. We 
 are on a lower social, but on a higher moral level. In 
 these respects Simeon ranks with Zacharias and 
 Elizabeth. " This man was just and devout." There 
 have been righteous men who have not been devout, 
 and devout men who have not been righteous; but 
 only where these characters are united is there " right- 
 eousness and holiness of truth." In the case of Simeon 
 this life towards God and man was coloured by one 
 prevailing thought. He was " looking for the con- 
 solation of Israel." The whole nation waited for the 
 consolation of Israel, a word suggested by the great 
 prophecy of Isaiah (xl. 1). It was even a formula to 
 swear by.^ But in this case the expectation is no form 
 of speech, but life and power. It is mentioned as a 
 characteristic of the man ; and the expression seems to 
 indicate the sadness with which he regarded the actual 
 scene, and the spirit in which he looked to the change 
 which was coming. There was more in his mind than 
 faith and hope. There was on him an influence from 
 above. The Holy Spirit was upon him, and he was 
 conscious of the holy inspirations. One very definite 
 communication had cheered his heart, " It had been 
 revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not 
 see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." On 
 the day in question he felt the same power upon him, 
 and " came hy the Sxnrit into the Temple " ; and, among 
 
 ^ Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in loc, gives examples of this adjuration, 
 vol. iii. 41. 
 
124 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 all the companies who thronged the Court of the 
 Gentiles for purifications and sacrifices, he saw only 
 two humble persons and the child they were presenting. 
 Then he received him into his arms and blessed God 
 and said : — 
 
 Now lettest thou thy servant depart, O Lord, 
 
 According to thy word, in peace : 
 
 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
 
 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples ; 
 
 A light of revelation to the Gentiles 
 
 And the glory of thy people Israel.^ 
 
 Scarcely can one find so few words which are yet so 
 full of meaning. As has been truly said : " The vivid 
 insight and energetic conciseness of this song remind us 
 of the compositions of David." ^ It is indeed concise. 
 There is one word for the man himself, and then for the 
 whole race of mankind ; for him the peaceful close of his 
 day of service, for the nations light, for Israel glory in 
 the generations to come. The connecting thought is 
 the Salvation of God, presented to his bodily eyes, and 
 prepared before all people. 
 
 1. The thought for himself includes the character of 
 life, the willingness to die, the great hope, which the 
 word had given and which the present fact fulfils. 
 
 Now lettest thou thy servant depart, O Master, 
 
 According to thy word, in peace : 
 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. 
 
 The terms employed express a more definite relation 
 
 ^ As rendered in R. V. 
 
 2 Godet, Commtntary on St. Lithe. 
 
VII NUNC DIMITTIS I 125 
 
 than our usual rendering suggests. Thy servant (top 
 Sov'Kov <Tov — thy bond-servant) is of course a natural 
 word for all who know that they are not their own, and 
 count themselves members of the household of God. 
 The correlative, Master — heairoTi^'i — is used habitually 
 of the earthly relation (1 Tim. vi. 1, 2 Tim. ii. 21, 
 Tit. ii. 9, 1 Pet. ii. 18), but is rarely applied to God.^ 
 It is consequently the more emphatic, and Simeon 
 speaks as one who has felt his life to be a service of 
 distinct dedication. That service is over. " Now, 
 Master, thou lettest thy servant go " (NOi^ airokvec^)?' 
 Usually and properly the word has the sense of release, 
 a tone of (at least) not unwelcome dismissal. So it is 
 here, as following on the attainment of that which had 
 been waited for, the fulfilment of a great promise and 
 hope. He had waited for the consolation of Israel ; 
 and " it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit 
 that he should not see death before he had seen the 
 Lord's Christ." Now that this is granted he can 
 depart in peace. Many a man has known what it is to 
 have an intense desire for somethiner to be done or 
 
 ^-Jn the New Testament it is applied to God and to Christ only in 
 Acts iv. 24, "0 Master, thou that didst make the heavens," etc. 
 2 Pet. ii. 1, " Denying the Master that bought them." Jude 4, 
 " Denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ." Rev. vi. 10, 
 "How long, Master, holy and true, dost thou not judge," etc. In 
 the first and last example it expresses the claim of members of the 
 household on the Master's care and protection. 
 
 ^ The word airoA.ua) is frequent in the New Testament, but is there 
 nowhere used of death, or dismissal from life. In Numb. xx. 29, 
 the LXX. gives, " When all the congregation saw that Aaron was 
 dead {aveXvQi}) they moui'ned for Aaron thirty days." The word suits 
 this death, just before described as a discharge from work and 
 office. 
 
126 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 granted before he left the world, and a consequent 
 feeling that he could scarcely depart in peace without 
 it. Seldom could such a desire be stronger than that 
 which filled the heart of Simeon ; and never could it 
 be more justified than it was in his case by a conscious 
 revelation. Now it is fulfilled, and his part in life is 
 done. 
 
 Was it only his ? Was it not the part of a whole 
 order of servants, of whom he Avas the last ? the line 
 of those who in the household, under their several 
 measures of inspiration, had waited, and taught others 
 to wait, for the consolation of Israel. That service is 
 now discharged. It is ended willingly and in peace. 
 
 Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. 
 
 Thy Salvation ! Thus does the great idea recur 
 which is enshrined in the name of Jesus. It runs like 
 a golden thread of connection through all the songs. 
 Mary sings, " My spirit hath rejoiced in God my 
 Saviour." Zacharias continues, " He hath raised up an 
 horn of salvation for us." The angel announces, " To 
 you is born this day a Saviour." Simeon concludes, 
 " Mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Thus in its 
 several forms (awTijp, awTqpta, acoTijptov) the Avord is 
 the keynote of all the Canticles. The idea and the 
 words which express it were bequeathed by prophecy, 
 supplying to the speakers both the dominating thought 
 and the language which they use concerning it. The 
 words of Isaiah live in Simeon's heart, " All flesh shall 
 see the salvation of God " (Isaiah xx. 5). He can 
 now answer, " Mine eyes have seen thy salvation." The 
 
VII NUNC DIMITTIS I 127 
 
 form of the word in the LXX. ' is the same which is 
 repeated in the Song ; and fitly, for what the eyes saw 
 was not awTTjpia, salvation as a state bestowed and 
 enjoyed, but to o-corypcov, that which contains or 
 brings salvation (as the same adjective is rendered 
 Titus ii. 11, " the grace of God which hringeth salvation "). 
 All that the eyes then saw was an infent of a month 
 old in whom were lodged the powers and destinies of 
 salvation. 
 
 2. At this word the mind passes in a moment to 
 greater thoughts. All that is personal is lost in the 
 view of the salvation itself; its preparation in the 
 Divine counsels, its destination for all mankind. 
 
 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all the 
 
 peoples ; 
 A light for unveiling of the Gentiles, 
 And the glory of thy people Israel. 
 
 Simeon's gospel is a distinct advance on that of the 
 previous songs in respect of freedom and universality. 
 He sees the salvation, not only as now coming, but as 
 prepared of old, and that before the face of all the 
 world {Kara irpoawirov irdvrwv tS)v XacSv). They in- 
 deed have been unconscious of the preparation, but 
 when the hour comes the concealment will be over, and 
 they will be confronted by the unexpected revelation. 
 It is a " common salvation " for all, but its first effect 
 is discriminated according to (what has been called) the 
 dualism of religious history, which is maintained 
 throughout the Scriptures. It will be " a light for 
 revelation," literally unveiling of the nations(et9 aTro/ca- 
 Xv-^lnv iOvdSv) " and glory of thy people Israel." 
 
128 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 Evident reminiscences of Isaiah glance through 
 these brief words. Had not the prophet said that 
 " Jehovah of hosts prepares in this mountain a feast for 
 all nations .... and he casts away upon this mountain 
 the veil that veiled over all peoples and the covering that 
 covered over all nations " (xxv. 6, 7).^ The echo of 
 both thought and language falls clearly on our ears. 
 Nor is it less distinct in the response to other passages 
 which include the nations with Israel in one covenant 
 of salvation, and yet discriminate the revelation in the 
 one case from the glory in the other. Such are the 
 words addressed by Jehovah to his servant, the same 
 Avhom Simeon now sees in the child lying in his arms, 
 xlii. 6, 7, " I Jehovah, I have called thee in righteousness 
 and grasped thy hand : and I keep thee, and make thee 
 the covenant of the people, the light of the Gentiles ; 
 to open blind eyes ; to bring forth prisoners out of the 
 prison, them that sit in darkness out of the prison 
 house." And again, ch. xlix. 6, " It is only a small 
 thing that thou becomest my servant to raise up the 
 tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. 
 I have set thee for the light of the Gentiles and to 
 become my salvation to the end of the earth." Yet is 
 the prerogative of the chosen people ever maintained, 
 " I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory " (or 
 " I will give salvation in Zion, my glory unto Israel "), 
 xlvi. 13. 
 
 ^ Delitzsch's precise translation makes the reference in the Song 
 still more evident. He says, "What Jehovah bestows is followed 
 by what He puts away. The veil and covering are not sjnnbols of 
 mourning and affliction, but of spii-itual blindness, like the veil 
 upon the heart of Isi-ael mentioned in 2 Cor. iii. 15." — Biblical 
 Commentary on Isaiah, vol. i. p. 440. 
 
VII NUNC DIMITTIS I 129 
 
 These prophetic words and others like them are 
 evidently in the mind of Simeon ; and no less evidently 
 are they understood by him in the definite Messianic 
 sense to be fulfilled in that one Person, of whom it had 
 been revealed to him that he should not die before he 
 had seen the Lord's Christ. His reading of the 
 prophecies in this personal sense is not that of some 
 recent commentators, though they are put to great 
 straits to avoid it. On this point I may cite Delitzsch 
 speaking on Isaiah xlii. 5, 7, and xlix. 8 : — 
 
 An unprejudiced commentator must admit that the 
 " Servant of Jehovah " is pointed out here, as He in whom 
 and through whom Jehovah concludes a new covenant 
 with his people, in the place of the old covenant that was 
 broken. The mediator of this covenant with Israel can- 
 not be Israel itself, not even the true Israel, as distin- 
 guished from the mass (where do we read anything of this 
 kind 1) ; on the contrary the remnant left after the sweep- 
 ing away of the mass is the object of this covenant. Nor 
 can the expression refer to the prophets as a body, or in 
 fact have any collective meaning at all : the form of the 
 word, which is so strongly personal, is in itself opposed to 
 this. It cannot denote any other than that Prophet who 
 is more than a prophet, namely Malachi's " Messenger of 
 the Covenant " . . . . Let us bear in mind, that the 
 Servant of Jehovah appears here, not only as one who is 
 the medium of the covenant to the nation, and of light to 
 the Gentiles, but as being himself the people's covenant and 
 the heathen's light, inasmuch as, in his own person, he is 
 the bond of a new fellowship between Israel and Jehovah, 
 and becomes in his own person the light which illuminates 
 the dark heathen world. . . . Hence the " Servant of 
 Jehovah " must be that one Person, who was the goal and 
 culminating point to which, from the very first, the history 
 of Isx'ael was ever pressing on ; that one who arose out 
 
130 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap, vii 
 
 of Israel for Israel and the whole human race ; and who 
 stood in the same relation not only to the wider circle of 
 the whole nation, but also to the inner circle of the best 
 and noblest within it, as the heart to the body which it 
 animates, or the head to the body over which it rules. All 
 that Cyrus did was to throw the idolatrous nations into 
 alarm and set the exiles free. But the Servant of Jehovah 
 opens blind eyes ; and therefore the deliverance which He 
 brings is not only from bodily captivity, but from spiritual 
 bondage also. He leads his people and the Gentiles also 
 out of night into light : He is the Redeemer of all that 
 need redemption and that desire salvation.^ 
 
 This is the Person whom Simeon had known from 
 prophecy, had expected and waited for, and now 
 beholds. It is a weak and tender form which he has 
 in his arms, an infantine face on which he looks down : 
 but delays are over. Words are giving place to facts. 
 Here at last is the Covenant of the people, the light of 
 the Gentiles, the glory of Israel, the salvation of 
 Jehovah for all mankind. It only remained to say — 
 
 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, 
 according to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy 
 salvation. 
 
 ^ Delitzsch, Commentary on Isaiah, Clark's Tr., ii. pp. 179-80. 
 Recent criticisms and ways of reading these prophecies will be held 
 to justify an extract which maintains the true sense of them, being 
 the sense in which Simeon understood them. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 NUNC DIMITTIS II 
 
 A Song of the Church 
 
 As a song of the Church the Nunc Bimittis has a 
 function and value of its own, arising from its 
 expression of jaersonal feeHng on that one event which 
 is common to us all, connected through the mediating 
 thought of salvation with the universal interests of the 
 Gospel and Mankind. It has therefore ever been a 
 precious element in public and private devotions. In 
 the hour services it was naturally, from its grave and 
 tranquil character, assigned to Compline, and so in the 
 reformed arrangement passed into the Order for Evening 
 Prayer, daily thro^tghoiit the year. The combination of 
 Vespers and Compline in that Office carried with it the 
 combination of the songs of Mary and of Simeon ; and 
 this constitutes an interesting liturgical feature, they 
 being (so to speak) complementary one to the other by 
 their differences of association and tone. The one is 
 the voice of youth and hope, the other of age and 
 experience ; the one rejoices in great things done and 
 changes coming, the other accepts a gracious dismissal 
 
 K 2 
 
132 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 from the scenes and services of earth ; the one ends with 
 the mercy to Abraham and his seed, the other expands 
 the same to all nations. 
 
 We remember the Puritan objection to the use of 
 these canticles, as shallow in thought as it was scornful 
 in tone. " They sing Bencdidus, Nunc Dimittis, and 
 Magnificat, we know not to what purpose, except some 
 of them were ready to die, or except they would 
 celebrate the memory of the Virgine and John 
 Baptist . . . Thus they prophane the Holy Scripture."^ 
 Besides the reasons which make these canticles the 
 property of all generations, in the case of the JVtmc 
 Dimittis the sorry jest is really a serious truth. In our 
 congregations in general, " some of them are ready to 
 die." Indeed, near to die we all are : and at times the 
 fact presents itself in sudden freshness to every mind ; 
 and there is a felt need to conceive that condition 
 aright. The words of Simeon have a singular fitness 
 to guide and steady our thoughts. 
 
 Here is the mind of a servant, looking to the Master 
 who lets him go from the time of work and waiting. 
 Here is perfect composure and quiet willingness that 
 the hour should come. Here is the peace of certainty 
 that all is, and will be, " according to thy word." Here 
 is the further ground of peace in experience of what 
 has been already seen and known of the salvation of 
 God. Here, finally, is the elevated mind rising from 
 what is personal in life and death to the common 
 
 1 Quoted, Keble's HooUr, v. ii., p. 215, from WhitgiJVs Def. 494, 
 with W's. Ans. : " By this your reason we may not use any of the 
 Psalms until we be in like case as David was, or other, when they 
 were first made," 
 
VIII NUNC DIMITTIS II 133 
 
 salvation in the Kingdom of God. These are seeds of 
 thought for all, fitted to germinate and grow and bear 
 fruit within us. 
 
 1. We see first the dignity of death as a consequence 
 of the dignity of life ; and the dignity of life is service. 
 On this point (as already observed) our familiar 
 rendering should receive in our minds that more 
 definite meaning which is actually expressed in the 
 words of Simeon. Servants we are in the household of 
 God, and that relation gives all worth to life and rules 
 all judgments concerning it. How distinct and close 
 has it become to us, who recognise the Lordship of 
 " the Son over his own house," and realise the happiness 
 of serving under that direct personal administration ! 
 Then death itself is only an incident in that relation, 
 not the end of it. The word, " Master, now lettest 
 thou thy servant go," is not the voice of one who is 
 dismissed from the state of service, but of one who is 
 relieved from the work which had been assigned him, 
 or who has reached the natural termination of the duty 
 of the day. The Master is still the Master, and the 
 servant still the servant, but the employment here is 
 over, and the hour of rest is come. To such as have 
 not made life a service these thoughts do not belong. 
 To the idler, the trifler, the self-seeker and self-pleaser, 
 the servant of the world, and the servant of sin, the 
 notice of death is like that in the Parable, " This night 
 thy soul shall be required of thee." In these cases 
 Nunc Limittis is no natural utterance : it is a testimony 
 against the man, an admonition of a state of mind 
 which is not his. But members of the household, 
 living in the spirit and habit of service, find in these 
 
134 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 quiet words a fit expression of their mind. Some may 
 utter them as feeling that they have done their part ; 
 some glad to be relieved from a part which is more 
 than they can well do ; some as wearied and worn with 
 the friction of the world, or worse, by the debates and 
 controversies of religion; some as accepting an 
 undesired call in the midst of engagements which they 
 love, and making that acceptance their final act of 
 service upon earth. But the continuity of the relation 
 is unimpaired. It runs unchanged through life and 
 death, and makes the state that is left and the state 
 that is entered to be one. " For none of us liveth to 
 himself, and none dieth to himself For whether we 
 live, we live unto the Lord ; or whether we die, we die 
 unto the Lord : whether we live therefore, or die, we 
 are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died, and lived 
 again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the 
 living " (Romans xiv. 7-9). 
 
 Besides the compliant, trustful spirit proper to the 
 servant, two other reasons are here suggested to us for 
 tranquillity and peace in departing — one drawn from 
 the Word, the other from experience. " According to 
 thy word," says Simeon, meaning the particular 
 promise on which his soul had rested in hope. To us 
 this is no word of exceptional revelation, but the 
 common word of promise which each believer can 
 embrace. Yet if he does so, it is by a gift of grace 
 which makes his faith divine, and leads him to say with 
 the Psalmist (Ps. cxix. 49) — 
 
 Remember thy word unto thy servant, 
 Upon which thou hast caused me to hope. 
 
VIII NUNC DIMITTIS II 135 
 
 These trustful appeals to the truth of the Word and 
 the faithfulness of God are the same through all the 
 ages. They set the mind at rest. A simple affiance in 
 the Word, as it is a main source of power in life, so it 
 is also of peace in death. As we advance into the dark 
 and reach the verge of the unknown, we have nothing 
 to rest on but a word ; but it is the word of one who 
 says, " In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it 
 were not so, I would have told you ; for I go to 
 prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a 
 place for you, I come again, and will receive you to 
 myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." 
 
 That is enough. Whatever other secrets lie beyond 
 we can set them aside in peace. 
 
 I would not know them. They are known to Thee, 
 
 Guide of my life, and Refuge in its end. 
 A single certainty is all to me, 
 
 A faithful Saviour, an eternal Friend. 
 Why should I wish to know before the hour ? 
 
 Why ask to see what may my hope assure ? 
 Sweeter it is to trust thy love and power. 
 
 And in thy word alone to rest secure. 
 
 If one ground of peace is suggested in " According 
 to thy word," another is added in " Mine eyes have 
 seen thy salvation." It is a needful addition, for how 
 shall we trust a word which we have not put to the 
 proof, or expect a salvation in the future which we have 
 not known in the present ? Simeon saw the salvation 
 of God in the infant presented in the Temple. We see 
 it in the Christ manifested in the Gospel, Its nature 
 and history, dimly seen by him, have been unveiled to 
 us. Yet the veil may be \ipon the heart ; and " Mine 
 
136 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 eyes have seen thy salvation," imports not information 
 only, but experience, the experience of a spiritual 
 perception not less real than that of Simeon looking 
 upon the child in his arms. There is an opening of 
 the eyes, an operation of the Spirit taking of the 
 things of Christ to shew them to us, and a consequent 
 apprehension of salvation wrought for us and in us, 
 which are as truly facts to us, as was to Simeon the 
 discovery of the Lord's Christ by the Spirit that was 
 upon him. As that discovery made him feel that he 
 could depart in peace, so have these experiences of ours 
 a composing, reassuring power. The earnest of the 
 Spirit in the heart, the past fulfilments of the word, 
 the present knowledge of salvation, are sufficient 
 pledges to the soul in passing to the region of the 
 unknown. The shadows which naturally gather on the 
 close of these poor lives on earth from the shame of 
 sin, from sad regrets, from undefined misgivings, are 
 met and dispelled by these experiences of grace ; and 
 the calm conclusion remains : 
 
 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, 
 according to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy 
 salvation. 
 
 2. So the mind is set at rest. But rest is not all, 
 and the brief Canticle does not leave us there. It 
 carries us in a moment beyond personal experience and 
 personal peace. Salvation is a thought of vast expan- 
 sion, which cannot remain confined within the little 
 circle of self; and here it breaks upon us immediately 
 in the grandeur of the scheme of God, prepared through 
 the ages, published to all mankind, a light of revela- 
 
VIII NUNC DIMITTIS II 137 
 
 tion to the nations, a prerogative of glory to the 
 Church. 
 
 That is not merely a great spectacle : it is a great 
 scene of duty. Surely we have a constant admonition 
 to that effect in these oft-repeated words. Nations 
 still wait for the light, and Israel is not yet gathered. 
 The missionary duty of the Church, and (according to 
 their opportunity) of all its members, rises on our view. 
 Beyond the little field of our o^vn appointed service, 
 we have our interest in the larger enterprises and a call 
 to lend them our aid. In this respect the second part 
 of the song is related to the first, which breathed the 
 spirit of a servant let go from his work. That is not a 
 solitary spirit, even in cases where much of the work has 
 been done alone. It is the nature of service to connect 
 each servant with others, and all with the master, each 
 man's task with the work on the whole, and that with 
 the mind that planned it. Thus he who feels himself a 
 servant of God finds himself in a great communion, 
 the sense of which exalts and expands his mind. It is 
 consoling too, Avhen the day falls, and the allotted 
 service is over. How small it was ! and nothing can be 
 added to it now. There is sadness in the thought ; but 
 perhaps it is not reasonable. To each there is an 
 assigned portion and a limitation of time. " One 
 soweth and another reapeth ; but in order that both he 
 that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." 
 The work itself goes on, while the several servants 
 fulfil their hours and retire ; and they are part of its 
 whole history and heirs of its predestined issue. So 
 our own part in service as well as our own experience of 
 salvation, in life, and perhaps still more in death, opens 
 
138 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap, viii 
 
 out into the larger consciousness proper to members of 
 the body of Christ. 
 
 In this respect the Nu7ic Dimittis doth instruct us 
 very well, precluding any egotistical isolation of the 
 soul, and connecting our day of service with the ages of 
 the work of God, the grace which has shone on our 
 eyes with the " grace which has appeared to all men," 
 and our own departure in peace with the coming and 
 glory of the Kingdom. So the last song of the Holy 
 Nativity leaves us in all the enlargement of thought 
 and exaltation of hope which are proper to the Gospel 
 of Christ. 
 
 Thus we pass naturally to the condensed and com- 
 prehensive doxology, which serves to bring all anti- 
 cipatory psalms and hymns and spiritual songs into 
 unison mth the fulness of the faith. Used in this 
 way, the closing doxology is more than an additional 
 note or higher ascription of praise. It is a testimony 
 that all partial devotions and separate voices of in- 
 spiration have their ultimate result, and find their 
 latent harmony in the Name into which we are 
 baptized — that is to say, in the perfected revelation 
 of God. Therefore we are Avont to end these Songs 
 of the Holy Nativity, as I now end these meditations 
 upon them, with the words which from old time have 
 best expressed the Christian faith and worship — 
 
 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and 
 to tbe Holy Ghost. 
 
 As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever 
 shall be, world without end. Amen. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE PREDICTIVE SEQUEL 
 
 There is a sequel to the Nunc Dimittis, and so to 
 all the Canticles — a last word of very different import 
 appended to the Songs of the Holy Nativity. 
 
 Those voices have ceased. They have left high 
 thoughts of gladness and anticipations of grace and 
 glory concerning Him who is born into the world. 
 These will be fulfilled in their season. But who could 
 have imagined the history of disappointment, rejection, 
 and death which was to intervene ? It did not seem 
 good that those sounds of joy should end without a 
 single note of warning. This is given by Simeon in 
 his prophecy of sorrow and sifting — grave, sad words, 
 spoken under the power of the Spirit, who had 
 prompted to joy and gladness, but who breathes from 
 that region of truth in which there are no illusions and 
 no surprises. The bright lights which played on the 
 horizon at the first dawn of the Gospel seemed to 
 promise an unclouded day ; but in this brief prophecy 
 there rose suddenly after them a little cloud like a 
 man's hand, which showed elements of trouble working 
 in the atmosphere, and foreboded a rough morning and 
 hours of storm. 
 
140 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 So, still holding the child in his arms, while his 
 father^ and his mother were marvelling at " the things 
 which were spoken concerning him, Simeon blessed 
 them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this 
 (child) is set for the falling and rising up of many in 
 Israel : and for a sign which is spoken against ; yea, 
 and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul ; that 
 thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed." 
 
 He blessed them both, as parents who have pre- 
 sented the child before the Lord ; but straightway he 
 was speaking only to one — the legal father he passed 
 by, and " said unto Mary his mother " the words which 
 followed. By the same Spirit by which he had come 
 into the Temple, and by which he had known the 
 child as being the salvation of God, he addressed him- 
 self to her who was the only real parent, and who alone 
 would mtness the pei-plexing history and suffer the 
 anguish which it involved. How different were the 
 natural anticipations of the mother from the realities 
 Avhich lay before her ! Their shadows had not been 
 cast by the Annunciation, which promised the throne 
 of David and the kingdom which should have no end. 
 They are not felt in the Magnificat — full of holy exulta- 
 tion in great things done and coming. But it is time 
 that these shadows should begin to fall, and chasten 
 expectations which must suffer so dark an eclipse. 
 
 " Behold," he says, as announcing a strange thing, 
 " this (child) is set " (t'Soy, oz^to? Keirac) ~ — is placed and 
 
 ^ "Joseph and his mother," A.V. — but that reading cannot be 
 maintained. 
 
 - KiiTci (lies) has the same significance as with St. Paul, Phil, i, 
 17 : " Knowing that I am set (/ceiyuot) for the defence of the Gospel." 
 
IX THE PREDICTIVE SEQUEL 141 
 
 appointed to be what in fact he will prove. He will 
 prove to be an occasion of falling as well as of rising 
 up to many in Israel. He will be that " stone of 
 stumbling and rock of offence to both the houses of 
 Israel," on which Isaiah said that " many among them 
 should stumble and fall," while he elsewhere describes 
 the same as " a precious comer stone, a sure founda- 
 tion," on which the believer would rest secure.^ These 
 fallings and risings through contact with the living 
 stone will be, as Isaiah foretold, and as Simeon plainly 
 sees, within Israel itself It is the fall on which his 
 mind is chiefly dwelling, and it will be the fall "of 
 many in Israel." Many indeed ! When the testing- 
 time is past, and the results have appeared, an Apostle 
 will survey them with great heaviness and unceasing 
 pain in his heart. Himself a great example of the 
 remnant in Israel, who in Christ had risen again into 
 newness of life, he will see more clearly than others 
 the secret of the spiritual fall of his people, in that 
 false idea of righteousness which caused them to 
 " stumble at the stone of stumbling," even as it was 
 written in the passage which he proceeds to quote.^ 
 
 Besides these results to the people, Simeon also fore- 
 sees the cause of it in their own action towards Him 
 who is the Salvation of God. He will be " a sign that 
 is spoken against." He will show attesting signs, but 
 He is in his own person the predicted sign of the 
 gracious purposes of God. So it was written, " The 
 Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin 
 shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name 
 
 ^ Is. viii. 14, 15, and xxviii. 16. 
 2 Rom. ix. 29-33. 
 
U2 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 Immanuel." Yet He will be a sign contradicted 
 {(T7jfM€iov avrike'yofxevov). He will have to " endure 
 the contradiction of sinners against himself." Instead 
 of recognition and welcome, He Avill meet with cavil- 
 ling and contention, general rejection, and condem- 
 nation at last. 
 
 The history, in its general character, was before the 
 mind of Simeon : we know not in what degree its 
 details were so. One fact he knew. The mother to 
 whom he spoke would live to witness these things, and 
 to feel their bitterness, consummated by some moment 
 of keenest anguish. Doubtless there was a tone of 
 tender compassion in this personal digression. We 
 almost hear it in the written words : Kai aov 8e avTrj<; 
 rrjv y^v')(riv SteXevcreTaL po/ji(f)aia^ — " Yea, and through 
 thine own soul a sword shall pierce." How surely will 
 this warning rest in that retentive mind ! How in- 
 evitably will it recur in the events so contrary to 
 expectation ! How will the truth of the final word 
 be realised in the hours by the Cross ! None can 
 know what passed in that silent soul ; but the twofold 
 prophecy on the day of the Presentation in the Temple 
 left some provision for those desolating experiences, 
 and the fulfilment of the darker prediction might 
 become a pledge of the light beyond. 
 
 Simeon, by the Spirit that is upon him, sees, not only 
 the course of events, but the purpose and effect of 
 them, namely, " That the thoughts of many hearts may 
 be revealed " (ottw? av d7roKa\v(f>6cS(nv eK ttoWwv 
 
 ^ pofKpaia — not the ordinary sword fxaxatpa — the great sword 
 carried on the right shoulder (Grimm) frequent in the magnified 
 imagery of the Apocalypse, and occurring nowhere else. 
 
IX THE PREDICTIVE SEQUEL 143 
 
 Kaphioiv ScaXoyiafzol). So that there may be revealed 
 out of many hearts (reasoning or disputing) thoughts.^ 
 The expression describes in condensed form a phase of 
 mental history, and the word employed appears to 
 represent those inward reasonings and debatings, 
 which arise in view of some claim on faith and 
 obedience which men are not disposed to accept. 
 These are to work themselves out, to reach their con- 
 clusions, and to be " revealed " in word and deed. This 
 may be with a happy result in just convictions ; but 
 the contrary is here regarded as more frequent. 
 Howbeit, the free development and disclosure of 
 thought is according to the will of God. Full scope 
 shall be given for it : it shall not be superseded by 
 irresistible demonstration or crushed by external 
 compulsion. Never was this concession of human 
 liberty more carefully maintained than in the wonder- 
 ful history of the manifestation of the Son of God. 
 In consequence it is accompanied throughout by the 
 manifestation of the heart of man. Still, as he passes 
 along, a sudden light falls on characters which he 
 encounters and minds with which he comes in contact. 
 With indescribable ease and precision he opens by a 
 touch the secrets of the soul, and discovers the princi- 
 
 ^ In all places in the New Testament where the word SiaXoytcrfiol 
 occurs, it is used in an unfavourable sense : of evil thoughts that 
 proceed out of the heart, Matt. xv. 19 ; of reasonings of Pharisees 
 against the action of Jesus, Luke v. 22, and vi. 8 ; of debates of 
 the disciples about pre-eminence, ix. 46, 47 ; of doubting thoughts 
 on the Resurrection, xxiv. 38 ; of the vain thoughts darkening the 
 heart, Rom. i. 21 ; of doubtful disputations, xiv. 1 ; of the vain 
 thoughts of the wise, 1 Cor. iii. 20 ; of disputings joined with mur- 
 murings, Phil. ii. 14 ; of the same as spoiling prayer, 1 Tim. ii. 8. 
 
144 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 pies and tendencies of thought in relation to truth, to 
 righteousness, and to God. This revealing of thoughts 
 out of many hearts, increasing as the story proceeds, is 
 one chief part of the interest of the Gospels : it is also 
 one chief part of their awfulness. " For judgment I 
 am come into this world," so he said; and for judgment 
 he remains in it still. 
 
 The situation which Simeon saw with the clear 
 sight which Avas given him was not confined to Israel, 
 and did not end with the days in the flesh. Still is 
 Christ set for the fall and rising up of many. Still is 
 He the sign of the Father's love to the Avorld, by many 
 disregarded or disputed. Still the dvTLXojLac, cavilling 
 and opposing arguments recur. Still the BLa\ojia-/Jbol, 
 questionings and reasonings, are busy in men's minds, 
 working themselves out and reaching their several 
 conclusions. Thus the thoughts out of many hearts 
 are revealed ; and never more than in these days of 
 diffused mental activity, fearless criticism, and un- 
 reserved expression of opinion. 
 
 The first response to the coming of Christ, in the 
 little circle which surrounded his birth, was one of 
 welcome, gratulation and joy. When he was manifested 
 to the world a very different response was heard. Both 
 voices go sounding on ; they sound in our ears to-day. 
 The original canticles are rehearsed throughout the 
 world ; and creeds and hymns, doxologies and celebra- 
 tions attest the faith and express the gladness of the 
 Church. But beside them there are other tones 
 disclosing other thoughts. Many hearts have many 
 histories and many conditions in contact with the great 
 revelation of the Son of God, ranging from anxious 
 
IX THE PREDICTIVE SEQUEL 145 
 
 inquiry and reluctant suspension of assent, down to 
 contented unbelief, or disbelief scornful and aggressive. 
 We must not ignore these facts. They call for com- 
 passion and prayer, for wisdom in teaching, for 
 thoughtful and sympathetic exhibition of the truth, 
 for worthy commendation of it by holy character and 
 consistent life, as well as for readiness " to give an 
 answer to every man who asketh us a reason of the 
 hope that is in us with meekness and fear," and for 
 controversial zeal which in its place and time must 
 " earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all 
 delivered to the saints." 
 
 But whatever succours may in such ways be given 
 to the cause of the Gospel, there is one proper to itself, 
 which appeals, not specially to the logical faculty, but 
 rather to the whole man — it is that effect of it which 
 we may best designate the joy of salvation. St. Peter 
 counts it a natural experience of true believers in 
 Jesus : " Whom [he says] having not seen ye love ; in 
 whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye 
 rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving 
 the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls " 
 (1 Pet. i. 8, 9). This experience is not only a supreme 
 blessing to him who has it, but it has also a power of 
 attraction to those who have it not, and, yet more, a 
 certain evidential value. A man's happiness cannot 
 prove the truth of his principles. But in proportion as 
 the happiness is a logical effect of the principles, in 
 proportion as its own character is lofty and pure, and 
 in healthy relation with the practical motives of life, it 
 does bear witness that its doctrinal basis is sound. If 
 the Gospel be good tidings of great joy, then relief of 
 
146 SONGS OF THE HOLY NATIVITY chap. 
 
 conscience and gladness of soul are the natural and 
 legitimate effects of its true reception. Then " Rejoice 
 in the Lord alway " is felt to be a simply reasonable 
 exhortation, and a definite failure in its attainment to 
 be due to something wrong in the man himself^ 
 
 Now, beyond all question, this joy of salvation is the 
 pervading spirit and distinguishing characteristic of the 
 Songs of the Holy Nativity. Salvation is the theme 
 and joy is the tone of the first voices which are heard 
 when the Saviour is entering the world — clear un- 
 faltering voices with no tinge of doubt or sorrow, such 
 as might have been infused by the prediction which 
 followed them, but which was not suffered to mingle its 
 sadder note with theirs. Thus they remain to the end 
 of time, testimonies and expressions of the pure 
 evangelical spirit, with no shadow cast by later history 
 or alloy of controversial consciousness ; all the more 
 precious on that account to the Church, which bears 
 the marks of that history and cannot lose that 
 consciousness, refreshing and reviving it like a 
 breath of the morning in the heat of the day. Apt 
 they are to allay distempers in religion, to calm and 
 exalt its character, to give unit}^ to the devotions of 
 successive generations, and to prompt and assist other 
 voices of sacred song through all the ages. 
 
 Who can but acknowledge the gracious providence in 
 
 ^ The diflference should be noted between this defect as arising 
 from the constitutional tendencies or moral condition of the 
 individual, or as resulting from a doctrinal system and characteris- 
 ing a tj^e of religion. The first case is illustrated (but in an 
 exceptional form) in the biography of the poet Co-vvper. The 
 second is sadlj' recognised (though with tender reverence for the 
 man) in the second volume of the Life, of Dr. Pusey. 
 
X " THE PREDICTIVE SEQUEL 147 
 
 Scripture which, before the public records of the manifes- 
 tation of Jesus Christ the Son of God, has vouchsafed to 
 us these private annals of his birth ? In the narrative 
 we are present at the scenes of the holy Nativity, and 
 associated with the chosen few who are conscious of the 
 great event. In the Canticles we share their feelings, 
 while we rehearse their words, words which, being the 
 earliest anticipations, have become the perpetual 
 celebrations of the grace and glory of the Gospel. 
 
 Now may the Lord, the Giver of all grace, grant to 
 the readers of this book such full assurance of faith, 
 and such perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ, 
 
 That their spirits may rejoice in God their Saviour, who 
 has regarded their low estate, and done them great things ; 
 
 That, being delivered from all powers of evil, they may 
 serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness 
 before Him all their days ; 
 
 That in communion with the holy Church and in unison 
 with the heavenly host, they may give glory to God in the 
 highest, for his goodwill towards men ; 
 
 That, when their day of service is over, and the hour of 
 dismissal come, they may depart in peace, according to 
 his word, because their eyes have seen his salvation ! 
 
 Amen. 
 
 L 2 
 
APPENDIX A 
 THE REVELATION OF ANGELS 
 
 The Songs of the Holy Nativity are connected immedi- 
 ately with the revelation of angels. Magnificat and 
 Benedictus have their ground and guidance in the annun- 
 ciations made to Mary and Zacharias by the angel, who 
 stands in the presence of God, and is sent to speak to 
 them, and to show them the glad tidings. The Gloria in 
 Excel sis is itself the voice of angels. There is reason then 
 to append some observations on this part of revelation. 
 
 On the particular visitations from the unseen world 
 here related (pre-eminent as they are above all others in 
 distinctness of fact and plainness of narration) some con- 
 siderations were briefly suggested (p. 30, 31). But these 
 instances have their fitness, place, and proportion only 
 when they are seen in connection with the general revela- 
 tion of angels, as an integral part and pervading feature of 
 revelation on the whole. Such it is historically. In the 
 Scripture narrative its chief stages and critical moments 
 are marked by interventions of these messengers ; and the 
 line of communications between earth and heaven, as pre- 
 sented in the Bible, has the angels of God ascending and 
 descending on it. The same is true doctrinally ; as seen 
 generally in the elevating efiect of this connection with 
 the world above (as might be largely illustrated from the 
 Psalms), and specially as shown in the frequent use of this 
 
150 APPENDIX A 
 
 topic in our Lord's own teaching for practical purposes of 
 example, stimulus, and correction. Yet is there reason to 
 think that this part of revelation is imperfectly appre- 
 ciated at the present time. There are obvious causes for 
 this tendency, scientific and religious ; on which it seems 
 proper that something should be said. 
 
 It was to be expected that the advance and diffusion of 
 physical science should work to this end. Our minds do not 
 readily embrace in one view both the material and the 
 spiritual. But in an uninformed age it was more easy to 
 do so. When the processes of causation are little known, 
 the intervention of an unseen will and agency often 
 furnishes a convenient account of what happens ; but in 
 proportion as the chain of causation is carried further 
 back, the mind is sufficiently employed with laws of evolu- 
 tion, and angels do not seem wanted, and God only as very 
 far off. In view of the grandeur and intricacy of the 
 material world, the pervading presence of a spiritual world 
 acting, or capable of acting, in relation to it, is an idea that 
 seems superfluous. Certainly it has no place in physical 
 science or the reasonings proper to it. But we cannot go on 
 to assume that the subjects of physical science are the whole 
 of things, or that those reasonings are our sole foundations 
 of belief. Things are not necessarily inconsistent because 
 the reasonings on them are on separate planes. 
 
 In regard to the matter in hand, the discoveries of 
 science and the revelations of Scripture do not even 
 tend to contradict each other. The deepest insight into 
 the forces of nature cannot give the right to assert that 
 there are no other powers present or active in them. 
 Rather we seem on the point of passing beyond them, as 
 we see the chain of physical causes growing ever finer and 
 more subtle. In fact the imponderable agencies and 
 impalpable energies and affinities which shape and control 
 the material fabric appear to carry us into the closer 
 neighbourhood of a world of spirits. While we behold 
 the vastness of the material, and are informed of the 
 vastness of the spiritual creation, we are sensible of a 
 
THE REVELATION OF ANGELS 151 
 
 correspondence between them, and it is quite natural to 
 suppose that the latter may have in the former a scene of 
 activity and service. There is nothing in the way of 
 reason which obliges us to discount the intimations of 
 Scripture that so it is. There the powers of nature are 
 instinct with the powers of spirit, and visible means and 
 invisible agents appear in close connection. An angel 
 smites the Assyrian host : it is a deadly wind from the 
 wilderness. An angel stands with drawn sword over 
 Jerusalem : it is a poisoned state of the atmosphere. But 
 why, if it be the one, should it not also be the other 1 
 Does an agent act without means 1 or do means exclude 
 an agent 1 " He maketh his angels winds and his 
 ministers a flame of fire." The two creations of God, 
 separate in nature, may be interfused in action ; and his 
 living ministers may be directing powers of winds and 
 flames when winds and flames are to perform his will. 
 
 But though physical science, even in its own subjects, 
 has arrived and can arrive at no conclusions which invali- 
 date this part of revelation, there is yet a tacit assumption 
 that it has done so ; and there is a disposition to regard an 
 element which cannot enter into physical science as 
 eliminated from the nature of things. Thus modern 
 thought counts a belief in the revelation of angels an 
 anachronism, but it is this very habit of mind which 
 makes the assertion of it opportune. 
 
 Perhaps we hardly estimate sufiiciently the efiect on 
 Christian consciousness of this part of revelation. Let us 
 suppose that no such discovery had been made, and the loss 
 will be immediately understood. It may be illustrated by 
 supposing an analogous loss in the visible scene, in our 
 never having seen the stars. If the atmosphere of earth 
 had not been such as to allow the heavenly bodies to 
 appear, who can calculate what would have been lost? 
 Not merely a magnificent spectacle, but the suggestions of 
 boundless thought, the conditions of the grandest science, 
 the basis of calculations of time and space, the awakening 
 of the sense of infinity, the great disclosure of the 
 
152 APPENDIX A 
 
 dominions, and proclamation of the glory of God. It 
 would indeed have been little less than the loss of the 
 universe, for this world would have been to us the universe 
 itself. In respect of the discovery to the senses of the 
 heavenly bodies, and the discovery by revelation of the 
 heavenly beings, God is to us the Lord of Sabaoth. If 
 the absence of the one discovery would have immensely 
 impaired that conception, so also would the absence of the 
 other. Then the multitudes of the heavenly host, the 
 principalities and powers, like the innumerable stars and 
 splendid constellations which are sown in space, had been 
 absent from the heavens of thought, and we ourselves had 
 been, in our own apprehension, the only intelligent 
 creatures in the universe. What a void in the conception 
 both of God and ourselves ! Would not God, whom no 
 world of intelligent life surrounded, more readily fade into 
 a shadowy principle or impersonal law 1 Would not the 
 human being, whose spiritual nature had no kindred in a 
 spiritual world, more readily lose his sense of the truth of 
 that nature, and come to think of himself as a mere 
 material organism 1 Would not the standard of righteous- 
 ness be depressed and its claims enfeebled, when there was 
 no knowledge of a region of life where it reigns supreme, 
 and the will of God is done more truly and worthily than 
 it is on earth 1 Would not the prospect of a future Ufe be 
 still more dim than it is if its scene were laid in void 
 spaces and cities which are not inhabited 1 And would 
 not the coming of Christ to judge the world be to the 
 imagination at least less real if it were not a coming in 
 the glory of His Father and of the holy angels 1 
 
 But there are on the side of religion, as well as on that 
 of science, causes for a reserved attitude in regard to the 
 revelation of angels. We have far greater revelations 
 than this, and we live in a dispensation conducted by a 
 far higher ministration than theirs ; and a feeling has 
 arisen that we had better dismiss them from our thoughts, 
 lest the idea of their agency should divert the mind from 
 immediate transactions with God the Father, the Son, and 
 
THE REVELATION OF ANGELS 153 
 
 the Holy Spirit. Heresy too, and superstition have found 
 occasions and materials in this revelation. Angelology 
 flourished in Judaising and gnostic sects, and a certain 
 cultus of angels attempted to insinuate itself into the 
 primitive Church,^ and has at this day some place in 
 Romanist devotions ; also where no such tendency exists, the 
 imagination has expatiated in this region of mysterious 
 being, not only in stately poetry, like Milton's, but in 
 lighter fancies and sentimental dreams. 
 
 The dread of the superstitious and the aversion to the 
 fantastic are healthful instincts of piety, but the protection 
 which they afford will be legitimately found not in fore- 
 going any feature of revelation, but in keeping it in the 
 place and character which it has in the written Word. 
 What are the angels in the Bible ? Their name in the 
 sacred tongues tells, not their nature, but their ofiice, that 
 which constitutes their relation to us ; and the languages 
 of the West have retained the Greek word, which repre- 
 sents simply a messenger or envoy — properly one sent to 
 carry news or make an announcement ; and this is nearly 
 coincident with the Hebrew word, the root of which 
 signifies " to go or send on business." These beings, how- 
 ever various in order and mighty in power, come into con- 
 nection with us in no other character than this. " Are they 
 not all {ov'xl iravre^ iicriv) ministering spirits, {\6i,T0up<yiKa 
 TTveufiaTo) public servants in the kingdom of God, {ii<i 8ca- 
 Kovlav aTToareWo/xevoi) for service sent forth, on account 
 of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Heb. i. 14.) A 
 more precise and careful account could not have been 
 formulated. They do what they are sent to do and nothing 
 more, and to mere messengers no applications either of 
 worship or trust are due. Nor does it appear that their 
 employment is within the limits of spiritual life, so as to 
 admit of inward communication between us and them. It 
 is in the world of circumstances that they act invisibly, 
 and when disclosed, their contact with men is in the way 
 
 ^ OprjffKela rwv ayyeKuv (Col. ii. 28). 
 
154 APPENDIX A 
 
 of verbal information or external help, such as their 
 fellow men might give. Even in the case of the highest 
 discoveries, when St. John would have fallen down before 
 the face of the angel who showed him those things, he 
 is checked by the words, " See thou do it not. I am thy 
 fellow servant, and of thy brethren that hold the testimony 
 of Jesus. "Worship God" (Rev. xix. 10.) 
 
 In fact this fellowship in a common service was revealed 
 by the Gospel, "the testimony of Jesus," as it had not 
 been known before. In the old covenant the relation was 
 dififerent, or at least was differently understood. There 
 the angels are conceived as taking a part in its introduction 
 analogous to that which in the new covenant is fulfilled by 
 the incarnate Son. The law is said to have been " ordained 
 through angels" (Gal. iii. 19, Acts vii. 53), and to have 
 been spoken (Sia) " through angels," in contrast with the 
 Gospel, which " began to be spoken {Slo) through the 
 Lord " ; and, it is added, " But not unto angels did he 
 subject the world to come whereof we speak " (Heb. ii. 2, 
 3, 5). Plainly they had a relation to one order of things 
 which they have not to the other, inauguration and 
 administration being there the office of the incarnate Son. 
 In consequence angelic ministers and human ministers are 
 alike fellow servants of the same Lord. And this mutual 
 relation belongs not only to apostles, but to all Christians, 
 as being in Christ Jesus, since his manhood glorifies theirs, 
 and sets it already in the way of right in heavenly places ; 
 so that while worship would be a derogation from the 
 grace received, the sense of fellowship becomes a source of 
 strength and comfort. A fellowship it is, not of like 
 participation (for, " He took not on him the nature of 
 angels "), but one of interest and sympathy. Those high 
 intelligences who watch the ways of God from the vantage 
 ground above, learn fi-esh lessons from what passes here, 
 and " unto principalities and powers in heavenly places is 
 made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God " 
 (Eph. iii. 10). Even some greater effect than that of know- 
 
THE REVELATION OF ANGELS 155 
 
 ledge seems intimated in the saying that in Christ it pleased 
 the Father, " having made peace by the blood of his cross, 
 to reconcile all things to himself, whether they be things in 
 earth or things in heaven " (Col. i. 20). Certainly it exalts 
 our apprehension of the mysteries of the Gospel preached 
 to us when we know that these are the same " things 
 which angels desire to look into" (1 Peter i. 12), the same 
 subjects interesting them from their point of view which 
 interest us from ours. Then the sense of this association 
 brings to bear upon our minds a vaster public opinion than 
 that which we have to deal with in the world. Shame 
 before the holy angels is a motive which our Lord employs, 
 and the apostle strengthens a solemn charge by making it 
 "before God and the elect angels" (1 Tim. v. 22). Our 
 false estimate of great and little is corrected by that of 
 beings who see things as they are, and our disregard of the 
 insignificant, and indifference about the salvation of others, 
 by the care for the little ones of angels who behold the 
 face of the Father, and by their joy over one sinner that 
 repents. Again, who can say to what extent the ideal of 
 duty and service to God is raised, restored, and preserved, 
 amid the influences which depress and obscure it by the 
 perpetual and universal prayer, " Thy will be done on 
 earth, as it is in heaven " ? Lastly, this association has a 
 power which all can feel to raise the tone of worship and 
 animate the spirit of praise. It exalts our apprehensions, 
 kindles our fervour, and suggests the highest words we 
 use, such as were heard by Isaiah in the Temple, by the 
 shepherds in the field, or those which sounded from the 
 thousands of thousands giving glory to " Him who sits 
 upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever." 
 There is no dissonance between the worship of earth and of 
 heaven. The worship which we offer in Christ has the 
 consent of angels and the concurrence of the universe ; 
 and, when we come together in the Church, we are parts of 
 that greater congregation which includes angels and arch- 
 angels and all the company of heaven. 
 
156 APPENDIX A 
 
 The prominent part assigned to the action of angels in 
 the brief scenes of the Nativity is in perfect harmony 
 with the general revelation of their service for us and 
 fellowship with us in the dispensation then beginning, and 
 of the manifold relations between earth and heaven 
 involved in the Incarnation, which they announce and 
 celebrate. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 AVE MARIA 
 
 It is not right to pass from the Annunciation without 
 notice of the great phenomenon of later Christianity which 
 is specially connected with it. The salutation by the 
 angel has been translated into adoration by the Church, 
 and the Ave Maria has taken place beside the Pater Noster 
 as representing a separate department of religion. 
 
 This cultus of the Blessed Virgin grew by ascertained 
 stages, till it reached its pronounced development in the 
 mediaeval Church. Liturgically it may be tracked as follows. 
 First, in the reverent mention of her name before all other 
 names in the eucharistic commemoration of the departed. 
 Then in the assumption of her present intercession (with 
 that of other saints), as associated with the prayers of the 
 Church, but this only in the way of implication, without 
 any personal appeal to the supposed Intercessor. Then, as 
 we reach the eleventh century we find direct addresses in 
 customary use, and the Hail, Mary ! has established its place 
 in public liturgies, following the Lord's Prayer, and forming 
 the regular commencement of the Hour Offices.^ In the 
 
 ^ The growth of these novelties and their adoption into the 
 services from which our own have been derived, may be usefully 
 studied by the ordinary reader in a careful and judicious book with 
 no controversial aim or spirit, ' ' Liturgies and Offices of the 
 Church in illustration of the Book of Common Prayer" by 
 Prebendary Burbidge. 
 
158 APPENDIX B 
 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries devotions to the Blessed 
 Yirgin become more and more prominent in religious life, 
 and in papal and episcopal documents. Her honour is 
 exalted, and her interest sought by new services, festivals, 
 altars, images, and ceremonies. Her advocacy is treated 
 as the prevailing power in heaven for all sorts of purposes. 
 Armies and enterprises are to succeed by her patronage, 
 and anxieties and sorrows to find refuge in her com- 
 passions. 
 
 Historically, during this period the idea of advocacy 
 and patronage in heaven was only the counterpart of the 
 same idea in regard to almost everything that was to be 
 done in the world. The habits of thought and action in 
 the one case and in the other were very much the same. 
 Success in suits and applications, and, frequently, even 
 ordinary protection of undoubted rights, depended on 
 personal influence, interest at court, or patronage of some 
 powerful personage, to be obtained and secured by means 
 that were well understood (and, certainly, nowhere better 
 understood than in appeals to the Roman Curia). 
 
 It was the most natural thing in the world to carry the 
 same thoughts and habits into religion, and to depend for 
 favour and success on the intervention of advocates who 
 might be credited with a prevailing influence in the court of 
 heaven. In this system of celestial patronage, that of the 
 Mother of God would of course be supreme. Those who 
 were clients of other saints were all and always still more 
 dependent on her, who came to be practically regarded, 
 scarcely as a channel, rather as a fountain of grace. 
 
 Other influences in those ages wrought in their 
 several ways to the same end ; as, for instance, the 
 spirit of chivalry, which readily adopted the idea 
 of devotion to " our Lady." From whatever causes, 
 the efflorescence of this cultus of the Blessed Virgin 
 during this period is distinctly marked. We at Wells 
 have our own local evidences of it, in the records of the 
 Cathedral. '^ Savaric A. D. 1192-1205 was the first bishop 
 of the Somersetan Diocese to institute a daily Mass in 
 
AVE MARIA 159 
 
 honour of the Virgin in the Church of Wells ; and his 
 successor Jocelin, by an ordinance 1206, provided that " the 
 Service of the Blessed Virgin should be daily sung before 
 her altar," three priests and thirteen vicars to celebrate in 
 turn.^ 
 
 When, three centuries later, the time came for appeal to 
 Scripture and to the records of primitive Christianity, this 
 abnormal development of religion stood convicted of novelty 
 and condemned as an unlicensed human invention ; and it 
 was one of the indefensible corruptions which our Refor- 
 mation put away. But papal infallibility was pledged to it, 
 and it had become incorporated with the Roman system, 
 and was in many ways suited to its genius. So within the 
 Churches of that obedience it has even made greater ad- 
 vances, absorbing in large proportion the popular devotion, 
 conspicuous in effigies, in liturgies, in the eloquence of the 
 pulpit, in bulls and pastorals, and crowned in the present 
 age by a new article of the Faith. 
 
 The history is one of human proclivities, dealing with 
 divine truth apart from guidance of the written Word, 
 while that guidance was in abeyance. An effective basis 
 for this advance was found in a single theological expres- 
 sion. The term deoroKo^ {Deipara, God-bearing), in- 
 vented for a controversial exigency in reference to the 
 nature of the Son, was soon treated as meant for the 
 glorification of the Virgin Mother ; and when Dei Genitrix 
 became Mater Dei, the title began to express a more com- 
 prehensive and less justifiable relation, one that carried 
 into the region of the spirit the rights and influences be- 
 longing to the life in the flesh. Against this error it 
 might appear that adequate precautions had been provided 
 by the Lord's own words, by the Gospel story, and in the 
 teaching of the Apostles. 
 
 When the private life of Jesus was ending and the 
 
 manifestation of the Son of God was to begin, such rights 
 
 and influences were definitely set aside by one gentle word, 
 
 " Woman, what have I to do with thee ? " When that 
 
 1 See Church's Early History of the Church of Wells, pp. 123-135. 
 
160 APPENDIX B 
 
 period also was ending on the cross, and the time of glorifi- 
 cation was to follow, another like word — "Woman, behold 
 thy son ! " — marked the filial relation as finally transferred.^ 
 In each case the appellation " woman " was significant ; and 
 the words, though tender in spirit, drew a firm line of 
 limitation in the relations consequent on the incarnation. 
 It is a limitation observed in the silence of the evangelic 
 narrative, and afterwards in that of the apostolic teaching. 
 During the epiphany on earth, the Mother takes no part. 
 Then it would have seemed simply natural that some suf- 
 ferer should have been relieved, some act of mercy done, at 
 her intercession. No single case occurs. Her abstention 
 and silence show how she apprehended the situation with 
 the dignity of a perfect concurrence. After the Ascension 
 she is seen for a moment, but only as one of the holy com- 
 pany when the eleven disciples " continued in prayer and 
 supplication with the women, and INIary the mother of 
 Jesus, and with his brethren." From that time she is 
 
 ^ This act of loving care, which provided for remaining days on 
 earth, has been translated into an investiture with the office of 
 Mother of mankind, and the silent departure to the disciple's home 
 as an acceptance of the charge. So we read in the recent "Apos- 
 tolical Letter of Leo XIII. to the English people " — 
 
 ' ' Above all we call on Mary, the holy Mother of God, whom 
 Christ Himself, on the Cross, left to be the Mother of mankind, 
 to whom your kingdom was dedicated by your forefathers 
 under that glorious title ' the Dowry of Mary ' " ; 
 
 and again in the'appended Prayer : 
 
 "O blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, our gentle Queen 
 and Mother, look down in mercy upon England, thy Dowry, 
 and upon us all who greatly trust in thee. By thee it was that 
 Jesus Christ our hope was given to the world, and He has 
 given thee to us that we may hope still more. Plead thou for 
 us, thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the 
 foot of the Cross." 
 
 Strange that this appointment and acceptance should have been 
 hidden from the wi-iters of the Acts and the Epistles, and the early 
 Fathers, and all the Church for ages ! 
 
AVE MARIA Kil 
 
 seen no more, and, but for the single expi^ession, " Made of 
 a woman, made under the hiw," there is no alkision to lier 
 in the apostolic writings. Thus did Hcripture provide that 
 no suggestion should be left for what has happened since. 
 
 These precautions of Scripture were no discouragement 
 to the just reverence and, so to speak, the natviral affection 
 of Christian people for her of whose substance the Lord of 
 All took our nature and was made man. Fitly does that 
 fair name shine for ever in the Creed as linking the whole 
 history of redemption with the human race. Naturally 
 might it hold an exceptional place in loving commemora- 
 tions of the blessed dead. Very beautifully does it represent 
 and sanctify the dignity of womanhood, the honour of 
 motherhood, the tender care of childhood, the sweet in- 
 fluences which preside over the life of home. All such 
 uses of the name of her who is blessed among women were 
 within the limitations drawn. 
 
 Not so the uses which ensued. The disposition of men 
 to seek out many inventions soon overpassed them. In 
 days when the practical guidance of the written Word was 
 in abeyance neither the words of Jesus nor the silence of 
 the Spirit had any warning effect or restiictive power. So 
 it came to pass that, by exaggeration of reverential feelings, 
 l)y popular misuse of theological definitions, Ijy free indul- 
 gence of devout imagination, by the idolatrous tendency of 
 unspiritual faith, by the acceptance of the prolific testimony 
 •of visions and ecstasies, and finally by manifold sanctions 
 and injunctions of ecclesiastical authority, there was de- 
 veloped that vast system of Mariolatry, which has assumed 
 the chai'acter of a secondary gospel, and the proportions of 
 .a wdiole hemisphere of spurious Christianity. 
 
APPENDIX (J 
 
 GLORIA IN EXCELSIS— THE TWO READINGS 
 
 The second member of the hymn celel)rate8 the l:)lessing- 
 to mankind, according to the A.V., in the famihar woi'ds, 
 *' On eai'th peace, good will towards men " ; or, according 
 to the R. v., in the less-graceful English, " Peace on earth 
 among men in whom he is well pleased." The literal 
 renderings would he, in the first case, " On earth peace, in 
 men good pleasure " ; in the second, " On earth peace, in 
 men of good pleasure." Two different readings are thus 
 represented, each of them suj^ported l)y large authority. 
 The difference is only in the presence or absence of a final 
 letter. The question is, are we to read the last word in 
 the nominative as (evBoKia) endokia, or in the genitive 
 as (evBoKia^) fnulokias 1 and, if so, what differences follow 
 in the translation % and Avhat in the sense 1 
 
 On the evidence for each of these readings, all that can 
 justl}' be said is set out in the Notes on Select Readings 
 in Westcott and Hort's Greek Testament. The result, for 
 the present purpose, may be stated thus. 
 
 The documentary evidence is strong for €vBoKia<;, which 
 is supported l)y i^ A, B, and D, also bj' the only assured 
 ante-Nicene testimony which can be produced for either 
 variant, occurring in a passage from Origen translated bj- 
 Jerome. His translation, " in hominibus bon;i3 voluntatis," 
 followed by an argument grounded on that expression,. 
 
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS— THK TWO READINGS IG.'^ 
 shoAvs that a text of the Gospel used by Origen had 
 
 The reading evBoKoa has no evidence of such early date, 
 and is supported by codices of less weight, and its presence 
 is characteristic of versions and documents which show a 
 Sj^rian ancestry. With respect to the abundant evidence 
 supplied by the presence of the hymn in Psalters and 
 Liturgies, the conclusion is that in the Greek foi^ms the 
 nominative eutoKia is habitual, and that in the Latin the 
 genitive evBoKoa<; is alwa3's present, as represented by 
 " bomie voluntatis." 
 
 The suggestion is further made that while the presump- 
 tion is strong in favour of evBoKia<i, " thex'e would be no 
 anomaly if evSofcla were an Alexandrian correction 
 adopted in the Syrian text," and thence followed in the 
 Greek devotions. It is a form of high antiquity and 
 extensive acceptance, which was perhaps felt to harmonise 
 better with the tone of the hymn, and to express the 
 meaning moi^e plainh'. 
 
 The difference of idea consequent on the verbal varia- 
 tion is slight. It would be a decided difference, if we 
 took uv6p(t)7roi<i €vSoKia<; in the sense (apparently sug- 
 gested by hominibus bonie voluntatis) of a class of men 
 who are themselves well disposed, as apparently expressed 
 in Keble's version, 
 
 Gloiy to God on high, on earth be peace 
 
 And love towards men of love, salvation and release. 
 
 But evhoKia properly intends the good pleasure, the 
 gracious purpose, the favourable acceptance of God, not 
 the good dispositions of men. 
 
 " Men of (God's) good pleasure " will thus be, as R.Y. 
 paraphrases, " men in whom He is well pleased " ; and 
 this leaves us to choose between the more extended or 
 more limited idea. " The more probable sense is, ' in 
 (among or within) accepted mankind.' The Divine favour 
 (Ps. XXX. 5, 7 ; cv. 4), the good pleasure declai-ed for the 
 Head of the I'ace at the Baptism (gy w euSoKrjaa), is con- 
 
Itj4 APPENDIX C 
 
 templated as resting on the race itself in virtue of his 
 birth" (p. 56). 
 
 Some, however, may differ from Dr. Hort's conckision, so 
 far as to tliink that ev dv6p(07roL<; evSoKLa<; represents 
 ■)2")!i^ '^1fc^!5i^2' which would rather mean men in whom 
 God takes pleasure, i.e. a class of men so described, to 
 whom the peace is assigned. 
 
 But the brief sudden words, however we i-ead or inter- 
 pret them, do not Ijy themselves make definitions. The 
 fundamental fact stands out in the simple words " Good 
 will towai'ds men." Men, whether in the general or in a 
 .special aspect, are objects of the good pleasure of God. 
 
 THE EXD. 
 
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