But we must also remember, that St. Luke the Evangelist was early regarded as the great authority with respect to the few Scripture particulars relating to the character and life of Mary; so that, in the figurative sense, he may be said to have painted that portrait of her which has been since received as the perfect type of womanhood:—­1.  Her noble, trustful humility, when she receives the salutation of the angel (Luke i. 38); the complete and feminine surrender of her whole being to the higher, holier will—­“Be it unto me according to thy word.” 2.  Then, the decision and prudence of character, shown in her visit to Elizabeth, her older relative; her journey in haste over the hills to consult with her cousin, which journey it is otherwise difficult to accord with the oriental customs of the time, unless Mary, young as she was, had possessed unusual promptitude and energy of disposition. (Luke i. 39, 40.) 3.  The proof of her intellectual power in the beautiful hymn she has left us, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” (Luke i. 46.) The commentators are not agreed as to whether this effusion was poured forth by immediate inspiration, or composed and written down, because the same words, “and Mary said,” may be interpreted in either sense; but we can no more doubt her being the authoress, than we can doubt of any other particulars recorded in the same Gospel:  it proves that she must have been, for her time and country, most rarely gifted in mind, and deeply read in the Scriptures. 4.  She was of a contemplative, reflecting, rather silent disposition.  “She kept all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke ii. 51.) She made no boast of that wondrous and most blessed destiny to which she was called; she thought upon it in silence.  It is inferred that as many of these sayings and events could be known to herself alone, St. Luke the Evangelist could have learned them only from her own lips. 5.  Next her truly maternal devotion to her divine Son, whom she attended humbly through his whole ministry;[1] 6. and lastly, the sublime fortitude and faith with which she followed her Son to the death scene, stood beside the cross till all was finished, and then went home, and lived (Luke xxiii.); for she was to be to us an example of all that a woman could endure, as well as all that a woman could be and act out in her earthly life.  (John xix. 25.) Such was the character of Mary; such the portrait really painted by St. Luke; and, as it seems to me, these scattered, artless, unintentional notices of conduct and character converge into the most perfect moral type of the intellectual, tender, simple, and heroic woman that ever was placed before us for our edification and example.

[Footnote 1:  Milton places in the mouth of our Saviour an allusion to the influence of his Mother in early life:—­

  “These growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving
  By words at times cast forth, duly rejoiced,
  And said to me apart, ’High are thy thoughts,
  O Son; but nourish them, and let them soar
  To what height sacred virtue and true worth
  Can raise them, though above example high.’”]