Our Lady took the road
     To Zachary’s abode;
     O’er mountain, vale and lea,
     Full many a league sped she
     Toward Hebron’s holy hill,
     By God’s command and will.

     Full light did Mary, make
     Of trouble for his sake. 
     God’s Very Son of yore
     Within her breast she bore;
     And angels bright and fair,
     Unseen, her fellows were.

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

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

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

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

     From the Koeln Gesang-Buch.  XVI Cent.

PART TWO

CHAPTER VI

S. JOSEPH

     Joseph, her husband, being a just man—­

     S. Matt.  I. 19.

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

     ROMAN.

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