worship of Mary is carried in Roman Catholic countries.  To the Italians Mary is God, and worship is simply the adoration of the Virgin.  Viewing Romanism in the light of the Bible, this is its crowning sin; viewing it as a system combined to seduce and enslave, this is its masterpiece.  To understand how it is so, let us think how deep in man’s nature is placed the feeling of the need of a being like unto himself, to mediate between him and God.  The Bible completely meets this want in the God-man.  But Popery blots out the God-man as mediator, and in his stead presents us with Mary, who is to the devotee the “one living and true God;” for, though the Father and Son are known, they are accessible only through Mary, and they stand so far behind and beyond her, that to the Romanist they are vague, shadowy, and unknown.  Mary is the first name to be lisped in childhood, the last to be uttered by the quivering lips before they are closed in death.  Around the neck of the infant is suspended a small image of the Virgin; when the babe seeks the breast it must kiss the image, and thus literally does it draw in the adoration of Mary with its mother’s milk.  “Were the New Testament to be written at this hour, Rome would blot out the name of Christ and substitute that of Mary.  Take a proof:  The church close by the Vatican has upon its marble pediment, graven in large letters, ’Let us come to the throne of the Virgin Mary, that we may find grace to help us in our time of need.’  The Roman sees Heb. iv. 16 quoted, but cannot verify it if he would, seeing the Bible is forbidden to him.”  Pius IX., at the foot of the column of the Immaculate Conception, erected to perpetuate the fact that he was permitted to decree the dogma, has Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah casting crowns before the Virgin, saying, “Thou art worthy; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.”  When it was announced that the French occupation of Rome should cease, the Pope published a decree calling on all Rome to go with him to the feet of Mary, if haply by cries and tears they might prevail with her to avert from the throne of God’s vicar the dangers that threaten it; and in that act the Pope led the way.[A]

[Footnote A:  Minister versus Priest, page 7.]

For this worship of the Virgin Mary there is a reason.  Satan could not successfully lead astray so many millions of people, despite a preached gospel and a printed Bible, unless there was some truth lying at the root of this ineradicable Virgin worship.  This root we shall discover when we recall woman’s position prior to the advent of Christ, the place she was called upon to fill in the scheme of redemption, and the influences set in motion by the life of Christ upon the earth.