task awaits us.  You will of course expect me to refer to an incident recorded with little variety of expression, and with no essential difference, by the first three Evangelists.  St. Matthew’s is the most full account, and is this,—­“While he yet talked to the people, behold his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with him.  Then one said unto him, {280} Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.  But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?  And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren.  For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.” [Matt. xii. 46.] Or, as St. Luke expresses it,—­“And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these, who hear the word of God and do it.” [Luke viii. 21.]

Humanly speaking, could a more favourable opportunity have presented itself to our blessed Lord of referring to his beloved mother, in such a manner as to exalt her above her fellow daughters of Eve,—­in such a manner too, as that Christians in after days, when the Saviour’s bodily presence should have been taken away from them, and the extraordinary communications of the Spirit of truth should have been withdrawn, might have remembered that He had spoken these things, and have been countenanced by his words in doing her homage?  But so far is this from the plain and natural tendency of the words of her blessed Son, that, had He of acknowledged purpose (and He has condescended to announce to us, in another place (John xiii. 19, &c.), the purpose of his words) wished to guard his disciples, whilst the world should last, against being seduced by any reverence and love which they might feel towards Himself into a belief that they ought to exalt his mother above all other created beings, and pay her holy worship, we know not what words He could have adopted more fitted for that purpose.  There was nothing in the communication which seemed to call for {281} such a remark.  A plain message announces to Him as a matter of fact one of the most common occurrences of daily life.  And yet He fixes upon the circumstance as the groundwork not only of declaring the close union which it was his good pleasure should exist between obedient and true believers and Himself, but of cautioning all against any superstitious feelings towards those who were nearly allied to Him by the ties of his human nature.  With reverence I would say, it is as though He desired to record his foreknowledge of the errors into which his disciples were likely to be seduced, and warned them beforehand to shun and resist the temptation.  The evidence borne by this passage against our offering any religious worship to the Virgin, on the ground of her having been the mother of our Lord, seems clear, strong, direct, and inevitable.  She was the mother of the Redeemer of the world, and blessed is she among