was emperor of Rome,* and that Herod was drawing toward the close of his reign as king of Judea. Of his mother we know but little. She was of the tribe of Judah, belonged to a royal family, traced her genealogy back to David,‡ and was connected by marriage with one of the chief priests.§ She was a woman of warm heart, ardent impulses, and resolute will. This much the brief sketches of her life and character disclose. At the time of the annunciation, she started, with impetuous haste and unattended, for a journey across the country from Galilee to Judea to visit her cousin Elizabeth,|| no slight undertaking in those days. Later, dreading lest in her son's religious zeal he should destroy himself, with the enthusiasm of an invincible love she undertook to pass through the crowd, and, with loving compulsion, bring him home to the rest which her mother-heart saw he so greatly needed.¶ Finally, standing with pierced and broken heart the resolute witness of his sufferings and death upon the cross, she looked on, a patient sufferer with him to the last.** She was a devout, God-fearing woman,ft free from the ceremonial degeneracy of her times, possessed a good religious education, was more familiar with Scripture than with rabbinical lore, was of thoughtful disposition, and possessed in a devout, emotional imagination the characteristics of an ancient prophetess. The thanksgiving psalm which she composed, at the time when the angel announced to her the anticipated birth of Jesus, reminds us strongly of the ancient odes which * Luke ii., 1. † Matt. ii., 1.

‡ Luke i., 27; Rom. i., 3. Two genealogies of Christ, quite different, are given-one by Matthew, the other by Luke. Two explanations of this variance are afforded-one, that Luke gives the genealogy through Mary, and Matthew through Joseph (Kitto's Daily Bible Illustr., Life of our Lord, 28th week); the other, now generally accepted by Biblical scholars, that Luke gives the natural descent, and Matthew the regal succession.-(Ellicott's Life of our Lord, page 99, note.) A careful comparison of these genealogies, however, leads to the conclusion, whichever theory is adopted, that both Joseph and Mary were of the house and lineage of David, and probably cousins.-See Smith's Bible Dict., art. Genealogy of Jesus Christ.

§ Luke i., 5, 36. ** John xix., 25.

|| Luke i., 39.

++ Luke i., 38.

¶ Mark iii., 21–31. ‡‡ Luke ii., 19, 51.