THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. ་ THOMAS G. SPEAR. OH! woman of olden Samaria! tell What the stranger of Galilee said at the well, I will tell you the words of the sage that I saw, "Alone with my jar, ere the blaze of high noon, "At the verge of the fountain I stood, and, behold, 'He asked for a drink from the pitcher I bore, "He told then of waters that flowed for the soul, From the rivers of life that unceasingly roll, Gushing freely for all that would seek them in awe, With faith in the might of the Lord and his Law. "He said that salvation was born of the Jews, "He said in these mountains our worship should cease, "And, with countenance looking celestially calm, "Oh! beautiful sight, on those features to gaze, • He told me of things that I deemed were unknown, "A Prophet! a Prophet!' I uttered amazed; "O'erawed by his words, from his presence I turned, "Thus thus have I told what so lately befel My wondering soul at the Patriarch's well; Thank thee, oh! thank thee, Samarian friend! THE VIRGIN MARY. MRS. CLARA LUCAS BALFOUR. THE character of the highest importance, and most spiritual significance, in the New Testament, is the Virgin mother of our Lord:" the Mater Dolorosa of eternal sympathies;" the lowly maiden of the house of David, of whom all generations, taking up the salutation of the angel, exclaim, "Blessed art thou among women." If by woman sin first entered our world, and death by sin, it is a blessed contemplation that woman was honoured as the means of giving life to the human nature of our Divine Redeemer. Womanhood itself was for ever elevated and dignified by the sublime mystery of the birth of Him who was "made of a woman," "made under the law," who "was God manifest in the flesh." We learn that the Blessed Virgin dwelt in the city of Nazareth, and her personal history commences with the salutation of the angel," Hail! thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women." No words could convey a higher idea of the Divine approbation than these. Mary was highly favoured; the Lord was with her. The highest aim of spiritualized human nature is to obtain the favour and realize the presence of God. This, in her opening woman hood, was the blissful portion of the holy Virgin. In contemplating her life, therefore, it becomes us to observe her peculiarities, and learn from thence to deduce what qualities of mind and conduct are likely to secure the favour of God and to evidence His presence in our hearts. There is one primary characteristic of the mother of our Lord that does not appear in anything like an equal degree in any of the Old Testament heroines: this was HUMILITY. Many of the illustrious women of the former dispensation were gentle in word and deed, but gentleness and humility are not synonymous terms. Gentleness is an outward manifestation of a calm and equable spirit, subdued and regulated by reason, and it is sometimes merely the result of a kindly and genial temperament. Humility is a far nobler virtue; it involves both self-examination and selfknowledge; it fixes its adoring gaze on the perfections of Deity, and the moral requirements of a pure and holy faith, and is the result of a just comparison of human faults and frailties with abstract principles of Christian virtue. There may be gentleness without humility, but there cannot be true humility without gentleness. It was meet that the Virgin mother of our Lord should be the first to exemplify the primary principle of her Divine Son's hallowed system. The heathen world, with all its moral theories and philosophical precepts, knew of no such quality as humility; and the religion of the Jews but feebly embodied this great virtue. Hence, though Miriam and Deborah were gifted and noble women; Hannah and the Shunamite, gentle, tender, and benevolent; Esther, grateful and patriotic; and each spiritual and energetic; we should not say of all or any of them that they were humble. The Virgin's character was essentially so. When the heavenly visitor M |