The Newtown bee., 1898-02-25

az AcA Aec1' 1nere mao Deen no creature
like her and there could be no one equal
to her. She was the first of all mankind
in the robes of innocence. That God in
selecting Mary to be the mother of His
Son must needs have created her abso-
lutely free from sin is clearly manifest
to all.
When an architect is requested to fur
nish design for house we hear him
ask: Who are to occupy this edifice !?
What is their position in the world /?
What resources will be placed at my
command to make the building harmo-
nize in every way with the wishes and
dignity of it's occupants? Having care
fully considered the ans wers he receives
to these questions, he proceeds to draw
plans, first, of what will be necessary,
secondly, of what will be useful, and
thirdly, of what will be ornamental.
In The development of these plans he is
most careful to exclude from the build
ing everything that would be displeasng
to those who will reside in it. Thus, he
succeeds in making the building provide
for the necessities, convenience a. COM
fort of its occupants; in making it
comport with their wealth and station,
as well as p easing ard satisfactory to
their tastes. Human architects generally
accomplish this much, though they fail,
at times, through lack of intelligence,
skill or means. The Divine Architect,
however, never fails to attain His pur-
poses, to execute satisfactorily His de-
signs. Now God the Father wanted q
house for His Only begotten Son, and
He created Mary to be that house, to be
| the living temple of the Incarnate Word.
God Himself drew the plan for this tenn
p1e,-"Wisdom built for Himself a
house." 1t was then designed and built
solely for the Word made flesh, for the
eternal, COZ substantial Son of God, of
/ whom st John writes: ''In the begin
ming was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. "A
God, then, infinite in all projections, in
| finite in holiness, dwelt in this house, in
this wing temple. she that created me
rested In my temple In this case, then,
the infinite knowledge of the Builder
warrants US in assuming the superemi-
nent fitness of the building for its divine
ly ordained purpose. The exhaustlesa
wealth and eonsummate skill of the
Builder warrant US in assuming the price
less value and inefable beauty of the
building.
II it be not given to us to conceive
with what wealth of grace, with what
beauty of holiness, this house was adorn.
ed, we may at least inquire: What one
1 kE1HR "aS #bnSEC "utCb, dGCoIuiuk bO
Gods design, could never have been per-
mitted to enter into it? We may ask {:
What does this God of infinite holiness
| most abhor, detest, with an everlasting
hatred? What one thing was there
| which He could not have tolerated in
His dwelling-place? He that annihilated
Himself in becoming man might have
dispensed with mary things which
| would, according to our worldly notions,
have befitted His abode, but what one
thing must He have, by very force of
Ills nature, excluded from it? Accord
| ing to the Apostle, Our Lord became
like unto us In all things except sin.
Sin, therefore, must have been excluded
from this. His carefully prepared house.
IL holiness became the material temple
wherein God dweit in the spirit of His
power, how much more, then, did it
become the living temple in which He
dwelt for nine months 1.-THE temple in
which, according to spiritual writer,
were forged the weapons by which he
overcame the devil, the .House OF
Geld' enclosing the well-spring whence
He drew that blood. one drop of which
was capable Of saving the world. Well.
then, may we say with the Psalmist :
Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord |