Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1950-08-24

ent book like THE
Greatest Story Ever
Told" is as much M 81
fiction as it is fact - ~ 4
Yet Protestant
Christian are Dr' FOREMAN
sometimes inclined to go to the op-
posite extreme. In reacting against
the tall tales, they overlook the
facts.
If some Christians OverdO rev.
erence for Mary, offering pray
ers and incense before her stat
ues and even going to the point
of saying we cannot come to
Jesus except through Mary-an
idea totally false to the Chris
tian gOspel-other Christians
make the mistake of neglecting
her memory altogether.
Surely we ought not to forget or
under-rate the woman who of all
the women in the world was chosen
of God to be the mother of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
God Knew Her Heart
NAZARETH was small village
~ with no good reputation. Yet
it was in that town that Mary grew
to womanhood. Man looks on out
ward appearances, but God looks
on the heart.
You might have not selected
Mary for the mother of Jesus,
or to put it in another way, you
would hardly have expected
Mary's child to be the person
Jesus became. She was very
young, for girls were engaged
early in that climate and cOun-
try-perhaps no more thar six
teen. She could have had no
great education. She was poor,
as the whole story shows.
Yet it was not for her education
Or her social standing or her ex-
perience or any such thing, but be-
cause of her heart, her character,
herself, that the angel came to her
that spring day in Nazareth.
Mary's Song
THERE IS no room to tell all that
! can be known of Mary from the
Gospels. We can know or guess
much from that one song, the
'Magnificat' as it is called from
its first word in the Latin transla-
ton. duke 1:46-55.)
We can tell from this that she
was woman who knew her Bible.
Moffatt's translation of the New
Testament uses italic type to indi-
cate quotations from the Old Testa-
ment; and in this Song of Mary, of
its sixteen lines all but two are
printed in italics.
Words and phrases came to her in
the familiar cadences of the book
she knew and loved. Further, she
was of poetic turn of mind. This
gnificat" has been set to music
and sung in churches all over the
world. Since Mary was herself
a poet, it is not surprising to find
that Jesus often spoke in words
which sing with the beauty and
rhythm of fine poetry.
Patriotism and the Poor !
MARY WAS A woman who loved
Iva her country. We are so fami-
liar with the Magnificent as a
church anthem that we overlook it
actually and originally was; hymn
of praise to God for his mercies to
Mary's nation, Israel.
Her people, so long enslaved,
were TO be set free. 1t is a rev.
dictionary hymn, too. Princes
are to be dethrOned, the proud
cast down, the rich made emp
ty; but God will give his help
. to the hungry and the poor.
.-''' /
Mary and Jesus
r Owe OF HER Bible, love Of beau
- ty, love of her country; and
most of all, love of God. You could
guess this from the words of the
angel, but you can see it plainly
in this song. 1t is an outpouring
Of joy and thankfulness to a God
who is very real and near and
loved.
Every mother lives again in
her sons; in Jesus we can see
the manner of woman Mary
must have been. When the boy
Jesus called God his Father,
who had taught him that word?
When the young man Jesus
fought off temptation by using
the Word of God, who had first
guided him TO do this? Where
had Jesus learned Scripture
except under his mothers roof?
Copyright by the International Coun-
ell of Religious Education on behalf Of
40 Protestant denominations. Rele a sed
by WNU FeaturesJ
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