THE PURIFICATION OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN. TEXT: "And when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord."-St. Luke II, 22. T By the REV. ARTHUR W. LITTLE, L. H. D., HE Feast of the Purification is an high day, and a two-fold festival. It is an adoring commemoration of our Blessed Lord, and a pious memorial of His holy Mother. It is one of the oldest of the Christian feasts. The same Collect, Epistle and Gospel, which we use, were used for this day fourteen centuries ago, and doubtless much earlier. The Gospel, which tells the story of the day, is read on this feast at every Christian altar in the world, Greek, Anglican and Latin. Like many an other holy day, this is to the severed portions of the Catholic Church a note of unity amid the strife of tongues. In the Holy Eastern Church the day is named "Hypante," referring to the meeting of the infant Saviour with St. Simeon and St. Anna in the Temple. In the Roman Church (and commonly in our own), it is called "The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin." Our Prayer Book, however, gathers up both thoughts in its two-fold title, "The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, commonly called the Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin." The two thoughts are really distinct, but were combined in time. The Virgin-Mother, though she had no taint of defilement or of sin, yet like all devout and well-instructed mothers, whether of the Jewish Church or of the Christian Church, returned thanks and offered the customary gift, at her first appearance in the House of God, after the birth of her child. She obeyed the law of God to fulfil all righteousness; she submitted to the rite of Purification, or "Churching." Our Holy Mother, the Church, has never yet taken up with the false modesty of a corrupt age, which treats the sacred and mysterious origin of human life as if it were something to be ashamed of. She inherited from the Jewish Church, and has always maintained, the Churching of women, as a proper, primitive, beautiful, edifying, and almost sacramental ordinance. Immediately succeeding the Burial Office in the Prayer Book (p. 303) will be found the Order which the American Church has appointed for this rite. It is a chaste and impressive service coming down to us from the early days of Christianity. It has always been used in the Church of England, and, for the past twelve hundred years, almost word for word as we have it to-day, by all devout mothers who wished to thank God for His mercy, on their first appearance in church after the birth of a child. It is difficult to conceive how any Christian mother, to whom God has given the precious gift of a new life to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, can ever fail to avail herself of this religious privilege— so sweet, so natural, so full of comfort and of joy. In the Church of England-from the Queen, whose true womanliness has done more for the morals of her subjects than all the military and political glories of her reign, down to the humblest peasant-every mother avails herself of this privilege, and is almost as eager for it as for the Christening of her child. But amongst us, since the rite is not absolutely required (as it ought to be) by custom or by canon law, many mothers neglect it altogether. Alas! We American churchmen, however Catholic we be in theory, are in many things far from Catholic in practice. This may come partly from the unchurchly atmosphere of Protestantism which surrounds us; partly from ignorance and carelessness and worldliness; partly from a morbid self-consciousness, and partly from the fact that many of our people were brought up outside of the Church, and though they have made their submission to the Church, have not yet learned to walk in all her hallowed ways. Dr. DeKoven used to say that it takes three generations to get Puritanism out of a man. Perhaps, also, this special office was brought into disrepute by the characteristically strange. perversion of the word, "Churching," which obtained among New England Puritans. With them, "Churching" meant the awful process of excommunication! while its real meaning is restoring to all the privileges of God's House the thankful mother who has been for a time debarred from those privileges by the pain and confinement of maternity. What an example to all mothers is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord! It is the fortieth day after the Nativity. On that day she comes in from Bethlehem, with the Holy Babe in her arms, and enters the Temple in Jerusalem. Too poor to make the more expensive sacrifice of a lamb and a dove, she avails herself of the merciful provision of the law, and offers two doves or young pigeons. As all the sacrifices of the Elder Covenant were types or foreshadowings of the One Great Sacrifice on Calvary, so in this offering, which Our Lady made at her Churching, when she presented her Divine Son in His Father's House, there was a most striking symbol of the atoning work of our Blessed Lord. According to the law, the doves were slain, for "without the shedding of blood there is no remission." Their innocent blood typified the Sacred Blood of the Lamb of God, “shed for you and for many for the remission of sins." But more than this, for we are admitted into the deep mysteries of salvation-the body of one of the doves was burned upon the altar as an offering to God, while the body of the other was reserved to be eaten by the priest and the people. In this we see how that Jesus Christ both offered Himself unto God as a sacrifice for our sins, and also gave, and still gives, His precious Body to be our food and sustenance in the Blessed Sacrament. Let us now examine more fully the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, which, though a distinct act, took place at the time of St. Mary's Churching. Why was the Presentation made? and what were the attendant circumstances of prophetic welcome and glorious manifestation which make this feast the climax of the Epiphany? Not every Jewish child was presented in the Temple, but only the first-born male child of every mother, not being of the Tribe of Levi. The reason of this is most interesting, and opens up-strange as it may seem-the whole subject of the Priesthood in the three Dispensations, the Patriarchal, the Jewish and the Catholic. Under the Patriarchal Dispensation the head of the family was the priest of the household; and the eldest son inherited the office from him. When the Patriarchal system, under Divine guidance, developed into the Mosaic, or Jewish Dispensation, which was God's ancient Church, the Priesthood was continued (for there can be no true religion without a Priesthood), but in a different way. Instead of the oldest son of every family being a priest, one entire tribe, the Tribe of Levi, was set apart for the ministry. There were many special reasons for this, which made it a very proper way of constituting a ministry for the one and only nation which retained the true religion in the midst of abounding heathenism. This ministry included all males, sound in body and mind, of the Tribe of Levi; and was in three orders, a type of the ministry which should follow; namely, (I) the High Priest, Aaron, and his eldest son in regular succession of primogeniture; (II) the priests who were all the other sons of Aaron and all their male descendants; and (III) the Levites who were all the rest of the men of that Tribe and all their male descendants. Thus the whole tribe of Levi was devoted to the work of the ministry, and was amply supported by tithes from the rest of the nation. When the narrow covenant of Judaism widened into the Catholic Church which was to take in all nations, a ministry in any one tribe would not have been desirable. And so, as prophets had forseen, God "purified the sons of Levi," so that in every place incense and the pure offering might be offered unto the Lord of Hosts. In the Christian Church the Priesthood was continued in three orders, but not limited either to eldest sons or to one tribe. The great Head of the Church ordained |