‘But He answered and said unto him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
‘And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
‘For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.’
“To all He herein proclaimed the doctrines of His kingdom, self-denial, and though the words seem harsh, they were most kind, for by them He said, as it were, to His disciples: ‘Behold these all-sacrificing relatives of mine are twice related to me; by blood and by sufferings.’ It was, on Jesus’ part, a public adoption of His own family. As He had been publicly adopted from on high when He typically submitted to death in His baptism, so when He beheld His mother, having forsaken all to be with Him, he proclaimed those that had elected to share His sufferings His kin indeed. The sword of His suffering bitterly wounded her when the rabble howled after the Healer, “Thou wast born in fornication.” But He, amid all His engrossments, never forgot to minister to His mother as a courtly, reverent, loving Son. These words of a holy book not only speak of the workings of the providence of God, but assure us that He that uttered them was prompted to comfort His own widowed mother: ‘But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
“‘But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.’
“And now for the present I close with all holy salutations.
“A. von G.”
By P. R. Morris.
THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.