Evening Reading for November 7

We are told that even in the awful agonies of body and mind which our Lord endured, he did not forget her of whom he was born. He mercifully remembered her desolate condition and the crushing effect of the sorrowful sight before her. He knew that, holy as she was, she was only a woman and that, as a woman, she must deeply feel the death of such a son. He therefore commended her to the protection of his best-loved and best-loving disciple in brief and touching words. `Woman,' he said, `behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.'

We surely need no stronger proof than we have here that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was never meant to be honoured as divine, or to be prayed to, worshipped and trusted in as the friend and patroness of sinners. Common sense points out that she who needed the care and protection of another was never likely to help men and women to heaven, or to be in any sense a mediator between God and man! It is not too much to say, however painful the assertion, that of all the inventions of the church of Rome, there never was one more utterly devoid of foundation, both in Scripture and reason, than the doctrine of Mary-worship.

Let us turn from points of controversy to a subject of far more practical importance. Let us take comfort in the thought that we have in Jesus a Saviour of matchless tenderness, matchless sympathy, matchless consideration for the condition of his believing people. Let us never forget his words: `Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister and my mother' (Mark 3:35). The heart that even on the cross felt for Mary is a heart that never changes. Jesus never forgets any that love him and even in their worst estate remembers their need. No wonder that Peter says, `Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you' (1 Peter 5:7).

For meditation: Even in death our Lord put others first.