CHAPTER III.

You will find the 2d of July marked in the calendar as the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin; not as being the very day on which Mary saluted Elisabeth, but only as a time appointed by the Church for recalling to our memory what is recorded in the verses I have given you from the Gospel of St. Luke. We have good reason to believe that the scene of the meeting between these two blessed mothers was in "Hebron, in the mountain of Judah," one of the cities of refuge mentioned in Joshua, xx. 7, and which was one of those given out of the tribe of Judah for the priests, the sons of Aaron, to dwell in (1 Chron. vi. 57): and it was here, therefore, that Zacharias the priest, and his wife, of the daughters of Aaron, had their home. This ancient city is often mentioned in the Scriptures, from which we learn that its name at the first was Kirjath Arba, the city of Arba, the father of Anac (Joshua xv. 13), or the city of the four, which also is the meaning of Kirjath Arba; and the Jews have a tradition that it was so named because the four patriarchs, Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their wives, were buried here; and that it was the burying-place of the three last, and of their wives, we learn from Scripture; for the cave of Machpelah was here, "which Abraham bought, with the field of Ephron the Hittite, for a possession of a buryingplace."

The name of Hebron, which signifies "so

ciety," or "friendship," seems to have been given to it by the Jews, perhaps in memory of Abraham, the friend of God, who came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, or, as it is in the Hebrew, "under the oaks of Mamre, which is in Hebron," and under whose shadow he "entertained angels unawares." St. Jerome tells us of a tree which was pointed out to him at Hebron as Abraham's oak, under which he set before his heavenly guests butter and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and stood by them under the tree while they did eat. (Gen. xviii. 8.) An immense oak, sprung, perhaps, from the same tree, is still shewn by this name, about a mile to the north-west of the city. It was here that the promise was first made to Abraham that Sarah should have a son: "And the Lord said, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" and "she judged Him faithful that promised." And how would all these things come home to the heart of Mary, that virgin daughter of Abraham, in whose Holy Child every word of promise was yet to be fulfilled !

Travellers tell us that beauty still lingers around Hebron, as though a blessing from above yet rested on the spot where the Lord was wont to meet with Abraham His friend; and the wild Arabs only know the place by the name which they give to Abraham, El Kalil, or the Wellbeloved.

The city has been described by some who visited it in 1839 as embosomed in hills, up

66

which the rich and fertile vineyards stretch beautifully; and their fruit may still remind us of the "branch with one cluster," which the spies who came to Hebron, and unto the brook of Eshcol, cut down, and, for its weight and largeness, they bare it between two upon a staff." (Num. xiii. 22, 23.) Sir Moses Montefiore, who lately visited the Holy Land, mentions having got at Hebron a bunch of grapes about a yard in length. Groves of deep-green olives surround the city, and figs and pomegranates are everywhere intermixed with the vines. The fourfold division of the city, which still recals its ancient name of Kirjath Arba, is said to give it a singular appearance; while the cupolas on the houses, and the vigorous olive-trees that are interspersed throughout the town, add greatly to its beauty. It is supposed that the ancient city was built more upon the hill behind Machpelah, where traces of ruins, running up the eastern slope, are still visible. One of the Jewish traditions about Hebron is, that the rays of the sun were first seen from Jerusalem gilding the high-built towers of Hebron, and thus gave notice of the time for killing the morning sacrifice. And was it not from the holy Baptist, born in Hebron, that the word went forth, pointing unto Jesus, the True Light, the very Paschal Lamb, whom every sacrifice prefigured? Surely the earliest rays of the Sun of Righteousness did glance upon Hebron, gladdening the infant forerunner of the Lord; and it was there that Zacharias told of " the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high

hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace." Bethlehem is not far from Hebron, in the way from Jerusalem; and as the blessed Virgin passed by the plains where David fed his father's sheep, would she not call to mind many a psalm of " the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel," when the Spirit of the Lord spake by him, and "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow ?" And would not Mary dwell with holy earnestness upon such words as these, "Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men?" For why do you think she had arisen with such haste to visit the mother of the Lord's forerunner? Not because she doubted, like Zacharias, the angel's words concerning Elisabeth, and would satisfy herself of their truth; nor yet because she sought to publish unto another the wondrous grace conferred upon herself; but because she longed to be with one to whom she might safely say, "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!” If she spoke of herself at all, it was only of her lowliness; for the silent and loving Virgin published not abroad the secrets of the Lord, nor sought to exalt herself in the eyes of others but can we not understand what an easing of her full heart of grateful and adoring praise she would find in thus visiting one who would rejoice with her in all the goodness of the

Lord? It would appear also, from the omission of any mention of her parents, and from her seeming liberty to come and go by herself, that Mary was at this time an orphan; and indeed it was a tradition held by some that she was left an orphan at the age of twelve; and if so, we can imagine in how many ways the aged Elisabeth might minister to her help and comfort in a mother's stead; while holy Mary would rejoice to impart unto her cousin of the gladness wherewith the Lord had made her glad. The supposition that she was an orphan, seems confirmed by what we read of her returning, not unto her father's, but " to her own house;" and that this was not the house of her espoused husband, may be inferred from the mention of his taking her unto him after her return from Hebron, which had been to her, indeed, a city of refuge.

It was a long journey, of more than eighty miles, from the vale of Nazareth to the hill country of Hebron, and Mary could not travel at her ease, as the rich might do, for her state was one of poverty; but we may trace her footsteps in our thoughts as she went on her way rejoicing, by Mount Tabor and by Little Hermon, by Samaria and by Shechem, by Bethel and by Jerusalem, and thence by Bethlehem, the city of her father David, until she came to Hebron, and entering into the house of Zacharias, saluted Elisabeth. And well might the mother of John the Baptist, in the joyfulness of her heart, filled with the Holy Ghost, speak out with a loud voice, proclaiming her Blessed among women; for at the