MARY MAGDALENE. 137 from the strange contrast which it affords to the story of her who bore it. We look not now to one whose chronicle has come forth from the scriptorium of dreamy monks, for Holy Scripture records the name of Mary Magdalene. We absolutely know that in the deep abasement of an awakened conscience a penitent woman sought and found pardon and peace at the Saviour's feet. What was her name?*-she who with hair unbound (a sign of sorrow in the East), the gold of her tresses dimmed by her falling tears, knelt silently, bowing down in her shame and anguish of heart. Magdalene (so called from the place of her birth), the Magnificent. Is there no lesson in her name? In the pride of her beauty-for the power of *This question, it is well known, is open to discussion; but where Origen and Chrysostom have ranged themselves on one side, and St. Clement and St. Gregory on the other, who may dare to affirm anything positively? One can only in this, as in all other cases, speak to the best of one's belief. I fully believe, with the Eastern Church, that Mary of Bethany was a virtuous woman, and a distinct person from Mary Magdalene; or why, in her home of Bethany and in connection with Martha and Lazarus, should Mary never be called Mary Magdalene? We know that out of Mary Magdalene were cast seven devils, but whether she was indeed the woman who was 'sinner,' I do not think Scripture has made so plain. But I would say, as one has said who carefully studied the subject: The woman who under the name of Mary Magdalenewhether her name be rightfully or wrongfully bestowed-stands before us sanctified in the imagination and in the faith of the people in her combined character of sinner and saint, is a reality, and not a fiction. Even if we would, we cannot do away with the associations inseparably connected with her name and her image.' —Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. i. p. 333. beauty is very great-Magdalene might once have gloried in her name - Magnificent as a stately tower.* But the tower whose foundations are on the shifting sands of time, shall it not crumble away? The magnificence which is of earth, shall it not yield to decay? It was in her other name that Magdalene's safety was found-Mary, which in Hebrew means bitterness. Mary, or Miriam, a name first given to the daughter of Jochebed. The mother's name signified 'whose glory is Jehovah,' but her child was born in the bitterness of Egyptian bondage, and she thence derived her sorrowful name-bitterness as of the sea, waters of affliction, of which they drank from a full cup. But the bondage of Mary Magdalene was the bondage of sin, and when once its bitterness was felt the hour of her freedom was at hand: 'loving much,' to her 'much was forgiven.' Strangely still sounds the name of Magdalene, the Magnificent, applied to the sorrowing daughters of shame. How gloriously from her other name has its sorrowful meaning been rolled away! In every Christian land Mary is the name that most women. love best to bear. Much sorrow had the mother of our Lord, and the sweet Marys of Gospel history, like Miriam of old, were born while their * Migdol, a tower. BITTER MADE SWEET. 139 countrymen were in bondage, but they lived to see a far more glorious ransom accomplished. Of the waters of Marah they indeed also drank, but He of whom the tree was typical was Himself with them, and by Him was the bitter made sweet. CHAPTER VII. Name-giving Adam's first work in Paradise - Name-giving L' E besoin de nommer '* is coeval with the use of words. We have seen that in Paradise it was the first act that Adam was called upon to perform. It is a natural instinct from the hoary-headed Chaldean sages of old, who gave to each shining constellation, each twinkling star, separate and significative names, to the lisping little one in our nursery to-day, who, with her finger on her rosy lip, sits knitting her pretty brows, trying to think of some nice name for her kitten or her doll. In the spangled heavens, as in some indestructible book, we read in lustrous characters these significant names of the highest antiquity. Some contain in themselves revelations of the past. Red Aldebaran, signifying 'he that goeth before,' is said to point to that far period in the history of astronomy when this brilliant star, called by modern Arabians Ain-al-Thaur, the * Salverte. 6 NAMES OF STARS. 141 bull's eye,' marched foremost of the celestial host, Taurus being then the first of the signs.* The names of others were as wise counsellors: the sweet Pleiades (in Hebrew, Cimah), whose Greek name signifies to sail,' gave Grecian sailors notice that spring, the time most favourable for voyages, had arrived; while stormy Orion, signifying to agitate,' warned them to stay at home. Even through the rugged disguises imposed on some of our week-days' names by our Saxon forefathers, we may still catch the shining of celestial orbs. With God's people, as from the beginning of time, we keep the week of seven days-the six days of creation, the seventh of rest. With the wise men of the East, Chaldea, Egypt, and ancient Hindustan, with the sages of Greece and Rome, we retain the recollection of the old 'planetary theory,' itself founded, it is said, on the doctrine of inusical intervals '-the 'music of the spheres,' a favourite thought in science as in poetry. And through all the various systems to which men have successively subscribed, unchanging still to the glad ear of Faith is the matchless harmony to which unnumbered worlds of light move vocal to their great Creator's praise. Far off it is indeed, and human ears are dull. What wonder, then, that we can only catch broken echoes of the God-taught strain-here a swelling chord, and there a dying fall, as new planets are * Encyclopædia of Natural Phenomena, by J. Forster, F.L.S. &c. |