六月廿四日

衆人中間有一個女人大聲說：“懷你胎的和乳養你的有福了。”耶穌說：“是，却還不如聽神之道而遵守的人有福。”（路11：27-28）

有人想我們主的母親是有福的，因爲她有特權看到他的內心，而是我們所盼望不到的。根據這種猜想，覺得這是很值得稱羨的，其實幷不儘然。我們不知道馬利亞所知道的比別人更多，她所知道的她都存在心裏，但是我們念福音書的時候就知道她所知道的幷不比基督其他門徒所知道的更多。凡她所知道的我們也能發現。你以爲我們這樣說法是希奇的嗎？且看下面的經文：“耶和華的奧秘顯于敬畏他的人，他必將自己的約指示他們。”（改譯）主自己的話也曾說：“以後我不再稱你們爲僕人，因僕人不知道主人所作的事；我乃稱你們爲朋友，因我從我父所聽見的，已經都告訴你們了。”我們真是有福的，因他把自己心中的奧秘告訴了我們，他爲我們的好處的緣故，幷不隱瞞什麽。他自己也曾應許說：“若是沒有，我就早已告訴你們了。”他今天不也是這樣把自己向我們顯露而不向世人顯露嗎？確實是這樣，他叫我們知道而不叫世人知道，因此我們不能無知地說“懷你胎的和乳養你的有福了”，我們乃要爲聽到了幷遵守了他的話稱頌神，我們首先要有童女馬利亞和救主所有的真正關係，其次要知道他的心意，正像她所知道的。有這權利的人有福了！

“馬利亞說：我心尊主爲大，我靈以神我的救主爲樂。”

June 24

"A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But He said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." -- Luke 11:27, 28

It is fondly imagined by some that it must have involved very special privileges to have been the mother of our Lord, because they supposed that she had the benefit of looking into His very heart in a way in which we cannot hope to do. There may be an appearance of plausibility in the supposition, but not much. We do not know that Mary knew more than others; what she did know she did well to lay up in her heart; but she does not appear from anything we read in the Evangelists to have been a better-instructed believer than any other of Christ's disciples. All that she knew we also may discover. Do you wonder that we should say so? Here is a text to prove it: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." Remember the Master's words--"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." So blessedly does this Divine Revealer of secrets tell us His heart, that He keepeth back nothing which is profitable to us; His own assurance is, "If it were not so, I would have told you." Doth He not this day manifest Himself unto us as He doth not unto the world? It is even so; and therefore we will not ignorantly cry out, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee," but we will intelligently bless God that, having heard the Word and kept it, we have first of all as true a communion with the Saviour as the Virgin had, and in the second place as true an acquaintance with the secrets of His heart as she can be supposed to have obtained. Happy soul to be thus privileged!