Christian life and recalling besides the picture of Joseph breathing his last in the arms of Jesus and Mary, it enables us to realize how truly blessed in the sight of God is the death of God's saints.
Mary, — the angel called her Ave Maria. Ave — it is Eva's name spelled backwards. Ave undid the evils Eva wrought. Eva filled the world with the thorns of human afflictions; Mary caused the flowers to reappear in our land. Eva plunged our Nature into sin and death; Mary lifted it to the very throne of God. Her other name, Maria, spells the initials of Mary, Anna, Ruth, Judith and Abigail. Like Mary, sister of Moses, she led us out of the land of bondage through the sea of this sinful world, herself dry-shod and without a stain. The child of her prayers she gave, like Anna, freely to the Lord. She is that Ruth whose loving heart recked not of home nor country, but only of her people and her Lord. She is that Judith who slew man's bitterest foe when she crushed the serpent's head. By her eloquent beauty she, like Abigail, so touched the king's heart that wrath turned to mercy and he spared her people. Maria, — the name is variously interpreted. It means first of all, " a Queen; " and how truly was she a queen who bore and nursed and ruled, with a mother's gentle authority, the King of kings and the Lord of lords! Again, it means "'Illumined/' for Mary is to the Saviour as the sun to the moon. The same halo surrounds Mary and the Child m her arms. If a brief vision of God on Mount Sinai made the face of Moses shine as the
