The Honour due to the Virgin Mary.
I. We find in the New Testament that in place of there being any sanction in Scripture for the extraordinary honour being rendered to the mother of our Lord, the weight of testimony is all the other way. We believe that the most satisfactory account which can be given of this is, that our Lord foresaw the idolatrous homage which in progress of time would be rendered to the Virgin, and He determined that there should be nothing in His deportment from which such homage might draw even the shadow of encouragement. The Papist, indeed, in default of other scriptural evidence, would make use of the words of the angel in the annunciation, saying that they imply or involve an act of adoration of the Virgin. The words, as we translate them are "Hail, thou that art highly favoured." The Papist would translate them, "Hail, thou that art full of grace," and thus they make the salutation of the angel the same with their Ave Maria, the repetition of which is prescribed as a religious act of no ordinary worth.
II. We are right in supposing that Mary's life must have been one of great suffering, so that she is to be admired as a martyr: The words spoken by Christ on the Cross to His mother are exquisitely beautiful, as proving the thoughtfulness of Christ to her, when we might have supposed Him so occupied with His mighty undertaking on behalf of this creation, that He had no soothing word to give to a sorrowing individual; yet if ever words cut the human heart, these must have been as a sword to that weeping Mary. If she had entertained a lingering hope that Christ would yet triumph over His enemies, and remain to bless His friends, these words must have destroyed it, for providing for her another son did but tell her so clearly and emphatically, that she was losing Him altogether: or that, even if He rose from the dead, it would not be to renew the sweet intercourse of earthly affection. Surely the last words of Christ addressed to His mother, though we may allow them to have been words overflowing with tenderness, must have cut that mother to the quick; and we need adduce nothing further in evidence that Mary herself may justly be regarded as having had martyrdom to undergo, at least at the awful hour of our Lord's crucifixion; and that, as we admire her for her faith, and the meekness with which she received the annunciation that Christ should be her son, so ought we to admire in her, the courage and the constancy of one who is led up to the scaffold, or fastened to the stake, as a confessor for God and truth, when we read the simple plaintive statement of our text, "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother."
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 1682.
References: John 19:28. W. Lamson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 383; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 364; vol. iv., p. 169; Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,5th series, p. 261; C. J. Vaughan, Words from the Cross,p. 30; Ibid., Plain Sermons,p. 218; E. Paxton Hood, Sermons,p. 179; J. Vaughan, Sermons,11th series, p. 157; J. Stalker, The New Song,p. 65; W. Hanna, The Last Day of our Lord's Passion,p. 201; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,p. 192.