And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And Mary said - Magnificent canticle! in which the strain of Hannah's ancient song, in like circumstances, is caught up, and just slightly modified and sublimed. Is it unnatural to suppose that the spirit of the blessed Virgin had been drawn beforehand into mysterious sympathy with the ideas and the tone of this hymn, so that when the life and fire of inspiration penetrated her whole soul it spontaneously swept the chords of this song, enriching the Hymnal of the Church with that spirit-stirring canticle which has resounded ever since from its temple walls? In both songs those holy women-filled with wonder to behold "the proud, the mighty, the rich," passed by, and, in their persons, the lowliest chosen to usher in the greatest events-sing of this as being no exceptional movement but a great law of the kingdom of God, by which He delights to "put down the mighty from their seats, and exalt them of low degree." In both songs the strain dies away on CHRIST; in Hannah's, under the name of "Yahweh's King," to whom, through all His line from David onwards to Himself, He will "give strength," and as His "Anointed," whose horn He with exalt (1 Samuel 2:10); in the Virgin's song, it is as the "Help" promised to Israel by all the prophets. My soul doth magnify the Lord,