MEMOIR

OF

MRS. MARY TATHAM.

INTRODUCTION.

BIOGRAPHICAL WRITING-ITS ADAPTATION AND IMPRESSIVENESS-EXAMPLES OF THE SAME FROM SACRED SCRIPTUREAND FROM CHURCH HISTORY.

THE value and charm of biographical writings are now generally admitted and felt. No inconsiderable portion of the sacred Scriptures consists of sketches of individual character, which are preserved in those incorruptible pages, not that we may admire only the virtue and graces of heart and life there exhibited, but that we may be stimulated to tread in the footsteps of the zeal and piety of former saints that we may be followers of them who now, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

God, who knoweth our frame, does not stir us up to duty merely by considerations suited to our nature in general, but he uses incitements adapted to the various periods of life, to the different stations, opportunities, tempers, and temptations of those addressed, and even to the diversity of sex. His operation on man is correspondent to his frame, whilst

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the effect depends on his own grace. But in the use of means he would set every spring in our nature in motion, that all within us may serve him, and be so employed as to minister to that bright and blissful consummation, when

"The pure in heart obtain the grace

To see, without a veil, his face."

God does not merely set before us our duty in the authority of precept, but demonstrates its equity and reasonableness, its symmetry and propriety, its excellence and utility, and urges to its performance by the most cogent motives of which our natures are susceptible. Knowing the power of example, he has furnished us with it in great abundance and variety. So that moral excellence is not recommended merely in the abstract, and, as it were, at a distance, and in the coldness of the lessons of moralists and philosophers. He brings it near to us; gives it life, and breath, and action, that we may learn that what his holy law requires is not an ideal perfection, or a dreaming spiritualization, but a perfection attainable by grace, warm with vitality, and substantial as truth.

Female piety occupies a conspicuous place in the inspired volume, and in relation to the work of redemption, God hath put signal honour on the woman. It is required of the husband that he "give honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel." This is what the Husband and Lord of the church himself hath done. By woman "hath he sent redemption to his folk." From his relation to this sex, a peculiarity of designation is given to the Most High, to which nothing parallel does or could occur with respect to man. He is called the Seed or offspring of the woman. It was on the promulgation of the first promise, that Adam called his wife Eve, "because she was the mo

ther of all living." He thus at the same time expressed his faith in the promise of God, and his gratitude for the great mercy promised. For though this name belongs to her in a natural sense, there is reason to think that it was imposed specially in a higher sense; that is, she should be the mother of all who should be made alive to God through faith in the promised Seed. Similar honour is put on Sarah, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.

The first annunciation of the miraculous conception was made to a woman. The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. Well might the heavenly messenger use this method of salutation to her, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured; blessed art thou among women!" Well might this unassuming maiden say, "Behold, from henceforth shall all generations call me blessed."

A woman was the first who was honoured to confess the incarnate Word-to proclaim him as the object of her faith. "Whence is this," said the venerable Elizabeth, "that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" The first herald of Christ to the inhabitants

of the holy city was a woman. For " Anna, the prophetess, spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Israel." During his public life, women were the most assiduous attendants on his ministry. To them especially was allotted the honour and the pleasure of supplying his temporal necessities. They "ministered to him of their substance." Nor was this merely an occasional proof of love; they persisted in this good work. They did so while he was in Galilee, while he was on his way to Jerusalem, and during his residence there.

There seems to have been an amiable rivalry among

them for this honour. Many women followed Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, ministering unto him." When the male disciples, when the apostles themselves were scattered every man to his own home, these holy women knew no home but where their Lord was. They had followed him from Galilee, and they cannot leave him at Golgotha. So strong were the cords of love by which they were held, that neither the fury of his persecutors, nor the terror of the preternatural darkness and of the earthquake, could make them desert their station. They "stood by his cross"-they re

mained there till the dreadful scene had terminated. Not even then could they leave him; they follow him to his grave. They who had stood by his cross now "sit down over against his sepulchre," as if they meant to adopt the language of her whose faith they followed"where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried." No male persons seem to have been there save Joseph and Nicodemus. These women could not tear themselves away from the sepulchre, till the great stone rolled to the door of it separated between them and that disfigured form that was lovelier in their eye than all that had life. They seem to leave it only that they might have time before the Sabbath to make the necessary preparations for giving a further testimony of their love. Nicodemus had "brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about one hundred pounds weight, and wound the body of Jesus in linen cloth, with the spices." But as if they had thought that the expense that Nicodemus had bestowed was too little for the occasion, or could not bear the idea that some of their own substance should not be consecrated to so noble a purpose, "they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, that they might anoint the body of Jesus."