tenderly for her desolate condition, left alone in a wicked world, after having lost such a Son. He therefore commended her to the care of John, His most loving and tender-hearted and faith- ful disciple. He told John to look on her as his mother, and told His mother to look on John as her son. No better and wiser arrangement could have been made in every way. None would care so much for the mother of Jesus as the disciple whom Jesus loved, and who lay in His bosom at the last sup- per. No home could be so suitable to Mary, as the home of one who was, according to the view maintained above, son to her own sister Salome.
The lessons of the whole transaction are deeply instructive.
{a) We should mark the depth and width of our Lord's sym- pathies and affections. The Saviour on whom we are bid to re- pose the weight of our sinful souls is one whose love passeth knowledge. Shallow, skin-deep feelings in others, we all know continually chill and disappoint us on every side in this world. But there is one whose mighty heart affection knows no bot- tom. That one is Christ.
(6) We should mark the high honor our Lord puts on the fifth commandment. Even in His last hour He magnifies it, and makes it honorable, by providing for His mother according to the flesh. The Christian who does not lay himself out to honor father and mother — both one and the other parent, is a very ignorant religionist.
(c) We should mark that when Jesus died Joseph was prob- ably dead, and that Mary had no other children beside our Lord. It is absurd to suppose that our Lord would have commended Mary to John, if she had had a husband or son to support her. The theory of some few writers, that Mary had other children by Joseph after Jesus was born, is very untenable, and grossly improbable.
{d) We should mark what a strong condemnation the passage supplies to the whole system of Mary- worship, as held by the Roman Catholic Church. Tliere is not here a trace of the doc- trine that Mary is patroness of the saints, protectress of the Church, and one who can help others. On the contrary, we see her requiring protection herself, and commended to the care and protection of a disciple! Hengstenberg remarks, "Our Lord's design was not to provide for John, but to provide for His mother." Alford observes, " The Romanist idea that the Lord commended all His disciples, as represented by the be- loved one, to the patronage of His mother, is simply absurd."
{e) Finally, we should mark how Jesus honors those who honor and boldly confess Him. To John, who alone of all the eleven stood by the cross. He gives the high privilege of taking charge of His motlier. As Henry pleasantly remarks, it is a sign of great confidence, and a mark of great honor, to be made