"MARY OF NAZARETH."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 17, 20 January 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

"MARY OF NAZARETH."

A STUDY OF CHRIST'S LITE.

In her latest book, "Mary of Nazareth" (Heinemann), Mary Borden has essayed a task that was far from easy. In the form of a novel she has closely followed the Gospel records up to a point, lias sought help from some more or less authoritative writers, has been to some extent guided by her woman's instincts, and has drawn largely on her imagination, and, yet, who can say whether the Mary she portrays is the real Mary who was the mother of Jesus? The story she tells is the story of the Saviour up to His crucifixion, with Mary very mucli in the forefront. One wonders'if He was such an enigma to her as Miss Borden makes out, and if she was so influenced by James as to be perplexed and tortured about His teaching and miracles to a degree that was agony. One wonders if Jesus would Hot have said or done -what would have made such suffering on His mother's part impossible. And, then, the story ends with the crucifixion. Why then ? Mary's life did not end then, and her attitude to her Son was not exactly the same after that as it was before it. Nor was the attitude of James and' the other members of the family the same. And has Miss Borden nothing more to say of Him, finely phrased though her tribute is, than that "His shadow seems to lengthen; it grows vast as time passes; it stretches across all the wilderness of the world. It's as if He were there forever, walking swiftly in search of His friends, calling to tliem?" And have men only worshipped "Hi 3 memory?" Miss Borden makes two curious slips in her reference to the foolish virgins in the parable. She says there were "seven" of them, and that they forgot to "fill their lamps." That is not what Matthew represents Jesus as saying. "Mary of Nazareth" is, nevertheless, a notable book, and will be widely read. It is written with sympathy and reverence, and, as one might expect, the style is all one could wish. Some of the passages are very fine. Then there is understanding of Mary's contemporaries, and of the time in which she lived. We see how small, self-satisfied, and ignorant many of these contemporaries were, and how they "wanted to live their little lives undisturbed by any sense of the everlasting mystery that lay behind the appearance of the fleeting days." We see the fanatical Pharisaism of James, liis peculiar love for God, and his want of love for his brother (though all this is perhaps a bit overdrawn) and the disbelief and jealousy of the others in the home in Nazareth. We also have revealed to us the loyalty and devotion, and the love and nervous solicitude of the few who were His friends. Yet, it is the gentle, loving, anxious mother who is ever before us. As one reads the book one is reminded of the appropriateness to Jesus of the prophet's haunting words about the "suffering servant of the Lord" "He shall grow up . . . as a root out of a dry ground. . .He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." We can see how feelingly (is not Miss Borden, wrong in saying "bitterly?") He could say that a prophet had no honour in his own country, among his own kin, and in his own house. "Mary of Nazareth" will almost certainly lead many who read it to take a new interest in the Gospels, and in the woman who, though the day came that a sword pierced through her soul, was yet blessed above all other women. Preachers will find in it a helpful commentary on the greatest of all - lives.