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39 ST. MARY 39 priests, scribes, and elders, and many others. At the feast he made an offer- ing of his daughter to the chief priests. They blessed her, saying, " The God of onr fathers bless this girl and give her a name famous and lasting through all generations." All the people cried, When she was two years old, Joachim proposed to Anna to take her to the temple in fulfilment of their tow; but Anna said they wonld wait one more year that the child might know her parents. When she was three years old they took her to the temple, accompanied by seyeral young women, each carrying a lamp lest ^e child shonld be frightened. They delivered her to the priest, who " set her on the third step of the altar, and the Lord gave her grace, and she danced with her feet, and all the house of Israel loyed her." Her parents left her with the other virgins who were to be brought np in the temple, and returned home. During the years of her childhood and education there, she was daily visited and fed by angels. When she was twelve — or fourteen, or eighteen, for the accounts vary — the priests ordered that all the virgins who were of suitable age should return to their families and '' ac- cording to the custom of their country endeavour to be married." They all received the command gladly, except Mary, who was vowed by her parents to the service of God for life; besides which, she had herself made a vow of virginity, so that she could not marry. Then the priests, after asking counsel in the usual way, made a proclamation that all the marriageable men of the house of David — or by another account, all the widowers — should bring their rods to the altar, when it would be made known by a sign from heaven which of them should be the husband of Mary. So the criers went out through all Judea, and the men assembled and presented their rods. The high-priest prayed, and after- wards returned to each man his rod ; but no sign followed. The high-priest again sought Divine instruction, and it was revealed to him that the man who was destined to marry Mary had kept back his rod when the others were pre- sented. Thus Joseph was betrayed, and had to produce his rod. No sooner had the high-priest taken it than it burst forth into flower and a dove from heaven lighted on it — or, according to the Prot- evangelion, a dove flew out of the rod and lighted on the head of Joseph. He, however, refused to marry, saying that he was eighty years old, and had grown- up children, and that ho would become ridiculous in the eyes of all people if he married a young girl. The high-priest reminded him what an evil fate befel Korah, Dathan, and Abiram when they refused to do the bidding of the inspired rulers of Israel. So Mary was espoused to Joseph the Carpenter. He took her to his house and left her there while he went to attend to his trade of building. Now the priests decided to make a new veil for the temple, and they sent for seven virgins of the tribe of David, and when they were come, Mary being one of them, the high-priost said, " Cast lots before mo, who of you shall spin the golden thread, who the blue, who the scarlet, who the fine linen, and who the true purple." The purple fell to the lot of Mary, and she went away to her own house to spin it. One day she wont out to draw water, and as she went she heard a voice saying to her. " Hail, thou that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee, thou art blessed among women ! " She looked round, trembling, and went back into her house, and putting down her pitcher, she sat down to work at the purple. Then she saw the angel Gabriel standing by her, and he told her she was highly favoured and that she should be- come the mother of a Holy Child, the Son of God Whom she was to call Jests (St. Luke i. 26-37). At the same time ho told her that her cousin (St.) Elisa- BKTH, who was old and had been called barren, was in the sixth month of her pregnancy. Mary finished working the purple for the veil and carried it to the high-priest, who blessed her, and she went a great distance from Nazareth to visit and congratulate Elisabeth, who lived at Hebron or Juttah, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem. Elisabeth received her with great
 * Amen."