obliged by Jewish law to take for husband the man nearest of kin, for these two reasons: first, lest the line of David should be broken, and secondly, that the property might not pass from out the family. Thus Mary, notwithstanding her chaste vow and natural repugnance, became engaged to Joseph. Meanwhile Salome married Zebedee of Capharnaum, and had for sons the Apostles James and John. Cleophas, too, was married, to whom we know not, except that her name was Mary and that their sons were the Apostles James and Judas — not the traitor — and Simon Zelotes. We may remark in passing that Jesus and John the Baptist were second cousins, and that of the twelve Apostles, five were, humanly speaking, first cousins to the Lord. While Mary, therefore, was engaged to Joseph, there came to her news of the wondrous apparition of the angel to Zachary in the Temple, and the miraculous conception whereby her cousin Elizabeth was to be the mother of the Lord's precursor, — the Baptist. What must the Virgin's thoughts have been when hearing the Messias was at hand, and her own family the instrument of His coming! Did she covet the honor every daughter of Israel coveted? No doubt in her humility she never deemed it possible. Anyhow, had she not consecrated herself to God? and dearer even than the honor of being His Mother was the happiness of being His virgin spouse. Six months had passed, and once again the angel of Zachary's vision, Gabriel, came and hailed the Virgin as the Mother of God. Mary's astonishment was not so much that such a message should
