That is, we can learn from the study of our own life what is the resistance of one human being to the triumph of the will of God; and, taking oneself as a fair sample of the race can multiply our resistance to God’s will by the numbers of the race.  We are perfectly certain of the will of God:  God wills that all men shall come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved.  “This is the will of God, even your sanctification.”  So far as we are thwarting that will we are playing into the hands of the power of evil.  But that power is of limited existence; it draws to its end.  Its death knell was struck when the noon-day darkness lifted from Calvary.

Therefore the rejoicing of blessed Mary, whose Song reads the necessary end in the beginning, is well considered; and we rejoice with her and in her.  It is our privilege—­and it is a vast privilege—­to rejoice in blessed Mary as the instrument of God in bringing the triumph of His Kingdom one stage nearer its accomplishment.  And in especial we rejoice because we see in her one more, and the most marked, illustration of the divine method.  “He hath regarded the low estate of His Handmaiden.”  “He hath exalted them of low degree.”  “He hath filled the hungry.”  The method of God is to work to His results through those who are spiritually receptive.  The less of self there is in us the more room there is for God.  “The Kingdom of God is within you,” that is, the starting-point of God’s work in the building of the Kingdom is within the soul of man.  He must master the inner man, must win the allegiance of our souls, before His work can make any progress at all.  The Kingdom of God cometh not “with observation,” that is, from the outside in an exhibition of power; it must of necessity come from the inside in demonstration of the Spirit.  “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

In blessed Mary we see the new starting-point in this last stage of the work of God.  For the foreseen merits of her Son she is brought into union with God and spared the taint of sin, and becomes the second Eve, the Mother of the new race.  Acting upon her pure humanity, the Holy Spirit produces that humanity which joined to the divinity in the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity becomes the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  In Mary’s rejoicing in this so great fact, the bringing of human redemption, we rightly share.  It is with a right understanding of her Song that the Church throughout the ages has embodied it in its worship and through it constantly rejoices in God its Saviour.  The actual detailed accomplishment of God’s work in man’s redemption is going on under our eyes.  It is regrettable that human stupidity seems to prefer dwelling upon what seem God’s failures, and are actually our own, rather than upon the constant triumphs of grace.  But God reigns; and we can always find grounds of optimism if we can find that He is day by day reigning more perfectly in us.  When we pray “Thy Kingdom Come,” the field to examine for the fulfilment of our prayers is the field of our own souls.