IT has often been remarked that Luke’s Gospel “opens with a burst of melody.” The angels, Mary, Elisabeth, Zacharias, Simeon, Anna, and the shepherds, are all found praising and adoring the God of all grace who has raised up in the house of David, a Redeemer for His people. Mary’s song, that which we commonly call, “The Magnificat,” is a wondrous expression of her sense of the goodness of God, in providing, through her, a Saviour not only for the race, but for herself. She sings as one who recognizes her own sinfulness by nature, but who rejoices in the divine provision for her salvation; she knew nothing of the Romish doctrine of her own immaculate conception. She gloried in being saved by grace.
“Let sinners saved give thanks and sing,
Salvation’s theirs and of the Lord;
They draw from heaven’s eternal spring,
The living God, their great reward.
Let sinners saved give thanks and sing,
Whom grace has kept in dangers past,
And oh sweet truth! the Lord will bring
His people safe to heaven at last.”
—T. Kelly.