Joseph and the child’s mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him, as well they might, for here we only know in part; it is only gradually we acquire and come into the power of the truth we profess to acknowledge. Two things follow. To be associated with Christ in this world brings both blessing and sorrow, and this is here exemplified in Mary. Simeon had “blessed” God, and now he blessed them—Joseph and Mary; and then, addressing Mary, he said, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also); that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” God thus in tender grace, through His servant Simeon, prepared Mary for her child’s path of sorrow and rejection. And who can doubt that it was chiefly when she stood by the cross of Jesus, and beheld His sorrow, that the sword pierced through her own soul also? How merciful it is in the ways of God that it is only gradually we approach our sorrows, and that we find when they come upon us that they are “lustered with His love”! Mary would never forget these words, but pondering “them in her heart,” she would be constantly laying them out before God in her meditations and prayers. But, if through her life, she had to live under the shadow of the cross, she would find, we may be assured, ample compensation and sustenance in the company of her Son. There would be much she could not understand, but she would certainly rest in the knowledge that Jesus, Jehovah the Saviour, was with her, and hence that, in all the earth, there was no one endowed with such an unspeakable privilege and blessing. For His sake, and from love to Him, she would be enabled to survey the future, and to leave it all in the hands of Him who had chosen her for the path.