VISION, IN SACRED AND OTHER HISTORY. 



95 



own souls in connection with that transcendent event, at a given 

 point of time, in the home of Nazareth ; and he did not hesitate to 

 quote his own experience of former years, as he had sat and gazed 

 upon the " Sistine Madonna " of Raphael in the Dresden Gallery, 

 until the holy figures seemed to grow into life upon the canvas, and 

 those beautiful lips appeared to move spontaneously with the Magni- 

 ficat anima mea Domimwi, and " inspiration " seemed to be a very 

 real thing. 



Lieut.-Colonel M. A. Alves said : I cannot agree with the reader of 

 the paper in considering the vision of Joan of Arc as being parallel 

 to that of the Virgin Mary ; nor, even from a Roman Catholic point 

 of view, in the statement that the Rabbinic is the only authority for 

 the existence of angels. Allusions to them are made in all of the 

 three great divisions of the Old Testament, and also in the New. 



Of angels, two are mentioned by name; Gabriel was sent with 

 personal messages to Daniel, Zacharias, and Mary. To each of 

 these there was at least one objective vision. 



Michael is called in Jude "the archangel"; no other of that title 

 is mentioned in Scripture. In the Old Testament he is called the 

 " Prince " of Daniel's people. 



That people at present is shelved ; and " The Church of God " has 

 taken its place. A hint at this is given in i Thess. iv, 16, "the 

 voice of the archangel." 



But neither to Daniel, the man greatly beloved, does Michael 

 come with messages, nor to the highly favoured Mary. 



Seeing then that, both in England and in France, the holders of 

 the pure faith had to hide their heads, it is pretty certain that Joan 

 could not have had a visit from Gabriel, still less from Michael. 

 Her vision, like those of Timour the Lame, must have been purely 

 subjective ; and although I have no doubt that God's hand was in 

 the matter to separate England from France, and to shame both 

 countries by making a woman the deliverer of the latter, I cannot 

 compare Joan with Mary. 



What was Mary's sacrifice and the sword that should pierce her 

 soul 1 I do not think that it was either the pangs of childbirth or 

 her Divine Son's sufferings on the Cross. We must put ourselves 

 in her place, and, I may add, Joseph's also. 



Mary's innocent and matter-of-fact question to the Angel shows 

 that she had no idea of a heavenly visitant and miraculous 



