I. Is It Lawful To Honor Her? 179 Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast, Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween, Not unforgiven, the suppliant knee might bend As to a visible power, in which did blend All that was mixed and reconciled in thee Of mother's love with maiden purity, Of high with low, celestial with serene." To honor one who has been the subject of divine, angelic and saintly panegyric is to use a privilege, and the privilege is heightened into a sacred duty when we remember that the spirit of prophecy foretold that she should ever be the unceasing theme of Christian eulogy as long as Christianity itself would exist. "Honor he is worthy of, whom the king hath a mind to honor."250 The King of kings hath honored Mary; His divine Son did not disdain to be subject to her, therefore should we honor her, especially as the honor we pay to her redounds to God, [181] the source of all glory. The Royal Prophet, than whom no man paid higher praise to God, esteemed the friends of God worthy of all honor: "To me Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable."251 Now the dearest friends of God are they who most faithfully keep His precepts: "You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you."252 Who fulfilled the divine precepts better than Mary, who kept all the words of her Son, pondering them in her heart? "If any man minister to me," says our Savior, "him will My Father honor."253 Who ministered more constantly to Jesus than Mary, who discharged towards Him all the offices of a tender mother? Ps. cxxxviii. (In Protestant version, Ps. cxxxix.)