The Lily of Israel: The Life of the Blessed Virgin

IN the golden days of happy childhood we all loved to read that sweet story of Our Lady's life called The Lily of Israel. The gentle narrative of holy souls was so entrancing and the sacred scenes so bathed in the colors of romance that our hearts were captivated and our souls filled with spiritual gladness.Alas! when in riper years we turned once more the dear old pages, something was wanting—something seemed amiss. The story was still interesting, still fascinating, but again and again we found ourselves sad at heart. Now it was the strange use of a word; then it was the unhappy turn of a phrase; again it was some marvellous incident related with a certain glowing enthusiasm which carried its writer beyond the confines of credibility, when there was no apparent reason either for invention or rhapsody.As a natural consequence many lovers of Our Lady have been longing for just such a work as the publishers here present to us, possessing all the charm of the old version while retaining nothing that might make the judicious grieve. The writer of this new version has performed a difficult task with that sureness of touch which comes from long literary experience and with that refinement of sympathy which betokens the labor of love. The greatest care has been taken to correct some errors in geographical situations and bring the whole narrative of events into strict conformity with Biblical facts. Texts of Scripture, which in the old version were translated directly from the French, are here given in the more familiar words of our own Bible, and the whole work, while adhering as closely as possible to the original, is presented in a new dress, worthy of the advance which has been made in Catholic literature during the last twenty years. Hence it is now a real prose poem that can be read and enjoyed by young and old alike, with never a fear that any page will cause the most critical to wish it had been written in a vein of less imaginative fervor. Read more