To My Mothers’ Mothers

MARY MAGDALENE 777 ing power, for each of them had been cured of infirmities, and specifically had been relieved of the combined physical and mental ailments incident to possession by evil spirits. Mary Magdalene, as we read, had been delivered from the affliction of seven devils; but the fact of even such grievous plague is with- out warrant for the imputation of unchastity. Mary Magdalene became one of the closest friends Christ had among women. Her devotion to Him as her Healer, and the One whom she adored as the Messiah, was as deep, as genuine, and as pure as her own soul. She stood by the cross while other women looked on from afar in the hour of His mortal agony. She was among the earliest at the tomb in the resurrection dawn. She conversed with angels, and was the first mortal to behold the resurrected Savior — the Lord whom she had loved with all the fervor of spiritual adoration. To say that this woman was once a fallen creature, her soul seared with the heat of unhal- lowed lust, is to perpetuate an infamy. To My Mother's Mothers (Inspired by Elder Stephen L. Richards' talk on Mother's Day, St. Joseph City, May 15, 1917.) I know that you had all life's greatest gifts: Love, motherhood and youth. I feel that death could only bring you all A fuller sense of truth. I see the glory in your heaven-lit eyes When children crowd my knee, And know that love's fulfilment came to you In motherhood for me. My daughter's happy, willing motherhood Revealed her debt anew — Whose thread of life was woven firm and close In shuttled web through you. And her dear daughter now but waits to prove Just debtor to that other Who bore thy child, and child's dear ancient child — My honored earliest mother. Thus linked, we mothers, bravely, nobly, use That ladder in earth's sod Whose springing rounds rise upward, one by one, To Eve, to heaven, and God. Susa Young Gates.