each side of the altar, the musicians bearing their instruments. Then the ceremony began as usual. One priest ascended the steps, and lifting the corner of the great veil entered the holy place to fetch away from the golden altar the ashes of the morning incense. Another took the golden censer which hung at the horn of the brazen altar and filled it with live charcoal from the pure consecrated fire maintained at the southeast corner of the altar; and then he also entered within the veil to place the live coals on the altar of incense for the new offering. Meanwhile a Levite had brought out from the chamber of the Temple in which the incense was prepared and stored, a covered golden vessel containing a portion of it. The priest to whom the honour had fallen by lot of making the actual offering took the allotted quantity on a golden salver, and entered within the veil. A moment after the Prefect of the Temple, who presided over the sacrifices, sounded the signal for the offering.

The people could not see into the holy place, so as to witness the actual offering; but all knew well what was behind the veil, and in what the ceremony of the offering consisted.

In the Holy Place was the golden table on the right hand bearing the twelve loaves of the Shew bread. On the left the tall seven-branched golden candlestick, with its seven lamps burning. In front, before the second veil which screened the entrance into the

C

Most Holy place, stood the golden altar of incense. with the fire already burning on it.

The priest's duty was to pour the incense from his salver upon the live coals, and as the fragrant cloud rose and spread through the house, to retire slowly backward with an obeisance to the Divine Presence secluded within the dark1 mysterious solitude of the Most Holy Place. Then, having emerged again from behind the veil, his duty was to turn to the people, and standing there on the top of the flight of twelve steps, framed within the lofty golden doorway, with the veil of blue and fine linen and scarlet and purple forming a rich background to his simple white robes, to lift his hands, while the people knelt before him on the marble pavement, and to pronounce the solemn blessing which God had commanded :

"The Lord Bless you and Keep you.

"The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

"The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."

Then the Levite choir burst forth with the chanting of the evening Psalms.

On this evening the priest entered the Holy place, and the people outside waited for his reappearance;

1 The second Temple is said to have lacked the Shekinah, the luminous appearance over the Mercy Seat which in the first Temple formed the visible symbol of God's presence.

the Levite musicians handled their harps, and the people watched in breathless silence, ready to prostrate themselves to receive the Blessing. But he did not come. It was his duty not to delay, lest the people should fear that he had been struck dead for some failure in his office. But minute after minute passed and he did not come. At length, after a time which seemed long to the anxious spectators, he came hastily forth with marks of agitation, and instead of giving the usual blessing, he made signs to them that he had seen a vision in the Holy Place, and had been struck speechless. Perhaps he gave the blessing in dumb' show, with extended hands, and the service concluded as usual, and the worshippers dispersed to wonder at the portent.

This was what had happened within the veil. The priest to whom had fallen by lot to offer the incense was named Zacharias; and his wife, who was also of the sacred family, was named Elizabeth. "They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the law blameless. And they had no child, because that Elizabeth was, barren, and they both were now well stricken in years."

When Zacharias had entered into the Holy Place to offer the incense, "there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense," and when Zacharias saw him he was troubled

and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, "Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard." We infer that the aged priest had not ceased to hope and pray for offspring, and perhaps at this holiest time, when his office permitted him to stand before the presence of God and minister before Him, he had taken the opportunity again to prefer his request:-" Thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son." Then the angel went on to declare the great destiny which awaited the child. John, and thou shalt have shall rejoice at his birth. sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord:" ie., he shall be a Nazarite, filled from his birth with the Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets of old; a great religious reformer; the forerunner of the Messiah predicted by Malachi in the last words of ancient prophecy. Thus the spirit of prophecy in

"Thou shalt call his name

joy and gladness, and many For he shall be great in the

1 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers."--Malachi iv. 5, 6.

breaking its long silence of 300 years, takes up in the first words of the new revelation the last words of the old, and binds them into a continuous revelation.

Zacharias, troubled and awed by the unexpected apparition, with the natural slowness of age to believe in any departure from the common order, expressed his doubt:

"Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years."

And the angel answered in words which make us think that angels may feel some sense of offended dignity:

"I am Gabriel, that stand in the Presence of God," one of the most honcured and trusted of the servants of the Great King, "and I am sent (by God) to speak unto thee and to shew thee these glad tidings. And behold thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season."1

And so it was that the priest emerged from behind. the veil agitated and unable to speak the Evening Benediction.

'It is said "of Abraham, when he was promised a son in his old age, that, being not weak in faith . . . he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief” (Rom. iv. 19, 20). Zacharias was weak in faith and staggered at the promise, and asked for confirmation of it.