barred, and swing heavily open before the swelling tide of worshipers.

In they roll, billow after billow, till the vast area of the court of Israel becomes a sea of turbans.

Meanwhile, the victim is slain and prepared, the altar of incense behind the first vail cleansed, and the sacred lamps are trimmed. The lot is again thrown for the offering of incense, a duty which no priest performed more than once in his life, so great was their number.

Zacharias, with deep emotion, for which he yet can scarce offer any reason, receives that appointment, and proceeds, suppressing his emotions, gravely toward the Holy Place, his assistant ringing by the way the great megemphita, or temple bell; a species probably of gong, to summon absent priests to duty.

Now, himself bearing the holy incense, and his assistant a censer of gold containing some of the holy fire from the great altar, they enter by the porch into the sanctuary. By the light of those ever-burning lamps, the assistant deposits the censer upon the small golden altar, which stands just before the mysterious second vail, and retires.

Zacharias remains standing motionless a brief space, when the tinkle of a small silver

bell, ringing without, is heard. At that signal he casts the incense on the fire, and while the whole congregation without are bowing in prayer, a cloud of perfume rises and rolls above, shrouding the Most Holy Place.

After the usual solemn pause of devotion, as the aged priest prepares to depart, a rushing of wings arrests his attention, and an intense brilliance flashes through the wreathing vapor of the incense, whereat the sacred lamps grow pale. An angel stands by the altar, with halffolded, quivering wing, lustrous as a star, beautiful as heaven.

"Fear not, Zacharias," says a voice of unearthly sweetness, "thy prayer is heard. Thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. Thy joy and rejoicing shall he be, and many shall be glad at his birth; for he shall be great before the LORD, and wine and strong liquors shall he not drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb; and many of the children of Israel shall he turn unto the LORD their GOD, before whom he shall go in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and unbelievers to the wisdom of the just, and to make ready a people prepared for the LORD."

"By what token," asks the trembling priest, losing for the moment all his faith in the conflict of emotions within, "by what token shall I be assured of this; I, who am an old man, and my wife so far advanced in years?"

"I am GABRIEL !" is the stern reply, “who stand in the presence of God!"

And the mortal quails at the rebuke for having doubted the truth of one so high and pure.

"I am sent unto thee," he continues, in a milder voice, "to speak unto thee, and to tell thee these glad tidings. Lo! therefore, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day when these things come to pass, because thou hast not believed my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season."

Thus giving the required sign, yet so as at the same time to impress deeply on the mind. the veracity of the heavenly hosts, and how great a crime a mortal is guilty of who doubts their lightest word, the glorious messenger vanishes, and Zachariah remains lost in amazement.

"This—this, then," he thinks, "is that which weighed so heavily on my soul! This is that which was spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, I will send unto you Elijah the prophet before that great and terrible day of the Lord!"

"Rejoice, O Zion! the day-star is rising, the harbinger of peace is already upon the mountains!"

"Now, Roman, tremble, with all thy iron legions. Jehovah shall dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel!"

While these and similar reflections throng his exulting mind, the multitude without are waiting his appearance. Attracted by the unusual delay, they press from the other sides, in a dense mass, into the eastern porches; every face expectant, every eye fastened on the sacred door. The living flame is glowingly consuming the sacrifice, and the smoke ascends aloft and curls above the battlements. Whispers, like the sighing of the breeze, pass across the surface.

"Why tarrieth the priest? Hath not some evil befallen him? Hath not the Lord broken forth upon him and slain him, even as he slew Uzzah in the days of David?"

But now the doors open. Pale and trembling, he totters forward upon the porch above the area, supported by his assistants, and they stretch forth their hands above the assembly below.

A pause ensues- -a breathless stillness.

In vain does Zachariah strive to utter the

customary benediction. Realizing for the first time the infliction of the angel-threatened penalty, he buries his face in his robe, with tears of mingled grief and triumph, while one of the others takes up the blessing, and says,

"The LORD bless thee and keep thee!

"The LORD make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee!

"The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace!"

This done, Zachariah hastily retires to his room in another part of the vast and complex edifice, followed by many of the priests, who eagerly inquire into the circumstances of the case. By signs and by writing, they gradually obtain the outlines of the wonderful vision, so far as the subject of it will allow. These rapidly spread from mouth to mouth through the whole sacerdotal order, creating a sensation most profound. Such direct and heavenly presence has been unknown within those solemn walls for now these many hundreds of years! And the voice of God in his temple, or of an angel messenger, fills every bosom with a shuddering awe! The news, and the sensation it produces, flies beyond the priest's court, the court of the women, and pervades the whole assembly.

And when the remaining ceremonies of of