ry_.

LUKE, CHAP. I.

"5. There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea, a certain priest
named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters
of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

6. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

7. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren; and they both
were now well stricken in years.

8. And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before
God in the order of his course,

9. According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn
incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

10. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time
of incense.

11. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right
side of the altar of incense.

12. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

13. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias; for thy prayer is
heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shall call
his name John."

_Common Bible_, 1610.

See Dr. Johnson's History of the English Language, in his Quarto
Dictionary.

X. ANGLO-SAXON IN THE TIME OF KING ALFRED.

61. Alfred the Great, who was the youngest son of Ethelwolf, king of the
West Saxons, succeeded to the crown on the death of his brother Ethelred,
in the year 871, being then twenty-two years old. He had scarcely time to
attend the funeral of his brother, before he was called to the field to
defend his country against the Danes. After a reign of more than
twenty-eight years, rendered singularly glorious by great achievements
under difficult circumstances, he died universally lamented, on the 28th of
October, A. D. 900. By this prince the university of Oxford was founded,
and provided with able teachers from the continent. His own great
proficiency in learning, and his earnest efforts for its promotion, form a
striking contrast with the ignorance which prevailed before. "In the ninth
century, throughout the whole kingdom of the West Saxons, no man could be
found who was scholar enough to instruct the young king Alfred, then a
child, even in the first elements of reading: so that he was in his twelfth
year before he could name the letters of the alphabet. When that renowned
prince ascended the throne, he made it his study to draw his people out of
the sloth and stupidity in which they lay;