ld touch Him, that He should give us the desire of our
heart--this staggers us, and we feel it is too good to be true.

During the whole period that the stricken but expectant priest spent in
his living tomb, shut off from communication with the outer world, his
spirit was becoming charged with holy emotion, that waited for the first
opportunity of expression. Such an opportunity came at length. His
lowly dwelling was one day crowded with an eager and enthusiastic throng
of relatives and friends. They had gathered to congratulate the aged
pair, to perform the initial rite of Judaism, and to name the infant boy
that lay in his mother's arms. Ah, what joy was hers when they came to
"magnify the Lord's mercy towards her, and to rejoice with her"! As the
people passed in and out, there was a new glow in the brilliant eastern
sunlight, a new glory on the familiar hills.

In their perplexity at the mother's insistence that the babe's name
should be John--none of his kindred being known by that name--they
appealed to his father, who with trembling hand inscribed on the wax of
the writing tablet the verdict, "His name is John." So soon as he had
broken the iron fetter of unbelief in thus acknowledging the fulfilment
of the angel's words, "his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue
loosed, and he spake, blessing God. And fear came on all that dwelt
round about them." All these sayings quickly became the staple theme of
conversation throughout all the hill-country of Judaea; and wherever they
came, they excited the profoundest expectation. People laid them up in
their hearts, saying, "What, then, shall this child be?"

"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit." "And the hand of the
Lord was with him."

There were several remarkable formative influences operating on this
young life.

I. THE SCHOOL OF HOME.--_His father was a priest_. John's earliest
memories would register the frequent absence of his father in the
fulfilment of his course; and, on his return, with what eagerness would
the boy drink in a recital of all that had transpired in the Holy City!
We can imagine how the three would sit together beneath their trellised
vine, in the soft light of the fading sunset, and talk of Zion, their
chief joy. No wonder that in after days, as he looked on Jesus as He
walked, he pointed to Him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God"; for, from
the earliest, his young mind had been saturated with thoughts of
s