Joachim took a lamb
without spot or blemish ...; and when he had made sacrifice of it, the
angel of the Lord disappeared and ascended into heaven; and Joachim
fell upon the earth in great fear, and lay from the sixth hour until
the evening."

This is evidently nothing more than a very vapid imitation of the
scriptural narrative of the appearances of angels to Abraham and
Manoah. But Giotto has put life into it; and I am aware of no other
composition in which so much interest and awe has been given to the
literal "burnt sacrifice." In all other representations of such
offerings which I remember, the interest is concentrated in the
_slaying_ of the victim. But Giotto has fastened on the _burning_ of
it; showing the white skeleton left on the altar, and the fire still
hurtling up round it, typical of the Divine wrath, which is "as a
consuming fire;" and thus rendering the sacrifice a more clear and
fearful type not merely of the outward wounds and death of Christ, but
of his soul-suffering. "All my bones are out of joint: my heart is
like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."[15]

[Footnote 15: (Note by a friend):--"To me the most striking part of it
is, that the skeleton is _entire_ ('a bone of him shall not be
broken'), and that the head stands up still looking to the skies: is
it too fanciful to see a meaning in this?"]

The hand of the Deity is seen in the heavens--the sign of the Divine
Presence.

* * * * *

V.

THE ANGEL (RAPHAEL) APPEARS TO JOACHIM.

"Now Joachim being in this pain, the Lord God, Father of mercy, who
abandons not his servants, nor ever fails to console them in their
distresses, if they pray for his grace and pity, had compassion on
Joachim, and heard his prayer, and sent the angel Raphael from heaven
to earth to console him, and announce to him the nativity of the
Virgin Mary. Therefore the angel Raphael appeared to Joachim, and
comforted him with much peace, and foretold to him the birth of the
Virgin in that glory and gladness, saying, 'God save you, O friend of
God, O Joachim! the Lord has sent me to declare to you an everlasting
joy, and a hope that shall have no end.'... And having finished these
words, the angel of the Lord disappeared from him, and ascended into
the heaven." (MS. Harl.)

The passage which I have omitted is merely one of the ordinary
Romanist accounts of the immaculate conception of the Virgin, put
into the form of prophecy. T