t there was no need for fear, and the
announcement that their prayer was heard. It must have been like hearing
news that a ship, long overdue and almost despaired of, has suddenly made
harbour.

It is not impossible that prayers that we have ceased to pray, and are in
despair about, will yet return to us with the words, _Thy supplication is
heard_, endorsed on them in our Father's handwriting. Not infrequently
dividends are paid on investments which we have given up as valueless.
Fruit that mellows longest in the sun is ripest. Such things may
transcend altogether our philosophy of prayer; but we are prepared for
this, since God is accustomed to do exceeding abundantly above all that
we ask or think.

On his arrival in his home, the aged priest, by means of the
writing-table afterwards referred to, informed his wife, who apparently
had not accompanied him, of all that had happened, even to the name which
the child was to bear, She, at least, seems to have found no difficulty
in accepting the divine assurance, and during her five months of
seclusion she nursed great and mighty thoughts in her heart, in the
belief and prayer that her child would become all that his name is
supposed to signify, _the gift of Jehovah_. It was Elisabeth also who
recognised in Mary the mother of her Lord, greeted her as blessed among
women, and assured her that there would be for her a fulfilment of the
things which had been promised her.

Month succeeded month, but Zacharias neither heard nor spoke. His
friends had to make signs to him, for unbelief has the effect of shutting
man out of the enjoyment of life, and hindering his usefulness. How
different this time of waiting from the blessedness it brought to his
wife's young relative, who believed the heavenly messenger. He was
evidently a good man, and well versed in the history of his people. His
soul, as we learn from his song, was full of noble pride in the great and
glorious past. He could believe that when Abraham and Sarah were past
age, a child was born to _them_, who filled their tent with his merry
prattle and laughter; but he could not believe that such a blessing could
fall to his lot. And is not that the point where our faith staggers
still? We can believe in the wonder-working power of God on the distant
horizon of the past, or on the equally distant horizon of the future; but
that He should have a definite and particular care for _our_ life, that
_our_ prayers shou