Let these glorious expectations revive our failing courage amidst the conflicts of life. Let us not despair, though we may weep over the companions of our pilgrimage, slain at our side by the irresistible stroke of death. The separation is transitory--the reunion will be eternal. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." Such as are opposite in character to Zacharias and Elizabeth, and who are "walking in _none_ of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord," should reflect on the misery of their condition, as utterly destitute of all those hopes and privileges which have been described. Who instituted these ordinances?--who gave these commandments?--whose authority is it you dare despise?--or who has released you from your obligations to this authority?--what madness induces you to fly in the face of God--to measure your power against the sword of Omnipotence? O, remember--"the wages of sin is death!" Anna. Chapter III. Introduction of Anna into the sacred Story--inspired Description of her--the aged apt to be unduly attached to Life--Anna probably Religious at an early Period--Religion the most substantial Support amidst the Infirmities of Age--the most effectual Guard against its Vices--and the best Preparation for its End. Two illustrious women have already been presented to the reader as adorning the era of our Saviour's incarnation; the one, the mother of his humanity, the witness of his miracles, and the weeping attendant upon his crucifixion; the other, her venerable relative, the wife of Zacharias, and the parent of John, who was the destined precursor of the "Desire of all nations." We are now to contemplate another female, whose age superadds a charm to her excellences, and whose privilege also it was to witness the commencing brightness of the evangelical day. Like Elizabeth, her "memorial" is short, but it does not "perish with her." She has a place in the chronicles of the redeemed, a name before which that of heroes and heroines fades away, and which it requires no "storied urn nor animated burst" to perpetuate.