When the friends of Zacharias wished to give the infant his father's name, Elisabeth spoke out at once, and said, "He shall be called John." This surprised them so much, that they at once asked Zacharias "how he would have him called." Zacharias immediately, by signs, asked for a writing-table, or rather for a tablet, upon which to write, and then wrote down, "His name is John. And they marvelled all." They must have marvelled, or wondered, still more, when suddenly Zacharias recovered his power of speaking; for "his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God." Now he could tell all that had happened to him, and how his unbelief in the Angel's promise had been punished by temporary dumbness. "And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judæa: and all they that heard" these things "laid them up in their hearts": took notice of them, and remembered them, "saying, What manner of child shall this be!" The extraordinary events connected with the birth of John, made all men believe that a child so born must be intended to do great things during his lifetime. Zacharias, inspired by the Holy Spirit, then uttered the hymn called "The Benedictus," sometimes said in our Churches after the second Lesson in the Morning Service, instead of the Psalm (c.), "Jubilate Deo," also belonging to our Liturgy. In this hymn, Zacharias praised and blessed God for the coming of the Saviour; and then, addressing the unconscious infant John, he foretold that he should be the messenger to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, and incline men to listen to, and believe in, Him. Of John's infancy and childhood we are told nothing, except that he grew in body, and waxed strong in spirit, and that "the hand of the Lord was with him." "And he was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel." He passed a quiet and retired life, until he was called upon to baptize the people, and point to the Son of Mary as the Son of God; the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Chapter II.--BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST. Mary and her husband Joseph lived at Nazareth, a town in Galilee not far from the lake of Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee; and the prophets had declared that the Messiah should be born in "Bethlehem of Judah," a small place to the South of Jerusalem, nearly a hundred miles from Nazareth. That Mary should take such a long journey to a strange place, instead of staying quietly at home until her Child was born, was the most unlikely thing that could well be imagined. Here, therefore, we again see how wonderfully the Lord rules all things, and makes use of people who know nothing of Him, to do what He wills should be done. God now made use of a heathen Emperor, to accomplish His will, that Jesus Christ should be born in Bethlehem.