This son of Elizabeth is one of the most striking characters in the Bible. Destined from before his birth to be a prophet, his life was worthy of his high office. Pure, unsullied, earnest, fearless, humble, he much resembled his great predecessor, Elijah. Like him, he was an ascetic, and like him, he had his time of fearless outspeaking and of reproval of kings, and hypocrites; and like him, also, a time of depression, as when he sent to Christ to ask, “Art thou He that should come, or shall we look for another?” A noble example of the fearless manner in which he proclaimed the truth is illustrated in the denunciation of the unlawful marriage of Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch. He had married a daughter of Aretas, King of Petra, but seeing Herodias, the wife of his half brother, Philip, he became infatuated with her, divorced his own wife and married Herodias, who abandoned Philip to marry him. Herodias was a grand-daughter of Herod the Great. This unprincipled woman wrought the ruin of Herod Antipas. Aretas, angry at the treatment of his daughter, made war upon Herod. John reproved Herod for all this, and he evidently had not minced words. Neither had he spoken in such low whispers that he might seem to others to disapprove the crime, but still escape the notice of the king. He thundered out his denunciations in a way to make even the royal couple alarmed, and caused them to shut John up in prison, lest his growing popularity should undermine the security of Herod’s throne. And then Herodias secured the execution of John, which angered the Jews, for they counted John as a prophet and held the subsequent defeat of Herod by Aretas as a judgment upon him for this wicked deed. Such, in brief was the son of the most highly and signally honored Woman in White Raiment in sacred history, Mary, the mother of Jesus, only excepted. The strong faith of the pious Elizabeth, as developed in her noble son, has been a blessing to the whole race of man. The clear shining faith to grasp the promises of God are most beautifully exemplified in the pure, self-sacrificing, and devoted life of Elizabeth. Closely related to the events in the life of Elizabeth, as just narrated, is the birth of our blessed Lord. There is no person in sacred or in profane literature around whom so many legends have been grouped as around the Virgin Mary, and there are few whose authentic history is more concise. Doubtless the very simplicity of the sacred narrative has been one cause of the abundance of the legendary matter of which she forms the central figure. According to the genealogy given by Luke, which is that of Mary, her father’s name was Heli. She was, like Joseph, her husband, of the tribe of Judah, and of the house and lineage of David. We are informed that at the time of the angel’s visitation she was betrothed to Joseph and was therefore regarded by the Jewish law and custom as his wife, though he had not yet a husband’s rights over her.