18 And 2acharia8 said imto the angel, Wherebv shall I know this? for I am an old man, and mj wife well stricken in yean.
19 And the angel answering said nnto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God ; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
20 And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed!, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
21 And the people waited for Zach- •rias, and manrelled that he tarried so long in the temple.
22 And when he oame iont, he eould
not speak unto them : and the^ per- ceived that he had seen a yision in , the temple : for he beckoned unto them, aiid remained speechless.
23 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.
24 And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and nid herself five months, saying,
25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.
We sea in this pa^^age, the power of unbeUef in a good man. Sighteous and holy as Zacharias was, the an* nouncement of the angel appears to him incredible. He cannot think it possible that an old man like himself should have a son. "Whereby shall I know this?" he says, " for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years."
A well-instructed Jew, like Zachfuias, ought not to have raised such a question. I^o doubt he was well acquainted with the Old Testament Scriptures. He ought to have remembered the wonderful births of Isaac, and Samson, and Samuel in old times. He ought to hare remembered that what God has dcme once, he can do again, and that with Him nothing is impossible. But he forgot all this* Qe tiiought of nothing but the argmnents of mere human reason and sense. And it often happens in religious matters, that wheore reason b^ins, &ith ends.
Let us leam wisdom from the fault of Zacharias. It is a fault to which God's people in every 3ge have been 9adly liable. The hifitori^ of Abi!ahain« and Jsm^m aad