very great. But Anna by grace overcame them all. She answered to the description given by St. Paul. She was "a widow indeed." (1 Tim. iv. 6.)
Anna was a woman who loved God's bouse. '* She departed not from the temple." She regarded it as the place where God especially dwelt, and toward which every pious Jew in foreign lands, like Daniel, loved to direct his prayers. "Nearer to God, nearer to God," was the desire of her heart, and she felt that she was never so near as within the walls which con- tained the ark, the altar, and the holy of holies. She could enter into David's words, "my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord." (Psalm Ixxxiv. 2.)
Anna was a woman of great self-denial. She " served God with fastings night and day." She was continually crucifying the flesh and keeping it in subjection by volun- tary abstemiousness. Being fully persuaded in her own mind that the practice was helpful to her soul, she spared no pains to keep it up.
Anna was a woman of -much prayer. She "served God with prayer night and day." She was continually communing with Him, as her best Friend, about the things that concerned her own peace. She was never weary of pleading with Him on behalf of others, and, above all, for the fulfilment of His promises of Messiah.
Anna was a woman who held communion with other saints. So soon aa she had seen Jesus, she "spake of Him" to others whom she knew in Jerusalem, and with whom she was evidently on friendly terms. There was a bond of union between her and all who enjoyed the
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same hope. They were servants of the same master, and travellers to the same home.
And Anna received a rich reward for all her diligence in God's service, before she left the world. She was allowed to see Him who had been so long promised, and for whose coming she had so often prayed. Her faith was at last changed to sight, and her hope to certainty. The joy of this holy woman must indeed have been " unspeakable and full of glory." (1 Peter i. 8.)
It would be well for all Christian women to ponder the character of Anna, and learn wisdom from it. The times, no doubt, are greatly changed. The social duties of the Christian are very different from those of the Jewish believer at Jerusalem. All are not placed by God in the condition of widows. But still, after every deduction, there remains much in Anna's history which is worthy of imitation. When we read of her consis- tency, and holiness, and prayerfulness, and self-denial, we cannot but wish that many daughters of the Christian Church would strive to be like her.
Let us observe, secondly, in these verses, the description given of saints in Jerusalem in the time when Jesus was horn. They were people "who looked for redemption."
Faith, we shall always find, is the universal character of God's elect. These men and women here described, dwelling in the midst of a wicked city, walked by faith, and not by sight. They were not carried away by the flood of worldliness, formality, and self-righteousness around them. They were not infected by the carnal expectations of a mere worldly Messiah, in which most Jews indulged. They lived in the faith of patriarchs