Lo this, we have searched it, and know thou it for thy good. Job v. 26, 27. Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Genesis xv. 15: Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. Isaiah xliii. 1-3. Go thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. Daniel xii. 13. It shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. Zechariah xiv. 7. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 1 Thessalonians iv. 14. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Isaiah liv. 10. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Revelation ii. 10. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 1 Corinthians vii. 1. Note. Reading the 119th Psalm by sections, you will perceive how charmingly David mixed his faith with the word and the promises of his God, and thus derived strength and consolation under the variety of his afflictions. May the Spirit of the Lord help you to do the same, and you will, with Sarah, the wife of Abraham, judge him faithful who had promised. THE BIBLE. Give me the Bible in my hand, THE WIDOW ANNA. The Hope of Earth so long predicted, The visiou of the Lamb behold! Citelto. GIVE me leave to introduce this venerable old widow to the attention of my female readers. Her history is short, but it is like a finely executed miniature, the more it is contemplated the more it will be admired, and inspire a desire in others to imitate. The Evangelist Luke has preserved her history in his second chapter, which only occupies three verses, perhaps the shortest space of any other person recorded in the Bible. Her name is Anna, which signifies gracious, and her character evinces the most charming and abundant grace of God, which was communicated to her heart. It pleased God, who decrees the time for a man to be born, as well as a time for a man to die, that Anna should have the honour of living at the very time when God should send forth his Son to be the Redeemer and Saviour of his people, and that she should enjoy the felicity of a personal sight of him in his infancy, just before she closed her aged eyes in death. I. Let us first inquire concerning her family connexions. She was the daughter of Phanuel, who was supposed to have been a devout man of high esteem; his name signifying "the face of God." If his religious character corresponded with the import of his name, he could not but have been held in high estimation, for honourable and happy must be that man on whom the face of God shines, and whose constant delight is to walk in the light of God's countenance! The name, therefore, of this man is here preserved as an honour to himself, and as reflecting the most deserving praise on his pious daughter. Phanuel is said to be of the tribe of Aser, the same with Asher, the very tribe on which Moses pronounced the following benediction: Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deuteronomy xxxiii. 24, 25. Whatever it may have been with the father, it appears that Anna his daughter was no stranger to the virtues of that ancient benediction, for as her many days were, so was her strength from the God of Asher. She is further said to be a widow, having endured the greatest of all natural afflictions, by resigning the object of her earthly affections to the cold recess of the grave; still her MAKER was her better husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name; and she resolved to consecrate her widowed days to his honour and service. Happy is that forlorn widow who has an ear and a heart open to the voice of the Almighty, who hath said, I am a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless. Thus, although she may resolve to wear the widow's weeds till they drop off in death, yet she has reason to rejoice in the better garments of God's salvation. II. Luke informs us that Anna was of a great age, I would suppose much older than was generally the lot of females to live at that time. She was a widow of about fourscore and four years; and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity. From this statement, without adverting to the age when the Jews considered their daughters marriageable, we will say, that she married at the age of twenty, seven years she lived with her husband, and then continued in widowhood eightyfour years, of course her full age at this time must have been one hundred and eleven. This is the greatest period of longevity recorded in the New Testament. Whether this was her real age or not, it is of greater consequence to know that the beauty of old persons is their gray hair, and that the hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. Therefore, III. We will proceed to examine the marks of Anna's piety. She was a constant attendant on the public worship of the Lord, and she departed not from the temple night and day, that is, I presume |