24. The following extract from Yalkut (vol. i. p. 113 d, close) affords a curious
illustration of this Divine communication from beside the altar of incense: 'From what
place did the Shekhinah speak to Moses? R. Nathan said: From the altar of incense,
according to Ex. xxx. 6. Simeon ben Asai said: From the side of the altar of incense.'
25. Ber. 7 a.
26. According to the Talmud, Ishmael once went into the innermost Sanctuary, when he
had a vision of God, Who called upon the priest to pronounce a benediction. The token of
God's acceptance had better not be quoted.
27. Jer. Yoma 42 c.
28. Instances of an analogous kind frequently occur in the Apocryphal Gospels.
It was true to this state of semi-consciousness, that the Angel first awakened within
Zacharias the remembrance of life- long prayers and hopes, which had now passed into
the background of his being, and then suddenly startled him by the promise of their
realisation. But that Child of so many prayers, who was to bear the significant name of
John (Jehochanan, or Jochanan), 'the Lord is gracious,' was to be the source of joy and
gladness to a far wider circle than that of the family. This might be called the first rung of
the ladder by which the Angel would take the priest upwards. Nor was even this followed
by an immediate disclosure of what, in such a place, and from such a messenger, must
have carried to a believing heart the thrill of almost unspeakable emotion. Rather was
Zacharias led upwards, step by step. The Child was to be great before the Lord; not only
an ordinary, but a life-Nazarite,29 as Samson and Samuel of old had been. Like them, he
was not to consecrate himself, but from the inception of life wholly to belong to God, for
His work. And, greater than either of these representatives of the symbolical import of
Nazarism, he would combine the twofold meaning of their mission - outward and inward
might in God, only in a higher and more sp iritual sense. For this life-work he would be
filled with the Holy Ghost, from the moment life woke within him. Then, as another
Samson, would he, in the strength of God, lift the axe to each tree to be felled, and, like
another Samuel, turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. Nay,
combining these two missions, as did Elijah on Mount Carmel, he should, in accordance
with prophecy, 30 precede the Messianic manifestation, and, not indeed in the person or
form, but in the spirit and power of Elijah, accomplish the typical meaning of his mission,
as on that day of decision it had risen as the burden of his prayer31 - that is, in the words
of prophecy,32 'turn the heart of the fathers to the children,' which, in view of the coming
dispensation, would be 'the disobedient (to walk ) in the wisdom of the just.'33 Thus would
this new Elijah 'make ready for the Lord a people prepared.'
29. On the different classes of Nazarites, see 'The Temple, &c.,' pp. 322 -331.
30. Mal.
iii. 1.