134. The Prayer Of Anna.
The Prayer Of Anna. The Prayer as recorded.—Luke 2:36-38. The union of old age and piety is always attractive. It is a peaceful twilight after a long and busy day; life mellowed into ripeness; the “start and the flush, and the idle dream all over,” and a temporary calm for the soul ere it takes its journey toward its everlasting home. The sketch of the character and life of Anna in the Bible furnish materials for an interesting biography, and to the Christian one of peculiar attractiveness. Lonely and desolate, and yet not lonely and desolate, although for many years a widow, she had chosen that Friend for her guide who is the “God of the widow, and father of the fatherless.”
Anna was a woman of prayer, living near to the temple, and as we are not told of her having any family, we find her devoting herself to God, free from the vexations incident upon domestic duties. It does not seem to have been necessary for her to be careful and anxious about anything but the spiritual welfare of herself and people, not that these things should exempt any from the duties they owe to God, for there are few who cannot imitate Anna in her daily stated times of prayer, and though domestic duties may crowd and press us sometimes, like the traveler who stops to take necessary rest and food, we may still keep on our journey, if we gather daily strength for it from prayer. This devoted Christian came into the temple at the time of Simeon’s prayer; her eyes were permitted to gaze on the “Hope of Israel,” the infant Savior.
Like an active Christian she spake of him to the pious remnant of her people; spoke of redemption and its wondrous plan—“out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” It is but a poor, paltry excuse the Christian offers that he has no gift of speech in this matter, that his tongue is sealed in silence, when careless sinners are all around them. Is your soul full of love to your God, and can you not tell of it to the dying, perishing children of men? Is your heart bursting with the riches of his grace, which He has poured into your otherwise ruined soul, and are your lips sealed, and that grace a secret you are shutting within the portals of your own heart? We have some excuse to make for natural diffidence, but the grace of God will make the “righteous as bold as a lion.” Learn timid Christian to fear your God, not man—poor, puny worm of the dust, bound to an eternity of misery or happiness. Oh, it is time the closed lips of the Christian should be unsealed. Ye, who are young, look at the aged Anna. Tell me not of experience and years in her case fitting her more than you for God’s work; there is no such thing as age in Christian life. The moment a sinner believes, he has a heart full of rich treasures God bids him dispense among the famishing and hungry. Anna had been a working, active, devoted, prayerful Christian all her life long; this brought her a serene and quiet old age. Life was full of pleasant memories—her prayers were stored in heaven. Would you be like Anna imitate her example; neglect not the little circle where two or three are gathered to worship God; neglect not the holy sanctuary, neglect not the duties of the closet —and your experience will be sweet; “Age cannot wither you;” and when “thy summons comes,” like “one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him,” you shall “lie down to pleasant dreams.”