HOWEVER dark the national picture we can always find a faithful remnant who fear the Lord, and wait for the tokens of His Hand. We read of them as the Old Dispensation closes amid the darkness and sorrow in which the just retribution of God had left them: "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his Name; and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." Four hundred years pass, years of conflict, heroism, and intrigue, and when the light of divine revelation shines once more on the Jewish scene, we find the remnant still there, Mary and Joseph, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, and others whose names are recorded in the Book of Life.

MELVA PURKIS, A Life of Jesus, page 19