A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Elisabeth, wife of Zacharias
ELISABETH,
Wife of Zacharias, and the mother of John the Baptist. St. Luke says that she was of the daughters of, Aaron, of the race of priests. Her ready faith, and rejoicing acknowledgment of the "Lord" shew the warm soul of a pious woman. "Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost;" that is, inspired to understand that her young cousin, Mary the virgin, would become the mother of the Messiah. Thus was the Saviour foretold, welcomed and adored by a woman, before he had taken the form of humanity. This tender sensibility to divine truth, when mysteriously manifested, has never been thus fully understood, and fondly cherished, by any man. Do not these examples shew, conclusively, that the nature of woman is most in harmony with heavenly things? See St. Luke, chap. i.