{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_25904/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_25904","id":"gutenberg_25904","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25904","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. New Testament -- Biography","Category: Biographies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","John the Baptist, Saint"],"text":"E-text prepared by Al Haines\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n   In the original book, each right-hand page had its own header.\n   In this e-book, each chapter's headers have been collected into\n   an introductory paragraph immediately following that chapter's\n   introductory poem.  (The left-hand pages' header was the\n   chapter's title.)\n\n\n\n\n\nJOHN THE BAPTIST\n\nby\n\nF. B. MEYER, B.A.\n\nAuthor of\nPaul: A Servant of Jesus Christ\nThe Prophet of Hope\nSaved and Kept\netc., etc\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLondon: Morgan and Scott\nOffice of The Christian\n12, Paternoster Buildings, E.C.\nAnd may be Ordered of any Bookseller\n1911\n\n\n\n\nBy Rev. F. B. MEYER, B.A.\n\n\n  THE \"BIOGRAPHICAL\" SERIES.\n\n  ABRAHAM: Or, The Obedience of Faith.\n  ISRAEL: A Prince with God.\n  JOSEPH: Beloved--Hated--Exalted.\n  MOSES: The Servant of God.\n  JOSHUA: And the Land of Promise.\n  DAVID: Shepherd, Psalmist, King.\n  ELIJAH: And the Secret of his Power.\n  JEREMIAH: Priest and Prophet.\n  JOHN THE BAPTIST.\n  PAUL: A Servant of Jesus Christ.\n\n\n\n\nPreface.\n\nThe life and character of John the Baptist have always had a great\nfascination for me; and I am thankful to have been permitted to write\nthis book.  But I am more thankful for the hours of absorbing interest\nspent in the study of his portraiture as given in the Gospels.  I know\nof nothing that makes so pleasant a respite from the pressure of life's\nfret and strain, as to bathe mind and spirit in the translucent waters\nof Scripture biography.\n\nAs the clasp between the Old Testament and the New--the close of the\none and the beginning of the other; as among the greatest of those born\nof women; as the porter who opened the door to the True Shepherd; as\nthe fearless rebuker of royal and shameless sin--the Baptist must ever\ncompel the homage and admiration of mankind.\n\nIn many respects, such a life cannot be repeated.  But the spirit of\nhumility and courage; of devotion to God, and uncompromising loyalty to\ntruth, which was so conspicuous in him, may animate us.  We, also, may\nbe filled with the spirit and power of Elijah, as he was; and may\npoint, with lip and life, to the Saviour of the world, crying, \"Behold\nthe Lamb of God.\"\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n    I.  THE INTEREST OF HIS BIOGRAPHY\n   II.  THE HOUSE OF ZACHARIAS\n  III.  HIS SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS\n   IV.  THE PROPHET OF THE HIGHEST\n    V.  THE FIRST MINISTRY OF THE BAPTIST\n   VI.  BAPTISM UNTO REPENTANCE\n  VII.  THE MANIFESTATION OF THE MESSIAH\n VIII.  NOT THAT LIGHT, BUT A WITNESS\n   IX.  \"HE MUST INCREASE, BUT I MUST DECREASE\"\n    X.  THE KING'S COURTS\n   XI.  \"ART THOU HE?\"\n  XII.  \"NONE GREATER THAN JOHN THE BAPTIST, YET...\"\n XIII.  A BURNING AND SHINING LIGHT\n  XIV.  SET AT LIBERTY\n   XV.  THE GRAVE OF JOHN, AND ANOTHER GRAVE\n  XVI.  YET SPEAKING\n XVII.  THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF ELIAS\n\n\n\n\nJOHN THE BAPTIST.\n\n\nI.\n\nThe Interest of his Biography.\n\n  \"John, than which man a sadder or a greater\n    Not till this day has been of woman born;\n  John, like some iron peak by the Creator\n    Fired with the red glow of the rushing morn.\n\n  \"This, when the sun shall rise and overcome it,\n    Stands in his shining, desolate and bare;\n  Yet not the less the inexorable summit\n    Flamed him his signal to the happier air.\"\n            F. W. H. MYERS.\n\n\nJohn and Jesus--Contemporary History--Anticipation of the Advent.\n\n\nThe morning star, shining amid the brightening glow of dawn, is the\nfittest emblem that Nature can supply of the herald who proclaimed the\nrising of the Sun of Righteousness--answering across the gulf of three\nhundred years to his brother prophet, Malachi, who had foretold that\nSunrise and the healing in His wings.\n\nEvery sign attests the unique and singular glory of the Baptist.  Not\nthat his career was signalized by the blaze of prodigy and wonder, like\nthe multiplication of the widow's meal or the descent of the fire of\nheaven to consume the altar and the wood; for it is expressly said that\n\"John did no miracle.\"  Not that he owed anything to the adventitious\ncircumstances of wealth and rank; for he was not a place-loving\ncourtier, \"clothed in soft raiment or found in kings' courts.\"  Not\nthat he was a master of a superb eloquence like that of Isaiah or\nEzekiel; for he was content to be only \"a cry\"--short, thrilling,\npiercing through the darkness, ringing over the desert plains.  Yet,\nhis Master said of him that \"among them that are born of women there\nhath not risen a greater than John the Baptist\"; and in six brief\nmonths, as one has noticed, the young prophet of the wilderness had\nbecome the centre to which all the land went forth.  We see Pharisees\nand Sadducees, soldiers and publicans, enthralled by his ministry; the\nSanhedrim forced to investigate his claims; the petty potentates of\nPalestine caused to tremble on their thrones; while he has left a name\nand an influence that will never cease out of the world.\n\nBut there is a further feature which arrests us in the life and\nministry of the Baptist.  He was ordained to be \"the clasp\" of two\ncovenants.  In him Judaism reached its highest embodiment, and the Old\nTestament found its noblest exponent.  It is significant, therefore,\nthat through his lips the law and the prophets should announce their\ntransitional purpose, and that he who caught up the torch of Hebrew\nprophecy with a grasp and spirit unrivalled by any before him, should\nhave it in his power and in his heart to say: \"The object of all\nprophecy, the purpose of the Mosaic law, the end of all sacrifices, the\ndesire of all nations, is at hand.\"  And forthwith turning to the True\nShepherd, who stood at the door waiting to be admitted, to Him the\nporter opened, bowing low as He passed, and crying: \"This is He of whom\nMoses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, who was\nfor to come.\"\n\nFew studies can bring out to clearer demonstration the superlative\nglory of Christ than a thoughtful consideration of the story of the\nforerunner.  They were born at the same time; were surrounded from\ntheir birth by similar circumstances; drank in from their earliest days\nthe same patriotic aspirations, the same sacred traditions, the same\nglowing hopes.  But the parallel soon stops.  John the Baptist is\ncertainly a grand embodiment of the noblest characteristics of the\nJewish people.  We see in him a conspicuous example of what could be\ndeveloped out of eight hundred years of Divine revelation and\ndiscipline.  But Jesus is the Son of Man: there is a width, a breadth,\na universality about Him which cannot be accounted for save on the\nhypothesis which John himself declared, that \"He who cometh from above\nis above all.\"\n\nIn each case, life was strenuous and short--an epoch being inaugurated,\nin the one case in about six months, in the other some three years.  In\neach case, at first, there was abounding enthusiasm, bursting forth\naround their persons as they announced the Kingdom of God, like the\nflowers which carpet their own fair land after the rains; but side by\nside the unconcealed hatred of the religious world of their time.  In\neach case, the brief sunny hours of service were soon succeeded by the\nrolling up of the thunderous clouds, and these by the murderous tempest\nof deadly hatred, even unto death: \"Their dead bodies lay in the street\nof the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt.\"  In\neach case, there was a little handful of detached disciples, who\nbitterly mourned their master's death, and took up the desecrated\ncorpse to lay it in the tomb; whilst they that dwelt in the earth\nrejoiced and made merry, and sent gifts to one another, because they\nhad been tormented by their words (Rev. xi. 10).\n\nBut there the parallel ends.  The life purpose of the one culminated in\nhis death; with the other, it only began.  In the case of John, death\nwas a martyrdom, which shines brilliantly amid the murky darkness of\nhis time; in the case of Jesus, death was a sacrifice which put away\nthe sin of the world.  For John there was no immediate resurrection,\nsave that which all good men have of their words and influence; but his\nMaster saw no corruption--it was not possible for Him to be holden by\nit--and in his resurrection He commenced to wield his wide and mighty\nsupremacy over human hearts and wills.  When the axe of Herod's\nexecutioner had done its deadly work in the dungeons of Machaerus, the\nbond which knit the disciples of John was severed also, and they were\nabsorbed in the followers of Christ; but when the Roman soldiers\nthought their work was done, and the cry \"It is finished!\" had escaped\nthe parched lips of the dying Lord, his disciples held together in the\nupper room, and continued there for more than forty days, until the\ndescent of the Holy Spirit formed them into the strongest organization\nthat this world has ever beheld.\n\nJohn's influence on the world has diminished as men have receded\nfurther from his age; but Jesus is King of the ages.  He creates, He\nfashions, He leads them forth; He is with us always, to the end of the\nage.  We have not to go back through the centuries to find Him in the\ncradle or in Mary's arms, in the fishing-boat or on the mountain, on\nthe cross or in the grave; He is _here_ beside us, with us, in us, \"all\nthe days.\"  John, then, was \"a burning and shining torch,\" lifted for a\nmoment aloft in the murky air; but Jesus was THAT LIGHT.  As the\nstar-light, which fails to illumine the page of your book or the\ndial-plate of your watch, is to the sunlight, as the courier is to the\nsovereign, as the streamlet is to the ocean--such was John as compared\nwith Him whose shoe-latchet he felt himself unworthy to stoop down and\nunloose.  Greatest born of women he might be; \"sent from God\" he was:\nbut One came after him who bore upon his front the designation of his\nDivine origin and mission, behind whom the gates of the past closed as\nwhen a king has passed through, and at whose girdle hang the keys of\nthe doors and gates of the Ages.\n\nTo read the calm idyllic pages of the Gospels, apart from some\nknowledge of contemporary history, is to miss one of their deepest\nlessons--that such piety and beneficence were set in the midst of a\nmost tumultuous and perilous age.  Those times were by no means\nfavourable to the cultivation of the deepest life.  The flock of God\nhad long left the green pastures and still waters of outward peace, and\nwere passing through the valley of death-shadow, every step of the path\nbeing infested by the enemies of their peace.  The wolf, indeed, was\ncoming.  The national life was already being rent by those throes of\nagony which betokened the passing away of an age, and reached their\nclimax in the Fall of Jerusalem, of which Jesus said there had been\nnothing, and would be nothing, like it in the history of the world.\n\nHerod was on the throne--crafty, cruel, sensual, imperious, and\nmagnificent.  The gorgeous Temple which bore his name was the scene of\npriestly service and sacramental rites.  The great national feasts of\nthe Passover, of Tabernacles, and of Pentecost, were celebrated with\nsolemn pomp, and attracted vast crowds from all the world.  In every\npart of the land synagogues were maintained with punctilious care, and\ncrowds of scribes were perpetually engaged in a microscopic study of\nthe law, and in the instruction of the people.  In revenue, and popular\nattention, and apparent devoutness, that period had not been excelled\nin the most palmy days of Solomon or Hezekiah.  But beneath this\ndecorous surface the rankest, foulest, most desperate corruption throve.\n\nTo the aged couple in the hill-country of Judaea, as to Mary and Joseph\nat Nazareth, must have come tidings of the murder of Aristobulus, of\nthe cruel death of Mariamne and her sons, and of the aged Hyrcanus.\nThey must have groaned beneath the grinding oppression by which Herod\nextorted from the poorer classes the immense revenues which he\nsquandered on his palaces and fortresses and on the creation of new\ncities.  That he was introducing everywhere Gentile customs and games;\nthat he had dared to place the Roman eagle on the main entrance of the\nTemple; that he had pillaged David's tomb; that he had set aside the\ngreat council of their nation, and blinded the saintly Jochanan; that\nthe religious leaders, men like Caiaphas and Annas, were quite willing\nto wink at the crimes of the secular power, so long as their prestige\nand emoluments were secured; that the national independence for which\nJudas and his brothers had striven, during the Maccabean wars, was fast\nbeing laid at the feet of Rome, which was only too willing to take\nadvantage of the chaos which followed immediately upon Herod's hideous\ndeath--such tidings must have come, in successive shocks of anguish, to\nthose true hearts who were waiting for the redemption of Israel, with\nall the more eagerness as it seemed so long delayed, so urgently\nneeded.  Still, they made their yearly journeys to Jerusalem, and\nparticipated in the great convocations, which, in outward splendour,\neclipsed memories of the past; but they realized that the glory had\ndeparted, and that the mere husk of externalism could not long resist\nthe incoming tides of militarism, of the love of display, and the\ncorrupting taint of the worst aspects of Roman civilization.  When the\nfeasts were over, these pious hearts turned back to their homes among\nthe hills, tearing themselves from the last glimpse of the beautiful\ncity, with the cry, \"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!\"\n\nThe darkest hour precedes the dawn, and it was just at this point that\nOld Testament predictions must have been so eagerly scanned by those\nthat watched and waited.  That the Messiah was nigh, they could not\ndoubt.  The term of years foretold by Daniel had nearly expired.  The\nsceptre had departed from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his\nfeet.  Even the Gentile world was penetrated with the expectation of a\nKing.  Sybils in their ancient writings, hermits in their secret cells,\nMagi studying the dazzling glories of the eastern heavens, had come to\nthe conclusion that He was at hand who would bring again the Golden Age.\n\nAnd so those loyal and loving souls that often spake together, while\nthe Lord hearkened and heard, must have felt that as the advent of the\nLord whom they sought was nigh, that of his messenger must be nearer\nstill.  They started at every footfall.  They listened for every voice.\nThey scanned the expression of every face.  \"Behold, he shall come,\"\nrang in their hearts like a peal of silver bells.  At any moment might\na voice be heard crying, \"Cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the\nstones; lift up an ensign for the peoples.  Say ye to the daughter of\nSion, Behold, thy salvation cometh.\"  Those anticipations were realized\nin the birth of John the Baptist.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nThe House of Zacharias.\n\n(LUKE I.)\n\n    \"There are in this loud stunning tide\n      Of human care and crime,\n    With whom the melodies abide\n      Of the everlasting chime;\n    Who carry music in their heart\n    Through dusky lane and wrangling mart\n  Plying their daily task with busier feet,\n  Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.\"\n            KEBLE.\n\n\nEarly History of the Baptist--God's Hidden Ones--The Hill Country of\nJudea--A Childless Home--The Forerunner Announced.\n\n\nTo the evangelist Luke we are indebted for details of those antecedent\ncircumstances that ushered John the Baptist into the world.  He tells\nus that he had \"traced the course of all things accurately from the\nfirst.\"  And in those final words, \"from the first,\" he suggests that\nhe had deliberately sought to examine into those striking events from\nwhich, as from a wide-spreading root, the great growth of Christianity\nhad originated.  Who of us has not sometimes followed the roots of some\nnewly-discovered plant deep into the black mould, intent on pursuing\nthem to their furthest extremity, and extricating them from the\nclinging earth without injuring one delicate radicle?  So this good\nphysician, accustomed by his training to accurate research and\nexperiment, went back to scenes and events anterior to any which his\nbrother Evangelists recorded.  He compensated for the authority of an\neye-witness by the thoroughness and care of his investigation.\n\nWhat were the sources from which the third Evangelist drew his\ninformation?  We cannot be sure, but may hazard a suggestion, which is\nsupported by the archaic simplicity, the indescribable grace, the\nalmost idyllic beauty of his two opening chapters.  Critics have\nrepeatedly drawn attention to their unique character, and insisted that\nthey are due to some other hand than that which has given us the rest\nof the story of \"the Son of Man.\"  And why should we not attribute them\nto \"the Mother\" herself?  It has been truly said that mothers are the\nnatural historians of their children's early days--never tired of\nobserving them, they never tire of recounting their prodigies; and, in\nan especial manner, Mary had kept all things, pondering in her heart\nthose wonderful circumstances which had left so indelible an impression\non her life.  She who, in her over-welling joy, uttered \"the\nMagnificat,\" was surely capable, even judging from a literary and human\nstandpoint, of the language in which the story is told; and the facts\nthemselves would only stand out the clearer in her closing years, as\nmany another memory faded from her mind.  The granite remains when the\nfloods have swept away the light soil that filled the interstices of\nthe rocks.\n\nIt were a theme worthy of a great artist to depict!  Mary's face,\nfurrowed by deep lines of anguish, yet glowing with sacred fire and\nholy memory.  Luke, sitting at his manuscript, now letting her tell her\nstory without interruption, and again interpolating an inquiry, the\nwords growing on the page; while, nearer than each to either, making no\ntremor in the hot summer air as He comes, casting no shadow in the\nbrilliant eastern light--He of whom they speak and write steals in to\nstand beside them, bringing all things to their remembrance by the Holy\nSpirit's agency, even as He had told them.\n\nThe story of John the Baptist was so clearly part of that of Jesus,\nthat Mary could hardly recall the one without the other.  And, besides,\nElisabeth, as the angel said, was her kinswoman--perhaps her cousin--to\nwhom she naturally turned in the hour of her maidenly astonishment and\nrapture.  Though much younger, Mary was united to her relative by a\nclose and tender tie, and it was only natural that what had happened to\nElisabeth should have impressed her almost as deeply as her own\nmemorable experiences.  So it is possible that from the lips of the\nmother of our Lord we obtain these details of the House of Zacharias.\n\n\nI.  THE QUIET IN THE LAND.--God has always had his hidden ones; and,\nwhile the world has been rent by faction and war, ravaged by fire and\nsword, and drenched with the blood of her sons, these have heard his\ncall to enter their chamber, and shut themselves in until the storm had\nspent its fury.  It was so during the days of Ahab, when the eye of\nomniscience beheld at least seven thousand who had not bowed the knee\nto Baal.  It was so in the awful days of the Civil War, when Puritan\nand Royalist faced each other at Naseby and Marston Moor, and the land\nseemed swept in a blinding storm.  Groups of ardent souls gathered to\nspend their time in worship and acts of mercy--like those at Little\nGidding, in Huntingdonshire, under the direction of Mr. Nicholas\nFerrar.  It was so when the thirty years' war desolated Germany, and\n\"the quiet in the land\" withdrew themselves from the agitated scene of\nhuman affairs to wait on God, embalming their hearts in hymns and poems\nwhich exhale a perfume as from crushed flowers.\n\nIt was eminently so in the days of which we write.  Darkness covered\nthe earth, and gross darkness the peoples.  Herod's infamous cruelties,\ncraft, and bloodshed were at their height.  The country questioned with\nfear what new direction his crimes might take.  The priesthood was\nobsequious to his whim; the bonds of society seemed dissolved.  Theudas\nand Judas of Galilee, mentioned by Gamaliel, were but specimens of the\nbandit leaders who broke into revolt and harried the country districts\nfor the maintenance of their followers.  Greed, peculation, and lawless\nviolence, had ample and undisputed opportunity to despoil the national\nglory and corrupt the heart of the national life.\n\nIs it to be wondered that the godly remnant would meet in little groups\nand secluded hiding-places to comfort themselves in God?  We are told,\nfor instance, that Anna spake of the Babe, whom she had probably\nembraced in her aged trembling arms, \"to all them that were looking for\nthe redemption of Jerusalem\" (Luke ii. 38, R.V.).  What would we not\ngive to know something more of the members of this sacred society,\nwhich preserved the loftiest traditions, and embodied in their lives\nsome of the finest traits of the religion of their forefathers!  The\ngloom of their times only led them more eagerly to con the predictions\nof their Hebrew prophets, and desire their accomplishment.  Full often\nthey would climb the heights and look out over the desert wastes to\ndescry the advent of the Mighty One, coming from Edom, with his\ngarments stained with the blood of Israel's foes.  When they met, the\nburden of conversation, which flowed under vine or fig-tree, by the\nwayside or in humble homes, would be of their cherished hope.  And as\nthey beheld the hapless condition of their fatherland, the land of\nAbraham, the city of David, the cry must often have been extorted; \"How\nlong, O Lord, holy and true, will it be ere He shall come whose right\nit is who shall sit on the throne of his father David, and of whose\nkingdom there shall be no end?  Come forth out of thy royal chambers, O\nPrince of all the kings of the earth!  Put on the visible robes of thy\nimperial majesty; take up that unlimited sceptre which thy Almighty\nFather hath bequeathed Thee; for now the voice of thy bride calls Thee,\nand all creatures sigh to be renewed.\"  So our great Milton prayed in\nmore recent days.\n\nWe are not drawing on our imagination in describing these true-hearted\nwatchers for the rising of the Day-star.  They are fully indicated in\nthe Gospel story.  There was Simeon, righteous and devout, unto whom it\nhad been revealed by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death\nbefore he had seen the Lord's Christ; and Anna, the prophetess, who\ndeparted not from the temple, worshipping with fastings and\nsupplications night and day; and the guileless Nathanael, an Israelite\nindeed, who had perhaps already commenced to sit at the foot of the\nladder which bound his fig-tree to the highest heaven; and the peasant\nmaiden Mary, the descendant of a noble house, though with fallen\nfortunes, who, like some vestal virgin, clad in snowy white, watched\nthrough the dark hours beside the flickering flame; and last, but not\nleast, Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth, \"who were both righteous\nbefore God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord\nblameless.\"\n\nFor us, too, the times are dark.  It is as though the shadows were\nbeing thrown far across the fields, and the light were becoming dim.\nLet the children of God draw together, to encourage each other in their\nholy faith, and to speak of their great hopes; for He who appeared once\nto put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself shall appear a second time\nwithout sin unto salvation.  We are, as the French version puts it,\n_burgesses of the skies_, \"whence we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus\nChrist, who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may\nbe conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby\nHe is able even to subject all things unto Himself.\"\n\nBut this attitude of spirit, which dwells in the unseen and eternal,\nwhich counts on the indwelling of the Son of God by faith, and which\nponders deeply over the sins and sorrows of the world around, is the\ntemper of mind out of which the greatest deeds are wrought for the\ncause of God on the earth.  The Marys who sit at Christ's feet arise to\nanoint Him for his burying.  Take, for instance, the Moravian Church,\nborn and cradled amid the pietism of which Spener of Berlin and Franke\nof Halle were the acknowledged leaders; and it has given to the world a\nfar larger number of missionaries in proportion to its membership than\nany church of the age.  Or take the followers of George Fox, who have\nmaintained through unparalleled suffering their testimony for\nspirituality of worship; and it is undeniable that some of the greatest\nreforms which have characterised the century recently closed have found\ntheir foremost advocates and apologists from their somewhat meagre\nranks.  Those who wait on God renew their strength.  The world ignores\nthem, scorning to reckon their tears and toils amid its renovating\nenergies; but they refuse to abate their endeavours and sacrifices on\nits behalf.  They repay its neglect by more assiduous exertions, its\ningratitude by more exhausting sacrifices; content if, from out their\nranks, there presently steps one who, like John the Baptist, opens a\nnew chapter in the history of the race, and accelerates the advent of\nthe Christ.\n\n\nII.  THE PARENTAGE OF THE FORERUNNER.--As the traveller emerges from\nthe dreary wilderness that lies between Sinai and the southern frontier\nof Palestine--a scorching desert, in which Elijah was glad to find\nshelter from the sword-like rays in the shade of the retem shrub--he\nsees before him a long line of hills, which is the beginning of \"the\nhill country of Judaea\" (Luke i. 39).  In contrast with the sand wastes\nwhich he has traversed, the valleys seem to laugh and sing.  Greener\nand yet greener grow the pasture lands, till he can understand how\nNabal and other sheep-masters were able to find maintenance for vast\nflocks of sheep.  Here and there are the crumbled ruins which mark the\nsite of ancient towns and villages tenanted now by the jackal or the\nwandering Arab.  Amongst these, a modern traveller has identified the\nsite of Juttah, the village home of the priest Zacharias and his wife\nElisabeth.\n\nTo judge by their names, we may infer that their parents years before\nhad been godly people.  _Zacharias_ meant _God's remembrance_; as\nthough he were to be a perpetual reminder to his fellows of what God\nhad promised, and to God of what they were expecting from his hand.\n_Elisabeth_ meant _God's oath_; as though her people were perpetually\nappealing to those covenant promises in which, since He could swear by\nno greater, God had sworn by Himself, that He would never leave nor\nforsake, and that when the sceptre departed from Judah and the\nlaw-giver from between his feet, Shiloh should come.\n\nZacharias was a priest, \"of the course of Abijah,\" and twice a year he\njourneyed to Jerusalem to fulfil his office, for a week of six days and\ntwo Sabbaths.  There were, Josephus tells us, somewhat more than 20,000\npriests settled in Judaea at this time; and very many of them were like\nthose whom Malachi denounced as degrading and depreciating the Temple\nservices.  The general character of the priesthood was deeply tainted\nby the corruption of the times, and as a class they were blind leaders\nof the blind.  Not a few, however, were evidently deeply religious men,\nfor we find that \"a great number of the priests,\" after the\ncrucifixion, believed on Christ and joined his followers.  In this\nclass we must therefore place Zacharias, who, with his wife, herself of\nthe daughters of Aaron, is described as being \"righteous before God.\"\n\nThe phrases are evidently selected with care.  Many are righteous\nbefore men; but they were righteous _before God_.  Their daily life and\nwalk were regulated by a careful observance of the ordinances of the\nceremonial and the commandments of the moral law.  It is evident, from\nthe apt and plentiful quotations from Scripture with which the song of\nZacharias is replete, that the Scriptures were deeply pondered and\nreverenced in that highland home; and we have the angel's testimony to\nthe prayers that ascended day and night.  In all these things they were\nblameless--not faultless, as judged by God's infinite standard of\nrectitude, but blameless--because they lived up to the fullest limit of\ntheir knowledge of the will of God.  They were blameless and harmless,\nthe children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and\nperverse generation, among whom they were seen as lights in the world,\nholding forth amid neighbours and friends the Word of Truth.\n\nBut they lived under the shadow of a great sorrow.  \"They had no child,\nbecause Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in\nyears.\"  When the good priest put off his official dress of white\nlinen, and returned to his mountain home, there was no childish voice\nto welcome him.  It seemed almost certain that their family would soon\ndie out and be forgotten; that no child would close their eyes in\ndeath; and that by no link whatsoever could they be connected with the\nMessiah, to be the progenitor of whom was the cherished longing of each\nHebrew parent.\n\n\"They had no child!\"  They would, therefore, count themselves under the\nfrown of God; and the mother especially felt that a reproach lay on\nher.  What a clue to the anguish of the soul is furnished by her own\nreflection, when she recognised the glad divine interposition on her\nbehalf, and cried, \"Thus hath the Lord done unto me in the days wherein\nHe looked upon me, to take away _my reproach among men_\" (Luke i. 25).\n\nBut had it not been for this sorrow they might never have been\nqualified to receive the first tidings of the near approach of the\nMessiah.  _Sorrow_ opens our eyes, and bids us see visions within the\nvail, which cannot be described by those who have not wept.  _Sorrow_\nleads us up the steep mountain of vision, and opens the panorama which\nlies beyond the view of those who dare not attempt the craggy steep.\n_Sorrow_ prepares us to see angels standing beside the altar of incense\nat the hour of prayer, and to hear words that mortal lips may not utter\nuntil they are fulfilled.  _Sorrow_ leads us to open our house to those\nwho carry a great anguish in their hearts, who come to us needing\nshelter and comfort; to discover finally that we have entertained an\nangel unawares, and that in some trembling maiden, threatened by\ndivorce from her espoused, we have welcomed the mother of the Lord\n(ver. 43).  Shrink not from sorrow.  It endures but for the brief\neastern night; joy cometh in the morning, to remain.  It may be caused\nby long waiting and apparently fruitless prayer.  Beneath its pressure\nheart and flesh may faint.  All natural hope may have become dead, and\nthe soul be plunged in hopeless despair.  \"Yet the Lord will command\nhis loving-kindness in the morning;\" and it will be seen that the dull\nautumn sowings of tears and loneliness and pain were the necessary\npreliminary for that heavenly messenger who, standing \"on the right\nside of the altar of incense,\" shall assure us that our prayer is heard.\n\n\nIII.  THE ANGEL'S ANNOUNCEMENT.--One memorable autumn, when the land\nwas full of the grape-harvest, Zacharias left his home, in the cradle\nof the hills, some three thousand feet above the Mediterranean, for his\npriestly service.  Reaching the temple he would lodge in the cloisters,\nand spend his days in the innermost court, which none might enter save\npriests in their sacred garments.  Among the various priestly duties,\nnone was held in such high esteem as the offering of incense, which was\npresented morning and evening, on a special golden altar, in the Holy\nPlace at the time of prayer.  \"The whole multitude of the people were\npraying without at the time of incense.\"  So honourable was this office\nthat it was fixed by lot, and none was allowed to perform it twice.\nOnly once in a priest's life was he permitted to sprinkle the incense\non the burning coals, which an assistant had already brought from the\naltar of burnt-sacrifice, and spread on the altar of incense before the\nvail.\n\nThe silver trumpets had sounded.  The smoke of the evening sacrifice\nwas ascending.  The worshippers that thronged the different courts,\nrising tier on tier, were engaged in silent prayer.  The assistant\npriest had retired; and Zacharias, for the first and only time in his\nlife, stood alone in the holy shrine, while the incense which he had\nstrewn on the glowing embers arose in fragrant clouds, enveloping and\nveiling the objects around, whilst it symbolized the ascent of prayers\nand intercessions not only from his own heart, but from the hearts of\nhis people, into the presence of God.  \"And their prayer came up to his\nholy habitation, even unto heaven.\"\n\nWhat a litany of prayer poured from his heart!  For Israel, that the\nchosen people should be delivered from their low estate; for the cause\nof religion, that it might be revived; for the crowds without, that God\nwould hear the prayers they were offering toward his holy sanctuary,\nand, perhaps, for Elisabeth and himself, that, if possible, God would\nhear their prayer, and, if not, that He would grant them to bear\npatiently their heavy sorrow.\n\n\"And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right\nside of the altar of incense.\"  Mark how circumstantial the narrative\nis.  There could be no mistake.  He stood--and he stood on the right\nside.  It was Gabriel who stands in the presence of God, who had been\nsent to speak to him, and declare the good tidings that his prayer was\nheard; that his wife should bear a son, who should be called John, that\nthe child should be welcomed with joy, should be a Nazarite from his\nbirth, should be filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth, should\ninherit the spirit and power of Elias, and should go before the face of\nChrist to prepare his way, by turning the hearts of the fathers to the\nchildren, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just.\n\nHe tarried long in the temple, and what wonder!  The people would have\nceased to marvel at the long suspense, could they have known the cause\nof the delay.  Presently he came out; but when he essayed to pronounce\nthe customary blessing his lips were dumb.  He made signs as he reached\nforth his hands in the attitude of benediction; but that day no\nblessing fell on their upturned faces.  He continued making signs unto\nthem and remained dumb.  Dumb, because he questioned the likelihood of\nso good and gracious an answer.  Dumb, because he believed not the\narchangel's words.  Dumb, that he might learn in silence and solitude\nthe full purposes of God, to set them presently to song.  Dumb, that\nthe tidings might not spread as yet.  Dumb, as the representative of\nthat wonderful system, which for so long had spoken to mankind with\ncomparatively little result, but was now to be superseded by the Word\nof God.\n\nWith the light of that glory on his face, and those sweet notes of\n\"Fear not\" ringing in his heart, Zacharias continued to fulfil the\nduties of his ministration, and, when his work was fulfilled, departed\nunto his house.  But that day was long remembered by the people,\nprelude as it was to the time when their blessings would no longer come\nfrom Ebal or Gerizim, but from Calvary; and when the great High Priest\nwould utter from heaven the ancient words:\n\n  The Lord bless thee and keep thee.\n  The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee.\n  The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nHis Schools and Schoolmasters.\n\n(LUKE 1.)\n\n  \"Oh to have watched thee through the vineyards wander,\n    Pluck the ripe ears, and into evening roam!--\n  Followed, and known that in the twilight yonder\n    Legions of angels shone about thy home!\"\n            F. W. H. MYERS.\n\n\nHome-Life--Preparing for his Life-Work--The Vow of Separation--A Child of\nthe Desert\n\n\nZacharias and Elisabeth had probably almost ceased to pray for a child,\nor to urge the matter.  It seemed useless to pray further.  There had\nbeen no heaven-sent sign to assure them that there was any likelihood of\ntheir prayer being answered, and nature seemed to utter a final No; when\nsuddenly the angel of God broke into the commonplace of their life, like\na meteorite into the unrippled water of a mountain-sheltered lake,\nbringing the assurance that there was no need for fear, and the\nannouncement that their prayer was heard.  It must have been like hearing\nnews that a ship, long overdue and almost despaired of, has suddenly made\nharbour.\n\nIt is not impossible that prayers that we have ceased to pray, and are in\ndespair about, will yet return to us with the words, _Thy supplication is\nheard_, endorsed on them in our Father's handwriting.  Not infrequently\ndividends are paid on investments which we have given up as valueless.\nFruit that mellows longest in the sun is ripest.  Such things may\ntranscend altogether our philosophy of prayer; but we are prepared for\nthis, since God is accustomed to do exceeding abundantly above all that\nwe ask or think.\n\nOn his arrival in his home, the aged priest, by means of the\nwriting-table afterwards referred to, informed his wife, who apparently\nhad not accompanied him, of all that had happened, even to the name which\nthe child was to bear, She, at least, seems to have found no difficulty\nin accepting the divine assurance, and during her five months of\nseclusion she nursed great and mighty thoughts in her heart, in the\nbelief and prayer that her child would become all that his name is\nsupposed to signify, _the gift of Jehovah_.  It was Elisabeth also who\nrecognised in Mary the mother of her Lord, greeted her as blessed among\nwomen, and assured her that there would be for her a fulfilment of the\nthings which had been promised her.\n\nMonth succeeded month, but Zacharias neither heard nor spoke.  His\nfriends had to make signs to him, for unbelief has the effect of shutting\nman out of the enjoyment of life, and hindering his usefulness.  How\ndifferent this time of waiting from the blessedness it brought to his\nwife's young relative, who believed the heavenly messenger.  He was\nevidently a good man, and well versed in the history of his people.  His\nsoul, as we learn from his song, was full of noble pride in the great and\nglorious past.  He could believe that when Abraham and Sarah were past\nage, a child was born to _them_, who filled their tent with his merry\nprattle and laughter; but he could not believe that such a blessing could\nfall to his lot.  And is not that the point where our faith staggers\nstill?  We can believe in the wonder-working power of God on the distant\nhorizon of the past, or on the equally distant horizon of the future; but\nthat He should have a definite and particular care for _our_ life, that\n_our_ prayers should touch Him, that He should give us the desire of our\nheart--this staggers us, and we feel it is too good to be true.\n\nDuring the whole period that the stricken but expectant priest spent in\nhis living tomb, shut off from communication with the outer world, his\nspirit was becoming charged with holy emotion, that waited for the first\nopportunity of expression.  Such an opportunity came at length.  His\nlowly dwelling was one day crowded with an eager and enthusiastic throng\nof relatives and friends.  They had gathered to congratulate the aged\npair, to perform the initial rite of Judaism, and to name the infant boy\nthat lay in his mother's arms.  Ah, what joy was hers when they came to\n\"magnify the Lord's mercy towards her, and to rejoice with her\"!  As the\npeople passed in and out, there was a new glow in the brilliant eastern\nsunlight, a new glory on the familiar hills.\n\nIn their perplexity at the mother's insistence that the babe's name\nshould be John--none of his kindred being known by that name--they\nappealed to his father, who with trembling hand inscribed on the wax of\nthe writing tablet the verdict, \"His name is John.\"  So soon as he had\nbroken the iron fetter of unbelief in thus acknowledging the fulfilment\nof the angel's words, \"his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue\nloosed, and he spake, blessing God.  And fear came on all that dwelt\nround about them.\"  All these sayings quickly became the staple theme of\nconversation throughout all the hill-country of Judaea; and wherever they\ncame, they excited the profoundest expectation.  People laid them up in\ntheir hearts, saying, \"What, then, shall this child be?\"\n\n\"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit.\"  \"And the hand of the\nLord was with him.\"\n\nThere were several remarkable formative influences operating on this\nyoung life.\n\n\nI.  THE SCHOOL OF HOME.--_His father was a priest_.  John's earliest\nmemories would register the frequent absence of his father in the\nfulfilment of his course; and, on his return, with what eagerness would\nthe boy drink in a recital of all that had transpired in the Holy City!\nWe can imagine how the three would sit together beneath their trellised\nvine, in the soft light of the fading sunset, and talk of Zion, their\nchief joy.  No wonder that in after days, as he looked on Jesus as He\nwalked, he pointed to Him and said, \"Behold the Lamb of God\"; for, from\nthe earliest, his young mind had been saturated with thoughts of\nsacrifice.\n\nWhen old enough his parents would take him with them to one of the great\nfestivals, where, amid the thronging crowds, his boyish eyes opened for\nthe first time upon the stately Temple, the order and vestments of the\npriests, the solemn pomp of the Levitical ceremonial.  The young heart\ndilated and expanded with wonder and pride; but how little he realized\nthat his ministry would be the first step to its entire subversal.\n\nHe would be also taught carefully in the _Holy Scriptures_.  Like the\nyoung Timothy, he would know them from early childhood.  The song of\nZacharias reveals a vivid and realistic familiarity with the prophecies\nand phraseology of the Scriptures; and as the happy parents recited them\nto his infant mind, they would stay to emphasize them with impressive\npersonal references.  What would we not have given to hear Zacharias\nquote Isaiah xl. or Malachi iii., and turn to the lad at his knee,\nsaying--\"These words refer to thee\".--\n\n\"Yea, and thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Most High; for\nthou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.\"\n\nWould not the aged priest speak to his son in thoughts and words like\nthose with which his song is so replete; might he not speak to him in\nsome such way as this: \"My boy, God has fulfilled his holy covenant, the\noath which He sware unto Abraham, our father; because of the tender mercy\nof our God, the Dayspring from on high has visited us, to shine upon them\nthat sit in darkness, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.\"  Then\nhe would proceed to tell him the marvellous story of his Kinsman's birth\nin Bethlehem, and of his growing grace in Nazareth.  \"Blessed be the\nLord, the God of Israel,\" the old man said; \"for He hath visited and\nredeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the\nhouse of his servant David, as He spake by the mouth of his holy\nprophets, which have been since the world began.\"  Next the father would\ntell as much of the story of Herod's crimes, and of his oppressive rule,\nas the lad could understand; and explain how there would soon be\n\"salvation from their enemies, and from the hand of all that hated them.\"\nAnd his young soul would be thrilled by the hopes which were bursting in\nthe bud, and so near breaking into flower.\n\nSometimes when they were abroad together in the early dawn, and saw the\nfirst peep of day, the father would say: \"John, do you see that light\nbreaking over the hills?  What that day-spring is to the world, Jesus,\nthy cousin at Nazareth, will be to the darkness of sin.\"  Then, turning\nto the morning star, shining in the path of the dawn, and paling as they\ngazed, he would say: \"See thy destiny, my son: I am an old man, and shall\nnot live to see thee in thy meridian strength; but thou shalt shine for\nonly a brief space, and then decrease, whilst He shall increase from the\nfaint flush of day-spring to the perfect day.\"  And might not the child\nreply, with a flash of intelligent appreciation?--\"Yes, father, I\nunderstand; but I shall be satisfied if only I have prepared the way of\nthe Lord.\"\n\n_There were also the associations of the surrounding country_.  The story\nof Abraham would often be recited in the proximity of Machpelah's sacred\ncave.  The career of David could not be unfamiliar to a youth who was\nwithin easy reach of the haunts of the shepherd-psalmist.  And the story\nof the Maccabees would stir his soul, as his parents recounted the\nexploits of Judas and his brethren, in which the ancient Hebrew faith and\nprowess had revived in one last glorious outburst.\n\nHow ineffaceable are the impressions of the Home!  What the father is\nwhen he comes back at night from his toils, and what the mother is all\nday; what may be the staple of conversation in the home: whether the\nfather is willing to be the companion of his child, answering his\nquestions, and superintending the gradual unfolding of his mind; how\noften the Bible is opened and explained; how the weekly rest-day is\nspent; the attitude of the home towards strong drink in every shape and\nform, and all else that might injure the young life, as gas does\nplants--all these are vital to the right nurture and direction of boys\nand girls who can only wax strong in spirit when all early influences\ncombine in the same direction.\n\n\nII.  THERE WAS THE SCHOOL OF HIS NAZARITE-VOW.--The angel, who announced\nhis birth, foretold that he should drink neither wine nor strong drink\nfrom his birth, but that he should be filled with the Holy Spirit.\n\"John,\" said our Lord, \"came neither eating nor drinking.\"  This\nabstinence from all stimulants was a distinct sign of the Nazarite,\ntogether with the unshorn locks, and the care with which he abstained\nfrom contact with death.  In some cases, the vow of the Nazarite might be\ntaken for a time, or, as in the case of Samson, Samuel, and John, it\nmight be for life.  But, whether for shorter or longer, the Nazarite held\nhimself as peculiarly given up to the service of God, pliant to the least\nindication of his will, quick to catch the smallest whisper of his voice,\nand mighty in his strength.\n\n\"Mother, why do I wear my hair so long?  You never cut it, as the mothers\nof other boys do.\"\n\n\"No, my son,\" was the proud and glad reply; \"you must never cut it as\nlong as you live: _you are a Nazarite_.\"\n\n\"Mother, why may I not taste the grapes?  The boys say they are so nice\nand sweet.  May I not, next vintage?\"\n\n\"No, never,\" his mother would reply; \"you must never touch the fruit of\nthe vine: _you are a Nazarite_.\"\n\nIf, as they walked along the public way, they saw a bone left by some\nhungry dog, or a little bird fallen to the earth to die, and the boy\nwould approach to touch either, the mother would call him back to her\nside, saying, \"Thou must never touch a dead thing.  If thy father were to\ndie, or I, beside thee, thou must not move us from the spot, but call for\nhelp.  Remember always that thou art separated unto God; his vows are\nupon thee, and thou must let nothing, either in symbol or reality, steal\naway his power from thy young heart and life.\"\n\nThe effect of this would be excellent.  It would give a direction and\npurpose to the lad's thoughts and anticipations.  He realized that he was\nset apart for a great mission in life.  The brook heard the call of the\nsea.  Besides which, he would acquire self-restraint, self-mastery.\n\nWhat is it to be \"strong in spirit\"?  The man who carries everything\nbefore him with the impetuous rush of his nature, before whose outbursts\nmen tremble, and who insists in all things on asserting his wild,\nmasterful will--is he the strong man?  Nay! most evidently he must be\nclassed among the weaklings.  The strength of a man is in proportion to\nthe feelings which he curbs and subdues, and not which subdue him.  The\nman who receives a flagrant insult, and answers quietly; the man who\nbears a hopeless daily trial, and remains silent; the man who with strong\npassions remains chaste, or with a quick sense of injustice can refrain\nhimself and remain calm--these are strong men; and John waxed strong,\nbecause, from the earliest dawn of thought, he was taught the necessity\nof refusing things which in themselves might have been permissible, but\nfor him were impossible.\n\nOn each of us rests the vow of separation by right of our union with the\nSon of God, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.\nRemember how He went without the camp, bearing our reproach; how they\ncast Him forth to the death of the cross; and how He awaits us on the\nEaster side of death--and surely we can find no pleasure in the world\nwhere He found no place.  His death has made a lasting break between his\nfollowers and the rest of men.  They are crucified to the world, and the\nworld to them.  Let us not taste of the intoxicating joys in which the\nchildren of the present age indulge; let us allow no Delilah passion to\npass her scissors over our locks; and let us be very careful not to\nreceive contamination; to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of\ndarkness, but to come out and be separate, not touching the unclean thing.\n\nBut while we put away all that injures our own life or the lives of\nothers, let us be very careful to discriminate, to draw the line where\nGod would have it drawn, exaggerating and extenuating nothing.  It is\nimportant to remember that while the motto of the old covenant was\nExclusion, even of innocent and natural things, that of the new is\nInclusion.  Moses, under the old, forbade the Jews having horses; but\nZechariah said that in the new they might own horses, only \"Holiness to\nthe Lord\" must be engraven on the bells of their harness.  Christ has\ncome to sanctify all life.  Whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do,\nwe are to do all to his glory.  Disciples are not to be taken out of the\nworld, but kept from its evil.  \"Every creature of God is good, and\nnothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is\nsanctified by the Word of God, and prayer.\"  Natural instincts are not to\nbe crushed, but transfigured.\n\nThis is the great contrast between the Baptist and the Son of Man.  The\nNazarite would have felt it a sin against the law of his vocation and\noffice to touch anything pertaining to the vine.  Christ began his signs\nby changing water into wine, though of an innocuous kind, for the\npeasants' wedding at Cana of Galilee.  John would have lost all sanctity\nhad he touched the bodies of the dead, or the flesh of a leper.  Christ\nwould touch a bier, pass his hands over the seared flesh of the leper,\nand stand sympathetically beside the grave of his friend.  Thus we catch\na glimpse of our Lord's meaning when He affirms that, though John was the\ngreatest of women born, yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater\nthan he.\n\n\nIII.  THERE WAS THE SCHOOL OF THE DESERT.--\"The child was in the deserts\ntill the day of his showing unto Israel.\"  Probably Zacharias, and\nElisabeth also, died when John was quite young.  But the boy had grown\ninto adolescence, was able to care for himself, and \"the hand of the Lord\nwas with him.\"\n\nBeneath the guidance and impulse of that hand he tore himself from the\nlittle home where he had first seen the tender light of day, and spent\nhappy years, to go forth from the ordinary haunts of men, perhaps hardly\nknowing whither.  There was a wild restlessness in his soul.  A young\nman, pleading the other day with his father to be allowed to emigrate to\nthe West, urged that whereas there are _inches_ here there are _acres_\nthere; and something of this kind may have been in the heart of John.  He\ndesired to free himself from the conventionalities and restraints of the\nsociety amid which he had been brought up, that he might develop after\nhis own fashion, with no laws but those he received from heaven.\n\nFatherless, motherless, brotherless, sisterless--a lone man, he passed\nforth into the great and terrible wilderness of Judaea, which is so\ndesolate that the Jews called it the abomination of desolation.\nTravellers who have passed over and through it say that it is destitute\nof all animal life, save a chance vulture or fox.  For the most part, it\nis a waste of sand, swept by wild winds.  When Jesus was there some two\nor three years after, He found nothing to eat; the stones around mocked\nhis hunger; and there was no company save that of the wild beasts.\n\nIn this great and terrible wilderness, John supported himself by eating\nlocusts--the literal insect, which is still greatly esteemed by the\nnatives--and wild honey, which abounded in the crevices of the rocks;\nwhile for clothing he was content with a coat of coarse camel's hair,\nsuch as the Arab women make still; and a girdle of skin about his loins.\nA cave, like that in which David and his men often found refuge, sufficed\nhim for a home, and the water of the streams that hurried to the Dead\nSea, for his beverage.\n\nCan we wonder that under such a regimen he grew strong?  We become weak\nby continual contact with our fellows.  We sink to their level, we\naccommodate ourselves to their fashions and whims; we limit the natural\ndevelopments of character on God's plan; we take on the colour of the\nbottom on which we lie.  But in loneliness and solitude, wherein we meet\nGod, we become strong.  God's strong men are rarely clothed in soft\nraiment, or found in kings' courts.  Obadiah, who stood in awe of Ahab,\nwas a very different man from Elijah, who was of the inhabitants of\nGilead, and stood before the Lord.\n\nYes, and there is a source of strength beside.  He who is filled and\ntaught, as John was, by the Spirit, is strengthened by might in the inner\nman.  All things are possible to him that believes.  Simon Bar-Jona\nbecomes Peter when he touches the Christ.  The youths faint and are\nweary, and the young men utterly fall; but they that wait on the Lord\nrenew their strength: they who know God are strong and do exploits.\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nThe Prophet of the Highest.\n\n(LUKE I.)\n\n    \"Ye hermits blest, ye holy maids,\n      The nearest heaven on earth,\n    Who talk with God in shadowy glades,\n      Free from rude care and mirth;\n  To whom some viewless Teacher brings\n  The secret love of rural things,\n  The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale,\n  The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight vale.\"\n            KEBLE.\n\n\nFormative Influences--A Historical Parallel--The Burning of the\nVanities--\"Sent from God\"\n\n\n\"Thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Most High\"--thus\nZacharias addressed his infant son, as he lay in the midst of that\ngroup of wondering neighbours and friends.  What a thrill of ecstasy\nquivered in the words!  A long period, computed at four hundred years,\nhad passed since the last great Hebrew prophet had uttered the words of\nthe Highest.  Reaching back from him to the days of Moses had been a\nlong line of prophets, who had passed down the lighted torch from hand\nto hand.  And the fourteen generations, during which the prophetic\noffice had been discontinued, had gone wearily.  But now hope revived,\nas the angel-voice proclaimed the advent of a prophet.  Our Lord\ncorroborated his words when, in after days, He said that John had been\na prophet, and something more.  \"But what went ye out to see?\" He\nasked.  \"A prophet?  Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.\"\n\nThe Hebrew word that stands for _prophet_ is said to be derived from a\nroot signifying \"to boil or bubble over,\" and suggests a fountain\nbursting from the heart of the man into which God had poured it.  It is\na mistake to confine the word to the prediction of coming events; for\nso employed it would hardly be applicable to men like Moses, Samuel,\nand Elijah, in the Old Testament, or John the Baptist and the apostle\nPaul, in the New, who were certainly prophets in the deepest\nsignificance of that term.  Prophecy means the forth-telling of the\nDivine message.  The prophet is borne along by the stream of Divine\nindwelling and inflowing, whether he utters the truth for the moment or\nanticipates the future.  \"God spake _in_ the prophets\" (Hebrews i. 1,\nR.V.).  And when they were conscious of his mighty moving and stirring\nwithin, woe to them if they did not utter it in burning words, fresh\nminted from the heart.\n\nWith Malachi, the succession that had continued unbroken from the very\nfoundation of the Jewish commonwealth had terminated.  Pious Israelites\nmight have found befitting expression for that lament in the words, \"We\nsee not our signs: there is no more any prophet\" (Psa. lxxiv. 9).\n\nBut as the voice of Old Testament prophecy ceased, with its last breath\nit foretold that it would be followed, in the after time, by a new and\nglorious revival of the noblest traditions of the prophetic office.\n\"Behold,\" so God spake by Malachi, \"I will send you Elijah the prophet\nbefore the great and terrible day of the Lord come.  And he shall turn\nthe heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children\nto their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse\" (Mal.\niv. 5, 6).\n\n\nI.  THE FORMATIVE INFLUENCES BY WHICH THE BAPTIST'S PROPHETIC NATURE\nWAS MOULDED.--Amongst these we must place in the foremost rank _the\nProphecies_, which had given a forecast of his career.  From his\nchildhood and upwards they had been reiterated in his ear by his\nparents, who would never weary of reciting them.\n\nHow often he would ponder the reference to himself in the great\nMessianic prediction--\"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your\nGod....  The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye the way of the Lord;\nmake straight in the desert a highway for our God....\"  There was no\ndoubt as to the relevance of those words to himself (Luke i. 76; Matt.\niii. 3).  And it must have unconsciously wrought mightily in the\ninfluence it wielded over his character and ministry.\n\nThere was, also, that striking anticipation by Malachi which we have\nalready quoted, and which directly suggested Elijah as his model.  Had\nnot Gabriel himself alluded to it, when he foretold that the predicted\nchild would go before the Messiah, in the spirit and power of Elijah\n(Luke i. 17)?  And again his statement was confirmed by our Lord in\nafter days (Matt. xi. 14).\n\nThus the great figure of Elijah was ever before the mind of the growing\nyouth, as his model and inspiration.  He found himself perpetually\nasking, How did Elijah act, and what would he do here and now?  And\nthere is little doubt that his choice of the lonely wilderness, of the\nrough mantle of camel's hair, of the abrupt and arousing form of\naddress, was suggested by that village of Thisbe in the land of Gilead,\nand those personal characteristics which were so familiar in the\nProphet of Fire.\n\nBut the mind of the Forerunner must also have been greatly exercised by\n_the lawlessness and crime_ which involved all classes of his\ncountrymen in a common condemnation.  The death of Herod, occurring\nwhen John was yet a child, dependent on the care of the good Elisabeth,\nhad led to disturbances which afforded an excuse for the Roman\noccupation of Jerusalem.  The sceptre had departed from Judah, and the\nlawgiver from between his feet.  The high priesthood was a mere forfeit\nin the deals of Idumaean tetrarchs and Roman governors.  The publicans\nwere notorious for their exactions, their covetousness, their cheating\nand oppression of the people.  Soldiers filled the country with\nviolence, extortion, and discontent.  The priests were hirelings; the\nPharisees were hypocrites; the ruling classes had set aside their\nprimitive simplicity and purity, and were given up to the\nvoluptuousness and licence of the Empire.  \"Brood of vipers\" was\napparently not too strong a phrase to use of the foremost religious\nleaders of the day--at least, when used, its relevance passed without\nchallenge.\n\nTidings of the evil that was overflowing the land like a deluge of ink\nwere constantly coming to the ears of this eager soul, filling it with\nhorror and dismay; and to this must be traced much of the austerity\nwhich arrested the attention of his contemporaries.  The idea which\nlies beneath the fasting and privation of so many of God's servants,\nhas been that of an overwhelming sorrow, which has taken away all taste\nfor the pleasures and comforts of life.  And this was the thought by\nwhich John was penetrated.  On the one hand, there was his deep and\nagonizing conviction of the sin of Israel; and on the other, the belief\nthat the Messiah must be nigh, even at the doors.  Thus the pressure of\nthe burden increased on him till he was forced to give utterance to the\ncry it extorted from his soul: \"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at\nhand.\"\n\nBut in addition to these we must add _the vision of God_, which must\nhave been specially vouchsafed to him whilst he sojourned in those\nlonely wilds.  He spoke once of Him \"who sent him to baptize.\"\nEvidently he had become accustomed to detect his presence and hear his\nvoice.  Those still small accents which had fallen on the ear of his\ngreat prototype had thrilled his soul.  He, too, had seen the Lord high\nand lifted up, had heard the chant of the seraphim, and had felt the\nlive coal touch his lips, as it had been caught from the altar by the\nseraph's tongs.\n\nThis has ever been characteristic of the true prophet.  He has been a\nseer.  He has spoken, because he has beheld with his eyes, looked upon,\nand handled, the very Word of God.  The Divine Prophet, speaking for\nall that had preceded Him, said: \"We speak that which we know, and\ntestify that we have seen.\"\n\nIn this we may have some share.  It is permitted to us also to see; to\nclimb the Mount of Vision, and look on the glory of God in the face of\nJesus Christ; to have revealed to us things that eye hath not seen, nor\near heard, nor the heart of man conceived.  Let us remember that we are\nto be God's _witnesses_ in the Jerusalem of the home, the Judaea of our\nimmediate neighbours, and to the uttermost parts of the earth of our\nprofession or daily calling.  God demands not advocates, but witnesses;\nand we must see for ourselves, before we can bear witness to others,\nthe glory of that light still flushing our faces, and the accent of\nconviction minted in our speech.\n\nThese are the three signs of a prophet: vision, a deep conviction of\nsin and impending judgment, and the gushing forth of moving and\neloquent speech; and each of these was apparent, in an exalted and\nextreme degree, in John the son of Zacharias.\n\n\nII.  AN ILLUSTRATIVE AND REMARKABLE PARALLEL.--As John came in the\nspirit and power of Elijah, so, four hundred years ago, in the lovely\ncity of Florence, a man was sent from God to testify against the sins\nof his age, who in many particulars so exactly corresponds with our\nLord's forerunner that the one strongly recalls the other, and it may\nhelp us to bring the circumstances of the Baptist's ministry within a\nmeasurable distance of ourselves if we briefly compare them with the\ncareer of Girolamo Savonarola.  It must, of course, be always borne in\nmind that the great Florentine could lay no claim to the peculiar and\nunique position and power of the Baptist.  But, in many respects, there\nis a remarkable parallel and similarity between them, which will help\nus to translate the old Hebrew conceptions into our modern life.\n\nThe physician's household at Ferrara, into which Savonarola was born on\nSeptember 21, 1452, was probably no more distinguished amid other\nfamilies of the town than that of Zacharias and Elisabeth in the hill\ncountry of Judaea.\n\nAnd as we read of the invincible love of truth which characterized the\nkeen and intelligent lad, we are forcibly reminded of the Baptist,\nwhose whole life was an eloquent protest on behalf of reality.  In one\nof his greatest sermons Savonarola declared that he had always striven\nafter truth with all his might, and maintained a constant war against\nfalsehood.  \"The more trouble\"--they are his own words--\"I bestowed\nupon my quest, the greater became my longing, so that for it I was\nprepared to abandon life itself.  When I was but a boy, I had such\nthoughts; and from that time, the desire and longing after this good\nhas gone on increasing to the present day.\"\n\nWe cannot read of Savonarola's saintly life, over which even the breath\nof calumny has never cast a stain--of his depriving himself of every\nindulgence, content with the hardest couch and roughest clothing, and\njust enough of the plainest food to support life--without remembering\nthe camel's cloth, the locusts and wild honey of the Baptist.\n\nIf John's lot was cast on evil days, when religion suffered most in the\nhouse of her friends, so was it with Savonarola.  The fourteenth and\nfifteenth centuries witnessed the increasing corruption and\nlicentiousness of popes and clergy.  The offices of cardinal and bishop\nwere put up to auction, and sold to the highest bidder.  The bishop\nextorted money from the priests, and these robbed the people.  The\ngrossest immorality was prevalent in all ranks of the Church, and\nwithout concealment.  Even the monasteries and convents were often dens\nof vice.  \"Italy,\" said Machiavelli, \"has lost all piety and all\nreligion.  We have to thank the Church and the priests for our\nabandoned wickedness.\"\n\nAs John beheld the fire and fan of impending judgment, so the burden of\nSavonarola's preaching was that the Church was about to be chastised,\nand afterwards renewed.  So powerful was this impression on the\npreacher's mind that it can best be described in his own words as a\nvision.  He tells us that on one occasion the heavens seemed to open\nbefore him, and there appeared a representation of the calamities that\nwere coming on the Church; on another, he saw, in the middle of the\nsky, a hand bearing a sword, on which words of doom were written.  He\ndescribed himself as one who looked into the invisible world.\n\nThe herald of Jesus possessed a marvellous eloquence, beneath which the\nwhole land was moved; and so it was with Savonarola.  During the eight\nyears that he preached in the cathedral, it was thronged with vast\ncrowds; and as he pleaded for purity of life and simplicity of manners,\n\"women threw aside jewels and finery, libertines were transformed into\nsober citizens, bankers and tradesmen restored their ill-gotten gains.\"\nIn Lent, 1497, took place what is known as the Burning of the Vanities.\nBands of children were sent forth to collect from all parts of the\ncity, indecent books and pictures, carnival masks and costumes, cards,\ndice, and all such things.  A pile was erected, sixty feet in height,\nand fired amid the sound of trumpets and pealing bells.\n\nWhat Herod was to John the Baptist, the Pope and the magnificent\nLorenzo di Medici were to Savonarola.  The latter seems to have felt a\nstrange fascination towards the eloquent preacher, tried to attach him\nto his court, was frequent in his attendance at San Marco, and gave\nlargely to his offertories.  To use the words of the New Testament, he\nfeared him, \"knowing that he was a righteous man, and a holy\" (Mark vi.\n20).  But Savonarola took care to avoid any sign of compliance or\ncompromise; declined to pay homage to Lorenzo for promotion to high\necclesiastical functions; returned his gold from the offertories; and\nwhen they ran to tell him that Lorenzo was walking in the convent\ngarden, answered, \"If he has not asked for me, do not disturb his\nmeditations or mine.\"\n\nLike John, Savonarola was unceasing in his denunciation of the\nhypocritical religion which satisfied itself with outward observances.\n\"I tell you,\" he said, \"that the Lord willeth not that ye fast on such\na day or at such an hour; but willeth that ye avoid sin all the days of\nyour life.  Observe how they go about--seeking indulgences and pardons,\nringing bells, decking altars, dressing churches.  God heedeth not your\nceremonies.\"\n\nJohn's exhortation to \"Behold the Lamb of God\" finds an echo in the\nnoble utterance of this illumined soul, who, be it remembered,\nanticipated Luther's Reformation by a hundred years.  \"If all the\necclesiastical hierarchy be corrupt, the believer must turn to Christ,\nwho is the primary cause, and say: 'Thou art my Priest and my\nConfessor.'\"\n\nThe fate of martyrdom that befell John was awarded also to Savonarola.\nThrough the impetuosity of his followers, he was involved in a\nchallenge to ordeal by fire.  But by the manoeuvres of his foes, the\nexpectations of the populace in this direction were disappointed, and\ntheir anger aroused.  \"To San Marco!\" shouted their leaders.  To San\nMarco they went, fired the buildings, burst open the doors, fought\ntheir way into the cloisters and church, dragged Savonarola from his\ndevotions, and thrust him into a loathsome dungeon.  After languishing\nthere, amid every indignity and torture, for some weeks, on May 23,\n1498, he was led forth to die.  The bishop, whose duty it was to\npronounce his degradation, stumbled at the formula declaring--\"I\nseparate thee from the Church, militant and triumphant.\"  \"From the\nmilitant thou mayest, but from the triumphant thou canst not,\" was the\nmartyr's calm reply.  He met his end with unflinching fortitude.  He\nwas strangled, his remains hung in chains, burned, and the ashes flung\ninto the river.  When the commissioners of the Pope arrived at his\ntrial, they brought with them express orders that he was to die, \"even\nthough he were a _second John the Baptist_.\"  It is thus that the\napostate Church has always dealt with her noblest sons.  But Truth,\nstruck to the ground, revives.  Hers are the eternal years.  Within a\nfew years, Luther was nailing his theses at the door of the church at\nWittenberg, and the Reformation was on its way.\n\nThere is a legend, which at least contains a true suggestion, that when\nSavonarola was on his way to Florence from Genoa, as a young man, his\nstrength failed him as he was crossing the Apennines, but that a\nmysterious stranger appeared to him, restored his courage, led him to a\nhospice, compelled him to take food, and afterwards accompanied him to\nhis destination; but on reaching the San Gallo gate he vanished, with\nthe words, _Remember to do that for which God hath sent thee!_\n\nThe story recalls forcibly the words with which the evangelist John\nintroduces his notice of the Forerunner--\"There was a man sent from\nGod, whose name was John.\"  Men are always coming, sent from God,\nspecially adapted to their age, and entrusted with the message which\nthe times demand.  See to it that thou too realize thy divine mission;\nfor Jesus said, \"As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.\"\nEvery true life is a mission from God.\n\nAnd when we read the words of the apostle Paul about John \"fulfilling\nhis course,\" we may well ask for grace that we may fill up to the brim\nthe measure of our opportunities, that we may realize to the full God's\nmeaning and intention in creating us: and so our lives shall mate with\nthe Divine Ideal, like sublime words with some heavenly strain, each\ncompleting the other.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nThe First Ministry of the Baptist.\n\n(LUKE III.)\n\n  \"Hark, what a sound, and too divine for hearing,\n    Stirs on the earth and trembles in the air!\n  Is it the thunder of the Lord's appearing?\n    Is it the music of his people's prayer?\n\n  \"Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices\n    Shout to the saints, and to the deaf and dumb;\n  Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices,\n    Glad in his coming who hath sworn, I come.\"\n            F. W. H. MYERS.\n\n\nThe Preaching of Repentance--His Power as a Preacher--His\nMessage--Warning of Impending Judgment--The Wages of Sin\n\n\nThirty years had left their mark on the Forerunner.  The aged priest\nand his wife Elisabeth had been carried to their grave by other hands\nthan those of the young Nazarite.  The story of his miraculous birth,\nand the expectations it had aroused, had almost died out of the memory\nof the countryside.  For many years John had been living in the caves\nthat indent the limestone rocks of the desolate wilderness which\nextends from Hebron to the western shores of the Dead Sea.  By the use\nof the scantiest fare, and roughest garb, he had brought his body under\ncomplete mastery.  From nature, from the inspired page, and from direct\nfellowship with God, he had received revelations which are only\nvouchsafed to those who can stand the strain of discipline in the\nschool of solitude and privation.  He had carefully pondered also the\nsigns of the times, of which he received information from the Bedouin\nand others with whom he came in contact.  Blended with all other\nthoughts, John's heart was filled with the advent of Him, so near akin\nto himself, who, to his certain knowledge, was growing up, a few months\nhis junior, in an obscure highland home, but who was speedily to be\nmanifested to Israel.\n\nAt last the moment arrived for him to utter the mighty burden that\npressed upon him; and \"in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar,\nPontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, Herod the tetrarch of Galilee,\nAnnas and Caiaphas the high priests, the word of God came unto John,\nthe son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.\"  It may have befallen thus.\nOne day, as a caravan of pilgrims was slowly climbing the mountain\ngorges threaded by the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, or halted\nfor a moment in the noontide heat, they were startled by the appearance\nof a gaunt and sinewy man, with flowing raven locks, and a voice which\nmust have been as sonorous and penetrating as a clarion, who cried,\n\"Repent! the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.\"\n\nIt was as though a spark had fallen on dry tinder.  The tidings spread\nwith wonderful rapidity that in the wilderness of Judaea one was to be\nmet who recalled the memory of the great prophets, and whose burning\neloquence was of the same order as of Isaiah or Ezekiel.  Instantly\npeople began to flock to him from all sides.  \"There went out to him\nJerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan.\"  The\nneighbourhood suddenly became black with hurrying crowds--as Klondike,\nwhen the news of the discovery of gold began to spread.  From lip to\nlip the tidings sped of a great leader and preacher, who had suddenly\nappeared.\n\nHe seems finally to have taken his stand not far from the rose-clad\noasis of Jericho, on the banks of the Jordan; and men of every tribe,\nclass, and profession, gathered thither, listening eagerly, or\ninterrupting him with loud cries for help.  The population of the\nmetropolis, familiar with the Temple services, and accustomed to the\nsplendour of the palace; fishermen from the Lake of Gennesaret, dusky\nsons of Ishmael from the desert of Gilead; the proud Pharisee; the\ndetested publican, who had fattened on the sorrows and burdens of the\npeople--were there, together with crowds of ordinary people that could\nfind no resting-place in the schools or systems of religious thought of\nwhich Jerusalem was the centre.\n\n\n1.  MANY CAUSES ACCOUNTED FOR JOHN'S IMMENSE POPULARITY.--_The office\nof the prophet was almost obsolete_.  Several centuries, as we have\nseen, had passed since the last great prophet had finished his\ntestimony.  The oldest man living at that time could not remember\nhaving seen a man who had ever spoken to a prophet.  It seemed as\nunlikely, to adopt the phrase of another, that another prophet should\narise in that formal, materialistic age, as that another cathedral\nshould be added to the splendid remains of Gothic glory which tell us\nof those bygone days when there were giants in the land.\n\nMoreover, _John gave such abundant evidence of sincerity--of reality_.\nHis independence of anything that this world could give made men feel\nthat whatever he said was inspired by his direct contact with things as\nthey literally are.  It was certain that his severe and lonely life had\nrent the vail, and given him the knowledge of facts and realities,\nwhich were as yet hidden from ordinary men, though waiting, soon to be\nrevealed; and it was equally certain that his words were a faithful and\nadequate presentation of what he saw.  He spoke what he knew, and\ntestified what he had seen.  His accent of conviction was unmistakable.\nWhen men see the professed prophet of the Unseen and Eternal as keen\nafter his own interests as any worldling, shrewd at a bargain,\ncaptivated by show, obsequious to the titled and wealthy; when they\ndiscover the man who predicts the dissolution of all things carefully\ninvesting the proceeds of the books in which he publishes his\npredictions--they are apt to reduce to a minimum their faith in his\nwords.  But there was no trace of this in the Baptist, and therefore\nthe people went forth to him.\n\n_Above all, he appealed to their moral convictions, and, indeed,\nexpressed them_.  The people knew that they were not as they should be.\nFor a long time this consciousness had been gaining ground; and now\nthey flocked around the man who revealed themselves to themselves, and\nindicated with unfaltering decision the course of action they should\nadopt.  How marvellous is the fascination which he exerts over men who\nwill speak to their inner-most souls!  This has always been the source\nof power to the great orators of the Romish Church--men like Massillon,\nfor instance--and to refuse to use this method of approach is to forego\none of the mightiest weapons in the repertory of Christian appeal.  If\nwe deal only with the intellect or imagination, the novelist or\nessayist may successfully compete with us.  It is in his direct appeal\nto the heart and conscience, that the servant of God exerts his supreme\nand unrivalled power.  Though a man may shrink from the preaching of\nrepentance, yet, if it tell the truth about himself, he will be\nirresistibly attracted to hear the voice that harrows his soul.  John\nrebuked Herod for many things; but still the royal offender sent for\nhim again and again, and heard him gladly.\n\nIt is expressly said that John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming\nto his baptism (Matt. iii. 7).  Their advent appears to have caused him\nsome surprise.  \"Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from\nthe wrath to come?\"  The strong epithet he used of them suggests that\nthey came as critics, because they were unwilling to surrender the\nleadership of the religious life of Israel, and were anxious to keep in\ntouch with the new movement, until they could sap its vitality, or\ndivert its force into the channels of their own influence.\n\nBut it is quite likely that in many cases there were deeper reasons.\n_The Pharisees_ were the ritualists and formalists of their day, who\nwould wrangle about the breadth of a phylactery, and decide to an inch\nhow far a man might walk on the Sabbath day; but the mere externals of\nreligion will never permanently satisfy the soul made in the likeness\nof God.  Ultimately it will turn from them with a great nausea and an\ninsatiable desire for the living God.  As for _the Sadducees_, they\nwere the materialists of their time.  The reaction of superstition, it\nhas been said, is to infidelity; and the reaction from Pharisaism was\nto Sadduceeism.  Disgusted and outraged by the trifling of the\nliteralists of Scripture interpretation, the Sadducee denied that there\nwas an eternal world and a spiritual state, and asserted that \"there is\nno resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit.\"  But mere negation can\nnever satisfy.  The heart still moans out its sorrow under the darkness\nof agnosticism, as the ocean sighing under a starless midnight.\nNature's instincts are more cogent than reason.  It was hardly to be\nwondered at, then, that these two great classes were largely\nrepresented in the crowds that gathered on the banks of the Jordan.\n\n\nII.  LET US BRIEFLY ENUMERATE THE MAIN BURDEN OF THE BAPTIST'S\nPREACHING.--(1) \"_The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand_.\"  To a Jew that\nphrase meant the re-establishment of the Theocracy, and a return to\nthose great days in the history of his people when God Himself was\nLawgiver and King.  Had not Daniel predicted that in the days of the\nlast of the great empires, prefigured in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the\nGod of heaven would set up a kingdom which should never be\ndestroyed--which should break in pieces all other kingdoms and stand\nfor ever?  Had he not foreseen a time when One like unto a son of man\nshould come to the Ancient of Days to receive a dominion which should\nnot pass away, and a kingdom which should not be destroyed?  Had he not\nforetold that the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven\nshould be given to the saints of the Most High?  Surely, then, all\nthese anticipations were on the eve of fulfilment.  The long-expected\nMessiah was at hand; and here was the forerunner described by Isaiah,\nthe prophet, saying:--\n\n  \"The voice of one crying in the wilderness,\n  Make ye ready the way of the Lord,\n  Make his paths straight.\"\n\n\nBut some misgiving must have passed over the minds of his hearers when\nthey heard the young prophet's description of the conditions and\naccompaniments of that long-looked-for reign.  Instead of dilating on\nthe material glory of the Messianic period, far surpassing the\nmagnificent splendour of Solomon, he insisted on the fulfilment of\ncertain necessary preliminary requirements, which lifted the whole\nconception of the anticipated reign to a new level, in which the inward\nand spiritual took precedence of the outward and material.  It was the\nold lesson, which in every age requires repetition, that unless a man\nis born again, and from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.\n\nBe sure of this, that no outward circumstances, however propitious and\nfavourable, can bring about true blessedness.  We might be put into the\nmidst of heaven itself, and be poor, and miserable, and blind, and\nnaked, unless the heart were in loving union with the Lamb, who is in\nthe midst of the throne.  He is the light of that city, his countenance\ndoth lighten it--from his throne the river of its pleasure flows, his\nservice is its delightful business; and to be out of fellowship with\nHim would make us out of harmony with its joy.  Life must be centred in\nChrist if it is to be concentric with all the circles of heaven's\nbliss.  We can never be at rest or happy whilst we expect to find our\nfresh springs in outward circumstances.  It is only when we are right\nwith God that we are blest and at rest.  Righteousness is blessedness.\nWhere the King is enthroned within the heart, the soul is in the\nkingdom, which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;\nnay, perhaps more accurately, that kingdom is in the soul.  And when\nall hearts are yielded to the King; when all gates lift up their heads,\nand all everlasting doors are unfolded for his entrance--then the curse\nwhich has so long brooded over the world shall be done away.  The whole\ncreation groaneth and travaileth for the manifestation of the sons of\nGod: but when they are revealed in all their beauty, then judgment\nshall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness shall abide in the\nfruitful field, and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the\neffect of righteousness quietness and confidence for ever; and the\nmirage shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water\n(Isa. xxxii. 15, 16; xxxv. 7, R.V.).\n\n(2) Alongside the proclamation of the kingdom was the uncompromising\ninsistence on \"_the wrath to come_.\"  John saw that the Advent of the\nKing would bring inevitable suffering to those who were living in\nself-indulgence and sin.\n\nThere would be careful discrimination.  He who was coming would\ncarefully discern between the righteous and the wicked; between those\nwho served God and those who served Him not: and the preacher enforced\nhis words by an image familiar to orientals.  When the wheat is reaped,\nit is bound in sheaves and carted to the threshing-floor, which is\ngenerally a circular spot of hard ground from fifty to one hundred feet\nin diameter.  On this the wheat is threshed from the chaff by manual\nlabour, but the two lie intermingled till the evening, when the grain\nis caught up in broad shovels or fans, and thrown against the evening\nbreeze, as it passes swiftly over the fevered land; thus the light\nchaff is borne away, while the wheat falls heavily to the earth.\nLikewise, cried the Baptist, there shall be a very careful process of\ndiscrimination, before the unquenchable fires are lighted; so that none\nbut chaff shall be consigned to the flames--a prediction which was\nfaithfully fulfilled.  At first Christ drew all men to Himself; but, as\nhis ministry proceeded, He revealed their quality.  A few were\npermanently attracted to Him; the majority were as definitely repelled.\nThere was no middle class.  Men were either for or against Him.  The\nsheep on this side; the goats on that.  The five wise virgins, and the\nfive foolish.  Those who entered the strait gate, and those who flocked\ndown the broad way that leadeth to destruction.  So it has been in\nevery age.  Jesus Christ is the touchstone of trial.  Our attitude\ntowards Him reveals the true quality of the soul.\n\nThere would also be a period of probation.  \"The axe laid to the root\nof the trees\" is familiar enough to those who know anything of\nforestry.  The woodman barks some tree which seems to him to be\noccupying space capable of being put to better use.  There is no undue\nhaste.  It is only after severe and searching scrutiny that the word\ngoes forth: \"Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?\"  But when once\nthat word is spoken, there is no appeal.  The Jewish people had become\nsadly unfruitful; but a definite period was to intervene--three years\nof Christ's ministry and thirty years beside--before the threatened\njudgment befell.  All this while the axe lay ready for its final\nstroke; but only when all hope of reformation was abandoned was it\ndriven home, and the nation crashed to its doom.\n\nPerhaps this may be the case with one of my readers.  You have been\nplanted on a favourable site, and have drunk in the dews and rain and\nsunshine of God's providence; but what fruit have you yielded in\nreturn?  How have you repaid the heavenly Husbandman?  May He not be\nconsidering whether any result will accrue from prolonging your\nopportunities for bearing fruit?  He has looked for grapes, and lo, you\nhave brought forth only wild grapes; He may well consider the\nadvisability of removing you from the stewardship, which you have used\nfor your own emolument, and not for his glory.\n\nFor all such there must be \"wrath to come.\"  After there has been\nsearching scrutiny and investigation, and every reasonable chance has\nbeen given for amendment, and still the soul is impenitent and\ndisobedient, there must be \"a certain fearful looking for of judgment\nand fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.\"\n\nThe fire of John's preaching had its primary fulfilment, probably, in\nthe awful disasters which befell the Jewish people, culminating in the\nsiege and fall of Jerusalem.  We know how marvellously the little\nhandful of believers which had been gathered out by the preaching of\nChrist and his disciples were accounted worthy to escape all those\nthings that came to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.  But the\nunbelieving mass of the Jewish people were discovered to be worthless\nchaff and unfruitful trees, and assigned to those terrible fires which\nhave left a scar on Palestine to this day.\n\nBut there was a deeper meaning.  The wrath of God avenges itself, not\non nations but on individual sinners.  \"He that believeth not the Son\nshall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.\"  The penalty\nof sin is inevitable.  The wages of sin is death.  The land which\nbeareth thorns and thistles, after having drunk of the rain which\ncometh often upon it, is rejected and nigh unto a curse, its end is to\nbe burned; under the first covenant, every transgression and\ndisobedience received a just recompense of reward; the man that set at\nnought Moses' law died without compassion, on the word of two or three\nwitnesses--of how much sorer punishment shall he be judged worthy who\nhath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of\nthe covenant a common thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of\ngrace!\n\nEven if we grant, as of course we must, that many of the expressions\nreferring to the ultimate fate of the ungodly are symbolical, yet it\nmust be granted also, that they have counterparts in the realm of soul\nand spirit, which are as terrible to endure, as the nature of the soul\nis more highly organized than that of the body.  Fire to the body is\neasy to bear in comparison with certain forms of suffering to which the\nheart and soul are sometimes exposed even in this life.  Have we not\nsometimes said, \"If physical suffering were concerned, we could bear\nit; but oh, this pain which is gnawing at the heart--this awful inward\nagony, which burns like fire!\"  And if we are capable of suffering so\nacutely from remorse and shame, from ingratitude and misrepresentation,\nin this life where there are so many distractions and temporary\nalleviations, what may not be the possibility of pain in that other\nlife, where there is no screen, no covering, no alleviation, no cup of\nwater to slake the thirst!  Believe me, when Jesus said, \"These shall\ngo away into eternal punishment,\" He contemplated a retribution so\nterrible, that it were good for the sufferers if they had never been\nborn.\n\nAll the great preachers have seen and faithfully borne witness to the\nfearful results of sin, as they take effect in this life and the next.\nThese threw Brainerd into a dripping sweat, whilst praying on a cool\nday for his Indians in the woods; these drew John Welsh from his bed,\nat all hours of the night, to plead for his people; these inspired\nBaxter to write his _Call to the Unconverted_; these drew Henry Martyn\nfrom his fellowship at Cambridge to the burning plains of India; these\nforced tears from Whitefield as he preached to the crowding thousands;\nthese burn in the memorable sermon by Jonathan Edwards on \"Sinners in\nthe hands of an angry God.\"  The notable revival which broke out at\nKirk o' Shotts was due, under God, to Livingston congratulating the\npeople that drops of rain alone were falling, and not the fire of\nDivine wrath.  The sermons of Ralph Erskine, of McCheyne and W. C.\nBurns, of Brownlow Northland Reginald Radcliffe, in the last\ngeneration, were characterized by the same appeals.  Though, on the\nother hand, because God is not confined to any one method, the\npreaching of the late D. L. Moody was specially steeped in the love of\nGod.  It is for want of a vision of the inevitable fate of the godless\nand disobedient, that much of our present-day preaching is so powerless\nand ephemeral.  You cannot get crops out of the land merely by summer\nshowers and sunshine; there must be the subsoil ploughing, the\npulverizing frost, the wild March wind.  And only when we modern\npreachers have seen sin as God sees it, and begin to apply the divine\nstandard to the human conscience; only when our eagerness and yearning\nwell over into our eyes and broken tones, only when we know the terror\nof the Lord, and begin to persuade men as though we would pluck them\nout of the fire, by our strenuous expostulation and entreaties--shall\nwe see the effects that followed the preaching of the Baptist when\nsoldiers, publicans, Pharisees, and scribes, crowded around him,\nsaying, \"What shall we do?\"\n\nAll John's preaching, therefore, led up to the demand for repentance.\nThe word which was oftenest on his lips was \"Repent ye!\"  It was not\nenough to plead direct descent from Abraham, or outward conformity with\nthe Levitical and Temple rites.  God could raise up children to Abraham\nfrom the stones of the river bank.  There must be the renunciation of\nsin, the definite turning to God, the bringing forth of fruit meet for\nan amended life.  In no other way could the people be prepared for the\ncoming of the Lord.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nBaptism unto Repentance\n\n(MARK I. 4.)\n\n  \"The last and greatest herald of heaven's King,\n    Girt with rough skins, hies to the desert wild;\n  Among that savage brood the woods doth bring,\n    Which he more harmless found than man, and mild.\n\n  \"His food was locusts and what there doth spring,\n    With honey that from virgin hives distill'd,\n  Parch'd body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing\n    Made him appear, long since from earth exiled.\"\n            W. DRUMMOND, of Hawthornden.\n\n\nRepentance: its Nature--Repentance: how Produced--Repentance: its\nEvidences--Repentance: its Results--John's Baptism: from Heaven\n\n\nAt the time of which we are speaking, an extraordinary sect, known as\nthe Essenes, was scattered throughout Palestine, but had its special\nhome in the oasis of Engedi; and with the adherents of this community\nJohn must have been in frequent association.  They were the recluses or\nhermits of their age.\n\nThe aim of the Essenes was moral and ceremonial purity.  They sought\nafter an ideal of holiness, which they thought could not be realized in\nthis world; and therefore, leaving villages and towns, they betook\nthemselves to the dens and caves of the earth, and gave themselves to\ncontinence, abstinence, fastings, and prayers, supporting themselves by\nsome slight labours on the land.  Those who have investigated their\ninteresting history tell us that the cardinal point with them was faith\nin the inspired Word of God.  By meditation, prayer, and mortification,\nfrequent ablutions, and strict attention to the laws of ceremonial\npurity, they hoped to reach the highest stage of communion with God.\nThey agreed with the Pharisees in their extraordinary regard for the\nSabbath.  Their daily meal was of the simplest kind, and partaken of in\ntheir house of religious assembly.  After bathing, with prayer and\nexhortation they went, with veiled faces, to their dining-room, as to a\nholy temple.  They abstained from oaths, despised riches, manifested\nthe greatest abhorrence of war and slavery, faced torture and death\nwith the utmost bravery, refused the indulgence of pleasure.\n\nIt is clear that John was not a member of this holy community, which\ndiffered widely from the Pharisaism and Sadduceeism of the time.  The\nEssenes wore white robes, emblematic of the purity they sought; whilst\nhe was content with his coat of camel's hair and leathern girdle.  They\nseasoned their bread with hyssop, and he with honey.  They dwelt in\nbrotherhoods and societies; while he stood alone from the earliest days\nof his career.  But it cannot be doubted that he was in deep accord\nwith much of the doctrine and practice of this sect.\n\nJohn the Baptist, however, cannot be accounted for by any of the\npre-existing conditions of his time.  He stood alone in his God-given\nmight.  That he was conscious of this appears from his own declaration\nwhen he said, \"He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me.\"\nAnd that Christ wished to convey the same impression is clear from his\nquestion to the Pharisees: \"The baptism of John, was it from heaven or\nfrom men?\"  Moreover, the distinct assertion of the Spirit of God,\nthrough the fourth Evangelist, informs us: \"There came a man, sent from\nGod, whose name was John, the same came for witness, that all might\nbelieve through him.\"  \"The Word of God came unto John, the son of\nZacharias, in the wilderness.  And he came.\"\n\n\nI.  THE SUMMONS TO REPENT.--John has a ministry with all men.  In other\nwords, he represents a phase of teaching and influence through which we\nmust needs pass if we are properly to discover and appreciate the grace\nof Christ.  With us, too, a preparatory work has to be done.  There are\nmountains and hills of pride and self-will that have to be levelled;\ncrooked and devious ways that have to be straightened; ruggednesses\nthat have to be smoothed--before we can fully behold the glory of God\nin the face of Jesus Christ.  In proportion to the thoroughness and\npermanence of our repentance will be our glad realization of the\nfulness and glory of the Lamb of God.\n\nBut we must guard ourselves here, lest it be supposed that repentance\nis a species of good work which must be performed in order that we may\nmerit the grace of Christ.  It must be made equally clear, that\nrepentance must not be viewed apart from faith in the Saviour, which is\nan integral part of it.  It is also certain that, though \"God\ncommandeth all men everywhere to repent,\" yet Jesus is exalted \"to give\nrepentance and the remission of sins.\"\n\nRepentance, according to the literal rendering of the Greek word, is \"a\nchange of mind.\"  Perhaps we should rather say, it is a change in the\nattitude of the will.  The unrepentant soul chooses its own way and\nwill, regardless of the law of God.  \"The mind of the flesh is enmity\nagainst God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed,\ncan it be; and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.\"  But in\nrepentance the soul changes its attitude.  It no longer refuses the\nyoke of God's will, like a restive heifer, but yields to it, or is\nwilling to yield.  There is a compunction, a sense of the hollowness of\nall created things, a relenting, a wistful yearning after the true\nlife, and ultimately a turning from darkness to light, and from the\npower of Satan unto God.  The habits may rebel; the inclinations and\nemotions may shrink back; the consciousness of peace and joy may yet be\nfar away--but the will has made its secret decision, and has begun to\nturn to God: as, in the revolution of the earth, the place where we\nlive reaches its furthest point from the sunlight, passes it, and\nbegins slowly to return towards its warm smiles and embrace.\n\nIt cannot be too strongly emphasized that repentance is an act of the\n_will_.  In its beginning there may be no sense of gladness or\nreconciliation with God: but just the consciousness that certain ways\nof life are wrong, mistaken, hurtful, and grieving to God; and the\ndesire, which becomes the determination, to turn from them, to seek Him\nwho formed the mountains and created the wind, that maketh the morning\ndarkness and treadeth upon the high places of the earth.\n\nRepentance may be accounted as the other side of faith.  They are the\ntwo sides of the same coin: the two aspects of the same act.  If the\nact of the soul which brings it into right relation with God is\ndescribed as a turning round, to go in the reverse direction to that in\nwhich it had been travelling, then _repentance_ stands for its desire\nand choice to turn from sin, and _faith_ for its desire and choice to\nturn to God.  We must be willing to turn from sin and our own\nrighteousness--that is _repentance_; we must be willing to be saved by\nGod, in his own way, and must come to Him for that purpose--that is\n_faith_.\n\nWe need to turn from our own righteousnesses as well as from our sins.\nAugustine spoke of his efforts after righteousness as splendid sins;\nand Paul distinctly disavows all those attempts to stand right with God\nwhich he made before he saw the face of the risen Christ looking out\nfrom heaven upon his conscience-stricken spirit.  You must turn away\nfrom your own efforts to save yourself.  These are, in the words of the\nprophet, but \"filthy rags.\"  Nothing, apart from the Saviour and his\nwork, can avail the soul, which must meet the scrutiny of eternal\njustice and purity.\n\nRepentance is produced sometimes and specially by the presentation of\nthe claims of Christ.  We suddenly awake to realize what He is, how He\nloves, how much we are missing, the gross ingratitude with which we\nrespond to his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and suffering, the\nbeauty of his character, the strength of his claims.\n\nAt other times repentance is wrought by the preaching of John the\nBaptist.  Then we hear of the axe laid at the root of the trees, and\nthe unquenchable fire for the consuming of the chaff: and the heart\ntrembles.  Then we are led to the brink of the precipice, and compelled\nto see the point at which the primrose-path we are travelling ends in\nthe fatal abyss.  Then our faith in our hereditary position and\nprivilege is shattered by the iconoclasm of the preacher; and we are\nlevelled to the position of stones which are lapped by the Jordan, but\nare insensible to its touch.  It is at such a time as this that the\nsoul sees the entire fabric of its vain confidences and hopes crumbling\nlike a cloud-palace, and turns from it all--as Mary from the sepulchre,\nwhere her hopes lay entombed, to find Jesus standing with the\nresurrection glory on his face and radiant love in his eyes.\n\nFor purposes of clear thinking it is well to discriminate in our use of\nthe words Repentance and Penitence, using the former of the first act\nof the will, when, energized and quickened by the Spirit of God, it\nturns from dead works to serve the living and true God; and the latter,\nof the emotions which are powerfully wrought upon, as the years pass,\nby the Spirit's presentation of all the pain and grief which our sin\nhas caused, and is causing, to our blessed Lord.  We repent once, but\nare penitents always.  We repent in the will; we are penitent in the\nheart.  We repent, and believe the Gospel; we believe the Gospel of the\nSon of Man, and as we look on Him, whom our sins have pierced, we\nmourn.  We repent when we obey his call to come unto Him and live; we\nare penitent as we stand behind Him weeping, and begin to wash his feet\nwith our tears, and to wipe them with the hair of our head.\n\nIf John the Baptist has never wrought his work in you, be sure to open\nyour heart to his piercing voice.  Let him fulfil his ministry.  See\nthat you do not reject the counsel of God, as it proceeds from his\nlips; but expose your soul to its searching scrutiny, and allow it to\nhave free and uninterrupted course.  He comes to prepare the way of the\nLord, and to make through the desert of our nature a highway for our\nGod.  Of course, if, from the earliest you have been under the nurture\nof pious parents, and your young heart turned to God in the early dawn\nof consciousness, you will not pass through these experiences as those\nmust who have spent years in the service of Satan.  For these there is\nbut one word--Repent!  They must, in a moment of time, take up an\nentirely different attitude to God and holiness, to Christ and his\nsalvation.\n\nII.  THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF REPENTANCE.--(1) _Confession_.  \"They\nwere baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.\"  What\nthis precisely means it is not possible to say in detail; but it is not\nimprobable that beneath the strong pressure of inward remorse and\nbitterness of spirit, men of notoriously bad life, as well as those who\nhad never abandoned themselves to the mad currents of temptation, but\nwere none the less conscious of heart and hidden sins, stood up,\n\"confessing and declaring their deeds,\" as in a memorable scene long\nafterwards (Acts xix. 17-20).\n\nThe formalist confessed that the whited sepulchre of his religious\nobservances had concealed a mass of putrefaction.  The sceptic\nconfessed that his refusal of religion was largely due to his hatred of\nthe demands of God's holy law.  The multitudes confessed that they had\nbeen selfish and sensual, shutting up their compassions, and refusing\nclothing and food to the needy.  The publican confessed that he had\nextorted by false accusation and oppression more than his due.  The\nsoldier confessed that his profession had often served as the cloak for\nterrorizing the poor and vamping up worthless accusations.  The\nnotoriously evil liver confessed that he had lain in wait for blood,\nand destroyed the innocent and helpless for gain or hate.  The air was\nladen with the cries and sighs of the stricken multitudes, who beheld\ntheir sin for the first time in the light of eternity and of its\ninevitable doom.  The lurid flames of \"the wrath to come\" cast their\nsearching light on practices which, in the comparative twilight of\nignorance and neglect, had passed without special notice.\n\nUpon that river's brink, men not only confessed to God, but probably\nalso to one another.  Life-long feuds were reconciled; old quarrels\nwere settled; frank words of apology and forgiveness were exchanged;\nhands grasped hands for the first time after years of alienation and\nstrife.\n\nConfession is an essential sign of a genuine repentance, and without it\nforgiveness is impossible.  \"He that covereth his transgressions shall\nnot prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain\nmercy.\"  \"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us\nour sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\"  So long as we\nkeep silence, our bones wax old through our inward anguish; we are\nburnt by the fire of slow fever; we toss restlessly, though on a couch\nof down.  But on confession there is immediate relief.  \"I said, I will\nconfess my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest me the\niniquity of my sin.\"\n\nConfess your sin to God, O troubled soul, from whom the vision of\nChrist is veiled.  It is more than likely that some undetected or\nunconfessed sin is shutting out the rays of the true sun.  Excuse\nnothing, extenuate nothing, omit nothing.  Do not speak of mistakes of\njudgment, but of lapses of heart and will.  Do not be content with a\ngeneral confession; be particular and specific.  Drag each evil thing\nforth before God's judgment bar; let the secrets be exposed, and the\ndark, sad story told.  Begin at the beginning, and go steadily through.\nOnly be very careful to leave no trace of your experiences for human\neyes or ears.  To tell this story to another will rob it of its value\nto yourself and its acceptableness to God.  It is enough for God to\nknow it; and to tell Him all is to receive at once his assurance of\nforgiveness, for the sake of Him who loved us and gave Himself a\npropitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for those of the\nwhole world.  Directly the confession leaves our heart, nay, whilst it\nis in process, the Divine voice is heard assuring us that our sins,\nwhich are many, are put away as far as the east is from the west, and\ncast into the depths of the sea.\n\nBut such confession should not be made to God alone, when sins are in\nquestion which have injured and alienated others.  If our brother has\naught against us, we must find him out, while our gift is left\nunpresented at the altar, and first be reconciled to him.  We must\nwrite the letter, or speak the word; we must make honourable reparation\nand amends; we must not be behind the sinners under the old law, who\nwere bidden to add a fifth part to the loss their brother had sustained\nthrough their wrong-doing, when they made it good.  The only sin we are\njustified in confessing to our brother man is that we have committed\nagainst him.  All else must be told in the ear of Jesus, that great\nHigh Priest, whose confessional is always open, and whose pure ear can\nreceive our dark and sad stories without taint or soil.\n\n(2) _Fruit worthy of Repentance_.  \"Bring forth, therefore, fruit\nworthy of repentance,\" said John, with some indignation, as he saw many\nof the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism.  He insisted that\npractical and vital religion was not a rule, but a life; not outward\nritual, but a principle; not works, but fruit: and he demanded that the\ngenuineness of repentance should be attested by appropriate fruit.  \"Do\nmen gather grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles?\"\n\nProbably that demand of the Baptist accounted for the alteration in his\nlife of which Zaccheus made confession to Christ, when He became his\nguest.  The rich publican lived at Jericho, near which John was\nbaptizing, and he was probably amongst the publicans who were attracted\nto his ministry.  How well we can imagine the comments that would be\npassed on his presence, as each nudged his neighbour and whispered.\n\"Is not that Zaccheus?\" said one.  \"What is he doing here?\" said\nanother.  \"It is about time _he_ came to himself,\" muttered a third.\n\"I wish the Baptist could do something for him,\" said a fourth.\n\nAnd something touched that hardened heart.  A great hope and a great\nresolve sprang up in it.  He may have joined in the confessions of\nwhich we have spoken, but he did more.  On his arrival at Jericho he\nwas a new man.  He gave the half of his goods to feed the poor; and if\nhe had wrongfully exacted aught of any man, he restored four-fold.  His\nservant was often seen in the lowest and poorest parts of the old city,\nhunting up cases of urgent distress, and bestowing anonymous alms, and\nmany a poor man was delighted to find a considerable sum of money\nthrust into his hands, with a scrap of paper signed by the rich\ntax-gatherer, saying, \"I took so much from you, years ago, to which I\nhad no claim; kindly find it enclosed, with fourfold as amends.\"\nShould any ask him the reason for it all, he would answer, \"Ah, I have\nbeen down to the Jordan and heard the Baptist; I believe the Kingdom is\ncoming, and the King is at hand; and I want to make ready for Him, so\nthat, when He comes, He may be able to abide at my house.\"\n\nYou will never get right with God till you are right with man.  It is\nnot enough to confess wrong-doing; you must be prepared to make amends\nso far as lies in your power.  Sin is not a light thing, and it must be\ndealt with, root and branch.\n\n(3) _The baptism of repentance_.  \"They were baptized ... confessing\ntheir sins.\"  The cleansing property of water has given it a religious\nsignificance from most remote antiquity  Men have conceived of sin as a\nfoul stain upon the heart, and have couched their petitions for its\nremoval in words derived from its use: \"Purge me with hyssop, and I\nshall be clean.  Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.\"  They have\nlonged to feel that as the body was delivered from pollution, so the\nsoul was freed from stain.  In some cases this thought has assumed a\ngross and material form; and men have attributed to the water of\ncertain rivers, such as the Ganges, the Nile, the Abana, the mysterious\npower of cleansing away sin.\n\nThere was no trace of this, however, in John's teaching.  It was not\nbaptism _unto remission_, but _unto repentance_.  It was the expression\nand symbol of the soul's desire and intention, so far as it knew, to\nconfess and renounce its sins, as the necessary condition of obtaining\nthe Divine forgiveness.\n\nIt is not necessary to discuss the much-vexed question of the source\nfrom which the Baptist derived his baptism--some say it was from the\nhabits of the Essenes, or the practice of the Rabbis, who subjected to\nthis rite all proselytes to Judaism from the Gentile world.  It is\nenough for us to remember that he was _sent_ to baptize; that the idea\nof his baptism was \"from heaven\"; and that in his hands the rite\nassumed altogether novel and important functions.  It meant death and\nburial as far as the past was concerned; and resurrection to a new and\nbetter future.  Forgetting and dying to the things that were behind,\nthe soul was urged to realize the meaning of this symbolic act, and to\npress on and up to better things before; assured as it did so that God\nhad accepted its confession and choice, and was waiting to receive it\ngraciously and love it freely.\n\nIt is easy to see how all this appealed to the people, and specially\ntouched the hearts of young men.  At that time, by the blue waters of\nthe Lake of Galilee, there was a handful of ardent youths, deeply\nstirred by the currents of thought around them, who resented the Roman\nsway, and were on the tip-toe of expectation for the coming Kingdom.\nHow they spoke together, as they floated at night in their fisherman's\nyawl over the dark waters of the Lake of Galilee, about God's ancient\ncovenant, and the advent of the Messiah, and the corruptions of their\nbeloved Temple service!  And when, one day, tidings reached them of\nthis strange new preacher, they left all and streamed with all the\nworld beside to the Jordan valley, and stood fascinated by the spell of\nhis words.\n\nOne by one, or all together, they made themselves known to him, and\nbecame his loyal friends and disciples.  We are familiar with the names\nof one or two of them, who afterwards left their earlier master to\nfollow Christ; but of the rest we know nothing, save that he taught\nthem to fast and pray, and that they clung to their great teacher,\nuntil they bore his headless body to the grave.  After his death they\njoined themselves with Him whom they had once regarded with some\nsuspicion as his rival and supplanter.\n\nHow much this meant to John!  He had never had a friend; and to have\nthe allegiance and love of these noble, ingenuous youths must have been\nvery grateful to his soul.  But from them all he repeatedly turned his\ngaze, as though he were looking for some one who must presently emerge\nfrom the crowd; and the sound of whose voice would give him the deepest\nand richest fulfilment of his joy, because it would be the voice of the\nBridegroom Himself.\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nThe Manifestation of the Messiah\n\n(JOHN I. 31.)\n\n    \"Before me, as in darkening glass,\n    Some glorious outlines pass,\n  Of love, and truth, and holiness, and power--\n    I own them thine, O Christ,\n    And bless Thee in this hour.\"\n            F. R. HAVERGAL.\n\n\nThe Herald's Proclamation--The Meeting of John and Jesus--Christ's\nBaptism--\"It Becometh Us.\"--\"My Beloved Son.\"\n\n\nJohn's life, at this period, was an extraordinary one.  By day he\npreached to the teeming crowds, or baptized them; by night he would\nsleep in some slight booth, or darksome cave.  But the conviction grew\nalways stronger in his soul, that the Messiah was near to come; and\nthis conviction became a revelation.  The Holy Spirit who filled him,\ntaught him.  He began to see the outlines of his Person and work.  As\nhe thought upon Him, beneath the gracious teaching of Him who had sent\nhim to baptize (John i. 33), the dim characteristics of his glorious\npersonality glimmered out on the sensitive plate of his inner\nconsciousness, and he could even describe Him to others, as well as\ndelineate Him for himself.\n\nHe conceived of the coming King, as we have seen, as the Woodman,\nlaying his axe at the root of the trees; as the Husbandman, fan in hand\nto winnow the threshing-floor; as the Baptist, prepared to plunge all\nfaithful souls in his cleansing fires; as the Ancient of Days, who,\nthough coming after him in order of time, must be preferred before him\nin order of precedence, because He was before him in the eternal glory\nof his Being (John i. 15-30).\n\nIt was this vision of the Sun before the sunrise, as he viewed it from\nthe high peak of his own noble character, that induced in the herald\nhis conspicuous and beautiful humility.  He insisted that he was not\nworthy to perform the most menial service for Him whose advent he\nannounced.  \"I am content,\" he said in effect, \"to be a voice, raised\nfor a moment to proclaim the King, and soon dying on the desert air,\nwhilst the person of the crier is unnoticed and unsought for; but I may\nnot presume to unloose the latchet of his shoes....  There cometh after\nme He that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not\nworthy to stoop down and unloose.\"\n\nJohn was not only humble in his self-estimate, but also in his modest\nappreciation of the results of his work.  It was only transient and\npreparatory.  It was given him to do; but it would soon be done.  His\ncourse was a short one, and it would soon be fulfilled (Acts xiii. 25).\nHis simple mission was to bid the people to believe on Him who should\ncome after him (xix. 4.) He was the morning star ushering in the day,\nbut destined to fade in the glory of ruddy dawn, flooding the eastern\nsky.\n\nBut our impression of the sublime humility of this great soul will\nbecome deeper, as we consider that marvellous scene in which he first\nrecognised the divine mission and claims of his Kinsman, Jesus of\nNazareth.  Consider the meeting between the Sun and the star, and take\nit as indicating an experience which must always supervene on the\ncleansed and holy soul, which desires and prepares for it.\n\n\nI.  OUR LORD'S ADVENT TO THE JORDAN BANK.--For thirty years the Son of\nMan had been about his Father's business in the ordinary routine of a\nvillage carpenter's life.  He had found scope enough there for his\nmarvellously rich and deep nature; reminding us of the philosopher's\ngarden, which, though only a dingy court in a crowded city, reached\nthrough to the other side of the world on the one hand, and up to the\nheaven of God on the other.  Often He must have felt the strong\nattraction of the great world of men, which He loved; and the wild\nwinds, as they careered over his village home, must have often borne to\nHim the wail of broken hearts, asking Him to hasten to their relief.\nOn his ear must have struck the voices of Jairuses pleading for their\nonly daughters; of sisters interceding for their Lazaruses; of halt and\nlame and blind entreating that He would come and heal them.  But He\nwaited still, his eye on the dial-plate of the clock, till the time was\nfulfilled which had been fixed in the Eternal Council Chamber.\n\nAs soon, however, as the rumours of the Baptist's ministry reached Him,\nand He knew that the porter had taken up his position at the door of\nthe sheepfold, ready to admit the true Shepherd (John x. 3), He could\nhesitate no longer.  The Shechinah cloud was gathering up its fleecy\nfolds, and poising itself above Him, and moving slowly towards the\nscene of the Baptist's ministry; and He had no alternative but to\nfollow.  He must tear Himself away from Nazareth, home, and mother, and\ntake the road which would end at Calvary.  \"Then cometh Jesus from\nGalilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.\"\n\nTradition locates the scene of John's baptism as near Jericho, where\nthe water is shallow and the river opens out into large lagoons.  But\nsome, inferring that Nazareth was within a day's journey of this\nnotable spot, place it nearer the southern end of the Lake of Galilee.\n\nIt may have been in the late afternoon when Jesus arrived.  An\nexpression made use of by the evangelist Luke might seem to suggest\nthat all the people had been baptized for that day at least (Luke iii.\n21); so that perhaps the crowds had dispersed, and the great prophet\nwas alone with one or two of those young disciples of whom we have\nspoken.  Or, Jesus may have arrived when the Jordan banks were alive\nwith the eager multitudes.  But, in either case, a sudden and\nremarkable change passed over the Baptist's face as he beheld his\nKinsman standing there.\n\nPicture that remarkable scene.  The arrowy stream, rushing down from\nthe Lake of Galilee to the Dead Sea; the rugged banks; the shadowy\nforests; the erect, sinewy form of the Baptist; and Jesus of Nazareth,\nas depicted by the olden traditions, with auburn hair, searching blue\neye, strong, sweet face, and all the beauty of his young manhood.  At\nthe sight of Him, note how the high look on the Baptist's face lowers;\nhow his figure stoops in involuntary obeisance; how the voice that was\nwont to ring out its messages in accents of uncompromising decision\nfalters and trembles!\n\nJohn said, \"I knew Him not\" (John i. 31); but this need not be\ninterpreted as indicating that he had no acquaintance whatever with his\nblameless relative.  Such may have been the case, of course, since\nJohn's life had been spent apart from the haunts of men.  It is more\nnatural to suppose that the cousins had often met, as boys and\nafterwards.  But the Baptist had never realized that Jesus was the\nMessiah whose advent he was sent to announce.  He had not recognised\nhis high descent and claims.  It had never occurred to him that this\nsimple village Carpenter, so closely related to himself, whose course\nof life was apparently so absolutely ordinary and commonplace, could be\nHe of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write.  In this sense\nJohn could truly say, \"I knew Him not.\"\n\nBut John knew enough of Him to be aware of his guileless, blameless\nlife.  The story of his tender love for Mary; of his devotion to the\ninterests of his brothers and sisters; of his undefiled purity, of his\nlong vigils on the mountains till the morning called Him back to his\ntoils; of his deep acquaintance with Scripture; of his speech about the\nFather--had reached the Baptist's ears.  He had come to entertain the\nprofoundest respect amounting to veneration for his Kinsman; and, as He\npresented Himself for baptism, John felt that there was a whole heaven\nof difference between Him and all others.  These publicans and sinners,\nthese Pharisees and scribes, these soldiers and common people--had\nevery need to repent, confess, and be forgiven; but there was surely no\nsuch need for Him, who had been always, and by general acknowledgment,\n\"holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.\"  \"I have need,\"\nsaid he, \"to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?\" (Matt. iii.\n14).\n\nThere may have been, besides, an indescribable presentiment that stole\nover that lofty nature--like that knowledge of good men and bad which\nis often given to noble women.  He knew men; his eagle eye had searched\ntheir hearts, as he had heard them confess their sins; and at a glance\nhe could tell what was in them.  A connoisseur of souls was he.  Among\nall the pearls that had passed through his hands--some goodly ones\namong them--none had seemed so rare and pure as this; it was a pearl of\ngreat price, for which a man might be prepared to part with all he\npossessed, if only to obtain it.  There was an indefinable majesty, a\nmoral glory, a tender grace, an ineffable attractiveness in this Man,\nwhich was immediately appreciated by the greatest of woman-born,\nbecause of his own intrinsic nobility and greatness of soul.  It needed\na Baptist to recognise the Christ.  He who had never quailed before\nmonarch or people, directly he came in contact with Christ, cast the\ncrown of his manhood at his feet, and shrank away.  The eagle that had\nsoared unhindered in mid-heaven seemed transfixed by a sudden dart, and\nfell suddenly, with a strange, low cry, at the feet of its Creator.  \"I\nhave need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?\"\n\n\nII.  THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHRIST'S BAPTISM.--\"Suffer it to be so now:\nfor thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness\"--with such words\nour Lord overruled the objections of his loyal and faithful Forerunner.\nThis is the first recorded utterance of Christ, after a silence of more\nthan twenty years; the first also of his public ministry: it demands\nour passing notice.  He does not say, \"I have need to be baptized of\nthee\"; nor does He say, \"Thou hast no need to be baptized of Me.\"  He\ndoes not stay to explain why the greater should be baptized by the\nless: or why a rite which confessed sin was required for one who was\nabsolutely sinless.  It is enough to appeal to the Baptist as his\nassociate in a joint necessary act, becoming to them both as part of\nthe Divine procedure, and therefore claiming their common obedience.\n\"Thus it becometh us (you and me) to fulfil all righteousness.\"\n\nIn his baptism, our Lord acknowledged the divine authority of the\nForerunner.  As the last and greatest of the prophets, who was to close\nthe Old Testament era, for \"the law and the prophets prophesied until\nJohn\"; as the representative of Elijah the prophet, before the great\nand notable day of the Lord could come; as the porter of the Jewish\nfold--John occupied a unique position, and it was out of deference to\nhis appointment by the Father, and as an acknowledgment of his office,\nthat Jesus sought baptism at his hands.\n\nJohn's baptism, moreover, was the inauguration of the Kingdom of\nHeaven.  In it the material made way for the spiritual.  The old\nsystem, which gave special privileges to the children of Abraham, was\nin the act of passing away, confessing that God could raise up children\nto Abraham from the stones at the water's edge; and demanding that\nthose who would enter the Kingdom must be born from above, of water and\nof the Spirit.  It was the outward and visible sign that Judaism was\nunavailing for the deepest needs of the spirit of man, and that a new\nand more spiritual system was about to take its place, and Christ said,\nin effect, \"I, too, though King, obey the law of the Kingdom, and bow\nmy head, that, by the same sign as the smallest of my subjects, I may\npass forward to my throne.\"\n\nThere was probably a deeper reason still.  That Jordan water, flowing\ndownwards to the Dead Sea, was symbolical.  In the purity of its\norigin, amid the snows of Hermon, and in the beauty of its earlier\ncourse, it was an emblem of man's original constitution, when the\nCreator made him in His own image and pronounced him very good; but in\nthese sullied and troubled waters hurrying on to the Sea of\nDeath--waters in which thousands of sinners had confessed their sins,\nwith tears and sighs--how apt an emblem was there of the history of our\nrace, contaminated by the evil that is in the world through lust, and\nmeriting the wages of sin--death!  With that race, in its sin and\ndegradation, our Lord now formally identified Himself.  His baptism was\nhis formal identification with our fallen and sinful race, though He\nknew no sin for Himself, and could challenge the minutest inspection of\nhis enemies: \"Which of you convinceth Me of sin?\"\n\nWas He baptized because He needed to repent, or to confess his sins?\nNay, verily!  He was as pure as the bosom of God, from which He came;\nas pure as the fire that shone above them in the orb of day; as pure as\nthe snows on Mount Hermon, rearing itself like a vision of clouds on\nthe horizon: but He needed to be made sin, that we might be made the\nrighteousness of God in Him.  When the paschal lamb had been chosen by\nthe head of a Jewish household, it was customary to take it, three days\nbefore it would be offered, to the priest, to have it sealed with the\nTemple seal; so our Lord, three years before his death, must be set\napart and sealed by the direct act of the Holy Spirit, through the\nmediation of John the Baptist.  \"Him hath God the Father sealed.\"\n\n\"It becometh us\"--I like that word, _becometh_.  If the Divine Lord\nthought so much about what was becoming, surely we may.  It should\nnot be a question with us, merely as to what may be forbidden or\nharmful, what may or may not be practised and permitted by our\nfellow-Christians, or even whether there are distinct prohibitions in\nthe Bible that bar the way--but if a certain course is becoming.  \"Need\nI pass through that rite?\"  _It is becoming_.  \"Need I perform that\nlowly act?\" _It is becoming_.  \"Need I renounce my liberty of action in\nthat respect?\"  _It would be very becoming_.  And whenever some\nhesitant soul, timid and nervous to the last degree, dares to step out,\nand do what it believes to be the right thing because it is becoming,\nJesus comes to it, enlinks his arm, and says, \"Thou art not alone in\nthis.  Thou and I stand together here.  It becomes us to fill up to its\nfull measure all righteousness.\"  Ah, soul, thou shalt never step forth\non a difficult and untrodden path without hearing his footfall behind\nthee, and becoming aware that in every act of righteousness Christ\nidentifies Himself, saying, \"Thus it becometh _us_ to fulfil all\nrighteousness.\"\n\nA friend suggests that the Lord Jesus was here referring to the sublime\nprophecy of Daniel ix. 24.  That He might make an end of sin and bring\nin everlasting righteousness, it was essential that the Lamb of God\nshould confess the sins of the people as his own (see Psa. lxix. 5).\nThis was his first step on his journey to the Cross, every step of\nwhich was in fulfilment of all righteousness, in order that He might\nbring in everlasting righteousness.\n\n\"Then he suffered Him.\"  Some things we have to _do_ for Christ, and\nsome to _bear_ for Him.  Active virtues are great; but the passive ones\nare rarer and cost more, especially for strong natures like the\nBaptist's.  But, in all our human life, there is nothing more\nattractive than when a strong man yields to another, accepts a deeper\ninterpretation of duty than he had perceived, and is prepared to set\naside his strong convictions of propriety before the tender pleadings\nof a still, soft voice.  Yield to Christ, dear heart.  Suffer Him to\nhave his way.  Take his yoke, and be meek and lowly of heart--so shalt\nthou find rest.\n\n\nIII.  THE DESIGNATION OF THE MESSIAH.--It is not to be supposed that\nthe designation of Jesus as the Christ was given to any but John.  It\nwas apparently a private sign given to him, as the Forerunner and\nHerald, through which he might be authoritatively informed as to the\nidentity of the Messiah.  To say nothing of the impossibility of\nordinary and unanointed eyes beholding the descent of the Holy Spirit,\nJohn's own statements seem to point clearly in this direction.  He\nsays, \"I knew Him not\" (_i.e._, as Son of God), \"but He that sent me to\nbaptize with water, He said unto me, 'Upon whomsoever thou shalt see\nthe Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that\nbaptizeth with the Holy Spirit.'  And I have seen, and have borne\nwitness that this is the Son of God\" (John i. 32-34).  The same thought\nappears from putting a perfectly legitimate construction on the words\nof the first evangelist: \"Lo, the heavens were opened unto him\"\n(_i.e._, the Baptist), \"and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a\ndove, and coming upon Him\" (Matt. iii. 16).\n\nWhat a theophany was here!  As the Man of Nazareth emerged from the\nwater, the sign for which John had been eagerly waiting and looking was\ngranted.  He had believed he would see it, but had never thought to see\nit granted to one so near akin to himself.  We never expect the great\nGod to come to us!  And the exclamation, Lo, indicates his startled\nsurprise.  He saw far away into the blue vault, which had opened into\ndepth after depth of golden glory.  The vail was rent to admit of the\ncoming forth of the Divine Spirit, who seemed to descend in visible\nshape--as a dove might, with gentle, fluttering motion--and to alight\non the head of the Holy One, who stood there fresh from his baptism.\nThe stress of the narrator, as he told the story afterwards, was that\nthe Spirit not only came, but _abode_.  Here was the miracle of\nmiracles, that He should be willing to _abide_ in any human temple, who\nfor so many ages had wandered restlessly over the deluge of human sin,\nseeking a resting-place, but finding none.  Here, at least, was an ark\ninto which this second Noah might pull in the fluttering dove, unable\nto feed, like the raven, on corruption and death.\n\nThe voice of God from heaven proclaimed that Jesus of Nazareth was his\nbeloved Son, in whom He was well pleased; and the Baptist could have no\nfurther doubt that the Desire of all Nations, the Lord whom his people\nsought, the Messenger of the Covenant, had suddenly come to his temple\nto act as a refiner's fire and as fullers' soap.  \"John bare witness,\nsaying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven;\nand it abode upon Him.\"  \"John beareth witness of Him and crieth\" (John\ni. 15, 32).\n\nHow much that designation meant to Christ!  It was his Pentecost, his\nconsecration and dedication to his life-work; from thenceforth, in a\nnew and special sense, the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, and He was\nanointed to preach.  But it was still more to the Baptist.  He knew\nthat his mission was nearly fulfilled, that his office was ended.  He\nhad opened the gate to the true Shepherd, and must now soon consign to\nHim all charge of the flock.  Jesus must increase, while he decreased.\nHe that was from heaven was above all; as for himself, he was of the\nearth, and spake of the earth.  The Sun had risen, and the day-star\nbegan to wane.\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nNot that Light, but a Witness.\n\n(John I. 8.)\n\n  \"Nothing resting in its own completeness\n    Can have worth or beauty; but alone\n  Because it leads and tends to farther sweetness,\n    Fuller, higher, deeper than its own.\n\n  \"Spring's real glory dwells not in the meaning,\n    Gracious though it be, of her blue hours;\n  But is hidden in her tender leaning\n    To the summer's richer wealth of flowers.\"\n            A. A. PROCTOR.\n\n\nResentment of the Sanhedrim--The Baptist's Credentials--Spiritual\nVision--\"Behold the Lamb of God\"--The Baptism of the Spirit\n\n\nThe baptism and revelation of Christ had a marvellous effect on the\nministry of the Forerunner.  Previous to that memorable day, the burden\nof his teaching had been in the direction of repentance and confession\nof sin.  But afterwards, the whole force of his testimony was towards\nthe person and glory of the Shepherd of Israel.  He understood that for\nthe remainder of his brief ministry, which perhaps did not greatly\nexceed six months, he must bend all his strength to announcing to the\npeople the prerogatives and claims of Him who stood amongst them,\nthough they knew Him not.  \"There came a man, sent from God, whose name\nwas John.  The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the\nLight, that all might believe through him.  He was not the Light, but\ncame that he might bear witness of the Light.\"\n\nOur subject, therefore, naturally divides itself into two divisions:\nJohn's admissions about himself, and his testimony to the Lord.  And it\nis interesting to notice that they were given on three successive days,\nas appears from the twofold use of the phrase, \"On the morrow.\"  \"On\nthe morrow\" (_i.e._, after he had met and answered the deputation from\nthe Sanhedrim), \"he seeth Jesus coming unto him...\" (i. 29).  \"Again,\non the morrow John was standing, and two of his disciples...\" (35).\n\nThese events took place at Bethany, or Bethabara, on the eastern bank\nof the Jordan.  The river there is one hundred feet in width, and,\nexcept in flood, some five to seven feet deep.  It lies in a tropical\nvalley, the verdure of which is in striking contrast to the desolation\nwhich reigns around.\n\n\nI.  THE BAPTIST'S ADMISSIONS ABOUT HIMSELF.--When the fourth Evangelist\nuses the word _Jews_, he invariably means the Sanhedrim.  John had\nbecome so famous, and his influence so commanding, that he could not be\nignored by the religious leaders of the time.  In their hearts they\nderided him, and desired to do with him \"whatsoever they listed.\"  His\npreaching of repentance, and his unmeasured denunciation of themselves\nas a brood of vipers, were not to be borne.  But they forbore to meet\nhim in the open field, and resolved to send a deputation, which might\nextract some admission from his lips that would furnish them with\nground for subsequent action.  \"The Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem\npriests and Levites to ask him, 'Who art thou?' ... 'Why baptizest\nthou?'\"  The first question was universally interesting; the second\nspecially so to the Pharisee party, who were the high ritualists of\ntheir day, and who were reluctant that a new rite, which they had not\nsanctioned, should be added to the Jewish ecclesiastical system.\n\nIt is a striking scene.  The rushing river; the tropical gorge; the\ndense crowds of people standing thick together; the Baptist in his\nsinewy strength and uncouth attire, surrounded by the little group of\ndisciples; while through the throng a deputation of grey-beards, the\nrepresentatives of a decadent religion, makes its difficult way--these\nare the principal features of a memorable incident.\n\nThere was a profound silence, and men craned their necks and strained\ntheir ears to see and hear everything, as the deputation challenged the\nprophet with the inquiry, \"Who art thou?\"  There was a great silence.\nMen were prepared to believe anything of the eloquent young preacher.\n\"The people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts\nconcerning John, whether haply he were the Christ\" (Luke iii. 15).  If\nhe had given the least encouragement to their dreams and hopes, they\nwould have unfurled again the tattered banner of the Maccabees; and\nbeneath his leadership would have swept, like a wild hurricane, against\nthe Roman occupation, gaining, perhaps, a momentary success, which\nafterwards would have been wiped out in blood.  \"And he confessed, and\ndenied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ.\"\n\nIf a murmur of voices burst out in anger, disappointment, and chagrin,\nas this answer spread from lip to lip, it was immediately hushed by the\nsecond inquiry propounded, \"What then?  Art thou Elijah?\" (alluding to\nthe prediction of Malachi iv. 5).  If they had worded their question\nrather differently, and put it thus, \"Hast thou come in the power of\nElias?\" John must have acknowledged that it was so; but if they meant\nto inquire if he were literally Elijah returned again to this world, he\nhad no alternative but to say, decisively and laconically, \"I am not.\"\n\nThere was a third arrow in their quiver, since the other two had missed\nthe mark: and amid the deepening attention of the listening multitudes,\nand in allusion to Moses' prediction that God would raise up a Prophet\nlike to himself (Deut. xviii. 15; Acts iii. 22; vii. 37), they said,\n\"Art thou the Prophet?\" and he answered, \"No.\"\n\nThe deputation was nonplussed.  They had exhausted their repertory of\nquestions.  Their mission threatened to become abortive, unless they\ncould extract some positive admission.  They must put a leading\nquestion; and their spokesman, for the fourth time, challenged the\nstrange being, whom they found it so hard to label and place on any\nshelf of their ecclesiastical museum.  \"They said therefore unto him,\n'Who art thou?--that we may give an answer to them that sent us.'  What\nsayest thou of thyself?\"  \"He said, 'I am the voice of one crying in\nthe wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the\nprophet.'\"\n\nHow infinitely noble!  How characteristic of strength!  A weak man\nwould have launched himself on the flowing tide of enthusiasm, and\nallowed himself to be swept away by its impetuous rush.  What a\nmingling of strength and humility!  When men suggested that he was the\nChrist, he insisted that he was only a voice--the voice of the herald,\nwhom men hardly notice, because they strain their eyes in the direction\nfrom which he has come, to behold the King Himself.  When they\ncomplimented him on his teaching, he told them that He who would winnow\nthe wheat from the chaff was yet to appear.  And when they crowded to\nhis baptism, he reiterated that it was only the baptism of negation,\n_of water_, but the Christ would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with\nfire.\n\nWhy was this?  Ah, he knew his limitations!  He was the greatest-born\nof woman, yet he knew that his bosom was not broad enough, nor his\nheart tender enough, to justify him in bidding all weary and\nheavy-laden ones to come to him for rest; he could not say that he and\nGod were one, and include himself with the Deity, in the majestic\npronoun, we; he never dared to ask men to believe in himself as they\nbelieved in the Father: but there came after him One who dared to say\nall these things; and this is the inevitable conclusion, that either\nJesus was inferior to John in all that goes to make a strong and noble\ncharacter, or that Jesus was all that John said He was, \"The Son of\nGod, and King of Israel.\"  There is no third suggestion possible.  We\nmust either estimate Jesus as immeasurably inferior, or incomparably\nsuperior, to the strong, sane, Spirit-filled prophet, who never wearied\nin declaring the impassable chasm that yawned between them.\n\nSuch humility always accompanies a true vision of Christ.  If we view\nit from the low ground, the mountain may appear to reach into the sky;\nbut when we reach the mountain-top, we are immediately aware of the\ninfinite distance between the highest snow-peak and the nearest star.\nTo the crowds John may have seemed to fulfil all the essential\nconditions of the prophetic portraiture of the Messiah; but _he_ stood\non the mountain, and knew how infinitely the Christ stood above him.\nThis is apparent in his reply to the final inquiry of the Sanhedrim,\n\"And they asked him, and said unto him, 'Why, then, baptizest thou, if\nthou art not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the Prophet?'\"  And\nJohn said in effect, \"I baptize because I was sent to baptize, and I\nknow very well that my work in this respect is temporary and transient;\nbut what matters that?  In the midst of you standeth One whom ye know\nnot, even He that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not\nworthy to unloose.  The Christ is come.  Have not I seen Him, standing\namid your crowds, yea, descending these very banks?\"\n\nThe people must have turned one to another, as he spoke.  What!  Had\nthe Messiah come!  It could hardly be.  There had been no prodigies in\nearth or sky worthy of his advent.  How could He be amongst them, and\nthey unaware!  But it was even so, and it is so still.  The Christ is\nin us, and with us still.  There may be no transcendent symptoms of his\nblessed presence, as He stands in the little groups of two and three\ngathered in his name; but the eye of faith detects Him.  Where others\nsee only the bare cliffs of Patmos, or the mines with their gangs of\nconvicts, the anointed gaze beholds a face brighter than the sun, the\npurged ear catches the accents of a voice like the murmur of waters on\nthe still night air.  Remember how He said, \"He that loveth Me shall be\nloved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to\nhim.\"  As the Holy Spirit revealed Him to John, so He will reveal Him\nto us, if only, like John, we will be content with nothing less, and\nwait expectant with the heart on the outlook for the manifestation of\nthe Son of God; for so He promised, saying, \"He shall take of mine, and\nshall declare it unto you.\"  And when the child of faith speaks thus,\nwith the accent of conviction, of what he has seen, and tasted, and\nhandled, of the Word of life, it is not strange that the children of\nthis world, whose eyes are blinded, begin to question and deride.  What\nis there to be seen that they cannot see?  What heard that they cannot\ndetect?  Ah, \"the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of\nGod, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,\nbecause they are spiritually discerned.\"  \"There standeth One among\nyou,\" said the Baptist, \"whom ye know not.\"\n\n\nII.  THE BAPTIST'S WITNESS TO THE LORD.--Six weeks passed by from that\nmemorable vision of the opened heaven and the descending Spirit, and\nJohn had eagerly scanned every comer to the river-bank to see again\nthat divinely beautiful face.  But in vain: for Jesus was in the\nwilderness, being tempted of the devil, for forty days and nights, the\ncompanion of wild beasts, and exposed to a very hurricane of temptation.\n\nAt the end of the six weeks, the interview with the deputation from the\nSanhedrim took place, which we have already described; and on the day\nafter, when his confession of inferiority was still fresh in the minds\nof his hearers, when some were criticising and others pitying, when\nsymptoms that the autumn of his influence had set in were in the air,\nhis eye flashed, his face lit up, and he cried, saying: \"This is He of\nwhom I said, 'After me cometh a man who is become before me, for He was\nbefore me.'  Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the\nworld.\"\n\nDid all eyes turn towards the Christ?  Was there a ripple of interest\nand expectancy through the crowd?  Did any realize the unearthly beauty\nand spiritual power of his presence?  We know not.  Scripture is\nsilent, only telling us that on the following day, when, with two\ndisciples, he looked on Jesus as He walked, and repeated his\naffirmation, \"Behold the Lamb of God,\" those two disciples followed\nHim, never to return to their old master--who knew it must be so, and\nwas content to decrease if only _He_ might increase.\n\nLet us notice the successive revelations which were made to John, and\nthrough him to Israel, who, you remember, held him, as they had every\nwarrant for doing, to be in the deepest sense a prophet of the Lord.\nThis conviction has been definitely endorsed by succeeding ages, which\nhave classed him as one of the six greatest men that ever left their\nmark on the world.\n\n(1) _He rightly conceived of Christ's pre-existence_.  \"He was before\nme\" (John i. 30).  The phrase resembles Christ's own words, when He\nsaid: \"Before Abraham was, I am.\"  In John's case it developed soon\nafter into another and kindred expression: \"He that cometh from above,\nis above all\" (John iii. 31).  With such words the Baptist taught his\ndisciples.  He insisted that Jesus of Nazareth had an existence\nanterior to Nazareth, and previous to his birth of the village maiden.\nHe recognised that his goings had been of old, even from everlasting,\nthat He was the mighty God, the Father of the Ages, and the Prince of\nPeace.  As for himself, he was of the earth, and of the earth he spoke;\nas for this One, He came from above, and was above all.  It is not\nsurprising, therefore, that one of his disciples, catching his Master's\nspirit, wrote: \"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with\nGod, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.\nAll things were made by Him.\"\n\n(2) _He rightly apprehended the sacrificial aspect of Christ's work_.\n\"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.\"  Was\nit that his priestly lineage gave Him a special right to coin and use\nthis appellation?  It was, without doubt, breathed into his heart by\nthe Holy Spirit; but his whole previous training, as the son of a\npriest, fitted him to receive and transmit it.  An attempt has been\nmade to limit the meaning of these words to the personal character of\nJesus, his purity, and gentleness; but, to the Jews who listened, the\nlatter part of his exclamation could have but one significance.  They\nwould at once connect with his words, those of the Law, the Prophets,\nand the Psalms.  \"The goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities\nunto a solitary land.\"  \"He bare the sin of many.\"  \"He is led as a\nlamb to the slaughter.\"\n\nFrom the slopes of Mount Moriah, a young voice has expressed the\nlonging of the ages, \"Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the\nlamb?\"  This has been the cry of the human heart in all generations.\nFrom the days of Abel men have brought the firstlings of their flocks,\nlaying them on the altar, and consuming them with fire; but there was\nalways a sense of failure and insufficiency.  Through the ages, and in\nevery clime, priest after priest offered the lamb upon the altar, but\nby the very fact of continual repetition, bore witness to the\ninsufficiency of its propitiation.  \"Every priest, indeed,\" is the\ncomment of inspiration, \"standeth day by day ministering and offering\noftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins.\"\nMust not the hearts of hundreds of saintly priests have been filled\nwith the same inquiry, Where is the lamb?  As the prophets understood\nmore clearly the nature of God's dealing with man--as, for instance,\nMicah saw that even the offering of the first-born could never atone\nfor the sin of the soul--may we not suppose that from their lips also\nthe same inquiry was elicited, Where is the lamb?  Nature cannot answer\nthat cry.  She is fascinating, especially when she dimples with the\nsmile of spring, and unveils her face in summer to receive the caresses\nof the sun.  But with all her beauty and fascination she cannot answer\nthe entreaty of the conscience that the penalty of sin may be removed,\nits power broken, so that man may walk with God with a fearless heart.\nAnimals at the best are only symbols of the complete solution to the\never-recurring problem of human sin: thus from all the ages goes forth\nthe cry, Where is the lamb?  Then from his heaven God sends forth his\nSon to be the sufficient answer to the universal appeal: and the\nheaven-sent messenger, from his rocky pulpit, as he sees Jesus coming\nto him, cries, \"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of\nthe world.\"\n\nDear soul, thou mayest venture on Him.  He is God's Lamb; on Him the\nsin of our race has been laid, and He stood before God with the\naccumulated load--\"made sin\"; the iniquity of us all was laid upon Him;\nwounded for our transgressions; bruised for our iniquities; chastised\nfor our peace; stricken for our transgression; bearing the sin of many.\nAs the first Adam brought sin on the race, the second Adam has put it\naway by the sacrifice of Himself.  Men are lost now, not because of\nAdam's sin, nor because they were born into a race of sinners, but for\nthe sin which they presumptuously and wilfully commit, or because by\nunbelief they contract themselves out of the benefits of Christ's\ndeath.  The servant who had been forgiven by his king, but took his\nbrother by the throat, brought back upon himself the full penalty from\nwhich the royal warrant had freed him; and if any one of us cling to\nsin, rejecting and trampling under foot the Saviour's work on our\nbehalf, we cancel so far all those benefits of our Saviour's passion\nwhich otherwise would accrue, and bring back upon ourselves the\npenalties from which He would fain have delivered us.\n\n(3) _He understood the baptism of the Holy Spirit_.  \"The same is He\nthat baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.\"  As Son of God, our Saviour from\nall eternity was one with the Holy Spirit in the mystery of the blessed\nTrinity; but as \"the one Man,\" He received in his human nature the\nfulness of the Divine Spirit.  It pleased the Father that in Him should\nall the fulness of the Godhead dwell, that He might be able to\ncommunicate Him to all the sons of men who were united to Him by a\nliving faith.  Thus it fell that He was able to assure his disciples\nthat if they waited in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, as John\nbaptized with water, they should be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts\ni. 4, 5).\n\nThe term _baptism_, as applied to the Holy Spirit, had better be\nconfined to those marvellous manifestations of spiritual power which\nare recorded in Acts ii., viii., x., xix., whilst the word _filling_\nshould be used of those experiences of the indwelling and anointing of\nthe Divine Spirit which are within the reach of us all.  Still, we may\nall adopt the words of the Baptist, and tell our living Head that we\nhave need to be baptized of Him--need to be plunged into the fiery\nbaptism; need to be searched by the stinging flame; need to be cleansed\nfrom dross and impurity; need to be caught in the transfiguring,\nheaven-leaping energy of the Holy Spirit, borne upon his bosom into the\nrare atmosphere where the seven lamps burn always before the throne of\nGod.  The blood of the Lamb and the fire of the Holy Spirit are thus\ninextricably united.\n\n(4) _He beheld the mystery of the Holy Trinity_.  For the first time\nthis was made manifest to man.  On the one hand there was the Father\nspeaking from heaven; on the other the Spirit descending as a dove--and\nbetween them was the Son of Man who was proclaimed to be the Son of\nGod, the beloved Son.  Surely John might say that flesh and blood had\nnot revealed these things, but they had been made known to him by a\ndivine revelation.\n\nThe doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a profound mystery, hidden from the\nintellect, but revealed to the humble and reverent heart; hidden from\nthe wise and prudent, and revealed to babes.  Welcome Jesus Christ as\nJohn did; and, as to John, so the whole wonder of the Godhead will be\nmade known to thy heart.  Thou wilt hear the Father bearing witness to\nhis Son; thou wilt see how clearly the Son reveals the Father, and\nachieves redemption; thou shalt know what it is to stand beneath the\nopen heaven and behold and participate in the Divine anointing.  Of\nwhat good is it to reason about the Trinity if thou hast no spiritual\nappetite for the gifts of the Trinity?  But if this is thine, and thou\nopenest thine heart, thou wilt receive the gift and understand the\ndoctrine.\n\n(5) _He appreciated the Divine Sonship of Christ_.  \"I have seen and\nhave borne witness that this is the Son of God.\"  This witness counts\nfor much.  John knew men, knew himself, knew Christ.  He would not have\nsaid so much unless he had been profoundly convinced; and he would not\nhave been profoundly convinced unless irrefragable evidence had been\npresented to him.  What though, when on the following day he repeats\nhis exclamation, his whole congregation leaves him to follow the Man of\nNazareth to his home?  The heart of the Forerunner is satisfied, for he\nhas heard the Bridegroom's voice.  The Son of God has come, and has\ngiven him an understanding that he might know Him that is true.\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\n\"We must increase, but I must decrease.\"\n\n(JOHN III. 30.)\n\n  \"Where is the lore the Baptist taught,\n    The soul unswerving and the fearless tongue?\n  The much-enduring wisdom, sought\n    By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among?\n        Who counts it gain\n        His light would wane,\n    So the whole world to Jesus throng?\"\n            KEBLE.\n\n\nThe Moral Greatness of the Baptist--Thoughts on Envy--Christian\nConsecration--The Baptist's Creed--The Voice of the Beloved\n\n\nFrom the Jordan Valley our Lord returned to Galilee and Nazareth.  The\nmarriage feast of Cana, his return to Jerusalem, the cleansing of the\nTemple, and the interview with Nicodemus, followed in rapid succession.\nAnd when the crowds of Passover pilgrims were dispersing homewards, He\nalso left the city with his disciples, and began a missionary tour\nthroughout the land of Judaea.\n\nThis tour is not much dwelt upon in Scripture.  We only catch a glimpse\nof it here in the 22nd verse, and again in the address of the apostle\nPeter to Cornelius, where he speaks of Christ preaching good tidings of\npeace throughout all Judaea (Acts x. 36, 37).  How long it lasted we\ncannot tell; but it must have occupied some months, for He tarried from\ntime to time at different points.\n\nIt is not likely that our Lord unfolded his Messianic character, or\ntaught with the same clearness as in after days.  For the most part, He\nwould adopt the cry of the Baptist.  Of the commencement of his\nministry it is recorded: \"Jesus came, ... preaching the Gospel of God,\nand saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand:\nrepent ye, and believe in the Gospel'\" (Mark i. 14, 15).  But his deeds\ndeclared his royalty.\n\nWherever He went He was welcomed with vast enthusiasm.  The scenes\nwhich had occurred a few months before to inaugurate the Baptist's\nministry were re-enacted.  The progress of the heaven-sent Teacher\n(John iii. 2) was accompanied by immense throngs of people, who,\nwearied with the tiresome exactions of Pharisee and scribe, turned with\neagerness to the humanness and holiness of the True Shepherd.  It is\nsaid that cattle, sick and harried with the voyage across the Atlantic,\nwill show signs of revival as they sniff the first land breezes laden\nwith the breath of the clover fields.\n\nDuring all this time the Baptist was continuing his preparatory work in\nthe Jordan Valley, though now driven by persecution to leave the\nwestern bank for Aenon and Salim on the eastern side, where a handful\nof followers still clung to him.  \"John was not yet cast into prison,\"\nbut the shadow of his impending fate was already gathering over him;\nand so he was baptizing in Aenon, near to Salim, where the Jordan\nsweeps out into broad sheets of water, eminently suitable for his\npurpose.  Thither they came and were baptized.  The morning star\nlingers in the same heavens with the sun, whom it has announced; but\nits lustre has paled, and its glories are shorn.\n\nIt would appear from the R.V. (ver. 25) that a Jew, probably an\nemissary of the Sanhedrim, brought tidings to that little circle of\ntrue-hearted disciples of the work that Jesus was doing in Judaea, and\ndrew them into a discussion as to the comparative value of the two\nbaptisms.  It was acknowledged that Jesus did not, with his own hands,\nperform the rite of baptism, probably for reasons afterwards cited by\nhis great apostle (iv. 2; compare 1 Cor. i. 14-17): but it would be\nadministered by his disciples, at his direction, and with his\ncountenance, and therefore it could be reported to the Baptist by his\ndisciples, who came to him with eyes flashing with indignation, and\nfaces heated with the excitement of the discussion: \"Rabbi, He that was\nwith thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou hast borne witness, the same\nbaptizeth, and all men come to Him\" (ver. 26).\n\nIt was as though they said, \"Master, is it not too bad?  See how thy\ngenerous testimony has been requited!  In the day of thy glory thou\nwert too profuse in thy acknowledgments, too prodigal in thy\ntestimonials.  Now this new Teacher has taken a leaf out of thy\nprogramme; He too is preaching, baptizing, and gathering a school of\ndisciples.\"  But there was no tinder in that noble breast which these\njealous sparks could kindle.  Nothing but love dwelt there.  He had\nbeen plunged into the baptism of a holy love, which had burnt out the\nselfishness and jealousy, which were as natural to him as to us all.\nIt was as when a spark falls into an ocean and is instantly\nextinguished.  Thus his reply will ever rank among the greatest\nutterances of mortal man.  The Lord said that of those born of woman\nnone was greater than John; and, if by nothing else, by these words his\nmoral stature and superlative excellence were vindicated.  He seemed\ngreat when his voice rang like a clarion through Palestine, attracting\nand thrilling the mighty throngs; great, when he dared to tell Herod\nthat it was unlawful for him to have his brother's wife, uttering words\nwhich those palace walls must have been startled to hear; great, when\nhe baptized Him for whom the world was waiting, and who was declared to\nbe the Son of God with power; but he never seemed so great as when he\nrefused to enter into those acrimonious altercations and discussions,\nand said simply, \"A man can receive nothing, except it be given him\nfrom heaven.\"\n\n\nI.  JOHN COUNTED INFLUENCE AND POSITION AS DIVINE GIFTS.--What\nstartling differences obtain among men--Peter and John, Calvin and\nMelancthon, John Knox and Samuel Rutherford, Kingsley and Keble!  Each\nof these has left his imprint on human history; each so needful to do\nhis own special work, but each so diverse from all others.  We are\nsometimes tempted to attribute their special powers and success to\ntheir circumstances, their times, their parents and teachers; but there\nis a deeper and more satisfactory explanation.  Adopting the words of\nthe Forerunner, we may say--They had nothing that they had not received\nfrom heaven, by the direct appointment and decree of God.\n\nIt was thus that the Baptist reasoned: \"Whatever success and blessing I\nhad are due to the appointment of Him who sent me to preach his Gospel\nand announce the advent of his Son.  Every man has his work and sphere\nappointed him of God.  If this new Teacher meet with such success, we\nhave no right to be jealous of Him, lest we sin against God, who has\nmade Him what He is.  And if we have not the same crowds as once, let\nus be content to take this, too, as the appointment of Heaven, glad to\ndo whatever is assigned to us, and to leave all results with God.\"\n\nThis is a golden sentence, indeed!--\"A man can receive nothing, except\nit be given him from heaven.\"  Hast thou great success in thy\nlife-work?  Do crowds gather around thy steps and throng thy\naudience-chamber?  Do not attribute them to thyself.  They are all the\ngifts of God's grace.  He raiseth up one and setteth down another.\nThou hast nothing that thou hast not received; and if thou hast\nreceived it, see to it that thou exercise perpetually the faculty of\nreceptiveness, so that thou mayest receive more and more, grace on\ngrace.  The river in its flow should hollow out the channel-bed through\nwhich it flows.  Be thankful, but never vain.  He who gave may take.\nGreat talents bestowed imply great responsibility in the day of\nreckoning.  Be not high-minded, but fear.  Much success can only be\nenjoyed without injury to the inner life by being considered as the\ndear gift of Christ, to be used for Him.\n\nHast thou but one talent, and little success?--yet this is as God has\nwilled it.  He might have given more had He willed it so; be thankful\nthat He has given any.  Use what thou hast.  The five barley loaves and\ntwo small fishes will so increase, as they are distributed, that they\nwill supply the want of thousands.  Do not dare to envy one more\nsuccessful and used than thyself, lest thou be convicted of murmuring\nagainst the appointment of thy Lord.  Here, too, is the cure of\njealousy, which more than anything else blights the soul of the servant\nof God.  To an older minister, who has passed the zenith of his\npopularity and power, it is often a severe trial to see younger men\nstepping into positions which he once held and has been compelled to\nrenounce.  He is mightily tempted to disparage their power, and condemn\nthem by faint praise; or, if he praise, to add one biting comment which\nundoes the generosity and frankness of the eulogium.  Why should this\nyounger man, who was not born when his own ministry was at full tide,\nnow carry all before him, while the waves are quietly withdrawing from\nthe margin of seaweed they once cast up!  Thoughts like these corrode\nand canker the soul; and there is no arrest to them, unless, by a\ndefinite effort of the Spirit-energised will, the soul turns to God\nwith the words: \"A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from\nheaven.  I had my glad hours of meridian glory, and have still the\nmellow light of a summer sunset.  It was God's gift to me, as rest is\nnow; and I will rejoice that He raises up others to do his work.  I\nwill rejoice that the Kingdom is coming, that Christ is satisfied, that\nmen are being saved; this shall be my joy, and it shall be fulfilled.\"\n\nHow much misery, heart-burning, and disappointment would be saved if,\nat the beginning of life, each of us inquired seriously what that\nspecial work in the world might be to which he was called, and for\nwhich he is fitted.  Then, instead of being poor imitations, we might\nbe good originals.  Instead of spending our time in going off on side\nissues, we might bend all our strength to the main purpose of our\nexistence.  God has meant each of us for something; incarnating in us\none of his own great thoughts, and equipping us with all material that\nis necessary for its realization.  We may probably discover its meaning\nby the peculiarities of our mental endowments or the advice of friends;\nby the necessity of our circumstances or the prompting of the Holy\nSpirit.  Otherwise we must be content to go on making each day\naccording to the pattern shown us--not as a whole, but in detail--sure\nthat some day each bit and scrap, each vail and hanging, will find its\nplace, and the tabernacle of our life stand complete.\n\nEvery name is historic in God's estimate.  The obscurest among us has\nhis place in the Divine plan, his lesson to learn, his work to do.  The\ncentury opening before us can no more dispense with us than an\norchestra with the piccolo.  A pawn on God's chessboard may take a\nknight, or give check to a king.  \"We are his workmanship, created in\nChrist Jesus unto good works which God has before prepared (R.V.), that\nwe should walk in them\" (Eph. ii. 10).\n\n\nII.  JOHN CAUGHT SIGHT OF A FULLER AND RICHER IDEAL THAN HIS\nOWN.--Tidings had, without doubt, been brought to him of our Lord's\nfirst miracle in Cana of Galilee.  We know that it had made a great\nimpression on the little group of ardent souls, who had been called to\nshare the village festivities with their newly-found Master; and we\nknow that some of them were still deeply attached to their old friend\nand leader.  From these he would learn the full details of that\nremarkable inauguration of this long-expected ministry.  How startled\nhe must have been at the first hearing!  He had announced the\nHusbandman with his fan to thoroughly winnow his floor; the Baptist\nwith his fire; the Lamb of God, holy, harmless, and separate from\nsinners.  But the Messiah opens his ministry among men by mingling with\nthe simple villagers in their wedding joy, and actually ministers to\ntheir innocent mirth, as He turns the water into wine!  The Son of Man\nhas come \"eating and drinking\"!  What a contrast was here to the\nausterity of the desert, the coarse raiment, the hard fare!  \"John the\nBaptist came neither eating nor drinking.\"  Could this be He?  And yet\nthere was no doubt that the heaven had been opened above Him, that the\nDove had descended, and that God's voice had declared Him to be the\n\"Beloved Son.\"  But what a contrast to all that he had looked for!\n\nFurther reflection, however, on that incident, in which Jesus\nmanifested forth his glory, and the cleansing of the Temple which\nimmediately followed, must have convinced the Baptist that this\nconception of holiness was the true one.  His own type could never be\nuniversal or popular.  It was not to be expected that the mass of men\ncould be spared from the ordinary demands of daily life to spend their\ndays in the wilderness as he had done; and it would not have been for\ntheir well-being, or that of the world, if his practice had become the\nrule.  It would have been a practical admission that ordinary life was\ncommon and unclean; and that there was no possibility of infusing it\nwith the high principles of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Consecration to God\nwould have become synonymous with the exclusion of wife and child, of\nhome and business, of music and poetry, from the soul of the saint;\nwhereas its true conception demands that nothing which God has created\ncan be accounted common or unclean, but all may be included within the\nencircling precincts of the Redeemer's Kingdom.  The motto of Christian\nconsecration is, therefore, given in that remarkable assertion of the\napostle; \"Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected,\nif it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the\nWord of God and prayer\" (1 Tim. iv. 4, 5).\n\nJohn saw, beneath the illuminating ray of the Holy Spirit, that this\nwas the Divine Ideal; that the Redeemer could not contradict the\nCreator; that the Kingdom was consistent with the home; and the\npresence of the King with the caress of woman and the laughter of the\nchild, and the innocent mirth of the village feast.  This he saw, and\ncried in effect: \"That village scene is the key to the Messiah's\nministry to Israel.  He is not only Guest at a bridegroom's table, but\nthe Bridegroom Himself.  He has come to woo and win the chosen race.\nOf old they were called Hephzibah and Beulah; and now those ancient\nwords come back to mind with newly-minted meaning, with the scent of\nspring.  Our land, long bereaved and desolate, is to be married.  Joy,\njoy to her!  The Bridegroom is here.  He that hath the bride is the\nBridegroom.  As for me, I am the Bridegroom's friend, sent to negotiate\nthe match, privileged to know and bring together the two parties in the\nblessed nuptials--blessed with the unspeakable gladness of hearing the\nBridegroom's manly speech.  Do you tell me that He is preaching, and\nthat all come to Him?  That is what I have wanted most of all.  This my\njoy, therefore, is fulfilled.  'He must increase, but I must decrease.'\"\n\n\nIII.  JOHN HAD ENLARGED PERCEPTION OF THE TRUE NATURE OF CHRIST.--It\nhas been questioned whether the paragraph which follows (John iii.\n31-36) was spoken by the Baptist, or is the comment of the Evangelist.\nWith many eminent commentators, I incline strongly to the former view.\nThe phraseology employed in this paragraph is closely similar to the\nwords addressed by Christ to Nicodemus, and often used by Himself, as\nin John v.; and they may well have filtered through to the Baptist, by\nthe lips of Andrew, Peter, and John, who would often retail to their\nvenerated earliest teacher what they heard from Jesus.\n\nConsider, then, the Baptist's creed at this point of his career.  He\n_believed_ in the heavenly origin and divinity of the Son of Man--that\nHe was from heaven and above all.  He _believed_ in the unique and\ndivine source of his teaching--that He did not communicate what He had\nlearnt at second-hand, but stood forth as one speaking what He knows,\nand testifying what He has seen--\"For He whom God has sent, speaketh\nthe words of God.\"  He _believed_ in his copious enduement with the\nHoly Spirit.  Knowing that human teachers, at the best, could only\nreceive the Spirit in a limited degree, he recognised that when God\nanointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit there was no limit, no\nmeasuring metre, no stint.  It was copious, rich, unmeasured--so much\nso that it ran down from his head, as Hermon's dews descend to the\nlonely heights of Zion.  He _believed_ in his near relationship to God,\nusing the well-known Jewish phrase of sonship to describe his\npossession of the Divine nature in a unique sense, and recalling the\nutterance of the hour of baptism, to give weight to his assurance that\nthe Father loved Him as Son.  Lastly, He _believed_ in the mediatorial\nfunction of the Man of Nazareth--that the Father had already given all\nthings into his hand; and that the day was coming when He would sit on\nthe throne of David, yea, on the mediatorial throne itself, King of\nkings, and Lord of lords, the keys of Death and Hades, of the realms of\ninvisible existence and spiritual power, hanging at his girdle.\n\nTo that creed the Baptist added a testimony, which has been the means\nof light and blessing to myriads.  Being dead, he yet has spoken\nthrough the ages, assuring us that to believe on Jesus is to have, as a\npresent fact, eternal life, the life which fills the Being of God and\ndefies time and change.  Faith is the act by which we open our heart to\nreceive the gift of God; as earth bares her breast to sun and rain, and\nas the good wife flings wide her doors and windows to let in the spring\nsunshine and the summer air.  Ah, reader, I would that thou hadst this\nfaith!  The open heart towards Christ!  The yielded will!  Thou needst\nonly will to have Him, and He has already entered, though thou canst\nnot detect his footfall, or the chime of the bells around his garment's\nhem.  And to shut thy heart against Him not only excludes the life\nwhich might be thine, but incurs the wrath of God.\n\n_There are two concluding thoughts_.  First: The only hope of a\ndecreasing self is an increasing Christ.  There is too much of the\nself-life in us all, chafing against God's will, refusing God's gifts,\ninstigating the very services we render to God, simulating humility and\nmeekness for the praise of men.  But how can we be rid of this accursed\nself-consciousness and pride?  Ah! we must turn our back on our shadow,\nand our face towards Christ.  We must look at all things from his\nstandpoint, trying to realize always how they affect Him, and then\nentering into his emotions.  It has been said that \"the woman who loves\nthinks with the brain of the man she loves\", and surely if we love\nChrist with a constraining passion, we shall think his thoughts and\nfeel his joys, and no longer live unto ourselves, but unto Him.\n\n  \"Love took up the Harp of Life\n    And smote on all its chords with might;\n  Smote the chord of self, that trembling,\n    Passed in music out of sight.\"\n\n\nSecond: we must view our relationship to Christ as the betrothal and\nmarriage of our soul to our Maker and Redeemer, who is also our\nHusband.  \"Wherefore, my brethren,\" says the apostle, \"ye also were\nmade dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be\nmarried to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we\nshould bring forth fruit unto God\" (Rom. vii. 4).\n\nThe Son of God is not content to love us.  He cannot rest till He has\nall our love in return.  \"He looketh in at the windows\" of the soul,\n\"and showeth Himself through the lattice.\"  Our Beloved speaks, and\nsays unto us, \"Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.\"  And, as\nour response, He waits to hear us say:\n\n  \"My Beloved is mine, and I am his;\n  He feedeth his flock among the lilies.\n  Until the day break, and the shadows flee away,\n  Turn, my Beloved!\"\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\nThe King's Courts\n\n(MARK VI.)\n\n  \"The number of thine own complete,\n    Sum up and make an end;\n  Sift clean the chaff, and house the wheat;\n    And then, O Lord, descend.\n\n  \"Descend, and solve by that descent\n    This mystery of life;\n  Where good and ill, together blent,\n    Wage an undying strife.\"\n            J. H. N.\n\n\nUnder Royal Surveillance--\"It is not Lawful.\"--The Revenge of\nHerodias--The Upbraidings of Conscience--Devotion to Truth--\"A Sin unto\nDeath.\"\n\n\nOur story brings us next to speak of the Baptist's relations with Herod\nAntipas, son of the great Herod, a contemptible princeling who\ninherited a fourth part of his father's dominions (hence known as the\nTetrarch), ruling over Galilee and part of Perea.  For the most part he\nlived at Tiberias, in great state, which he had imported from Rome,\nwhere he had spent part of his early life.  From an early age he had\nbeen entrusted with despotic power, and, as the natural and inevitable\nresult, had become sensual, weak, capricious, and cruel.\n\nIt is of the collision between this man, whom our Lord compared to a\nfox, and John the Baptist, that we have now to treat.  We need only\nnotice here that every great character on the page of history has had\nhis vehement antagonist.  Moses, Pharaoh; Elijah, Ahab; Jeremiah,\nJehoiakim; Paul, Nero; Savonarola, the Medici; Luther, the Emperor\nCharles V.; John Knox, Queen Mary.\n\n\nI.  THE CAUSE OF THE COLLISION.--All the world had flocked to see and\nhear John the Baptist.  Every mouth was full of his eccentricities and\neloquence.  Marvellous stories were being told of the effect which he\nhad produced on the lives of those who had come under his influence.\nAll this was well known to Herod.  His spies were present in every\ngreat gathering, and served the purpose of the newspaper of to-day; so\nthat he was well informed of all the topics that engaged the popular\nmind.\n\nFor some months, also, Herod had watched the career of the preacher.\nWhen he least expected it, he was under the surveillance of the closest\ncriticism.  A fierce light, like that which beats about a throne, fell\nstrongly on his most secret actions.  And the result had been perfectly\nsatisfactory.  Herod felt that John was a true man.  He observed him,\nand was satisfied that he was a just man and a holy.  Reasons of state\nforbade the king from going in person to the Jordan Valley; but he was\nextremely eager to see and hear this mighty man of God: and so, one\nday, at the close of a discourse, an argument with the Pharisees, or\nthe administration of the rite of baptism, John found himself accosted\nby one of the court chamberlains, and summoned to deliver his message\nbefore the court.  Herod \"sent for him.\"\n\nWe might wonder how it could happen that a man like Herod, who\nnotoriously lived in a glass house, so far as character went, should be\nso willing to call in so merciless a preacher of repentance as John the\nBaptist was--before whose words, flung like stones, full many a glass\nhouse had crashed to the ground, leaving its tenant unsheltered before\nthe storm.  But it must be remembered that most men, when they enter\nthe precincts of the court, are accustomed to put velvet in their\nmouths; and, however vehement they may have been in denouncing the sins\nof the lower classes, they change their tone when face to face with\nsinners in high places.  Herod, therefore, had every reason to presume\nthat John would obey this unwritten law; and, whilst denouncing sin in\ngeneral, would refrain from anything savouring of the direct and\npersonal.\n\nAnother reason probably actuated Herod.  He knew that the land was\nfilled with the fame of the Baptist, and it seemed an easy path to\npopularity, and likely to divert attention from his private sins, which\nhad made much scandal, to patronize the religion of the masses.  At\nthis point he probably entertained much the same feeling toward the\ndesert-prophet that led Simon the Pharisee to invite Jesus to eat with\nhim.  \"Yes, let John the Baptist come.  Court life is dreary and\nmonotonous enough.  It will make a little diversion, like a breath of\nfresh air on a sultry day.  It is worth risking a little roughness in\nhis speech, and uncouthness in his manner, if only he while away an\nafternoon.  Besides, it will please his following, which is\nconsiderable.  Let him come, by all means.\"\n\nWe are reminded of a similar scene in Old Testament history, when, at\nthe solicitation of Jehoshaphat, Ahab sent for Micaiah.  \"The messenger\nthat went to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, 'Behold, the words of\nthe prophets declare good to the king with one mouth; let thy word\ntherefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good.'\"\n\nOne interpretation of Mark vi. 20 suggests that the Baptist's first\nsermon before Herod was followed by another, and yet another.  The\nBaptist dealt with general subjects, urged on the King's attention some\nminor reforms, which were not too personal or drastic, and won his\ngenuine regard.  We are told that he used to hear (the _imperfect\ntense_) him gladly, and \"did many things.\"  It was a relief to Herod's\nmind to feel that there were many things which he could do, many wrongs\nwhich he could set right, while the main wrong of his life was left\nuntouched.  Ah! it is remarkable how much men will do in the direction\nof amendment and reform, if only, by a tacit understanding, nothing is\nsaid, or hinted at, which threatens the one sin in which the heart's\nevil has concentrated itself.  But John knew that his duty to Herod, to\ntruth, to public morality, demanded that he should go further, and\npierce to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and\nmarrow; and therefore on one memorable occasion he accosted the royal\ncriminal with the crime of which men were speaking secretly everywhere,\nand uttered the memorable sentence which could not be forgiven: \"It is\nnot lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.\"\n\nWe can imagine how some room in the palace, which had often been the\nscene of wild riot, would be improvised as an audience chamber, filled\nwith seats, and crowded on each occasion of the Baptist's appearance\nwith a strange and brilliant throng.  In the midst, the king and the\nwoman with whom he was living in illicit union; next them her daughter,\nSalome; around them courtiers and ladies, nobles and pages, soldiers\nand servants.  On all sides splendid dresses, magnificent uniforms,\nrare jewels, luxurious upholstery, added light and colour to the scene.\n\nThe sermon began.  As was John's wont, he arraigned the sin, the\nformalism, the laxity of the times; he proclaimed the advent of the\nKingdom, the presence of the King; he demanded, in the name of God,\nrepentance and reform.  Herod was, as usual, impressed and convinced;\nhe assented to the preacher's propositions; already he had settled\nhimself into his usual posture for hearing gladly.  It was as when we\nwatch summer-lightning playing around the horizon; we have no fear so\nlong as it is not forked.\n\nPresently, however, John becomes more personal and direct than ever\nbefore.  He begins, in no measured terms, to denounce the sin of men in\nhigh places, and holds up the dissoluteness which disgraced the court.\nAs he proceeds, a breathless silence falls on the crowd sitting, or\nhanging around him, their dresses in curious contrast to his severe\ngarment of camel's hair, their nervous dread in as great contrast to\nhis incisive and searching eloquence.  Here were the people clothed in\nsoft raiment, and accustomed to sumptuous fare, bending as reeds before\nthe gusts of wind sweeping fiercely across the marsh.\n\nFinally, the preacher comes closer still, and pointing to the princess\nwho sat beside Herod, looking Herod in the face, he exclaims: \"It is\nnot lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.\"\n\nWe need not dwell on all the terrible details of that disgraceful sin.\nBut every circumstance which could deepen its infamy was present.\nHerod's wife, the daughter of Aretas, King of Arabia, was still living;\nas was Philip, the husband of Herodias.  The _liaison_ commenced at\nRome, when Herod was the guest of his brother Philip, while apparently\nengaged on a mission of holy devotion to the religious interests of the\nJewish nation.\n\nThe ground of John's accusation calls for a heavier emphasis than\nappears in a superficial consideration of the words.  He might have\nsaid: \"It is not expedient; your wife's father will rise in arms\nagainst you, and threaten the Eastern border of your kingdom.  It is\nnot expedient to run the risk of war, which may give Rome a further\nexcuse against you.\"  He might have said: \"This is an unwise step, as\nit will cut you off from your own family, and leave you exposed to the\nbrunt of popular hate.\"  He might have said: \"It is impolitic and\nincautious to risk the adverse judgment of the Emperor.\"  But he said\nnone of these things.  He took the matter to a higher court.  He\narraigned the guilty pair before God; and, laying his axe at the root\nof the tree--calling on Herod's conscience, long gagged and silent, to\ntake part in the impeachment--he said, in effect: \"I summon you before\nthe bar of God, and in the pure light which streams from his holy\nOracle, your consciences being witnesses against you, you know\nperfectly well that it is not right for you to be living as you are\nliving.  'Thou shalt not commit adultery.'\"\n\nEvery hearer stood aghast.  A death-like hush fell on the assembly,\nwhich probably broke up in dismay.  So paralyzed was every one that no\nhand was laid on the preacher.  We are expressly told that \"Herod _sent\nforth_ and laid hold upon John\" (Mark vi. 17); from which we infer that\nthe fearless preacher passed out through the paralyzed and\nconscience-stricken assemblage, leaving dismay, like that which befell\nthe roysterers in Belshazzar's court, when the hand of the Almighty\ntraced the mysterious characters on the palace wall in lines of fire.\n\nThe first feeling of awe and conscience-stricken remorse would,\nhowever, soon pass off.  Some would hasten to condole with Herodias;\nsome to sympathize with Herod.  Herodias would retire to her\napartments, accompanied by her high ladies, vowing fiery vengeance on\nthe preacher--a very Jezebel, thirsting for the blood of another\nElijah.  Throughout Herod's court there would be an effort to dismiss\nthe allusion as \"Altogether uncalled for;\" as \"What might have been\nexpected from such a man;\" as \"A gross breach of manners,\" as \"An\naffront against delicacy of taste.\"\n\nBut Herodias would give her paramour no rest; and, perhaps one evening,\nwhen John had retired for meditation and prayer, his disciples being\noff their guard and the people absent, a handful of soldiers arrested\nhim, bound him, and led him off to the strong castle of Machaerus.\n\n\nII.  JOHN'S IMPRISONMENT AND ITS OPPORTUNITIES.--The castle of\nMachaerus was known as \"the diadem,\" or \"the black tower.\"  It lay on\nthe east side of the Dead Sea, almost on a line with Bethlehem.  The\nruins of the castle are still to be seen, in great masses of squared\nstone, on the top of a lofty hill, surrounded on three sides by\nunscaleable precipices, descending to such depths that Josephus says\nthe eye could not reach their bottom.  The fourth side is described as\nonly a little less terrible.  Wild desolation reigned far and near.  A\nGerman traveller mentions the masses of lava, brown, red, and black,\nvaried with pumice-stone, distributed in huge broken masses, or rising\nin perpendicular cliffs; whilst the rushing stream, far below, is\novergrown with oleanders and date-palms, willows, poplars, and tall\nreeds.  Here and there, thick mists of steam arise, where the hot\nsulphur springs gush from the clefts of the rocks.\n\nOn this impregnable site, Dr. Geikie tells us that Herod had erected a\ngreat wall, enclosing the summit of the hill, with towers two hundred\nfeet high at the corners, and in the space thus gained had built a\ngrand palace, with rows of columns of a single stone apiece, halls\nlined with many-coloured marbles, magnificent baths, and all the\ndetails of Roman luxury, not omitting huge cisterns, barracks, and\nstore-houses, with everything needed in case of a siege.  From the\nwindows there was a magnificent view of the Dead Sea, the whole course\nof the Jordan, Jerusalem, Hebron, the frowning fortress of Marsaba, and\naway to the north, the wild heights of Pisgah and Abarim.  Detached\nfrom the palace was a stern and gloomy keep, with underground dungeons\nstill visible, hewn down into the solid rock.  This was the scene of\nJohn's imprisonment.\n\nThe Evangelist says expressly that they _bound_ the child of the\ndesert-wastes, with his love for dear liberty--sensitive to the touch\nof the sunshine and the breeze, to the beauty that lay over the hills,\naccustomed to go and come at his will--as though it were the last\nindignity and affront to fetter those lithe and supple limbs, and place\nthem under constraint.  Ah, it is little short of a sin to encage a\nwild bird, beating its heart against the bars of its narrow cage, when\nthe sun calls it to mount up with quivering ecstasy to the gates of\nday; but what a sin to bind the preacher of righteousness, and imprison\nhim in sunless vaults--what an agony!  What a contrast between the gay\nrevelry that reigned yonder within the palace, and the slow torture\nwhich the noble spirit of the Baptist was doomed to suffer through\nthose weary months!\n\nIs there anything like that in your life, my reader?  In many an old\ncastle the attention of the visitor is directed to a haunted room,\nwhere ghosts are said to walk at night; but in how many hearts there\nare dark subterranean apartments, where conscience, gagged and bound,\nlies imprisoned!  Outwardly there is the gaiety and mirth as of a\npalace; but inwardly there is remorse, misery, unrest.  In lonely hours\nthere is a voice which pierces the thickest walls of your assumed\nindifference, and rings up into the house of your life, where the soul\nseeks to close its ear in vain.  It is a sad, monotonous,\nheart-piercing cry which that voice repeats: \"It is not lawful, not\nlawful, not lawful.\"  Whenever there is a moment of silence and\nrespite, you hear it--\"Not lawful, not lawful.\"  And nothing can stay\nit but repentance, confession, restitution, so far as may be, and the\nblood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, which cleanseth from all sin.\n\nFrom time to time it would seem as though the strictness of John's\nimprisonment was relaxed.  His disciples were permitted to see him, and\ntell him of what was happening in the world without; but stranger than\nall, he was summoned to have audiences with Herod himself.\n\nAnother rendering of Mark vi. 19, 20, which is perfectly legitimate,\nand is favoured by the R.V., suggests that the king was ill at ease,\nand swept to and fro by very different currents.\n\nFirst, he was deeply incensed.  As he thought of the manner in which\nthe Baptist had treated him, denouncing him before his court, the fire\nof anger burnt fiercely within his breast; and he had beside him a Lady\nMacbeth, a beautiful fiend and temptress, who knew that while the\nBaptist lived, and dared to speak as he had done, her position was not\nsafe.  She knew Herod well enough to dread the uprising of his\nconscience at the appeals of truth.  And perpetually, when she saw her\nchance, she whispered in Herod's ear, \"The sooner you do away with that\nman the better.  You don't love me perfectly, as long as you permit him\nto breathe.  Unmannerly cur!\"  \"Herodias set herself against him, and\ndesired to kill him; but she could not.\"\n\nOn the other side, Herod was in fear.  He feared John, \"knowing that he\nwas a righteous man and a holy.\"  He feared the people, because they\nheld him for a prophet.  And, beneath all, he feared God, lest he\nshould step in to avenge any wrong perpetrated against his servant.\n\nBetween these two influences he was \"much perplexed\" (Mark vi. 20,\nR.V.).  When he was with Herodias, he thought as she did, and left her,\nalmost resolved to give the fatal order; but when he was alone, the\nother influence made itself felt, and he would send for John:\n\n\"I would like to see him again, chamberlain--tell the gaoler to send\nthe Baptist hither; let his coming to my private room be, however, kept\nsecret.  I don't want all my court blabbing.\"\n\nAnd the gaoler would come to the cell door, and call to his prisoner,\nwith a mixture of effrontery and obsequiousness, \"Up, man; the king\nwants you.  Put on your softest speech.  It will serve you better than\nthat rasping tongue of yours.  Why cannot you leave the king and his\nprivate affairs alone?  They are no business of yours or mine.\"\n\nAnd might not Herod attempt to induce the prophet to take back his\nruthless sentence?  \"Come,\" he might say, \"you remember what you said.\nIf you unsay that sentence, I will set you free.  I cannot, out of\nrespect for my consort, allow such words to remain unretracted.  There,\nyou have your freedom in your own hands.  One word of apology, and you\nmay go your way; and my solemn bond is yours, that you shall be kept\nfree from molestation.\"\n\nIf such an offer were made, it must have presented a strong temptation\nto the emaciated captive, whose physique had already lost the\nelasticity and vigour of his early manhood, and was showing signs of\nhis grievous privation.  But he had no alternative; and, however often\nthe ordeal was repeated, he met the royal solicitation with the same\nunwavering reply: \"I have no alternative.  It is not lawful for thee to\nhave thy brother's wife.  I should betray my God, and act treacherously\nto thyself, if I were to take back one word which I have spoken; and\nthou knowest that it is so.\"  And as he reasoned of righteousness,\ntemperance, and a judgment to come, the royal culprit trembled.\n\nJohn could do no other; but it was a sublime act of devotion to God and\nTruth.  He had no thought for himself at all, and thought only of the\nchoice and destiny of that guilty pair, from which he would warn and\nsave them, if he might.  Well might the Lord ask, in after days, if\nJohn were a reed shaken with the wind.  Rather he resembled a forest\ntree, whose deeply-struck and far-spreading roots secure it against the\nattack of the hurricane; or a mighty Alp, which defies the tremor of\nthe earthquake, and rears its head above the thunder-storms, which\nbreak upon its slopes, to hold fellowship with the skies.\n\nHow many men are like Herod!  They resemble the superficial ground, on\nwhich the seed springs into rapid and unnatural growth; but the rock\nlies close beneath the surface.  Now they are swayed by the voice of\nthe preacher, and moved by the pleadings of conscience, allowed for one\nbrief moment to utter its protests and remonstrances; and then they\nfeel the fascination of their sin, that unholy passion, that sinful\nhabit, that ill-gotten gain--and are sucked back from the beach, on\nwhich they were almost free, into the sea of ink and death.\n\nYou may be trying, my reader, to steer a middle course between John the\nBaptist and Herodias.  Now you resolve to get free of her guilty\ncharms, and break the spell that fascinates you.  Merlin will\nemancipate himself from Vivien, before she learn his secret, and dance\nwith it down the wood, leaving him dishonoured and ashamed.  But,\nwithin an hour, the Syren is again singing her dulcet notes, and\ndrawing the ship closer and closer to the rocks, with their black\nteeth, waiting to grind it to splinters.  Oh that there might come to\nyou the voice that spoke with such power to Augustine, and that like\nhim you might now and here yield yourself to it; so that when the\ntemptress, whatever form she may assume, approaches you with the\nwhisper: \"I am _she_, Augustine,\" you may answer: \"But I am not _he_!\"\n\nSo John was left in prison.  Month after month he languished in the\ndark and stifling dungeon, wondering a little, now and again, why the\nMaster, if He were the Son of God, did not interpose to work his\ndeliverance.  But of that anon.\n\n\nIII.  HEROD'S INEVITABLE DETERIORATION.--Again and again John was\nremanded to his cell.  Probably twelve months passed thus.  But each\ntime the king failed to act on the preacher's remonstrances; he became\nmore impervious to his appeals, more liable to the sway of passion.\nThus, when a supreme moment came, in which he was under the influence\nof drink and unholy appetite, and the reign of such moral nature as\nremained was greatly enfeebled, it is not to be wondered at that\nHerodias had her way, and before her murderous request the last thin\nfence of resistance broke down, and he gave orders that it should be as\nshe desired.\n\nThe story does not end here.  He not only murdered John the Baptist,\nbut he inflicted a deadly wound on his own moral nature, from which it\nnever recovered, as we shall see.  Ultimately he had no thought in the\npresence of Christ other than to see Him work a miracle; and when his\ndesire was refused, set him at nought with his mighty men, mocked his\nclaims to be the King of Israel, did not scruple to treat Him with\nindignity and violence, and so dismissed Him.\n\nIs it wonderful that our Lord was speechless before such a man?  What\nelse could He be?  The deterioration had been so awful and complete.\nFor the love of God can say nothing to us, though it be prepared to die\non our behalf, so long as we refuse to repent of, and put away, our\nsin.  We remember some solemn words, which may be applied in all their\nfearful significance to that scene: \"There is a sin unto death; not\nconcerning this do I say that he should make request.\"\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\n\"Art Thou He?\"\n\n(MATTHEW XI.)\n\n  \"He fought his doubts and gathered strength,\n    He would not make his judgment blind,\n    He faced the spectres of the mind\n  And laid them;--thus he came, at length,\n\n  \"To find a stronger faith his own,\n    And Power was with him in the night,\n    Which makes the darkness and the light,\n  And dwells not in the light alone.\"\n            TENNYSON.\n\n\nJohn's Misgivings--Disappointed Hopes--Signs of the Christ--The\nDiscipline of Patience--A New Beatitude\n\n\nIt is very touching to remark the tenacity with which some few of\nJohn's disciples clung to their great leader.  The majority had\ndispersed: some to their homes; some to follow Jesus.  Only a handful\nlingered still, not alienated by the storm of hate which had broken on\ntheir master, but drawn nearer, with the unfaltering loyalty of\nunchangeable affection.  They could not forget what he had been to\nthem--that he had first called them to the reality of living; that he\nhad taught them to pray; that he had led them to the Christ: and they\ndare not desert him now, in the dark sad days of his imprisonment and\nsorrow.\n\nWhat an inestimable blessing to have friends like this, who will not\nleave our side when the crowd ebbs, but draw closer as the shadows\ndarken over our path, and the prison damp wraps its chill mantle about\nus!  To be loved like that is earth's deepest bliss!  These heroic\nsouls risked all the peril that might accrue to themselves from this\nidentification with their master; they did not hesitate to come to his\ncell with tidings of the great outer world, and specially of what He\nwas doing and saying, whose life was so mysteriously bound up with his\nown.  \"The disciples of John told him of all these things\" (Luke vii.\n18, R.V.).\n\nIt was to two of these choice and steadfast friends that John confided\nthe question which had long been forming within his soul, and forcing\nitself to the front.  \"And John, calling unto him two of his disciples,\nsent them to the Lord, saying, Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for\nanother?\"\n\n\nI.  JOHN'S MISGIVINGS.--Can this be he who, but a few months ago, had\nstood in his rock-hewn pulpit, in radiant certainty?  The brilliant\neastern sunlight that bathed his figure, as he stood erect amid the\nthronging crowds, was the emblem and symbol of the light that filled\nhis soul.  No misgiving crossed it.  He pointed to Christ with\nunfaltering certitude, saying, This is He, the Lamb of God, the Son of\nthe Father, the Bridegroom of the soul.  How great the contrast between\nthat and this sorrowful cry, \"Art Thou He?\"\n\nSome commentators, to save his credit, have supposed that the embassy\nwas sent to the Lord for the sake of the disciples, that their hearts\nmight be opened, their faith confirmed--and that they might have a head\nand leader when he was gone.  But the narrative has to be greatly\nstrained and dragged out of its obvious course to make it cover the\nnecessities of such an hypothesis.  It is more natural to think that\nJohn the Baptist was for a brief spell under a cloud, involved in\ndoubt, tempted to let go the confidence that had brought him such\necstatic joy when he first saw the Dove descending and abiding.\n\nThe Bible does not scruple to tell us of the failures of its noblest\nchildren: of Abram, thinking that the Egyptians would take his life; of\nElijah, stretching himself beneath the shadow of the desert bush, and\nasking that he might die; of Thomas, who had been prepared to die with\nhis Lord, but could not believe that He was risen.  And in this the\nSpirit of God has rendered us untold service, because we learn that the\nmaterial out of which He made the greatest saints was flesh and blood\nlike ourselves; and that it was by Divine grace, manifested very\nconspicuously towards them, that they became what they were.  If only\nthe ladder rests on the low earth, where we live and move and have our\nbeing, there is some hope of our climbing to stand with others who have\nascended its successive rungs and reached the starry heights.  Yes, let\nus believe that, for some days at least, John's mind was overcast, his\nfaith lost its foothold, and he seemed to be falling into bottomless\ndepths.  _He sent them to Jesus, saying, Art Thou He that should come_?\nWe can easily trace this lapse of faith to three sources.\n\n(1) _Depression_.  He was the child of the desert.  The winds that\nswept across the waste were not freer.  The boundless spaces of the\nInfinite had stretched above him, in vaulted immensity, when he slept\nat night or wrought through the busy days; and as he found himself\ncribbed, cabined, and confined in the narrow limits of his cell, his\nspirits sank.  He pined with the hunger of a wild thing for liberty--to\nmove without the clanking fetters; to drink of the fresh water of the\nJordan, to breathe the morning air; to look on the expanse of nature.\nIs it hard to understand how his deprivations reacted on his mental and\nspiritual organization, or that his nervous system lost its elasticity\nof tone, or that the depression of his physical life cast a shadow on\nhis soul?\n\nWe are all so highly strung, so delicately balanced.  Often the lack of\nspiritual joy and peace and power in prayer is attributable to nothing\nelse than our confinement in the narrow limits of a tiny room; to the\nfoul, gaseous air we are compelled to breathe; to our inability to get\nbeyond the great city, with its wilderness of brick, into the country,\nwith its blossoms, fields, and woodland glades.  In a large number of\nspiritual maladies the physician is more necessary than the minister of\nreligion; a holiday by the seaside or on the mountains, than a\nconvention.\n\nWhat an infinite comfort it is to be told that God knows how easily our\nnature may become jangled and out of tune.  He can attribute our doubts\nand fears to their right source.  He knows the bow is bent to the point\nof breaking, and the string strained to its utmost tension.  He does\nnot rebuke his servants when they cast themselves under juniper bushes,\nand ask to die; but sends them food and sleep.  And when they send from\ntheir prisons, saying, Art Thou He? there is no word of rebuke, but of\ntender encouragement and instruction.\n\n(2) _Disappointment_.  When first consigned to prison, he had expected\nevery day that Jesus would in some way deliver him.  Was He not the\nopener of prison-doors?  Was not all power at his disposal?  Did He not\nwield the sceptre of the house of David?  Surely He would not let his\nfaithful follower lie in the despair of that dark dungeon!  In that\nfirst sermon at Nazareth, of which he had been informed, was it not\nexpressly stated to be part of the Divine programme, for which He had\nbeen anointed, that He would open prison-doors, and proclaim liberty to\ncaptives?  He would surely then send his angels to open his\nprison-doors, and lead him forth into the light!\n\nBut the weeks grew to months, and still no help came.  It was\ninexplicable to John's honest heart, and suggested the fear that he had\nbeen mistaken after all.  We can sympathize in this also.  Often in our\nlives we have counted on God's interfering to deliver us from some\nintolerable sorrow.  With ears alert, and our heart throbbing with\nexpectancy, we have lain in our prison-cell listening for the first\nfaint footfall of the angel; but the weary hours have passed without\nbringing him, and we have questioned whether God were mindful of his\nown; whether prayer prevailed; whether the promises were to be\nliterally appropriated by us?\n\n(3) _Partial views of Christ_.  \"John heard in the prison the works of\nJesus.\"  They were wholly beneficent and gentle.\n\n\"What has He done since last you were here?\"\n\n\"He has laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them; has\ngathered a number of children to his arms, and blessed them; has sat on\nthe mountain, and spoken of rest and peace and blessedness.\"\n\n\"Yes; good.  But what more?\"\n\n\"A woman touched the hem of his garment, and trembled, and confessed,\nand went away healed.\"\n\n\"Good!  But what more?\"\n\n\"Well, there were some blind men, and He laid his hands on them, and\nthey saw.\"\n\n\"Is that all?  Has He not used the fan to winnow the wheat, and the\nfire to burn up the chaff?  This is what I was expecting, and what I\nhave been taught to expect by Isaiah and the rest of the prophets.  I\ncannot understand it.  This quiet, gentle life of benevolence is\noutside my calculations.  There must be some mistake.  Go and ask Him\nwhether we should expect _another_, made in a different mould, and who\nshall be as the fire, the earthquake, the tempest, while He is as the\nstill small voice.\"\n\nJohn had partial views of the Christ--he thought of Him only as the\nAvenger of sin, the Maker of revolution, the dread Judge of all.  There\nwas apparently no room in his conception for the gentler, sweeter,\ntenderer aspects of his Master's nature.  And for want of a clearer\nunderstanding of what God by the mouth of his holy prophets had spoken\nsince the world began, he fell into this Slough of Despond.\n\nIt was a grievous pity; yet let us not blame him too vehemently, lest\nwe blame ourselves.  Is not this what we do?  We form a notion of God,\npartly from what we think He ought to be, partly from some distorted\nnotions we have derived from others; and then because God fails to\nrealize our conception, we begin to doubt.  We think, for instance,\nthat if there be a righteous God, He will not permit wrong to triumph;\nlittle children to suffer for the sins of their parents; the innocent\nto be trodden beneath the foot of the oppressor and the proud; or the\ndumb creatures to be tortured in the supposed interest of medical\nscience.  Surely God will step out of his hiding-place and open all\nprisons, emancipate all captives, and wave a hand of benediction over\nall creation.  Thus we think and say; and then, because the world still\ngroans and travails, we question whether God is in his high heaven.\nLike John, men have a notion, founded on some faulty knowledge of\nScripture, that God will act in a certain preconceived way, in the\nthunder, the whirlwind, and the fire; and when God does not, but\npursues his tender, gentle ministries, descending in summer showers,\nspeaking in soft, still tones, distilling in the dew-drops, winning his\nempire over men by love, they say--\"Is this He?\"\n\nII.  THE LORD'S REPLY.--\"In that hour He cured many of diseases, and\nplagues, and evil spirits; and on many that were blind He bestowed\nsight.\"  Through the long hours of the day, the disciples stood in the\ncrowd, while the pitiable train of sick and demon-possessed passed\nbefore the Saviour, coming in every stage of need, and going away\ncleansed and saved.  Even the dead were raised.  And at the close the\nMaster turned to them, and with a deep significance in his tone, said,\n\"Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; the\nblind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and\nthe deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good tidings\npreached to them.  And blessed is he, whosoever shall find none\noccasion of stumbling in Me.\"\n\n(1) _It was Indirect_.  He did not say, I am He that was to come, and\nthere is no need to look for another.  Had He done so, He might have\nanswered John's intellect, but not his heart.  After a few hours the\nassurance would have waxed dim, and he would have questioned again.  He\nmight have wondered whether Jesus were not Himself deceived.  One\nquestion always leads to another, so long as the heart is unsatisfied;\nhence the refusal on the part of our Lord to answer the question, and\nhis evident determination to allay the restlessness and disquietude of\nthe heart that throbbed beneath.\n\nGod might, had He so willed, have written in starry characters across\nthe sky the Divine words, \"I am Jehovah, and ye shall have no other\ngods beside Me\"; or He might have flashed it, and obliterated it to\nflash it again, as the electric cylinders which serve the purposes of\nadvertisements in our large cities by night.  This might have awed the\nintellect, but it would not have convinced the heart.  Were this God's\nmethod, we should miss the benediction on those who have not seen and\nyet have believed.  We should miss the discipline of waiting until our\ndoubts are dissolved by the Spirit of God.  The intellect might be\ntemporarily overpowered with the evidence; but the soul, the heart, and\nthe spirit, would miss the true knowledge that comes through purity,\nfaith, and waiting upon God--the deepest knowledge of all.  Besides,\nthough one were to rise from the dead, and come to men with the awe of\nthe vision of the other world stamped on his face, they would not\nbelieve.  The evidence of the unseen and eternal must be given, not to\nthe startled physical sense, but to the soul.  Some other deeper method\nmust be adopted; the heart must be taught to wait, trust, and accept\nthose deep intuitions and revelations which establish the being of God.\n\n(2) _The Answer was Mysterious_.  Surely, if He were able to do so\nmuch, He could do more.  The power that healed the sick and lame and\nblind, and cast out demons, could surely deliver John.  It made his\nheart the more wistful, to hear of these displays of power.  He had to\nlearn that the Lord healed these poor folks so easily because the light\nsoil of their nature could not bear the richer harvests; because their\nsoul could not stand the cutting through which alone the brilliant\nfacets which were possible to his could be secured.  It was because\nJohn was a royal soul, the greatest of woman born, because his nature\nwas capable of yielding the best results to the Divine culture, that he\nwas kept waiting, whilst others caught up the blessing and went away\nhealed.  Only three months remained of life, and in these the\ndiscipline of patience and doubt must do their perfect work.\n\nThat is where you have made a mistake.  You have thought God was hard\non you, that He would help everybody but you; but you have not\nunderstood that your nature was so dear to God, and so precious in his\nsight, and so capable of the greatest development, that God loved you\ntoo much to let you off so lightly, and give you what you wanted, and\nsend you on your way.  God could have given you sight, made that lame\nfoot well, restored the child to health, and opened the iron prison\ndoor of your circumstances.  _He could_; but for all eternity you will\nthank Him He did not, because you are capable of something else.  We\nare kept waiting through the long years--not that He loves us less, but\nmore; not that He refuses what we ask, but that in the long strain and\ntension He is making us partakers of his blessedness.  John's nature\nwould presently yield a martyr and win a martyr's crown: was not that\nreason enough for not giving him at once the deliverance he sought?\n\n(3) _The Answer was Sufficient_.  Together with the works of\nbeneficence, the Lord drew John's attention to words he seemed in\ndanger of forgetting; \"Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the\nfeeble knees.  Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong; fear\nnot!  Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of\nGod.  He will come and save you.  Then the eyes of the blind shall be\nopened; and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the\nlame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in\nthe wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.\"\n\"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed\nMe to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the\nbroken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of\nthe prison to them that are bound.\"  The Lord strove to convince the\nquestioner that his views were too partial and limited, and to send him\nback to a more comprehensive study of the old Scriptures.  It was as\nthough Jesus said, \"Go to your master, and tell him to take again the\nancient prophecy and study it.  He has taken the sterner predictions to\nthe neglect of the gentler, softer ones.  It is true that I am to\nproclaim the day of vengeance; but first I must reveal the acceptable\nyear.  It is true that I am to come as a Mighty One, and my arm shall\nrule for Me; but it is also true that I am to feed my flock like a\nShepherd, and gather the lambs in my arm.\"\n\nWe make the same mistake.  We have but a partial view of Christ, and\nneed to get back to the Bible afresh, and study anew its comprehensive\nwords; then we shall come to understand that the present is the time of\nthe hiding of his power, the time of waiting, the time of the gentler\nministries.  Some day He will gird on his sword; some day He will\nwinnow his floor; some day He will ride in a chariot of flame; some day\nHe will sit upon the throne and judge those who oppress the innocent\nand take advantage of the poor.  We have not yet seen the end of the\nLord: we have not all the evidence.  This is our mistake.  But our\nSaviour is offering us every day evidences of his Divine and loving\npower.  Last week I saw Him raise the dead; yesterday, before my eyes,\nHe struck the chains from a prisoner; at this hour He is giving sight\nto the blind; to-morrow He will cast out demons.  The world is full of\nevidences of his gracious and Divine power.  They are not so striking\nand masterful as deeds of judgment and wrath might be--they need a\nquicker eye, a purer heart to discern; but they are not less\nsignificant of the fact that He liveth who was dead, and that He is\nalive for evermore.  And these are sufficient, not only because of the\ntransformations which are effected, but because of their moral quality,\nto show that there is One within the vail who lives in the power of an\nindissoluble life.\n\n\nIII.  A NEW BEATITUDE.--\"Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended\nin Me.\"  Our Lord put within the reach of his noble Forerunner the\nblessedness of those who have not seen and yet have believed; of those\nwho trust though they are slain; of those who wait the Lord's leisure;\nand of those who cannot understand his dealings, but rest in what they\nknow of his heart.  This is the beatitude of the unoffended, of those\nwho do not stumble over the mystery of God's dealings with their life.\n\nThis blessedness is within our reach also.  There are times when we are\noverpowered with the mystery of life and nature.  The world is so full\nof pain and sorrow, the litany of its need is so sad and pitiful,\nstrong hearts are breaking under an intolerable load; while the battle\nseems only to the strong and the race to those who, by some mysterious\nprovidence, come of a healthy, though not specially moral or religious,\nstock.  And if the incidence of pain and sorrow on the world be\nexplained by its ungodliness, why does nature groan and travail? why\nare the forest glades turned into a very shambles? why does creation\nseem to achieve itself through the terrific struggle for survival?\n\nGod's children are sometimes the most bitterly tried.  For them the\nfires are heated seven times; days of weariness and nights of pain are\nappointed them; they suffer, not only at the hand of man, but it seems\nas though God Himself were turned against them, to become their enemy.\nThe heavens seem as brass to their cries and tears, and the enemy has\nreason to challenge them with the taunt, \"Where is now your God!\"  The\nwaters of a full cup are wrung out in days like these; and the cry is\nextorted, \"How long, O Lord, how long?\"\n\nYou and I have been in this plight.  We have said, \"Hath God forgotten\nto be gracious?  Has He in anger shut up his tender mercies?\"  From our\nprison-cell we send up the appeal to our Brother in the glory: \"Help\nus; for if Thou leavest us to our fate, we shall question if Thou art\nHe.\"  We are tempted to stumbling.  We are like to fall over the\nmysteries of God's dealings with us.  We are more able than ever before\nto appreciate the standpoint occupied by Job's wife, when she said to\nher husband, \"Curse God, and die.\"\n\nThen we have the chance of inheriting a new beatitude.  By refusing to\nbend under the mighty hand of God--questioning, chafing, murmuring--we\nmiss the door which would admit us into rich and unalloyed happiness.\nWe fumble about the latch, but it is not lifted.  But if we will quiet\nour souls like a weaned child, anointing our heads, and washing our\nfaces, light will break in on us as from the eternal morning; the peace\nof God will keep our hearts and minds, and we shall enter on the\nblessedness which our Lord unfolded before the gaze of his faithful\nForerunner.\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\nNone greater than John the Baptist, yet...\n\n(MATTHEW XI.)\n\n  \"Search thine own heart.  What paineth thee\n  In others, in thyself may be;\n  All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;\n  Be thou the same man thou dost seek!\n\n  \"Where now with pain thou treadest, trod\n  The whitest of the saints of God!\n  To show thee where their feet were set,\n  The light which led them shineth yet.\"\n            WHITTIER.\n\n\nChrist's Appreciation--His Independence--The Simplicity of his\nLife--His Place in the Devine Economy--The Spirit of Meekness--The\nGreatness of Humility\n\n\nWhile John's disciples were standing there, our Lord said nothing in\nhis praise, but as soon as they had departed, the flood-gates of his\nheart were thrown wide open, and He began to speak to the multitudes\nconcerning his faithful servant.  It was as though He would give him no\ncause for pride by what He said.  He desired to give his friend no\nadditional temptation during those lonely hours.  We say our kind\nthings before each other's faces; our hard things when the back is\nturned.  It is not so with Christ.  He passes his most generous\nencomiums when we are not there to hear them.  Christ may never tell\nyou how greatly He loves and values you; but while you lie there in\nyour prison, with sad and overcast heart, He is saying and thinking\ngreat things about you yonder.\n\n\nI.  THE TIME CHOSEN FOR THE LORD'S COMMENDATION OF THE BAPTIST.--It was\nwhen John had fallen beneath his usual level, below high-water mark,\nthat Jesus uttered his warmest and most generous words of\nappreciation--\"Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen\na greater than John the Baptist.\"\n\n\"But, dost Thou really mean, most holy Lord, that this one is the\ngreatest born of woman?\"\n\n\"Certainly,\" saith Christ, in effect.\n\n\"But he has asked if Thou art really the Messiah.\"\n\n\"I know it,\" saith the Lord.\n\n\"But how canst Thou say that he is to be compared with Moses, Isaiah,\nor Daniel?  Did they doubt Thee thus?  And how canst Thou say that he\nis not a reed shaken with the wind, when, but now, he gave patent\nevidence that he was stooping beneath the hurrying tread of gales of\ndoubt and depression?\"\n\n\"Ah,\" the Master seems to say, \"Heaven judges, not by a passing mood,\nbut by the general tenor and trend of a man's life; not by the\nexpression of a doubt, caused by accidents which may be explained, but\nby the soul of man within him, which is as much deeper than the\nemotions as the heart of the ocean is deeper than the cloud-shadows\nwhich hurry across its surface.\"\n\nYes, the Lord judges us by that which is deepest, most permanent, most\nconstant and prevalent with us; by the ideal we seek to apprehend; by\nthe decision and choice of our soul; by that bud of possibility which\nlies as yet furled, and unrealized even by ourselves.\n\nThere is a remarkable parallel to this incident in the Old Testament.\nWhen we are first introduced to Gideon, the youngest son of Joash the\nAbi-ezrite, he is not in a very dignified position.  He is threshing\nwheat by the wine-press, to hide it from the hosts of Midian, which\ndevoured the produce of the entire country.  There was no moral wrong\nin eluding the vigilance of the Midian spies, in transporting the wheat\nfrom the open country, where the wind might fan away the chaff, to the\ncomparative seclusion and unlikeliness of the wine-press; but there was\nnothing specially heroic or inspiring in the spectacle.  Yet, when the\nangel of the Lord appeared unto him, he said, \"The Lord is with thee,\nthou mighty man of valour.\"\n\n\"Mighty man of valour!\"  At first there is an apparent incongruity\nbetween this high-sounding salutation and the bearing of the man to\nwhom it was addressed.  Surely such an address is far-fetched and\nfulsome; yet subsequent events prove that every syllable of it was\ndeservedly true.  Gideon was a mighty man of valour, and God was with\nhim.  The heavenly messenger read beneath the outward passing incident,\nand saw under the clumsy letters of the palimpsest the deep and holy\ncharacters which were awaiting the moment of complete discovery.\n\nIs not this, in fact, the meaning of the apostle, when he says that\nfaith is reckoned to us for righteousness?  In the fullest sense, of\ncourse, we know that to each believer in Jesus there is reckoned the\nentire benefit of his glorious person and work, so that we are accepted\nin the Beloved, and He is \"made unto us ... Righteousness.\"  But there\nis another sense in which faith is reckoned to us for righteousness,\nbecause it contains within itself the power and potency of the perfect\nlife.  It is the seed-germ from which is developed in due course the\nplant, the flower, the bud, the seed, and the reproduction of the plant\nin unending succession.  God reckoned to Abraham all that his faith was\ncapable of producing, which it did produce, and which it would have\nproduced had he possessed all the advantages which pertain to our own\nhappy lot.  There is thus the objective and the subjective: in virtue\nof the first, through faith in Jesus, all his righteousness is\naccounted to us; in virtue of the second, God reckons to us all that\nblessed flowering and fruitage of which our faith will be capable, when\npatience has had its perfect work and we are perfect and entire,\nwanting nothing.\n\n\nII.  THE OUTSTANDING FEATURES OF JOHN'S CHARACTER AND MINISTRY TO WHICH\nOUR LORD DREW ATTENTION.--(1) _His Independence_.  \"What went ye out\ninto the wilderness to behold?  A reed shaken with the wind?\"  The\nlanguage of the Bible is so picturesque, so full of natural imagery,\nthat it appeals to every age, and speaks in every language of the\nworld.  If its descriptions of character had been given in the language\nof the philosopher or academist, what was intelligible to one age would\nhave been perplexing or meaningless to the next.  Remember that the\nlong gallery in the Pyramids, which was directed to the pole-star when\nthey were constructed, is now hopelessly out of course, because the\nposition of the pole-star, in relation to the earth, has so entirely\naltered; and what is true among the spheres is true in the use of\nterms.  But the Word of God employs natural figures and parables, which\nthe wayfaring man, though a fool, comprehends at a glance.\n\nWho, for instance, on a gusty March day, has not watched the wind\nblowing lustily across a marsh or the reedy margin of a lake,\ncompelling all the reeds to stoop in the same direction?  Has one\nresisted the current or stood stoutly forth in protesting\nnon-compliance?  Has one dared to adopt an unbending posture?  Not one.\nThey have been as obsequious as were all the king's servants that were\nin the king's gate to the imperious Haman when he happened to enter the\npalace.\n\nThus, when our Lord asked the people whether John resembled a reed\nshaken by the wind, and implied their answer in the negative, could He\nhave more clearly indicated one of the most salient characteristics of\nJohn's career--his daring singularity, his independence of mere custom\nand fashion, his determination to follow out the pattern of his own\nlife as God revealed it to him?  In this he resembles the good\nNehemiah, when he refers to the usual practice of men of his position,\nand says, \"So did not I, because of the fear of the Lord\"; or the three\nyoung men who, when all the myriads fell down and worshipped\nNebuchadnezzar's golden image, remained erect.  In the singularity of\nhis dress and food; in the originality of his message and demand for\nbaptism; in his independence of the religious teachers and schools of\nhis time; in his refusal to countenance the flagrant sins of the\nvarious classes of the community, and especially in his uncompromising\ndenunciation of Herod's sin--he proved himself to be as a sturdy oak in\nthe forest of Bashan, or a deeply-rooted cedar in Lebanon, and not as a\nreed shaken by the wind.\n\nMany a saintly soul has followed him since along this difficult and\nlonely track.  Indeed, it is the ordinary path for most of the choicest\nspirits of these Christian centuries.  I do not say of all, because the\ngreat Gardener has his violets and lilies in sheltered spots; but\ncertainly most of the trees of his right-hand planting have not stood\nthickly-planted in the sheltered woodland, but have braved the winds\nsweeping in at the gates of the hills.\n\nYou, my reader, admire, but feel you cannot follow.  When your\ncompanions and friends are speaking depreciating and ungenerous words\nof some public man whom you love; when unkind and scandalous stories\nare being passed from lip to lip; when a storm of execration and hatred\nis being poured on a cause, which in your heart you favour and\nespouse--you find it easier to bow before the gale, with all the other\nreeds around you, than to enter your protest, even though you stand\nalone.  Yet the reed thrust by the soldiers into the hands of Christ\nmay become the rod of iron with which He rules the nations.  He can\ntake the most pliant and yielding natures, and make them, as He made\nJeremiah, \"a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls,\nagainst the whole land.\"  Thou canst not; but He can.  He will\nstrengthen thee; yea, He will help thee; yea, He will uphold thee with\nthe right hand of his righteousness.  Keep looking steadfastly up to\nHim, that He may teach thy hands to war, and thy fingers to fight; for\nthou shalt be able to do all things through Him that strengtheneth thee.\n\n(2) _His simplicity_.  A second time the Master asked the people what\nthey went forth into the wilderness to behold; and by his question\nimplied that John was no Sybarite clothed in soft raiment, and feasting\nin luxury, but a strong, pure soul, that had learnt the secret of\nself-denial and self-control.  Too many of us are inclined to put on\nthe soft raiment of self-indulgence and luxury.  We are the slaves of\nfashion, or we are perpetually considering what we shall eat, what we\nshall drink, and with what we shall be clothed: or we act as though we\nsupposed that life consisted in the number of things we possessed, and\nthe variety of servants that waited upon us: whereas the exact contrary\nis the case.  The real happiness of life consists not in increasing our\npossessions, but in limiting our wants.\n\nTo all my young brothers and sisters who may read this page, and who\nhave yet the making of their lives in their own hands, I would say,\nwith all my heart, learn to do without the soft clothing and the many\nservants which characterise kings' courts.  At table have your eye on\nthe simpler dishes, those which supply the maximum of nutriment and\nstrength, and do not allow your choice to be determined by what pleases\nthe palate or gratifies the taste.  A young friend stood me out the\nother day against some article of diet, which was acknowledged to be\nthe more nutritious (it was whole-meal bread), because another was\nsweeter and more palatable (some white, light French rolls, from which\nall the nutriment had been extracted).  This is the deliberate\npreference of the fare of kings' courts to Daniel's pulse and the\nBaptist's locusts and wild honey.  Please note, here, that there was\nnothing inconsistent in his taking honey.  We are not to refuse a\ncertain diet because it is pleasant; but we are not to choose it\nbecause it is so.\n\nSo with dress.  Our Master does not require of us to dress grotesquely,\nor to attract notice by the singularity and grotesqueness of our\nattire.  We must dress suitably and in conformity with that station in\nlife to which He has called us.  But what a difference there is between\nmaking our dress our main consideration, and considering first and\nforemost the attire of the soul in meekness and truth, purity and\nunselfishness.  They who are set upon these may be trusted to put the\nother in the right place.  But, on the whole, the truly consecrated\nsoul should study simplicity.  It should not endeavour to attract\nnotice by glaring colours or extravagant display.  It ought not to seek\na large variety of dresses and costumes, but be satisfied with what may\nbe really needed for the exigencies of climate and health.  Let it take\nno pleasure in vying with others, because dress is a question of\nutility and not of pride.  On the whole, we should set our faces\nagainst the soft raiment which enervates the health, and unfits us to\nstretch out our hands in ready help to those who need assistance along\nthe highways of life.\n\nSo with service.  It is not well to depend on others.  If it is part of\nour lot to be surrounded by servants, let us accept their offices with\ngrace and kindliness, but never allow ourselves to lean on them.  We\nshould know how to do everything for ourselves, and be prepared to do\nit whenever it is necessary.  Of course, with some of us, it is\nessential that we should have servants, that we may be set free to do\nthe special work of our lives.  Nothing would be more unfortunate than\nthat those who are highly gifted in some special direction should\nfritter away their time and strength in doing trifles which others\ncould do for them equally well.  To think of a physician whose\nconsulting room was crowded with patients needing help which he alone,\nof all men living, could give, spending the precious morning hours in\nthe minutiae of household arrangements, blacking his boots, or\npreparing his food!  Let these things be left to those who cannot do\nthe higher work to which he is called.\n\nThis is the secret of making the best of your life.  Discover what you\ncan do best--the one thing which you are called to do for others, and\nwhich probably no one else can do so well.  Set yourself to do this,\ndevolving on voluntary or paid helpers all that they can do as well as,\nand perhaps better than, yourself.  It was in this spirit that the\napostles said, \"It is not fit that we should forsake the Word of God\nand serve tables.  Look ye out, therefore, men ... whom we may appoint\nover this business; but we will continue steadfastly in prayer, and in\nthe ministry of the Word.\"\n\nIt is specially the temptation of Eastern life, where the climate is\nenervating and service is cheap and plentiful, to seek the soft raiment\nand the large assistance of attendants, and it is almost impossible to\nyield to one or the other without relaxing the fibre of the soul.  The\ntemptation is always around us; and it is well to look carefully into\nour life from time to time, to be quite sure, lest almost insensibly\nits strong energetic spirit may not be in process of deterioration--as\nthe soldiers of Hannibal in the plains of Capua.  If so, resolve to do\nwithout, not for merit's sake, but to conserve the strength and\nsimplicity of your soul.\n\n(3) _His noble office_.  \"But wherefore went ye out?--to see a prophet?\nYea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.\"  Nothing is more\ndifficult than to measure men while they are living.  Whilst the\nfascination of their presence and the music of their voice are in the\nair, we are apt to exaggerate their worth.  The mountain towers so far\nabove us that we are apt, in the absence of other mountains, or in our\ntoo great proximity to it, to think of it as the greatest of all the\nmountain-range.  But it is not so, as we discover when we remove\nfurther.  But subsequent ages, so far from correcting, have only\nconfirmed our Saviour's estimate of his Forerunner.  We are able to\nlocate him in the Divine economy.  He was a prophet, yes, and much\nmore.  To employ the predictive words of Malachi, he was Jehovah's\nmessenger, the courier who announced the advent of the King, the last\nof the prophets--for all the prophets and the law prophesied until\nJohn--and the herald of that new and greater era, whose gates he\nopened, but into which he was not permitted to enter.\n\nBut our Lord went further, and did not hesitate to class John with the\ngreatest of those born of woman.  He was absolutely in the front rank.\nHe may have had peers, but no superiors; equals, but no over-lords.\nWho may be classed with him, we cannot, dare not, say.  But probably\nAbraham, Moses, Paul.  \"There hath not arisen a greater than John the\nBaptist.\"  No brighter star shines in the celestial firmament than that\nof this brief young life, which had only time enough to proclaim the\nadvent of the Lord, and after some brief six months of ministry by the\nJordan, followed by twelve months in the gaol, waned here to shine in\nundimming brilliancy yonder.\n\nThere was a further tribute paid by our Lord to his noble servant.\nSome two or three centuries before, Malachi had foretold that Elijah,\nthe prophet, would be sent before the great and terrible day of the\nLord came; and the Jews were always on the outlook for his coming.\nEven to the present day a chair is set for him at their religious\nfeasts.  This is what was meant when they asked the Baptist, at the\ncommencement of his ministry, if he were Elijah.  He shrank, as we have\nseen, from assuming so great a name, though he could not have refused\nthe challenge, had it been worded to include the spirit and power of\nthe great prophet of Thisbe.  But here our Lord went beyond John's own\nmodest, self-depreciating estimate, and declared, \"If ye are willing to\nreceive it, this is Elijah which is to come.\"  As He descended from the\nMount of Transfiguration, He returned to the same subject: \"And they\nasked Him, saying, The scribes say that Elijah must first come.  And He\nsaid unto them, Elijah indeed cometh first, and restoreth all\nthings....  But I say unto you that Elijah is come, and they have also\ndone unto him whatsoever they listed, even as it is written of him\"\n(Mark ix. 9-13).\n\n\nIII.  THE MASTER'S RESERVATION.  Let us again quote His memorable\nwords: \"Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a\ngreater than John the Baptist; yet he that is but little in the Kingdom\nof heaven is greater than he\" (Matt. xi. 11, R.V.).\n\nThe greatness of John the Baptist shone out in conspicuous beauty in\nhis meek confession of inferiority.  It is always a sign of the\ngreatest knowledge, when its possessor confesses himself to be as a\nchild picking up shells on the shores of a boundless ocean.  And the\nBaptist's greatness was revealed in the lowliness of his self-estimate.\n\nWhen the Lord Jesus summarized his own character He said, \"I am meek\nand lowly in heart.\"  In doing so He expressed the character of God;\nfor He was the Revealer of God, \"the brightness of his glory, and the\nexpress image of his person.\"  He was \"God manifested in flesh.\"  He\nwas not only the Son of God, He was God the Son: \"He that hath seen Me\nhath seen the Father.  I and the Father are one.\"  The greatness of\nJohn was proved in this, that like his Lord he was meek and lowly in\nheart.  Neither before nor since has a son of Adam lived in whom these\ndivine qualities were more evident.  No sublimer, no more God-like\nutterance ever passed the lips of man than John's answer to his\ndisciples: \"A man can receive nothing except it have been given him\nfrom heaven.  He must increase, but I must decrease\" (see the whole\npassage, John iii. 27-36).  The very same spirit of meekness was\nspeaking in John as acted in his Lord, when, knowing that the Pharisees\nhad heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John\n(though Jesus Himself baptized not, but his disciples), \"He left Judea\nand departed into Galilee.\"  What divisions might have been avoided in\nthe Church had his people followed his example!  But there was no man,\nnot even the apostle John or Paul, whose spirit accorded more exactly\nwith the Master's than his faithful and self-effacing herald and\nforerunner, John the Baptist.  It might well be said, that of them that\nwere born of women there had not arisen a greater than he.\n\nBut what was in our Lord's thought when He made the reservation, \"_Yet\nhe that is but little in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he_\"?\nIt has been suggested that the Lord was speaking of John not only as a\nman, but as a prophet, and that this declaration applies more\nparticularly to John as a prophet.  The words of the evangelist Luke\nare noticeable--\"There hath not risen a greater prophet than John the\nBaptist\": because to balance the sentence it seems needful to supply\nthe word _prophet_ in the second clause--\"The least prophet in the\nKingdom of heaven is a greater prophet than he.\"  John could say,\n\"Behold the Lamb of God\"; but the least of those who, being scattered\nabroad, went everywhere proclaiming the word of the Kingdom, preached\n\"Jesus and the resurrection.\"\n\nBut there is another way of interpreting Christ's words.  John ushered\nin the Kingdom, but was not in it.  He proclaimed a condition of\nblessedness in which he was not permitted to have a part.  And the Lord\nsays that to be in that Kingdom gives the opportunity of attaining to a\ngreatness which the great souls outside its precincts cannot lay claim\nto.  There is a greatness which comes from nature, and another\ngreatness from circumstances.  The child on the mountain is higher than\nthe giant in the valley.  The boy in our village schools knows more on\ncertain subjects than Socrates or Confucius, the greatest sages of the\nworld.  The least instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is privileged to\nsee and hear the things which prophets and kings longed and waited for\nin vain.  The least in the higher dispensation may know and understand\nmore than the loftiest souls of the dispensations that have preceded.\n\nAnd may there not be even more than this?  The character of John was\nstrong, grand in its wild magnificence--like some Alpine crag, with the\npines on its slopes and the deep dark lake at its foot; he had courage,\nresolution, an iron will, a loftiness of soul that could hold commerce\nwith the unseen and eternal.  He was a man capable of vast heights and\ndepths.  He could hold fellowship with the eternal God as a man speaks\nwith his friend, and could suffer unutterable agonies in\nself-questioning and depression.  But is this the loftiest ideal of\ncharacter?  Is it the most desirable and blessed?  Assuredly not; and\nthis may have been in the Saviour's mind when He made his notable\nreservation.  To come neither eating nor drinking; to be stern,\nreserved, and lonely; to live apart from the homes of men, to be the\nsevere and unflinching rebuker of other men's sins--this was not the\nloftiest pattern of human character.\n\nThere was something better, as is manifest in our Lord's own perfect\nmanhood.  The balance of quality; the power to converse with God, mated\nwith the tenderness that enters the homes of men, wipes the tears of\nthose that mourn, and gathers little children to its side; that has an\near for every complaint, and a balm of comfort for every heart-break;\nthat pities and soothes, teaches and leads; that is able not only to\ncommune with God alone in the desert, but brings Him into the lowliest\ndeeds and commonplaces of human life--this is the type of character\nwhich is characteristic of the Kingdom of heaven.  It is described best\nin those inimitable beatitudes which canonize, not the stern and\nrugged, but the sweet and tender, the humble and meek; and stamp\nHeaven's tenderest smile on virtues which had hardly found a place in\nthe strong and gritty character of the Baptist.\n\nYes, there is more to be had by the humble heart than John possessed or\ntaught.  The passive as well as the active; the glen equally with the\nbare mountain peak; the feminine with the masculine; the power to wait\nand be still, combined with the swift rush to capture the position; the\ncross of shame as well as the throne of power.  And if thou art the\nleast in the Kingdom of God, all this may be thine, by the Holy Spirit,\nwho introduces the very nature of the Son of Man into the heart that\nloves Him truly.  \"He that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater\nthan he.\"\n\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\nA Burning and Shining Lamp.\n\n(JOHN V. 35.)\n\n            \"Men as men\n  Can reach no higher than the Son of God,\n  The Perfect Head and Pattern of Mankind.\n  The time is short, and thus sufficeth us\n  To live and die by; and in Him again\n  We see the same first starry attribute,\n  '_Perfect through suffering_,' our salvation's seal,\n  Set in the front of His humanity....\"\n            MRS. HAMILTON KING.\n\n\nThe Rest-Day--The Light of Life--Shining, because Burning--\"Let your\nLight Shine\"--A Light in the Darkness\n\n\nOur Master, Christ, was on his trial.  He was challenged by the\nreligious leaders of the people because He had dared to heal a man and\nto command him to carry his bed--his straw pallet--on the Sabbath day.\nHe was therefore accused, and, so to speak, put in his defence.\n\nOf course we must not for a moment think that our Lord was lax in his\nobservance of the Sabbath, but simply that He desired to emancipate the\nday from the intolerable burdens and restrictions with which the Jewish\nleaders had surrounded it.  It was his desire to show, for all after\ntime, that the Sabbath was made for useful purposes, and specially for\ndeeds of mercy, beneficence, and gentle kindness.  The Lord Jesus was\nmaligned and persecuted because He was the Emancipator of the Sabbath\nday from foolish and mistaken notions of sanctity.\n\nIt is of the greatest importance that we should do what we may to\nconserve one rest-day in seven to our country and our world; and I\ncannot help noticing in the story of the life of the great statesman\nand Christian, who recently passed from us, how careful he was to guard\nthe day from unnecessary intrusion.  It has been attested by those who\nknew him well, that physically, intellectually, and spiritually, the\nLord's day to him was a priceless blessing.  Let your rest on the one\nrest-day consist, not in lolling idly and carelessly, but in turning\nyour faculties in some other direction; because the truest rest is to\nbe found, not in luxurious ease, but in using the fresh vigour of your\nlife in other compartments of the brain than those which have been worn\nby the demands of the six days.  Then, fresh from the Sunday-school\nclass, the worship of the church, and the sermon, you will return to\nthe desk or office, or whatever may be your toil, with new and\nrejuvenated strength.\n\nThere is a great distinction between shining and burning: shining is\nthe light-giving, the illuminating, that comes forth from the enkindled\nwick; but it cannot shine unless it burns.  The candle that gives light\nwastes inch by inch as it gives it.  The very wick of your lamp, that\nconducts the oil to the flame, chars, and you have to cut it off bit by\nbit until the longest coil is at length exhausted.  We must never\nforget that, if we would shine, we must burn.  Too many of us want to\nshine, but are not prepared to pay the cost that must be faced by every\ntrue man that wants to illuminate his time.  We must burn down until\nthere is but an eighth of an inch left in the candlestick, till the\nlight flickers a little and drops, makes one more eager effort, and\nthen ceases to shine--\"a burning and shining light.\"\n\nObviously, then, we have first _the comparison between John and the\ncandle, or lamp_; then we have _the necessary expenditure, burning to\nshine_; and, thirdly, we have _the misuse that people may make of their\nopportunities_.\n\n\nI.  THE LORD'S COMPARISON.--\"John was a burning and shining lamp.\"  In\nthe original a great contrast is suggested between _lamp_, as it is\ngiven in the Revised Version, and _light_.  The Old Version put it\nthus: \"He was a burning and shining light\"; but the Revised Version\nputs it thus: \"He was a burning and shining lamp\"; and there is a\nconsiderable difference between the two.  In the first chapter of the\nGospel, the apostle John tells us, speaking of the Baptist, that he was\nnot that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light, that all\nmen through him [John] might believe.  \"That was the True Light, which\nlighteth every man coming into the world.\"\n\nJesus Christ is the Light of the World; and I believe that in every age\nHe has been waiting to illumine the hearts and spirits of men,\nreminding us of the expression in the Book of Proverbs--and it is\nwonderfully significant--\"The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.\"\n\nHere is a candle, yonder is the wick; but it gives no light.  The air\nmay be full of luminousness, but as yet it has found no point on which\nto kindle and from which to irradiate.  But, see, of a sudden the light\ngathers to the candle-wick, which had stood helpless and useless,\ntouches it, and it begins to shine with a light not its own.  It is\nborrowed light, caught from some burning cone of flame.\n\nMen are born into the world like so many unlighted candles.  They may\nstand in chaste candlesticks, all of gold or silver, of common tin or\nporcelain.  But all are by nature unlit.  On the other hand, Jesus\nChrist, the Light of men, waits with yearning desire, and, as each\nsuccessive generation passes across the stage of human life, He is\nprepared to illumine the spirits which are intended to be the candles\nof the Lord.  In these ages He illumines us with the Gospel; but I\nbelieve that all moral intuitions, all instincts of immortality, all\ncravings after God, all gropings in the dark for the true Light, all\nhelpful moral revolutions which have swept over mankind, have been the\nresult of his influence, who, as the true Light, lighteth every man\ncoming into the world.  Whenever and wherever a man has flamed up with\nunusual fervour and spiritual power, with a desire to help his fellows,\nand has shone like a torch, we must believe that he was illumined by\nthe Son of God, the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, whom he may not\nhave known, but whom he would recognise as soon as he crossed the\nportal of the New Jerusalem.  He lighteth every man; He is willing to\nillumine every man that comes into the world.\n\nThis conception casts a considerable light on some of the enigmas of\nhuman experience.  We have known illiterate, uncultured men, without\nmany gifts of style or grace of speech, yet they have shone to such an\nextent that every one in their neighbourhood has been lit by the\nradiance that has streamed from them.  On the other hand, we have met\nmen who have passed through a college course and been carefully trained\nfor their life-work; important pulpits and opportunities of great\nusefulness have been opened to them; but their lives have been a\ndisappointment.  Why?  Ah, the answer is easy.  The former class were\nas candles, made of ordinary wax, and placed in inconspicuous\ncandle-sticks, which had been ignited by the fire of God through the\nHoly Spirit; and the latter were like exquisitely prepared\ncandlesticks, the candles in which had never been kindled by the fire\nof God.  There are hundreds of professing Christians, and some may read\nthese pages, who have never really been kindled; who have never been\ntouched by the Son of God; who do not know what it is to shine with his\nlight and to burn with his fire.\n\nWhat is the process of lighting?  The wick of the candle is simply\nbrought into contact with the flame, and the flame leaps to it, kindles\non it, without parting with any of its vigour or heat, and continues to\nburn, drawing to itself the nourishment which the candle supplies.  So\nlet Jesus Christ touch you.  Believe in the Light, that you may become\na child of the Light.  Take off the extinguisher; cast away your\nprejudice; put off those misconceptions; have done with those unworthy\nhabits; putting them all aside, let Jesus kindle you.  \"Arise, shine;\nfor thy light is come.\" \"Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the\ndead, and Christ shall give thee light.\"\n\nWe were kindled that we might kindle others.  I would like, if I might\nhave my choice, to burn steadily down, with no guttering waste, and as\nI do so to communicate God's fire to as many unlit candles as possible;\nand to burn on steadily until the socket comes in view, then to light,\nin the last flicker, twenty, thirty, or a hundred candles at once; so\nthat as one expires they may begin burning and spreading light which\nshall shine till Jesus comes.  Get light from Christ, then share it;\nand remember that it is the glory of fire that one little candle may go\non lighting hundreds of candles--one insignificant taper may light all\nthe lamps of a cathedral church, and yet not be robbed of its own\nlittle glow of flame.  Andrew was lit by Christ Himself, and passed on\nthe flame to Simon Peter, and he to three thousand more on the Day of\nPentecost.  Every Christian soul illumined by the grace of God thus\nbecomes, as John the Baptist was, a lamp.  But there is always the same\nimpassable chasm between these and the Lord.  They are derived; He is\noriginal.  They need to be sustained and fed; He is the fountain of\nLight: because, as the Father hath life in Himself, He hath given to\nHim also to have life in Himself, and his life is the light of men.\n\n\nII.  THE INEVITABLE EXPENDITURE.--\"He was a burning and shining lamp.\"\n_If you would shine, you must burn_.  The ambition to shine is\nuniversal; but all are not prepared to pay the price by which alone\nthey can acquire the right to give the true light of life.  There are\nplenty of students who would win all the prizes, and wear all the\nhonours, apart from days and nights of toil; but they find it a vain\nambition.  Before a man can become Senior Wrangler he must have burnt,\nnot only the midnight oil, but some of the very fibre of his soul.\nConspicuous positions in the literary and scientific world are less the\nreward of genius than of laborious, soul-consuming toil.  The great\nchemist will work sixteen hours out of twenty-four.  The illustrious\nauthor acquires, by profound research, the materials which he weaves\ninto his brilliant page.  Such men shine because they burn.\n\nBut this is pre-eminently the principle in the service of Christ.  It\nwas so with the Lord Himself.  He shone, and his beams have illumined\nmyriads of darkened souls, and shall yet bring dawn throughout the\nworld; but, ah, how He burned!  The disciples remembered that it was\nwritten of Him: \"The zeal of thy house hath eaten Me up.\"  He suffered,\nthat He might serve.  He would not save Himself, because He was bent on\nsaving others.  He ascended to the throne because He spared not Himself\nfrom the cruel tree.  Pilate marvelled that his death came so soon, and\nsent for the centurion to be certified that in so few hours He had\nsuccumbed.  But he did not realize that in three short years He had\nexpended his vital strength so utterly, that there was no reserve to\nfall back upon.  There had been an inward consumption, an exhaustion of\nnervous power, a wearing down of the springs of vitality.  He shone\nbecause of the fire that burned within Him.\n\nIt was so with the great apostle, who said that he filled up that which\nwas lacking in the afflictions of Christ, not of course that there was\nany lack in the work of propitiation which required his further help,\nbut that the saints are called to share with their Lord his sorrows for\nmen, his tears, to lift the burdens and crosses of others, to give of\ntheir very life-blood for the replenishing of the exhausted fountains\nof human faith, and hope, and love.  Paul gave freely of his best.  He\nshone because he never hesitated to burn.  Remember how he affirmed\nthat he was pressed down, perplexed, pursued, and always bore about in\nhis body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be\nmanifested in his mortal flesh.  The price paid for the life that\nwrought in the hearts of his converts was that death should work in\nhimself.\n\nAll the saints have passed through similar experiences.  They knew, as\nCranmer said, that they could never hope to kindle a fire that should\nnever be put out, unless they were prepared to stand steadily at the\nstake and give their bodies to be burned.  But they counted not their\nlives dear unto them, if they might but finish their course with joy,\nand the ministry which they had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify\nthe Gospel of the grace of God.  The men and women who shine as\nbeacon-lights across the centuries are those whose tears were their\nmeat day and night, whose prayers rose with strong cryings and tears;\nwhile, as with Palissy, the Huguenot potter, the very furniture of the\nhouse was brought out to feed the flame in which the precious glaze was\nbeing precipitated.\n\nIf the Christian worker longs to benefit the poor slum district in\nwhich he is located, he must be prepared to live amongst the people and\nexpend himself.  Presently, in his hollow cheeks, his sallow\ncomplexion, his attenuated form, his diminishing strength, you will see\nthat he is paying the price for his 100-candle illuminating power,\nbecause he is being consumed.  Every successful worker for God must\nlearn that lesson.  You must be prepared to suffer; you can only help\nmen when you die for them.  If you desire to save others you cannot\nsave yourself; you must be prepared to fall into the ground and die, if\nyou would not abide alone: there must be with you, as with Paul, the\ndecaying of the outward man, that the inward man may be renewed day by\nday.  You must be prepared to say with him, \"Death worketh in us, but\nlife in you.\"\n\n_If you burn, you will shine_.  The burning and the shining do not\nalways go together; often the burning goes on a long time without much\nillumination resulting from the expenditure.  Those who are rich in\ngifts and natural endowments cast in much, and the poor cast in all\ntheir living; this they continue to do, year after year, and none seems\nto heed the awful cost at which their testimony is given.  Moreover, to\nuse a well-known phrase, the game hardly seems worth the candle.  The\narea they influence is so limited, the souls affected so few, the\nglimmer of their light, like a street-lamp in a fog, hardly reaches\nacross the street or to the ground.  Sometimes it appears only to make\nthe darkness denser and thicker.  In many cases, the saints of God have\nburnt down to the last film of vital energy and expired, and there has\nbeen no shining that the world has taken cognisance of.  Their bitter\ncomplaint has been, \"I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength\nfor nought, and in vain.\"  But even these shall shine.  They shall\nshine as the stars for ever and ever in that world where all holy and\nfaithful souls obtain their due.\n\nLet us see to the burning; God will see to the shining.  It is ours to\nfeed the sacred heaven-enkindled flame with the daily fuel of the Word\nof God and holy service; and God will see to it that no ray of power or\nlove is wasted.  He will place reflectors around us, to catch up and\nrepeat the influences that proceed from us.  \"The Lord was with Samuel,\nand did let none of his words fall to the ground.\"  It is ours to keep\nin company with the risen Lord, listening to Him as He opens to us the\nScriptures, until our hearts burn within us; then, as we hasten to tell\nwhat we have seen, tasted, and handled of the Word of Life, there will\nbe a glow on our faces, whether we know it or not; and men shall say of\nus: \"They have been with Jesus.\"  If we think only of the shining, we\nshall probably miss both it and the burning.  But if we devote\nourselves to the burning, even though it involve the hidden work of the\nmine, the stoke-hole, and the furnace-room, there will be the raying\nforth of a light that cannot be hid.  Where there is the burning heat,\nthere must be the soft, gleaming light.  Let there be but summer, and\nthe flowers cover the land.\n\n_For the burning and the shining, God will provide the fuel_.  The fire\nwhich burnt in the bush needed no fuel; \"the bush was not consumed.\"\nWith us there is perpetual need for the nourishment of the fire of love\nand the light of life by the administration of appropriate fuel.  The\noil must be supplied to the lamp.  The fire cannot be kept burning on\nthe altar apart from the incessant care and attention of the priests.\nBut be of good cheer; He who hath begun a good work in you will perfect\nit unto the day of Jesus Christ.  All grace will be made to abound\ntowards you, that you may have all sufficiency for all things, and\nabound to every good work.  The Lord will give grace and glory; no good\nthing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.  God will supply\nall your need, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.  It\nis especially helpful to ponder the full import of the phrase--\"the\nsupply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.\"  It is as though we had access\nto one of those oil-wells of the west, which seem practically\ninexhaustible.\n\nIt is a wonderful thing how often God puts his lighted candles in the\ncellar.  We would have supposed that He would have placed a man like\nJohn on a pedestal or a throne, that his influence might reach as far\nas possible.  Instead of that He allowed him to spend the precious\nmonths of his brief life in prison.  And the lamp flickered somewhat in\nthe pestilential damp.  It may be that this is your place also.  In the\nsilence of a sick chamber, in the obscurity of some country parish,\namid obloquy and hatred, you are doomed to spend your slowly-moving\nyears.  It seems such a waste.  Loneliness and depression are hard to\nendure; but the consciousness of accomplishing so little, though at\nsuch cost, is very painful.  This is your cellar-life, your dungeon\nexperience.  Remember that Joseph and Rutherford, John Bunyan and\nMadame Guyon, have been there before you.  Probably, because the cellar\nis so very dark, God wants to station a candle there, and has placed\nyou there because you can accomplish a work for Him, and for others, of\npriceless importance.  Where is the light needed so much as on a dark\nlanding or a sunken reef?  Go on shining, and you will find some day\nthat God will make that cellar a pedestal out of which your light shall\nstream over the world; for it was out of his prison cell that John\nilluminated the age in which his lot was cast, quite as much as from\nhis rock-pulpit beside the Jordan.  \"I would have you know, brethren,\"\nsaid the apostle, \"that the things which happened unto me have fallen\nout rather unto the progress of the Gospel, so that my bonds became\nmanifest in Christ throughout the Praetorian guard\" (Phil. i. 12, 13,\nR.V.).\n\n\nIII.  CHRIST'S WARNING AGAINST THE MISUSE OF OPPORTUNITIES.--\"Ye were\nwilling for a season to rejoice in his light.\"  The Greek word rendered\n_rejoice_ has in it the idea of moths playing around a candle, or of\nchildren dancing around a torch-light, as it burns lower and lower.  It\nis as though a light were given to men for an hour, for them to use for\nsome high and sacred purpose, but they employ it for dancing and\ncard-playing, instead of girding up their loins to serious tasks.  \"You\nwere willing,\" says the Master, in effect, \"to rejoice, to dance and\nsing, in his light.  You treated his ministry as a pastime.  As long as\nhe spoke to you about the coming Kingdom, you listened and were glad;\nbut when he began to call you to repentance and warn you of wrath to\ncome, you left him.\"  He is now like an almost extinguished lamp.  His\nhour is all but done.  The brief space he was sent to occupy has been\nfulfilled.  \"Behold, the night cometh, when no man can work.\"\n\nThe ministry of the Gospel is but for \"an hour.\"  The story of man may\nbe compared to a brief day (1 Cor. iv. 3, _marg._, R.V.); and in that\nday the proclamation of the good news from God occupies but a very\nlimited space.  The hour-glass was turned when Jesus ascended, and it\nis more than likely that the last grains are running through; then the\ncry of the herald shall be hushed, and the servants' voices will be no\nmore heard in the streets inviting to the marriage supper, and there\nshall be none to break or distribute the bread of life.\n\nWith what eager care men should prize these fleeting opportunities, not\nlistening to the preacher's voice, as of one that can make a pleasant\nsound from the harp or organ--not seeking merely the delight of the ear\nor intellect; but taking heed to hear for eternity, receiving in meek\nand retentive hearts the precious grain as it falls from the sower's\nhand, and giving diligence that the best possible results may accrue.\n\nOh, children of the sunny market-place, playing giddily throughout the\nlong afternoon, take heed lest your opportunities of preparing for the\nserious work of life slip away unimproved, and you find yourselves face\nto face with death and judgment without a screen, without hope, and\nwithout God.  John murdered in prison; Jesus nailed to the cross; the\napostles and martyrs done to death on the scaffold and at the\nstake--and the ship drifting on the rocks, without a warning voice to\narouse the thoughtless crowd of dice-throwers and dancers to the\ncertainty and nearness of their doom!\n\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\nSet at Liberty.\n\n(MARK VI. 27.)\n\n  \"Hush my soul, and vain regrets be stilled;\n  Now rest in Him who is the complement\n  Of whatsoe'er transcends our mortal doom,\n  Of baffled hope and unfulfilled intent;\n  In the clear vision and aspect of whom\n  All longings and all hopes shall be fulfilled.\"\n            ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.\n\n\nThe Genesis of a Great Crime--The Strength of Evil Influences--An\nAccomplice of Satan--The Triumph of Hate--The Baptist Beheaded--A Place\nof Repentance\n\n\nThe evangelist Mark tells us, in the twenty-first verse of this\nchapter, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, and the\nhigh captains, and the chief men of Galilee.  Now, of course, Galilee,\nover which Herod had jurisdiction, and where, for the most part, he\ndwelt, in the beautiful city of Tiberias, the ruins of which are still\nwashed by the blue waters of the lake, was a considerable distance from\nthe Castle of Machaerus, which, as we have seen, was situated in the\ndesolate region on the eastern side of the Dead Sea.  There would\nprobably, therefore, have been a martial and noble procession from\nGalilee, which followed the course of the Jordan to the oasis of\nJericho, and then branched off to the old, grim fortress, which, like\none of those ruined castles on the Rhine, had been for many years the\nscene of brigandage, pillage, and bloodshed.\n\nIt is not difficult to imagine that sumptuous and splendid retinue.\nRoman soldiers and officials in all the splendour of their\naccoutrements and mounting; carriages conveying the royal consort,\nHerodias, Salome, and their ladies; large numbers of native soldiers;\nswarthy Bedouin and Greek traders; priests and levites, who lived on\nthe smile of the Court; court officials, camp-bearers, a motley\nfollowing of servants and slaves.  In the front of the cavalcade,\nHerod, on a magnificent steed.  The line of march, enlivened by the\nsound of martial music, and the flaunting of innumerable banners.\nSlowly they made their way through those desert solitudes, across the\npasture-lands, and finally swept up through the little village that lay\nat the foot of the hill to the castellated fortress which covered the\nsummit, edging its mighty walls to the brink of the steep cliffs.  Soon\nthe last straggler would be lost to view, the heavy portcullis fall,\nand the massive iron gate swing to, and the first step would be taken\ntowards the tragedy, which lay right before Herod's path.  One\nsometimes wonders whether the whole of these circumstances had not been\nplanned by the cunning device of Herodias.  In any case, nothing could\nhave been arranged more exactly to suit her murderous schemes.\n\nThe days that preceded the celebration of Herod's birthday were\nprobably filled with merry-making and carouse.  Groups of nobles,\nknights, and ladies, would gather on the terraces, looking out over the\nDead Sea, and away to Jerusalem, and in the far distance to the\ngleaming waters of the Mediterranean.  Picnics and excursions would be\narranged into the neighbouring country.  Archery, jousts, and other\nsports would beguile the slowly-moving hours.  Jests, light laughter,\nand buffoonery would fill the air.  And all the while, in the dungeons\nbeneath the castle, lay that mighty preacher, the confessor,\nforerunner, herald, and soon to be the martyr.\n\nBut this contrast was more than ever accentuated on the evening of\nHerod's birthday, when the great banqueting-chamber was specially\nilluminated; the tables decked with flowers and gold and silver plate;\nlaughter and mirth echoing through the vaulted roof from the splendid\ncompany that lay, after the Eastern mode, on sumptuous couches,\nstrewing the floor from one end to the other of the spacious hall.\nServants, in costly liveries, passed to and fro, bearing the rich\ndainties on massive salvers, one of which was to be presently\nbesprinkled with the martyr's blood.\n\nIn such a scene, I would have you study the genesis of a great crime,\nbecause you must remember that in respect to sin, there is very little\nto choose between the twentieth century and the first; between the sin\nof that civilization and of ours.  This is why the Bible must always\ncommand the profound interest of mankind--because it does not concern\nitself with the outward circumstances and setting of the scenes and\ncharacters it describes, but with those great common facts of\ntemptation, sin, and redemption, which have a meaning for us all.\n\nThis chapter is therefore written under more than usual solemnity,\nbecause one is so sure that, in dealing with that scene and the\npassions that met there in a foaming vortex, words may be penned that\nwill help souls which are caught in the drift of the same black\ncurrent, and are being swept down.  Perhaps this page shall utter a\nwarning voice to arrest them, ere it be too late, and be a life-buoy,\nor rope, or brother's hand reached out to save them as they rush past\non the boiling waters.  For there is help and grace in God by which a\nHerod and a Judas, a Jezebel and a Lady Macbeth, a royal criminal or an\nordinary one, may be arrested, redeemed, and saved.\n\nIn this, as in every sin, there were three forces at work:--First, the\npredisposition of the soul, which the Bible calls \"lust,\" and \"the\ndesire of the mind.\"  \"Among whom,\" says the apostle, \"we also all once\nlived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of\nthe mind, and were by nature children of wrath.\"  Second, the\nsuggestion of evil from without.  Finally, the act of the will by which\nthe suggestion was accepted and finally adopted.\n\nIt is, in this latter phase, that sin especially comes in.  There may\nbe sin in being able and disposed to sin.  The possession of a sinful\nnature needs the atonement and propitiation of the precious blood.\nThere may be sin, also, in dallying with temptation, in not\nanticipating its advent at a further distance.  But, after all, that\nwhich is of the essence of sin is in the act of the will, which allows\nitself to admit and entertain some foul suggestion, and ultimately\nsends its executioner below to carry its sentence into effect.\n\n\nI.  THE PREDETERMINATION TOWARDS THIS SIN.--The word \"lust\" is now\nuniversally employed and understood in one direction only.  It is a\npity and a mistake; because we fail to appreciate many of the warning\nsignals which the Spirit of God stations along our path.  Any\ninordinate desire for sensual and pleasurable excitement, whether fixed\non a right object, or directed towards a wrong one, comes under the\ndenomination of \"lust.\"  Strong and ill-regulated desire or passion, in\nwhatever direction it expresses itself, will work our ruin, and not\nthat alone of impurity, to which this old word is now specially\nconfined.\n\nIn dealing with temptation and sin, we must always take into account\nthe presence in the human heart of that sad relic of the Fall, which\nbiases men towards evil.  Every one that has handled bowls on the green\nis familiar with the effect of the bias.  The bowls are not perfect\nspheres, and are weighted on one side in such a way that, as they leave\nthe hand, they will inevitably turn off from a straight course; and on\nthis account the greater skill is required from the hands that\nmanipulate and impel them.  Such a bias has come to us all: first, from\nour ancestor Adam; and, secondly, by that law of heredity which has\nbeen accumulating its malign and sinister force through all the ages.\nGod alone can compute the respective strength of these forces; but He\ncan, and He will, as each separate soul stands before his judgment bar.\n\nHerod was the son of the great Herod, a voluptuous, murderous tyrant;\nand, from some source or other, he had inherited a very weak nature.\nPerhaps, if he had come under strong, wholesome influences, he would\nhave lived a passably good life; but it was his misfortune to fall\nunder the influence of a beautiful fiend, who became his Lady Macbeth,\nhis Jezebel, and wrought the ruin of his soul.  It is a remarkable\nthing, how strong an influence a beautiful and unscrupulous woman may\nhave over a weak man.  And for this reason, amongst others, weakness\nbecomes wickedness.  The man who allows himself to drift weakly before\nthe strongest influence is almost certain to discover that, in this\nworld, the strongest influences are those which make for sin; these\ntouch him most closely, and operate most continuously, and find in his\nnature the best _nidus_, or nest, in which to breed.\n\nThe influences that suggest and make for sin in this world are so\npersistent--at every street corner, in every daily newspaper, among\nevery gathering of well-dressed people, or ill--that if my readers have\nno other failing than that they are weak, I am bound to warn them, in\nGod's name, that unless they succeed in some way, directly or\nindirectly, in linking themselves to the strength of the Son of.  God,\nthey will inevitably become wicked.  Remember that the men, and\nespecially the women, who are filling our gaols as criminals, were, in\nmost cases, only weak, but they therefore drifted before the strong,\nblack current which flows through the world, and have become objects\nagainst whom all parents warn their children.  With all my soul--and I\nhave had no small experience of myself and of others--I implore that if\nyou are conscious of your weakness, you shall do what the sea-anemone\nand the limpet do, which cling to the rock when the storms darken the\nsky.  \"Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.\"\n\nHerod was reluctant to take the course to which his evil genius urged\nhim.  He made a slight show of resistance, as we have seen--but he did\nnot break with her; and so she finally had her way, and dragged him to\nher lowest level.  Here was the cause of his ruin, as it may be of\nyours.  You, too, have become allied with one who is possessed by a\nmore imperious will, and dominated by a stronger passion, than yours.\nYou suppose, however, that you can act as a make-weight, a drag on the\nchariot-wheel; that you will be able to keep and steady the pace; and\nthat, when you like, you may arrest the onward progress.  Ah, it is not\nso!  Herodias will have her way with you.  You may be reluctant, will\nfalter and hesitate, will remonstrate, will resist, but ultimately you\nwill drift into doing the very sins, the mention of which in your\npresence brings the red blood to your face.\n\nBeware, then, of yourself.  If you are so impressible to John the\nBaptist, remember that you may be equally so to evil suggestion: take\nheed, therefore, to guard against anything in your life that may open\nthe gates of your sensitive nature to a temptation, which you may not\nbe able to withstand.  If you are weak in physical health, you guard\nagainst draught and fatigue, against impure atmosphere and\ncontagion--how much more should you guard against the scenes and\ncompany which may act prejudicially on the health of your soul?  Of all\nour hours, none are so fraught with danger as those of recreation.  In\nthese we cast ourselves, with the majority of Gideon's men, on the bank\nof the stream, with relaxed girdles, drinking at our ease, without a\nthought of the proximity of the foe; and, therefore, in these we are\nmore likely to fall.  The Christian soldier is never off duty, never\nout of the enemy's reach, never at liberty to relax his watch.  The\nsentries must always be posted, and the pickets kept well out on the\nveldt.\n\nIt was the most perilous thing that Herod could do, to have that\nbanquet.  Lying back on his divan, lolling on his cushions, eating his\nrich food, quaffing the sparkling wine, exchanging repartee with his\nobsequious followers, it was as though the petals and calyx of his soul\nwere all open to receive the first insidious spore of evil that might\nfloat past on the sultry air.  That is why some of us dare not enter\nthe theatre, or encourage others to enter.  This is not the place to\nenter into a full discussion of the subject; but, even when a play may\nbe deemed inoffensive and harmless, the sensuous attractions of the\nplace, the glitter, the music, the slightly-dressed figures of the\nactors and actresses, the entire atmosphere and environment, which\nappeal so strongly to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and\nthe pride of life, break down some of the fortifications, which would\notherwise resist the first incidence and assault of evil.  The air of\nthe theatre, the ball-room, the race-course, seem so impregnated with\nthe nocuous germs and microbes of evil, that it is perilous for the\nsoul to expose itself to them, conscious as it is of predisposing bias\nand weakness.  It is this consciousness, also, which prompts the daily\nprayer, \"Lead us not into temptation.\"\n\n\nII.  TEMPTATION.  In the genesis of a sin we must give due weight to\nthe power of the Tempter, whether by his direct suggestion to the soul\nor by the instrumentality of men and women whom he uses for his fell\npurpose.  In this case Satan's accomplice was the beautiful\nHerodias--beautiful as a snake, but as deadly.  She knew the influence\nthat John the Baptist wielded over her weak paramour, that he was\naccustomed to attach unmeasured importance to his words, and do \"many\nthings.\"  She realized that his conscience was uneasy, and therefore\nthe more liable to be affected by his words when he reasoned of\nrighteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.  She feared for the\nconsequences if the Baptist and Herod's conscience should make common\ncause against her.  What if her power over the capricious tyrant were\nto begin to wane, and the Baptist gain more and more influence, to her\ndiscredit and undoing?  She was not safe so long as John the Baptist\nbreathed.  Herod feared him, and perhaps she feared him with more\nabject terror, and was bent on delivering her life of his presence.\n\nShe watched her opportunity, and it came on the occasion we have\ndescribed.  The ungodly revel was at its height.  Such a banquet as\nHerod had often witnessed in the shameless court of Tiberius, and in\nwhich luxury and appetite reached their climax, was in mid-current.\nThe strong wines of Messina and Cyprus had already done their work.\nThe hall resounded with ribald joke and merriment.  Towards the end of\nsuch a feast it was the custom for immodest women to be introduced,\nwho, by their gestures, imitated scenes in certain well-known\nmythologies, and still further inflamed the passions of the banqueters.\nBut instead of the usual troupe, which Herod probably kept for such an\noccasion, Salome herself came in and danced a wild nautch-dance.  What\nshall we think of a mother who could expose her daughter to such a\nscene, and suggest her taking a part in the half-drunken orgy?  To what\ndepths will not mad jealousy and passion urge us, apart from the\nrestraining grace of God!  The girl, alas, was as shameless as her\nmother.\n\nShe pleased Herod, who was excited with the meeting of the two strong\npassions, which have destroyed more victims than have fallen on all the\nbattlefields of the world; and in his frenzy, he promised to give her\nwhatever she might ask, though it were to cost half his kingdom.  She\nrushed back to her mother with the story of her success.  \"What shall I\nask?\" she cried.  The mother had, perhaps, anticipated such a moment as\nthis, and had her answer ready.  \"Ask,\" she replied instantly, \"for\nJohn the Baptist's head.\"  Back from her mother she tripped into the\nbanqueting-hall, her black eyes flashing with cruel hate, lighted from\nher mother's fierceness.  A dead silence fell on the buzz of\nconversation, and every ear strained for her reply.  \"And she came in\nstraightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that\nthou forthwith give me in a charger the head of John the Baptist.\"\n\nMark that word, \"forthwith.\"  Her mother and she were probably fearful\nthat the king's mood would change.  What was to be done must be done at\nonce, or it might not be done at all.  \"Quick, quick,\" the girl seemed\nto say, \"the moments seem like hours; now, in this instant, give me\nwhat I demand.  I want my banquet, too; let it be served up on one of\nthese golden chargers.\"  The imperious demand of the girl showed how\nkeenly she had entered into her mother's scheme.\n\nIt is thus that suggestions come to us; and, so far as I can\nunderstand, we may expect them to come so long as we are in this world.\nThere seems to be a precise analogy between temptation and the microbes\nof disease.  These are always in the air; but when we are in good\nhealth they are absolutely innocuous, our nature offers no hold or\nresting place for them.  The grouse disease only makes headway when\nthere has been a wet season, and the young birds are too weakened by\nthe damp to resist its attack.  The potato blight is always lying in\nwait, till the potato plants are deteriorated by a long spell of rain\nand damp; it is only then that it can effect its fell purpose.  The\nmicrobes of consumption and cancer are probably never far away from us,\nbut are powerless to hurt us, till our system has become weakened by\nother causes.  So temptation would have no power over us, if we were in\nfull vigour of soul.  It is only when the vitality of the inward man is\nimpaired, that we are unable to withstand the fiery darts of the wicked\none.\n\nThis shows how greatly we need to be filled with the life of the Son of\nGod.  In his life and death, our Lord, in our human nature, met and\nvanquished the power of sin and death; He bore that nature into the\nheavenly places, whence He waits to impart it, by the Holy Spirit, to\nthose who are united with Him by a living faith.  Is not this what the\napostle John meant, when he said that his converts--his little\nchildren--could overcome, because greater was He that was in them than\nhe that was in the world?  He who has the greatest and strongest nature\nwithin him must overcome an inferior nature; and if you have the\nvictorious nature of the living Christ in you, you must be stronger\nthan the nature which He bruised beneath his feet.\n\n\nIII.  THE CONSENT OF THE WILL.--\"The king was exceeding sorry.\"  The\ngirl's request sobered him.  His face turned pale, and he clutched\nconvulsively at the cushion on which he reclined.  On the one hand, his\nconscience revolted from the deed, and he was more than fearful of the\nconsequences; on the other, he said to himself, \"I am bound by my oath.\nI have sworn; and my words were spoken in the audience of so many of my\nchief men, I dare not go back, lest they lose faith in me.\"  \"And\nstraightway the king sent forth a soldier of his guard and commanded to\nbring the Baptist's head.\"\n\nIs it not marvellous that a man who did not refrain from doing deeds of\nincest and murder, should be so scrupulous about violating an oath that\nought never to have been sworn?  You have thought that you were bound\nto go through with your engagement, because you had pledged yourself,\nalthough you know that it would condemn you to lifelong misery and\ndisobedience to the law of Christ.  But stay for a moment, and tell me!\nWhat was your state of mind when you pledged your word?  Were you not\nunder the influence of passion?  Did you not form your plan in the\ntwilight of misinformation, or beneath the spell of some malign and\nunholy influence, that exerted a mesmeric power over you?  Looking back\non it, can you not see that you ought never to have bound yourself, and\ndo you not feel that if you had your time again you would not bind\nyourself?  Then be sure that you are not bound by that \"dead hand.\"\nYou must act in the clearer, better light, which God has communicated.\nEven though you called on the sacred name of God, God cannot sanction\nthat which you now count mistaken, and wrong.  You had no right to\npledge half the kingdom of your nature.  It is not yours to give, it is\nGod's.  And if you have pledged it, through mistake, prejudice, or\npassion, dare to believe that you are absolved from your vow, through\nrepentance and faith, and that the breach is better than the observance.\n\n\"And he went and beheaded John in prison.\"  Had the Baptist heard aught\nof the unseemly revelry?  Had any strain of music been waited down to\nhim?  Perhaps so.  Those old castles are full of strange echoes.  His\ncell was perfectly dark.  He might be lying bound on the bare ground,\nor some poor bed of straw.  Was his mind glancing back on those\nnever-to-be-forgotten days, when the heaven was opened above him, and\nhe saw the descending Dove?  Was he wondering why he was allowed to lie\nthere month after month, silenced and suffering?  Ah, he did not know\nhow near he was to liberty!\n\nThere was a tread along the corridor.  It stopped outside his cell.\nThe light gleamed under the door; the heavy wards of the lock were\nturned: in a moment more he saw the gleam of the naked sword, and\nguessed the soldier's errand.  There was no time to spare; the royal\nmessage was urgent.  Perhaps one last message was sent to his\ndisciples; then he bowed his head before the stroke; the body fell\nhelpless here, the head there, and the spirit was free, with the\nfreedom of the sons of God, in a world where such as he stand among\ntheir peers.  Forerunner of the Bridegroom here, he was his forerunner\nthere also; and the Bridegroom's friend passed homeward to await the\nBridegroom's coming, where he ever hears the voice he loves.\n\n\"And the soldier brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the\ndamsel; and the damsel gave it to her mother.\"  There would not be so\nmuch talking while the tragedy was being consummated.  The king and\ncourtiers must have been troubled under the spell of that horror, as\nBelshazzar when the hand wrote in characters of mystery over against\nthe sacred candlestick.  And when the soldier entered, carrying in the\ncharger that ghastly burden, they beheld a sight which was to haunt\nsome of them to their dying day.  Often Herod would see it in his\ndreams, and amid the light of setting suns.  It would haunt him, and\nfill his days and nights with anguish that all the witchery of Herodias\ncould not dispel.\n\nMonths afterwards, when he heard of Jesus, the conscience-stricken\nmonarch said: \"It is John the Baptist, whom I beheaded; he is risen\nfrom the dead.\"  And still afterwards, when Jesus Himself stood before\nhim, and refused to speak one word, he must have associated that\nsilence and his deed together, as having a fatal and necessary\nconnection.\n\nSo the will, which had long paltered with the temptress, at last took\nthe fatal step, and perpetrated the crime which could never be undone.\nThere is always a space given, during which a tempted soul is allowed\ntime to withdraw from the meshes of the net of temptation.  Sudden\nfalls have always been preceded by long dallying with Delilah.  The\ncrashing of the tree to the earth has been prepared for by the ravages\nof the borer-worm, which has eaten out its heart.\n\nIf you have taken the fatal step, and marred your life by some sad and\ndisastrous sin, dare to believe that there is forgiveness for you with\nGod.  Men may not forgive, but God will.  As far as the east is from\nthe west, so far will He remove our transgressions from us.  Perhaps we\ncan never again take up public Christian work; but we may walk humbly\nand prayerfully with God, sure that we are accepted of Him, and\nforgiven, though we can hardly forgive ourselves.\n\nBut if we have not yet come to this, let us devoutly thank God, and be\non the watch against any influences that may drift us thither.  We may\nyet retreat.  We may yet disentangle ourselves.  We may yet receive\ninto our natures the living power of the Lord Jesus.  We may yet cut\noff the right hand and right foot, and pluck out the right eye, which\nis causing us to offend.  Better this, and go into life maimed, than be\ncast, as Herod was, to the fire and worm of unquenchable remorse.\n\n\n\n\nXV.\n\nThe Grave of John, and Another Grave\n\n(MATTHEW XIV. 12.)\n\n  \"When some beloved voice, that was to you\n  Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,\n  And silence, against which you dare not cry,\n  Aches round you like a strong disease and new,--\n  What hope, what help, what music will undo\n  That silence to your sense?  Not friendship's sigh,\n  Not reason's subtle count....  Nay, none of these!\n  Speak, Thou availing Christ!--and fill this pause.\"\n              E. B. BROWNING.\n\n\n\"Tell Jesus\"--The Sin-Bearer--The Resurrection of Jesus--The Followers\nof John, and of Jesus--\"He is Risen!\"\n\n\nWe have beheld the ghastly deed with which Herod's feast ended--the\ngolden charger, on which lay the freshly-dissevered head of the\nBaptist, borne by Salome to her mother, that the two might gloat on it\ntogether.  Josephus says that the body was cast over the castle wall,\nand lay for a time unburied.  Whether that were so, we cannot tell;\nbut, in some way, John's disciples heard of the ghastly tragedy, which\nhad closed their master's life, and they came to the precincts of the\ncastle to gather up the body as it lay dishonoured on the ground, or\nventured into the very jaws of death to request that it might be given\nto them.  In either case, it was a brave thing for them to do; an\naltogether heroic exploit, which may be classed in the same category\nwith that of the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who travelled all night through\nthe country infested by the Philistines to rescue the bodies of Saul\nand his sons from the temple of Bethshan.\n\nThe headless body was then borne to a grave, either in the grim, gaunt\nhills of Moab, or in that little village, away on the southern slopes\nof the Judaean hills, where, some thirty years before, the aged pair\nhad rejoiced over the growing lad.  God knows where that grave lies;\nand some day it will yield up to honour and glory the body which was\nsown in weakness and corruption.\n\nHaving performed the last sad rites, the disciples \"went and told\nJesus.\"  Every mourner should go along the path they trod, to the same\ngentle and tender Comforter; and if any who read these words have\nplaced within the narrow confines of a grave the precious remains of\nthose dearer than life, let them follow where John's disciples have\npreceded them, to the one Heart of all others in the universe which is\nable to sympathize and help; because it also has sorrowed unto tears at\nthe grave of its beloved, even though it throbbed with the fulness of\nthe mighty God.  Go, and tell Jesus!\n\nThe telling will bring relief.  Though the great High-Priest knows all\nthe story, He loves to hear it told, because of the relief which the\nrecital necessarily imparts to the surcharged soul.  He will tell you\nthat your brother shall rise again; that your child is safe in the\nflowery meadows of Paradise; that those whom you have loved and lost\nare engaged in high service amid the ministries of eternity; that every\ntime-beat is bringing nearer the moment of inseparable union.\n\nIt is not, however, on these details that we desire to dwell, but to\nuse the scenes before us as a background and contrast to magnify\ncertain features in the death, grave, and abiding influence of Jesus of\nNazareth.\n\n\nI.  CONTRAST THE DEATH OF JOHN AND THAT OF JESUS.--There were many\npoints of similarity between their careers.  These two rivers sprang\nfrom the same source, in a quiet glen far up among the hills; lay in\ndeep lagoons during their earlier course; leapt down in the same mighty\ntorrent when their time had come; and for the first few miles watered\nthe same tract of country.\n\nIt would be possible to enumerate a large number of identical facts of\nthe life-courses of the two cousins.  Their births were announced, and\ntheir ministries anticipated, under very special circumstances; Mary\nwas unmarried, and Elisabeth past age--and an angel of the Lord came to\neach.  John seemed, to the superficial view, the stronger and mightier\nof the two; but Jesus followed close behind and took up a similar\nburden, as He bade the people repent and believe the Gospel.  They were\nalike in attending no prophetic school, and avoiding each of the great\nJewish sects.  Neither Hillel nor Shammai could claim them.  They had\nno ecclesiastical connections; they stood aloof from the Pharisees and\nSadducees, the Herodians and Essenes.  They attracted similar\nattention, gathered the same crowds, and protested against the same\nsins.  Rearing the same standard, they summoned men from formality and\nhypocrisy to righteousness and reality.  They incurred the same hatred\non the part of the religious leaders of their nation, and suffered\nviolent deaths--the one beneath the headsman's blade in the dungeons of\nHerod's castle, the other on the cross, at the hand of Pilate and the\nRoman soldiers.  Each suffered a death of violence at the hand of men\nwhom he had lived to succour; each died when the life-blood throbbed\nwith young manhood's prime, and while there was sweet fragrance as of\nearly summer; each was loved and mourned by a little handful of devoted\nfollowers.\n\nBut there the similarity ends, and the contrast begins.  With John, it\nwas the tragic close of a great and epoch-making career.  When he died\nmen said--Alas! a prophet's voice is silenced.  What a pity that in a\nmoment of passion the tyrant took his life!  Let him sleep!  Rest will\nbe sweet to one who expended his young strength with such spendthrift\nextravagance!  Such men are rare!  Ages flower thus but once, and then\nyears of barrenness!  But as we turn to the death of Jesus, other\nfeelings than those of pity or regret master us.  We are neither\nsurprised, nor altogether sorry.  We do not recognise that there is in\nany sense an end of his work--rather it is the beginning.  The corn of\nwheat has fallen into the ground to die, that it may not abide alone,\nbut bear much fruit.  Here, at the Cross, is the head of waters, rising\nfrom unknown depths, which are to heal the nations; here the sacrifice\nis being offered which is to expiate the sin of man, and bring peace to\nmyriads of penitents; here the last Adam at the tree undoes the deadly\nwork wrought by the first at another tree.  This is no mere martyr's\nlast agony; but a sacrifice, premeditated, prearranged, the effects of\nwhich have already been prevalent in securing the remission of sins\ndone aforetime.  This is an event for which millenniums have been\npreparing, and to which millenniums shall look back.  John's death\naffected no destiny but his own; the death of Jesus has affected the\ndestiny of our race.  As his forerunner explained, He was the Lamb of\nGod who bore away the sin of the world.  The Lord hath laid on Him the\niniquity of us all.\n\nBut there is another contrast.  In the case of John, the martyr had no\ncontrol on his destiny; he could not order the course of events; there\nwas no alternative but to submit.  When he opened his ministry, he had\nno thought that such a fate would befall.  As he stood boldly forth\nupon his rock-hewn pulpit, and preached to the eager crowds, do you\nsuppose that the idea ever flashed across his mind that his path,\ncarpeted with flowers and lined on either side with applause, could end\nin the loneliness of a desert track, lying across a barren waste where\nno man dwelt or came, and where the vast expanse engulphs the last cry\nof the perishing?  But, from the first, Jesus meant to die.  If, eight\ncenturies ago, you had seen the first outlines drawn of the Cologne\nCathedral, whose noble structure has been brought to completion within\nonly the last decades, you would have been convinced that the completed\nfabric would enclose a cross; so the life of Jesus, from the earliest,\nportended Calvary.  He had received power and commandment from the\nFather to lay down his life.  For this cause He was born, and for this\nHe came into the world.  Others die because they have been born: Jesus\nwas born that He might die.\n\nIn his great picture of the Carpenter's shop, Millais depicts the\nshadow of the Cross, flung back by the growing lad, on the wall,\nstrongly-defined in the clear oriental light.  Mary beholds it with a\nlook of horror on her face.  The thought is a true one.  From the\nearliest, the Cross cast its shadow over the life of the Son of Man.\nHe was never deceived as to his ultimate destiny.  He told Nicodemus\nthat He must be lifted up.  He knew that as the Good Shepherd He would\nhave to give his life for the sheep.  He assured his disciples that He\nwould be delivered up to the chief priests and scribes, who would\ncondemn Him to death, crucify, and slay.  Man does not need primarily\nthe teacher, the example, nor the miracle-worker; but the Saviour who\ncan stand in his stead, and put away his sin by the sacrifice of\nHimself.  When the soul is burdened with the weight of its sins, and\nthe conscience is ill at ease, whither can we turn save to the Cross,\non which the Prince of Glory died!\n\nWhat answer and explanation can be given to account for the marvellous\nspell that the Cross of Christ exerts over the hearts of men?  You\ncannot trace it to the influence of early association merely, or to the\neffect of heredity, or to the fact of our having come of generations\nwhich have turned to the green hill far away, in life and death;\nbecause if you take the preaching of the Cross to savage and heathen\ntribes, who have no advantage of Christian centuries behind them,\nwhenever you begin to explain its significance, the sob of the soul is\nhushed, and its dread dissipated.  Tears of anguish are changed into\ntears of penitence.  The shuttles of a new hope begin to weave the\ngarments of a new purity.  No other death affects us thus or effects so\nimmediate a transformation.  And may not this be cited as the proof\nthat the death of Jesus is unique; the supreme act of love; the gift of\nthat Father-heart which knew the need of the world, and the only way of\nappeasing it?\n\n\nII.  CONTRAST THE GRAVE OF JOHN AND THAT OF JESUS.--Men have alleged\nthat the Lord did not really rise from the dead, and that the tale of\nhis resurrection, if it were not a fabrication, was the elaboration of\na myth.  But neither of these alternatives will bear investigation.  On\nthe one hand, it is absurd to suppose that the temple of truth could be\nerected on the quagmire and morass of falsehood--impossible to believe\nthat the one system in the world of mind which has attracted the true\nto its allegiance, and been the stimulus of truth-seeking throughout\nthe ages, can have originated in a tissue of deliberate falsehoods.  On\nthe other hand, it is a demonstrated impossibility that a myth could\nhave found time to grow into the appearance of substantial fact during\nthe short interval which elapsed between the death of Christ and the\nfirst historical traces of the Church.\n\nIn this connection, it is interesting to consider one sentence dropped\nby the sacred chronicler.  He tells us, that when Herod heard of the\nworks of Jesus, he said immediately, \"It is John the Baptist--he is\nrisen from the dead.\"  Herod could not believe that that mighty\npersonality was quenched, even for this life, by that one blow of the\nexecutioner's sword.  Surely he had risen!  There was a feverish dread\nthat he would yet be confronted by the murdered man, whose face haunted\nhis dreams.  His courtiers, ready to take the monarch's cue, would be\nequally credulous.  From one to another the surmise would pass--\"John\nthe Baptist is risen from the dead.\"\n\nWhy, then, did that myth not spread, until it became universally\naccredited?  Ah, there was no chance of such a thing, for the simple\nreason that there was the grave of John the Baptist to disprove it.  If\nHerod had seriously believed it, or the disciples of John attempted to\nspread it, nothing would have been easier than to exhume the body from\nits sepulture, and produce the ghastly but indubitable refutation of\nthe royal delusion.\n\nWhen the statement began to spread and gain credence that Christ had\nrisen from the dead; when Peter and John stood up and affirmed that He\nwas living at the right hand of God; if it had been a mere surmise, the\nfond delusion of loyal and faithful hearts, an hallucination of two or\nthree hysterical women--would it not have been easy for the enemies of\nChristianity to go forthwith to the grave in the garden of Joseph, and\nproduce the body of the Crucified, with the marks of the nails in hands\nand feet?  Why did they not do it?  If it be said that it could not be\nproduced, because it had been taken away, let this further question be\nanswered: Who had taken it away?  Not his friends; for they would have\ntaken the cerements and wrappings with which Joseph and Nicodemus had\nenswathed it.  Not his enemies; for they would have been only too glad\nto produce it.  What glee in the grim faces of Caiaphas and Annas, if\nat the meeting of the Sanhedrim, called to deal with the new heresy,\nthere could have been given some irrefragable proof that the body of\nJesus was still sepulchred, if not in Joseph's tomb, yet somewhere\nelse, to which their emissaries had conveyed it!\n\nIt is difficult to exaggerate the significance and force of this\ncontrast.  And the devout soul cannot but derive comfort from comparing\nthe allegation of the superstitious king, which could have been so\neasily refuted by the production of the Baptist's body, with that of\nthe disciples, which was confirmed and attested by the condition of the\ngrave which, in spite of the watch and ward of the Roman soldiers, had\nbeen despoiled of its prey on the morning of the third day.  Herod\nexpected John to rise, and gave his royal authority to the rumour of\nhis resurrection; but it fell to the ground still-born.  The disciples\ndid not expect Jesus to rise.  They stoutly held that the women were\nmistaken, when they brought to them the assurance that it was even so.\nBut as the hours passed, the tidings of the empty grave were\ncorroborated by the vision of the Risen Lord, and they were convinced\nthat He who was crucified in weakness was living by the power of God.\nThere could, henceforth, be no hesitation in their message to the\nworld.  \"The God of our fathers hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom ye\ndenied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him\ngo....  But ye killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the\ndead.\"  Thank God, we have not followed cunningly-devised fables.  \"Now\nis Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that\nslept.  And as by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of\nthe dead.\"\n\n\nIII.  THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE EFFECTS OF THEIR TWO DEATHS ON THE\nFOLLOWERS OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AND OF JESUS RESPECTIVELY.--What a\npicture for an artist of sacred subjects is presented by the\nperformance of the last rites to the remains of the great Forerunner!\nThere was probably neither a Joseph nor a Nicodemus among his\ndisciples; certainly no Magdalene nor mother.  Devout men bore him to\nhis grave, and made great lamentation over him.  He had taught them to\npray, to know God, to prepare for the Kingdom of God.  They had also\nfasted oft beneath his suggestion; but they were destined to experience\nwhat fasting meant, after a new fashion, now that their leader was\ntaken away from them.\n\nThe little band broke up at his grave.  Farewell! they said to him;\nfarewell to their ministry and mission; farewell to one another.  \"I go\nback to my boats and fishing-nets,\" said one; and \"I to my farm,\" said\nanother; and \"We shall go and join Jesus of Nazareth,\" said the rest.\n\"Good-bye!\" \"Good-bye!\"  And so the little band separated, never to\nmeet in a common corporate existence again.\n\nWhen Jesus lay in his grave, this process of disintegration began at\nonce among his followers also.  The women went to embalm Him; the men\nwere apart.  Peter and John broke off together--at least they ran\ntogether to the sepulchre; but where were the rest?  Two walked to\nEmmaus apart; whilst Thomas was not with them when Jesus came on the\nevening of Easter Day.  As soon as the breath leaves the body\ndisintegration begins; and when Jesus was dead, as they supposed, the\nsame process began to show itself.  Soon Peter would have been back in\nGennesaret; Nathanael beneath his fig-tree, Luke in his dispensary, and\nMatthew at his toll-booth.\n\nWhat arrested that process and made it impossible?  Why did the day,\nwhich began with a certain amount of separation and decay, end with a\ncloser consolidation than ever, so that they were, for the most part,\ngathered in the upper room; and forty days after they were all with one\naccord in one place?  Why was it that they who had been like timid\ndeer, before He died, became as lions against the storm of Pharisaic\nhate, and stronger as the weeks passed?\n\nThere is only one answer to these questions.  The followers of Jesus\nwere convinced by irrefragable proofs that their Master was living at\nthe right hand of power; nay, that He was with them all the\ndays--nearer them than ever before, as much their Head and Leader as at\nany previous moment.  When the shepherd is smitten, the flock is\nscattered; and this flock was not scattered, because the Shepherd had\nrecovered from his mortal wound, and was alive for evermore.\n\nAnd surely the evidence which sufficed for them is enough for us.\nAgain and again, in dark hours, when I have longed to have the\ndemonstration of sense added to that of faith, it has been an untold\ncomfort to feel that sufficient evidence was given to the Lord's\ndisciples to persuade them against their contrary expectations and\nunbelief; to hold them together in spite of every possible inducement\nto disperse, and to transform a number of units into the Church,\nagainst which the gates of hell have not been able to prevail.  If they\nwere convinced, we may be.  If their eyes beheld and their hands\ntouched the body of the risen Lord, we may be of good cheer.  Their\nbehaviour proves that they were thoroughly convinced.  They acted as\nonly those can act whose feet are on a rock.  They knew whom they had\nbelieved; and they had no doubt that He would perfect the work which He\nhad begun.  What He had begun in the flesh, He would perfect in the\nSpirit.\n\nIn after days Peter spoke of Him as the Prince, or File-leader of Life;\nand suggests the conception, that through all the ages He is marching\non through the gates of death and the grave, unlocking them for us, and\nopening the pathway into the realms of more and more abundant life.\nLet us follow Him.  It is not for us to linger around the grave: even\nJohn's disciples forbore to do this.  But let us join ourselves by\nfaith with our Prince and Leader, our Head and Captain, as He waits to\nsuccour us from the excellent glory, sure that where He is, we too\nshall be; but in the meanwhile we are assured that He is not in the\ngrave, where loving hands laid Him, but risen, ascended, glorified--our\nEmmanuel, our Bridegroom, our Love and Life.  \"The Lord is my Shepherd,\nI shall not want: ...  He leadeth me, ...  He maketh me to lie down;\n...  He restoreth my soul....  Though I walk through the valley of the\nshadow of death, ...  Thou _art_ with me.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVI.\n\nYet Speaking.\n\n(JOHN X. 40-42.)\n\n  \"Shine Thou upon us, Lord,\n    True Light of men, to-day;\n  And through the written Word\n    Thy very self display;\n  That so from hearts which burn\n    With gazing on Thy face,\n  Thy little ones may learn\n    The wonders of Thy grace.\"\n            J. ELLERTON.\n\n\nDesert Solitudes--Modern Miracles--Our own Age--Nothing Common or\nUnclean--How to Witness for Jesus--After Many Days\n\n\n\"Beyond Jordan!\"  To the Jews that dwelt at Jerusalem that was\nbanishment indeed.  The tract of country beyond Jordan was known as\nPerea, and was very sparsely populated.  There were some tracts of\nfertile country, dotted by a few scattered villages, but no one of\nrepute lived there; and the refinement, religious advantages, and\nsocial life of the metropolis, were altogether absent.  Perea was to\nJerusalem what the Highlands, a century ago, were to Edinburgh.  There\nour Lord spent the last few months of his chequered career.\n\nBut why?  Why did the Son of Man banish Himself from the city He loved\nso dearly?  Surely the home at Bethany would have welcomed Him?  Or,\nfailing this, for any reason over which the sisters had no control, He\nmight have found a temporary home at Nazareth, where He had been\nbrought up; or Capernaum, in which He had wrought so many of his mighty\nworks, might have provided Him a palace, whose white marble steps would\nhave been lapped by the blue waters of the lake!  Not so!  The Son of\nMan had not where to lay his head.  The nation, whose white flower He\nwas, had rejected Him; and the world, for which He came to shed his\nblood, knew Him not.  The religious leaders of the age were pursuing\nHim with relentless malice, and would have taken his life before the\npredestined hour had arrived, had He not escaped from their hands, and\ngone away \"beyond Jordan into the place where John was at the first\nbaptizing; and there He abode: and many came unto Him.\"\n\nThere was a peculiar fascination to the Lord Jesus in those solitudes,\nbecause of their connection with the Forerunner.  Those desert\nsolitudes had been black with crowds of men.  Those hill-slopes had\nbeen covered with booths and tents, in which the mighty congregations\ntabernacled, whilst they waited on his words.  Those banks had\nwitnessed the baptism of thousands of people, who, in the symbolic act\nof baptism, had put away their sins.  And the villagers, who lived\naround, could tell wonderful tales of the radiant opening of that brief\nbut epoch-making ministry; they could speak for hours together about\nthe habits of the austere preacher, and the marvellous power of his\neloquence.\n\nAs Jesus and his disciples wandered from place to place, Andrew would\nindicate the spot where he was baptized; and John and he would recall\ntogether the place where they were standing when their great teacher\nand master pointed to Jesus as He walked, and said, \"Behold the Lamb of\nGod.\"  Bartholomew would find again the spot where Jesus accosted him\nas the guileless Israelite, a salutation for which also he had been\nprepared by the preaching of the Forerunner.  Two or three could\nlocalize the scene where the deputation from the Sanhedrim accosted the\nBaptist with the enquiry, \"Who art thou?\"\n\nIt was as though, years after the Battle of Waterloo, some soldiers of\nthe Iron Duke had visited the historic cornfields, and had recited\ntheir reminiscences of the memorable incidents of that memorable fight.\nHere the long, thin red line stood during the whole day.  There\nNapoleon waited to see the effect of the last charge of his cavalry.\nYonder, through the wood, Blucher's troops hurried to reinforce their\nbrothers in arms.  And down those slopes the old Guard broke with a\ncheer, as the Duke gave the long-looked-for word.  It was in some such\nspirit that our Lord and his apostles revisited those scenes, where\nmany of them had seen the gate of heaven opened for the first time.\n\nProbably our Lord would resume his ministry of preaching the good\ntidings.  He could not be in any place where the sins and sorrows of\nmen called for his gracious words, without speaking them; and to Him\nthey probably brought the lame, the blind, the sick, and paralyzed--and\nHe healed them all.  Many came to Him, and went away blessed and\nhelped.  So much so, that the people could not help contrasting the two\nministries.  There was a touch of disparagement in their comments on\nthe Baptist's ministry.  \"They said, John indeed did no miracle.\"  No\nlame man had leaped as an hart; the tongue of no dumb man had sung; no\nwidow had received her son raised to life from his hands; no leper's\nflesh had come to him, as the flesh of a little child.  It was quite\ntrue--John had done no miracle.\n\nBut with this slight disparagement, there was a generous tribute and\nacknowledgment.  \"But all things whatsoever John spake of this Man were\ntrue.\"  He said that He was the Lamb of God, pure and gentle, holy,\nharmless, and undefiled; _and it was true_.  He said that He would use\nhis fan, separating the wheat from the chaff; _and it was true_.  He\nsaid that He would baptize with fire; _and it was true_.  He said that\nHe was the Bridegroom of Israel; _and it was true_.  He did no miracle,\nbut he spoke strong, true words of Jesus, and they have been abundantly\nverified.  And these simple-hearted people of Perea did what the\nPharisees and scribes, with all their fancied wisdom, had failed to do:\nthey put the words of the Baptist and the life of Jesus together, and\nreasoned that since this had fitted those, as a key fits the lock,\ntherefore Jesus was indeed the Son of God and the King of Israel; and\n\"many believed on Him there.\"\n\n\nI.  LIFE WITHOUT MIRACLES.--The people were inclined to disparage the\nlife of John because there was no miracle in it.  But surely his whole\nlife was a miracle; from first to last it vibrated with Divine power.\nAnd did he work no miracle?  If he did not open the eyes of the blind,\ndid not multitudes, beneath his words, come to see themselves sinners,\nand the world a passing show, and the Eternal as alone enduring and\ndesirable?  If he did not lay his priestly hand on leprous flesh, as\nJesus did, did not many a moral leper go from the waters of his\nbaptism, with new resolves and purposes, to sin no more?  If he did not\nraise dead bodies, did not many, who were immured in the graves of\npride, and lust, and worldliness, hear his voice, and come forth to the\nlife--which is life indeed?  No miracles!  Surely his life was one long\npathway of miracle, from the time of his birth of aged parents, to the\nlast moment of his protest against the crimes of Herod!\n\nThis is still the mistake of men.  They allege that the age of miracles\nhas passed.  If they admit that such prodigies may possibly have\nhappened once, they insist that the world has grown out of them, and\nthat with its arrival at maturity the race has put them away as\nchildish things.  God, they think, is either Absentee, or the Creature\nof Laws, which He established, and which now hold Him, as the\ngraveclothes held Lazarus.  No miracles!  But last summer He made the\nhandfuls of grain, which the farmers cast on the fields, suffice to\nfeed all the population of the globe--as easily as He made five barley\nloaves provide a full meal for more than ten thousand persons.  No\nmiracles!  But last autumn, in ten thousand vineyards, He turned the\ndews of the night and the showers of the morning into the wine that\nrejoices man's heart; as once, in Cana, He changed the water drawn from\nthe stone jars into the blushing wine.  No miracles!  Explain, then,\nwhy it is, that though ice is of denser specific gravity than water, it\ndoes not sink to the bottom of rivers and ponds, by which they would be\nspeedily transformed into masses of ice, but floats on the surface of\nthe water, affording a pathway across from bank to brae, as Jesus once\nwalked on the water from the shores of the Lake of Galilee!  No\nmiracles!  It was only yesterday that He cleansed a leper; and healed a\nsin-sick soul; and raised from his bier a young man dead in trespasses\nand sins; and took a maiden by the hand, saying, Talitha cumi, \"Maid,\narise!\"  As I passed by, I saw Him strike a rock, and torrents of tears\ngushed out: I beheld a tree, with its sacred burden, and the\nserpent-poison ceased to inflame: I saw the iron swim against its\nnatural bent, and the lion crouch as though it beheld an angel of God\nwith a flaming sword.  Again, the seas made a passage for the\nsacramental hosts, and the waters shrank away before the touch of the\nPriestly feet, making a passage through the depths.  No; it is still\nthe age of miracles.\n\n_Let us not disparage the age in which we live_.  To look back on the\nDay of Pentecost with a sigh, as though there were more of the Holy\nSpirit on that day than to-day; and as though there were a larger\nPresence of God in the upper room than in the room in which you sit, is\na distinct mistake and folly.  We may not have the sound as of a\nrushing mighty wind, nor the crowns of fire; there is no miracle to\nstartle and arrest: but the Holy Spirit is with the Church in all the\nold gracious and copious plenitude; the river is sweeping past in\nundiminished fulness; though there may not be the flash of the electric\nspark, the atmosphere is as heavily charged as ever with the presence\nand power of the Divine Paraclete.  The Lord said of the\nBaptist--though he wrought no miracle--that there was none greater of\nthose born of woman; and perchance He is pronouncing that this age is\ngreater than all preceding ages in its possibilities.  In His view, it\nmay be that greater deeds may be attempted and accomplished by the\nChurch of to-day than ever in that past age, when she grappled with and\nvanquished the whole force of Paganism.\n\nIf there is any failure, it is with ourselves.  We have not believed in\nthe mighty power and presence of God, because we have missed the\noutward and visible sign of his working.  We have thought that He was\nnot here, because He has not been in the fire, the earthquake, or the\nmighty wind which rends the mountains.  We have become so accustomed to\nassociate the startling and spectacular with the Divine, that we fail\nto discover God, when the heaven is begemmed with stars, and the earth\ncarpeted with flowers: as though the lightning were more to us than\nstarlight, and the destructive than the peaceful and patient\nconstructive forces, which are ever at work building up and repairing\nthe fabric of the universe.\n\nDo not look back on the Incarnation, or forward to the Second Advent,\nas though there were more of God in either one or the other than is\nwithin our reach.  God is; God is here; God is indivisible: all of God\nis present at any given point of time or place.  He may choose to\nmanifest Himself in outward signs, which impress the imagination more\nat one time than another; the faith of the Church maybe quicker to\napprehend and receive in one century than the next: but all time is\ngreat--every age is equally his workmanship, and equally full of his\nwonder-working power.  Alas for us, that our eyes are holden!\n\n_Let us not disparage the ordinary and commonplace_.  We are all taught\nto run after the startling and extraordinary--the statesman who\naccomplishes the _coup d'etat_; the painter who covers a large canvas\nwith a view to scenic effects; the preacher who indulges in superficial\nand showy rhetoric, the musician whose execution is brilliant and\nastonishing.  We like miracles!  Whatever appeals to our love for the\nsensational and unexpected is likely enough to displace our\nappreciation of the simple and ordinary.  When the sun is eclipsed, we\nall look heavenward; but the golden summer days may be filled with\nsunlight, which is dismissed with a commonplace remark about the\nweather.  A whole city will turn out to see the illuminations, whilst\nthe stars hardly attract a passing notice.  Let there be a show of\ncuriously-shaped orchids, and society is stirred; but who will travel\nfar to see a woodland glade blue with wild hyacinths, or a meadow-lawn\nbesprent with daisies.  Thus our tastes are vitiated and blinded.\n\nIt is good to cultivate simple tastes.  The pure and childlike heart\nwill find unspeakable enjoyment in all that God has made, though it be\nas familiar as a lawn sparkling with dewdrops, a hay-field scented by\nclover-blooms, a streamlet murmuring over the pebbles, or the drawl of\nthe shingle after a retreating wave.  It is a symptom of a weak and\nunstable nature to be always in search for some new thing, for some\ngreater sensation, for some more startling sign.  \"Show us a sign from\nheaven,\" is the incessant cry of the Pharisee and Scribe: and when the\nappetite has been once created, it can never be appeased, but is always\nset on some novelty more marvellous and startling than anything which\nhas preceded.  Be content with a holy ministry which does not dazzle by\nits fireworks, but sheds a steady sunshine on the sacred page.\nCultivate familiarity with the grand, solid works of our English\nliterature.  Avoid the use of extravagant adjectives.  Take an interest\nin the games of children; in the common round and daily task of\nservants and employes; in the toils and tears of working-girls; in the\nstruggling lot of the charwoman who scrubs your floors, and the lad who\ncleans your boots.  Do not be always gaping at the window for bands to\ncome down the street; but be on the pavement before your house with a\nhelping-hand and kindly word for the ordinary folk that labour and are\nheavy-laden.  It is remarkable that in all these there are tragedies\nand comedies; the raw material for novels and romances; the characters\nwhich fill the pages of a Shakespeare or George Eliot.  All life is so\ninteresting; but we need eyes to see, and hearts to understand.  There\nhas been no age greater than this; there is no part of the world more\nfull of God than yours; there is no reason why you should not see\nMadonnas in the ordinary women, and Last Suppers in the ordinary meals,\nand Holy Families in the ordinary groups around you--if only you have\nthe anointed eyes of a Raffaelle or a Leonardo de Vinci.  If the world\nseems common or unclean to you, the fault lies in your eyes that have\nmade it so.\n\n_Let us not disparage ourselves_.  We know our limitations; we are not\ncapable of working miracles--our best friends are well acquainted with\nthis, for no eyes are quicker than Love's.  We are sparrows, not larks;\nclay, not alabaster; deal, not mahogany.  But if we cannot work\nmiracles, we can speak true, strong words about Jesus Christ; we can\nbear witness to Him as the Lamb of God; we can urge men to repent and\nbelieve the Gospel.  The world would have been in a sorry plight if it\nhad depended entirely on its geniuses and miracle-workers.  Probably it\nowes less to them than to the untold myriads of simple, humble,\nobscure, and commonplace people, whose names will never be recorded in\nits roll-call, but whose lives have laid the foundations on which the\nsuperstructure of good order, and government, and prosperity, has been\nreared.\n\nRemember that God made you what you are, and placed you.  Dare to be\nyourself--a simple, humble, sincere follower of Jesus.  Do not seek to\nimitate this or the other great speaker or leader.  Be content to find\nout what God made you for, and be that at its best.  You will be a bad\ncopy, but a unique original; for the Almighty always breaks the pattern\nfrom which He has made one vase.  Above all, speak out the truth, as\nGod has revealed it to you, distorting, exaggerating, omitting nothing;\nand long after you have passed away, those who remember you will gather\nat your grave and say, \"he did no miracle--there was nothing\nsensational or phenomenal in his life-work; but he spake true things\nabout Jesus Christ, which we have tested for ourselves, and are\nundeniable.  Indeed, they led us to believe in Him for ourselves.\"\n\n\nII.  THE WAYS IN WHICH WE MAY BEAR TESTIMONY TO THE LORD JESUS.--There\nis no miracle in your life, my reader.  You are no genius; you do not\nknow what it is to have the rush of thought, the power of brilliant\nspeech, the burst of song.  You have no wealth, only just enough for\nyour bare sustenance, and nothing to spare.  You have no rich blood in\nyour veins, come of a line of heroes or saints.  As you look daily into\nthe common routine of your lot, it seems ordinary enough.  Be it so;\nthere is at least one thing you can do, as we have seen--like the\nBaptist, you may witness for Jesus.\n\n_Speak to others privately_.  When only two disciples were standing\nbeside him, John preached the same sermon as he had delivered to the\ncrowd the day before, and both of them went to the frail lodging where\nJesus was making his abode.  There is nothing that more deeply searches\na man than the habit of speaking to individuals about the love of God.\nWe cannot do it unless we are in living union with Himself.  Nothing so\ntests the soul.  It is easy to preach a sermon, when the inner life is\nout of fellowship with God, because you can preach your ideals, or\navenge on others the sins of which you are inwardly conscious; but to\nspeak to another about Christ involves that there should be an\nabsolutely clear sky between the speaker and the Lord of whom he\nspeaks.  But as this practice is the most difficult, it is the most\nblessed in its reflex influence.  To lead another to Jesus is to get\nnearer Him.  To chafe the limbs of some frozen companion is to send the\nwarm blood rushing through your own veins.  To go after one lost sheep\nis to share the shepherd's joy.  Whether by letters addressed to\nrelatives or companions, or by personal and direct appeal, let each one\nof us adopt the sacred practice, which Mr. Moody followed and\ncommended, of allowing no day to pass without seeking to use some\nopportunity given by God for definite, personal dealings with others.\n\nThe apostle Andrew seems to have specially consecrated his life to\nthis.  On each of the occasions he is referred to in the Gospels he is\ndealing with individuals.  He brought his own brother; was the first to\nseek after a boy to bring to the Saviour's presence; and at the close\nof our Lord's ministry he brings the seeking Greeks.  Did he not learn\nthis blessed art from his master, the Baptist?\n\nIt is requisite that there should be the deliberate resolution to\npursue this holy habit; definite prayer for guidance as one issues from\nthe morning hour of prayer; abiding fellowship with the Son of God,\nthat He may give the right word at the right moment; and a willingness\nto open the conversation by some manifestation of the humble, loving\ndisposition begotten by the Holy Spirit, which is infinitely attractive\nand beautiful to the most casual passer-by.\n\n_Speak experimentally_.  \"I saw and bare record.\"  John spoke of what\nhe had seen, and tasted, and handled.  Be content to say, \"I was lost,\nbut Jesus found me, blind, and He gave me sight; unclean, and He\ncleansed my heart.\" Nothing goes so far to convince another as to hear\nthe accent of conviction on the lips of one whose eyes survey the\nlandscape of truth to which he allures, and whose ears are open to the\neternal harmonies which he describes.\n\n_Speak from a full heart_.  The lover cannot but speak about his love;\nthe painter can do no other than transfer to canvas the conceptions\nthat entrance his soul; the musician is constrained to give utterance\nto the chords that pass in mighty procession through his brain.  \"We\ncannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard.\"\n\nDoes it seem difficult to have always a full heart?  Verily, it is\ndifficult, and impossible, unless the secret has been acquired of\nabiding always in the love of God, of keeping the entire nature open to\nthe Holy Spirit, and of nourishing the inward strength by daily\nmeditation on the truth.  We must close our senses to the sounds and\nsights around us, that our soul may open to the unseen and eternal.  We\nmust have deep and personal fellowship with the Father and the Son by\nthe Holy Ghost.  We must live at first-hand on the great essentials of\nour faith.  Then, as the vine-sap arises from the root, its throb and\npulse will be irresistible in our behaviour and testimony.  We shall\nspeak true things about Jesus Christ.  Our theme will be evermore the\ninexhaustible one of Christ--Christ, only Christ--not primarily the\ndoctrine about Him, or the benefits accruing from fellowship with Him,\nbut Himself.\n\nThus, some day, at your burying, as men turn homewards from the\nnew-made grave, and speak those final words of the departed, which\ncontain the most unerring verdict and summing-up of the life, they will\nsay, \"He will be greatly missed.  He was no genius, not eloquent nor\nprofound; but he used to speak about Christ in such a way that he led\nme to know Him for myself: I owe everything to him.  He did no miracle;\nbut whatever he said of Jesus was true.\"\n\n\nIII.  THE POWER OF POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.--John had been dead for many\nmonths, but the stream he had set flowing continued to flow; the\nharvests he sowed sprang into mature and abundant fruitage; the\nwavelets of tremulous motion which he had started circled out and on.\n\nHow many voices are speaking still in our lives--voices from the grave!\nvoices from dying beds! voices from books and sermons! voices from\nheaven!  \"Being dead, they yet speak.\"  Let us live so that, when we\nare gone, our influence shall tell, and the accents of our voice\nlinger.  No one lives or dies to himself.  Each grain on the\nocean-shore affects the position of every other.  Each star is needed\nfor the perfect balance of the spheres.  Each of us is affecting the\nlives of all that are now existing with us in the world, or will exist.\nTo untold ages, what we have been and said will affect all other beings\nfor good or ill.  We may be forgiven for having missed our\nopportunities, or started streams of poison instead of life; but the\nill effect can never be undone.\n\nParents, put your hands on those young childish heads, and say pure,\nsweet words of Christ, which will return to memory and heart long after\nyou have gone to your reward!  Ministers of religion, and Sunday school\nteachers, remember your tremendous responsibility to use to the\nuttermost the opportunity of saying words which will never die!\nFriend, be true and faithful with your friend; he may turn away in\napparent thoughtlessness or contempt, but no right word spoken for\nChrist can ever really die.  It will live in the long after years, and\nbear fruit, as the seeds hidden in the old Egyptian mummy-cases are\nbearing fruit to-day in English soil.\n\n\n\n\nXVII.\n\nThe Spirit and Power of Elias.\n\n(LUKE I. 17.)\n\n  \"Oh, may I join the choir invisible\n  Of those immortal dead who live again\n  In minds made better by their presence: live\n  In pulses stirred to generosity;\n  In deeds of daring rectitude; in scorn\n  For miserable aims that end with self;\n  In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,\n  And with their mild persistence urge man's search\n  To vaster issues.\"\n\n\nThe Old Covenant and the New--Elijah and the Baptist--A Parallel--The\nServant inferior to the Lord--The Baptism of the Holy Ghost--The\nIndwelling Spirit\n\n\nGreat men are God's greatest gifts to our race; and it is only by their\ninterposition that mankind is able to step up to higher and better\nlevels of life.  The doctrine of evolution is supposed to explain the\nhistory of the universe.  Men would have us believe that certain forces\nhave been set in motion which have elaborated this great scheme of\nwhich we are a part, and the evolutionist would go so far as to say\nthat man himself has been evolved from protoplasm, and that the brains\nof a Socrates, of a Milton, or of any genius who has left his mark upon\nthe world, have simply emanated from the whole process which culminates\nin them.  We believe, on the contrary, that at distinct points in the\nhistory of the universe, there has been a direct interposition of the\nwill and hand of God; and it is remarkable that in the first chapter of\nGenesis that august and majestic word _create_  is three times\nintroduced, as though the creation of matter, the creation of the\nanimal world, and the creation of man, were three distinct stages, at\nwhich the direct interposition of the will and workmanship of the\nEternal was specially manifest.  Similarly, we believe that there have\nbeen great epochs in human history, which cannot be accounted for by\nthe previous evolution of moral and religious thought, and which must\nbe due to the fact that God Himself stepped in, and by the direct\nraising up of a man, who became the apostle of the new era, lifted the\nrace to new levels of thought and action.  It is in this light that we\nview the two illustrious men who were, each in his own measure, the\napostles of new epochs in human history--Elijah in the old Covenant,\nand John the Baptist in the new.\n\nIt is remarkable that the prophet Malachi tells us that the advent of\nthe Messiah should be preceded and heralded by Elijah the prophet; and\nthat Gabriel, four hundred years after, said that John the Baptist,\nwhose birth he announced, would come in the spirit and power of Elijah.\nThis double prediction was referred to by our Lord when, descending\nfrom the Mount of Transfiguration, in conversation with the apostles,\nHe indicated John the Baptist as the Elijah who was to come.  And,\nindeed, there was a marvellous similarity between these two men, though\neach of them is dwarfed into insignificance by the unique and original\npersonality of the Son of Man, who towers in inaccessible glory above\nthem.\n\n\nI.  LET US INSTITUTE A COMPARISON BETWEEN ELIJAH THE TISHBITE, AND JOHN\nTHE BAPTIST.--They resembled each other in dress.  We are told that\nElijah was a hairy man--an expression which is quite as likely to refer\nto the rough garb in which he was habited, as to the unshorn locks that\nfell upon his shoulders.  And John the Baptist wore a coarse dress of\ncamel's hair.\n\nEach of them sojourned in Gilead.  In the remarkable sentence, which,\nfor the first time, introduces Elijah to the Bible and the world, we\nare told that he was one of the sojourners in Gilead, that great tract\nof country, thinly populated, and largely given over to shepherds and\ntheir flocks, which lay upon the eastern side of the Jordan.  And we\nknow that it was there amid the shaggy forests, and closely-set\nmountains, with their rapid torrents, that John the Baptist waited,\nfulfilled his ministry, preached to and baptized the teeming crowds.\n\nEach of them learnt to make the body subservient to the spirit.  Elijah\nwas able to live on the sparse food brought by ravens, or provided from\nthe meal barrel of the widow, was able to outstrip the horses of Ahab's\nchariot in their mad rush across the valley of Jezreel; and after a\nbrief respite, given to sleep and food, went in the strength of it for\nforty days and nights, through the heart of the desert until he came to\nHoreb, the Mount of God.  His body was but the vehicle of the fiery\nspirit that dwelt within; he never studied its gratification and\npleasure, but always handled it as the weapon to be wielded by his\nsoul.  And what was true in his case, was so of John the Baptist, whose\nfood was locusts and wild honey.  The two remind us of St. Bernard, who\ntells us that he never ate for the gratification of taking food, but\nonly that he might the better serve God and man.\n\nWe remember also that each of these heroic spirits was confronted by a\nhostile court.  In the case of Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel, together with\nthe priests of Baal and Astarte, withstood every step of his career;\nand in the case of John the Baptist, Herod, Herodias, and the whole\ndrift of religious opinion, with its repeated deputations to ask who he\nmight be, dogged his steps, and ultimately brought him to a martyr's\nend.\n\nHow distinctly, also, in each case there was the consciousness of the\npresence of God.  One of the greatest words which man has ever uttered\nwas that in which Elijah affirmed, in the presence of king Ahab, that\nhe was conscious of standing at the same moment in the presence of the\nEternal: \"And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners of Gilead,\nsaid unto Ahab, 'As the Lord, the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I\nstand'\"--a phrase afterwards used by Gabriel himself when he told\nZacharias that he was one of the presence angels.  \"And the angel\nanswering, said unto him, 'I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of\nGod.'\"  This consciousness of the Divine presence in his life revealed\nitself in his great humility, when he cast himself on the ground with\nhis face between his knees; and in the unflinching courage which\nenabled him to stand like a rock on Mount Carmel, when king, and\npriest, and people, were gathered in their vast multitudes around him,\nsufficient to daunt the spirit that had not beheld a greater than any.\nThis God-consciousness was especially manifest in the Baptist, who\nreferred so frequently to the nearness of the kingdom of God.  \"The\nkingdom of heaven,\" he said, \"is at hand.\"  And when Jesus came,\nunrecognised by the crowds, his high spirit prostrated itself, and his\nvery visage was shadowed with the vail of intense modesty and humility,\nas he cried; \"In the midst of you standeth One whom ye know not, the\nlatchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.\"\nCoupled with this sense of God, there was, in each case, a marvellous\nfearlessness of man.  When Obadiah met Elijah, and was astonished to\nhear that the prophet was about to show himself to Ahab, Elijah\noverbore his attempts to dissuade him, saying: I will certainly show\nmyself to thy master: go, tell him Elijah is here.  And when afterwards\nthe heavenly fire had descended, and the prophets of Baal were standing\nbewildered by their altar, he did not flinch from arresting the whole\ncrowd of them, leading them down to the valley of the Kishon brook\nbeneath and there slaying them, so that the waters ran crimson to the\nsea.  This fearlessness was also conspicuous in the Forerunner, who\ndared to beard the king in his palace, asserting that he must be judged\nby the same standard as the meanest of his subjects, and that it was\nnot lawful for him to have his brother's wife.\n\nTo each there came moments of depression.  In the case of Elijah, the\nglory of his victory on the brow of Carmel was succeeded by the weight\nof dark soul-anguish.  Did he not cast himself, within twenty-four\nhours, beneath the juniper tree of the desert, and pray that he might\ndie, because he was no better than his fathers--a mood which God, who\npities his children and remembers that they are dust, combated, not by\nexpostulation, but by sending him food and sleep, knowing that it was\nthe result of physical and nervous overstrain?  And did not John the\nBaptist from his prison cell send the enquiry to Jesus, as to whether,\nafter all, his hopes had been too glad, his anticipations too great,\nand that perhaps after all He was not the Messiah for whom the nation\nwas waiting?\n\nBoth Elijah and John the Baptist had the same faith in the baptism of\nfire.  We never can forget the scene on Carmel when Elijah proposed the\ntest that the God who answered by fire should be recognised as God; nor\nhow he erected the altar, and laid the wood, and placed the bullock\nthere, and drenched the altar with water; and how, in answer to his\nfaith, at last the fire fell.  John the Baptist passed through no such\nordeal as that; but it was his steadfast faith that Christ should come\nto baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.\n\nEach of them turned the hearts of the people back.  It was as though\nthe whole nation were rushing towards the edge of the precipice which\noverhung the bottomless pit, like a herd of frightened horses on the\nprairie, and these men with their unaided hands turned them back.  It\nwould be impossible for one man to turn back a whole army in mad\nflight--he would necessarily be swept away in their rush; but this is\nprecisely what the expression attributes to the exertions of Elijah and\nJohn.  The one turned Israel back to cry, Jehovah, He is God; the other\nturned the whole land back to repentance and righteousness, so that\npublicans and soldiers, Sadducees and Pharisees, began to confess their\nsin, put away their evil courses, and return to the God of their\nfathers.\n\nEach prophet was succeeded by a gentler ministry.  Elijah was sent from\nHoreb to anoint Elisha, who, for the most part, passed through the land\nlike genial sunshine--a perpetual benediction to men, women, and\nchildren; while John the Baptist opened the door for the Shepherd,\nChrist, who went about doing good, and whose holy, tender ministry fell\non his times like rain on the mown grass.\n\nFrom the solitudes beyond the Jordan, as he walked with Elisha, talking\nas they went, the chariot and horses of fire which the Father had sent\nfor his illustrious servant from heaven bore him homeward, while his\nfriends and disciples stood with outstretched hands, crying: The\nchariot and horses of Israel are leaving us, bearing away our most\ntreasured leader.  In those same solitudes, or within view of them, the\nspirit of John the Baptist swept up in a similar chariot.  As the\nheadsman, with a flash of his sword, put an end to his mortal career,\nthough no mortal eyes beheld them, and no chronicler has told the\nstory, there must have been horses and chariots of fire waiting to\nconvey the noble martyr-spirit to its God.  The parallel is an\ninteresting one--it shows how God repeats Himself; and, if time and\nspace permitted, we might elaborate the repetition of a similar\nconception, either in Savonarola of Florence, or in Martin Luther, or\nin John Knox, who had been baptized into the same Spirit, and inspired\nto perform the same ministry.  That Spirit is waiting still--waiting to\nclothe Himself with our life; waiting to do in us, and through us,\nsimilar work for the time in which we live.  What these men did far\nback in the centuries, it is probable that others Will have to do\nbefore this dispensation passes utterly away.  A man, or men, shall\nagain rise up, who will tower over their fellows, who will speak and\nact in the spirit and power of Elijah--men like Edward Irving, but\nwithout the mistakes that characterized his heroic life.  Perhaps some\nyoung life may be inspired by this page to yield itself to God, so that\nit may be sent forth to turn back the hearts and lives of vast\nmultitudes from their evil way, turning the heart of the fathers to\ntheir children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, to make\nready a people prepared for the Lord.\n\n\nII.  NOTICE THE INFERIORITY OF THESE GREAT MEN TO THE LORD.--Neither\nElisha, the disciple of Elijah, nor the eloquent Apollos, the disciple\nof John the Baptist, would have dared to say of their respective\nmasters what Philip and Andrew, Peter and Thomas, habitually said of\nChrist.  Greatly as they revered and loved their masters, they knew\nthat they were men like themselves; that their nature was made in the\nsame mould, though, perhaps, of finer clay; that there were limitations\nbeyond which they could not go, and qualities of mind and soul in which\nthey were not perfected.  They dared not say of them, \"My Lord and my\nGod.\"  They never thought of prostrating themselves at their feet in\nworship; they never appealed to them after their decease as able to\nhear and answer prayer from the heaven into which they had passed.\n\nNeither Elijah nor John had what Jesus asserted--the consciousness of\nan unique union with God; neither of them dared to affirm, as Jesus\ndid, that he was the Son of God, in the sense that made other use of\nthat term blasphemy; neither of them thought of anticipating a moment\nwhen he should be seen sitting at the right hand of power, and coming\nin the clouds; neither of them dared to couple himself with Deity in\nthe sublime and significant pronoun _we_--\"We will come and make our\nabode with Him.\"  Neither of them would have dreamed of accepting the\nhomage which Jesus took quite naturally, when men worshipped Him, and\nwomen washed and kissed his feet: and I ask how it could be that Jesus\nChrist, so essentially meek and lowly, so humble and unwilling to\nobtrude Himself, should have spoken and acted so differently, unless\nhis nature had been separated by an impassable gulf from that of other\nmen, however saintly and gifted?  The very fact that these men,\nacknowledged amongst the greatest of our race, drew a line, and said:\nBeyond that we cannot pass; we are conscious of defilement and need; we\nrequire forgiveness and grace, equally with those to whom we minister.\nAnd this compels on our part the acknowledgment that Jesus Christ was\nall He claimed to be, and that He is worthy to receive glory, and\nhonour, and riches, and power, and blessing; for He is Man of men, the\nsecond Man, the Lord from Heaven.\n\nNeither of these dared to offer himself as the Comforter and Saviour of\nmen.  Elijah could only rebuke sin, which he did most strenuously; but\nhe had no panacea for the sin and sorrow of his countrymen.  He could\nbid them turn to God; and he did.  But he could say nothing of any\ninherent virtue, or power, which could proceed from him to save and\nhelp.  It was never suggested for a moment that he could act as\nmediator between God and men, though he might be an intercessor.  And\nas for John the Baptist, though he deeply stirred the religious\nconvictions of his countrymen, he could only point to One who came\nafter him, and say: \"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin\nof the world.\"  But within six months after the commencement of his\nministry, Jesus says; \"Son, thy sins are forgiven thee\"; \"The Son of\nMan hath authority on earth to forgive sins\"; \"Daughter, thy sins,\nwhich are many, are forgiven thee: go in peace\"; and presently: \"This\nis the cup of the New Covenant in my blood, shed for many, for the\nremission of sins\", and again: \"The Son of Man came to give his life a\nransom for many.\"  Tell me of any, either in the story of Elijah or of\nJohn the Baptist, to compare with these words, spoken by the lowest and\nhumblest being that ever trod time's sands?  Does that not indicate\nthat He stood in a relationship to God and man which has never been\nrealized by another?\n\nBesides, neither of them introduced a new type of living.  Their own\nmethod of life seemed to indicate that there was sin in the body, or\nsin in matter; and that the only way of holiness was by an austerity\nthat lived apart in the deserts, dreading and avoiding the presence of\nmen.  That was a type of holiness which every great religious teacher\nhas followed; for you remember that Buddha used to say that all the\npresent is an illusion and a dream, while the realities await us\nbeyond.  On the other hand, Jesus taught that the Redeemer was also the\nCreator; that there was nothing common or unclean in man's original\nconstitution; that sin consisted not in certain actions, functions, or\nduties--but in man's heart, and will, and choice; and that if a man\nwere only right there, all his nature and circumstances would become\nillumined and transfigured by the indwelling Spirit.  Let it never be\nforgotten that Christ taught that God is not going to cancel the nature\nwhich He Himself has bestowed in all its human and innocent out-goings,\nbut only to eliminate the self-principle which has cursed it--as you\nwould wish to take small-pox from the body of the little child, or the\ntaint out of the rotting flesh of the leper.\n\nO Christ, Thou standest pre-eminent in thy unparalleled glory!  Let\nElijah and John the Baptist withdraw, but oh, do Thou tarry!  To whom\nshall we go?  Thou hast the words of eternal life.  All the prophets\nand kings of men without Thee will not suffice; but to have Thee is to\nhave all that is strong, and wise, and good, gathered up into the\nperfect beauty of a man, with the Divine glory of the Infinite God.\n\n\nIII.  HOW MAY WE HAVE THAT SAME SPIRIT?--John the Baptist came in the\nspirit and power of Elijah: that spirit and power are for us too.  Just\nas the dawn touches the highest peaks of the Alps, and afterwards, as\nthe morning hours creep on, the tide of light passes down into the\nvalley, so the Spirit that smote that glorious pinnacle Elijah, and\nthat nearer pinnacle the Baptist, is waiting to descend upon and\nempower us.\n\nWe are all believers in Jesus, but did we receive the Holy Ghost when\nwe believed? (Acts xix. 2).  When the great apostle of the Gentiles met\nthe little handful of John's disciples, gathered in the great\nidolatrous city of Ephesus, the first word he addressed to them was the\neager enquiry, \"Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?\"  And\nthey replied, \"Nay, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost\nwas given.\"  In other words: We heard from our master, John, that\nJesus, of whom he spake, would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with\nfire; but we have never heard of the fulfilment of his prediction--we\nonly know of Him, concerning whom our great leader so often spake, as\nthe great Teacher, Miracle-worker, and Sacrifice for the sins of the\npeople--but what more there is to tell and know we wait to hear from\nthee.\n\nThen Paul explained that John's baptism had stood only for confession\nand repentance: \"John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying\nunto the people that they should believe on Him, which should come\nafter him, that is, on Jesus.\"  Those who descended the shelving banks\nof Jordan to be plunged beneath its arrowy waters, declared their\ndiscontent with the past, their desire to be free of it, and their\nbelief in the Messianic character of Jesus of Nazareth, who was to\nintroduce a new and better age.\n\nBut the apostle hastened to explain that this Jesus, whom the Jews had\ndelivered up and slain by wicked hands, was the Prince of Life; that\nGod had raised Him from the dead; and that being by the right hand of\nGod exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy\nGhost, He had poured Him forth in mighty power on the waiting Church,\nanointing it for its ministry to mankind.  It was as though he had\nsaid: Our Lord, on his Ascension, baptized those that had believed with\nthe Spirit of which Joel spake.  The water of John's baptism symbolised\na negation, but this baptism is positive; it is as cleansing, purifying\nflame; it was good to know Jesus after the flesh, it is a thousand\ntimes better to know Him after the Spirit: and this gift is to us and\nto our children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord\nour God shall call.\n\nWhen they heard this they were baptized into the name of the Lord\nJesus.  They exalted Him to the throne of their hearts as the glorified\nand ever-blessed Son of God.  They directed their longing eyes towards\nHim in his risen glory, that He should do for them as He had already\ndone for so many.  And in answer to their expectant faith, the blessing\nof Abraham came upon them--they received the promise of the Spirit by\nfaith; the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they were equipped for\nwitness-bearing in Ephesus by the very power which had rested once on\nElijah, and also on their first teacher and guide; and, as the result,\na revival broke out in that city of such magnitude that the magic books\nwere burned, and the trade of the silversmiths grievously injured.\n\nThis power of the Holy Spirit is for us all.  Of course we could not\nbelieve in Jesus in the remission of sin, or the quickening of our\nspiritual life, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit; but there is\nsomething more than this, there is a power, an anointing, a gracious\nendowment of fitness for service--which are the privilege of every\nbeliever.  The Holy Spirit is prepared, not only to be within us for\nthe renewal and sanctification of character, but to anoint us as He did\nthe Lord at his baptism.  He waits to empower us to witness for Jesus,\nto endure the persecution and trial which are inevitable to the\nexercise of a God-given ministry, and to bring other men to God.  It\nwould be well to tarry to receive it.  It is better to wait for hours\nfor an express train than to start to walk the distance; the hours\nspent in waiting will be more than compensated for by the rapidity with\nwhich the traveller will be borne to his destination.  Stay from your\nwork for a little, and wait upon the ascended, glorified Redeemer, in\nwhom the Spirit of God dwells.  Ask Him to impart to you that which He\nreceived on your behalf.  Never rest until you are sure that the Spirit\ndwells in you fully, and exercises through you the plenitude of his\ngracious power.  We cannot seek Him at the hand of Christ in vain.\nDare to believe this: dare to believe that if your heart is pure, and\nyour motives holy, and your whole desire fervent--and if you have dared\nto breathe in a deep, long breath of the Holy Spirit--that according to\nyour faith so it has been done to you; and that you may go forth\nenjoying the same power which rested on the Baptist, though you may not\nbe conscious of any Divine afflatus, though there may have been no\nstroke of conscious power, no crown of flame, no rushing as of the\nmighty wind.\n\nGod is still able to vouchsafe to us as large a portion of his Spirit\nas to the disciples on the day of Pentecost.  We are not straitened in\nHim, but in ourselves.  The power of his grace is not passed away with\nthe primitive times, as fond and faithless men imagine; but his Kingdom\nis now at hand, and Christ, standing on the threshold of the century,\nwaits to lead his Church to greater triumphs than she has ever known.\nOh that He would hasten to come forth from his royal chambers!  Oh that\nHe would take his throne as Prince of the kings of the earth!  Oh that\nHe would put on the robe of his majesty, and assume the sceptre of his\nunlimited and almighty reign.  Creation travails; the Spirit and the\nBride invoke; the mind of man has tried all possible combinations of\nsovereignty, and in vain.\n\n\"O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger\nto prepare the way before Thee; grant that the ministers and stewards\nof thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by\nturning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; that,\nat thy second coming to judge the world, we may be found an acceptable\npeople in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the\nHoly Spirit, ever one God, world without end.  Amen.\"","title":"John the Baptist","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":61543}