More Than Prophet 00 Pen I

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
"MORE THAN A PROPHET"
BY
CHARLES CLIFTON PENICK,
D.D.,
Bishop of Cape Palmas, Africa.
NEW YORK
THOMAS W H I T TAKER
2
and
Bible House
1881
It
*B5fc4
-Vs
Copyright, 1880,
By
THOMAS WHITTAKER.
PREFACE.
TT
-*
God
has pleased
to call
me
from the com-
my
panions and loved ones of
istry, to
Christ
preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus

Africa
in
thoughts on the
them.
early min-
hence
life
of
selected John's
him with a
book
of
John the Baptist
for
this little
life
because
love
strong, tender, vast personal love.
Jesus excepted, there has no one gone from

earth to heaven
close to
my own
ing and a joy
man
of
firm,
and
whose
spirit
with a
thrill
more enraptur-
more deep, than
God, who stood
all
hope
this
alone,
to press
mighty
so strong,
true.
have culled these few thoughts from among
many
of
my
deemed them
soul
communings, because
helpful to
my
children in the
Gospel, and comforting to the few tried true
ones
me
who have
in life's
stood nearest and firmest by
battles.
To
these
dedicate this
PREFACE.
IV
little
volume, with deep, sweet gratitude for
the memories of the past, and strong, bright-
ening hopes for the love, glory, and rest of

that future
when we
shall
meet and have each
other forever,
C.
Baltimore, Md,,
Clifton Penick.
Oct, 29, 1880,
CONTENTS.
God
Chapter
I.
Chapter
II.
Chapter
III.
PAGE
loves good Fruits for His great
Acres
The Glory of Motherhood

The Preacher supersedes the
15
Priest..
23
Chapter IV. Growing
31
Chapter V. God's Messenger
40
The Wilderness Temple

VII. Life in
naked Grandeur the Glory
Chapter VI.
Chapter
its
of
Chapter
Purpose conquering Earth.
its
The Rest
VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter
47
John's Opinion of his Power
of Sincerity
69
Chapter XI.
54
6r
76
Radicalness of John's Preaching

John to the Ecclesiastical Life of his
83
Chapter XII.
Day
Chapter
XIII.
John
91
the Baptist to the Social Life
of his
Chapter XIV. John

of
Chapter
Day
98
the Baptist to the National Life
Man
XV. John's
106
118
Record
Chapter XVI. Prosperity's
Trial
126
CONTENTS.
Vl
In the Presence of the King

XVIII. John's Witness to Jesus
XIX. John's View of Life and
Great-
Chapter XVII.
Chapter
Chapter
133
142
its
ness
150
Chapter XX. John's Love

Chapter XXI.
for
Jesus
157
John's Courage
Chapter XXII. Adversity's

Chapter XXIII.
165
Trial
174
The
Message of John
and the Reply
Chapter XXIV. Gathering up
the
to
Jesus,
182
Fragments
The Unshaken Reed

The Discarder of Soft Raiment.
XXVII. More than a Prophet
191
Chapter XXV.
Chapter XXVI.
Chapter
PAGE
Chapter XXVIII
How to Die
Jesus in John's Footsteps
XXXI. Trueness Invincible
199
.
208
217
226
Chapter XXIX.
234
Chapter XXX.
242
Chapter
Chapter XXXII. Be
Faithful unto Death
251
259
More Than a Prophet."

CHAPTER
I.
GOD LOVES GOOD FRUITS FOR HIS GREAT

ACRES.
" There was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a
named Zacharias of the course of Abia and
his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was
certain priest
Luke
Elizabeth."
/^"^
OD
is
5-22.
very careful in selecting and training
^~*
the parents of His heroes.
may
their souls travail ere there
real birth.
God
can wait,
Long time
a token of a
is
or, rather,
wait until his requirements ripen.
make man
Abraham
and Sarah were not ready to receive

the promised
and severe
son, until
travail.
Long
after
did
life
of
long
Manoah and
seeming barren wife wait, struggle,

pray ere a Samson was born.
Isaac,
suffer,
Deep,
his
and
bitter,
"
"MORE THAN A PROPHET."
and long were the agonies of a Hannah ere a
Samuel was brought
forth to stand for his
before Israel and a world.
It
was
God
in his old
age that Jesse begat David, the glory of Israel's

kings and the
man
after
And now we come

dispensation.
promises unto
is
be
to
to the close of the Jewish
God
all
God's own heart.
about to widen
is
The Mosaic law
the world.
fulfilled
yes,
soul of Jesus that
it
so full
shall
His
by the great
run over, and the
glad tidings flow on, on, widening, deepening
through the desert, making
it
" blossom as the
rose," teaching the mountains
to
send forth
" rivers of waters'' until the " knowledge of the
Lord
shall cover the earth as the waters cover
the sea."
Now mark how
the
like
beginning
close of this preparatory kingdom
the birth of Isaac

tist
is
Long and
their
souls
grand
for
and now,
the
how
like
the birth of John the Bap-
Zacharias and
now.
is
Elizabeth were both old
faithfully
the
in
had God trained
parentship
man
so
evening twilight of
to " come up higher,
the
life,
as they wait the call
lo
the Angel Gabriel appears in the temple
''MORE
THAN
A PROPHET:
and announces the promise of God, the birth

of
John the
Baptist, the
Old Dispensation, who was

and trained by those
last
prophet of the
to be born, reared,
whom God
had trained
and proven so many trusting, serving years,

thus making the hearts of Zacharias and Eliza-
beth beat in deep sympathy with those
of
Abraham and Sarah, causing them to feel that

He who began could and would fulfill all His
glorious work.
It is
time
men and women were awakening
to the realization of the responsibility before
God
of bringing souls into existence,
were look-
ing into the great causes which go to
the blessing of
God
make
a part of a child's birth.
Surely, few of the pages of time record
more
thoughtless recklessness than the birth-page of
man.
With what abandonment do
millions
beget and launch young souls upon the awful

sea of eternal existence, on to the issues of
or death, without
first
life
having prepared their
hearts and lives for this fearful responsibility
before God,
under
all
who
has ordered a law to run
these deeds and carry their conse-
quences on through coming generations. " The
IO
promise
is
to
you and your seed"
hope; "visiting the
sins of the
is
a glorious
fathers
upon
the children unto the third and fourth genera-
them that hate me"
tion of
How,
of
in the face
running
offspring,
woman
or
can marry a
the risk of damning their
all
say
to
a fearful reality.
solemn declarations
of these
God, a Christian man
sinner,
is
nothing of committing the
deepest and most sacred chambers of the heart

to the partnership of one under the control
and
the service of Satan,
in
comprehend.
trust of
rible
It
certainly
is
what
cannot
shows a sad mis-
God's own words and laws, and a hor-
braving of consequences before
which
angels would tremble.
But the Angel Gabriel came to a man and
woman approved
How
His
spirit
wrapped up
bore
of
God, and came with
dwells in
message with
that
Think you
his
was the
thrilled with its truths

It is
come
Think you he
cold
indifference
His message
in
only angelic
I
joy.
those great truths
spirit
trow not.
no mere accident that such revelations

to
us,
birth of Isaac,
when an
angel announces the
Samson, John the Baptist, and

our Lord
for they
show how intensely the
heavenly hosts bend in living interest over

these birth-scenes, and with what joy,
God permits them
No
birth.
when
to foresee a great spirit's
wonder, then, that the choirs of
heaven came singing
the birth of Jesus.
at
No wonder, when in Revelation we see the

woman delivered of a man-child who was to
rule
the nations,
caught up unto
persecuting earth.
It
thought to realize
how
spirits of
the
that
God and
God hover
to
is
child
should be
His throne from a
a sweet, comforting
close in
sympathy these
over the birth-bed of the
Christian child, a true propagation of Christian
nature by Christian parents.
wonder we hear
And
is
it
no
of their joy in the presence of
God, when " one sinner repenteth," one child

they have watched and ministered to from
birth
comes out and
fully clasps the
lowship of our Lord.
courage
sweet
fel-
Christian parents, take
God's angels are helping you
Gabriel pours out the rich treasures of his
heavenly message, and pauses before the soul

of Zacharias as
it
whelming richness
staggers beneath the overof the promise,
and stum-
12
!<
bles at the frailty of himself.

I
know
this
for
am
Whereby
shall
an old man, and
wife well stricken in years."
Alas,
how
my
often
we stunned at the greatness of God's

goodness
Would that we could look less at
our own frailty and more at His boundless
grace.
How many Christians, like Zacharias,
can faithfully and blamelessly serve God
are
through a long
life
of
toil,
and yet cannot
open their hearts to the fulness of His gracious
Some
love.
blessing
promised
like Jacob,
they must
great
seems to stun them, and,
wagons Joseph sent ere they can reTor, like Zacharias, must be dumb for a
see the
joice
season, until in their stillness they
know He
is
God.
Strong and startling comes back the answer
to his
doubt
am
''I
the presence of God."
Gabriel, that stand in
To have
his veraci-
ty questioned with a doubt was
heavenly messenger
could
not
what the
brook.
He
stood " in the presence of God," where truth

eternal, truth as live
of Jehovah,
showed
it
beamed
there.
and splendid as the face

in its glory,
"I am
and no doubt
Gabriel, a heavenly

character, one
my
name, here
words
is
look to
nothing that
is
dumb and
be
whose word
my
known
is
address
13
not truth can live
is
my
you doubt
then, for where
it,
here
stand
thou shalt
not able to speak until the day
that these things shall be performed, because
my
thou believest not
words which
shall
be
fulfilled in their season.''
Doubt and
unbelief have often silenced the
tongue and hushed the joy that should have
sounded forth God's praises

Zacharias
ness.
now
songs of glad-
in
believes
but
it is
such a
belief as speaks not the joy of soul, such a
lent trust as should
deepen every word of that
heavenly messenger into his

beings, and grave
And we
manding
He
will
learn
it
on
very being of
his heart
when God
that
of
hearts.
speaks, com-
us to do or promising us a blessing,
make our
requirements.
thee
si-
my
"
all
His
sufficient
for
strength sufficient for
My
strength
is
grace
is
made
perfect in weak-
ness."
Thus
it
was that God broke the long, pain-
ful silence of
the night of anxious watching, so
quietly, so strongly, so sweetly
amid the
ris-
14
"MORE THAN A PROPHET:'
ing fragrance
lives.
The
of
great
two holy,
loving,
faithful
temple of Herod stood
the dazzling show of
its
now
magnificence
turns
from
in
but the
it
to the
holier temple of the consecrated lives,
by the
centre of interest
fireside of Zacharias
Nazareth.
and the carpenter-ship of
CHAPTER
II.
THE GLORY OF MOTHERHOOD.

Luke
23-56.
T"\ 7E have here one

' *
of the
most tender,
touching, beautiful pictures in
realms of
human
life
the
all
two women chosen
of
God
of woman born," and the other the mother of
the Son of God Himself and it pleases God
one to be the mother of the " greatest
to
lift
the inner
veil,
to let
all
of His children
look upon their heart-life from the time of
conception
to
Mothers, here
is
the
a
day
of
bringing
page of God's word
for
forth.
you
here the hand of inspiration holds before your

souls the great mirror of true
the period which of
all
motherhood
at
others must be to you
the most intense, anxious, and hopeful of
life,
those days when
you
if
you
are true
women
are conscious of an immortal soul
about to be
ushered into existence through your
life,
and
l6
you
they struggle
life
you the throbbings
feel within
your
in
and to God.
first-born
life
you to speed on
issuing from
This
of life as
your
of
to eternity
a time fur deep heart
is
searchings, strong soul pleadings, great heart
longings and hopings, tremblings, and prayers.

It
"she hid
Elizabeth,
said of
is
months," and
as
she passed
world's noisy, busy
toil
herself five
from the
out
and confusion, the
words which echo her farewell are
" Thus hath the Lord dealt with
sweet.
in the
away
days wherein Pie looked on
my
reproach
Avords falling
among men."
upon our
not hard to
is
and
full
me
to take
With
these
ears as she departs,
know where and
has gone into the
me
cleft of
for
it
what she
the rock to hide her
with her God, to nourish that precious
life-
germ within her on the milk from heaven,

and breathe holy inspiration into the very
sence of his conception, that he
from the
spirit
womb
bounding
nature of his
No
wonder,
truth,
"He
may come
es-
forth
with the pulsations of God's

in his first heart-beats,
God breathed
that we
then,
was
filled
in
and the
his first breath.
hear
with the
the .great
Holy Ghost

even from his mother's
womb." Oh,
do you see what a gate
to
17
mothers,
His heart and
life
God opens here especially for you ? Do you

see how you may get Him to make your child,
as it were, born again from the womb, and let
the
first
pulsation of that
young
life
be thrilled
with the glad leapings of glorious immortality
Who
can
born
ceived, so
doubt that a child so conthe
in
very atmosphere of
were on the very steps of the
holiness, as
it
Mercy
must be blessed
But
Seat,
let
us
come
Mary
has
God
a little closer,
come
and hear the
The
Vir-
to keep vigil with her,
and
echoes of her heart a

gin
of
little
deeper.
own holy
ask her soul-watchings in her
and the two stand facing each other
hopes,
:
the
young "blessed above women" and the old

faithful servant
whose God has " taken away
her reproach before men."

the Law.
forth
The Law
is
The Gospel
by His mighty power from man's
barrenness.
barren,
faces
God's mercy brought

sinful
Sarah was barren, Rebekah was
Hannah was
barren, but God's
barren,
mercy found
Elizabeth
a
way
was
to prop-
agate a chosen seed and lead on the genera-
io
tion of His elect through
But now, when
it
these difficulties.
all
comes to
leaps gladly to her duty
Christ, full nature

in tune,
all
and the
young, hopeful, pure virgin combines

fulness
God's great nature

on
flows
in the
and freshness of her womanhood with
in
its
depths of grace.
of love
from henceforth
and
boundless
The nature
of
fathomless
God no
longer
speaks through the narrow channels of a cere-
monial law, but beats,
under
us,
about
soul-filling life
He came
us,
rises, swells,
through
Him
In
of Christ.
and sweeps
over
us, in
is life,
the
and
we might have this life more

that the life of God should hence-
that
abundantly
forth flow in the wideness

Spirit,
us,
and not
in the
and fulness of the
narrow barrenness of the
letter.
At
the sound
babe leaped
this
of
in the
the Virgin's voice the
womb
of Elizabeth
was no mere convulsive, spasmodic
but we are expressly told "

joy."
it
and
jerk,
was a leap
for
God's nature had already so permeated
mother and
child that the
deep quickenings of
His Spirit outran the course of nature, and

sent
a thrill of joy into a being yet unborn.

Thus began that joy which shone
ness of glory when, long years
said,
in
19
the
after, St.
full-
John
" The friend of the Bridegroom standeth
and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because

Bridegroom's voice
the
fore
is
was the
in
The
fulfilled."
of
joy there-
joy-leap of the babe
Elizabeth to break forth
signal for
grateful praise
my
this
short,
which was answered
in
but
of faith
full
that exalted and ex-
quisite soul-anthem
forth in
from the Virgin, bursting

the rapturous words, " My soul doth
My
magnify the Lord.
God my
spirit
hath rejoiced in
Such scenes
Saviour."
not oft vouchsafed to mortal eyes

so
as this are
;
and echoes
sweet and deep from hearts so pure and
true, not
oft
heard by
echoes of this cruder

world's friction.
life
human
ears
amid the
and the grating
of a
Let our souls then, dwell
with tender, deep, earnest joy amid their never-
dying echoes, and
may we
press on with
all
the power of a living, yearning determination

to like exaltation
and
entire consecration of
soul.
Sweet indeed must have been the soul-com-
munings
of
Mary and Elizabeth during
this
"MORE THAN A PROPHET:
20
make companionship
living joy when we have the great
aims and ends of life all in common. The
visit.
not hard to
It is
rich with
deepest, sweetest soul-blendings this earth can
ever
know
when two
are those born
great,
pure hearts, true to God, flow into each other
some
in
great
life
absorbing,
Such meetings
heaven-sent purpose.
memory
confidential,
linger in
the scenes of bursting sunlight
like
here and there over the clouded landscape, as

if
Heaven's smiling sympathy broke through
to sweeten
and
were more such

an exaltation
Alas
bless.
in life
in
would that there
would that there were
human
and that souls
love,
would climb higher, get nearer

love, or
should say to find
it
God to make
for when God
to
;
tunes two hearts, they have only to touch and

the concord of sweet
if
harmony
rolls forth.
Yes.
we would
w e ascended in our love-seeking

r
get beyond the blight of disappointments and
the witherings of years, for

in
each other
realities that
the
sure
we would
beauties
of
God
eternal
time nor space can change, nor
worldly fortune nor frown becloud
and clasping
love
of souls, to pass
a locking
on unbroken into

the sweet companionship of heaven's
21
own
eter-
nal joys.
"About
Elizabeth,
three
and
The
home."
Mary abode with

to her own
months
departed
then
duties in this
life
are too real,
the battle too pressing, the issues too tremendous to permit " loyal hearts and true" to sit
Here we may but
enjoying each other long.

clasp
let
hands and press on to the
front,
may but
the heart leap in the holy light of greeting
love, to
go forward stronger, gladder, braver,
into the battle.
Jesus loves us too tenderly
and dearly to permit us to keep any other than

Himself always by our
alone, can say, "
sake thee," and
will
He
never leave thee nor
alone
We
uous companionship.
He
He, and
sides.
is
fit
for-
for this contin-
cannot grow greater
and stronger, truer and braver, brighter and

happier,
His.
"
in
any other
My grace
is
companionship
sufficient for thee."
leaning on His arm alone,

tle.
Still
on we
ious days, nights,
Him
press,
we go
than
So,
into the bat-
through the long anx-
and years of watching, with
at last we descend into

" the dark valley of the shadow of death," we
alone,
and when
MORE THAN A PROPHET.

still
" fear
still
around
'
no evil
His rod and His staff
comfort us," and the " Everlasting Arms" are
;
us.
Thus may we,

in all the joys of
like
Mary and
Elizabeth, drink
holy companionship as
God
sends them, and then press on, each in her

course, to
more
complete
companionship
with God. and the brave and faithful bringing

forth
to us.
and
fulfilling
His holy purposes intrusted
CHAPTER
III.
THE PREACHER SUPERSEDES THE

" His
name
HP* HE day
-*
John."
is
Luke
when
a touching scene
in silent adoration
But
needs silence
know He
is
it
:
It
came
must have been
the aged father gazed

the fulfilment of God's
at
was best
The
thus.
needs to be
God
59-79.
Elizabeth's delivery
of
her child was born.
promise.
PRIEST.
that
still
it
soul
may
needs seasons of long, deep
communion, holy heart-talk with God, unbroken by a prattling world's interruptions.
The day
must be
of circumcision has
come
would honor the father by giving
name
None
refer
it
name
is
John."
of his kindred
to Zacharias.
and writes, " His

gift
The mother
of Zacharias.
says, " His

11
the child
named, and the rejoicing
of Jehovah.
name
is
boy the
objects,
and
Friends protest
named John"
He
is
his
friends
they
calls for his tablet,
John"
i.e.,
gracious
Yes, the day of grace had
24
come.
The long
"
Law" draws
to its close,
much
long and
reign of the
schoolmaster
and with
it
the
cherished line of the priest-
hood.
Henceforth the ministers of the Gos-
pel, the
" messengers of glad tidings," must go
before him and " turn the hearts of the dis-
obedient to the wisdom of the just."
Hence-
forth the prophets, and not the priests, are to be
His apostles to
fallen
man, sent to
tell
of the
great sacrifice offered, the debt paid, the sin-
ner ransomed, the Father reconciled, the great

" it is finished," and not to pretend to offer
anew the
sacrifice for sin.
Yes, John comes to
usher in the King of Grace, the reign of God's

love
and
it
was meet and
fit
that with his
very name he should cut asunder those associations that
bound him
things, for he
to the old
of heaven at hand, the shadows past
substance present.
He came
to
grace, not to prolong Zacharias'

line,
order of
comes to proclaim the kingdom
or priesthood.
and the
honor God's
name, family
The preacher John
takes
the place of the priest Zacharias, and the wil-
derness and
the conquest of the world
substituted for Jerusalem and the Temple.
'
are
"
25
So God seems to have ordered

but alas,
how long do men hover over that which lives
only in the past and was buried on Mount
;
Calvary
How
and incense
do they long
kingdom
into the
No wonder
that
at the
'
up those words
What manner
preaching of John
in
No wonder
they
hearts, saying,
their
of child shall this be ?"
name and
in that
days
the
present marvelled at those
all
words written by Zacharias.

laid
for
of Zacharias, instead of pressing
its
surroundings they
For
felt
trembling like that of an earthquake strike
through
all
the structures of the Levitical dis-
pensation.
No
sooner had the words been traced by
the style of Zacharias than his tongue was

loosed, and the deep, rich meditations of his
heart
God
burst
of
forth
He
Israel, for
deemed His
" Blessed be the
Lord
hath visited and
re-
people, and hath raised up a horn
of salvation for us in the house of His servant
David.
How
its
thoroughly had God's chastening done
work.
Oh,
it
thing to see a good
is
blessed
man under
and glorious
the rod of the
26
Lord
Moses smiting the rock, and
It is like
come
forthwith streams of pure living water
forth to slake the thirsting souls of thousands.
The
in
we find
those given when He bows
sweetest, purest, freshest springs
God's word are
some holy
soul in sorrow
grim exclaim,
and well
" Ofttimes joy
is
may
the
pil-
wrung from
not Abel bled and died,
He
never would have spoken and encouraged
all
Had
sadness."
Had
the armies of these sorrow-tried souls.
not
Noah
and stood through
toiled, waited,
those long days of
trial
all
without seeing one soul
converted, or even convinced, outside of his
we would
own
family,
ing,
comforting example
miss one great, rest-
all
in the past.
ham's heart had not bled

father-ties
of
Mount Moriah,
have missed
a father.
to his loved
the
And
all
ments
God comes
would
faithful
yea, every
closer to us in the
mo-
of his deepest agonies, his hours of he-
roic faithfulness
God
Ish-
the fearful
so with Isaac, Ja-
cob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David
hero of
Abra-
at the severing of the
that bound him
mael, and pressed on through

trials
If
sent.
amid the sorrows and
Truly, truly, sorrow
is
trials
one of

our richest blessings.
Trouble sweeps the
from our heart-strings, and
sweetest chords
blends our spirits lovingly into

Yes,
God
love
Him and
is
27
each
other.
preparing a family of saints to
one another with a love which
the whole creation groaned and travaileth to

see manifested
in
sorrow's
and
vale.
this
Here, amid
He
sweet, sad soul-trials,

heart,
deep love
spirit to spirit,
is
is
begotten
these
dark,
weaving heart to
in ties that
no angel
bosom can feel, and fitting them to " sing a

new song" never heard in heaven before the
song of sympathetic love which Jesus shares

with us through His sorrows
tain of our salvation
suffering."
It
is
perfect through
my
privilege to at-
tend a saint of the Lord
who
sufferer
One morning,
matism.
" Cap-
made
was once
had been an intense
for the
for forty years
from acute rheu-
just before his death,
asked him, " Well, Mr. Merritt, what have you
been meditating about to-day?"

gels," he said.
I
asked.
"
"What
'The
an-
about the angels?"
have been thinking why we should
have a better inheritance than they."
do you think we will?"
'*
"
Because our
Why
trials
28
and
greater than
are
conflicts
he
theirs/'
said.
Again, these sorrows and

duties of
life,
Christ's nearness,
own
not his
When
and show us God's way.
speech, God's kingdom,
Zacharias recovered
praise
us for the
trials fit
was the theme of
own
his
first
hopes of
son, or the
his
line of priesthood, but " hath raised up
a horn of salvation for us in the house of His
servant David."
come out
Ah, how brightly the
after the storm-clouds roll
When
souls.
our sorrow
away, and
down on
with what loveliness they look
through the purified atmosphere
So with our
seems so much nearer.
ways reach before
us,
us
truly godly sor-
is
row, and the clouds pass, heaven, with

stars of hope,
stars
all
its
God's
and God's plans unfold
for us with a personal sweetness, a wideness of
joy before unfelt, and
"It
is
good
flicted."
for
It is
me
we
that
cry with
I
David,
have been
af-
worth while to go, Jacob-like,
halting on a shrunken thigh through the rest

of life's pilgrimage to be a real Prince of God.
And
sorrow gives us a real and true view of
our surroundings, our blessings, our
trusts,
and
11
our
MO RE THAN
A PROPHET."
Now
ties of relationship.
could Zacharias
There
see truly the mission of John.
word
one
of
parental
29
selfishness,
is
not
not one
breathing for earth's claim upon him.

He
"
does not even say
my child," but yields him
up to the great work

willingness,
God
of
with a deep, glad
Hannah when
To these
circumcision was more
a joy like that of
she dedicated Samuel to her God.

parents the ordinance of
than a formal ceremony,

ity,
was a
it
living real-
and God's obligatory requirement of the
parent,
an obligating of
yielding and
training
of
Zacharias says of John, "

fore the face of the
Lord
and honest
entire
the
child for
Thou
shalt
go be-
to prepare his
ways."
Blessed and lofty parental realization
and grand
calling for his
Christians did
and
more
boy
flee to this safety for their
Where
are the
Zacharias of this age
would speak
of service
of the
!'
Would God
holy
that
fully enter into this glory,
But how few yield them up

God.
God.
children to-day
to the service of
Abrams, Hannahs, and

Alas, alas
When we
of lofty, heroic consecration, a life
and a death of glory
for the children
wealthy and great now, they would say,
30
as
Simon Peter
my
child
or robbed
as
of old, "
if
them
Far be
it
God dishonored
of happiness
of His service, not
from thee,"
their children
by the hardships
knowing that thus they are
winning immortal laurels and crowns of unfading glory, and are only " suffering with
Him
may also reign with Him."

Had we more silent, true communings with
God meditated we more deeply and faith-
that they
fully
and truthfully upon the
as well as temporal, of
life
realities, eternal
did
we but
pass
oftener and lower " under the rod" of our God,
with hearts more deeply bowed to His
will,
would see and grasp these heavenly

for our children
child
was
would
lose sight of
to be to us in the glory of
would be to
come an
his
act in
Isaac on the
which the child would be as
Mount
of
would be blessed
ship of glory.
what a
what he
God, and baptism would be-
wholly and faithfully offered up to
child
we
glories
in
God
God
as
so parent
was
and
an eternal relation-
CHAPTER
IV.
GROWING.
"And
Luke
N
I
the child grew,
deserts
in the
till
and waxed strong
in spirit,
and was
the day of his shewing unto Israel."
So.
order to
lift
religion there
One must
er soul-centre to attract.
stand nearer to God, and
must be a high-
call
take a
others up to him.
When the philosopher Archimedes said, Give

me a point without the world, and I will lift
**
the world," he uttered a truth far deeper than

his
material philosophy could ever reach
truth on which rests the

fallen souls
of
God
men.
restoration of the
is
educating John
the Baptist to be the greatest reformer of the
Mosaic dispensation
for the
work
He
and
in
order to
fit
him
sends him, not to any school
or society of men, but to the deerj solitudes of
the desert.
There
and
when
religion
is
a time, a state of society
true education can only be
had by seclusion therefrom
a time when
the
32
whole moral and religious atmosphere becomes

impregnated
so
clouds and
with
mists
of
wrong, and so enslaved to the fear and opinions of
men, that we must go into solitude and
there ask our hearts, "
We
must
flee
What
sayeth the Lord ?"
from the ever-shifting sands on
time's sea-shore, flee from the ceaseless rush
and confusion of
some
its
breaking
billows, into
quiet desert mountain, and there listen
to the surgings of eternity within
Here,
.us.
we catch the sound of immortal truth here will we get a view of the
here will we feel the strong
everlasting hills
presence of the living God pressing in brawny
arid
here alone, will

;
And
reality close
up to
here, then,
was that God sent the " greatest
of
woman
until
in
it
life's
daily
duties.
born," to form and harden that
life
bow
the
its
lone greatness
it
should
hearts of a nation as the tempest

trees of the forest.
bows the
Let us go into the deserts
with the soul of this great man, and see him in
God's great 'school.

he was "
from his
briel
"
He
'grew."
Though
Holy Ghost, even

mother's womb," as the Angel Gafilled
with the
expressly foretold, yet he grew.
What
THAN A PROPHET."
''MORE
would
fill
powers as
mind, heart, and
his
33
a boy of
an infant would not
fill
them
as
and what would
fill
them
at ten
ten,
would sadly
of age
fail
at
years
So he
sixteen.
must needs keep growing without and within.
The
child
lived with
heart stretched
yearning
his
His book was the book
depths for God.
its
God, and
out to God, and opened
itself
of
Eternal Truth, and his soul sought to lay hold

thereof,
He
and
studied
He
living,
fulfil
He
surrounding, unfailing real-
saw the mighty purposes of Jehovah
marching with
to
realities.
God and man through God.
proved God a
ity.
naked
to bring forth its
firm, relentless tread straight
the Omnipotent will, despite
obscurities
and delusions of men.
He
all
felt
on
the
that
the heart of religion centred not in Gamaliel

or
Hillel,
the
Pharisee's
Lawyer's school, but that
warm
in the
The
real.
Council
it
or
the
beat with the
throbs of Omnipotent purpose and love
bosom
of
God.
vision of this truth
He
made him
intensely
did not go into the wilderness to
study poetry or indulge sentiment
he went
there to grapple with the sinfulness of his na-
34
ture
went to
join the great battle against the
enemies of his
and
said
Much
soul.
has been written
by great and good men
of the help
John received, and the joys he inhaled from

the beauties and glories of nature, as unfolded
in the material surroundings.
would
holy page does not so present him.
no traces
say, the
There are
of the poet left in his composition
when he comes
the scars of
forth
many
but he
a battle.
is
covered with
His tread
of the stern, conquering hero of
sore hand-to-hand conflicts.
many
that
is
sad and
His voice
that
is
commander still leading up his

against an enemy whose strength he
of the great
legions
and whose
has
felt,
izes
with vivid certainty, but realizes
firm confidence of his

It
is
he
terrible presence
power
real-
in a full,
to overcome.
a dangerous thing to go into the great
solitudes of
to
life
bury ourselves
in sentiment,
and come forth poets or artists seeking a world's

approval rather than
to live on the
its
salvation
life
come
forth
of a
The
true
heart, never to be put into real
poetry of
mere sentiments or dreams
is
life.
not in word, but in action
not in a dream, but
in a living
conquest
and
if

we cannot
act
if
35
fear, indifference, or
weak-
away captives,
we should " hang our harps on the
willows, and sit down and weep by the waters
of Babylon." Never, never should we content
ness have chained us and led us
it is
better
ourselves
rolling
by the echoes
through inactive
so learn God.
grand sentiments
of
John did not
lives.
He grew
in
purpose, and
when
he came forth on the banks of Jordan and

stood before assembled
was not with
Israel, it
pretty sentiments, but vivid consciousness of
awful reality, with the thunderings of
wrath
to
come"
Surely, surely
life is
in
his
too real and
its
issues too
it
will lead us.
If
ears.
of anything but
intense, earnest action, as direct
let
the
resounding
imminent and awful to permit

God's grace
'*
and strong as
there
is
poetry,
be the poetry of the soul-seeker, the
of Moses and the

Lamb, and not an echo from the mere Kosmos
song of deliverance, or
(the material world of the Greeks).
Again, John " waxed strong in spirit." This
was another
desert.
result
He was
of
his schooling
in
the
gathering strength silently
the great conquest of
self.
in
His soul was wax-
36
He was
ing mighty in purpose.
great forces, and bathing
life's
over in the purposes of
God
gathering up
them over and
He was
tence.
they were
until
becoming brawny with the essence
of
Omnipo-
not scattering or squandering
the powers of
his
soul, as
we
see so
Here
thousands doing to-day.
is
many
one of the
greatest dangers
and disasters of our time.
Men and women
squander their soul powers.
They become
partners
in
thousand enter-
and pleasures, and plans,
prises,
until
they be-
come weak along the whole line of their charThey never learn what Jesus meant
acters.
when He told Martha she was "troubled
many
we are
about
things: one thing
Yes,
losing the
tration in holy things,
many
ing to be
of
the
called,
falling
Even
ministry,
away by
in
try-
the offices
sermons, falsely so
have claimed and gotten so much time
and thought that
now who,
to go
and
masters.
sacred
needful."
is
power of soul concen-
like
up to
it is
a rare thing to find a
the Apostles of old,
this battle in the
onstration of
the
Holy
is
man
willing
power and dem-
Spirit, carrying every-
thing by the intensity of that Gospel which
"MOKE THAN A PROPHET."

"
'
power
the
is
They who take
God
of
unto
37
salvation."
the sword will perish
by the
sword/' for they rely thereon more than on
who
the presence of the Jesus

ently
bound and powerless
in
stands apparthe hands of
men but remember, it was just at this very

moment He said, " Put up thy sword," and
;
"
could
angels."
Father, and
pray the
presently give
me more
The Jews
'
He
could
than twelve legions of

will require a sign,
and
the Greeks seek after knowledge," but only

Jesus can be " the power of God unto salvation,"
though a
even
" stumbling-block to
the Jew, and foolishness to the Greek."
John knew
this in his
own
he learned to look up to the
soul
honest dealings with his
from whence came his strength, and lead

to the
Rock
hills
men
that was higher than he, and there
leave them.
Gathering up
concentrating them on
man "waxed
pose became
sweeping on
all his
soul-powers,
God and His
will,
the
strong in spirit," and his purlike

in
its
vast,
river
irresistible,
course with a mighty con-
quest, to rest in the boundless sea of his
own
St.
eternal depths of glory.
God's
"MORE THAN A PROP H Err
38
Every
has
life
Him
formed.
spirits
for us
we
times
will be, or
of our
These are the days
when we
when we
that
all
is
out of
deep con-
in
purposes
until the soul's
these the birth-hours of
those
calls us
commune
and the characters
are shaped,
period
when God
the world's noises to

sultation with
desert
its
grand, solemn days
immortal
of destiny,
really great
are truly born again
if
rush back and plunge
the troubled sea of unregenerate exist-
into
ence, never to find rest.
If
we look back down

we will find
the long line of God's heroic ones,
each had his wilderness. Abel must have lived,

as
it
until
His
was true enough to be poured out as a
life
drink-offering, not only for
and
me
God but
for
you
yes, that true blood speaks to us in
grand soul
girding
Noah, Abraham,
all
God
were, in the desert with
tones
to
Enoch,
day.
Jacob, Joseph, dwelt
Isaac,
their lives in the grand deserts of existence,
and tabernacled with God.

Daniel, Elijah, Jeremiah
ones were caused to
Moses,
yea,
all
David,
God's great
turn their backs on a
world and face the truths of the living God,

until those truths rose
up
in
them
to
march
in

triumph, through the opposition of
39
men and
devils, to glorious victory.
Now,
as then,
ness school
God
calls us
out to uncover the great
purposes of truth before

to stand
up
for
Him,
us to the wilder-
calls
us,
and sends us back
regardless of
the surg-
all
ings of sin, applause, fear, or death.
Here, and
is the safety of any church, age, or

"
man, in
the kingdom of God within ;" true-
here alone,
ness to the great ideal of

soul in
its
life realized,
lone consecration stretches
the naked will of God,
and
as the
itself
on
feels the strong
beatings of His eternal purposes of Truth, Justice,
and Love.
CHAPTER
V.
god's messenger.
" There was a
John."
John
T E was
*
*
John
robe,
God whose name was
sent from
a man, brawny, true, and grand.
did
moved
" a reed
man
6.
no miracle, wore no priestly
not with the multitude's favor like
shaken by the wind,
'
'
sought no political
preferments, was backed by no patronage from

sect or school, favored
by no party
in
power.
John had no towering temple above him, no

company of sweet singers around him, no timehonored
ritual
from friend
meat was
guiding him.
and family
and wild honey," and
" his
his
robe
staff
of his pilgrimage,
in
severed
Girded for action, with the
locusts-
camel's hair.
He was
independent, for
he stands before the world
the might of his God.
logical precision
or
Without order
ornament of
of
rhetoric, his
trumpet voice waked the valleys of Jordan,
4*
echoed along the wild, craggy mountains of

Judea,
startling
deadness, and
nation
sin, into
deep
in darkness,
dread solicitude
untiL
the beggar from the street and the king from

his throne tremble before the
thunder of his
powerful words, which bend the
breeze bends the fields of ripening
the
as
multitudes
wheat.
Where
lay his
Where was hidden
power?
Sam-
the suasive strength of this mightier than
He was
wanting
contemporaries
trusted
son
in
everything that his
deficient in the " sine
armor,
tical
despite
all
i.e.,
this
and he
power,
for
would be pronounced by men
of this
day sadly
qua nojis" of
ecclesias-
some church's approval
he was mightier than they
and compelled their hearts to bow

greatness of his mission.
back, "
knew
He was
this,
he
man
felt
Rock
sent from
it,
soul
rested
He
God."
and
in this
and sure high up on the
of Ages,
unmoved by
restless surgings of the multitudes
his
all,
the
to
The answer comes
he trusted
it,
trust stood strong
great
but
above
all
all
the sad,
below
for
the torrents that
swept and swayed among their lower aims and
42
passions, above the tremblings and crashings

of their worldly doubts and fears.
Yes, " he
was a man sent from God," and God had
charged his soul with power as
which moves
real as that
bosom
of the black mid-
summer's cloud and speaks
in the thunder's
He
voice.
in
can
tion's souls
He can make
the
make
man wake
the na-
from their slumbers as easily as

the sun call forth the spring with
its life.
Come, now, and

man's
soul.
heaven saying,
spirit
let
us look into this mighty
God had
"He
sent
shall
go before him
and power of Elias."
line of his character
a message from
This
is
let us trace it as
in
the
the out-
deep as
God's sight permits.

"
The
spirit
spirit that
Elias"
of
could
come
that
wild-clad
great heroic
all
alone from
the mountains of Giiead, and pass with dauntless
eye and firm tread through
of an
Ahab's palace,
until
all
the guards
he stood facing the
idolatrous monarch, and then with stern, un-
quivering voice thunder God's judgments into

his
ears
spirit
that
more on the throne and
could brook sin no

in
the court than on

the street or in the hovel
stands "before the living
God" and
revelations of that holy light
aims of earth
all
zeal for the glory of
cares
praise,
poral
more
more
pleasure
that spirit which
spirit that
God
in
for
men's
that
spirit
feels the living
each duty of
and hears the great surgings

;
by the
that spirit that
men's souls than
for
looks at
glares
for their salvation than their tem-
touch of the living
quences
it
the great burning
in
God
that
that spirit
sin in all the awful realities as
loses
43
life,
of eternal conse-
can dare a king
or
court a desert with equal joy or fearlessness
a spirit that can stand as joyfully and great
amid the solitudes
of the desert, receiving its
daily food from the unclean raven's beak,

feel as content
and glorious
as
when
on Mount Carmel and sees heaven's

scending from the living
God
in
it
and
stands
fire
de-
answer to
its
prayer, and hears the great shout of a trem-
bling nation owning
its
God
to be
Jehovah
spirit that
can go to the brook Chereth at the
command
of its
the long' years of
while the curse of
God, and there

trial
sit
through
with obedient joy
God deepens on
sit
the land of
44
wickedness, and the parching breath of dearth

withers
fail
and
field
rivr er, sit
day by day,
suing him too,
as
still
streamlet's waters
little
if
sit
fountain and
dries
forest,
watching the
God's curse were purwithout one doubt or
misgiving, drinking and living more from the
promise of his God than the brook before him,

standing at his lonely, God- ap-
but grandly
pointed post until that

Yes, this
tist
is
shall relieve
him.
stands to run his mighty course before the
face of the
"
God
the spirit in which John the Bap-
Son
of
God.
And
he came, too,
In the power of Elias. "
fore a world in the sublime
Elias burst be-
company
of the liv-
ing God, unattended by any earthly court or
He
auxiliaries.
legions.
had the arm
God
of
as his
His power was the glorious might of
eternal truth,
born
great
of
battles
in
his soul
loneliness
in
during those
the
deserts,
wherein he had taken hold of the strength of

the living God.
Oh,
why
is it
that
men do
so
discard this strength, and turn to the help of
man which
in
is
so vain
his nostrils,"
grass
man,
and who
whose
will
"
breath
perish as
is
the
Truly, power belongeth unto God, and

these mighty
men
realized this,
their souls laid hold of
45
and with
all
They both gathered
it.
power from the same grand source, and were

both marshalled in the same glorious presence,
The power
that of the living God.
and truth was
their hearts,
in
of right
and we now
trace the likeness in the effects of this power.
At Eliassembled on Mount
Both startled and awed a nation.
command
jah's
Israel
John the Baptist called, and Israel
Carmel.
At
assembled on the banks of the Jordan.
God
the sign of
Israel
called forth
cried out, "
Lord He
God
is
!"
nation was
the
sins."
an
If
by
" baptized,
Ahab trembled
Herod trembled before John.

of Baal
isees
fell
fell
power
Elijah's prayer,
The Lord He is God the

At the command of John
confessing their
before Elijah, a
If
the priests
before Elijah, the scribes and Phar-
before John.
in the
Elijah wielded his
execution of miracles, and "John
did no miracle ;" but John was just as strong
and
real
in
the consciousness of God's help
and presence, and
his
power was none the
glorious and live because

in
a miraculous garb.
it
less
was not clothed
The grandest
use
of
46
power
is
to manifest
God, and
this
real,
stands
severities of
results
just as
before
Law
us,
us those
like the flames
fierce
of Elijah.
burning amid
the
on Sinai amid
John the Baptist
the darkness of midnight.
shows
far
The
and glorious as those
lasting,
Elijah
done
God's power are
oftener without than with miracles.

of John's display of
is
beacon flames paling
amid the exceeding glory
of the
morn, as the
"
rising,
spreads His
Sun
of Righteousness,"
The power
healing wings over the earth.
each was true unto death.

great champions of
victorious, until he
and ascended to
straight on,
ever lowered his arm
mounted the
his
God
unshaken amid
of adversity,
of
God
Elijah swept on brighter,
in the arena.
of
Neither of these
more
chariot of
fire
while John moved

all
unmoved amid
the dark clouds
all
the thunders
wrath or the burnings of hate, leaning on
the arm of his God, in the mighty grandeur

of his lone
trueness,
passes up through the
martyr-gate into the rank of the [mightiest of
woman
born.
"
When
loyal hearts and true

Stand ever in the light,
All rapture through and through,
In God's most holy sight."
CHAPTER
VI.
THE WILDERNESS TEMPLE.

';
came John the Baptist, preaching

Matt. 3:1.
In those days
in the
wilderness of Judea."
T HE
days
when
throne of the
when Pontius
Pilate
Tiberius
the
polluted
Roman Empire
the days
was grinding the hearts of
the nation to madness by his cruelties, extor-
and arrogancy
tions,
Antipas lived
wife,
and
in
led
the days
when
open adultery with
off into all
his brother's
that could degrade,
corrupt, and destroy social greatness
mestic purity
Annas
divided
the days
the
the days
office
when the balance
of
of
that
ducees,
tion of
power rested
in
or,
worse
awful horde of tyrants, the
Sad-
made
any
the high
they usurped
the hands of unprincipled Herodians,

still,
and do-
when Caiaphas and
functions
and disgraced the
priest,
Herod
cruel
and hard by the oblitera-
belief in the life hereafter.
No
be-
48
lief
or unbelief under heaven can
more
and demonize the use of power
tually curse
than that which hides from the soul

of a
judgment to come.
nation and people

places
wax
effec-
when
all
Woe, woe
dread
to that
their rulers in high
bold in this blindness, for they are
sure to send public oppression, private debauch-
At
and desecration through the land.
ery,
such times as these, natural instincts of purer

natures draw strongly toward lives of lonely
seclusion
of a
they, like David, crave the " wings
dove wherewith to
But
rest."
see
lo
away and be
fly
such a vortex we
just into
it is
at
John the Baptist stepping, a lone champion
in this terrible arena.
He comes
Long had he
buried his soul in
the desert loneliness, and bathed
poses and powers of his
enough to
rise in this
God
it
until
in the purit is
strong
lone night and breast
the powers that sweep in such wild
all
devasta-
tion over the world, and he feels the spirit of
God
leading him up into the battle.
religion cannot hide
from the
conflict
True
any more
than the strong wing of the eagle can remain

quietly
folded
in
its
lonely
nest.
Courage,
11
MORE THAN A PROPHET."
heroic and conquestive,
is
49
as really a part,
and
as vital a part, of true religion as faith, hope,
and charity.
Only
"
to
him that overcometh"
"
the tree of life," "tri-
does Jesus hold out
umph
the hidden
over the second death,"

"
manna,
new name,"
the white stone and the
the power over the nations and the morning

star, "
the white robe and a
"a
name
book
in the
God
name of God," " New
Jerusalem," and the'' new name of the Lamb,"
and finally, " to sit down with Him on His
throne."
Away, then, with that religion
of life,"
whereon
is
the temple of his
pillar in
written the
which would dream
away, or merely send
itself
up an echo of sentimental sympathy when the

enemies of souls and
No, no, brethren
God
glory in the
title
on
and not
in
an
priest.
man
office.
far
It is
John the
as
God
power we receive
Baptist,
loves to honor His
more than the empty
God
in
man and
man that is glorious

the name of a star that
heaven.
3
in a
John came
from God.
not John the
title of
John the Baptist we
like
must come, and come
are pressing so hard.
not a
the splendor
gives
it
rank
But John came
in
the wilderness.
He did
not
go to the temple or make any city synagogue

his
abode or
call "
he stands to
dient to the
wisdom
times when
God
tool or purpose,
the hearts of the disobe-
it
of
the
strip
spirit,
when men,
in
in
His laws and cere-
cling
with idolatrous
superstition to the dead formality
spend their time
new
were, seek a
point for His cause
starting
There are
of the just."
must, as
their proneness to
monies
In the wild virgin wil-
college.
unmarred by man's
derness,
when they
garnishing the sepulchral
form of what was once a
living,
moving, lov-
ing reality, but which by their want of heart
they have put to death as died the prophets of

old,
then
God comes
ing of the words,

sacrifice ;"
to teach
" I will
comes
them the mean-
have mercy and not
to proclaim
anew that He
is
not a cold, cruel, heartless formality, rolling
forward to crush the weakness of the broken

reed
flax,
and quench the spark

but that
He
in the
smoking
has a great, loving, tender,
strong, true spirit, yearning with infinite
passion over this world of deep sorrow.
God comes
to
remove the
com-
When
obstructions
of
"
51
man's coldness and cruelty, and touch human-
anew with the warmth of His heart, He

loves to trample down dead forms and cause
ity
new
life
He
breaks the brazen
"
to burst from the mouldering heaps.
Nehushtan," a piece of brass
Abraham was
and
serpent,
calls
Kings 18:4).
(2
led to the lone wilderness
he offered up Isaac
it
when
Jacob saw the
in a figure.
time as he lay on
heavens open for the
first
Bethel's lone stone.
Moses must carry the
children
ceive
of
Mount Carmel
Elijah
call
them
ere he brings their hearts
the wilderness" the
to
back
dawn
of the
new
dispensa-
Jesus appoints, not Jerusalem the Jew-
ish centre, not
Rome
must
John the Baptist must " cry in
to Jehovah.
tion.
the wilderness to re-
Israel into
Law.
the
Athens the Grecian
the world's
mountain
in
capital,
but an
obscure
Galilee as the great centre from
which His word moves

to conquer
centre, not
for there
forth,
conquering and
he met the apostles by
special
appointment and ordered their great
army.
Yes, John came in the wilderness, as
free as the eagles that cleft the air
subject to the commission of their
above him,
God and
his
52
He would
God.
tion
no unnecessary ques-
raise
by entangling himself with the thousand
petty formalities and dead ceremonies which

the priestly school at Jerusalem cherished with
He would draw
idolatrous superstition.
self-righteous barriers
harlot,
no
whereby the publican,
and sinner would be shut out from the
ready access to the living word of the living
God.
He was
crushed
lives
sent to
men and women
and wounded
hearts,
would throw open the doors of

wide and
derness.
free
as the broad
No man
received
free
bosom
of the wil-
He
would cumber
no obligations save those he
when he took
of the living
his church as
should dictate what kind of
Gospel he should preach.

his ministry with
of
and he
God.
and God-toned
orders from the spirit
His Gospel should be as

as
the winds that swept
through the crags of those mountains and the

waters that rolled through the bosom of Jordan.
of
It
was meet and
fit
heaven" should sound
that the "

its
first
kingdom
cry in this
bold independence and Godlike liberality and
freedom.
the favor
And woe to those men who, loving

of men more than the favor of God,
11
the patronage of
men more than
of their souls, dare narrow
cade, fence
them
lost."
is
" to
off
and
seek and
the salvation
and exclude,
classify
to
53
barri-
when God sends
save that which
Thus does God show
that His
is
power
not in the magnificence of surroundings or
hoary
associations
truth," warm,
live,
but,
" in
and
spirit
and sympathetic,
it
in
broods
over the aching hearts of a world with the glorious invitation, "
Whosoever will
and drink of the water of
life
let
him come
freely."
CHAPTER
VII.
NAKED GRANDEUR THE GLORY
LIFE IN ITS
OF ITS PURPOSE CONQUERING EARTH.

" His meat was locusts and wild honey."
JESUS
says, "
to
that
greater),
4.
Having food and raiment, there-
with be content ;" and there

illustration of
Matt.
than
it
in
man
time a
John the
is
no grander
His great servant (and
than
Baptist.
whom none was

No man can read
the Bible account of John without feeling the
majesty of his presence, the commandings of

his power.
titudes,
his
he
He
still
still
holds sway over the mul-
stands, but in the majesty of
might against
sin.
The
voice that once
echoed along the banks of Jordan and through

the wilds of
Judea now
resounds through
every valley and along every mountain-side of
Christendom.
like
John the Baptist
some great
lofty,
still
stern granite mount,
heaven-aspiring brow stands
towers
whose
unmoved by
MORE THAN' A PROPHET."
55
the surges of ages or the tempests of cen-
all
turies.
"
His meat was locusts and wild honey,"
the plainest, simplest, cheapest food
known
among
strong,
people
his
bold, and fearless.
and
It
it
made him
gave him an indepen-
dence which blanched not before kings
nor
quailed before the armies of a corrupt nation
Now
and age.
and was
,up, yet
filled
with God's
from his youth
spirit
he observed every law that tended to
him
give
though he was sent of God,
laid aside
He
manhood.
a heartier, grander
every weight to run the race set be-
fore him.
We
gain independence
world.
by
John had nothing
earth's favor,
above the
rising
to
expect
from
and he feared nothing from
its
with
He came to the banks of Jordan a

He came as one who had fought
He
the world and won the victory.
came
forth to
frown.
conqueror.
What were
He
command,
earth's
for
he stood superior.
wants or glories to
had learned to do without
and to
came
its
Him
abundance,
rejoice without its luxuries.
His soul
into the full realization of the truth that
56
"man
by bread alone, but by
shall not live
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
God;" and
of
in
God-won
this
liberty
he
stood, mighty and grand. Earth had not given
him
his
power, earth could not take
He had no Achilles' heel,

He came from God, and
it
away.
no vulnerable point.
suffered no worldly
between him and that God, no
interest to stand
earthly hope or fear to blunt the point of his
message or parry the force
was great
in
of his thrust, for
him, and he was great in the world.
Surely there
a need for mighty
is
the type
of
are
lives
the
its
The
Baptist.
champions
full-armed
and
completely
seek nothing from
nothing from
heroes
need
invulnerable to the powers of this world
who
to-
millions
world's oppressed
whose
John
men
God needs
Surely the Church of
day.
after
God
hatred.
at the great laws of
its
glories
Then we
men
and
fear
are to look
power whereby John the
Baptist grew so strong.
Jesus himself implies
much when he says, " The days will come

when the bridegroom shall be taken from you,
as
then
shall
ye fast."
Jesus
could
eat
and
drink and be powerful, but John must abide

by the
"
law.
prayer and
57
This kind goeth out only by
And we must grow
fasting."
we must
strong as did John,
gain power and
.overcome by observing the great laws of

itual
power and independence.
God
for power,
and looked on earth
We go
element of weakness.
spir-
John went
to
an
as
to the earth for
power, and try to fight Goliath in Saul's
ar-
was trying to
re-
mor.
John,
all his life
long,
duce his earthly wants to the minimum

try to increase
live
Do you
trust
more
power
fully in the
not see that
John the Baptist
is
God.
of
one of weakness?
we dare not rebuke
did, lest
Tyre and Sidon, our country
If,
is
like
12
20).
those
we must
What we
set their hearts
ments (and no one

to accumulate
will
from
get
They
on earthly
attain-
spend a lifetime's
them who has
of
try to keep
God, not from earth, makes us strong.
who have
us,
nourished by a
worldly Herod's domains,

(Acts
sin as
be said to
it
" Physician, heal thyself?"
peace
John
not see that our great tendency to
earth and earth's
Do you
maximum.
to the
we
above the power of man, that he
tried to live
might
them
not),
must
toil
ever,
5
like
the young ruler, go away sorrowing, to
sunder the
ties
and break the cords with which
they bind him.
We
must
overcome
overcome the world or
We
us.
must
ished prospect, and pull
cast
will
it
away every
cher-
down every hope
that
prevents us or draws us back from following
God with
our hearts.
all
idol after idol,
hope
We
alone.
ness that
is
must
sacrifice
cord after
after prop,
we
until
speak and act for God, and
feel at liberty to
God
after hope, cut
remove prop
cord, and
We
must
realize
there
not earth-born, there
is
is
a great-
wealth
earth cannot give nor take away, there
power that
not on the opinions of
rests
nor dies with their disapproval, there

that leans on the
that alone
arm
of the living
a great, lofty,
defending, fearless
in
it.
But oh, how
world-loving
life,
men
a
life
God, and
truth-girded, right-
And we must
different
press
from this
that saps the character and
weakens the hardihood
We
beyond the wiles and
life,
darts of earthly danger.
on
is
is
of Christian manliness
must achieve our independence of earth
rather than by earth.
"
Its

Ah,
worth.
worth something to
is
it
59
stand with our souls elevated by the side of
and
John the
Baptist, face to face with truth
right, at
perfect liberty to speak and act for
them without
this
fear
or
hesitation
company with the
earth in
to tread
great princi-
manhood
ples of God, nor stoop to defile our

in
the dust
earthly abundance
of
on, seeking every
moment
the kingdom of
and His righteousness, hiding

be able to look
at all
to press
life
God
in
earth's fickle
God
;
to
rewards
and dark threats unmoved, with a deep consciousness of safety, as the eagle from his Al-
pine height looks
down on the flashing storm

manhood deep and
Yes, this brings a
below.
grand and
lofty,
a character that will stand
single-handed against a world.
where the source
of
true
Jesus knows
power
dwells,
and
the secret paths thereunto", and His every com-
mand
brings us nearer to the helm, but strips
man
us of the
power
power
God, and make our loneness
of
of
to clothe us with the

in earth's
arena companionship in heaven's host.

the very nakedness in which
the battle
He
incases us
full,
He
calls
strong,
By
us into
and secure
60
in the
light
whole armor of God.
So "shall thy
break forth as the morning, and thine
health shall spring forth speedily
righteousness shall go before thee

of the
58
8).
Lord
shall
and thy
the glory
be thy rearward" (Isaiah
CHAPTER
VIII.
JOHN'S OPINION OF HIS POWER.

"The
voice of one crying in the wilderness."
Matt.
3 :3'
'HE
true preacher
He
sound.
-*-
from
life,
is
a voice,
and that the
really speaks,
that awes.
life
of
an
utterance
God.
God
and speaks with a tone of power
It
John's real
more than a mere
is
was not John's elocution, but
living
power
those vast multitudes, and
that
commanded
held them
firm
while the pealings of God's law thundered in

their midst, arousing to an awful sense
and
trembling dread of condemnation.
God
has honored the
Yes,
human voice more than any

make earth feel the near-
other instrument to
ness and reality of His living presence.
powerfully did
John.
man
He
so through
the voice of
People heard the voice of that
in all
And
lone
the sublimity of his naked grandeur,
62
and they
mighty
that those tones broke from a
felt
life
within, that this was a voice, a
liv-
ing voice of a living power, and no dead echo
from the charnel-house of formality.

cry alive with reality that
men
It
was a
heard, startling
the mountain wilds and echoing along Jordan's

valleys.
But there
is
a phase of John's
speak of here, though

idea in the text
it
life
we
shall
be but a secondary
for surely
was
it
no small
of
consideration to John himself, and can never
be to any great heart in

it is
this
And
struggles.
life's
John's loneliness in
life.
we
Yes,
realize
his loneliness in those long years of wilderness

conflict,
from which he comes one of earth's
grandest and truest heroes.

ness
is
But
when one removes from men

the loneliness that bows
not
this loneli-
to seek
God
spirits
and
breaks hearts, for there the soul goes for a
communing and
find
if
in earnest.
a companionship
it
is
sure to
But when a heart has strug-
gled through the delusions of
its
age,
sailed
out on the great sea of truth beyond the fogs
and shoals that envelop and threaten the
re-

beyond the din
ligion of the people,

lic
and popular
63
pub-
of
and
error, sees, feels, realizes,
roots itself in the hopes and powers of the new-
found
life,
panionship
and then comes back seeking com-
how
alas,
lonely!
'tis
one who treads alone some banquet

serted," but " as one
banquet hall"
who
crowded,
full
which
fills
de-
hall
treads alone
greater loneliness, and one that
"as
not
is
some
a
far
the soul
with a deeper heart-ache, an intenser yearning for sweet companionship.
He
John
stood alone, for he had gone
felt
many
this.
long
heart-journeys through those days of soul-conflict in
the desert
and though men could hear
" the voice of one crying
in the wilderness,"
none could come alongside the great soul

the lonely preacher.
God, but lived

not a reed
for his
among
midst of a court.
lone,
John
of
lived alone with his
fellow-men.
He was
reeds, nor a courtier in the
His
life
stands out as one
grand, lofty mountain-peak
among
his
Not even one word from his fond

parents echoes to us of the days when his
fellow-men.
heart
felt
for
companionship.
verdant scenes of
life's
young
There are no
spring-tide to
64
soften the stern loneliness of this "

a prophet,
man
this
was " the voice
felt
He
God."
sent from
of one, " for there
heart on earth that saw and
more than
was no other
life
he did,
as
save the heart of Jesus, and with this heart he
communed
than
far
more
in the halls of
in the solitude of prayer
conversation or the walks
of bodily contact.
Now
me
here
sooner or
cerned
into
feel
a lesson that will help
later, that as far as this
life is
beside
we
us,
among men
there
is
all find,
world
con-
is
not
press the fewer will be the
and the
yet this
lonelier
is
true
we
will
God's way, and
one of the heroic characters
His word who did not tread
To be
you and
We
a great loneliness, and the deeper
battles
its
spirits
is
our conflicts and waitings.
in
we must
live
this
in
way.
much
alone,
and
possess that power of soul which constantly
hushes the storm and
stills
the
surrounding
tumult of men's aims and plans to hear the

voice and see the
way
of
out fully reckoning on
God.
We
must
set
journeys of soul in
which no other soul can accompany
us,
how-
ever yearning and pining our longings therefor

may
We
be.
great,
deep,
must be sure that we
We
nearest
is
this life confronts us.

will
we
alone, save with
If
we
battles
in
and dearest
are' live
in
Christians
every day be compelled to wage war
against those
pel
all
must expect to stand
where much that
we
have
will
heavy heart-burdens which
must take up and carry on

Jesus.
65
who
crush the
by the formality
of
spirit
of the Gos-
the Gospel
as
one
has truly said, " defend the spirit of the past

against
this with the heart-ache
Jesus saw and
when He
for
my
and
the institutions of the past ;"
all of
felt
said, "
Ye
shall
Ah
of loneliness.
this for
me
men
you and
be hated of
all
name's sake."
As we
feel this great
desolation, let us look
on the heroic bearing of God's mighty ones
gone before.
Enoch,
Noah,
See Abel by
in his
as
lone,
his lone offering
God
grand walks with
he stands alone toiling
all
those long
years of faith, misunderstood and abused

all
that saw
among
him
his people,
Abraham,
called out
and feeling the stern
by
from
call
of
duty separating him from the companionship

even of his own
child.
Jacob
lived, as
it
were,
66
life
less
of loneliness from that night when, house-
and homeless, he lay and dreamed of God's
accompanying angels
at Bethel
man from
no
that day forward seems to have entered the
great current of his
Joseph triumphed
life.
in
a strange land, and lived alone amid the court
where he was
liness
and we hear
idolized,
breaking out
the touching charge ut-
in
tered from his death-bed,

his
bones
Egypt
at
may be
some
life,
and to
when he
day and
laid beside
men whose
souls' foot-
had been following
whom
who touched him
he
now and then
all
in the
body.
Moses
veil
over his heart as
over his face, which men, because

weakness, could not
lift.
And
David, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, and
so
all
of
for they stood, looked,
Samuel,
and
lived,
and lived above and
beyond the companionship

;
their
the proph-
thronged by men, yet alone they
them
lived
only the aims, and
see the towerings of that soul.
There was as really a
ets,
through
nearer than to those
felt
Israel could catch
alone.
asks that
up from the land of
carried
far distant
the dust of those great

prints his spirit
this lone-
of the souls about
while this very loneliness
was one
"MORE THAX A PROPHET."

of life's hardest,
its
was
it
also
and
67
is still
one of
grandest and most heroic pages and loftiest
battle-fields.
But there
compares
one
for
is
no loneliness that
moment with
"He
Of a truth
Jesus suffered.
that which
the
trod
wine-press alone, and of the people there was
none with Him."

life
for
man's
tury
as yet
all
through
cannot reach, though each cen-
bosom and
rolling the
is
endom
life
Misunderstood
His great soul lived way up where
own
nearer His
we
heart of Christ-
see and feel the
and light of Jesus permeating and touch-
ing the heart of humanity as the sun of spring
does the heart of nature, and gradually

grandly
we begin
of His great life
manity into
But
this
life
and touching hu-
lighting
and beauty.
loneliness of
God's children.
life
has an end
shall
come, from north,
and
shall sit
will
in the
for
In that " glorious rest that
remaineth for the people of God, "where
Jacob
yet
to see and feel the purposes
east, south,
down with Abraham,

kingdom
be gone, and
of
gone
many
and west,
Isaac,
and
God, then loneliness

forever,
great hearts that have been
made
and these
heroic
in
68
their
mighty lone
is
deep dealings with our

of another,
our head, shall unite
supply
its
the heroic
its
spirit of
and love
it all
God,
our Lord
is
with
is
and when Jesus,
Then
shall
in
it
made
the days
He
hath
battles,
chamber,
king-
then
Till
strong enough for us
and
me,
for you, for
when the "
"
said,
never leave thee nor forsake thee."
est
we meet
our beloved John the Bap-
us,
lives in life's inner
are
" every joint" shall
heaven suffered violence."
the future hope
We
souls.
the deeper and stronger for
brave, lone stand
of
us,
joy and power.
for truth, for
dom
for
not only a putting together of God's
members one
tist,
life
true great ones, but also a joining of God's
great,
all
and burdens of
meet and have each other forever
shall
heaven
own
battles'
when
I
will
Yes,
He
in the soul's
burdens, and hopes, until
deep-
we
ready and clothed with immortality, to
are
see,
Him enter
Him we will be
meet, and be like Him, and with
by
into the fulness of joy
led into the deepest
companionship of every
spirit in
heaven.
for
CHAPTER
IX.
THE REST OF SINCERITY,

"
Repent
HIS was no
Matt.
ye."
by the
light of
deep need of the human

strange as
Man
may
it
2.
the requirement of
less
than the need of man.
vision saw
John's
God's goodness
soul,
God
faith-lit
this
and these words,
seem, were the
call to rest.
hates to repent, hates to set the seal of
disapproval
on
his
own doings
his
proud
heart smarts and burns at the thought, for he
and right before
wants to be counted true
men, even when he knows that within he

false
He
and wrong.
see his foulness and shame.
pent ere that
spirit
is
does not want earth to
Yet he must
re-
within him can have rest,
ere he can look himself square in the depths of

his
soul
man."
and
say, "
Painful
as
now an honest
Thou
art
it
the thorn must be
is,
withdrawn ere the wound can heal
the cor-
70
ruption must be found out ere the ulcer's pain
So they who would preach only a
will cease.
soft,
soothing gospel are cruelly
They would
peace."
deep agonies
soul on a
Ah
lie,
They would
try to pillow the
and soothe the prodigal while he
feeding the swine and perishing of hunger.

!
that
boy must go back
to his father, and
go back with a heart conscious of

scaTred, marred,
last of
his sonship,
and shamed, but conscious
an honest sincerity down beneath
that he
I
no
is
talk soothingly to the
of a heart without extracting the
serpent's fang.
sits
They
false.
would cry " Peace, peace, when there
at
it all
true of heart.
is
once
asked
Roman
Catholic priest,
" Suppose one came to confession and only

told
you
a part of the sin, hiding the rest from
you, and you became conscious of it, what

" Have nothing to do with
'would you do ?"
the hypocrite," he
said.
Every sinner
hypocrite until he confesses to
and he
is
guilty until he repents.
God his
Mercy
is
sin,
can-
not heal the heart-wounds of sin until they are
repented
of.
She cannot separate the
sins
from
the sinner until the sinner hates the sin and

disclaims
it
as a part of himself.
come and plunge

and warm with
my
blood,
man may
my body
a dagger into
As he withdraws
intent to slay.
71
with
dripping
say, " I forit,
may
give you ;" but that pardon takes no effect,

carries
not
home no
peace, so
long as he repents
he must be a murderer, and blood must
stain his soul
yet the instant that soul dis-
claims the foul deed and throws
it
that instant he ceases to be the
man he
was,
may embrace my forgiveness. His

may meet as new beings and
with
and
from him,
and mine
new hopes
in
meet with a
sweet and deep
proportion to the sincerity of faith with
which he repents and

in
rest
soul
forgive,
each other's sincerity.
and our
Had John
men
counsel with the wise (so called)
trust
taken
of his
age they would doubtless have counselled a

very different course, just as their representatives
do now.
Go
softly,
speak gently, per-
suade without offence, give mercy, but talk

not of judgment.
for
man and God
Ah
sin
John cared too much
to listen for one
such suicidal policy.
men, saw
He
moment
to
saw the hearts of
gnawing hungrily
at their souls,
"MORE THAN A PROPHET:]
72
saw their inner
strifes,
and heard the
ings
he called out the remedy

inner
and
life
one true to
He
them.
come
man
in
his fellow-men
or for
The
he
man, and
for the
calls
good and the downcasting
uprising of
in
" Repent ye."
great future were the most
its
important things he saw

like
dull sigh-
of the sufferers, and boldly and grandly
called
of evil
the prodigal to rise and
face to face with his sin, that he
press heart to heart with his father.
might
To him
there was no shame in repenting wrong that he
might be
nal
right,
shame
but there was death and eter-
hiding sin that he might be
in
for-
ever wrong.
The
heart of the people responded to the
trueness of John
" Then went out
Judea, and
all
heart of one man.
as
the
to
him Jerusalem, and
the region round about Jordan,
and were baptized of him

ing their
sins.
all
"
in Jordan, confess-
Oh, people do want honest,
brave, true, strong dealings with the realities

of time and. eternity.
tion
off,
is,
after
all,
one
This question of salva-
men cannot shake
entirely
nor can they completely hush the voice of
conscience.
Down deep
in the
human
heart

there
is
a capacity for a hereafter: the possiof
bilities
heaven
or
about with the
set
hell
thoughts of immortality and
when
73
a preacher, nerved
eternity
by the
spirit of
and
the
liv-
ing God, rises strong and great enough to press
through
the dead formalities and soul-de-
all
luding ritualism which have for a long time

hid the deep, festering
wounds
within, such* a
The witness within

" It is the truth
own
bosom
will
cry
men's
I
know it, I feel it." John came and found
preacher will be heard.
just such a state of things.
and
lawyer,
priest
had
Pharisee, scribe,
been
hungry souls on the dry husks
burdensome
formality
pathy
of a lifeless
of truth
and humiliating
path of repentance,
of trueness
the
and
but John called them
back along the plain path

Father's house,
feeding
toward the
as
was the
was warmed with
sym-
and lighted with the
live-
it
ness of hope that they had sought but failed

to
find
ments
in
of
all
the tangled forms and require-
men's
traditions.
Men went away
from the baptism of John with a perceptible

sense
and realization that they had made a
stride
toward God, and stood nearer, stronger

4
74
and more hopefully
in
His presence than when
The morning dew
they came.
of the Gospel
dispensation was fresh upon the ministry of
though
even
John,
dawned, and
it
they had never
the
day had not
yet
breathed a fragrance of
felt
life
away from
as they turned
the death-scenes of blood-bathed altars, where
skin bulls and goats could never take away

sins.
It
was indeed
men when
day-dawn upon the souls
they heard and
grace hearts might arise,
mercy
from which
not
all
cleanse.
by God's
by the great
and
God renounce and
of
that
felt
of
forsake the sins
the ceremonials on
earth could
Yes, this was a day that pro-
claimed the royal priesthood of
and drew him
near to
his
man
God
himself,
as a
man.
And
they who would be mighty
God
" to turn the hearts of the disobedient to
the
wisdom
bring
man
hands of
must ever labor to
face to face with his
God and
Grand and true to the needs
Father.
human
of the just"
in the
his
of the
heart was that message of Jesus, " to
ascend to
my God
and your Father."
and your God,

Yes, as
men
my
Father
listened to
THAN A PROPHET."
''MORE
75
them
these words, and words like these, calling
sympathy and confidence
to the
up to
ing their souls
their imperfections,
trust
of
Him
God, lead-
through
and to lay open before
all
Him
and sorest defects, assured that
their deepest
them
the good within
will
be recognized and
the trueness in them matured into stronger,
deeper
life
say,
w hen men hear
of these
great callings from lips of deep sincerity,
there
any trueness, any remaining
is
And
respond.
heaven
of
is
at
if
you add, "
by
will
will
kingdom
hand," and throw wide the
doors to an endless
then
life, it
for the
if
life
to
all
true believers,
the sincere penitent rush into
it
violence, as they did in the days of
as
if
John
and Jesus.
Thus, and thus only, comes that deep heartremaineth for the people of God.
the path along which those who " labor
rest
that
This
is
and are heavy laden" come to Jesus

rest.
Yea,
for theirs
is
for that
" Blessed are the pure in

the kingdom of
God."
spirit,
CHAPTER
For
N
and
the
OT
kingdom
heaven
of
X.
is at
Matt.
hand."
2.
only did John unloose and cast away
the heavy soul-burdens of
sin
by leading men
past
wrong
to sincere repentance,
but he opened to the yearning heart the hope

" For the
of a better future in these words
:
kingdom
truly,
of
heaven
strongly,
is
He
hand."
at
and
restfully,
dealt
grandly with
the past, hopefully, heroically, and gloriously with the future.
If
there
is
in the
very
nature of man, woven into his very woof of

being, a capacity to surfer and agonize over
the past wrongs sin has wrought on his soul,
and he upon men and God

that something in every
yes,
if
there
is
bosom which makes
the torments of a future hell possible, which
unquenchable flame, and
yields fuel for the
food for the undying

is
also another
worm thank God
something
and truly a part of
in
there
man, as deeply
his inner soul
and being,
ar

capacity for the
munion
rest, purity,
of eternal years
77
power, and com-
which makes heaven

" Repent
and God's fellowship a
possibility.
ye" escapes the
" for the kingdom
heaven
is
at
past,
hand" opens the
future.
answer to those words Job spoke
It is
of
the
world
for a
of human hearts when he said he longed to be

where " the wicked cease from troubling, and
there the weary be at rest."
John had not gotten a one-sided idea
man
during those long years of deep
ing with his God.
He came
forth
of
communfrom the
wilderness of fasting and praying, not a cold,

hard, cynical judge of
had been too true
God
for that.
human
to himself
If in
nature,
and
reality
he
the clear light of that close
approach to God he had seen and

terrible
for
and too near to his
man's
felt just as clearly
fall,
felt
with
he had also seen
and powerfully the hope
of his rise again, and the majesty of his
traced image on his soul.
God-
Yes, this he saw at
a burning focus and preached with a startling
emphasis.
tes,
He
spoke not as a Plato or Socra-
reasoning out the necessity of a hereafter,
but as " a
man
sent
from God," and seeing
78
of
heaven
hand."
is
one who
God
at
"The kingdom
God.
the realities
feels the
These are the words
us that
we may
has so con-
press through the
thick mists of years and realize the
joy of what
what
is
of
presence of the King.
in the vastness of his love
stituted
of
life
and
to come, to the finite mind, but
is
one eternal now to the
are startled as
we read
infinite.
We
of the vivid expecta-
tion which took hold of the lives of those great
men
of
zations,
ally
God's word
expectations, yea,
reali-
which to the worldly mind seem actu-
nothing
but, despite
up and bore on the souls
upon the current
of
life,
all this,
which
lifted
of their possession
grand, vivid,
strong,
and glorious, almost blending them with those

of the angels of God.
We
Abraham
hear of
going out to the land of promise, one foot of
which he never received, save

place.
of
We
a burial-
as
read of Moses refusing the treasury
Egypt, yet living and toiling as an exile
shepherd.
But why enumerate
for
we have
but to turn to the eleventh chapter of He-
brews and read the great honor

profane history
may
strive
through
roll,
all
which
time to

match, but strive
Now
79
of this very mystery
when He
Jesus speaks
says, " Abra-
ham
my
he saw
rejoiced to see
was glad."
And
to His Father
as
if
in vain.
day
after Christ
we hear
it,
and
had gone back
the apostles speaking
they thought His second coming were
They, according to His own
very, very near.
command, went down into the valley

with trimmed lamps and joyous hearts, as vir.
And we ask,
gins go into the wedding-feast.
What mean all these strange delusions ? Ah,
express
friends,
they are no delusions, but
rious realities, that

rejoicing vision as
of the spiritual
living, glo-
open up before the soul's
it
reaches on into the realm
and eternal and stands face to
face with the joyous unchangeableness of
When
the lawyer,
who grasped
our Lord's words as
with
all
the
soul,
He
God.
the trueness of
spoke of loving God
mind,
and
heart,
said,
" Master, thou hast said the truth," the reply

of Jesus was, "
dom
of
God."
Thou
art
not far from the king-
Yes, the kingdom of
within you, and as that inner
and blends with the

ent and things to
life
come
of
are
life
God
is
responds to
God, things presunited.
Heaven
8o
''MORE
THAN A PROPHET."
touches the present, and

is
at
hand."
Blessed
'*
the kingdom of
man whose
that
is
God
faith
annihilates time, brings the weight and joy of
eternity
down upon
the
God
Enoch-like, walks with

great weight
feels the
tient waitings for
he now
life
and,
he scarcely
for
wrong
of
right
lives,
in
the pa-
but his sin-encom-
passed soul, seeing and realizing so clearly and

vividly the
sway
and rewards,
is
of
rests,
swallowed up
God's
and
for
man.
just such a
He
spoke, worked, and endured as seeing
His and
men up
Him who
is
to his side,
invisible
souls to the
that
life
before his
day, as
in
and he called
and with a
and steady hand pointed

In
him oppressed time
in righted eternity.
John the Baptist was

lived,
judgments
sure, true
all
clear voice
their weary, tossed

faith-lit vision.'
others,
there were
many who could not follow him fully, and

some who would not attempt to follow. It is
an awful power that God has left in the hands
of
men, to annihilate their capacity
ing
Him, and
little
by
little
for realiz-
increasing the dis-
tance between them and
God
claim, with their hearts at
war against God's
until
they ex-
11
purposes, as their
"
shall see
great
prototype
Him, but not now
Him, but not nigh
;"
and
still
away from God they descend

terribly describes
believe me,
it
pressing on
man David
is
no God."
Yes,
have never heard
the most ignorant or degraded heathen
whom
have met, and they have been many, doubt
that there was a

is
so
takes education to produce this
midnight darkness within.
behold
says, " The fool
when he
in his heart there
Balaam,
shall
into that deep
darkness, and stand beside the
hath said
God
some kind of a God.
It
only for the- soul hardened and rehardened
in the glorious light of truths brighter
to descend to this degradation.
the prodigal
of
It is
than day
the voice
son despising the long-en-
joyed bounties of a father's love, speaking as
he goes away from that great love.
No wonder
that plain hearts, dealing with
the stern realities of a sin-cursed world, should
crowd around the great preacher as words

these
tell
fall
like
glowing from his burning heart.
you, the great
preacher's heart
vivid
mark
his
realizations
of
power more surely
than the cold science of his reasoning.

4*
Man
82
will believe
in
it
his heart clasps,
more quickly than
gropes.
tact,
what
and
John spoke
for
and rejoices
what
his
head
from point-blank con-
fired directly at
the
mark
of
human
need and human hope, and he sent the truths

of
God
crushing sin and conquering despair,
until the nation rejoiced in his light,
the contact
things.
And
of
higher,
purer,
the hearts of
liver,
and
felt
better
the disobedient,
thus touched, yearned for and turned to " the

wisdom" and the life " of the just."
CHAPTER XL
RADICALNESS OF JOHN'S PREACHING.
" The axe
is
laid unto the root of the trees." Matt. 3
JOHN'S
his
soul
God
He
formality.
God, and had

clearly as
felt
was too deep
to hide that
in
the
spirit
God's purposes
had studied God
felt
10.
of
by
as a living
the beatings of His heart as
he had seen the tracings of His hand,
the yearnings of His love as strong as the
splendors of His reason.
was more than a form
He knew
He was
that
life,
God
and be-
hind every plan was a purpose, from every tree

there must
come
back as close to
before the
fall,
fruit.
He
once more went
God as were Adam and Eve

who heard and felt the living
presence moving amid the garden scenes

as
he entered
King, and
felt
this
and
presence-chamber of the
the measureless tides of His
love :;weep through and over his soul, he was

lifted
by these powers up above and borne by
84
them on beyond those men-teachers'
cold, for-
mal, " washing of cups," tithes of mint, anise,
and
cumin," buildings
prophets' sepulchres.
him power
at
garnishings
and
This
it
of
was that gave
one mighty stride and with a
steady hand to lay the axe at the root of the

tree, and speak those terrible words of warn-
breaking like herald thunders before the

judgment crash. Coming straight from God
ing,
to " prepare the
ings
fell
way
of the
Lord,"
his
warn-
like the echoes of the Judge's
own
voice on the barrenness of the souls of men.

He who is more afraid of disturbing the
man-grown fungus about the
ordinances of
about their dishonoring the

nature, purpose, mercy, and love of that God,
reformer is no
can never be a reformer.
God than he
is
compromiser with
patcher of ordinances, no
men, no conservative man he must be "a

man sent from God," and his soul must be enon by
tirely pervaded, overwhelmed, and swept
;
the aims, will, and nature of Jehovah.
John did not

their
ritualism
descend among men

or discuss
tangled formalities.
He
their
stood
Thus,
to criticise
inextricably
in
the
pres-

doom
ence of God, and proclaimed the
come from what source
fruitlessness',
and
through what
It
not been honored, and
marvellous
is
When
thing Avas needful,"

safety,
He
it
might
die.
deludes and
perplexities about
told
Jesus
might,
it
must
it
how Satan
damns men with worry and

details.
of all
combinations,
countless
conclusions, contortions, or neglects
God had
85
Martha
" one
spoke a great law of
and that one thing
is
man's
The compass must be
relation to
his
God.
all
the worry and care about the rigging and
correct, else
canvas cannot hold the ship true to her course.
men must
So
not
make barren
the
ordi-
the great heart-purposes of God,
nances, yea,
They must
with their traditions.
ever open
His blessed word with the voice, echoing deep
down
not
in their hearts,
sacrifice,
"
He will
have mercy and
" struggling on up to be the
chil-
the tenderness, liveness, and fulness of a child's love) of their " Father which
dren (with
is
in
all
heaven."
John
against
laid his
all
hand with the stroke
of a giant
the false securities and relationships
of a deluded materialism.
Men had
long been
"MORE THAN A PROPHET
86
back upon the
falling
fact that
they were
chil-
dren of Abraham, and trusting that God's love
Abraham would prove
for
and
all
them
efficacious to
of this, too, in the very teeth of the
prophet's utterance, " The soul that sinneth,
it
John crushed that hope as with a

sledge-hammer of truth " Think not to say
shall die."
within yourselves,
father
for I say
We
have Abraham to our
unto you, that
God
is
able of
these stones to raise up children unto Abra-
Do
ham."
not go back to the past for safety
toward the mark until the race
press on
is
won.
Ah,
it
a sad day for individual, state, or
is
church when the eye of hope turns to the past
when weakened
enterprise,
children, sapped
" Your claim to sonship,'
tors for support.
says St. John,
"must be
ture
good."
ere
it
is
God's kingdom,
true
energy
of
and hardihood, lean on their ances
ratified
by
In the higher
spiritual kinship
life
alone
Lazarus, beggar though he be,
pillow his head on
na-
like
of
lives.
may
Abraham's bosom, while a
princely Dives, claiming the sonship of Abra-
ham,
is
told there
is
an impassable gulf be-
87
Thus the very stones may, by
tween them.
God's power, assume a nature more
mony
with that of God's kingdom
hearts
made
love.
Yes,
in har-
than the
harder than stones by abused

thus spake the
leather
girded
preacher, and shook the foundations of men's
He
belief.
showed
emptiness
its
empty
the
before
casket,
their
men
Truly did he prepare
souls.
and
deluded
to ask for
without whose life-giving love, warm-
Christ,
ing,
crushed
fruit-producing power,
all
their
trusted
system was but a shadow, a soul delusion.
The same God,
before
whom John
and spoke that day on the banks

stands
now
stood
of Jordan,
here behind each professing heart,
each religious system.
His nature has not
His purpose has not shifted.
His
religion sent abroad into the world has
been
changed,
rebaptized in the blood of His only-begotten
Not only does He
Son.
of the tree,
lay the axe at the root
but with His pruning-knife
passes through the branches, cutting
To-day you own
fruitlessness.
King
v
;
but, as
must prove
it
in
John's time,
your mere word
is
Him
so
away
as
He
all
your
now, you
not sufficient
"MORE THAN A P ROP BET."
88
the currents of
life
and onsets of the enemy are
too strong and real for mere idle words or emo-
Simon Peter gave
tions.
his
word he would
sooner die than betray Jesus, but

of
Him
day he had denied
and God demand proof
devils,
and that proof
is
fruit
but the result of a
live
ity,
Yes,
it is
We
a nature.
fruit."
"
nor
of thistles."
figs
Ye do not
We
a tree to
hidden
make
from
Christian's
must
strength
great
show the power
of
so
to
As
the
the
and
confi-
outside world
not, cannot intermeddle here.
is
him
soul, in the
the temple of the living God."

heart
of
within
love
The
of
the roots are
hidden
secret
roots
sources
when the
dence, lays hold of God.
must
its
to
are
of
by
a tree
You must be good
good.
sight,
power
in full play.
know
'*
gather grapes of thorns,
inner devotion
that
dawn
men,
your sincer-
of
nature
attend
it
the
Ah
not an act or two,
yield good, live Jesus to

Jesus.
in
thrice.
"
Ye
are
Yes, your
that true inner sanctuary where hourly
sacrifices
and incense are offered up.
bringing thought,
will,
It
is
hope, love, feeling, and
bathing them in the sweet, deep purposes of
89
Look to your great silent moments of

life, your moments of hushed inner devotion,
of which David spoke when he said, " All my
God.
well springs are in thee."
long as your strength
is
Like Samson, so
a sweet secret
your heart and your God, so long
mighty
in the
between
you be
will
armies of Jehovah.
Here, at the beginning of the Gospel,
we
see
the axe laid at the root of the tree, and hear
God pledged
Way
ers.
to cut
down
the barren cumber-
over in the evening twilight, just
as the " sun of righteousness"
we
in a sea of blood,
is
about to set
see the withered fig-tree
beneath the curse of the Son of God, as
His
if
soul reaches forward and brings a part of the
judgment before
of the
tree
doom of
the
right
its
time to warn His Church
unfruitfulness.
This was a
name, the right
leaf,
fig-
but not
the right result from God's used blessings
and hence the curse

to
and
its
very roots.
real,
of Jesus
Christianity
must be
and conquering, or Jesus
the candlestick.
We
went withering
will
live,
remove
are as deeply concerned
with the very tap-root of God's nature as was
John the
Baptist, for our souls
and our true-
Dead
ness are as really at stake as was his.
formality or cold orthodoxy are as blighting
and blasting now

Let the hand
laid
was then.
Phariseeism
as
of the
mighty man
of
God be
on the innermost purposes of our
and the warnings of
God-opened
his
us faithful and true.
God
is
lives,
lips
keep
a living God, a
God with a purpose, and that purpose burning

with
all
the intensity and wideness and om-
nipotence of His nature.
but seek the
and
feel
Narrow
it
Him
in
you the hope
not down,
you are His,
spirit of Christ until
of glory,
and
life is " hid with God in Christ Jesus," there

resting where " perfect love casteth out fear."
Would you hear

sent His
Son
the purpose of
God
God
into the world to save the world.
Would you know the only tap-root by which

you may live? " As my Father sent me, so
send
you."
CHAPTER
XII.
JOHN TO THE ECCLESIASTICAL LIFE OF HIS

DAY.
"O
generation of vipers,
from the wrath
to
come
JOHN THE
who hath warned you

Matt. 3 7.
heart,
was a man
and
spised, ostracised publicans
access to him, and gave
them up
to the
this
of great,
gave the de-
and outcast harlots
him power
to lead
God in forces like

which scene made Jesus ex-
kingdom
a besieging army
to flee
BAPTIST
warm
tender,
?"
of
claim, " From the days of John the Baptist

until
now
lence,
the kingdom of heaven suffereth vio-
and the violent take
the people
felt
and close to
it
by force."
Yes,
the heart of John beating
theirs.
warm
But there was one
among them, and they are among

every generation, who found the
the
class
men
fierce
of
burn-
ings of a fiery indignation flashing forth from
the
lips of
bim.
John
That
ducees.
class
like
the sword of the cheru-
was the Pharisees and Sad-
Those were the names they bore
in
92
John's day
but they
on under a thousand
live
names, but ever the same nature, and

spirit
and not the name
at
the
is
it
which the Baptist
hurls God's message of indignant condemnation.
Now, what was
spirit,
which from the days
moment
has called forth the
that
of Cain until this
anathemas
fiercest
and
God,
the living
of
stands most repugnant to the very essence of
His nature, the

the idolaters of
votaries
of
spirit of
formalism,
religious
ready to roll their idols
who
stand
is
tender, and
and loving, and true
in
human
pleading for mercy or craving to be
hearts,
loyal
live,
are
on with fanatical speed,
like a Juggernaut, over all that
weak, and
They
His being?
ecclesiastical ritualism, blind
to
their
God, yet not seeking or not
craving in the grooves and ruts of the prevailing system. Yes, they press on in cold-blooded,
mechanical blindness, crush the

drils that
do
all in
and ten-
ties
entwine souls to their God, and yet

the
name
of
God
men who
can see
nothing but their own narrow idea of

men who cannot learn what means, "
have mercy, and not sacrifice"

cry of the
Lamb
of
God
God
men who
Himself, "
We
will
can
have

a law, and
Him
cify
by our law he ought to
Him
crucify
93
Cru-
die.
Such men were
!"
met, as they drew near the second Elijah, with

the startling, scathing greeting, "
generation
who hath warned you
to flee from
of vipers,
Of
all
men who
humanity
?"
come
the wrath to
need, and which the good of
demands, a
in high position
he get
it,
God, bold and
the wrongdoers
it is
but, alas
unless there
unsparing, and
bold,
full-exposing denunciation,
how seldom does
some man
is
sent from
enough
self-sacrificing
to chal-
lenge the might of these Ahabs, like
and John, rend the
show the world
Elijah
veil of thin hypocrisy,
their inner vileness,
dead men's bones and
all
and
full of
'
uncleanness,"
as
Jesus said.
Now, such men

are
as the scribes
the enemies most
Christian Church.
Up
from which
of
men
in that clear
his soul
their doctrine
in
the
John did not overstate the
truth in calling these
vipers."
and Pharisees
be dreaded
to
" a generation of
atmosphere of truth
looked down, the poison
was
realized
deadly than the serpent's fang
to
be more
one but
killed
"MORE THAN A PROPHET.'
94
men's
other destroyed
the body, the
souls.
There are men who deal not honestly with God

and themselves, and they may be men with
widely-differing creeds.
two
In St. John's day no
sects appeared farther apart than Pharisees
and Sadducees
one was the
man
struggling on
under an overwhelming load of religious formality,
the other denying the very existence of a
hereafter at
The Sadducee sprung
all.
as a re-
action from the hollowness which he saw in the

Pharisee, as infidelity will ever shoot a fungus
from the trunk of a hollow-hearted religious

mality.
When men
pretending there
is
fessors can see there
that burdens,
for-
see professing Christians
a
is
power where non-pronone, and demanding
the doctrines of men, be
bound
on human hearts as essentials to gain heaven

I
say,
are
when men
apt to say,
there
after.
is
"
see and feel this falsity they
" All religion
no soul or
And
so
spirit
we have our
is
there
a delusion;
is
no here-
Pharisee and Sad-
ducee, our hollow-hearted Christian of formality
and
his
from his side

viper's fang.
companion the
infidel
a two-headed monster
springing
with the
"MORE THAN A PROPHET/'
No wonder
95
John's soul was stirred within
him when he saw the Pharisee, who had so

long professed to need nothing greater than his
countless forms, and denouncing as lost and
degraded beings
who
all
stand before him and
lacked these forms,
trembling under the
burning power of his living word, ask food,

heart-food,
man
from the
sent of God.
And
then to see by the side of the proud Pharisee

the infidel Sadducee,
who
said
he needed noth-
ing more than provisions for this short journey

across
earth,
beyond.
for
there
was
nothing
more
Yet, despite this belief, the few re-
maining nerves of
life
within the soul trembled
the words of God, and responding to His
at
power, did awake to a dim consciousness of a

great hereafter.
Let us give John the Baptist
full credit for
in the astonishment which speaks

through his words, " who hath warned you to
sincerity
flee
from the wrath to come?"
Where had
Yes,
who?
the self-confident formalist and the
blind infidel heard, where

startling vision of
had they seen a
coming wrath
What had
broken through that sleep so near akin to
eter-
g6
nal
them
and alarmed
death,
John was
astonished to find the power of his message
sounding to hearts so buried
in sin.
He
hardly
expected to see these bones, so dry, awake to

at
life
wonder took
shape his
mercy gave
"
Who
Let
prophesying.
his
God
truly,
for,
the
note
us
in
a divine utterance.
it
hath warned you to
from the
flee
wratJi to come f"
John was a man that had no
doubts of a
hell,
and that a
dispensation
when God's wrath would

horrors that made his
upon the
hell to
come
spirit in
And
soul tremble for the sinner.
ready the wrath of
God
burst
great
he saw
in vivid flashes
al-
playing
before these terrible sinners, and he spoke as

a true
man.
herald
He
had
of
felt
God and
a true friend of
a sad, hopeless conviction
doom of these men, and spoke it out

when he saw them, too, rushing toward the city of refuge. He gave them a strong,
honest pull when he told them, " Begin not to
about the
candidly,
say within yourselves,
Abraham," but
mercy
We
fly
with
of the living
God.
Have we been
are
all
the children of
your power to the
as honest, as live, as true,
and

as
97
great in our dealings with sin and
Have we stood
tions of
truth
come" with
as close to
And
God
in
men
our realiza-
talked of the " wrath to
the courage of faithful sentinels on
Zion's walls
our King, fully reiter-
Jesus,
ated the teaching and warnings of John on
when He hurled the
these very sins,
terrible
thunders of His seven woes against them, with
power that makes the
a scathing, withering
heart of faith feel as
if it
the bursting realities of
already stood amid

the day of wrath.
John's skirts will be clear of the blood of these

sinners, as they
umn, down
move
on, one long black col-
parallel to the
of God, but into the
But where
will the
woes
march
of the
Church
of sure death.
timid, doubting preach-
ers or witnesses stand,
who
dared
let
men go
on day after day, year after year, by their very

side, into the
out boldly
jaws of death, and never spoke
Could a Dives
come back
preach, his text would be but
to
one, and his
sermon forever the horrors of the " wrath to
come."
5
CHAPTER
XIII.
JOHN THE BAPTIST TO THE SOCIAL LIFE OF

HIS DAY.
"
And
the people asked him, saying,
What
shall
we do
He
answereth and saith unto them, He that hath

two coats, let him impart to him that hath none
and he
that hath meat, let him do likewise."
Luke 3 10, n.
then?
RELIGION
and
are united.
vitality
the
life in all
together, as
must move through the organism
human body.
Yes,
duties and cares, back of
sorrows, back of
stands God.
scribe,
departments
its
They must go
all
back
all
of
all
of
these
these joys and
these hopes
and
fears,
This was that something which
Sadducee, and Pharisee had
in
common
with the harlot, publican, soldier, and com-
mon
this "
people, that sent
man
sent
them
from God."
in
one body to
Each wanted
to
know what message his King had sent unto

him, what new light would flash along each
respective path of
life
from the source of
all
We
life.
have heard that message of John to
the ecclesiastic
and
hereafter),
ings with
99
which we may say more
(of
is
it
noticeable that his deal-
them come nearer those
of our
Lord
than with either of the other two classes, for

they appear so hardened in selfishness and
that there was
little
for
them save the
sin
calling
of their remaining consciousness to the terrors

of the
wrath to come.
to be reached
They were
by an appeal
powers of the
life
that
now
is,
weight of glory of that which
Hence they appear more
too far gone
to the glories and
and the eternal
is
just before us.
like the
condemned
than the children of hope, and the storm of
wrath blackens above them as they advance

along the line to the logical and inevitable conclusion of their principles
viz.,
war against
Jesus in the very essence of His being.
In the treatment of the social and

there
Jesus
is
a striking difference between
the
difference
between the
twilight of a dying dispensation
ing
dawn
new
John and
evening's
and the burst-
dispensation.
That
differ-
may be briefly, comprehensively, and livesummed up in one word " Father." John
ence
ly
of a
civil life
-MORE THAN A PROPHET."
ioo
God
does not dwell upon the fatherhood of
but Jesus makes this the great central sun of
His system, that which must hold

ies
and forces thereof
gantic might, and yet
by
in their orbits
draw each and
grand, harmonious action by
and
the bod-
all
light every one's self
its
its gi-
all
on
intense
in
life,
and path with a glory
its own, and still a beam of splendor from this great " Father of Lights." It
peculiarly
would seem that

the
life
this
very difference between
and teachings of John and His
teachings was playing in

the Saviour's
asked
Him
mind when the
to
life
and
force through
full
disciples
came and
" teach them to pray, as John
taught his disciples. " The
lips of
Jesus opened,
and from the fulness of His soul He breathed

the glothe eternal words, " Our Father"
;
rious voice of the

after the
Christian
morn breaking
shadows of the Mosaic
Yet there was something

and warmth
of
God's nearness
twilight.
of the
in
life,
glow,
the words of
John that called the hungering souls and burdened hearts of the multitude to him. He had
the true light and glow of the true Sun, and
its
fires
played through the evening
clouds,

them with the
lighting
own, just as
its
it
ioi
glories nearest akin to
departs
so the evening
twilight of the old dispensation
was lighted
from the true glory of one side of that Sun of

Righteousness, soon to rise with healing on
His wings, shining " brighter and brighter unto
the perfect day."
We
now
turn to watch this light play along
the walks and through the lives of men,
the kindling glow of
its
powers
who
felt
firing their bo-
soms, and lighting their hopes to higher, truer,

livelier
realizations
of
themselves and God.
These awakened emotions burst forth from the

lips of
the crowds as they mingle in the vast
multitude and press up to John with the question,
"What
shall
we do then?"
These are
words from hearts no longer content to

the
mere opus operatum
whose souls had seen
of
really,
rest
but
it
on
men
may be
religion
dimly, that religion was a personal, individual

relationship of
life
to
God, as well
tions of a vast organism.

of
God had
lovingly,
If
as the
mo-
the fatherhood
not as yet risen clearly, warmly,
and hopefully before their
royal priesthood of
man
souls, the
confronted them like
102
the dim
outlines
advancing
obscure
but
ever-
and men began to move and
figure,
rejoice at that
an
of
which they found within them-
same time trembling before the
selves, at the
majesty of their own being. They had touched

the vast
human
sea of
Their opening
life.
eyes beheld the ceaseless, boundless sweep of

God-filled
its
catch
"
the
What must we do
Now,
of
men
its
would
mighty
tides.
us ever bear in mind that this
let
seeking
man
stature of
of
fain
then ?"
men
not the question of
true in
and they
fulness,
pulsations
all
that
is
is
seeking Christ, but
noble and pure and
men reaching up
their manhood under
;
for
the
full
the reviving
consciousness of the mighty truth that
" in
God made He man," and that

God had breathed from His own nostrils the
the image of
His
breath of
therefore,
men may
Christianity,
or
and must
man,
as
acter as
man.
him.
rise
is
Whatever,
say or think of Jesus,
any system
question before us
lips
into
life
of
religion, this
one that belongs to the
from the heart of eyery true
And
the answer of such a char-
John the Baptist, who was the greatest

of
woman
his
manhood towered above
103
born, in the glory and majesty of
prophets, priests,
and kings, standing by the side
warriors,
Jesus as earth's
loftiest
of
mountain-peak stands
beside, reaches highest up into the falling sun-
Grand above
light.
his fellows, glorious in his
man must weigh

human judgment.
splendor, the answer of such a
mightily in the balance of

It
was
John was peculiarly
a question
answer,
for
it
wrestled with through
all
tensity of his wilderness

until he, too,
fitted to
was one he had grappled and

that awful, lone inlife
wrestled
Can we
an Israel without a shrunken thigh.

for a
moment
heart-beat
of
stand close enough to hear the
that
How
moment
great man, as this mighty
this
question of living
swer
with
might truly be named " Israel,"
is
him
laid before
for
an an-
awfully grand must have been

of life to
John
As he looked
into the vast consequences of living lighted
own
before him by the truth of God's
saw heaven with

and
hell
with
all
all
beaming with the
up
nature
the consequences of right,
the horrors of wrong, one

intensity of
love
other with the intensity of justice
and the
and
in the
104
Eternal Presence to feel the heart of humanity
asking his own,

surely,
of his
it
"What
shall
we do then?"
must have made him clasp the hand
God more
firmly with the grip of faith
as his inner soul cries out, " Lord,
who is suffiWhatever may have
cient for these things?"
been the power or depth of inner emotions, no
may
outer token
tells.
truly, vastly,
and victoriously grappled
its
It
broad consequences
that
now he
be that he had so
in his
life
and
lone wrestlings
speaks as the victor and not the
combatant. His words are those of a
man
look-
ing the sublimity of every-day-life squarely in
the face, and feeling
"
ence.
part to
meat,
He
glory as a living pres-
two
him that hath none

let
coats, let
;
the garden of
It is
Eden
him im-
and he that hath
him do likewise."
God's own nature

in
its
that hath
How
almost as
if
true
to
we stood
four thousand years ago
and saw the hand of the Almighty wrapping

the sin-stripped body of humanity, girding
with strength, and nerving
it
it
with sympathy
for life's hard struggle.
This sent the multitudes home, not with a
new
formality, but with a deeper, livelier, near-

er sense of the
brotherhood of humanity.
we hear John, as it
of men into one vast
these words
the hearts
to
them over
hand
Brother,"
105
their
to
who would joyously
In
were, calling
family, ready
great
lead
" Elder
them
He
the face of their long-lost Father.
to
gives
them an essential principle, without which

they cannot lay hold of the " fatherhood of
God."
man
Here, then,
down deep
life,
his very kinship to
tions
and
the very root of hu-
in
in
man's
God,
upon which Jesus
He
when He
thority,
Put
as thyself."
all
the obliga-
lays His kingly hand,
speaks with His kingly ausays, " Love thy neighbor
which
to
essential nature,
rises
the
fatherhood
of
God
behind these, and we have the power behind

the organism which
through the
vast,
is
to
grand
sweep the Church on

fields of
her militant
and missionary existence, and enthrone her
power
in that
kingdom " eye hath not
seen.
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the

heart of
man," but which God has prepared
for her as the "
Son."
5*
Queen-bride"
of his
own
"
king-
CHAPTER
XIV.
JOHN THE BAPTIST TO THE NATIONAL LIFE

OF MAN.
"
Then came
also publicans to be baptized,
him, Master, what shall we do
Exact no more than

soldiers
that
which
demanded
likewise
And
is
and said unto
he said unto them,
appointed you.
of him, saying,
And the
And what
shall we do?
And he said unto them, Do violence to no
man, neither accuse any falsely and be content with your
;
Luke
wages."
f~^
OD
^^
is
12-14.
not only the
He
this
is
in
power ever dared
to be.
of the individual
good
mass, never
be
so
of the individual.
He
no other
never loses sight
for the
benefit of the
content that ninety-nine should
is
in the fold so
He
God
a sense that
long as one
is
missing
and
never sets the seal of His approval on
any system,
ecclesiastical
mars the glory
or political, which
of individual
man for His

God is King of
manhood
or for-
But, beyond
gets the
system.
this,
kings and Lord of lords.
He
is
all
the Judge of the whole earth, and Je-

hovah
is
man
mander-in-chief of
may be
the
God
of war,
national
true, find its source in our
the Church of
in
God does
that proportion
state,
of hosts,
armies
all
of
trait
107
Com-
and whatever
life,
it
God.
must,
if
Further, as
her perfect work, just
her
will
life
pervade the
not by the out-reaching of an arbitrary
hand, and laying hold of the reins
attempts
sword
it
is
"
written,
shall perish
He
spirits of
and executive departments,
for all such
that taketh
by the sword"
pervade the hearts and
the
but she shall
the legislative
as the pure atmos-
phere pervades their bodies, giving health, joy,

beauty, and power to
all in
a boundless, silent,
living greatness.
There was something
in
the words and pres-
ence of that Wilderness Preacher that reached
and touched with

live in
church or
living
power
And
state.
all
that
that
life
was
within
warm
the state
leaped glad response to his
touch,
a nearness, a kinship to him, and an
felt
obligation and
sympathy
in his
message, that
scribe or Pharisee could not awaken, nor feed
when once awakened.
So we
see, in the eager,
anxious crowd pressing hard to get a word
108
from the
of this
lips
burned a living
love of
whom
soul, the worldly, tricky tax-
soldier, followed,
It
in
and the rough, overbearing, turbulent
collector,
self.
man
great
by and by, by the King Him-
a vast mistake to imagine that the
is
God and
the pleadings of His spirit
do not follow men and women into haunts

life
has set
much
tered
seal
its
upon them.
it
much sooner than
it
of sinners,
did the
In
a self-righteous Jew.
but intense ministry
among
homes
my own
of
brief
the lowest grades
have been startled
at the reality
God's presence to the consciences of these
One may
sinners.
flash of light
had asked
me
well find a record here, as a
from a dark place.

to visit a brothel,
his lost sister lay dying.
such a
"
Salvation stood
nearer the house of Zacharias, and en-
many
of
of
long after the scorn of a Pharisaic society
woman were
"Is she sick?"
Yes. "
walk."
there,
in
where he heard
went, inquired
if
"Yes, but able to

In a few mo-
of nineteen, with the
pallor of consumption on her
Everything
brother
and was answered,
asked to see her.
ments a young woman
face,
entered.
her appearance bore the mark of

rigid
and determined resistance to any attempt
toward her soul's salvation.

her
"
if
she were
the
arose and asked
my
of
sister
Yes/' was the cold and indifferent
have come,
tell
you that your brother

and
cide this morning,

" I
know
soul was appalled.
woman,
is
" I
reply.
and to
committed
now
sui-
lying a corpse at
My
it," she coldly said.
man
had never seen one,
so young, yet buried in such appar-
my
most being.
eyes
saw the gathering shadows of
face, I
death surely deepening there.

pity pierced
my
Fixing
ent cold-blooded stolidity.
on her
friend.
at his request, to see you,
his house.
or
109
tender, sad
heart and pervaded
Like a
of
flash
my
inner-
lightning the
stroke of pity rent the veil of stolid indiffer-
ence from her heart, and
it
burst forth in
flood of bitter tears and deep, agonizing sobs.

I sat in
silence until she
then she told
me
was able to speak, and
her heart's sad story, and
showed the unmistakable evidences that the
Good Shepherd had never ceased

lost
sheep even
said, " I
in a
have been
teen months, and
den so
vile
am
His
and so low.
She
shame
eigh-
in this life of
now
to seek
dying.
know
it,
no
and

soon be gone
shall
my
do not think
soul
but though
is
now, and never have been

front
pass.
rest.
cannot
able, to
here,
go to that
window and look upon innocent people

A few Sunday evenings ago I was in
my room
and heard the people
house singing.
school
I
at
am
hymns
wept
lay and
It
was one
went
it
tender,
Sunday-
old
my
heart.
bitterly in the lone dark night."
she was gone.

it
my
straight to
Such were her words, and

scene, for
of
next
in the
few short days
have often gone back to the
has framed for
faithful,
in a
me one
most
of the
my
and loving pictures of
And
me
Saviour's long suffering and seeking love.
whenever the enemy of men whispers to

that this or that
demption,
man
or
woman
is
beyond
look at this poor fallen
re-
girl,
and
hear the voice of Jesus from her inner
life
saying, "
the
life
the
life
of
am
still
St.
pleading."
was
this in
John, but infinitely more in
of Jesus, that enabled
and woo the outcasts from

cruel,
It
hard hand.
Him
to reach
society's
cold,
This recognition of
the
depth of God's reach of mercy by John permitted Jesus to testify of his ministry
"
:
The
HI
publicans and harlots believed him ;" yea, went

into
kingdom
the
hearted,
of
respectable
God before the hardmen and women who
spurned and scorned them.

ners and sins
by
their
lished fashions of
Men
judge
sin-
antagonism to the estab-
society, but
deadening power on the
soul.
God by the
And when
John came from God he brought
large
share of God's sympathy and trueness in dealthe sinner and his
ing with
he
Yes,
sin.
brought to his ministry a soul, on which was

deeply graven, "
God will have mercy and not

Thus commissioned, he dared ap-
sacrifice."
proach the inner courts of men's
lives
with his
message, and approached with the stride of
power and word
of authority, the
power and
authority of love.
We
now
turn
to look at the publicans
they gathered around John.
as
Long had they
been outcasts from the Temple's
religion,
and
perhaps had learned to hate as bitterly as they
were hated
by
that very hatred gathering vitality
a consciousness of the fact that their treat-
ment,
in
the
name
nature of God.
of
God, was contrary to the
But one day a messenger
112
''MORE
THAN A PROPHET."
passes and tells a strange story.
strong
man down by
the
There
is
Jordan preaching,
and he knows nothing of these refined
distinc-
tions of sins so rife in Jewish society.
That
is
something
in
news
this
to the publicans.
man
There
is
they have been waiting
they crowd around him.
for,
and so
His bold, honest,
open-hearted and heart-opening words assure
them, and they are ready to accept nim as
The very manhood
their leader.
commands them,
erate
begetting degenerate
men, and no reformation

reformation of
man
so will the
whole
line
of
can be no degen-
for there
without
religion
manhood
be.
life
man
of the
of religion without
;
for as the heart
is
Thus, touched along the
by the
played and flashed from this
life
man
powers that
of
God, they
come, asking,
"What
shall
we do?"
There
is
a direct-
ness, a practical earnestness that promises at
once living co-operation.
what
shall
we
believe, or
what formality
isn't
It
whom
shall our faith
so
much
follow, or with
be clothed
but
the question was a live question, asking boldly

for a live religion
What
shall
we do
They

grasped at once the great truth
his
creed
said, "
and anticipated
By
their fruits
The answer
ye
John
of
is
than that which
less direct
"
strange catechism, a very limited

life's
duty, and that negative in
How
do we account
answer
is,
for this
and
Exact no more
appointed you."
is
life is
when He
judge them."
no
honest than their question
a man's
Jesus
shall
113
its
brief,
survey of
obligation.
meagreness
The
John stood between two dispensa-
and was not laying the law down for either,
tions,
but was ever conscious that his Lord came

close after him, with His fan in
who would
with
fire."
to respond
Lamb
of
baptize " with the
He was
physician, he
And
knew
was to cure the

taken at a dose.
home
holding men's
when he should
God."
to a vast
His hand, and
Holy Ghost and
cry, "
lives
ready
Behold the
then, too, like a wise
that the medicine which
sin-sick soul
could not
be
all
This one sentence sent them
work
of reformation
that would enlarge their longings for
work
more
of
God's grace, and so prepare them for Christ.

This brief sentence
may have
planted
the
seed which unfolds for a world the characters
H4
"MORE THAN A PROPHET.*'

Martha and a Zacharias
of a
its
full
could
force
modern business
and hearts
lives
the
homes
of thousands
would be unburdened,
would be exalted to the
feet
John's day this would send a
In
of Jesus.
to-day
if
be brought down upon
of millions
many
while
life,
and
reformation through the entire system of
civil
make him a benefactor of his

The oppressed people without felt
oppression, and
people.
the trueness,
felt
courage, and greatness of the
while the more oppressed
charge,
the
their lives,
publicans
ringing like a clarion-peal, through
call,
and calling them up to true man-
hood.
We
now come
to face
John and the
soldiers
on the banks of Jordan, and we do so with
Only they who
deep emotions of sympathy.

have been buried
until
all
in a
classification of
individuality and
men
sympathy seems hid
from the outer world can appreciate
fully the
wild
for
beatings
warmer and
of a soldier's
clearer
of
life
heart
that
sympathy which
recognizes his individuality and never forgets
he
is
forget
man
my
with a heart
soldier years,
in
him.
shall
never
when men would send
me
warm my
to their kitchens to
15
hands, or to
their barns to sleep, with an air of satisfaction
on their faces which spoke that they had done

all
my
position demanded.
well, riding along with
Once,
ing
ice of
We
the prevail-
we saw
a pointer
rich door-mat,
when my
Passing a house,
sleet.
remember
a fellow-soldier.
were both covered with the
dog curled up on a
companion remarked,
" It
would be good
somebody's dog." All soldier
life
to be
was not like
now and then there were men

and women who could see the man shine out
this, of
course
through
the
dusty
uniform,
and
hear the
heart's soft beat above the sabre's clanging
and such moments to the memory are
diamonds
set
like
emeralds, bright, fresh, and
in
joyously flashing gladness and gratitude, on
down
I
the path of
life
upon the pilgrim
think such must have been the
the
Roman
moments
soldiers as they stood before
the Baptist and
felt his
their
life
of action
John
way down out
sight of the encasing mail that fenced
from their fellow-men.
to
great man-heart beat-
ing close beside their own,
to
heart.
And
they, too,
them
of
off
prompt
and obedience,
ask,
n6
"
"MORE THAN A PROPHETS
And what
we do?"
shall
Here, again, we
catch the true idea, flashing out from

natural walks
and
duties, with a clearness
religious theorizers
could
life's
which
God
not attain.
does not make religion for the schools alone, but

for
man, and
The answer
lays
of St.
ly practical, as
it
it
broadside of
John was
was
direct
fearless
human
and manly, and
true to individual, community, and state.
brotherhood of
soldier
man must be
life.
and intense-
recognized.
The
The
must give that which he missed most
out of his
own
life
individual right.
He must
be upright as a man, and preserve his manhood.
Next, he was not " to accuse any
falsely."
There were to be no
class
wrongs.
His citizenship was to be kept untarnished,
and
content with your wages."
and true independence

than his worth
is
Here was loyalty
whoever wants more

All through
dishonest.
trace one master idea
it is
And
the image of his God.

into
the
brawny
Through the word he
we
John seeking the
individual and trying to stand
out
Lastly, " be
his truthfulness held sacred.
him upright
his
arms
in
power flowed
of
the
state.
spoke, ecclesiastical life

had been pruned and exalted
been warmed and widened
purified
made
and softened
innocent,
social life
civil life
military
and ennobled
all
in
camp-fire.
the state, family
circle,
had
had been
touched,
life
and naturally, there was scarcely a

heard
117
so
softly
jar or clash
or
by the
CHAPTER
XV,
JOHN'S RECORD,
" He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet
John
Esaias."
MAN'S
A
*
23.
greatness depends on his form-
ing a true estimate of himself and his
*-
New
duty to God and man.
life
forth from the wilderness preacher.
had burst
It
swept
out to those so long slumbering in formality
and self-security about the old dispensation.
The
priests
startled,
and Levites
Jerusalem were
of
and soon had their representatives by
the side of John the Baptist, examining his

" I am not the Christ," says
credentials.
John
et,"
"I am
not Elias
were the
am
answers to
They could not understand
not that proph-
their
that
questions.
God should
permit such bold proceedings to any one
less
than these, and to show any new claim was

less.
The danger
of
all
ages
is
the underrating

power and an
present
of
119
adoration
the
of
God is a progressive God,

ever advancing in new manifestations of power,
and that these new manifestations require the
livest watch of the whole powers of man to be
past, forgetting that
recognized, grasped, and utilized to his good.
God
the
forbids
labelling
power.
of
The
demonstrations of His might are as numerous
and varied as the
men
yet have trod this earth with the same
forces,
same purpose, with
playing for the
equal proportions through their
men would
Him
would
roll
strong
the
'
Oh,
lives.
in the present,
if
and press
what grand harmony
in the future,
over this divided earth, and what
phalanx
Christian
No,"
God
seek
toward
No two
of heaven.
stars
front
would
be
presented by
When John
answered
to their every question, the Jerusalem
delegation then asked, "
Who
sayest thou of thyself?"
the Christian world John's

"
his
own
in
the wilderness,
life
am the
Make
art
thou
what
This brings before
own sublime
idea of
voice of one crying

straight the
way
of
the Lord, as saith the prophet Esaias."
What
an idea of
life
how
true,
how
grand,
120
how
fits
THAN A PROPHET."
''MORE
and how strong
live,
the words of Jesus
woman, there
of
Baptist."
that living
the hearts
force
is
nota
He
Here
Among
those born
greater than John the
discloses the source
of
power which was sweeping through

of
the nation with a
mysterious
and thoroughness which astounded the
crystallized
ritual
And though we
of
the
replies, yet that
old
dispensation.
have, in a previous lecture,
spoken of the prophecy,
in
which formula John
prophecy
in his lips, as a re-
ply to the questioners of

is
This idea well be-
"
life's
power and aim,
clothed with a new, fascinating
life
to every
one who would seek the true path of immortal
glory
makes
that
exalted walk with
God which
eternal heroes.
John's opinion
of
himself.
He was
the Christ, not Elias, not that prophet.
was no
relic of
the past.
He
on the formalities nor fame

gone.
No
his head, nor did
He
came, not resting
of those
who were
ghostly light from the sepulchre's
mouth came streaming

real
not
powers vaunt
man, but a
live
its
ghastly halo around
any wild presumption of unin
his professions.
man,
in living
He
was
contact with

the
God
living
leaning not
12
on Abraham,
God of Abraham,
One touch from the light
living God is better than all
or Jacob, but on the
Isaac,
Isaac and Jacob.
and glory of the
the honors and splendors of the dead past.
So
and
life
John claimed a
from
direct contact with
God, held
his
his
own
and
individuality,
God's willingness to honor and love that
indi-
This gave him a conscious joy
in his
viduality.
service,
an
elastic,
bounding, glad step along
the path of duty, every step of which he
felt
was directed by the interest and appreciation

of
Next
God.
his
humble opinion
simply a voice, an echo
in
and
mere empty nothing, save
conflict.
as
alded the will and message of God.
he herBlessed
realization, that exalts self to lean entirely
God
But though John realized
his
own
ment underrated the awful grandeur

to do.
on
noth-
ingness without God, yet he never for one
work God gave him
the world's great
void, a note in the great strife
He was
of himself
of
mothe
Though he was
but " the voice of one crying in the wilderness,"

yet to him was intrusted the great work of
" preparing the way of the Lord."
Thus two
122
forces were ever playing in the
drous man, making
it
The
humble and powerful.
life
beautiful
of this
won-
and grand,
sense of humility
and the realization of responsibility
poised
each other like the wings of a strong eagle,
on which
soul
ly,
What
side of
human
here disclosed
is
ship to
ness
up to the
a safe attitude for the
his life soared up,
God.
his
God and man
What a true
What sources
relation-
of great-
to keep self conquered, and second-
first,
to face a world's opposition with dauntless
determination.
There
tist
that
is
one other remark of John the Bap-
is
full
of practical instruction
his " as said the prophet Esaias."

his use of the past prophecies
him
viz.,
This shows
viz., to
He was
to present duty.
point
much
not so
commentator on as a doer of the prophets.
He
felt
the purposes of
them, and sending his
God
life
pulsating through
on deep and strong
with the purpose of Jehovah.
God echoing through

him
to duty.
prevails,
This
of
the prophetic lips called
is
living theology
the very school
afterward set
The words
and
it
upon which Jesus
his own immortal
seal
when He

"
said,
know
any man
If
will
The mere
the doctrine. "
lamps
their midnight
my
do
will,
123
he shall
theorizers
by
can never realize and
wield the living, conquering power of God, like

the brave doers on
life's vast,
Such theories beget the
womb
battle-fields.
gloom
of the
The dark ages were born-through
middle ages.
the
hard
starlight
the monastery,
of
mother
fit
.for
that long night of superstition, dread, and oppression,
ing
all
God
the legitimate outcome of reduc-
to
a speculative system,
contemplation.
passive
These words, from the
John the Baptist, gave a
full
lips of
view of the main
springs of that power which shook the old dis-
pensation to
warm
its
foundation, and brought the
new
closer
and closer
appalling to realize the vast
work God
life-beats of the
to the hearts of men.

It is
intrusts to a single
to
carve his
man,
He
way through
beaten track for any

a
as
sends him forth
There
life.
live soul to tread.
new walk with God along
new way.
other being will ever see and feel

as
you do.
The same waves
strike different lives at the
of
life
is
no
It is
No
as I do,
emotion never
same
angle.
So,
124
after
the
all,
there must be great loneliness
pilgrims,
fulness of
experience
for
prevents
for
we
love,
Now
and glory are manifested
thus forms us for His own

The realization of this made
to God in life's deep commun-
feel nearer
ings and secret springs
life.
this realization
than to any prophet
warm throbs of joy

Would God we had more of
now, that we could feel our-
before him, and
through his
it
sent
selves standing in the presence of
and feeling
this could appreciate
ness, yet take in the vastness
work the Lord
God's
in this,
He
see that
companionship.
John
that
sympathy by which alone they can
look within and reach each other.
wisdom,
among
calls us to do.
Jehovah,
our nothing-
and glory of the
Then would the
soul leap with joy to " prepare His
way," and
press on with the strength of immortality to
"
His paths." Then would we

"
with loyal hearts and true"
go back, and
make
straight
enter the fulness of the brotherhood of saints,
martyrs, and prophets gone

their spirit, work,
before,
sharing
and glory, instead of bend-
ing in cold, unsympathetic speculations over

their
words and
lives.
-MORE THAN A PROPHET."

But we may
being
will
rest
assured this vitality of
opposition.
excite
125
There
will al-
ways be deputations from Jerusalem's dead

formalities to question our commissions to exercise
the
within
us,
powers of
living
the
God
living
simply because their plans and

not
malities are
realizes that
he
is
who
But he
patronized.
just before his Lord,
for-
making
ready for His coming, will have strength to go
on with
his great
commission
have a power with

formalist
down
life
is
souls,
stranger.
yea, more
to
We
to set forms, for life
will
which the mere

cannot narrow
plays yea,
is
countless manifestations, and rushes the soul
on
in contact
with other
life,
great prayer of Jesus shall be

all
shall
"be one"
boundless, endless
God.
life,
in
until at last the

fulfilled,
and we
the vast, fathomless,
glory, joy,
and love of
CHAPTER
XVI.
prosperity's trial.
" Then went out to him Jerusalem, and
all
Judea, and
the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of

in
Jordan, confessing their sins."
T T J E now behold the soul

'
Matt.
all
him
5, 6.
of the Baptist pass-
ing through the subtle but terrible and
deadly dangers of prosperity.
His ministry was
pre-eminently successful, not only in producing

a widespread
in
commotion among
all classes,
accomplishing that whereunto
it
was
but
sent.
John did not come to found a church, but to

He
point people to the " Lamb of God."
came not
as an organizer or builder,
herald of the
call,
King
so,
but a
when people heard
his
submitted to his ordinance of preparation,
and followed the pointing

their eyes rested
of his ringer until
on Jesus, they had reached
the point to which John had
them.
And we
lowing him this
come
see the people as one

far.
to bring
man
fol-
127
What was it that gave him such power ?

Where was the fascination, the mighty attraction in the strong,
brawny gospel
Why
should
men
love
their
hearts
pierced
with
the
relentless
of
John
come and have
to
through
and
through
sword
truth
of
which
he wielded, and their secret confusions shamed
and
doubts
truer
today would do
of
er
the
laid bare in
blaze
well
study,
to
are questions every faithful preacher
a part of his ministry,
down
of
his
These are questions every preach-
life ?
for
and
must make
they reach deep
into those grand relations
between the
man and the nature and life of God.

may say one reason was that God
constituted the human soul that it
heart of
We
has
so
cannot rest
may
long content on a
;<
whisper
God
peace,"
Peace,
Satan
lie.
but
the
soon drown the

cry with the thunderings of " There is no
voice
peace
of
for
the
within will
Man
wicked."
cannot look
eternity, yea, the possibilities of an eternity, in
the face and

that
rest, unless
aching, deep
down
God
he can see
eternity as his friend.

in life's
There
is
in
a dull
hidden depths, for
128
something a
lie
vast sea, with
its
below
ings, far
cannot
And
outward seemings.
arises
is
moanings and surg-
ceaseless
life's
when some man
There
satisfy.
who
cares less for the
people's patronage than he does for their real
good,
less
for their praise
their salvation
whose
he does
than
for
great, true heart feels
with these deep yearnings of his fellow-men;
and whose brave
demn
life
dares challenge and con-
the damning falsehoods of Satan in the
God
presence and grace of
tremble
in
men
will
regardless of
its
pretence and gorgeousness of a
formality, though the high priest be at

will
hear and
the power of his truth and trueness,
head
its
turn their backs on the splendors of a
Herod's temple,
desert
the
eloquence
and
learning of a Gamaliel, and press on into the
wild inhospitalities of the wilderness, to hear
strong words
great
speaking
in
wants of their
ic
music,
of
sincerity
and truth
brave frankness to the depths and

lives.
Polished oratory,
fascinating ceremonies,
artist-
gorgeous,
grand, or magnificent architecture can never
never
never
satisfy
and cure the deep crav-
ings of a world of sin-cursed souls.

But, thank God,
world
troubled
there
is
when
and
129
for
rest
one
of
this
those
troubled spirits feels the strong, firm embrace

of sincerity
and truth around
it,
there comes a
calm, the birth-moment of honest trust, even
though
the very might of
in
sincerity that
its
truth has pierced, as with a two-edged sword,
marrow
the joints and
Jehovah, there
yet
is
many men
left in
of
Thanks be
life.
enough
of
to
the God-image
to feel that
it is
better to
die agonizing in honest sincerity than to live

in
the caresses of
known
we do applaud
hearts
may make
which
true,
is
false
outer show
to hide our
own deepest
whatever demonstration or
self-pride
In our
falsehood.
that
and truest convictions.
Thus
in
did
John
great
the
life
God
bring
How
amid
it all,
from
his
to
Him
feel
see
towering toward heaven, amid
the convulsions and

plause.
men
and thus we
Baptist,
whirlings of
human
his
all
ap-
grand and unmoved he stands
too true to waver for one
God's
high
calling.
He
moment
stands
grander, loftier than the old mountains, whose

wild, craggy steeps
wake
to the echoes of his
13
God-glorifying voice, for he
founded
is
and
upheld by the same mighty hand as they, only

his
an everlasting foundation, while theirs
is
be shaken and pass away.
shall
Amid
man
that
all
meat
is still
still
camels' hair
temple
can do or say for him, his
locusts and wild honey, his raiment
and a leathern
the wilderness solitude, with the
still
grand, deep-bending arch of heaven

still
his cry,
unsoftened by patronage, rings stern and
back
warm
this
at
No wonder
"Repent, repent!"
startling,
Jesus should
admiration, as he gazed
in
type of manhood,
magnificent
and exclaim, " What went ye out into the

derness to see
man
Yea,
clothed in soft
raiment
In times like these in which we
by
scribes
the
for
the
prophet
every
St.
hold
whereby
most
alas
is
live,
?
?
of
to
it
often
becomes us
strength
prevent
where
counted
part
too
pompous pretences
and Pharisees,
power
up.
is.
and success,
success,
lowed
wil-
reed shaken by the wind
say unto you, more than a prophet."
popularity
for
his
girdle,
of
the
to search
and source
this
fol-
of
puffing
Paul says, " Knowledge puffcth up,
We
charity buildeth up."
need heart great-
Give us that, and we are
ness.
131
John the
safe.
Baptist was great of heart as he was of head, as

true as he was wise, as loving as he was strong.
He
was " a man sent from God," and he never
God above him and
trueness of
men
of
felt
the
the sorrows of
beside him, the grandeur, glory, and joy
life
him
within
pressures on
made him
We
praise
all
praise or confusion, of
call,
truly, lovingly,
this living beflesh
and sense,
and seeing truth's
applauding and hom-
its
and pressing
We
by God
need to
as really as
John's Lord and
pressing on after us as
and that our duty
is
and
and upward,
bravely,
and strongly on with the
joys of a glad heart.

life
true,
the clamor of a world's
age-doing multitudes,
sent into
now,
and pleasure of
despite
living
strife.
this strength
the hearing of duty's

standard,
great,
him
press straight forward
want
yond the
these
his heart kept
ever the victor in the
that
He
sight of his messengership.
lost
feel
we
full
are
was John, and
Master
He was
is
as surely
after
John
as really assigned us as
was John's, and we are
just as accountable as
132
The world does not
he was to our Lord.
grow old to
Christ, nor does
est
of ages.
day
inter-
as
it
The kingdom is as dear to Him

was on that when He bared His
to the spear
cross.
as
His loving
and sympathy grow cold through the lapse
Men's souls are
shalt
And
to
side
and stretched His hands on the
when He
day
this
said
as precious in
to the
thou be with
you and
me He
dying
me
cometh us
to
all
fulfil
our
all
life
4<
Paradise."
Thus
it
righteousness;"
He
befor
powers, are sharers in
His work as really as was John

heart-loyal service.
"To
as truly speaks as
did to John the Baptist, saying,
truly we, in
in
His sight
thief,
in his great

"
CHAPTER. XVII.
IN
THE PRESENCE OF THE KING.
"
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John,

But John forbade him, saying, I have
need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?"
Matt. 3 13, 14.
to be baptized of him.
I ^
-*-
HOUGH
Jesus was not yet revealed
the Messiah
as
to
His great herald
prophet," says Farrar in his " Life of Christ,"

" there was something in His look, something
in
the sinless beauty of His ways, something
in
the solemn majesty of His aspect, which at
once awed and captivated the soul of John.
To
others he
was the uncompromising prophet.
Kings he could confront with rebuke, Pharisees,

he could unmask with indignation
fore this presence
Says Stier
and
in
kinds
"
He
all
but
his lofty bearing
be-
falls.
has baptized many, has seen,
some sense seen through men
of
all
but no one like this had as yet been
before him.
They have
all
bowed down
be-
134
fore
him
man bows down, in

own most profound con-
but before this
the irresistibility of his

the sinful
trition,
We
man
in
the greatest prophet."
ask ourselves instinctively,
not John and Jesus acquainted
not two
lives,
be blended together
that sweet, soul-comforting
all
of life's bitters
as
man
There
mere
sees,
is
Why were
Why should
the grandest that ever rose on
the darkness of a world,

in
and sweets
communion
But God sees not
and plans not as man plans.
something deeper and sweeter
There
social intercourse.
is
far
than
a union of
soul, a
oneness of character, a deep undercur-
rent of
sympathy that springs from nearness
God and His
perfection,
reaches beyond
all
which outlives and
mere intercourse
of
Jesus and John
world's associations.
to
this
were
kinsmen, but they were not associated as companions anywhere along

lonely
trials.
life's
hard road of
Yet Jesus and John knew each
other in a deeper, stronger sense than the

of this
world ever can.
Jesus,
men
who saw Na-
thanael under the fig-tree, had never for one

moment lost sound of that " voice in the wil-
derness," and through
all
those soul-wrestlings
He
in the desert
135
watched John, while he was
stamping and graving the living character of

Jesus on his innermost soul, and making him
This
life's reality.
a far safer, grander, and
is
truer position than
to
be watching the mo-
tions of His flesh and blood.
do the
latter,
even kiss the
and be "the traitor"

force
He
and
exclaimed, "
go away."
And
our Lord
Jesus
felt
the
soul-harmony when
expedient for you that
It is
St.
lips of
still.
necessity of this
Judas could
Paul rested on
this
deep
bosom of peace when he said, " Henceforth

know we no man after the flesh."
Here, then, we may humbly bow and adore
the richness of God's wisdom and love in keeping Jesus and John separated, that the world
might see their perfect unity, and His everpresent power to keep.
Here our God shows
us the glorious richness of the "

saints,"
how oneness
communion
of soul gives oneness of
strength and joy, and
how
all
of
whether they can touch hands or

touches, and not hand-touches,
munion
of
in its vastness
God was what made
and
joy.
His are one,

not.
Heart-
make up comThe ideal of
the souls of Jesus and
136
John one
and
it
the basis of
is
all
true, en-
during love and communion.
We come now to the meeting. That must

have been a strange and wondrous scene to the
when
multitude,
before
the
wilderness
whole aspect
a
the Nazarene peasant stood
prophet,
of that dauntless
moment from
to
see
the
man change
in
the stern condemner of sin and
herald of vengeance into the deepest humility

of adoring love
but to no soul present was
the scene so wondrous and awing as to that of
He had
the Baptist himself.
been facing a
hard,' cold-hearted, sin-stupefied people,

lives
and black with the infamies
wrong
priate
for
whom
blemish, " the fairest
of
that
startling,
when suddenly
him the Lamb
altogether lovely."
spotless
the sense of his
deceit
of
of
there stands be-
God, without spot or
among
No
soul-piercing
ten thousand, and
wonder,
in the light
purity, beauty,
and glory,
own unworthiness overpower-
ed him, and the true heart bursts forth

words, "
and
he finds no sermon appro-
one long,
but
" Repent !"

fore
whose
were reeking with the blood of violence
in
the
have need to be baptized of thee."
THAN
''MORE
But now
know Him
A PROPHET."
arises the question,
How
137
did John
Ah, who can say which
myriad of ways
His own
at
of the
command
Jesus
used to touch the soul of His beloved at this
moment
He, who
called Nathanael
by the miraculous
allusion to the fig-tree, Peter
draught of
Mary by
fishes,
name, the Emmaus-going
the sound of her

disciples
breaking of bread, doubting
and
nail-points
enough
spear-thrust.
for
when
by
the
Thomas by the
One look was
to ravish such a soul as that
the Baptist
by the
of
John
hearts are ready to love,
and stand so close together on the vast plains

of eternal truth
and
the more than
electric
fibre
yea,
eternal
life,
will strike the
harmony
one touch
thrill
send
will
through every
grand chords of that
that blends in the raptures of
heaven's resounding anthem of ".Moses and

the
Lamb."
That
to be forgotten
will
be indeed a day never
" the day of the revelation of
the Sons of God,"
when
all
the veils and clouds
that hide " our Father's" children from one
another's love
shall
be rent asunder and
for-
ever rolled away, leaving every raptured child

of
God
heart to heart.
Thank God, such
day
138
and we who have here and there
is
coming
in
our pilgrimage had the
a heaven-toned soul
warm sympathy
of
sweep through our lone
heart-depths, waking raptures
we
that
scarce
had dared dream before, and swelling along our

pathway's loneliness
we may
yes,
songs
like
say and feel "
in
the night
doth not yet ap-
It
who
pear what we shall be ;" for
possible raptures of a spirit as
it
can
the
tell
feels all these
wakings of recognized and recognizing love
But there
this
meeting.
is
another thing that strikes us in
How
was John's bear-
different
ing from that of the world
How
totally ab-
sent was everything that this world honors and
from his ideal
adores,
No
long,
Him.
bosom.
of
sweeping robe
the
Bridegroom
priest
of
adorned
No star of worldly honor decorated His

No purple mantle from kingly court
marked him, but the greatness

lumined the
life
of
His soul
il-
into that holy winsomeness,
and John's soul owned
its
King.
Would
that
the Christian world, after eighteen hundred

years of
training,
would go
as directly
and
firmly clasp the true and beautiful wherever
beats and struggles for
God and
holiness.
it
As

in
the days of John, so now,
brave toward usurping

true
sin,
We
greatness.
we need men,
and humble before
men who
want
call
brood of vipers a brood of vipers, sternly
buke
Herods
sin in the
of
39
modern
a
re-
society, hold
steady the curb of right on malice, covetousness, violence,
and wrong, and yet ever stand
ready to prostrate
powers
a
man
will
all
their holiest
at the feet of Jesus.

is
in his bearing
he be
ness to
in his
man and
toward God, the truer
bearing toward men.

faithfulness to God,
are deep and sincere, go
There
is
meeting
of
it
and truest
The more humble
hand
in
John and the Master.
pearance, and
it
may be
if
they
hand.
another beautiful feature
seems, was expecting Jesus to
True-
of
this
John, too,
make His
ap-
he oft strained his long-
ing eyes over the multitudes as he uttered such
words
as,
'
There standeth one among you,
whom ye know not,

I am not worthy to
the latchets of whose shoes
unloose," expecting to see
the promised sign of the heavenly
scend upon the King of Glory.
God's way
'twas not thus.
John strained
his
It
Dove
de-
But, behold
was not while
eyes in watching, but as his
140
life's
powers bowed to
that the Prince of Glory
came
to him.
Jesus
His place, and comes alongside
in
falls
God-assigned task,
his
toiler as a
Now,
man.
we would
if
we must
look for
of duty,
whatever that duty
Him
the
see Jesus
straight on in the path
may
Many
be.
and grand have been the visions of His glory

that have burst over the path of the faithful
worker, while as yet not one single idle dreamer

has seen His face
in peace.
Abraham saw Him
by the
offering,
and on Mount Mo-
riah
sacrificial
Joseph saw
in
Him
Jacob saw
the
courts
Him
in
Samuel
Him
in
in
Moses
the temple
the days of his banishment,
The Hebrew
and by the threshing-floor.

dren saw
brook of wrestling
the prison's gloom
path
exile's
David
in
at the
the fiery furnace
chil-
Daniel amid
the corruptions of Babylon's courts, and the

lions'
us to
locked mouths.
name
And
the points in
so time
life's
would
stern path of
duty where God has stood before the
and true
hearts, as they
" in that station of

called
John,
them."
it
fail
faithful
were doing their part
life
And when
whereunto
Jesus did
was to receive baptism
at
He had
come
to
His hands,
'MORE
to
THAN A PROPHET."
show He not only loves
to
141
honor
work He has given
us,
with a love as tender and sweet as
to John, " Suffer
becometh us
to
it
but
us,
the
us to do, and says to
He
did
to be so now, for thus
fulfil
righteousness."
all
it
Lord, our precious Saviour, what deeds of love
and glory are
we
are
sanctified
unworthy
by obedience
to do, but that
deeds
Thou
bidst
us do them, and claim a oneness in the work,
saying to
us, too, as well as to
becometh us."
life,
it
Boundless, fathomless, inex-
haustless mystery of love,

fold us in thy
John, " Thus
by which Thou dost
and wrap our work
in thine
CHAPTER
XVIII.
John's witness to jesus.

"John bare witness
of him,
and
cried, saying,
This was
whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred

before me
for he was before me.
And of his fulness have
he of
we
all
received, and grace for grace.
For the law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man
which
hath seen
is in
John
the
any time
at
the only begotten Son,
of the Father, he hath declared him."
15-18.
FTER
A
***
God
bosom
all,
that which decides the trueness
and greatness of any .man's ministry
is
The world (especially in modern times) has had much to say

about the lawful and true way of appointing
its
relationship to Jesus.
and sending forth ministers
of the Gospel
but
the question about which the individual soul
should be more deeply con-
of the minister
cerned
Jesus,
istry
is,
viz.,
What am
and what
is
and
Jesus to
my
ministry to
me and my
min-
In this passage
we
see the true greatness of

John the Baptist bursting
rious sunlight
We
43
forth like the glo-
through the clouds of night.
see the spirit, like the storm-beaten ship of
a thousand tempests,
into the
tifully
haven of
at
grandly
riding
last
Beau-
and holy calm.
rest
and touchingly does John unfold
for us
innermost feelings, when he says, " The
his
Bridegroom which standeth and
friend of the
heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly, because of the
Bridegroom's voice
How
fulfilled."
is
this
the rest of his soul
tented in the presence of
now
as
to
my
joy therefore
How
its
perfectly con-
King
We
turn
watch the direction of John's ministry
he bends
its
great life-currents toward Jesus.
Deep down and undergirding

aims were two great purposes
men from
to lead
is
tender, deep, and complete
leaning too
them
all
of
first,
much on him
to lean entirely on Jesus.
John's
to
keep
second,
With
these two master forces playing in their centrifugal
and centripetal po^
sped through
life's
ers
on
his
life,
he
grand firmament perfectly
poised, and resplendent with the glory of God.
He
disclaimed any intention of raising a sect
or organizing a church.
He
called himself a
THAN
''MORE
144
A PROPHET."
" voice," not a foundation.
He awakened
the
echoes of the wilderness, but built no temple's
His heart
granite walls.
the great press-
felt
ure of a soul-hungering world clamoring about
and he longed to lead
it,
his
"
The
God.
bowed
'neath
brought.
woman
Moses
strong
its
How
it
man
to
the rest of
his
felt
heart
weight of woe," by others
weak
the
is
mightiest
born, to carry heart-burdens alone
of
cries, " If thy presence go not with us,
carry us not up hence."
Job longs to be
" where the wicked cease from troubling, and

the weary be at rest."
David wishes
the wings of a dove, that he
and be
at rest."
in the greatness of
may
"
flee
Daniel fainted and was sick

his heart-care.
An
wished to die beneath the juniper-tree.

even our
for
away
Lord Himself
lifts
the veil
Elijah
And
from
Gethsemane's awful scene, and shows us His
own
heart, agonizing in that lone, blood-bathed
anguish.
No
wonder, then, that as a soul
reaches higher and higher, and gets a clearer

vision of the sure realities of being, that the
prayer should ever deepen, " Lead

rock that
is
higher than
me
;" for this
to the
must be
45
the yearning of every true heart on" Time's
battle-sweeping plains.
John did not try to explain Jesus to
own knowl-
but sent them to gather their
ers,
He
edge.
know
never claimed to
his follow-
the height
nor depth, length nor breadth of his Lord
he only knew that
His
in
were as nothing, and

merged.
own powers
light his
was completely
his glory
Honestly and frankly he
says, '
This
He of whom I spake, He that cometh after

me is preferred before me." He knew that
this was the Eternal Son, and that He was the
He felt the
Creator coming to His own.
is
grand presence of
standing
before
the " Ancient
him, and
of
that
felt
Days"
in
His
bosom, beat the great heart of the universe,

filling
every creature with
its life.
there was a deeper well-spring in
Yea more,
Him
from which flows and branches the

vigor of animated
That
in
than
and
nature in material form.
Him was and
from
the vast ocean of spiritual

of
life
Him
life,
swept out
that lofty law
enraptured existence which he could no

name than call it " grace for grace."
better
The warm sympathies

^
of his
God's heart were
146
bringing scenes before him with a reality that
prophets and kings had failed to grasp.

this
is
echoed
in
words
his
"The
And
law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by
These are very, very deep
Jesus Christ."
terances
deep even to
us, after
ut-
eighteen hun-
dred years of Christian light have blazed upon
them
words whose
may
fathoms of glory
full
serve for the soundings of eternal years.

this
we may
realize
exalted
John's
But
one of the joys before
as
soul then
the
day
the
of
Schoolmaster was over, and the day of the

loving
ing,
sympathy
abstract
spirit
letter.
shell of
living
to
embodiments, not
The newness
of
the
supersede the oldness
of
the
formalities.
was
liv-
nearer our
" Grace and truth"
Father's heart had come.
were henceforth to be
home
of a
Religion was to burst the crystallized

formality,
and come forth
winsomeness of a joyous
No wonder
in all
the
life.
that John's heart,
being
fired
with these realizations, bounded with joy to

point his followers to the " Lamb of God,"
who
should feast their souls on the bread of
and give them to drink of
living waters
life,
;
no

wonder
draw the contrast be-
that he should
tween the two dispensations

ter-stroke
time
"
No man
bosom
hath seen
He
of the Father,
raptures of joy
religious
chapter
rich
above
far
mere
God
far, far
all
at
is
any
in
in
heavenly places,
beyond time and
sense,
the delusions and curses
formality.
we might, call
it
the
hath declared Him."
These are truly feastings

and
the great mas-
in
the only-begotten Son which
147
It
is
of
glorious
the title-page of that
and matchless fellowship with the Father
and His Son, the token

to us
of oneness vouchsafed
by the Gospel.
Thus do we see John leading a world to the

" fountain for sin and uncleanness ;" hiding all
near and dear to him
From
this
in
the "Cleft Rock."
time on, rest flows into the bosom
of John, as the deep, holy calm of the nether
ocean, which rests despite the tempests that
sweep above.
like the
His trust and confidence were
promises of
God
sure for
on them
they were founded.
But must you and

vision of
fort,
life,
turn from this exalted
with no word of guidance, com-
and strength
for ourselves
Does that
whose presence breathed a holy calm
Jesus,
and heavenly
He
nothing to us as
Baptist
He
Is
Saviour too
through John's
rest
not your Saviour and
and " grace
fulness,
speak
stands portrayed by the
Have we not
life,
my
received of His
for grace
Have we no
?'-
burdened hearts that crave to be unbowed
No
long, hard posts on life's
we would
from which
have
We
have
weary
battle-field
fain seek rest
And now we
fully in the presence of the
We
stand more
King, and see His
matchless beauty by more vivid flashes of soullight
than did John
knowledge
"
dom.
of
The
we can
so
testify to the
His nature and plan of His kingleast in the
kingdom
Jesus,
as
John's
life
our own.
John
His "
were,
it
but
realized in
clasped
and lay
it
outside of Jesus.
is
of
hands with
gain that deep
me
all
rest
ye that labor and
will give
must carry everything that
to us,
life
His presence, we must heed
unto
are heavy laden, and
We
heaven
lays broadside, yea, enfolds
it
we would
If
Come
but
of
The
greater than John the Baptist."
in
His arms.
And
is
you rest."
near and dear
Never ozvn a joy
as the rich mercies of
''MORE
God crowd
on
bilities
THAN A PROPHET."
life's vast,
sweetly saying, " Cast

for
care for
way
to Jesus,
your care upon me,
all
in prison,
hear them. Remember,

the
stands by our sides,
What words would
you."
have been to John
overpowering responsi-
He
then
us,
we
able
and
full
it
rolled
exclaimed,
and
am
which
"
will
through
St.
beneath
will
all
of resting assurance
Paul's heart
know whom
persuaded that
He
is
have committed unto
that day."
sweeten and
swelling into joy unspeak-
of glory, while
we open
Him. The
into the fellowship of
sweep that deep current

which
but he does not
and lead souls to
deepen as we merge
these
are true as
companionship of loved ones
God and His Son,
149
as
he
have believed,
able to
Him
keep
against
CHAPTER
XIX.
JOHN'S VIEW OF LIFE AND ITS GREATNESS.

"
Behold the
r
I
Lamb
John
the world."
of God, which taketh
""HESE words
*-
him
destruction of
once above
all
the sin of
mark
They show us
of the Baptist at once
man.
as a great
toward what the yearnings of
the
away
29.
sin.
his heart
tend
This places him at
the philosophers of his age, for
they only reasoned of how to endure
John longed to see the
its evils.
To
evil die.
deliver
man from the oppressor within was his great

aim.
And when he thought of God and His
greatness, this
was the
field fit
the play of omnipotent powers.
and meet
To
for
him, no
freedom was worthy of the name so long as

left
men
servants of
the soul while
No hope was
it
sin.
No
was the prey
it
joy was meet for

of sin's disease.
worth the name while darkened
with the obscurities of corruption.
No
ernment was strong, with the weakness of
govsin's
151
true pa-
desolations preying on
vitals.
he arrayed his might against
triot of his race,
the chief
its
enemy
thereof, and reached out for
God
that complete victory which
has given us
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Within the soul

visions
of the Baptist three
must be passing
thoughts that echoed

First,
the
Lamb
of
master
the
to give birth to
in these
words.
How
God.
different this
idea of Jesus from that of the world and age,

yea,
even
of worldly
around
church
the
wanted a king, arrayed
pomp and
him.
They
in all the paraphernalia
power.
But John's
far-
reaching soul saw more clearly, and realized

that
man needed
a sacrifice, an atonement, as
well as a king, and the Messiah's might rose
before him in the similitude of a lamb, an offering of the Father's love.
He
realized that
it
was not the might and crash of battle or the

thunderingsof war that could deliver from
but the deeper, grander, quiet might of
nipotent love.
The Lamb and not
the
sin,
OmLion
was to woo and win back the prodigal to the

Father's bosom.
first
to utter, as he
And
so,
his lips
were the
saw Jesus, the true nature
He saw
of his warfare.
in
THAN A PROPHET."
"310 RE
152
the victim of the altar
the Son of God, and grasped something of
the spirit of the
life
He
the great travailings of God's
saw and
felt
and conquest of
his Lord.
love as they exceeded the outward glories of

this conquest.
this
He was awed and humbled by
overwhelming
While others were
love.
looking for exhibitions of power which would

challenge worldly
homage
in their
rough rude-
ness and crushing effects, John saw the heart

of
God bowing
to embrace
and
in
lift
the depths of
up the
its
fallen.
There was a second point
in
the character of
Jesus which deeply impressed John
His coming to take away
tenderness
sin.
that
was
He came
not
as earth's great ones, to bathe his career in vio-
lence and blood, but he
came not
to seek the
came
'
earth called great, but to take
had
felt
the agonies of
He
as a lamb.
name and fame which

its
away
sin.
John
torments during those
long, stern conflicts in the wilderness, and
seen
its
had
soul-ravages traced in bitterness over
the multitudes who came to hear his cry of

" Repent." And when he saw Jesus come as
the anointed one, " to heal the broken-hearted
153
and preach deliverance to the captives," the

sight
stirred
" Behold the
his
inmost soul, and he
Lamb
cried,
of
God, which taketh away
the sin of the world."
There rose before him
the armies of souls rejoicing forever in God's
emancipating love, and the beautiful vision of

the
"glorious
God"
the sons of
liberty of
passed over his rejoicing
and bound
spirit
it
to Jesus.
How
near can our hearts press to the side of
John's in this joy
How
of a world press on us
feel for the ravages
What
Satan
the hopes and lives he
world
We
heavily do the sins
want a
is
is
anguish do
blasting in this
little
we
committing, and
wide
path cleared of
its
own feet may pass

but do we agonize for the
sharpest thorns, so that our
over unpierced
woes and wretchedness
of the millions lost
John's heart was big and strong to
yearn over man's
doom and
feel
and
degradation, and,
though but man, that great heart bowed beneath the woe, and struggled with
sympathy and might

their
God, and
wretchedness.
-,*
lift
to raise
men
them from
Here, then,
is
its
fullest
nearer to
their
life,
fallen
grand,
"MORE THAN A PROPHET.
154
'
broad, deep, and great, with a holy unselfishness

in
and the
human
loftiest aspirations that
can burn
heart.
There was another emotion
throbbing-
in
John's bosom which raised him above his own

nation: it speaks in the expression, " taketh
away the
sin of the
Israelite,
but of the Gentile too.
world," not simply of the
Here was a
true conception of the nature of God, an

tion akin to that
bosom which
words, " God
is
sympathy
pealed
in
emo-
the Father's
forth to
us
in the
He
so loved the world, that
gave
His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on
Him
should not perish, but have ever-
Here was
lasting life."
pathy capable
and sym-
a charity
of going out with the Spirit of
Jesus to a world's salvation.
No
of sect or confines of nationality
hood with humanity was too
narrowness
His brother-
perfect for that,
and His kinship too purely of God.

out with a wider, sweeping vision,
He
looked
and
felt
the vastness of God's love embracing a world,
and
his soul leaped for joy
once more,
in
obe-
dience to that Spirit which thrilled him in his
mother's womb.

Alas
how
and glory
speak the truth
Has the
these words
Do
Was
power?
ality
What
turies
Ah
proclaims the
that
is
that
ful-
life
is
it
Great Physi-
of Jesus a pre-
a culminating re-
worth the name
infidel
of truth
The
and believer
un-
alike
supplied a deeply-felt need, and gave
it
a vast impulse to
and true
joy,
this
of
of Jesus a success.
life
disputed testimony of
is
Jesus
the testimony of eighteen cen-
is
all
life of
any patients stand to
the
tended usurpation, or
rise
Did John
of John's.
proclaim the trueness

cian's
men
slowly do the souls of
to the stature
filled
155
in
all
that
man, and that
is
good and noble
light,
and
right,
and
and happiness, strength, and glory have
ever followed in
its
which knew no
rest
Cross.
To darkened
yea, even to " those
footsteps.
Aching hearts
have found
souls
who
rest at
the
who had no hope
sat in the
shadow
of
death," this heavenly light overspread them.
The power
of
His
life is
as really
beyond
dis-
pute as the power of the sun that shines, the

lightning
that
scathes,
The balm
The
reputation,
draws.
or
gravitation
of Gilead has established
that
His
fountain for sin and unclean-
"MORE THAN A PROPHET.'
156
ness has graven
and sky.
sea,
life
is
its
living testimonials
on earth,
That which makes the pulse
of
beat stronger in each succeeding century
the
life,
of Jesus, coursing its
life
ocean tide of
and peace through the bosom of
glory,
" the light of the world" to the

darkened soul, " the fountain for sin and un-
He
ages.
is
cleanness" to the impure soul, the "living

soul, the " shadow of the
water" to the thirsty
great rock" to the weary soul, the " bread of
heaven"
to the
11
to the
There
Lamb
no
is
God."
of
life
its
warm
Look, look,
that stands so clearly
before the world as that

that beats
" deliverer"
soul, the
and Jesus to humanity.
soul bound,
Behold the
look
hungry
of
Jesus, no heart
throbs so near the aching
heart of man, no beauty that rises so winsome
before the spirit's eye, no voice that calls so
tenderly to the lone mourner, no arm that enfolds so strongly

" Yea,
and lovingly
all I
O Lamb
whom
His bosom
need, in thee to find,

of
Let the sceptic doubt

" knows in
to
God,
come.
for, truly,
the Christian
he has believed," and there-
fore does " his soul rest in
hope."
CHAPTER XX.
JOHN'S LOVE FOR JESUS.
"
But the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and
heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's

voice
this
my
joy therefore
T~\EEP down
**^ John,
John
29.
the spirit of lion-hearted
in
'neath
is fulfilled."
all
life's
rugged
sternness
and bold fearlessness

" Like to white pearls underlying
all
the
moanings of the
sea,
Like the hidden gems enriching the deep mines of obscurity"
lived
and glowed one of the tenderest, purest,
sweetest volumes of love that ever adorned
human bosom.
It
was
his love for Jesus,
than
which a rarer gem of purest affection seldom

flashes
amid time's dazzling rays. John battled
hard for his exalted devotion.

easier field of the hermit
life,
He
and
chose the
laid aside
every weight that he might win a place close

to the heart of his Lord.
The very
serenity of
I5 8
his
devotion
made him appear hard and
to a careless world, but within he
He
derness and affection.
was
stern
ten-
all
did not, like his
Lord, walk amid the haunts of earthly pleasure.
No
Cana's wedding rejoiced at his presence,
and we hear no sound
of gladness
The
at earthly feast.
from his
lips
swept
social tide of life
not near his joys, nor the smiles of mere hu-
man
With
love play about his pathway.
his
hairy mantle and leathern girdle, his locusts
and wild honey meat, he wandered amid the

craggy wilds
of.
the Judean wilderness, seeking
his beloved.
There
are
and
vast
sweet
fountains
thought bursting forth from John's
wooing
thoughts that light
should guide our love.

character, and not
it
life
of
of holy-
up our ways and
First
was a love of
it
mere physical beauty
thus
rose at once into the realm of the imperish-
able.
John ever strove
to
keep before
soul his Lord standing, with every
character strictly denned.
This
foundation of true love.
No
stand longer than
its
line of
is
his
His
the only
structure can
foundation holds.
If
want an immortal love we must entwine
we
it

about an immortal principle.
And
so Jesus
himself had to say to His disciples, " It
pedient for you that
go away."
dient that Peter should have the
which
59
is
ex-
Yes, expe-
hand removed
from a watery grave, that
lifted his life
John should miss the pillow
His loving
of
bosom, that Thomas should not have the
nail-
points and spear-thrusts upon which to gaze
these are taken away, there will be a
for, until
clinging to flesh and blood, a localizing of His
presence and limiting of His power, a continual walking
by sight and not by
faith
He came
heart-rest
to give.
Truth could not come
down on
blood
The
Spirit of
truth for rest, instead of on flesh and
until
they were wedded to character
reigns through the
character,
power
He
of truth
enters and
woven
into
and not through bodily form.
may
Christians
child of
of
until the heart pressed
and not mere bodily presence.
practice
all
nor would they realize His reign as the
Comforter
This
them the
which would not, could not give
justly call
alas,
!
too
up
reflections as to a
common among
professing
that of marrying a sinner.
God can
How
take as the most sacred com-
160
panion of
life,
rows, greater
sharing the inner joys and sor-
still
parentage of children
the
and
their training for eternity, to enfold near-
est
and dearest the heart one who must dwell
with everlasting burnings,
is
me
to
How
awful and horrible mystery.
a most
can a Chris-
tian love regardless of a Christian character
like that
spirit
companionship to
nothing
man
in
another
common
spirit,
woe bred by such
But we see
in
which has
No
with the Lord.
can weigh the sorrow,
eternal
of Jesus, resorting for its
mortal
soul-blight,
and
a strange alliance.
John the Baptist one
of those
rare souls capable of bringing the realities of

faith so
near that
rests satisfied
it
with the
fulness of the Lord's spiritual companionship.
How
tenderly and
speaks of Jesus
Jesus
"
He
in
affectionately
We
these words
that
cometh
after
first
unloose."
Then we
me
see
hear him speak of
humble adoration
of
the latchet of whose shoes
John ever
all
is
mightier than
am
I,
not worthy to
that profound rev-
erence and respect necessary to the foundation

of a grand
and resting love
the
soul led to
and rested against " the rock higher than I,"
THAN
''MORE
from which point
Without such
is
can sweep on
it
faith
bound-
in a
as rests the soul, perfect
impossible, for love
John with
of trust.
161
adoration with glad confidence.
less course of
love
A PROPHET."
made up
largely
is
might pressed up
his
all
to lay his weariness
and weakness on Jesus.
He
see the
looked
out
to
coming
mighty arm, beneath the
shadow
wings he could sweetly
with the
rest,
of
of
His
whose
full
con-
sciousness of perfect victory and safety.
Again, we have seen this lowly adoration,

this boundless respect, as Jesus stood
"
side in Jordan.
of thee;
next
by John's
have need to be baptized
and comest thou to me?" but the
moment we
see love exalted into
modest
yet perfect obedience by a single sentence

" Suffer it to be so
from the lips of Jesus
:
now;" then he
mission of
will,
suffered him.
into the purpose of his
Lord
grand humility,
with exalted obedience beneath.
humbly
rich,
perfect sub-
a glad obedience and bending
In a heart so
what raptures must have burned
There must have been an intense, continued

joy welling up in the
refined
that
bosom
we need
of
John
a joy so
the touch of the most
62
delicate spiritual
perception
but when realized
where angel
is
made up
it
lifts
spirits feast
to
appreciate
us near the realms
on His
love.
This
joy-
of the rest
John felt in the majestic

Lord blended with the gratitude
power
of his
for the
honor Jesus conferred upon him
in per-
mitting him thus not only to serve but to be
counted a partner
a
in fulfilling all righteousness,
co-worker with his beloved.
John's earthly ministry touch
its
Here we see
zenith.
The
King has come the heavenly dove descending

amid those glorious words, " This is my be;
loved son,
in
whom
am
well pleased," com-
pletes the rapturous vision, and leaves

feast
John to
on the royal food thereof, during
the
forty days which Jesus fasted in the wilderness.
These were days
of soul-mellowings to
John, meet to produce those grander words

than ever came from prophet, priest, or king
before him, with which
we hear him breaking
the silence, and calling a lost world as he exclaims, " Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh
away the
sin of the
love rolls
its
sentence
world."
What melody
profound measures through

It
is
as
if
John
of
this
unrolled his sins

and showed us the
163
meeting of Jesus along
What
the whole line'of his innermost being.

unity of spirit
of purposes,
the curtain
here disclosed
is
What blendings
and aims, and joys of

falls,
and
life
swooping down to destroy and mar
The pursuing tongue
of
envy
tell
John
of John.
tries to
of Jesus' success.
shoot
its
They come
rancorous arrows within his heart.
and
Again
this beauti-
comes beating on the soul
ful love
that Satan can send
all
When
lo
the
heart bursts forth in that most exquisite and rap-
turous adoration, "
The
friend of the bride-
groom, which standeth and heareth him,
rejoic-
eth greatly, because of the bridegroom's voice
my
this
joy
therefore
anything more
there
be
heroic,
and chivalrous,
capabilities of these
fine
Can
fulfilled."
is
exaltingly tender,
in -the truest
and
loftiest
The picture is so
?
human language from
seems to defile it.
The
words
that the touch of
earthly association
emotion
is
too exalted
and
pure
to
travel
through the crude channels of earthly thought

unmarred.
There
is
another scene, which to
most eloquently
of this love.
me
speaks
When John
sent
64
from
thou
prison
He
this
**
message to Jesus,
that should come,
or look
Art
we
for
another?" what answer did Jesus send back
own life. Such

an appeal could be made only when the chords
Just simply a page from His
of love
soul.
Well
that John's innermost
spirit
were deep-toned within the
know
did Jesus
would
respond
to
touched John's
life
Amid
enough.
so
He
just
with His own.
It
was
own
His
the rich
communings
life-touch the grand soul of
of this
John could mount
from Herod's bloody prison to the home of his
God.
of
Jesus gave the crowd this grand picture
John
but
to
John
He
gave His love-
token, rich anointing against the day of his

offering up, a shroud
more
fragrant than ever
wrapped king's body, meet substitute

jah's chariot.
for Eli-
CHAPTER
XXI.
JOHN'S COURAGE
"
But Herod the
tetrarch,
being reproved by him for He-
wife, and for all the evils

which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he
shut up John in prison." Luke 3 19, 20.
rodias,
his brother Philip's
"
^HE
*;
his
man
sent
errand with
from
giant
God"
speeds
strides,
on
crashing
through the hollow-hearted religious formalities,
itary
checking
and
in their
civil
bold bad career the mil-
emissaries of a corrupt state,
laying the axe at the root of a long-idolized,

patriarchal aristocracy, comforting the multi-
tudes of down-trodden, priest-ridden poor, as
they wandered like sheep without a shepherd.
On, until
that
was
Son
of
his
hands had administered the sign
to
fulfil
God
all
righteousness upon the
Himself, and his eyes had seen
the heavenly dove descend, and his ears had
heard the voice of Jehovah own the Eternal

Son.
But
still
on he
strides, in
the might of
166
his
God and
strength of His purpose, bearing
God to the little, abject,

They meet when we know
a message from that
degraded Herod.
how we cannot tell but meet

ambassador of God should meet the
not,
the
as
guilty,
sinning man, with a bold, true, faithful mes-
sage on his
How
John reproved Herod
lips.
adultery, " and
the evils he had done."
all
different
for his
this
is
from what the policy
of this world dictates, or even the
Church
age when worldly policy predominates.

a church
what
it
an
would have cautioned John against
would unhesitatingly have
rashness, savoring but
ing
in
Such
spirit of
God."
or a worldly church
little
Alas,
called " bold
of the
meek,
lov-
what does the world
know of God's spirit
They
are ever crying, " Prophesy unto us smooth

things, speak to us soft things."
that " Jehovah
consuming
fire.
is
"
man of war,
They meditate
They forget
our God is a
not, " If the
righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? " No such an idea
;
of
God they would
minds would
idolize a
not,
but their corrupt
God who
for love's sake
would clothe Himself with corrupt doings, and
11
fill
Ah
MORE
Til'AN
" our Father's

love
is
167
house" with sinners
not always silence, nor
ance, but love

right.
A PROPHET."
is
vile.
forbear-
devotion to truth, loyalty to
So every Bible hero
is
portrayed as
representing, defending, or dying for that truth
and
right.
God's Holy Spirit does not record
one approval of compromise with
or intim-
sin,
idation before the sinner.
But the worldly church would say this
bad
John the Baptist,
policy.
in this day,
if
very
might have had a deputation from
members
the vestry or influential
of his con-
gregation, with advice something

*'
is
he had lived
this
like
Now, do be prudent in your dealings with

We know his morals are not pure, but
Herod.
harsh dealings will not cure
Proceed
him.
softly, gain his confidence, insinuate yourself
into his friendship, build
by and
by,
up an influence
then,
you can proceed with more hope
success to correct the evil
more weight
to the King.
of
you can speak with
And
then, too, con-
sider the consequences of rashness
get yourself thrown into prison, and
it
you
may be
beheaded, and leave your vast work here

disorganized and hopeless wreck.
will
all
No, no
a
if
68
you
persist
will
in
being bold and severe, do
wait until things are in a
Such,
better shape."
little
conceive, would be, to-day, considered
good advice from a vast number

tions of almost
ilar
all
issue forced on them.
moment, such
First,
Herods.
Let us consider,
for
advice.
be prudent
Alas,
of congrega-
denominations, were a sim-
your dealings with the
in
how many
have heard intimations
brother ministers
like this
"
When
a sin
has become popular," remarks a shrewd observer, " it ceases to be preached against."
These words, of course, are not entirely
true,
but they contain enough truth to sadden
Be prudent with
sin.
us.
Yes, as prudent as Na-
than was with David, as Daniel was with the

decree of Darius, as Elijah was with Ahab, as
John the Baptist was with Herod.

prudence with sinners
ing and
preacher
W hy,
r
message.
sirs,
the
from the " living
God," and he must cany himself

his
is
Certainly not fawn-
Mattering their sins.
bears a message
What
John had received
as
becomes
his instruc-
tions from Jehovah, as has every true Gospel
minister since
and what have we to do with

parleying
in
know we are
being "damned if we doubt."
Yea, rather
169
danger of
Yes,
we must be
who
finds a wolf in
let
us
prudent as the shepherd
as
We
the fold.
are to be
" as wise as serpents, as harmless as doves,"

" Fear not those who kill
as fearless as lions.
the body," says our Captain
and
really a part of the Gospel as "
membrance
of
me"
mongers,
is
have
which burneth with
as sure as murderers,
and idolaters (Rev.
21
as
this in re-
for " the fearful shalt
their part in the lake
and brimstone,"
this
Do
fire
whore-
8).
No;
the soldier of the cross must love Jesus more
than
life,
and hate
sin
more than he
consequences of assaulting
faith
enough
through every
to trust the dealings of his

conflict,
any
fears
he has not
If
it.
God
then woe be unto him.
Jesus lovingly showed us this stronghold when

He said to Pilate, " Thou couldest have no
power
me, except
at all against
And
thee from above."
must speak the truth

God, faithfulness to
so, if
it
we
were given
are true
us.
" Harsh dealings will not cure."

to be true
8
is
we
consequences belong to
not to be harsh.
It is
No, but
Ahab, not
17
Elijah
Herod, not John, that troubled
Oh, the
fallacy
of this
lie
rampant through every walk

filing
the social
ing the family,
drunkards',
daughters
of
human
roam
life,
de-
humiliating and blast-
circle,
sending sons
to
infamy,
eternal
defaulters',
murderers'
adulterers',
to
Israel.
Sin must
graves,
and
fathers
mothers to everlasting disgrace, prosperity to
and beggarly want, governments to
disaster
oppression and degradation, the Church to corruption and hypocrisy
God must
dor of
and yet the ambassa-
deal softly and play gently
with this hideous serpent's gathering folds
Oh, by
the sacredness of
all
man
your heavenly
commission, thou
God, I warn you to
" quit you like men," and be " faithful unto
God
death."
His honor
ashamed
is
of
in
of
has a character to defend, and

your keeping. " Whosoever is
me and my words
in this adulter-
ous generation, of him shall the Son of
ashamed when
He cometh
Man be
His
in the glory of
Father with the holy angels" (Mark

" Gain influence with the sinner."
38).
Yes, one
has said, " Lot tried this at Sodom, and what

did
it
profit
him
Why, he
lost his
own
charac-

ter, lost his
171
fortune, lost his influence over his
own children, for he

Sodom." No, no
;
them out
couldn't get
let it suffice,
once for
of
all,
that Jesus did not obtain His influence in this
"he
way, and
that soweth to the flesh shall
'That which
of the flesh reap corruption/'
born of
is
flesh is flesh,
of the spirit
and that which
spirit."
is
The
is
born
Christian should
any influence that detracts from or
disdain
shades his sonship, or for an instant brings

into suspicion his loyalty to his Father.
live to
show ourselves sons
Again, as to
no
its
of
Ah
consequences.
failures save those
Organization, plan,
when we
'etc.,
God
fail
We
at all cost.
!
there are
to be true.
are not for one in-
stant to be arrayed against right and truth.
We
shape
more
"
man's work by the
are too apt to judge a

it
assumes.
There
is
a moral force far
successful than any shape.
The words
and they are

sults for
Jesus said,
speak unto you, they are
life."
spirit,
Yes, the organism and re-
which the true servant of God battles
are of God, and he knows,
if
he
is
true to
that God, the great living temple will be ad-
vanced by God's own plan.
John could well
172
afford, as can every minister of Jesus, to die
and leave the Holy
for truth
mould
Spirit to
the seeming mass of fragments into the beauti-
Look
whole.
ful
the
at
of
life
John the
eighteen
hun-
dred years resplendent with Christian
light,
Baptist through the vista of
and say
failure,
if
if
it
is
the reproof of
tian calamity.
complete work
We
a fragment,
Nay, nay
it
if
his
work was a
Herod was
a
more
would be
a Chris-
solid,
grand,
difficult to find.
could not take an iota from the course of
man without dimming or marring his

Who now would have had him less
this great
glory.
bold
and outspoken
before
would have the heroism
Herod
Who
of such devotion dim-
med by one moment of doubt or hesitation on

John's part ? If I am God's, my work is God's,
and He knows how to take care of it. Yea,
I am persuaded He is able to keep that which I
'
'
have committed unto
Him
against that day."
The Holy Spirit can use our work as we cannot.

Away, then, with all doubts of consequences. Trust in the Lord.
Follow the Lord,
and press forward.
Who
does not glory
in
the courage of John

the Baptist
is
that true, real courage, when

up
bravely, gladly offered
stoical indifference to fear,
God, marching on to
tramp
of
173
victory
but heroic love for
death
not
self
No
for right.
the glad
with
rejoicing
a will
in
stronger than Herod's, but in a purpose hid in
God. Yes, courage

the heart.
from
John had the greatness
speak and die for
humanity.
the word
is
Who
God and
can
tell
right
" cceur,"
of heart to
yea,
also for
what the world owes
to-day to this deed of John the Baptist
It
swings like the cherubim's swords over
the
head
en-
of
and
profligacy
wherever
vice,
throned, and more than one bold bad

felt as if
John the Baptist had
risen
man
has
from the
dead, and were thundering his sins back on

his guilty soul.
with
my
Glorious John
whole heart
God and man. And
for this great trueness to
O, thou
God
of John, give
thy servants grace to love and fear

as little as did John,
gladly,
and bravely.
thank you
and serve thee
this
world
as grandly,
CHAPTER
XXII.
adversity's trial.
"
Now when
Jesus had heard that John was cast into
Matt. 4
prison, he departed into Galilee."
'
]\ /T
ways are not your ways,
*-*-*
Lord."
and gold
in
for the
is
suffer.
The
has
fire for
What we
attest our
and
suffer
sincerity.
God
fire.
may
prosperity
what we
feel
saith
the
the gold,
say and do
knowledge, but
in adversity tests
our
God are calls to

Paul, "I will show
great calls of
Jesus says of St.
him how great things he must

name's sake."
12.
God
is
suffer for
my
too heroic in nature,
spirit
too grand and glorious, to
rejoice only in the
weak sentimentalism that
and heaven's
the world
is
Christianity.
ever trying to pass
From
off
as genuine
the days of Abel to this
moment there is no honor roll of heroes

known to man that can for one instant stand
beside those mighty ones recorded in God's

own word
and
no deeds so unselfish,
fearless as the
God
living
lofty, pure,
deeds of the armies of the
and, above
175
no exhibition
all,
of
any such intense and glorious love impelling

to such self-sacrifice
and heaven
It is a part
No
and devotion.
rejoice in the
heroism of the
fulfilment for that noble craving in the
with
there
and again
and sword, and bathed
desolated
in their children's blood.
is
human
by deceiving and
earth time
on, has swept
fire
homes
saints.
of their glorious nature, the true
heart for glory, which Satan,
leading
God
work worthy
a rest meet for

part in that
its
Thank God,
of its every power,
loftiest
ambition.
work which made
and
is a
"
endure
Jesus
It
the cross, despise the shame," and a rest with
Him
as
He
sits
Majesty on high.
stirring
at
I
the right hand
know
of the
of nothing
more
and soul-firing than to enter heart and
soul into the study of the heroism of the chil-
dren of the King, and the joy of heaven and

God in that heroism.
Jesus said, " Should
not Christ have suffered and entered into His
glory?"
Moses and Elias formed no theme
intensely consuming, that night on the
so
Mount
176
of Transfiguration, as the
cease."
with Him,
of "
theme
Holy Spirit writes, "
The
we shall
also reign
His de-
we suffer
If
with Him."
And
the King in His glory returns from heaven to

write seven times over the blessings waiting
"him
that
overcometh"
heaven declaring, "
further on
They loved not
unto the death."
No, no;
ease-loving religion
is
saints.
soul-deluding
a false,
was the Captain
sufferings," as
tion
their lives
an effeminate,
our God glories in the valor of

" We are made perfect through
religion, for
His
we hear
of our salva-
and woe unto those who are
at ease in
Zion, and whose souls do not go forth to en-
dure hardness with the King, for the conduct

of
"
all
If
such
is
any man
closely allied to
will
himself, and take
come
up
denying Him.
me,
after
his cross
let
him deny
and follow me."
" Be ye faithful unto death, and
will give
you
a crown of life."
John the Baptist had talked well

and now God
is
sincerity in
inviolable seal of
upon
for Jesus,
going to prove him, to set the
his ministry
martyr blood
and so Herod throws him
into prison for being true
to
humanity and
Now
God.
soul,
trial
when the
true
consciousness of
with a burning
alive
right,
comes the
1/7
chained under the grinding heel of
is
oppression and wrong.

the fibres of your
preaching
is
then, John, prove
See
if
your great
able to bear you safely over this
gulf of anguish
this
all
long, dark night of
With John
to end in blood.
as with us
Now,
faith.
the bitterest
comes nearest the
heart.
trial is
It
is
trial,
was doubtless,
it
that which
not the rough,
cruel handlings of our enemies that pierce us
the seeming failure of friends
deepest, but
not the
heart
the
wounds the body shows, but those the

This was to John something like
feels.
trial of offering
not only a
up Isaac was to Abraham
trial of his faith,
but, as
it
were, of
Jesus was near
the faithfulness of his God.
John, and was unfolding each day His divine
The country rang with
power.
the fame of His
wisdom and might. John had heard God's

voice own Him as His Son.
Now, will Jesus
let
him
suffer
best to let
many
on unrescued
him
suffer, will
or, if
He
He
think
not send him
tokens of sympathy and words of com-
Torting love
8*
John hears that Jesus
is
coming
78
to Galilee
report after
and now they
doing wonders
ing and
for his release
pathy, no
token
this
of
be
the
the surrounding
Can
the
calmly and steadily as
as
Son
in
be
it
Judea baptizing and
He
exhibition
God
of
to
The
come.
has
love
John were down
preaching.
preach-
nay, no word of sym-
of
Master works on,

if
in
is
Yet no demand has been made
country.
Herod
him the Master
tell
him
report reaches
him
loves
of
Can
tender love
the
Herod's cruelty had
outraged humanity, and indignant innocence,

dauntless and strong, rises up to resent
Jesus'
neglect
ah
found to shield from

hath broken
my
where
this
heart."
shall
but
armor be
Truly, " thy rebuke
He
can gather no
comfort by detracting from the character of

He cannot say, " I am deceived he is
Jesus.
:
a careless, heartless
man."
No, no;
for these
thoughts would send down with one sad crash

all
that his soul had known, and trusted, and
loved.
To doubt
wreck himself
the Lord would be to ship-
yet
how can he
Lord against actions
cling to that
so crushing
not been through some such
trial
?
?
Who
Who
has
has

not
179
the cold, dark, bitter waters ebb to
felt
the very soul, as the dealings of Jesus with us
seemed
very ideas of His
to annihilate our
character
Thank God, He has
blessed words to
fall
knowest not now
left
us those
back on: "
thou shalt
What I do thou
know hereafter.
But John had not these blessed words
them
what would he have given
for
Alone with that image
God which
faithfulness
of
on
had graven
oh,
But no
life of
his heart,
these
strong convictions, yea, living realizations of
the trueness, justness, and love of his King,
stood with him.
How
Samson he entered the

his
differently
prison
from poor
The
locks of
strength lay massive on him, the virgin
was unviolated, and our

Lord Himself asks the question, " What went
trust of his heart
ye out into the wilderness,
for to see
shaken by the wind ?" and then, by

ness of God's
rious " Nay."
my
Saviour's
all
reed
the true-
own word, pronounces the gloWhatever John maybe, I hold

own testimony, that he was
" unshaken by the wind."
This man,
one had, had founded
house on a rock.
What now
his
if
appears to us one of the most
ever
glori-
180
ous results of John's conduct, as we look
through the dawning

dred
yes, as
through
all
John himself must have seen
these years
that he gave Jesus
Lord Himself has

give than receive'
'
in giving wealth.
It is
Our
patiently.
more blessed
and surely John was

If
it,
should say, the joy
by bearing
said,
it
hun-
of eighteen
light
at
to
rich
there was one warm,
loving, sympathetic spot to the great lone soul
He
of Jesus as
trod the winepress for us, that
spot must have been the heart of John the

Baptist.
If
there was a single
life
whose pur-
poses were strong enough to beat in unison
with the bosom of the Son of God, the
life
John the Baptist must have been that

Oh, we should ever remember Jesus
hurry.
The
purposes
fest
fail
eternal years
not.
He
will in
His
due time mani-
His approving love, and pour
make your
not in a
are His, and
gratitude into our spirits for
Him. " Though He
is
of
life.
all
His
rich
of our love for
Him," and
Though he slay me, yet
tarry, wait for
heart say, "
Him," and the end shall be glorious.

Thus God often tries our faith to perfect it.
will I trust
Strong
men need
trials
of
weakness
busy
'MORE THAN A PROPHET:'
To
lives, trials of rest.
he says, " Be
when
God."
as
such the Lord speaks
still,
and know that
We need that collecting of soul,

we gather up our
were,
it
181
am
which,
in
powers, and
little
stand by the great ocean of God's omnipotence

to
watch
it
pulsating with His eternal purposes.
Then, and not
till
glorious
vision
God
of
we
then, do
rest
Arm.
strength of the Everlasting
that
on the
It
shadow
valley of the
our prime,
aside
in
much
for us to
do
for
comes with
a cold,
unless,
John,
crease,
like
He must
bitter chill to the
we can
aside
by
He
did
Abraham,
of
soul,
must de-
we
die as
but
let
us
called
Blessed be our God.
In
often comes to us in our
multitudes of care and

;
But only
are not laid aside,
His great love
aside and rest"
say, "
increase," and so
the Lord.
lips
into " the
down
of death. "
To be laid
when there appears so
our God and humanity,
twilight dies into morning.
remember we
this
those
inspired
grand anthems which burst from the

the patriarchs as they went
is
and so
Elijah,
His bosom and awake
toil,
He
and
calls
says, "
us
away
Come
as
He
and John, to lean on

in glory.
CHAPTER
XXIII.
THE MESSAGE OF JOHN TO
AND THE
JESUS,
REPLY.
"And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or

do we look for another ? Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do
hear and see." Matt, ii 2-4.
:
'
A S
*^>
the
panteth after
hart
brooks, so panteth
God."
To me,
my
water
the
soul after thee,
was the utterance
this
of
John the Baptist's innermost soul while he lay
bound
in the
gloomy prison
of
Herod.
In
my
thought this message of John
earlier years I
to Jesus disclosed something of doubting sadness, the fruit so natural to such a hard trial as
John was being subjected
that to which
trial of inaction, injustice,
ing neglect.
The whole
But now
cannot hold the idea.
tone of the Baptist's
life,
the shape
of his message,
and especially the shape
Lord's answer,
all
lead
the
oppression, and seem-
me
of our
to conclude that
it
> l
MORE THAN
A PROPHET."
was simply the gratifying

thetic love
and he pined
cut
for a
of his deep,
sympa-
and the work.
for Jesus
was hungry
soul
183
word from
John's
his Beloved,
He was
communings.
for love's
from much that was sympathetic, and
off
forced to live on heart resources.

He might
"
truly say,
He hath hedged me about that I
cannot get out," and he wanted one soul-touch
from the
Spirit of the
King
so he called
" Art thou he that should come, or do

for another ?"
words, nor
all
my
of
we look
do not pretend to fathom these

that beat
great soul behind

flash
two
and sent them to Jesus, saying,
his disciples
them
and burned
in
the
but some rays of light
out from them, clear and grand, in which
soul rejoices.
What
word
a spirit
of unselfishness
as to his lone, hard sufferings.
Not one
No, no
This was not the side of his nature that needed
sympathy.
Long, long ago,
derness battles, had he

side of
tle
life,
in those stern wil-
made conquest
and came forth with
of this
his hairy
man-
and wild food, meet robe and food of the
great self-conquest.
It
is
just here
ple lose their hold on those they
many
peo-
would help,
84
and wound where
would
they
where they would cure
that
we
are depressed
When
loneliness.
friends so misunderstand
us
deepen
heal,
as
our
conceive
to
and cast down, owing to
the burdens and clouds or some lower elements

of our natures, their very mistakes
ness to our cup of anguish, as
add
when the
bitter-
disciples
so often interpreted the words of Jesus, as
He
if
were dragging through the lower plains of
instead of His great soul-struggles.

They
said, " It is because we have brought no
life
bread"
when he
of the Pharisees."
glory of His
work
exclaimed, "
said, "
Beware
And when,
at the well
have
meat
of the leaven
rejoicing in the
of Samaria,
to
He
know
ye
eat
Him engrossed with

thoughts of the body, asked, " Hath any man
not of," they, thinking
brought
Him
aught to eat ?"
Thus, time and
again, was His heart pierced by the low con-
ceptions
His
of
nearest
and
best
Those who would comfort us must
friends.
rise to
our
outlook in trouble, or at least not form a lowering estimate of our characters,
comforters,
dened
lest,
they weigh down
hearts
with
their
creed
our
like
Job's
overbur-
miscompre-
185
hensions, and compel us to cry out with Job,
" Miserable comforters are ye all."
would make
They who
path fragrant with the rich-
life's
ness of grateful hearts must learn to
know and
respect this law.
The message
John showed
of
where
his
heart was yearning, and for what he longed
and
imagine
for us to
for
one instant that
this
great soul had ceased to care for Zion's work,
and descended into the narrow dungeon of
mere
sorrow, would be
selfish
outrage the
in a
truest
No, no
prisoner.
feelings
ciples
life
God's noble
of
the soul of John was cast
mould too grand
he had made
for such treachery,
too true to desert
because he was captured by
Would God
stronger
and the
its
and
prin-
its
enemies.
the legions of His followers were
He
and
to insult
wanted to know
of the battle,
fate of the world's vast millions of
prisoners fast
bound
wanted to hear
if
misery and
in
iron.
He
the time at last had come,
" the acceptable year of the Lord," to set at

liberty those
God
called
who were bound.
him
bear without a
The burdens
to bear he could and
murmur
would
but he was too true
186
to his
King
to be
unconcerned as to the great
battle going on without, too loyal to the stand-
ard to wear the semblance of indifference, as
he heard the trumpets sound the onset.
no
this
was the
No,
side of his nature he longed
to bathe again in the heroic atmosphere of the
This was a part of him Herod, nay,
forefront.
all
He
the legions of hell could not imprison.
wanted to clasp hearts
if
hands with the hero of
his
he could not clasp
God and so he
may seem written
;
sent a message, which to us

in cipher
but
who knows
He
whom
to
the secrets of
for us with the clearness of
and the voice

Jesus
received
message, and
many
Son
evil spirits,
sent,
" same
and
it
noonday splendor
God.
hour
He
their
cured
and plagues, and of
and unto many that were blind he
;"
"Go
of
was
hearts, reads
messengers and
the
that
of their infirmities
gave sight
them,
of the
it
all
then Jesus, answering, said unto
your way
tell
ye have seen and heard."
John what things

This was the an-
swer of Jesus to the strong, deep yearnings of

John's soul.
He
sent
As we
said in a previous chapter,
page of His own grand
life,
the
87
record of one of the richest hours of action, so
eye of flesh and blood could
far as the
He
that action,
clasped the burning, brimming
heart of energy
enfolded
own
it
deep
John held out to Him, and
compassionating over John's

like the great
by
His
in the intense activity of
This was no fawning nor effeminate
life.
side
follow-
lot,
but they met
and brave meet who press on
side to crush the heart of
enemy's power.
It
was a
some great
pouring of the
full
purposes and plans of Jesus into the heart of

John. There was fulness of sympathy and oneness of soul undergirding
all
the words and
signs of this wonderful scene, filling the whole
atmosphere with a
lofty,
rare
fragrance
of
love and joy, with which a stranger cannot
intermeddle, but which

like
morning breezes
ily
on
glory.
fresh
saint
from the gardens of
Jesus Himself was marching stead-
the Lord.
rifice
comes to the
in the
same grand path
which
He
This
is
ing
down from
He
said,
touchingly set forth when, com-
Mount
is come
the
" Elias
knew Him
of holy self-sac-
couples so closely with His
not, but
of Transfiguration,
already,
have done unto
and they
Him
what-
188
''MORE
THAN
soever they listed

of
Man
A PROPHET."
likewise shall also the
There
them."
suffer of
is
Son
something
inexpressibly grand, heroic, strong, tender, and

radiant in this greeting and parting on life's
between John and Jesus, as they
battle-field
one to the martyr's block and the
pass on,
other to Calvary's height.
Here the
the heroic, good, and true
may
hushed adoration,
is
souls of
well pause in
for a grander soul-meeting
not recorded on history's page.
The whole
field
of this scene
my
food for your and
manna
eat that
soul
is
rich with
heaven's
Let us
our wilderness pilgrimage.
in
we
faint not.
If
God found
own
it
neces-
sary to send John to prison to calm, deepen,
and steady
his faith
that great soul, "
if
Be
He must
still,
thus say to
and know that
am
God," must we not heed such love-provings

and faith-deepenings
Active Christians are
God by throwing
own work, so God has
so apt to defile their faith in
too
much
stress
on their
ofttimes by affliction's hand to lead
the
mount
of contemplation, or
them
deep down
to
in
the valley of Achor, to show them their weak-
189
ness and His strength, until the hushed soul

nestles in sweet confidence
own bosom.
Pharaoh's prison, Moses
Samson
in the
Elijah
locks,
through
life,
Nero's
shows
Mount
in
Daniel
in
on
weans
God
to
their
advance
faith
is
from
plans to perfect trust in Jehovah.
John, and, through John,
tell
my
love
who
faithfulness beneath the cross,
in
God
Here
him.
power
things ye see and hear.

of
Jeremiah
Belshazzar's reign,
every spirit-bound child of
bow
in
Jethro's employ,
Horeb,
in
His
without them, and
Yes, go and
on His
calmed
Herod's dungeon, Paul
bonds
Christians
mere human
in
rest
thus
days of his blindness and shorn
John the Baptist

with
and
was
Joseph
Tell
shall
what
them the word
not bound, the arm of the Lord
is
not shortened, the heart of their Saviour has

not
grown
moves
gions of
hell
is
them the kingdom

Tell them le-
Tell
cold.
steadily,
strongly on.
Herod nor the combined powers
cannot bind
it.
Rest
He, and not you, who
You have borne your
is
in
to
your God.
of
It
win the victory.
testimony,
and done
190
your
part,
now
rious things
stand
your God
still
and see What glo-
will do,
and thus deepen
into eternal confidence and boundless rest on
the
bosom
of
Omnipotence.
CHAPTER XXIV.
GATHERING UP THE FRAGMENTS.
" For Herod feared John, knowing that hew as a just man
and an holy, and observed him and when he heard him,
he did many things, and heard him gladly." Mark 6 20.
;
^HE
r
I
trials of
us whether the
down
es
deepening gloom are those
that prove men's souls
-*
into
man
rests
the strength of
Few
foundation of his hope.
ones have died

ry
yea,
in the
disclose to
on himself or reach-
God
of
for the
God's great
noontide of their glo-
few, Elijah-like, have
mounted from
earthly glory in heaven's fiery chariot.
their
God
has been more gracious to us in showing of
what
material
how
their
His
splendors
heroes
are
made, and
flash
out
and
beam
on, in wider, stronger glory as the darkness

of adversity
Most
and disaster lowers about them.
of them, like Jacob, can look
say, as
back and
they gaze on the uncompleted plans
and frustrated purposes that strew the path of
192
bygone
years, "
the years of
mand
is
Few and
my life
have the days of
evil
been." But the great com-
The
to be faithful unto death.
when he
of this world,
child
hears the crushes of
unmerciful disaster following fast and following

faster,
may
cry,
over
It is all
may
when
doom
his
crushed
spirit,
may be
but,
thank God,
all
forth
we
And
are
trials
the
Christian
but " in our
amen."
by
may, with
all
called
has
soldier
God
this glorious
often
Napo-
Waterloo
obliged to have his
no Waterloo,
darkness
Belschazzar
rush into his dark fate
leon
and
in despair.
the vision of Samuel pro-
faint
nounces
have noth-
down
ing more to live for," and sink
Saul
yea
is
light
in
show
on to
similar to those of John's im-
prisonment and the work there sent him.
To me there
is
nothing more grand
Selwyn than these two
of the great
which show
his soul
very
He
trials.
in
had seen
all
seemed planted
Where once
as a tree
these
the hopes
life
by the ruthless hand
an unjust war.
extracts,
the vortex of
plans of the best years of his

scattered
in the life
of
what seemed
the Church of
by
and
crushed and
God
rivers of waters,

and flourishing with the
rious
193
prospect of glo-
full
and speedy success, he saw devastation,
desolation, decay, and sinkings into hopeless

night.
Yet
'
his great soul
endured as seeing
Him who was invisible, and laying hold of Him

whom the world could not clasp, he pressed
on to be
world
He
successful.
calls
"
193):
than
faithful rather
be what the
writes (vol.
ii.
p.
have now one simple missionary idea
before me, of watching over the remnant that
Our native work
is left.
senses
the remnant of
is
a remnant in two
a decaying people and
the remnant of a decaying
faith.
The works
of
which you hear are not the works of heathen
they are the works of baptized men, whose love
common
has grown cold from causes
to
all
churches of neophytes, from Laodicea downward." Page 209 " And the pleasant dream,
:
so full of bright hope, has melted
the prospect of a few more years,

will, of
plodding labor
to build
down.
to
if it
do not see
feelings to
it is
sit
my way
is
me
fallen
to another visit
to
my present
ruins
not mop-
more congenial
among my own
and
be God's
that remains to
up again the tabernacle which

I
England
is all
away
194
but tracing out the outlines of a new foun-
ing,
dation
than to
public
Who
England."
in
life
man
heart of a
go through another course of
in
such heroic faithfulness to
to
that has the
him would not do reverence
God
love
these flashes of light on the souls of God's tried

ones, for the world has nothing like
show us those massive cables

anchor the hope within the
We
lime
come now
striding
is
ing for
He
my
will lie
of
all
principle
principle
Judea's wilds.
in
said, "
action
of
;
must
crying, " Lord,
in this sub-
fragments, and
Herod's prison walls
My
work
Most
done,
my
but not so John.
God's great Bible heroes, a
rather
mere medita-
than
rather than the
act,
is
of
that
meditating and wait-
King's coming"
was, like
man
tion
ended
which
the same great bearing
on with
marked him the leader

task
John
to look at
splendid faith in
men would have
of faith
veil.
gathering up the
trial,
They
it.
doing His
Lord."
And
sentiment
will rather
so
God
still
than
sent
him work.
Again, there are few of us
sooner or
later,
who do not meet,
our Herods somewhere in
life's
broad
battle-field.
we
Yes, as sure as
195
are active
and true we will cross some character who,

by some invested power or powers, some position, social or official, can
circumscribe order,
doing good.
ply
and
will
or usurp our powers
for
Satan even keeps on hand a sup-
such oppressors, *who
of
be ready to
ready to
are
patronize or imprison God's faithful ones, as

suits his
purposes best.
sweet lesson for

then, as
them
us.
Here, then,
John the Baptist did
feel
his
Herod. Make
the presence and majesty of the
written in their hearts as deeply as
Herod's:
!
a rich,
God
Send them away with the conviction
in us.
Ah
is
Pray ever for grace to do,
this "is a just
it
man and an
this is the true secret of
was
in
holy."
overcoming
evil,
of lighting up our dark places, and mounting
over our
"Do
rough ones with rejoicing hearts.
good," says Jesus, "to them that hate
you, and pray for them that despitefully use
you."
So
shall
our souls rest
sweet calm of the peace of God
in
;
the
deep,
so shall our
joy flow on rich and strong, like a mighty river

into the ocean of our God's boundless love.
Our
prison walls will
become the
courts of our
96
'MORE THA N A PR OP HE T.
'
'
king, and the harsh words of our adversaries

will bear
on their vibrations sweet comfort from
our own beloved.
on the strong
was he
head
So
as superior to
Herod's meanness and
was
attempted overawings.
cruelty as he
So were
his
rest of his true character.
So did John pillow
to his
his last days spent in triune faithful-
ness to men, to himself, and to God.
the great soul
is
And
so
almost transfigured before us
into that higher ministry, where angels serve
before their God, in spirits akin to that which

laid aside all malice, or revenge, or
ency
did
its
faithfulness,
it
work with a
and trueness, as
had been commissioned
God, and sent on

strong,
despond-
sincerity, grandeur,
if,
Gabriel-like,
in the
presence of
this express errand of holy,
and victorious forbearance.
He
over-
came and ascended, the great forerunner of the

victor, " ascended King of kings and Lord
Strange, hard, soul-trying work!
of lords."
He
with
here confronts this prisoner of the Lord

this cruel,
secutor.
it
unprincipled, and wicked per-
Herod hears John.
Oh, what grace
requires to be faithful to your cruel, victo-
rious oppressor.
But the man sent from God

must and
will
scended to the
be
John never
faithful.
and weakness
folly
de-
own
of his
but ever stood by his great standard, and
will,
echoed faithfully his King's word.

his
197
work
for
on, for he
and a loyal
How
these trials in adversity,
Curse
we may,
just here
like
child of the
King
kingdom.
soldier of the
grand and glorious

"
and a Herod to
in
was a true
ready to cry out,
did
God, even though there
his
was but a prison to work
work
He
the testimony of
is
when the world

God and die." It
is
is
the eagle, renew the
Here we may overwhelm
vigor of our youth.
the world walking only by sight.
When
the
hard, bold Nebuchadnezzars see us yield ourselves willingly to the fiery furnace, they will
soon be astonished, for one

will
make His presence
like the
felt.
Son
When
of
God
Daniels
prefer the lion's den in faithfulness to the sec-
ond place
in
the
kingdom
in
unfaithfulness,
then soon will the Dariuses, be trembling before
our God.
This
What
is
if
Work
on,
when
earth sees no hope.
the very crown and glory of Calvary.
Jesus had turned back after his con-
demnation, and refused to go forward, because
"MORE THAN A PR0PHE1."
190
to earthly eyes there appeared no hope,
and
even the heavens were deepening into dark-
and the Father was mysteriously
ness,
"
saking the Son?
This would
have been the disaster of
Beyond
universe.
this world,
ing eyes in heaven's high

vigils hold,
for-
lama sabacthani."
Eli, Eli,
tiers of
dome
the
watch-
their countless
and they gaze down on the bearing
of each arena-tried soul, to feel the glorious
pulsations of
and crown
trueness,
its
acclamations of undying love.
it
And if we
with
could
but hear the echoes of their spirit-yearnings,
what universal peals

forward
!"
of " Press forward, press
would greet our
ears, as
upon nearing the
hesitating
hope deepens into
line
We
night.
they saw us
where earthly
must ever play
before and for the admiration of that higher
company
audience, that innumerable
the great assembly of the Church

born, the spirits of just
Mount
ing
22-24).
Him who
who
is
And
invisible,
are invisible.
we endure
so
first-
perfect unto
Sion, unto the city of the living
(Heb. 12
those
men made
of angels,
of the
God
as see-
and being seen by
CHAPTER XXV.
THE UNSHAKEN REED.
" What went ye out into the wilderness
shaken with the wind ?" Matt. 11:7.
JESUS
He
speaks of great prin-
But when
He
does unfold the hu-
heart for us, deep, rich, and lasting
Of no one does He speak
scene.
freely,
reed
and laws, of the character rather than of
the man.
man
did not often give us His opinion of
an individual.
ciples
to see?
and gladly
as of
John the
is
the
so frankly,
He
Baptist.
loves to dwell on the grandeur and richness of

this splendid character,
of His
own
life,
which
and passes on
rises
in
by the
side
the pathway
of blood into the gates of glory before
Him.
But look what
strike
characteristics of
John
Jesus, and behold a heavenly estimate of
and
John's independence and firmness
life.
call forth
the grand burst of admiration from
our Lord..
life
man
He was
no wind-shaken
of John had rooted
itself
reed.
The
deeper than the
200
and the motives of
of earthly pleasure,
soil
John reach higher than the sway
Deep down
admiration.
God
his
his
of
any earthly
the trueness of
was rooted, up high
life
God
purposes of
in
in
the
motives were swayed.
his
This grasping of the eternal gave him an evenness and steadiness in his grand course as sure
and glorious
Son
which marks the planets'
This was a scene on which the eye
pathways.
of the
as that
God
of
could rest with glowing ad-
miration. This was a living union with the
ing God, through which joy flowed
God and man.

of
His
comes
It
is
lished.
joy,
in
viz.
it
a mighty, grand lesson
good thing
The human
to
have the soul estab-
heart was
and not to be tossed forever

the troubled sea.
is
between
Jesus speaks from the richness
and
man
to
liv-
God
is
made
for rest,
like the billows of
God
of rest.
Firm
the throne of Jehovah, and His habitation
the everlasting
hills.
Thither would
His children come and
sit
He
is
xiave
down with Him.
The whole tone of the Bible is one grand call

God wants us to found our house on
to rest.
the rock, and lay up our treasure beyond moth,

and
rust,
He
thieves.
201
loves to see the
feet
tread firmly the foundations of eternal truth,
and the heart
lifted
up
until
man
walks gladly
and surely along the great highway of God's
own
His own un"

while
the wicked are like the
in all the steadfastness of
life,
changeableness
And
troubled sea, casting up mire and dirt."

the
one
like
the
reeds with every wind of popularity are
the
yet
it is
of the hour, but not the
so
bosom
is
The men who waver
earth seeks.
men
greatness
ever-shifting
this
much
easier to be
men
of history
swept on upon the
of public opinion than
it
is
to anchor
the soul firm to eternal right and ride out the

tempest, taking
until the
sky
judgment
We
is
all
clears,
its
beatings and
lashings
and the great calm of true
ours forever.
can hardly realize the great unrest of
yea,
even Christendom, to-day.
How
vast are the multitudes of reeds shaken
by the
earth
wind
and
How
few of the rules that govern
living are as yet
truth and right
and dress comes of a thoughtless
gard
of
what
is
in
All this farce of fashion in
living
9*
life
grounded and rooted
intrinsically right,
disre-
what
is
202
God, what
really beautiful in the eyes of
makes our
and
strong,
lives
and
glorious,
Such ebbings and flowings
beautiful.
really
tell all
too plainly of a want of that solemn and earnest dealing with
life
and
demand,
eternal issues
Christendom
as yet
proval, than
for
is
its
loudly that
tell
living
powers which the
more
even
man's ap-
for
God's, and so swayed more
by the opinions from Vanity Fair than the

charts of " the Interpreter's house."
But
love the personality of this scene.
man
love to see Jesus taking
tude and dealing with him face to

to heart.
It tells
me
out of the multi-
of the
face, heart
possibilities
of
being true amid these overwhelming surges of

falsehood.
pathy
in
It
me
tells
whole earth oppose me.

face, the friend of
him through
a
my
of
all
close to
the mockings and scoffings of
condemned and doomed
And it is a
Him by my side,
world.
and to lay hold of the truth and
Come
sym-
here see, face to
Noah, who stood
deep, sweet rest to realize
"
Lord's
every effort to stand, even though the
reality of
His
unto me*all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and
will give
you
rest."
It
makes no

difference on
there
is
what earth may smile or frown
all
as they
and mark the few firm-standing, truthand "stands by them."
He
loves to see the mountains stand firm
amid
grounded
who
one eye that sweeps over the
yet
man-moved, praise-loving multitudes

surge,
203
souls,
the thunderings and howlings of the tem-
pests,
and the rocks defy
all
the beatings of
the sea, loves far more to see the heroic souls

of
His loyal-hearted and true ones breasting
and breaking the waves

tion.
And He
of this world's opposi-
loves to lead souls, to rest
He
against the true and brave.
them
pointed the
multitudes back to the comfort they derived
from
this
John
tain granite,
of the wilderness, this
and
called to their
moun-
minds the
rest
they found by the steadiness of this mighty
man.
There are people who 'imagine there
is
way between two

points " the happy medium," as they call it.
Such men do not find rest half-heartedness
rest in conservatism, rest half
can never give
it,
neither can half fear.
comes from oneness with God, an

viction of and leaning on truth.
tist
Rest
entire con-
John the Bap-
was no conservative man, but a
"
man
sent
204
from God," unshaken by the opinions of men.
So
simple, plain, and true were the great paths
of duty to
him that we never hear
sulting with
men
of his con-
our Lord alone was the dic-
tator of his course.
So we need not complicate

grand and great
great realities,
know
to
He
rather simplify
make
it
seize its
all
our
John did not claim
issues.
many
schools, but he did claim
God
the will of
did stand
it,
and press them with
might to successful
to be versed in
to
life
in living a true life.
fast, rejoicing in
truth.
few
great truths lived are far better than a great
many
theories
Not what we can
unlived.
dream, but what we can do forms our characters
and
limits our conquests in
ever doeth the will of
heaven," he
Let
life
my
life.
in
of heaven.
Never
plans be so numer-
let
ous as to be but a series of mistakes.
cost,
is
never be so complicated as to be a
tangled dream.
ever
Whoso-
Father which
kingdom
shall enter the
"
we undertake
for
God
or
What-
man, count the
and thus be able to stand.
We
are in an age that sadly needs rest
rest of stability, the
home
the
joys of true charac-
11
ter,
205
sending the pulsations of confidence bound-
ing through every department of
The
life.
in-
tense hurry and change of progress keeps the

heart,
not the head, in a whirl.
if
It is this
restless whirl that ofttimes so blurs the vision
make them think that the

God of nature and the God of revelation are
antagonistic.
What we all need is a deeper,
of scientists as to
steadier, firmer Christian
and
out the
Who
light
life,
that shall pass in
and joy of the world.
has not met and does not
know some
unshaken reed, standing firm and steady above

all life's fickle
tossings,
unmoved by the
smiles
and frowns of the popular horde, true to the

very core
is
and who does not
men and women form
class of
that
worth having
religious world
that
is
in the political, social,
all
or family
to
as these
all
and
the truth
Jesus sees
must form the
true government, in church, state,

it
is
rise
the governing principle which
before
What went ye
see?"
all
held in their vast systems.
basis of
'
the pillars of
They anchor
and knows such men
seems
realize that this
Him
in
the
question,
out into the wilderness
For government underlies
all
to
joy, all
206
Law
rest.
is
the cradle of peace, the centre of
The foundation
strength.
must
stability
rest
of character
on law,
and
on chance.
not
John the Baptist stands out before Christ, as

at rest, and a leader to the rest he enjoj^ed
;
and
life
it
was sweet to Jesus to
feel this
He
working within His own.
trust
trustworthy
the
and crown
the
He
loves
loves
brave-hearted.
through the
It is
strife,
to
honor
to
It
a joy
is
coming
to hear the voice of our leader thus
post.
strong
and encouraging us
at
our
glory already to feel the strong ap-
proval of His spirit coming to our
relief.
Mark
you, these are words John the Baptist did not

hear.
seems
It
messengers
the
had gone
ere Jesus spoke them, and not until he passed
up into
may John have known
glory
heard this splendid

Jesus.
faith,
praise.
And
which
We
for there
wrong
our
is
us.
we
so
is
far
Him
lips
of
are often left to walk
by
grander than
must look
He
will
;
to
live
on
to our opinion of Jesus,
the danger.
fullest glory
crown
eulogy from the
or
He
will
be sure not to
be sure to crown us with

but
we
are not so sure to
with the fulness which
is
His due.

Thus He
leaves us, as
He left John
the Baptist,
to struggle on into the cleft of the
Ages,
open
us.
none
and wait
to
see
the
heart
in all its richness of love for
Of
all
will
Rock
of
Jesus
of
each one of
the revelations of heaven,
be more sweet and
207
reckon
astonishing to
each heart than the personal love of Jesus.
When I come to know how much

me individually, it will be heaven
loves
Jesus
in its
fulness, life in its vastness, glory in its zenith,
joy unspeakable, wherewith

eternally satisfied.
my
soul shall be
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE DISCARDER OF SOFT RAIMENT.
" But what went ye out for to see?
raiment ?
Behold, they that wear
kings' houses."
Matt, ii 8.
A man
"soft
clothed in
soft clothing are in
JESUS
now views John
pleasures
and
social
in
He
luxuries.
life,
had
its
in-
dicated the stability of his character, the firmness of his principles, and
his
triumph over
self.
The
now He
points to
reed which could
not be shaken by the wind could neither be
made the victim of self-indulgence. The hero

who could stand alone firm and true, despite
all
the storms and blasts of man's opposition,
could remain true through
pendence
hair robe
life
in
the camel's-
and leathern girdle that he knew
was incompatible with purple and
And
deceitful
John saw an inde-
smiles of men's fortunes.
and nobility of
the
all
our Lord would say, as
multitude, "
If
you did not
it
fine linen.
were, to the
find a
man
in
the
209
wilderness seeking the favor of men, neither

did you find one seeking selfish gratification
and ease
so
you must look deeper
motives that made his
you out
life
so strong,
for the
and called
into the wilderness to hear the
sound
of his voice."
Many
man who
sets of his
has withstood
all
the on-
fellow-men has fallen a sad victim
to himself.
should tread
Nor does
Great, to be slain
Alexander the
by the winecup.
kind of intemperance which
and lauds, which
is
as
tinies of the soul as
he
require that
this
in the footsteps of
There
is
society fondles
deadly to the higher des-
wine
is
to the body.
It is
the intemperance of self-abandonment to pleasure,
the submerging of
ury, such as
and sap
life
drown men's
of
its
life
into worldly lux-
souls in floods of ease
truest
force
and
glory.
John the Baptist stood out grander to the eyes

of Jesus
and nearer to the heart of Jesus be-
cause he never, for
one moment, ceased to
press forward and strike hard for the salvation

of his fellow-men.
The very
simplicity and
unselfishness of his attire were sources of ad-
miration to his Lord.
God
loves
economy
in
210
life,
kept at their best
and
He gives us all
He unhesitatingly
loves to see the powers
fully sets
his
and here
approval on that state
mind which reduces worldly
imum
in
Nowhere
approve of luxurious
mon was
care to the min-
order that spiritual work shall have
maximum.
arrayed in
in
its
His word does God

It is true, "
living.
all
of
his glory,"
equally true that this state of
life
Solo-
but
it is
sapped his
manhood and tarnished his name.

Now, during his life perhaps John heard no
word
of
approval for his dress.
That inner
made him glad

press that much
consciousness of greater things

that he could, by self-denial,
deeper into the joys of true

of
what was beyond, and,
life.
St.
He
laid
hold
Paul-like,
cast
aside every weight, to run with patience the
race
set
before him.
The freedom
from
worldly care which he enjoyed was rich compensation for
all
the self-denials he endured.
God felt
his life.
But here God shows
in all the common trials and
If we could but realize this
Perhaps he never thought of the joy

in the details of
us His interest
duties of
fully
if
life.
the heart could just feel the presence

of the
ery,
Lord
what a world
from the bowed
would be uplifted
of care
what vast wastes
spirit,
prevented
could press on through the
up into the stanch
here
He
for
has
Son
the
said, " I will
Can
God.
of
mindful of the details of her
Are the
they not
of her
own
tails of
the
His own.
mother be un-
one's
little
words,
" I
meat
into
and
of every child of
when He
in
He
life ?
all
God
the de-
enter into
more
this
assures us that
shall sit
thirsty,
stranger,
it
is
on the judg-
little
ones in the startling
was an hungered, and ye gave
was
form a part
judgment, bringing out
final
His identity with His
and ye gave
and ye took
naked, and ye clothed

prison,
words on the
Can our Lord express
ment throne
never leave nor
idle
Just so surely do
life ?
life
with this very feeling
was a
is
beneath her notice
lives
enter
powerfully than
vani-
He
Well,
dresses and food and pains and sor-
rows of their young
Do
of
We
pomps and
realities.
These are no
forsake thee."
lips of
drudg-
in all the orderings of life's
vain strugglings would be
ties
211
and ye visited
me not
me not.
me no
me no drink
me not in
sick,
and
Verily,
in
say
212
unto you, inasmuch as ye did

the least of these, ye did
Human
it
not to one of
not unto me."
it
thought cannot invent or conceive an
expression that will show so close a union
oneness of Jesus with His
words
of
His
oneness
little
He
the day of judgment, when
yea,
ones, as these
maintain to
will
all will
be ushered
into that eternal joy* which arises from a full
communion with God. Why,

then, should life's drudgery make us afraid,
or bow our spirits in sorrow and gloom ? May
we not cast all on Jesus ? We may we may.
Hear Him " Cast all your care on Him, for
He careth for you," is His own message left
realization of our
"
us by His apostle.
down,
O my
within
me
yet give
and why
soul,
Put thy
Him
thanks
countenance and
Why
art
art
thou so troubled
God,
trust in
who
thou so cast
will
my
my God."
" Can a mother's tender care

Cease toward the child she bear
Yes, she
for
the help of
is
may
Still will I
forgetful be
remember
thee."
Can we afford to sap manhood and womanhood by self-indulgence ? Shall the sons and
daughters of
God
enact again the sad tragedy
11
of
Samson and
sleep, fondled
213
on the lap of
worldly care, while the locks of their might are

silently but surely cut
Who
has fath-
the depths of that expression, " using
omed
the world,
and not abusing
mastered the
art of
ures the greatest
heart
away
We
it"
gathering from
power and
Who
has
life's treas-
fullest nobility of
God let us not walk

The moment we overestipleasure, that moment we have
are sons of
as slaves of flesh.
mate a worldly
leaned the soul against a

later
we must awake
lie,
of our misplaced confidence.
meat to
shall
and sooner or
to the sad consciousness
eat the world
Surely
knows not
of
we have
man
for "
not live by bread alone, but by every
word
God."
that proceedeth out of the
We
of
have clothing to wear the world
cannot appreciate
meek and
mouth
quiet
that
life,
inner
adorning of a
the righteousness of saints
our pure linen, white and clean, which forms

the wedding garment at the marriage supper
Lamb. Let us seek these, that when

He comes we may not be found naked. Let
of the
the world have
its "
purple and fine linen,"
Dives fare sumptuously every day
but
let
let
214
King put on
down at the
their beautiful
the same from
which Jesus
the children of the
garments and
Father, which
sit
is
table of their
feasted at the well of Samaria.
Truly, this subject
is
one of vast and awful
importance to the Church of
By whom do
moment.
standard of
of
God
living
God
at this very
Christians gauge their
the
time-honored saints
or the vainglorious leaders of worldly
extravagance
Do
the daughters of
Israel
seek the patterns of their attire and costs of

their household from the deep, true,
and
sa-
cred pages of God's word, or from the folios of
worldly magazines and bazaars
homes
by the demands
this matter, or
rious world
selves.
Are Christian
regulated by the standard of Christ in
As
of a vainglo-
These questions answer themis
a future for the
just so surely
must the stand-
surely as there-
Church of God,
ard of Christian fashions and Christian living

in that
future conform to the
word
of
God.
This wild waste and devastation which we see
sweeping
arises
in its
from
the contest
might through Christendom
Christians
joining
for worldly fashion
pell-mell
in
and worldly

Let Caesar have
folly.
being counted
go
but
who
let
shall
God
Caesar's, but give
men and women who
Let the
God's.
215
prefer
like the children of this world,
them not be mentioned
as those
walk with the Son of God,
for
they
are not worthy.
Lastly, our
wear
says, " Behold,
Lord
they that
Why
soft clothing are in kings' houses."
mention
this fact
in the centre of
Why
throw
in this allusion
His grand eulogy of His be-
loved John the Baptist
Was
it
not to show
us the difference between this world's ease and
come
that of the world to

rest,
and heaven's idea of
earth seeks to soften

self
indelicacy
but
its
of luxuries.
rest
and robe itNaaman-like, " it is a
to
hence kings' courts are
Earthly comforts gravitate
around earthly powers, and

danger
Yes, truly,
of this world strive
realize happiness here,

full
Earth's idea of
clothing,
alas,
The powers
leper."
thrs
just
is
that position in this world
is
the
encom-
passed with worldly lusts and ease which slay

their millions.
Jesus shows us that His true
and brave ones have no powers to waste or

time to lose
in
such
lives.
They must
reach
2 1.6
higher and live deeper, not making provisions

for the
flesh
" laying
heaven."
to
up
themselves
for
There
they shall meet
the lusts thereof, but
fulfil
in
it
is
the
rest for
for the
them
for
King
of
them
the blood of the
forever and ever.
shine as stars
in
a king in whose courts
There are garments waiting
washed white
treasures
is
it is
Glory.
the robes
Lamb,
There
is
to
the rest that remaineth
people of God."
CHAPTER
XXVII.
MORE THAN A PROPHET.

" More than a prophet."
JESUS
Matt,
ii
g.
here sets a higher value on
than on a mere prophet.
There
thing nobler, stronger, grander in
John
some-
is
His eyes
than prophetic vision, and John had that something, which

ties
is
the living contact with the du-
and battles of
out in the realities of
is
grander to stand
than to behold them
life
Better to be in days of reality than
in vision.
in the
It
life.
shadows
of their forecasting.
John the
Baptist opened the great battle through which
the violent, as
of heaven.
if
He
by
force,
spoke as a
of the very things about
was a man
which he
ness.
"
took the kingdom
man
midst
in the
which he spoke.
He
realizing the greatness of the age in
lived,
and laying hold
The kingdom
of
of that great-
heaven
is
at
hand"
was the startling cry from the burning realiza-
21
tion of his
"
soul.
your midst" were
his
"
expected Messiah.
root of the tree"
warning against
"
am
There standeth one
The axe
is
laid at the
are the startling
sin
in
words about Jesus, their
and a
words of
fruitless
religion.
the voice of one crying in the wilder-
ness, Prepare ye the
way
of the
Lord," was
These burning
idea of himself.
the heart of the Baptist gave his
his
realizations in
life
a brawni-
ness of principle, a mighty force of action, that
drew from the

words, "
women
of our
lips
More than
Lord Himself the
a prophet
none greater of
born."
There
people
are
who spend
their heart's
yearnings in vain longings to penetrate
the
mysteries of the future, craving even the prophetic vision, looking ever into to-morrow's
To
darkness.
such
we
say, in the presence of
our Lord's words, " This

or truest
life
you
is
God
crave.
not the grandest

has thrown your
destiny in the midst of a glorious present

realities of
now
press
the
upon you with loud
clamorings and splendid
possibilities.
Waste
not the moments, but grasp these mighty openings for God.
Be a John the
Baptist, a
man
of
"MORE THAN A PROPHETS
219
the present, for only then can you be a true
man
of the
present to
its
Only by bringing the
future.
we prepared
true focus are
to be-
hold the outlines of the future with hearts of
Balaam's vision of
participating joy.
downfall,
march
for his heart
Jehovah
of
Israel's
own shame and
glory was also a vision of his
could not follow the
Jonah
as could his vision.
prayed to die amid that glorious manifestation

of God's pardoning love to penitent Nineveh,
vision of God's will
f orjiis
his love of that will.
The
was stronger than

joy of present duty
seems to have faded from the man's

sought the comfort and delight of
life
living,
he
more
by what he knew than what he was, and so had

no joy
The
in himself.
present was antago-
and depressing to him. He was

only a prophet, and not " more than a proph-
nistic, harsh,
et."
Ah, the
'The
glories of to-day/
light
shineth in darkness, and the darkness compre-
hendeth
nities
it
not."
All around us are opportu-
angels might
well envy
such as moved the Son of

of
God from
His glorious majesty to
disclosing
life
us,
openings
the throne
walk amid men,
and immortality
in the glory of
"MORE THAN A PROF-BET."
220
His
life
that
life
He
lived within this world's
every-day doings.
Again, John was " more than a prophet"
by the heroism and
zeal of his doing.
It is
grander, nobler, stronger, greater to do than

to
John not only spoke the presence
tell.
the king, but he lived
it.
The presence
Master was stamped on every page of his
was woven into
It
his dress,
table, spoke in his sermons,
reigned
thundered
life.
at his
in his re-
bukes, and marched triumphantly through

his conflicts.
line of battle.
John brought
He
all
of
of his
all
his faith into
hurled the powers of his
re-
ligion against the evils of sin like an avalanche,
and
this
Alas,
liness,
made him
how many
" more than a prophet."

lives have " a form of god-
but deny the power thereof"
How
many speak His
praises with the tongue, but
plan and execute
life
it
and
How many
in
dedicate
straight
baptism's
and
away
without counting
Him
in
parents bring their children,

sacred
give them
compact solemnly
to
God,
and
go
into the great schools of pride,
ambition, and avarice, where they train those

children
for
" the world, the
flesh,
and the
children's souls
confirmation,
own and the

How many come forward in
damnation
devil," to the
of their
by word and form
take upon themselves

in
221
ratify
and
the vows of baptism,
all
the presence of Jehovah and His Church, yet
go on seeking
selfish
aims and gratification,
leaving the fields of Zion to languish
many come
to the
How
Holy Communion, and
the presence of the emblems of
in
our Lord's
shed blood and pierced body profess and say,

" We offer up ourselves, our souls and bodies,
to be a reasonable,
unto
holy,
when they
thee,"
and living
will
sacrifice
neither
brave
danger nor suffer privation to carry the Gospel

of their
Lord
the want of
every
to millions
it,
who
are perishing for
and though Jesus commands
member of His Church
to see this Gospel
pressed forward to the conquest of the whole
world, until
it is
preached to every creature
Alas
who
talk
those
and do not are legions,
and the great stagnation
in
Christendom and
devastation in heathendom, comes from rank
disobedience and bold Ananias and Sapphirism.
God be
merciful to us, and grant us grace to
do His will as well as to profess
it,
John the
222
THAN A PROPHET."
''MORE
Baptist-like, to
make our
religion strong, true,
and victorious.
Again, John the Baptist was " more than a
live, real,
prophet"
and
he pressed into
in that
conflicts of the
templating
dreamer
them
afar
he was a
forefront.
man
do with him.
to
John
off.
up
could
He "was
to the
all
full,
all
the energy
far
His was the joy of doing.
heaven was
it
the powers of
economized to
at
hand, and
just as really as its duties
its
and
His was not one of the souls divided
trials.
from
of
came with
bear on them
bring to
into the battle.
The kingdom
joys
no
To know
man sent
battle-field.
the uttermost, and pressed with

soul
was
of action, a hero in the
from God," a whole man, with
manhood developed
his
of con-
His theology was not that of the
monastery, but of the
was
the battles
all
kingdom instead
all
the joys of heaven by the cold, dark
stream of death.
Oh, no
To be
true
and
pure and alive to God's glorious will brought
him
a joy in the solitudes of the wilderness, a
glorious exultation in the
imprisonment.
that the
It is so
kingdom
of
gloom
hard for
God
is
of the fatal
men
to realize
within them.
We

pine for the glory to come, when,
but take
it,
the glory
lo,
is all
if
223
we would
around us
that
joy which thrilled the soul of Jesus as He exclaimed, " These things have I spoken unto
my
you, that
joy might remain in you, and
your joy might be
Let
full."
the idle
all
dreamings of heaven give place to the
makes heaven even
here.
sweetness
our
the
1
Thy
will
of
be
done
With
heaven."
Then
oft
on
real
shall
uttered
earth
as
we
catch
prayer,
it
is
John had
will.
"
this,
more than a prophet."

it made him
made the kingdom to his soul a present,
ing,
in
what exalted rapture do the
angels speed on in His
and
joy
God, which
of participation in the very will of
It
liv-
joyous reality, instead of a future event,
cold and distant.
And
even now the heavenly
manna lies all about us, if we would but pick it

The sweet dews of heaven lie fresh and
up.
beautiful all along life's pathway, if we but
had
sip
life
and realization enough
them.
front
if
in
our hearts to
But we must be found
we would enjoy
in the fore-
the presence of our
God, found a child of the kingdom

taste the feast of its fatness.
We
if
we would
cannot afford
224
to
sit
and muse dreamily about golden
crystal seas,
and seraphic anthems.
we must do more than

life
in
God's purposes
this.
until
We
it is
gates,
No, no
must bury
fired
by that
same heroic love that sends the cherubim and

seraphim speeding
the
bosom
all
that glorious
of St.
His word; that beat
at
John the
army
of
in
Baptist, and carried
" loyal hearts and
true" triumphantly into the fulness of eternal

love and
Such
rest.
are
some
we
of the thoughts arising as
behold John the Baptist pressing nearer and
deeper into Christ's great love than a mere

prophet, and such some of the comforts and
consolations bursting forth from these words of
Jesus in streams of everlasting gladness from
The
the garden of the Lord.

is
rich
life
He
gives us
beyond comprehension with joys and
glories of living, loving,
the mere visions
and doing, to which
of the Christian
not to be compared for an instant.
joy within our reach

trees of heaven's
rich clusters
future are
There
is
from the
own happiness swinging low
and ripe over the humblest, hardest path
of
duty, along which the footfalls of the least of

God's
little
ones resounds.
Surely, here
broad door opened directly to

Jesus, through
seats of
honor
the
which we may look
what characters
in
may
225
is
heart
a
of
and see
press in to occupy
the
the great feast of His love.
CHAPTER
" Notwithstanding, he that
heaven
is
CO
who
who
of
says the Son of

to
God
ii
is
of
n;
of one that stood
man
Judge
upon every soul
Jesus, that great
will pass eternal sentence
truth itself
John the Bap-
unsurpassed by Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,

Elijah,
Moses, Samuel, David,
Elisha, Daniel, as
they stood out
Son
their full glory before the
has
kingdom
least in the
any of woman born
in the eyes of
man, and who
tist,
is
Matt,
greater than he."
equal
XXVIII.
He
heaven
lated to
is
greater than he.
make
God
of
said that the least in the
Words
in
yet
kingdom
of
well calcu-
the thoughtful ponder, and, pon-
dering, tremble before the majesty of the dis-
pensation
which
whose awful
portunities
we must
the judgment.
lips of
is
upon
responsibilities
us,
and
through
and exalted op-
press on to
meet God and
This sentence bursts from the
Jesus like a peal of exultation, as His
THAN A PROPHET."
''MORE
227
heart leaps in the joy of the glorious victory,
down
so soon to cast
palities
and
scurity asunder,
burst
the powers and princi-
to rend the veil of ob-
of darkness,
let light
and immortality
upon the world, shining brighter and
He
brighter unto the perfect day.
grand end of
spirit,
if
and
these agonizings of
all
for the
sees the
body and
moment seems enraptured
as
death were already " swallowed up in vic-
Thus
tory."
soul, as
sion,
it
Yes,
out
ages,
some way
life for
Jesus makes each
is
passes before
flash
coming
it
Him
in
human
Messianic mis-
splendors for the march
of
man, therefore,
in
and
every
lightens or darkens the
pathway
of
others coming after.
we
truly are greater in the advantages
and opportunities of the kingdom of God than
was John the
Baptist.
He
struggled long and
hard, agonizing in the wilderness and
by
Jor-
dan's turbid waters until he heard the voice

of the Bridegroom,
saw the
Lamb
of
God but
;
never while on earth did John see the

splendors of the
Sun
of Righteousness.
full
Here
and there the healing rays bursting through the

darkness lighted up
his
hard
but
glorious
228
At
battle-front.
intervals the voice of the Bride-
groom was borne
to his ears, causing his heart
to leap with joy unspeakable, of which he himself
or
in
could only say, " This

full
filled
my joy
is
fulfilled,"
but the darkness again gathered
deepening folds around him, and lone silence
reigned through the unbroken gloom for long
weary days and nights

and
of watchings, waitings,
John had no
sufferings.
no Calvary to
those
light
What would he have
New
Testament,
days
gloom.
of
given for the fourteenth
chapter of St. John's Gospel, as his companion

in the prison of
have
thrilled
simply
said,
ye believe
Herod
God, believe
in
also in
many mansions
would have told you.
raptures would
And if
place for you.

for you,
What
his innermost soul if Jesus had

" Let not your heart be troubled
Father's house are
not so,
will
unto myself
come
me.
:
In
if
it
go to prepare a
go and prepare a place
again, and receive
that where
my
were
am, there ye
you
may be
John the Baptist had had only these

words of Jesus, how completely would they
also."
If
have annihilated Herod's prison and made

the antechamber of heaven
How
it
deep and

sweet would they have
weary, lone waitings
have paid him
made
How
for all
229
the rest of his
amply would they
moments
the
absence with these words:
Bridegroom's
you unto myself, that where
will receive
the
of
"I
am
may be also." But John had not

He had the great outlines of God's
there ye
these.
love,
and
to these he anchored his tossed soul, sure
and
everlasting justice, truth, mercy,
steadfast,
without
seeing
symmetry and playings

structure, as Jesus,
of
all
life
and
the
beautiful
urj
the divine
fill
by word, touch,
God in the flesh.

" the least in the kingdom of heaven
tone,
look, manifested
than he"
for
even you and
Jesus as
Surely,
is
greater
these glorious privileges.
in
it lies
me
and
It is
to look on the heart of
open before us
in the
New
Tes-
tament, and behold " His glory as of the only-
begotten Son of the Father,

truth." Surely
Him
We
of
is life,
we can
and that
full of
grace and
exultingly exclaim, " In
the light of
life is
man."
have pressed on out into that vast stream
mercy which Ezekiel saw gushing
the house of
God
(Ezk. 47
forth from
1-5), past the ankle
depths, past the knee and loin
depths, and
230
sweep on now
river of
cannot
that
" waters to swim
be
passed
cowers and
science
mighty
in the full current of that
His love
over."
quails
in,
If
a river
modern
beneath the un-
fathomable might and majesty of His material

creatures' vastness
and glory, much more can-
not His spiritual universe of glory be compre-
hended, save
in the clearness of that
day that
has neither sun nor night, and in the fulness

of that development which " as yet doth not
appear to us," but which can be told only
in
when we see Him we shall be like

Him." Then may we begin truly to penetrate
the words, "
this
volume
of
His glorious love, over which
now bending with deep, searchThen we will begin to compre-
the angels are

ing
spirits.
hend with
" all
the saints the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height, and to
know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge"
(Eph.
Yes,
18).
God
is
surely unfolding
Himself, and the light of His glorious nature

is
falling brighter
of ages, until
all
and brighter on the pyramid

shall shine
splendors of the " perfect

realize
it ?
Do
with the eternal
day,"
But do we
our hearts see with humble,
231
adoring gratitude the crowding splendors
of
His love, bursting on us ever more and more,
and
filling
our lives with possibilities of joy
that even such heroes as John the Baptist could
not reach, though he climbed and struggled
with
all
the holy, consuming zeal of his soul
Again,
if
the least
in
the kingdom of heaven
was greater than John the Baptist
the
in
ness of the knowledge of our Lord's
he
life,
ful-
so
is
in the vastness of opportunities for glorify-
John's sphere was a narrow one.
ing God.
Repent, repent, repent, was almost the reach
The king was coming
of his Gospel.
arrived,
its
and the kingdom was
at
yea,
hand
had
but of
marvellous vastness, tenderness, pliability
of love,
and exquisiteness of mercy, John's
Gospel did not
Jesus must bring
tell.
immortality to light.
Jesus must
life
and
take the
great, warm, brooding fatherhood of God, and
enfold the
heart of
man
us to pray, "
saw God
loved
lone, orphan,
poor,
in
it
Jesus was to teach
again.
Our Father."
as a king.
God
as the
sin-banished
John taught and
Jesus taught God, and
Father
and insomuch
as
the privileges of a child exceed those of a sub-
232
ject, just so
dom
of
much does
the least in the king-
heaven exceed John's situation and
advantages of the relationship of the soul to
God, and the priceless privileges
Then came
the flashes of light
bequeaths to us
word
cious
we
all
lifts
the veil and
the rich heritage of social
of the hereafter that
Jesus
tells
His pre-
the shortness
ransomed soul passes
into its
and the immediate nearness with which
press up to
dying
in
the
Abraham's bosom, and
in
discloses.
of time ere the

joys,
Jesus
river.
shows us Lazarus
and family joys
down upon
and the state of those passed
eternal hereafter
over the dark
prayer.
of
thief, "
Him, when He says
To-day
Paradise."
shalt
to
the
thou be with
me
John only saw the palace of
the King through the dimness of the morning
The
twilight.
heaven sees
least
one
his " Father's
in
the
house of
kingdom
sions" in the ever-clearing splendors of

rising sun.
of
many manthe
John looked on the narrow con-
fines of Israel as the sphere of his action
we
move
out to the battle with the mighty watch-
word,
"
Thy kingdom come,
on earth as
it is
in
heaven."
thy will be done

Yes, a salvation
233
as broad as humanity, girding a lost world, as
pure as the angels breathing the atmosphere

of heaven.
may
Surely, our hearts
thy
Lord,
Who
is
servants
can
"
Lead kindly
encircling gloom,"
may we
And
light
not
more."
no
stand
for these things
sufficient
stead of praying,
well cry out, " Hold,
lift
in-
amid the
our eyes
from the dark valleys of Achor to the glories

of the everlasting hills,
and
say, with a loftier,
deeper, sweeter realization than ever before,

"
Rock
in the
of Ages, cleft for me,
me
Let
hide myself in thee,"
same sense that Moses and Elijah would
have sung these words while Jehovah's glory

passed by them.
unmeasured
tion
we
possibilities
God has given
us.
"
and
at the
glories of the sta-
How shall we escape if
neglect so great a salvation" and realiza-
tion of
sin
For we may well tremble
life
we
who
look at the horrors of
and the glories of love through the
Mount
Calvary, and taste
life in
light of
the richness of
the dispensation of the everlasting gospel
CHAPTER XXIX.
HOW
"And
Matt.
TO DIE.
he sent, and beheaded John in the
14
prison."
10.
T3 E y e also ready," says Jesus, " for at such

--' time as ye think not the Son of Man
cometh."
How
truly these words describe the
The day
but soon was made bois-
departure of God's great reformer.
dawned
as
usual,
terous by the festivities of Herod's birthday

feast.
Perhaps John could hear
outer activity, and
knew
well
it
much
of feasting and joy at the court.
there were no indications that
the great
too,
realms of glory.
day
it
Certainly,
was to be,
passage
of his
Herod goes
and John stays with his God.
of the
meant a day
into
the
to his friends,
The
wild, licen-
tious revelry goes on in the palace, the sacred
communings
in
the prison.
Suddenly John
hears the tramp of soldiers, the clangor of ar-
mor
the door opens, the
executioner stands

him and
before
tells his
and God
we may not know
deep hush
scene
falls,
we do know
was the passage
we
until
hills of
stand with
One
Zion.
quick and perhaps painless
mighty soul
of this
Let us contrast
Silently the
errand.
in sacred love veils a
the great forerunner on the

thing
235
into glory.
death with the ascen-
this
sion of his great prototype, " Elijah the Tish-
men had met
Both
bite."
the
armies of
wickedness with brows of brass and nerves of

steel
both swept on in that grand, lone, stern
singleness of purpose,
nation
their
in
favored of
deep joy
might
God with
in
bowing the minds

;
both
His purposes.
Yet how
Around
heavens lowered, and their
him up
of
fiery chariot
ascension
his
different
Elijah the very
bore
Neither did
to the realms of glory.
moment
especially
inner strength and great,
the death-bed scenes.
the
men
of a
come unex-
pectedly to him, nor his dearest
and truest
God touched both of their

minds, and made them realize the coming
friend,
Elisha.
glory.
Thus God's dealings

tradictory.
But no
often appear to us con-
the glory of His
name
236
and His servants stands ever before Him, and

every motion of His hand, impulse of His
will,
decree of His kingdom, moves toward these.

Elijah passed up as every
do
John passed up
God
diers of
man would
like to
as only great, heroic sol-
dare to do.
John's latter end was a stronger testimony

of his trueness
and greatness than
God
waves to beat with relentless
suffered the
cruelty and pitiless force on the
He
Elijah's.
bosom
of John.
never was permitted to see his enemies
humbled,
nor
their
went forward with the army
laying
all
the king
Yet
neither in the
destinies,
of
Jehovah,
low until the nations trembled at his
word, and
majesty.
crushed.
vindictiveness
Elijah
John
cowed before
was
not
his
his
holy
inferior,
power he wielded over men's
nor the love of his
God permitted him
to
God
march on
and that
in the great-
ness of his might through the bloody jaws of
death,
up into
glory
and
in
so
doing he
heads the columns of a long and glorious army

of heroic sons of
God.
harder to flesh and blood,

rious victory over flesh
If
his
it
was
and blood.
death was
a
more
If
glo-
the star

of his faith
was plunged
darker night,
who must
it
shines
all
in
the
237
gloom
of a
the brighter to those
pass the gloomy portals of trials and
the horrors of that night.
Yes,
we
feel
the
help and brotherhood of John's death, while
the splendors of Elijah's translation

zle
but do not
may
daz-
us.
lift
Again, we see the goodness and glory of

in the
God
very seeming harshness and heaviness of
John's
trials
and death.
could and did put

test battle,
and
in
call
Here was a man God
the forefront of the hot-
on earth and heaven to be-
hold, admire, and rejoice over the massiveness

of his heroism.
If
we would but make them
open by the grace of God and prayerful
we would
fulness,
calamities of
life
find
sent to
that
the
faith-
so-called
try us are
as rich
with blessings as are successfully accomplished
That was a grand triumph when Satan
plans.
returned from the
arena where he had been
pressing Job with infernal fury and malignity.
Yes,
fallen,
he
returned
baffled,
defeated,
crest-
compelled to do homage to the heroic
love of
God's great champion, while
shouted the glorious victory, and
God
heaven
Himself,
238
descending, talked with the victor, worn, tried,
and
tired,
but true, true, true,
forlorn,
still.
Such are the characters needed, not only

glorify
God
to
our days and times, but to lead
in
forward men, to bring out the courage and de-
There has been a
votion of the pilgrim bands.
great dearth of martyr blood, and the fields of
Zion languish.
The hardihood
the Cross
of
The
soldier dies into a sickly sentimentalism.
alms of the churches are largely expended on

their
own
fancies
breaches are
and love
made
of
show.
Great
the outer walls which
in
protect state, family, and altar, and the surg-
ing tides of devastation sweep in
There must be a firmer stand.

the spirit revived that can
through a
risking
field of
and
Come,
man
of
let
who
us.
There must be
walk undaunted
Earth's followers are
blood.
spending
than the people
upon
more
are
us press closer
God with our own
for
named
by the
lives,
their
cause
after Christ.
side of
this
and count
it
a glory to die as he died, so brave, so true.
Let us
call
back the multitudes who would
search far and wide for Elijah's chariot, and
form them close and strong around the mar-

tyr block of
God
John the
has chariots of
and horses
fire
command, and He can

them on the mountains
at
army
the hearts of His
mere cry
men
We
Baptist.
at
going forth with their
know
that
of fire ever
any moment array
but would that
Nay
and the horse-
we must
fire
to rouse us the
of " the chariot of Israel
thereof" will not do
239
lives in their
see Davids
hands, see
Johns again laying their necks on the martyr's

block.
The deed was done. John

won the martyr crown, and
livid
flames shall
ever
heart as long as there

tianity in the
bosom
of
flash
is
the Baptist had

lit
from
fire
whose
heart
to
one spark of Chris-
man.
He needed
no long
death-bed scene to bequeath this legacy.
He
died as he had lived, with that bold, startling

decision and promptness.
in,
went and
it
His followers came
took up the headless trunk, buried

told Jesus.
ere they
came
it,
and
Ah, well did Jesus know
Had
not His soul joined
the shout of triumph which resounded through
heaven
And
as this brave spirit passed its portals
yet
mourners
His
was,
answer to the heart-stricken

"
Come ye
apart
and
rest
240
He
awhile."
Himself
desert place."
"departed
Here, then,
we
unto
unlock the richness of this inheritance

Christian Church
by John the
Jesus, let us retire into
feel the
With
Baptist.
deep meditation,
mighty sinews of
our weak
nerving
hearts
secret springs of his
until
forward, counting
life
life,
his struggles
contemplate
the
we can feel
within us, and move
power
the same uprisings of soul
the
left
our souls grasp the great principles of his
and we
get the key to
until
precious only as
it
shows
God over and above

"
Yes,
Come ye apart and
your souls may settle down
our love for the glory of

everything
else.
rest awhile," that
and
rest
on the goodness and mercy of God,
make shipwreck of
faith.
After every trial of life we need to go
and tell Jesus and then rest awhile, as we bathe
the soul anew in the sympathy and spirit of
God. Carry every wound received in the batlest
these mighty shocks
tle to
the Great Physician, and
the balm of Gilead.

quietly
in
by the
tombs
sweet companionship with

calls
Him
Blessed attitude
side of the
death-gaps are
let
pour
in
to
sit
of loved ones
Jesus.
away from
the
These
terrible
241
whirl of this world to hours of soothing medi-
tation with
dead
for
Him who is Lord of both quick and

He loves to meet us at the tombs of
loved ones and share the sorrows of our hearts.

Precious, loving Saviour
What would
this
world of aching, breaking hearts do without

thee
And
yet there are
would take thee from

give us instead, to
us.
men and
But
whom we may
who
devils
whom
will
they
go and
tell
our heart-troubles, to give the rest thou givest ?
CHAPTER XXX.
JESUS IN JOHN'S FOOTSTEPS.
"
But
say unto you, that Elias
knew him
listed.
Matt.
17
the
already,
and they
12.
\li 7E here
'
come
is
have done unto him whatsoever they

Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them."
not, but
sions
life
see
and
made on
one of the impres-
feel
the heart of
Jesus by
and death of John the Baptist.
this impression of our
Lord throws a
and ends.
light over life's aims, trials,
We may
founded
have
at the
our Lord
And
flood of
been astonished and con-
apparent neglect of John by
but here
we
look into the great
heart of Jesus, and catch a dim outline of the

character and motives that led to such treat-
ment
of the " saints of
all
ages," for John was
God nowhere
manifests Himself
as a sentimental fondler of
human weakness,
no exception.
but a great admirer and

heroism.
The
reverencer of holy
fact that Jesus
was
in Galilee at
243
the time of John's darkest and hardest
trials
argues not that he was under any greater obli-
com-
gation, therefore, to go to his rescue or

fort
any more than to come to ours or any other
saint's
ments
flash
for distance
Lord
of the
is
no barrier to the move-
it is
just as easy for
Him to
from the throne of glory into the pres-
ence of any being
walk
in
in the palace
John's sake.
of neglect
by
or prison
John had a
If
it was to
Herod for
the universe as
of
right to complain
his Lord, because
He came
not,
so has every prisoner of Jesus of every age and

clime.
But, thank God, the Christian
lifted
on a higher plane, and moulded
in a
God
stand
grander form.
out like
men
lings,
The heroes
of our
life
mighty men, and bear themselves
of renown,
with
no
and not a
set of
like
mere fond-
them.
character in
is
Tender,
mm.
fond, affectionate,
must be
surges of
but undergirding
a great, brave
glorious victory.
eternity,
too.
and loving, they are and
and
Jesus
all
of these beat the
life
sweeping on to
knew
He made John
Yea, and every saint
feel
this
from
and
realize it
will catch the
glorious key-note of eternal
life
all
same
as the pulsa-
244
tions of God's spirit
Our
beat within him.
Lord, instead of taking John out of his danger
and death, said
He would
follow on, and cause
His own great soul to traverse the deep
valley,
feet " to tread the winepress
His own precious
alone," with a greatness of anguish no mortal

ever before
His own sacred
felt.
lips,
which
had feasted from eternity on the honey and

the
honeycomb
He
compel to drain to the dregs that myste-
of
God's love profound, would
though
rious cup of anguish, even
agony
the sweat-drops of
drive
blood from His
man
Yes,
face.
the sweat of his brow, but
world the bread of
and blood.
within
eternity,
Did
it
life
in
traces of
eats bread
gave
Jesus
by the sweat
of
we may dwell on
deepening and
ever
but never, never, never fathom.
even
now we
Him
anguish in such words

troubled, and what
liver
came
me
I
from
this
12
echoing
hour
27).
"
as,
shall
unto this hour.
name" (John
the
agony
1
;
Now
say
for all
adoring
love,
hear
by
not cause Jesus struggles
Yes, such as
with
should
it
Yet
His soul's
is
my
soul
Father, de-
but for this cause

Father, glorify thy
Here we catch an echo

from the great inner chambers of
of
eternal trueness
its
down on
flashed
fountain
are
a note
sounded, a light
is
is
the mysteries of living, and a
open from which comes a deep gush
is
Here we
of heaven's joy.
life
life
245
see that the aims of
by no means worldly ease
exemption from the anguish
or temporal
of the conflict,
but that we come into the world just for the
purpose of drinking deep cups of sorrow and
meeting hard hours
And
so
side of
we
and
in
its
these
is
heaven's glory.
see Jesus pressing on
John
him from
To shun
of trial.
to shun life's greatness
up by the
the battle, rather than recalling
fury.
This must continue so long as the kingdom

of our
God
so long as
the earth.
is
assaulted and devastated by sin,
wrong runs
Who
riot,
and violence covers
would wish to come back
from the battle-front and leave the colors of
down and dishonored
the Master to be dragged
by His enemies
spirit
Yet
want
of Christianity has
of realizing this
sadly lowered the
standard and brought great weakness in the
armies of the living God.
Babes are whining
where strong men should be shouting paeans of
246
When
victory.
will the minister of the blessed
men
Gospel learn to train up
to endure hard-
"good soldiers of Christ Jesus"?

When will we nerve and strengthen the arms
of Israel by pressing up with all our might to
ness
as
share the
heroes,
trials
instead
When we
and
and dangers of the forefront
" press
power
God
in
we once more hear
ones
in our midst,
Lord
shall
"They
sad
recalls
Christ Jesus," then
the shout of mighty
and the standard
of the
go forward.
did to
him what they
of this world
terrible legacy of
against the day of wrath.
wrath laid up
It is
hard for the
wrong
Christian to endure the treatment of
He
from the hands of a wicked world.

O,
only
if
it
feels,
were the Lord, how meekly
bow, how humbly would
would
bosom
to His stroke.
But
it is
sinners, these lovers of violence
how can we
bare
my
these unfeeling
and wrong led
on by vindictiveness, malice, and

spleen
" said
listed,
Strange liberty granted the children
Jesus.
"
of looking back,
toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of

will
sounding
of
forget the
endure this ?"
all
fiendish
Ah
were
"
MORE THAN A PROPHET:'
Herod and Herodias
saints
247
Yet they and the
party they represented did what they listed
And
with God's mighty hero.

self says, "
Likewise
shall the
our Lord Him-
Son
of
Man suffer
Him who
endured such
contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest
"
them."
of
Consider
ye be tempted
chain,
it
and
for
God
Pilate, to
whom
couldst have no power at

it
holds the sinners'
just as true of
is
it
was with
;"
all
our enemies as
Jesus said, "
against me, except
We
were given thee from above."
look beneath
this world's
still
holds
it
must
the moanings and tossings of
all
and we
sea,
in
Thou
will find
our Father
"the hollow of His hand." The
wicked have done wickedly, and have wrung

the
lips of
God's saints with anguish, from the
days of Abel until

truly say, "
is
the help of
my
Again, there
now
put
I will
my
nevertheless,
trust in
He
my God."
God,
countenance, and
great joy and love for the
is
saints in all this ordering of the Lord.
told that the Master Himself,

"before
Him
set,
God."
endured the
We
are
" for
the glory
cross,
despised
down at the right hand

Wherever we turn, through the
the shame, and

of
we can
for
is
set
248
walks of God's word, we meet the same strong

current of revelation coupling the heroism of
the Christian with the joy and glory that
be his forever.
dee,
hand and on His
to be seated on His right
baptized with the baptism
shall also reign

ful
Son
of
shall
conflict
I will
give you a crown of
And when the words of the glorified

God peal forth in messages to the seven
him that overcometh."

no song
name
of rejoicing,
in the
And no
He
utter, " to
star of glory,
no palm of victory, no
temple of our
God
is
vouchsafed
any but the conquering heroes.
apocalyptic angel of that vast
man
Said the
multitude no
could number, as they stood in their white
robes and waved their victor palms,

are they which
tion,
and the
we suffer with Him, we

with Him." Again, " Be faith-
churches, seven times over does
to
be baptized
" If
unto death, and
life."
Are ye
shall drink, and be
Here He couples the

Again,
"
His glory,
left, in
able to drink of the cup
glory.
to
Jesus said to the sons of Zebe-
when they asked
with ?"
is
came up through great
"
These
tribula-
and have washed their robes, and made
them white
in
the blood of the
Lamb."

But
and
there
glory
these
in
depth
another
is
words
249
comfort
of
Lord.
our
of
They tell of a union of hearts and lives way

down deep in the characters of men and
women. Jesus let John suffer, not only because
Godlike to suffer' for right, but
is
it
because by such
knit
which
Nor
bonds
eternal
in
were
martyrs
will
under
altar
the heavenly vision.
in
who
of
many
Captain
of
suffering."
learned to love in the great
the
forefront
bringing
battle.
sons
their
to
It
salvation
God in
make the
pleased
glory, " to
through
perfect
Yes, the sufferings of Christ

" If I
us as nothing else could do.
up," Jesus
are
The
the
time nor eternity separate those
have met and
me."
souls
holy love.
of
altogether
John saw
St.
great
sufferings
cries,
" I
will
draw
These great yearnings
all
be
woo
lifted
men unto
of the soul for
deeds of greatness have a higher aim and more

glorious end than to devastate and
late
make
God's beautiful earth, and strew
millions slain.
Guided by the
it
spirit of
deso-
with
God,
they lay hold of the heroism of the Son of
250
God, who exalts courage to
It
loftiest
its
and
aim and end.
truest
a grand sight
is
to see Jesus
marching
thus past the block red with John's martyrblood, beholding

rich,
it
with a love deep, tender,
and heroic beyond human comprehension,
and thus steadily turn His own warm bosom
Look
toward Calvary.
at Jesus in this light,
and then weigh His words
come
up
after
me,
let
his cross daily
Him
as
army
He
" If
followed John, and
followers Jesus loves
to
the union that

surely for
and who
ever.
Yes, follow
all
that noble
Such are the
overtake Him, and
reach their Lord, surely there
a richness, depth, sweetness,
is
will
him deny himself and take
and follow me."
of martyrs before him.
when they do
any man
weak
Amen."
and
rest in
souls cannot know, but
them who have
" shall
life,
is
reign with
suffered with
Him
Him,
forever and
CHAPTER XXXI.
TRUENESS INVINCIBLE.
" At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of
Jesus, and said unto his servants, This
is John the Baptist

from the dead and therefore mighty works do
shew forth themselves in him." Matt. 14 1, 2.
he
is
risen
I ^
HE
bloody head of the
man
not easily wiped from the
-*
The
Herod.
horrible deed
God was
memory of
of
had kindled some-
thing of the flame which could not be quenched,
and
restless horrors
creepings of " the
day
of grace
startled
worm
him
the shadows of despair.
man's
avenging
terrible
The
had been despised, and had faded
into the night of feverish, startling
this
with the
that never dies."
soul,
finger.
dreams,
Let us look closely
at
and see the traces of God's

Let
us,
if
possible, allow the
warning of Herod's doom speak out to
who dare despise God's day of mercy.

The gay assembly of the birthday festivities
was soon gone. The stimulating excitement
those
252
of false pride, cooling, died into sickly, loath-
ing disgust.
Self-respect stood mutilated be-
fore the bar of conscience.

called
and
the
turned
soul
silence of life
her hushed
into
loose
it
The
upon
chambers,
and the
itself,
poor cowardly heart
is
consequences of
miserable selfishness and
weakness.
its
to the irrevocable
left
Never again could Herod go
in his
hours of weakness and soul-tempest to hear

the deep, true, strong soul of John calling him
into a safe
and higher
life.
The
cistern of
pure waters was broken, so he could no more

refresh his polluted soul therefrom.
He
beheaded, but Herod died.
John was
had sinned
against his better self and his God.
Every-
thing that could create and intensify remorse
was
in his life,
and
from the tombs.
it
haunted him as spectres
John the Baptist
before his tormented
soul,
still
lived
no longer as a
vic-
tim of his power and malice, but as one whose

of holiness existed to
haunt him.
very
life
that
by God's grace might have been turned
into real rest, joy, peace, love, and glory,
All
had
by sin been made to his soul visions of condemning wrath, gathering about him from their

One word
tombs.
John's
body from
trunk,
but
command
of
253
could cast
his prison-house a lifeless
the combined powers
all
memory from
being could not cast his
of
his
the ter-
rified soul.
Here, then,
is
one of the legacies good and
They
true lives leave the world.

" a savor of
ing wicked, as they are of

fearers
are as truly
death unto death" to the unrelent-
and lovers
of
unto
life
And
God.
life
to the
yet what a
temptation Satan ever makes for people, and
young people,
especially
to neglect and even
deride and persecute the good
How
often do
oftener
is
it
we hear
said,
it
" that
felt,
about them.
and how much
the fear of
being
laughed at and being persecuted by the world

keeps
me
And who is this

They are men and
back from Christ."
tormenting
world
women who break over the blessings and mercies God throws around them, with a hollow
pretence of courage and greatness, to cast disdain upon Him.
of
Let
me
here speak a word
warning from the depths of
ing God's spirit to plant

yours.
The days
will
it
my
heart, pray-
as a living seed in
come when those mes-
254
sengers of good, so lovingly sent from God,

*will
too
Their Father loves them
be called away.
much
them exposed
to keep
and persecutions
nities
to the indig-
bad world
of a bold
and, once gone, your heart-hopes will wander

about, seeking, as
were, comfort and sym-
it
Your
pathy from the tombs.
future rest be-
comes a half-hoped, half-dreaded
will
wake up
all
of
heart
too late to the vastness of the
never-to-be-restored
gone, gone, and
vision
Your treacherous
ghastly apparitions.
left
They
loss.
are gone,
a great loneliness in
life,
a great darkness in hope, a great restlessness

in peace, a great void in the heart that earth
can never
'fill,
but which stands trembling,
dreading, yet yearning toward the graveyard,
where your rashness has driven,

your
heart.
Few
are the souls
too soon,
all
the sweetest, loveliest, and truest
friends of
who cannot
look back and see some terrible blight caused
by
What would you
sinful intent or neglect.
give to-day to have the holy influence of that

pious, praying mother, long since laid
rest,
whose soul-yearnings
almost
despised
and
in
away
to
days gone by you
trampled
under
foot,
''MORE
THAX A PROPHET:'
255
whose prayers you thought beneath the dignity

your young
of
scorned
tily
less
whose advice you haugh-
spirit,
Well, she has gone to " the echo-
shore," and,
bring her back.
as
call
You may
mighty doings of God's

wonders
of
you
will,
you cannot
see
some great and
spirit,
and hear of the
His grace, as the battle deepens
and the conquest goes forward, and
make you
realize that
fluence lives again
We
will
your mother's holy
in-
but she comes not back to
your yearning heart and empty
ize
it
life.
need not pass beyond the tomb to
Herod's emotions.
There
in every life as sad as the
real-
are death-scenes
hushed grave.
We
have murdered associations that spoke peace,

comfort, strength, and love to our hearts
mur-
dered them in some false pride, some harsh
moment
of vindictiveness,
some
hour
evil
of
darkness, which passed and left us but a corpse

of joys that lived nearest
our hearts.
What
can
all
and deepest within

the fascinations of
the world's giddy, pleasing device, which

us do the rash deed, pay us for these
can
all
its
gaudy,
made
What
empty, mocking hollow-
heartedness give us for lost jewels of heavenly
256
purity and holy value
No, they
and the powers they once wielded

but the doings of departed
and see others'
feel
John the Baptist has
but
we
also feel that
he
And
if
risen
will
seem
we hear
others'
and we may
from the dead
not come back
to
desire to see him.
we, like Herod, abuse God's mercies by
His servants, we,
Herod,
like
day before the King

mercy,
all
He was
Herods
to
But there
Jesus will become as
of the nineteenth century
Herod the
is
tetrarch.
another thought here for the
However much he may be
child of God.
spised and persecuted, yet his trueness to
must carve
its
of this world
its
de-
God
testimony on the stony hearts

his light
must leave
amid the gathered gloom

breathe
one
will stand
pity and throne of
of
unanswered.
silent to the
as
joys,
however much we may
us,
in us
spirits as
We may hear of
them from without.
of
pleasures,
are gone,
its
his purity
traces
must
fragrance amid the sickening fumes
God will be glorified. Even though

darkness may not comprehend the light
of death.
the
that shines in
it,
yet
rejoice in its glory.
will
We
the eyes of heaven

live for others -than
257
We
the wicked of this world and age.
are
passing on amid scenes and hosts and

whose vastness appals the comprehension.
glories
Our bearing amid the scenes and
struggles of
the conflict
thrill
other spirits than those of
the enemy.
Ah
the seen
of
life
compared to
is
such a small part
the unseen
earth's
is-
sues are so insignificant compared to the great

bringings forth of eternity
We
shall as really
enter into the joys of judgment and justice as
we
shall those of
have our Herods
we hold
mercy and
sacred and dear for
or pleasure
strong powers
We
love.
foxes who would
mere worldly fame
who appear
to cir-
cumscribe and imprison our usefulness,
keep us back from the work of God.
remember
to
and
Let us
that one of God's grandest works
make grace stand out
rise
must
sacrifice all
is
superior to these, and
above their narrow, brief prison walls into
the unmeasured vastness of the glory about

us
the overwhelming
for we
and
are truly
unto
the city of the living
heavenly Jerusalem,
company
joy of the sons of
"come unto Mount
of angels,
God
Sion,
God, the
and to an innumerable
to the general assembly
258
and church
in
of the first-born
which are written
God the Judge of all, and to

of just men made perfect, and to
mediator of the new covenant, and
heaven, and to
the spirits
Jesus the
to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the
then,
is
our stand.
blood of Abel."
To
the wicked
leave dim forebodings and dreadings

us, the so glorious realities
fulness
Here,
we may
;
stand out in
and clearness of the love of God.
but for
all
the
CHAPTER
XXXII.
BE FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

"
He was
a burning and a shining light:
'nr
HE
hush has
banks
and ye were
John
willing for a season to rejoice in his light."
fallen again along
and Judea's
35.
Jordan's
The
mountains.
great preacher has gone home.
His
words
have smote a vast multitude of human hearts,

for weal or
woe, for joy or sorrow, for
Jesus turns and reviews the
death.
life
field
or
with
deep emotion and words of warning. He exclaims of John the Baptist, " He was a burnYes, John's was
ing and a shining light."

the real
no
fire.
glacial
man's
life
No
false,
reflection
was a
fire.
flames of living zeal.
borrowed glimmering,
in
icy
The
coldness.
His soul burned
in
the
He was consuming life's

Men felt
forces in the intensity of his service.
that
some
living force dwelt in him.
titudes were conscious of a
The mul-
warmth and glow
260
about him that they failed to
find in
formalities of priest or Pharisee.

their
the
hand on
of
fires
burning
reality.
from the
ing his
making
done
real
No
life.
felt it
They laid
warm with
hollow emptiness
Every word spoken was to John a
there.
coals
bosom, and
his
any of the
own
it
his
His theology came as
soul
and intensifying
a shining light.
part
by man
live
God, each one
altar of his
If
his
ever
as well as
fir-
own life,
man had
God, John
had. His great heroic soul lifted up the mighty

truths of God-blazing beacons from the furnace
of his
own
life
He
within.
shone with a glory
amid the doubts, gloom, and darkness
of a de-
generate world, that soul-light gleaming along

the shrouded paths of ten thousand
lives.
The
poor and forsaken, the publicans and harlots
saw a tenderness
gloom,
and
felt
of
mercy
arising out of the
glow
of
sympathy the
Church had never given before, thawing and
waking
their hearts into life
The surrounding world

sent from
God," and
and responsiveness.
felt
"he was
man
this feeling sent a thrill
of quicker, gladder life through their hearts.
Ah, the glory that God has placed within
THAN A PROPHET."
''MORE
human
the reach of a
man
ble for
it
John.
It
came up out
of a
stood
before
heaven's
God
ing
of
darkness and
with the
and
sin,
glow of
Caesars and kings were nothto
and
right,
rejoiced
Jesus
life
grand with the principles
comparison
strength,
of the
Him warm
fires,
Himself.
in
glo-
Jesus was deep-
world's selfishness and
own
possi-
and shine, a thing of
touched and greatly rejoiced at the
gloom
of
He makes
beauty to His eyes.
rious
ly
to rise
life
261
in
depths
its
glory
of
joy,
immortality.
warmth and
the
of
light
of
John's life/and then shows us where the secret of
His joy
holy
lies.
zeal,
brighter glow
Sun
He
wants our souls burning with
and wants that
wants
zeal to give earth a
be stars for the
us to
of Righteousness to light up, constella-
tions in the firmament of His love, held in our

orbits
by the gravitation
forth His glory
of
His love, showing
by the gladness and trueness
of our lives.
But there was another picture before
the
of Jesus as He spoke, and. He told it in

the words, " Ye were willing for a season to re-
mind
joice in his light." Yes, they
had stood by the
262
side of God's
words
fire,
great preacher, had heard the
as they fell burning
from his heart of
had seen the old dispensation lighted by
the great splendors of his true
by the beams
castle
of the
they rejoiced, but

season.
It
morning
their joy
was the
an old
life like
star
was but
and
for a
terrible joy of sensation-
lovers instead of truth-hunters and right-doers.
Their inner
lives offered
no
fuel for the burn-
ing flames of John's zeal to
simply warmed
by the
themselves
They
ignite.
fire
of
another, only walked by the glory of the shooting-star as
it
blazed
gathered none of
across their pathway, but
its
brightness.
the reflected joy of another
Theirs was
they had no joy
within themselves, and so their lamps
When
slept.
cometh
awoke
the cry arose,
'*
The bridegroom
go ye forth to meet him
in darkness,
perplexity.
The day
for shining in
The
in outer
lo,
in helpless
borrowed
in,
leaving
darkness and wretchedness.
joy of a season died
in
they
rejoicing chil-
dren of the bride-chamber passed
them
!"
and cried out
glory had forever passed.
went
and they
out while the bridegroom tarried,
The
the night of eternal

gloom.
This was the tone of sadness that per-
vaded our Lord's words

about Him,
Pharisees,
the multitudes
to
and especially the
who
and
scribes
could not be changed into bet-
men, despite the burning
ter
263
life
and glowing
light.
We,
too, have
been touching that burning
heart and rejoicing in the splendid
We
the Baptist.
of his soul
lift
have
of
life
us and press us on out deeper

Shall
into the vast ocean of God's purposes.

it
John
the mighty tides
felt
be the joy of a season
The seed on the

The
it ?
rock with no depth of earth Beneath

rustlings of the leafy fig-tree
of the fickle multitude

tist
Shall
simply be our admiration
purposes be ours, and
The Hosannas
fire
John the Bapor, shall John's
our lives
Shall
John's principles gird our hearts with strength
God be our God? If there

solid results, we must arise from
Shall John's
are
to be any
the
contemplation of this mighty man's

desire
and determination to
cast aside self
and lay firm
act.
life
with a
We
must
hold- of the living
God.
It is a terrible
mercy
to go out, leaving souls just
thing for God's lights of
where they
THAN
''MORE
264
A PROPHET."
found them.
It
mere children
of sensation.
an awful thought to be
is
preachers whose zeal and
They may have
glow as did John the Baptist's

preacher
may burn and
fire
but what the
can never save the hearer irrespec-
is
We
tive of
what he
or
by the mere impulses we have
fall
himself.
is
our souls, but by the
"Christ
in
life of
you the hope
will not stand
God
in
felt
on
our souls.
and the
of glory,"
only hope.
Can we,
at self,
John, look out on the work, in
like
and up
of glory,"
at Jesus, with the
must decrease,
grand words
He must
increase"
These words are no sad requiem over fading

worldly honors, but a welcoming of the incoming tide of glory
not words of mere hopeless-
ness, but the exultings of a soul sinking into
the boundless sea of glory and love.
It is
that
lofty attitude which causes the Spirit to write,
" Blessed are the dead

Yes, passing
into
hidings of eternal
time's oars and
Him
rest.
who
die in the
with the
Lord."
full,
sweet
few more strokes of
we stand on the
eternal shore,
confronting the long line of "spirits of just
men made
perfect,"
whose
lives
the sacred
down upon
pages of God's word have flashed

Will
us.
we stand
there with hearts burning
with the intensity of their lives

will
we have been
265
and, above
cup and be baptized with His baptism as
men
Him
Him
can be
Will
we
as to be counted
?
Thus
of our Lord,
all,
able to drink of our Lord's

far as
so have suffered with
worthy
to reign with
to deepen our glory into the glory
whose
joy shall be
full
joy. shall
one
with
be
in
all
us,
the saints in
glory,
one with Christ the living
ever.
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More Than Prophet 00 Pen I

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

"MORE THAN A PROPHET"

CHARLES CLIFTON PENICK,

Bishop of Cape Palmas, Africa.

from the com-

panions and loved ones of

preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus

John the Baptist

strong, tender, vast personal love.

Jesus excepted, there has no one gone from

ing and a joy

more deep, than

God, who stood

have culled these few thoughts from among

Gospel, and comforting to the few tried true

stood nearest and firmest by

volume, with deep, sweet gratitude for

the memories of the past, and strong, bright-

ening hopes for the love, glory, and rest of

meet and have each

Oct, 29, 1880,

loves good Fruits for His great

The Glory of Motherhood

Chapter IV. Growing

Chapter V. God's Messenger

The Wilderness Temple

Purpose conquering Earth.

John's Opinion of his Power

Radicalness of John's Preaching

Chapter XIV. John

the Baptist to the National Life

Chapter XVI. Prosperity's

In the Presence of the King

Chapter XX. John's Love

Chapter XXII. Adversity's

Chapter XXIV. Gathering up

The Unshaken Reed

Faithful unto Death

More Than a Prophet."

GOD LOVES GOOD FRUITS FOR HIS GREAT

very careful in selecting and training

the parents of His heroes.

their souls travail ere there

wait until his requirements ripen.

and Sarah were not ready to receive

seeming barren wife wait, struggle,

"MORE THAN A PROPHET."

and long were the agonies of a Hannah ere a

Samuel was brought

forth to stand for his

before Israel and a world.

age that Jesse begat David, the glory of Israel's

And now we come

to the close of the Jewish

God's own heart.

The Mosaic law

soul of Jesus that

run over, and the

glad tidings flow on, on, widening, deepening

through the desert, making

" blossom as the

rose," teaching the mountains