giving them the first intimation of the advent of Christ, and distinctly pointing Him out personally to them, which demands some special notice of this remarkable man, in this place. The people, sunk in unbelief, apathy, and spiritual declension, needed a strong voice to arrest their attention, awaken them to reflection, and arouse them to an attitude of expectation. Other and older prophets had foretold the coming of Christ at a distant future age; but he came with the thrilling joyful message, that that Saviour was immedi ately to appear, and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. He comes up from the recesses and labyrinths of the desert to the banks of the Jordan,1 with his rough garment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins. His countenance bears no aspect of effeminacy or sensual indulgence. It is hard and bronzed with his rugged abstinent mode of life. With the flashing eye and the spirit-stirring voice of a theopneust, such as the world had not seen for several centuries, he takes his position on the banks of the stream, and cries to all who come within the sound of his voice, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord;" "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Never was there a more impressive scene; never a more commanding speaker; never one before him who had a more important message. His mission was to arouse the people, to rebuke their sins, and baptize with water, as a symbol of that preparatory repentance, which was to open the way for the coming Messiah. John the Baptist was of sacerdotal family. His father, Zacharias, being an aged priest, was serving in his regular course in the temple, when the revelation or promise was made to him of the birth of this son. His mother was a cousin of Mary, the mother of our Lord. He was born, according to the conjecture of Reland,3 which there is reason to believe is well founded, at Jutah, or Juttah, a city of "The wilderness of Judæa," the rocky district in the eastern portion of the territory of the tribe of Judah, was the place where from early youth he had lived in retirement. But the place where he exercised his ministry is given by St. John as "in Bethabara beyond Jordan" (chap. i. 28); i.e., it was on the eastern bank, and probably near Succoth, the more northern ford. He was nearer Galilee than Judæa, which accounts for his having Galileans among his disciples. The place was only about a day's travel from Nazareth. The place where John describes him as baptizing, subsequently, was in "Enon near to Salim." The most ancient MSS. the Sinaitic, Vatican, and Alexandrine, and others, for "Bethabara " read "Bethany." Origen states that in his time this reading prevailed, but he changed it to the more ancient name Bethabara, that it might not be confounded with the place where Lazarus and his sisters lived. But the evangelist made the distinction by saying ἐν Βηθανίᾳ πέραν τοῦ ̓Ιορδάνου, in Bethany beyond the Jordan. 2 Luke i. 5-13. 3 Palest., p. 870. D the priests in the mountains of Judah, south of Hebron, which still exists under the same name.1 His advent, like that of the Lord, had been predicted long before he was born. In the rapt vision of Isaiah, when he was commanded to speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and foretell the solemn and stately march of mountains and deserts, to prepare the way of the Lord, this notable individual is made to appear in the foreground, as herald of the advancing retinue of the great King: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." 2 But the prophet Malachi, even more distinctly predicted the forerunner: Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me, and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet." And the Saviour, speaking of John, declared, "This is Elias, which was for to come." John, it is true, told the Jews that he was not Elijah. They were expecting that old prophet in person to rise from the dead, to go before the Messiah, to prepare His way. They interpreted too literally; and if John had answered their question affirmatively, they would have been led into great mistake. But although John was not literally Elijah, he came in the spirit and powers of that eminent prophet; and thus was the prophecy fulfilled. Whether we look at the character of his distinguished prototype, the wonders he performed, or the honours conferred on him, he stands preeminent among the great men of the first dispensation; nay, among those of every dispensation and age. He stood up with a fearless front, and flung back the charge of troubling Israel in the face of the monarch, whose hands were dripping with the blood of his brotherprophets. Rain and dew were withheld at his word, and came at his command, and even fire from heaven. His career on earth was closed with a splendour which suited well so magnificent a history. In a chariot of fire, with horses of fire, he went up by a whirlwind into heaven. It was in the spirit and power of this great prophet, that, according to the message of the angel Gabriel to Zacharias, his predicted son should go before Messiah. Miracles preceded and attended his birth. It was part of the angel's message to Zacharias, that he should be filled with the Holy Ghost, from his mother's womb.5 His peculiar holiness from his birth 1 Rob. Bib. Res., ii., p. 206. 2 Isa. xl. 3; Mal. iii. 1; iv. 5; Matt. xi. 14; John i. 21. 3 Luke i. 17. 1 Kings xviii. 18. 5 Luke i. 15. may well be taken into consideration, in forming an estimate of the remarkable man under whose moulding influence the evangelist John, with all his native quickness of susceptibility to impression, fell, just at that period when he would most deeply experience the benefit of it, in preparing him for that great future of his life which was about to open before him. Mourning over the corruption of the times, and led by the Spirit which filled him, John the Baptist retired to the desert regions in the vicinity of the Jordan, lying to the north of the Dead Sea, and devoted his days. to holy meditation, or to the instruction of the few who at length heard of his sanctity and wisdom. It is altogether probable that John the apostle, and others who are mentioned as present with John the Baptist as "his disciples," when he came bearing witness to Jesus,1 had for some time shared in this instruction in the wilderness. They had gone down from Galilee into the wilderness where John was, and put themselves under his instruction. These disciples evidently stood in a nearer relation to him, implying a longer and more intimate acquaintance than could have been claimed for the multitude in general, that thronged about him. How important a bearing on their training for their future work must the tuition of such a man have exerted! They needed no one to assure them of the genuine purity the humility, and self-abnegation of his character. They saw him in private, in his unrestrained and familiar moods, as well as in public. His garments were coarse; he drank neither wine, nor strong drink, but lived a life of abstinence and austerity, satisfying his simple wants with a nourishment which the wilderness afforded. 2 He kept under 1 John i. 35-42. 2 Several species of locusts are mentioned in Scripture, which were used for food (Lev. xi. 22). The migratory locust (Edipoda migratoria) may be taken as the type of its family. They are used as an article of diet in Africa and Abyssinia, and other countries they frequent, thus compensating in some way for the amount of vegetable food they consume. (See Bible Animals, by the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S., p. 596.) Herodotus describes the Libyans as making use of the locust for food. (Melp., chap. 172. See also Pliny, H. N., vi., 35.) Signor Pierotti says, in his "Customs and Traditions of Palestine," that locusts are excellent food, and that he was accustomed to eat them, not from necessity, but from choice. Burckhardt says that he saw among the Arabs " locust-shops," where they were sold by measure. Dr. Thomson says that in Syria they are eaten only by the poorest of the people. (Land and Book, ii., 108.) They are boiled alive in salt and water, then dried, and fried in butter, or their bodies ground into fine dust, and eaten with milk or honey. This locust-dust mixed with honey was no doubt the food of John the Baptist. Some commentators, under the impression that locusts were not fit for food, conjectured that the original reading must have been, not åkpides, but èyípides (cakes), or kapides (shrimps). The honey of bees flowed in abundance from the clefts of the rocks in the wilderness; and there was a kind of honey that issued from fig-trees, palms, and other trees. In the accompanying plate there are two species of locusts represented. Those |