not. We do not suppose that he spent this time in idleness. I have no doubt that the wilderness of Judea, was God's school, or college to John the Baptist, as the desert of Midian was to Moses, where for forty years he was studying the lessons that God wished him to learn.

It is a fact that when John was about thirty years of age he came out from the wilderness and began to preach. Luke iii: 3. He was dressed very coarsely, and lived very plainly. A camel's hair garment, such as the Arabs, in that country wear to-day, with a leathern girdle round his loins, was the dress in which John made his appearance as a preacher

He was to be a sort of second Elijah; as the angel said, to "go in the spirit and power of Elijah;" and so he was dressed like that stern prophet. 2 Kings i: 8. And his food was as plain as his dress. "Locusts and wild honey" were to be his chief articles of food. Poor people in that land today live in the same way. They have locusts dried, and prepared, as we prepare herring or other fish, and eat them with oil and honey.

It is a fact that John was a very popular preacher. We are told that people "from Jerusalem, and Judea, and all the region round about Jordan" went out to hear him. Matt. iii: 5. His preaching was very different from what the people had been accustomed to. They had never

heard anything but dull, sleepy sermons, on subjects which they could not understand, and did not feel much interest in.

But John had a new subject to preach about; and he preached about it in a way that was entirely new. He told the people that the long promised Messiah was coming, and that they must get ready to meet him. He told them that the only way in which they could do this was by repenting of their sins, or being really sorry for them, and by turning away from them. He compared the Jewish people to a tree, planted in a garden. He said that God had sent him to lay down the axe at the root of this tree: and that unless they minded what he said, or unless the tree which had long been barren began to bear fruit, it would be cut down and cast into the fire.

And then, there can be no doubt that John's manner of preaching was quite as startling as the matter of it was. We have no report handed down to us of the way in which he preached. But I have always thought it must have been very simple, very earnest, and very solemn preaching. I suppose he had a clear, loud voice; that his sermons were full of illustrations; that these were delivered with lively gestures, and that he made the wilderness ring again with his solemn warnings. And this being so, we are not surprised at the effects that followed from his preaching. Great multitudes came, and were baptized by him. This is one of the facts of his life. John's baptism was different from Christian baptism. It was not something that would answer in place of Christian baptism. We know this is true, for we find the apostles baptizing over again persons which had already received John's baptism. Acts xix: 3-5. We know not what form of words John used when he baptized people. Certainly he did not use the sacred words employed in the Christian church—“in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

The Jewish teachers were in the habit of baptizing those who became their scholars. John came as a teacher sent from heaven. He had truths to teach that were new to the people, very important and solemn truths, And those who wished to become his disciples, and to learn these truths he received by the rite of baptism. And it was because he baptized so many people that the title he bears was applied to him, and he has always been known in the Christian church as-John the Baptist.

It is a fact that John's preaching had a great effect on the minds of the Jewish people. They were thinking and talking about the coming Messiah. And this feeling went so far, we are told, that men began to think that John himself must be the Messiah. Luke iii: 15. And here we see how faithfully John discharged his duty as the forerunner of Christ.

It is a fact that John kept on preaching after Christ came. It is a fact that he acknowledged him to be a person greatly superior to himself. John iii. 27-32. He directed the attention of men to him, as-“the Lamb

of God that taketh away the sin of the world." John i: 29. It is a fact that John kept on bearing witness to Christ, till him, because he reproved him boldly for his sin.

Herod was offended at Luke iii: 19–20. sent two of his disciples

It is a fact that while he was in prison, John to Jesus to inquire whether He was the Christ, or whether they were still to look for some other person to come as the Messiah. think that John only did this for the sake of his disciples. that John was expecting soon to die, and that he wanted to introduce his disciples to Jesus, that they might know him and follow him, when their

Some people They suppose