THE PREACHING OF JOHN. Severe the preacher's garb, his mien, his food, THE preaching and baptism of John were the dawning of the gospel day. Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand-this is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (Matthew iii. 2, 3.) It appears that after Malachi there was no prophet until John the Baptist came, to whom Malachi points more directly than any of the Old Testament prophets had done. He appeared first in the wilderness of Judea. This was not an uninhabited desert, but a part of the country not thickly peopled; it had six cities and their villages. In these John preached, there he had hitherto lived, being born near, in Hebron. No place is so remote as to shut us out from the visits of Divine grace; nay, commonly the sweetest intercourse the saints have with Heaven, is when they are withdrawn. farthest from the noise of this world. His meat was locusts and wild honey; these he mostly fed upon. Wild honey was found in the hollows of trees and rocks, where bees built. Those whose business it is to call others to mourn for sin, and to mortify it, ought themselves to live a serious life, a life of self-denial and circumspection. By giving others this example, he made way for Christ. A conviction of the vanity of the world, and every thing in it, is the best preparation for the entertainment of the kingdom of heaven in the heart. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." John had spent his youth in such exercises of the soul as were calculated to prepare him for his great work. He came preaching. The doctrine he preached was that of repentance; "Repent ye." The word here used, implies a total revolution in the mind, a change in the judgment, disposition, and affections, another and a better bias to the soul. John Baptist's business was to call men to repent of their sins. Consider your ways, change your minds; you have thought amiss; think again, and think aright. True penitents have other thoughts of God and Christ, sin and holiness, of this world and the other, than they had. Those who are truly sorry for what they have done amiss, will be careful to do so no more. This repentance is a necessary duty, in obedience to the command of God (Acts xvii. 30), and necessary for the comforts of the gospel of Christ. If · the heart of man had continued upright and unstained, Divine consolations might have been received without this; but being sinful, the sore must be searched, or it cannot be cured. True repentance is seated in the heart. But in vain do we pretend to have it there, if we do not bring forth the fruits of it, by forsaking all sin, and cleaving to that which is good. They are not worthy the name of penitents, or their privileges, who say they are sorry for their sins, and yet persist in them. True penitents are humble in their own eyes, thankful for the least mercy, patient under affliction, and watchful against all appearances of evil, abounding in every duty, and charitable in judging others. |