or less outspoken, of ingratitude on the part of his Master, possibly even of doubt whether He could be all that John had preached Him to be. But if so, how did John view the matter? Certain it is he did not repel such insinuations. All we have to judge from is the question he sent his messengers to put to our Lord. That his faith had actually given way is more than we need believe the question to imply, but that he was staggered and nonplussed we cannot doubt. Probably the whole facts of the case appeared to him so astounding and inexplicable, that the question was a kind of desperate attempt to draw his Master, or make it impossible for Him to withhold some indication of His intentions, if He had any, regarding him. If so, he would

find that he had failed to get what he wanted.

"He sent two of his disciples." Luke is more definite. He sent certain two (dúo Tưvàs), that is, “two picked disciples" (Luke vii. 19)—the two in whom he most confided. "John the Baptist," they said, "hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou He that cometh, or look we for another?"

Now, what was the reply? "In that hour," says Luke,1" He cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind He bestowed sight"—all, evidently, in presence of the messengers-" and He answered and said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised up,2 and the poor have the gospel (or glad tidings) preached to them; and blessed is he whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in Me."

And was this all the reply that the Master told the messengers to give to His faithful servant, lying disconsolate and perplexed month after month in prison? Yes, assuredly it was all. Any word of encouragement, or even hint, as to his future was studiously avoided, as is evident from the closing words of the message, "Blessed is he whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in Me." "Blessed is he whose faith is unshaken, with everything around him fitted to shake it. Enough has been seen and heard by these messengers to show that My hand is not shortened that it cannot save. What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Not one word of commendation is uttered, not a ray of light given, and John is left to ponder the message, and earn the blessedness pronounced upon unshaken faith in the Master he had served so well.

But, as if to refrain from all commendation of one so dear to Him, so long as his messengers were within hearing, had been to Him a painful necessity, no sooner are they gone than the pent-up spirit could no longer restrain itself, but gave vent to one of the noblest encomiums the Master Himself could pronounce upon His servant-" And when the messengers of John were

1 Luke vii. 21, 22.

There is no reason to suppose that any persons lay dead before Him on purpose to be then raised up, nor, probably, lepers to be cleansed. But if our Lord in presence of the messengers wrought many cures, He probably named those He mentioned as examples of the kind of works He was from time to time performing.

departed, He began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken with the wind?” A man driven about by every gust of popular opinion, and uttering no certain sound?-Such was not John. "But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?" A self-seeking, courtly preacher? If that is the man you wanted, you must go in quest of him elsewhere. "Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately are in kings' courts." But what went ye out to see? A prophet?" If that is what ye flocked to the wilderness to see in John, then ye have not been disappointed, for he is that, and much more than that. There have been many prophets; but one forerunner, and this is he. "A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee. I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, there is none greater than John; yet he that is but little in the kingdom of God is greater than he" (Luke vii. 27, 28).

The point of comparison is manifestly not personal character, for can it be said that in this sense he excelled every human being that preceded him, so it would be absurd to say that he was outstripped by the little (or least) advanced of the disciples of Christ. It is of his official standing or position in the economy of grace that our Lord is speaking. In that respect he was above all that ever went before him, inasmuch as he was the last and most honoured of the Old Testament prophets, and stood on the very edge of the new economy, though belonging to the old; but for this very reason the humblest member of the new economy was in advance of him. In Matt. xi. 12-15 we have the following important addition: "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force." Or (as repeated at a later period), “ from that time the Gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and every man entereth violently into it" (Luke xvi. 16). The idea is, there was a rush for something unexpectedly and transportingly brought within their reach, but through a door that might soon be shut. In the one passage the struggle to obtain entrance is the prominent idea; in the other and later one, it is the multitude that were pressing or forcing their way into it. And what our Lord says of John in both places is that his ministry constituted the honourable link or point of transition from the one state of things to the other. "For" (to continue Matthew's addition to this discourse) "all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; and if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah which is to come. He that hath ears to hear let him hear." They expected the literal Elijah the Tishbite to reappear before the coming of Messiah, misinterpreting the closing words of Malachi (iv. 5), and misled by the LXX., which rendered it, "Behold, I send you Elijah the Tishbite." But our Lord tells them plainly that this promised messenger was no other than John the Baptist, of whom He had been speaking, who (as promised before his birth) was to "come in the spirit and power of Elijah." Knowing that

this would be a startling and not very welcome announcement to those who were looking for the appearance of Elijah himself from heaven, He first says it was for those who could take it in, and then calls the attention of all who had ears to hear it to what He had said.

But why, it may be asked, did our Lord not pronounce so high an encomium on the Baptist in the hearing of his messengers? Would it not have been music in the ears and balm to the troubled spirit of the lonely prisoner? Yes, assuredly it would. And well did the Master know what a "song in the night" it would have been to His servant to get such a return as that to his question, and that to let his messengers go with nothing of the kind was fitted to shake the strongest faith. But all the more "blessed" would he be, if even without a ray of light as to his future his faith should remain unshaken, finding none occasion of stumbling in Him. The faith of the Master Himself had been tried, and would be throughout His whole work on earth. His glory had been hid from "the wise and prudent," the men of light and leading, and revealed only to the "babes," the humble, unlearned, common people, and He had to fall back upon the Divine sovereignty: Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." It is enough that the disciple be as his master, and the servant as his lord. Struggles, we may suppose, he would have-severe and protracted-with temptations to doubt, but with the shield of faith he would guard all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Canst thou lie imprisoned and uncheered month after month? Wilt thou be faithful, even unto death? And his spirit answered-Yes. To the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, and He giveth songs in the night. Perhaps he was singing one of those songs in the night when the executioner entered to bring his head to the wretch who demanded it!

What followed? "When his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb" (Mark vi. 29), and "they went and told Jesus" (Matt. xiv. 12)-probably as a body. Did they tell this mournful news in a complaining mood? I cannot believe it. But how did our Lord receive the news? We can only guess, for not a word did He utter, else we may well suppose it would be recorded. But He who shed tears over the grave of Lazarus, though He was about to raise him to life again, could not fail to be deeply moved.

In closing this sketch, several reflections naturally occur, but we have space only for two.

1. If the object of the Evangelists had been to glorify their Master, we may be certain they would not have represented His treatment of John from the time of his entrance into the court of Herod to the time of his death as they have done. And if, as we are now told, these Gospels are merely the best traditions of the life of Jesus which could be collected in the second century, when the Gospels are said to have been composed, no such consistency in the accounts which they give of the very unexpected treatment of John by his Master would be observed in their narratives. In one way only is this to be explained-that they have recorded the naked facts of the case just as they occurred.

2. A great principle, I think, is involved in the fact, that "the law and the prophets were until John," and "from that time the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force," or (as in Luke xvi. 16), "from that time the Gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth (or entereth violently) into it."

Observe the principle here. "The law and the prophets were until John." During that long period God followed one continuous line of procedure in His dealings with men. But then came a great change"From that time the Gospel of the kingdom of God is preached." From that time God has begun a quite other and new way of dealing with men. And what has been the effect? The whole country is stirred. It is not the novelty but the nature of the change that has done this. This is not the place to dilate upon the contrast between the old and the new. But the more personal and spiritual character of the new economy may be noted. John preached; his cry was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. "And there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judæa, and all the region round about Jordan, and they were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins." The multitudes that flocked to him were of all classes-Pharisees and Sadducees, publicans, harlots, and soldiers. Not even the new truths which were preached can account for this. It was an awakening of conscience and desire to be saved on a scale hitherto unknown. John's own interpretation of what it meant is the best. "When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, Ye offspring of vipers (both equally but in opposite ways poisoning the religious principles of the nation), who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" What can have brought you here on such an errand? If it meant that, as to him the action itself certainly did-what explanation does such an upheaval of the whole country of the most opposite classes admit of but one?—a mighty impulse from above, shaking the dry bones of the Jewish Church, and breathing upon the slain that they might live. And that multitudes of them did live our Lord Himself testified when He said that "

every man is pressing into the kingdom," or rushing to get in-expressing the strength of impulse that was felt. We have thus a negative expression of the fruit of John's ministry-it was a flight from the wrath to come; and a positive expression of it—it was a rush into the kingdom.

Now, it is true that all this upheaval took place in connection with the introduction of a new economy and an organic change in the administration of the Church of God. But the principle involved is a wide one. In different ages of the Church God has permitted His people to get into the kingdom in very different ways-some of them of so doubtful a character that one wonders how they could find their way in at all. This state of things is permitted, too, for long, weary years, until vital religion seems dead. But a Luther, a Calvin, a Knox, a Cranmer, a Wesley, a Whitefield, a Simeon, and sometimes one from the ranks, with no commission but that

NO. II.-VOL. I.-THE THINKER.

I

which approves itself to be of God, appears, and the breath of a new life follows their movements, and multitudes feel it. And it will be the wisdom of Christians to welcome such revivals. Everything may not be as we might wish it to be, but the life of it is to be cherished, and advantage taken of it. Such as do so will be quickened and blessed; while those who hold back because of this and that "irregularity," will miss the blessings. The Spirit of God, whose presence in the Church is the breath of its life, will have His own way of working. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

"ASAPH" OR "ISAIAH"?

BY REV. A. LUKYN WILLIAMS, M.A.

All these things spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes; and without a parable spake He nothing unto them; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.— MATT. xiii. 34, 35.

THE Revised Version has here lost an excellent opportunity of recording in its margin a reading which has some little authority in its favour, and which, if genuine, gives rise to some important considerations. As the passage runs in the above translation, there is no further identification of "the prophet than what may be derived from the quotation attributed to him. The original passage is found in one of the Psalms (lxxviii. 2), which claims according to a natural interpretation of its title to be composed by Asaph. Further, by way of illustrating the title "prophet" as applied to one who is generally regarded rather as a choirmaster than even a composer of hymns, reference is commonly made to the term "Asaph the seer" in 2 Chron. xxix. 30.

But "Isaiah the prophet" is read by the Sinaitic manuscript, a few cursives, the Rushworth Latin Gospels, a manuscript of the Ethiopic version, the Clementine Homilies, and Porphyry as quoted by Jerome. Some remarks, too, in Eusebius point in the same direction. It is, therefore, not surprising that the reading is admitted into the margin of what may now be called the standard edition of the Greek text (Westcott and Hort's), and that one of these scholars appears to be clearly of the opinion that it is the true reading. Dr. Hort writes (Appendix, p. 13), "It is difficult not to think 'Hoaíov genuine. There was a strong temptation to omit it (cf. xxvii. 9; Mc. i. 2); and, though its insertion might be accounted for by an impulse to supply the name of the best known prophet, the evidence of the actual operation of such an impulse is much more trifling than might have been anticipated. The erroneous introduction of Isaiah's name is

limited to two passages, and in each case to a single Latin MS.”

But if "Isaiah" be genuine here, how are we to account for its presence? The quotation which it introduces is not written by the evangelical prophet, but by a comparatively unknown person; how could the evangelist have prefixed Isaiah's name to it?