Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:CHAPTER III. 1 John preachrth: his office: life, and baptism. 7 He reprehendeih Ou Pharisees, 13 and baptizeth Christ in Jordan. 1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, The time here spoken of was about thirty years after the birth of Christ. John the Baptist, whose miraculous birth St. Luke describes, (a) was then sent to prepare the Saviour's way. . Consider how this man,—"a Prophet, yea and more than a Prophet ;"(6) nay, eonsider how Christ Himself, " the latehet of whose shoes" the Forerunner was ''not worthy to stoop down and unloose :"(e)—appeared not in public, nor commenced His Ministry, till He " began to be about thirty years of age."(rf) Surely, the consideration of these examples should act as a check and curb: inspire mod- oty and distrust, in those who are called to the Ministry of Christ's Church; even where there may be no lack of ability and true piety! "Good fruit may be plucked too green : which, let alone awhile to ripen, would prove much more pleasant and profitable." Archbishop Leighton, (the author of the foregoing remark,) points out that, in the case of our Incarnate Lord and His Forerunner,—(if it be lawful thus to name the two together,)—their long lying hid, is so much the more remarkable, inasmuch as, besides their singular fitness for appearing much sooner, they had so short a time allotted for their course: the Forerunner, about one year; and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, but about three years and a half. 2 and saying, Repent ye : for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It appears from St. Matthew iv. 17, that this was the subject of our Lord's preachmg also. The Forerunner's doctrine, (it has been said,) was to the sermons of Jesus, as a preface to a discourse ; and his Baptism, was to the dis...