part of Jesus. While fully alive to their grievous error, perhaps in proportion as we are so,
we cannot but honour and sympathise with this loving care for their master. The toilsome
mission of the great Ascetic was drawing to its close, and that without any tangible
success so far as he was concerned. Yet, to souls susceptible of the higher, to see him
would be to be arrested; to hear him, to be convinced; to know, would be to love and
venerate him. Never before had such deep earnestness and reality been witnessed, such
devotedness, such humility and self- abnegation, and all in that great cause which set
every Jewish heart on fire. And then, in the high-day of his power, when all men had
gathered around him and hung on his lips; when all wondered whether he would
announce himself as the Christ, or, at least, as His Forerunner, or as one of the great
Prophets; when a word from him would have kindled that multitude into a frenzy of
enthusiasm - he had disclaimed everything for himself, and pointed to Another! But this
'Coming One,' to whom he had borne witness, had hitherto been quite other than their
Master. And, as if this had not been enough, the multitudes, which had formerly come to
John, now flocked around Jesus; nay, He had even usurped the one distinctive function
still left to their master, humble as it was. It was evident that, hated and watched by the
Pharisees; watched, also, by the ruthless jealousy of a Herod; ove rlooked, if not
supplanted, by Jesus, the mission of their master was nearing its close. It had been a life
and work of suffering and self-denial; it was about to end in loneliness and sorrow. They
said nothing expressly to complain of Him to Whom John had borne witness, but they
told of what He did, and how all men came to Him.
7. This, and not 'the Jews,' is the better reading.
8. St. John iii. 25.
9. Probably the discussion originated with John's disciples - the objector being a Jew or a
professing disciple of Christ, who deprecated their views. In the one case they would in
his opinion be too low; in the other too high. In either case the subject in dispute would
not be baptisms, but the general subject of purifications - a subject of such wide range in
Jewish theology, that one of the six sections into which the Mishnah or traditional Law is
divided, is specially devoted to it.
The answer which the Baptist made, may be said to mark the high point of his life and
witness. Never before was he so tender, almost sad; never before more humble and self-
denying, more earnest and faithful. The setting of his own life-sun was to be the rising of
One infinitely more bright; the end of his Mission the beginning of another far higher. In
the silence, which was now gathering around him, he heard but one Voice, that of the
Bridegroom, and he rejoiced in it, though he must listen to it in stillness and loneliness.
For it he had waited and worked. Not his own, but this had he sought. And now that it
had come, he was content; more than content: his 'joy was now fulfilled.' 'He must
increase, but I must decrease.' It was the right and good order. With these as his last
words publicly spoken, 10 this Aaron of the New Testament unrobed himself ere he lay
down to die. Surely among those born of women there was not one greater than John.
10. The next event was John's imprisonment by Herod.
That these were his last words, publicly spoken and recorded, may, however, explain to
us why on this exceptional occasion Jesus sanctioned the administration by His disciples
of the Baptism of John. It was not a retrogression from the position He had taken in