I think, then, that the part of the repentant man, and not the part of God, in the sending away of sins, is intended here.  It is the man’s one preparation for receiving the power to overcome them, the baptism of fire.

Not seldom, what comes in the name of the gospel of Jesus Christ, must seem, even to one not far from the kingdom of heaven, no good news at all.  It does not draw him; it wakes in him not a single hope.  He has no desire after what it offers him as redemption.  The God it gives him news of, is not one to whom he would draw nearer.  But when such a man comes to see that the very God must be his Life, the heart of his consciousness; when he perceives that, rousing himself to put from him what is evil, and do the duty that lies at his door, he may fearlessly claim the help of him who ‘loved him into being,’ then his will immediately sides with his conscience; he begins to try to be; and—­first thing toward being—­to rid himself of what is antagonistic to all being, namely wrong.  Multitudes will not even approach the appalling task, the labour and pain of being.  God is doing his part, is undergoing the mighty toil of an age-long creation, endowing men with power to be; but few as yet are those who take up their part, who respond to the call of God, who will to be, who put forth a divine effort after real existence.  To the many, the spirit of the prophet cries, ’Turn ye, and change your way!  The kingdom of heaven is near you.  Let your king possess his own.  Let God throne himself in you, that his liberty be your life, and you free men.  That he may enter, clear the house for him.  Send away the bad things out of it.  Depart from evil, and do good.  The duty that lieth at thy door, do it, be it great or small.’

For indeed in this region there is no great or small.  ’Be content with your wages,’ said the Baptist to the soldiers.  To many people now, the word would be, ‘Rule your temper;’ or, ‘Be courteous to all;’ or, ’Let each hold the other better than himself;’ or, ’Be just to your neighbour that you may love him.’  To make straight in the desert a highway for our God, we must bestir ourselves in the very spot of the desert on which we stand; we must cast far from us our evil thing that blocks the way of his chariot-wheels.  If we do not, never will those wheels roll through our streets; never will our desert blossom with his roses.

The message of John to his countrymen, was then, and is yet, the one message to the world:—­’Send away your sins, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’  Some of us—­I cannot say all, for I do not know—­who have already repented, who have long ago begun to send away our sins, need fresh repentance every day—­how many times a day, God only knows.  We are so ready to get upon some path that seems to run parallel with the narrow way, and then take no note of its divergence!  What is there for us when we discover that we are out of the way, but to bethink ourselves and turn?  By those ‘who need no repentance,’ the Lord may have meant such as had repented perfectly, had sent away all their sins, and were now with him in his Father’s house; also such as have never sinned, and such as no longer turn aside for any temptation.