We shall now, perhaps, be able to understand the relation of the Lord himself to the baptism of John.

He came to John to be baptized; and most would say John’s baptism was of repentance for the remission or pardon of sins.  But the Lord could not be baptized for the remission of sins, for he had never done a selfish, an untrue, or an unfair thing.  He had never wronged his Father, any more than ever his Father had wronged him.  Happy, happy Son and Father, who had never either done the other wrong, in thought, word, or deed!  As little had he wronged brother or sister.  He needed no forgiveness; there was nothing to forgive.  No more could he be baptized for repentance:  in him repentance would have been to turn to evil!  Where then was the propriety of his coming to be baptized by John, and insisting on being by him baptized?  It must lie elsewhere.

If we take the words of John to mean ’the baptism of repentance unto the sending away of sins;’ and if we bear in mind that in his case repentance could not be, inasmuch as what repentance is necessary to bring about in man, was already existent in Jesus; then, altering the words to fit the case, and saying, ’the baptism of willed devotion to the sending away of sin,’ we shall see at once how the baptism of Jesus was a thing right and fit.

That he had no sin to repent of, was not because he was so constituted that he could not sin if he would; it was because, of his own will and judgment, he sent sin away from him—­sent it from him with the full choice and energy of his nature.  God knows good and evil, and, blessed be his name, chooses good.  Never will his righteous anger make him unfair to us, make him forget that we are dust.  Like him, his son also chose good, and in that choice resisted all temptation to help his fellows otherwise than as their and his father would.  Instead of crushing the power of evil by divine force; instead of compelling justice and destroying the wicked; instead of making peace on the earth by the rule of a perfect prince; instead of gathering the children of Jerusalem under his wings whether they would or not, and saving them from the horrors that anguished his prophetic soul—­he let evil work its will while it lived; he contented himself with the slow unencouraging ways of help essential; making men good; casting out, not merely controlling Satan; carrying to their perfect issue on earth the old primeval principles because of which the Father honoured him:  ’Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.’  To love righteousness is to make it grow, not to avenge it; and to win for righteousness the true victory, he, as well as his brethren, had to send away evil.  Throughout his life on earth, he resisted every impulse to work more rapidly for a lower good,—­strong perhaps when he saw old age and innocence and righteousness trodden under foot.  What but this gives any worth