THE HERALD OF THE KING

’In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2.  And saying, Repent ye:  for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3.  For this is He that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. 4.  And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 5.  Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6.  And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 7.  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8.  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:  9.  And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father:  for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10.  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees:  therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the flre, 11.  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance:  but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to clean he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:  12.  Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’—­MATT. iii. 1-12.

Matthew’s Gospel is emphatically the Gospel of the kingdom.  The keynote sounded in the story of the Magi dominates the whole.  We have stood by the cradle of the King, and seen the homage and the dread which surrounded it.  We have seen the usurper’s hatred and the divine guardianship.  Now we hear the voice of the herald of the King.  This section may be conveniently treated as falling into two parts:  the first, from verse 1 to verse 6, a general outline of the Baptist’s person and work; the second, from verse 7 to end, a more detailed account of his preaching.

I. We have an outline sketch of the herald and of his work.  The voice of prophecy had fallen silent for four hundred years.  Now, when it is once more heard, it sounds in exactly the same key as when it ceased.  Its last word had been the prediction of the day of the Lord, and of the coming of Elijah once more.  John was Elijah over again.  There were the same garb, the same isolation, the same fearlessness, the same grim, gaunt strength, the same fiery energy of rebuke which bearded kings in the full fury of their self-will.  Elijah, Ahab, and Jezebel have their doubles in John, Herod, and Herodias.  The closing words of Malachi, which Matthew, singularly enough, does not quote, are the best explication of the character and work of the Baptist.  His portrait is flung on the canvas with the same startling abruptness