The same pillar of fire which gladdened the ranks of Israel as they camped by the Red Sea, shone baleful and terrible to the Egyptian hosts.  The same Ark of the Covenant whose presence blessed the house of Obed-edom, and hallowed Zion, and saved Jerusalem, smote the Philistines, and struck down their bestial gods.  Christ and His gospel even here hurt the men whom they do not save.

And we have only to carry that process onwards into another world, and suppose it made more energetic there, as it will be, to feel dimly in how awful a sense it may be that the same fire which gives life may be the occasion of death—­and how profound a truth lies in the words—­

     ‘What maketh Heaven, that maketh Hell.’

Yes, verily; to be salted with fire or to be consumed by it, to be baptized in it or to be cast into it, is the choice offered to us all; to thee, my brother, and to me.  Israel made its choice, and in seventy years, the Roman standards on Zion and the flames leaping round the Temple, interpreted John’s words in one of their halves, while the growing energy of the fire that was lit on Pentecost fulfilled them in the other.  Many a nation and Church has made its choice since then.  You have to make yours.  ’The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.’  Shall our work be gold, and silver, and precious stones which shall gleam and flash in the light, or wood, hay, and stubble which shall writhe for a moment in the blaze and perish?  ’Our God is a consuming fire.’  Shall that be the ground of my confidence that I shall one day be pure from all my sins, or shall it be the parent of my ghastliest fear that I may be, like the chaff, destroyed by contact with a holy love rejected, with a Saviour disbelieved, with a Spirit grieved and quenched?  Choose which.

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS

’Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. 14.  But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? 15.  And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now:  for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.  Then he suffered Him. 16.  And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water:  and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him:  17.  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’—­MATT. iii. 13-17.

When Jesus set out from Galilee to seek baptism from John, He took the first step on His path of public work; and it is noteworthy that He took it, apparently, from self-originated impulse, and not, as in the case of the prophets of old, from obedience to a ‘prophetic call.’  ’The Word of the Lord came to’ them; His Messianic consciousness needed no external stimulus to kindle it into flame.  What did He mean by seeking baptism?  John recognised