seemed to vanish.  This experience has had many a repetition in the realizations of good men since John’s day.  He felt himself neglected.  If Jesus is the friend I took him to be, why does he not come to my rescue?  I do not understand him.  How can he feel satisfied to know that I am lying here in great bodily distress and perplexity of mind, and put forth no effort to release me, and thus restore me to useful activity in his service?  Many, many, not in Herod’s castle, but in other castles, such as beds of affliction, castles of poverty, castles of persecution, castles of bodily infirmity, castles of bereavement, castles of losses and crosses in one way and another, have had the same experiences, the same doubts and misgivings.

“John resolved to try to find out about all this if possible.  So he sent the messengers.  Here note the love of Christ.  He does not upbraid John for this half reproachful message.  He calmly returns to him in the shape of an answer a series of the most wonderful truths the world has ever heard; truths which, in their spiritual sense, comprehend the work of salvation on the part of Jesus from the alpha to the omega.  ‘Go and show John again the things which ye do hear and see.’  The use of the word ‘again’ implies that a similar answer had been returned to John at least once before.  This testimony, with the love in which it was sent, may have refreshed John’s love for Jesus, and reassured his faith.  The last words of the returned message contain something like a gentle reproof to John, ’And blessed is he that is not offended in me.’

“I think the Lord knew that John had been somewhat offended in him; that he had doubted his love, or his wisdom, or his power, or all these together; and that the Lord’s apparent neglect of him was traceable to a want of these perfections.  Doubts of this kind, from weakness of the flesh and spirit, have often been known to invade the hearts of other good men, when the divine love has been partially veiled from sight in seasons of great distress.  Even our Lord himself upon the cross cried out, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ I cannot think that the divine love ever did forsake him for one instant.  It was so only in appearance to him.

“The things connected with the life-work of Jesus, which John’s messengers had just seen and heard, bore a much stronger testimony to his divinity and Messiahship than any declaration he could have made by mere affirmation.  Here is verified the old proverb:  ’Actions speak louder than words.’  All may see a valuable lesson here.  We are commanded to let our light shine.  What an honor it would be to Christ and the church, if every member of it would be able to point to his good works as proofs of the sincerity and genuineness of his religious profession!

“Notwithstanding John’s doubts and impatience, the Lord still loved him tenderly; and after the messengers had departed, he said to the multitude:  ’Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.’  Our way would have been to include this encomium in the message, and let John hear it.  In our way of thinking this would have done him more good than the other.  But as the heaven is high above the earth, so high are the Lord’s thoughts above our thoughts, and his ways above our ways.