In the fifteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius, John made his public appearance, exhibiting the austerity, the costume, and the manner of life of the ancient Jewish prophets (Luke iii. ; Matt. iii.) His raiment was camel's hair ; he wore a plain leathern girdle about his loins ; his food was that the desert spontaneously offered—locusts and wild honey from the rock. Desert though the place is designated, the country where he began his mis sion—the wild mountainous tract of Juda—lying between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, along which it stretches, was not entirely destitute of means for supporting human existence (Matt. 111. I-12_,• Mark -8 ; Luke iii. 1-20 ; jOhn 1. 28 ; Justin Martyr, Dial. am Dyph., c. 88). Josephus, in his Life (H. 2), gives an account of one of his instructors, Banus, which throws light on John's condition in the desert :—` he lived in the desert, and had no other food than what grew of its own accord, and bathed himself in cold water frequently, both by night and by day. I imitated him in these things, and continued with him three' years.' The burden of John's preaching bore no slight resemblance to the old prophetic exhortations, whose last echo had now died away for centuries. He called upon the Jewish people to repent (1.tera ooeirc), to change their minds, their dispositions, and affections, and thus prepared the way for the great doctrine promulgated by his Lord, of the necessity of a spiritual re,generation. That the change which John had in view was by no means of so great or so elevated a kind as that which Jesus required, is very probable ; but the particu lars into which he enters when he proceeds to address classes or individuals (Matt. iii. 7, seq. ; Luke iii. 7, seg.) serve fully to show that the re novation at which he aimed was not merely of a material or organic, but chiefly of a moral nature. In a very emphatic manner did he warn lhe eccle s'astical and philosophical authorities of the land of the necessity under which they lay of an entire change of view, of aim, and of desire ; declaring in explicit and awful terms that their pride of nationality would avail them nothing against the coining wrathful visitation, and that they were utterly mistaken in the notion that Divine Provi dence had any need of them for completing its own wise purposes (Luke iii. 8, 9). The first reason assigned by John for entering on his most weighty and perilous office, was announced in these words— ' the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' It was his ,great work to prepare the mind of the nation, so that when Jesus himsell came they might be a people made ready for the Lord. What was the exact idea which John intended to convey by the term kingdom of heaven' it is not easy, at least in the space before us, to determine with satisfac tion. We feel ourselves, however, justified in pro testing against the practice of those who take the vulgar Jewish notion, and ascribe it to John, while some go so far as to deny that our Lord himself, at the first, possessed any other. The reference which we have made to John's addresses to his auditors suffices to show that there was an ample and predominant moral element in his conception of this kingdom ; while, if he entertained the vulgar notion of the Messiah, why his urgency in behalf of itercipoca—an entire, internal change ? Besides, does the fact need enforcement, that all superior minds—especially those that are enlightened by the Divine Spirit—have both correcter and nobler views than the bulk of their contemporaries, and that it is the power which, under God's aid, these views give them, that sustains them in their duty and makes their efforts successful ? If John really came in the spirit and power of Elias—if he re produced the old ardour and quickening fore sight of the prophets, he must have gone far beyond the vulgar conception of the kingdom of God. And indeed the whole tenor of his teach ing seems to our mind intended and fitted to refine, exalt, and expand the ordinary Jewish mind, and so to prepare the way for the perfect day of Ch rist.
Had we space to develop the moral character of John, we could show that this fine, stern, high minded teacher possessed many eminent qualities ; but his personal and official modesty in keeptng, in all circumstances, in the lower rank assigned him by God, must not pass without special mention.
The doctrine and manner of life of John appear to have roused the entire of the south of Palestine, and people flocked from all parts to the spot where, on the banks of the Jordan, he baptised thousands unto repentance. Such, indeed, was the fame which he had gained, that people were in expec tation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not' (Luke iii. 15). Had he chosen, John might without doubt have assumed to himself the higher office, and risen to great worldly power. But he was faithful to his trust, and never failed to declare in the fullest and clearest manner, that he was not the Christ, but merely his harbinger, and that the sole work he had to do was to usher in the day-spring from on high.
The more than prophetic fame of the Baptist reached the ears of Jesus in his Nazarene dwelling, far distant from the locality of John (Matt. ii. 22 23). The nature of the report—namely, that his divinely-predicted forerunner had appeared in Judwa—shewed our Lord that the time was now come for his being made manifest to Israel. Ac cordingly he comes to the place where John is to be baptized of him, in order that thus he might fulfil all that was required under the dispensation which was about to disappear (Matt. iii. 13). John's sense of inferiority inclines him to ask rather than to give baptism in the case of Jesus, who, however, wills to have it so, and is accord ingly baptised of John. Immediately on the ter mination of this symbolical act, a divine attestation is given from the opened vault of heaven, declaring Jesus to be in truth the long looked-for Messiah— ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ' (Matt. iii. 17). The events which are found recorded in John i. pp, sq., seem to have hap pened after the baptism of Jesus by John. This appears to us to be implied in the past character of the narrative. John is obviously speaking of some thing over and gone : for instance, This is he of whom I said' (not I say), 'after me cometh a man,' etc. ; John's testimony had already been borne when he gave his reply to the Sanhedrim. It was therefore prior to his baptism that John knew him not'—knew not his person, though, of course, he knew that the Messiah was on the point of com ing ; and though John and Jesus were relatives, yet, considering the distance at which they dwelt from each other, and the habits of retirement and solitude in which both indulged, there is no diffi culty whatever in the statement. But it may be asked, if John was ignorant of the person of Jesus, how he could acknowledge his superiority, as he does when he intimates that it was more meet lie should receive than give baptism. This difficulty has excited nuich attention. The reader may with advantage consult the very learned and, for the most part, impartial commentary of Liicke, on the passage. Our view is this : the relation in which John and Jesus stood to each other must have been well known to both. When, therefore, Jesus came to John, he would naturally declare himself to be the intended Messiah. Such a declaration—thus pointing out the person—would, of course, con ciliate belief in John's mind, and might naturally prompt the self-abasing language which he em ploys when requested by Jesus to give him baptism. No other fact than such an assertion would com municate to John's mind, could justify the language which the Baptist uses, since, as the forerunner of the Messiah, he was second to him only. Still the divinely-promised evidence remained to be given— ' upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which bap tizeth with the Holy Ghost' (John i. 33). That evidence was at length vouchsafed after the bap tism, and then the divine and human testimony concurred in giving such satisfaction to John's mind as he had been led of God to expect, and which the important interests at stake seemPd to demand.