“Was he not a strange man? Did you ever hear a man speak like that? He did not talk as the rabbis or the Pharisees or the Sadducees do. I really think he must be one of the old prophets. Did you notice that his coat was made of camel’s hair, and that he had a leathern girdle round his loins? Don’t the Scriptures say that Elijah was clothed like that?”
Says another: “You remember how Malachi says that before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Elijah should come? I really believe this man is the old prophet of Carmel.”
What could stir the heart of the Jewish people more than the name of Elijah?
The tidings of John’s appearance spread up and down the valley of the Jordan, and when he returned the next day, there was great excitement and expectation as the people listened to the strange preacher. Perhaps till Christ came he had only that
ONE TEXT:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Day after day you could hear his voice ringing through the valley of the Jordan:
“Repent! repent! repent! The King is at the door. I do not know the day or the hour, but He will be here very soon.”
By and by some of the people who flocked to hear him wanted to be baptized, and he took them to the Jordan and baptized them.
The news spread to the surrounding villages and towns, and it was not long before it reached Jerusalem. Then the people of the city began to flock into the desert to hear this prince among preachers. His fame soon reached Galilee, and the people in the mountains began to flock down to hear him. Men left their fishing-smacks on the lake, that they might listen to this wonderful preacher. When he was in the zenith of his popularity, as many as twenty or thirty thousand people perhaps flocked to his ministry day after day.
No doubt there were some old croakers who said it was