Matthew xi. 9, 10: “But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.”
I propose to you for your own reading and meditation and self-examination during the season of Lent the life and history of John the Baptist. Seek out all the special passages which allude to him, and pass them not lightly over, and see and mark the great reformer, still more the great forerunner. That which may be done at any time is too often not done at all; thus our Church has wisely set before us certain seasons for meditation on certain subjects.
* * * * *
Some do not approve of services in unconsecrated buildings. I confess it seems to me that such are not very assiduous in their attendance in consecrated buildings! No, we want a heart for these services; we want the Holy Spirit to make us know that we are dying creatures—that we must all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ. “It is high time to awake out of sleep” (Rom. xiii. 11).
Glance at the leading features of John’s life:—
1. Self-discipline.
2. The Witness.
3. The closing scene of his life.
1. If you notice particularly Matt, iii., Luke i., John iii. (towards the end of the chapter), Luke iii., Mark vi., you will have before you the comprehensive features of John the Baptist’s life. Let me direct you to his credentials. This is the man who was prophesied of seven centuries before the coming of the Lord, not in Isaiah xl. only, but in Malachi iv. 5. He went into the wilderness, the less inhabited country. He probably had tried Jerusalem; it is not unlikely that he had consorted with the learned Jews. He found little encouragement, it may be. Then he cast himself on the Lord—He never disappoints. We shall ever and anon (God grant always) cast ourselves on Him—there is no disappointment there. The world disappoints, friends disappoint, there is very much disappointment in our own hearts. God never disappoints.
Men would consider it a great waste of time, those three years in the desert—so much for him to do, so much misery and wickedness and sin. There he was in the desert, assuredly not doing nothing for men, but in the wilderness, holding little intercourse with men. Rely upon it, the greatest things done for God are done in secret. Religion does not come forth full-blown. God sows the seed; the roots strike downward, unseen. Self-examination, self-discipline, communion with God,—these fit men for great enterprises, for conflict in daily life, and for the trustful and rejoicing walk with God. Self-examination—very mild and charitable towards others, very strict and exacting towards ourselves. Converse with God: there is no one you can tell everything to, but God. Away with the idea of confession to our fellow-man—casting our burden upon the priest, as though he could take it to God for us. That is not the way of the saints of God. No, we want much converse with God, much searching of His Word, and what that Word saith to us individually, whenever we hear His voice speaking to us, do it. George Müller, at the age of twenty, made this Book “the man of his counsels.” Müller’s life is one of the most wonderful miracles of Providence that ever was performed; that man, without ever asking for one farthing from anyone, committed his way to the Lord, walked with God, and in fifty years a million of money has passed through his hands; I forget how many orphans he has clothed and fed. It is just as much a miracle as when the ravens fed Elijah, brought him bread and flesh every morning and evening.