“I do! I do!” said the old man, eagerly.
“Do you repent of your sins, and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you?”
“I do! and God be merciful to a miserable sinner!”
“Then I baptize you with water, the emblem of purification,—and in the name of the Lord, the only God, into his spiritual Church and into the hope of immortal life.”
Thus saying, he sprinkled some water on the old man’s forehead. His own face shone with a meek and holy radiance. My father closed his eyes and seemed to sleep.
Suddenly he started, frowning, as if some great pain had changed the current of his thought.
“Tell my son to beware of his uncle. He is a magician.”
“Here is your son!” I exclaimed, eagerly; “here is your son! Oh, speak to me, my father!”
He did not notice my grief; but, pointing slowly to John the Baptist, he said, solemnly:
“Behold the prophet of God!”