The " Prophet of the Highest" was born six months before the birth of Christ. And the miracles which accompanied his birth caused fear to fall upon all who heard these things, and they laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What manner of child shall this be !" The hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew and waxed strong in the spirit. Connecting the old and the new dispensation, he stood as between the living and the dead: the law which came by Moses, and the gospel which came by the Saviour types dead in their fulfilment, the living grace and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ. After the manner of

the prophets of the old dispensation, he sought the desert, and in a garment of camel's hair, with a girdle of skin about his loins, supporting the life of the body with the simplest food, he reminded the wondering and awe-struck Jews, of the ancient prophets. All men came unto him, "Jerusalem, and all Judea."

Why crowd ye cities forth? Some reed to find,
Some vain reed trembling to the careless wind?
Or throng ye here to view with doting eye,
Some chieftain stand in purple pageantry?
Such dwell in kingly domes-no silken form
Woos the stern cliff, and braves the mountain storm.
What rush ye here to seek? some prophet seer?
One mightier than the prophets find ye here.
The loftiest bard that waked the sacred lyre,
To him in rapture pour'd his lips of fire.
Attuned to him the voice of Sion fell-

Thy name, Elias, closed the mystic shell.

Yes! surely born to more than mortal power,
Glory hath mark'd him from his earliest hour;
Offspring of age, on wings of radiance borne,

A warning angel told his natal morn;
Hail'd by prophetic matrons to the earth,

The speechless spake, to bless him at his birth.
Sweet was the strain, when first, with fond surprise,

The hoary parent kiss'd his infant eyes;
From his wrapt lips the spell of silence broke,
And inspiration thrill'd him as he spoke.

Such was his birth. Nor less august appears
The wondrous fate that led his rising years;
For lo! sequester'd from the haunts of men,
Deep to the stillness of some shaggy glen,
Where vice and folly faded from his view,
The lonely youth, impelled by Heaven, withdrew——
There, near some brook that dash'd in murmurs by,

The rock his pillow, and his roof the sky,
Clad in such savage robes as deserts yield,

His food the wild sweets of the flowery field,
Grave, pensive, bold, majestic, undefiled,
To holy manhood dwelt devotion's child;
Descending angels blest his rude abode,

He drank the hallowing flame, he felt the inspiring God.

Such was he of whom Jesus said, "Among them that are born of woman there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." And to him came Jesus from Galilee to be baptized of him. John forbad him, saying, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" And Jesus answering, said unto him, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." The

Forerunner had declared, "I indeed baptize with water, unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." But at the command of his Master, the Baptist performed the rite: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The Holy Ghost, descending as a dove, rested upon Him, and the adoring Baptist, received the testimony, and set to his seal that God is true. His joy was full, in that he heard the voice of the Bridegroom.

The mission of the Redeemer absorbed the mission of the Forerunner. He who had preached repentance, because the kingdom of heaven was at hand, felt, as Jesus had declared, that the least in that kingdom was greater than he. He bare record to his disciples of the miracle which had accompanied the baptism of Jesus. "I saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not; but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare record, that this is the Son of God." He pointed his disciples to the Lamb; he was content to fade as the Sun of Righteousness arose to be lost in the glory of the Son of God. He thus reproved the party spirit of his followers, and was happy, as the friend of Christ, in his own humility. He looked to the glory of the Redeemer as his portion, and his exceeding great reward: he rejoiced that the Forerunner

was overshadowed in the promised Messiah: that the coming of Christ had verified the voice crying in the wilderness. He was well content that his mission should be ended in so glorious a consummation. He was blessed in that he lost his individuality, that he was no more a leader and a herald of the coming, but a follower of "Him who should come." "He must increase, but I must decrease." And in this he is the Christian's example, for it is the disciple's hope that he may be lost in the glory of the teacher. It was the Saviour's prayer for his followers: "neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they may all be one-as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Such a decrease of self, will be the reward of all who truly love to hear the voice of the Bridegroom, and desire the increase of the kingdom of heaven. They shall be merged in it; and, losing the weakness, the jealousies, the vanities which mark and separate man from man, and men from Christ, become one with him in God, that he may be all and in all.

V.

Che Temptation in the Wilderness.

When the baptism of Jesus was accomplished, that he 66 might fulfil all righteousness," being full of the Holy Ghost, he returned from Jordan, and was led of the Spirit into the wilderness. And he was there forty days tempted of Satan, and the wild beasts beset his path. He now, says the Evangelist, began to be about thirty years of age, and was ready to commence his public ministry. The remarkable events which marked his advent in the flesh, were revived by the preaching of John. He had been manifested to the people as the Son of God, the Beloved Son, in the descent of the Holy Ghost, and in the voice from Heaven. And immediately led by the Spirit, he sought retirement and solitude. It is not for us to attempt to fathom the purposes of Omnipotence; but we can discern in the dealings of God with man, that "he knoweth our frames, he remembereth that we are but dust." Moses and Elias fasted forty days; John, the Forerunner, was in the desert until his showing unto Israel. The Jewish history was full of examples of the preparation of the prophets for their missions in the solitude of the desert. The highly poetical imaginations of a people, whose literature presents us the most