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he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his 12 floor; and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

was, he had that humbleness of mind, that is indeed the noblest of all traits. He was ready at once to resign his own honors before the Son of God. Imprisoned for an honest rebuke of wickedness, his single anxiety seemed to be, to ascertain whether the Messiah had actually come. Matt. xi. 2, 3. He died a martyr to his own integrity, and the victim of the evil passions which he sought in vain to bring under the control of conscience and the laws of God. Is it strange that his memory has been canonized in the Christian church? He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Or, with a holy spirit, or breath, and with fire. "It is impossible to convey," says Furness," the full force of this word spirit in a translation. The original word is much more comprehensive than the word 'spirit.' It signifies also 'air,'' wind,' and the meaning of the Baptist is, Water is the symbol of my office, but the power of him who is coming after me may be signified by far subtler and more searching elements, 'wind and fire.'

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was tossed up in the wind, and the chaff and kernels thus separated. Is. xxx. 24. The fan or van was more complex. It was designed, by means of sails, to raise an artificial wind, and was not an implement which could be carried in the hand. - Thoroughly purge his floor, &c. Here reference is made to the mode of threshing grain in the east. The floor was not made as ours are with planks and boards, but consisted of an elevated circular area, formed in the field by smoothing and hardening the soil with a cylinder. A high location was more free from wet, and more accessible to the wind. There was frequently no covering, nor walls. Different methods were employed to get out the grain. It was beaten with flails, trodden by oxen, or bruised by a heavy kind of sledge, drawn by cattle. Is. xli. 15. The next operation was winnowing. This was to purge or clear up the threshing floor. The grain and straw were then separated, and the grain thrown up into the wind with a shovel, and the chaff thus blown This apout from it. The wheat was depears from the connexion. He instantly likens his successor to a husbandman, prepared with his fan to blow the chaff out of the wheat, and with fire to consume it." Such was the ministry of Jesus, a powerful, searching, purifying influence. Such were the energies of the Spirit of God by which he was empowered and strengthened to perform his mission.

12. Whose fan is in his hand. Not fan, according to the original word, but winnowing shovel, with which the grain when threshed

posited in the garner, or granary. There was danger, that, after they had been separated, the chaff and broken straw would by a change of the wind be driven back again amongst the grain. To prevent it, fire was put to what is called chaff, but which also included the broken pieces of straw, and commencing on the windward side, it crept on and consumed all, before it went out. This made it an unquenchable fire; it burnt until it had done its office. Jesus came among the Jews and their institutions like the

13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be 14 baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying: I have need 15 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. Then he suffered him.

husbandman among his grain. By the searching power and purity of his religion, the good and bad would be divided. The former would be preserved in all calamities. The latter would be visited by the most terrible judgments, represented in figurative language by inextinguishable fire. Mal. iv. 1. A less probable explanation of the verse is, that the antiquated institutions and burdensome ceremonies of the Jews would be consumed like chaff in the fire, but the sound parts and wholesome laws would be preserved like wheat put into the granary. The Saviour described a part of his office, when he said, "For judgment I am come into this world."

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13-17. Parallel passages, Mark i. 9-11; Luke iii. 21, 22; John i. 29-34.

13. Galilee. Nazareth, where Jesus had been living with his parents, Luke ii. 51, was a village of that province. Mark i. 9. John was at this time at Bethabara, a place on the eastern bank of the river, not far from its mouth. John i. 28. He afterwards baptized at Enon, on the western bank. John

iii. 23.

14. John forbade him. The reason is given; because he felt himself to be inferior to Jesus. That is, morally, not officially, inferior. John was already acquainted with the pure and exalted character of Jesus, and felt the deepest veneration for him as a private individual, for their parents were relatives. Luke i. 36. But he did not yet know that he was the Messiah to

come. John i. 31. He knew him not in an official character as Christ, but he knew him simply as Jesus. His ground of unwillingness to baptize him was, accordingly, that he was conscious of possessing less goodness and greatness than his kinsman. He says, therefore, that the baptism should be the other way, and that he himself ought to be the subject and not the administrator of the rite, in the present case, to one too pure to need reformation.

15. To fulfil all righteousness. Or, every righteous ordinance. As has been said, Jesus was baptized, not that the water might sanctify him, but that he might sanctify the water. That is, he did not need it as a sign of repentance and purification, but conformed to it, because it was an ordinance of God, and was to be a ceremony of his religion through all time. He claimed no immunity on account of superior holiness. In these cases the master is as the disciple, and the disciple as the master. His words to John have been thus paraphrased: "If my character be excellent as you have represented it, it is peculiarly becoming and natural in me to fulfil every duty, and do whatever is right and proper to be done, on all occasions. As the ordinance which you administer is of divine appointment, I wish to show my respect for every institution of God, by submitting to it; as you announce the approach of the Messiah's kingdom, I wish to bear a public testimony of my faith in your prophetic character, and to declare

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of 16 the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting up

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my expectation of that glorious event. These reasons satisfied John, and he acquiesced. — We are led here to contrast the readiness of our divine Master to fulfil all righteousness, with the backwardness of many persons to comply with the positively and divinely instituted ordinances of Christianity, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. His example teaches them to comply with all the commands of God, whether moral or ritual. Of the comparative importance of the two, moral and ritual, we may sum up all in his words: "These (the moral) ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other (the ritual) undone."

16. Straightway out of the water. He went up from the water. The original does not express the idea that they had been into the water, as would have been the case if the mode of baptism was by immersion, but they went down to the water, and then, when the rite had been performed, went up from the river's brink. The heavens, i. e. the visible sky. Were opened. Some critics would transpose the word straightway from the foregoing clause, and insert it here. When it lightens, the clouds appear to open. The sky seems to be cleft asunder by the flash, for an instant, and then close up again. Such might have been the case now. The bright and sudden light might appear to make the firmament open. Acts vii. 56. This appearance is represented as taking place while he was praying. Luke iii. 21. The first act of his new office is, to acknowledge his dependence on God, and to supplicate his divine aid in the mighty enterprise before

The

him.. Unto him. The supernatural appearance probably occurred in the sight of both Jesus and John, and also of the people. - Him here refers to Jesus. He saw, i. e. Jesus saw. John also says he saw it. John i. 32, 33. It was a testimony vouchsafed to John that Jesus was the Messiah. John i. 34. - The Spirit of God. Here we are plainly told what the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, is. It is not a person. It is not a numerical distinction of the Godhead. It is not a third part, or quality, or substance, or person, of the All-Glorious Deity. The human mind has originated these erroneous and mystifying notions; not the Bible. Holy Spirit, or Ghost, is THE SPIRIT OF GOD. And as God is a Spirit, it is often, but not always, used for God himself. Here we may rest. We cannot understand the essence of the Deity. We can only say, that the Scriptures represent the Spirit of God as no more a distinct being from God, than the spirit of man is a distinct being from man. God is One, not Three. 1 Cor. ii. 11.- Descending like a dove. Luke says, "in a bodily shape." This may signify, either that there was a distinct, substantial appearance like a dove in form, or that the miraculous symbol of the divine spirit descended with a gentle, hovering, and dove-like motion. The innocence, gentleness, and meekness of Christ were fitly indicated by this reference to the dove. Matt. x. 16. This pure and gentle emblem was a fitting investiture of an office of love and good-will, of humility and holiness. -Lighting upon him. This would serve to connect, in the view of all the spectators, the

17 on him. And, lo, a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

CHAPTER IV.

The Temptation of Jesus Christ.

THEN was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to

beautiful testimony of heaven with the person of Jesus. Unless it had lighted upon some particular person, it would have remained doubtful who was specially designated in the wonderful appearance. This circumstance singled out the individual. So on the day of Pentecost, when the holy spirit of God descended on the Apostles, cloven tongues of fire sat on each of them, pointing out the individuals who were divinely inspired and authorized. A voice from heaven. Ear as well as eye was addressed. Probably, the surrounding multitudes heard the declaration, descending directly from God, and confirming the Messiahship of Jesus. At subsequent periods, the same august voice broke the silence of the skies on the mount of Transfiguration, Matt. xvii. 5; in the city of Jerusalem, John xii. 28; bearing attestation to the same great truth. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, i. e. with whom I am well pleased. The title of child or son was used frequently among the Jews, not in the sense of precise natural relationship, but in the more extended sig. nification of unity of affection and purpose. This mode of speech was used of men of different characters. Thus, the wicked were called the sons or children of Belial, Satan, and the Devil. John viii. 44; the good, the children of God. Matt. v. 9. In accordance with this form of speech, Jesus Christ was denominated the Son of God; and to show the unparalleled excellence of his

character, and his entire conformity to the divine will in the office he bore, he was called the well beloved, the only begotten, John i. 18, the dear, Son of God. This term of endearment implies that Jesus had the full and constant approbation of God, that he was one with him, meaning to express not oneness of nature or personality, but oneness of purpose and love, that he was peculiarly, more than any other being that ever existed, the Son of God, inasmuch as he attained to perfect love and holiness, and made the purposes of his Father his own. God gave not the spirit by measure unto him. Thus he ever pleased God. Thus his disciples, inhaling his filial spirit, may, in some humble measure, please both him and his Father.

CHAP. IV. 1-11. Parallel passages, Mark i. 12, 13. Luke iv. 1-13. Mark's account is general; Luke is more particular, and corresponds with Matthew, except in the order of the temptations. This account of our Lord's temptation has been variously interpreted. Some suppose it to be a parable, designed for the instruction of his disciples. Some regard it as the description of a vision or dream. Some understand the tempter to have been a wicked man, or a Jewish priest. Most conceive him to have been literally the Devil, or Satan, as the popular terms arc. But these views are all more or less burdened with fatal inconsistencies and difficulties. We

be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days 2

are rather to construe this passage as a figurative narration of a real transaction, a series of real temptations in the mind of Jesus. The incidents were actual occurrences; but, in relating them to his disciples, Jesus employed the popular oriental imagery. Force and spirit is given to the circumstances, by throwing them into the form of a dialogue. The thoughts and feelings of the mind are introduced as interlocutors, speaking and quoting from the Bible. Jesus prefigured to himself the misemployment that might be made of his special gifts, but resisted the allurements to make such an abuse of them. He was faithful to his high trust. He told the spiritual experience to his followers, in order to instruct them in the use of their miraculous powers, in a manner fitted to impress the memory, and left it as a legacy of warning and encouragement to the world.

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1. Then. After the baptism of Jesus, and the descent of the holy spirit. "The water of baptism is succeeded by the fire of temptation." - Led up of the spirit into the wilderness. Mark uses the strong language, "And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness. Under the powerful influence of the divine spirit, which had just been poured upon him "without measure," he leaves the crowd, and withdraws to a wild region, away from the haunts of men, to the most sequestered parts of the desert or thinly peopled country, which were frequented by wild beasts. Mark i. 13. It was proably the desert of Jericho, lying not far from Bethabara, where he was baptized. The soul of Jesus was full of the great consecration of himself to the work of God, and the solemn duties pertaining to it.

His mind dilated and kindled with the grandeur of his mission. He retired to meditate on its toils and trials, its responsibilities and joys. He was now to leave the humble shop of the carpenter, to assume the highest office ever known in the world. What wonder that he repaired to the deepest solitudes, to engage in the exercises of fasting, prayer, and self-communion? What wonder that there, too, he should be subject to the assault of temptations? To be tempted of the devil, i. e. by the devil. In the Bible, "certain and inevitable consequences are very often represented as the results specially intended." Jesus went not into the desert in order to be tempted. It would have been a practical violation of his prayer, "Lead us not into temptation." His object was to fast, to pray, and to meditate. Or, rather, perhaps he had no specified plan. He wandered almost unconsciously, while under the workings of his high contemplations, and the mighty promptings of God's spirit, farther and farther from men, into the deep fastnesses of the desert, mountainous country. There came the temptation, which was the effect, not the cause of his withdrawal. The words Satan and devil mean adversary and accuser. Human beings are called by these names. Matt. xvi. 23; John vi. 70; Tit. ii. 3. In the last case, the words false accusers are translated elsewhere devils. Where no person is alluded to by these terms, they are used as a personification of temptation, evil. James iv. 7. This rhetorical figure is frequent in the Old and New Testament. Solomon personifies Wisdom; Paul, Charity.

2. Fasted. We are not to understand by this that he absolutely went without food during this long

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