1 The beginning of the Gospel of Jesns Christ, the Son of God ;
2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 John did baptize in the wilder- ness, and preach the baptism of re- pentance for the remission of sins.
5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judsea, and they of Jeru-
salem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 And John was clothed with cam- el's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins ; and he did eat locusts and wild honey ;
7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
8 I indeed have baptized you with water : but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
The Gospel of St. Mark, which we now begin, is in some respects unlike the other three Gospels. It tells us nothing about the birth and early life of our Lord Jesus Christ. It contains comparatively few of His say- ings and discourses. Of all the four inspired histories of our Lord's earthly ministry, this is by far the shortest.
But we must not allow these peculiarities to make us undervalue St. Mark's Gospel. It is a Gospel singularly full of precious facts about the Lord Jesus, narrated in a simple, terse, pithy, and condensed style. If it tells us few' of our Lord's sayings, it is eminently rich in its catalogue of His doings. It often contains minute historical details