discernment of character is an impossibility. The wheat and the chaff will continue together nntil the Lord retnms.
But there will be an awful separation at the last day. The unerring judgment of the King of kings shall at length divide the wheat from the chaff, and divide them for evermore. The righteous shall be gathered into a place of happiness and safety. The wicked shall be cast down to shame and everlasting contempt. In the great sifting day, every one shall go to his own place.
May we often look forward to that day, and judge ourselves, that we be not judged of the Lord. May we give all diligence to make our calling and election sure, and to know that we are God's "wheat." A mistake in the day that the floor is "purged," will be a mistake that is irretrievable.
We leam, lastly, from these verses, that the reward of Oo^8 servants is often not in this world. St. Luke closes his account of John the Baptist's ministry, by telling us of his imprisonment by Herod. The end of that im- prisonment we know from other parts of the New Testa- ment. It led at last to John being beheaded.
All true servants of Christ must be content to wait for their wages. Their best things are yet to come. They must count it no strange thing, if they meet with hard treatment from man. The world that persecuted Christ will never hesitate, to persecute Christians. "Marvel not if the world hate you." (1 John iii. 13.)
But let us take comfort in the thought that the great Master has laid up in heaven for His people such things as pass man's understanding. The blood that His saints have shed in His name will all be reckond for one day.
LUKE, CHAP. ni. VEB. 15—20. 99
The tears that often flow so freely in consequence of the unkindness of the wicked, will one day be wiped from all faces. And when John the Baptist, and all who haye suffered for the truth are at last gathered together, they will find it true that heaven makes amends for all.
Notes. Lukb HE. 16—20.
15. — [mused.] The word so translated is generally rendered "rea- soned."
16. — [/ indeed baptize with water.] We must not fail to observe that the contrast John the Baptist draws here, is not, as the Roman Catholic writers say, between his baptism and Christian baptism, but between his power as a mere man to administer an outward ordinance, and the power of Christ the Son of God to affect the heart.
We must be carefiil that we do not underrate the value of John's baptism. We have no proof that any of the apostles ever received any other baptism than that of John. To say that the baptism of Christian ministers always confers grace, "exopere operato," and that the baptism of John never con- ferred grace, is to say what cannot be proved either by Scripture or experience. The value of John's baptism is well defended by Brentius, in his Homilies on this chapter. Spauheim ably dis- cusses the whole question, and concludes that the distinction between the baptism of John and the baptism of Christ was "not essential but accidental," that is, not in its essence but in its accidents or circumstances.
[Baptize with fire.] The meaning of this expression is doubt- ful, and has never been fully cleared up. Some confine it entirely to the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, when " cloven tongues like as of fire " sat upon each person present on the occasion . (Acts ii. 3 ) Others confine it entirely to the convert- ing operation of the Holy Ghost, purifying and refining the heait as fire piu'ifieth gold. Both views are probably included.
19. — [But Herod. <f<?.] The mention of John's imprisonment in this part of St. Luke's Gospel, before the event actually took place, is a striking example of St. Luke's mode of " writing in order." (Luke i. 3.) He is on the subject of John the Baptist and his ministry, and he therefore takes occasion to explain how that ministry was brought to an end, before turning to another subject.
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