24 And they ■which were sent were of the Pharisees.
25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither tha^ prophet ?
26 John answered them saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not ;
27 He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who art thou ?
20 And he confessed, and de- nied not ; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
21 And they asked him. What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
The verses we have now read begin the properly histori- cal part of St. John's Gospel. Hitherto we have been reading deep and weighty statements about Christ's divine nature, incarnation, and dignity. Now we come to the plain narrative of the days of Christ's earthly ministry, and the plain story of Christ's doings and sayings among men. And here, like the other Gospel-writers, St. John begins at once with " the record " or testimony of John the Baptist. (Matt. iii. 1 ; Mark i. 2 ; Luke iii. 2.)
We have, for one thing, in these verses, an instructive example of true humility. That example is supplied by John the Baptist himself.
John the Baptist was an eminent saint of God. There are few names which stand higher than his in the Bible calendar of great and good men. The Lord Jesus Himself declared that "Among them that are born of woman there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." (Matt. xi. 11.) The Lord Jesus Himself declared that he was " a burning and a shining light." (John v. 35.) Yet here in