Tj Gold would be always a suitable present. Frankincense and myrrh would be used chiefly in the houses of the great, and in holy places. They were prized for the delicious fragrance which they suffused. They were gifts fit to be presented to monarchs ; and it was to Jesus, as a royal child, that they were presented by the Magi. The fathers of the Church thought that they could detect mysteries in the peculiar nature of the gifts. In the gold, says Origen, there is a reference to the Lord's royalty ; the frankincense has reference to His Divinity ; the myrrh to His decease. The number of the gifts was also a fertile source of cabalistic ingenuity to the older expositors. It symbolized the Trinity; it symbolized the triplicity of elements in the Saviour's personality; it symbolized the triad of the Christian graces, faith, hope, charity, etc. etc. But such a method of expounding is to turn the simple and sublime solemnities of Scripture into things ludicrous and grotesque. It is of moment to note that the visit of the Magi, and their reverential obeisance, and their gifts, must have had a finely confirming influence upon the faith of Joseph in reference to the perfect purity of Mary and the lofty character and destiny of her Offspring.3
1 A. Maclareo. 2 H. N. Grimley. * James Moiison.
The Two Baptisms.
ST. MATT.-
Literature.
Carroll (B. H.), Sermons, 315.
Uavies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, v. 277.
Harper (F.), A Year with Christ, 134.
Ingrain (A. F. W.), Into the Fighting Line, 77.
Jowett (J. H), Apostolic Optimism, 209.
Maclaren (A.), Sermons Preached in Manchester, ii. 227.
„ „ The Victor's Crovms, 207.
Martin (A.), Winning the Soul, 81. Moore (E. W.), The Clirist- Controlled Life, 39. Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, v. 183. Robinson (W. V.), Angel Voices, 28. Simpson (W. J. S.), The Prophet of the Highest, 110. Wilberforce (B.), The Secret of a Quiet Mind, 11 I.
Children's Pulpit : Fourth Sunday in Advent, i. 262 (A. M. Cawthorne). Church Pulpit Year Book, 1906, p. 156. Expository Times, xxv. 306 (J. Reid). Preacher's Magazine, xii. 326 (A. Tucker).
The Two Baptisms.
I indeed baptize you 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. — Matt. iii. n.
This text is a contrast between two baptizers, John and Jesus. Jesus is mightier than John, in the purity of His character, by so much as an immaculate one is superior to a sinful one ; in the power which He holds, in so much as omnipotence transcends temporary, limited, and derived power; in the dignity of His character and of His office, by so much as all authority in heaven and on earth surpasses a brief earthly commission; and in His ministry, inasmuch as one was to decrease and cease and the other to increase and endure " alway, even unto the end of the world." There stood the two baptizers ; and of the one it is said that he was as great as any man ever born of a woman. Hence it is not instituting a comparison between an insignificant man on the one hand and a greater man on the other, but it is instituting a comparison between the greatest man and a Being infinitely greater than the greatest man.
I.
The baptism of John was merely preparatory and negative. "I indeed baptize you with water." There is something ex- tremely beautiful and pathetic in John the Baptist's clear dis- cernment of his limitations, and of the imperfection of his work. His immovable humility is all the more striking because it stands side by side with as immovable a courage in confronting evil- doers, whether of low or of high degree. To him to efface himself and be lost in the light of Christ was no trial; it brought joy like that of the friend of the Bridegroom. He saw that the spiritual deadness and moral corruption of his generation was
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36 THE TWO BAPTISMS
such that a crash must come. The axe was "laid at the root of the trees," and then was impending a mighty hewing and a fierce oonflagration. There are periods when the only thing to be done with the present order is to burn it.
But John saw, too, that there was a great deal more needed than he could give ; and so, with a touch of sadness, he symbolized the incompleteness of his work in the words preceding the text, by reference to his baptism. He baptized with water, which cleansed the outside but did not go deeper. It was cold, negative. It brought no new impulses ; and he recognized that something far other than it was wanted, and that He who was to come, before whom his whole spirit prostrated itself in joyful submis- sion, was to bestow a holy fire which would cleanse in another fashion than water could do.
TJ The bounds of our habitation are fixed ; so are our talents , so are our spheres of influence ; so are our ranges of ministry. John knew exactly what he had to do, and he kept strictly within the Divine appointment. His was, indeed, an initial, or elementary, ministry, and yet God was pleased to make it a necessary part of His providential purpose. Men must work up to date, and people must be content to receive an up-to-date ministry, and their contentment need not be the less that they have an assurance that One mightier than the mightiest is coming with a deeper baptism. " I indeed baptize you with water," — that is what every true teacher says, qualifying his utterance by the special environment within which his ministry is exercised. This is what is said by the schoolmaster : " I indeed baptize you with letters, alphabets, grammars ; but there cometh one after me, mightier than I, who shall baptize you with the true intellectual fire." The schoolmaster can do but little for a scholar, yet that little may be all-important. The schoolmaster teaches the alphabet, but the spirit maketh alive. There is a literary instinct. There is a spirit which can penetrate through the letter into the very sanctuary of the spiritual meaning. The schoolmaster has an initial work ; the literary spirit develops and completes what he could only begin.1