The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 90

lasting dominion that should not pa.Bi! away. That kin<rdom came from heaven• its government, its laws, its modes or life and thought and ;orship, are those of hea;cn ; the great oommonwealth of which the saints are citizens is now (i!.,..&px.,) centred in heaven (Phil, iii. 20); it looks to heaven as its home, its proper country; it shall be established there when the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. It is the great Church of Christ, the congregation of Christian people dispersed throughout the whole world. It was at hand, not yet come, but very near. '!'hose who would be true citizens of that heavenly kingdom must repent; they must die unto sin, they must receive the consecration of a new and higher life. It is true still as it was then, "Except ye be converted, . . . ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." 3. Bis description. (1) By the prophet. He was a voice. John himself applied that description to himself (John i. 23). He was not the Chrigt, he said, not Elias, not that prophet; he was but a voice. Humility was one of his most striking characteristics. It was scarcely to be looked for in a man of his stern, severe character. In such a one you would expect unworldliness, self-sacrifice, austere self-control; but scarcely that deep, sincere humility which marked the holy Baptist. The power of God's Spirit can unite in one personality graces which seem almost incompatible. "He must increase, but I must decrease," he said afterwards. He had been famous while Christ was still unknown, He was willing to be forgotten so that Christ should be glorified; nay, in his utter self-forgetfulness, he rejoiced with joy in the overshadowing glory of the greater Prophet. He is an example to all Ch1istian preachers. He was only a voice-the voice of one crying. His preaching was powerful, aggressive, energetic; the voice was loud and strong. His self-forgetfulness, the intensity of his conviction, gave strength to his preaching. It was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, not in great cities, not io the crowded haunts of men. God sets his ministers sometimes in what seems to them a wilderness; they must work there, where he has placed them; each must do his best in that station to which God has called him. The voice must sound everywhere-in the quiet country and in the great city, in the cottage and in the palace. God sends his ministers where it pleases him; they must accept the lead.ings of his providence. " Here am I; send me," is the trustful answer of the obedient Christian. But what was the cry? "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Isaiah's words, it may be, referred in their primary sense to the return from the Captivity. The Lord of hosts was about to lead his people back; he goeth before them. A high way through the desert must be made for the great King; every valley must be exalted, every mountain and hill made low. But they bad a deeper meaning, a more august fulfilment. 'l'he Lord, the incarnate God, was coming now. The proud heart must be abased; the hands that hang down, the feeble knees, must be lifted up; the path must be made straight; there must be no wave1ing, no inconsistency, no crooked designs, but a simple, straightforward, decided readiness to receive the coming Saviour. He was at hand; soon he would knock at the door; the gntes must be lifted up; the hearts of men must be prepared to welcome and to admit the Lord of glory. (2) By the evangelist. He was an ascetic; he wore the rough garment of the prophet; like Elijah, he was a hairy man. He was a Nazarite; his uushorn locks waved rough and long in the wind; he drank neither wine nor strong drink; his food was of the commonest, that which the desert supplied-locusts and wild honey, the food of the very poor. He was a very high saint of God, but a saint of the Old Testament type rather than of the New; suited for the times, as Elijah had been; greater than any who had preceded him. But, our Lord has told us, "Le that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." II. His BAPTISM. 1. The multitudes. There was great excitement. It was a time of eager expectation. John's character, his asceticism, his strange, solitary life, his stern, awful, heart-stirring preaching, commanded attention. Multitudes went out to listen to him-" Jerusalem, and all Judrea, and all the region round about Jordan." The wilderness was lonely no more; it was filled with thronging crowds. '!'here was an attraction not to be resisted in his preaching. Men could not but come; they could not but listen. Alas I they did not, most of them, repent. 'l'o the many he was what Ezekiel had been in his time, "a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument;" for they heard his words, but they did them not. 2. They were baptized of him in Jordan. He preached the baptism of repentance for  78 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oa. 111.1-17,