The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 75

cation; for Joh11'e b11pti~m wae nothing exiat are often in I\ bad ,tu.ta, wh,·n a anve- more. Now, bnptism, it is clear, was not 1Lt r,·ign ie about to vii<it any P"rt of hi, this time prnctieod nmm,g the Jews. It w"s dnminions, or still more if the march of"'' not, ae for as we can trace, even used in the 11.rmy has to be arranged for, the roads CILBe of pagnn proselytes to Judaism. Thie rr·r1 nire considerable prepuration. Josephus appnrently only became a notional cuatom (' Bell. Jud.,' iii. G) deacribee lhe advance after the fall of Jeruealern, A.D. 70, forty of the Empernr Vcepasian's !!.rmy, and 1eare Inter. Hie very title, "the Ba1-ti•t," opecially mentinns how the pionr,era and the in some way shows us that be practised an vanguard bad to make the road even aud unusual, if not a novel, rite in the course of str,iight, and, if it were anywhere rough ,rnd hie preaching and teaching. John's bap- hard to be passed over, to plan,, it. There tism (to nee Dr. Morrison's vivid exprreeione, was a Jewish legend that this specinl Commentary on Matt. iii. 6) was just the pioneering work in the desert was done by embodiment, in significant optical sym- the pill><r of elond and drP, which brought bolism, of the significant audible symbolism low the mountains and filled the valleys of the Old Test1Lment pre phe.ts, when they before the Israelitic march. Joh11's "pecial cried aloud e.nd ijaid, "Wash you, make work was to prepare the way for the advent you clean; put away the evil of your doings of a llle"shh very dilfo:rent to the one the from before mine eyes" (Isa. i. 16); "In people looked for-to prepare bis way by that day there shall be a fountain opened to B spiritual reformation in the hesrt, the the house. of David, and to the inhabitants mind, and the character. of Jerusalem, for sin and for nncl<·anness" Ver. 5.-Every valley sh2.ll be 1111ed, a..nd (Zech. xiii. l) ; " Then will I sprinkle clean every mountain and hill ahall be brought water npon yon, and ye shall be clean: low; and the orooked shall be made straigl: t, from all your filthiness, e.nd from all yonr and the rough ways shall be made smooth. idols, will I cleanse you. A new bee.rt also Godet and other commentators suggest, will I give you, and a new spirit will l put though they do not press, a pnrticular within you" (Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26). This application to each of the details of the view of John's baptism, viz. that it was a picture. "For instance, the mountains that symbol, and nothing more, was suggested by must be levelled may be referred to the Josephus writing for the Jews. "John," pride of the Pharisees : the valleys to be he says, "enjoined 11.pon the Jews first to filled np, to the moral and religious inditfer- cultivate virtue and to put in practice right- ence of such as the Saddncees; the orook0<l eousnese toward one another, and piety places to be mo.de straight, to the frauds toward God, and then to come to his be.p- and lying excuses of the publicans: and tism, for thus only would the baptism be lastly, the rough places, to the sinful habits acceptable to God" (' Ant.,' xviii. 5. 2). found in all, even the best, ' Ver. 4.-As it is written in the book of Ver. 6.-A.nd all 11.esh shall see the mlva- the words of Eaaias the prophet, saying, The tion of God. And when this preparation voioe of one orying in the wilderness. The is complete, then sha.11 Messiah publicly prophet quoted (Isa. xl. 3) had been writing appear. And the Baptist faithfully per- in his solitude, or more probably in some formed his work as pioneer of the Christ. great popular assembly preachiug to the He awoke men's slumbering consciences; people. There was doubtless at that time his note of alarm aroused through Palestine mnch national trouble threatening Israel : multitudes of men and women who after- the future of the chosen race looked very wards, no doubt, formed the nucleus at least dark and gloomy, within and without. We • of the crowds who thronged round Jesus can hear the man of God speaking with as he preached in the cities wa.shed by the intense eo.ruestness, o.nd looking on to Lake of Galilee, or in the atreets a.nd temple brighter times. •• Comfort ye, comfort ye courts of JerllSlllem. my people, se.ith your God. Speak yu oom- Ver. 7.-Then said he to the multitude fortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that came forth to be baptized of him. The tho.t her warfare is accomplished, that following grave cutting rebukes, the btuu- her iniquity is pardoned," etc. : and then ing reminders, most not be read as a..n ex- a sudden burst when the prophet, bending tn1ct from any one particular sermrJn of the forward and straining his ears to hear some Bllptist, or even as a report of any of his sound none other caught but he, goes on in disooursee, but rather as ,. gen·ciral sketch of his re.pt utterance-I hear a voice, " The the line of argument the great proph,·t voice of him that orieth in the wilderness, adopted in his teaching. 0 generation of Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Prepare vipers, who ha.th warned you to dee from ye the way of the Lord, make hia paths the wrath to oome 1 In St. M11tthcw's 11traight. The imago is a simple one, and account of John's wo'ik such scathiug wor-'s in the Ee.et one well kuows. where the roa,ls as these were addruSsc<l to members of iii•• are comparatively Fow, nnd wher11 they do Phllri,ee 1u11l Sa<ld•l('cc secta, wb,, evide,iti, !.UKE. r  116 THE GOSl'RT, ACCORDING TO S1'. Ll:RE. [en. m. l -38,