d on actual doubt. Indeed, we have good grounds for inference that
John's purpose in sending disciples to inquire of Christ was partly, and
perhaps largely, designed to confirm in these disciples an abiding faith
in the Christ. The commission with which they were charged brought them
into direct communication with the Lord, whose supremacy they could not
well fail to comprehend. They were personal witnesses of His power and
authority.

Our Lord's commentary on John's message indicated that the Baptist had
no full understanding of what the spiritual kingdom of God comprized.
After the envoys had departed, Jesus addressed Himself to the people who
had witnessed the interview. He would not have them underrate the
importance of the Baptist's service.[572] He reminded them of the time
of John's popularity, when some of those then present, and multitudes of
others, had gone into the wilderness to hear the prophet's stern
admonition; and they had found him to be no reed, shaken by the wind,
but a firm and unbending oak. They had not gone to see a man in
fashionable attire; those who wore soft raiment were to be looked for in
the court of the king, not in the wilderness, nor in the dungeon where
John now lay. They had found in John a prophet indeed, yea, more than a
prophet; "For," affirmed the Lord, "I say unto you, Among those that are
born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but
he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."[573] What
stronger testimony of the Baptist's integrity is needed? Other prophets
had told of the Messiah's coming, but John had seen Him, had baptized
Him, and had been to Jesus as a body servant to his master. Nevertheless
from the day of John's preaching to the time at which Christ then spoke,
the kingdom of heaven had been rejected with violence, and this even
though all the prophets and even the fundamental law had told of its
coming, and though both John and Christ had been abundantly predicted.

Concerning John, the Lord continued: "And if ye will receive it, this is
Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear."[574] It is important to know that the designation, Elias, here
applied by Jesus to the Baptist, is a title rather than a personal name,
and that it has no reference to Elijah, the ancient prophet called the
Tishbite.[575] Many of those who heard the Lord's eulogy on the Baptist
rejoiced, for they had accepted John, and had t