's explicit indication of Him as the Christ. The
Jews had not only the predictions of prophets long since dead, and
descriptions of the Christ which they could perversely misconstrue; they
had not merely pictures of their Messiah by which they might identify
Jesus as the Christ, but of which it was also quite possible for them to
deny the likeness; but they had a living contemporary, whom they
themselves acknowledged to be a prophet, pointing out to them another
living contemporary as the Christ. That even such a testimony was to a
large extent disregarded shows how much more the inclination to believe
has to do with our faith than any external proofs.

But even to us the testimony of a man like John is not without
importance. He was, as our Lord bore witness, "a burning and a shining
light." He was one of those men who give new thoughts to their
generation, and help men to see clearly what otherwise they might only
dimly have seen. He was in a position to know Jesus well. He was His
cousin; he had known Him from His childhood. He was also in a position
to know what was involved in being the Messiah. By the very
circumstance that he himself had been mistaken for the Messiah, he was
driven to define to his own mind the distinctive and characteristic
marks of the Messiah. Nothing could so have led him to apprehend the
difference between himself and Jesus. More and more clearly must he have
seen that he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that
light. Thus he was prepared to receive with understanding the sign (ver.
33) which gave him something more than _his own personal surmises_ to go
upon in declaring Jesus to the world as the Messiah. If there is any
man's testimony we may accept about our Lord it is that of the Baptist,
who, from his close contact with the most profligate and with the most
spiritual of the people, saw what they needed, and saw in Jesus power to
give it; the business of whose life it was to make Him out, and to
arrive at certain information regarding Him; a man whose own elevation
and force of character made many fancy he was the Messiah, but who
hastened to disabuse their minds of such an idea, because his very
elevation gave him capacity to see how infinitely above him the true
Christ was. Seen from the low ground the star may seem close to the top
of the mountain; seen from the mountain-top it is recognised as
infinitely above it. John was on the mountain-top.

Of John's person and