ection of my followers, and on their preference for Christ. These
crowds you complain of are evidence that I have not discharged the
function of paranymph in vain. To see my work successful, to see Bride
and Bridegroom at length resting in one another with undisturbed,
self-forgetting confidence, this is my joy. While the Bridegroom cheers
the Bride with His voice, and opens to her prospects which only His love
can realize, shall I obtrude myself and claim consideration? Is it not
enough for one life to have had the joy of identifying the actually
present Christ, and of introducing the Bride to her Lord? Has not that
life its ample reward which has been instrumental in achieving the
actual union of God and man?"

Probably, then, the Baptist himself would think we waste too much
emotion over his self-sacrifice and magnanimity. After all, it not being
possible to him to be the Messiah, it was no small glory and joy to be
the friend, the next, to the Messiah. The tragic character of the
Baptist's death, the despondent doubt which for a time shook his spirit
during his imprisonment, the severe life he had previously led, all tend
to make us oblivious of the fact that his life was crowned with a deep
and solid joy. Even the poet who has most worthily depicted him still
speaks of

"John, than which man a _sadder_ or a greater
Not till this day has been of woman born."

But the Baptist was a big enough man to enjoy an unselfish happiness. He
loved men so well that he rejoiced when he saw them forsake him to
follow Christ. He loved Christ so well that to see Him honoured was the
crown of his life.

Besides this negative repudiation of honours that belonged to Jesus, the
Baptist emits a positive and fivefold testimony in His favour, (1) to
His dignity (vv. 15, 27, 30), "He that cometh after me _is preferred
before me_;" (2) to His pre-existence (vv. 15, 30), which is adduced as
the reason of the foregoing, "for He _was_ before me;" (3) to His
spiritual fulness and power (ver. 33), "He baptizeth with the Holy
Ghost;" (4) to the efficacy of His mediation (ver. 29), "Behold, the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" (5) to His unique
personality (ver. 34), "this is the Son of God."

1. Three times over the Baptist declared the superiority of Jesus; a
superiority so immense that language failed him in trying to represent
it. The Rabbis said, "Every office which a servant will do for his
master a scholar