t the bondage and
deliverance are types of the sorer captivity from which Christ redeems,
and of the grander deliverance which He effects.

Our evangelist gives a vivid picture of the asceticism of John, which
was one secret, as our Lord pointed out, of his hold on the people. The
more luxuriously self-indulgent men are, the more are they fascinated by
religious self-denial. A man 'clothed in soft raiment' would have drawn
no crowds. A religious teacher must be clearly free from sensual
appetites and love of ease, if he is to stir the multitude. John's rough
garb and coarse food were not assumed by him to create an impression. He
was no mere imitator of the old prophets, though he wore a robe like
Elijah's. His asceticism was the expression of his severe, solitary
spirit, detached from the delights of sense, and even from the softer
play of loves, because the coming kingdom flamed ever before him, and
the age seemed to him to be rotting and ready for the fire. There is no
need to bring in irrelevant learning about Essenes to account for his
mode of life. The thoughts which burned in him drove him into the
wilderness. He who was possessed with them could not 'come eating and
drinking,' and might well seem to sense-bound wonderers as if some
demonic force, other than ordinary motives, tyrannised over him.

The last point in this brief _resume_ of John's work is the universal
excitement which it produced. He did not come out of the desert with his
message. If men would hear it, they must go to him. And they went. All
the southern portion of the country seemed to empty itself into the
wilderness. Sleeping national hopes revived, the awe of the coming
judgment seized all classes. It was so long since a fiery soul had
scattered flaming words, and religious teachers had for so many
centuries been mumbling the old well-worn formulas, and splitting hairs,
that it was an apocalypse to hear once more the accent of conviction
from a man who really believed every word he said, and himself thrilled
with the solemn truths which he thundered. Wherever a religious teacher
shows that he has John's qualities, as our Lord in His eulogium analysed
them--namely, unalterable resolution, like an iron pillar, and not like
a reed shaken with the wind, conspicuous superiority to considerations
of ease and comfort, a direct vision of the unseen, and a message from
God, the crowds will go out to see him; and even if the enthusiasm be
shallow and t