ts, that purpose is not fulfilled.

The same pillar of fire which gladdened the ranks of Israel as they
camped by the Red Sea, shone baleful and terrible to the Egyptian hosts.
The same Ark of the Covenant whose presence blessed the house of
Obed-edom, and hallowed Zion, and saved Jerusalem, smote the
Philistines, and struck down their bestial gods. Christ and His gospel
even here hurt the men whom they do not save.

And we have only to carry that process onwards into another world, and
suppose it made more energetic there, as it will be, to feel dimly in
how awful a sense it may be that the same fire which gives life may be
the occasion of death--and how profound a truth lies in the words--

'What maketh Heaven, that maketh Hell.'

Yes, verily; to be salted with fire or to be consumed by it, to be
baptized in it or to be cast into it, is the choice offered to us all;
to thee, my brother, and to me. Israel made its choice, and in seventy
years, the Roman standards on Zion and the flames leaping round the
Temple, interpreted John's words in one of their halves, while the
growing energy of the fire that was lit on Pentecost fulfilled them in
the other. Many a nation and Church has made its choice since then. You
have to make yours. 'The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort
it is.' Shall our work be gold, and silver, and precious stones which
shall gleam and flash in the light, or wood, hay, and stubble which
shall writhe for a moment in the blaze and perish? 'Our God is a
consuming fire.' Shall that be the ground of my confidence that I shall
one day be pure from all my sins, or shall it be the parent of my
ghastliest fear that I may be, like the chaff, destroyed by contact with
a holy love rejected, with a Saviour disbelieved, with a Spirit grieved
and quenched? Choose which.

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS

'Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized
of him. 14. But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized
of Thee, and comest Thou to me? 15. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness. Then he suffered Him. 16. And Jesus, when He was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the
heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: 17. And lo a voice
from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in