s and sighs--how apt an emblem was there of the history of our
race, contaminated by the evil that is in the world through lust, and
meriting the wages of sin--death! With that race, in its sin and
degradation, our Lord now formally identified Himself. His baptism was
his formal identification with our fallen and sinful race, though He
knew no sin for Himself, and could challenge the minutest inspection of
his enemies: "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?"

Was He baptized because He needed to repent, or to confess his sins?
Nay, verily! He was as pure as the bosom of God, from which He came;
as pure as the fire that shone above them in the orb of day; as pure as
the snows on Mount Hermon, rearing itself like a vision of clouds on
the horizon: but He needed to be made sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. When the paschal lamb had been chosen by
the head of a Jewish household, it was customary to take it, three days
before it would be offered, to the priest, to have it sealed with the
Temple seal; so our Lord, three years before his death, must be set
apart and sealed by the direct act of the Holy Spirit, through the
mediation of John the Baptist. "Him hath God the Father sealed."

"It becometh us"--I like that word, _becometh_. If the Divine Lord
thought so much about what was becoming, surely we may. It should
not be a question with us, merely as to what may be forbidden or
harmful, what may or may not be practised and permitted by our
fellow-Christians, or even whether there are distinct prohibitions in
the Bible that bar the way--but if a certain course is becoming. "Need
I pass through that rite?" _It is becoming_. "Need I perform that
lowly act?" _It is becoming_. "Need I renounce my liberty of action in
that respect?" _It would be very becoming_. And whenever some
hesitant soul, timid and nervous to the last degree, dares to step out,
and do what it believes to be the right thing because it is becoming,
Jesus comes to it, enlinks his arm, and says, "Thou art not alone in
this. Thou and I stand together here. It becomes us to fill up to its
full measure all righteousness." Ah, soul, thou shalt never step forth
on a difficult and untrodden path without hearing his footfall behind
thee, and becoming aware that in every act of righteousness Christ
identifies Himself, saying, "Thus it becometh _us_ to fulfil all
righteousness."

A friend suggests that the Lord Jesus was here refe