t of
God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned." "There standeth One among
you," said the Baptist, "whom ye know not."

II. THE BAPTIST'S WITNESS TO THE LORD.--Six weeks passed by from that
memorable vision of the opened heaven and the descending Spirit, and
John had eagerly scanned every comer to the river-bank to see again
that divinely beautiful face. But in vain: for Jesus was in the
wilderness, being tempted of the devil, for forty days and nights, the
companion of wild beasts, and exposed to a very hurricane of temptation.

At the end of the six weeks, the interview with the deputation from the
Sanhedrim took place, which we have already described; and on the day
after, when his confession of inferiority was still fresh in the minds
of his hearers, when some were criticising and others pitying, when
symptoms that the autumn of his influence had set in were in the air,
his eye flashed, his face lit up, and he cried, saying: "This is He of
whom I said, 'After me cometh a man who is become before me, for He was
before me.' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world."

Did all eyes turn towards the Christ? Was there a ripple of interest
and expectancy through the crowd? Did any realize the unearthly beauty
and spiritual power of his presence? We know not. Scripture is
silent, only telling us that on the following day, when, with two
disciples, he looked on Jesus as He walked, and repeated his
affirmation, "Behold the Lamb of God," those two disciples followed
Him, never to return to their old master--who knew it must be so, and
was content to decrease if only _He_ might increase.

Let us notice the successive revelations which were made to John, and
through him to Israel, who, you remember, held him, as they had every
warrant for doing, to be in the deepest sense a prophet of the Lord.
This conviction has been definitely endorsed by succeeding ages, which
have classed him as one of the six greatest men that ever left their
mark on the world.

(1) _He rightly conceived of Christ's pre-existence_. "He was before
me" (John i. 30). The phrase resembles Christ's own words, when He
said: "Before Abraham was, I am." In John's case it developed soon
after into another and kindred expression: "He that cometh from above,
is above all" (John iii. 31). With such words the Baptist taught his
disciples. He insisted that Jesus of