sion from God.

And when we read the words of the apostle Paul about John "fulfilling
his course," we may well ask for grace that we may fill up to the brim
the measure of our opportunities, that we may realize to the full God's
meaning and intention in creating us: and so our lives shall mate with
the Divine Ideal, like sublime words with some heavenly strain, each
completing the other.

V.

The First Ministry of the Baptist.

(LUKE III.)

"Hark, what a sound, and too divine for hearing,
Stirs on the earth and trembles in the air!
Is it the thunder of the Lord's appearing?
Is it the music of his people's prayer?

"Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices
Shout to the saints, and to the deaf and dumb;
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices,
Glad in his coming who hath sworn, I come."
F. W. H. MYERS.

The Preaching of Repentance--His Power as a Preacher--His
Message--Warning of Impending Judgment--The Wages of Sin

Thirty years had left their mark on the Forerunner. The aged priest
and his wife Elisabeth had been carried to their grave by other hands
than those of the young Nazarite. The story of his miraculous birth,
and the expectations it had aroused, had almost died out of the memory
of the countryside. For many years John had been living in the caves
that indent the limestone rocks of the desolate wilderness which
extends from Hebron to the western shores of the Dead Sea. By the use
of the scantiest fare, and roughest garb, he had brought his body under
complete mastery. From nature, from the inspired page, and from direct
fellowship with God, he had received revelations which are only
vouchsafed to those who can stand the strain of discipline in the
school of solitude and privation. He had carefully pondered also the
signs of the times, of which he received information from the Bedouin
and others with whom he came in contact. Blended with all other
thoughts, John's heart was filled with the advent of Him, so near akin
to himself, who, to his certain knowledge, was growing up, a few months
his junior, in an obscure highland home, but who was speedily to be
manifested to Israel.

At last the moment arrived for him to utter the mighty burden that
pressed upon him; and "in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar,
Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, Herod the tetrarch of Galilee,
Annas and Caiaphas the high priests, the word of God came unto John,
t