he son of Zacharias, in the wilderness." It may have befallen thus.
One day, as a caravan of pilgrims was slowly climbing the mountain
gorges threaded by the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, or halted
for a moment in the noontide heat, they were startled by the appearance
of a gaunt and sinewy man, with flowing raven locks, and a voice which
must have been as sonorous and penetrating as a clarion, who cried,
"Repent! the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

It was as though a spark had fallen on dry tinder. The tidings spread
with wonderful rapidity that in the wilderness of Judaea one was to be
met who recalled the memory of the great prophets, and whose burning
eloquence was of the same order as of Isaiah or Ezekiel. Instantly
people began to flock to him from all sides. "There went out to him
Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan." The
neighbourhood suddenly became black with hurrying crowds--as Klondike,
when the news of the discovery of gold began to spread. From lip to
lip the tidings sped of a great leader and preacher, who had suddenly
appeared.

He seems finally to have taken his stand not far from the rose-clad
oasis of Jericho, on the banks of the Jordan; and men of every tribe,
class, and profession, gathered thither, listening eagerly, or
interrupting him with loud cries for help. The population of the
metropolis, familiar with the Temple services, and accustomed to the
splendour of the palace; fishermen from the Lake of Gennesaret, dusky
sons of Ishmael from the desert of Gilead; the proud Pharisee; the
detested publican, who had fattened on the sorrows and burdens of the
people--were there, together with crowds of ordinary people that could
find no resting-place in the schools or systems of religious thought of
which Jerusalem was the centre.

1. MANY CAUSES ACCOUNTED FOR JOHN'S IMMENSE POPULARITY.--_The office
of the prophet was almost obsolete_. Several centuries, as we have
seen, had passed since the last great prophet had finished his
testimony. The oldest man living at that time could not remember
having seen a man who had ever spoken to a prophet. It seemed as
unlikely, to adopt the phrase of another, that another prophet should
arise in that formal, materialistic age, as that another cathedral
should be added to the splendid remains of Gothic glory which tell us
of those bygone days when there were giants in the land.

Moreover, _John gave such abundant evi