ion, were characterized by the same appeals. Though, on the
other hand, because God is not confined to any one method, the
preaching of the late D. L. Moody was specially steeped in the love of
God. It is for want of a vision of the inevitable fate of the godless
and disobedient, that much of our present-day preaching is so powerless
and ephemeral. You cannot get crops out of the land merely by summer
showers and sunshine; there must be the subsoil ploughing, the
pulverizing frost, the wild March wind. And only when we modern
preachers have seen sin as God sees it, and begin to apply the divine
standard to the human conscience; only when our eagerness and yearning
well over into our eyes and broken tones, only when we know the terror
of the Lord, and begin to persuade men as though we would pluck them
out of the fire, by our strenuous expostulation and entreaties--shall
we see the effects that followed the preaching of the Baptist when
soldiers, publicans, Pharisees, and scribes, crowded around him,
saying, "What shall we do?"

All John's preaching, therefore, led up to the demand for repentance.
The word which was oftenest on his lips was "Repent ye!" It was not
enough to plead direct descent from Abraham, or outward conformity with
the Levitical and Temple rites. God could raise up children to Abraham
from the stones of the river bank. There must be the renunciation of
sin, the definite turning to God, the bringing forth of fruit meet for
an amended life. In no other way could the people be prepared for the
coming of the Lord.

VI.

Baptism unto Repentance

(MARK I. 4.)

"The last and greatest herald of heaven's King,
Girt with rough skins, hies to the desert wild;
Among that savage brood the woods doth bring,
Which he more harmless found than man, and mild.

"His food was locusts and what there doth spring,
With honey that from virgin hives distill'd,
Parch'd body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing
Made him appear, long since from earth exiled."
W. DRUMMOND, of Hawthornden.

Repentance: its Nature--Repentance: how Produced--Repentance: its
Evidences--Repentance: its Results--John's Baptism: from Heaven

At the time of which we are speaking, an extraordinary sect, known as
the Essenes, was scattered throughout Palestine, but had its special
home in the oasis of Engedi; and with the adherents of this community
John must have been in frequent association.