Sunday at Home.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 22, 26 August 1893, Page 5

Sunday at Home.

TPIE EORERUNNER AND THE MESSIAH. {By the Assistant Bishop of Peterborough in Lloyd’s Weekly.) “ Wisdom is justified of her children.” —Matthew xi., 19. , Of a truth Hod’s ways are not man s ways. Well might St. Paul exclaim, “ Oh, how unsearchable are His works, and His ways past finding 1 out !” And yet we are constantly forced to acknowlege that “ the foolishness of Ood is wiser than men.” In the present case, markedly, Grod s wisdom is justified, vindicated, proved to be right, in smte of* apparent conti adictions, by her children. John Baptist and Jesus Christ, the forrernnner and the Messiah, were both, as regards their mission, the children, the offspring, the visible manifestations of the wisdom. Both were perfect instruments to work out the purpose for which they were designed. “ John came neither eating nor drinking 1 ” ; he was a professed ascetic, a Nazante from his birth, a wilderness recluse. “ The Son of Man came eating and drinking.” He was like His fellowmen in g’arb, iu conduct, in social habits weeping with the mourners at Lazarus’ tomb, encouraging the advances of children, joining in the festivities of the wedding, the guest one day of the Publicans Matthew or Zacchnns, another day of Simon the Pharisee. And why the difference of method ? Because John’s mission was simply preparatory ; he came to a disorganised society, to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers;” in plain words, to preach repentance — i.e., entire change of life. All needed it, from the selfcomplacent Pharisee down to the Publicans and outcasts from society. John, the anchorite, with his strange garb, austeie life, and stern rebukes, alike attracted and impressed his motley group of hearers and penitents/ They flocked to him to the Jordan Valley, and “ were baptised of him, confessing their sins.” It may well be doubted whether any ordinary means could have produced a like effect. The Temple services, the Synagogue sermons and reading’s, had become perlunctory ana lifeless. Men required awakening ; and John, just because he was unlike ■other men, did awaken them in good earnest. 'Was not Wisdom justified of her child P Bat John’s mission was preparatory. The plough is necessary to break through the hard surface of the soil, and to bring clods of earth, hitherto useless and inert, under the softening influence ot sun and rain and air. John was the plough : rugged, stern, ruthless to weakness and irresolution, he cut through the hearts of all with his reiterated text, “ Repent ye.” It was necessary that he should be of harder material than the soil on which he worked. But the husbandman does not ensure a harvest by a succession of ploughings. And after him came One whose mission was constructive. not destructive. He came as the sower to sow the seed of a Divine life, and of a new nature in soil made ready to His hand. We have seen how he did it by becoming man ; by living man’s life ; by sharing in men’s hopes, and fears, and pains, and griefs, and joys. He came to sanctify and elevate man’s life by living it in its perfection, and has shown ns that there is something of Christ in everything that is genuinely fchuman. C