from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repent- 8 ance, and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to 9 our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraliam. And now also the axe is laid unto 10 the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth same sins, also, which brought down these temporal calamities upon the heads of men, would meet with a becoming punishment in the future world. 8. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. Or, consistent with amendment of life. Fruits stand for good works, righteous, holy deeds. Here is an allusion to their noted hypocrisy. Shew by your lives that your repentance is sincere. Manifest a character and conduct appropriate, belonging to, genuine penitence. Shew forth, if you really repent, not merely the leaves and flowers of profession, but the fruits of performance. Mat. vii. 20. The proof of goodness is in the life. Let not repentance be a dead form with us, but a living act. Let it produce corresponding works. 9. They deemed their salvation insured because they were the descendants of so righteous and faithful a man as Abraham. John viii. 33, 39, 53. John understands their state of mind, and therefore addresses himself, as every teacher should, to that which, unless corrected, would nullify all his instructions and warnings. Thus he taught with adaptedness. The same characteristic, in a greater degree, appears in the teachings of the Saviour. It has been a weak point in all nations, to put their salvation in their ancestors, not in their posterity; to look back to the good old days, not to look forward to better ones; to locate the Golden Age in the Past, not in an improved Future. The couplet of the poet has been forgotten :— "They, that on glorious ancestors enlarge, Produce their debt instead of their discharge." -God is able, &c. Think not of saying to yourselves, We are Abraham's children, and are therefore fully assured of the favor of God, and the benefits of the Messiah's kingdom. With God all things are possible. He is not dependent on the Jews, or any other nation, for the success of his purposes; he can find other servants and instruments. Yea, out of the very stones of the Jordan he can through his omnipotence raise up worthy children of Abraham; an allusion, perhaps, to God's power in giving a child to Abraham. Gal. iii. 29. Perhaps in the expression "these stones," there is also an allusion to the Gentiles, towards whom the Jews entertained the greatest contempt. Some deem it a proverbial phrase. It is to be feared, that, as some of old trusted in the merits of Abraham, so now many rely upon Christ, a much greater than Abraham, as a substitute for their own goodness, instead of forming him within them, reproducing his spirit in their hearts. But it will not do. Personal piety is the inextinguishable need of every child of God. 10. The axe is laid unto the root of the trees, &c. i. e. the axe is lying, ready to be used, at the very root of the trees. The approaching calamities are no trivial evils, but rather like cutting up the tree by the roots. This was a Jewish proverb. A searching, powerful influence is going abroad. A new 11 good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water, unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you standard is to be erected, by which the hearts of men, and the institutions of society, are to be tried. Principles and conduct are to be tested. Nothing will stand the trial but genuine repentance, true goodness. The excuses and subterfuges and lies of men will be swept away. Antiquated ceremonies and systems will be superseded. The realities of the spiritual life will stand forth in their just prominence, when the rubbish and the corruptions and the commandments of men have been consumed.-Is hewn down. Will be, is to be, hewn or cut down. The present tense, according to Winer, is not unfrequently used in the sense of the future. See Luke iii. 10, 14. 11. Unto repentance. As a sign of repentance and reformation. Baptism was a sign that the obligation to repent was felt and acknowledged, and that the penitential sentiments would be cherished. -He that cometh after me. A circumlocution for Jesus, the Messiah, the head of the kingdom of heaven, that is at hand.-Mightier than I. Of higher dignity and authority.Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. Not the article we call shoes, but the sandals of the east; which were soles for the bottoms of the feet, bound about the feet and ancles with leathern thongs or straps. These sandals were put off when a person entered a house, and put on when he left it. As stockings were then unknown, the feet soon became soiled, being only protected on the bottom, and not at the sides, and hence they had to be frequently washed. To put on and off the sandals, upon these various occasions, was the office of the lowest He servants. The strong expression of John is, therefore, that he was unworthy to perform the most menial service for the glorious Being who was soon to appear in the character and with the credentials of the long desired Redeemer.— What a touching humility in one, who was himself the subject of prophecy, at whose birth miracles had been wrought, whose heart was fired with a spirit more than mortal, and whose privilege it was, after the long lapse of four hundred years, to renew the old prophetic office, and introduce the mighty Deliverer of the world to his ministry! What a beautiful resignation, too, adorned his character! grasped at no honors; living till the orb of the sun of righteousness was above the horizon, he yet did not witness the perfect day. He' could say, "This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled; He must increase, but I must decrease." Great as he was, he had that humbleness of mind, that is indeed the noblest of all traits. He was ready at once to resign his own honors before the Son of God. Imprisoned for an honest rebuke of wickedness, his single anxiety seemed to be, to ascertain whether the Messiah had actually come. Mat. xi. 2, 3. He died a martyr to his own integrity, and the victim of the evil passions which he sought in vain to bring under the control of conscience and the laws of God. Is it strange that his memory has been canonized in the Christian church ?-He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Or, with a holy spirit, or breath, and with fire. is impossible to convey," says Furness, "the full force of this word 6 It with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. will thoroughly purge Whose fan is in his hand, and he 12 his floor; and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be bap- 13 spirit in a translation. The original word is much more comprehensive than the word 'spirit.' It signifies also 'air,' 'wind,' and the meaning of the Baptist is, Water is the symbol of my office, but the power of him who is coming after me may be signified by far subtler and more searching elements, wind and fire.' This appears from the connection. He instantly likens his successor to a husbandman prepared with his fan to blow the chaff out of the wheat, and with fire to consume it." Such was the ministry of Jesus, a powerful, searching, purifying influence. 12. Whose fan is in his hand. Not fan, according to the original word, but winnowing shovel, with which the grain when threshed was tossed up in the wind, and the chaff and kernels thus separated. Is. xxx. 24. The fan or van was more complex. It was designed, by means of sails, to raise an artificial wind, and was not an implement which could be carried in the hand. Thoroughly purge his floor, &c. Here referènce is made to the mode of threshing grain in the East. The floor was not made as ours are with planks and boards, but consisted of an elevated circular area, formed in the field by smoothing and hardening the soil with a cylinder. A high location was more free from wet, and more accessible to the wind. There was frequently no covering, nor walls. Different methods were employed to get out the grain. It was beaten with flails, trodden by oxen, or bruised by a heavy kind of sledge, drawn by cattle. Is. xli. 15. The next operation was winnowing. This was to purge or clear up the threshing floor. The grain and straw were then separated, and the grain thrown up into the wind with a shovel, and the chaff thus blown out from it. The wheat was deposited in the garner, or granary. There was danger, that, after they had been separated, the chaff and broken straw would by a change of the wind be driven back again amongst the grain. To prevent it, fire was put to what is called chaff, but which also included the broken pieces of straw, and commencing on the windward side, it crept on and consumed all, before it went out. This made it an unquenchable fire; it burnt until it had done its office. Jesus came among the Jews and their institutions like the husbandman among his grain. By the searching power and purity of his religion, the good and bad would be divided. The former would be preserved in all calamities. The latter would be visited by the most terrible judgments, represented in figurative language by inextinguishable fire. Mal. iv. 1. The antiquated institutions and burdensome ceremonies of the Jews would be consumed like chaff in the fire, but the sound parts and wholesome laws would be preserved like wheat put into the granary. The Saviour described a part of his office, when he said, "For judgment I am come into this world." 13-17. Parallel passages, Mark i. 9-11. Luke iii. 21, 22. John i. 29-34. 13. Galilee. Nazareth, where Je 14 tized of him. But John forbade him, saying: I have need to be 15 baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him: Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to ful16 fil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the sus had been living with his parents, Luke ii. 51, was a village of that province. Mark i. 9. John was at this time at Bethabara, a place on the eastern bank of the river, not far from its mouth. John i. 28. He afterwards baptized at Enon, on the western bank. John iii. 23. 14. John forbade him. The reason is given; because he felt himself to be inferior to Jesus. That is, morally, not officially, inferior. John was already acquainted with the pure and exalted character of Jesus, and felt the deepest veneration for him as a private individual, for their parents were relatives. Luke i. 36. But he did not yet know that he was the Messiah to come. John i. 31. He knew him not in an official character, as Christ, but he knew him simply as Jesus. His ground of unwillingness to baptize him was, accordingly, that he was conscious of possessing less goodness and greatness than his kinsman. He says, therefore, that the baptism should be the other way, and that he himself ought to be the subject and not the administrator of the rite, in the present case, to one too pure to need reformation. 15. To fulfil all righteousness. Or, every righteous ordinance. As has been said, Jesus was baptized, not that the water might sanctify him, but that he might sanctify the water. That is, he did not need it as a sign of repentance and purification, but conformed to it, because it was an ordinance of God, and was to be a ceremony of his religion through all time. He claimed no immunity ou account of superior holiness. In these cases the master is as the disciple, and the disciple as the master. His words to John have been thus paraphrased: “If my character be excellent as you have represented it, it is peculiarly becoming and natural in me to fulfil every duty, and do whatever is right and proper to be done, on all occasions. As the ordinance which you administer is of divine appointment, I wish to shew my respect for every institution of God, by submitting to it; as you announce the approach of the Messiah's kingdom, I wish to bear a public testimony of my faith in your prophetic character, and to declare my expectation of that glorious event." These reasons satisfied John, and he acquiesced.-We are led here to contrast the readiness of our divine Master to fulfil all righteousness, with the backwardness of many persons to comply with the positively and divinely instituted ordinances of Christianity, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. His example teaches them to comply with all the commands of God, whether moral or ritual. Of the comparative importance of the two, moral and ritual, we may sum up all in his words: "These (the moral) ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other (the ritual) undone." 16. Straightway out of the water. He went up from the water. The original does not express the idea that they had been into the water, as would have been the case if the mode of baptism was by immer heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from 17 heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. sion, but they went down to the water, and then, when the rite had been performed, went up from the river's brink.-The heavens, i. e. the visible sky.-Were opened. Some critics would transpose the word straightway from the foregoing clause, and insert it here. When it lightens, the clouds appear to open. The sky seems to be cleft asunder by the flash, for an instant, and then close up again. Such might have been the case now. The bright and sudden light might appear to make the firmament open. Acts vii. 56. This appearance is represented as taking place while he was praying. Luke iii. 21. The first act of his new office is, to acknowledge his dependence on God, and to supplicate his divine aid in the mighty enterprise before him.-Unto him. The supernatural appearance probably occurred in the sight of both Jesus and John, and also of the people.— Him here refers to Jesus.-He saw, i. e. Jesus saw. John also says he saw it. John i. 32, 33. It was a testimony vouchsafed to John that Jesus was the Messiah. John i. 34. -The Spirit of God. Here we are plainly told what the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, is. It is not a person. It is not a numerical distinction of the Godhead. It is not a third part, or quality, or substance, or person, of the All-Glorious Deity. The human mind has originated these erroneous and mystifying notions; not the Bible. The Holy Spirit, or Ghost, is THE SPIRIT OF GOD. And as God is a spirit, it is but another expression for God himself. Here we may rest. We cannot understand the essence of the Deity. We can only say, that the Scriptures represent the Spirit of God as no more a distinct being from God, than the spirit of man is a distinct being from man. God is One, not Three. 1 Cor. ii. 11.-Descending like a dove. Luke says, “in a bodily shape." This may signify, either that there was a distinct, substantial appearance like a dove in form, or that the miraculous symbol of the divine spirit descended with a gentle, hovering, and dove-like motion. The innocence, gentleness, and meekness of Christ were fitly indicated by this reference to the dove. Mat. x. 16. This pure and gentle emblem was a fitting investiture of an office of love and good will, of humility and holiness.-Lighting upon him. This would serve to connect, in the view of all the spectators, the beautiful testimony of heaven with the person of Jesus. Unless it had lighted upon some particular person, it would have remained doubtful who was specially designated in the wonderful appearance. This circumstance singled out the individual. So on the day of Pentecost, when the holy spirit of God descended on the Apostles, cloven tongues of fire sat on each of them, pointing out the individuals who were divinely inspired and authorized.—A voice from heaven. Ear as well as eye was addressed. Probably, the surrounding multitudes heard the declaration, descending directly from God, and confirming the Messiahship of Jesus. At subsequent periods, the same august voice broke the silence of the skies: on the mount of Transfiguration, Mat. xvii. 5; in the city of Jerusalem, John xii. 28; bearing attestation to |