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Selected Messages Book 2
the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in His hand, and He will
throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but
He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (
Matthew 3:7-12
).
The voice of John was lifted up like a trumpet. His commission
was, “Shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob
their sins” (
Isaiah 58:1
). He had obtained no human scholarship. God
and nature had been his teachers. But one was needed to prepare the
way before Christ who was bold enough to make his voice heard like
the prophets of old, summoning the degenerate nation to repentance.
Heard by All Classes
And all went forth into the wilderness to hear him. Unlearned
fishermen and peasants came from the surrounding countries and from
regions nigh and afar off. The Roman soldiers from the barracks of
Herod came to hear. Chieftains came with their swords girded by
their sides, to put down anything that savored of riot or rebellion. The
avaricious tax gatherers came from the regions round about; and from
the Sanhedrim came forth the phylacteried priests. All listened as
if spellbound; and all came away, even the Pharisee, the Sadducee,
and the cold, unimpressionable scoffer of the age, with the sneer
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gone, and cut to the heart with a sense of their sin. There were no long
arguments, no finely cut theories, elaborately delivered in their “firstly,”
“secondly,” and “thirdly.” But pure native eloquence was revealed in
the short sentences, every word carrying with it the certainty and truth
of the weighty warnings given.
The warning message of John was in the same lines as the warning
to Nineveh, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (
Jonah
3:4
). Nineveh repented, and called upon God, and God accepted their
acknowledgment of Him. Forty years of probation was granted them
in which to reveal the genuineness of their repentance and to turn from
sin. But Nineveh turned again to the worship of images; her iniquity
became deeper and more desperate than before, because the light had
come and had not been heeded.
John called every class to repentance. To the Pharisees and Sad-
ducees he said, Flee from the wrath to come. Your claims to Abraham
as your father are not of the least value to you. They will not impart to
you pure principles and holiness of character. Ceremonial sacrifices