Death of John
53
thinking that he would be visited with any severe punishment, as his
life was without blame.
Herod’s purpose to release John from prison was delayed from time
to time through fear of displeasing Herodias, who was determined he
should be to death. While he was delaying, she was active, planning
how to be revenged in the most effectual manner on the prophet,
because he had ventured to tell the truth, and reprove their unlawful
life. She knew that although Herod kept John in prison, he designed
to release him, for he honored and feared him, and believed that he
was a true prophet of God. John had made known to Herod the secrets
of his heart and life, and his reproofs had struck terror to the guilty
conscience of the king.
In many things Herod had reformed his dissolute life. But the
use of luxurious food and stimulating drink was constantly enervating
his moral as well as physical powers, and warring against the earnest
appeals of the Spirit of God, which had struck conviction to his heart,
and was urging him to away his sins. Herodias was acquainted with the
weak points in the character of Herod. She knew that under ordinary
circumstances, while his intelligence controlled him, she could not
compass the death of John.
She had tried, but unsuccessfully, to gain the consent of Herod to
have John slain. Her revengeful spirit was now at work to accomplish
her inhuman design by strategy. She knew that the only way to ac-
complish her purpose would be through the gratification of the king’s
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intemperate appetite. So she covered her hatred as best she could,
looking forward to the royal birthday, which she knew would be an oc-
casion of gluttony and intoxication. The king’s love of luxurious food
and wine would give her an opportunity to throw him off his guard.
She would entice him to indulge his appetite, which would arouse
passions of the baser order, subvert the finer sensibilities, produce a
recklessness of consequences, and an inability to exercise his proper
judgment and decision.
She was acquainted with the effect of these carnivals upon the
intellect and morals. She knew that the unnatural exhilaration of the
spirits induced by intemperance lowers the moral standard of the mind,
making it impossible for holy impulses to enter the heart and govern
the excited passions, that festivities and amusements, dances, and free
use of wine, cloud the sense, and remove the fear of God; therefore