44
Gospel Workers 1915
and nearer had grown the communion, until God took him to Himself.
He had stood at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between
him and the land of the blest; and now the portals opened, the walk
with God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed through
the gates of the holy city,—the first from among men to enter there.
[54]
“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; ...for
before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
[
Hebrews 11:5
.]
To such communion God is calling us. As was Enoch’s, so must
be their holiness of character who shall be redeemed from among men
at the Lord’s second coming.
The Experience of John the Baptist
John the Baptist in his desert life was taught of God. He studied
the revelations of God in nature. Under the guiding of the divine Spirit,
he studied the scrolls of the prophets. By day and by night, Christ
was his study, his meditation, until mind and heart and soul were filled
with the glorious vision.
He looked upon the King in His beauty, and self was lost sight of.
He beheld the majesty of holiness, and knew himself to be inefficient
and unworthy. It was God’s message that he was to declare. It was in
God’s power and His righteousness that he was to stand. He was ready
to go forth as Heaven’s messenger, unawed by the human, because he
had looked upon the Divine. He could stand fearless in the presence
of earthly monarchs, because with trembling he had bowed before the
King of Kings.
With no elaborate arguments or fine-spun theories did John declare
his message. Startling and stern, yet full of hope, his voice was heard
from the wilderness, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand.” [
Matthew 3:2
.] With a new, strange power it moved the people.
The whole nation was stirred. Multitudes flocked to the wilderness.
[55]
Unlearned peasants and fishermen from the surrounding country;
the Roman soldiers from the barracks of Herod; chieftains with their
swords at their sides, ready to put down anything that might savor of
rebellion; the avaricious tax-gatherers from their toll-booths; and from
the Sanhedrim the phylactered priests,—all listened as if spellbound;
and all, even the Pharisee and the Sadducee, the cold, unimpressible