Lesson for Our Time
45
scoffer, went away with the sneer silenced, and cut to the heart with
a sense of their sins. Herod in his palace heard the message, and the
proud, sin-hardened ruler trembled at the call to repentance.
In this age, just prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds
of heaven, such a work as that of John is to be done. God calls for
men who will prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord.
The message preceding the public ministry of Christ was, Repent,
publicans and sinners; repent, Pharisees and Sadducees; “repent ye:
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” As a people who believe in
Christ’s soon coming, we have a message to bear,—“Prepare to meet
thy God.” [
Amos 4:12
.]
Our message must be as direct as was the message of John. He
rebuked Kings for their iniquity. Notwithstanding that his life was
imperiled, he did not hesitate to declare God’s word. And our work in
this age must be done as faithfully.
In order to give such a message as John gave, we must have a
spiritual experience like his. The same work must be wrought in us.
We must behold God, and in beholding Him, lose sight of self.
John had by nature the faults and weaknesses common to humanity;
but the touch of divine love had transformed him. When, after Christ’s
[56]
ministry began, the disciples of John came to him with the complaint
that all men were following the new Teacher, John showed how clearly
he understood his relation to the Messiah, and how gladly he welcomed
the One for whom he had prepared the way.
“A man can receive nothing,” he said, “except it be given him
from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not
the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is
the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and
heareth him; rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this
my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
[
John 3:27-30
.]
Looking in faith to the Redeemer, John had risen to the height
of self-abnegation. He sought not to attract men to himself, but to
lift their thoughts higher and still higher, until they should rest upon
the Lamb of God. He himself had been only a voice, a cry in the
wilderness. Now with joy he accepted silence and obscurity, that the
eyes of all might be turned to the Light of life.