The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-08-01

l. THE beginning OF the gospel Of Je-
sus Christ. the Son of God" This is the
gospel specially of service. In It we are
reminded Of the words, Behold. l will
bring forth my Servant the Branch"
while Behold, the Man whose name is
the Branch" is seen more clearly in
Iluke's gospel Czech. iii. s; vi. 12). Here
Jesus is the patient servant and sacri-
flee for others. spending and being spent
10 serve the sons of men. This gospel
is written that the same life Of unwea-
red service may be in some measure re-
produced in us Oh Cor iv. ID. but as
we are In this first verse introduced to
the Son OF God so we must be sons OF
God before we can serve God. Let my
son go that he may serve me-" said the
Lord Of Israel (Ex iv, 2S)
?. LAS It is written in the prophets,
behold send my messenger before Thy
face. which shall prepare Thy way be-
fore TheeI' The whole story of His suf-
ferings and glory is written in the
prophets Il Pet. 1, IL; Luke xiv. 25-2D.
They also spake of the heralds who
should precede Him, John the Baptist,
In the spirit and power Of Elijah be-
fore his second coming. Compare Nal.
iv, .; Luke i. II; Math. xvii, 1913. AS
10 preparing His way, every believer can,
in a measure, be His messenger to do
that. What an honor to be sent Of Him
in His name!
3. THE voice of one crying in the will
derness, prepare We the way of the
Lord; make His paths straight" When
John was asked If he was the Christ or
Elijah or the prophet. he said that he
was neither. but only voice proclaim
ing the Christ John i, 20. He sought
no honOrs for himself, but rejoiced to
decrease that Christ might increase
John iii, 20, 3O).
4. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for
the remission Of sins" A sample of his
preaching may be found in Math fiji. ZIP,
and Luke iii, us. He made 1t plain that
unless their lives afterward manifested
that they had become new creatures their
baptism would amount to nothing One
of the last commands of Christ was that
repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in His name among all ma
tons, beginning at Jerusalem duke xiv.
ID.
5. And there went out unto him all the
land Of Judea, and they of Jerusalem
and were all baptized of him in the river
Of Jordan, confessing their sins" There
must be a sense of sin, a true conviction
of sin, and the deeper the better before
any one will come to Christ, for He came
not TO call the righteous, but sinners, TO
repentance 1llS Is me WOfA OF the Holy
Spirit John xvi, s. margin), and He uses
the word and the lives Of believers. In
Acts V, 81; XII, Is. Christ is said TO give
or grant repentance.
6. And John was clothed with cameIs
hair, and with a girdle of a skin about
his lions, and he did eat locusts and wild
honey" Thus was Elijah clothed Oh
Kings /. 81, and. as to locusts, they were
among the creatures which God had per-
mitted Israel to eat Oev. XII, 22). John
was certainly not extravagant in the
matter of food and raiment What a
contrast was Isaac, who loved Esau be-
cause Of his venison and would bless him
only I'm connection Herewith Gen. XIV
Is; xvii 3, A.. Jesus has taught us not
to think too much about either food or
raiment CMath- iv. 4; vi. 20. but has as
sured us that if we make His kingdom
and His righteousness our first concern
He will see to all our need in that direc-
ton CAIath. vi. S9.
T. And preached. saying, there COM
eth one mightier than / after me, the
latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy
to stoop down and unloose.'' John
sought not TO attract people TO himself
but to the Lamb of God, whom he came
70 herald. He had no ambition to make
himself a name. but only to honor Him
of whom he said, He must increase. but
sought not great things for himself DER
xiv, 81. but his watchword was mot u
(Gal. ii, 20; 1 Cor. XIV, 10).
s. 'I indeed have baptized you with
water. but He shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost" Both Matthew and
Luke add land with fire" (Math ill., IL;
Luke iii. 49,. which fire seems. from the
context to refer to the judgments of
His second coming as King and Son Of
Man. AS the Servant, which He is
peculiarly in Mark, He does not speak
of fire. But how much we dc need to
be filed with the Spirit--ia fact, it is