Men of the Bible by Dwight L. Moody (early readers TXT) 📖

that he had a leathern girdle round his loins? Don’t the Scriptures say that Elijah was clothed like that?”

Says another: “You remember how Malachi says that before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Elijah should come? I really believe this man is the old prophet of Carmel.”

What could stir the heart of the Jewish people more than the name of Elijah?

The tidings of John’s appearance spread up and down the valley of the Jordan, and when he returned the next day, there was great excitement and expectation as the people listened to the strange preacher. Perhaps till Christ came he had only that

ONE TEXT:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Day after day you could hear his voice ringing through the valley of the Jordan:

“Repent! repent! repent! The King is at the door. I do not know the day or the hour, but He will be here very soon.”

By and by some of the people who flocked to hear him wanted to be baptized, and he took them to the Jordan and baptized them.

The news spread to the surrounding villages and towns, and it was not long before it reached Jerusalem. Then the people of the city began to flock into the desert to hear this prince among preachers. His fame soon reached Galilee, and the people in the mountains began to flock down to hear him. Men left their fishing-smacks on the lake, that they might listen to this wonderful preacher. When he was in the zenith of his popularity, as many as twenty or thirty thousand people perhaps flocked to his ministry day after day.

No doubt there were some old croakers who said it was

ALL SENSATION.

“Catch me there! No, sir; I never did like sensational preaching.”

Just as some people speak nowadays when any special effort is made to reach the people!

“Great harm will be done,” they say.

I wish all these croakers had died out with that generation in Judea; but we have plenty of their descendants still. I venture to say you have met with them. Why, my dear friends, there is more excitement in your whisky shops and beer saloons in one night than in all the churches put together in twelve months. What a stir there must have been in Palestine under the preaching of John the Baptist, and of Christ! The whole country reeled and rocked with intense excitement. Don’t be afraid of a little excitement in religious matters; it won’t hurt.

One might hear those old Pharisees and Scribes grumbling about John being such a sensational preacher. “It won’t last.” And when Herod had John the Baptist beheaded, they would say, “Didn’t I tell you so?”

Do not let us be in a hurry in passing judgment. John the Baptist lives to-day more than ever he did; his voice goes ringing through the world yet. He only preached a few months, but for more than eighteen hundred years his sermons have been repeated and multiplied, and the power of his words will never die as long as the world lasts.

I can imagine that just when John was at the height of his popularity, as Herod sat in his palace in Jerusalem looking out towards the valley of the Jordan, he could see great crowds of people passing day by day. He began to make inquiries as to what it meant, and the news came to him about this strange and powerful preacher. Some one, perhaps, reported that John was preaching treason. He was telling of a king who was at hand, and who was going to set up his kingdom.

“A king at hand! If Cæsar were coming, I should have heard of it. There is no king but Cæsar. I must look into the matter. I will go down to the Jordan, and hear this man for myself.”

So one day, as John stood preaching, with the eyes of the whole audience upon him, the people being swayed by his eloquence like tree-tops when the wind passes over them, all at once he lost their attention. All eyes were suddenly turned in the direction of the city. One cries:

“Look, look! Herod is coming!”

Soon the whole congregation knows it, and there is great excitement.

“I believe he will stop this preaching,” says one.

And if they had in those days some of the compromising weak-kneed Christians we sometimes meet, they would have said to John:

“Don’t talk about a coming King; Herod won’t stand it. Talk about repentance, but any talk about a coming King will be high treason in the ears of Herod.”

I think if any one had dared to give John such counsel, he would have replied: “I have received my message from heaven; what do I care for Herod or any one else?”

As he stood thundering away and calling on the people to repent, I can see Herod, with his guard of soldiers around him, listening attentively to find anything in the preacher’s words that he can lay hold of. At last John says:

“The King is just at the door. He will set up His kingdom, and will separate the wheat from the chaff.”

I can imagine Herod then saying to himself: “I will have that man’s head off inside of twenty-four hours. I would arrest him here and now if I dared. I will catch him to-morrow before the crowd gathers.”

By and by, as Herod listens, some of the people begin to press close up to the preacher, and to question him. Some soldiers are among them, and they ask John:

“What shall we do?”

John answers: “Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.”

“That is pretty good advice,” Herod thinks; “I have had a good deal of trouble with these men, but if they follow the preacher’s advice, it will make them better soldiers.”

Then he hears the publicans ask John, as they come to be baptized:

“What shall we do?”

The answer is: “Exact no more than that which is appointed you.”

“Well,” says Herod, “that is excellent advice. These publicans are all the time overtaxing the people. If they would do as the preacher tells them, the people would be more contented.”

Then the preacher addresses himself to the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the crowd, and cries:

“O generation of vipers! Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.”

Says Herod within himself: “I like that. I am glad he is giving it pretty strong to these men. I do not think I will have him arrested just yet.”

So he goes back to his palace. I can imagine he was

NOT ABLE TO SLEEP MUCH

that night; he kept thinking of what he had heard. When the Holy Ghost is dealing with a man’s conscience, very often sleep departs from him. Herod cannot get this wilderness preacher and his message out of his mind. The truth had reached his soul; it echoed and re-echoed within him: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He says:

“I went out to-day to hear for the Roman Government; I think I will go to-morrow and hear for myself.”

So he goes back again and again. My text says that he heard him gladly, that he observed him, and feared him, knowing that he was a just man and a holy. He must have known down in his heart that John was

A HEAVEN-SENT MESSENGER.

Had you gone into the palace in those days, you would have heard Herod talking of nobody but John the Baptist. He would say to his associates:

“Have you been out into the desert to hear this strange preacher?”

“No; have you?”

“Yes.”

“What! you, the Roman Governor, going to hear this unordained preacher?”

“Yes, I have been quite often. I would rather hear him than any man I ever knew. He does not talk like the regular preachers. I never heard any one who had such influence over me.”

You would have thought that Herod was a very hopeful subject. “He did many things.” Perhaps he stopped swearing. He may have stopped gambling and getting drunk. A wonderful change seemed to have passed over him. Perhaps he ceased from taking bribes for a time; we catch him at it afterwards, but just then he refrained from it. He became quite virtuous in certain directions. It really looked as if he were near the kingdom of heaven.

I can imagine that one day, as John stands preaching, the truth is going home to the hearts and consciences of the people, and the powers of another world are falling upon them, one of John’s disciples stands near Herod’s chariot, and sees the tears in the eyes of the Roman Governor. At the close of the service he goes to John and says:

“I stood close to Herod today, and no one seemed more impressed. I could see the tears coming, and he had to brush them away to keep them from falling.”

Have you ever seen a man in a religious meeting trying to keep the tears back? You noticed that his forehead seemed to itch, and he put up his hand; you may know what it means—he wants to conceal the fact that the tears are there. He thinks it is a weakness. It is no weakness to get drunk and abuse your family, but it is weakness to shed tears. So this disciple of John may have noticed that Herod put his hand to his brow a number of times; he did not wish his soldiers, or those standing near, to observe that he was weeping. The disciple says to John:

“It looks as if he were coming near the kingdom. I believe you will have him as an inquirer very soon.”

When a man enjoys hearing such a preacher, it certainly seems a hopeful sign.

Herod might have been present that day when Christ was baptized. Was there ever a man lifted so near to heaven as Herod must have been if he were present on that occasion? I see John standing surrounded by a great throng of people who are hanging on his words. The eyes of the preacher, that never had quailed before, suddenly began to look strange. He turned pale and seemed to draw back as though something wonderful had happened, and right in the middle of a sentence he ceased to speak. If I were suddenly to grow pale, and stop speaking, you would ask:

“Has death crept onto the platform? Is the tongue of the speaker palsied?”

There must have been quite a commotion among the audience when John stopped. The eyes of the Baptist were fixed upon a Stranger who pushed His way through the crowd, and coming up to the preacher, requested to be baptized. That was a common occurrence; it had happened day after day for weeks past. John listened to the Stranger’s words, but instead of going at once to the Jordan and baptizing Him, he said:

“I need to be baptized of Thee!”

What a thrill of excitement must have shot through the audience! I can hear one whispering to another:

“I believe that is the Messiah!”

Yes, it was the long-looked-for One, for whose appearing the nation had been waiting these thousands of years. From the time God had made the promise to Adam, away back in Eden, every true Israelite had been looking for the Messiah; and there He was in their midst!

He insisted that John should baptize Him, and the forerunner recognized His authority as Master, took Him to the Jordan, and baptized Him. As He came up from the water, lo! the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended and rested on Him. When Noah sent