by Author of Paul: A Servant of Jesus Christ The Prophet of Hope Saved and Kept etc., etc London: Morgan and Scott Office of The Christian 12, Paternoster Buildings, E.C. And may be Ordered of any Bookseller 1911 By Rev. F. B. MEYER, B.A....

  ABRAHAM: Or, The Obedience of Faith.   ISRAEL: A Prince with God.   JOSEPH: Beloved—Hated—Exalted.   MOSES: The Servant of God.   JOSHUA: And the Land of Promise.   DAVID: Shepherd, Psalmist, King.   ELIJAH: And the Secret of his Power.   JEREMIAH: Priest and Prophet.   JOHN THE BAPTIST.   PAUL: A Servant of Jesus Christ. Preface. The life and character of John the Baptist have always had a great fascination for me; and I am thankful to have been permitted to write this book. But I am more tha

The Interest of his Biography.   "John, than which man a sadder or a greater     Not till this day has been of woman born;   John, like some iron peak by the Creator     Fired with the red glow of the rushing morn.   "This, when the sun shall rise and overcome it,     Stands in his shining, desolate and bare;   Yet not the less the inexorable summit     Flamed him his signal to the happier air."             F. W. H. MYERS. John and Jesus—Contemporary History—Anticipation of the Advent. The morni

The House of Zacharias.     "There are in this loud stunning tide       Of human care and crime,     With whom the melodies abide       Of the everlasting chime;     Who carry music in their heart     Through dusky lane and wrangling mart   Plying their daily task with busier feet,   Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat."             KEBLE. Early History of the Baptist—God's Hidden Ones—The Hill Country of Judea—A Childless Home—The Forerunner Announced. To the evangelist Luke we are

His Schools and Schoolmasters.   "Oh to have watched thee through the vineyards wander,     Pluck the ripe ears, and into evening roam!—   Followed, and known that in the twilight yonder     Legions of angels shone about thy home!"             F. W. H. MYERS. Home-Life—Preparing for his Life-Work—The Vow of Separation—A Child of the Desert Zacharias and Elisabeth had probably almost ceased to pray for a child, or to urge the matter. It seemed useless to pray further. There had been no heaven-sen

The Prophet of the Highest.     "Ye hermits blest, ye holy maids,       The nearest heaven on earth,     Who talk with God in shadowy glades,       Free from rude care and mirth;   To whom some viewless Teacher brings   The secret love of rural things,   The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale,   The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight vale."             KEBLE. Formative Influences—A Historical Parallel—The Burning of the Vanities—"Sent from God" "Thou, child, shalt be called the Prop

The First Ministry of the Baptist.   "Hark, what a sound, and too divine for hearing,     Stirs on the earth and trembles in the air!   Is it the thunder of the Lord's appearing?     Is it the music of his people's prayer?   "Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices     Shout to the saints, and to the deaf and dumb;   Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices,     Glad in his coming who hath sworn, I come."             F. W. H. MYERS. The Preaching of Repentance—His Power as a Preacher—His Message

Baptism unto Repentance   "The last and greatest herald of heaven's King,     Girt with rough skins, hies to the desert wild;   Among that savage brood the woods doth bring,     Which he more harmless found than man, and mild.   "His food was locusts and what there doth spring,     With honey that from virgin hives distill'd,   Parch'd body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing     Made him appear, long since from earth exiled."             W. DRUMMOND, of Hawthornden. Repentance: its Nature—Repentan

The Manifestation of the Messiah     "Before me, as in darkening glass,     Some glorious outlines pass,   Of love, and truth, and holiness, and power—     I own them thine, O Christ,     And bless Thee in this hour."             F. R. HAVERGAL. The Herald's Proclamation—The Meeting of John and Jesus—Christ's Baptism—"It Becometh Us."—"My Beloved Son." John's life, at this period, was an extraordinary one. By day he preached to the teeming crowds, or baptized them; by night he would sleep in som

Not that Light, but a Witness. (John I. 8.)   "Nothing resting in its own completeness     Can have worth or beauty; but alone   Because it leads and tends to farther sweetness,     Fuller, higher, deeper than its own.   "Spring's real glory dwells not in the meaning,     Gracious though it be, of her blue hours;   But is hidden in her tender leaning     To the summer's richer wealth of flowers."             A. A. PROCTOR. Resentment of the Sanhedrim—The Baptist's Credentials—Spiritual Vision—"B

"We must increase, but I must decrease."   "Where is the lore the Baptist taught,     The soul unswerving and the fearless tongue?   The much-enduring wisdom, sought     By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among?         Who counts it gain         His light would wane,     So the whole world to Jesus throng?"             KEBLE. The Moral Greatness of the Baptist—Thoughts on Envy—Christian Consecration—The Baptist's Creed—The Voice of the Beloved From the Jordan Valley our Lord returned to Galilee

The King's Courts   "The number of thine own complete,     Sum up and make an end;   Sift clean the chaff, and house the wheat;     And then, O Lord, descend.   "Descend, and solve by that descent     This mystery of life;   Where good and ill, together blent,     Wage an undying strife."             J. H. N. Under Royal Surveillance—"It is not Lawful."—The Revenge of Herodias—The Upbraidings of Conscience—Devotion to Truth—"A Sin unto Death." Our story brings us next to speak of the Baptist's r

"Art Thou He?"   "He fought his doubts and gathered strength,     He would not make his judgment blind,     He faced the spectres of the mind   And laid them;—thus he came, at length,   "To find a stronger faith his own,     And Power was with him in the night,     Which makes the darkness and the light,   And dwells not in the light alone."             TENNYSON. John's Misgivings—Disappointed Hopes—Signs of the Christ—The Discipline of Patience—A New Beatitude It is very touching to remark the

None greater than John the Baptist, yet…   "Search thine own heart. What paineth thee   In others, in thyself may be;   All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;   Be thou the same man thou dost seek!   "Where now with pain thou treadest, trod   The whitest of the saints of God!   To show thee where their feet were set,   The light which led them shineth yet."             WHITTIER. Christ's Appreciation—His Independence—The Simplicity of his Life—His Place in the Devine Economy—The Spirit of Meeknes

A Burning and Shining Lamp.             "Men as men   Can reach no higher than the Son of God,   The Perfect Head and Pattern of Mankind.   The time is short, and thus sufficeth us   To live and die by; and in Him again   We see the same first starry attribute,   ' Perfect through suffering ,' our salvation's seal,   Set in the front of His humanity…."             MRS. HAMILTON KING. The Rest-Day—The Light of Life—Shining, because Burning—"Let your Light Shine"—A Light in the Darkness Our Master

Set at Liberty.   "Hush my soul, and vain regrets be stilled;   Now rest in Him who is the complement   Of whatsoe'er transcends our mortal doom,   Of baffled hope and unfulfilled intent;   In the clear vision and aspect of whom   All longings and all hopes shall be fulfilled."             ARCHBISHOP TRENCH. The Genesis of a Great Crime—The Strength of Evil Influences—An Accomplice of Satan—The Triumph of Hate—The Baptist Beheaded—A Place of Repentance The evangelist Mark tells us, in the twenty

The Grave of John, and Another Grave   "When some beloved voice, that was to you   Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,   And silence, against which you dare not cry,   Aches round you like a strong disease and new,—   What hope, what help, what music will undo   That silence to your sense? Not friendship's sigh,   Not reason's subtle count…. Nay, none of these!   Speak, Thou availing Christ!—and fill this pause."               E. B. BROWNING. "Tell Jesus"—The Sin-Bearer—The Resurrection

Yet Speaking.   "Shine Thou upon us, Lord,     True Light of men, to-day;   And through the written Word     Thy very self display;   That so from hearts which burn     With gazing on Thy face,   Thy little ones may learn     The wonders of Thy grace."             J. ELLERTON. Desert Solitudes—Modern Miracles—Our own Age—Nothing Common or Unclean—How to Witness for Jesus—After Many Days "Beyond Jordan!" To the Jews that dwelt at Jerusalem that was banishment indeed. The tract of country beyond J

The Spirit and Power of Elias.   "Oh, may I join the choir invisible   Of those immortal dead who live again   In minds made better by their presence: live   In pulses stirred to generosity;   In deeds of daring rectitude; in scorn   For miserable aims that end with self;   In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,   And with their mild persistence urge man's search   To vaster issues." The Old Covenant and the New—Elijah and the Baptist—A Parallel—The Servant inferior to the Lord—Th