Baptist when "the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?" This was a formal deputation composed of Pharisees-the party in the State who would naturally be most exact in all legal matters-and they pressed John for a reply, "that we may give an answer to them that sent us." "What sayest thou of thyself?" was the first inquiry. Who art thou? The Christ? No. Elijah? No. That Prophet? No. Who then? 66 A voice of one that crieth, In the wilderness. . .," &c., as stated in Isaiah (chap. xl.). Why then do you baptize? That is but an outward sign of a greater baptism, by One who is already here, though you do not know Him, a Redeemer, whose shoe I cannot take from Him, though He will take all the responsibilities of the Redeemer and Bridegroom of Israel upon Himself (John i. 19-27).

This testimony of John the Baptist was, we cannot doubt, reported to the Jewish authorities by the deputation. We do not read of any formal pronouncement upon it

by the Sanhedrin. But, obviously, the question whether John was a prophet was the real question. The commissioners reported to the government of the day, but no action was taken. The imprisonment and death of John the Baptist within a year afterwards removed the question from the sphere of what the Jews regarded as practical politics. Our Lord's own words establish this much. The common people, however, did not wait for the Sanhedrin to make up their minds: "All men counted John the Baptist to be a prophet indeed" (Matt. xxi. 26). And they gave the true reason for their verdict: "John did no miracle: but all things whatsoever John spake of THIS MAN were true" (John x. 41). The subject of John's predictions, to come to pass in his own lifetime, if Herod had not cut it short, was the Person and work of the LORD Jesus. And the things which John said of Him followed and came to pass, as required by Deuteronomy xviii. 22 and Jeremiah xxviii. 9.

It remains to point out our Lord's own

recognition of the same requirements, and His reliance upon them in the great crisis of His life.

On the last day of His public ministry, the day after He, for a second time, had purged the temple court of the buyers and sellers, the chief priests and elders of the people asked His authority for so doing. His reply was not (as many seem to think) a mere ad hominem argument, but a strictly legal defence-in effect this: "Before I can answer you truly I must ask, What decision did you come to as to John the Baptist? Did you allow that he was a prophet?" Obviously our Lord's position, in law, depended upon that of John. The hesitation of the Jewish priests and elders clearly proves that the question of John's authority had never been formally decided. "The Baptism of John, whence was it? From Heaven, or of Men?" They had asked the question, "Why baptizest thou?" of John, and he, in his reply, had pointed to JESUS as the Christ, and to His appearing as the only justifica

tion of John's Baptism. Had the chief priests and elders allowed this? We know from our Lord's own testimony on that very day that they had not. (See Matt. xxi. 23, &c., and verse 32, and compare Luke vii. 29, 30 as to the "lawyers of that time.) Consequently their only reply to our Lord's question, asked in his own defence, was, "We do not know," i.e. we have not decided. Then He had nothing to say to them as to His authority. They had deprived Him of His legal reply by leaving the position of His forerunner unsettled. John the Baptist was the prophet - messenger sent to prepare His way. If they were willing to receive him, he would have fulfilled the promise of the Elijah who was to come (Matt. xi. 14). But by ignoring the prophet who was sent to bear witness of Him, and leaving his position undetermined in the eyes of the law, they deprived themselves and all the people of the proper legal evidence,that of an accredited prophet,—for the authority of our Lord.

This defect in their position, which our Lord has here indicated, He again urged upon them at His second trial before the Sanhedrin (Luke xxii. 68). In the third Gospel alone we are told, that at daybreak, before leading Him to Pilate, the Sanhedrin again had Him before them (by Jewish law, a sentence of death must be confirmed at a second appearance of the criminal, and on a second day), and they put once more to Him the charge upon which they had found Him guilty of blasphemy before they separated the night before, "Art Thou the Christ? Tell us?" His answer profoundly impresses me by its touching appeal, His last appeal, for justice at the hands of His own nation: "If I tell you, ye will not believe" a fact too clearly proved by many a previous telling (see John viii. 25)—and, "IF I ALSO ASK YOU, YE WILL NOT ANSWER ME, nor let Me go." And then He grants them their request by repeating His former reply: "From now the Son of Man will be sitting at the