Matthew 3:1

John the Baptist.

I. The special mission of the Baptist.

1. He wag the herald of the Messiah.

2. He belonged, properly, neither to the Mosaic nor to the Christian dispensation. His was a transition ministry.

3. He was appointed to prepare for, as well as to announce, the introduction of the Gospel. A spiritual economy, demanding a process of moral and religious preparation.

4. His character corresponded with his office-stern.

II. The chief subject of his preaching.

1. The nature of repentance.

2. The duty of repentance.

3. The connection of repentance with faith in Christ.

4. The evidences of repentance. Learn

(1) The necessity of repentance;

(2) What are the hindrances to the progress of the gospel in the world. (R. Watson and D. Moore.)

John the Baptist

1. His work.

2. His qualifications.

3. His message.

4. His Divine appointment.

5. His un-worldliness.

6. His popularity.

7. His courageous utterances. (D. C. Hughes,M. A.)

Wilderness

I. In his solitude he did breathe more pure inspiration.

1. Heaven was more open.

2. God was more familiar and frequent in His visitations.

3. In the wilderness his company was angels.

4. His employment, meditation and prayer.

5. His temptations, simple and from within.

6. His occasions of sin as few as his examples.

7. His condition such, that if his soul were at all busy, his life could not easily be other than the life of angels.

II. In solitude pious persons may go to heaven by the way of prayers and devotion’.

1. In society, by the way of mercy, charity, and dispensations to others.

2. In solitude there are fewer occasions of vices.

3. But also the exercise of fewer virtues.

4. Temptations though they be not from many objects, yet are in some circumstances more dangerous.

5. Because the worst of evils, spiritual pride seldom misses to creep upon those goodly oaks, like ivy, and suck their heart out.

6. As they communicate less with the world, so they do less charity and fewer offices of mercy.

III. Many holy persons have left their wilderness and sweetnesses of devotion in retirement to serve god in public, by the ways of charity and exterior offices.

IV. John the Baptist united both these lives; and our blessed Saviour … for He lived a life:

(1)common;

(2)sociable;

(3)humane;

(4) charitable;

(5) and public.

From both we are taught that-

I. Solitude is a good school.

II. The world is the best theatre.

III. The institution is best there, but the practice here.

IV. The wilderness hath one advantage of discipline.

V. Society hath opportunities of perfection.

VI. Privacy is best for devotion.

VII. Publicity for charity. (Jeremy Taylor.)

Wilderness of Judaea

Everything in this desert is of one colour-a tawny yellow. The rocks, the partridges, the camels, the foxes, the ibex, are all of this shade, and only the dark Bedawin and their black tents are distinguishable in the general glare From a very early period this horrible wilderness appears to have had an attraction for ascetics, who sought a retreat from the busy world of their fellowmen, and who thought to please God by torturing the bodies which He had given them. Thus the Essenes, the Jewish sect whose habits and tenets resembled so closely those of the first Christians, retired into this wilderness and lived in caves. Christian hermits, from the earliest period, were also numerous in all the country between Jerusalem and Jericho, and the rocks are riddled with caves in inaccessible places where they lived Lifeless and treeless though it be, nature prepares every day a glorious picture, quickly-fading but matchless in brilliance of colour; the distant ranges seem stained with purple and pink; in autumn the great bands of cloud sweep over the mountains with long bars of gleaming light between; and for a few minutes, as the sun sets, the deep crimson blush comes over the rocks and glorifies the whole landscape with an indescribable glow. (Lieut. Condor, R. E.)

Solitude sometimes conducive to usefulness

The Baptist did not rush from the society of his species into the solitudes of Judaea to hide his candle for ever under a bushel, as modern and ancient asceticism has done; but he resorted thither only from an unselfish and most expanded motive, namely, in order that his candle alight all the more brightly, and widely, and publicly shine, when he issued forth at length to preach, in the midst of mixed crowds, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (B. Jones.)

Solitude necessary to inward realization

Only in quiet, in solitude with God, in unbroken questioning with his own soul, can a prophet of God discover what God is saying to his spirit. (S. Brooke, M. A.)