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them as a man unknown-John bore witness to a present Lord. Now that is a witness which we all may share in. We may show our neighbours that Jesus is among them. We may make it plain to our visitors, as John did, that Jesus of Nazareth is not far away. And we do this, not so much by speech, or by having the name of Jesus on our lips, as by revealing His love and power and patience in the general tenor of our lives. There are some men who immediately impress us with the fact that they walk in the company of Christ. There is no explaining the impression that they make unless it be that they are living with Jesus-their secret is, they have a Friend. That is true witness-bearing, and it is like the Baptist's. It is a witness to the presence of the Lord.

AGAIN, John bore witness to the greatness of Christ.

Of course the Jews were expecting a great Saviour; all their long history made them sure of that. The threefold dignities of king and priest and prophet were to mingle in the person of Messiah. But greatness has very various meanings; it is touched with a thousand differences on a thousand lips; and when a nation falls from its high ideals, as the Jews had fallen in the time of John, the great man of the popular imagination is not the great man in the sight of God. Now this was part of the witness-bearing of the Baptist, to reveal the true greatness and glory of Messiah; to single Him out as He moved amid the people, and proclaim that He was greater than them all. There were no insignia on Jesus' breast; He was not clothed in any robes of state; there was nothing in His adornment or His retinue to mark Him off as one who was truly great. And it was John's work to pierce through all disguise, and see the grace and glory of the Man, and cry that though He had no beauty that men should desire Him, yet none was worthy to unloose His shoe-latchet (v. 27). In different ways, and yet in the same spirit, we should all be witness

bearers to Christ's greatness. It is always possible so to think, and act, and live, that men will feel we serve a great Commander. He who thinks meanly, and does petty and foolish deeds, and has no lofty ideals clearly before him, is not commending an exalted Saviour. It is in a spirit that is touched to spiritual greatness, however humble be the daily round, that witness is borne to the greatness of the Lord.

ONCE more, John bore witness to the lowliness and gentleness of Christ. I think that if John had been a time-server, and had cared only to flatter Jewish prejudice, he would have told his audience that the Spirit had descended, not like a dove, but like an eagle. It was not a dove for which the Jews were looking. They wanted a power to expel the Roman. What a chance for a false prophet this would have been, considering the symbolism of the Roman eagles! But John could only tell what he had seen a faithful witness I will not lie (Prov. xiv. 5)—and he bare record saying, 'I saw the Spirit descending like a dove' (v. 32). That means that almost in the teeth of his own stern heart, John bore witness to a dovelike Saviour. There was to be a brooding peace about Messiah, a lowly gentleness, a still small voice. And when we remember what John's own nature was, and think of the Christ of common expectation, we see how true and faithful was this witness-bearing. May not we, too, bear witness in our lives to the lowly tenderness of our Redeemer? May we not make it plain, as John did, that the Lord whom we know is filled with the dovelike Spirit? We do that whenever we master temper, or check the bitter word, or take the lowest place. We do that when our unforgiving hearts, and our stubborn and proud and selfish wills, become imbued with that love and thoughtful tenderness which is the very spirit of Christ Jesus.

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ASTLY, John bore witness to the sacrifice of Christ. 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world' (v. 29). John had roused the conscience of the people; he had awakened in them the sleeping sense of sin. Jewish missionaries tell us that to-day that is still the first thing they strive to do. But when the sense of guilt was roused in them-what then? Then John's great work of witness-bearing reached its crown. So it may be with every one of us. We, too, may be witness-bearers of the sacrifice. We may so hate and abhor and shun all sin, we may so feel the price of our redemption, we may so live in the sweet sense of pardon, we may be so hopeful for the lowest and worst men, that our life (unknown to us perhaps) shall be a witnessbearing to Christ crucified.

FIFTH SUNDAY

Morning

THE COVENANT WITH NOAH

WH

Passage to be read: Gen. ix. 1-17.

THEN a man has been brought through the deeps of a great illness, and has had leisure to think of his bygone years in it, he often rises from his sickness with the strong conviction that God is calling him to a fresh start. Or when a man has had a narrow escape for his life, and for an hour has been, as it were, facing eternity, he, too, often becomes conscious of a summons to set his face steadfastly towards Jerusalem. Such must have been the experience of Noah. Such thoughts must have been burning in his heart as he stepped out on the Armenian Highlands. How fitting, then, that the first voice of God that reached him in his new-found liberty should have been, as it were, the seal of his conviction. It was God's will that a fresh start should be made. Great judgments are the heralds of great progress. God has an eye to to-morrow no less than to yesterday, whenever the fountains of the deep are unlocked. Hence, in the opening verses of our chapter we have the divine provisions for a fuller and richer life than mankind had been living before the flood. A new sovereignty over all creatures was given to man. If Noah had had a touch of David's genius, he would have broken out in a song like the eighth psalm. Flesh was to be the food of man now-perhaps man had lived on fruits and herbs before. And in God's words about the punishment

of murder, man learned that lesson without which advance is impossible-the sacredness and the sanctity of life.

BUT

there is another effect which an illness or a hairbreadth escape may have—it may haunt a man with a fear lest it recur, and good and steady work is rarely possible to a heart that is vexed and harassed by such anxiety. Now Noah was a man of sterling faith; but he was human, and in some respects a child. Do you not think that, as he moved in his new world, the fear of another flood sometimes troubled him? When the wind howled, would not his cheek grow pale? When the torrents of rain swept on his mountain-tent, would he not waken in the darkness with a dread that here was another flood without another ark? And in the morning, when the sun shone again, and all the terrors of midnight were allayed, still he would move among the hills and valleys with the step of a man uncertain of his tenure. It is not in such a spirit that the race progresses. Even the crofters made little of their crofts while they were burdened with insecurity of tenure. So God, not only for His child Noah's sake, but for the sake of all the human family, entered into a covenant with Noah.

Now

OW what is a covenant? Well, it is something of great importance, for the word is constantly found in the Old Testament. The word 'religion' is not found there at all, but the word 'covenant' occurs over three hundred times. A covenant is a mutual agreement; it is a compact or bargain between two people or sets of people; and among the Hebrews it was used in the freest way of any transaction involving mutual pledging. But gradually the word drew itself apart; it was linked with august and venerable thoughts; it became the term for these grander and weightier compacts, whose issues for weal or woe might prove incalculable. Of such a nature was the covenant of marriage; of such the

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