It was an exceedingly bold act on the part of our Lord to cleanse the
temple at Jerusalem in the way he did it. In justification of his
right to do this he appealed to what was written: "My house shall be
called of all nations the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den
of thieves." But reference to this authority involved other questions
of grave import in the minds of the scribes and Pharisees. They wished
to doubt his right to appeal to this Scripture, because they were
unwilling to concede his claim to the divine sonship. To raise as
strong a breast of opposition against him as possible, there "come to
him in the temple the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders,
and say to him, By what authority doest thou these things?"
Most unexpectedly to them, they were confronted by another question
quite as direct, from whose point and power they quailed: "The baptism
of John, was it from heaven, or of men?" Whilst many of the scribes
and Pharisees and elders had never condescended to show John enough
respect even to be present at any time when he was baptizing in the
Jordan, still they knew, and felt most keenly, the power of his
teachings and work upon the common people; for "all held John to be a
prophet;" "but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God
against themselves, being not baptized of him," John.
To all human appearance, the influence of the baptism and teachings of
John, upon the common people, saved our Lord's life upon this and
probably other occasions, for the scribes and chief priests sought
opportunity to destroy him; but they feared the _common people_. In
this we discover traces of the good accomplished by John's mission,
which was "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord;" and this
people was the _common people_.
Our Lord, however, had a much higher thought and loftier end in the
question he put to these men than that of merely saving his life by
the facts involved in the question.
When a minister, either diplomatic or religious, on foreign soil, is
asked for his authority, it is absolutely necessary for him to produce
satisfactory credentials of his investment with the office and the
honor he may claim. Our Lord's credentials must be clear and
satisfactory, beyond those of any other minister, because no others
ever have been or can be subjected to such a rigid scrutiny and to
such scathing tests as those were which he bore. They must present a
more imposing front than that of the power to work miracles. Others
had wrought miracles before. Moses had made the bottom of the Red Sea
dry ground; and with a single stroke of his rod had cleft a mighty
rock to the gushing forth of a flood of water from it. Elijah had
raised the widow's dead son, and had kept her cruse of oil and her
barrel of meal replenished; so that the famine came not nigh her door.
The walls of Jericho had fallen under the sound of Joshua's band of
rams'-horn trumpeters; and, in fact, miracles had, in one way or
another, been connected with almost all the events recorded in the
Jewish Scriptures. On the evidence of these facts the scribes and
Pharisees said to him in scorn: "Art thou greater than our fathers,
which are dead? and Moses, and the prophets, which are dead?"
You may now perceive how necessary it was for our Lord to have some
higher claim to authority, in the eyes of these unbelieving Jews, than
they were willing to see in his power to work miracles. This higher
testimony to his authority was given by his Father, signed and sealed
by the Holy Spirit, in the presence of witnesses, as Jesus came up out
of the water when he was baptized. It was on the bank of the Jordan
that "the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending as a dove, and coming upon him; and lo, a voice out of the
heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
To this fact all four of the evangelists bear testimony, in nearly the
same words.
Peter, in an address recorded in the first chapter of the Acts,
indirectly affirms that many witnessed our Lord's baptism and the
attendant manifestations from heaven. To his mind it was an essential
part of the qualifications of a candidate for the apostleship, that
he had been a witness of our Lord's baptism, as well as of his
resurrection. And why not? The proofs of his Sonship, of his
Messiahship, of his union or oneness with the Father, of the Father's
love for him, and of the acceptableness of the Son's work and
obedience, were as clear and undeniable in the first as in the last.
After a brief consultation among themselves over the question
propounded unto them by our Lord, these deceitful Jews decided that
the most expedient answer they could frame would be to confess that
they "could not tell." No wonder, now, that he told them that "the
publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of heaven before they
would." We may here see a verification of the fact that LOVE must
precede FAITH. The truth may be _forced_ upon one, and he be
_compelled_ to acknowledge it; yet, unless he falls in love with that
truth, he will not believe it as a thing of FAITH, and will not think
and act correspondingly thereto.
"Convince a man against his will--
He's of the same opinion still."
We may here, very properly, inquire why the heavenly testimony was
given at our Lord's baptism. Why were the Father's acknowledgment and
approval of his beloved Son not given in the temple of Jerusalem, in
the presence of his enemies, that they might be _convinced_; or in
one of its populous streets on a public day, that the world, in a
representative sense, might know of him? It is impossible for men or
angels to know the mind of the Lord where he has not revealed it. He
has withheld from us any direct information on this point; but we may
draw some inferential conclusions, which may serve to satisfy the mind
and rest the heart.
It is a matter of fact that the Father never put his Son on exhibition;
neither did the Son ever seek any place of honor or distinction before
men. "He was meek and lowly in heart." The Word made flesh, the Way
and the Truth and the Life did not appear on earth to be gazed at as a
thing of mere curiosity, nor examined and handled as an article of
merchandise.
Men have their opinions; and especially at this day is there a decided
tendency with many to make a show of their denominational strength and
numerical importance; but, really, it appears to me that the Son of
God shunned observation, and apparently shrank from the echo of his
fame. More than once did he kindly request those with him to say
nothing about some sublime manifestation of divine power and love
which he had just given.
Whatever else baptism may signify, to my mind it is plain that it is
the visible door to the visible kingdom of heaven on earth. Christ the
Lord is King of that kingdom; and as such it behooved him to enter it
by the same door through which he has commanded that all his future
subjects shall enter; and that door is water baptism. "He that
entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the
porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice." The fold is the
kingdom; the shepherd is the Lord; and the porter is John the Baptist.
How fitting that the divine recognition be given at the _door_ of the
kingdom in which the Lord is to be crowned "King of kings." A few
honest-hearted witnesses were all the Father wished, before whom to
make known this glorious disclosure of love for his Son.
Baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh. This is not
its legitimate result. Its effect is the answer of a good conscience
toward God. When one submits to this ordinance in the right spirit,
and it is properly administered, it never fails of being followed by
this happy experience. It gives the heart peace and rest in Christ.
"The eunuch went on his way rejoicing." "The jailer rejoiced,
believing in God with all his house." These rejoicings followed
baptism in each case. The Psalmist says: "The testimony of the Lord
is sure, enlightening the eyes: the statutes of the Lord are pure,
rejoicing the heart. More are they to be desired than gold; yea, than
much fine gold; for in the keeping of them there is great reward."
Baptism is both a testimony and a statute. It is a testimony because
it bears witness to the truth by the joy it imparts; and it is a
statute because it is a written command of God which it is the duty of
every believer to obey; and in the keeping of it there is great
reward.
FRIDAY, August 27. They had meeting at Henry Hart's. Acts 3 was read.
Two brethren were advanced from the deaconship to the ministry of the
Word, and two were elected to the deaconship. The twenty-eighth they
spent mostly with Brother John Royer. The twenty-ninth they attended
two meetings: one at Brother Joel Royer's, and the other near the same
place. At Joel Royer's, Brother Isaac Long took the lead in speaking;
and from the outlines of his discourse, given in the Diary, I am
assured it is worthy of being expanded into a sermon, and of holding a
prominent place in this work.
_Sermon by Elder Isaac Long, of Virginia._
_Preached at Joel Royer's, in Pennsylvania,
August 29._