RELIGIOUS.


      SOME PROVIDENTIAL MEN AND MOVEMENTS IN SACRED
         AND SECULAR HISTORIES--JOHN THE BAPTIST.

                   (The Twelfth in the Series.)

                         By A. H. Hill.

  In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of
Judea. John was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, and was a child
of prayer. Luke 1:13. His mother and father were of the royal line
of the family of Aaron. And they were both righteous before God,
walking in all of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blame-
less.  Luke 1:6. They kept both the moral and ceremonial law.   In
each of these, they were blameless before God.  Two greater worthies
never walked together as man and wife. We do not wonder at God's
hearing their prayer and blessing them in old age with a great son.
  The things surrounding John's birth were truly supernatural.   An
angel announced his birth and gave him the name John which means
Lord of grace or whom the Lord graciously gave. And thou shalt call
his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall
rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord.
and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled
with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.    Luke 1 :12-15.
His name, his influence, his sobriety, his labors and spiritual life were
told by the angel before his birth.
             I. John the Baptist a Providential Man.
  God raised him for a special work; viz., to prepare  the  way for
Christ
  (a) The prophet had spoken of him as the forerunner of the
Christ.
  I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.
  (494)




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Date:  07/1911