RELIGIOUS.                             495

Mal. 3:1.  Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to
their fathers.  Mal. 4:5-6.
 (b) The angel announced him as the precursor of the Christ.
 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn
the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the
wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Luke 1:17.  It is a significant fact to note, that John is the last subject of
the Old Testament prophecy and the first of the New Testament proph-
ecy. With John. Malachi closes his roll and silence reigns for four
hundred years--until Gabriel breaks the stillness with announcement
to Zacharias that his wife shall bear a son. John's chief work was to
prepare the way for Him who was to exalt the valleys, make low the
mountains and hills, make straight the crooked places, and plains.  The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the
Lord, make straight in the desert a high way for our God.  Is. 40:3.
  (1) As a forerunner, John came preaching repentance--In those days
came John the Baptist, preaching * * * saying the kingdom of heaven
is at hand.  Matt. 3:1, 2.  His theme was repentance, the same one
that Christ used after John was cast in prison. Matt. 4:17. (Mark
1:15). The same one used by the disciples. Mark 6:12. Repentance
means a change of mind, so John's preaching aimed at the ground work
of Christian character. The mind of men had to be changed before they
would receive Christ. John preached that repentance, which is deeper
than a mere surface reformation. He said to the Pharisees and Sad-
ducees, who flocked to his baptism--O ye generation of vipers * * * *
bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Matt. 3:7. That is, show evi-
dence that your minds have been changed.  They were flocking to his
baptism not because their hearts were changed, with no resolution to
lead a better life, with no remorse of conscience for the sins they had
committed but only upon their claims as the children of Abraham. He
called them vipers, children of the "old serpent," and water baptism
had no signification for them.
  (2) As a forerunner, John announced Christ.--And John preached
saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of
whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.  I indeed
have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost. Mark 1 :7-8. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him
and saith, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the
world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man, which is
preferred before me: for he was before me.  And I knew him not: but
that he should be made manifest to Israel. Jno. 1:29-31. John first




			

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