RELIGIOUS.                        501

  John though greater in privileges than all the prophets, can never
sing with the Redeemed, the new song, Thou art worthy to take the
book and to open the seal thereof: for thou wast and hast redeemed
is to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and
nation, and hath made us kings and priests. Rev. 5:9-10. Even the
angels can not sing this song.   None can sing it, but those who have
gone up through great tribulations and have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
  (2)  John the Baptist gathered the first congregation under the New
Dispensation.
  (3)  He stood on the border line between the old and new  dispensa-
tion--the border-line prophet.
  In him two ages met.  He heard the dying breath of the old era and
the soft whisper of the new.  With him the prophetic roll was closed
and the gospel era opened.  For all the prophets and law prophesied
until John.   And from the days of John the Baptist until now the
Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.  Matt. 11:12-13.  The twilight
day of feasts and ceremony and the high noon day of a better day fell
all around him, enveloping him in a glory where he stood alone.  The
mingling scenes of a dying day and the awakening energies of a breaking
morn, must have thrilled his soul.
  (4)  John's preaching produced a great revival, the first in Judea since
the days of Ezra.
  (5)  His voice broke the silence of four hundred years.
               "Before Messiah's earthly reign
                  Ere yet He was revealed to sight;
               Before the Holy Nazarene,
                 Came John, the lowly Nazarite.

               Most simple was his rustic fare;
                 Wild and uncouth his Arab dress;
               His constant habitation were
                 Wild places in the wilderness.

               He was the witness of the Lord,
                 The herald of the coming king,
               The preacher of his Master's word,
                 The tidings of his grace to bring.

               The people flocked from every side,
                 And multitudes from all the land
               Now heard they of him that cried
                  Repent the Kingdom is at hand.




			

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