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 XVII.

THE FIRST DISCIPLES.

We must go back to our Lord whom we left in the desert surrounded by Angels.

Coming down the mountain side He made His way again to the bank of the Jordan where John was still preaching and baptising. The crowds were greater than ever and more enthusiastic. John, they said, was either Christ or Elias who was to announce His Coming. At last the great Council of the nation, called the Sanhedrin, determined to find out the truth. They therefore sent messengers to the Baptist to ask him:

"Who art thou?"

"I am not the Christ," he said.

"What, then; art thou Elias?"

"I am not," he replied.

"Art thou the Prophet?"

He answered: "No."

"Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us?"

"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaias said."

And they asked him: "Why then dost thou baptize if thou be not Christ nor Elias nor the Prophet?"

John answered them saying: "I baptize in water, but there hath stood One in the midst of you whom you know not. The same is He that shall come after Me, who is preferred before Me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose."

If we want to see a perfect servant of God, we have