Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/48

 of the  Old  Law,  John,  though  last,  is  still  the  first and greatest. The noblest  member  is  nearest  the head, the  purest  water  nighest  its  source,  and  John was own  cousin  to  the  Lord. That bread  wherewith Christ fed  the  multitudes,  that  miraculous  wine  of Cana — God's  immediate  productions — must  have been of  the  rarest  quality;  and  so  apparent,  in  the Baptist's birth  and  life  and  death,  is  the  hand  of  God, that he  must  have  been,  among  men,  the  noblest  and the best.

Brethren, John  the  Baptist  is  the  horizon  where earth meets  heaven;  the  link  connecting  the  Old Law with  the  New;  the  last  of  the  prophets  and  the first of  the  Apostles,  and  consequently  styled  by  Our Lord more  than  a  prophet. To be  the  subject  of prophecy  is  a  higher  dignity  than  to  be  a  prophet one's self,  and,  of  them  all,  John  alone  enjoyed  this dual honor — a  prophet  himself,  he  was  foretold  by Isaias  and  Malachias. The Angel  Gabriel  announced his advent  to  his  parents,  and  his  presence  in  her womb imparted  to  Elizabeth  the  prophetic  spirit,  and loosened Zachary's  palsied  tongue  to  foretell  that  he should  be  called  the  prophet  of  the  Most  High,  and be the  herald  of  the  coming  Saviour. More than  a prophet;  for  while  yet  in  his  mother's  womb,  he leaped  for  joy  at  the  approach  of  the  unborn Saviour; the  highest  dignitary  of  them  all,  for,  in the  solemn  regal  procession,  he  walks  immediately before the  face  of  the  King. More than  a  prophet; for to  the  supereminent  gifts  with  which  God  had, by infusion,  endowed  him,  he,  by  the  purity,  the