Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/73



OHN is here to be viewed more in his ministerial and official character, than simply as an individual man. Every Scripture character is representative, and shews forth some distinct state of the church and the spiritual condition of its members. It is in this way that the Prophets are said to do such and such things, as signs to the house of Israel. And as a mighty sign to the house of Israel, and as descriptive of the state of the Church and its wants, John came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. He made strong appeals to the natural affections of the human race! He preached in the wilderness, to shew the families of mankind that the Church was then in a wilderness state as to knowledge and life! He proclaimed the immediate approach of the long promised Messiah! and demanded repentance as the only fruit by which they could secure the kingdom. He warned them not to shield themselves in their long received notions, doctrines, and traditions—"Think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham!" As a further sign to the house of Israel, John's raiment was of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: to shew that they were clothed spiritually in the mere externals of Truth and knowledge, and that they were not vested with those spiritual truths of revelation which open