because he has performed a specific act of obedience to Christ. It is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God,' in which, according to St. Peter, the saving efficacy of Baptism consists.*

JESUS BAPTIZED.

Ver. 9-11.

And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

In St. Matthew's Gospel it is mentioned, that when Jesus approached John, to demand baptism of him, John objected, 'saying, I have need to be baptized of thee.' But Jesus told him, 'Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness;' and upon this John baptized him. If, therefore, it be asked, why our Lord, who had no sins to repent of, and who was himself to impart to mankind the Holy Ghost, should have been baptized, and should have had attached to his baptism the emblem of his union with the Holy Spirit; the proper answer must be that which he himself gave to the scruples of John. It was done because thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.' He must be regarded in this, and in several other acts of his life, as fulfilling the office of

*

I Pet. iii. 21.

+ Matt. iii. 14.

pattern to his Church, and to every member of that His mystical body; and as doing, not what was needful for him, but what was needful because 'thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. He was baptized; and immediately the Holy Spirit descended visibly on him, as if to denote that through baptism, we too should enjoy fellowship with the same Spirit. Hence, in allusion to a similar manifestation attached to the infant Church on the day of Pentecost, he speaks of their being baptized with the Holy Ghost,'* the very language of John the Baptist before he baptized the Lord.

Some have supposed that our Lord's baptism was designed to correspond to the washing of the priests, preparatory to their entering on their office, as directed in Exodus xxix. 4; and there is much to be said in favour of this view.

The Holy Ghost, we are told, descended on Him 'like a dove,' not meaning that the appearance was that of a dove, (for that would not have been recognised as the token of divine presence;) but, that the holy light, or 'glory of the Lord,' the established symbol of God's revelation of himself, descended on him, either in shape like a dove, or else with that easy motion with which a dove alights on any object. It was, we may presume, the same brilliant emblem, which, in the form of many tongues, descended on the Church afterwards at the day of Pentecost; and which,

*Acts i. 5 and xi. 16.

in the long series of God's communications with man, had been the chosen sign of His immediate presence. The cherubim that guarded the gate of Eden held a flaming sword; it was out of a burning bush that the Lord first called unto Moses; mysterious lightnings flashed from the summit of Mount Sinai when the law was preparing, as they afterwards struck Saul blind at his conversion; it was a pillar of fire that guided the Israelites through the wilderness; and a glorious light that was first attached to their tabernacle, and afterwards abode in their Temple, where God fixed his name. And now, in like manner, when God visited again his people, the Schechinah was lighted in the new temple of Christ's body; enveloped him at the Transfiguration; and lastly descended to fill his new body the church, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the present earthly tabernacle of God.

Together with this visible testimony, a voice was heard from Heaven, declaring Jesus to be the beloved Son of God; by which expression we are taught that he was the Son of God in a peculiar sense. We are made the sons of God by adoption and grace; He and his Father are one.* We are made partakers of God's Spirit; to Him God gave not the Spirit by measure,† in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,‡ and of his fulness have all we received.§ The unbelieving Jews, accordingly, sought to put him to death

* John x. 30. † John iii. 34. Col. ii. 9. § John i. 16.

on more than one occasion,* for the blasphemy, as they regarded it, of what he meant by calling God his Father, and himself the Son of God. When brought before Pilate, and Pilate made an effort to save him, 'the Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.'t

JESUS TEMPTED.

Ver. 12, 13.

And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts: and the angels ministered unto him.

The account of our Lord's Temptation is given in detail by St. Matthew and St. Luke. The consideration of the circumstances comprised in this account is not called for, in the view suggested by St. Mark, whose Gospel we are at present taking as our main guide. Still it may be requisite to point out that this event, whether considered briefly or in detail, claims our attention under two different aspects. I. As it was a real and mysterious trial which Jesus underwent in connexion with his office and ministry. II. As it was an example, perhaps a symbol, of our own exposure to temptation, both as a Church and as individuals; and also of our power of resistance through him.

Of these two views the last only is immediately practical; the other only so, as it is connected with it.

* John v. 18, and x. 29-36.

† John xix. 7.

Throughout our Lord's ministry, indeed, his character and conduct may be considered in this twofold aspect; and it is important that the two views should not be confounded. Of his individual intercourse with the Father; of the mode in which the agency of Satan was directed against him, and was counteracted by him; of all in short that relates to his absolute nature and condition, we are told scarcely anything explicit. What is revealed on this high and mysterious theme is revealed only, it would seem, so far as it may direct and influence us practically in our faith and our conduct. The remark applies to the record of the Temptation, as fully as to the rest of our Lord's history. It is only a mystery, in the same sense in which the whole of his life and ministry is a mystery; that is, in reference to the secret things which belong unto the Lord our God, and not to those which are revealed as belonging to us and to our children, that we may do all the words of His law.*

JESUS CALLS SIMON, ANDREW, JAMES, AND JOHN.

Ver. 14-20.

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and

*Deut. xxix. 29.