we do. In that solemn, grand
thing--Christian life--one step backward is religious death.

Once more we get from this subject the doctrine of a resurrection.
John's life was hardness, his end was agony. That is frequently
Christian life. Therefore, says the apostle, if there be no
resurrection the Christian's choice is wrong; "If in this life only we
have hope in Christ, then are we of all men most miserable." Christian
life is not visible success--very often it is the apparent opposite of
success. It is the resurrection of Christ working itself out _in_ us;
but it is very often the Cross of Christ imprinting itself on us very
sharply. The highest prize which God has to give here is martyrdom.
The highest style of life is the Baptist's--heroic, enduring, manly
love. The noblest coronet which any son of man can wear is a crown of
thorns. Christian, _this_ is not your rest. Be content to feel that
this world is not your home. Homeless upon earth, try more and more to
make your home in heaven, above with Christ.

Lastly we have to learn from this, that devotedness to Christ is our
only blessedness. It is surely a strange thing to see the way in which
men crowded round the austere prophet, all saying, "Guide us, we
cannot guide ourselves." Publicans, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herod,
whenever John appears, all bend before him, offering him homage and
leadership. How do we account for this? The truth is, the spirit of
man groans beneath the weight of its own freedom. When a man has no
guide, no master but himself, he is miserable; we want guidance, and
if we find a man nobler, wiser than ourselves, it is almost our
instinct to prostrate our affections before that man, as the crowds
did by Jordan, and say, "Be my example, my guide, my soul's
sovereign." That passionate need of worship--hero-worship it has been
called--is a primal, universal instinct of the heart. Christ is the
answer to it. Men will not do; we try to find men to reverence
thoroughly, and we cannot do it. We go through life, finding guides,
rejecting them one after another, expecting nobleness and finding
meanness; and we turn away with a recoil of disappointment.

There is no disappointment in Christ. Christ can be our souls'
sovereign. Christ can be our guide. Christ can absorb all the
admiration which our hearts long to give. We want to worship men.
These Jews wanted to worship man. They were right--man is the rightful
ob