continued the Baptizer. "God is getting ready to clean off his threshing
platform. He will gather his wheat into his storehouse, but he will burn
the straw in fire that never dies down! Let every one of you get ready
for the coming of the Lord!"

Near the front edge of the crowd a priest stood up. "How do you dare
talk this way?" he demanded. "Who are you--the Messiah?"

"No, I am not the Messiah," replied the Prophet.

"Then who are you? The Prophet Elijah?"

"I am not Elijah."

"Are you Moses come back to us?"

"No."

"Then who are you? The rulers in Jerusalem have sent me to find out.
What have you to say for yourself?" Andrew and John glanced at each
other. The rulers!

John the Baptizer called out boldly to the whole crowd, "I am a voice
crying in the wilderness, 'Clear the way for the Lord!'"

The priest from Jerusalem interrupted again. "If you are not the Christ,
nor Elijah, nor Moses, what right have you to baptize people?" The
people stirred; they did not like this man.

"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me
is mightier. I am not fit even to tie his sandal laces. He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and fire. You must repent!"

A man broke away from the crowd and stepped uncertainly toward the
Prophet. Words came from his lips as though it hurt him to speak. "I
have forced money out of people. I am a tax-gatherer. What can I do?"
Everyone there had been cheated by tax collectors.

"Turn your whole life back toward God. Never again force people to pay
more money than is just."

Several other people had joined the tax collector. "What must I do?"
asked a soldier.

"Never take money from people by force. Never blackmail. Be content with
your pay." He looked at the group before him and said: "Let every man of
you who owns two garments share with the person who has none at all. If
you have food, share it too!"

A whisper ran over the crowd. John had turned to some religious
officials, Sadducees and Pharisees, who stood watching. "You nest of
snakes! Who told you to flee from God's day of judgment? It is time you
repented!"

"How can he talk that way to Pharisees?" said Andrew. He could tell even
from where he stood that the Pharisees felt the charge was unjust.

"Why should we repent?" asked one of them. "We are descended from
Abraham himself. We were born to be God's chosen people!"

"God can make children of Abraham out of these rocks if he wants!" bur