sherman of Gennesaret, the true greatness and honor into which He will
guide him.

_CHAPTER VII_

_John's View of the Coming Messiah_

In our thoughts of Jesus we have chiefly in mind the things that
happened at the time of His birth and afterward. We read of them in the
Gospels. John had the Old Testament only, containing promises of what
was yet to happen. We have the New Testament telling of their
fulfilment.

Thus far we have spoken of Jesus as John knew Him--as a boy in Nazareth,
the son of Mary, and his own cousin. We have also spoken of John's ideas
of the Messiah. As yet he has not thought as we do of Jesus and the
Messiah being the same person. It is not easy for us to put ourselves in
his place, and leave out of our thoughts all the Gospels tell us. But we
must do this to understand what he understood during his youth and early
manhood, respecting the Messiah _yet to come_.

Let us imagine him looking through the Old Testament, especially the
books of Moses and the prophets, and finding what is said of Him; and
see if we can what impressions are made on this young Bible student of
prophecy. His search goes back many years. He finds the first Gospel
promise. It was made while Adam and Eve, having sinned, were yet in the
Garden of Eden. It was the promise of a Saviour to come from heaven to
earth, through whom they and their descendants could be saved from the
power of Satan and the consequences of sin. We do not know how much our
first parents understood of this coming One: but we feel assured that
they believed this promise, and through repentance and faith in this
Saviour, they at last entered a more glorious paradise than the one they
lost. That promise faded from the minds of many of their descendants and
wickedness increased. But God had not forgotten it. John could find it
renewed by him to Abraham, in the words, "In thee shall all the families
of the earth be blessed,"--meaning that the Messiah should be the
Saviour of all nations, Gentiles as well as Jews. The promise was
renewed to Isaac, the son of Abraham; and then repeated to his son
Jacob, in the same words spoken to his grandfather. Jacob on his dying
bed told Judah what God had revealed to him, that the Messiah should be
of the tribe of which Judah was the head.

Many years later God made it known to David that the Messiah should be
one of his descendants. This was a wonder and delight to him as he
exclaimed, "Who am I, O Lord God,