hat way to
Pharisees and Sadducees?

But others shook their heads and said, "No--this couldn't be the
Messiah!" For they thought that when the Messiah came he would drive
the Romans out of the country; and many people said that the only way
to do that would be to get an army together. Some men were meantime
killing all the Romans they could. They were called "Zealots," because
they were so much filled with zeal about killing off the Romans. A few
even carried daggers with them, and stuck the daggers into Romans
whenever they got a chance.

"The Romans will not be overthrown," they said, "just by preaching.
You will have to get out and kill the Romans."

John himself said that he was not the Messiah.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

"There is someone coming who is greater than I," he told the people.
"Someone is coming whose shoe-laces I am not worthy to stoop down and
untie. Compared to him, I am nobody. I am just preparing the way for
the Messiah."

One day there was a great crowd, as usual, down by the Jordan, and
John was busy baptizing the people as fast as they came to the water.
One after another they came. It went on for hours.

[Illustration]

John had just baptized one man and helped him to the bank. The next
one was coming forward. John looked up to see who it was. He was
looking into the face of Jesus of Nazareth.

"You! Not you!" John spoke in a hoarse whisper. "No! I can't baptize
you. You must baptize _me_ instead!"

Before anyone could notice that anything was wrong, Jesus stepped to
the water's edge.

"Don't say anything about it, John," he said softly. "Treat me just
like the rest of them. We shall all be baptized together into a new
life."

Jesus went forward into the river and John baptized him. In a moment
Jesus was up the bank and lost in the crowd. The next man was coming
forward.

John stared after the vanishing figure of Jesus. The crowd made way
for Jesus, thinking, _There goes another man who came to be cleansed
of his sins._

But John said: "When I baptized _him_, I saw the Spirit of God come
down out of heaven like a dove, and light upon him. Jesus is the Son
of God. I am nothing. He is everything. He is the Messiah. He is the
Lamb of God!"

The next man was coming down the bank toward John. John stood peering
into the crowd. Jesus was nowhere to be seen.

Jesus had gone away to be alone, as God wanted him to do. He went into
the loneliest part of the desert, where t