wine! The Son of Man
has come "eating and drinking"! What a contrast was here to the
austerity of the desert, the coarse raiment, the hard fare! "John the
Baptist came neither eating nor drinking." Could this be He? And yet
there was no doubt that the heaven had been opened above Him, that the
Dove had descended, and that God's voice had declared Him to be the
"Beloved Son." But what a contrast to all that he had looked for!

Further reflection, however, on that incident, in which Jesus
manifested forth his glory, and the cleansing of the Temple which
immediately followed, must have convinced the Baptist that this
conception of holiness was the true one. His own type could never be
universal or popular. It was not to be expected that the mass of men
could be spared from the ordinary demands of daily life to spend their
days in the wilderness as he had done; and it would not have been for
their well-being, or that of the world, if his practice had become the
rule. It would have been a practical admission that ordinary life was
common and unclean; and that there was no possibility of infusing it
with the high principles of the Kingdom of Heaven. Consecration to God
would have become synonymous with the exclusion of wife and child, of
home and business, of music and poetry, from the soul of the saint;
whereas its true conception demands that nothing which God has created
can be accounted common or unclean, but all may be included within the
encircling precincts of the Redeemer's Kingdom. The motto of Christian
consecration is, therefore, given in that remarkable assertion of the
apostle; "Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected,
if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the
Word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. iv. 4, 5).

John saw, beneath the illuminating ray of the Holy Spirit, that this
was the Divine Ideal; that the Redeemer could not contradict the
Creator; that the Kingdom was consistent with the home; and the
presence of the King with the caress of woman and the laughter of the
child, and the innocent mirth of the village feast. This he saw, and
cried in effect: "That village scene is the key to the Messiah's
ministry to Israel. He is not only Guest at a bridegroom's table, but
the Bridegroom Himself. He has come to woo and win the chosen race.
Of old they were called Hephzibah and Beulah; and now those ancient
words come back to mind with newly-minted meaning,