herald shall be hushed, and the servants' voices will be no
more heard in the streets inviting to the marriage supper, and there
shall be none to break or distribute the bread of life.

With what eager care men should prize these fleeting opportunities, not
listening to the preacher's voice, as of one that can make a pleasant
sound from the harp or organ--not seeking merely the delight of the ear
or intellect; but taking heed to hear for eternity, receiving in meek
and retentive hearts the precious grain as it falls from the sower's
hand, and giving diligence that the best possible results may accrue.

Oh, children of the sunny market-place, playing giddily throughout the
long afternoon, take heed lest your opportunities of preparing for the
serious work of life slip away unimproved, and you find yourselves face
to face with death and judgment without a screen, without hope, and
without God. John murdered in prison; Jesus nailed to the cross; the
apostles and martyrs done to death on the scaffold and at the
stake--and the ship drifting on the rocks, without a warning voice to
arouse the thoughtless crowd of dice-throwers and dancers to the
certainty and nearness of their doom!

XIV.

Set at Liberty.

(MARK VI. 27.)

"Hush my soul, and vain regrets be stilled;
Now rest in Him who is the complement
Of whatsoe'er transcends our mortal doom,
Of baffled hope and unfulfilled intent;
In the clear vision and aspect of whom
All longings and all hopes shall be fulfilled."
ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.

The Genesis of a Great Crime--The Strength of Evil Influences--An
Accomplice of Satan--The Triumph of Hate--The Baptist Beheaded--A Place
of Repentance

The evangelist Mark tells us, in the twenty-first verse of this
chapter, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, and the
high captains, and the chief men of Galilee. Now, of course, Galilee,
over which Herod had jurisdiction, and where, for the most part, he
dwelt, in the beautiful city of Tiberias, the ruins of which are still
washed by the blue waters of the lake, was a considerable distance from
the Castle of Machaerus, which, as we have seen, was situated in the
desolate region on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. There would
probably, therefore, have been a martial and noble procession from
Galilee, which followed the course of the Jordan to the oasis of
Jericho, and then branched off to the old, grim fortress, which, like