in the very midst of the Pharisees, who used his powerful influence to protect Him; and the feast passed by without any further jealous interference from the priests.
But it was not quite safe or suitable to remain in Jerusalem; and after the greater number of their friends and kinsmen had returned home, Jesus, with two or three of His disciples, sought the banks of the Jordan, whither John the Baptist had already returned. The harvest was beginning, for it was near the end of April, and bands of harvesters passed to and fro from uplands to lowlands until all the corn was gathered in by the end of June. Down in the valley of the Jordan the summer is very hot; and the wants of life are few. They could sleep in the open air, or in some hut of branches rudely woven together; and their food, like John the Baptist’s, cost little or nothing. There was to be no settled home henceforth for any one of them. The disciples had left all to follow the Son of Man, and He had not where to lay His head.
Crowds of eager and curious followers came to Jesus, as the year before they had flocked to John the Baptist, who had now moved some miles farther up the river, and was still preaching ‘The kingdom of God is at hand.’ But John did no miracle, and the crowds that followed Jesus were greater than those who followed him. In the eyes of the Pharisees it must have seemed that the two prophets were in rivalry; and many a jest and a sneer would be heard in the Temple courts and in the streets of Jerusalem as they talked of those ‘two fanatics’ on the banks of the Jordan. Even John the Baptist’s disciples fancied that a wrong was done their Rabbi by this new teacher, who had been with him for a while, and so learned his manner of arousing and teaching the people. They went to John, and said, ‘Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come unto Him.’
Now was John’s opportunity to manifest a wonderful humility and devotion. ‘I am of the earth, earthy, and speak of the earth,’ he said; ‘He that cometh from heaven is above all The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all tilings into His hands. I am but the friend of the bridegroom; I stand and hear Him, and rejoice greatly because of His voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled.’
Did he hear that voice often, and rejoice in it? There were not many miles separating them, and both of them were hardy, and used to long marches. It may well be that during those summer months they met often on the banks of the river—the happiest season of John’s life. For he had been a lonely, unloved man, living a wild life in the wilderness, strange to social and homelike ways; his father and mother long since dead, with neither brother nor sister, he would find in Jesus all the missing relationships, and pour out to Him the richest treasures of a heart that no loving trust had opened until now.
So the summer passed away, and the autumn with its vintage; then the rainy months drew near. Bands of harvestmen and bands of pilgrims had gone by, tarrying for a few hours to learn truths they had never heard before, even in the Temple. Many of them were baptized by the disciples, though Jesus baptized not The new prophet had become more popular than the old prophet, and John’s words were fulfilled, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’
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