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people want to flee from the wrath hut are not willing to give up that which draws the wrath down upon them. There is often terror without penitence. If many were asked, “ Who warned you to flee?’’ the answer could only be, “ Fear— the terrors of death and eter nity.” John’s question is therefore a very proper oneS-Miller. v. 8. Fruits worthy of repentance. Insincerity is the great charge brought by John against this nation. The only evidence of a radical change would be a change of life.— Bengel. Repentance is worthless if it only produces a few tears, a spasm of regret, a little fright and then a return to the old ways.— Sel. Abraham to our father. John, by sledge hammer blows, shatters one false trust after another. There was no hope merely in natural descent from the heir of promise. John tells them that God could admit the stones in the channels of the Jordan to the privileges in which they trusted. This points dimly to the transference of the promises to the Gentiles.—Maclaren. God is not depen dent upon us for the maintenance of His honor. If we are -faithless, He will raise up those who will serve Him. He can raise them up from stones if necessary, as He formed Adam of the dust of the earth.— Bengel. v. 9. Axe at the root of the trees. The notion is that of a woodman touch ing a tree with the edge of his axe to measure his blow before he lifts his arm for the sweep which fells it.— Farrar, v. 10. What shall we do? The A B C of morality— justice, charity,, ab stinence from class vices— is all that John requires. These homely pieces of goodness would be the best fruits of re pentance. We need the lesson quite as much today.-ifr-Maclaren. v. 14. Do violence to no man. The word means, “ Do not extort money by threats of violence, neither extort money by false accusation or the threatening of it;”—Horn. Com. He did not say, “ Cast away your arms and quit the camp,” for he knew that soldiers were ministers of the law, not avengers of personal injuries but defenders of the public safety.—Wordsworth. The desire of injury, the savageness of re venge, the lust of power— these are the sins which he condemns in wars, which are, however, sometimes undertaken by good men for the sake of punishing the violence of others.—Augustine.
v. 16. I baptize with water. Bap tism with water had in view the for giveness of sins, and baptism with the Spirit meant the renewal and sanctifi cation of the nature. It( was baptism with the Spirit that gave efficacy to the material rite,—Olshausen. One might ier than I. While John was able to arouse the consciences of men and ex cite the feelings of regret for evil done, he had no power to effect the change in conduct which he recommended to his hearers. In this way he turned the attention of the people to one mightier than himself who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire, who would impart the power needed for true and complete service of God.—Willcock. Hatchet of whose shoes. It was the token of a slave’s having become his master’s property to loosen his shoe, to tie the same, or to carry the neces sary articles for him to the bath.— Lightfoot. Baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. The second “ with” in this statement should be omitted. It is not in the original. Its unwarranted insertion has suggested to some com mentators the possibility of interpret ing the precious words to mqan two baptisms, one in the Holy Spirit now, the other in the fire of judgment (as in the next verse), in the future. The Greek makes this grammatically impos sible. It is the one two-fold baptism in the Spirit, energizing and, refining. The fulfillment of these words we find in Acts 2:2-4.— Torrey. v. 17. Fan In His hand. Literally, “ winnowing shovel.” God fans to get rid of the chaff; Satan sifts to get rid of the wheat. (Lk. 2^:31.) “ Purge His floor”— literally, “ clear His thresh ing floor.”— Comp. Bible. Fire un quenchable. Probably not the material element but a divine anger, of which material fire is an emblem. The fire is no more literal than the fan and the threshing floor. It speaks of a dread ful anguish which no language can ex press.—Calvin. v. 22. Holy Ghost descended. Here is mentioned the Father, who proclaims Christ as His Son; Jesus the Son, of whom the Father speaks; and the Holy Spirit, who in a bodily form descends upon Christ. The three divine Persons are frequently mentioned together throughout the Scriptures. (Jn. 16: 13,15; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:3-6; Eph: 2:18-22; 4:4-6; 1 Pet. 1 :2 .)—Davies.
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