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      Our Saviour

      Our Saviour

      Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had been quietly living for many years at His father's home in Nazareth when John the Baptist began to preach and prepare the people for His coming, as it had been foretold by an Angel before His birth that he should do, and we are told that all the land of Judea, and the people of Jerusalem, roused by his preaching, went to be baptized by him in the river Jordan, after confessing their sins.

      John told them that One much greater than he was to come after him, One whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose, for he could only baptize them with water and exhort them to repent of their sins while there was yet time, but He who was to come after would baptize them with the Holy Ghost. This he did till Jesus Himself came from Nazareth to the Jordan, and desired John, the companion of His childhood, to baptize Him also. John objected, saying that he himself had need to be baptized of Jesus, and was not worthy to perform the office for Him, but our gracious Saviour insisted till John led Him into the river and baptized Him.

      As they returned to the land a very wonderful thing happened, for the heavens opened above, and the Spirit of God, in the form of a dove, descended, and alighted upon Jesus, whilst a voice was heard saying "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

      Then John went on his way, preaching more and more to the people, and telling every one who would listen to him of the marvellous thing he had seen; whilst Christ went away by Himself into a lonely place called a wilderness, where, for forty days, and forty nights, He was tempted by the devil in all manner of ways, but finding that, by the help of God His Father, Jesus was enabled to resist all temptation to sin, and would worship and serve none but the true God, the devil at length left Him, and "Angels came and ministered unto Him."

      From that time, Jesus being then about thirty years of age, He began to preach, and exhort to repentance as John had done before Him. One day as He walked beside the sea of Galilee He saw two brothers named Simon-Peter and Andrew, fishing by the shore. These men He called to Him and bade them follow Him for He would make them fishers of men, and they immediately left their nets and followed Him. Presently, as they walked along the shore, they saw two other fishermen brothers—James and John, the sons of Zebedee, in a boat with their father, mending the great, brown nets with which they caught fish on the Syrian coasts, and called them also, and they too left their nets and their father and followed Him. They were the first four of the twelve disciples whom Jesus by degrees gathered about Him, and who were His companions and assistants in His future work. With His disciples Christ travelled over the whole land of Syria, now called the Holy Land, teaching in the churches and preaching about the Kingdom of His Father, and healing all manner of diseases and sicknesses amongst the people, until the fame of His sayings and doings spread every where, and the sick and suffering and diseased were brought to Him from all quarters that He might heal them. This He never refused to do, for His heart was so overflowing with divine love and pity for mankind that He could not see suffering or misery without healing it.