Forty-second Sunday.

THE PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY.

FIRST READING.

"Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."—Matt. 3:2.

THE blessed Lord Jesus lived at Nazareth, and worked there as a carpenter until He was thirty years old, so that He has felt how we live here, and knows what our feelings and ways are by trying them.

When it was nearly time for Him to begin to set up His kingdom, a holy man was sent to make ready for Him. This man's name was John, and he lived out in the rocky and bushy country on the bank of the river Jordan, dressed in a coarse garment woven of camel's hair, and living on the locusts and wild honey he found there.

He stood there telling everyone who came that the kingdom of God was going to begin, and that those who wished to belong to it must repent and give up their sins. All who would feel and own their sins he took down to the river and bathed and washed them, to show how some day they would have their souls washed, just as their bodies were washed now.

This washing was called baptising, and he is always called John the Baptist; but he always told the people that there was One coming who was greater than he was, and that this Holy One would baptise them with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

QUESTIONS.

1. How long did our blessed Lord live at Nazareth? 2. What did He do there? 3. Who was sent to prepare His way? 4. Where did John live? 5. What did he wear? 6. What did he eat? 7. What are locusts? 8. What did he tell the people? 9. What were they to be sorry for? 10. What is repenting? 11. What did he do to those who repented? 12. In what river did he wash them? 13. What was this washing called? 14. What was he called? 15. Who did he say was coming? 16. How would that One baptize them?

JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHING IN THE WILDERNESS.—Matt. 3:2, 8.

SECOND READING.

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."—Matt. 3:17.

ONE day, as John was baptising, Jesus came to him, and desired to be baptised. His mother and John's mother were cousins, and John knew He had never done one wrong thing in all His life, and had nothing to repent of. So he said, "I have need to be baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me?" ThenJesusanswered, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.

Then John baptised Him; and as they were coming up out of the water, the heaven above was opened, and there came God the Holy Ghost, taking a shape like a dove, and rested upon the Head of Jesus, and there was God the Father's voice speaking out of heaven, and saying, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Then John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Son of God, and the great King whose way he had been sent to prepare.

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS.—Mark 1:9.

And this was the beginning of baptism, or christening, as we call it. We are all baptised into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and made to belong to Jesus Christ.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was John the Baptist? 2. Where did he baptize? 3. Who came to him to be baptized? 4. What relation was the blessed Virgin to his mother? 5. What did he say? 6. Why did he say so? 7. What was the answer? 8. What happened after the baptism? 9. Who came down from heaven? 10. Who spoke from heaven? 11. What did God the Father's voice say? 12. What did John know then? 13. Whose Son is Jesus? 14. How had John been preparing His way?

CHRIST IN THE MANGER.

THIRD READING.

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."—Matt. 4:7.

OUR Lord Jesus had come into the world to conquer the Devil, to whom Eve had given power over it when she ate the fruit.

So He went up into a lonely place in the wilderness, that He might meet the Devil, and stand up against all the temptations that had led Eve astray. He was there forty days, with nothing to eat; and the Devil came and said, "If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." But He would not do it at Satan's word; and so as Eve fell by eating, He stood by resisting hunger.

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS.—Matt. 4:10, 11.

Then the Devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, in one moment of time, and said, "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." But though Eve had been tempted by seeing the beautyof the fruit, our Lord was not led astray by all the glory and beauty of this world. So He conquered again.

Then He stood with Satan on the top of a high wall, with a precipice below; and Satan tempted Him to cast Himself down, so that the angels should come round and bear Him up, and all might see He was the Son of God. It was just as Satan had told Eve, that she would be like a God if she ate the fruit; and He said, "It is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

Satan left Him then for a time, and the angels came and waited on Him. That was the beginning of His victory over Satan and sin. And every one of us must fight our battle too. Whenever we are inclined to be naughty, Satan is tempting us, but we must try to be strong and drive him away; and our Lord Jesus will help us if we only try, and will drive him away.

QUESTIONS.

1. What had our Lord come into the world for? 2. When had Satan become master of the world? 3. Where did our Lord go? 4. What was the first temptation? 5. Why would not He make the stones into bread? 6. What was the second temptation? 7. What did Satan want Him to do? 8. What was the third temptation? 9. Who would have come round Him? 10. Would He let them show that He was God? 11. What did He say to Satan? 12. What did Satan do? 13. Who came to wait on our Lord? 14. Who had been conquered?

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