THE MOEXIXG STAR IN THE GOSPELS. 



245 



to the early readers of the Bible than to us. Hence the 

 readiness with which all Eastern readers would understand the 

 allusion to Christ as " tlie day star " arising in your hearts 

 (2 Pet. i, 19), presumably because His coming to our hearts now 

 is the sure herald of the manifestation of His future glory. 

 Christ is also referred to in the book of the Eevelation as the 

 morning star (Eey. ii, 28, xxii. 16), apparently in both cases 

 in connection with His goyernment, which will precede His 

 deliyering all oyer to God the Father (1 Cor. xy, 28). 



Simile of John the Ba/piist to the Morning Star. 



But a much fuller and more sustained figure is the likening 

 of John the Baptist to the morning star, in connection with the 

 grand simile of the Lord Jesus to tlie sun; this has hitherto 

 attracted little or no attention. 



The employment of this figure is eyident from the prophecy 

 about John the Baptist, Mai. iii, 1. " My messenger and he 

 shall prepare the way before Me," because the same figure of 

 speech is supported by Mai. iy, 2, when Christ is spoken of as 

 the Sun of righteousness, who shall arise with healing in His 

 wings ; that this is the association of ideas is proyed by the 

 reference which Zachnrias Luke i, 76, made to these passages 

 in the Old Testament at the birth of his son the Baptist, when 

 he said of him "thou shalt go before the face of the Lord," and 

 when (two yerses later on) he likened the coming Christ to 

 " the day spring (sun rising) from on high " which shall yisit us. 

 This same passage from Malachi witli reference to the Baptist 

 was also quoted by the eyangelist Mark i, 2, by the angel 

 before John's birth, Luke i, 17, by Christ during His ministry, 

 Matt, xi, 10, Luke yii, 27, and by Paul at Antioch in 

 Pisidia, Acts xiii, 24. 



The eyangelist St. John wrote of the Baptist " the same came 

 for witness, that he might bear witness of the Light, that all 

 men through Him might belieye. He was not the Light, but 

 came that he might bear witness of the Light," John i, 7, 8. 

 The Light par excellence is the sun, and the morning star which 

 reflects its light is not the light itself, but is a witness of the 

 coming great luminary. 



On three memorable occasions did the Baptist precede and 

 also testify to the Lord, yiz., some months before His birth, 

 Luke i, 26, 41,44: shortly before His ministry, Matt, iii, 11, 

 John i, 29, 30 ; and by his death about a year before the 

 Crucifixion of the Lord, Matt, xiy, 10 ; xyii, 12, 13. 



