to consume the altar and the wood; for it is expressly said that John did “no miracle.” Not that he owed anything to the adventitious circumstances of wealth and rank; for he was not a place-loving courtier, “clothed in soft raiment or found in kings’ courts.” Not that he was a master of a superb eloquence like that of Isaiah or Ezekiel; for he was content to be only “a cry”—short, thrilling, piercing through the darkness, ringing over the desert plains. Yet, his Master said of him that “among them