the need for repentance and the imminent arrival of the King for whom the highways should be repaired. When the elite of the nation presented themselves for baptism, he called them vipers, and suggested they were as snakes fleeing before a prairie fire. He inferred that once the threat of danger subsided, they would return to theft wicked ways. He called the most respected people hypocrites, and yet in those initial meetings, few people argued with the preacher. We do not know how often he preached,