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an innocent man, or attempt to divert Herod from his mad purpose, though he gave them an opportunity of doing it, by signifying to them that he performed his oath merely out of regard to the company. Thus Herod, through a misplaced regard to his oath and his guests, committed a most unjust and cruel action; an action that will forever brand his memory with dishonor, and render his very name detestable to the latest posterity.

Soon after the command was given, the head of that venerable prophet, whose rebukes had struck Herod with awe in the loosest moments, and whose exhortations had often excited him to virtuous actions, was brought, pale and bloody, in a charger, and given to the daughter of Herodias, in the presence of all the guests.

The young lady eagerly received the bloody present, and carried it to her mother, who enjoyed the whole pleasure of revenge, and feasted her eyes with the sight of her enemy's head, now silent and harmless. But she could not silence the name of the Baptist; it became louder, filling the earth and heavens, and publishing to every people and nation this woman's baseness and adultery.

Thus fell that great and good man, John the Baptist, who was proclaimed by our blessed Saviour himself, to be "more than a prophet." Josephus tells us, that his whole crime consisted in exhorting the Jews to the love and practice of virtue; and in the first place to piety, justice, and regeneration, or newness of life; not by the bare abstinence from this or that particular sin, but by an habitual purity of mind and body.

It may not be improper, on this occasion, to hunt,

that the history of this birth-day, transmitted to posterity in the Scriptures, stands a perpetual beacon, to warn the great, the gay, and the young, to beware of dissolute mirth. Admonished by so fatal an example, they should be careful to maintain, in the midst of their jollity, an habitual recollection of spirit, lest reason, at any time, enervated by the pleasures of sense, should slacken the rein of wisdom, or let it drop, though only for a moment; because their headstrong passions, ever impatient of control, may catch the opportunity, and rush with them into follies, or crimes whose consequences will be unspeakably, perhaps eternally bitter.

CHAPTER XIV.

OUR LORD ADDS TO THE CONFIRMATION OF HIS MISSION AND DOCTRINE

BY WORKING A MIRACLE IN THE WILDERNESS OF BETHSAIDA—The
PEOPLE, STRUCK WITH THE POWER AND GRACE of the blessed Jesus,
PROPOSE TO RAISE HIM TO THE EARTHLY DIGNITY OF KING-Peter,
BY MEANS OF HIS BLESSED MASTER, PERFORMS A MIRACLE IN WALKING
UPON THE SEA.

HE disciples were so alarmed at the cruel fate of

THE

the Baptist, whose memory they highly revered, that they returned from their mission, and assisted in performing the last offices to the body of their old master-many of the apostles having been originally the disciples of John. As soon as the pious rites were over, they repaired to Jesus, and told him all that had happened.

Their compassionate Master, on hearing this melancholy news, retired with them by the sea into a desert place, belonging to Bethsaida, that by retirement, meditation, and prayer, they might be refreshed and recruited for their spiritual labors; and, at the same time, leave an example to us, that we should often retire from the noise and hurry of the world, and offer up the most fervent prayers to our heavenly Father.

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