baptism even the Pharisees and the Sadducees had attended (Matt. 3:7). Therefore he cites it to them, that he may by any means save some. He seeks to outflank their prejudice.--=He was the lamp, kindled and shining.= Observe the difference between this translation and that of our English version. He was not _a light_, but _the lamp_; not _burning_, but _kindled_. A common title given to famous Rabbis was The candle of the law; Christ borrows it, applies it to John, and declares him to have been _the_ lamp, lighting not the law, but the way to Christ. _The_ lamp, because the one foretold in the prophets to light the way of the Lord and prepare for his coming. The _lamp_, not _light_. Two different Greek words (λύχνος and φῶς) are erroneously rendered by the same English word, _light_. Man is but a _lamp_; Christ is _the light_ which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (ch. 1:9); and man (the lamp) can give light to others only as he is himself filled with Christ (the true and only light). This lamp is _kindled_ (καιόμενος, passive), _i. e._, by the touch of God, as a lamp unable to give light until it is filled and lighted by the owner’s hand; and _shining_, as one of the lights of the world (Matt. 5:14), shining with divine light because kindled by a divine hand and partaking of the divine nature (_lumen illuminatum_, not _lumen illuminans_).--=And ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.= The two marks of a spurious religious enthusiasm. They were willing to _rejoice_, but not to _repent_; they were ready to “enjoy religion,” but not to “bring forth fruit meet for repentance;” they flocked in great crowds to John’s Baptism (Matt. 3:5), much as men now flock to camp and tabernacle meetings; but they were not ready to “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God.” And their enthusiasm was but “for a season,” as all merely emotional enthusiasm is. It made no practical and lifelong change in their character or conduct. 36 But I have greater witness than _that_ of John; for the works[192] which the Father hath given me to finish,[193] the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. [192] ch. 10:25; 15:24; Acts 2:22. [193] ch. 17:4.