The Bible tells us, that at this time Annas and Caiaphas were high priests: by the Law of Moses, the Jews could only have one high priest at a time, and when once appointed, he continued to hold that high office as long as he lived; but when the Romans took possession of the Holy Land, they appointed the high priest at their pleasure--often depriving one of the office, in order to bestow it upon another. Annas was high priest for eleven years, and then the Roman Governor deprived him of the office, and made Caiaphas, who had married the daughter of Annas, high priest in the place of his father-in-law. According to the will of the Romans, therefore, Caiaphas was actually high priest at this time; though, according to the Law of Moses, he had no right to be so, as long as Annas was alive. No doubt the more devout Jews, who wished to keep their Law, looked upon Annas as their high priest; whilst those who were careless and indifferent, and wished rather to please the Romans, acknowledged Caiaphas: for this reason St. Luke speaks of them both as high priests. We must remember that John was born a few months before Jesus, to "go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways," consequently he was the first to appear in public. He went first as a Messenger, to prepare the people to listen to the Messiah: John came, and called upon all men to repent of their sins and wickedness, to leave off doing wrong, and to do such things as God commanded them to do. John also invited the people to be baptized. Baptism was a rite or ceremony in use amongst the Jews before this time, by way of admitting strangers into their Church: for instance, if any Gentiles wished to join the Jews, and worship God as they did, they were baptized, or washed with Water; and after this ceremony, they were looked upon as new creatures, fit to be admitted into the Jewish Church. The Jews, by baptizing the heathen, admitted them into their Church, into a new religion; John called upon the Jews to be baptized, because they were to change their religion, and become members of a Church, which should have Christ for her head. The Jews baptized persons who, according to their Law, were unclean, in order to purify them; but John called upon those, who according to the Law were clean already, to come to him and be baptized, in order to show, that all who would belong to Christ must purify their hearts, and obey the spirit as well as the letter of all the commandments. This distinction between the letter and the spirit of any commandment, must be carefully and constantly borne in mind, by every Christian. For example, the Sixth Commandment says, "Thou shalt do no murder"; therefore all, who do not actually kill a fellow creature, may be said to obey the _letter_, or exact _words_, of this commandment; but to obey the spirit, we must never do anything wilfully to hurt our neighbour in any way; we must, on the contrary, do all the good we possibly can to our fellow creatures.