But there was far more than merely the demonstrations of Simeon and Anna,--than these impulses of joy on the part of the faithful followers of Jehovah: "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judæa. ... And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. ... And saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ... I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. ... But there standeth one among you, whom ye know not. {234} He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. ... And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. ... And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." [Footnote 84] [Footnote 84: Matthew iii. 1-5; Mark i. 2-11; Luke iii. 1-18; John i. 26-34.] Attempts have sometimes been made, although with no very great confidence on the part of the propounders of the theory, to represent Jesus as the most eminent among several reformers, who, about the same epoch, aspired to the title and character of the Messiah predicted by the prophets and expected by Israel. Reference has been particularly made to one of His predecessors, Judas the Gaulonite, who, a few years after the birth of Jesus, on the occasion of a census ordered by the Imperial Legate Quirinius, undertook to raise Judæa in insurrection against this measure--against the tribute that it imposed, and against the Emperor himself--proclaiming that to God alone belonged the appellation _Master_, and that liberty was worth more than life. [Footnote 85] [Footnote 85: Joseph. Antiq. Jud. 1. xvii. ch. 6; 1. xviii. ch. 1. Acts of the Apostles, ch. v. 34-39.] {235} These comparisons--I forbear to use the word assimilations--are entirely without foundation. These men, who, as it is pretended, anticipated the career of Jesus, were simply men who opposed the Roman dominion, and who stood up, like the Maccabees before them, in the name of national independence, and in a spirit of reaction in favor of the Mosaic government. Jesus was not so anticipated: His mission had no relation with any previous essay; and his sole forerunner was John the Baptist, as strange as himself to any political view or conspiracy, and as humble before Him--before the true, the sole Messiah--as Judas the Gaulonite and his adherents were bold and daring towards the Emperor. {236} There is an interval of thirty years between the birth of Jesus and the day when He enters actively on the performance of his divine mission. [Footnote 86]