One after another the people made up their minds to change their evil lives and bad habits. They made their good resolutions and as a proof of their sorrow for the past and firm purpose of amendment for the future, they went into the Jordan confessing their sins, and John baptized them. He told them then that He Who was coming was mightier than himself, and that He would baptize them with the Holy Ghost and fire. "Then cometh JESUS from Galilee to the Jordan unto John to be baptized by him!" Where had He come from? Straight from His home, from Nazareth, from His Mother. He had come to fulfil John's prophecy, to begin His public ministry to the people, and He would begin it by identifying Himself with them. They were sinners, coming to confess their sins and He would be numbered with the transgressors (Isaias III. 12). "But John stayed Him, saying: I ought to be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me?" (St. Matt. III. 14). Though they were cousins it is probable that they had not met since their early childhood. One had lived in the seclusion of Nazareth and the other in the seclusion of the desert. "I knew Him not," (St. John I. 31, 33) John said. It was probably the fact of someone coming for the baptism of penance who had no sins to confess that made John suspect and then protest; but he could not resist the gentle, authoritative words: "Suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh Us to fulfil all justice." Then when He had gone out of the water John saw a wonderful sight--he described it himself: "I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from Heaven and He remained upon Him; and I knew Him not, but He Who sent me to baptize with water said to me: He upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, He it is That baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw; and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God." (St. John I. 32-34). He knew Him now--there was no longer any doubt, no more time of waiting and preparation, He Who should come had come. God Himself pointed Him out to the faithful Precursor--a voice from Heaven said: "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased" (St. Matt. III. 17). What a reward for John after his life of solitude and penance and mortification--to be in close contact with the Son of God, to see the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and to hear the Voice of God the Father, and thus have the seal set to his mission! "And I saw; and I gave testimony."