Jesus went forward into the river and John baptized him. In a moment Jesus was up the bank and lost in the crowd. The next man was coming forward. John stared after the vanishing figure of Jesus. The crowd made way for Jesus, thinking, _There goes another man who came to be cleansed of his sins._ But John said: "When I baptized _him_, I saw the Spirit of God come down out of heaven like a dove, and light upon him. Jesus is the Son of God. I am nothing. He is everything. He is the Messiah. He is the Lamb of God!" The next man was coming down the bank toward John. John stood peering into the crowd. Jesus was nowhere to be seen. Jesus had gone away to be alone, as God wanted him to do. He went into the loneliest part of the desert, where there were only the wild animals to keep him company. _I am the Messiah_, he thought. _There is no doubt that I am the Messiah. I must save my people. How should I begin?_ There was nothing to eat in the wilderness, and Jesus grew hungry. He looked around him, and saw that the stones were shaped like loaves of bread. There seemed to be a voice inside him which was not his own. The voice said: "_If you really are the Messiah, you oughtn't to be hungry. If you really are the Messiah, you would just have to say the word and these stones would be turned into bread. Then you would have plenty to eat for yourself, and, besides, you could go and give bread to all the hungry folk out there who are waiting for you to help them._" It was very quiet in the wilderness. The voice spoke up again. "_But maybe you are afraid to try. Suppose you said to the stones, 'Stones, become bread!' and then nothing happened! That would prove that you weren't the Messiah, wouldn't it?_" Jesus shook his head, to get rid of the thought. Some words from the Scriptures came into his mind. "_Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God._" No, it would not do to try playing tricks with stones. It would not matter if he did turn them into bread. Bread was not the most important thing in the world. People might think that there was nothing so important as eating, but there were bigger things in life than that. People might think that what the Messiah ought to do was to make the country prosperous, but that would not help them so much as they thought. That was not the kind of Messiah he was going to be. But what was the best way to prove that he was the Messiah? The tempting voice inside tried again. "_Maybe the best idea_," it said, "_is to go to Jerusalem and climb up on the tower and jump down! Everyone says that the Messiah is going to come suddenly out of heaven. You would come down suddenly enough that way! And nothing would happen to you. It says in the Scriptures that God will send his angels to hold you up and keep you from being hurt. Surprise the whole city by jumping off the Temple, and everybody will worship you at once!_"