Christ, what Christian salvation is, and for what it is given us.

II. There is something very vivid and striking in the abrupt address
to the infant, who lay, all unknowing, in his mother's arms. The
contrast between him as he was then and the work which waited him,
the paternal wonder and joy which yet can scarcely pause on the
child, and hurries on to fancy him in the years to come, going
herald-like before the face of the Lord, the profound prophetic
insight into John's work, are all noteworthy. The Baptist did
'prepare the way' by teaching that the true 'salvation' was not to
be found in mere deliverance from the Roman yoke, but in 'remission
of sin.' He thus not only gave 'knowledge of salvation,' in the
sense that he announced the fact that it would be given, but also in
the sense that he clearly taught in what it consisted. John was no
preacher of revolt, as the turbulent and impure patriots of the day
would have liked him to be, but of repentance. His work was to awake
the consciousness of sin, and so to kindle desires for a salvation
which was deliverance from sin, the only yoke which really enslaves.
Zacharias the 'blameless' saw what the true bondage of the nation
was, and what the work both of the Deliverer and of His herald must
be. We need to be perpetually reminded of the truth that the only
salvation and deliverance which can do us any good consist in
getting rid, by pardon and by holiness, of the cords of our sins.

III. The thoughts of the Forerunner and his office melt into that of
the Messianic blessings from which the singer cannot long turn away.
In these closing words, we have the source, the essential nature,
and the blessed results of the gift of Christ set forth in a noble
figure, and freed from the national limitations of the earlier part
of the hymn. All comes from the 'bowels of mercy of our God,' as