Thenceforth a new light illumined all the world for that carpenter's son. He found it inevitable that he should see every phase and feature of life in a new light. So perfectly true is this that the fact has been recorded in the New Testament that his own mother and brother and sisters—the persons with whom he had lived under the same roof and eaten at the same table for nearly thirty years—hardly recognized him as the same man, and never from that point onward understood him. They even thought him insane.
Now, the explanation of all this is simple and clear. There is no mystery about it. The life of the world goes on in cycles. It is like the incoming tide on the seashore. There is an insweeping of the tide, then a momentary pause or reaction, then another flow that sweeps a little farther up the beach. Humanity is an organism. It grows, as the individual does. For a time there may be no sign of growth. There is going on a conservation of energy for another enlargement of life. So it was at that time. The world was ready for another forward step. The time was ripe for a new unfolding, for a fuller disclosure of truth. And John the Baptist was conscious of that fact. He gave it a voice.
This is what he means when he says: "Even now is the axe laid unto the root of the trees." It is as if he had said: "There is no use trying to
