Sunday School Times Mark 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,… But John had been doing a good work, doing an important work, doing the very work that God had planned for him to do. Why did the Lord let him be put in prison? Just such interruptions as that to the best men's work, and just such trials as this to the best of men, are in the Lord's plan of the progress of his work, and of the training of His people. When old Father Mills, of Torringford, Connecticut, heard that his son, Samuel J. Mills, "the father of foreign missions in America," had died at sea while his work was at its brilliant starting, the quaint old Yankee preacher said wonderingly: "Well, I declare! The fat's all in the fire again." And it did look that way, didn't it? We can't understand all this; but we can see its commonness. John the Baptist was a child of promise and a child of prophecy. Jesus says of him: "Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist." Yet just as he was fairly inaugurating the Messiah's dispensation, and his work seemed more important than almost anyone's else on earth, "John was put in prison." Until you can see just why that thing was permitted, don't worry yourself over some of your little hindrances, or those of your neighbours, asking — as if half in doubt whether or not there is a God, or whether He cares for the interests of His cause and its best friends "What did the Lord let this happen for?" (Sunday School Times.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, |
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