Excerpt from The Atonement: Or Human Nature and Redemption The Jewish nation had fallen into a condition of wide spread degeneracy when John the Baptist appeared as the last and greatest herald of the Redeemer. An earlier prophet had said of him: The voice of him that crieth in the wilder ness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God (isa. 40: At the time of his appearance all classes of the people had forsaken the right ways of the Lord, and were heedless of His commands. Their position as a kingdom had been lost, and they were tributary to the Roman power. The high-priesthood was held by men who were filled with worldly ambition and love of gain rather than a sincere desire to administer God's righteous law. The people were divided into opposing sects, each seeking to establish its own righteousness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.