John was the connecting link between the Old Testament and the New, the last and greatest of the prophets, the first preacher of the new dispensation. The character of the man was marked by great originality (though he was much like Elijah) and power. He was brusque, bold, candid, ready, but modest, devoted, and faithful. The great fact that he announced was the immediate coming of the promised reign of God: “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The promised Messiah was now about to arrive, and he himself was but a voice preparing the way of the Lord. In the greater work and glory of the Coming One, he must be lost to view. Along with announcing this fact, he had a great duty to enjoin, that of immediate preparation for the kingdom by a sincere and fruitful repentance. This he enforced by many an apt illustration and example, many a strong and brave application. His work was fortified and his message of repentance strikingly symbolized in the rite of baptism from which he gets his name. It had not been uncommon for the older prophets to employ external things as signs, tokens, illustrations of their messages. John does not seem to have used the synagogues, but to have preached altogether to the crowds in the open air. In both character and work, he has received the highest possible endorsement, in the encomium of his Lord: “Among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.”
From: A History of Preaching: Volume I: From the Apostolic Fathers to the Great Reformers, AD 70-1572 by Edwin Charles Dargan (London: Hodder & Stoughton/New York: George H. Doran Company, 1905), pp. 21-22.
Edwin Charles Dargan (1852-1930) was Professor of Homiletics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky (1892-1907). He also served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention (1911-1913).