The digital copies of these recordings are available for free at First Fruits website. place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits FOREWARD Four hundred years have rolled away since- God had said a word to Israel through an inspired prophet; so many having come in by-gone ages that the coun-try seemed to be literally enchanted with them; their hallowed memories still lingering; their footprints still visible. It truly seemed to Israel that God had forsaken her and left her to float ad libitum on the sea of time, taking chances with the whole Gentile world for a happy landing. Therefore, the rise of John the Baptist, not only an inspired prophet, but the greatest prophet who had ever trodden the globe; aye, more than a pro-phet, because he was precursor and honored intro-ducer of his Lord. He began to preach in the wild-erness where, in the providence of God, he was brought, [because Herod's soldiers were massa-creing all the male infants two years old and young-er in and about Bethlehem, in ordez: to be sure to get Jesus; though there was no such an order given for Juttah, yet Zechariah and Elizabeth, zealous for the safety of their son, migrated away to the wild-erness of Judea and never returned.] Therefore when John reached majority-thirty years-he per-sued to Levitical law, began to preach in the wild-erness. W. B. Godbey