ISAIAH had identically the same message that John the Baptist had, and he was to proclaim it “until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” Isa. 6: 11, 12. In the chapter where the work of John the Baptist is specially described; namely, the voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, we read, just following, “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.” Isa. 40: 10. From Matt. 11: 13, 14, we learn that John and his work are mentioned in Mal. 4: 5, 6, where we read, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse,” or, “with utter destruction.” This is the plainest possible statement of the fact that the work of John the Baptist extends until the coming of the Lord in glory. Unless we know this fact, we can not study the account of his work to any real profit; but when we know that his message is the message for our time, even until the last day of probation for sinners, then we shall know what there is for us to do, and how we are to do it.
— Present Truth.