According to an ancient Hebrew custom, a bridegroom's friend often held the wedding feast at his own home and presided over it.
In readying men's hearts for reception of the Messiah, the rugged Nazarite, John the Baptist, was a voice crying in the wilderness of human aspirations and desperations. His mission was to assure his countrymen that heaven's marriage feast had already been prepared; the light of the world had appeared; the Lamb of God was in their midst. Christ Jesus, the bridegroom, John was saying, in effect, is at hand, and I am the friend.
Mrs. Eddy has this to say on the significance of baptism: "John came baptizing with water. He employed a type of physical cleanliness to foreshadow metaphysical purity, even mortal mind purged of the animal and human, and submerged in the humane and divine, giving back the lost sense of man in unity with, and reflecting, his Maker." Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 184-185;
