THE RETURN TO NAZARETH.
When Herod was dead, Joseph, instructed by an angel, brought Mary and Jesus into the land of Israel, and made them a home in Nazareth. The mother with her divine child in this Nazareth home has ever been the favorite subject with painters. "Madonna" pictures have been multiplied into the thousands. The most famous are those which were painted by Raphael,—the Sistine Madonna, Madonna of the Chair, Madonna da Tempi, Madonna of the Goldfinch, etc.,—reproductions of which are familiar to everybody. Among other famous painters of the Madonna is Murillo, who, in Plate 32, represents the mother and child as the neighbors might have seen them in their humble home. The child is of course beautiful. (Luke 2:40.) In Plate 33, the artist has emphasized the last phrase of Luke 2:40, "The grace of God was upon him." The Father in heaven is visibly present, and the grace descends upon the child in the form of a dove, as suggested by Luke 3:22. The action of all the accessory figures, the arrangement of the light, everything in the picture, is calculated to focus the attention upon the face of the child Christ.
Hofmann, Plate 31, tells of the quiet days at Nazareth, when Joseph worked at his trade, and Mary sat near spinning and watching the wondrous lad who in his child-way could help Joseph by fetching a needed tool. It was a peaceful, happy life, like that of the chickens and the doves. The memories of those days furnished Jesus with the wonderful figure of speech recorded in Matt. 23:37, 38. Hofmann, like other artists, is fond of symbolism, hence the square and the measuring stick are upon the shoulder of the child (Is. 9:6) who was to lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet (Is. 28:17); and the tools take the form of the cross. Jesus was subject unto his parents (Luke 2:51), and, in a sense, took up his cross daily, as all his disciples must ever do (Matt. 16:24). Such service is healthful and profitable (Luke 2:52).
