CHAPTER II.
THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.
THE Incarnation of the Son of God, presents us with an example of condescension and humiliation, only equalled by the exaltation of its subjects. He came to earth, that he might exalt us to heaven. His sufferings and death, clothe us, who are dead in sin, with immortality, and secure to us the bliss of an eternal Paradise. To trace the footsteps of Jesus, God Incarnate, and to present the words that dropped fresh from his wise and holy lips, while on his mission of mercy to this sin-stricken world, will be the object of these pages.
The child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. But his first word, on record, was uttered at the age of twelve years. A multitude had assembled at Jerusalem. The eight days' worship being ended, the crowds disperse and scatter to their homes in the distant countries round about. The parents, supposing "the child Jesus" to be among their relatives and acquaintances in the great throng, pass on a day's journey, when they seek him but find him not.
They return, anxious and sorrow stricken, to Jerusalem, where they find him still in the Temple, sitting with the Doctors of the law, and astonishing the multitude with his understanding and answers.
His mother, though amazed at his wisdom, gently chides her son for his lack of filial fidelity, saying, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." And he said unto them,
How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them; but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
Eighteen years now pass away without the record of another word. While he honored his earthly parents, and was diligent in his daily toil, he was doubtless ever busy in the work assigned him by his Father in heaven. Multitudes may have been charmed by his youthful eloquence, confounded by his wisdom, and melted under his sweet spirit of love. But to us it is one great blank. This brief sentence among the doctors in the temple, in answer to the question of the anxious mother, is like some blazing comet, which for a brief space lights the starry vault with its radiance, and then shoots off, in its eccentric course, to be seen no more for years to come. During these silent years, multitudes had passed to their reward. "Seed time and harvest, summer and winter, day and night," had succeeded each other, in regular order; while the "bow in the cloud" had constantly reminded the world of the gracious promise of God to Noah. But not
a word is preserved from the lips of this wonderful child. Not a footprint marks his journeyings.
At the age of thirty he suddenly appears again on the page of history. Let us now follow his footsteps, and listen to his words.