Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-10
A WONDERFUL BOY.
The Early Days of Christ When He
Worked in His Fathers Shop.
A GOLDEN HAIRED VILLAGE LAD,
Climbing Trees and Exploring Caves With
His Comrades.
A CHILD'S INSPIRED QUESTIONS
GOLDEN HAIRED VILLAGE LAD,
A CHILD'S INSPIRED QUESTIONS


BROOKLYN, June "a vast concourse of
oeople filling all the available places Joined
in Tie opening doxOlogy at Brooklyn Taber-
uacle this morning The pastor the Rev.
T. De Witt Talmage, D. D., expounded the
passage in John about the unwritten works
of Christ which the world itself could not
have contained. The subject of DIR. Tai
mage's sermon was "Christ, the Village
Lad" He took for his text Luke ii, 40:
"And the child grew, and waxed strong in
spirit filled with wisdom; and the grace of
God was upon Him." The preacher said:
About Christ as a village lad speak. There
is for the mcst part silence more than Is CEN
turles long about Christ between infancy and
manhood. What kind of boy was he? Was
ne genuine boy at all, or did there settle upon
him from the start all the intensities of mar
tyrdom? We have on this subject only little
guessing, few surmises and here and there an
Unimportsnt perhaps" Concerning what
bounded that boyhood on both sides we have
whole libraries of books and whole galleries of
canvas and sculpture Before the infant
Christ in Mary's arms, or taking his first sleep
in the rough outhouse all the painters bow, and
we have Paul Veronese's Holy Family" and
Perugino's Nativity and Angelica da Fie-
sole's Infant Christ and Rubens Alteration
of the Magi," Tintoret's Alteration
of the Magi," and Ch1rlandojo's "Adoration of
the Magi'' and Raphael's Madonna and Or
cagna's Madonna" and Murillo's Madonna"
and Madonnas by all the schools of painting in
all lights and shades and with all styles of at
tractive feature and impressive surroundings,
but pen and pencil and chisel have with few
exceptions passed by Christ, the village lad
Yet by three conjoined evidences 1 think we
can come to as accurate an idea of what Christ
was as boy as we can of what Christ was as a
man.
CHRIST AS BOY.
First, we have the brief Bible account Then |
we have the prolonged account of what Christ |
was at so years of age Now you have only to |
minify that account somewhat and you find |
what he was at 10 years of age. Temperaments |
never change. A sanguine temperament never
becomes phlegmatic temperament A nerv-
Gus temperament never becomes a lymphatic
temperament. Religion changes ones affec-
lions and ambitions but it is the same old tenn
permanent acting in different direction. AS
Christ had no religious change, he was as a lad
what he was as a man, only on not SO large a
scale When all tradition and all art and all
history represent him as blonde with golden
hair know he was in boyhood blonde
We have, beside, an uninspired book that
was for the first three OF four centuries after
Christ's appearance received by many as in,
spired, and which gives prolonged account of
Christs boyhOod Some Of it may be true,
most of it may be true, none of it may be true.
1t may be partly built on facts, or by the pass
age of the ages some real facts NAV have been
distorted. But because a book is not divinely
inspired we are not, therefore, to conclude
that there are not true things in it. Prescott's
conquest of Mexico" was not inspired, but
we believe it although it may contain many
mistakes Macaulays History of England"
was not inspired, but we believe it although it |
may have been marred with many errors. The |
so-called apocTyphal gospel. in which the boy
hood of Christ is dwelt upon, do not believe
to be divinely inspired, and vet it may present |
facts worthy of consideration. Because it rep
resents the boy Christ as performing miracles
some have overthrow that whole apocryphal
book. But what right have you to say that Christ |
did not perform miracles at 10 years of age as
well as at 30? He was in boyhood certainly
divine as in manhood Then while lad he
must have had the power to work miracles |
whether he did or did not work them. When, |
having reached manhood, Christ turned water
into wine, that was said to be
THE BEGINNING OF MIRACLES.
But that may mean that 1t was the beginning 3
II that series of manhood miracles In a word
think that the New Testament is only a small !
transcript Of what Jesus did and said. Indeed !
the Bible declares positively that if all Christ
did and said were written the world would not
contain the books So we are at liberty to be- !
heve or reject those parts of the apocryphal
gospel which say that when the boy Christ and :
his mother passed band of thieves he told his :
mother that two of them, Dumachus and Titus /;
by name would be the two thieves who after :
ward would expire on crosses beside him. Was :
that more wonderful than some of Christ's
manhood prophecies? Or the uninspred story
|
from the roots of sycamore tree so that his
mother washed his coat in the stream-was | +
that more unbelievable than the manhood mir :
acle that changed common water into mar
riage beverage? Or the uninspired story that n
two sick children were recovered by bathing in S
the water where Christ had washed? Was that v
more wonderful than the manhood miracle by a
which the woman II years a complete invalid a
should have been made straight by touching n
the fringe of Christ's coat?
In other words, while 1 do not believe that =
any of the so-called apocryphal New Testa- q
ment is inspired, believe much of it is true: a
Just as / believe a thousand books none of r
which are divinely inspired. Much of it was lust
like Christ Just as certain as the man Christ a
was the most of the time getting men out of 8
most Of the time getting boys out of trouble a
/ have declared to you this day boys Christ r
And the world wants such one. He did not q
sit around moping over what was to be, orwhat q
was From the way in which natural objects N
enwreathed themselves into his sermons after =,
he had become a mani conclude there was not | "
a rock or hill or a cavern or tree for miles ',
around that he was not familiar with in child | L
hood. He had cautiously felt his way down | g
into the caves and had with 1.-the and agile n
limb gained pOise on many high tree top. | T
His boyhood was passed among grand scenery | =,
as most all the great natures have passed early n
life -
AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. b
They may live now on the flats, but they | n
passed the receptive days of ladhood among is
the hills. Among the mountains of New cl
Hampshire or the mountains of Virginia or the ID
of Kentucky or the mountains of "
Switzerland or Italy or Austria or Scotland or di
as high and rugged as they. many of in
5he worlds thrilling biographies began. Our yo
Lords boyhood was passed in a neighborhood he
200 feet above the level of the sea and surround
ID by mountains 500 or 600 feet still higher.
5efore it could shine on the village where this
10Y slept it had 10 climb far enough up look tn
ver hills that held their heads far alott From di
onder height his eye at one sweep took in the -
mighty scoop of the valleys and with another Oa Oa
weep took in the Mediterranean Sea, OF
nd you hear the grandeur of the an
lifts and the surge of the great do
Eaters in his matchlesS sermonology. nj,
Jne day see that divine boy, the wind furry I'M
ng his hair over his sun-browned forehead, ST.
landing on a hilltop looking off upon Lake / f
-lOerlas, on which at one time. according to an
rotane history, are, not 400, but 1000 ships. str
authors have taken pains to say that Christ ba
vas not affected by these surroundings, and ba
hat he from within lived outward and indepen- NJ
ent OF circumstances. So far from that being | e
rue. he was the most sensitive being that ever II,
Talked the earth, and If pale invalid's weak ali
niger could not touch his robe without strength to
DING out from him, these mountains and seas On
Ould not have touched his eye without irrad. | -
ting his entire nature with their magnifi- sb
ence. I warrant that be had mounted and br,
xplored all the Is hills around Nazareth, | mr.
mong them Hermon, with its crystal coronet w
( perpetual snow, and Carmel and Tabor and he
ilboa, and they all had their sublime echo in wa
fter time from the Olivetic pulpit. on
And then it was not uncultivaUed grandeur | Phi
hese bills carried in their arms or on their | VIII
acks gardens groves. orchards, terraces, vine Go
lrds cactus, sycamores. These outbranching | sar
liages did not have to wait for the floods be- vet
re their silence was broken, for through AM
em and over them and in circles round them Ger
I'd under them were pelicans. were thrushes, inc
ere sparrows were nightingales, were larks. Z