The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-06-27
TAIMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse Of tho Great
Brooklyn Prsa her
sahjcct; "Chris, the Village
H..si."

hIgsus
TEXT: "And the child gre,p, and ,caaed
strong in spirit, filled Nth ,pisdom, and III.
grace Of God toas upon Kim. "--Luko H., 40,
About Christ as a village lad speak
There is for the most part silence more than
eighteen centuries long about Christ between
infancy and manhood. What kind of a boy
was Hep Was He genuine boy at all ordid
there settle upon Him from the start all the
intensities Of martydomp We have ON thi,
subject only little guessing, few surmises,
and here and there an unimportant ''per,
haps." Concerning what bounded that boy,
hood on both sides we have whole libraries Of
books and whole galleries of canvas and
sculpture.
But pen and pencil and chisel have with
few exceptions passed by Christ the village
lad. Yet by three conjoined evidences /
think we can come TO as accurate an idea of
what Christ was as boy as we can Of what
Christ was as man.
First we have the brief Bible account.
Then we have the prolonged account of what
Christ was at thirty years of age. Now Won
have only to minify that account somewhat
and you find what He was at ten wears of
age, Temperaments never change. A san.
guine temperament never becomes n phleg.
matte temperament. A nervous tempera.
mont never becomes Emphatic tempera-
ment. religion changes ones affections and
ambitions but II is the same old tempera-
ment acting in a different direction. AZ
Christ hadn religious change, He was as a
lad what He was as a man. only ON NOT az
= Yet ssa,e. When all tradition and ali art
an all history represent Him as a blonde
with golden hair know He was in boyhood
blonde.
We have, beside, an uninspired book that
fha At.cf t1,,na a..
Chrlsts appearance received by many
as inspired and which gives pro-
lonScd account OF Christ's bow
hood. Some of it may be true, most OF It may
bo true, none of it may be true. it NAV be
partly built on facts, or by the passage Of the
ngeS some real factsnay have been distorted,
But because 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 IL although il may contain mis-
takes. Macaulay's History of England was
not inspired, but we believe it although it
may have been marred with many errors
The so-called apocryphai Gospel in which the
boyhood OF Christ IS dwelt upon do not be-
heve to be divinely inspired, and yet it may
entfactS worthy OF consideration. Because
1t represents the boy Christ as performing
miracles some have overthrown that whole
apocryphal book. But what right have YOU
TO say That Christ did not peform miracles at
ten years of age as well as at thirty? He was
in boyhood as certainly divine as in man
hood. Then while lad He must have
M nad u, me power to work miracles, whether
ne ne did or not work them When, hav,
water into Wine that was said to be
the beginning of miracles. But that may
mean that it was the beginning of that
series OF manhood miracles. In a word. I
think that the New Testament is onlv
small transcript of what Jesus did and said
Indeed the Bible declares positively that il all
Christ did and said were written the world
would not contain the books, So we are at
liberty to believe or reject those parts Of the
apocryphal Gospel which say that when the
boy Christ with 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 efterward would expire on
crosses beside Him. Was that more wonder-
iul than some OF Chirst's manhood pro-
phesies? Or tho uninspired story
that the boy Christ made fountain
spring from the roots of a sycamore tree ga
that His mother washed His cat in the stream
was that more unbelievable than the man
hood miracle that changed common water
INTO marriage beverage? Or the uninsured
story that two sick children were recovered
by bathing in the water where Christ had
washed? Was that more wonderful than the
manhood miracle by which the woman twelve
years complete invalid should have been
made straight by touching the fringe Of
Christ's coats
In other words, while do not believe that
any Of the so-called apoeryphal New Testa-
ment is inspired, believe much of it is true.
Just as believe n thousand books. none of
which are divinely inspired. Much of it was
gust like Christ. Just as certain as the man
tprlst was the most of the time getting men
out OF trouble, l think that the boy Christ
was the most of the time getting boys ont of
Frouble | have declared to you this day a
boys Christ. And the world wants such
one. He did not sit around rnoping
over what was to be, or what was. From
the way in which natural objects enwreathed
themselves into his sermons after He had be-
come man conclude there was not a rock
or NIL or cavern or tree for miles
around that He was not familiar with in
childhood. He had cautiously felt His way
down into the caves and had with 1.-the and
agile limb gained poise on many a high
tree top. His boyhood was passed among
grand scenery as most all the great
natures have passed early life among
the mountains. They may live now on
the flats, but they passed the receptive
days of ladhood among the hills.
Among the mountains of New Hampshire,
or the mountains of Virginia. or the noun
talns OF Kentucky, or the mountains of Swift
zeriand, or Italy, or Austria, or Scotland, or
mountains rs high and rugged as they, many
Of the worlds thrilling Biographies began,
Our Lords boyhood was passed In a neigh
oorhood twelve hundred feet above the level
OF the sea and surrounded by mountains five
| or six hundred feet still higher. Before it
| could shine on the village where this boy
slept the sun had to climb far enough up to
look over hills that held their heads far aloft.
From yonder height His eye at one sweep took
another sweep took in the Mediterranean Sea,
! aad you hear the grandeur of the cliffs and
! the surge of the great waters in His match
less sermonology. One day see that divine
boy, the wind flurrying His hair over His sun
Drowned forehead, standing on hill top
looking off upon Lake Tiberias, on which at
one time according to profane history are,
| not four hundred, four thousand ships. Au-
thors have taken pains to say that Christ was
not affected by these surroundings, and that
He from within lived outward and independ.
emit of circumstances So far from that be
ing true, He was the most sensitive
being that ever walked the earth
and If pale invalid's veal
finger could not touch His robe without
strength going out from Him, these mountain.
and seas could not have touched His eye with
out irradiating His entire nature with theil
magnifcence. Warrant that He had mounted
and explored all the fifteen hills around Naza
reth, among them Hermon with its crysta
coronet Of perpetual snow, and Carmel ant
Tabor and Gilboa, and they all had thei1
sublime echo in after time from the Oliveti,
| pulpit.
And then it was not uncultivated grandeur
These hills carried in their arms or on thei
backs gardens, groves, orchards, terraces
| vineyards, cactus sycamores. These out
branching foliages did not have to wait TO
the floods before their silence was broken, TO
through them and over them and in circle
round them and under them were pelicans
were thrushes, were sparrows, were night
| ingales, were larks, were Quails, wer,
blackbirds, were patridges were bulbuls
| 1order the white flocks of sheep snowe'
down over the pasture lands. An
yonder the brook rehearses to the pei
bles its adventures down the rocky shelving
Yonder are the oriental homes, the housewife
with pitcher on the shoulder entering tn
door, ard down the lawn in front childre
reve!ing among the flaming fora. And a
this snring and song and grass and ssnshin
aut shadow woven into the most exquisit
nature that ever breathed or wept or sung o
suffered. Through studying the sky betwee
the hills Christ had noticed the weathe
signs, and that a crimson sky at night mean
dry weather next day, and that crimson SIX
in the morning meant wet weather befor
night. And how beautifully He made use {