Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-06-19

who afterwards would expire on crosses be
side him. Was that more wonderful thar
some of Christ's manhood prophesies? U
the uninspired story that the boy Chris
made fountain spring from the roots OF {
sycamore tree so that his mother washed
his coat in the stream-was that more uu
believable than the manhood miracle tina
changed common water into marriage be
verage? Or the uninspired story that tvs
sick children were recovered by bathing IL
the water where Christ had washed? Wa
that more wonderful than the manhood
miracle by which the woman twelve year.
a complete invalid should have been mad'
straight by touching the fringe Of Christi
coatP
In other words, while I do not believe
that any of the so-called apocryphal New
Testament is inspired, believe much of il
is true; just as l believe a thousand books
none of which are divinely inspired. Much
of it was just like Christ. Just as certain
as the man Christ was the most of the time
getting men out of trouble, think that the
boy Christ was the most of the time getting
boys out of trouble. 1 have declared tC
you this day boys Christ. And the world
wants such a one. He did not sit around
moping over what was to be, or what was
From the way in which natural objects en-
wreathed themselves into his sermons after
he had become man conclude there was
not rock or a hill or a cavern or tree fol
miles around that he was not familiar with
IN childhood. He had cautiously felt his
way down into the caves and had with little
and agile limb gained poiss on many a
high tree top. His boyhood was passing
among grand scenery as most all the great
natures have passed early life among the
mountains. They may live now on the
fats, but they passed the receptive days Of
ladhood among the hills. Among the
mountains of New Hampshire or the noun
tains of Virginia or the mountains of Ken
lucky or the mountains of Switzerland or
| Italy or Austria or Scotland or mountains
as high and rugged as they, many of the
worlds thrilling biographies bagan. Our
Lords boyhood was passed in neighbor-
hood twelve hundred feet above theleVel 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.
took in the mighty scoop of the valleys and
with another sweep took in the Mediter-
ranean sea, and you hear the grandeur of
the cliffs and the surge of the great waters
in his matchless sermOnOlogy. One day l
see that divine boy, the wind flurryiug His
hair over His sun-browned forehead, stand
ing on hill looking off upon Lake Tiberias,
on which at one time according to profane
history are. not four hundred, four thou
sand ships. Authors have taken pains Q
say that Christ was not affected by these
surroundings, and that He from within
lived outward and independent of circun-
stances. So far from that being true He
was the most sensitive being that ever walk
ed the earth, and if pale invalid's weak
finger could not touch His robe without
strength going out from Him, these noun
tains and sea could not have touched His
eye without irradiating his entire nature
with their magnifcence. l warrant that
He had mounted and explored all the fifteen
hills around Nazareth, among them Her
mon, with its crystal coronet Of perpetual
snow, and Carmel and Tabor and Gilboa,
and they all had their sublime echo in af-
| ter time from the Olivetic pulpit,
| And then it was not uncultivated gran
deur. These hills carried in their arms or
on their backs gardens, groves, orchards,
| terraces, vineyards, cactus, sycamores.-
These outbranching foliages did not have to
wait for the floods before their silence was
and in circles round them and under them
were pelcans, were thrushes, were spar
rows, were nightingales, were larks, were
quais, were black birds, were patridges,
were bulbuls Yonder the white hocks of
sheep showed down over the pasture lands.
And yonder the brook rehearses to the peb
bles its adventures down the rocky shelly
ing. Yopder are the oriental homes, the
housewife with pitcher on the shoulder
entering the door, and down the lawn in
front children revelling among the flaming
flora. And all this spring and song and
grass and sunshine and shadow woven into
the most exquisite nature thatever breathed
or wept or sung or suffered. Through
studying the sky between the hills Christ
had noticed the weather signs, and that a
crimson sky at night meant dry weather
next day, and that a crimson sky in the
morning meant wet weather before night
And how beautifully he made use of it in
after years as he drove down upon the
pestiferous Pharisee and Sadducee by cry
ing out: "When it is evening ye say it viii
be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in
the morning, it will be foul weather to-day,
for the sky is red and lowering. o, ye
hypocrites, ye can discern the face Of the
sky, but We can not discern the signs Of the
times" By day, as every boy has done,
he watched the barnyard fowl at sight of
overswinging hawk cluck her chickens
under wing, and in after years he said: so,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often would
have gathered thee as hen gathereth her
chickens under her wing! By night he
had noticed his mother by the piaia candle
light which, as ever and anon it was snuffed
and the removed wick put down on the
candlestick, beamed brightly through all
the family sitting-room as his mother was
mending his garments that had been torn
during the days wanderings among the
rocks or bushes, AID years afterwards it all
came out in the simile of the greatest SER
mon ever preached: ''Neither do men light
a candle and put it under bushel but in a
caudlestick and it giveth light to all who
are in the house. Let your light SO shine. ,
| Some time when his mother in the autumn
| took out the clothes that had been put
| away for the summer he noticed how the
moth miller flew out and the coat dropped
apart, ruined and useless, and so twenty
years after he epjoined: 'Lay up for your
selves treasures in heaven where neither
moth nor rust can corrupt" His boyhood
spent among birds and flowers they all
caroled and bloomed again fifteen years
after as he cries out, "Behold the fowls OF
the air. ''Consider the lillies.'' A great
storm one day during Christ's boyhood
blackened the heavens and angered the
rivers. Perhaps standing in the door Of
the carpenters shop he watched it gather
ing louder and wilder until two cyclones,
: one sweeping down from Mount Tabor
! and the other from Mount Carmel, met il
| the valley of Esdraelon and two houses are
, caught in the fury and crash goes the ont
and triumphant stands the other, and hs
, noticed that one had shifting sand for {
J foundation and the other an eternal rocl
for basis; and twenty years after he bull
: the whole scene into a peroration of fioot
and whirlwind that seized his audience ant
lifted them into the heights of sublimity
7 with the two great arms of pathos and ter
ror, which sublime words I render, asking
. you as far as possible to forget that yol
t ever heard them before. "Whos0ever hear
t eth these sayings of mine and doeth them
| will liken him unto a wise man wbicl
huilt his hOuSe uDOu rock. and the rail