The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-06-27

\. oab storin one uay during Christs bOynopu
blackened the heavens and angered the
rivers. Perhaps standing in the door Of the
carpenters shop He watched II gathering
louder and wilder until two cyclones, one
sweeping down from Mount Tabor and the
other from Mount Carmel, met in the valley
OF Esdraelon and two houses are caught In the
fury and crash goes the one and triumphant
stands the other, and He noticed that one had
shiftng sand for foundation and the other
an eternal rock for basis and twenty
years after Iie built the whole scene into q
peroration of food and whrlwind that seized
His audience aud lifted them into the heights
OF mblimity with tho two great arms of pa,
thos and terror. which sublime words
render, asking You rs far as possible to for.
get that you ever heard them before; "Who-
sooyer henreth these sayings of Mine and
docth then, ] win litcn him unto a
wise man, which built his house
upon rock; and the rain descended, and
Tho floods came, and the winds blew and
beat upon that house; and it fell mott for Il
was founded upon rock And every one
that heareth these sayings Of Mine, and doeth
them not shall DO likened unto foolish
| man, which built his house upon the sand. and
the rain descended, and the floods came
and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house; and 1t fell; and great was the fall
of it."
Yes, from tho patriralness, the simplicity,
the freshness OF His parallels and SMILES and
| metaphors in manhood discourse know that
He had been boy of the fields and had bathed
| In the streams and heard the nightingale's
call, and broken through the Howery hedge
and locked out of the embrasures of the for.
hess, and drank from the wells and chased
the butterflies, which travellers say have al
landscape, and talked with the strange PEG
pie from Damascus and Egypt and Sapphoris
and Syria, who In caravans or on
foot passed through His peighborhood,
the dogs barking at their ap-
proach at shutdown. As afterward He was
perfect man. In the time Of which speak He
was perfect boy. with the spring Of boys
foot, the sparkle OF boys eye, the rebound
Of boys life and just the opposite of those
| Juveniles who sit around morbid and un-
elastic, old men at ten. l warrant He was
able to take His own part and to take the part
Of others. In that village of Nazareth I am
certain there was what is found in all the
heighborhoods Of the earth, that terror of
children, the bully, who seems born to strike,
to punch, to bruise, to overpower the less
muscular and robust. The Christ who after
ward in no limited terms denounced hypo-
critic and Pharisee, warrant, never let such
Juvenile villain impose upon less vigorous
childhood and yet go unscathed and unde-
Tended. At ten years He was in sympathy
|
thirty-three. want no further inspired or
uninspired information to persuade me that
He was splendid boy, a radiant boy, the
grandest, hottest, highest boy of all the ages.
Hence l commend Him as q boys Christ.
What nultitudes between ten and fifteen
years have found Him out as the one Just
suited by His own personal experience to help
any boy.
But having shown you the divine lad in the
6o1Ie .o,r
chop. Joseph, His father, died very early,
Immediately after the famous trip to the
Temple, and this lad not only to support Him
self but support His mother, and what that is
some of you know. There is royal race Of
! boys on earth new doing the same thing
They wear no crown. They have no purple
robe Adroop from their shoulders. The plain
,hair on which they sit is as much unlike a
throne as anything you can imagine But
Sod knows what they are doing and through
what sacrifices they go, and through all
eternity God will keep paying them for their
6lial behavior. They shall get full measure
OF reward, the measure pressed down, shaken
together and running over. They have their
example in this boy Christ taking care of His
mother. He had been taught the car.
penter's trade by His father. The boy
had done the palmer work at the shop
while His father had put on the finish
Ing touches of the work. The boy also
cleared away the chips and blocks and
shavings. He helped hold the different
pieces Of work while the father Joined them
In our day we have all kinds Of mechanics
and the work is divided up among them
But to be a carpenter in Christ's boyhood
days meant to make plows, yokes, shovels
wagons, tables, chairs sofas, houses, and al
most everything that was made. Fortunate
was it that the boy had learned the trade,
for, when the head of the family dies
1t is a grand thing to have the child
able to take care of himself and help take
care of others. Now that Joseph, His father
Is dead and the responsibility of family sup
port comes down on this boy, / hear from
morning to night His hammer pounding, Hi
= saw vacillating His axe descending, His GIN,
lets boring, and standing amid the dust AND
debris Of the shop And the Precipitation
gathering on His temples and notice the IA
hgue of His arm, and as He stops moment Il
rest see Him painting, His hand on His side
from the exhaustion. Now He goes fortl
In the morning loaded with implement
Of work heavier than any modern kit O
Lifting, pulling, adjusting, cleaving, splitting
al day long. At nightfall He goes hom'
TO the plain supper provided by His mother
and sits down too tired to talk. Work
work. work! You cannot tell Christ any
thing now about blistered hands or aching
ankles or bruised fingers or stiff joints o.
rising in the morning as tired as when 20,
1t all, He felt it all, He suffered it all
The boy carpenter! The boy Wagon
maker! The boy house builderl o Christ
we have seen Thee when full grown in Plate
police court room, we have seen Thee when full
grown Thou vert assassinated on Golgotha
but, o Christ, let all the weary artisans ant
mechanics of the earth see Thee while yet I'm
rlnv
with the undeveloped strength of juvenes
,ence trying to take Thy fathers place IL
gaining the livelihood for the family.
But, having seen Christ the boy Of tn
fields and the boy in the mechanics shop,
show you a more marvellous scene Chris
the smooth-browed lad among the long
bearded, white-haired, high forheaded eccle
siastics of the Temple. Hundreds of thou
sands Of strangers had come to Jerusalem +
keep q great religious festival. After tn
hospital homes were crowded with visitor,
the tents were spread all around the city
shelter immense throngs of strangers 1t we
very easy among the vast throng comm
and going to lose a child. More tina
two million people have been known to gathe
at Jerusalem for that national feast 70
must not think of those regions as sparsel
settled The ancient historian Josephus say
there were in Galilee two hundred cities tt
smallest of them containing fifteen thousan
people. No wonder that amid the crowds {
the time spoken of Jesus the boy was los
His parents, knowing that He was matu
enough and agile enough to take care I
Himself, are ON their way home without an
anxiety, supposing that their boy is comm
with some of the groups. But after viii
they suspect He is lost and with flushed chez
and terrorized look they rush this way ar
that saying: Have you seen anything
my boy9 He is twelve years of age, of ia
complexion and has blue eyes and auburn hal
Have you seen Him since we lett the city
; Back they go in hot haste, in and out the Pr
vate houses and among the surrounding hill
For three days they search and inquire, wo
dering if He has been trampled under foot
some Of the thTongs or has .ventured on Il
cliffs or fallen off precipice. Send throu(
all the streets and lanes of the cit
and among all the surrounding hills that mo
dismal sound: "a lost child! A lost child
Andlo, after three days they discover Him
the great Temple, seated among the mighte
religionists of all the world. The walls Of !
other building ever looked down on such
scene. child twelve years old surround
, by septuagenarians He asking His own que
: tions and answering theirs Let me introdu
!, you to some of these ecclesiastics. This is t
| great Rabbin Simeonl This is the venerab
, Hillell Thisis the famous Shammai. These al
| "a .laIp