Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-06-20

4
noticed the weather signs and that q
crimson sky at night meant dry weathe,
| next day, and that q 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 tv
crying out: when it is evening We say
It Will 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.
U, ye hypocrites We can 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
DE said: %, Jerusalem. Jerusalem! How
often would have gathered thee as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wing ]"
By night He hal noticed His mother by
the plain candlelight which. as ever and
anon it was snuffed and the removed wick
put down on the candlestick, beamed
brightly through ali the family sitting
room as His mother was mending His gar
ments that had been torn during the days
wanderings among the rocks or bushes
and years afterward it all came out in the
simile of the greatest sermon ever
preached: "Neither do men light q candle
and put it under a bushel but in a candle
stick 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 enjoined: 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 cried out: ''Behold the fowls
Of the air." Consider the lilies.n
Yes, from the naturalness, 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 nghtingale's call, broken through the
fowery hedge and looked out of the en-
brasurss of the fortress. and drank from
the wells and chased the butterflies, which
travellers say have always been one of the
fitting beauties of that landscape, and
talked with the strange people from Da-
mascus and Egypt and Sapphoris and
through His neigh borhood the dogs bark
ing at their approach at sundown. As
afterward He was perfect man, in the
time of which I speak He was perfect
boy, with the spring of boys foot. the
sparkle of boys eye, the rebound of a
boys life and just the opposite of those
Juveniles who sit around morbid and un-
elastic, old men at ten. / warrant He was
able to take His own part and to take the
part of others In that village Of Nazar-
eth l am certain there is what is found in
all the neighborhoods of the earth, that
terror of children, the bully, who seems
torn to strike, to punch, to bruise, to over
power, the less muscular and robust The
Christ who afterward in no limited terms
denounced hypocrite and Pharisee, 1
warrant, never let such juvenile villain
impose upon less vigorous childhood and
yet go unscathed and undefended. At ten
years He was in sympathy with the un-
derlings as He was at thirty and thirty
three. I want no further inspired or un-
inspired information to persuade me that
He was a splendid boy. a radiant boy, the
grandest, holiest, mightiest boy of all
ages. Hence I commend Him as a boys
Christ What multitudes between ten
and fifteen years have found Him out as
the one just suited by His own personal
experience to help any boy.
Let the world look out how it treads on
a boy, for that very moment it treads on
Christ You strike a boy, you strike
Christ; you insult boy, you insult Christ;
you cheat boy, you cheat Christ 1t is
an awful and infinite mistake to come as
far as manhood without a Christ when
here is a boy Christ. That was one reason.
l suppose, that Jonathan Edwards, after
ward the greatest American logician and
preacher of his time, became Christian
at seven years of age; and Robert Hall,
who afterward shook Christendom with
his sacred eloquence became a Christian
at twelve years of age; and Isaac Watts,
who divided with Charles Wesley the do
minion of holy song, became a Christian
at nine years of age; and if in any large
assemblage it were asked!that all
the men and women who learned to love
Christ before they were fifteen years of
age would please. lift their right hand,
there would be enough hands lifted to
wave a coronation. What is true in re-
igious sense is true in a secular sense.
amazed his school fellows
with talents which in after years, made
the world stare. Isaac Newton, the boy,
by driving pegs in the side of house to,
mark the decline of the sun, evidenced
disposition toward the experiments which
afterward showed the nations how the
the worlds swing. Robert Stephenson,
the boy, with his kite on the commons ex--
perimented with electric currents and
work which should yet make
him immortal Get out of my wayn
said rough man to a boy, ''get out of my
way! what are you good for, anyhow"
They boy answered.: They make men out
Of such things as we are"
But having shown you the divine lad in
the fields, 1 mast show you Him in the
shop. Joseph, His father, died
very early, Immediately after the ia
nous trip to the temple, and this lad had
not only to support himself, but to sup
port His mother, and what that is some of
you know. There is a royal race OF boys
On earth now doing the same thing They
wear no crown. They have no purple
robe adroop from their shoulders. The
plain chair on which they sft is as much
unlike a throne as any thing you can imag-
me. but God knows what they are doing
and through what sacrifices they go, and
through all eternity God will keep paying
them for their filial behavior. They shall
get full measure of reward, the measure
pressed down. shaken together and run
ming over They have their example in
this roy Christ taking care of His mother.
BE had been taught the carpenters trade
by His father. The boy had done the
palmer work at the shop while His father
had put on the finishing 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 l. Divided nm among them Rot to