Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-06-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A GOLDEN HAIRED VILLAGE
LAD.
The Early Days OF Christ. When He
Worked in His Fathers Shop.

TEXT: SAnd the child gretC, and trazed
strong IN spirit, filed With tvisdom; and the
grace of God tCds upon Him."-Luke T., 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 HeS Was BE genuine boy at all, or did
there settle upon Him from the start all the
tntensities of martydom? We have on this
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. tr .
But pen and pencil and chisel have with
few exceptions passed by Christ the village
I'D. 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 a man.
First, we have the brief Bible account.
Then we have the prolonged account of what
Christ was at thirty years of age. Now you
have only to minify that account somewhat
and you find what He was at ten years of
age. Temperaments never change. A san
guine temperament never becomes a phleg-
matte temperament. A nervous tempera-
ment never becomes a lymphatic tempera-
ment Religion changes ones affections and
ambitions, but 1t 10 the same old tempera,
ment acting in a different direction As
Christ had no religious change, He was as a
lad what He was as a man, only on not SC
large scale. When all tradition and all art
and all history represent Him as q blonde
with golden hair know He was in boyhood
q blonde.
We have beside an uninspired book that
was for the first three or four centuries after
Christ's appearance received by many
as inspired and which gives pro.
longed account of Christ's boy
hood. 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 passage Of the
ages, some real facts may 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 tinspired, but
we believe it although it may contain mis-
takes. Macaulays "History of England" was
not inspired, but we believe it although it
may have been marred with many errors.
The so-called apocryphal Gospel in which the
boyhood of Christ is dwelt upon / do not be-
lieve to be divinely inspired, and vet it NAV
present facts 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 thirty9 He was
In boyhood as certainly divine as in man.
hood. Then while a lad He must have
had the power to work miracles, whether
He did or not work them. When, hav-
ing reached manhood, Christ turned
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 word, /
think that the New Testament is only
a small transcript of what Jesus did and said.
Indeed, the Bible declares positively thatif 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 afterward would expire on
crosses beside Him. Was that more wonder
ful than some of Chirsts manhood pro-
phesies Or the uninspired story
that Inc boy Christ made fountain
spring from the roots of sycamore tree so
chat His mother washed His coat in the stream
was that more unbelievable than the man.,
hood miracle that changed common water
into marriage beveragea Or the uninspired
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 a complete invalid should have been
made straight by touching the fringe of
Christ's coat2
In other words while do not believe that
any of the so-called apocryphal New Testa-
ment is inspired, I believe much of it is true;
just as I believe 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. have declared to you this day q
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 enwreathed
themselves into his sermons after He had be-
come man l conclude there was not rock
or hill or cavern or a tree for miles
around that He YVES 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 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,
days day @ Of lac Iadhood pnne among s-' the Riiks hills
Among the mountains of New Hampshire,
O. the mountains of Virginia. Or the noun
talns OF Kentucky, or the mountains Of Swift
Eerland or Italy, or Austria, or Scotland, or
mountains as high and rugged as they, many
of the worlds thrilling biographies began.
Our Lords boyhood was passed in a neigh
borhood 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
In the mighty scoop of the valleys and with
another sweep took in the Mediterranean Sea,
and you hear the grandeur of the cliffs and
the surge Of the great waters in His. match
less sermonoIogy. One day see that divine
boy, the wind furrying 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-
fhors 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-
being that ever walked the earth.
and if pale invalid's weak
finger could not touch His robe without
strength going out from Him, these mountains
and seas could not have touched His eye with
out irradiating His entire nature with their
magniicence. Warrant that He had mounted
and explored all the fifteen hills around Naza-
reth, among them Hermon with its crystal
coronet of perpetual snow, and Carmel and
Tabor and Gilboa, and they all had their
sublime echo in after time from the Olivetic
pulpit.
And then 1t was not uncultivated grandeur.
These hills carried in their arms or on their
backs gardens, groves orchards, terraces,
vineyards, cactus, sycamores. These OUT
branching foliageS did not have to wait for
the floods before their silence was broken, for