The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-08-15

with another sweep took IN the Medlter-
ranean Sea- and you hear the grandeur of
the cliffs and the surge Of the great
waters in His matchless sermonology,
One day see that Divine boy, the wind
flurrying His hair over His sun Drowned
forehead, standing on a hilltop looking
off upon Lake Liberals, on which at one
time according to profane history were
found four thousand ships. Authors
have taken pains to say that Christ was
not affected by these surroundings, and
that He from within lived outward and
independent of circumstances. So far
from that being. true, He was the
most sensitive being that ever walked
the earth. and if pale invalid's weak fin
ger could not touch His robe without
strength going out from Him, these
mountains and seas could not have
touched His eye without irradiating His
entire nature with their magniicence.
warrant that He had mounted and ex-
plored all the fifteen hills around Naza-
reth, among them Hermon with its crys-
tai coronet of perpetual snow, and Car
mel and Tabor and Gilboa, and they all
had their sublime echo in after time from
the Olivetic pulpit.
Yes, from the naturalness, the SIM
pl1city, the freshness Of His parallels,
and SMILES, and metaphors in manhood
discourse, know that He had been a boy
of the fields, and had bathed in the
streams, and heard the nightingale's
call, and broken through the fowery
hedge, and looked out of the embrasures
of the fortress, and drank from the wells,
and chased the butterflies which travel
hax oil hao "a ha
ting beauties of that landscape, and
talked with the strange people from
Damascus, and Egypt, and Sapphoris,
and Syria, who in caravans OF
on foot passed through His neigh
borhood, the dogs barking at their APP
proach at shutdown. AS afterward He was
perfect man, in the time of which
speak He was a perfect boy with the
spring of a boys foot the sparkle of q
boys eye, the rebound or boys life and
just the opposite of those Juveniles who
sit around morbid and unelastic, old men
at ten. warrant He was able to take His
own part and to take the part Of others.
In that village of Nazareth | am certain
there was what is found in all the neigh
borhoods of the earth, that terror of chill
dren, the bully, who seems born to strike,
to punch, to bruise, to oYerpower the less
muscular and robust.
But having shown you the Divine Lao
in the fields, must show you Him in the
mechanics shop. Joseph, His father
died very early, Immediately after the
famous trip to the Temple, and this lac
had not only to support Himself, but sup.
| port His mother, and what that is some
| of you know. There is royal race Of
boys on earth now doing the same thing
They wear no crown. They have no pur-
| pie robe adroOp from their shoulders
| The plain chair on which they sit is as
much unlike a throne as any thing yot
can imagine. But God knows what they
are doing and through what sacrifices
they go, and through all eternity
| God will keep paying then
for their filial behavior. They
shall get full measure of reward,
the measure pressed down, shaken to-
| gether and running over. They have
their example in this boy Christ taking
care of His mother. He had been laugh
the carpenters trade by His father. Tit
| boy had done the palmer work at thu
shop, while His father had put on thu
finishing touches of the work. The boy
also cleaned away the chips and block;
and shavings. He helped hold the differ
ent pieces of work while the father
| joined them. In our day we have al
kinds of mechanics, and the work is di
vided up among them. But to be a car
penter in Christ's boyhood days meant t.
make plows, yokes, shovels, wagons, ia
| bles, chairs, sofas, houses and almos
every thing that was made.
But, having seen Christ the boy of tn,
fields and the boy in the mechanics shop
I show you a more marvellous scene
Christ the smooth browed lad among tn,
long bearded, white haired, high-fore.
headed ecclesiastics of the Temple. Hun
dreds of thousands of strangers had come
to Jerusalem to keep a great religion!
| festival. After the hospitable homes
were crowded with visitors, the tent
were spread all around the city to shelter
| immense throngs of strangers. 1t wai
very easy among the vast throngs com
ing and going to lose child. More thar
two hundred thousand people have beer
| known to gather at Jerusalem for thai
national feast You must not think o.
those regions as sparsely settled. The
ancient historian Josephus says there
were in Galilee two hundred cities, the
smallest of them containing fifteen
thousand people. No wonder thai
amid the crowds at the time
spoken of Jesus the boy Of
was lost. His parents, knowing that H,
was mature enough aud agile enough tx
take care of Himself, are on their way
home without anxiety, supposing tina
their boy is coming with some of the
groups. But after awhile they suspect He
is lost, and with flushed cheek and a ter
rorized look they rush this way and tina
saying: "Have you seen any thing of ny
boy? He is twelve years Of age, of fail
complexion and has blue eyes and au
| burn hair. Have you seen Him since W,
left the city," Back they go in hot haste
i'll and out the streets, in and out the pri
vate houses and among the surrounding
! hills. For three days they search and in.
quire, wondering if He has been trampleC
under foot of some of the throngs or ha,
yentured on the cliffs or fallen off {
| precipice. Send through all the street.
and lanes of the city and among all tn,
| surrounding hills that most disma
sound, "a lost child! A lost childp'
And 10, after three days they discover
Hmm the great Temple, seated among thu
| mightiest religionists of all the world
The walls of no other building ever looked
down on such q scene. A child twelve
years old surrounded by septuagenarians,