Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-06-20
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE's
STERLING DIsCoURsEs.
subject. "christ. the Village Lad"

About Christ as a village lad l 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 He genuine boy at all, or did
there settle upon Him from the start all the
intensitles Of martydom? We have on this
subject only little guessing, few surmises
and here and there an unimportant per
hans Concerning what bounded that bow.
hood on both sides we have whole libraries Of
books and whole galleries of canvas and
sculpture.
But pen and pencil and chisel have with
few exceptions passed by Christ the village
lad. 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
gIline temperament never becomes a phleg-
matte temperament. A nervous tempera-
ment never becomes a Emphatic tempera-
ment. Religion changes ones affections and
ambitions but it is the same old tempera-
ment acting in a different direction. As
Christ had no religious change, He was as
lad what He was as a man, only on not so
large a scale When all tradition and all art
and all history represent Him as a blonde
with golden hair | know He was in boyhood
blonde.
We have, beside, an uninspired book that
was for the first three or four centuries after
Christ's appearance received by many
longed account of Christ's boy
hood Some of it may be true, most of it may
be true, none of 1t 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 1t. Prescott's
Conquest of Mexico was not inspired, but
we believe il although it may contain mis-
takes. Macaulay's History of England was
NOT inspired but we believe it although il
NAV have been marred with many errors.
The so-called apocryphal Gospel in which the
boyhood of Christ is dwelt upon do not be-
leve 10 be divinely inspired, and yet it may
present facts worthy of consideration Because
It represents the boy Christ as performing
miracles some have overthrown that whole
apocryphal book. But what right have you
10 say that Christ did not peform miracles at
ten years of age as well as at thirty He was
in boyhood as certainly divine as in man.
hood Then while lad He must have
had the power to work miracles whether
He did or not work them When, hav-
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 a word, l
think that the New Testament is only
small transcript of what Jesus did and said.
Indeed, the Bible declares positively that if 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 a 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
full than some of Chirsts manhood pro-
phesiess Or the uninspired story
that the boy Christ made a fountain
spring from the roots of sycamore tree so
that His mother washed His coat in the stream
was that more unbelievable than the man
hood miracle that changed common water
into marriage beverage? Or the uninspired
story that two sick children were recovered
BY bathing in the water where Christ had
washedg Was that more wonderful than the
manhood miracle by which the woman twelve
years complete invalid should have been
made straight by touching the fringe OF
Christs coatP
In other words, while do not believe that
any of the so-called apocryphal New Testa-
ment is inspired, believe much of 1t is true;
Just as 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. l have declared to you this day
boys Christ And the world wants such
one. He did not sit around moplng
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 a man / conclude there was not rock
or hill or a cavern or q tree for miles
around that He was not familiar with in
childhood. He had cautiously felt His way
down into the caves and had with 1.-THE and
agile limb gained a poise on many mgn
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
the flats, but they passed the receptive
days of ladhood among the hills
Among the mountains of New Hampshire,
or the mountains of Virginia, or the noun
tains of Kentucky, or the mountains OF swift
eerand, or Italy, or Austria, or Scotland, OF
mountains as high and rugged as they, many
Of the worlds thrilling biographies began
Our Lords boyhood was passed in nelgh-
borhood twelve hundred feet above the level
Of the sea and surrounded by mountains five
T SIX hundred feet still higher. BEFORE IL
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 sermonology. One day see that divine
boy, the wind fiurrying 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-
thors have taken pains to say that Christ was
not affected by these surroundings, and that
He from within lived outward and independ-
ent of circumstances. So far from that be
ing true, He was the most sensitive
being that ever walked the eartn,
and if pale invalids weak
finger could not touch His robe without
strength going out from Him. these mountains
and seas could not have touched His eve WITH
outirradiating His entire nature with Their
magnifcence. warrant that He had mounted
and explored all the fifteen hills around Naza.
reth, among them Hermon with its crystal
eoronet of perpetual snow, and Carmel and
Tabor and Gilboa, and they all had Their