The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-06-26
CHRISTS BOYHOOD.
Dr.. Talmage breaches on Christ
as a Village Lad"
Roaming the Hills and Climbing the
Trees Around Nazareth-Worktng In
His Fathers Carpenter Shop, and
Teaching the Doctors in
tho Temple.

The subject of DR.. Talmage's recent ser
mon was Christ the Village Lad" He took
for his text Luke ii 20: 'sAnd the child
grew and waNed strong in spirit, filed with
wisdom; and the grace Of God was upon
him. Following is the sermon:
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 he. Was ne genuine boy at
all or did there settle upon him from the
start all the iatensities Of martyrdom! We
have on this subject only little guessing,
{. few surmiScs, and here and there ar un-
important perhaps" Concerning what
bounded that boyhood on both sides we have
whole libraries Of books and whole galleries
Of canvass and sculpture. Before the in
FAINT Christ in Mary's arms, or taking his
first sleep in the rough outhouse, all the
painters bow, and we have Paul Neronese's
Holy Family and Perugino's Nativity
and Angelica da Fiesole's Infant Christ
and Rubens' ''Adoration Of the Magi" and
Tintoret's ''Adoration Of the Nagi" and
Chirlandojo's ''Adorati on Of the Magi" and
Raphaers Madonna" and Orcagna's MA
donna and Murillo's Madonna" and Ma
~-SonnaS by all the schools Of painting in all
lights and shades and with all styles Of at
Inactive feature and impressive surround
insss, but pen and pencil and chisel have,
with few exceptions, passed by Christ the
villSge lad. Yet by three 'conioined eri-
dences think we can come TO as accurate
an d{ea of what Christ was as boy as we
can of what Christ was as q man.
First, we have the brief Bible account.
TheY we have the prolonged account Of
what Christ was at thirty years OF age. Now
you have only to m;nify that account some
what and you find what he was at ten years
Of Age Temperaments never change. A
saHguine temperament never becomes
pGlegmatic temperament. A nervous tenn
Berament never becomes a lymphatIc tenn
+ permanent. Religion changes ones a8ec-
tons and ambitions, but it is the same old
temperament acting in different direction
AS Christ had the religious change, BE was
as q lad what He was as man. only on not
so large scale. When all tradition, and all
art. and all history represent Him as
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
as inspired, and which gives prolonged
account of Christ's boyhood. 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 inspired, but we believe
it although it may contain mistakes.
Macaulay's s'History Of England" was not
inspired, but we believe it although it may
have been marred with many errors. The So
called ap6cryphal gosRsleisss the boy