The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-06-15

talked with the strange people from Da-
mascus and Egypt and Sapphoris and
Syria, who in or on foot passed
through His neighborhood, the dogs bark
ing at their approach at shutdown. As
afterward He was a perfect man, in the
time of which l sp ak He was a perfect
boy, with the spring Of a boys foot, the
sparkle of a boys eye, the rebound of n
boys life and just the opposite of those
Juveniles who sit around morbid and I'M
elastic, old men at ten. l warrant He was
able to take His own part and to take the
part of others.
Let the world look out how it treads on
a boy, for that very momen it treads on
Christ You strike II boy, you strike
Christ; you insult n boy, you insult Christ;
you CHI at a boy, you cheat Christ. 1t is
IN awful and infinite mistake to come as
far as manhood without a Christ when
here is n boy Christ. That was one reason,
l suppose, that Jonathan Edwards, after
ward the greatest American logician and
preacher of his time, became a 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 n Christian
at nine years Of age; and If in any large
religion assemblage IL 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 a re-
ligious sense is rue in a secular sense.
Themistocles amazsd his school fellows
with talents which in after years made
the world stare. Isaac Newton, the boy,
by driving pegs in the side of n house TO
mark the decline of the sun, evidenced n
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
prophesied work which should yet make
him immortal. Get out of my way I"
said a 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 lac in
the fields, 1 must show you Him in the
mechanics shop. Joseph, His father, died
very early, Immediately after the ia
nous trip to the temple, and thisl lad had
not only to support Himself, but to sup
port His mother, and 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 SIT is as much
unlike a throne as any thing you can imag-
inc. 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 nave their example in
this 10y Christ taking care of His mother.
But having seen Christ, the boy of the
feel Is md the boy in the mechanics shop.
l sh w you a more marvellous scene,
Christ, the smooth proved lad, among the
long-bearded. w~hite-haired, high fore
headed e~cclesiastics of the temple. Hun
DIR. DIS Of thousands OF strangers had come
to Jerusalem to keep a great religious fes-
tival. After the hospitable homes were
crowded with visitors. the tents were
spread all around the city to shelter inn
mense throngs. of strangers. 1t was very
easy among the vast throngs coming and
going 10 lose a child. More than two
million people have been known to gather
Mt Jerusalem for that national feast You
must not think of those regions as SPARSE
ly settled. The ancient historian, Jo-
sephus, says there were in Galilee two
hundred cities, the smallest of them ROM
tanning 49, 600 people. No wonder that
amid the crowds at the time spoken of
Jesus, the boy, was lost. His parents,
knowing that He was mature enough and
agile enough to take care of Himself, are
on their way home without any anxiety,
supposing that their boy is coming with
some of the groups. But after awhile they
suspect He is lost and with flushed cheek
and a terrorized look they rush this way
and that, saying: Have you seen any
thing of my boy? He is twelve years of age,
of fair complexion. and has blue eyes and
auburn hair. Have YOU seen Him since
we left the cityY" Back they go in hot
haste, in and out the streets, in and out
the private houses and among the sur
rounding hills. For three days they
search IN inquire. wondering il He has
been trampled under foot of some of the
throngs or has ventured on the cliffs or
fallen of n precipice. lend through all
the streets and lanes of the city and
among the surrounding hills that most
dismal sound: "A lost child! A lost
CHILD" And 10, after three days they
discover Him in great temple, seated
among the mightiest rel~igionists of all the
world. The walls of no other building
over looked down on such a scene. A
child twelve years old surrounded Ey
,sp~tuagenariaus, He asking His W ques.
tions and answering theirs.
! IN not 80 much interested in the ques.
tions they asked Him as in the questions
He asked them. He asked the questions
not to get information from the doctors,
for He knew it already, but to humble
them by showing them the height and
depth and length and breadth of theiI
" Ignorance. While the radiant boy
thrusts these self-conceited philosophers
with the interrogation point, they put the
forefinger Of the right hand to the temple
as though to start their thoughts into
more vigor. and they won d look upward
and then they would WRINKLE their brows
n then Ly absolute silence or in positive
words confess their incapacity to answer
the interrogatory. With any one of a
hundred questions abou theology, about
philosophy, about astronomy, about time,
about eternity, He may-haye baked them,
disconnected them, flung them fiat. Be-
hold the boy Christ asking questions and
listen when your child asks questions. He
has the right to ask them. The more he
asks the better. Alas for the stupidity OF
the child without inquisitivenessl 1t Is
Cbristlike to ask questions. Answer
them II can. Do not say: Il can't
bs bothered now" 1t is your place to
be bothered with questions. II you are
not able to answer, surrender and confess
your incapacity, as l have no doubt did
Rabbin Simeon and Hillel and Shammai
and the sons Of Betirah when that splendid
boy, sitting or standing there with a gar
runnN rnaahino Hra.n nnab q n arHIn aud
girdled at the waist, put them to their
very wits emo. 1t is no disgrace to say
al DON'T know" The learned doctors
who environed Christ that day in tn.
temple did not know or they would no
have asked Him any questions. The only
being In the universe who never needs t.
say, ~ do not know" Is the Lore
Almighty. The fact that they did no
I know sent Keppler and Cuvier and Colum
bus and Humboldt and Herschel anc
Morse and Sir William Hamilton and al
the other of the worlds mightiest naturei
into their lifelong explorations. Telescope
and microscope and ~stethoscope anc
electric battery and all the scientific APP
paratus of all the ages are only question:
asked at the door OF mystery. Behold thu
Nazarene lad asking questions, giving
everlasting dignity to earnest interroga
ton.
But While 1 see the old theologisnl
standing around the boy Christ / am i'm
pressed as never before with the fact tina
what theology most wants Is more o
childish simplicity. The world and thu
Church have built up i'm mense systems o
theology. Half of them try to tell wha'
God thought, what God planned, wha
God did FIVE hundred million years befor'
the small star on which We live was ere