The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-06-20
the Village Lad.
a clear and Mastery Analysis Of the
Child'life Of the Savior at His
Jerusalem Hama

-, .'~ M"sserly analysis OF the
Ch1ld'life Of the Savior at His
Jerusalem Home.
BROOKLYN. N. Y, June vast concou roo
VI people filing all the available places Joined
IN the opening ~doxology at BROOKLYN Taber.
nacle, this morning. The pastor, the Rev.
l levitt Talmage, D. D., expounded the
passaee IN John about the unwritten works
OF Chrlst which the world itself could NOT
nave contained. The subject ofDr. Talmage's
e'mon was Thirst the Village Lad" He
'ook 1or his text Luke, H., 49,: "And the
cnlid grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filed
WIN wisdom; and the grace Of God was upon
nlm." The preacher said:
ABOUT Christ as a village lad I speak.
mere is for the most part silence more than
e'gnteen centuries long about Christ between
infancy and manhood. What kind of a bow
wal he? Was he a genuine boy at all, or did
enere settle upon him from the start all the
htensltles of martyrdom? We have on this
SUBJECT only q little guessing, q few surmises,
ana here and there an unimportant "per-
maps" Concerning what bounded that bow.
nooo on both sides we have whole libraries of
books and whole galleries of canvas and
sculpture. Before the infant Christ in Mary's
arms, or taking his first sleep in the rough
Clubhouse. all the painters bow, and we have
raul Veronese's "Holy Family" and
Perugio's Nativity" and Angelica d.
F~iesole's "Infant Christ" and Reuben's
Alteration of the Magi' and Raphael's
Madonna" and Orcagna's MADONNA and
Murlllo's Madonna" and Madonnas by all
the schools of paintingi in alllights and shades
and with all styles OF attractive feature and
Impressive surroundings, but pen and pencil
and chisel have with few exceptions passed
by Christ the village lad. Yet by three con-
Joined evidences l think we can come to a &C.
curate an idea of what Christ was as O boy
as we can of what Christ was as O man.
First e have the brief bible account. Then
we have the prolonged account ofwhat Christ
was at 30 years of age. Now you have
only to minify that account somewhat
and you find what he was at 10
years of age. Temperaments never change.
a o~A6uAAO CCuup cIumeuU never DECO IueN b
phlegmatic temperament. A nervous tenn
permanent never becomes q Emphatic tenn
permanent. Religion changes ones affections
and ambitions. but it is the same old tenn
permanent acting in a different direction. Al
Christ had no religious change, he was as a
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 l know he was in boyhooda
blonde.
We have besides, an uninspired book that
was for the first three or four centuries after
Christ's appearance received by many as in
spired and which gives a prolonged account
OF Christ's boyhpod. Some of it may be
true, most of it may be true, lone 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 o
book is not divinely inspired we are not
therefore to conclude that there are not true
things in it. Prescott's Conquest of Mexi-
co" was not inspired, but wo believe it, al
though it may contain mistakes. Macu-
spired, 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 l do not
believe to be divinely inspired, and yet it
may present facts worthy of consideration.
Because it represents the boy Chsist as per-
forming miracles some have oVerdrawn the
have you to say that Christ did not perform
miracles at 10 years of age Us well as at 80?
He was il boyhood as certainly divine as in
manhood. Then while q lad he must have
had the power to work miracles, whether he
did or did not work them. When, having
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 q word, l think that the new
testament is only q small transcript of what
Jeasus did and said. Indeed, the bible de-
clares positively that if oil Christ did and
said were written the world would not con-
tain the books. So we are at liberty to be-
lieve or reject those parts of the ~apocryphal
gospel which soy that when the boy Christ with
his mother passed q band of thieves he told
his mother that two of them, Dumachus and
Titus by name, would be tho two thieves
who afterward would expire on crosses be-
side him. Was that more wonderful than
some of Christ's manhood prophcsies? Or
the uninspired story that the boy Christ
made a fountain spring from the roots Of a
sycamore tree SO that his mother washed his
coat in the stream-was that more unbe-
| UAuk SNO NSNAS NAA~S
changed common water into a marriage bev-
erage? Or the uninspired story that too
sick children were recovered by bathing in
the water where Christ had washed? Was
that more wonderful than tho manhood
miracle by which the woman twelve years a
complete Invalid should have been made
coat?
In other words, while I do not believe that
any of the so-called apocryphal new tesla
ment is inspired, l believe much OF it is true,
lust as l believe q thousand books, none OF
which are divinely inspired. Much of 1t was
lust like Christ. Just Us certain as the man
Christ was the most of the time getting men
out of trouble, I think that the boy Christ
of trouble. have declared to you this day
a bows 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 them
selves into his sermons after he became a
man / conclude there was not o rock or q
hill or q cavern or a tree for miles around
that he was not familiar with IN chl!dnood'
He had cautiously felt his way down into the
caves and had with 1.-the and agile limit
gained a poise on many q high tree-top. His
hovhood was passed amid grand scenery 81
most all the great natures have passed early
life among tho mountains. They may live
now on the fats, but they passed the respec
tive days t,s OF m ,oan1Ga a oi Ssv 'nf Ha naale
sh;re or tho mountains of Virginia or the
%mnnntains of Kentucky or the mountains o
Switzerland or Italy or Austria or Scotland
or m%ountains as high or rugged as they
many of the worlds thrilling Geographic:
nacnn. Our Lords b0yhood was
pissed in q neighborhood 1900 feet above
the level of the sea and n1;' n;oh q a mount !,
Could shine on the village where this boy
sIent the suu had to climb far enough up to
i "nk over the hills that held their heads fal
aloft. From yonder height this eye at ont
s~sen took in the mighty scoop ofthe valleys
and with another sweep took in the Mediter
lAN ~~- Loov tho nro 1pSor ~