The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-06-26
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DlVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Christ the Village Lad"

Subject: "Christ the Village Lad"
TEXT: "And the child gre1U, and acared
strong IN spirit, filled 1cith 1ctsdo'n; and the
grace of God loos upon Him. Luke L., 40.
About Christ as a village Lad I speak.
There is for the most part silence more than
eighteen centuries long about Christ between
infancy and manhood. What kind Of boy
was He? Was He genuine boy at all, or did
there settle upon Him from the start all the
intensities of martydom? We have on this
subject only little guessing, few surmises,
and here and there an unimportant per
haps" Concerning what bounded that boy
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 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
guine temperament never becomes phleg-
matte temperament. A nervous tempera-
ment never becomes a lymphatic tempera-
ment. Religion changes ones affections and
ambitions, but it is the same old tempera-
ment acting ia a different direction. As
Christ had no religious change, He was as a
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 as inspired and WHICH gives pro pro
hood Some of it may be true, most of it may
be true, none OF it may be true It 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. Prescotts
Conquest Of Mexico" was not inspired, but
we believe it although it may contain mis-
takes. Macaulay's ''History of England" was
not inspired, 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 do not be-
ieve to be divinely inspired, and yet it may
present tfacts worthy Of Consideration. Because
it represents the boy Christ as performing
miracles some have overthrown that whole
apocryphal book. But what right have you
to 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-
ing 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 word,
think that the New Testament is only
a small transcript of what Jesus did and said.
Indeed, the Bible declares positively thatif 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 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 Chirst's manhood pro-
phesies? Or the uninspired story
that the boy Christ made fountain
spring from the roots of a 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
~
story that two sick children were recovered
by bathing in the water where Christ had
washed? 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
Christ's coat?
In other words, while do not believe that
any of the so-called apocryphal New Testa-
ment is inspired, I believe much Of it is true;
s,,c-o II Ialia fl,nt1 md 1-c 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. I have declared to you this day a
boys Christ. And the world wants such
q one. He did not sit around moping
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 man conclude there was not rock
or hill or a cavern or a 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 high
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 fats, but they passed the receptive
days of ladhood among the hills.
or the mountains of Virginia, or the noun
tains of Kentucky, or the mountains of Swift
zerland. or Italy, or Austria, or Scotland, or
mountains as high and rugged as they, many
of the worlds thrilling biographies began.
Our Lords boyhood was passed in neigh
borhood twelve hundred feet above the level
of the sea and surrounded by mountains five
or six hundred feet still higher. Before it
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
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 ser1nonology. One day I see that divine
boy, the wind furrying 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 earth,
and if pale invalid's weak
finger could not touch His robe without
strength going out from Him, these mountains
and seas could not have touched His eye with
out iIradiating His entire nature with their
magnifcence I Warrant that He had mounted
and explored all the fifteen hills around Naza-
reth, among them Her1non with its crystal
coronet of perpetual SLOW, and Carmel and
Tabor and Gilboa, and they all had their
sublime echo in after time from the Olivetic
pulpit.
And then it was not uncultivated grandeur.