The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-06-21

mountains and seas could not have
touched His eye without irradiating His
entire nature with their magnifcence.
warrant that He had mounted and ex-
plored all the fifteen hills around Naza.
reth, among them Hermon with it's Crys-
tai coronet of perpetual snow, and Car
mel and Tabor and Gilboa, and they all
had their sublime echo in after time from
the Olivetic pulpit.
Yes, from the naturalness, the sim
pl1city, the freshness of His parallels,
and SMILES, and metaphors in manhood
discourse, / know that He had been a boy
of the fields, and had bathed in the
streams, and heard the nightingale's
call, and broken through the howery
hedge, and looked out of the embrasures
of the fortress, and drank from the wells,
and chased the butterflies which travel
ers say have always been one of the fit
ting beauties of that landscape, and
talked with the strange people from
Damascus, and Egypt, and Sapphoris,
and Syria, who in caravans or
on foot passed through His neigh
borhOOd, the dogs barking at their ap-
prOach at shutdown. AS afterward He was
a perfect man, in the time of which
| speak He was a perfect boy, with the
! spring of a boys foot, the sparkle of a
! boys eye, the rebound or a boys life and
sit around morbid and unelastic, old men
at ten. 1 warrant He was able to take His
own part and to take the part of others.
In that village of Nazareth am certain
there was what is found in all the neigh
borhoods of the earth, that terror of chill
dren, the bully, who seems born to strike,
to punch, to bruise, to overpower the less
muscular and robust.
But having shown you the Divine lad
u G-Tl Il l.
mechanics shop. Joseph, His father,
died very early, Immediately after the
famous trip to the Temple, and this lad
had not only to support Himself, but sup
/ port His mother, and what that is some
of you know. There is royal race of
| boys on earth now doing the same thing.
They wear no crown. They have no pur-
| pie robe adrOop from thoir shoulders.
| The plain chair on which they sit is as
much unlike O throne as any thing you
can imagine. 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 to-
| gether and running over. They have
their example in this boy Christ taking
care of His mother. He had been taught
| the carpenters trade by His father. The
! boy had done the palmer work at the
shop, while His father had put on the
finishing touches of the work. The boy
also cleaned away the chips aud blocks
and shavings. He helped hold the differ
| ent pieces of work while the father
| Joined them. In our day we have all
kinds of mechanics, and the work is di-
vided up among them. But to be car
penter in Christ's bOyhood days meant to
make plows, Jokes, shovels, wagons, ia
bles, chairs, sofas, houses and almost
every thing that was made.
! Fortunate was it that the boy had
| learned the trade, for, when the head of
| the family dies, it is a grand thing to have
| the child able to take care of himself and
/ help take care of others. Now that
| Joseph, His father, is dead and the re-
sponsibility of family support comes
down on this boy, hear from morning
! till night His hammer pounding, His saw
vaciIIating, His axe descending, His gim-
! lets boring, and standing amid the dust
and debris of the shop l find the pers pira-
ton gathering on His temples and notice
! the fatigue of His arm, and as He stops
moment to rest 1 see Him painting, His
hand on His side, from the exhaustion.
! Now He goes forth in the morning loaded
with implements of work heavier than
any modern kit of tools. Under
the tropical sun He swelters. Lift
| ing pulling, adjusting, cleaving,
splitting all day long. AT nightfall
He goes home to the plain supper
provided by His mother and sits down
| too tired to talk. WorkI work! work I!
You can not tell Christ any thing now
about blistered hands, or aching ankles,
or bruised fingers, or stiff joints, or rising
in the morning as tired as when you laid
| down. While yet boy He knew it all,
/ II - ],
carpenter! The boy wagon makeri The
| boy house builder! o, Christ! we havo
| seen Thee when full grown III Pilates
! police court room; we have seen Thee
| when full grown Thou were assassinated
/ on Golgotha, but o, Christ, let all the
weary artisans and mechanics Of the
earth see Thee while yet understood and
arms not yet muscularized, and with the
undevelOped strength of juvenesoenCe,
! trying to take Thy fathers place in gain
ing the livelihood for the family.
| But, having seen Christ the boy Of the
| fields and the boy in the mechanics shop,
| 1 show you q more marvellous scene,
! Christ the smooth brOwed lad among the
| long bearded, white haired, high fore
| headed ecclesiastics of the Temple. Hun
! dreds of thousands of strangers had come
| to Jerusalem to keep a great religious
! festival. After the hospitable homes
were CIOWQ6u VIII VlSlbOTSt Tile bouIS
were spread all around the city to shelter
immense throngs of strangers. 1t was
/ very easy among the vast thrOngs COM
ing aud going to lose a child. More than
/ two hundred thousand people have been
! known to gather at Jerusalem for that
national feast You must not think of
; those regions as sparsely settled. The
ancient historian Josephus says there
/ were in Galilee two hundred cities, the
smallest of them containing fifteen
thousand people. No wonder that
amid the crowds at the time
/ spoken of Jesus the boy Of
was lost His parents, knowing that He
was mature enough and agile enough to
take care of Himself, are on their way
home without 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 ter
rorized 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 ard au-
burn hair. Have you seen Him since we
left the city," Back they go in hot haste,
/ in and out the streets, in and out the pri-
waite houses and among the surrounding
hills. For three days they search and in
/ quire, wondering if He has been trampled
under foot Of some of the throngs or has
/ ventured on the cliffs or fallen of
precipice. Send through all the streets
! and lanes of the city and among all the