The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-06-26

it were asked that all the men
and women who learned to love Christ
before they We're fifteen years Of age
would please lift their right hand.
there would be enough hands lifted
to wave coronation. What is true in
religious sense is true in secular sense.
Themistocles amazed his school fellows
with talents which in after years made the
driving pegs in the side Of house to mark
the decline of the sun, evidenced a DISPOSE
ton towards the experiments which after
wards showed the nations how the worlds
swing. Robert Stephenson, the boy, with
his kite on the commons experimental with
electric currents and prophesied work
which should yet make him immortal "Get
out Of my way!' said rough man to boy,
"get out of my way what are you good for,
anyhow" The boy answered. 'They
make men out of such things as we are"
Hear it, fathers, mothers! hear it philan-
thropists and patriots! hear it, all the
youngl The temporal and eternal destiny
ofthe most Of the inhabitants of this earth
hold the Nazareth Christ, the village Christ,
the country Christ, the boy Christ
But having shown you the divine lad in
the fields, must show you him in the me-
chanic's shop. Joseph, his father, died very
early, Immediately after the famous trip to
the temple, and this lad had not only to sup
port himself, but support his mother, and
what 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 throne as any thing
you can imagine. But God knows what
they are doing and through what sacrifices
they 90, 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 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 cleared away the chips and blocks, and
shavings. He helped hold the different
pieces Of work while the father joined them.
In our day we have all kinds of mechanics,
and the work is divided up among them
But to be carpenter in Christ's boyhood
days meant to make plows, yokes, shovels,
wagons, tables, chairs, sofas, houses and
almost every thing that was made. For
tunate was It that the boy had learned. the
trade, for when the head of the family dies
it is grand thing to have the child able to
take care of himself and help take care Of
others. Now that Joseph, the father, is
dead, and the responsibility Of the family
support comes down on this boy, hear
from morning to night his hammer pound
ing, his saw vacillating, his axe descending,
his gimlets boring and standing amid the
dust and debris Of the shop find the pers
piration gathering on his temples and notice
the fatigue Of his arm, and as he stops a
moment to rest see him painting, his hand
on his side, from the exhaustion. Now he
goes forth in the morning loaded with i'm
plements of work heavier than any modern
kit Of tools. Under the tropical sun he
swelters. Lifting, pulling, adjusting, cleav-
ing, splitting all day long. At nightfall he
goes home to the plain supper provided
by his mother and sits down too tired to talk.
Work work! work. You can not tell Christ
any thing now about blistered hands or ach-
ing 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, he felt it all, he suffered it all. The
boy carpen teri The boy wagon maker! The
boy house builder! o Christ, we have seen
Thee when full grown in Pilates police
court room, we have seen Thee when full
grown thou vert 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
juvenescence trying to take Thy fathers
place in gaining the livelihood for the
family. f
But, having seen Christ, the boy Of the
fields and the boy Of the mechanics shop, l
show you more marvellous scene, Christ,
the smooth browed lad among the long
bearded, white haired, high fore headed &C.
clesiastics of the Temple Hundreds of
thousands Of strangers had come to Jerusa-
lem to keep great religious festival. After
the hospital homes were crowded with Wis
itors, the tents were spread all around the
city to shelter immense throngs of strangers.
1t was very easy among the vast throngs
coming and going to lose child. More
than two million 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 Jo-
sephus says that 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 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 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 city!" Back they go in hot haste,
in and out the streets, in and out the pri-
vate 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 tho thrcngs or has
ventured on the cliffs or fallen off preci-
pice. Send through all the streets and James
of the city, and among all the surround
ing hills that most dismal sound, IA lost
child A lost child!' And 10, after three
days they discover him in the great temple,
seated among the mightiest religionists of
all the world. The walls of no other build
Ing ever looked down on such scene A
child twelve years old surrounded by sep
tuagenarians, he asking his own questions
anu answering theirs. Let me introduce
you to some of these ecclesiastics. This is
the great Rabbn Simeon! This is the ven
cradle Hillel! This is the famous Shammai
These are the sons of the distinguished
Betirah. What can this twelve-year lad
terch them or what nnestinns can he ask