Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-06-10
.BOYHOOD OF CHRIST.
REV. DR.. TALMAGBS ELOQUENT SERMON
YESTERDAY.
The Brief Bible Account and Statements frsm IN
inspired BOOks-IhsOlOgy Needs More Of
Childish Simplicity-A Grand Greed
for All 0hrstendom.


lyn Tabernacle this morning. The pas
tor, the Rev T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.
expounded the passage in John about the
unwritlen works of Christ which the
world itself could not have contained. The
subject of DR.. Talmage's sermon was
"Ohrist the Village Lad" He took for
his text Luke ii. 40: "And the child grew.
and waxed strong in spirit filed with wis
dom; and the grace Of God WAS upon him. "
The preacher said:
About Christ ss village lad speak.
There is for the most part a silence more
than eighteen centuries long about Christ
between infancy and manhood. What
kind of boy was he? Was he a genuine
boy at all. or did there settle upon him
from the start all the intensities of mar
tYrdom? We have on this subject only a
little guessing, few surmises, and here
and there an unimportant perhaps 4"
Concerning what bounded that bOyhood
on both sides we have whole libraries of
books and whole galleries of canvas and
books and sculpture. Before the infant
Christ in Mary's arms, or taking his first
sleep in the rough outhouse, all the
painters bow, and we have Paul Veronese's
"Holy Family" and Perugino's "Nativ-
ity" and Aneelico da Fiesole's Infant
Christ" and Rubens' Alteration of the
Magi" and TintOrets Alteration Of the
Msgi" and Chirlandojo's Alteration Of
the Magi" and Raphael's Madonna" and
"Orcsgna's Madonna, and Msdonnas by
all the schools Of painting in all lights and
shades and with all styles of attractive
feature and impressive surrounding, but
pen and pencil and chisel have with few
exceptions passed by Christ, the village
lad. Yet by three cODjOined evidences l
think we can come to as accurate an idea
of what Christ was rs a boy as we can Of
what Christ was as a man.
BRIEF BIBLE ACCOUNT.
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 sanguine temperament never
becomes a phlegmatic temperament. A
nervous temperament never becomes a
lymphatic temperament. Religion changes
ones affections and ambitions, bat it is
the same old temperament acting in diff
ferent direction. As Christ had no re-
liRious change, he was as a lad what he
was as q man. only on not so large a scale.
When all tradition and all art and all his
tory represent him as a blonde with golden
hair know he was in bOyhOod blonde
We have, beside, an uninspired book
that was for the first three or four centu-
ries after Christ's appearance received by
many as inspired and which gives pro-
longed account of Christ's bOYhoOd. Some
of it may be true, most OF It may be
true, none of it may be true, none Of 1t
may be true. 1t may be partly built on
l@ess, ~ tha p~asaeN az ths ~esa, sanaA
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 Con
quest of Mexico" was not inspired, but we
believe it although it may contain mis-
takes. Macaulsy's "History Of England"
was not inspired, but we believe 1t al
though it may have been marred with
many errors. The 20 called apOcryphal
Gospel in which the bOyhOod Of Christ is
dwelt upon l dc not believe to be divinely
inspired, and yet il may presents facts
worthy of consideration. Because 1T
represents the boy Christ as performing
miracles some have OverthrOwn that whole
apocrypal book Bat what right have you
to say that Christ did not perform miracles
at ten years of age AZ well az at thirty! he
was in boyhOod az certainly "a divine as IN
manhood. Then while lad he must have
had the power to work miracles, whether
he did or did 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 1t
was the beginning of that series OF ofmanhood
In a word, think that the New
Testament is only small transcript Of
what Jesus did and said Indeed, the
Bible declares positively that If 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
apocrypal Gospel which say that
when the boy Christ with his mother
passed a band of thieves he told his mother
that two of them, Dumachus and Titus by
name, would be the two thieves who after
wards would expire on crosses beside him.
Was that more wonderful that some OF
Ohrist's manhood prophesiesP Or the un-
inspired story that the boy Christ made q
fountain spring from the roots Of syca-
more tree so that his mother washed his
coat in the stream-was that more unbe-
lievable than the manhood miracle that
changed common water into a marriage
beverage2 Or the uninspired story that
two sick children were recovered by bath
ing in the water where Christ had washedr
Was that more wonderful than the man
hood miracle by which the woman twelve
years complete invalid should have been
made straight by touching the fringe Of
Cbrlst's coat?
BASIS OF A PARABLE.
A great storm one day during Christ's
bOyhOod blackened the heavens and anger
ed the rivers. Perhaps standing in the
door of the carpenters shop he watched II
gathering louder and wilder until two ey-
clones, one sweeping down from Mount
Tabor and the other from Mt Carmel, met
in the valley Of Esdraelon and two houses
are caught in the fury and crash goes the
one and triumphant stands the other, and
he noticed that one had shifting sand for
foundation and the other an eternal rock
for basis and twenty years after he built
the whole scene into peroratl0n OF nood
and whirlwind that seized his audience and
lifted them into the heights OF sublimity
with the two great arms OF patbos and ter
ror, which sublime words / render, asking
YOU as tar az possible 10 forget that
YOU ever heard them before: Whose
ever heareth these sayings OF mine'
and doeth them, will liken him unto
a wise man, which built his mouse
upon a rock; and the rain descended, and
the floods came, and the winds blew, ana
beat upon that house; and It fell NOT TOT
it was founded upon rock. Ana every
one that heareth these sayings OF mlne'
and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man, which built his house upon
the sand: and the rain descended, and
the floods came, and the winds blew, ana
heat upon that house; it fell; and great
was the fall OF it.
HE WAS A PERFECT BOY.
Yes. from the nsturalness, the simple
itv. the freshness of his parallels and
similes and metaphors in manhood dis
course | know that he had been a boy OF
tue fields End had bsthed in the streams
and heard the nightiBgale's call, and
broke through the ADwery hedge and
looked out of he embrasures Of the fort