Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-01-21

Was Jesus a Carpenter
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house at midnight, and cries: Friend,
lend me three loaves, for a friend of
mine is come to me from journey,
and have nothing to set before him. "
Jesus has seen children asking their
fathers for bread, and he takes this
commonest of foods as a symbol of
himself: 81 am the bread Of life" He
speaks Familiarity of the household sup
plies and articles; of salt, and candles
and bushel measures; Of the mending
of clothes and the washing of cups and
platters; and when he tells us of the
woman who called in her friends to
rejoice with her after she had found
the lost piece of silver, we may well
suppose that he is recalling some
actual event Nothing in the home
! life of his own family or of his friends
escaped him, and all that he observed
was impressed upon his mind so that
he could use it as occasion offered in
parable and metaphor.
He shows an acquaintance also with
the mercantile life of towns; he tells
of the merchant seeking pearls, of
bankers and money-lenders and usur-
pers and he knows the price of spar
rows in the market: Are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing"
Mathew x: 29) Are not five spar
rows sold for two farthings?" duke
xii, g. He speaks of judges and Of
ficers of the law, and of physicians.
He has seen children playing in the
market place, and Pharisees praying
at the street corners and in the tenn
pie, and he remembers the details of
fasts and weddings, the order of guests
at table, and the style of garment re-
CURED. He can use for illustration
the sepulchers on the hillside, the wars
Of kings of which he has read, or the
latest tale of robbery, either of the
highwayman or of the burglar who
breaks through Tor rather digs
through") and steals.
But of all this nothing seems as yet
to suggests regular occupation on
the part of Jesus. Such callings as
have been referred to by him so far are
evidently looked at from the outside.
The references are those of an actor.
When we turn, however to his allu-
sions to the rural world of cornfield
and vineyard and sheepfold, we seem
to enter a new region of which he
speaks with the technical knowledge
Of an expert. With what particular
! ity he details the incident of the
sewers days work! Nothing could
be more certain than that Jesus had
often sown seed himself and seen the
birds devour that which fell by the
wayside, and had watched the for
tunes of the crop from day to day and
noted how the sun scorched the blades
which came up in rocky places, 'be-
cause they had no deepness of earth"
and how they wthered away, because
they had no root" and how the thorns
choked the seed that fell among them.
! And he knew exactly how much that
which fell in good ground should yield
--"some a hundredfcld, some 60, some
! 30" When tares grow in field, he
was aware that it is best not to at.
tempt to root them out, but to wait UNI
! til the harvest and then to say to the
lreapers, Gather up first the tares,
! and bind them in bundles and burn
! them; but gather the wheat into my
} barn" And he had often watched with
wonder the oracle of the growth of
grain. which, while the farmer goes
about his duties, springs up and grows.
The knoweth not how" And he had fol-
lowed the fate of the grass of the
field" which today is, and tomorrow
is cast into the oven" as fuel He
knows that the "mustard-seed' is the
smallest of seeds, and he has seen
the bird light in the branches of the
tree which springs from it. He has
remarked the fowls of the air and their
nests-the sparrows. the eagles feed
ing on carrion. the fox and his hcle.