The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-01-08


shop, of his toiling for the support of
Mary ana her young family. How
that sunny nature would tighten the
workshop, and in the evening, when
he returned to the maternal abode,
how it would Tighten the humble cot
tage, Can YOU not imagine the little
services he would render to the wild
owed mother and her brood? l wish
we knew Just what he did, that our
children might be cheered in their
service by thinking that Jesus did just
such tasks.
Ttie Insyritten Deeds.
And then the neighbors. What must
it have been to be Il neighbor OF Jesus.
To have the sympathy of Jesus in their
troubles and his ready help i'll times
of accident and sorrow! AS Jesus was
always helping his neighbors as a
young man. are not you and to profit
by his divine example? Shall we be
like Christ. the young man in the home,
standing by the bier of his foster IA
Their Joseph. and like Christ helping his
friends living in the neighborhood who
needed his help? Is our unWritten life
to be like Christ's unwritten life?
But we must net stop here in the dis
cuSsion of this remarkable theme. We
would try to ill UP some of the blank
pages of that divine life after his fail
mission had been revealed to him at
the Iordanic baptism. We would
speak about the parallels which Christ
uttered, but which were not written
down, and Of the miracles he did Of
which there is no record given. and of
the gentle words Of love and sympathy
which he uttered to those about him
of which there is no mention. Oh,
what volumes of spiritual truths there
would be if we could only have them
at hand. I wonder If some time in the
dim future the records of some of these
unrevealed wondrous deeds of Jesus
will not vet be eXhumed from some of
the eastern tombs for man to ponder
over and to study and to translate in
his human life.
Mr.. Beecher thus bewails the loss of
the unrevealed words and deeds of
Christ's life: when | see how much
! has been written Of those who have
lived. how the Greeks preserved every
saying of Plato's. how Boswell fol
lowed Johnson. gathering up every leaf
that fell from that rugged old oak an5
pasted it away. almost regret that
one Of the disciples had not been Il re
cOrdiug angel, to preserve the odor and
richness % every word OF Christ.
When .TOha says, And there are also
many other things which Jesus d;d, til"
which if they should be written every
| one. suppose that even the world it
self could not contain the looks that
| should be written it affects me more
! profoundly than when think of the
| destruction of the AleNan1rian library
| Or the prrishing of the Grecian art in
| Athens Or ByZantirtn. The creations
| of phidias We're cold stones ovcrIid by
| warm thought, bat Christ described his
| own creation when lie said. The words
| that | speak unto you, they are life
| The leaving out OF these things from
i the New Testament though dtviDeiy
| wise, seems to my yearning not SC
much the unaccompiishment of noble
| things as the destruction of great treas
ures which had already had oral life
| but failed of incarnation in literature
| But though these unreyealed deeds and
! sayings of Jesus Christ did not have
| their incarnat ton III literature Were
| their lives purely eyaneScentt Like
the dewdrops tumbling upon the finger
of a leaf were they soon to pass away
Nay The unWritteu words and deeds
of Jesus found their incarnation in the
| lives of the men and the women and
! the children by whom he was sur
rounded These people to whom he
spoke not only heard, but they Also be
iieved, and they lived his teachings.
Not spoken In Vain.
Take that night which Jesus spent in
Jericho, in the house of Zacchaeus the
! publican. There Is not a word written
about his evening conversation. From
the gospel Of Lake we know that Jesus
| called Zacchaeus down from the syca
more tree and went to the home of the
publican. But not one word is written
| about what happened when he was al
that house After the multitudes had
| gone to their homes and Jesus sal
down to meat with Zacchaeus and his
wife and his children, what do you sup
| pose lie did? Do you suppose Christ
| quickly in silence ate his supper an(
then turned and said, 'Zacchaeus.
| am tired and want to go to bed Their
| do you suppose he took his lamp anG
went off and shut his bedroom door
and went to sleep, or do you suppose
| that Jesus acted in that home like 6
true, warm hearted friend; At firsts
think. the family were a little shy
Then the ice of bashful reserve gradu
ally wore away. Then as soon as the
supper was ended think Jesus took {
couple of the youngest children upor
his knee and stroked their hair anC
told them some sweet stories. Yes.
think ] can hear Jesus telling these
children some simple parallels like tina
of the sheep that was lost up in thu
mountains or story like the prodiga
son. You see the children's eyes grow
bigger and bigger They are 50 inter
ested that the youngest little girl. wht
had been sucking her thumb for al
| hour, has not once wanted to squir1i
out of'his lap. The two boys, leanin.
on his knee, have not once attempted
| - o%h