Pocahontas star herald., 1924-09-18
LURE OF SMALL TOWN
TOOK JESUS STEPS
BACK TO NAZARETH


in Paris and London and Cairo and
Constantinople and Picking and To
kio who are hOmesicli for small towns
and villages in America. All the
pleasures and honors that the worlds
capitols afford them are not to be com
parable with the hometown folks.
No other praise is so sweet as that of
earliest associates. New England is
full of public libraries and monuments
and parks and other memorials, es-
tablished by native sons who won
wealth and position i'm the big world,
but at the end coveted most to be re-
membered in the places Of their youth.
Longing and loyalty for Nazareth,
the town where he had spent his boy
hood; the neighborhOOd of countless
memories; the scene of all his domes-
tic experiences; the community which
he had served as village carpenter ;
the one spot where every house, every
tree, every family and every indivi-
dual was personally knOwn-these
were the lures that drew the footsteps
Of Jesus back to Nazareth. A deep
and natural human longing for the
friendliness of the folk who knew him
best stirred in the heart of the Master.
And he recognized the claim upon him
which these old ties created.
Nevertheless, as he crossed the hills
that surround the town of Nazareth,
all his memories a-Quiyer, his heart
was burdened with the consciousness
that mo prophet is acceptable in his
own country" 1t was for this reason
a sad journey that Jesus made; and a
lesser spirit would have shirked it.
No Sadder words may he found i'm the
biography Of our Lord than these,
which fairly drip agony, -He came un-
to his own and his own received him
not" Long before the shadow of the
cross fell upon him, Jesus was man
of sorrows.
No time need be spent in charac-
terizing the small-tOwn spirit of the
disdainful NaZarenes who felt that
Jesus could not possibly be as great,
because they had known him when he
was a boyl The scene is easily pic
tured; as the old cronies gathered at
the kahn one said. "Why he's only a
carpenter. The very yoke my oxen
are now wearing and the plow they
pull, were made by him." "Yes and he
built the house i'm which | am living"
rejoiner another. Each took up the
tale of the Ordinariness of Jesus
never for an instant did they realize
that 1t was the blind commonplaces of
their own spirits that throughout the
years had kept them from perceiving
the greatness Of this young neighbor,
whose presence amidst them was to lift
the name Of Nazareth into immortal
ity.
Kin TO most men and to all women,
was Jesus in the fact that he was mis-
understood at times; the great are
surrounded by a seldOm-lifted fog of
Youth and sensitiveness
suffer agonies Of spirit because nobody
seems TO understand them. Their
conception Of heaven, as they love to
sing, is Of place where
"Some time wen understand"
This lonely-souledness Of Christ
never enbittered him Nor did II
lead him to ask for special Indulgence
or pity. Il only made him more ten
der and sympathetic toward others:
il was the foundation Of his qualifca-
tions as the perfect friend. He under
stands. because he was misunderstood.
This cup Of bitterness he drank daily
to It's dregs throughout his life; the
cruel rejection of Nazareth was only
one incident Of continuous experience.
II ever anybody had right to say,
I'm not going to church today; the
service Is stupid and slow, and the
minister hopelessly dry and common
place" It was the great teacher him
self. He had nothing to learn from
the dusty Drained rltualists and rab-
bis Of the synagogues; and his ex-
quisite spirituality must frequently
have been wrung by the baroness of
the service. Nevertheless, we read in
this lesson that church-going was
Chrlst's custom on SGD' ath day.
Whereat we pause, to regard our
own generation I'm the light of his
practice aud tenching. Church attend
ance is on the decline today. Sabbath
observance is even more so. The Sun
day question Is living and vital one
that is being allowed to go by default.
I'm recent seven weeks tour Of the
American Southwest, nothing caused