The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-10
The International Uniform Sunday School Lesson for January il. The Childhood of Jesus. Luke 2:4O.52.
BY VIM. E. GILROY, D. D.

BY VIM. E. GILROY, D. ID. Editor of The COngregatiOnalist The picture that Luke gives of the childhood of Jesus is of very nor- nal development. It is significant, except for the assurance that the "child grew, and waxed strong. filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him." that Luke and all the New Testament biographers of Jesus pass over the whole period from babyhood to the 18th year.
 All the records that have come to us from the ancient world concern ing the childhood of Jesus are not sc simple or restrained. We have apocryphal books of the New Testa- ment which were excluded from the canon of scripture because, for va rious reasons, they were not re- garded as having equal genuineness and authority. One of the things that characterizes these books is a much more legendary and imagina- tive narrative with little reference to the moral and spiritual import of the life of Jesus. We have in these apocryphal gospels such stor- ies as that of the child Jesus at play among his fellows making mud birds when the birds that Jesus made took W4IlSS dHQ ucW away.
 Impressive Simplicity
 It is by contrast with such fam tastic and imaginary things that the documents of the New Testament impress us with their simplicity. Even the miracles that are recorded are in almost every instance mir acles that are associated with the ministry of Jesus in healing and sav- ing.
 The striking incident in the 18th year of Jesus which occupies the greater part of our lesson, though it forms a dramatic episode in the long years concerning which we have little record of the Master, Is told with simplicity and impressive ness. One marvels that boy of 12 should have been able to converse with the doctors in the temple in tion and wonder. But the story carries it's own authority. It is told with simple realism that reminds us that the boy Jesus was as re- markable as the man Jesus, and 1t reveals only what we might expect at the age of 12 from the man of later years.
 The age of 12 was a crucial and important age in the life of the Jewish boy. Almost as much as the age of 21 to-day it marked his passing from childhood to manhood so far as responsibility was con- cerned. Henceforth he participated with his elders in all religious rites. It must have been for the boy a rich and wonderful experience going up to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover.
 Had Deep Religious Interest The movement of the nation to- ward it's religious capital, the throngs crowding every highway, the color full and varied scenes, must have made their deep impression upon the boys heart and soul; and no doubt his parents would recall to him the similar circumstances under which he had been born, when crowds thronged Bethlehem and there was no room in the inn.
 But beneath all external impress sions and wonder at the scene around him was the boys deep in- must have impressed him with its immense proportions and with its imposing plan and achievement. But the temple now, as in the later years of his ministry and teaching, was subordinate to the deeper things that the temple professed to represent. It was in the soul of religion and not in its external adornments that Jesus found real ity.
 One can easily conjecture the na- ture of the boys questions and an- swers as he sat among the learned teachers.
 Teachers Not So Learned
 Hst after all been so learned that a little child could not ask them questions which they would find it hard to answer. and in almost every age. the lore of the learned has re-