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 B52423 
 .2.M99 
 
 XJirrJ.ANO /AVERS 
 
Division I£)S2,42.:j 
 Section. 2..M'^^ 
 
Cbe Boy 3e$u$ 
 
The Boy Jesus 
 
De Boy Je$u$ 
 
 By y 
 
 CDe Re^j, Cortland myers, D. D. 
 
 Author of 
 '"' Making a Life," " The New Evangelism " 
 "Why Men Do Not Go to Church," etc. 
 
 Pbilaaclpbia 
 
 Cbe Griffitb $ Rowland Press 
 
 Boston new York Cbicaso StCouis 
 JItlanta Dallas 
 
Copyright 1908 by the 
 American Baptist Publication Society 
 
 PubHshed February, 1908 
 
 Ifrom tbe Sodetie's own preas 
 
TO 
 
 MY BOY 
 
 Cortland IDvcrs, Jr. 
 
 AT WHOSE REQUEST THIS BOOK 
 WAS MADE 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Real Boy 9 
 
 II. Where He Lived 13 
 
 III. In School 18 
 
 IV. On the Playground 24 
 
 V. Going to Church 30 
 
 VI. Learning His Trade .37 
 
 VII., In His Home 44 
 
 VIII. Facing Temptation 51 
 
 IX. Living the Truth 57 
 
 X. Helping Others 64 
 
 XI. Birds and Flowers 70 
 
 XII. " This IS My Beloved Son " ']^ 
 
Cist of Illustrations 
 
 Trom Tamou$ Paintings ^ 
 
 Page 
 
 The Boy Jesus Frontispiece 
 
 Nazareth — Where Jesus Lived i6 
 
 Jesus in School ip 
 
 Jesus and John 26 
 
 Jesus Among the Doctors S3 
 
 Jesus in His Workshop 42 
 
 Jewish Homes Like Jesus' Home 44 
 
 Jesus Facing Temptation 53 
 
 Jesus by the Old Well 58 
 
 Jesus Helping Others 66 
 
 Jesus in the Fields 70 
 
 The Baptism of Jesus 80 
 
Zhc Bo^ 5eeu6 
 
 IF 
 
 Ube IReal Boie 
 
 ESUS was a real boy. He lived in the 
 boy's world, and the boy's kind of life. 
 He looked through the eyes of a boy. 
 He ran with the feet of a boy. He 
 threw with the arm of a boy. He 
 heard just as other boys hear, and felt 
 just as other boys feel. He was a genuine boy — a per- 
 fect boy, but a boy, the best-looking, feeling, speaking, 
 acting boy the world ever saw — just the kind of a boy 
 whom every other boy at his best would want to be 
 like. He grew from a little child slowly up into a man, 
 the same as other boys grow, and he learned things in 
 the way in which every boy learns them. He grew in 
 size and wisdom and in favor with God and men. The 
 Bible thought that was enough to say about him, and 
 That w^ould be the greatest thing 
 
 9 
 
 it was a great deal. 
 
lo ^be Boi5 3e0U0 
 
 to say about any one. I wonder if any boy could not 
 have that said about him if he tried hard to be a boy 
 such as Jesus was. 
 
 When Jesus came into our world, there were some 
 things which marked him as more than a boy, but these 
 things did not take him out of the boy's life. He was 
 born under that brilliant, dazzling star of Bethlehem, 
 and all the prophets were interested in his coming to 
 the earth. The wise men came to the cradle to tell 
 that God was in his life. The angels came from the 
 skies with their holy message that Jesus was to be 
 the world's Saviour and Lord. He came from heaven, 
 and lived the life of a boy, and then of a man, just to 
 show us what God was like, and that he was willing to 
 die to save us ; but all this did not change his boy life. 
 
 Some people attempted long after he had gone back 
 to heaven to make his boyhood days strange and unlike 
 the life of others. They said he was playing with some 
 other boys one day, and they were making birds out of 
 clay, that is things which they called birds, but proba- 
 bly did not look much like these little singers, and while 
 Jesus and the others were making them and fixing 
 them on a board to dry, suddenly he touched them, and 
 these imaginary birds moved and began to sing and 
 raised their wings and flew away. Another time they 
 said he went into a dyer's shop and took the clothes 
 lying on his counter and threw them into the fire, and 
 after the dyer became angry and threatened him, he 
 
Zhc IRcal 3Bo^ II 
 
 just turned toward the burning clothes and made a 
 motion with his hand, and brought the clothes out of 
 the flames all dyed in the color their owner wished. 
 They also said he was one day in his father's carpenter 
 shop, and saw a throne for the king of Jerusalem on 
 which his father had been working for two years. 
 Now they found that it was two spans too short. He 
 motioned to his father and took hold of one side while 
 his father took hold of the other side and they easily 
 pulled it to the right size. There is another of these 
 strange stories which tells how one day another boy 
 was hunting for partridge eggs, and out of the nest 
 came a serpent's head, and its poisonous fangs pierced 
 his hand. He screamed with fright and pain and they 
 carried him to his home. His friends carried him to 
 Jesus. The boy Jesus then said, " Take us back to the 
 nest where he was bitten," and they did. When they 
 came to the place Jesus commanded the snake to come 
 out of its nest and with its own mouth draw forth the 
 poison from the wound. One day they said he was 
 playing on the housetop with some other children 
 when one of them w^as shoved from the roof and fell 
 to the ground and died. Some of the other boys said 
 Jesus did it. And then the boy Christ said, " Charge 
 not me with the crime, but let us leave it to the dead 
 child to say who did it," and then Jesus said, " Zeimi- 
 neus, Zeimineus, who threw^ thee down from the house- 
 top? " Then the dead boy said, " Not thee, but such a 
 
12 ^be Bo^ 3e0U0 
 
 one did," and all the people looked in amazement, and 
 charged the other boy with the crime. 
 
 All these stories do not sound like his boy life, and 
 the Bible does not tell anything of them. If they were 
 true it would have said something about it, but God 
 wanted us to know his real life, just as it was, and 
 just the life the true boy lived. We do not want to 
 take him away from the boyhood days with all their 
 growth and goodness. Anyway, we are very sure of 
 this, that Jesus was a boy, and the kind of boy whom 
 every other boy must admire. He knows now just 
 how to sympathize with boys and help them, because 
 he was one of them. He knows just what boys like. 
 Blessed is the boy who knows what Jesus likes, and 
 tries his level best to live that kind of life. 
 
ifir 
 
 mbcxc Me Xiveb 
 
 ESUS lived among the hills. Nazareth 
 was like a clear, white, sparkling dia- 
 mond, set in the circle of the moun- 
 tains. It was just beyond the edge 
 of a beautiful plain, which was al- 
 ways covered with the richest of the 
 harvest and the orchard. The village overlooked this 
 great garden. The roadway which came out of the 
 level country reached Nazareth by a narrow, steep, 
 and rough mountain path, over which they had to 
 bring all their grain and fruits on the backs of camels 
 and mules or their own backs. This was a very difficult 
 task, but the traveler who climbs this same hill road 
 almost forgets how hard it is in the first sight of the 
 place where Jesus lived as a boy. So steep and dan- 
 gerous is the narrow roadway, that some travelers fall 
 off of their horses and injure themselves in the fall 
 on the rocks, and frighten their friends because of the 
 danger on the edge of the precipice. Nazareth is the 
 best of all the towns now in Palestine. Its location 
 
 13 
 
H ZTbe IBo^ 3e0U0 
 
 has always been the best. It has just nestled among 
 the hills all these years like a bird in its nest. 
 
 Who would not be anxious to see this place where 
 the boy Jesus lived ? Who would not be happy to look 
 on some of the very same things he looked upon and 
 lived among. He walked over the same roads and 
 played on the same hills and drank from the same 
 stream and looked at the same stars, and many other 
 things are now just as they were when he was there. 
 Even the manner of life has changed very little, and 
 some of it not at all. To stand on that side-hill, or to 
 climb to the top of one of the high hills and look out 
 over that fertile plain and the other mountains must 
 have been a part of his joy. The slopes were all covered 
 with green grass and many kinds of flowers with many 
 colors, red and pink and white and yellow and blue 
 flowers, rockrose, lily of the field, red tulip, orchids, 
 wild geraniums, and a great quantity of Palestine 
 golden flower, odd and beautiful plants in abundance, 
 and some of our own kinds of flowers. Jesus picked 
 our carnations and others which you have made into 
 a bouquet. Then he saw the great valley all divided 
 into small fields, with fences of cacti and stones to 
 mark the line, not like great farms and fields, but 
 more like gardens. He could look out of his home 
 and see the streets rise in terraces on the hillside. He 
 could see the flat-roofed houses, and the families on 
 them, and sometimes the children playing there. They 
 
tlClbere Me Xlveb 15 
 
 spent much of their time on the roof, and he too had 
 many a play in that same place. Their houses were 
 so different from ours. They were built with a flat 
 roof and very low, and an open space in the rear. 
 The walls were made of heavy yellowish white stone, 
 which always sparkled, and were almost dazzling 
 in the sunshine. These houses had many fig trees, and 
 orange trees, and olive trees, and cypress trees, and 
 others around them. They were separated by small 
 gardens. In these trees and gardens were many birds 
 of many kinds, most beautiful in color and sweet in 
 song. They made the world a great music hall, and 
 the concert was always going on. Their songs must 
 have thrilled the heart of Jesus who watched them flit 
 across the open and above the houses to find their nests 
 and little ones. He saw the dove as you have seen it. 
 He listened to the lark sing her sweet song and the 
 thrush warble her rich notes. When the evening came 
 and the shadows fell he heard the nightingale in her 
 special bird music. When Jesus walked along the hill- 
 side the brightest-winged butterflies were on the flow- 
 ers and flying across his path. Undoubtedly he took 
 off his hat and tried to catch them. He must have 
 wanted to get a closer look at them. Every boy has 
 run after a butterfly, and of course Jesus did too. 
 
 On those hillsides were many flocks of sheep. These 
 and their shepherds helped to make his world, and he 
 enjoyed being with them and watching their clipping 
 
1 6 z\)c JBo^ 3e0U0 
 
 of the grass and finding the best place. He helped 
 them to find it sometimes, and he must have helped the 
 shepherd too. He listened to the stories of the shep- 
 herd and the strange music from his pipe. 
 
 Down from one of the hillsides and through the 
 valley a brook flowed, the only one in all that part of 
 the country. Jesus was often by its spring and along 
 the stream. There was much here to see, and always 
 a great place for play. Everybody came to this foun- 
 tain, and there were always boys and girls there. 
 
 Nazareth was on the great caravan roadway, and 
 many travelers were always coming and going. They 
 stopped there and stayed there as they passed through. 
 Jesus must have seen many strange people and strange 
 scenes. This was one of the most interesting parts of 
 his boyhood life. Some of them came from Galilee, 
 and some of them from Jerusalem and the south, and 
 some of them from the north, and some from the sea- 
 coast. It was a center of life and commerce. This 
 foreign traffic may have had something to do with the 
 stain which some people place on the name of Naza- 
 reth, and also with the roughness of some of its peo- 
 ple. Jesus had to live among this kind of people just 
 as many boys have to do to-day in their town or 
 work or school or even home, and yet he did not be- 
 come like the rough people, but stayed gentle and true 
 and noble and good. He showed other boys what they 
 could do no matter where they had to live. 
 
Mbcre IHe Xtvcb 17 
 
 If you went to Nazareth to-day, what kind of look- 
 ing people would you see ? How do they dress ? Just 
 about the same as they did when Jesus was there. The 
 men and boys wear a short cloak, a bright-colored 
 handkerchief of cloth folded in three corners and 
 thrown over their heads so as to fall over the neck and^ 
 shoulders. The women wear a white veil and silk 
 dress and broad scarf and many colored trousers, blue 
 and yellow and green and red. People there wore 
 more white and less color when Jesus was a boy. If 
 the clothes were white, they were made so white that 
 they said no one could make them whiter. Sometimes 
 now the women and girls have only a long blue gar- 
 ment tied in around the waist, a bonnet of red cloth 
 and around it a chain of silver coins, and over it all 
 a veil or shawl of white cotton cloth is thrown. The 
 kind and color of clothes do not make a people. They 
 were just the same as men and women and boys and 
 girls are to-day. 
 
 This place where Jesus lived as a boy must have had 
 a good many things beautiful about it, but we would 
 scarcely know there ever had been or was such a place 
 on earth if Jesus had not lived there. The place where 
 a boy lives cannot make the boy. Every boy makes his 
 own life and his own kind of a world. 
 
iFiFir 
 
 ■ffn School 
 
 |ID Jesus go to school and did he hke it? 
 
 He went to school and liked it about 
 
 the same as most other boys liked it. 
 
 Some things about it were pleasant, 
 
 and some other things did not please 
 
 him so well. He liked the holiday and 
 
 the vacation times too. He learned the same as other 
 
 boys must learn. He knew a hard lesson when it came 
 
 to him, and perhaps would rather have an easy one, but 
 
 he saw the great need of his school life, and tried his 
 
 best to get all the knowledge he could. He studied hard 
 
 and lived a good boy's motto, " Work and win." 
 
 Some things about his school were not the same as 
 
 yours, but the study and the work have always been 
 
 the same and must always be. It is said he grew in 
 
 wisdom, and no boy can ever grow in wisdom without 
 
 study, and good hard study. 
 
 Jesus learned a great deal before he went to school. 
 
 His father and mother gave him many lessons, and 
 
 tried to have him know as much as possible. They 
 i8 
 
1ln Scbool 19 
 
 felt it their duty to teach him as well as to feed his 
 body and clothe him. So when he went to school he 
 was better ready for the teacher and the higher lessons. 
 
 In his school the arrangement was for the teacher to 
 sit on a raised seat, while the boys sat on the floor or 
 sometimes stood. They were arranged in a half- 
 circle, the younger ones in the first row and the older 
 ones back of them according to their ages. They did 
 not have books as we have them now. Sometimes the 
 lesson was from the Jewish law and was written out, 
 and each one learned it to repeat with the others. 
 Most of their study was in the law, and to commit it to 
 memory, and then to advance to other books concern- 
 ing the law as they made progress in the school. Much 
 of it was repeated to them by the teacher, and they 
 were to learn and remember it by saying it after him. 
 In his class there were probably twenty-five scholars. 
 If there were ever more than that they had to have two 
 teachers. The great thing for a boy then was to have 
 a good memory, and to train it to do wonderful things. 
 Everything was to be memorized, and the method 
 was to repeat it over and over again in school, then 
 to repeat it at home, and to think about it many other 
 times until it was fastened so that it could never be 
 forgotten. 
 
 Jesus carried it home with him the same as you do 
 your home work, and he said it over and over again. 
 He went by himself to get his work done, and shut 
 
20 tTbe 'SBo^ 3e6U0 
 
 his eyes and just thought about that one thing until he 
 knew it, and when he was sure of it he felt happy, 
 just as every other boy feels when he has his lesson. 
 He said many times to his mother and father " I 
 know it. Now see if I can say it without hesitating 
 once. I can say it as well as the teacher." He always 
 did his studying first and then felt free to do other 
 things. The pleasure would have been spoiled by 
 thinking about what he had to do. If it was done, 
 then he was free and his heart light. If a boy has a 
 great load of books or lessons on his back he cannot 
 run or do anything as he ought to. Take the load 
 off and he straightens up for the best his world can 
 give him. He is a wise boy who gives first place to 
 his study. Men say " Business first and pleasure after- 
 ward." If that is good for grown-up boys, it is good 
 for regular boys too. 
 
 Jesus kept first things first. The most important 
 part of his life was not pushed back, but kept right in 
 the front. He studied his best while he was at it, and 
 then he learned it and found pleasure in it and 
 enjoyed everything else better too. To delay it and 
 delay it until you are tired is to dread it and take twice 
 as long to get it and then not remember it. Jesus 
 took it as one of the best parts of life and put the 
 best into it. He gave his attention strictly to every- 
 thing the teacher said, and in this way made it easier 
 for himself and the teacher both. He thought it a 
 
In Scbool 2 1 
 
 great art to know how to fasten his attention. That 
 is the way to learn and to remember. To fasten our 
 attention on anything is to fasten it in memory. If 
 any boy wants to be a good scholar he must fix his 
 whole mind on the one lesson he is trying to learn. 
 To pay strict attention is the great secret, and Jesus 
 knew it. He must have had a splendid memory be- 
 cause he showed it when he became a man. All those 
 things he learned in school he knew twenty years 
 after, because when a boy he learned to hold his 
 thinking to one point. He never did as many boys do 
 now, try to study their lesson while they are think- 
 ing about a hundred other things, and the next day 
 fail when they come to recite, and in a little time for- 
 get they ever had a lesson. Jesus was always saying 
 " I will do this one thing and do it well, and remember 
 it as long as I live." 
 
 Jesus always learned much by the way in which he 
 looked at everything. He saw it, he saw it all the way 
 through, and saw it just as it was. Many boys see, 
 and yet they never see. That sounds strange, yet it 
 is so true. To be observing and see what you look 
 at is a large part of education. This not only makes 
 a boy understand all things, but whatever he sees he 
 commits to memory to keep for him forever. To 
 look at a bird and see not only a bird, but a certain 
 kind of a bird, its color, its size, its shape, its peculiar 
 song, how it flies, and all about it, is to know that 
 
2 2 Ebc 3o^ 3cme 
 
 bird the next time, and know it from other birds, and 
 to know more about your world than you ever knew 
 before. This is the way Jesus looked at everything, 
 and tried to learn something from everything. He 
 was doing all his study for a purpose, and that 
 brightened all his boy days. He was working not 
 only to know more, but to be more for his world and 
 for other people. He wanted to become the most so that 
 he could help others the most. Educated to serve was 
 his thought and desire. It does not make any differ- 
 ence what a boy means to be when he becomes a man. 
 This same purpose ought to be his while he is in 
 school, to make the most out of himself, so that he 
 can do the most for others, and learn the most so that 
 he can give the most. Jesus began to work this out 
 in his school. Many times he walked to school with 
 another boy and told him the part of the lesson he did 
 not know; or when another boy came to his house 
 they sat down together and Jesus helped him out and 
 made him happy. He was always looking out for 
 the dull boy, and when he could honestly help him, 
 and not do anything the teacher told him not to do, 
 he was glad to do it. 
 
 Another thing Jesus must often have done in his 
 school days when the lesson was very hard and some- 
 thing in it he could not understand. He must have 
 bowed his head and asked his heavenly Father to 
 show him. Why not pray over a hard lesson just as 
 
tin Scbool 23 
 
 well as over anything else in this world? When a 
 good boy has done his best God is waiting to help him. 
 Jesus knew this and many times had his prayer an- 
 swered. When a problem is a puzzle, push your best 
 right up against it, and then ask God to help you 
 through. Why not? This is a part of life, the best 
 part. It was made especially for school and good 
 boys who get a hard lesson. Jesus knew this and it 
 was a large part of his secret. He studied hard and 
 God always helped him. He didn't hate school and 
 stay away from it, but he learned to like it, because it 
 was making him ready for life and to be what God 
 wanted him to be. 
 
If ID 
 
 ®n the plaiegrounb 
 
 UST below and right in front of 
 
 Nazareth there is a large level space. 
 
 This is almost surrounded by hills, 
 
 and makes a perfect playground. 
 
 They could not find a better place to 
 
 have a ball game than this. It seems 
 
 to have been made for this, and in their sports all the 
 
 boys knew this level, grass-covered field better than 
 
 any other in the world, and Jesus must have been there 
 
 very often too, and not only was he there but he 
 
 entered the games with more life and joy than most 
 
 others. They liked to be with him and he with them, 
 
 and no one had a happier time than he. Just what 
 
 games they played we do not know, but they were 
 
 something like ours, and some of them just the same. 
 
 Whatever the game was, Jesus would enter into it 
 
 and like to play it and played his best. 
 
 They are having a ball game, perhaps, in which all 
 
 the boys are interested, and each side is doing its best 
 
 to win. There are many watching the play and are 
 24 
 
almost as anxious as the players themselves. Neither 
 side seems to be able to get far in the lead, and it is near 
 the end, when suddenly there is a great shout and every- 
 body is excited. They hear the cheering and laughter 
 all over the village. Some one struck the ball and it 
 flew like a bird just over the heads of the second base 
 and center field and away over the line. There was a 
 home run and time to spare and a triumph for his side. 
 If Jesus was there, he was the most interested and 
 most enthusiastic of them all. He threw himself into 
 this part of life the same as in other things. He gave 
 it his whole attention and gave it his best. This was 
 one of the reasons why all other boys liked to be on 
 his side. It is a great thing for a boy to be a good 
 player. As many mistakes are made here as in other 
 parts of life. To play well and get the most out of it 
 for yourself and for others is a great art. Jesus knew 
 the secret. He could do more than one thing, and 
 whenever they wanted him he did his best. He could 
 throw the ball or strike the ball or catch the ball. He 
 could throw a swift one and catch it when it was 
 thrown to him. There was no half-way with Jesus. 
 Every muscle and nerve and faculty had to be called 
 into service just as much when he played as when he 
 worked. He must have followed the motto " Work 
 when you work and play when you play." He gave 
 the whole self to that one thing. He did not want to 
 be on the playground all the time, but when he entered 
 
26 Z\)C BO^ 3C6U0 
 
 into any game he made a business of it. This is the 
 best way, the only way. Play when you play. Work 
 when you work. Sleep when you sleep. Whatever 
 you do, do that thing then and do it all over. 
 
 But Jesus did not play for himself. The deepest 
 enjoyment bubbled up in the fountain of unselfishness. 
 He was always thinking of the other boy, not how he 
 could have his own way and the best place and play 
 his own kind of game, but the first thought was the 
 desire of others. He had learned that to increase 
 the joy of another is the best, and in reality the only 
 way to increase your own. Have you ever heard boys 
 say, with the voice of a cat or dog, or the growl of a 
 bear, " I don't want to play that. I will not do this. 
 If I cannot play what I want to I won't play at all. 
 If I have to be ' it ' I will go home. I will not be in it 
 at all if I cannot have my way." He is the disagreeable 
 boy who plays soldier, but must always be captain; 
 who plays horse, but must always be driver; who 
 plays ball, but must be at the bat; who plays always 
 the game of self and likes no other. How the play of 
 the world is ruined by such boys! How all the music 
 is made discord, and everybody a little less happy by 
 such a spirit! Jesus never talked or acted like that. 
 He may have wanted to play another game, but he 
 would not stand out against all the others and be mean. 
 He could not be mean. He knew how to give in and 
 be the first to consider the others. A selfish boy is a 
 
®n tbe pIa150roun^ 27 
 
 poor playmate. Very soon everybody knows him and no 
 one likes him. Selfishness is poison, and poison kills 
 every sport. If they played tag, it was just like Jesus 
 to offer to be " it " first. The other kind of a boy 
 would try every possible way, even by falsehood, to 
 get the best for himself, and make some one else have 
 the hard place, and if he could keep that one in it, 
 strive his best to do so. Very likely this one would be 
 the small boy, or the slow boy, or the lame boy. Jesus 
 would give them the best chance and help them win if 
 he could. You would have seen him slacken his speed 
 or stumble purposely to be caught by some one who 
 was almost out of breathing material. He was so 
 quick, and was apt to see just how the other boy was 
 feeling, and at the critical time help him out. There 
 are some boys who only play when they can win. They 
 like most any game when they come out ahead, but as 
 soon as it goes against them they are ready to give it 
 up, even to break up the game before it is played out 
 if they are behind. The game has lost all its charm 
 for them when another is winning. Any boy who 
 plays like that does not hold out a very good sign in 
 front of himself. Others know instantly what kind of 
 a boy he is. Jesus was just as happy when some one 
 else won the game. It was a different drop of joy, 
 but it tasted just as sweet in his cup. One thing was 
 always said about him by all the boys of Nazareth, 
 " He played fair." He hated cheating. The boy who 
 
28 zibe »oi? 3e0U9 
 
 by some trick or half-lie would get the best of the other 
 boy was not his kind. He was happier away from 
 them. The one who cheats always thrusts something 
 into the game to mar it. Every one distrusts him and 
 the whole-hearted confidence is driven away. Some 
 boys would not steal or lie, but will deceive and mis- 
 represent and play unfair. Jesus could always be 
 trusted. He was large-hearted, and open-hearted, and 
 pure-hearted, and whole-hearted. 
 
 The boy who is always playing hide and seek with 
 himself is a poor playmate. He plays the same with 
 others and they do not know where to find him. You 
 want to know a boy when you see him, and not be 
 compelled to watch a long time and then have him a 
 stranger yet and wonder about him, not knowing what 
 he will do. To look at Jesus was to know him ; 
 straightforward, sincere, and true, the hater of every 
 underhanded scheme and trick and deception. He did 
 not try to be other than he was. Many a bright 
 boy, and attractive, spoils himself and the joy of others 
 by trying to be something he is not. What do you 
 think of such a boy? You have seen him ; take a good 
 look at him and say honestly what you think of him. 
 He looks so small you almost pity him. How unmanly 
 and ignoble and foolish the boy who is always playing 
 smart, trying to make others laugh at his own ex- 
 pense ! And it is very expensive. It costs him all his 
 manly qualities. It is the waste of everything noble 
 
®n tbe JMa^atounb 29 
 
 and attractive in him. Almost any other kind of a boy 
 than this one, the homely boy, the slow boy, the igno- 
 rant boy, the dull boy, rather than this repulsive one! 
 Jesus was above all this clownish action. He was just 
 a true, sincere, noble, clear-eyed, clean-hearted, well- 
 rounded boy, who knew how to play the best game in 
 the world — making others happy. 
 
It) 
 
 (Boing to (Tbuvcb 
 
 jHEN Jesus was twelve years old a 
 great event took place in his life. He 
 went with his father that long journey 
 of many miles and many days to 
 Jerusalem. He had often thought of 
 this, and wished that he might go. 
 It was so much in his desire and thought that he must 
 have even dreamed about it in the night. He had 
 looked forward to it. He could hardly wait for the 
 day to come when they would start for the city about 
 which he had heard so much, and which was to him 
 the most sacred and wonderful of all places on earth. 
 Now there was to be a great religious feast. Many 
 were going, whole companies and caravans of trav- 
 elers. They all had to walk or ride on donkey back or 
 on camels as far as they could in the daytime, and 
 jthen pitch their tents for rest at night. 
 
 Every year his father and mother had gone on the 
 same journey but he always stayed at home, and waited 
 anxiously for the day to come when he would be able 
 30 
 
(Botng to Cburcb 31 
 
 to go with them. Now it had arrived ! How he must 
 have pictured the great city and the beautiful temple 
 and wondered about it all ! For twelve years he had 
 heard the history of it, and the wonders connected 
 with its life and worship. That morning they left 
 their home in Nazareth must have been the brightest 
 he had yet seen, and the first sight of the great city 
 and the first day in it were beyond his expectation full 
 of excitement and wonder. 
 
 He went with them for the same purpose as all the 
 other people, just to worship in the great temple and 
 keep the religious feast which they called the Passover. 
 To a boy's wondering eyes this all must have been a 
 kind of new world. When a boy has a time like this 
 come in his life how does he feel? That must have 
 been the way Jesus felt. He had heard so much about 
 the temple and its worship, and now he was walking 
 in the courts of the building, looking at the priests and 
 the altar with its bleeding sacrifice and rising incense, 
 and saw the holy place and the great veil, and won- 
 dered about it and what was behind it. The thought 
 must have stirred his heart. Something in him seemed 
 to say that was the best place in which he had ever 
 been, and something made him feel as if he wanted to 
 stay right there. They were in and around the temple 
 and in and around the city for seven days. He saw 
 the streets and their stores. He saw the palaces and 
 towers, and huge walls and large gates. He visited 
 
32 tTbe Boi? 3e0U0 
 
 their friends and all places of interest, but the one 
 place most attractive to him was the temple. 
 
 Now they were ready to return home and something 
 strange happened. The roads were crowded, and 
 thousands were going in every direction, especially 
 on the way toward Galilee. His father and mother 
 were in a long procession, all returning together. The 
 custom was for the boys to be kept together for travel 
 and in the same tents at night. The first night out, 
 when his mother went to look for Jesus and see if he 
 was all right she could not find him. During the day 
 they supposed he was coming behind with the others, 
 and now he was missing ! No one seemed to know about 
 him. They searched everywhere and asked everybody, 
 but he could not be found. Both his father and mother 
 were very anxious and frightened. They feared some 
 harm had come to him. Possibly some enemy had 
 taken him and hidden him in Jerusalem and would 
 carry him away. Possibly some accident had befallen 
 him. They supposed of course that he had started with 
 the others and was following in the rear of the proces- 
 sion. They immediately turned back and hastened to 
 the city to search there for him. How sad their hearts 
 were, and how full of dark thoughts! They had sup- 
 posed there was no risk in taking him with them and 
 now some evil had befallen him. Maybe some one 
 had recognized him and remembered his escape from 
 Herod when he was a baby, and now had carried out 
 
■ ^ 
 
 ■ 3 
 
 g 3 
 
 n 
 
 > 
 
 D 
 
(Botna to (Tburcb 3^ 
 
 the order of the governor; but twelve years had 
 passed ; he was so changed, and they were changed too. 
 No one could have known anything about this. It must 
 be something else. The stars that night seemed to 
 lose their light, it was so dark for them. They quickly 
 went from one place to another. They did this for 
 one or two whole days and asked every one about him. 
 At last they found him. He was in one of the side 
 rooms of the temple, a room where the wise men and 
 religious teachers were accustomed to be and to teach. 
 He was in the center of this company of old teachers, 
 and was asking them questions. They seemed to be 
 astonished at the knowledge Jesus had, and were si- 
 lenced before some of his statements. This room was 
 a kind of school, and the custom was to ask questions ; 
 but this boy and his questions were new to them and 
 caused them to wonder. They could not understand 
 where this plain-looking, and yet bright-faced Galilean 
 boy had learned such wisdom. He was so interested, and 
 they w^ere so interested in him, that the time had passed 
 so quickly he had not realized the meaning of his ab- 
 sence from his father and mother. Now when they saw 
 him they were so amazed and so delighted that they 
 could hardly speak. At last his mother asked him why 
 he had stayed there and given them this anxiety and 
 long search. She could not understand it then. I 
 wonder if Jesus just understood all of its meaning. 
 At least he knew this, that he had something special to 
 
34 tbe IBo^ 3e6U0 
 
 do in the world, and this stay with the teachers in the 
 temple was necessary to that life-work. What a won- 
 derful moment it is in the life of any boy when he 
 realizes that he has a work to do in the world and 
 decides to do it, and from that hour pushes his whole 
 life toward that end! When a boy wants to do what 
 God wants him to do, and finds out what that is, he is 
 on the way to the highest life and the only success. 
 
 When Jesus was home in •Nazareth he always went 
 to church and always liked to go. It was a large part 
 of his life. The Bible says it was his habit to go to 
 the house of God always on the Sabbath Day. When 
 he waked up in the morning his first thought was the 
 worship of God. This was the training of all boys 
 then. Just as soon as he waked he thought of God 
 and prayed. When he arose from the bed he was 
 not allowed to move four steps before washing his 
 hands and face as a sign that he had a clean heart and 
 a pure life. It was wicked to touch the face or any 
 part of the body until this was done. After he was 
 dressed he lifted the basin wnth his right hand and 
 passed it to his left hand, pouring the clear, clean, cold 
 water three times over the right hand, and then the 
 same was done for his left hand. Afterward he 
 washed his face three times. Then his hands were 
 raised and a prayer was made. 
 
 This Jesus did every morning of his life. Then he 
 usually went into the church for a daily morning 
 
6oim to (Tburcb 35 
 
 service. There were also many special religious services 
 and days. So Jesus came often to the house of God to 
 worship. It was a large part of his life. It ought to be 
 of every boy's life; no habit is so good as this. Never 
 to have it or to lose it is the saddest thing in life. 
 
 Sometimes in- the synagogue in Nazareth Jesus saw 
 all the people come in clothed in a garment of coarsest 
 cloth and throw ashes on their head, while the minister 
 was calling on everybody to repent and be truly sorry 
 for their sins. Then all the people would say mourn- 
 fully some psalm, and the trumpets would wail out a 
 crying sound. After this they all went to the cemetery, 
 and there again cried over their sins. This and all 
 other kinds of religious services had much to do with 
 his life. There were three regular services each day 
 and the best people went to them all. Our boys some- 
 times think one service in a whole week is too much. 
 
 To what kind of a church did Jesus go ? There was 
 only one in Nazareth. It was a stone building about 
 twice as long as it was wide, built of heavy stones and 
 stone floors, with three doors in one end and five rows 
 of seats within. The women were separated from the 
 men in the service, and they were not seen by each 
 other. This and some other things seem very strange 
 to us, but to them and to Jesus it had everything to do 
 with their life. No place was so much to him as this 
 church. He did not think of it as something he could 
 just as well leave out of his life, as though it did not 
 
make much difference anyway. Rather, he said, " This 
 is the necessary part of my hving." Sometimes boys 
 become very careless about the church. They even do 
 not go to the Sunday-school and do not have anything 
 to do with good things, not thinking that they lose 
 God's blessing and cannot be happy. Jesus did not need 
 it any more than you do, but he formed the habit of 
 always going to church. The boy who does that will 
 grow up to be the best when a man. The church is the 
 vital part of the boy's life, and to worship God the 
 greatest thing a boy can do. 
 
m 
 
 TUnxning THis ^rabe 
 
 HERE is in Nazareth a small car- 
 penter shop in which they say Joseph 
 the father of Jesus worked, and in 
 which the boy Jesus helped his father 
 and learned to be a carpenter himself. 
 This may not be the place where he 
 worked, but there was some place very like it in which 
 a large part of his boyhood was passed, a small room 
 with great stone walls, a very narrow opening for a 
 window, so that most of the time it was more dark 
 than light, a stone floor or else the bare ground, a 
 wooden work-bench, and the tools — very different 
 from those the carpenters now have — few in number 
 and very imperfect to accomplish the purpose for which 
 they were intended. At one side stood a bench and just 
 above it two or three shelves against the wall. On 
 these were some patterns and the tools. There must 
 have been a hammer and something like a saw, also 
 a number of edge-tools and instruments to make the 
 holes and smooth the sticks and boards. 
 
 37 
 
38 ^be Boij 3e0U0 
 
 Whatever there was in this shop it was much harder 
 to make beautiful and strong things than it is now. 
 Jesus had seen his father work so hard and think so 
 much over the things he had to make that he was 
 always trying to help him and do what he could to 
 make the work easier. He was thinking and planning 
 too, and doing his best to make everything come out 
 right. Whenever he saw his father stop and plan and 
 wipe his brow and seem so burdened and puzzled, 
 Jesus would say, " Will not this way make it better? " 
 " Cannot I hold it for you? " " Shall not I run and 
 get that ? " '' Tell me anything to do and I will do it." 
 Then his father would straigthen up and the burden 
 would seem to roll right off his shoulders. His face 
 changed and he began to see it better, the wrinkles 
 became smiles and he said, " I see it now. We can do 
 it all right." " We " — he counted his boy in with him 
 in the work. They were partners and always tried to 
 help each other. He stood many times in the shavings 
 and held one end of the large stick which his father was 
 trying to form in the right shape for a yoke. He 
 watched every move until very soon he knew just how 
 to make one himself. He was always asking about it 
 and trying to learn, so that he could some day make 
 the same things, and make them better than anybody 
 else. 
 
 That carpenter shop was a familiar place to Jesus. 
 When they did not know where he was they always 
 
Xcarntno Me IE;ra^e 39 
 
 went first to the shop to find him. Many hours of his 
 time were spent there helping his father and learning 
 his trade. This had very much to do with his whole 
 life. It may have been more to him than anything 
 else except his home. Other boys liked tools and liked 
 to make things themselves. Jesus was just the same, 
 about that. What work he had to do there he made 
 pleasure out of it and became very skilled in his art. 
 
 One day he may have been down below the village 
 watching an Arab build his tent. He stayed longer 
 than he should have and came home late because he was 
 so interested in the making of this tent. They spread 
 out their camel's haircloth or skins and then fixed 
 the center-pole, throwing over it the covering and driv- 
 ing down the pegs at the right distance and fastening 
 the strings to them to make it smooth and firm. When 
 this was all ready he began to wish he had a tent of his 
 own. On the way home he decided to make one, and 
 to plan it all out and stay awake to do it. They 
 found him very early in the shop in the morning, 
 asking his father if he could have that piece of wood 
 and this board, and then he worked them smooth and 
 got them the right length and sharpened the pegs. 
 Afterward he found some old cloth and fastening all 
 the pieces together the tent was ready to be built in 
 their yard or near the shop. Every boy knows some- 
 thing about this part of life and its joy. Jesus must 
 have known too. When he went inside that tent he 
 
40 ^be B015 3C0U0 
 
 was delighted with his success as any other boy would 
 have been. 
 
 It must have been a bright spot in his boy days 
 when his father took him over the hills to the lake of 
 Galilee, where he saw that beautiful water and its busy 
 cities. He was attracted by the boats especially, so 
 many of them, sailboats and rowboats, but none of 
 which go like our steam or electric boats — boats for 
 the many fishermen, and boats for other people to cross 
 the lake and to sail for pleasure. He must have said to 
 himself, " Just as soon as I get back home I am going 
 right to the shop to make a boat." He could hardly 
 wait to see what kind of a small boat he could make. 
 When they returned he found the wood and asked 
 for the tools and planned the little boat just like those 
 he had seen. He made the main part first and hollowed 
 it out. He fixed a small cabin and whittled out a 
 smooth mast. He rigged a sail on the mast and cut 
 the oars to be ready for the time when the wind did 
 not blow. He had taken notice of everything they had 
 on the Galilee boats, and his boat must be an exact 
 copy, a perfect little craft. He was pleased when it 
 was finished. Everybody had to see it and everybody 
 praised it. Was there ever a boy who did not like 
 to make a boat? If you have not, you must begin 
 right away ; your boy life and pleasure will not be 
 complete if you do not do this. 
 
 Whenever his mother called him to do something 
 
Xearnina IHI0 ^ra^e 41 
 
 for her he never said, " Wait a minute," or " Ask 
 somebody else," or " I don't want to do it," or many 
 other repHes which some boys make to their mothers. 
 He often saw what wanted to be done before she asked 
 him, and he did it of his own accord. How happy 
 that made her! It made her burdens hghter for the 
 whole day. It does not take much in this world to 
 change everything. Just a thought or a word or a 
 deed prompted by love is a magic power. 
 
 It was a long way to the spring where they went for 
 the water. All the water they drank or used had to 
 be carried from this one spring. It was the only one in 
 all that part of the country. Many times, and probably 
 many times a day, some one had to go for water. His 
 mother had to do most of this heavy burden-bearing. 
 When he was too small to carry the load he went with 
 her, but just as soon as he could do it for her, it was 
 his joy to go. This fountain of water was like the 
 fountain of joy in his heart. It is a manly boy who 
 helps his mother and helps his father and is not afraid 
 of work in his boyhood days. 
 
 Jesus was helping his father earn a living for their 
 family and learning the trade for himself. Everything 
 he made for himself, or helped his father in the making, 
 was preparing him to bear the greater burden of work 
 when it came. It came very soon. When he was thir- 
 teen or fourteen years of age death entered their home 
 bringing a great sorrow. His father was taken away. 
 
42 ^be 30^ 3e0U0 
 
 His mother was almost crushed beneath the blow. 
 Now was his chance. Here was a heavy responsibility. 
 Duty called loudly to him. Of course he heard the 
 call and answered with true courage and love. He 
 must take his father's place ; he must now be the 
 carpenter himself and make the yokes and plows and 
 doors and tables and chairs and benches and houses, 
 and almost everything that was made then. It was 
 such a blessing that he had learned a trade, such a 
 grand thing that the boy could now take care of 
 himself and help take care of others. Every morning 
 until night you could have heard the hammer pounding 
 and the saw making its noise, and the axe cutting and 
 the gimlet boring, while Jesus stood in the dust and 
 the shavings, breathing hard and stopping a moment 
 to rest, placing his tired hand on his side and his other 
 one on his brow. If he had any work outside he car- 
 ried a huge bag of tools and worked under a very hot 
 sun. He sweltered in his lifting and drawing and 
 planing and splitting and driving all the day long. He 
 knew what blistered hands and bruised fingers were. 
 He knew what it was to be almost too tired to sleep at 
 night and not all rested in the morning. 
 
 While he was yet a boy he knew all this. He was a 
 boy working at making wagons and houses and carry- 
 ing heavy burdens. His name was Jesus then, and he 
 was just living your life and getting ready to be your 
 Saviour. This was one of the most beautiful parts of 
 
Ju:sus IN His Worksho? 
 
 From tlie original ijhotograpli, by courtesy of tlie 
 AV. A. Wilde Company 
 
XearnlnG IHte ^rabe 43 
 
 his life. He was not afraid of work. He was ready 
 to face this or any other necessity. It was just noble 
 for him to take care of his mother. Any boy who does 
 this is one of the most heroic boys in the world. Many 
 of them are doing it, and the angels stop to watch them 
 and watch over them. What more manly act in this 
 world than this ! Here are to be found some of the 
 greatest boys in the world, boys who give up every- 
 thing and work hard to support their mothers, and 
 possibly their little brothers and sisters. They are 
 royal boys, and God will bless them for it. The boy 
 who is afraid of work is bound to be a failure. This is 
 necessary to any success and every one had better learn 
 how to do it right away. To be lazy is to be wicked 
 and to be worthless. A snail is slow but it is not lazy. 
 The alligator sleeps a great deal, but it is not lazy. 
 A boy ought to be better than an animal. The ideal 
 boy should look at the busy ant and learn a great les- 
 son. Better than that, he ought to look at the boy 
 Jesus and see him at work and see him happy in the 
 doing of it, and see him always doing his best. 
 
DHIf 
 •ffn THis IHomc 
 
 Y the side of one of the narrow streets 
 of Nazareth stood the home in which 
 Jesus grew up and which he loved so 
 much. That must have been a 
 blessed place for him and a shelter 
 in which he always liked to be. It 
 was very different from our homes to-day — a low, flat- 
 roofed, small building made out of white stone. The 
 walls were very thick. Some vines were creeping over 
 them, and doves sunning themselves on the flat roof. 
 A low doorway opened through one of the walls, and 
 a very small window or two. When Jesus entered this 
 doorway what did he see? A large room with very 
 simple things in it; a few mats on the floor; a large 
 seat along the wall with some cushions upon it and the 
 bright quilts that were used for covering when it was 
 used for the bed at night. In the daytime this bench 
 also served to hold some dishes used by the family. 
 Another chest or bench stood in the corner. There 
 were several large clay water-jars also upon the floor, 
 44 
 
ffi 
 
 K 
 
fin IHte IHome 45 
 
 some of them filled with water and some held green 
 herbs to keep the water fresh and cool. 
 
 When it was time for them to have their food, what 
 a strange sight! Here comes the mother of Jesus, or 
 some one else, carrying a low, round, painted stool and 
 standing it right in the center of the room. Then she 
 brings a tray holding the dish in which the food is 
 and places it upon the stool. The whole family sit 
 right down upon the floor, or on mats, with their legs 
 crossed. They form a circle around this table alid 
 eat their food very slowly and with great pleasure. 
 
 These things seem strange to us, but the principal 
 part of Jesus' home life was just the same as ours. 
 Homes are not made out of stone and wood. His 
 father and mother were there, and his friends, with 
 loving-kindness and sympathy and all that makes life 
 and joy. No boy who lives in a small home need envy 
 a boy who lives in a palace. Love makes the home. 
 Jesus knew what that was. He loved his father and 
 mother and they loved him. 
 
 When he first began to learn he was taught to honor 
 his parents. He made that one of the great lessons 
 of his life. The boys then were compelled to learn that 
 over and over again in the school and in the church 
 and in the home. They were constantly hearing of 
 God's blessing on the boy who was good to his father 
 and mother. They were told that this was so im- 
 portant that God made a promise and fastened it to 
 
46 Zbc IBo^ 3e6U0 
 
 his commandments, that the boy who did this should 
 hve long and prosper. 
 
 Jesus made the rule of his boyhood days always to 
 respect and love and obey his parents. He planted a 
 seed in the garden, and in a few weeks came the 
 beautiful and fragrant blossom. He said this is just 
 the way with life; the seeds of obedience make the 
 garden and the harvest field. If his father told him to 
 do something, he always did that one thing and did it 
 well, and did it right away. If his mother told him to 
 go to the fountain or the market, he didn't go some- 
 where else or linger along the way. He knew that 
 obedience meant to do that one thing and to do it at 
 once. To be asked to do something and not to do 
 that but something else is not obedience. To hesitate 
 and delay is not to obey. Jesus knew this so well and 
 it was one of the most beautiful parts of his life as 
 a boy. He never said he would do it and then forget 
 it, or always answered " In a minute," " Wait and I 
 will," but he was ready to drop everything and do the 
 will of his parents. The boy who is obedient is the 
 best boy; that is one of the greatest parts of all life. 
 To respect older people and honor them and serve them 
 is one of the noblest things in the world. The boy who 
 does this is always sure to make a good man. In this 
 way Jesus added much to the joy of his home. This 
 helped to make it such a good home. Every boy has 
 so much to do with the making of his own home. He 
 
Iln 1Hi0 Home m 
 
 can almost always have it just what he wants it to be. 
 At least, he can always make his part of it right, and 
 be obedient and respectful and loving and kind. 
 
 If )ou had been in the boyhood home of Jesus 
 you would have seen something like this : a bright- 
 faced boy with his great round eyes looking up into 
 his mother's face as he sat by her side listening to 
 the story she was telling him. He was so interested 
 that he never took his eyes from her, and he almost 
 stopped breathing sometimes. He always desired to 
 hear those stories which were so familiar to her and 
 so dear to her people. She said, " Which one do you 
 wish to hear now ? " And he said, " Oh, tell me about 
 the boy David." Then she began to relate to him the 
 story of that boy life, watching his father's sheep in 
 the fields, and his beautiful voice for singing, and his 
 skilful hand for playing on the harp and other musical 
 instruments; how he went away w'ith his fiocks for 
 weeks in the mountains and led them in the best place 
 for pasture in the daytime, while in the night hours 
 he lay by them on the hillside and in the valleys to 
 protect them from the wild beasts or other injury. 
 Many times he had to use his club and his knife against 
 the fierce animals which came to kill his sheep. 
 
 But while she was telling all this part of David's 
 life, Jesus was waiting for the one part most excit- 
 ing and most interesting to him — that wonderful day 
 on the battlefield when the two armies were drawn up 
 
48 tlbe Boi^ 3ceu0 
 
 against each other, and the great giant of the enemy 
 had challenged so boldly and contemptuously the other 
 side. Just then the boy David came into the camp of 
 Israel with some things his mother had sent to his 
 brothers who were soldiers in the army. He heard the 
 great giant defy God and his people and his courageous 
 soul could not stand this. He said, " I will fight him in 
 the strength of my God." They all laughed at him 
 while the giant mocked him and cursed him. The 
 soldiers wanted to cover him with heavy armor before 
 he went to meet the warrior, but he refused it or any 
 other help. Breathing his prayer to God, he went down 
 to the side of the brook and there picked out five 
 smooth stones. With them in his leather bag and his 
 sling in his "hand, to the amazement of them all he 
 went right on and faced the bold giant who laughed at 
 him and was just waiting to kill him in an instant; but 
 the brave boy never paused until he came very near his 
 enemy. Then he placed one of the little pebbles in his 
 leather sling, and taking perfect aim swung it around 
 in a circle as swift as the wind and let it go. It went 
 like an arrow straight to the mark. It struck the giant 
 right in the forehead. He dropped dead on the hillside. 
 David ran up and seized his mammoth sword and fin- 
 ished the work by severing his head from his body. 
 The frightened army all fled in confusion and haste 
 while they were pursued by the army of God and were 
 at last defeated and destroyed. The boy David was the 
 
fin IHte IHome 49 
 
 hero. Jesus sat almost breathless to hear the end of 
 this story. His mother knew just how to tell it, and to 
 tell him that the boy who trusts in God is always 
 victorious. 
 
 Jesus and his mother must have gone many times 
 from their home up to the top of the hill above the 
 village. Here was a grand view of all the country for 
 many miles, the mountains and the valleys and the sea 
 and the stream. She had had to tell him about all these 
 places because so many things had taken place in re- 
 lation to them. Most beautiful hours Jesus passed 
 up there, and heard very many interesting stories. 
 They looked southwest for twenty miles and saw the 
 famous Mount Carmel lifting its head above all the 
 surrounding country, and looking as if it was a mighty 
 king defying the sea which stretched far away in the 
 distance. Then his mother told him all that strange 
 scene which took place many years before on the top of 
 Mount Carmel — how wicked people and false prophets 
 were denying the true God and serving idols ; how Eli- 
 jah the great man of God offered them his challenge, 
 and said, " This shall be the test : let us all go to Mount 
 Carmel and build two altars. You pray to your gods 
 and I will pray to my God. The God who answers 
 by fire from heaven and burns up the sacrifice on the 
 altar, he shall be God." They all had to say yes. 
 Then Elijah gave them the first chance, and they 
 prayed and cried to Baal, and cut themselves with 
 
50 Zhe Boi? 3cB\XB 
 
 knives and stones, and all day they kept this prayer 
 going and it failed. No fire came. Then Elijah stand- 
 ing alone before God told them, to make it sure, to dig 
 a trench, a deep one, all about the altar, to fill the 
 trench with water, to pour water all over the altar and 
 the sacrifice. They were astonished at his orders and 
 his faith. When it was all made as hard as it possibly 
 could be, Elijah fell on his knees and prayed to God to 
 reveal himself and to destroy the false gods, to send 
 fire from heaven before all the people. * Immediately 
 a great fire came from the skies and burned the sacrifice 
 and licked up every drop of water until the ground and 
 stones were all parched and dry. This was a great 
 triumph for God and the good. 
 
 How Jesus must have listened to this story of 
 Carmel, and every time he saw it, or went up to the 
 hills with his father or mother, he wanted to hear it 
 over again. Jesus was just like other boys in this. 
 He liked to hear stories and hear them over and over 
 again. They must have been especially interesting to 
 hear when he could see the very place where they oc- 
 curred. On the hill or in the garden or in the home or 
 wherever he was he found joy and made it for others. 
 His home life was everything to him. That little 
 house in Nazareth was the center of his world. He 
 loved it and loved everybody in it, and they loved him. 
 God's blessing was always upon that home. A good 
 boy and a good home are great things. 
 
iDiFifir 
 
 J^acing XTemptation 
 
 N the country where Jesus hved there 
 were many lonely places which they 
 called deserts, because they were so 
 rocky and without any grass or 
 flow.ers or scarcely any trees, just 
 great hills and mountains, barren all 
 the way to the top. On the sides of these were caves 
 and holes for wild animals. No one lived in these des- 
 ert places and no one very near them. The wild beasts 
 howled and the eagles screeched, and that was all that 
 broke the awful silence. This was not a very pleas- 
 ant place to go to, but Jesus went one day when he was 
 a young man into the deepest part of the wilderness. 
 He probably went in there to be alone by himself and 
 to think about what he was to do in order to help 
 others most and to save the world. He was not afraid. 
 Was he ever afraid? How can anybody be in fear 
 if he knows that God is always with him? Jesus knew 
 this and always had the courage to go anywhere or do 
 anything. It is wonderful to live that way, but that is 
 
 SI 
 
52 the 3Soi? 3e6U0 
 
 the way any boy can live, knowing that God will stand 
 by him when he is doing right, and will give him 
 strength to do it. Jesus said that he was never alone, 
 even in this dark and dismal place. He could not go 
 alone. His Father was always with him. 
 
 But there is another person in our world and in the 
 deserts too. Satan is everywhere, doing his best to 
 make us forget God and not do the right. He came to 
 Jesus just as soon as he was in this desert place and 
 began to talk to him as if he was his friend, telling him 
 what he ought to do. Jesus had been here by himself 
 for a long time and without any food, and of course 
 was very hungry. Satan said, " This is my chance. He 
 is almost starved. He will do anything now to get 
 something to eat." So he went to him and tried to 
 make him forget that God was going to care for him 
 and would not let him starve or really want. Satan 
 said, " Now is your opportunity to show your power 
 and provide for yourself. If you are the Son of God 
 stand right in front of these stones and command them 
 to become loaves of bread so that you can satisfy your 
 hunger." Then Jesus instantly thought of his trust 
 in his Father, and that he ought to do only what God 
 said, not what the tempter told him to do. So he re- 
 plied, " It is written in the word of God that no one 
 ought to live by bread only, but by the promises and 
 truth of God." 
 
 This temptation was an utter failure for Satan and 
 
Jesus Facing Temptation" 
 
Ifaclno temptation 53 
 
 he must have felt it, but he is never wilhng to give up. 
 He is always determined to win. So he led Jesus out 
 and into the city and climbed to a high part of the 
 temple and said to him, " Now is the time and this is 
 the place to show what you can do. Make the world 
 believe that you are the Son of God. Just stand up 
 here at this great height where the people can see you 
 and suddenly astonish them by leaping off and coming 
 down in their midst without any harm to yourself. 
 Tell them that the angels held you." Immediately 
 Jesus saw through the scheme of Satan again, and 
 boldly answered, " I will not do it because it is not 
 right to do contrary to the wish of God and try him 
 in some wrong way. 
 
 But Satan would not give up yet. He led him up to 
 the summit of a very high mountain, and told him to 
 look around in every direction. He said, " Look to the 
 north and the south and the east and the west. Behold 
 all the nations and kingdoms of the world." Jesus 
 looked and all this was a very attractive sight. While 
 he was seeing it the tempter said, " If you wull give up 
 God and fall down right here and worship me, I will 
 give you all these kingdoms and you shall be ruler of 
 them all. You have the power and they will recognize 
 it. There is something more to your life than to an 
 ordinary man's life, and the world will be yours in 
 this way." Again Jesus looked and said as he stamped 
 his foot and pointed his hand at Satan, " Get thee 
 
54 XTbe IBo^ 3e5U0 
 
 behind me forever. I will not listen to you. I will 
 only give myself to my Father in heaven." 
 
 Then he was all alone again, and something very 
 strange took place. Angels came quickly from heaven 
 and fed him and cared for him and stayed by him. 
 Was that so strange? No! It was to be expected! 
 It was God's way! Then it is God's way now. Be 
 heroic and true and good and the angels will not be 
 far away from you. Somehow they will care for 
 you. 
 
 Where did Jesus learn how to treat Satan? How 
 did he get ready for such a hard trial when he came to 
 be a young man ? He was doing the same way when he 
 was a boy. Every day and wherever he was he met 
 temptation and resisted it. He was all ready for the 
 great crisis in his life. Any boy who is going to run 
 a race must practise. He must run a little farther 
 and a little faster to-day than he did yesterday. To- 
 morrow he must do better than he did to-day, and 
 when the great hour arrives, and he is to do his best, 
 he wins. Every day facing temptation and being 
 a victor makes a hero when the hardest time comes. 
 
 All boys have their temptations, and the boy Jesus 
 must have had his, but he never gave in to them. He 
 was always boldly facing them and coming away con- 
 queror. The great victories are not on the battlefield 
 or fighting Indians or wild animals. The hardest 
 struggle anybody has ever met is when he is alone 
 
Ifadng tTemptatlon 55 
 
 with Satan to tempt him. The greatest heroes may 
 never have shot a gun or held a sword in their hand. 
 Some of the battlefield fighters have fallen right down 
 in front of some temptation. The man in India who 
 goes into the jungle and hunts elephants might be a 
 coward in a plain field facing just an ordinary tempta- 
 tion. A man in India shot an elephant and only 
 wounded him. He shot him again and that only gave 
 him more rage. He tore up the earth and then came 
 after the man, but that man alone with a small tree be- 
 tween him and his enemy, with a gun and a knife kept 
 the elephant off until help came, and finally killed him. 
 That same man said many times he had been cowardly 
 and given right up to some small temptation. The 
 bravest boy in the world is the one who fights his temp- 
 tations and fights to win. He is ready to stand the 
 more difficult battle when he is a man. 
 
 When Jesus was a boy he had wonderful control of 
 himself. He would not allow himself to become angry 
 and say ugly things and do injury to others and to 
 himself. He never had to excuse himself because he 
 had lost his temper or hurt some one or destroyed 
 the happiness of his home or broken up the game. 
 How quickly most boys get angry and fly into a rage ! 
 They think it manly to fight and defend themselves. 
 This is not self-defense. It is self-destruction. They 
 are just doing what Satan wants them to do, and that 
 means their ruin. Jesus stood against all these, and 
 
56 Z\)C BOI? 3C0U0 
 
 never allowed any ill temper to mar his heart or his 
 face. He learned the greatest lesson of life — self-con- 
 trol. This was his way, not only with temper, but in 
 everything. He controlled his appetite. He never ate 
 so much that he suffered afterward because of it. His 
 health was everything, and he knew that failure to con- 
 trol his eating would ruin his body. When the boy 
 comes to be a man he must bear the penalty of over- 
 eating or any other sin. H he resists temptation health 
 and happiness follow him into manhood. It is sin just 
 the same to yield to temptation and destroy the health 
 of the body as it is to kill yourself or to kill another. 
 Many failures in life can be traced back to the boyhood 
 days of giving in to temptation in some form. The 
 seeds are planted in the spring and we gather the 
 harvest in the summer and autumn. These other seeds 
 are planted in the spring too, in boy life, and the 
 harvest will surely come later. It is a great thing for 
 a boy to look forward to a garden instead of a desert. 
 The boy Jesus met the temptations which other boys 
 meet, but he stood up against them like a hero and 
 refused even to listen to them. He walked away and 
 entered the path of right and went straight on. 
 
%ivinQ the XTtutb 
 
 NE clay when they were making that 
 long journey from Nazareth to Je- 
 rusalem they passed by a strange-look- 
 ing tomb — a grave out in the field and 
 fenced off by itself. His father must 
 have pointed it out to Jesus and told 
 him a strange story about it. He had heard it often 
 before, but each time they repeated it to him it was 
 more interesting. It was one of his favorite stories 
 and he could not hear it too often. It was about a 
 boy whose life was so noble and so wonderful. Un- 
 doubtedly they stopped at this sepulcher and rested 
 while Jesus looked at it — every part of it, and was so 
 anxious to hear its history when they told him it was 
 the grave of Joseph after whom his own father was 
 named. This was the very ground over which the 
 boy Joseph walked and played. These were the very 
 hillsides down which he ran, and here by the road he 
 picked the flowers and played his games. They pointed 
 across the field just a short distance and showed where 
 
 57 
 
58 ^be Bo^ 3C6U0 
 
 the famous well was which Joseph's father dug so 
 deep and made so solid that here through all the 
 hundreds of years the inhabitants and travelers had 
 quenched their thirst. Jesus must have been enthu- 
 siastic right away and said, " Tell me again the story 
 of the boy Joseph while we sit here in the shadow of 
 his tomb and rest." How intently he must have 
 listened, and imagined he could almost see the boy in 
 the field, that boy whose life he had always admired 
 so much ! The boy who was the youngest in a family 
 of brothers and whom his father had loved so dearly — 
 he was so sincere and true! He was always trying to 
 please his father, and his father was always trying to 
 do something for him. He gave him a beautiful coat 
 made out of many colors, and made out of his father's 
 sacrifice and love. One day they sent him a long dis- 
 tance from the home to that part of the fields to see 
 his older brothers who were there watching the flocks 
 of sheep and cattle. He carried them some good things 
 to eat and a message from their home. When they 
 saw him they became jealous of him and said their 
 father thought too much of him and gave him more 
 than he did any other one of them. So, instead of 
 appreciating the kindness, and the food which he 
 brought, they began wickedly to make a plan to 
 get rid of him, and finally decided to drop him down in 
 a deep well — an old empty well — and cover it over with 
 a large flat stone, leaving him to die. What a shudder 
 
Jesus by thk Old Wem. 
 
Xtving tbe ^rutb 59 
 
 this must have shot through the tender heart of a boy 
 like Jesus ! It did not seem possible to him. His look 
 had a question mark in it, but his father assured him 
 that this was their murderous thought and desire. 
 Suddenly they espied in the distance a caravan of 
 travelers and traders coming. One of them said, 
 " This will be better for him than the pit. Save his 
 life, but get rid of him just the same by selling him to 
 these strangers, and they will take him as their slave- 
 boy away down to Egypt, and we will never hear of 
 him again or be troubled with him." They all agreed 
 to this plan and he was sold and carried away. But 
 what could they say to little Joseph's father? How 
 could they explain his not coming back? " Oh," one 
 of them suggested, " that is easy to do. Kill a lamb and 
 cover this coat with the blood, and tell father that a 
 bear or a lion must have eaten him up on the way back. 
 This was a falsehood and the breaking of a father's 
 heart. 
 
 Now it was time to start on their journey again, 
 and Jesus, just like other boys, said " No, don't go yet. 
 Finish the story. Tell me the other part of it." And 
 his father said, " Come on. We will tell you as we 
 go." Then he related that which was so thrilling: 
 how Joseph rose from a slave-boy in Egypt and out of 
 the life in a prison, to be the ruler of all that country; 
 how everybody loved him and almost worshiped him 
 because he was so true. His wisdom and his character 
 
6o ^be Boi? 3e0U0 
 
 lifted him to the throne. Then came the great famine, 
 and out of his storehouses the corn was given to his 
 own brothers who came so far to get it and keep them- 
 selves and others from starving. They did not know 
 Joseph, but he knew them. He was kind to them and 
 at last told them who he was. Then he sent for his 
 old father and brought him into the palace to live with 
 him. 
 
 Jesus loved that kind of life, and above everything 
 else he thought a boy ought to be true — not only to 
 speak the truth, but to live it — to be the truth. This was 
 one of the startling things he said about himself when 
 he came into manhood. " I am the truth." His idea of 
 the right kind of a boy was one who lo\ed the truth — 
 one who could always be depended upon, who was 
 sincere down to the lowest corner of his heart. Jesus 
 could not understand how those brothers of Joseph 
 could be so cruel or so false. He hated a lie or any- 
 thing that was deceptive. He would rather die than 
 utter the shadow of untruth. To be true is the ideal 
 for every boy's life — not to appear and to seem and to 
 be a sham, but to live the truth, to be a genuine boy. 
 Sometimes a boy may have fashionable clothes, he may 
 be polite, and yet be a sham. Dress does not make a 
 boy. Politeness is good, but purity is better. The boy 
 who does not tell the truth and live the truth is walking 
 on the quicksand, and every minute he breathes he is 
 sinking deeper into ruin. The only solid foundation 
 
XivltiG tbe ZIrutb , 6i 
 
 in the world is the truth. Even if you are sold as a 
 slave-boy and go to prison and suffer persecution, 
 remember every Joseph comes to a throne. Every 
 boy's success and every boy's character must rest upon 
 the truth. 
 
 Whenever they saw the boy Jesus they said, " There 
 goes the truth." When he saw a boy trying to make a 
 trade with one of his companions and cheating him in 
 the bargain, that was enough to show him what kind of 
 a boy he was and to warn him to keep him and his 
 spirit out of his life. A cheating boy is a dangerous 
 associate. He could find no friend in Jesus. 
 
 When he went by a shop in Nazareth and listened 
 to the storekeepers saying that which was false about 
 their goods and charging a price far more than the real 
 value, his heart always carried a protest against it, 
 and he felt that such a way of doing business was far 
 from God's plan, and must receive his condemnation. 
 He knew that the laws of his world would work, and 
 no boy or man could make anything by robbing 
 another. He must always be the loser in the end, for 
 the only success is in the pathway of truth. 
 
 Jesus saw many times a familiar sight in the street 
 — a funeral procession. He could hear the sad mourn- 
 ing cry a long way off. Presently appeared the slowly 
 moving procession. At the head was the richly orna- 
 mented box holding the dead body of one of the Naza- 
 reth merchants. It was carried on the shoulders of 
 
62 ^be Boi? 3e6u^ 
 
 four men, and followed by a crowd of mourners 
 making very strange noises and going through strange 
 motions. As they passed Jesus, he must have said, 
 " What is the use of such a life? He has just lived for 
 himself. He has been trying to take the advantage of 
 everybody. He has carried falsehood on his lips and 
 falsehood in his heart. The only thing he did was to 
 make riches and keep them. Now they are of no value 
 to him. What good did he ever receive from them? 
 They have cursed his life and ruined his soul. The 
 only life is the true life. This is the only riches and 
 success. This must be my life." Jesus tried to learn 
 a lesson from everything. When he was a boy he kept 
 his eyes and his mind and his heart open. He saw 
 everything and was interested in it, and pushed his 
 whole soul against it. He tried to make it bring some- 
 thing of truth into his life and his world. 
 
 A crowd is gathering down at the foot of the hill 
 in the open space. Everybody is coming that way. 
 Jesus with some others hastens down to see the cause 
 of the excitement. It is the wedding day of one of the 
 young men in the town. He is in the center of a crowd, 
 and they are singing and shouting and dancing about 
 him. This is the beginning of the journey they are to 
 make to the house of his bride. It will take them 
 several hours to go a very short distance, because they 
 go slowly and stop often. They work themselves into 
 all manner of motions and complete exhaustion. They 
 
Xtving tbc ^rutb 63 
 
 shout and sway back and forth and sing and dance. 
 They scatter flowers and l^ranches and perfumes. 
 They wave all sorts of garments, and at last place the 
 bridegroom on a richly decorated horse. Then the 
 crowd surrounds him and increases its wild manifesta- 
 tions of friendship and joy. Jesus watches all this and 
 the coming of the virgins, and he follows the proces- 
 sion to the bride's house. He remembers it all, so 
 that when he has grown to be a man he uses this very 
 illustration to teach one of his most solemn truths; 
 but the boy himself learned one of his greatest les- 
 sons as he Avatched these people and their actions and 
 heard their words of insincerity. He saw that this was 
 not friendship and truth. They were doing this almost 
 entirely in pretense, and getting what they could out of 
 it for themselves. He saw this was all on the surface — 
 a show, and not real love and life. Most of these en- 
 thusiastic followers were only pretenders. Jesus stood 
 and looked over it all and discovered its hollowness. 
 He said a friend must first of all be true. Everything 
 in the world and in human life depends upon that great 
 reality. Everything is failure apart from it. He 
 walked away saying to himself, " The best thing about 
 a boy is the truth. At any cost I will be true." 
 
IHelpfna ©tbets 
 
 NE of the sights famihar to Jesus 
 when he was a boy was the company 
 of lepers, and the leper alone by him- 
 self in his sad condition and suffer- 
 ing from that dreadful disease which 
 no doctor could cure. He saw them 
 huddled together and crouching against the wall in 
 the village. He saw them upon the roadside in the 
 country, compelled to stay in their own companionship 
 and separated from others. He saw them with their 
 faces almost shapeless, ears gone, noses gone, chin 
 gone. Their feet might be only stumps, and their 
 hands fingerless and sore. They were almost too hor- 
 rible to look at. He heard them give their pitiful, de- 
 spairing cry for help and sympathy and food. His 
 boyish heart went out with such a longing anxiety to 
 bring some relief to them. Others passed on and paid 
 no attention. Some wicked boys mocked them and 
 tried to imitate their crying and their looks, but this 
 hurt the heart of one boy more than it hurt the lepers. 
 64 
 
IKelpino ©tbera 65 
 
 Jesus gave them anything he could to help and sym- 
 pathize with them. He was never afraid to come near 
 them. He was their friend and many of them knew 
 him, and their world was brighter because he lived in 
 it. When he grew to be a man and to do his wonderful 
 work as the Saviour of men, these poor afflicted people 
 received many a tender touch from him. Many of 
 them were healed of their leprosy by him. The brave 
 heart of the boy just ached to help those who needed 
 it so very much. One of the noblest parts of a boy's 
 life is the tender touch and loving sympathy, that 
 living, longing desire and determination to help every- 
 body, and especially the lowly one who needs it most. 
 The leper was cast out and despised by most other peo- 
 ple, but the boy Jesus went out of his way to get near 
 them and to do everything he possibly could for them. 
 He was just the same in relation to any others who 
 needed his love and his life. 
 
 He saw in that country very many who were blind — 
 so different from our part of the world. We have very 
 few whose eyes are dead to the world and who must 
 always live in the dark. This is one of the most piti- 
 able things which can come to human life. How we all 
 dread it. We would have almost anything else rather 
 than to be blind, never to see the flowers, the trees, 
 the birds, or most of all, the faces of our loved ones; 
 but this was an ordinary condition in the land where 
 the boy Jesus lived, and is yet to-day — very little 
 
^^ trbe Boi? 3C0U0 
 
 children without any eyes, boys and girls feeling their 
 way about through a world of night, and grown people 
 who are blind, at almost every turn. Jesus never saw 
 one of these but his heart gave them its best sympathy, 
 and at every opportunity his hand gave them its best 
 assistance. He watched for his chance. If they were 
 in danger he ran like the wind to reach them and rescue 
 them. If they were about to be run against on the 
 street he hastened to lead them to a place of safety. If 
 any of the blind wanted to go to some place and could 
 not find their way, Jesus would drop what he was 
 doing or delay his errand or give up his play to take 
 them by the hand and put them in the right path and 
 help them on the way. Every step of the way he was 
 saying to himself, " Oh, how I wish I could give him 
 eyes, but I can anyway be eyes for him." When Jesus 
 came to the hour of his miracles and his divine power, 
 what a joy it must have been to do just what his boy's 
 heart so often wished to be able to do! Some of the 
 most wonderful moments in Jesus' life were the mo- 
 ments when he touched the eyes of the blind people and 
 made them see. His heart was as happy as theirs, be- 
 cause it was his greatest joy to bring relief to others. 
 
 Possibly something like this occurred: One day he 
 met an old man on the road between Nazareth and 
 Cana, and the old man bending over and blind was 
 feeling his way along the path of his sad life. Jesus 
 stopped by him in answer to his appeal for help. Jesus 
 
Jesus Helping Others 
 
IKelping ©tbere 67 
 
 always stopped at the cry of a human heart. The old 
 man did not expect to receive what Jesus gave him 
 for, to his amazement, and the astonishment of the 
 others who saw it, Jesus puts one hand in the trembling 
 hand of the old man, and his other hand on the 
 wrinkled face, and told him to look once more and see 
 his world, and instantly his eyes received their vision, 
 and he forgot to look at other things, but gazed into 
 the face of Jesus and listened to his voice, and then he 
 said, " You are the one. I know you. I remember it, 
 the day you helped me when I was in trouble in the 
 market-place in Nazareth years ago. You were a boy 
 then, but it is the same voice and the same touch and 
 the same heart." And it was. Jesus remembered that 
 day too, and remembered that it was one of the most 
 joyful days of his life, because he had helped some- 
 body else, and some one who needed it very much. 
 This is the way for any boy to make the world bright 
 and beautiful for himself and for others. The way to 
 get joy is to give joy. The way to be loved is to be 
 loving. The way to help a blind man most is to give 
 him back his eyes. The next best way is to be eyes for 
 him. Any boy can do this, and this is the most won- 
 derful thing in a boy's life, right next to working a 
 miracle. 
 
 It does not take much effort to help somebody else, 
 but it takes the best in a boy. The shepherds often 
 had to bring their sheep — and sometimes great flocks 
 
6S the BO^ 3C6U0 
 
 of them — through the streets of Nazareth. It was not 
 always an easy task. There were so many things to 
 break them in sections and drive them in different 
 directions, a caravan of camels or a procession or 
 another drove of sheep. Then they were scattered, 
 and the difficulty began. The shepherd was leading 
 them, because he always went ahead of his sheep, 
 and never drove them. Now he would call to this one 
 and now to the other and then to his dog. He was in 
 great trouble. Then some boys along the street in- 
 creased the scattering of the sheep by throwing a 
 stick or stone amongst them or making some noise to 
 frighten them some more. Here was another good 
 time to help some one, and the boy Jesus came to the 
 rescue. He ran around this side and brought them to- 
 gether, then into the side street and drove back those 
 running there. He kept them together until they were 
 safe on the country road and near the pasture field. 
 
 He went often on the hillsides with the shepherds 
 and was interested in hearing their stories and their 
 songs and watching them in their love for the sheep. 
 They knew each one of them by name. He may have 
 been out with them during the night, as all night long 
 the shepherd protected his flock from robbers and wild 
 beasts, and let them sleep under the skies and heaven's' 
 covering. In the night Jesus listened to the strange 
 music of the shepherds, as that weird whistle sounded 
 over the hills and across the valleys, and made sleep 
 
IKelpinG ©tbers 69 
 
 sweeter for the sheep and the night shorter for the 
 shepherds. They Hked the company of Jesus. He 
 helped them and learned much from their life — great 
 lessons which he never forgot and a great desire to be 
 like them in his relation to others. So much did this 
 mean to him that he even came to call himself when he 
 was preaching the gospel " the good Shepherd." That 
 holy desire to protect and help and care for and save 
 the people controlled his whole life. One of the shep- 
 herds may have told him, when he was a boy, about 
 how he lost one of his lambs one night and how he 
 searched and searched for it, and at last brought all the 
 rest of his flock in the fold and then went out in the 
 night and tried again to find it. All night he wandered 
 in the v^ilderness and over the rocks and through the 
 brush. He called and called and prayed, and it seemed 
 to be only a failure. A hungry lion must have devoured 
 his lamb. But he could not give it up ; so he pushed 
 his way straight into the darkness and the danger, 
 when to his great joy he discovered the little lamb 
 caught in a thicket, in a clump of thorns. It was bleed- 
 ing and almost dead, but he soon rescued it and took 
 it in his strong arms and carried it safely to shelter 
 and to life. To save was the object of his whole life, 
 and he began to show it when he was a boy. To help 
 somebody was the boy's motto, and afterward to save 
 everybody was the Divine man's life. 
 
in 
 
 Bfrbs anb jFIowets 
 
 ANY happy hours Jesus passed in the 
 fields looking at the flowers and 
 watching the sheep and hearing the 
 - singing of the birds, and taking every- 
 thing of beauty and health into his 
 life. The place where the red lilies 
 covered the ground was attractive to him. and he al- 
 ways had to stop and pick one, and then look down into 
 its heart and share its joy and purity. He must have 
 thought of them often in his boy life, for when he 
 grew to be a man he said, " Just look at the lilies 
 of the field, how they grow. They do not work. 
 They do not get worried, but God clothes them in their 
 beautiful dress, so that not even the richest king can 
 wear such royal robes." He learned this all through 
 his boyhood days, and he lived just as they did, trust- 
 ful and obedient, and grew to be the perfect flower of 
 manhood. He always kept his eyes open and saw 
 everything and learned something from it. 
 
 He one day saw a hen and her chickens. He stood 
 
 and watched her taking care of her little children, 
 70 
 
Jesus in the Fjklus 
 
®ir^0 anb 3f lowers 71 
 
 The larg-e family was a good deal of trouble to her. 
 She tried to feed them and keep them near her, but 
 they were always running away and getting into some 
 mischief. While he stood watching her and laughing 
 at her failure in keeping them where she wanted them, 
 suddenly she turned her head one side, and then 
 called as loudly as she could to every little one to come 
 quickly and get under her wings. She seemed to be 
 almost wild in her anxiety to get them all huddled be- 
 neath her feathers. Every second was a minute to her. 
 They knew what it meant and pushed their way into 
 this wonderful place of safety. What was the trouble 
 and the cause of all this fright? There was a great 
 ugly hawk hovering just above them in the sky. That 
 mother hen had seen her enemy when he was just a 
 black speck in the sky. She knew he was circling 
 above her little ones and with every circle coming down 
 nearer and nearer to them, and then like an arrow 
 would shoot straight downward upon some of her 
 chicken children and kill them. Jesus must have be- 
 come almost as anxious as she was, and said when 
 he discovered the danger, " I will not let him get 
 them," because this was so fixed in his mind that when 
 he came to teach the world his lessons he said, " How 
 often would I have gathered thy children together, 
 even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." 
 His saving life meant something like that. 
 
 When he was a boy he must have loved to get away 
 
72 ^be Boi^ 3e0U0 
 
 from the village and out on the hills and by the streams 
 and in the woods and upon the rocks. Every boy likes 
 that. The more wild it is, the more pleasure there is 
 in it. He went on these trips with some of his friends. 
 They caught sight of a fox. They began to chase him 
 toward a corner, and in trying to catch him one went 
 this way another that way. Each one ran his best 
 and played his sharpest game on that fox, but the fox 
 was a sly one and watched his chance too. He kept 
 his eyes straight toward one place. At last they thought 
 they had him and were just ready to shout, when he 
 darted into an unseen hole in the side of the hill at the 
 foot of an old tree. When he went in the last thing he 
 seemed to do was to turn his nose around and laugh at 
 them. He was home and safe. Jesus afterward in 
 life remembered this so well that he said, " The foxes 
 have holes, but the Saviour of men has no place to 
 lay his head." The fox had a home, and in that respect 
 was better off than Jesus was when he was a man and 
 preaching his gospel. 
 
 Most boys do not see anything as they should do, 
 but they only look at things and never learn from them 
 or remember them. Two boys see the sunset. One of 
 them looks at it so long and so well that he becomes 
 an artist and paints it. The other boy only saw some 
 stray clouds and ordinary colors, and it had no rela- 
 tion to his life. It is a wonderful part of life to be 
 able to see, not just look but look through, and see 
 
36irt)0 an^ 3flower0 73 
 
 what others do not see. To use what has come to your 
 eyes and think about what you see makes your world 
 larger and brighter and makes you larger and brighter 
 too. Jesus loved everything his heavenly Father had 
 made. That made him love his world and delight 
 to be out in it. He watched the birds as they built 
 their nests and stood on the limbs and sang their songs. 
 It was his music and helped to make the joy of his life. 
 The last thing he would think of would be to destroy 
 their nests. That is the last thing any boy should think 
 of. To rob the birds' nests and break up their little 
 home and break their little hearts, is too cruel a sport 
 for any boy to engage in. Jesus watched them bring 
 the sticks and lay them in the narrow crotch of the 
 tree, then bring the smaller pieces and splinters, and 
 afterward the bits of leaves and grass, and finally 
 the feathers, and place them so skilfully in that circle, 
 while keeping it hollow in the center, and then smooth- 
 ing it all out by rubbing their own feathery breasts 
 around it again and again. That is such a marvelous 
 piece of work that even a boy could not do it. A bird 
 can do what a boy could not do. Even a man can build 
 a house, but must leave the bird to build her own nest. 
 Jesus watched them making their home for the 
 little birds and saw them flying about so free and 
 happy. Their breath was a song. He wondered and 
 thought. He never forgot it, for in other years he 
 said to a great crowd of people, " Listen ; watch the 
 
74 ^be Boi^ 3e0U0 
 
 birds and live in their world. They are not worried 
 and always fretting. They live so happy and so peace- 
 ful. They do not gather into barns and storehouses 
 a great quantity of food, but each day your heavenly 
 Father feeds them. You are better than the birds and 
 he will care for you too." 
 
 The boy Jesus carried the music of his world in his 
 heart. His was always a smiling face and a happy 
 heart. No boy ever knew how to laugh as well as he. 
 He was skilled above all others in this. It must have 
 made others happy to hear him laugh. He had such 
 a cheerful disposition that everybody liked to be with 
 him. This is the kind of boys we like to be with and 
 call our friends. Nobody likes a sour boy. Everybody 
 wants a companion who knows how to laugh and is 
 always looking on the bright side and running over 
 with good cheer. All nature smiled for Jesus and he 
 smiled back. The boy who looks like a cup of vinegar 
 or a little corner of a thunder-cloud is the one whom 
 every other boy keeps at a distance ; but a cheerful, 
 happy boy who loves his world, makes a good time 
 everywhere and out of everything, is the one whom 
 others like to get near and to rub against. Jesus was 
 that kind of a boy. His face was the home of smiles, 
 radiant and beautiful with the light of heaven upon it, 
 but he remembered the great lessons of life and saw 
 them in everything and thrust them deep into his own 
 life. He pushed these great truths into others. 
 
®lr^0 an^ fflowcrs 75 
 
 He must have been very anxious to get to the sea- 
 shore and to see that great stretch of water without any 
 other shore. He had heard about it, and from the high- 
 est hill back of Nazareth he had seen what it was 
 in the distance. How interesting it must have been 
 for him when his father took him on that journey from 
 their home to the Mediterranean Sea ! Along the road- 
 way are very many interesting things to see. All these 
 helped to shorten the way for Jesus, but when they 
 came around Mount Carmel, and heard the roar of the 
 waves, he could hardly wait to get there and see what 
 he had dreamed about. A storm was on and this made 
 it more interesting and exciting than it would have 
 been otherwise. The breakers were rolling in like 
 small mountains of water. The huge rocks were being 
 pounded by this mighty hammer. It seemed as if the 
 sea in its rage would break through the barriers 
 and run wild over the land. This ceaseless thunder 
 and wonderful expanse of water was something new 
 for Jesus, and always remained in his mind, for long 
 afterward he told a story of the storm and two men 
 who had built their houses on the seashore. One of 
 them built his house on the solid rocks, and the foun- 
 dation was so secure that the winds howled about it 
 and the storm in its fury and madness beat upon it, 
 but it could not be moved. After the waves had done 
 their work it stood unharmed and unshaken. The 
 other man built his house on the sand of the shore — a 
 
76 Z\)c Boi? 3e0U0 
 
 shallow, moving foundation. When the storm came 
 upon his house it fell in a great heap of ruins. Of 
 course it would fall. Everybody expected that it 
 would, foolish man! Jesus said that was just what 
 men were doing often in life. They hear the truth 
 but do not build upon it. The storms easily wreck the 
 house. The man who builds on a rock is the safe and 
 successful man. 
 
 The boy who looks at his world and learns to love it 
 and gathers life's lessons out of every part of it, lives 
 in it just as the boy Jesus did, and that makes a better 
 world and a better boy. 
 
''Zhis is mil? Beloveb Son" 
 
 HE time had come! The great secret 
 must be out ! Jesus had hved his boy 
 hfe and grown to be a young man. 
 Now the world was to know the 
 meaning of his wonderful life and 
 discover him to be more than others. 
 When Jesus had reached this hour in his life he went 
 from his home a long distance through the hills and 
 across the valleys to the river Jordan. 
 
 Here he found a crowd of people and great excite- 
 ment. Something very unusual was happening. 
 Thousands of people were here from every part of 
 the country. A great preacher had come out of the 
 wilderness and out of his hidden life. He was strangely 
 dressed, just a rough camel's hair cloak, and girdle of 
 leather to hold it about him. He had been living a long 
 time among the caves and the hills. He had eaten 
 locusts and wild honey. But he was God's servant. 
 God was looking after him and preparing him for a 
 great service — the greatest work anybody could do. 
 Every one savs so who reads the story to its end. He 
 
 77 
 
78 Zhc Boi? 3e9U0 
 
 must have seemed very strange with his long hair and 
 long beard and stern look. He was a true hero and did 
 not fear any one or anything. He was only anxious to 
 serve God in the highest way. With his courageous 
 and earnest look there were gentleness and love 
 mingled. The people were not driven away from him. 
 They were drawn toward him. They saw his noble 
 purpose and were anxious to hear his last word. His 
 preaching was all against their sin, and then he called 
 them to repentance and to God. The crowds pushed 
 their way toward him through the bushes and the 
 hedges and over the rocks and pebbles. The river was 
 only a narrow stream, but it carried all the water from 
 the large lake of Galilee down into the Dead Sea. It 
 had to run with swiftness and dash its way over the 
 stones and every obstruction and whirl around the 
 corners. Sometimes it plunged down and on as if it 
 was mad, all white with foam. The bank of this river 
 was the pulpit for this strange minister. Just where 
 there was a bend in the river and the water was quiet, 
 he called them to him and told them that God asked 
 them to show their repentance and love for him by 
 coming down into the water and being baptized. 
 
 One day while he stood there in the center of the 
 thousands of people, he suddenly stopped preaching. 
 There was a moment of startling silence! John, the 
 great preacher, turned and looked intently in one di- 
 rection. Then he solemnly raised his eyes heavenward 
 
''ZTbts i0 m^ Beloveb Son*' 79 
 
 as if in gratitude for the discovery. Sometime after- 
 ward he looked again at this one who was coming 
 toward him. He pointed to him and called to all 
 the people to listen and to look. Then he said, " Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of 
 the world " ! It was Jesus ! But John had been expect- 
 ing him and he knew him; some angel must have 
 come and whispered to him " This is the One. He 
 is the long-looked-for Saviour of the world. This 
 is the Son of God, and this is the way for the world 
 to know him." How surprised and breathless they all 
 must have been as their eyes were turned upon Jesus. 
 His form and face and a something beyond explanation 
 told them at least a part of the truth. When Jesus 
 reached the side of John he said that he had come to 
 be baptized too. John hesitated a moment and then re- 
 plied that that could not be, because he himself should 
 be baptized by Jesus. But Jesus knew what was best 
 and what was the will of God for that important hour 
 in his life. Then he said it must be. It was necessary. 
 This was the sign of his saving work in the world. 
 Everybody was still as death and getting anxious to 
 know who he was, and to know more of the meaning 
 of this new turn in those days of John's preaching and 
 power. 
 
 John reverently took hold of the hand of Jesus, and 
 together they stepped upon the stony shore and the 
 music of the rippling waves was made sweeter. When 
 
8o ^be Boi? 3e6U0 
 
 they slowly walked down into the river, with every 
 eye on them, the angels were at the windows of 
 heaven. What a holy hour in this world's life that 
 was. Never had angels or men seen anything like 
 that. Possibly the starry worlds stopped for just a 
 minute. There must have been silence everywhere 
 while John prayed and then baptized Jesus. 
 
 Now comes the strangest, most wonderful part of 
 it all. There was an opening made in the heavens, and 
 something that looked to the people like a dove came 
 and rested just above the head of Jesus. It was the 
 symbol of the blessing of God, and that the Holy Spirit 
 was his life. But this was not enough yet. They heard 
 a voice from heaven which said, " This is my beloved 
 Son, in whom I am well pleased." This was the an- 
 nouncement that Jesus was the Son of God and the 
 Saviour of the world. He had lived the years of his 
 boy life, and into his young manhood in such truth and 
 nobility that God could tell the world " He is worthy. 
 I am well pleased in him." The boy life was a part 
 of the plan for his whole life, and he lived it so as to 
 perfectly please Jiis Father in heaven. 
 
 Every boy should strive to make his life fit in God's 
 plan so that he too could hear the voice from heaven, 
 " This is my boy, in whom I am well pleased." 
 
Date Due 
 
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