dictions pointed to Jesus as the Christ, living prophets appeared to interpret these sacred oracles, and to bear witness to the claims of the new-born Saviour.

Though the Son of Mary was beyond all comparison the most extraordinary personage that ever appeared on earth, it is remarkable that the sacred writers enter into scarcely any details respecting the history of His infancy, His youth, or His early manhood. They tell us that "the child grew and waxed strong in spirit,"* and that He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man ;"+ but they do not minutely trace the progress of His mental development, neither do they gratify any feeling of mere curiosity by giving us His infantile biography. In what is omitted by the penmen of the New Testament, as well as in what is written, we must acknowledge the guidance of inspiration; and though we might have perused with avidity a description of the pursuits of Jesus when a child, such a record has not been deemed necessary for the illustration of the work of redemption. It would appear that He spent about thirty years on earth almost unnoticed and unknown; and He seems to have been meanwhile trained to the occupation of a carpenter. The obscurity of His early career must doubtless be regarded as one part of His humiliation. But the circumstances in which He was placed enabled Him to exhibit more clearly the divinity of His origin. He did not receive a liberal education, so that when He came forward as a public teacher "the Jews marvelled, saying-How knoweth this man letters having never learned ?" When He was only twelve years old, He was "found in the temple

volume, the passover was not celebrated as usual in Judea. The disturbances which occurred on the death of Herod had become so serious on the arrival of the paschal day, that Archelaus was obliged to disperse the people by force of arms in the very midst of the sacrifices. So soon did Christ begin to cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. See Greswell's "Dissertations," i. p 393, 394, note.

* Luke ii. 40.

+ Luke ii. 52.

+ Mark vi. 3.

John vii. 15,

B

sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions; and all that heard Him were as tonished at His understanding and answers."* As He gre "As up, He was distinguished by His diligent attendance in th house of God; and it seems not improbable that He was i the habit of officiating at public worship by assisting in th reading of the law and the prophets; for we are told tha shortly after the commencement of His ministry, “He cam to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and, as h custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbat day, and stood up for to read."+

When He was about thirty years of age, and immediate before His public appearance as a prophet, our Lord was ba tized of John in Jordan. The Baptist did not, perhap preach longer than six months,§ but it is probable th during his imprisonment of considerably upwards of a ye he still contributed to prepare the way of Christ; for, the fortress of Machaerus in which he was incarcerated he was not kept in utter ignorance of passing occurrenc and when permitted to hold intercourse with his friends, would doubtless direct their special attention to the p ceedings of the Great Prophet. The claims of John, a teacher sent from God, were extensively acknowledg and therefore his recognition of our Lord as the promis Messiah, must have made a deep impression upon the mi of the Israelites. The miracles of our Saviour corrobora

*Luke ii. 46, 47.

+ Luke iv. 16.

Luke iii. 21-23. "It became Him, being in the likeness of sinful fles go through these appointed rites and purifications which belonged to flesh. There is no more strangeness in His having been baptized by J than in His keeping the Passover. The one rite, as the other, belonge sinners, and among the transgressors He was numbered."-ALFORD, Testament, Note on Matt. iii. 13-17.

§ See Greswell's "Dissertations upon an Harmony of the Gospels," vol. 362, 363. John probably commenced his ministry about the Feast of T nacles, A.D. 27.

ས

See Josephus, "Antiq." xviii. 5, § 2.

the testimony of His forerunner, and created a deep sensation. He healed "all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease."* It was, consequently, not strange that "His fame went throughout all Syria," and that "there followed him great multitudes of people, from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan."t

Even when the Most High reveals himself there is something mysterious in the manifestation, so that, whilst we acknowledge the tokens of His presence, we may well exclaim -"Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." When He displayed His glory in the temple of old, He filled it with thick darkness;§ when He delivered the sure word of prophecy, He employed strange and misty language; when He announced the Gospel itself, He uttered some things hard to be understood. It might have been said, too, of the Son of God, when He appeared on earth, that His "footsteps were not known." In early life He does not seem to have arrested the attention of His own townsmen; and when He came forward to assert His claims as the Messiah, He did not overawe or dazzle his countrymen by any sustained demonstration of tremendous power or of overwhelming splendour. To-day the multitude beheld His miracles with wonder, but to-morrow they could not tell where to meet with Him;|| ever and anon He appeared and disappeared; and occasionally His own disciples found it difficult to discover the place of His retirement. When He arrived in a district, thousands often hastily gathered around Him; but He never encouraged the attendance of vast assemblages by giving general notice that, in a specified place and on an appointed day, He would deliver a public address, or perform a new and unprece

• Matt. iv. 23. + Matt. iv. 24, 25. Isaiah xlv. 15. § 1 Kings viii. 10–12. || John v. 13, vi. 15, viii. 59, xii. 36; Mark i. 45, vii. 24. Mark ii. 1, 2; Matt. xiv. 13, 14, 21, xv. 32, 38, 39.

dented miracle. We may here see the wisdom of Him who "doeth all things well." Whilst the Whilst the secresy with which He conducted His movements baffled any premature attempts on the part of His enemies, to effect His capture or condemnation, it also checked that intense popular excitement which a ministry so extraordinary might have been expected to awaken.

Four inspired writers have given separate accounts of the life of Christ-all repeat many of His wonderful sayings -all dwell with marked minuteness on the circumstances of His death-and all attest the fact of His resurrection. Each mentions some things which the others have omitted; and each apparently observes the order of time in the details of his narrative. But when we combine and arrange their various statements, so as to form the whole into one regular and comprehensive testimony, we discover that there are not a few periods of His life still left utterly blank in point of incidents; and that there is no reference whatever to topics which we might have expected to find particularly noticed in the biography of so eminent a personage. After His appearance as a public teacher, He seems, not only to have made sudden transitions from place to place, but otherwise to have often courted the shade; and, instead of unfolding the circumstances of His private history, the evangelists dwell chiefly on His Discourses and His Miracles. During His ministry, Capernaum was His headquarters; but we cannot positively tell with whom He lodged in that place; nor whether the twelve sojourned

* Matt. iv. 13. Hence it is said to have been "exalted unto heaven" in the way of privilege, Matt. xi. 23; Luke x. 15. It was the residence as well of Peter and Andrew (Matt. xvii. 24), as of James, John (Mark i. 21, 29), and Matthew (Mark ii. 1, 14, 15), and there also dwelt the nobleman whose son was healed by our Lord (John iv. 46). It was on the borders of the Sea of Galilee, so that by crossing the water He could at once reach the territory of another potentate, and withdraw Himself from the multitudes drawn together by the fame of His miracles. See Milman's "History of Christianity," i. 188.

there under the same roof with Him; nor how much time He spent in it at any particular period. We cannot point out the precise route which He pursued on any occasion when itinerating throughout Galilee or Judea; neither are we sure that He always journeyed on foot, or that He adhered to a uniform mode of travelling. It is most singular that the inspired writers throw out no hint on which an artist might seize as the groundwork of a painting of Jesus. As if to teach us more emphatically that we should beware of a sensuous superstition, and that we should direct our thoughts to the spiritual features of His character, the New Testament never mentions either the colour of His hair, or the height of His stature, or the cast of His countenance. How wonderful that even "the beloved disciple," who was permitted to lean on the bosom of the Son of man, and who had seen Him in the most trying circumstances of His earthly history, never speaks of the tones of His voice, or of the expression of His eye, or of any striking peculiarity pertaining to His personal appearance! The silence of all the evangelists respecting matters of which at least some of them must have retained a very vivid remembrance, and of which ordinary biographers would not have failed to preserve a record, supplies an indirect and yet a most powerful proof of the Divine origin of the Gospels.

But whilst the sacred writers enter so sparingly into personal details, they leave no doubt as to the perfect integrity which marked every part of our Lord's proceedings. He was born in a degenerate age, and brought up in a city of Galilee which had a character so infamous that no good thing was expected to proceed from it;* and yet, like a ray of purest light shining into some den of uncleanness, He contracted no defilement from the scenes of pollution which He was obliged to witness. Even in boyhood, He must have uniformly acted with supreme discretion; for

* John i. 46.