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<div class='chaptertitle'>THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS.</div> It was in the first month of the year that God brought the Jews out of E-gypt and led them through the Red Sea. And he made it a law that in the first month of each year they should all meet at one place, and bring the young lambs and calves and the first fruits of the field and give thanks to God in the way they had been taught. And this they were to do all the days of their life. And this feast, which was to last not quite two months, was known as the Feast of the Weeks. There were days they were to fast, and days they were to feast, and they were to call to mind that they were once slaves, and that God had set them free, and with glad hearts praise and bless his great name. The place where the Jews now met was at Je-ru-sa-lem, and Je-sus was twelve years old when he went up for the first time, with Jo-seph and Ma-ry, to keep the Feast of the Weeks. There was a great crowd there, and friends to meet and talk with, and it must have been a hard[252] task to keep track of the young folks, who found so much to see and to hear that was new and strange. When the days of the feast were at an end, Jo-seph and Ma-ry set out for their home in Naz-a-reth. They had gone out with a band of friends and folks from the same town, and were to come back in the same way. It was not safe for them to go by them-selves, for there were waste lands to cross where bands of thieves lay in wait for a chance to rob and to kill those who came their way. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_097.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="325" alt="Nazareth" /> NAZ-A-RETH.</div> Some rode on mules, some on horse-back, and[253] some had to walk all the way. Je-sus was not with Jo-seph and Ma-ry, but they thought he must be with some of the friends or kins-folk. But when at the end of a day's ride he came not near them, they sought for him in the groups of friends and kins-folk, where there were lads of his own age. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_098.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="347" alt="Boy Jesus at thje temple" /> JE-SUS WITH THE DOC-TORS IN THE TEM-PLE.</div> And when they found him not, they went back to Je-ru-sa-lem, and sought for him with hearts full of grief, for they knew not what harm might have come to him. [254] For three days they went from house to house, and through the lanes and streets, but could see no signs of the boy they had lost. At the end of that time they went in-to the house of God, it may have been to pray that their child might be found, and there a strange sight met their gaze. Je-sus sat in the midst of the wise men, whose place it was to teach and to preach to those who came up to the feasts, and the old men bent their heads to hear what the young lad had to say. For it was the first time they had met with one so young in years who was so wise in speech, and they felt in their hearts that he must have been taught of God. When Jo-seph and Ma-ry saw Je-sus they were struck dumb, and could do naught but stare, as if it was a scene in a dream. Then Ma-ry said, My son, why didst thou vex us thus? we have sought for thee with sad hearts. Je-sus said, Why did ye look for me? Do ye not know that I must do the work that my fa-ther has set me to do? Jo-seph and Ma-ry did not know what he meant by these words, or that God had sent Je-sus on earth to teach men how to read the word of God a-right, and how to save their souls from death. [255] Je-sus went back to Naz-a-reth with Jo-seph and Ma-ry, and was a good son to them. And he grew wise and tall, and was blest of God, and won the hearts of all who were near him, for they saw in him much to love. It was not known that he was the Son of God, and he made friends by his own sweet ways, for he was a poor boy. Naught was heard or known of Je-sus for some years, and we are led to think that he was taught how to use the axe, and saw, and plane, and to work at the same trade his fa-ther did. This gave him a chance to see how folks lived, and to use his eyes and ears as he went from house to house, so that when he went forth to teach he could tell them of their sins, and show them how vile they were. And this part of the life of Je-sus—of which not a word is told in the New Test-a-ment—is to teach us to stay in the place where God has put us, and to do our work there in the best way we know how. Je-sus was at school then, just as boys and girls in these days go to school, and strive to grow wise and to fit them-selves for the work they are to do in the world. And though he was to be a king he did not put on airs, or sit and fold his hands and bid those that were near wait on him and be at his beck and call. No! he was born and brought up with[256] poor folks, to teach us that Je-sus is more at home with the poor than he is with the rich; and to be Christ-like we must seek to please God, to do his will, to put down pride, and keep sin out of our hearts. <hr class="chap" /> <h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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