^ Both Joseph and Mary were speechless as soon as the Holy Child let them see how full of folly their conduct had been and how much they had misunderstood Him and hurt Him. They bad treated Him as if He had taken the Passover much too seriously. They found fault with Him for His devotion to His Father's business, and they uttered aloud their complaint and grievance with Him before the whole temple. They said it till the astonished doctors heard them, that He should have been home in Nazareth by this time, and back at His proper work.
* J. Gregory, Phillips Brooks, 44,
112 ALWAYS AT HOME
The lamb had been slain, they said, and its blood had been sprinkled on them and on Him for another year, — let Him come away home then, like all His kinsfolk and acquaintances. And if we will only look well, we shall see ourselves in all that as in a glass. For we are Joseph and Mary over again in all that. We also treat our Redeemer as if He had been rel'^ious over-much in the dreadful business of our redemption. We treat Him and His redemption of our souls as if He had taken us and our sins far too much to heart; almost as if He had been a martyr by mistake. They did Him the first wrong that week to suppose that He was in that home-hurrying company ; and then they still more wronged and wounded Him by the places in which they sought Him ; but above all, by their not seeking Him first in His Father's house and about His Father's business.^
IJ I should like to speak for a moment to the young, about those feelings of capacity, and that conviction of being called to high duty, by which many are stirred in secret — feelings which too seldom find their justification in the facts of after life. If such thoughts are made known to other people, they are often smiled at as mere childish dreamings, or are chided as the evil fruit and sickly food of vanity, rather than the outcome of a heavenly impulse. But however crude and mixed with idle vanity these musings may be, they are the smoking flax which God will never quench, and which wise men will try to fan into a flame. We cannot possibly be wrong in thinking that we were sent into the world to be nobler and more useful than are most of those we see around. The sad thing is, not that such thoughts are common, but that they are so easily and generally lost. Some of the most degraded people now living, and thousands of miser- able seekers after pleasure and pelf, once had these thoughts and feelings, and in sanest moments they know that it is their shame and sin that none of these great thoughts have been transmuted into deeds. Some have lost their aspirations because too indolent to cultivate and use their talents. Some gave themselves to pleasures which developed into vices. Some surrendered their hearts to the love of money, and, because determined to be rich, fell into a snare and became avaricious, deceitful and dishonest ; then, ceasing to respect themselves, they sank into deserved con- tempt. Others in their impatient thirst for distinction wasted their strength in the pursuit of quickly won successes, cheap applause, and instant recognition ; instead of resolving to do good work, and show themselves approved to God, content to leave their honours and rewards to Him. This last named cause of ^ A. Whyte, The Walky Gwiversation, and Character of Jesus Christ our Lord, 64.
ST. LUKE Ti. 49 113
failure is probably one of the least contemptible, and therefore one of the most frequent and fatal of the forms under which temptation assails the young and ardent. Just as eager but in- experienced mountain climbers often weary themselves by hasten- ing up the nearest slopes and peaks, and fail to win the true summit because the day is too far spent before the right path is found, so many noble and aspiring souls miss the attainment of true greatness, not through idleness or mean designs, but through headstrong haste to reach the goal without treading all the inter- mediate steps.^
1. Here, then, is a life which has already found its principle. Every life which has any value or any force finds a ruling principle or purpose which steadily guides it. It may be a principle of enjoy- ment, or of selfishness, or of ambition, or of usefulness ; but which- ever it is, it directs the energies. There are, indeed, lives more or less without any such principle at all, but they are feeble things ; they drift rather than live, they aim at nothing and accomplish nothing. To take a wrong line strongly and consistently is almost better than such empty weakness.
^ Of the purpose he set before himself when beginning to study art he once said to me : " From the very first I determined to do the very best possible to me ; I did not hope to make a name, or think much about climbing to the top of the tree, I merely set myself to do the utmost I could, and I think I may say I have never relaxed ; to this steady endeavour I owe every- thing. Hard work, and keeping the definite object of my life in view, has given me wdiatever position I now have. And I may add, what I think is an encouragement to others, that very few have begun life with fewer advantages, either of health, wealth or position, or any exceptional intellect. Any success I may have had is due entirely to steadiness of purpose." ^