1. Parentage.— Pre-natal influence, whose mode of opiralion is lii>nL-ath observation, is an undoubted fact. I'.uc iilai'i' allbrds the conditions, physical and psyrii.iioijiiMl. under which that recapitulation of tliu ariic~Ual past, which gives to_ human char- acter its richest and most interesting elements, takes place in the individual. If we conclude (anticipating our judgment) that in Jesus there is reproduced and perfected the highest type of OT spiritual life, the conditio xiiic qui) )io)iof this most lovely pvoilnct is to lie I'oiini! in His parentage. This'tlionnlit does not even sn'_:gest a supernatural birth. Tlie i|uestion of the Virgin-birth is part of the wider and profounder problem, which we are not now facing, whether His person is to be re- garded as an evolution from beneath or an incar- n.ition from above, the entrance of God, at the crisis of human need, for the redemption and jierfecting of men. It remains true, liowever, that whether we assume or deny the Virgin-birth, it is to His mother we are directed in our view of
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His parentage. The idea of her sinlessness is certainly not even suggested in any record of lier life ; it is nieri'ly the logical result of the hlunder of making tlie sinlessness of Jesns depend on physical conditions. Yet it is bi-yund idl doulit that she belonged to the inner cinlo (if thdse wlui, in Israel, best preserved the s]iiiitniil hcritajic ui the race ; and it is beyond ciivil that of this deeply exercised generation of waiting smds she was her- self a choice and lovely reiiresentative. With a litness which suggests, ni its tenderly human and deeply religious quality, a Divine selection, she lilled the otlice cif living jiersonal medium, through which the stn-.'iiu of s|iiiitual energy, which flow.s through the w li.'li' l[i-,l(iiy iif Israel, jioured in upon her Son, to Avell up within His soul in the fine.st features and characteristics of the national re- ligion. In part, at least, we understand Jesus through His mother. Most assuredly. He was more than a Hebrew ; but He was a Hebrew born. What He came to be is determined, in His case as in others, by the dark and mystic tabernacle wherein His physical frame was formed, by the bosom whereon He lay, and the life-force whereby His own Avas nourished. Preparation is thus made in birth for a character which shall be true to the national type, and, at the same time, deeply and broadly human.
2. Home. — Of all the characters who have risen to eminence from the lowliest surroundings, Jesus Christ is the most remarkable. What attracts attention to His home, however, is not the contrast between His early circumstances and His later attainments, but the harmony between the setting of His childliood's years and the noblest of His manhood's virtues and achievements. The chief quality of His home was its pure humanity. None but the simplest elements of human life are here. The home at Nazareth is as far removed from luxury and artificiality on the one hand, as it is from squalor or depravity on the other. The in- M-ard features of the home correspond with its outward conditions. The father and mother belong to what we know as 'the special seed plot of Christianity.' They were 'poor in spirit'; they 'waited for the consolation of Israel.' Lofty aspirations, prayers and songs inspired and moulded by OT conceptions and forms, ciMni'is.-itiiin en- riched by the ideas of the profoim.lol I Imikers on religion whom the world has i.-m-i ku.iwu, lives instinct with pure and passionate ile\ otiou to God : amid such benign and holy influences the plastic soul of Jesus grew to its maturity. Such a home provides a perfect environment for One whose jiersonal secret is His communion with God, whose message is God's fellowship with men.
\\'itliout mere fancifulness we can conceive what the childhood of Jesus really was — contented, hap])y, trustful. Certain features of His manhood. His freedom from extremes of feeling. His openness of mind. His wide and deep charity, find the con- ditions of their growtli in His childhood's home, with its thorough naturalness and its nearness to central truth regarding God and man.
The words which record that ' Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men ' (Lk 2^^), describe a jjerfectly normal human growth, a development without breach or strain or crisis, conducted by the Spirit of God, toward the realization of the Divine ideal of liumanity. It is impossible to recom-ilc tlirm with an abstract conception of His Gcillirad ; iiii|io-.sible also to reconcile them with an equally a,li-,tiact conception of His ' mere humanity ' (w li'atever that may be). But it is certain they present a unique fact, which m\ist have full weight given to it in any estimate of the character and the person of Christ. It niiglit be suggested, indeed, that the complete
rmnlity nf His gr
„! ills
1 mayhnve bron iiupcrilled ilo t(i Him l.y His mother I His liirtli 111- the greatness i-duiinuni rat ions, however, ■Here ui.t luailt^ before His twelfth year. Marj-'s wolds in the temple (Lk 9.^) make that certain. I'.Ni'U on the supposition that certain communica- tions were made at a later date, they may have aided lliiii in tin' discovery of His relation to God an. I His mission to men; but the thoughts they iii.-iylunc ;n\,(ki'iicd in His mind would not then act injuriously upon the growth of a iierfcctly |iro- jiortioncd human character. The grcatn. v-s m hirli was coining upon Him was leading Him maivi lo men, not fartlier away from tlLi-m. W ,■ must always look for what is unique in (Uiiist n-il/nii and not /iri/,m</ His normal human character.