Christ's early habits.
Luke ii. 49. And he said unto them, Hoiv is it that ye sought me ? wist ye not that I must be about my Father s business ?
THE prophets and apostles of old are proposed to us as examples in a variety of respects : but we are
1479.1 Christ's early habits. 269
to follow men no further than they themselves fol- lowed Christ. Christ is the great pattern, to which all are to be conformed : and so fully is his character delineated in the Holy Scriptures, that we can scarcely ever be at a loss to know either what he did, or what he would have done, in any circumstances of life. The account we have indeed of his early days is very concise. There is little related of him to gratify our curiosity, but enough to regulate our conduct. The only authentic record which we have of the transac- tions of his childhood, is that before us.
His parents had carried him up at twelve years of age to Jerusalem, where all the males were obliged to assemble thrice in the year. After the paschal solemnities were completed, his parents set out on their journey homeward, and proceeded for one whole day, concluding that Jesus was in the company to- gether with them. In the evening, to their great surprise, they sought for him in vain among all his kinsfolk and acquaintance ; and therefore they re- turned the next day with their hearts full of sorrow and anxiety to Jerusalem, to search for their beloved child : but there they could hear no tidings of him all that night. Prosecuting their inquiries the third day, they found him at last, conversing with the doc- tors in the temple. Joseph being only his reputed father, left the task of reproving him to Mary his mother. She, gently chiding him for the distress he had occasioned them, received from him the reply which we have just read ; in which he vindicated his conduct, from the superior obligations which he owed to his heavenly Father, and shewed, that their anxie- ties had arisen from their own ignorance and unbelief. They, we are told, " understood not his saying :" but xve understand it : and from a sense of the vast im- portance of it, we will,
I. Explain to you his reply —
[This was probably the first time that he had ever been at Jerusalem since he was quite an infant: and he was soli- citous to improve to the uttermost the opportunity which this season had afforded him, of cultivating divine knowledge, and