The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 267

justified Nathanael's question," Can any good thing come ont" of Nazareth?" In a true and lofty sense, the Lord was the Representative of his brethren, the Ideal to which they are to be conformed. From what he was and from what he experienced we may constantly learn something respecting ourselves. We are reminded by thi; scene of the following truths:- I. 'l'HAT WE DO NOT ALWAYS FIND ENCOURAGEMENT WHERE WE IIIOST NATURALLY LOOK FOR IT. If there was a place in Palestine where the Lord might have fairly anticipated a welcome, it was Nazareth. Other cities might suspect him, when he came to them as a stranger, but in Nazareth he had been known for years. There had never been an act of unkindness done by him, or a word of evil uttered by his stainless lips. With gentleness greater than a woman's, with bravery loftier than a hero's, he had walked uprightly and lovingly amongst this people. Cast out elsewhere, he ought to find shelter and be surrounded by love and loyalty here. He came ae King Alfred came among his Saxons: when overwhelmed by superior forces, he yet refused to bate one jot of heart and hope. He came, as we come sometimes from places where we have been suspected or wronged, to the home where we believe the beAt will be made of us, But even Nazareth cast him out. Truly, he was "despised and rejected of men." It is enough for the servant that he be as his Master, Sometimes, like him, we may suffer from want of sympathy where we confidently expected it. Possibly, for example, you are brought to serious thought; you feel that the world passes away, and the lus~ thereof; you are conscious that there is around you a spiritual world, for which you are utterly unprepared. Filled with anxiety and distress, you venture to open your heart t@ those at home; but, although it is nominally a Christian home, you are laughed at for your pains, or are recommended change and cheerful society. But you feel that it is not this you want, when your "heart and flesh cry out for the living God." Whenever, under such circumstances, you are tempted to anger or discouragement, lift up yolll' thoughts to him who was tempted even as you are, and yet was without sin. II. TB.AT MAN IS NOT THE MERE CREA.TUBE OF cmcm,rsTANCEs. The Son of God was in one sense infinitely removed from us, yet in his human relations he was "made like unto his brethren." And he, in all his purity and devoutness, came forth from a town notorious for its ignorance and degradation. He grew up there as a sweet flower does upon a heap of refuse, drawing nourishment to itself from the reeking soil, and transmuting it into beauty and fragrance by the power of its own life. So has it been with many of his followers. No man is absolutely dependent upon the place in which he is born or educated for what he is. He has a God-given individuality. Besides the external training, there is also an inward education, which is more productive of result. Examples of this are seen in social life. There are some who are envied now for their circumstances of abundance, who were not born in them. They have had many an effort and many a failure, but have been faithful and hopeful throughout. They started with few advantages, were sent early to business, had but slight education; yet, with a sense of independence of man, linked with a consciousne.~s of dependence upon God, they have risen above their former mean surroundings. Thus is it in \be moral and religious sphere. You must not suppose that, because you have not a Christian home, you are "committed to do" some abominations; or that, because you live out of sight of the worse forms of degradation and irreligion, you are discharged of all respon- sibility in regard to these. Circumstances are not to mould you, but you are to rule ancl triumph over them; and, by the grace of God, may come forth from a despised and <le"raded coud.ition as one of the kingly sons of God. 111. THAT NO M.A.N IS DEGRADED BY COMMON wonK. "IR not this the carpenter?,, What right has he to assume the position of a teacher? Yet these Jews were for the most part more sensible in their views of manual work than many Englishmen. It was the cus• tom amongst them even for rabbis to learn some handicraft. But then, as now, it was one thiog to be a learned man with power to turn to manual occupations for amusement, and quite another thing to earn bread by it, and in the intervals of labour to teach othem 'l'his is what Jesus did. Whether, as Justin Martyr reports, be made ploughs for the husbandmen or not, at least it is certain that the Builder of the heavens and the earth humbled himself to so lowly a condition that his neighbours could say of him," ls noll this the carpenter?" or, as Matthew puts it, " le not this the carpenter's sun ? " He had fallen in with Josepli's conditioJl, and had recognized his own as being marked oub cu. v1. 1-66.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 'fO ST. MARK.