Antipas, son of Chuza and others whom Jesus loved

Front matter

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THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS.

Contents

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Introduction v

CHAPTER

Chapter I. How The Lord Dwelt In Nazareth Among His Friends And Kindred

A little child was playing in the sun before the door. He was short and sturdy ; his black curls clustered thick on his head ; his large, dark eyes were full of merriment. He was never for an instant still, but always running to and fro on his little brown bare legs, gathering blocks and bits of wood in the front of his tunic and piling them up with eager industry, now into the form of a long, low house, uneven enough from the roughness of the blocks, and now into a tall tower, which, lop-sided from the misshapen material, was sure to tumble down before it was half finished.

The house before which he played was hardly less simple than those which he was building. It was of only one story, and contained but a single room, clayfloored and lighted by a small latticed opening. Outside the door a rude, ladder-like stair led up to the flat roof, where flowers were blooming in red earthen jars that stood on the broad parapet. In one corner a small

NAZARETH.

room had been built ; it was almost covered by a great vine which, growing at one angle of the house, overspread two of its sides, flaunting its tendrils above the roof of the “ upper room.”

Down below in the doorway of the house sat a woman sewing. She was simply dressed in a sort of robe or gown of a coarse blue woolen stuff. Her feet were bare, but on her head she wore a short white veil, which, nearly hiding her hair, was drawn together under her chin, leaving her face uncovered. There was an air of dignity in the set of her head upon her shoulders that would have made her seem almost stern if it had not been for the expression in her eyes, a sort of gentle amazement, of sweet surprise, as if she had lately seen something beautiful but most wonderful. The expression deepened as she looked up from her needle and smiled into the face of a young man who was working at a carpenter’s bench under the shade of a sycamore tree that grew before the door. He caught his mother’s glance and smiled back at her without speaking, but with an expression of love so tender that her eyes grew moist as she turned to her needle with a soft sigh of content.

The son so dear to this mother was a man of about thirty, tall and slender, yet with a figure so lithe and well-knit that it gave an expression of exceeding strength. He wore only a coarse brown tunic reaching to his feet, though his upper robe of blue, with a twisted cord or tassel at the corners, lay on the farther end of the bench. His hair was covered with a brown kerchief

THE SON, THE MOTHER, THE CHILD.

bound about his head with a yellow cord and flowing back over his shoulders. He wore his beard Ions: but trimmed away from his mouth, which was firm and strong and beautifully formed. There was that in his countenance, especially in his eyes, that made you look again, a lofty expression of inward joy that seemed almost to bear him up above the earth. It was not as of pleasure at anything present ; the joy seemed to come from within. When he smiled upon his mother you would have said that his smile was the very embodiment of love, but when he turned back to his work again his face became nobly serious, yet always with a look as if he saw something in common things that others did not see.

The block tower fell again and the little boy uttered an expression of fretful impatience.

“What is it, Janna, child?” asked the woman in gentle tones.

“ The temple will not stand, mother Mary,” replied the boy. “ I am building a great, great temple like that my father told me of, at Jerusalem ; but whenever I get ready to put on the highest roof it falls. And I’m so tired,” he added fretfully.

The young man at the carpenter’s bench laid down his plane and looked toward the west.

“ The sun is going down,” he said. “ It will soon be time for my brothers to come home for supper. Little Janna, will you come to the upper chamber with me to see the sun set ? ” He stretched out his arms, and the child, forgetting his fretfulness, leaped across the pile of

NAZARETH.

fallen blocks and sprang into the strong embrace. The young man lifted the boy, and perching him on his shoulder climbed the ladder stair, smiling down as he went at his mother, who had folded up her work.

She had begun her simple preparations for the evening meal when a quick step was heard and a young woman came around the corner of the house. She too wore a blue robe, but it was half covered with a brown mantle, and her feet were shod with sandals. She looked tired, but her face lighted when her eyes met Mary’s, and she said in a serious tone, “ Peace be to all in this house.”

“And to you and yours be peace,” Mary replied. Then, answering the searching glance that even while she spoke the younger woman cast around the place before the door and into the dark room, she added :

“ Your little Janna has been a good child all day, Ruth. He has had enough to keep him busy, now playing at cornfields with the shavings and again building houses and temples with the blocks. Just now he began to get tired and fretful, and my Jesus has carried him to the upper chamber to see the sun go down.”

“ And to tell him one of his beautiful tales, no doubt,” added the younger woman. “He is so patient and tender with the children ! But I will go up, Mary, and bring Janna down ; our supper is ready and Ezra is very weary with the day’s work. Even with my help in carrying his pack he can hardly make his rounds,” she added anxiously.

“ May the God of Jacob be his strength ! ” said Mary,

ON THE HOUSE-TOP.

with an earnestness so deep that to Ruth it seemed like a promise.

Ruth’s foot was already on the lower step of the rude stair, and she went softly up ; but at the top she stood still under the shadow of the sycamore tree.

For the picture that she saw before her made her mother-heart thrill and her eyes fill with tears of a pleasure that was half awe. On the edge of the broad parapet sat the young man with her child leaning against his knee and looking intently into his face. The sun had just gone down behind the hills, its golden rays shot up over half the sky and seemed to transfigure his whole person as he gazed with a look of tenderness into the child’s uplifted eyes. He was speaking softly, but as the young mother reached the top of the stair he paused a moment as if in thought.

“ Tell me the rest, please,” said little Janna in his fresh young voice. “ What did the good shepherd do when he found the little lamb that had strayed away from him ? ”

“ He laid it on his shoulders rejoicing,” said the young man, taking the child’s hand and looking seriously on the little up-turned face. “ And when he came home he called together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 4 Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ ”

“ Because he was so glad to find the naughty little sheep \ ” asked Janna, his eyes very earnest now.

The young man softly patted the little hand that lay within his own, but his gaze was lifted to the sky again,

NAZARETH.

and lie said, rather to himself than to Janna, “Even so there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repents.” The child looked puzzled, then reverting to the words he had understood he said, “ You carried me up the stair on your shoulder, dear Jesus, just as the shepherd carried the little lamb. Am I your little lamb ? ”

Jesus only smiled his answer, for at that moment the child caught sight of his mother and ran toward her with a glad cry. She had been gone from him all day, and a day is a long time for a boy of five to be away from his mother. Yet as she let him down from her arms after a close embrace, and took his hand to lead him down the stair, he looked back toward the parapet where the young man still sat.

“ I would like to stay with Jesus, too,” he said, pulling his hand away from his mother’s. “ Can’t we come here and live with Jesus and Mary and all the others ? I don’t want to go home to our house. It isn’t nice like this.”

His voice had the fretful sound of a little boy who has been playing hard all day and is tired and sleepy. But he caught the glance of Jesus’ eyes, a look very loving and yet very full of command. The cloud cleared away from the little face ; he took his mother’s hand ; his voice grew sweet and fresh again.

“ Good-night, dear Jesus,” he said. “ I’ll go home with mother now and come again to-morrow to see you.”