ching for three days, and Mary's heart was
almost broken, they went again to the Temple, and looking through a
crowd gathered around the Rabbis, Mary saw her Boy. She pressed
through to speak to Him, but He was speaking. She listened, and her
heart must have stood still to hear His simple, yet wonderful words.
Sometimes he asked questions which the old teachers could not answer,
and when he replied to the questions of the learned teachers His wisdom
astonished all who heard Him, for it was not like the wisdom of the
Rabbis, who used many words to explain the Word of God.

[Illustration: The Boy Jesus in the temple]

When Jesus saw His mother and came to her, she said,

"Son, why hast Thou so dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have
sought Thee sorrowing."

"How is it that ye sought me?" He said, "wist ye not that I must be
about my Father's business?"

They did not quite understand how He could so easily forget them, and
yet Mary, perhaps, remembered that the angel had told her that He
should "be called the Son of God," and that He was at home in His
Father's house.

But He was content to go home and be subject to His parents, so that
through all the world children may learn how He lived, and try to live
like Him.

He found that His Father's house was greater than the Temple, and under
its starry roof, and wandering over its wide courts paved with grass
and flowers, He learned more than the Rabbis could teach Him. And
every day He grew in wisdom as He grew in stature, and "in favor with
God and man."

CHAPTER V.

THE YOUNG CARPENTER.

There are many years of the life of Jesus of which the Gospel story
tells us nothing. He lived with Mary and Joseph in Nazareth, and was
preparing for the great work for which He came. He learned easily all
that other boys were taught in the synagogue school, and no doubt
caused His teacher to wonder at such wisdom coming from a boy. He was
so humble and teachable that no one could accuse Him of setting Himself
above His companions, and so winning and unselfish that He was loved by
all. The school days ended, perhaps, when He was fourteen, and He was
asked, as every Jewish boy was asked, to choose what trade He would
learn, for every boy had to learn a trade. He chose to learn the trade
of His father, and began to work with him making the many things that
were then used by the people. Few houses, if any, were made of wood,
for the white limestone was then,