o
defilement from the scenes of pollution which He was obliged to witness.
Even in boyhood, He must have uniformly acted with supreme discretion;
for though His enemies from time to time gave vent to their malignity in
various accusations, we do not read that they ever sought to cast so
much as a solitary stain upon His youthful reputation. The most
malicious of the Jews failed to fasten upon Him in after life any charge
of immorality. Among those constantly admitted to His familiar
intercourse, a traitor was to be found; and had Judas been able to
detect anything in His private deportment inconsistent with His public
profession, he would doubtless have proclaimed it as an apology for his
perfidy; but the keen eye of that close observer could not discover a
single blemish in the character of his Master; and, when prompted by
covetousness, he betrayed Him to the chief priests, the thought of
having been accessory to the death of one so kind and so holy, continued
to torment him, until it drove him to despair and to self-destruction.

The doctrine inculcated by our Lord commended itself by the light of its
own evidence. It was nothing more than a lucid and comprehensive
exposition of the theology of the Old Testament; and yet it, presented
such a new view of the faith of patriarchs and of prophets, that it had
all the freshness and interest of an original revelation. It discovered
a most intimate acquaintance with the mental constitution of man--it
appealed with mighty power to the conscience--and it was felt to be
exactly adapted to the moral state and to the spiritual wants of the
human family. The disciples of Jesus did not require to be told that He
had "the key of knowledge," for they were delighted and edified as "He
opened" to them the Scriptures. [22:1] He taught the multitude "as one
having authority;" [22:2] and they were "astonished at His doctrine."
The discourses of the Scribes, their most learned instructors, were
meagre and vapid--they were not calculated to enlarge the mind or to
move the affections--they consisted frequently of doubtful disputations
relating to the ceremonials of their worship--and the very air with
which they were delivered betrayed the insignificance of the topics of
discussion. But Jesus spake with a dignity which commanded respect, and
with the deep seriousness of a great Teacher delivering to perishing
sinners tidings of unutterable consequence.

There was something singularly beaut