this he was much like his teachers, and most of the Jews. Though, as
we have imagined, his family and some others were more nearly right than
most people, even they did not have a full knowledge or correct
understanding of all that the Old Testament Scriptures taught,
concerning these things.

But at last John learned more concerning Christ than any of them. We are
yet to see how this came to pass. For the present we leave him in
Bethsaida, increasing in wisdom and stature. So is also his cousin in
Nazareth, of whom let us gain a more distinct view before He is revealed
to John as the Messiah.

_CHAPTER VIII_

_Jesus the Hidden Messiah_

"There has been in this world one rare flower of Paradise--a holy
childhood growing up gradually into a holy manhood, and always
retaining in mature life the precious, unstained memories of
perfect innocence."--_H.B. Stowe_.

The aged Simeon in the Temple, with the infant Jesus in his arms, said,
"Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart, O Lord, ... in peace; for mine
eyes have seen Thy salvation"--the expected Messiah. But it was not for
Him to proclaim His having come. The aged Anna could not long speak "of
Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem," or anywhere
else. For awhile the shepherds told their wonderful story, and then
died. The angels did not continue to sing their hymn of the Nativity
over the plains of Bethlehem. The Wise Men returned to their own
country. Herod died, and none thought of the young child he sought to
kill. The hiding in Egypt was followed by a longer hiding of another
kind in Nazareth. The stories of those who gathered about the infant
cradle were soon forgotten, or repeated only to be disbelieved. Mary,
and her husband Joseph--who acted the part of an earthly father to the
heaven-born child--carried through the years the sacred secret of who
and what Jesus was.

We long to know something of the holy childhood. We have allowed our
imagination to have a little play, but this does not satisfy our
curiosity, nor that desire which we have concerning all great men, to
know of their boyhood. What did He do? Where did He go? What was His
life at home, and in the village school? Who were His mates? How did He
appear among His brothers and sisters? So strong is a desire to know of
such things that stories have been invented to supply the place of
positive knowledge; but most of them are unsatisfactory, and unlike our
th