her heart."

What marvelous and sacred secrets were treasured in that mother's heart;
and what new surprizes and grave problems were added day after day in
the manifestations of unfolding wisdom displayed by her more than mortal
Son! Though she could never have wholly forgotten, at times she
seemingly lost sight of her Son's exalted personality. That such
conditions should exist was perhaps divinely appointed. There could
scarcely have been a full measure of truly human experience in the
relationship between Jesus and His mother, or between Him and Joseph,
had the fact of His divinity been always dominant or even prominently
apparent. Mary appears never to have fully understood her Son; at every
new evidence of His uniqueness she marveled and pondered anew. He was
hers, and yet in a very real sense not wholly hers. There was about
their relation to each other a mystery, awful yet sublime, a holy secret
which that chosen and blessed mother hesitated even to tell over to
herself. Fear must have contended with joy within her soul because of
Him. The memory of Gabriel's glorious promises, the testimony of the
rejoicing shepherds, and the adoration of the magi must have struggled
with that of Simeon's portentous prophecy, directed to herself in
person: "Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also."[265]

As to the events of the eighteen years following the return of Jesus
from Jerusalem to Nazareth, the scriptures are silent save for one rich
sentence of greatest import: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature,
and in favor with God and man."[266] Plainly this Son of the Highest was
not endowed with a fulness of knowledge, nor with the complete
investiture of wisdom, from the cradle.[267] Slowly the assurance of His
appointed mission as the Messiah, of whose coming He read in the law,
the prophets, and the psalms, developed within His soul; and in devoted
preparation for the ministry that should find culmination on the cross
He passed the years of youth and early manhood. From the chronicles of
later years we learn that He was reputed without question to be the son
of Joseph and Mary, and was regarded as the brother of other and younger
children of the family. He was spoken of both as a carpenter and a
carpenter's son; and, until the beginning of His public ministry He
appears to have been of little prominence even in the small home
community.[268]

He lived the simple life, at peace with His fellows, in communi