l appreciate it. The same
characteristic appears here. He speaks as if He were not an object of
contemplation; there is an entire absence of self-consciousness, of
ostentatious suggestion that He is now making atonement for the sins of
the world. He speaks to His mother and cares for her as He might have
done had they been in the home at Nazareth together. One despairs of
ever learning such a lesson, or indeed of seeing others learn it. How
like an ant-hill is the world of men! What a fever and excitement! what
a fuss and fret! what an ado! what a sending of messengers, and calling
of meetings, and raising of troops, and magnifying of little things!
what an absence of calmness and simplicity! But this at least we _may_
learn--that no duties, however important, can excuse us for not caring
for our relatives. They are deceived people who spend all their charity
and sweetness out of doors, who have a reputation for godliness, and are
to be seen in the forefront of this or that Christian work, but who are
sullen or imperious or quick-tempered or indifferent at home. If while
saving a world Jesus had leisure to care for His mother, there are no
duties so important as to prevent a man from being considerate and
dutiful at home.

Those who witnessed the hurried events of the morning when Christ was
crucified might be pardoned if their minds were filled with what their
eyes saw, and if little but the outward objects were discernible to
them. We are in different circumstances, and may be expected to look
more deeply into what was happening. To see only the mean scheming and
wicked passions of men, to see nothing but the pathetic suffering of an
innocent and misjudged person, to take our interpretation of these rapid
and disorderly events from the casual spectators without striving to
discover God's meaning in them, would indeed be a flagrant instance of
what has been called "reading God in a prose translation," rendering His
clearest and most touching utterance to this world in the language of
callous Jews or barbarous Roman soldiers. Let us open our ear to God's
own meaning in these events, and we hear Him uttering to us all His
Divine love, and in the most forcible and touching tones. These are the
events in which His deepest purposes and tenderest love find utterance.
How He is striving to win His way to us to convince us of the reality of
sin and of salvation! To be mere spectators of these things is to
convict ourselves of