hildhood's dependence, and was not a show of obedience for any
edifying end however high.

70. That question "Did not you know?" is the only hint we possess of
Jesus' inner life before John's call to repentance rang through the land.
Meanwhile the carpenter's son became himself the carpenter. Joseph seems
to have died before the opening of Jesus' ministry. For Jesus as the
eldest son, this death made those years far other than a time of spiritual
retreat; responsibility for the home and the pressing duties of trade must
have filled most of the hours of his days. This is a welcome thought to
our healthiest sentiment, and true also to the earliest Christian feeling
(Heb. iv. 15). John the Baptist had his training in the wilderness, but
Jesus came from familiar intercourse with men, was welcomed in their
homes (John ii. 2), knew their life in its homely ongoing, and was the
friend of all sorts and conditions of men. After that visit to Jerusalem,
a few more years may have been spent in school, for, whether from school
instruction, or synagogue preaching, or simple daily experience, the young
man came to know the traditions of the elders and also to know that
observance of them is a mockery of the righteousness which God requires.
Yet he seems to have felt so fully in harmony with God as to be conscious
of nothing new in the fresh and vital conceptions of righteousness which
he found in the law and prophets. We may be certain that much of his
thought was given to Israel's hope of redemption, and that with the
prophets of old and the singer much nearer his own day (Ps. of Sol. xvii.
23), he longed that God, according to his promise, would raise up unto his
people, their King, the Son of David.

71. He must also have read often from that other book open before him as
he walked upon the hills of Nazareth. The beauty of the grass and of the
lilies was surely not a new discovery to him after he began to preach the
coming kingdom, nor is it likely that he waited until after his baptism to
form his habit of spending the night in prayer upon the mountain. We may
be equally sure that he did not first learn to love men and women and long
for their good after he received the call, "Thou art my beloved son" (Mark
i. 11). He who in later life read hearts clearly (John ii. 25) doubtless
gained that skill, as well as the knowledge of human sin and need, early
in his intercourse with his friends and neighbors in Nazareth; while a
clear con