A Life of St. John for the Young Part 2

_CHAPTER V_

_Early Influences on Character_

As we trace the history of the five youthful Bethsaidans, it seems almost certain that some special influence or influences helped to shape their characters, and to unite them in thought, purpose and effort; and so secure marked and grand results. This union was not a mere coincidence. Nor can it be accounted for by their being of the same nation or town, and having the same education common to Jewish boys.

There was something which survived the mere a.s.sociations of boyhood, and continued to, or was revived in, manhood. The influence whatever it was must have been special and powerful. What was it? In that little village were their faithful souls praying more earnestly than others, and searching the Scriptures more diligently, finding spiritual meanings hidden from the common readers, and so understanding more correctly, even though not perfectly, who was the true Messiah, and what He would do when He came? Or, was there some rabbi in Bethsaida like Simeon in Jerusalem, of whom it could be said, "the Holy Ghost was upon him," and "he was waiting for the consolation of Israel"--the coming of the Messiah? Or, was there a teacher of the synagogue school in Bethsaida, instructing his pupils as no other teacher did? Or, was there some aged Anna, like the prophetess in the Temple, who "served G.o.d with fastings and prayer," who going about the village full of thoughts concerning the Messiah, "spake of Him to all them that looked for His coming"? Or, was it in the homes of the five that we find that special influence? Did Jonas talk with his sons as few other fathers did, while Andrew and Peter listened most attentively to his words? Did Zebedee and Salome, as Jonas, prepare by teaching their sons for the coming time when the two pairs of brothers should be in closer companionship than the family friendship of these Galilean fishermen and business partnership could secure? Was Peter, full of boyish enthusiasm, a leader of the little company; or did John in quiet loveliness draw the others after himself?

Did Philip have such family training as had the other four, or was he guided by the lights that came from their homes?

And now in thought we disband the little circle of five, to be reunited elsewhere after many years. We glance into the home of James and John.

We have already spoken of Salome's royal descent, and of the sympathy between her and her sons. With what deep interest we would listen to her teachings and watch the influence on them as they talked together of David their ancestor, and of how they were of the same tribe and family to which the Messiah would belong. Salome understood much about Him, more probably than most mothers: but she was much mistaken about what was meant by His Kingdom. She thought He would rule like David on an earthly throne. Her sons believed as she did, and so were as sadly mistaken. It was long before they discovered their mistake. That was in circ.u.mstances very different from what were now in their minds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOY JOHN _Andrea del Sarto_ Page 41]

Thus far we have attempted to restore the surroundings of John in his early days, which did much in shaping his early life, and fitting him for the great work he was to perform. We have glanced at the country and town in which he lived. As we see them through his eyes, he appears the more real to us. We have watched the little circle of his intimate friends, on whom he must have had an influence, and who influenced him.

We have glanced at his home with his parents and brothers. We have tried to gain some idea of what and how much he had learned, especially concerning the Messiah. We are now prepared to look at him alone, and try to get a more distinct view of his character.

We are not told what kind of a boy John was. We are told of many things he said and did when he was a man. These help us to understand what he must have been when young. Though there be great changes in us as we grow older, some things remain the same in kind if not in degree.

Judging by certain things in John's manhood, we form an idea of his childhood. We may think of him as a lovable boy. His feelings were tender. He was greatly interested in events which pleased him. He was quick and active. He was modest and generally shy, yet bold when determined to do anything. He was not ready to tell all he felt or knew.

He was helpful in his father's business. He thought and felt and planned much as his mother did. He was thoughtful and quick to understand, and sought explanation of what was not easily understood. He was frank in all he said, and abhorred dishonesty, especially in one who professed to be good. Above all he was of a loving disposition, and this made others love him. He was beloved because he loved.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JERUSALEM _Old Engraving_ Page 44]

Yet John was not perfect, as we shall see in another chapter. We know of some things he said and did when a man, which help us to understand the kinds of temptations he had in his younger days. They were such as these; contempt for others who did not think and do as he did, judging them unjustly and unkindly, and showing an unkind feeling toward them; a revengeful spirit, ready to do harm for supposed injury; selfishness; ambition--wanting to be in honor above others. His greatest temptation was to pride. But at last he overcame such temptations. What was lovable in childhood became more beautiful in manhood. He more nearly reached perfection than any other of whom we know--by what influence, we shall see.

_CHAPTER VI_

_First Visit to Jerusalem_

At twelve years of age a Jewish boy was no longer thought of as a child, but a youth. Before he reached that age he looked forward to an event which seemed to him very great. It was his first visit to Jerusalem.

Peter was probably older than James or John. With boyish interest they listened to the report of his first pilgrimage to the Holy City. When the time came for James to accompany him, John's interest would increase as he heard his brother's story; and much more when he could say, "Next year I too shall see it all." And when at last he, probably the youngest of the five Bethsaidan boys, could be one of the company, a day of gladness indeed had come. With his father, and perhaps his mother, he joined the caravan of pilgrims, composed chiefly of men and boys. Their probable route was across the Jordan, then southward, through valleys and gorges, and along mountain-sides which echoed with the Psalms which were sung on these pilgrimages, called "Songs of Degrees."

At Bethabara, nearly opposite Jericho, the travelers recrossed the Jordan. There John might think of that other crossing many years before when Joshua led the hosts of Israel between the divided waters; and when Elijah smote them with his mantle, and there was a pathway for him and Elisha. John was to add to his memories of the spot. At a later day he would there witness a more glorious scene.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOSHUA'S HOST CROSSING THE JORDAN _Old Engraving_ Page 45]

At last from the Mount of Olives, at a turn in the road, he had his first view of the Holy City; its walls and seventy towers of great height, and the Holy House--the Temple of G.o.d, with which in after years he was to become familiar. There he saw for himself of what he had often heard;--the Holy Altar and lamb of sacrifice--reminders of the coming Messiah; the offering of incense; and the many and varied forms of stately worship.

At the time that John made this visit to Jerusalem, there was a celebrated school known as that of Gamaliel, who was the most noted of the Jewish Rabbis, or teachers. Boys were sent to him from all parts of Palestine, and even from distant countries in which Jews lived. There was one such boy from the town of Tarsus, in the Roman province of Cilicia in Asia Minor. Though living in a heathen city, surrounded by idolatry, he had received a Jewish training in his home and in the synagogue school, until he was old enough to go to Jerusalem to be trained to become a Rabbi. Like John he had learned much of the Old Testament Scriptures, but it does not appear that he had the special influences which we have imagined gave direction to the thoughts and plans of the five boys of Galilee. In his boyhood he was known as Saul; afterward as Paul. He and John in their early days differed in many things; in the later days they became alike in the most important thoughts, feelings, purposes and labors of their lives. And because of this they became a.s.sociated with each other, and are remembered together as among the best and greatest of mankind.

It is possible that John visited the school of Gamaliel, and that the boy from Bethsaida and the one from Tarsus met as strangers, who would some day meet as friends indeed. It is more probable that they worshiped together in the temple at the feast, receiving the same impressions which lasted and deepened through many years, and which we to-day have in what they wrote for the good of their fellow-men.

When John returns from Jerusalem to his home we lose even the dim sight of him which our imagination has supplied. During the silent years that follow we have two thoughts of him,--as a fisherman of Galilee, and as one waiting for the coming of the Messiah. His parents' only thought of him is a life of honest toil, a comfort in their old age, a sharer in their prosperity, and an heir to their home and what they would leave behind. They little think that he will be remembered when kings of their day are forgotten; that two thousand years after, lives of him will be written because of a higher relationship than that of mere cousinship to Jesus; and that their own names will be remembered only because John was their son. Only G.o.d sees in the boy playing on the seash.o.r.e, and in the fisherman of Gennesaret, the true greatness and honor into which He will guide him.

_CHAPTER VII_

_John's View of the Coming Messiah_

In our thoughts of Jesus we have chiefly in mind the things that happened at the time of His birth and afterward. We read of them in the Gospels. John had the Old Testament only, containing promises of what was yet to happen. We have the New Testament telling of their fulfilment.

Thus far we have spoken of Jesus as John knew Him--as a boy in Nazareth, the son of Mary, and his own cousin. We have also spoken of John's ideas of the Messiah. As yet he has not thought as we do of Jesus and the Messiah being the same person. It is not easy for us to put ourselves in his place, and leave out of our thoughts all the Gospels tell us. But we must do this to understand what he understood during his youth and early manhood, respecting the Messiah _yet to come_.

Let us imagine him looking through the Old Testament, especially the books of Moses and the prophets, and finding what is said of Him; and see if we can what impressions are made on this young Bible student of prophecy. His search goes back many years. He finds the first Gospel promise. It was made while Adam and Eve, having sinned, were yet in the Garden of Eden. It was the promise of a Saviour to come from heaven to earth, through whom they and their descendants could be saved from the power of Satan and the consequences of sin. We do not know how much our first parents understood of this coming One: but we feel a.s.sured that they believed this promise, and through repentance and faith in this Saviour, they at last entered a more glorious paradise than the one they lost. That promise faded from the minds of many of their descendants and wickedness increased. But G.o.d had not forgotten it. John could find it renewed by him to Abraham, in the words, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed,"--meaning that the Messiah should be the Saviour of all nations, Gentiles as well as Jews. The promise was renewed to Isaac, the son of Abraham; and then repeated to his son Jacob, in the same words spoken to his grandfather. Jacob on his dying bed told Judah what G.o.d had revealed to him, that the Messiah should be of the tribe of which Judah was the head.

Many years later G.o.d made it known to David that the Messiah should be one of his descendants. This was a wonder and delight to him as he exclaimed, "Who am I, O Lord G.o.d, and what is mine house! for Thou hast spoken of Thy servant's house for a great while to come." John must have been taught by his mother that they were of the honored house of David. They, in common with other Jews, believed that the "great while to come" was near at hand.

John read in Isaiah of her who would be the mother of the Messiah, without thought that she was his aunt Mary. He read that she should call her son Immanuel, meaning "G.o.d with us," without thinking this was another name for his cousin Jesus. John would find other names describing His character. His eye would rest on such words and phrases as these--"Holy One;" "Most Holy;" "Most Mighty;" "Mighty to Save;"

"Mighty One of Israel;" "Redeemer;" "Your Redeemer;" "Messiah the Prince;" "Leader;" "Lord Strong and Mighty;" "King of Glory;" "King over all the earth."

Most of all John would think again and again of a wonderful declaration of Isaiah, writing as if he lived in John's day, saying, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, The Mighty G.o.d, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the exercise of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David."

Had John known that these words of Isaiah referred to Jesus, he might have repeated them, not as a prophecy, but with a present meaning, saying, "The Child _is_ born!" As he read the prophecy of Haggai, uttered more than five hundred years before--"The desire of all nations shall come"--he might have exclaimed, "He _has_ come!"

In John's reading in the Old Testament it seems strange to us that some things made a deeper impression on him than did others, and that he understood some things so differently from what we do, especially about the Messiah's kingdom. He noticed the things about His power and glory, but seems to have misread or overlooked those about the dishonor, and suffering and death that would come upon Him. We read in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, how He was to be "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, ... wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, ... brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers, ... and make His grave with the wicked." We know that all this happened. We think of a suffering Saviour. We wonder that John did not have such things in his mind. But in 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 pa.s.s. 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 thoughts of Him. Thus much we do know, that, "He grew in wisdom and stature" not only, but also "in favor with G.o.d and man."

It has been finally said; "Only one flower of anecdote has been thrown over the wall of the hidden garden, and it is so suggestive as to fill us with intense longing to see the garden itself. But it has pleased G.o.d, whose silence is no less wonderful than His words, to keep it shut." That "one flower" refers to Jesus' visit to Jerusalem just as He was pa.s.sing from childhood to youth, when He tarried in the Temple with the learned Rabbis, asking them questions with which His mind was full, and making answers which astonished them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PROPHET ISAIAH _Sargent_ Page 50]

A most interesting question arises in connection with that visit; Did Jesus then and there learn that He was the Messiah? When He asked His mother, "Wist ye not that I must be in My Father's house," or, "about My Father's business?" did He have a new idea of G.o.d as His Father Who had sent Him into the world to do the great work which the Messiah was to perform?

There were eighteen silent years between His first visit to Jerusalem, and the time when, at thirty years of age, he made Himself known as the Messiah. They were spent as a village carpenter. He was known as such.

No one suspected Him to be anything more. In His work He must have been a model of honesty and faithfulness. We can believe that "all His works were perfect, that never was a nail driven or a line laid carelessly, and that the toil of that carpenter's bench was as sacred to Him as His teachings in the Temple, because it was duty."