BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 281

him as “very boy of very boy,” if by such a phrase we
may make clearer the thought that Jesus was but a prodigy,
not a precious, phenomenal, wonderful boy; but a real boy,
one amongst ten thousand, if you will, but still a real boy,
as we were boys, or as you are boys; simple, natural, looking
forward to his play time, and loving his play with joys and sor-
rows such as all boys know. Surely this must be so, for if it
were otherwise, how could Jesus sympathize with boys and
help them and bless them if he had never been a real boy.

-It may be if we had lived in Nazareth two thousand
years ago, we should not have marked any great difference
between Jesus and other young Nazarenes, save by, perhaps,
a special sweetness in his looks, or tenderness in his man-
ners, and sometimes a quiet thoughtfulness somewhat unusual
in one so young. That familiar line,

“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,”

may be an almost perfect description of him.

It is almost certain that the boys who look into this
pook will often have wondered what sort of a boy Jesus was,
so far as his personal appearance was concerned. Such won-
dering is not to be condemned as mere idle curiosity.
Everything concerning Jesus Christ from his cradle to his
cross, should be of deep interest to us. ©

But as to this matter of personal appearance we are
left almost wholly in the dark. Of course there are some
general characteristics that we may reasonably fancy belonged
to him as a Jewish boy. We are easily able to distinguish
between a German boy and an Italian boy and a genuine
young American. And when we find out what the boys of
northern Palestine were like, we may form some idea of
what Jesus was.