282 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

But there are no reliable portraits of Christ either as
man or boy that will render us any valuable aid in this
matter. All the pictures of Christ the world possesses are
imaginary pictures, and they are for the most part very,
very unsatisfactory. They do not inspire reverence. You
may go through all the picture galleries of Europe, and you
will see hundreds of portraits of popes and madonnas and
saints, but you will hardly find a dozen pictures of Christ,
as man, or boy, or child, that will command your reverence,
or awaken your homage for the Saviour of mankind.

It is perhaps quite as well that there is no authentic
portrait of Jesus. Foolish people would quarrel about it,
superstitious people worship it, and in many ways it might
be the cause or occasion of infinite mischief. It is best as it
is. We may give full play to our dreaming thoughts, and
we may think of him joyfully as “the fairest among ten
thousand, and altogether lovely,” or we may think of him
sadly as “the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” as
one whose face was “marred more than the face of any
man.”

It may be interesting to boys, nevertheless, to be told
of a remarkable record that was found in the fly-leaf of an
old Bible printed in the University of Oxford, England, in
the year 1679. This record is concerning the personal
appearance of Jesus Christ, and goes on to tell of a custom
common with the Roman governors of Judea, by which they
kept the senate and government at Rome well informed con-
cerning all important events. One of these letters sent to
the senate of Rome by Publius Lentulus in the days of
Tiberius Cesar, is said to have been largely concerned about
this new Prophet of Truth, and so, while not setting much
value upon it, we give that portion of the letter that refers