BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 283

to Jesus, because it cannot fail to interest the boys who read
this book. ;

Here then is what Publius Lentulus is said to have
written in his regular report to the senate at Rome:

‘“‘Conscript Fathers: There appeared in these, our days,
a man of great virtue, named Jesus Christ, who is now living
amongst us;.of the Gentiles he is accepted as a Prophet of
Truth; but his own disciples call him the Son of God. He
raiseth the dead and cureth all manner of diseases. A man
of stature somewhat tall and comely, with a very reverend
countenance, such as beholders may both love and fear. His
hair is of the color of a filbert fully ripe, plain to the ears,
whence downward it is more orient of color, somewhat curled
and waved about his shoulders. In the midst of his head is
a seam or partition of his hair, after the manner of the
Nazarites. His forehead is smooth and delicate; his face
without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with a comely red; his
nose and mouth exactly formed; his beard thick, the color
of his hair, not of any great length, but forked; his look
innocent; his eyes grey, clear and quick; in reproving ter-
rible; in administering, courteous; in speaking, very modest
and wise; in proportion of body, well shaped. None have
ever seen him laugh, but many have seen him weep; a man
for his singular beauty surpassing the children of men.”

This may not be an authentic letter, it may not be a.
faithful portrait of Jesus, but it gives a more ennobling
impression of the gentle Nazarene than any or all of the
pictures artists have put on canvas. ?

If we cannot know with perfect accuracy concerning the
personal appearance of Jesus when in his strange but happy
boyhood he wandered up and down, drinking in the golden
beauty of the Nazarene hills, or plying axe and hammer in