BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 289

So Jesus, we are told, increased in wisdom and in stature,
and in favor with God and men.

And now comes the eventful year—eventful to every
Jewish boy, and especially eventful to Jesus. It was probably
the custom of the parents of Jesus to visit Jerusalem once a
year at the great feast, and Jesus being twelve.years of age
is taken to Jerusalem for his solemn dedication. Tens of
thousands of people went to this feast. What an experience
for this boy, whose days had all been in the quietude of his
Galilean home! The long journey of eighty miles comes to
an end, and at last Jerusalem is reached. Who shall say
what emotions filled the heart and mind of Jesus as he gazed
on David’s royal city, and saw the Temple of God with its
marble colonnades and its roof of glittering gold? The feast
lasted a week, and then the crowds returned to their farms,
and fields, and vineyards, and to the peacefulness of their
homes.

But there was sad consternation in the hearts of Joseph
and Mary, for Jesus could nowhere be found. To miss a boy
of twelve in so great a throng was not so remarkable; but
who shall picture the anxiety of Joseph or the agony of Mary?
They search, but search in vain. Through street and by-way,
in and out the narrow courts they wander, up and down—still
no sight of Jesus; till, last of all, they turn their footsteps to
the Temple, and there they find him—calm, peaceful, self-pos-
sessed—in the august presence of the great doctors of the law.
There he sat, hearing and asking questions. We are sure
he asked his questions modestly; and these grave Rabbis
must have wondered at this young student. As the Bible
tells us, they were astonished at his wisdom. How much
more astonished would these venerable masters of Israel have
been if they could have pierced through the veil of the com-