even at those years, be far wiser than the aged; but, can a mortal child emulate such heavenly wisdom!  Can such a pattern be proposed to my imitation?”—­Yes, certainly;—­remember that he has bequeathed to you his heavenly wisdom, as far as concerns your own good.  He has left you such declarations of his will, and of the consequences of your actions, as you are, even now, fully able to understand, if you will but attend to them.  If, then, you will imitate his zeal for knowledge, if you will delight in gaining information and improvement, you may even now become “wise unto salvation.”

55.  Unmoved by the praise he acquired amongst these learned men, you see him meekly return to the subjection of a child, under those who appeared to be his parents, though he was in reality their Lord; you see him return to live with them, to work for them, and to be the joy and solace of their lives; till the time came, when he was to enter on that scene of public action, for which his heavenly Father had sent him from his own right hand, to take upon him the form of a poor carpenter’s son.

56.  What a lesson of humility is this, and of obedience to parents!—­When, having received the glorious testimony from heaven, of his being the beloved Son of the most High, he enters on his public ministry, what an example does he give us, of the most extensive and constant benevolence!—­how are all his hours spent in doing good to the souls and bodies of men!—­not the meanest sinner is below his notice:—­To reclaim and save them, he condescends to converse familiarly with the most corrupt as well as the most abject.  All his miracles are wrought to benefit mankind; not one to punish and afflict them.  Instead of using the almighty power which accompanied him, to the purpose of exalting himself, and treading down his enemies, he makes no other use of it than to heal and to save.

57.  When you come to read of his sufferings and death, the ignominy and reproach, the sorrow of mind, and torment of body, which he submitted to—­when you consider, that it was all for our sakes—­“that by his stripes we are healed,”—­and by his death we are raised from destruction to everlasting life—­what can I say that can add any thing to the sensations you must then feel?  No power of language can make the scene more touching than it appears in the plain and simple narrations of the Evangelists.  The heart that is unmoved by it, can be scarcely human; but the emotions of tenderness and compunction; which almost every one feels in reading this account, will be of no avail, unless applied to the true end—­unless it inspires you with a sincere and warm affection towards your blessed Lord—­with a firm resolution to obey his commands—­to be his faithful disciple—­and ever renounce and abhor those sins, which brought mankind under divine condemnation, and from which we have been redeemed at so clear a rate.

58.  Remember that the title of Christian, or follower of Christ, implies a more than ordinary degree of holiness and goodness.  As our motives to virtue are stronger than those which are afforded to the rest of mankind, our guilt will be proportionally greater if we depart from it.