Olivet Nazarene University - Aurora Yearbook (Bourbonnais, IL)

Page 13 text:

Ghrist as a Garpenter Christ ivas not acquainted tuith sin in his own soul, but in the town of Nazareth where he spent his boyhood days he had a full exhibition of the awful problem with which he was to deal. He was brought into contact with hu- man nature by his work as a carpenter in his father ' s shop. Later, tvhen he began his ministry, the townsmen were astonished and asked, Is not this the carpenter? It would be difficult to exhaust the sig- nificance of the fact that God chose the lot of a working man for his son as prepara- tory for his ministry. But it stamped man ' s common toils with everlasting honor. It caused him to see man as he is, and helped to give Christ a compassion which aided him in his dealings with man later in his life upon earth. Pci ic Nine

Page 12 text:

Ghrist in the temple Of Christ ' s last three years upon earth we have a detailed account, but of his boyhood ive know very little. The veil is lifted, and we catch a glimpse of him as a boy twelve years of age in the temple reasoning tvith the doctors. His thirst for knowl- edge for the first time had an opportunity for satisfac- tion. It ivas there that his anxious parents found him, after they had been seeking him all day. His answer to the reproachful question of his mother lays bare what thoughts were uppermost in his mind, Wist ye not that I must be about my father ' s business? It appears that even as a boy, Christ realized he tvas the Messiah. I ' liuc Liiulil

Page 14 text:

(Baptism of Ghrist John, the rugged forerun- ner of Christ, little realized as he was preaching about the coming Messiah that he ivould come to be baptized of him. But one day there appeared among his hearers one ivho particularly attracted his at- tention, and made his voice, which had never faltered, when he was accusing even the highest teachers and priests of the nation, tremble with self-distrust. John drew back when Christ declared he 2vas a candidate for baptism. But John obeyed the voice of Jesus. God, the Father, looked over the battlements of heaven and voiced his approval of his Son. To Jesus the baptism had an important significance. It meant that he tvas now enter- ing through a door into a new epoch, of which he Himself was to be the Author. It ex- pressed his sense that the time had come to leave behind the employments of Nazareth and devote himself to his pe- culiar work. Ten