Essay No. 37
A
Essay No. 37.
The Model Childhood
BY THE
Rev. J. R. Miller, D.D.
Editor, Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadelphia ; Author of "Silent
Times," " Making the Most of Life," "The Building of Character," and
numerous publications.
WHAT should the child-life be that would perfectly fulfil its part in the home ? We have a model. Once there was a home on earth in which a Child lived Whose life was spotless and faultless, and Who realised all that is lovely, tender, and true in child¬hood. If we knew how Jesus lived as a child in that Nazareth home, it would help other children to live aright. We know well that He helped to make the home happy. He never caused His parents one minute's anxiety, one pang, one moment of bitter¬ness. He never failed in a duty. We know that if we only had a narrative of His years of childhood, telling us what He did, every other child could study it and learn beautiful lessons from His example.
We have no such narrative, but we have one single glimpse into His home-life which reveals a great deal. We see Him at twelve years of age. He is in the temple at Jerusalem. The parents had lost
Him when they left the Holy City to return home, and after they found Him again, we are told in one brief sentence that "He went down with them, and came to Nazareth ; and He was subject unto them." For eighteen years longer He remained in that home. We have not another word about Him. The story of those years is told in a single verse : "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."
Scripture is silent about Him all those years. We have only this one sentence about the way He lived in that home : "He went down with them, and was subject unto them." Yet this one glimpse reveals the whole history of those years. He was subject to His parents.
Remember Who this Child was. It was over His birth that the angels sang their song : "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." He was the eternal Son of God. He had made all the worlds. Him all the hosts of glory obeyed. Yet He humbled Himself, veiled His glory, and dwelt in a lowly home of earth for thirty years as a human child. He submitted Himself to earthly parents, and obeyed them. No details are given—just this one word; but we can easily fill out the picture for ourselves. We see, for thirty years, from infancy to full manhood, this holy Child exhibiting in His home the most perfect dutifulness, obedience, honour, and helpfulness. He obeyed His parents, not
by constraint, but cheerfully, all these years. He did His part well in the making of that home.
This example is the answer to the question : "What is the child's part in the home ? " What is it but this : That the great duty of childhood in the home-life is to obey ? He was subject unto His parents. Although He was the Son of God, yet He learned and practised obedience to human parents. He did their will, and not His own. He had entered upon the affairs of His Heavenly Father. In the temple He had said : "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business ? " Yet immediately after saying this He went back to His own home to take and keep for eighteen years more the lowly place of a child. Hence we conclude that the Father's business for Him all those years was subjection to His earthly parents. This was the work which was given Him to do for that time. He had come to earth on a great mission, the greatest ever under¬taken or performed in the universe, yet the place in which He was prepared for that mission was not in any of the fine schools of the world, but in a lowly home ; not at the feet of the rabbis and philosophers, but with His own mother for His teacher. What an honour does this fact put upon home ! What a dignity upon motherhood !
It would seem that no argument after that were needed to prove to children the duty and the dignity of obedience to parents. We take our place far back
in the history of the world; we stand under the cloud-crowned, fire-wreathed Sinai, and amidst its awful thunderings we hear the voice of God proclaim : "Honour thy father and thy mother ; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." But even all these scenes of majesty—the voice of Jehovah, the burning mountain, the cloud and the thunder—did not give to this command such sacred authority, such solemn importance, as when Jesus, the Son of God, for thirty years in a lowly home on earth, submitted Himself to earthly parents and obeyed their commands.
Does any question ever arise as to the authority of this Divine word in the Decalogue ? This picture of Jesus obeying it in that Galilean home is sufficient answer.
Does the thought ever arise : "Is it manly—is it womanly—to yield to my parents, to have no differ¬ing will of my own, in any matter, to do their bidding in all things ? " Behold Jesus, till thirty years of age, yielding to the control of His human parents, asking them continually what they would have Him to do, referring every question to them. Was this manly in Him ? Surely, then, it cannot be unmanly in any son in this world. Where shall we learn manliness, if not in the life and from the example of Jesus ?
Thomas Hughes has said, in speaking of man-liness, and of courage as one of its elements :
life will always be more or less a failure which in its earlier years does not learn to submit and be ruled. No one is fitted for ruling others who has not first learned in his place to obey.
Someone may say again : "My parents are very plain people. They have never known much of the world. They have missed the opportunities that I am enjoying, and therefore have not intelligence or wisdom or education sufficient to direct my life."
We have only to remember again Who Jesus was. Was there ever any human parent in this world who was really worthy or capable, in this sense, to be His teacher, to guide and direct His life ? Was there ever, in any home on earth, such a distance between parents and child as there was in that home at Nazareth ? Yet this Son of God, with all His wisdom, His knowledge, His grandeur of character, did not hesitate to submit Himself to the training of that peasant mother and father. Shall any other child, in view of this model child-life at home, assert that he is too far advanced, too much superior in knowledge and culture, too wise and intelligent, to submit to the parents God has given him ? If Jesus could be taught and trained by His lowly parents for His glorious mission, where is the true parent who is not worthy to be his own child's guide and teacher ?
This, then, is the part of every child in the home-life. This is the way in which children can do the
most to make the home true and happy. It is the part of the parents to guide, to train, to teach, to mould the character. God holds them responsible for this. They must qualify themselves to do it. Then it is the part of the children to accept this guidance, teaching, training, and direction at the parents' hands. When both faithfully do their part, the home-life will be a sweet song of love ; where either fails, there will be discordant life, and the angel of blessing will not leave his benison of peace.
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