The Sabbath School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 29, 1880

The Sabbath School.

THE CHILD JESUS.

"Yea, daughter," said the Rabbi, casting off His gabardine, "the Council hath sat late, But not without good cause; for, sooth to tell, We had this day a marvelous visitant, Which, if I thought as do the Gentile Greeks And Romans, I should dare believe a god, Though in the form and semblance of a child. For, as we probed the deep and hidden things, The awful mysteries of our Holy Writ— Whose meaning doth divide us as a gulf— There came a boy with large and luminous eyes, Which he did fix upon us with a gaze So steadfast and so searching that we saw Naught save those eyes; whereat his lips he oped, And in a silvery voice such questions ask'd As never man, much less a child, conceived! And when we failed to answer him he smiled A sad, sweet smile, and answered them himself, And in such wise as fill'd us with amaze; For in the doctrines, prophecies and laws He seem'd exact, and yet a twelve-year-boy!— If such, indeed, he was. So sped the day, Till came a woman pushing thro' the midst With pallid cheek, tear-stained, dishevel'd locks, And eyes so like the child's that all could see She was his mother, e'en before she press'd Her trembling lips upon his silky hair, Whispering, 'Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Lo, thy father and myself have sought thee Sorrowing.' But he said, 'How is it that Ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be About my Father's business?' Yet she seem'd To understand him not, but silently Conducted him away; and we were mute. Mark me, Rebecca: if this be a child Of mortal mold—the which perplexeth me— The world will surely hear of him some day."