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Christ as the Example and Teacher of Youth
The example of Jesus is a light to the young, as well as to those
of more mature years, for His was a representative childhood and
youth. From His earliest years His example was perfect. As a little
child He was obedient to His parents and to the laws of nature, “and
the grace of God was upon Him.”
Luke 2:40
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Jesus did not, like many youth, devote His time to amusement.
He studied the word until He became familiar with its sayings. Even
in His childhood His life and all His habits were in harmony with
the Scriptures, and He was skillful in their use.... Besides the written
word, Jesus studied the book of nature, finding delight in the beauti-
ful things of His own creation. He was in sympathy with humanity in
all its varied joys and sorrows. He identified Himself with all—with
the weak and helpless, the lowly, the needy, and the afflicted.
In His teaching, Christ drew His illustrations from the great
treasury of household ties and affections, and from nature. The
unknown was illustrated by the known; sacred and divine truths, by
natural, earthly things, with which the people were most familiar.
These were the things that would speak to their hearts, and make the
deepest impression on their minds.
The words of Christ placed the teachings of nature in a new
aspect and made them a new revelation. He could speak of the
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things which His own hands had made, for they had qualities and
properties that were peculiarly His own. In nature, as in the sacred
pages of the Old Testament Scriptures, divine, momentous truths
are revealed; and in His teaching, Jesus laid these open before the
people, bound up with the beauty of natural things....
As interpreted by Jesus, flower and shrub, the seed sown and the
seed harvested, contained lessons of truth, as did also the plant that
springs out of the earth. He plucked the beautiful lily and placed it
in the hands of children and youth, and as they looked into His own
youthful face, fresh with the sunlight of His Father’s countenance,
He gave the lesson, “consider the lilies of the field, how they grow
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