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Chapter 3—With Nature and With God
The Saviour’s life on earth was a life of communion with nature
and with God. In this communion He revealed for us the secret of a
life of power.
Jesus was an earnest, constant worker. Never lived there among
men another so weighted with responsibilities. Never another carried
so heavy a burden of the world’s sorrow and sin. Never another toiled
with such self-consuming zeal for the good of men. Yet His was a
life of health. Physically as well as spiritually He was represented
by the sacrificial lamb, “without blemish and without spot.”
1 Peter
1:19
. In body as in soul He was an example of what God designed
all humanity to be through obedience to His laws.
As the people looked upon Jesus, they saw a face in which divine
compassion was blended with conscious power. He seemed to be
surrounded with an atmosphere of spiritual life. While His manners
were gentle and unassuming, He impressed men with a sense of
power that was hidden, yet could not be wholly concealed.
During His ministry He was continually pursued by crafty and
hypocritical men who were seeking His life. Spies were on His track,
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watching His words, to find some occasion against Him. The keenest
and most highly cultured minds of the nation sought to defeat Him
in controversy. But never could they gain an advantage. They had
to retire from the field, confounded and put to shame by the lowly
Teacher from Galilee. Christ’s teaching had a freshness and a power
such as men had never before known. Even His enemies were forced
to confess, “Never man spake like this Man.”
John 7:46
.
The childhood of Jesus, spent in poverty, had been uncorrupted
by the artificial habits of a corrupt age. Working at the carpenter’s
bench, bearing the burdens of home life, learning the lessons of
obedience and toil, He found recreation amidst the scenes of nature,
gathering knowledge as He sought to understand nature’s mysteries.
He studied the word of God, and His hours of greatest happiness
were found when He could turn aside from the scene of His labors to
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