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Chapter 3—With Nature and With God
The Savior’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. No other person was ever
so weighted with responsibilities. Never another carried so heavy a
burden of the world’s sorrow and sin. Never another worked with
such self-consuming zeal for the good of humanity. 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 and 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. Though His manners
were gentle and unassuming, He impressed people 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, watching His words to find some occasion against Him. The
keenest and most highly cultured minds of the nation tried to defeat
Him in controversy. But never could they gain an advantage. They
had to withdraw 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 mortals had never before known. Even His enemies
were forced to confess, “‘No man ever spoke like this Man!’”
John
7:46
.
[24]
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
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