- 17 - fear for his throne and thus drove him to perpetrate the slaughter of the children, in order that the new-born herald of the truth might perish. The Magi did not reach Bethlehem until after the presentation of Jesus in the temple, his parents having gone there with the child on their way back from Jerusalem and intending to stay for a while before returning to Nazareth. It was during their stay in Bethlehem that the Wise Men appeared, and after the latter had set out for home, the parents of the child also prepared to continue on their way, but a messenger of God appeared to Joseph, warning him to flee into Egypt with his wife and child, as Herod, who on first learning of the birth of a new King of the Jews had determined to destroy him, was now on the point of carrying out his design. After the Christ child had grown out of infancy, his childhood was like that of other children. He learned to walk and to speak, and he played, like the rest. On occasions, he misbehaved, as all children will. With the passing of his boyhood his understanding developed, and inasmuch as he was the incarnation of the highest of created spirits, he was also highly gifted. Nevertheless, he had to begin to learn things as everybody does, even the most gifted. As a child he came to know of God exactly as you yourself did, namely, by what he learned from his parents and teachers. He listened to sermons on God in the synagogue of his native village, and discussed them with his elders, of whom he asked for explanations of the things that he had not understood or that did not seem right to him. Moreover, he was assailed by those temptations that come to all children of men and are of a strength in keeping with a youth’s powers of resistance. He overcame these temptations to the same degree that his knowledge of evil increased with the advancing years. Nevertheless, there were times when he erred and was guilty of failings due to human weakness, as is the case with the best of children. • With every victory over temptation the boy received from God greater inner strength and knowledge of the spirit. As his power of resistance grew, the Forces of Evil were permitted to increase the strength of their assaults upon him. It is so with every mortal. No exception was made in favour of the boy Jesus, for it is a law that applies to all men alike that they gain in ability to resist sin with every victory over temptation, while, on the other hand, Evil is left free to proceed with more vigour than ever, with the result that the whole life of a God- fearing man is a constant battle with the hostile powers. ‘A life of war is the lot of man upon earth.’ As the boy Jesus grew in years, the numerous errors of the Jewish faith professed by his parents caused himmany an inward struggle. These were all the errors that had been introduced in the course of time by the Jewish church in the form of manmade doctrines and alleged amendments to the law of God. When he had reached the point of being able to read and understand the original texts of the Old Testament, Jesus began to question the interpretations given by the teachers of Jewish law, but whenever, in his youthful frankness, he expressed these views to his parents or teachers, he was severely rebuked. It was these convictions conflicting with Jewish religious doctrines that, at the age of 12, he laid before the priests in the temple at Jerusalem, much to their amazement, putting questions to them and replying to theirs out of his own wisdom. To be sure, he was in this respect what you call a ‘child prodigy’, such as you find in all branches of human endeavour. This boy was a ‘child prodigy’ in his knowledge of God’s ways of Salvation. But he was human, like all other humans.
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