53. How was Jesus' childhood spent?

All we know of the childhood of Jesus is what the Scripture relates. There are, however, various traditional writings on the subject, more or less apocryphal, which have been preserved, but to these little impor­tance is attached.

The life at Nazareth, though quiet and obscure and passed over in a few lines by the evangelists, was unquestionably a life of preparation for the great work to follow.

While Jesus "must have been at all times marked out by his higher spiritual nature," writes Dr. Geikie, "yet in his human nature there must have been the same gradual development as in other men, otherwise they would not have felt the wonder at him which they afterward evinced.

Year after year passed and still found him at his daily toil, because his hour had not yet come." It is in various ways made evident that, even in childhood, he had dis­tinct convictions of his divine nature, and that these grew with the years, until the time was ripe for beginning his public ministry.