248 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



of such surroundings arose this man who had no 

 training but that of nature and of the Jewish 

 and Roman environment in which His days were 

 passed. He taught the conditions to which the 

 world is slowly but surely approximating. When 

 all the good in all the ideals of the philosophers 

 and social reformers is realized, therein will be 

 only what Jesus taught concerning the value of 

 man, and his relations to his fellow-men and to 

 the universe. He was utterly unlike the men of 

 His time in His relation to God ; in His sympa- 

 thies, which were wide as the world ; in the fact 

 that He reversed almost all the teaching with 

 which He was familiar. Of course there were 

 probably lessons that came out of the pure heart 

 of that young mother which strangely influenced 

 His career, but what, and how many they were, 

 we may not know. Enough for us that so far as 

 we can understand He was as utterly unlike His 

 fellow-men and His time as a great golden-hearted 

 lily is unlike the muck of a mountain lake in which 

 it grows. 



To all these facts must be added another, — His 

 parents were poor. He was compelled to work 

 with His hands for a livelihood. The silent years 

 in the life of Jesus were without doubt passed 

 as the same years were passed by others of His 



