THE PROBLEM OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST 240 



countrymen of the same station in life. He was 

 acquainted with drudgery. This is undisputed. 

 There was little time for intellectual growth. 

 Others have been trained in the schools ; by the 

 path of meditation, like Buddha, or of dialectics, 

 like Plato, they have learned the lessons which 

 lie deep in our common humanity; but Jesus died 

 at about the age that most find themselves quali- 

 fied for strong thinking. He knew few books, 

 probably none but the Old Testament and some 

 commentaries upon it. He had relatively few 

 opportunities to feel the influence of the great 

 world-currents of thought, and if He had come 

 into touch with them He would have had little 

 time to study their significance. No one else 

 situated as He was has spoken such thoughts or 

 had such visions. Philo and Josephus may be 

 cited, but, although Jews, both had the advantages 

 of intellectual training and travel. All the treas- 

 ures of Alexandrian libraries were enjoyed by at 

 least one of them. What they learned by inves- 

 tigation, association with men, and the companion- 

 ship of literature, the young peasant knew by 

 intuition ; with all that was valuable in their train- 

 ing and investigation, Jesus seemed to have been 

 possessed from His birth. He could not have 

 been taught this by others. That were to suppose 



