CHAPTER 20.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Levi
After the feast. The homeward journey. The missing Jesus. The search for him. His parents find him in the temple. He goes with them to Nazareth. Symbolic meaning of carpenter’s tools.
The great feast of the pasch was ended and the Nazarenes were journeying toward their homes.
2 And they were in Samaria, and Mary said, Where is my son? No one had seen the boy.
3 And Joseph sought among their kindred who were on their way to Galilee; but they had seen him not.
4 Then Joseph, Mary, and a son of Zebedee, returned and sought through all Jerusalem, but they could find him not.
5 And then they went up to the temple courts and asked the guards, Have you seen Jesus, a fair-haired boy, with deep blue eyes, twelve years of age, about these courts?
6 The guards replied, Yes, he is in the temple now disputing with the doctors of the law.
7 And they went in, and found him as the guards had said.
8 And Mary said, Why Jesus, why do you treat your parents thus? Lo, we have sought two days for you. We feared that some great harm had overtaken you.
9 And Jesus said, Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s work?
10 But he went round and pressed the hand of every doctor of the law and said, I trust that we may meet again.
11 And then he went forth with his parents on their way to Nazareth; and when they reached their home he wrought with Joseph as a carpenter.
12 One day as he was bringing forth the tools for work he said,
13 These tools remind me of the ones we handle in the workshop of the mind where things are made of thought and where we build up character.
14 We use the square to measure all our lines, to straighten out the crooked places of the way, and make the corners of our conduct square.
15 We use the compass to draw circles round our passions and desires to keep them in the bounds of righteousness.
16 We use the ax to cut away the knotty, useless and ungainly parts and make the character symmetrical.
17 We use the hammer to drive home the truth, and pound it in until it is a part of every part.
18 We use the plane to smooth the rough, uneven surfaces of joint, and block, and board that go to build the temple for the truth.
19 The chisel, line, the plummet and the saw all have their uses in the workshop of the mind.
20 And then this ladder with its trinity of steps, faith, hope and love; on it we climb up to the dome of purity in life.
21 And on the twelve-step ladder we ascend until we reach the pinnacle of that which life is spent to build—the Temple of Perfected Man.