#114.# Making, then, reverent use of inference, what may we learn about these thirty years of our Lord's life, and of the influences that were at work all that time? Who were his teachers? For, bear in mind, that at the time of Jesus' entry into his public ministry, he came as a full-fledged man, who was prepared for his life's work.
#115. Nature Taught Him.#--Nature is God's first book, and if man had not sinned, he would have needed no other. To Jesus, nature was an open volume, and he read it in all its spiritual significance. While other boys saw only that which was outward, he saw that which was inward and had spiritual meaning. To him the lily spoke of his Father's care, the leaven that he saw in his mother's house spoke to him of the way in which the kingdom of God grew in this world. The mustard seed was an illustration of the growth of truth. Many of his most simple and precious teachings were drawn thus from nature. Sparrows, seed and tares, fig-tree, salt, and many other objects of nature told him of things unseen.
#116. Men Taught Him.#--He doubtless mingled much with them in Nazareth, and it is not hard to imagine the boy going to the camping-place of the passing caravans, and listening to the tales that the men from far countries had to tell. The stories that he afterward made use of were in many cases doubtless gathered from such sources. But he made them illustrate things unseen and spiritual. Look at his parables, and see how true this may easily be. The ten virgins may well have been a story that he heard, and of which he made such solemn use in his ministry. Is it unnatural to suppose that in these gatherings of men he may have heard some one tell of a pearl merchant and his fortune in finding a peculiarly valuable pearl? In due time he used this story to illustrate the wisdom of staking all on one superlative venture. Look at his parables, and see how he made use of the interests of men in making clear the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The sower, the lost silver, the prodigal son, children in the market-place, the rich fool, the vineyard and the laborers--these and many more show how richly the relationships of men with their fellow-men instructed him.