Jesus is familiarly known by the name of the "meek and lowly," but this is a title which scarcely seems warranted by the narratives. From his youth upwards he gave signs of the possession of an imperious disposition and a vituperative tongue, and he on several occasions manifested a want of filial affection. His parents went to Jerusalem every year to the feast of the Passover, and at the age of twelve Jesus was taken. When the parents returned, the boy remained behind unknown to them, and they had got a day's journey on their way home before they missed him. They retraced their steps to Jerusalem in much trouble, and at last, after three days' search, found the truant comfortably seated in the temple in the midst of the doctors, holding a learned argument with them. When his mother saw him she asked him why he had caused them so much sorrow. Instead of showing any penitence, he pertly answered, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" And Mary, though she knew he was the son of the Holy Ghost, had not the slightest idea what he meant.
When he "began to be about thirty years of age," he met with John Baptist, a strange sort of anchorite, who used to dress in camelshair and eat locusts and wild honey. From this cynic Jesus learnt much, especially the habit of calling names. When people presented themselves to John to be baptised, he greeted them in this loving way--"O generation of vipers, who hath warned _you_ to flee from the wrath to come?" Jesus was baptised, and afterwards retailed much that John had said, especially his abusive phrases. At this ceremony of immersion the heavens opened to Jesus, and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and alighted upon him. This Spirit assumes as many shapes as Satan himself, and altogether appears to be a very curious bird of passage. This baptism was not a happy thing to Jesus, for immediately afterwards he was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil, and he had to fast forty days and forty nights, and afterwards, we are gravely told, "he was an hungered," which is not a remarkable fact, seeing that he was a young man of very good appetite. We shall see, as we get farther on, that his love of eating and drinking was manifested on many carious occasions. The Old and New Testaments teem with accounts of feasts and carouses by the chosen of the Lord, and the Lord himself, to such a degree, that Christianity has not inaptly been termed the religion of gourmands. Jesus frequently manifests great readiness and smartness in reply, which is either an answer to the question addressed to him, or a very clever evasion of it. When the Devil had got Jesus, he said to him, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." The Devil evidently thought that to make something to eat would be the greatest temptation he could offer him. But Jesus evaded the task by saying, "It is written that man shall not live by bread alone." The Devil tried again, and took him to the pinnacle of a temple, and asked him to cast himself down, saying--"For it is written He shall give his angels charge concerning thee." Jesus said unto him, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." The Devil tried a third time, and took him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of this world, and the _glory_ of them, and promised him all if he would fall down and worship him. How could Jesus see from one spot all the kingdoms of the world? as no one looking straight before him can see round a globe; but if it was done by supernatural power, why take the trouble to go to the top of an exceeding high mountain? the _flat_ country would have been a more suitable spot. He also saw the _glory_ of them, which must have puzzled him greatly, for what is the glory of one place, is sometimes the shame of another, Jesus said, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The Devil deemed this conclusive, and thereupon took his departure.