He went down to Nazareth, and was subject to them.' That is all that is told us about eighteen years, by far the largest part of the earthly life of Christ. Legend comes in, and for once not inappropriately, and tells us, what is probably quite true, that during these years, Jesus worked in the carpenter's shop, and as one story says, made yokes,' or as another tells, made light implements of husbandry for the peasants round Nazareth. Be that as it may, He was subject unto them,' and that was doing the Father's will, and being about the Father's business,' quite as much as when He was amongst the doctors, and learning by asking questions as well as by hearkening to their instructions. Everything depends on the motive. The commonest duty may be the Father's business,' when we are doing manfully the work of daily life. Only we do not turn common duty into the Father's business, unless we remember Him in the doing of it. But if we carry the hallowing and quickening influence of that great must' into all the pettinesses, and paltrinesses, and wearinesses, and sorrows of our daily trivial lives, then we shall find, as Jesus Christ found, that the carpenter's shop is as sacred as the courts of the Temple, and that to obey Mary was to do the will of the Father in heaven.
What a blessed transformation that would make of all lives! The psalmist long ago said: One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.' We may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives. We may be in one or other of the many mansions of the Father's house where-ever we go, and may be doing the will of the Father in heaven in all that we do. Then we shall be at rest; then we shall be strong; then we shall be pure; then we shall have deep in our hearts the joyous consciousness, undisturbed by rebellious wills, that now we are the sons of God,' and the still more joyous hope, undimmed by doubts or mists, that it doth not yet appear what we shall be'; but that wherever we go, it will be but passing from one room of the great home into another more glorious still. I must be about my Father's business'; let us make that the motto for earth, and He will say to us in His own good time Come home from the field, and sit down beside Me in My house,' and so we' shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.'
