The Life of Our Lord in Simple Language for Little Children

IN ages past God made the world: the earth, the sea, the hills, the streams, the trees; the fish, birds and beasts; last of all He made Adam, the first man, and Eve his wife, and they lived in the Garden of Eden. They were quite good at first, but tempted by Satan they ate the fruit of a tree God told them not to eat, and that brought sin into the world; they could not live for ever now, they must die; but that their souls might go to heaven, God's own Son said He would come down on earth and die to save them. God said His Son should be born of Abraham's nation, and should be one of the sons of the line of King David, who sang the sweet psalms in praise of God.

Abraham was a good man, so good that God called him His friend; and from him came the people called Jews. David was one of their kings. God always keeps His word, but He makes men wait till it is His time to do as He says; and it was a long, long time after Abraham and David that our Lord came to live among men.

At last God sent His angel Gabriel to a young maiden, named Mary, who lived at a town called Nazareth, to tell her that God loved her, and that she should have God's Son for her own son. Our Lord would be her little babe. When Mary saw the angel she was at first afraid, but he said to her, "Fear not, Mary," and he told her that she must call the child's name Jesus--that means Saviour--for He would save the people from their sins. Then Mary must have been glad. She said, "I am God's servant; may His will be done." Mary was to be the wife of her cousin Joseph--they were both of David's family--so the angel went and told him too, that Mary should have God's Son for her own, and that he must call the child Jesus.

Joseph and Mary lived at Nazareth. At that time the Jews were ruled over by the Romans, whose king was called Cæsar. He wanted to know how many people there were in that land, so he said all the men and women of it must go to their own towns to be counted. Now Mary and Joseph's town was Bethlehem. It was a great way off, but they had to go. It took days and days to get there, for they went slowly, and when at last they came to the town they found the inn full; there was no room for them, and they had to go to a stable to sleep and eat and drink.

And that night God sent Mary her Son. She had no nice cradle to lay the Lord in, but she had some clothes to put on Him, so she wrapped the sweet babe in them, and laid Him in a manger, where the ox and the ass fed.

How good it was of our Lord to be born a poor child for our sakes, was it not? He was the Son of God, but to save men He came down and was a babe in a stable of Bethlehem.

Winter had come, the snow was on the hills near Bethlehem, and some shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks at night for fear the wolves or bears should come and hurt them, when suddenly they saw a great light in the dark sky, and from it a bright angel came down close to them, and they were much afraid. But the angel said, "Fear not, for I bring you good tidings"--that is, news--"of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this is how you will know Him: you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger." And then a great many angels came out of the light and sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace; good-will to men." The song ended, they went back to heaven, and the shepherds said, "Let us go to Bethlehem, and see this great thing of which the Lord has told us." And they made haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And the shepherds praised God, and told the people all that they had seen and heard. The Son of God had no nice soft cradle as you had; He was laid in a manger from which the ox and ass fed: He chose to be a poor child for our sakes.

Mary gave the name of Jesus to the babe as God had told her, and when He was six weeks old she and Joseph brought Him to God's Temple to present Him to the Lord, and to give two doves to show her thanks for the child God had sent to her. There was an old and good man at that time, to whom God had promised that he should not die till he had seen the Lord's Son; and now God's Holy Spirit told him that the Child was in the Temple; and the old man, Simeon, went there and took the Babe in his arms, and thanked God, and said that now he should die in peace, for he had seen the Saviour. And Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary, but he told her that men would speak ill of her Child. Then a good old woman--her name was Anna--came in; she was day and night praying in the Temple, and God let her, too, know that this Child was God's Son, come to save men; and she was glad, and gave God thanks, and told every one that the Christ was come.

The word Christ means anointed--that is, touched with oil, as kings and priests were--and the Jews always spoke of the Saviour who was to come as "the Christ," or "King."

Then Mary took the Child back to Bethlehem.

Now there were some Wise Men who lived a long way off, and who knew a great deal about the stars. At that time all the world expected that Christ would come, and these wise men had heard that when He was born they would see a new star. One night they saw a bright one that they did not know, and it shone over the land of the Jews. So they set off at once to go and see the new-born King. It was a long way to go; they rode across the sands on camels, and went on and on to where the star shone. At last they came to Jerusalem, and they asked the people, "Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship him."

Now at that time the Romans had made a very bad, cruel man, whose name was Herod, King of the Jews. When he heard of the wise men and of what they wanted to know, he was troubled; for he was afraid if the great King was born that he (Herod) would not be King any longer. So he sent for the chief priests and asked them where God had said that the Christ should be born. He did not know himself, for he was not a Jew. And the priests said that Christ should be born in the little town of Bethlehem.

Then Herod sent for the wise men and asked them when they first saw the star; and he sent them to Bethlehem and said: "When you have found the young Child bring me word, that I may come and worship Him too."

But the cruel King meant to kill the Babe if he found him. Then the wise men went to Bethlehem, and to their great joy, the star that they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

Then the wise men went in, and saw the young Child and Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him, and gave Him rich gifts--gold and a sweet scent, and myrrh, which is a kind of gum. But God told them, in a dream, not to return to Herod, so they went back to their own land by another way. And when they were gone, the angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream, and told him to rise, and take the young Child and His mother and flee into Egypt, for Herod would seek for the Babe to kill Him. Joseph rose at once, though it was night, and took the Child and His mother and made haste to go to Egypt.

King Herod was very angry when he knew that the wise men were gone home, and he sent and had all the babes in Bethlehem killed, from quite babies up to two years old. He thought, thus, that he would be sure to kill the Holy Child, but God did not let him, you know.

When this cruel King died, an angel came and told Joseph to take the Child back again into His own land. And Joseph took Him and Mary, and they went to live at Nazareth, a town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

And the Child grew strong and full of wisdom, and the grace of God was on him. And when He was twelve years old, He went up with Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem, to keep the Passover--this was a feast that God had commanded the Jews to keep, to remind them that He had saved them from death, and set them free when they were slaves in Egypt. They ate a lamb at it, and drank some wine. When the feast was over, Mary and Joseph went on their way home, but Jesus stayed behind in the city. There were so many people going to Galilee that Mary did not miss her son till night; then she went to look for Him, for she thought He must be with some friends; but she could not find Him, and in great fear, she and Joseph went back to the city to seek for Him. They did not find Him for three days, and then they went to the Temple, and there He was in the midst of the priests and learned men, listening to them, and asking them questions. And they were all much surprised at his great sense and wise answers. His mother, also, was amazed; but she said to Him, "Son, why have you done this? your father and I have sought You sorrowing." And He said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must do My Father's business?" He meant "God's business," but they did not know the meaning of His words. Then He went home with them and obeyed them, and was a good, kind Son; but His mother kept all these things in her heart. Jesus has shown all children how to behave to their parents; to obey them and be kind to them as He was.

Now about fifteen years after this time there came a man in the wild part of the land, by the river Jordan, who cried to the people, "Repent," that is, "Be sorry for your sins and be good," "for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." This man's name was John, and he was the cousin of Jesus. He wore only a rough robe of camel's hair and a belt of leather round his waist; he had never tasted wine; he fed on insects called locusts, and wild honey.

Then all the people of Jerusalem, and in all the places near, came to John, and said how sorry they were for their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan--that is, he poured water on their heads as they stood in the stream as a sign that God would wash their sins away--that is, forgive them. But he told them all that he was not the Christ who was to come. He said he was only a Voice to call them from their bad ways and make them ready for the One that was to come, whose shoes he was not good enough to untie. At last, one day, Jesus came to be baptized, but John, who knew how good He was, said, "No, I need to be baptized by You. Why do You come to me?" But Jesus said, "It was right to do so," and then John obeyed Him and baptized Him. Our Lord had no sins to be forgiven, but He wished to set us an example, always to do right. And as He came up out of the river, the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God, like a dove, came down and rested on Him, and there came a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased." Then John knew that Jesus was God's Son--the Christ.

After He had been baptized, Our Lord went into the wild country, or wilderness, for forty days, and was tempted by the wicked spirit, called the Devil. To tempt any one is to try and make him wicked; but the devil could not make our Lord say or do a wrong thing, although he tried in every way that he possibly could, and so he left Him.