If you went there, you found exposed to view many
pretty pictures--"A Girl with a Dove," "The Guitar-player," and such
subjects as are commonly supposed to interest at his age. But, hid in
a corner, and never shown, unless to the beggar-page or some most
confidential friend, was the real object of his love and pride, the
slowly-growing work of secret hours. The subject of this picture was
Christ teaching the Doctors. And in those doctors he had expressed all
he had already observed of the pedantry and shallow conceit of those
in whom mature years have not unfolded the soul: and in the child, all
he felt that early youth should be and seek, though, alas! his own
feet failed him on the difficult road. This one record of the youth of
Jesus, had, at least, been much to his mind.
In earlier days the little saints thought they best imitated the
Emanuel by giving apples and cents; but we know not why, in our age,
that esteems itself so much enlightened, they should not become also
the givers of spiritual gifts. We see in them, continually, impulses
that only require a good direction to effect infinite good. See the
little girls at work for foreign missions; that is not useless; they
devote the time to a purpose that is not selfish; the horizon of their
thoughts is extended.
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