But whilst the sacred writers enter so sparingly into personal details, they leave no doubt as to the perfect integrity which marked every part of our Lord’s proceedings.  He was born in a degenerate age, and brought up in a city of Galilee which had a character so infamous that no good thing was expected to proceed from it; [21:1] and yet, like a ray of purest light shining into some den of uncleanness, He contracted no defilement from the scenes of pollution which He was obliged to witness.  Even in boyhood, He must have uniformly acted with supreme discretion; for though His enemies from time to time gave vent to their malignity in various accusations, we do not read that they ever sought to cast so much as a solitary stain upon His youthful reputation.  The most malicious of the Jews failed to fasten upon Him in after life any charge of immorality.  Among those constantly admitted to His familiar intercourse, a traitor was to be found; and had Judas been able to detect anything in His private deportment inconsistent with His public profession, he would doubtless have proclaimed it as an apology for his perfidy; but the keen eye of that close observer could not discover a single blemish in the character of his Master; and, when prompted by covetousness, he betrayed Him to the chief priests, the thought of having been accessory to the death of one so kind and so holy, continued to torment him, until it drove him to despair and to self-destruction.

The doctrine inculcated by our Lord commended itself by the light of its own evidence.  It was nothing more than a lucid and comprehensive exposition of the theology of the Old Testament; and yet it, presented such a new view of the faith of patriarchs and of prophets, that it had all the freshness and interest of an original revelation.  It discovered a most intimate acquaintance with the mental constitution of man—­it appealed with mighty power to the conscience—­and it was felt to be exactly adapted to the moral state and to the spiritual wants of the human family.  The disciples of Jesus did not require to be told that He had “the key of knowledge,” for they were delighted and edified as “He opened” to them the Scriptures. [22:1] He taught the multitude “as one having authority;” [22:2] and they were “astonished at His doctrine.”  The discourses of the Scribes, their most learned instructors, were meagre and vapid—­they were not calculated to enlarge the mind or to move the affections—­they consisted frequently of doubtful disputations relating to the ceremonials of their worship—­and the very air with which they were delivered betrayed the insignificance of the topics of discussion.  But Jesus spake with a dignity which commanded respect, and with the deep seriousness of a great Teacher delivering to perishing sinners tidings of unutterable consequence.