(Mark 6:3.)

These words give expression to the unbelief of the men of Nazareth. Our Lord came "to His own country," where He had been brought up and was well-known. Those thirty wondrous years of perfect human obedience to God had been a delight to His Father, but they evidently made no impression upon those who came daily in contact with Him, save, in some measure, His mother. In face of the divine witness of miracles, and teaching as never man taught when He entered upon His public ministry, they can remember but one thing- this is "the carpenter," who toiled as one of themselves, and not a scribe who lived upon the toil of others.

"The carpenter" was thus a term of reproach, similar to that implied in the question, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him? " " Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Men thought they were saying the last word about His mission when they gave Him the epithet, "A friend of publicans and sinners," and later put the last mark of shame and mockery upon Him in the crown of thorns.

But faith worships where unbelief stumbles or mocks, and takes up each unbelieving cavil and finds in it fresh cause for wonder and love. True, the rulers and Pharisees did not believe on Him; to have done so would have been to renounce themselves. Without repentance, abiding and complete, on their part, it would have proven that our Lord was like themselves. No, it showed that He was from God when the self-righteous, self-satisfied, who were bringing Cain's offering to God-a cultivated fallen nature-failed to believe on Him whose constant witness was to the solemn fact of the hopeless guilt, vileness and helplessness of man.

Again, "Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet," while a contradiction of the prophecy which told of the light that was to rise in "Galilee of the Gentiles," was in keeping with the pride that expected divine endorsement of the shams at Jerusalem. To be outside all that was but to be with the presence of God, which had also departed from the Temple (Ezek. xi-. 23). It was also a suggestion of the lowly grace' which was identifying itself with "the poor of the flock," with an outlook also toward the Gentiles.

As to "A friend of sinners," it is His boast; and how many sin-weary souls have found in it their title to fall into His open arms and weep out their grief on His bosom. The crown that now adorns Him is but the crown of thorns glorified through His suffering, a pledge that fruitless thorns like ourselves shall one day be a diadem of beauty upon His brow, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

Let us then take up this epithet, "the carpenter," and see what it has to give us in praise of Him whom men despised.

When the Pharisees reproached our Lord for performing a miracle on the sabbath, His reply was, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." Sin had marred God's rest in the first creation, and He was compelled, if we may use language to suit creature comprehension, to take up toil in connection with the world. As has been said, " Holiness could not, and love would not rest in the presence of sin."
If He had to inflict toil upon fallen man as a consequence of his sin, He also labored from the beginning, not merely as a witness of the ruin, but to bring in a divine remedy. So when our Lord came, it was in accord with this that He was laid in a manger, close to the toiling beasts, and spent His years of private life in association with and engaged in labor. There was no life of luxurious ease for Him; He had come with far different objects. How good, then, it is to think of "the Carpenter," and thus to be reminded that He, the Lord of glory, had come into the circumstances made necessary for sinful man by the fall, the first step, we might say, of that humiliation which led Him to say, " I love My . . . wife and My children, I will not go out free." And so He became "A servant forever."

But let us look further at this term of reproach, and learn other glories of His person and character. The word "carpenter," in the original means a producer, one who brings forth, which is the opposite of evil. Satan and sin are destroyers. "He was a murderer from the beginning." He destroyed the peace and happiness of Eden, and ever since has been engaged in working havoc in individuals and the race at large. In blessed contrast with this, our Lord was, and is, the builder, the restorer of the ruin.

But who can estimate the labor of a work like this? If the work of the first creation could only be accomplished by divine power, the new creation needed even more than that-divine love and a sacrifice. The first creation was the work of the divine Architect and Builder. As we know, this was the Son:"All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." As Creator, then, we get our first view of "the Carpenter." " He that built all things is God." Creation itself in a sense, is an expression of divine humiliation, for the distance between God and the creature is infinite. May we ever tread such holy ground with unshod feet and worshiping hearts, not daring to intrude into those things which we have not seen, but reverently receiving all that the word of God gives us. Thus, while "the heavens declare the glory of God," we are also told that He "humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and on the earth.". To give thus expression to His thoughts by fashioning the wondrous fabric of the universe was infinite condescension. More, to fit this world as the abode of man was toil; so we read that God "rested on the seventh day from all His work." So we see the "Carpenter" in this first wondrous building.

As we have seen, sin introduced havoc and ruin into this first creation, and the divine Builder, has, as it were, to resume His labors. These were not to repair the ruined first creation, but with a view to something altogether new, though really that which was in the divine mind from the beginning. In type we see this even in Eden before the fall. The man was a figure of the "last Adam," " Him that was to come." A helpmeet for him was to be found, and this could not be in any of the creatures already formed. So with Christ. No bride could be found for Him in the fallen creation. Therefore a "deep sleep," of death, must fall upon Him, in order that from Him might be formed that new thing, the Church, to be His bride and companion forever-in the new creation, and of it. The word as to Eve is, in the margin, "builded." It is to this that He refers in Matt. 16:18; Peter had confessed Him as the Christ the Son of the living God, and He declares that this is the foundation-Christ the Son of the living God-upon which He will build His Church. It was at Pentecost, on the descent of the Holy Spirit, that this work of building began. All between the type in Eden and the beginning of the accomplishment at Pentecost was preparatory to this. The various dispensations were but stages in the work we may say of taking down the old building, removing the ruins, to give place to that new structure. God was proving the utter helplessness and worthlessness of the first man, that there should never be raised a question throughout the eternal ages as to the justice of his setting it aside.
In all this we see "the Carpenter." Even now though marred to sight by human failure, the stately and beautiful proportions of this building can be seen, and the plan is laid down in the word of God, where we have it in all its perfectness of design.

"View the vast building, see it rise; The work how great! the plan how wise! Oh wondrous fabric! power unknown! That rears it on the "living Stone."

What an answer is this building, as it will be displayed in eternal glory, to the poor reproach of His enemies! And how, with adoring hearts all the redeemed will take up that very question, and as the all-glorious Builder of His Church is seen in heaven, ask, " Is not this the Carpenter? "

As has been said, even upon earth the wondrous wisdom, divine skill and power are manifested in the building of the Church. "And are builded upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone" (Eph. 2:22). " In whom ye are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:23). What human thought could have devised such a plan, and what power could have executed it? We see the skill of " the Carpenter " here at every stage. He "shed forth " the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, to be the executor of His will; nothing was to be left to the natural man. Every member of this building was to be in Christ by the possession of life, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, so that all was on a divine and therefore eternal basis. Thus the material was prepared by "the Carpenter."

Then each member was placed in the building according to the will of the Builder. Nothing was left to the will of the flesh. Had it been otherwise all would have been marred and corrupted. We have only to look at the Kingdom of Heaven as left in the hands of men, to see this. "While men slept" the enemy has sowed tares; and even among the true children of God how the flesh is allowed, which for a time obscures the work of the Spirit. But in the day when that which is only the Lord's work appears all will be seen to be perfect, as it is now to the Spirit-taught mind.

We might dwell for a moment on this work in the individual:begun by the impartation of life, and carried on by the constant ministry of grace from our Lord; all is perfect, so far as His abiding work is concerned; "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." As we have said, the flesh, when allowed, mars the appearance of the Lord's work; but this, by very contrast, will only
serve to manifest His, which is abiding and perfect.

Our resurrection bodies will be the result of His building'-"We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

The work of the carpenter is sometimes that of repairing. We read in Israel's history, that when through neglect and departure from God the temple fell into decay, carpenters were employed to restore it. This was done in the days of those faithful men, Joash and Josiah. And when the house had been razed by Nebuchadnezzar, those restored from the captivity employed carpenters to rebuild the house. All this too is suggestive of "the Carpenter's" work both in the individual and the Church at large. When through man's carelessness the Church has been neglected, and so far as testimony is concerned, fallen into a state of decay-such for instance as that at Corinth-the faithful Builder removes the rubbish accumulated, whether of fleshly doctrine or practice, and rebuilds, edifies His own. "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten," He says; and where those rebukes are heard, how beautifully is the work of the Repairer seen.

The same is true in the case of the individual saint. Alas that this should be needed; but whenever the eye of faith is taken off Christ, and the heart opened to that which is not of Him, how soon does spiritual decay appear. There may be many things which usurp His place; there need not be gross moral declension (which is often the fruit of spiritual sloth) but some little things-pleasures, cares, above all self-occupation-are allowed a place, and the injury is done. But here, blessed be His name of love, His work of repairing is seen:" He restoreth my soul." By His word and Spirit He leads the believer to see the fleshly rubbish that has accumulated, and takes it away, bringing the soul back to its first love; then He builds up, comforts and strengthens the wanderer, who can now praise Him for His faithfulness.

We read that in the days of the repairing there was no reckoning made with the carpenters of the money put at their disposal, "because they dealt faithfully." How perfectly has our merciful and faithful Lord exemplified this. He has not made use of what we have given Him-poor indeed would be the repairing that came in that way-but He has taken of His own inexhaustible stores of wealth and lavished it upon His Church and His saints. Nothing is stinted, no labor spared. He sends His servants, bestows His blessings, waits with infinite patience, until He has secured that for which He labored. "He shall not fail nor be discouraged." Blessed indeed is it to be in the hands of such a perfect Workman. No wonder that David said, "Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord."

We have already seen that this work of "the Carpenter" will be displayed in faultless beauty in glory. A connected thought is found in the scripture, " He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." We look again at the old creation-marvelous work as it is-and yet the taint of decay is upon it, for man's tool has been lifted up on it. This brings defilement. So the very heavens are as it were tainted by the presence of sin. See the best and greatest of man's work,-when God is left out, a Babel tower which brings confusion, is the best he can do; and a world-empire at the close of his history, which is dominated by the "beast," and guided by the Antichrist, under the control of Satan. Or, look at Satan himself; he was the chief of God's creatures, "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." He left the place of dependence, and untold misery throughout eternity is the result. Oh, what does all this teach? There is but one Builder, but One who can devise and carry out any work which can stand; it is the living Son of God, Christ, the blessed!

So at the end of all things, when man has been tested in every way and found utterly wanting, all things are made new, and "the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Here is the end; and if sight were all we had, the outlook for immortal creatures would be utter blackness. But when all is dark for nature, faith's lamp shines the more brightly, and discerns that which cannot be shaken, even the city of God. Thus Abraham, a lonely old man, to human eye, fed his soul and grew strong on the promises of God. He was content to let his fragile tent witness to the fact that he could be no builder, and patiently looked for "the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." That, he knew, would abide, founded upon the eternal Rock. Faith ever reckons the same, and bows to the word of God:" Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come."

Have we not then a glorious answer to the unbelief of Nazareth? It is " the Carpenter," the only Builder, and we worship Him as such, and wait, by His grace, for the day when He and His work will be displayed before an adoring universe. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are, and were created." S. R.