Court-Yard of the English Orphanage
We know but little of the wonderful childhood of Christ in Nazareth save that “He grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” Here were passed the years of the ripening manhood of our Lord, and here he came in the early days of his ministry to declare his high calling to his old neighbors and companions. Little remains of the old Nazareth which can be identified, but the surrounding hills and the distant sea, upon which the Savior so often gazed, remain the same. Truly it was “a central spot in the world which He came to save.” Some fine buildings have been erected of late years. Among these is an institution for orphan girls, sustained by the “Female Educational Society” of England. We have already in these pages seen a fine picture of Nazareth from the esplanade of the orphanage. It is pleasant to remember that He who loved to gather the children about Him, and who taught one of His most heavenly lessons when He “set a little child in the midst,” is represented by his followers here in their sacred care and culture of the little ones. In the Latin and Greek churches of Nazareth there are Sunday and day schools in which the Bible is taught, and where is told again and again, as in our own land, the story of the life and death of the world’s Redeemer. Marion Harland writes of the children of Nazareth: “They are healthy, well formed and evidently well-cared for. In all Nazareth, as we note with gratification, we see no deformed child or one professional beggar of tender years. All this may signify less than we fancy, but we are glad that these things are so.”
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