Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/393

384 gave an example to teachers, to prevent the unlearned from teaching: when he had taught his disciples the art of teaching, he yet said: "Sit yet within the city, until ye are fully prepared with spiritual power." We sit within the city when we shut ourselves up behind the bars of our mind, lest from loquacity we wander too far. But afterwards, when we are fully prepared with the divine power, then we have come forth from the city, that is, from our own mind, to teach others. Of this same, Solomon spoke to young men: "Thou, young man, be not ready to call out and advise, not even in thine own affairs, and even when asked twice, wait with the answer until thou knowest that thy speech has both beginning and end." Therefore our Redeemer, though in heaven he is creator and teacher of angels, would not be a teacher of men on earth until he was thirty years old, because he wished to instil into presumptuous men the reverence of salutary fear; although he himself could not sin, he would not proclaim the gift of perfect life until he was himself of complete age. It is written in the Gospel, that our Saviour, when he was twelve years old, stayed behind his mother and relations in the city of Jerusalem. And afterwards, when his relations sought him, they found him in the midst of the wisest doctors in Jerusalem, listening to their words, and asking about their doctrines. We must vigilantly consider that our Saviour, when he was twelve years old, was found sitting in the midst of the teachers, asking, not teaching; because he wished to make it an example that the unlearned might not presume to teach, since he wished to be disciple and to be taught, the same who formerly taught those who taught him then with the power of divine authority. And again, Paul said to his disciple: "Command this, and teach, and let no man despise thy youth." We must know that adolescence is often called youth in the holy Scriptures. Which we can understand more clearly if we quote one of Solomon's sayings among the rest; he said : "Rejoice, young man, in thy youth." If he did not consider it all one, he would not have called the young man both young man and youth.