There were some things common to them all. They were Jews. According to
Jewish customs they were trained until six years of age in their own
homes. Their library was the books of the Old Testament. They learned
much of its teachings. They read the stories of Joseph, Samuel and
David. At six they went to the village school, taught by a Rabbi. Some
attention was paid to arithmetic, the history of their nation, and
natural history. But, as at their homes, the chief study was the
Scriptures. They were taught especially about One--"Of whom Moses in the
law and the prophets did write." Let us remember those words for we
shall hear them again. That One was called the Messiah--He whom we call
Jesus, the Christ, the Saviour of the world. He had not then come. _We_
look back to the time when He did come: those boys looked forward to the
time when He _would_ come. The Messiah was the great subject in the
homes of the pious Jews, and in the synagogues where old and young
worshiped on the Sabbath.

[Illustration: CHRIST AND ST. JOHN _Winterstein_ Page 34]




_CHAPTER IV_

_The Great Expectation in John's Day_


Moses wrote of a promise, made centuries before the days of John, to
Abraham--that in the Messiah all the nations of the earth,--not the Jews
only--should be made happy with special blessings. Isaiah and other
prophets wrote of the time and place and circumstances of His coming,