→２１の①より続き
10)しかし、イエスは座にまわって律法の博士銘々に握手して言った。「屹度、またお目にかかります。」
11)それから彼は両親と連れ立って、ナザレに帰り、家につくと大工となって父ヨセフとともに働いた。
12)或る日仕事道具を出して来た時、彼は言った。
13)「これらの道具は、思想を組み立て、人格を築き上げる心の工場で取り扱うものを思い出させる。
14)すべてわれわれの線を計り、曲がった道のところをまっすぐにし、われらの行為のすみずみを整えるのに、定規を用いる。
15)正義の範囲内に感情欲望を抑えるために、その周囲に円を引くコンパスを用いる。
16)節くれた役に立たない見っともない部分を切り捨てて、人格を均斉にするために斧を用いる。
17)真理を打ち込み、全体の一部となるまでに、これをドンドン打ちこむために槌を用いる。
18)真理のために宮を建てる時には接ぎ目、台、板の粗いでこぽこした面を平らにするために鉋（かんな）を用いる。
19)錐（きり）、縄、測鉛（そくえん＝）など、心の工場でみんな役立つ。
20)それから信望愛の三段のこの梯子（はしご）がある。これで純潔な生命の丸屋根に登る。
21)また、十二階段で、一生を費して建てる完成した人間の尖塔にのほる。」
【原文：The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus by Levi H. Dowling 】
SECTION V
HE
Childhood and Early Education of Jesus
CHAPTER 20
After the feast. The homeward journey. The missing Jesus. The search for him.
His parents find him in the temple. He
goes with them to Nazareth.
Symbolic meaning of carpenter's tools.
THE great feast of the pasch was ended and the Nazarenes were journeying towards their homes.
2) And they were in Samaria, and Mary said,
Where is my son?
No one had seen the boy.
3) And Joseph sought among their kindred who were on their way to Galilee; but they had seen him not.
4) Then Joseph, Mary, and a son of Zebedee returned and sought through all Jerusalem, but they could find him not.
5) And then they went up to the temple courts and asked the guards,
Have you seen Jesus, a fair-haired boy, with deep blue eyes, twelve years of age, about these courts?
6) The guards replied,
Yes, he is in the temple now disputing with the doctors of the law.
7) And they went in, and found him as the guards had said.
8) And Mary said,
Why
Jesus, why do you treat your parents thus? Lo, we have sought two days
for you. We feared that some great harm had overtaken you.
9) And Jesus said,
Do you not know that I must be about my Father's work?
10) But he went round and pressed the hand of every doctor of the law and said,
I trust that we may meet again.
11)
And then he went forth with his parents on their way to Nazareth; and
when they reached their home he wrought with Joseph as a carpenter.
12) One day as he was bringing forth the tools for work he said,
13)
These tools remind me of the ones we handle in the workshop of the mind
where things are made of thought and where we build up character.
14)
We use the square to measure all our lines, to straighten out the
crooked places of the way, and make the corners of our conduct square.
15) We use the compass to draw circles round our passions and desires to keep them in the bounds of righteousness.
16) We use the axe to cut away the knotty, useless and ungainly parts and make the character symmetrical.
17) We use the hammer to drive home the truth, and pound it in until it is a part of every part.
18)
We use the plane to smooth the rough, uneven surfaces of joint, and
block, and board that go to build the temple for the truth.
19) The chisel, line, the plummet and the saw all have their uses in the
workshop of the mind.
20) And then this ladder with its trinity of steps, faith, hope and love; on it we climb up to the dome of purity in life.
21)
And on the twelve-step ladder we ascend until we reach the pinnacle of
that which life is spent to build – the Temple of Perfected Man.
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