A great artist, Millais, painted a picture of the boy Jesus, representing Him as cutting His finger with a carpenter's tool, and running to His mother to have it bound up. Did John witness any such incident? How little did he think of a deeper wound he was yet to behold in that same hand. We cannot answer such questions. These things were possible. They help us to think of Jesus as a boy, like other boys. James and John thought of Him as such only until long after the days of which we are speaking. While thinking of John and Jesus as cousins, we may also think of a kinsman of theirs, a second cousin of whom we shall know more. John was to have a deep interest in both of the others, and they were to have more influence on him than all other men in the world. 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, and of the wonders He would perform. The Jews understood that the Messiah would descend from David. They believed that He would sit "upon the throne of David," ruling first over the Jews, an earthly ruler such as David had been, and then conquering their enemies; thus being a great warrior and the king of the world.