When found by Joseph and Mary, Jesus was both hearing the Doctors and asking them questions. … This question plan we commend to all of the dear friends of the truth as a wise and proper one, no less to us of today than to the boy Jesus and to the Doctors of the Law. We have seen instances in which some of the Lord’s dear people have greatly injured their influence in the truth by display of too large a degree of self-confidence, self-assurance, in speaking of the divine plan to others—especially to the learned. Meekness is a jewel wherever found, and is especially desirable as an adjunct and sling for the truth. Let the truth be shot forth with all the force it can carry, but always with meekness and humility; and the question form of suggesting truth will often be found the most forceful.

I learn, as the years roll onward
   And leave the past behind,
That much I had counted sorrow
   But proves that God is kind;
That many a flower I had longed for
   Had hidden a thorn of pain,
And many a rugged bypath
   Led to fields of ripened grain.

The clouds that cover the sunshine
   They can not banish the sun;
And the earth shines out the brighter
   When the weary rain is done.
We must stand in the deepest shadow
   To see the clearest light;
And often through wrong’s own darkness
   Comes the very strength of light.

The sweetest rest is at even,
   After a wearisome day,
When the heavy burden of labor
   Has borne from our hearts away;
And those who have never known sorrow
   Can not know the infinite peace
That falls on the troubled spirit
   When it sees at last release.

We must live through the dreary winter
   If we would value the spring;
And the woods must be cold and silent
   Before the robins sing.
The flowers must be buried in darkness
   Before they can bud and bloom,
And the sweetest, warmest sunshine
   Comes after the storm and gloom.

—John Henry Newman