THE SHEPHERD OF OUR SOULS.
JOHN x. 11. "I ara the good Shepherd: the 17ood 8helherd 17ieth ttis life for the sheel.'"
UR Lord here apl)ropriates fo IIimself thc title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be kinff over them," says Almi-hty God by fhe mouth of Ezekiel: "and they ail shall bave,ne Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, " Awake, O sword, aainst My Shepherd, and ag"aiust the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of tIosfs; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." And in like manner St. Peter speaks of our returnin, "to the Shepherd and:Bishop of our souls ." "The good Shepherd giveth tIis lire for the sheep." In those countries of fhe East wherc our Lord appeared, the office of a shepherd is not only a lowly and simple office, and an office of trust, as it is with us, but, moreover, an office of reat ha.rdship and of peril. Ont flocks t Ezek. xxxvii. 2. Zech. xiii. 7. 1 Pet. il. 25.
The Sheherd of out çouls. 3 are exposed fo no enemies, sueh as out Lord deseribes. The Shepherd here has no need t prove his fideliy o the sheep by encounters with tierce beasts of prcy. The hireling" shepherd is not tried. But where our Lord dwelt in the days of IIis flesh it was othcrwise. Thcre it was truc ttmt the good Shepherd giveth His lire for the shecp—" but he that is an hireling, and whose ovn the sheep are hot, seeth the wolf coming, and lcaveth the shcep, and flecth, and the wolf c;ttchcth thcm and scattereth the sheep. The hircling flecth, because he is an hireling', and careth hot for the sheep." Our Lord round the shcep scattered; or, a.s He had said shortly before," All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers;" and in consequence the shce l) had no guide. Such were the priests and rulers of the Jews when Christ came; so that "when IIe saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion on them, because they thinted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd ." Such, in like manner, were the rulers and prophets of Israel in the days of Ahab, when Micaiah, the Lord's Prophet, "saw all Israel scattered on the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd, and the Lord said, These bave no Master, let them return every man fo lais bouse in peace ." Such, too, were the shepherds in the rime of Ezekiel, of whom the Prophet says, "Woe be to the shcpherds of Israel that do feed thcmselves! should not the shepherd feed the flocks?.... They were scattered, because :Matt. ix. 36.: 1 Kings xxii. 17.
there is no shepherd: and they bccame meat to ail the bcasts of thc field, when flaey were scattered':" and in the rime of the Prophet Zcchariah, who says, "Woe to the idlc shepherd that leaveth the flock !" So was if al| over thc wor|d when Christ came in IIis infinite mercy "fo gtther in one the children of God that were scattered,broad." And though fi»r a moment, whcn in the conflict with the enemy the good Shepherd lmd to la.y d.»wn Ilis life fi»r thc sheep, thcy werc left without a guide (accordinz fo the prophecy already quotcd, "Smitc thc Shepherd md the s|w, ep shall bc scattered"), yct He soon rose from death fo ]ive for over, according" fo that other prophecy which said, " IIe tht scttered Israc| will gather him, as a shepherd doth his fl«.ck ." And as Ho says Himse|f in the parable before us, "He calleth His own sheep by naine and leadeth them out, and goeth bcfore them, and the sheep follow IIim, for they know His voice," so, on His resurrection, vhi|e Mary wept, He did call ber by ber naine , and she turned herself and kncw Him by the ear whom she had not known by the eye. So, too, He said, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me ?" And He added,'" Follow Mc." And so again He and His Angel told the women, "Behohl He goeth before you into Gali|ee... go te|l My brethren, that they go into Galilee, and there slm]l they see Me."
The Shcherd of out Soetls. From t.hat rime t.he good Shepherd who took the. place of the sheep, and died t.hat t.hey might lire for ever, has gone hefore them: and "they fi)llow the Lamb wlit.hersoever IIe goeth 1;,, going their way forth hy the footsteps of t.he flock, and feeding their kids beside the shepherds' tents:. No earthly images tan tome up fo the awfnl and gracious truth, that God hccamc the Son of nmn—that the Word became flesh,:md was born of a woman. qhis ineahle mystery surpasses human words.:No titles of earth tan Christ g'ive to Himself, ever so lowly or mean, which will fitly show us tlis c«)ndescension. His act and deed is too g, reat even for His own lips fo utter it. Yet Ho dclights in the image contained in [ the text, as conveying fo us, in such degree as we tan receive if, some not.ion of the degra.dation, hardship, and pain, which He underwent for out sake. Hence it was prophesied under this figure by the Prophet Isaiah, "Behold, the Lord God will corne with stronghand, and His arm shall rule for Him.... He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He sha.ll gather the lamhs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. '' And, aain, He promises by the mouth of Ezekiel, "Behold, I, even I, will both search My sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so 1 Rev. xiv. 4. Cant. i. 8. a Isa. xl. 10, 11.
234 The She_hcrd of out Souls. will I seek out My sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day ." And the Psalmist says of llim, "The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore tan I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfirt =." And he addresses Him, " Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel, Thou tlmt leadest Joseph like a sheep, show Thyself also, Thou that sittest upon thc Cherubimsa. » And Ile Ilimself says in a para.ble, speaking of Ilimself, "What man of you having a hundrcd sheep, if he lose one of them, doth hot lcave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go fter tiret vhich is lost, until he find if? And when he hath round i, he layeth if on his shoulders, rejoieing ." Observe, my brethren, if is here said that Christ, the Lord of Angels, condescends fo lay the lost sheep on Ilis shoulders: in a former passage of the Prophet Isaiah if was said tlmt He should "gather them with His arm, and car 3- them in Ilis bosom." By carrying them in His bosom is meant the love Ife bears them, and the fulness of His grace; by carrying them on His shoulders is signified the security of their dwelling-plaee; as of old rime if was said of Benjamin, '" the beloved of the Lord hall dwell in safety by Him... and the Lord shall eover lfim all the day long', and he shall dwell between His shoulders " and again, of Israel, 1 Ezek. xxxiv. 11, 12. = Ps. xxiii. 1, 2. a Ps. lxxx. 1. Luke xv. , 5. Deut. xxxiii. 12.
"As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttcreth over her young., spreadcth abroad ber wing's, ttketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord done did lead him, and thcre was no strange g.od with him." And again, in the Prophet Isaiah, "Bel boweth down,:Nebo stoopeth; their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle.. hearken unto Me, O bouse of Jacob.. which,qre carried by.J[e from thc womb.. Even to your ohl affe I am He, and even to hotry hairs will I carry you; I bave lnade nnd I will bear, even I will caraT, and will deliver you." IIe alone, who "bowed Himself and came down," IIe,lone could do it; IIe alone could bear a whole world's weight, the load of a guilty world, the burden of man's sin, the accumul,tcd debt, pt, present, and to corne; the sufferins which we owed but could not pay, the wrath of Goal on the children of Adam; "in His own body on the tree ," "bein ruade ci curse for us ," "the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God," " through the Eternal Spirit offerinff Himself without spot to God, and purgin our conscience from dead works fo serve the Living God 4." Such was the deed of Christ, laying down His life for us: and therefore He is called the Good Shepherd. And hence, in like manner, from the time of Adam to that of Christ, a shepherd's work has been marked out with special Divine favour, as being a shadow of the
3 6 The Shherc[ of our Souls. g'ood Shepherd who was t corne. "Righteous Abel" vas " keeper of sheep," « and in proeess of rime" he "brouh of the firslins of his flock and of the fit thereof. And fhe Lord had respec unto Abel and to his offering'." And who were they to whom the Angels first brouffht the news that a Saviour wns born? " Shepherds a.bidin in the field, keepin waIeh over their flock by nightL" And what is the description iven of thc ehosen family when they deseended into Eypt? "Thy servants," they say, "are shepherds, both we and also our fathem ;'' and what, in eonsequenee, was their repute in Effypt., which surely is figure of the world? "Eve shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians *." But there are three favoured servants of God in paieular, speeial types of the Saviour to corne, men raised from loxv estate fo great honour, in whom if was His will that His pastoral office should be thus literally filfilled. And the first is Jaeob, the father of the patriarehs, who nppeared before Pharaoh. He beeame, as Abraham before him, a fither of many nations; he "inercased exeeedinly, and had mueh eattle, and maidserva.nts, and men-servants, and eamels, and asoes s,, and he was visited by supernatural favours, and had a new name given himIsrael tbr Jaeob. But af the first he vas, as his deseendants solemnly eonfessed year Gen. iv. 2. 4. æ Luke ii. 8. Gen. xlvii. 3. 4 Gen. xlvi. 3. Gen. xxx. 43.
The S]eherd of out Sou[s.
by year, "a Syria.n ready fo perish;" a.nd wha.t was lais employment? the ca.re of sheep; and with what toil and suffering, and for how many years» we learn from his expostulation with his hard toaster and relative, La.ban-" This twenty years have I been with thee," he says; "thy ewes and thy she-goats bave hot ca.st their young, and (he rares of thy flock bave I hot ea.ten. That which was torn of beasts I brouffht not unto thee; I bare the loss of if; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen 1,y day, or stolen by night. Tfius I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from re:me eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house;... and thou hast changed my wages ten rimes ." Who is more favoured than Jacob, who was exalted fo 1)e a Prince with God, and fo prevail by intercession? Yet, you see, he is a shepherd, fo image to us that mystical and true Shepherd and Bishop of souls who was to corne. Yet flere is a second and a thiïd as highly fitvoured in vaïious ways. The second is Moses, who drove a.way the rival shepheMs and helped the daughters of the Priest of Midian to water their flock; a.nd who, while he was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, saw the Angel of the Lord in a flame of tire in a bush. And the third is David, the man after God's own heart. He was "the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the Gen. xxxi. 38—41.
-3 8 T/ze Sheherd of otr Soeds. sveet PsMmist of Israel ;" but he was round mon. He sheep. " He took him way fi'om the sheep-folds; as he was following the eves grea with young ones, He took him; that he might feed Jacob His peoplc, and Isra.el IIis inheritanee. So he fed them with a faithful and truc heart, and ruled them prudently with M1 his 1)owerL '' Smnuel came fo Jesse, and looked through his seven sons, one by one, but round not him whom God had ehosen: « And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy ehildren? And he said, There rcmaineth yet the youngest, and, bchold, he keepeth the sheep." And when he came "he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiçul eountenanee, and goodly fo look fo; and the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he 5.,, And a.gain, after he had been in Saul's court, he "went and returned ri-oto Saul, to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem4; '' and when he came fo the army his brothcr reproaehed him for "leaving those his few sheep in the wilderness;" and when he was brought before Saul, he gave an aeeount how a lion and a bear "' took a lamb out of the floek," and he went after them, and slew them both, and ddivered it. Sueh were the shepherds of old rimes, men af once of peaee and of war; men of simplieity, indeed, "plain men living" in tents," «the meekest of men," yet hot easy, indolent men, sitting, in green meadows, and by cool streams, but men of 1 2 Sain. xxiii. 1. Ps. lxxviii. 71—73. a 1 Sain. xvi. 11, 12. « 1 Sain. xvii. 15. 28. 35 -7.
The Shchcrd of our Sou[s. z3 9 roug.h duties, who vere under the neeessity to surfer, while they had the opportunity fo do exploits. And if sueh were the figures, how mueh more was the Truth itself, the g"ood Shepherd, when He came, both g'uileless and heroie? If shepherds are men of simple lives and obscure fortunes, uneorrupted and unknown in kings' courts and marts of commerce, how mueh more He who vas "" the e:rpenter's Son," vho was "'meek and lowly of heart," who "did no strive nor ery," who "" went about doing' g'ood," vho "" when lle was reviled, reviled not again," and who was "'despised and rejeeted of men"? If, on the other hand, they are meu of suffering and t.rial, how mueh more so He who was "a man of sorrows," and who "'laid down His lire for the sheep"? "That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee," sa.ys Jacob; "" I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it." And bas not Christ undertaken the charge of our souls? Has He not ruade IIimself answera.ble for us whom the devil had rent? Like the good Samaritan, "Take care of him," He says, "and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I corne again I will repay thee ." Or, as in another parable, under another image: '" Lord, let if alone this year also., and if it bear ri-uit, well and if hot, then after that thou shalt cut if down ." "In the day the drought consumed me," says Jacob; and who was He who af Luke x. 35. Luke xiii. 8, 9.
a4o The Sh@herd of out Souls. midday sat down af that very Jacob's vell, tired with His journey, and needin some of that water fo quench His thirst, vhereof "Jcob drank himself, and his children and his cattle"? Yet whereas Ite had a living" w,ter fo impart, which the world knew hot of, He preferred, as became the good Shepherd, to offer if fo one of those lost sheep whom Ite came fo seek and fo save, rather tlmn fo take af her hand the vater fl'om the well, or to aecept the offer of IIis disciples, when they came with lneat ff'oto the eity, and said, " Master, e,t." "The fl'ost" eonsumed me "by night," says Jaeob, "and my sleep departed from mine eyes;'" and read we hOt of One whose wont it ws to rise long while belote day, a.nd continue in prayer fo God? who pssed lfights in the mountain, or on the sea? who dwelt forty days in the wilderness? who, in the evening and night of His passion, was forlorn in the bleak garden, or stripped and bleeding" in the eold judgmen hall? Again: Moses, amid his sheep, saw the vision of God and was told of God's adorable Name; and Christ, the true Shepherd, lived a lire of eontempl,tion in the midst of His laborious ministry; He was transfigured on the mountain, and no man knew the Son but the Father, nor the ]?ather but the Son. Jaeob endnred, Moses meditated—and I)avid wrought. Jaeob endured the frost, and hea.t, and sleepless nights, and paid the priee of the lost sheep; Moses was taken
The Shebherd of our Souls. 41 up into the mount for forty days; David fought with Ihe foe, and recovered the prey—he rcscued if from the mouth of the lion, and the pav of the bcar, and killcd the ravenous beasts. Christ, too, not only suffered with Jacob, and was in contemplation with Moses, but fought and conquered with David. David defended his iather's sheep a.t Bethlchem; Christ, born and hcralded to the shepherds af Bethlehem, suffered on the Cross in ordcr to conquer. He came "from Edom, wifl dyed garments from Bozrah; '' but IIc was "g, lorious in Ilis apparel," for He trod tire people "in His aner, and trampled thcm in His fury, and thcir blood was sprinkled upon His garments, and IIe stained all Ilis raiment." Jacob was not as D:tvid, nor David as Jaeob, nor either of them as Moses; but Christ was all three, as fulfilling, all types, the lowly Jacob, the wise Moses, the heroic David, a.ll in one—Priest, Prophet, and King'. My brethrcn, we say daily, "We are His people, the sheep of His pasture." Ag, ain, we say, "' We have erred aud strayed from Thy ways, like lost sheep:" us never forger these truths; let us never forget, on the one hand, that we are sinners; let us never forger, on the other hand, that Christ is our Guide and Guardian. IIe is "" the Vay, the Truth, and the Lire ." Ho is a light unto our wa.ys, and a lanthorn unto our paths. He is out Shepherd, and the sheep know His voice." If ve are His slleep, we shall hear it, recognize it, and Isa. lxiii. 13. -"John xiv. 6. [VIII]
The Shepkerd of our SouIs. Let us beware of hot following" when He g'oes "IIe oes belote, and His sheep follow Him, for they know His voice." Let us beware of receiving His grace in vain. When God called Samuel, he answered, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." XVhen Christ called St.:paul, he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Let us desire fo know IIis voice; let us pray for the gift of watchful ears and a willing, heart. He does not call all men in one way; IIe calls us each in IIis own way. To St. Peter He said," Follow thou Me;" of St. John, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?":Nor is if always easy fo know His voice. St. John knew it, and said, "]t is the Lord," before St. Peter. Samuel did hOt know if till:Eli told him. St.:Paul asked, "XVho art Thou, Lord?" are bid, "try the spirits, whether they be of God." But whatever difficulty there be in knowing when Christ calls, and vhither, yet af least let us look out for His call. Let us hot be content with ourselves; let us hOt make our own hearts our home, or this world our home, or our friends our home; let us look out for a better country, that is, a heavenly. Let us look out for Him vho alone can guide us to that botter country let us call heaven our home, and this lire a pilgrimage let us view ourselves, as sheep in the trackless desert, vho, unless they follow the shepherd, will be sure to lose themselves, sure to fall in with the wolf. We are sale while we keep close fo Him, and under Itis eye; but
The Shepherd of out XouIs. 43 il" we surfer Saa.n fo gain an advanta.e over us, woe fo us! Blessed are fley who give he flower of t.heir days, and t.heir st.rengqh of soul and body o Him; blessed are hey who in heir youh turn o Him who gave His lire for hem, and would tain give iL o t.hem and implan in them, flm hey may lire for ever. Blessed are they who resolve—eome good, eome evil, eome sunshine, eome tempes, eome honour, eome dishonour—hat IIe slmll be fleir Lord and MasSer, their Kin and God! They will eome o a perfee end, and fo peaee They will, wih Jaeob, eonfess IIim, ere hey die, "he God flm fed flem all their lire lon uno day, fle Angel whieh redeemed flem from all evill; '' with -Moses, t.ha "as is their day, so shall heir srenNfl be;" and wih David, flm in "" fle valley of fle shadow of deah, hey fear no evil, for He is with them, and tha His rod and His staff eomfor fleln;" tbr "when fley pass hrough he waters He will be wih them, and flrough fle rivers, hey shall when fley walk throuNh he tire, fley shall no be burn, neifler shall he flame kindle upon flem, for He is he Lord heir God, the Holy One of Israel, heir Saviour."