Christ here by faith, and that which he shall enjoy when, without a veil, he shall see the King in His beauty.

Again, there are some who, though they do not reject this great SUN formally, nor are to be classed with infidels, yet are not careful to walk in His light; nor afraid to venture into dark places where they know the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS shines not at all. An excellent friend of mine had a Sunday-school, and often chose very singular texts for his addresses. One afternoon he made his appearance at the desk with a card, on which lay a large fly and a small spider. That was his text. He had just come from his garden, and proceeded to describe what he had seen.

A little spider had stretched his web across a round opening in a garden gate. The sun shone brightly on one side of the gate, throwing a deep shadow over the web. The place seemed deliberately chosen by the cunning weaver for the purpose of entrapping heedless flies. It was not long before a large blue-bottle fly darted through the hole from the sunny side of the gate, and, not seeing the web so artfully hung in the dark, was caught in its meshes. The little spoiler bolted out in a moment and mounted the back of the fly, taking great care, however, to keep out of the way of the huge wings, which were flapping to and fro with angry violence. Presently they both fell clean out of the web, the spider still keeping his hold. No sooner had they reached the ground than he went diligently to work. First he tied up one leg, winding his threads round and round, and glueing it tight to the body of the fly; then he bound up another leg, and so on till he had quite disabled his poor captive. But just as he was about to begin his repast, my friend, who had been watching the whole proceeding, took them both up, and placing them on a card, bore them off, as I have said, to his school-room.

He drew from it this moral. "There! my boys,-learn from this little incident to keep in the light! Avoid all sinful society, all haunts of vanity and immorality,-the low fair, the theatre, and the race-course. They are dark places where Christ shines not, and where you cannot expect, because you dare not ask, His presence and blessing. Be sure that is where the fowler lurks, that is where Satan spreads his snares; and he that plays on the hole of the asp, or ventures near the cockatrice den, is in danger of being entangled and caught, and led down a hapless prisoner into the chambers of death."

Well now, remember the lesson we have sought to derive from the stories of the lost traveller and the captive fly, and "WALK IN THE LIGHT." Consider how the light has increased, and, with it, our responsibilities. Jesus Christ appeared but as a STAR at first in the early morning of the world to the fathers of our race. Yet "when they saw the STAR, they rejoiced with exceeding joy," and walked in the light of it, and waited and longed for His salvation. But He hath come nearer to us. We enjoy "the Light of the Morning, even a morning without clouds." On us He hath "risen,—the SUN

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OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, with healing in His wings." Let us rejoice in our greater privileges, and be doubly careful to "walk in the light," lest we incur the greater condemnation, and be beaten with many stripes.

Forty-third Sunday.

SHEPHERD AND BISHOP OF SOULS. SOWER.

The

LAST Sunday the heavens declared to us the glory of Christ. Star of the morning and the radiant Sun, Regent of the Day, were our instructors. But if the firmament over our heads hath voices which talk to us about this grand theme, so hath the earth on which we tread. "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields, let us lodge in the villages, let us get up early to the vineyards." And first, see in yonder Shepherd conducting his flock into green pastures, a favourite emblem of our Lord.

SHEPHERD AND BISHOP OF SOULS. 1 Pet. ii. 25. God calls Him "My SHEPHERD," Zech. xiii. 7. He calls Himself SHEPHERD, John x. 14. And His people love to recognize Him by this title; Isa. xl. 11; 1 Pet. v. 4, ii. 25; Psa. xxiii. He is "the CHIEF SHEPHERD," the "GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP," the "GOOD SHEPHERD." And what similitude can be more expressive of His tender and constant oversight of His people? As to the term BISHOP, it originally meant Overseer or Caretaker; and at length it came to be used exclusively for one whose business it is to watch over souls. God complains of some in Ezekiel's time whose duty it was to do this, but they were "hirelings" and neglected the flock, and then He gives utterance to those touching words of mingled reproof and promise: "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away; and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was sick." Ezek. χχχίν. 16.

The occupation of a Shepherd used to be reckoned very honourable. Jacob for many years kept the flocks of his father-in-law. And Moses and David were Shepherds; also other ancient worthies whose histories we have in the Bible. As to the work of a Shepherd, our Lord has described it in a few tender words which are preserved in John x. He knows his sheep individually, speaks to them, and calls them by name. The sheep hear and recognize his voice. When he leads them out to pasture, he goes before them, and they follow him.

He also watches over them and protects them from the wolf. These particulars find their counterpart more completely in the usages of other countries than of our own. We have, indeed, seen a large flock following their Shepherd on a public road in England; but usually they are driven. Not so in the East; there they are invariably led; and there is also a better understanding between the Shepherd and his flock than exists here, and more tenderness displayed in their treatment.

Pre

And in Switzerland one might sometimes see, on a grassy slope on the hill-side, a Shepherd with his little flock grazing around him. Sometimes he will speak to them, and two or three will run to him to eat from his hand the tufts of grass which he has plucked. sently, it may be, some one comes along with a basket of flowers. These are wonderfully attractive to the sheep, and the whole flock is soon on the track. But the moment the Shepherd calls to them, they all come back immediately. In the evening he descends the hill and leads the way to the fold, the sheep following close at his heels. Among the Waldenses and in Greece, the Shepherds give names to their sheep, to which they respond as readily and with as much evident pleasure as a dog. A certain traveller, greatly interested in this sight, tried one day to imitate the Shepherd's voice, and called them by the same names. But "they knew not the voice of the stranger," and would take no notice of him or his calls. We will stay to offer just a word or two on these particulars before we proceed. Observe,

1. The SHEPHERD has a special personal regard for each one of his flock. "He calleth His own sheep by name." The sun, when it flings abroad its dazzling rays, flashes upon every separate dewdrop, touches with lines of light each individual blade of grass in the field, and defines every rounded pebble on the shore. It cannot do otherwise. So, by the necessary perfection of His divine nature, the GREAT SHEPHERD is specially cognizant of each one of His followers; as much indeed as though each were the only one. He does not lose sight of you, doubting one, amidst the great multitude which no man can number. Take care, then, not to lose yourself in the crowd. Do not fear to appropriate His eye, His heart, His love, to yourself particularly. To each one, to you and to me, He saith, "I know thee by name." And thou art saved, as one beautifully says, "not as a man, or some one of mankind led forth in the general flock, but as the SHEPHERD's dear James or John, Alpheus or Martha, whose name is so recorded in the Lamb's book of life."

"He

2. The SHEPHERD chooses for each one his appropriate pasture. calleth them by name and leadeth them out." He doth not turn His sheep loose into the wide world to find their own way, but selects for each that which is best. He may see good often to change their way. “He leadeth them about," sometimes in green pastures beside still waters, sometimes through a waste howling wilderness. Moses must surrender his beloved retirement, and end his forty years of

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secluded valleys of Midian, for Israel must strike their tents in "Ye have dwelt long enough

quiet communion with God in the God has other work for him to do. Horeb, for there comes a message, in this mount,-turn ye northward;" and straightway the cloudy pillar moves forward in that direction. So is it still. Endeared ties must be sundered; favourite haunts of usefulness surrendered; health be exchanged for sickness, or prosperity for loss. Like Naomi, widowed and desolate, the bewildered one may sometimes be tempted to say, Call me Mara, for the Lord hath dealt bitterly with me; I went out full, and came back empty." But courage, poor drooping heart! Thy SHEPHERD is leading thee by a right way; but perhaps He sees that bitter herbs and rough paths are, for a time, better for thee than crystal streams and quiet pastures. Take up thy cross, and follow thine unerring Guide, and all shall be well. As the heavenly-minded Tersteegen says,

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"Ill that God blesses is our good,

And unblest good is ill;

And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet will."

"All we

But what if a Shepherd should lose one of his flock, and when he counted them at night there should only be ninety-nine instead of the hundred? Doth he say, "No matter-it must take its chance; perhaps I shall find it again some day"? No. However late it may be, he lights his lantern, and calling his faithful dog, hies away among the hills to search for the lost one. And when he finds it he is glad, and layeth the silly wanderer on his shoulders, and whistling his dog, he trudges home with a glad heart to his supper and his bed. Well now, the first thing Jesus the GOOD SHEPHERD has to do, is to seek after the sheep; for they are all lost to begin with. like sheep have gone astray, every one to his own way." Some of us are lost in the woods and entangled in the thorns. Some have well nigh drowned themselves in perdition, and have to be "taken and drawn out of many waters." Some have stumbled on the dark mountains; and bruised, and broken, and blinded, they know not the way back to the fold. But wherever they are, His pitying eye discerns them; and in the cloudy and dark day of their dispersion He goes after them whithersoever they are scattered, and brings them back rejoicing over them to do them good. He layeth them on His shoulders, or carrieth them in His arms, or gently leads them, or forcibly drives them, according to the treatment their condition and character may require.

And not only by various methods does He reclaim His lost sheep, but He gathers them from all countries and from all ranks. Some He takes from ragged schools and Sunday schools. Some He finds in hospitals and workhouses. Now and then He brings one from a palace, and oftener still, one from a cellar or an attic. Take the following case of a lost sheep recovered. One week-evening an old woman, very poor and very lame, heard the church bell ring for

service. She had never been to church before, but took it into her head to go this once. Rather, let us say, God put it into her heart to do so. The minister preached on the parable of the lost sheep; and his words conveyed real news, and joyful news too, to the old woman. And she sat drinking it in as a traveller drinks at a well in the desert, to save his very life.

"What!" said she to herself, "be I then a sinner? Yes, surely I be. What! be I then just like a lost sheep? Aye, for sure I am just like that. And be there a SHEPHERD searching about for me? Will He find me? Be I worth His while? A Saviour for a poor thing like me! 'Tis wonderful loving."

These were her self-communings as she hobbled back, leaning on her crutches, to her dark cellar. A short time afterwards the clergyman received a message that the poor old woman was dying, and earnestly desirous of seeing him. The moment he made his appearance she exclaimed, "That's the man that told me about the lost sheep -I want to know more about it." So he sat down, saying, "I will gladly tell you more about it. I will tell you also about the sheep that was found."

"Yes," she exclaimed, "Found! found! found!" She did not live long after this interview, and she passed away, with the same thrice-repeated words on her dying lips, "Found! found! found!" Oh what stories are told in heaven of lost sheep found! How many singing,

"He followed me o'er hill and vale,

O'er deserts waste and wild ;

He found me nigh to death,

Famished and faint and lone;

He bound me with the bands of love,

He saved the wandering one. Hallelujah!”

Alas! while they still remain in this world, the sheep of Christ have a sad propensity to the old habit of wandering. But does their SHEPHERD give them up? Does He say, "I delivered them from death and brought them into a good pasture; and if they wander again I will abandon them quite "? Ah, not so! What! shall He lose one of the sheep of whom He says, "My Father gave them Me"? He would rather lose a thousand stars out of the milky way, than part with one soul whom He has taught to trust in Him. If indeed it were possible, what would become of us who have so often had to cry, with the good man who wrote the hundred and nineteenth psalm, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek Thy servant, for I have not forgotten Thy commandments"? When He hears this plaintive bleat, He flies to the rescue, and rests not till the wanderer can say, "He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."

And why will He not lose them? Because He shed His precious blood for their redemption. The GOOD SHEPHERD laid down His life for the sheep. I have never heard of any Shepherd who did this but