was lost; but with force and with cruelty have LECT. ye ruled them."

Such the sin and such the doom of these false and selfish shepherds!

And in opposition to

these, the Lord in the parable proceeds to set forth Himself as the good and true Shepherd; as in this same prophecy the prophet had gone on to predict," For thus saith the Lord God, 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 the sheep that are scattered; so 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 I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.... And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God."

Thus far the sad portraiture and sentence of these unjust shepherds, and the prophetic picture of the good Shepherd and His work. But this portion of the parable also contains some notes of good sheep and true, which we shall do well to consider, and to try and examine ourselves thereby. To this then let us now apply. For we need not be careful to seek always for a correspondence in every particular. every particular. Nay, we must be careful not to press too much every point in a parable: some terms being, as it were, a scaffolding to the structure, and not intended to shadow forth any spiritual truth. But thus much we may say at present with regard to the

XLV.

LECT. parable and its interpretation, that as the door XLV. is Christ Himself, (for He directly says it',) so

the fold represents to us His Church. And as He is not only door of the fold, but also (as He again informs us) Shepherd of the sheep, so after Him are all faithful pastors true undershepherds of His flock; while unfaithful ones too much resemble those thieves and robbers to whom the Pharisees were originally likened, and which the hireling shepherds of old did sometimes literally become as a discharged sailor or keeper in later times has been known to turn pirate or poacher. And when we read, "He calleth His own sheep by name," may not this well remind us of that Christian name which at our baptism we received, when formally admitted into His Church and fold; suggestive as it is to us of high privileges and solemn responsibilities?

But now we note these marks of the true sheep of Christ. They hear His voice. They know His voice. They follow Him. And a stranger will

they not follow, but, on the contrary, they will flee
from such. Now to hear is to understand and to
obey. To know is in this place equivalent to do.
"Hear," said once the good Shepherd, "hear and
understand." And again, "If
ye
know these things,
happy are ye if ye do them"." And so with regard
to this following, He has Himself interpreted it:
"If any man will come after me, let him deny

r

VV. 7.9.

s v. 11.

"Quid domini faciant, audent quum talia fures ?" Vir. Ecl. iii. 16. Where Heyne notes: fures, servi, ex oppos. domini et vetere interpretatione Servii; quum mercenarius pastor conviciari audeat .... fures pro servis improbis."

ach. xiii. 17.

XLV.

himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow LECT. me." And once more, "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." And none but Him and His will the good and true sheep follow. For so in their baptism, when admitted into His fold, they vowed when the solemn question was asked of each, "Dost thou renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow nor be led by them?"-and we, or our sureties for us, returned answer, "I renounce them all."

Take we then good heed how we listen to that arch-deceiver, or to any of those many deceivers that are entered into the world'. Christ only and His Church, the good Shepherd and those whom He appoints under Him, must we listen to and follow and all that would draw us away from Him and His must we shun, nay, flee from. For if we listen, we may be deceived and undone. Dangerous and deadly are those siren voices. They fascinate us, and we fall. There are false lights abroad, fatal fires, which lure only to destruction. Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Wolves may come even in sheep's clothing as these Pharisees to whom the parable was spoken. "Take heed therefore," as an Apostle again predicted, when he charged the elders of the Church of Ephesus, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which

LECT. the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed XLV. the Church of God, which He hath purchased

with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

These then are the marks of His sheep. And so let us prove ourselves. Do we hear His voice, and follow Him? When, for instance, He says, "This do in remembrance of me," do we, according to His word, comply with His gracious invitation, and at His table present our hungering and thirsting souls? or do we turn away, following the devices and desires of our own hearts, following a multitude, following Satan, but turning away from Christ? Olet us beware that we be not set among the goats on the left hand in the great day of recompenses, instead of with the sheep on His right; beware lest that be applied to us which was spoken by the prophet, "I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice."

2 Matt. xxv. 32, 33.

LECTURE XLVI.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

JOHN X. 7-18.

THE Lord resumes His divine allegory of the LECT. Shepherd and the Sheep. This may be termed _XLVI. another chapter, the latter division of that divine discourse. Between the two parts there seems to have been a pause. He waited it may be for any question that might be asked; waited to see if there would be any recognition of the truth of His sayings, any confession of evil, any yearning after good. But His words seemed to drop as dew only upon the withered herb; or, at the best, like that prophet of theirs who before had prophesied against those shepherds of Israel, He was unto them but as a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, for they heard His words, but they did them nota.

So He resumes His discourse, with a solemn Verily; and He expands and interprets what He had already told them, and what they had failed to perceive, of the shepherd and his flock. He tells them things concerning Himself, and concerning themselves. He tells them what He is, and what they are. He (for to Him it was

a Ezek. xxxiii. 32.