![]() See the blessed shepherd pressing on: there is no pausing nor resting “until he find it.” He has made up his mind that no sheep of his shall be lost, and he hies over hill and dale after the wanderer until he find it. He knows within a little which way that stray sheep will go, and he is on its track at once, though he knows that he must mark that track with his blood. The sheep is lost, and the news is brought to the shepherd he girds his loose robe about him, and is on the way. The great Shepherd is all energy, care, and concentration of thought concerning his sheep, “until he find it.” Then, when he did find a single sheep, finding his meat and his drink in it, and becoming refreshed from the fact that he has so far accomplished his beloved work. So the evangelists have drawn him in their pen-and-ink sketches of him- always watchful spending night and day, in prayers, and tears, and entreaties never more to have a joy until he find the lost one. This is a faint yet true picture of that Great Shepherd who came here to seek his flock. Is there a smile on his face? Ah, no! not “until he find it.” His whole soul is in his eyes and ears until he find it. He puts his whole soul into the organs of watchfulness, if peradventure he may discern the sheep. I was about to say that he looks with ears and eyes together. He climbs a cairn, and from the top of it he looks all around. It was not the sheep perhaps it was some frightened fox. He saw something stir in the bracken yonder, and he will be there in a bound or two he is so eager. He is all excitement, quick of ear to catch the faintest sound, for it may be the bleating of his lost sheep. Notice his anxious countenance “ until he find it.” Wo read that after he found it he rejoiced but there is no rejoicing until he find it. Look at the seeking shepherd: he is looking for the sheep. At this hour, in his work of grace amongst his chosen, he does not make an attempt at their salvation, and suffer defeat but ho keeps at soul-seeking work until he find it. ![]() He tarried here, seeking the lost sheep till he found it: he never gave over till his work was done. The Lord Jesus did not come down to earth to make an attempt to find men, but he came to do it, and he did it. That is our first head- “Until he find it.” It is a long reach “Until he find it.” Christ, the Good Shepherd, first seeks the lost sheep UNTIL HE FIND IT. In my text there are three periods to which I call your attention. May we see the love of Jesus, as Bernard saw it, and we shall have had sermon enough. It is a choice crime that men should even grow lax about their lower business for a while, that they may devote their chief energy to the saving of the lost sheep. Bernard, in which Martha has to complain of Mary- where gracious pursuits put other work in the background. Oh, to have in our hearts such love of souls that it engrosses us so that we forget earthly needs, and only remember this yet higher necessity! It is a good house, said St. ButĪnd long before they have a thought of coming home, let us be on their track, eager to grasp them, if by any means we may save some. Let us not wait until we see some goodness in them- until they seek after instruction. ![]() Let us not talk about our friends, and say we love them but let us show it by earnest, personal, speedy endeavours to do them good. Let us learn the love of Christ, that we may be wise in shepherdry. However little the flock may be, even if it be restricted to our own family, or to the little class that gathers about us on the Sabbath, yet we are all our brother’s keeper in some measure. O sweet love of Christ, so practical, so pre-eminent, so prevenient! Let us ask for grace that we may imitate it, especially those of us who are called to be shepherds of men.Īmong God’s people most of the saints have a charge to watch over. He leaves the ninety-and-nine in their pasturage and for a while forgets them, that all his heart, his eye, his strength may be given to the one that has gone astray. The love of Jesus to the lost sheep is pre-eminent. He does not wait until the sheep is willing to return, or until it makes some attempt to come back but no sooner is its lost estate known to the Shepherd than he starts off, that he may find that which was lost. The love of Jesus Christ is love not in word only, but in deed and in truth. There is a sheep lost, and the Lord regrets it but his love does not spend itself in regrets he arises, and goes forth to seek and to save that which was lost. THE love of Jesus, the Great Shepherd, is very practical and active.
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