men, as if the very time of conversion, and as if it were sudden,
though really, as is plain, in none of them is there any suddenness in
the matter. In the last of these instances, which might be in a
measure, if we dare say it, St. Paul's case, the time when the formal
outward profession of error fell off, is taken as the time of
conversion. Others recollect the first occasion when any deep serious
thought came into their minds, and reckon this as the date of their
inward change. Others, again, recollect some intermediate point of
time when they first openly professed their faith, or dared do some
noble deed for Christ's sake.
I might go on to show more particularly how what I have said applies to
St. Paul; but as this would take too much time I will only observe
generally, that there was much in St. Paul's character which was not
changed on his conversion, but merely directed to other and higher
objects, and purified; it was his creed that was changed, and his soul
by regeneration; and though he was sinning most grievously and awfully
when Christ appeared to him from heaven, he evidenced then, as
afterwards, a most burning energetic zeal for God, a most scrupulous
strictness of life, an abstinence from all self-indulgence, much more
from all approach to sensuality or sloth, and an implicit obedience to
what he considered God's will. It was pride which was his inward
enemy--pride which needed an overthrow. He acted rather as a defender
and protector, than a minister of what he considered the truth; he
relied on his own views; he was positive and obstinate; he did not seek
for light as a little child; he did not look out for a Saviour who was
to come, and he missed Him when He came.
But how great was the change in these respects when he became a servant
of Him whom he had persecuted! As he had been conspicuous for a proud
confidence in self, on his privileges, on his knowledge, on his birth,
on his observances, so he became conspicuous for his humility. What
self-abasement, when he says, "I am the least of the Apostles, that am
not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of
God; but by the grace of God I am what I am." What keen and bitter
remembrance of the past, when he says, "Who was before a blasphemer,
and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it
ignorantly in unbelief[3]." Ah! what utter self-abandonment, what
scorn and hatred of self, when he, who had been so pleased to be a
Hebrew of Hebrews, and a Pharisee, bore to be called, nay gloried for
Christ's sake in being called, an apostate, the most odious and
miserable of titles!--bore to be spurned and spit upon as a renegade, a
traitor, a false-hearted and perfidious, a fallen, a lost son of his
Church; a shame to his mother, and a curse to his countrymen. Such was
the light in which those furious zealots looked on the great Apostle,
who bound themselves together by an oath that they would neither eat
nor drink till they had killed him. It was their justification in
their own eyes, that he was a "pestilent fellow," a "stirrer of
seditions," and an abomination amid sacred institutions which God had
given.
And, lastly, what supported him in this great trial? that special mercy
which converted him, which he, and he only, saw--the Face of Jesus
Christ. That all-pitying, all-holy eye, which turned in love upon St.
Peter when he denied Him, and thereby roused him to repentance, looked
on St. Paul also, while he persecuted Him, and wrought in him a sudden
conversion. "Last of all," he says, "He was seen of me also, as of one
born out of due time." One sight of that Divine Countenance, so
tender, so loving, so majestic, so calm, was enough, first to convert
him, then to support him on his way amid the bitter hatred and fury
which he was to excite in those who hitherto had loved him.
And if such be the effect of a momentary vision of the glorious
Presence of Christ, what think you, my brethren, will be their bliss,
to whom it shall be given, this life ended, to see that Face eternally?
[1] Gal. i. 8, 9.
[2] Acts xxi. 13. 1 Cor. ix. 22.
[3] 1 Tim. i. 13.
SERMON XVI.
The Shepherd of our Souls.
"_I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the
sheep._"--John x. 11.
Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been
foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them,"
says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one
Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My
Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of
Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." And in
like manner St. Peter speaks of our returning "to the Shepherd and
Bishop of our souls[1]."
"The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." In those countries
of the East where 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 great hardship and of peril. Our
flocks are exposed to no enemies, such as our Lord describes. The
Shepherd here has no need to prove his fidelity to the sheep by
encounters with fierce beasts of prey. The hireling shepherd is not
tried. But where our Lord dwelt in the days of His flesh it was
otherwise. There it was true that the good Shepherd giveth His life
for the sheep--"but he that is an hireling, and whose own the sheep are
not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the
wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth,
because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep."
Our Lord found the sheep scattered; or, as He had said shortly before,
"All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers;" and in
consequence the sheep had no guide. Such were the priests and rulers
of the Jews when Christ came; so that "when He saw the multitudes He
was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were
scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd[2]." 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 have
no Master, let them return every man to his house in peace[3]." Such,
too, were the shepherds in the time of Ezekiel, of whom the Prophet
says, "Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves!
should not the shepherd feed the flocks? . . . They were scattered,
because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of
the field, when they were scattered[4]:" and in the time of the Prophet
Zechariah, who says, "Woe to the idle shepherd that leaveth the
flock[5]!"
So was it all over the world when Christ came in His infinite mercy "to
gather in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." And
though for a moment, when in the conflict with the enemy the good
Shepherd had to lay down His life for the sheep, they were left without
a guide (according to the prophecy already quoted, "Smite the Shepherd
and the sheep shall be scattered"), yet He soon rose from death to live
for ever, according to that other prophecy which said, "He that
scattered Israel will gather him, as a shepherd doth his flock[6]."
And as He says Himself in the parable before us, "He calleth His own
sheep by name and leadeth them out, and goeth before them, and the
sheep follow Him, for they know His voice," so, on His resurrection,
while Mary wept, He did call her by her name[7], and she turned herself
and knew Him by the ear whom she had not known by the eye. So, too, He
said, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me[8]?" And He added, "Follow
Me." And so again He and His Angel told the women, "Behold He goeth
before you into Galilee . . . go tell My brethren, that they go into
Galilee, and there shall they see Me."
From that time the good Shepherd who took the place of the sheep, and
died that they might live for ever, has gone before them: and "they
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth[9];" going their way forth by
the footsteps of the flock, and feeding their kids beside the
shepherds' tents[10].
No earthly images can come up to the awful and gracious truth, that God
became the Son of man--that the Word became flesh, and was born of a
woman. This ineffable mystery surpasses human words. No titles of
earth can Christ give to Himself, ever so lowly or mean, which will
fitly show us His condescension. His act and deed is too great even
for His own lips to utter it. Yet He delights in the image contained
in the text, as conveying to us, in such degree as we can receive it,
some notion of the degradation, hardship, and pain, which He underwent
for our sake.
Hence it was prophesied under this figure by the Prophet Isaiah,
"Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall
rule for Him . . . . He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall
gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall
gently lead those that are with young[11]." And, again, 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 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[12]." And the Psalmist says of Him, "The
Lord is my Shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in
a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort[13]."
And he addresses Him, "Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel, Thou that
leadest Joseph like a sheep, show Thyself also, Thou that sittest upon
the Cherubims[14]." And He Himself says in a parable, speaking of
Himself, "What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of
them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go
after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it,
he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing[15]."
Observe, my brethren, it is here said that Christ, the Lord of Angels,
condescends to lay the lost sheep on His shoulders: in a former passage
of the Prophet Isaiah it was said that He should "gather them with His
arm, and carry them in His bosom." By carrying them in His bosom is
meant the love He bears them, and the fulness of His grace; by carrying
them on His shoulders is signified the security of their
dwelling-place; as of old time it was said of Benjamin, "the beloved of
the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him . . . and the Lord shall cover
him all the day long, and he shall dwell between His shoulders[16];"
and again, of Israel, "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth
over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them
on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange
god 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 house of Jacob . . . which are carried
_by Me_ from the womb . . . Even to your old age I am He, and even to
hoary hairs will I carry you; I have made and I will bear, even I will
carry, and will deliver you[17]." He alone, who "bowed Himself and
came down," He alone could do it; He alone could bear a whole world's
weight, the load of a guilty world, the burden of man's sin, the
accumulated debt, past, present, and to come; the sufferings which we
owed but could not pay, the wrath of God on the children of Adam; "in
His own body on the tree[18]," "being made a curse for us[19]," "the
just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God," "through the
Eternal Spirit offering Himself without spot to God, and purging our
conscience from dead works to serve the Living God[20]." 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 good Shepherd who was to come. "Righteous Abel"
was "a keeper of sheep," "and in process of time" he "brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had
respect unto Abel and to his offering[21]." And who were they to whom
the Angels first brought the news that a Saviour was born? "Shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night[22]."
And what is the description given of the chosen family when they
descended into Egypt? "Thy servants," they say, "are shepherds, both
we and also our fathers[23];" and what, in consequence, was their
repute in Egypt, which surely is a figure of the world? "Every
shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians[24]."
But there are three favoured servants of God in particular, special
types of the Saviour to come, men raised from low estate to great
honour, in whom it was His will that His pastoral office should be thus
literally fulfilled. And the first is Jacob, the father of the
patriarchs, who appeared before Pharaoh. He became, as Abraham before
him, a father of many nations; he "increased exceedingly, and had much
cattle, and maid-servants, and men-servants, and camels, and
asses[25]," and he was visited by supernatural favours, and had a new
name given him--Israel for Jacob. But at the first he was, as his
descendants solemnly confessed year by year, "a Syrian ready to
perish;" and what was his employment? the care of sheep; and with what
toil and suffering, and for how many years, we learn from his
expostulation with his hard master and relative, Laban--"This twenty
years have I been with thee," he says; "thy ewes and thy she-goats have
not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That
which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of
it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen
by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the
frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been
twenty years in thy house; . . . and thou hast changed my wages ten
times[26]."
Who is more favoured than Jacob, who was exalted to be a Prince with
God, and to prevail by intercession? Yet, you see, he is a shepherd,
to image to us that mystical and true Shepherd and Bishop of souls who
was to come. Yet there is a second and a third as highly favoured in
various ways. The second is Moses, who drove away the rival shepherds
and helped the daughters of the Priest of Midian to water their flock,
and who, while he was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law,
saw the Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire 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 sweet
Psalmist of Israel[27];" but he was found among the sheep. "He took
him away from the sheep-folds; as he was following the ewes great with
young ones, He took him; that he might feed Jacob His people, and
Israel His inheritance. So he fed them with a faithful and true heart,
and ruled them prudently with all his power[28]." Samuel came to
Jesse, and looked through his seven sons, one by one, but found not him
whom God had chosen: "And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy
children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold,
he keepeth the sheep." And when he came "he was ruddy, and withal of a
beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to; and the Lord said, Arise,
anoint him, for this is he[29]." And again, after he had been in
Saul's court, he "went and returned from Saul, to feed his father's
sheep at Bethlehem[30];" and when he came to the army his brother
reproached him for "leaving those his few sheep in the wilderness;" and
when he was brought before Saul, he gave an account how a lion and a
bear "took a lamb out of the flock," and he went after them, and slew
them both, and delivered it. Such were the shepherds of old times, men
at once of peace and of war; men of simplicity, indeed, "plain men
living in tents," "the meekest of men," yet not easy, indolent men,
sitting in green meadows, and by cool streams, but men of rough duties,
who were under the necessity to suffer, while they had the opportunity
to do exploits.
And if such were the figures, how much more was the Truth itself, the
good Shepherd, when He came, both guileless and heroic? If shepherds
are men of simple lives and obscure fortunes, uncorrupted and unknown
in kings' courts and marts of commerce, how much more He who was "the
carpenter's Son," who was "meek and lowly of heart," who "did not
strive nor cry," who "went about doing good," who "when He was reviled,
reviled not again," and who was "despised and rejected of men"? If, on
the other hand, they are men of suffering and trial, how much more so
He who was "a man of sorrows," and who "laid down His life for the
sheep"?
"That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee," says Jacob; "I
bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it." And has not
Christ undertaken the charge of our souls? Has He not made Himself
answerable for us whom the devil had rent? Like the good Samaritan,
"Take care of him," He says, "and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I
come again I will repay thee[31]." Or, as in another parable, under
another image: "Lord, let it alone this year also . . . and if it bear
fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down[32]."
"In the day the drought consumed me," says Jacob; and who was He who at
midday sat down at that very Jacob's well, tired with His journey, and
needing some of that water to quench His thirst, whereof "Jacob drank
himself, and his children and his cattle"? Yet whereas He had a living
water to impart, which the world knew not of. He preferred, as became
the good Shepherd, to offer it to one of those lost sheep whom He came
to seek and to save, rather than to take at her hand the water from the
well, or to accept the offer of His disciples, when they came with meat
from the city, and said, "Master, eat." "The frost" consumed me "by
night," says Jacob, "and my sleep departed from mine eyes," and read we
not of One whose wont it was to rise a long while before day, and
continue in prayer to God? who passed nights 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 cold judgment 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 life of
contemplation in the midst of His laborious ministry; He was
transfigured on the mountain, and no man knew the Son but the Father,
nor the Father but the Son.
Jacob endured, Moses meditated--and David wrought. Jacob endured the
frost, and heat, and sleepless nights, and paid the price of the lost
sheep; Moses was taken up into the mount for forty days; David fought
with the foe, and recovered the prey--he rescued it from the mouth of
the lion, and the paw of the bear, and killed 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
father's sheep at Bethlehem; Christ, born and heralded to the shepherds
at Bethlehem, suffered on the Cross in order to conquer. He came "from
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah[33];" but He was "glorious in His
apparel," for He trod the people "in His anger, and trampled them in
His fury, and their blood was sprinkled upon His garments, and He
stained all His raiment." Jacob was not as David, nor David as Jacob,
nor either of them as Moses; but Christ was all three, as fulfilling
all types, the lowly Jacob, the wise Moses, the heroic David, all in
one--Priest, Prophet, and King.
My brethren, we say daily, "We are His people, and the sheep of His
pasture." Again, we say, "We have erred and strayed from Thy ways,
like lost sheep:" let us never forget these truths; let us never
forget, on the one hand, that we are sinners; let us never forget, on
the other hand, that Christ is our Guide and Guardian. He is "the Way,
the Truth, and the Life[34]." He is a light unto our ways, and a
lanthorn unto our paths. He is our Shepherd, and the sheep know His
voice. If we are His sheep, we shall hear it, recognize it, and obey
it. Let us beware of not following when He goes before: "He goes
before, 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." When Christ called
St. Paul, he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Let us
desire to know His voice; let us pray for the gift of watchful ears and
a willing heart. He does not call all men in one way, He calls us each
in His 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 it
always easy to know His voice. St. John knew it, and said, "It is the
Lord," before St. Peter. Samuel did not know it till Eli told him.
St. Paul asked, "Who art Thou, Lord?" We are bid, "try the spirits,
whether they be of God." But whatever difficulty there be in knowing
when Christ calls, and whither, yet at least let us look out for His
call. Let us not be content with ourselves; let us not 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 who alone can guide us to that better country; let us call
heaven our home, and this life a pilgrimage; let us view ourselves, as
sheep in the trackless desert, who, unless they follow the shepherd,
will be sure to lose themselves, sure to fall in with the wolf. We are
safe while we keep close to Him, and under His eye; but if we suffer
Satan to gain an advantage over us, woe to us!
Blessed are they who give the flower of their days, and their strength
of soul and body to Him; blessed are they who in their youth turn to
Him who gave His life for them, and would fain save it to them and
implant it in them, that they may live for ever. Blessed are they who
resolve--come good, come evil, come sunshine, come tempest, come
honour, come dishonour--that He shall be their Lord and Master, their
King and God! They will come to a perfect end, and to peace at the
last. They will, with Jacob, confess Him, ere they die, as "the God
that fed them all their life long unto that day, the Angel which
redeemed them from all evil[35];" with Moses, that "as is their day, so
shall their strength be," and with David, that in "the valley of the
shadow of death, they fear no evil, for He is with them, and that His
rod and His staff comfort them," for "when they pass through the waters
He will be with them, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow
them; when they walk through the fire, they shall not be burnt, neither
shall the flame kindle upon them, for He is the Lord their God, the
Holy One of Israel, their Saviour."
[1] Ezek. xxxvii. 24. Zech. xiii. 7. 1 Pet. ii. 25.
[2] Matt. ix. 36.
[3] 1 Kings xxii. 17.
[4] Ezek. xxxiv. 2, 5.
[5] Zech. xi. 17.
[6] Jer. xxxi. 10.
[7] John xx. 16.
[8] John xxi. 16.
[9] Rev. xiv. 4.
[10] Cant. i. 8.
[11] Isa. xl. 10, 11.
[12] Ezek. xxxiv. 11, 12.
[13] Ps. xxiii. 1, 2.
[14] Ps. lxxx. 1.
[15] Luke xv. 4, 6.
[16] Deut. xxxiii. 12.
[17] Deut. xxxii. 11. Isa. xlvi. 1-4.
[18] 1 Pet. ii. 24.
[19] Gal. iii. 13.
[20] 1 Pet. iii. 18. Heb. ix. 14.
[21] Gen. iv. 2, 4.
[22] Luke ii. 8.
[23] Gen. xlvii. 3.
[24] Gen. xlvi. 34.
[25] Gen. xxx. 43.
[26] Gen. xxxi. 38-41.
[27] 2 Sam. xxiii. 1.
[28] Ps. lxxviii. 71-73.
[29] 1 Sam. xvi. 11, 12.
[30] 1 Sam. xvii. 15, 28, 35-37.
[31] Luke x. 35.
[32] Luke xiii. 8, 9.
[33] Isa. lxiii. 1-3.
[34] John xiv. 6.
[35] Gen. xlviii. 15, 16.
SERMON XVII.
Religious Joy.[1]
"_And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the
Lord._"--Luke ii. 10, 11.
There are two principal lessons which we are taught on the great Festival
which we this day celebrate, lowliness and joy. This surely is a day, of
all others, in which is set before us the heavenly excellence and the
acceptableness in God's sight of that state which most men have, or may
have, allotted to them, humble or private life, and cheerfulness in it.
If we consult the writings of historians, philosophers, and poets of this
world, we shall be led to think great men happy; we shall be led to fix
our minds and hearts upon high or conspicuous stations, strange
adventures, powerful talents to cope with them, memorable struggles, and
great destinies. We shall consider that the highest course of life is
the mere pursuit, not the enjoyment of good.