![]() At last his effort is rewarded the lost is found. Thus he searches, while the cry, growing fainter, tells him that his sheep is ready to die. Following the sound, he climbs the steepest heights, he goes to the very edge of the precipice, at the risk of his own life. With what relief he hears in the distance its first faint cry. He makes every effort to find that one lost sheep. The darker and more tempestuous the night and the more perilous the way, the greater is the shepherd's anxiety and the more earnest his search. He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold, and goes in search of the straying sheep. When he is sure that one sheep is lost, he slumbers not. Let him come back, and I will open the door of the sheepfold, and let him in.” No no sooner does the sheep go astray than the shepherd is filled with grief and anxiety. The shepherd who discovers that one of his sheep is missing does not look carelessly upon the flock that is safely housed, and say, “I have ninety and nine, and it will cost me too much trouble to go in search of the straying one. So with the soul that has wandered away from God he is as helpless as the lost sheep, and unless divine love had come to his rescue he could never find his way to God. It must be sought for by the shepherd, for it cannot find its way back. The sheep that has strayed from the fold is the most helpless of all creatures. So if there had been but one lost soul, Christ would have died for that one. In the parable the shepherd goes out to search for one sheep-the very least that can be numbered. He says, “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.” Ezekiel 34:12. Men may deny the claim of His love, they may wander from Him, they may choose another master yet they are God's, and He longs to recover His own. As the shepherd loves his sheep, and cannot rest if even one be missing, so, in an infinitely higher degree, does God love every outcast soul. By creation and by redemption they are His, and they are of value in His sight. These souls whom you despise, said Jesus, are the property of God. In the company about Jesus there were shepherds, and also men who had money invested in flocks and herds, and all could appreciate His illustration: “What man of you, having an 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?” COL 186.4 The wide-spreading tablelands on the east of Jordan afforded abundant pasturage for flocks, and through the gorges and over the wooded hills had wandered many a lost sheep, to be searched for and brought back by the shepherd's care. He appealed to the witness of their own experience. Christ did not at this time remind His hearers of the words of Scripture. ![]()
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