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 MANNING 
 LOST SHEEP
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 4 ,- . t ( 4^7^ h.^ ^^'-^ 
 
 Miu. J^Uc /^- ff^y^' 
 
 THE LOST SHEEP 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 ON THE FEAST OF ST. LUKE THE EVANGELIST, 
 
 OPENING OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, 
 
 BRIGHTON. 
 
 HENRY EDWARD MANNING, M.A. 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF CHICHESTER. 
 
 BRIGHTON: 
 HENRY S. KING, BOOKSELLER TO THE QUEEN DOWAGER, 
 
 i NORTH STREET, AND 44 EAST STREET; 
 JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD, AND 377 STRAND, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXLVIII.
 
 I,ONDON : 
 
 PKINTEI) BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRAN KLYN, 
 Great Nen Street, Fetter Lane.
 
 5' 13^^ 
 
 h s I i 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 St. Luke xv. 4. 
 
 " 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?" 
 
 We are met together here to-day with a twofold 
 intention ; the one, to keep the Feast of the Evan- 
 geUst St. Luke ; the other to open, though without 
 the solemnities of consecration, yet with the first 
 offering of our prayers, and with the memorial of 
 our Lord's love and passion, this stately and beau- 
 tiful sanctuary. There is a manifold fitness in the 
 concurrence of this work and day ; for the Evan- 
 gelist whom we commemorate was the fast and 
 faithful brother of the great Apostle whose name 
 gives title to this church. While others forsook 
 him in his toils and perils, Luke stood stedfast 
 at his side ; while others fell away to the world, 
 he held out unto the end. In his first bondage 
 
 J J72252
 
 St. Paul wrote, " Luke, the beloved physician, and 
 Demas, greet you ;" but six years afterwards, in 
 bis second imprisonment, he had need to change 
 his voice and say, " Demas hath forsaken me, 
 having loved this present world. Only Luke is 
 with me." Blessed companions ! in life united, in 
 death inseparable ; partakers of the Gospel and of 
 life, of the cross and of the kingdom, and now, in 
 heavenly bliss, they together follow their Master 
 whithersoever He goeth, and their names float 
 down to us upon the memory of the Church with 
 the halo of saints and the crown of martyrdom. 
 To-day we unite them again, as in life they loved 
 to be. 
 
 But there is another fitness which I may not 
 fail to note. St. Luke has ever had a name for 
 skill in human science. In the world he was 
 known for arts which grace our nature with cul- 
 ture and refinement. With his memory has ever 
 been associated the sacredness of Christian art, 
 the purity and the sanctity of conceptions and 
 ideas of beauty. Therefore not without fitness is 
 to-day chosen as the festival on which to open 
 this beautiful church, — a structure conceived and 
 framed by an eye and a hand of no common 
 skill. The Church of Christ has, indeed, received 
 no pattern in the Mount ; there are no revealed, 
 and therefore necessary forms in which we build.
 
 What need have we of forms and patterns, to 
 whom has been given the Spirit of worship, to 
 whom has been vouchsafed the Spirit of love, 
 devotion, adoration; — on whom the great gift of 
 these latter days, the presence of the Holy Ghost, 
 the abiding mystery of Pentecost, has been be- 
 stowed ? To us is given more than a pattern in 
 the Mount ; an implanted principle of worship, 
 that same principle of love which ministered to 
 our Master in His necessities on earth, which 
 brought ointment for His feet, fine linen and 
 spices for His burial. That same Spirit dwells 
 in us, and with it also the divine idea of wor- 
 ship. In the temples we build, we enshrine the 
 Presence of Him who said, " Lo, I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the world." We 
 set forth the Majesty of that Lord who, though 
 in heaven, is here ; who, though He be on high 
 with God, yet for ever dwells in healing and in 
 mercy among men ; we rear the shrine of His in- 
 visible presence, the precincts of His miracles of 
 grace. The Spirit of grateful joy teaches us to 
 offer of our substance, and to build for His Name 
 as worthily as we may, — worthily, not by the 
 measure of His Majesty, but by the measure of 
 our great infirmities. I am bid this day to ask 
 you to give of your alms for the perfecting of this 
 work. Make, then, your offerings according to
 
 6 
 
 your substance, with a glad heart, and on your 
 knees. Offer to Him in the spirit of love and 
 worship ; and our gathered oblations will be laid 
 before Him on His altar, with prayers and inter- 
 cession for His sheep, " scattered abroad in this 
 naughty world, that they may be saved through 
 Him for ever." To your faith and gratitude, to 
 your love and reverence for that one Lord, 
 through whose blood alone we look for everlast- 
 ing hfe, I commend this work. 
 
 There is yet one more point I would also 
 notice. St. Luke was master not only of the more 
 graceful sciences of our nature ; he had skill also 
 in healing the body, a calling which foreshadowed 
 the higher ministry of mercy which his Lord had 
 prepared for him. His skill in healing the body 
 was transfigured into a gift of healing the soul. 
 He became a physician of souls, a sharer in the 
 ministry of his Master ; and we find in his Gospel 
 that there is a special record of two great classes 
 of facts. First, the miracles of healing wrought 
 by our Lord. These seem to have struck with 
 peculiar force on a mind already awakened by his 
 previous studies ; and for this reason he seems to 
 have gathered up every fragment of our I>ord's 
 miraculous cures. And the other careful record 
 is of those parables in which our Lord specially 
 manifested the healing of lost souls ; the para-
 
 bles of great grace to penitent sinners, such as 
 the Prodigal Son ; and that which we have taken 
 to-day, the Parable of the Lost Sheep : '' 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 ?" A blessed and beautiful vision ! 
 The Shepherd in the wilderness seeking his sheep 
 that is lost ! How beautiful on the mountains are 
 the feet of him that seeketh the lost, bringing glad 
 tidings of good! And who is this in the wilderness 
 seeking for the lost, but He whose tokens are the 
 nails and the crown of thorns ! What is this but 
 a vision of His own ministry of love — a parable 
 of " the Son of Man coming to save that which 
 is lost." '"'And when he hath found it, he layeth 
 it on his shoulders rejoicing ; and when he cometh 
 home, he calleth together his friends and neigh- 
 bours, saying unto them. Rejoice with me ; for I 
 have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto 
 you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one 
 sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and 
 nine just persons, which need no repentance." 
 That is to say, so great is the care of the Son of 
 God, that He will leave all His faithful servants to 
 seek one sinner that is gone astray ; so great is 
 His tender love, that over one soul — once lost, 
 now found again — there shall be greater joy in
 
 8 
 
 heaven than over ninety and nine righteous who 
 stood stedfast in His kingdom. 
 
 How shall we understand this parable of love 
 and care ? It does not mean that He loves the 
 ninety and nine less, but that one lost soul needs 
 His compassion more. There are deep and divine 
 reasons for this especial mercy. Let us see, as 
 far as we may, what they are. And may the Holy 
 Spirit of God, by whom alone our hearts are 
 cleansed to look into these depths, by whom 
 alone the light of truth becomes to us the power 
 of Eternal Life, teach us to understand this mys- 
 tery of the kingdom of grace. 
 
 We see, then, first of all, that He left the 
 hosts of heaven to find man who was lost. There 
 is an eternal fold, a fold on high, in which are 
 gathered all pure and spotless spirits. These He 
 left when He came to seek us on earth. In the 
 beginning, God dwelt alone in His own Eternity, 
 the Father beholding His own Image in the Son, 
 the Father and the Son united in the Holy Ghost ; 
 the Blessed Three, the Holy One, all-sufficing in 
 His own eternal bliss. Moved by love, God created 
 the heavenly hosts. He surrounded Himself with 
 orders and hierarchies of ministering spirits, che- 
 rubim and seraphim, principalities and powers, 
 angels and archangels ; a heavenly court, in the 
 midst of which He reared His " throne high and
 
 9 
 
 lifted up." Then, still moved by love. He created 
 man upon the earth in His own image and in His 
 own likeness. By sin, man fell from the harmony 
 of God's kingdom. When man fell, he was lost 
 from the order of eternal life. The Son of God 
 then left His elect Angels in the eternal fold. He 
 came down upon earth, was made Man, dwelt 
 among men, seeking out the lost ; He suffered on 
 the Cross, went down into the grave, followed on- 
 ward even through the valley of the shadow of 
 death after His sheep that were " scattered in the 
 dark and cloudy day." Not that He loved those 
 spotless spirits less, but because lost man needed 
 His seeking more. 
 
 And so, again, following the same law of love. 
 He seems to leave the faithful, that He may seek 
 for sinners. As there is a fold in heaven, so there 
 is a fold on earth, a visible fold, — the Church, in 
 which He gathers His lost sheep. There is, be- 
 sides, within that visible fold, another fold unseen. 
 His own encircling Presence, the circuit of His 
 own watchful care, within which the faithful and 
 obedient are securely sheltered. These are they 
 who walk stedfast in baptismal purity. They keep 
 close to the eye and to the pathway of their Lord, 
 going in and out by the gates of obedience. These 
 are the ninety and nine who keep close to the feet 
 of the Good Shepherd. For a while He passes
 
 10 
 
 them by, that He may seek sinners who, after bap- 
 tism, fall from grace. For many are they who go 
 out of this inward fold. They go out into ways 
 of this world, the tangled mazes of this wilderness, 
 losing themselves by losing sight of Him ; and, by 
 losing sight of Him, losing their own souls. What 
 is this wilderness but sin ? Every several sin that 
 man commits is a wilderness to that man's soul, 
 whether it be a sin of the flesh, as lust, gluttony, 
 excess, or a sin of the spirit, as inward impurity, 
 pride, anger, hardness of heart, sloth, or false- 
 hood, — whatever it be, that sin is a wilderness 
 in each man's soul, in which he is lost. For sin 
 raises a cloud between the soul and the gaze of 
 the Good Shepherd ; it blinds the heart, and hides 
 the Good Shepherd's face. The sinner loses the 
 eye which guides him ; he loses the light of that 
 countenance which shone upon the track of life. 
 His will breaks away from the will of our Divine 
 Guide, by which will he was sanctified ; for so 
 long as His will and our will are united, we are 
 drawn by a thread of gold, which leads us in the 
 way of life ; but when, by sin, we start back and 
 snap asunder that guiding clue, we are straight- 
 way lost. Such is the state of sinners who, after 
 baptism, turn from Him. Once lost, they wander 
 from the fold, ever going more astray, outcast and 
 estranged, without God in the world. It may be
 
 11 
 
 in a gross and reckless life ; it may be in the more 
 subtil sins of the spirit. Men eagerly condemn 
 grosser sensualities ; but they forget that spiritual 
 sins are characteristically Satanic : for what is 
 Satan but an angel ? and the sins of angels are not 
 of the flesh, but of the spirit. These finer sins often 
 dwell with the mightiest mastery in souls which are 
 pure from grosser spots of the flesh. A man may be 
 altogether lost from God through the mere power 
 of sloth. A soul drowned in forgetfulness of God 
 is as truly a lost soul as one that wallows in im- 
 purity. If his spirit is severed from the spirit of the 
 Good Shepherd, if he is living without prayer, re- 
 pentance, self-examination, that soul is as truly a 
 lost sheep as if he were living in stubborn pride, 
 professing openly the infidelity which he truly prac- 
 tises. After such a one the Good Shepherd comes 
 forth, leaving the ninety and nine, as He left the 
 heavenly host. And how leaving them ? Omnipre- 
 sence cannot depart from place to place. When 
 we say He leaves, we do not mean that He ceases 
 there to be. The Son of God, when He came 
 down from heaven to earth, did not forsake His 
 heavenly court. Omnipresence cannot go hither 
 and thither. He came by the intensity of His 
 love, by the personal manifestation of His incar- 
 nate Person, by the presence of His visible man- 
 hood. Abiding ever in His heavenly court. He
 
 12 
 
 came, breathing all the compassion, power, and 
 sympathy of God into every penitent soul. And 
 in like manner, in His fold on earth. He does not 
 forsake His faithful followers ; He does not so much 
 as turn His eye from those who keep close beside 
 Him ; He does not withdraw from them any mi- 
 nistry of care ; for omnipresence cannot, and in- 
 finite love will not, depart from any faithful soul. 
 But He comes with a manifold tenderness of pity, 
 opening His ear to the cry of those who are gone 
 astray. He listens, as if no other prayer were 
 offered throughout all the earth ; He bends His 
 eye upon the lost sheep, as if there were no other 
 wanderer, concentrating the fulness of His divine 
 gaze upon that single soul. As in the light that is 
 about us every particle has the full, perfect nature 
 of light, withdrawing nothing from the splendour 
 of the sky, so the Divine love, forsaking none in 
 heaven, on earth turns all its intensity on one lost 
 soul. This is the plain meaning of our Saviour's 
 words. Let us see what are the reasons of this 
 Divine procedure. 
 
 1. The first is, because one lost soul is in- 
 finitely precious. It is the creature of infinite 
 love. " In the beginning God created the heaven 
 and the earth ;" He parted the light from the dark- 
 ness, and the waters from the dry land ; " He made 
 great lights, the sun to rule the day, and the moon
 
 13 
 
 to rule the night ; He made the stars also ;" He 
 peopled both the earth and the sea with life ; but 
 in the end of creation, in the sixth day, when love 
 had wrought all its less perfect works, it wrought its 
 most perfect work of all : God said, " Let us make 
 man in our image, after our likeness." He gave to 
 him a share in His infinite intelligence. He en- 
 dowed Him with a particle of His infinite love. 
 Intelligence and love kindled in man an image of 
 that deepest mystery which is in God, — a personal 
 will. The will that is in each several man is the 
 divinest gift of God's creation. The firmament 
 above our head, the earth beneath our feet, — 
 these are nothing compared with one will, kindled 
 from the will Divine. 
 
 Again, every several soul has a capacity of 
 infinite weal or woe. There is in it a capacity of 
 heaven or of hell ; of eternal life or of eternal 
 death ; of the beatific vision of God's Face, or of 
 the outer darkness in which the Vision which 
 makes blessed is lost ; the loss of which is agony. 
 I say infinite, not in extent ; for God alone is 
 infinite in His immensity; but infinite in the in- 
 tensity of its powers of sense ; so that the soul 
 of man, finite and limited, is capable of eternity, of 
 an immeasurable sense of joy or woe, a boundless 
 sense of misery or bliss. 
 
 Moreover, every several soul has been pur-
 
 14 
 
 chased by an infinite price. The measure of the 
 worth of that one soul is nothing less than the 
 Divine blood of the Son of God. We measure 
 things by the price at which they are redeemed. 
 At what worth, then, shall we measure one re- 
 deemed soul ? He who became incarnate ; He 
 who, being incarnate, suffered upon the cross. 
 He knows the price of one lost sheep. He alone 
 who knows the worth of His own eternal sacrifice, 
 knows also the worth of one perishing soul. This 
 is one reason. 
 
 2. Let us take another. It is because one 
 soul, gone astray, is in greater danger than the 
 rest. It has fallen, first from creation, and then 
 from redemption. It has fallen from its Divine 
 acceptance, both in the first Adam and in the 
 Second. It is " twice dead." " The last state 
 of that man is worse than the first." " There 
 remaineth no more sacrifice for sin."^ " It is im- 
 possible for those who were once enlightened, and 
 have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made 
 partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted 
 the good word of God, and the powers of the 
 world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew 
 them again unto repentance."^ There is no second 
 " baptism for the remission of sins." That one lost 
 soul is in the way which leads beyond the boun- 
 1 Heb. X. 26. ^ Heb. vi. 4-6.
 
 15 
 
 daries of grace. Every day brings it nearer to the 
 fatal brink. Dangers are ever thickening ; tempta- 
 tion waxing mightier ; sins are hourly multiplied ; 
 the die is daily blacker ; life is fast wearing away, 
 eternity fast coming on ; therefore the Good 
 Shepherd speeds apace with a hasty step, to find 
 that one sheep which is lost. As a father or a 
 mother, if, among many children, one fall sick 
 and is in peril of death, passes by all the rest ; 
 not that they love them less, but that the other 
 needs them more. For a while they seem to blot 
 them from the memory, they set them all aside, 
 they hang day by day and night by night over the 
 pallet of the sick child ; day and night they stand 
 watchful, unwearied, by the sufferer ; they have no 
 eye, no ear for any other. The sick is as an only 
 child. And when the child of their fears shall be 
 raised to health again, they have a peculiar tender- 
 ness towards that one recovered life, for whom they 
 so greatly sorrowed. " This my son was dead, and 
 is aUve again ; he was lost, and is found." So is 
 it with the Good Shepherd. Over those who are 
 lost He yearns with especial tokens of His Divine 
 tenderness, — a mystery of love we cannot pene- 
 trate. To David, a seer was sent to say, ** Thou 
 art the man." To Saul, on his way to Damascus, 
 a vision from heaven was revealed, which smote 
 him down in penitence. Who was it washed the
 
 16 
 
 feet of Jesus with her tears, and wiped them with 
 the hair of her head ? Who was admitted to this 
 closest fellowship ? From whom was accepted this 
 token of love ? To whom did He shew Himself 
 first after His resurrection ? To her who was " a 
 sinner," out of whom He had cast seven devils. 
 
 3. And once more. The love of Christ is spe- 
 cially shewn to sinners, because in the saving of 
 one lost soul there is a greater revelation of God's 
 grace. God reveals His power in holy Angels; 
 He reveals His love in the perfection of the Saints; 
 He reveals His pity in the fellowship of Penitents. 
 But He reveals power, love, and pity sevenfold, 
 sixtyfold, a hundredfold, in the recovery of the 
 lost, in gathering together sinners ready to perish, 
 in seeking those that are gone astray until He 
 find them. Every step of departure draws forth 
 a further measure of grace. There is, as we read 
 in the Gospel, an ascending scale in the miracles of 
 the Son of God. The daughter of Jairus lay dead 
 in her chamber, on the threshold of early life. He 
 came and took her by the hand, and raised her 
 from death : a type of those who early in life fall 
 into deadly sin, but before they become habitual 
 sinners are again quickened to life by the touch 
 of His grace. This is a sample of early conver- 
 sion after early falls. 
 
 Again, we read of the widow's son, who was
 
 17 
 
 both dead and carried out to burial. The Son of 
 God met him, and, at the very gate of the city, 
 raised him to hfe again. A type of those who, 
 falHng into deadly sins, and those sins becoming 
 habitual, not only die to all love and fear, but to 
 all memory and thought of Him and of them- 
 selves. They are carried, as it were, stretched on 
 the bier by a course of sinning. They are borne 
 forth from their home, and are met at the very 
 gates of the grave ; and by the word of the Son 
 of God are raised again to repentance. An ex- 
 am})le of conversion in middle life. 
 
 But further still, we read of one who was 
 not only dead and carried forth, but four days 
 buried in the grave, bound with grave-clothes, his 
 eyes blindfold, his head wound about with the 
 bandage of corruption, lying in the grave, sealed 
 up as if for ever. So is it with the sinner, who, 
 living stubbornly in sins, known to be sins, is 
 at last swathed in the winding-sheet of some lust, 
 some secret impurity, some close deceitfulness, 
 some filthy passion. Even in the sight of holy 
 angels he lies dead. Nothing but the quickening 
 of the Spirit of life from the hand of the Creator 
 can again raise him to life. Then cometh the Son, 
 to whom the Father hath given both to have life in 
 Himself, and to quicken whom He will. He rolls 
 away the stone from the mouth of the grave, un- 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 binds the winding-sheet, sets loose the soul from its 
 habitual corruptions, bringing it back again to life 
 and to repentance. A type of conversion, perilous, 
 and all but hopeless, as hfe wears onward to its 
 end. The greater the need, the greater the grace. 
 The more deeply sunk in spiritual death, the 
 more the grace of God is manifested in the raising 
 of a sinner to newness of life. " This sickness 
 was not unto death, but for the glory of God, 
 that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."' 
 For let us not so misconceive the wisdom and 
 power of God as to imagine that the redemption 
 is a remedy tardily brought in to heal some in- 
 evitable wound. Do we believe that God made 
 the world sinless, and that afterwards one mightier 
 than He came upon Him, spoiled Him of His Om- 
 nipotence, and marred His perfect work, contra- 
 dicting His almighty will ? Is this our belief? 
 He who made the world, both permitted the fall 
 and predestined the redemption. There is a scale 
 of ascent in the works of God, going from strength 
 to strength, and from glory to glory, unto the 
 perfection of eternal bliss. Mystery of mysteries, 
 into which no eye or thought of man can enter. 
 The first Adam was united with God by the Spirit; 
 the second Adam is God. Man is now united 
 with God as man was never united before. The 
 
 ' St. John xi. 4.
 
 19 
 
 union of the first man with God, even when per- 
 fect in God's image, — what is this to the union of 
 the Godhead and the Manhood in the Incarnate 
 Word ? And of that Word are we partakers ; so 
 that St. Peter writes : We are made " partakers of 
 the Divine nature."^ And this is no special gift 
 of glory reserved for the greatest and chief among 
 His Saints, but for all ; for sinners and for peni- 
 tents, for the least and lowest, once soiled, now 
 cleansed by partaking of the " Word made flesh :" 
 thus all are lifted from transgression into a height 
 of glory never before revealed. Creation had 
 nothing to equal it. Redemption makes creation 
 perfect, unfolding the grace of God, exalting the 
 destiny of man. 
 
 And now, further than this it is not for us to 
 penetrate, lest we break through the lines whereby 
 the Divine wisdom has bounded about our limited 
 intelligence. Let us, then, from this gather two 
 great pledges for our personal salvation, and then 
 make an end. 
 
 1. This shews us, first of all, how hardly shall 
 any sinner be lost. I do not say that no sinner 
 shall be lost. God forbid ! " Many are called, 
 and few chosen." Of the ten virgins bidden to the 
 marriage-feast, five were shut out. Our Lord says, 
 " Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I 
 
 1 2 St. Peter i. 4.
 
 say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be 
 able." Many shall come and say. Lord, " we have 
 eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast 
 taught in our streets." " Have we not prophesied 
 in Thy name ; and in Thy name have cast out 
 devils ; and in Thy name done many wonderful 
 works ?" And He shall say, " I never knew you."' 
 I do not say that no sinner shall be lost ; but how 
 hardly will God give up a sinner ! How contrary 
 to His will ! What a force (to speak as a man) 
 must He needs put on His tender love ! What 
 a contradiction of His purposes of mercy ! " How 
 shall I give thee up, Ephraim ?" It is hard in- 
 deed, on our part, to enter into life; but on the 
 part of God's mercy, it is hard to give up a sinner. 
 ** As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no plea- 
 sure in the death of the wicked ; but that the 
 wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, 
 turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye 
 die ?" *' ' All souls are mine ;' mine by creation, 
 for I made them ; mine by redemption, for I pur- 
 chased them ; mine by adoption, for I have made 
 them to be my children. How shall I give thee 
 up, for thou art my work and likeness, my servant, 
 and my son !" Therefore, when we forsake Him, 
 He follows us. He follows us by pleadings of His 
 Spirit, by promises of love, by gentle drawings, 
 1 St. Luke xiii. 24, 26 ; St. Matt. vii. 22, 23.
 
 21 
 
 by threats of exceeding terror, by warnings of 
 His wrath, by gifts from His mercy, by showers 
 of His grace, by rods laid on in chastisement, by 
 any thing and by all things, if so be that the lost 
 soul may be found again. And when we rebel 
 against the light within us. He pours it all around. 
 He comes and visits us. He sheds abroad upon 
 us the light of His personal presence, making our 
 soul to stand out in a relief we never saw before ; 
 faults rise up into the magnitude of sins, sins grow 
 dark with an incredible blackness, and the light 
 which falls around us and within, makes us to 
 see ourselves, for the first time, as we truly are : 
 so that we awake up and say, " Surely the Lord 
 is in this place, and I knew it not !" Even our 
 own chamber, our own familiar home, is full of 
 God, of a Presence that may be felt. " How 
 dreadful is this place !'" '* I have heard of Thee 
 by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye 
 seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent 
 in dust and ashes."^ And so, again, when any soul 
 falls into the pit and the brakes of the wilderness, 
 when it becomes entangled and wound about by 
 briers and thorns of this evil world, then He comes 
 forth with some searching chastisement, with some 
 lingering sickness, some wearing perpetual fear, 
 some continual daily anxiety, some slow fire of 
 
 1 Gen. xxviii, 16. ^ .Job xlii. 5, 6,
 
 spiritual pain, which pierces us through and 
 through, — with some such visitation He finds, 
 and sets us free, stooping down over us, un- 
 winding, disentanghng first one and then another 
 bond of sin, loosing us from habit after habit, from 
 fault after fault, from the world, from Satan, and 
 from ourselves, turning our feet again towards the 
 unseen fold. So He has followed us through life. 
 Has it not been so with you ? Are there none 
 here who, after a life of sin, have been awakened on 
 a bed of sickness, or, after a life of irreligion, have 
 been made to repent by the visitation of a sorrow? 
 What are these but the hand of the Good Shep- 
 herd finding you at last ? But if we will not be 
 saved, we must indeed be lost ; for the will in man 
 is the gift of God. The will of man is divine in its 
 nature ; the human will has a share of divinity ; 
 it partakes the nature of its original. Next to om- 
 nipotence, the will of man is almighty. A rebel- 
 lious will has none mightier but God alone ; and 
 yet God will not overbear that will. God made 
 man free, and He respects the work of His own 
 hands. There is no forced love in heaven. All 
 hate in hell is free. We were made free, and 
 freely shall we be saved or lost. All love Divine 
 will never save a soul that will not be saved. All 
 the grace of creation, redemption, regeneration, the 
 word, the Spirit, the holy sacraments, the divine
 
 23 
 
 providence of God, all are spent in vain upon the 
 soul that will not be redeemed. " Though Coniah, 
 the son of Jehoiakim, were the signet upon My 
 right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence."^ 
 
 " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." But that 
 is not God giving man up. It is that man will not 
 be saved. It is not the will of God that one of the 
 redeemed should perish ; He loves us too well. It 
 is not His will that the Cross should be spoiled of 
 one soul. We cost Him too much. God the Fa- 
 ther, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost will 
 our salvation ; all holy spirits bend over us, and 
 yearn to receive us into bliss ; there is joy among 
 the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 
 As in the old creation, " the morning stars sang 
 together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ;" 
 so much more a thousandfold over the new crea- 
 tion of God, angels and archangels, all the com- 
 panies of heaven, praise and glorify the Father 
 who gave His Son, the Son who gave Himself, the 
 Spirit who sanctifieth his elect, over one lost soul 
 gathered from this perishing world, into the king- 
 dom of eternal life. 
 
 2. The other truth we may learn from this is, 
 how surely shall every true penitent be saved. No 
 true penitent can perish. But perhaps you may 
 say, " I believe this for others ; I cannot believe 
 
 ' Jer. xxii. 24.
 
 24 
 
 it for myself. My doubt is, not whether God will 
 save me, if I am a true penitent ; ray doubt is, 
 whether I be a true penitent." Perhaps there 
 may be some of you who may say, " I have wan- 
 dered too far ; my sins are too many ; my offences 
 are too great ; I have strayed too far from God." 
 By what do you measure this distance ? Do you 
 measure it by the Cross ? Is it by the length, and 
 breadth, and depth, and height of the Passion of 
 Christ ? If so, what is too far ? Is it by the love 
 that " passeth knowledge ?" If so, who has wan- 
 dered too wide astray 1 Do you desire to return ? 
 If so, who awakened in you that desire ? And 
 what does that awakening prove ? When the 
 prodigal " came to himself," his face was already 
 turned to his father's home. " The blood of 
 Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin."' Honour 
 that blood. Stint not its almighty power. No 
 sins are too many, no sins too great, for the true 
 penitent. But perhaps you say, " I have been lost 
 too long ; my sins are too inveterate and stub- 
 born : they are wound about me like a sevenfold 
 chain." Are they a burden to you, or no ? Are 
 they sweet to you, or no? If they are a burden, who 
 made them now press so weightily, which once 
 were so little heeded ? If they are bitter to you, 
 who made them taste to you bitter now, which 
 ' 1 St. John i. 7.
 
 25 
 
 tasted once so sweet ? Who has been busy about 
 you, creating those new thoughts in your heart ? 
 " This change is from the right hand of the Most 
 High." He is loosing you from those sins which He 
 makes your burden and bitterness. Though self, 
 and insincerity, and the world cling fast about you 
 as the briers in the wilderness. He will surely set you 
 free. Perhaps, then, you may say, *' How can I 
 think He has found me?" Brethren, do you desire 
 to find Him ? You will say, " Yes, I do." Then 
 we seek Him because He first sought us. When 
 there is in any soul a desire to seek the Good 
 Shepherd, it is a divine proof that the Good 
 Shepherd has already sought that sheep. Do you 
 say, " But though I be found, how shall I ever 
 persevere and hold out to the end, infirm and 
 wavering as I am, weak and inconstant, resolv- 
 ing, and breaking my resolution ; purposing, and 
 failing ; sinning, and repenting ; repenting, and 
 sinning again : how shall I hold out to the last ?" 
 " When He hath found it, He layeth it on His 
 shoulders;" He will give you strength. He will 
 inspire you with His will ; He will take your sin- 
 ful will, and lay it on His holy will ; your weak 
 will, on His mighty will ; your wavering will, on 
 His changeless will ; your human will, on His 
 divine will : He will " carry you in His bosom;" 
 " and no man shall pluck you out of His hand."
 
 26 
 
 " And when he cometh home, he calleth together 
 his friends and neighbours, saying. Rejoice with 
 me." Therefore, beloved brethren, be of full hope. 
 Come with faith ; come to Him in the holy Sa- 
 crament of His Body and Blood ; come and seek 
 Him now who hath been all your life long seeking 
 you. Let this be the day of your return. Come 
 as if you never came before. 
 
 '' I am the door. By me, if any man enter 
 in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and 
 find pasture."^ Come to Him in this mystery of 
 His love and presence, and He will receive you. 
 Come with a special intention to-day. Come 
 with a prayer for the Pastor who shall fold his 
 flock in this sanctuary. Ask for him a true shep- 
 herd's heart, a watchful eye to know his own 
 sheep and to call them each by name ; an ear to 
 hear them, a voice, that they may hear him again. 
 Pray that he may have grace to put them forth and 
 lead them, that they may go in and out, and find 
 the true pastures of life eternal. Pray for the flock, 
 that none may stray, but abide stedfast within the 
 fold ; and pray too for those who may be lost, that 
 in childhood, or youth, or manhood, or in the de- 
 cline of life, they may be found at last, and carried 
 home in safety and with joy to the eternal fold. 
 Pray at the altar now for some one lost sheep; first 
 
 ' St. John X. 9.
 
 27 
 
 of all for your own soul, each one ; then for some 
 other, that the Good Shepherd may bring him 
 back to everlasting life. Oh, what a gathering on 
 the eternal hills, where every one shall be spot- 
 less as the driven snow, pure as the Lamb with- 
 out blemish! What joy in God, what joy in 
 each other's joy ! Every soul in that day a 
 miracle of grace, redeeming, sanctifying, restor- 
 ing, cleansing sevenfold, tenfold, a hundredfold, 
 to each accordinsr to the measure of his ne- 
 cessity. And oh, what a history shall then be 
 revealed to every soul ! What a history of the 
 Good Shepherd's care ! Pit-falls, then first seen, 
 never suspected here on earth; snares, entangle- 
 ments, dangers, hair-breadth escapes of life, years 
 of hovering upon the very brink of eternal death ; 
 — all this revealed for the first time, when all 
 peril is for ever passed, and every soul is safe 
 in the kingdom of the Father. O bliss, which 
 not even seers or prophets can conceive. Not 
 one lost of all that hundred and forty-four thou- 
 sand, that divine parable of numbers, mysterious 
 and innumerable. Not one sheep lost when the 
 flock shall pass under the pierced ''hand of Him 
 that telleth them ;" and yet, of all that mighty 
 flock, not one that was not lost once ; not one that 
 shall not then be found for ever.
 
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