THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.
Christ a Shepherd, Seeking one of His Strayed Sheep. (Luke xv. 4.)
" I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost, seek Thy servant." (Ps. cxviii. 176.)
I. The Shepherd in the gospel of to-day, having lost one of His hundred sheep, went to seek it. This Shepherd is Christ. Remark His great anxiety and care for His wandering sheep. He leaves His ninety-nine others, that is, the innumerable angels in heaven, to go in quest of the one that was lost. He stood not in need of it, in any possible point of view; yet He spares neither pain nor labor, in endeavoring to find it. When He has found it, He neither chastises nor reproaches it, but laying it upon His shoulders, brings it home again to the fold. "What is man," O God, "that Thou shouldst magnify him? or why dost Thou set Thy heart upon him?" (Job vii. 17.)
II. Your soul is in a particular manner, this strayed sheep. You have hitherto wandered up and down " through the ways of your own inventions," deviating from the boundaries of that virtue and perfection, to which God has called you. You have refused to devote to Him your external and internal actions. You take no longer delight in the rich pastures, in which God wishes you to dwell, but you have sought for satisfaction and pleasure in the things of the world. "All we, like sheep, have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way." (Is. liii. 6.)
III. This loving Shepherd will visit you to-day, in order to bring you back again to the right way. Beg
