What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wildrness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it,he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours saying unto them, rejoice with me, forI have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner who repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. luke.15v4-7 .
I call attention to this observation. The one subject of thought to the man who had lost his sheep. This sets forth to us the one thought of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, when He sees a man lost to holiness and happiness by wandering into sin.The shepherd, on looking over his little flock of 100, can only count 99. He counts them again, and notices that a certain one has gone, it may be a white faced sheep with a black mark on it's foot, he knows all about it, for " The Lord knoweth them that are His." The shepherd has a photograph of the wanderer in his mind's eye, and now he thinks but little of the 99 who are feeding in the pastures of the wilderness, but his mind is in a ferment about the one lost sheep. This one idea possesses him, "a sheep is lost." It masters his every faculty. He cannot eat bread, he cannot return to his home, he cannot rest while one sheep is lost.To a tender heart a lost sheep is a painful subject of thought. It is a sheep, and therefore utterly defenceless now that it has left it's defender. If the wolf should spy it out, or the lion or the bear should come across it's track, it would be torn to pieces in an instant. Thus the shepherd asks his heart the question, " what will become of my sheep? perhaps at this very moment a lion may be ready to spring upon it, and if so, it cannot help itself!" A sheep is not prepared for fight, and even for flight it has not the swiftness of it's enemy. That makes it's compassionate owner the more sad as he thinks again, " a sheep is lost, it is in danger of a cruel death." A sheep is of all creatures the most senseless. If we have lost a dog, it may find it's way back home again, possibly a horse might return to it's master's stable, but a sheep will wander on and on, in endless mazes, lost. It is too foolish a thing to think of returning to the place of safety. A lost sheep is lost indeed in countries where lands lie unenclosed and the plains are boundless. That fact still seems to ring in the man's soul, " A sheep is lost, and it will not return, for it is a foolish thing. Where may it not have gone by this time? Weary and worn, it may be fainting, it may be far away from green pastures and ready to perish with hunger among the bare rocks or upon the arid sands." A sheep is shiftless, it knows nothing about providing for itself. The camel can scent water from afar, and a vulture can espy it's food from an enormous distance, but the sheep can find nothing for itself. Of all wretched creatures a lost sheep is one of the worst.If anybody had stepped up to the shepherd just then, and said " Good sir what aileth thee? you seem to be in great concern," he would have replied, "and well I may be, for a sheep is lost." " It is only one sir, and I see you have 99 left," "do you call it nothing to lose one? You are no shepherd yourself, or you would not trifle so. Why I have quite forgotten the 99 that are all safe, and my mind only remembers that one which is lost."
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