Christ Knoweth His Own
Jesus knoweth them that are his. “I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” He can call every one of the flock by name. The officers of a church may be deceived in many cases of those who apply for admission to membership; but no putting on of “sheep’s clothing” can mislead the omniscient Shepherd. There is a wide-spread religious interest in the land, but among the many thousands that profess conversion it is not possible that Christ himself can be deceived as to a solitary case. Not only does he read every heart to the bottom; it is by the operation of his divine Spirit that every soul is regenerated. Not
CHRIST KNO WETH HIS O WN. isg
every one who enters an inquiry-room finds Christ; and not every one who attends a “meeting of converts” is genuinely converted. Those who begin to lead a new life have got the new heart; those who follow the Shepherd have entered into the flock. There is a solemn warning in this fact. There is a precious comfort in it, too; for the Saviour knows perfectly well whom he is saving.
Not only does Jesus Christ know exactly who have come into his true flock, but he knows all about every one of them — their strong points and their weak points, their besetting sins and their new experiences of grace just beginning to sprout in their hearts. When we are sick we send for the old family physician; he is best acquainted with our constitutions. It is half the battle in family government for
the parent to understand thoroughly the 17 qualities of a child. Here is one gentle boy who can be led by a cotton thread; and there is another who snaps the cords of restraint as Samson broke the seven green withes. Some parents pay dearly for their ignorance or wilful blindness to the real character of their children. That was a wise as well as a loving mother who said, “I do n’t find it so hard to bring children up as I do to take them down, when they need it.”
Our blessed Master, in his fam.ily discipline, commits no mistakes. When he takes an immortal soul under his loving care and into his training-school he understands the character of all his pupils. Scott’s “Jeanie Deans” put it very well when she said, “There is Ane wha kens better what is for our gude than we ken oursells.” Christ detects and exposes the self-seeking ambition of certain disciples by setting a little child in the midst of them to teach them humility and unselfishness. In his raw inexperience Simon Peter bragged loudly of his loyalty: but the Master takes him down by the startling announcement, “Before the cock crows thou shalt deny me thrice!” Jesus discovered the splendid natural qualities in Saul of Tarsus which converting grace could mould into a leadership of the churches; and what a tremendous schooling he gave him before he graduated! The same Great Shepherd has a place of usefulness in his flock for humble Tryphena and Tryphosa, for Tertius with his pen and for Dorcas with her needle. Jesus knows just what is in every one of us, and just how much can be got out of us. This makes him, not a hard, exacting Master, but the most forbearing and considerate of employers and guardians. He never lays on weak shoulders the loads which only stalwarts can carry. All the while, too, how sweetly come the encouraging words, “I am with you always; my grace is sufficient for you; as thy days thy strength shall be.” He calls us not slaves; he calls us friends.
How perfectly acquainted he is, too, with all our weaknesses! He knoweth our frame; he remembereth we are but dust. Here is great encouragement for penitent sinners. Those poor fellows who drift from their dram-dens into the Jerry McAuley Mission House find there a pitying Shepherd who welcomes the most wretched outcast who has been bedraggled in the mire. Up at the other end of the scale Christ is equally conscious of the intellectual doubts and difficulties with which some Christians of skeptical temperaments have to contend. He quenches no smoking flax; he breaks no bruisid reds. The secret sorrow which I dare not breathe to the most intimate friend I can freely unbosom to my Saviour. Ah, how well he knows every thorn that pricks my foot, and every wound that trickles its silent drops from the bleeding soul! This is a wondrous encouragement to prayer. For my Physician never will administer the wrong medicine, and I am sure he never will refuse to hear my pull at “the night-bell” in the hour of sudden distress.
The fact of Christ’s perfect knowledge of all our needs and requirements throws great light on some dark providences. It explains some mysteries: why one of us is put up and another is put down; why one is prospered and another is impoverished; why one seems to run before the breeze and another is buffeted with contrary winds. Dear, loving Master! He knoweth what is for our good. Let him probe to the bottom if the wound requires it. He knoweth what is in me; yes, and what ought to come out of me, if I would attain to full health and robustness of spirit. Far better the probe and the pruning-knife than to be cast out as incurable cumberers of his fold. If it is a joy to know whom we have believed it is equally a joy that “he knoweth them that are his.” There is a bond of reciprocal knowledge and affection between the Redeemer and his redeemed ones. Christ even compares it to the unity between the everlasting Father and the Son; for as the Father knoweth the Son so doth the Shepherd know his flock! This is an overwhelming thought; and it points onward to an intimacy of everlasting love in heaven.