Seeking the Lost

1 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not go after that which is lost? ’ — Luke xv. 4.

3 THOUGHT perhaps he would not have troubled about one. If he had had only two sheep, and had lost one, I could have understood his concern, but to lose one out of a hundred would seem to be an almost insignificant loss. That is the line of reasoning which we sometimes introduce into our affairs. We reason as if the loss of one is lessened in its painfulness by the many that remain. We hear of some parents who have lost a little child, a fountain of joy and cheer. We compassionately inquire: ‘Have they any children left?” Yes, they have four left.’ ‘Ah, well, it isn’t as great a loss as if they had only one.’ That indicates a common principle of reasoning — the greater the family, the less the value of the individual soul. We carry the reasoning

forward into the religious sphere, and it becomes the parent of depression and doubt. It creates the most terrible of all orphanhoods, the fear that there are so many of us that the individual does not count. God overlooks us, looks over us, and we cry, * My way is hid from the Lord.’

Now this parable is intended to be an antidote to all such feelings of self-disparagement and doubt. The size of God’s family does not affect the preciousnessof the individual soul. The one sheep is not lost in the flock. * He calleth His sheep by name.” He loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ Let us hold fast to this inspiring truth — the infinite worth of the one in the esteem of the infinite God.

‘If a man have a hundred sheep, and lose one, I think it exceedingly tender and beautiful that the Master compares His family to a flock, and that He pictures His lost children under the figure of a lost sheep. A sheep does not intentionally go astray. It nibbles itself astray. It puts its head down to the grass, and begins to eat and eat and eat, and follows on and on, and at last, looking up, finds it has wandered far from the flock, and is lost. It was so absorbed in feeding that it paid no heed to its whereabouts. I do not think that men go

off into ruin by premeditation, by set and well-defined intention. They become thoughtlessly absorbed in something, and they never call halt to look around, to ascertain in what direction they are tending. Men get their heads down to the making of money. It absorbs all their energies and all their thoughts, and almost unconsciously they wander far from the Shepherd into moral and spiritual perdition. Minor fascinations ensnare, until we forget or ignore the fascinations of our Lord. This is true of every kind of temporal pursuit and enjoyment. The sheep of God’s pasture stray away in thoughtless absorption, and become lost in the region of wild beasts and night.

1 He goeth after that which is lost.’ We are not left to our own deserts. ‘The Lord is mindful of His own.’ The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ How does He seek us? He makes us ‘disquieted within us.’ He makes us restless. He makes us depressed. He makes the grass of the distant pasturage dis-satisfying. Have we not heard men say of their sinful enjoyments, ‘I am sick of it ‘? But they used to like it? Yes; but ’ their drink is turned sour.’ Who has brought the distaste? The Great Seeker, that He might turn us home

again. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ That is a most blessed depression, if it lead to a return to the good Lord. And when He hath found it, In what condition does He find the sheep? Shepherds have told me that they sometimes find their lost sheep very exhausted, very weary, quite tired out. That is how the Good Shepherd finds His wandering sheep. The devil has undermined their life, and sapped away their strength. Their power of will is emasculated, their power of resistance gone. Sin is an :vwful exhauster. ‘My strength fails because of my iniquity.’ Hear now the sweet Gospel. ‘When He hath found it, He layeth it on His shoulders.’ He takes us in our moral impotence, and carries us. Men who have no powers of resistance or persistence are made ’ more than conquerors ’ in Christ. How long will He carry us? Will He ever leave us to the terrors of the wild beasts? ‘Even to hoary hairs will I carry you.’

‘He is sure to aid you,
He will carry you through.’