What Christ Means To The Christian Soul
The subject of my fifth and final lecture in this course is, "What Jesus Christ May be to a Human Soul," based upon a text found in Matt. 1:21, which reads thus: "Thou shalt call his name Jesus for it is he that shall save his people from their sins."
I shall begin this lecture by asking a question, a very personal question, which I hope each one of you will answer, not out loud, but answer in your own heart, remembering that God and yourself both know whether or not your answer is true. Some of you will be glad to answer the question, will think it a privilege to do so. Others I fear will not like to tell even their own souls the exact truth about themselves. Please do not be too generous with the question. Do not pass it over your shoulder to the one behind you. If you do, he may pass it over his to the one behind him, and soon it will be out of doors. An old colored preacher told his audience that many of them were going to be lost because they were too generous, they gave away too much. They thought this was strange talk to come from a preacher, telling people they were too generous. They asked him for an explanation, and he said, "You are too generous with the sermon. You are perfectly willing to give it all away to someone else and keep none for yourselves." In this respect I fear the old man was correct. Please do not be too generous with this lecture, with this question, and here it is: What is Jesus Christ to your soul just now? Not, what might he be? Not, what is he willing to be? Not, what would I like to have him be, but, what is he as the case now stands? Some of you will answer gladly, "Jesus is everything to me. He is all the world to me. He is my Savior from the death which is the wages of sin," but some of you cannot say that. Some of you, if you tell your own hearts the truth, will have to say, "Jesus is nothing to me. As the case stands just now, I have no part, nor lot with him. I 61 have no interest in him. He is nothing to me." For, the first thing that Jesus has to be to any human soul, is that which my text suggests: "A Savior of that soul from sin and death." "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for it is he that shall save his people from their sins." This is not said of any other person in all history. It was never said of any patriarch, prophet or apostle. It was never said of Moses, Elijah, nor Paul. Of Jesus, only is it said, "He shall save his people from their sins."
And Jesus is not your Savior just because he is willing to save you. I know that it is written "this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." And I know it is written again, "the Lord is not willing that-any should perish." And again, "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And I know that Jesus himself said, "I came to seek and to save that which is lost." "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Neither is Jesus your Savior just because he is able to save you. I know that it is written, "He is able to save unto the uttermost, all who come unto God by him." But these two facts put together, that Jesus is both willing and able to save your soul, does not make him your Savior. He says, "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in." He will knock at the door of every human heart, yours and mine, but it is our place to open the door and let him in, for he never comes where he is not wanted. He never breaks down the door and forces himself upon a heart that does not want him. Jesus is not your Savior from the death that is the wages of sin, however willing and able he may be, unless you have opened the door of your heart and let him come in, unless you have accepted him as your own personal Savior, unless you have crowned him as king of your heart and life. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus, and he says, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me, and without me you Can do nothing." It has been my privilege to visit Niagara Falls several times. On one of my visits the guide pointed out to me the sport, and told me the story, of how a young man was saved there so wondrously from drowning. I have stood by the falls and listened to the thunderous roar of that mighty river as it plunges over that awful precipice. I have thought that the sound was like unto him whose voice is as the sound of many waters. I have watched the play of the colors of the rainbow formed in the mist, rising from the waters below; but some people think that the rapids and the great whirlpool down below the falls are a greater sight than the falls, themselves. The young man had seen the falls and then he went down below to see the rapids. He came down the long flight of steps from the bank above to the inner bank and sat down with his feet hanging over the rolling, boiling waters, as they were getting ready for that frightful plunge down through the rapids. No one knows how it happened, not even the young man himself, but somehow as he sat there watching those whirling, eddying waters, his head began to swim and all at once he plunged headlong into the mighty current that swept him down toward the rapids and certain death. Someone saw him when he fell. He was an expert swimmer, and, with strong, manly strokes, he struck out boldly, fighting for his life, but in spite of all he could do, he was swept by the mighty current, underneath the shelving bank and caught to the jutting fragment of a rock and held on for dear life. Someone saw him when he caught and said, What can we do to save him? Why not get in a boat and go down and get him? No boat could live in water like that. Why not let a rope down and let him take hold of that? But the rope would not reach him, he was back under the bank. There was just one way to save him. Someone must go down a rope ladder, swing out to where he was and reach out the saving hand. Ah, but who would do it? A crowd gathered on the bank above, the rope ladder was made and let down to the -water's edge, and a volunteer was called for and an old sailor, who happened to be home on furlough, volunteered and said that he would go down, and the crowd almost held their breath, as down that dizzy height, more than a hundred feet, he swung, came down to the water, swung out to where the young man was, almost exhausted, and ready to fall into the current which meant certain death, and the sailor said, "Take hold, I have come to save you." What would you have .thought if that young man in measured, courteous tones, had answered, "I am very much obliged to you for the interest you have manifested in me. I really appreciate it, and I will think the matter over, and some day perhaps I will accept your help, but I am not ready now." You say nobody but a fool would have made an answer like that. How eagerly he laid hold of the only hand that ever would be stretched out to him to save him! Long years ago the angels of God looked over the battlements of heaven, saw man as he fell into that awful current of sin, sweeping down to eternal death. They saw him as he caught, for a time, on the jutting fragment of life and they said, What can we do to save him? There was just one way. Somebody who loved him well enough would have to come down and reach out the saving hand. A volunteer was called for and amid all the serried hosts of snow white angels that surrounded the throne of God, not one was found.
Then Jesus, God's only Son, stepped out and said, "I will go," and out to this old world he came and he is here now, sinner friend, reaching out the only hand that ever will be stretched out to you with power to save, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Will you not accept him, here and now, as the Savior of your soul from that death which is the wages of sin. But Jesus may be more to a human soul than the Savior of that soul from the death which is the wages of sin. He may be also the deliverer of that soul from the power of sin and temptation, enabling one to fight successfully the battle of life and to come off more than conquerer.
Remember that Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing"; that God's word says, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation"; and that Paul declared, "Christ gave himself for us that he might deliver us out of this present evil world"; and the Holy Spirit says, "God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it." And you and I need Christ as the deliverer of our souls, just, as much as we need him as the Savior of our souls, for there is no one among us who tries to live the Christian life but finds his own experience like that of Paul, who cried out, "When I would do good, evil is present with me, and the good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do, for I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" Do you remember his answer? Have you not felt as he did that when you would do good evil was present with you; that the good you wanted to do, somehow you did not do? Have you not cried out, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" Do you remember Paul's answer, "I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord, thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." If you go out to fight the battle of life trusting simply in your own prowess, trusting in your own strong arms, relying upon self, you will fail, for Jesus says, "Without me you can do nothing. No man cometh unto the Father but by me." And you and I must learn to say, as Paul said, "Strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." Do you remember the time when Saul and his army encamped on one mountain while the Philistine army encamped on another with a narrow valley between? Do you remember how the old giant Goliath, more than nine feet tall, with a spear staff big as a weaver's beam, clad in a coat of mail from head to foot, came out into the valley between the two armies, each day for forty days and challenged the army of Israel to send out a man to meet him in single combat, saying to the army of Israel, "If your champion conquers me, we Philistines will be your servants, but if I conquer him, then you Israelites shall be our servants, and there was not found in all the army of Saul any man who would go out to meet him. At the end of forty days 65 David, the shepherd boy, came from his Bethlehem home, only a few miles away, to bring his brothers who were in Saul's army, food, and to inquire as to their welfare. David reached the camp just as the haughty old giant came out with his boastful challenge and David said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? I will go out to meet him." David's brothers thought that David was entirely too pert, entirely too forward, too important in his own sight, and they said to him, "You had better go back and take care of those few sheep that you left at home." But David said he would go and fight Goliath and Saul heard of his willingness to go, and sent for him, and when he found that David was not trusting in his own strength, or relying upon the might of his own arm for victory, but trusting in the God of Israel, and when David had told him that when a lion came out to steal away a lamb, and when a bear came out to kill a sheep, that God had enabled him to kill both the lion and the bear, and that through God's help, he could overcome this boastful Philistine, Saul said, "Go, my son, and may the God of Israel be with you." And you remember how David, the shepherd boy, armed with nothing but the stick with which he drove the sheep, and the sling and the five smooth stones which he picked up as he crossed the brook, and dropped into the shepherd's bag which hung at his side, went out to meet the great old giant. Goliath saw him coming, saw the stick in his hand, saw him pick up the five smooth stones and he mocked David, saying, "Am I a dog, that you come out against me with sticks and stones," and then he boasted, saying, "Come to me and I will give your flesh to the fowls of heaven and to the birds of the air." David answered, "You come to me with a sword and a spear and a shield, but I come unto thee in the name of the God of Israel, whose army thou hast defied and he will deliver thee into my hands." And you know how the stone sped from the sling, smote the giant in his forehead and he fell dead at David's feet.
Just a picture of the great battle of life that each Christian soul must fight against the giants of temptation that so thickly beset life's pathway, and woe be to the Christian soul that goes out to fight against these temptations, trusting simply in himself. In order to win the victory we must go out as David did, trusting in Israel's God, and saying, "He will deliver us and bring us off more than conquerors." So Jesus must be not only the Savior of the soul from the death that is the wages of sin, but the deliverer of that soul from the power of sin, enabling us to fight successfully the great battle of life and to say with Paul, "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
And you remember that when the death angel was to pass through the land of Egypt one night, God saved his people, Israel, from death by the blood of the Passover lamb, and also he delivered them from the bondage and bitterness of servitude, under Pharaoh, the cruel king. So, God saves the sinners from that death, which is the wages of sin by the blood of the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world, even Christ, who is our Passover, and he also delivers this one from the bondage and wretchedness of sin, by his Son, for Christ gave himself for us that he might deliver us out of this present evil world, but if Christ is your Savior from the death that is the wages of sin, and your deliverer from the bondage and power of sin, enabling you to fight successfully the battle of life, he may be much more than that to your soul. For he, himself, says, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me."
What does Jesus mean when he says, "I am the way"? He means that if you and I wish to know the way to be a Christian, look at him. We must learn to take life as he takes it, to think thoughts like his, to cherish feelings like his, to harbor purposes like his, to talk and act even as he did, for I am not a Christian, neither are you any further than we are making our lives like the life of Christ. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his," and Christ left us an example that we should follow his steps. Some people say, "One preacher tells me one thing and another preacher tells me something different, and still another something different from each of the others. All seem to be equally honest, and equally intelligent, and if those preachers cannot agree among themselves about what the right way is, when they have nothing to do but study the Bible all the time, how can they expect one situated as I am, to know which way is right? I would like to be a Christian. I have great respect for Jesus and the Bible, but I simply cannot know which way is right.
Listen, friend, the Bible nowhere says, "the preacher is the way, follow him." Do not follow this preacher, nor any other preacher, for all preachers make mistakes, but Jesus said, "I am the way, follow me." And Jesus made no mistakes, and if you and I will follow him, we shall make none.
Once I was riding horseback along a road and I came to a big staked and ridered fence which had been built directly across the road, completely stopping the only way which I knew, and the road turned out into the woods. I knew enough of that part, of the country to know that it was some five or six miles through that river bottom, with its heavy timber, before I could reach a clearing or a house. I did not know the way through, and if I had been like some people who do not want to start into a thing, even Christianity, until they can see their way through, I would have been sitting there yet, if I had not been dead, because I could not see all the way through that thick woods. And I did not need to do so. I looked out just a little way and saw a tree with a big blaze on it, and I knew that meant "Come this way." I rode on toward it and before reaching it, I saw on beyond another tree with a blaze and before I reached that I saw another, and I rode on through the entire distance without ever having to stop even once, and came out all right on the other side. Someone had gone on ahead and blazed out the way, and all I had to do was to follow the road marked out for me.
So Jesus has passed through this old world and has blazed out the way that leads home to heaven, for each one who will follow him. Perhaps all of you know what it means to march Indian file. You know that the old Indian chieftain went ahead of his warriors and the warriors followed, each one behind the other, and fifty or a hundred men could march through the: snow and when you looked back, it looked like the track of one man, for each warrior had put his foot down in the footprint of his chieftain.
Now, Jesus is called the captain, the chieftain of our salvation, and the part of every Christian soldier is to follow the footprints of Jesus. The old song runs thus, "Are you walking in his footsteps, as he bids you daily do? Do you follow after Jesus as the Bible tells you to?" This is what it means when Jesus says, "I am the way." Not that you and I go back to Palestine, look around the Sea of Galilee, seeking to find his footsteps in the sand and put our feet in them, but. as we go through life we take it as he took it, we think, feel, purpose, talk and act as Jesus did. This is what he meant when he' said, "I am the way, follow me."
When I was a boy in school we used to play a game called, "Follow the leader." Some strong, active, splendid runner was chosen as the leader, and the game was to follow him wherever he might go. No matter where he led, how wide the ditch he jumped, how steep the bank he climbed, whatever he did, each one must follow him. So, the Christian life is but the game of "Follow the leader," and that leader is Jesus, and I am not a Christian, neither are you any further than we are following Jesus in every act of our lives. A little boy came to his father one day and said, "Daddy, how many legs would a dog have if you should call his tail a leg?" The father said, "Why, son, I suppose if you called his tail a leg, he would have five." The little boy answered, "Why, daddy, do you not know better than that? He would not have but four." And the little boy was right. You might call a dog's tail a leg all day, but that would not make it one, and so it is with us. Calling one a Christian does not make him one. It is all right to call him a Christian, if he is one, but merely to call him one does not make him one No one is a Christian any further than he is reproducing in himself the life of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the modern definition of Christianity is true, and is expressed thus, "Christianity, the life of Jesus Christ, reproduced in a human life, so that our thoughts, feelings, purposes, words and deeds are like his." Whenever I have a thought, a feeling, or purpose, or speak a word or do an act, that Jesus would not do, if he were in my place. I am just that far off the way of being a Christian.
Mr. Sheldon was right in that little book which he wrote, "In His Steps," or "What Would Jesus Do?" when he said, "The simple rule of life for a Christian before he does anything is to ask, What would Jesus do, and then do to the very best of his ability just what Jesus would do, thus walking in his steps." But that is not all. Jesus is not simply the Savior of the soul from the death which is the wages of sin, and the deliverer of that soul from the power of sin and temptation, and the way of life, showing you and me just how to walk, even as he walked, but he says, "I am the light of the world, and he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." So, Jesus must be to your soul, not only Savior, deliverer and way, but also the light of that way, making life's pathway bright for every step which you take.
A road, a way, may be dark, and it is not pleasant to travel along a dark road, especially if you have never been that way before, when you do not know but what the next step might land you in a ditch. I am glad the Christian does not have to walk in the dark-ness, for Jesus said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." I believe in a religion that makes life's pathway bright about us. I read in the Bible that "the pathway of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." And the beloved John says, "If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
I do not believe in a religion of darkness and gloom. I believe that God made more sunshine than he did clouds; that he loves a smile just as well as he does a frown, and I believe that God's word says, "Rejoice in the Lord always," and that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace." I believe in a religion that makes life's pathway bright.
But I imagine someone is ready to say, "Oh, Brother Calhoun, you do not know what I have to bear, or you would not say that. You talk about life's pathway always being bright, and about rejoicing always, you do not know the load I have to carry, or you would not say that." No, dear heart, I do not know the load you have to bear, for no human heart can know what another human heart feels, and I have not said that there is no burden to bear. I know well that God's book says, "Every man shall bear his own burdens." I have not said there was no cross to carry, for I know well that Jesus said, "Whosoever doth not take his cross daily cannot be my disciple." But I am here to say that if you follow Jesus, he says, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." This can but mean that you may learn to bear your burdens, to carry your cross, even with a smile, and to look up through your tears and kiss the hand that smites and say, "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God."
When I was a little boy I used to walk along sometimes and notice that I was stepping in my shadow. Every time my foot came down it landed in the shadow. I used to try to step over the shadow, to reach beyond it. I could not do so. I used to run and jump and see if I could not get away from the shadow. I would land in the shadow every time. After a while I noticed that when I was walking in my shadow it was when I had my back to the sun, and if I would face about and walk toward the sun, the shadows would lie behind me. No matter how slowly I might go, they would never catch up, even if I went at a snail's pace, every step was in the light of the sun.
Since I have been a Christian sometimes I have walked in the shadows. Every time my foot came down it landed in the shadow, but after a while I noticed that when, as a Christian, I was walking in the shadow, it was when I had my back turned to him who is called the Sun of Righteousness, and that if I would turn my face toward Jesus the shadow would lie behind me and if I would follow Jesus faithfully, it was like he said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness."
One day an old man came into a young people's prayer meeting where the young folks were talking about their religious experiences. Many of them did not seem to be very happy. For many, life seemed rather gloomy. The old man sat in the back of the room and listened till he could stand it no longer, then stepping to the front he said, "My dear young friends, let me talk a little. I do not like these gloomy experiences. You do not seem to be having the joy, the light and sweetness that a Christian ought to have," and he said, "I am just back from the mountains out yonder in the west, that God piled up, those great old rookies like a stairway to the skies. They pointed out to me the tallest mountain of all, and said I should see the sun rise from its summit. One night I climbed up to the little half-way house, the little hotel built way up there on the mountainside, rested for a while, and then in company with a guide, started on to the summit to see the sun rise. We had not been gone very long when a thick cloud gathered round about us, the lightning flashed, the thunder roared, the rain fell in torrents, and the darkness, thick as midnight, gathered round us and I said to the guide, 'We had just as well go back, we cannot see the sun rise on a morning like this,' but with a strong, cheery voice that guide answered, 'Just follow me, we will come out all right yet.' On through the darkness and the storm we climbed, higher and still higher, till after a while we got above the clouds, and we came out where nothing intervened between us and the overarching blue of heaven, from which the stars were looking down like angel eyes, keeping watch over the sleeping world. We climbed on to the summit and standing there we watched the glorious old sun as he came riding over the eastern hilltops in his chariot of gold, flooding the world with light and beauty. We had gotten above the clouds. Down yonder in the valley was the same old storm cloud, with its lightning flash and thunder roar and raindrops still falling, but we had gotten above the clouds. And so, as we climb up toward the everlasting hills of God, if clouds of sorrow gather round about us, and the raindrops of tears fall thick and fast in life's pathway, just listen to the voice of your guide, Jesus, as he says, 'He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' " And the old man's advice was good. If clouds of sorrow and darkness gather about us, let us climb a little closer toward God and heaven, and the higher up toward God we climb, the fewer will be the clouds that intervene between us and the loving face of him who is called the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his beams.
So, Jesus must be the Savior of the soul from the death which is the wages of sin, the deliverer of the soul from the power of sin, the way of life for the human soul, and the light of that way, making life's pathway grow brighter and brighter, even to the per-fect day, till we reach that land where there is no need of the sun by day, nor the moon by night, for the Lord God gives them light and we shall dwell forever in the sunlight of his unending love.
What may Jesus Christ be to a human soul? The half has not yet been told, as to what Jesus may be to a human soul, nor have I time to tell even the half of what Jesus Christ may be. I wish. I had time to speak of him as the truth. You remember he said, "I am the truth." He taught the truth, even his enemies said, "Never man spake like this man." He lived the truth. Even the cold, critical Pilate, after three examinations, had said, "I find in him no fault at all." Is it not splendid to know that in this world where there is so much of falsehood and deceit, there is one who speaks the truth and lives the truth, and says, "Come to me."
I wish I had time to speak of him as our great prophet. You know that Moses said, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your brethren like unto me, and every soul that will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." And Jesus is that Prophet.
I wish I had time to speak of him as our Great High Priest, who, with his own precious blood, entered heaven itself, there obtained eternal redemption for our sins. So much so that God says, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember against them no more forever."
I wish I had time to speak of him as the King of Kings, the Lord of Glory, the one before whom the angels who accompanied him as he took his flight from this earth, and went to sit down at the right hand of God till every foe should be brought in subjection to his scepter of love, sang, those angels, as they drew near to those gates of gold that swung wide on their hinges of pearl, "Lift up your heads, 0, ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory will come in," while the angels around the throne answered back, "Who is this King of Glory?" And as he took his seat upon that throne where he sits, ever making intercession for us, all the hosts of heaven join in saying, "The Lord of Hosts, he is the King of Glory."
I wish I had time to speak of him as the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God.
I wish I could speak of him as the Lily of the Valley. Do you know why that Old Testament writer, speaking of him, calls him the Lily of the Valley, the fairest among ten thousand, the one altogether lovely. What more fitting symbol of that one whose life was whiter than the whiteness of the lily, and the pure gold of whose love was purer than any gold that earth ever saw.
I wish I had time to speak of him as the Rose of Sharon. Do you know why that Old Testament writer, looking down through 800 years said, "He is the Rose of Sharon"? Did you ever hear the old saying, "There is never a rose without a thorn"? It is a falsehood. On the lovely plain of Sharon, in the land of Palestine there grows a rose, beautiful and shapely of petal, bright with the colors of the rainbow, and sweet as. heaven's breath of perfume, your hand may pluck, with perfect freedom, this rose of Sharon, for there is 74 no thorn upon it, and that is why Jesus, hundreds of years before he was born, was called the Rose of Sharon. No hand was ever hurt, or ever will be, that lays hold upon the hand of Jesus Christ.
I wish I had time to speak of him as the Good Shepherd. He says himself, "I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, I lay down my life for the sheep." It was David who wrote, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters." I think in this land of ours we hardly know how to appreciate this language. Yes, we have sheep. Usually they are put in a pasture with a fence around it and left to look out for them-selves. Not so in that land. Every flock had its shepherd. The shepherd watched over his flock by day and by night, keeping away the robbers that came to steal, the wild beasts that came to kill and to tear. He led his flock into pastures green and beside waters still, so that they could say, "I shall not want. I will not fear."
Switzerland is a land of sheep, where every flock has its shepherd. One day a Swiss shepherd led his flock out into the little valley where they had fed many a time before. The grass was short, cropped by the teeth of many animals, the waters of the stream were muddy, stirred by the trample of many feet. Today the shepherd left his flock and climbed up the mountainside, watching his sheep all the time. He climbed up today higher than he had even been before, watching his sheep, for he loved them. Away up there on the mountain-side he came out into a beautiful little mountain valley, several acres in extent, where the rich tender grass was growing uncropped by the teeth of animals, where the water that burst out from the heart of the mountain, from a silver spring, ran across the meadow in clear sparkling pools and then dashed itself into spray and foam on the rocks below. As the shepherd looked at this scene of beauty and loveli-ness, he said, "Oh, what a splendid pasture for my sheep. I must get them up here somehow. And he went down into the bosom of the flock and called them. They knew his voice and they followed, followed up the mountain as far as they had ever been and a little further, but sheep are timid. They do not like to travel over new roads, and so they stopped and would not follow any further. Then the shepherd went down below and tried to drive them, but they would not go with him, they ran round him, and he said, "What shall I do? I must get them there somehow." He went into the midst of the flock and there was an old mother sheep there that had a little tender lamb, just a few days old, and the shepherd loved the little lamb, and he loved the mother sheep too. Tenderly as a mother might take her babe to her bosom, he took that little lamb into his own loving arms, pressed it against his heart and started climbing up the mountain. You know what that mother sheep did. She kept right at his heels, and though the way was rugged and steep, he climbed on and on until after a while he came out into the little mountain valley and set the lamb down unharmed in the rich tender grass, beside the cool sparkling waters, and when he turned round there was the mother sheep, and there were all the other sheep, too. I have seen that many a time. One day our good shepherd Jesus left his little flock feeding an the short grass and drinking the troubled waters of this old world, and he climbed up the everlasting hills of God till he came out into the sweet fields of Eden where the flowers never fade, where the sparkling waters of the river of life, clear as crystal, flow out from underneath the snow-white throne of God, where the tree of life grows on either bank of the river, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations, in that land of the unsetting sun, and as he looked over this scene of beauty and loveliness, he said, "Oh, what a splendid pasture for my sheep. I must get them up here somehow," and he comes down into the bosom of the flock and calls us and sometimes we will not be driven, and I have seen him come and take into his arms a precious little babe, a darling little lamb, a sweet little flower, sent to brighten the hearts and make glad the lives in some home, and I have seen the good shepherd as he bore this lamb away into the sweet fields of Eden because he loved his sheep, and he loved the little babe, and he knows that the ties of love broken here on earth are welded to the throne of God up yonder, for he says, "Where thy treasure is there will thy heart be also." It was but the call of the good shepherd as he sought to win our hearts from the things of this earth and bind them with cords of love to the treasures laid up above. It is not every time a little babe. Sometimes it is a pure, loving wife. Sometimes a brave, noble husband, but al ways in love and never in anger, does he take our loved ones away. It is the call of the shepherd to set your hearts on things above. Sometimes it is dear old mother, whose hair is white with the snows of many winters, whose face is wrinkled, and whose hands tremble, and yet, there never was a lover's touch quite so tender, or a lover's kiss quite so true as mother's, and the world never has seemed the same since the Good Shepherd came and took mother away, and we sang, "Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on his gentle breast." I doubt if there is a family represented here to which the Good Shepherd's call has not come as he has taken away our treasures from earth, laid them up in that heaven above which he asks us to accept as the gift of his love.