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2 <M?) THE
many years; if you believe that I would take
you to your destination, upon what ground do
you suppose that the Lord will forsake you when
the journey is nearly completed?" It is a sad
truth that a certain "quantum of miserableness
seems" almost essential to some people's happiness
It is criminal and a reflection upon God
Almighty for those of us already in possession
to intimate the possibility of being dispossessed.
And to say that ' God will help those who help
themselves" is nothing less than religious infidelity;
for it is oft when we are most helpless
that he comes to our rescue. Further, he says,
"Thou preparest a table before me." Here is
the promise of that which Jesus taught us to
pray for?daily bread. If the temporal does
not satisfy our hunger, here is the spiritual: "1
am the bread of lire: he that cometli to me shall
never hunger." If some of us Christians could
change feelings with some worldlings about us,
?nd experience the hungering and thirsting and
emptiness which they experience, we would begin
spontaneously to sing, "How rich is my condition;
God and heaven are still my own." If
we could only let these four words, "I shall not
want," soak into our beings, like oil into a soft
plank, we would never come to want. Our
trouble is that we want-too much and expect
loo little.
4. Now, to coin a word, "I shall not want"
shepherding. In the East the shepherd was a
necessity to the sheep. This was so for three
icaauus: uuiuciy, l?u uccuuuc oi me topograpny
of the country; on account of the enemies of
the sheep; and on account of the guilelessness
of the sheep. Well, to make the application,
the life we now live, in many instances, is a very
rugged one. Observation teaches us that life
with the average person is a great struggle.
Hence, the necessity of a Shepherd to keep us
away from the dangerous precipices of temptation
into which we would fall. They are legion!
We often feel the sudden shock indicted by the
Shepherd's crook fastened into the wool of our
worldly hopes and ambitions which, without his
presence, would result in our eternal ruin. But
in mercy, which seems harsh, he jerks us back
when we are most in danger. Further, we are
encompassed about with enemies. The pity of it
is that we are so foolishly guileless. There are
many vile beasts and venomous serpents about
us. If it were not so. Jesus had not called men
by such ugly names as "fox. wolves, swine, serpents,
children of the devil." They are here,
and we must recognize them- Our new president
savs, "I believe we have substituted a lot of
music and entertainment in our church exercises
because we have no belief in the deeper things."
This is sadly true. We have blasphemed the
resurrection with Faster nonsense; we have allowed
the choirs to sing away the preaching
hour; we have destroyed the spiritual organism
of the church with carnal organizations; we have
made the place of worship a plav-honse at Christmas
time: we are turnincr a deaf ear to the voire
of the Shepherd, because we are hirelings and
care not for the sheep. Contrary to the teachings
of the Apostle, and practice of Christ, we
are gradually introducing women into the ministry.
Tint for all this, even when the sheep have
heen driven from the visible Church, they shall
not want a Shepherd to lead them into "the way,
the truth and the life." Cod's elect people will
then pever be without a Shepherd, though they
innir nnt Vmvo wtiow tn liv tinmla
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as church is concerned. "We are drifting and
the current is swift and strong! The good Shepherd
is speaking to us in ship-wreck and earthquake
and in tornadie storms! TTis voice may
not he heard, hut his mighty arm is felt! The
need of a Shepherd is evidenced by the fact that
these beasts of the forest are not less numerous
1 PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
and dangerous than the heresies of this age.
And all of them are inviting; for they offer pasture
and the still waters of fatalistic chance,
insensibility to God and sin, the promise of a
glorious immortality independent of the only
name under heaven given whereby we must be
saved, uut "l shall not want;" for, says the
Shepherd, the sheep follow him; for they know
his voice: they know not the vdice of strangers;
1 lay down 1113' life for the sheep; I pray for
them; 1 pra}- not for the world (goats) ; I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish,
neither shall am' man pluck them out of
my hand." Thank God for this Shepherd in
whose flock there is not a goat! If I am his
sheep, 1 will listen to his voice and turn a deaf
car to the carping of those who are today craeifying
him afresh "between the two thieves of
commercialism and worldliness." The most
glaring exhibition of the silliness of the sheep
is seen in the "officers" allowing the more "hireling"
to lead the Hock into Christless pastures
and there thirst and starve them to death for
the want of gospel preaching; to subject them
to the fierce attacks of Roman, and all other
kinds of isms- Makes no difference if vour undershephcrd
is "poor preach," in your estimation,
since he is not pandering to this world,
since he is in the right pasture, since he is
preaching the "disac/rccable" gospel of truth.
Thank the great Shepherd for him, bless him
with your love and prayers and means, and in
eternity, for your own sake and children's sake,
you will praise God for this so-called "poor
preacher."
5. "I hall not want for companionship."
indeed this is a lonely world to the consecrated
Christian. No one ever suffered from loneliness
more than Jesus. We should not be surprised
if we are lonely; for it is not natural to supnfiSP
tllflt. vifA will nri(lor<tun(l vii^iiu tViaf Uiq
carnal mind will appreciate the heavenly. We
do not assert that the Christian who believes on a
high plane will be dcstitutte of companionship
among people, but we do assert that the man
who lives thus will not find companionship common.
It is a comparatively rare thing to meet
one in whose presence, from a religious point,
you can feel perfectly at home. When one is
misunderstood, misrepresented, mistreated, hated
U'ltllAllf O AQ11QA no Irtdlio urafi /I ?? b
P Jiuviu u. tttuoc, ci*3 u uouo ac, uiiu an Jli? OUl VOllL
will be, it will produce a sense of loneliness.
On one occasion this sp"ll of loneliness come
over the Saviour and he found great comfort in
the thought that the Father was with him- Now
since the resurrection he is ever present with
his people: "Lo, I am with you always." David
lmew all about the feeling and took refuge in
the thought, "Thou art with me." And this very
thought of'the Shepherd's presence made him
courageous; for he says, "I will fear no evil."
The Shepherd was not only kind and gentle, but
he was courageous. He could see the danger
without being afraid. The sheep in passing
along in the valley, where the wolf dwelt, would
get near to the Shepherd, and this would cjlispel
all fear. Let ns draw a distinction bet wen
timidity, which is c-vidonce of a refined nature,
and cowardice, which is evidence of a deformed
saul. The grace of courage is one which I fear
we ministers lack; tor some of us seem afraid to
preach the whole truth, afraid to correct errors
iu our tlocks; afraid to de*trc> some of the little
idols in our worship: afraid of mortal man.
whose breath is in his nostrils and whose imnosincr
-presence is an handful of dust! Tf we
had the convictions and courage of John Knox,
who "never feared the face oP man," there
would be a wonderful transformation in the
Church. Thousands of people spend each day
in misery because they live in fear of mortal
man. And there is no better indication of in*
I
I
UTH [April 30, WW
fidelity than this- It shows that the Shepherd
is not at our side. "Cowards die many times
before their deaths; the brave never taste of
death but once." It is an enormous sin which
few are brave enough to acknowledge. For my
part I bad rather dig a ditch without fear than
to tremble in a palace- If we are not ashamed
of this sin. we ought to be afraid of it, and we
would fear nothing else. Cowardice and dis
honesty go hand in hand. If we are too cowardly
to preach the gospel, we ought to bo afraid
to take the pay. A preacher can be brave and
not be rash. AVe ought to enjoy the assurance
of him who said, "I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me." I know from personal experience
what it is to meet an Ecclesiastical lion in the
way. All of the religious Goliaths are not yet
dead. Get the Shepherd to go with you, and
put our live smooth Calvinistic stones in the
pouch, take out just the first, put it in your
sling and drive it in the forehead and the enemy
will fall to the earth.
ii.?. it
i ni/ii eiui/rj /( /(( (( huh, iiiuu t'cu uriii
77tou Ziffle valiant, great in villavy!
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
Thou fortune's champion, that dost never fight
But when her humorous ladyship is by
To teach thee safety." (Shaks.)
6. "I shall not want" for forgiveness. "lie
restorcth my soul." It is very easy for the sheep
to wander away and be taken captive in the
strangers's pasture. Then it is that the Shepherd
goes in search of the lost sheep, pays the
redemptive price of transgressing, lays upon the
wandering sheep's back the rod oC correction
vlleb. 12:5-8), leads him home. The difference
between a saved sinner and a lost sinner is the
difference between a sheep and a goat. The
sheep's very nature is different from the goat.
The sheep may be soiled with charred wood, he
may be bruised and suffering. The goat, on the
other hand, may he free from those, especially
because his hair is straight and his nature coarse,
hut for all that he is only a goat. And you
cannot make a lamb out of a kid, nor can you
make a kid out of a lamb. I think Jesus made
this clear when he said, "I lay down my life
for my sheep." '"And other sheep have I which
are not of this fold," but no goats. The sheep
love the Shepherd; but no one ever heard of
goats loving anybody except themselves. I tried
j'or month? to win the affection of a goat by feed
and kindness, but, somehow, it was a failureI
have seen a few goats that looked better in
appearance than sheep, but the goat was there.
No sane person will presume to go astray purposely
because of the difference; because out of
a sense of sin we might imagine ourselves goats
when we were really sheep, and the home-coming
process, which the Shepherd administers, is a
very painful one. The process of restoration
is sometimes terrible. You will recall how David
wished himself dead for the sake of his disobedient
son, Absalom? Alas, the sheep bring much
unnecessary sorrow upon themselves by wandering
away, and they think the Shepherd's stroke
very severe. It may be necessary to destroy the
body, but "he resloreth my soul." Blessed is
the man who can say. "I do not want for forgiveness."
One of the most difficult things to
do is to impress people with the fact that Jesus
came into this world to seek and to save that
which wa3 lost. Th^ self-righteous man's door
is closed in our face. The pious are often so
sensible of sin that they find it difficult to believe
that such sinners as thev deem themselves
to be can be the reeiriicnts of snch mercy. 'But
'where sin abounded grace did mneh more
abound." The mercy of God is greater than
the sin of the penitent sheep- This process of
restoration is constanttly going on in our lives.
With the restoration of the souls comes the joy
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