methods for learning truth, but school ourselves to respect his methods. If doing his will brings us to light, then let us begin obeying at once. The blind man “came seeing." He saw his dear ones, his fellow men, for the first time, and he saw his Benefactor. His cure was complete. When Jesus opens the eyes of the mind we see our fellow men as we never did before. We see the wondrous things in his law. In the things that are temporal we see the things that are spiritual.

Edward Sampson Tead.

CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD

JOHN 10: 1-16

"I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep."

This chapter is the Twenty-third Psalm of the New Testament. It is, at once, the expression of Christ's tenderness of heart and of Christ's hatred of hypocrisy and narrowness. A little while ago, Jesus gave sight to a blind man. There were some who did not rejoice with him in his joy. They were the Pharisees. They treated him with harshness. They excommunicated him. We can imagine his feelings. He had been brought up to regard the ecclesiastical authorities of Jerusalem as representatives of God. To him they stood for the utmost and highest things in his religious world. The penalty laid upon him by their harsh decision must have seemed a heavy price to pay for sight. It would have been almost better to have remained blind than to see and be an outcast from the people and things of God. In pity for him, in hatred for the bigotry of the Pharisees, Jesus spoke. They claim to be shepherds of Israel. He tells them he is the shepherd and they are false. He tells the despairing man whom he has healed that no edict of men can shut out from God the penitent and believing soul. No man can stand between the soul and the perfect enjoyment of the privilege and blessing of fellowship with the Father. Not the temple, not the priesthood, not the Pharisees, but He is the door through which the man comes to God. In this wonderful allegory, Jesus aims to create true

independence of spirit; to lift all who believe above all fear of human edicts and to give them freedom from bondage to ecclesiastical authority.

The setting of this truth of the soul's privilege of approach to God through him and of the possibility of unhindered communion with God despite priesthoods and councils may have been suggested to Jesus by a sight common in Palestine. Perhaps it was the evening hour when, near by, a shepherd was folding his flock. As they watched him carefully lead in the sheep and saw him close and fasten the door, Jesus said, "This is my work. I am the good shepherd. So do I care for those who love me. I lead them into the fold of my Father's protecting care. I, myself, am the door by which they enter. I lead them forth, as the shepherd in the morning does his flock, that they may be fed and given to drink, and if they are attacked I even lay down my life for them as the shepherd sometimes does in defence of his flock." And so Jesus may have talked with them, with this living illustration before their eyes, until they could no longer fail to understand his mission but with grateful hearts own him as their good shepherd.

Christ's words were certainly not idly chosen. This figure of the sheepfold and the shepherd the hearers, alike the restored blind man and the Pharisees, would readily comprehend. The thought was familiar to them. Many of their noblest national heroes, like David, Moses, Abraham, had been shepherds, and some of their greatest prophets had been summoned from the flock to the leadership of the people of God. The Old Testament is full of this idea of the shepherd relation of God to his people. The twenty-third psalm was familiar to them. They had read in the prophecy of Isaiah of one who would gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom. Ezekiel had given them the picture of God's people scattered like sheep among the hills and of God seeking them in the dark

and cloudy day and bringing them safely to the fold at last. Jesus always speaks in words men can understand. Through the things and duties and experiences of life, he addresses living men. He speaks in our tongue the wondrous truths of God. If we do not comprehend, it is because we have dulled our minds by sin and hardened our hearts against him.

This allegory tells us many things about Jesus.

I. Christ sheltering.

If Christ is the door through which we pass into fellowship with God, he is, also, the door which shuts behind us and keeps us safe with God. From out the hollow of his hand no man can snatch the soul. To God through Christ; with God by Christ. This is the inspiration from this chapter for every believing heart. The wild beasts of evil rage in vain around the life that is hid in Christ. Over the walls of his grace no robber can climb to despoil the soul that is safe within. Through the door of his love, no enemy can break to harm the heart that rests in him. Christ puts around his disciple an invisible yet impenetrable barrier. He wants his follower to be in the world. The nearer one is to Jesus Christ the nearer must he be to men and the deeper must be his interest in their problems and battles. Citizen is Christian spelled in another way. Patriotism is piety in more letters. Jesus Christ was in closer touch with the times in which he lived on earth than was any other man. The gospels are the only literature from that period which records any attempt to solve the problems then existing in city and country. Jesus expects his disciple to be in the world. This expectation would bring despair to faith were it not for the fact given us in this chapter and in similar utterances, but nowhere so beautifully and perfectly as here, of the sheltering Christ who is content only with putting his very self about his own. Hid in him, no dart of evil reaches his trusting disciple. All

assaults must first strike him and against his unconquerable strength are powerless. In him, we are so safe we can save others. Grace has broad margins.

II. Christ leading.

Christ goes in advance of his sheep. He is more than a guide. He experiences in advance of his disciples whatever the way may bring. In both the Old and New Testaments he is given the place of leadership. He permits his own to follow no path along which he has not gone before. He has traveled all our paths save that of sin. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. If we have eyes to see, we can trace his footsteps along every path we walk. No way is so hard that he shrinks from it. Always and everywhere Christ leads his sheep. When the fishermen of the Mediterranean are out in a dense fog, the women stand on the beach and sing, and so the boats are guided home. Jesus comes closer than this to his befogged and groping disciple. He is in the same path, just a little in advance, and guides with his very presence. To his people in the old dispensation, God gave a guiding angel; to us, the leading Christ.

This relation means two things: First, his sheep cannot be lost. Paths may cross and recross. Guides may differ from each other. The way may be so obscured that the eye of faith can hardly detect it. Duties may seem to conflict and the way forward be barred by impassable seas and pathless forests. Yet the shining presence of Christ is always somewhere in advance, the unfailing and unerring guide along the way of life. As the shepherd of Palestine knew every foot of the country through which he led his flock, and in the darkest night as well as the clearest day guided his sheep to the fold or to pasturage, so Christ safely guides his own through all the devious paths of life, in the midnights of sorrow or in the noondays of joy, to the Father's house of many mansions. It is much for the