walks before them, as an Eastern shepherd always does, never requiring them to go where he does not first go himself. Such a shepherd the sheep follow with implicit confidence, and, know- ing his voice, go wherever he calls them.
The words of Moses should be read : " Let the Lord set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in : that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. " (Num. xxvii. 16, 17.)
That Eastern shepherds " lead " their sheep, is clear from Exod. iii. 1: " He led the fiock ; " andPsalmxxiii.2 : " He leadeth me."
ft. — [And a stranger icill they not follow, etc.'] This verse concludes the picture of a true shepherd and his flock. It was a fact well known to all our Lord's hearers, that sheep accustomed to one shepherd's voice would not obey a stranger's voice, but would rather be frightened at it. Just so true Christians have a spir- itual taste and discernment by which they distinguish a false teacher, and will not hear him. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things." (1 John ii. 20.) The poor and illiterate believers often illustrate this in a very extraordi- nary way.
Brentius observes here the singular faculty which sheep possess of always knowing and recognizing the voice of their own shepherd. He also notices the extraordinary knowledge that the lamb has of its own mother's bleat among a thousand others, as a curious characteristic of an animal in many respects dull and stupid.
Scott observes that this verse justifies true Christians in not listening to false teachers. For leaving their parish church per- haps, under these circumstances, many reproach them. Yet the very men who reproach them would not trust their worldly affairs to an ignorant and dishonest lawyer, or their bodies to an incom- petent doctor! Can it be wrong to acton the same principles for our souls?
Besser observes : " Sheep flee from a false shepherd. They will not say, it is enough if we do not follow this strange preacher in those points in which he holds forth unsound teach- ing. They will have nothing at ail to do with him. They will flee from him as from a contagious disease." (2 Tim. ii. 17.)
Bickersteth observes that this verse, and the third, throw light on the pastoral office of ministers. " How much of ministerial influence depends on personal knowledge ! Great is the hindrance to the influence when an overgrown population renders it impos- sible."
6. — [This parable. ..Jesus.. .them.'] The word rendered "parable" here hardly bears the sense of the expression. It is rather " allegory, " or figurative picture. However, it clearly settles that the whole passage must be taken as a picture of spiritual