3. He comes to seek the lost.
^(1) Christ goes in quest of men. — He had His eye on Zacchaeus when he climbed into the sycomore tree. He knew where the objects of His pity were to be found, and directed His course and shaped His plans that He might meet with them. He did not sit in solemn pomp, did not dwell in quiet glory, awaiting the approach of the miserable and guilty. His love was not of the easy nature that merely listens to the cry of woe and want, that stretches out the hand when power is supplicated — but of the nobler kind that goes after the lost and ruined. He was the missionary of salvation, not only its magnificent dispenser.
^ David Brown, Memoir of John Duncan, 143.
ST. LUKE XIX. lo 389
^ A story is told of Garibaldi that in one of his arduous campaigns, one evening when he and his troops were preparing to encamp for the night, they came upon a shepherd who told Garibaldi that he had lost a lamb and was going out to search for it. The general gave permission to his followers to go out and search for the lost lamb, but, as darkness fell, they turned in tired for the night's rest. Not so, however, with the leader himself, for in the early morning, Garibaldi emerged from the mist carrying the lost lamb.
"0 Shepherd with the bleeding Feet,
Good Shepherd with the pleading Voice, What seekest Thou from hill to hill? Sweet were the valley pastures, sweet
The sound of flocks that bleat their joys, And eat and drink at will. Is one worth seeking, when Thou hast of Thine Ninety and nine?"
"How should I stay My bleeding Feet,
How should I hush My pleading Voice ? I who chose death and clomb a hill, Accounting gall and wormwood sweet,
That hundredfold might bud My joys For love's sake and good will. I seek My one, for all there bide of Mine Ninety and nine."^
^ A beautiful scene is that which shows us the Bishop seeking for one of his flock, a little girl who had wandered into the wilder- ness. Jeannie de Nord was a child of ten years, with a com- plexion scarcely darker than an ordinary English gipsy. Her father, old de Nord, had left her with an aunt while he went away some distance to hunt. The aunt was neglectful of her little charge, and Jeannie unable to bear this started in search of her father. So little did the aunt care that two days elapsed before the word spread that Jeannie was lost.
No sooner did the Bishop hear of it than, like the true shepherd he was, he started with others in search of the little wanderer. They pushed on over the snow, following the girl's tracks, for she had taken her snow-shoes with her. She had no food or blanket, and the nights were cold, and starving wolves roamed the forests. And where was Jeannie ? She had reached her father's abandoned camp one night, cold and tired. Groping about, she found his gun, which had been left there, and with the cunning of the wild she
* Christina G. Rossetti.
390 CUR DEUS HOMO
discharged the weapon, and from the spark thus obtained started a fire, which kept her warm through the night. All the next day she wandered in vain, searching for her father, and, tired and hungry, crept back to the abandoned camp and fell asleep. When she next opened her eyes, it was to see standing before her the tall figure of the anxious Bishop, and to feel his strong loving arms around her as he lifted her from the ground.
The shepherd had found the lost lamb, but oh, at what a cost ! The Bishop's clothes were soaking from the overflowing streams they had crossed as they wandered about, and he could hardly reach Fort Simpson, so great were the cramps which seized him, and for days he endured great suffering. But what did it matter ? Little Jeannie de Nord was safe, and none the worse for her experience.^
(2) That quest is continuous. — The quest is not exhausted by one act, or satisfied with one response. It is not merely that God seeks us in the hour of our proud and vain revolt, when our wilful heart bids Him a proud defiance. He does seek us then, and, by the thousand ingenuities of a love that is deeper than we can ever know, strives to woo us to reciprocal love and cleansing affection. But He goes infinitely farther than that. He is ever seeking us in the deeper reaches of our life, in its innermost and most sacred shrines, that He may find us in our largest capacities and win us absolutely to Himself. Every day of our life, when by some dis- loyalty of our heart we stray the least bit from Him ; when by some unholy thought our mind is stained and made unworthy to be His temple, when by some act of selfishness the old bad life has a momentary supremacy, He quickly follows in pursuit of us to call and bring us home. He lights His light in our conscience and smites us with shame ; He reveals His love and melts us into cleansing tears ; He reveals His face and compels us by the sweet compulsion of a great attraction.