Magee (W. C), The Gospel and the Age, 155.
Mellor (E.), In the Footsteps of Heroes, 172.
Moss (R. W.), The Discipline of the Soul, 25.
PeaLody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, ii. 107.
Potts (A. W.), School Sermons, 71.
Shepard (J. W.), Light and Life, 242.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xx. (1874) No. 1150.
Talbot (E. S.), The Trusteeship of Life for the World, 1.
Walker (W. L.), The True Christ, 169.
Wardell (R. J.), Studies in Homiletics, 40.
Westcott (B. F.), Lessons from Work, 285.
British Congregationalist, June 1, 1911, p. 463 (Adeney).
Christian Wm'ld Pulpit, xlv. 347 (Stalker) ; Iv. 22 (Welldon), 254 (Bliss) ;
Ix. 98 (Abbott) ; Ixiv. 376 (Beeby) ; Ixix. 195 (Shepherd) ; Ixxii. 1
(Griffith-Jones), 4 (Home) ; Ixxiv. 161 (Holland). Church Times, October 27, 1911, p. 556 (Donaldson). Churchman's Pulpit : Whit-Sunday : ix. 246 (Sadler), 250 (Battershall),
253 (Peabody). Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., iv. 321 (Newbolt). Interpreter, January, 1912 (Gwatkin). Sunday at Home, August, 1910, p. 799 (Morrison).
The Greatest Thing in the World.
The thief coraeth not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy : I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. — John x. lo.
Jesus is here contrasting Himself with other teachers; with those who taught the people only in order to win their following, while He, in the spirit of disinterested love, taught them for their own good. Those were more worthy of the title " thieves " than " shepherds," for their object was a selfish and a sectarian, not a humanitarian one. They wanted men for their church. He ■ wanted men for their salvation. He claimed to be the "Good Shepherd " because He secured for the sheep life at the cost of His own. And not merely that. It was not bare life that He secured for them, but abounding life, life that it is a joy to live. V The sheepfold of the East is an enclosure made of high stakes or palings. As the evening closes in, the shepherd comes from the pasture-land leading his flock of sheep. It is a small flock always, such as he can oversee easily ; and he knows every sheep by nature and by name. He leads the flock into the fold. Another shepherd comes with his flock. And when all the flocks are housed, the porter shuts the door (each shepherd having gone home to his cottage in the neighbour village), and stays beside the flocks till morning. In the night a thief comes stealthily, climbs over the palings, and slips down noiselessly into the fold. He lays hold of one of the sheep, but the porter has seen him. There is a struggle. If not the porter himself, at least the sheep the thief has seized is killed, and probably destroyed. He escapes before the shepherds arrive in the morning. With the early dawn the shepherds come. Each shepherd knocks at the door of the sheepfold; the porter opens. He calls his own flock by name, and they follow him away to the pasture-ground for the day.
428 GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD
Jesus is the Shepherd of the sheep. The Pharisees and Sadducees are the thieves. Jesus comes to give : they come to steal. Jesus comes to give life : they come to take life away. Jesus comes to give life in abundance : they come to destroy it altogether. The Pharisees and Sadducees of to-day are the enemies of Christ, be they who they may. They are the world, the flesh, the devil. The sheep are those for whom the choice is waiting. Choose ye this day. We are the sheep of some one's pasture — His or the Devil's. We may follow Him to receive, to receive life, to receive life in abundance. We may follow Satan to lose, to lose life, to lose it utterly !
1. The thief takes : the Shepherd gives. " The thief cometh not, but that he may steal : I came that they may have." This is the ineffaceable distinction between the world and the Saviour. The world cries, " Give me " : the Saviour cries, " I give thee." The world is selfish: the Saviour is unselfish. The princes of this world exercise lordship : I am among you as He that serveth. Selfishness, they say, is the essence of sin: it is certainly the essence of the world, which is the sphere of sin. The world says — and practises it — that it is more blessed to receive than to give : Jesus says it is more blessed to give than to receive ; and He gave His life a ransom.
2. The thief takes life : the Shepherd gives life. " The thief cometh not, but that he may kill : I came that they may have life." Life and death are the great words of Scripture, and their meaning must be watched. " Death " on the lips of Jesus is not physical, but spiritual. "The maid is not dead, but sleepeth" — and they laughed Him to scorn. As if they did not know when a person was dead ! But He spake not of the death of the body. That was not death. " She that liveth in pleasure is dead while *he liveth." So also with " Life." Life was not physical health land strength, it was fellowship with God, in the language of * Jesus. Life, .say the men of science, is correspondence with the