REVELATION vii. 17 211
the heat of moral judgment, of sheer holiness — the heat of the Apocalypse.^
II.
The Lamb as Shepherd.
1. Christ is the Lamb, and He is the Shepherd — that suggests not only that the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ is the basis of all His work for us on earth and in heaven, but the very incon- gruity of making One who bears the same nature as the flock to be the Shepherd of the flock is part of the beauty of the metaphor. It is His humanity — His continual manhood — all through eternity and its glories, that makes Him the Shepherd of perfected souls. They follow Him because He is one of themselves, and He could not be the Shepherd unless He were the Lamb. All Christ's shepherding on earth and in heaven depends, as do all our hopes for heaven and earth, upon the fact of His sacrificial death. It is only because He is the ''Lamb that was slain" that He is either the " Lamb in the midst of the throne," or the Shepherd of the flock. And we must make acquaintance with Him in the character of " the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," before we can either follow in His footsteps as our Guide or be compassed by His protection as our Shepherd.
Tl This beautiful multitude in Heaven will be led by " the Lamb." Very meek must they be whom the Lamb shall lead : very pure, not to shame Him who is without blemish and without spot : very innocent, to be made one flock with Him.^
^ Before the creation of the world we were destined to be His flock, and He was appointed to be our Shepherd. Even if man- kind had not strayed away from the paths of righteousness, the relation of shepherd and flock would have existed. But having so strayed He took our earthly form upon Him to arrest our wanderings and to lead us back to the fold. Jesus is our Shepherd, not only during our earthly pilgrimage, but also through eternity. " He ever liveth " to be our loving Master and Friend. " I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." In the many mansions of the Father's
* H. Scott Holland, Personal Studies, 234.
» Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the 2?«g?, 238.
212 THE LAMB AS A SHEPHERD
house the flock of the redeemed shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun smite them, nor any heat ; for their Good Shepherd, Jesus, who hath mercy on them, shall feed them and lead them to fountains of living waters, and God Himself shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.^
^ Beyond the human region, out among those Eternities and Immensities where Carlyle loved to roam, there is that which loves and seeks. This is the very essence of Christian faith. The Good Shepherd seeketh the lost sheep until He finds it. He is found of those that sought Him not. Until the search is ended the silly sheep may flee before His footsteps in terror, even in hatred, for the bewildered hour. Yet it is He who gives all reality and beauty even to those things which we would fain choose instead of Him — He alone. The deep wisdom of the Cross knows that it is pain which gives its grand reality to love, so making it fit for Eternity, and that sacrifice is the ultimate secret of fulfilment. Truly those who lose their life for His sake shall find it. Not to have Him is to renounce the possibility of having anything: to have Him is to have all things added unto us.2
How fair and green yon blessed field
Beyond dark Jordan's flood reveal'd!
Eternal waters from the Eock
Fall ever for that happy flock;
The Shepherd Lamb with endless care
Among them moves and guides them there.
Yet we who tread the desert still Share even now that Shepherd's skill; The sands indeed around are spread, The sun beats heavy overhead, But where He leads us, there is traced A long Oasis through the waste.
Our Elim still beside us moves,
With brimming wells and shadowing groves;
The mystic Eock is aye at hand
To cool and water all the land;
The Lord's green footsteps now create
Heaven's foretaste in our pilgrim state.
* A. F. Mamreov, A Day with the Good Shepherd, 84.
* J. Kelman, Among Famous Books, 322.
REVELATION vii. 17 213
Then let us live as those who know
Eternal joys begun below;
Staff, shield, and sword, we need them yet,
For foes and traitors still beset;
But aye let harps and songs abound;
"We're marching through Emmanuel's ground."^
2. The ministry of the Good Shepherd does not close when He has brought back a lost sheep to the fold, and the wilderness is not the only scene of its activities. In the unknown land into which our friends pass, and from which no messages come back to us, redeemed souls still need His guiding hand. They are not left to explore for themselves the mysteries of the strange world into which they have gone, and to discover its riches. He tends His own there just as graciously as in this hard, bleak sphere of peril and distress. They have faded from our view, old and young alike, and we can do nothing more to help them. But they are still under the eye and the hand of the Good Shepherd. He who guided the outgoings of His first disciples amidst the hills of Galilee and by the lake shore, through the plains of Samaria and in the highlands of Judaea, will guide the quests of the celestial life. The hand that multiplied the bread on earth will minister the mystic manna. The holy feet that went before the disciples will lead into the pathways of the living fountains. The old pastoral fellowship is re-established. He will give of the best things of His Kingdom on high just as freely as He made the disciples share every blessing of His own lot upon earth. The life to come will be infinitely varied, and the Lord Himself will show the way into the mysteries of its manifold blessed- ness. "He shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life."