is present with his people as their Owner. He comes to them to claim them. He visits bis inheritance to take possession of it. When we perceive that God is with us. we have to go further and acknowledge his relationship to us. It is much to ackaow- ledge that we do not belong to ourselves, that we are God's possession, bought with e. great price, and valued by him as precious property is valued by its. owner. Ver. 31.-God's flock. Israel was formerly God's flock. Christians are now God's flock. I. Cm:rsTIANS ARE CONSTITUTED INTO A FLOCK. The wanderina sheep are restored. They no longer roam at large over the mount!l.ins. They are gath~red together. Man is naturally gregarious. Religion should deepen this characteristic by destroying, selfishness and quickening the great social instinct, love. Thus Christ founded the Church idea. He recognized that he bad many sheep that were not of the /ol,d, of Israel, or of his first community of disciples, and he prayed that they might all become one flock, even if they might not all be gathered into onefold. It may be impossibl& to restore the external ur.ity of Christendom. At all events, this grand consummation seems at present to be far off, and some of those who profess to desire it most fervently do their worst to postpone it by their narrowness, bigotry, and self-assertion. Certainly, if the dream is ever realized, it will not be by all sections of Christendom succumbing to the views and practices of any one party, but by a general agreement within large lines of liberty. Meanwhile, thongh we may not have one fold, we should be one flock. There should be a spirit of brotherhood among all Christians. The boundaries of folds do not convert sheep into wolves. The spiritual unity of Christendom may be accomplished in the spirit of charity and sympathy taking possession of the hearts of all Christians. IL CHRISTIANS ARE TENDED AS A FLOCK. The flock is under the care of a shepherd. God has "set up one Shepherd over" his flock (ver. 23)-Christ, who cares for his sheep to the extent of giving his life for them. The flock of Christ is variously tended. 1. It iBfed. God has not left his people in the wilderness, or, if they must traverse that barren region, he sends heavenly manna and gives water from the rock. 2. It is sheltered. The shepherd watches over the flock by night and drives off beasts of prey. Christ guards his people from harm and danger. 3. It is led. The shepherd leads bis sheep by the still waters, and ultimately home to their fold. God led bis people Israel "like a flock" (Pa. lxxvii. 20), till they had passed all the perils of the forty years' wandering, crossed the Jordan, and taken possession of the promised land. Christ leads his people through life safely on towards the heavenly Canaan. III. CBBIISTIANB SHOULD BEHAVE AS A FLOCK, 1. They shouldfollow the Shwpherd. Christianity is walking in the footsteps of Christ (John xii. 26). We cannot expect the grace of Christ if we wander from him. 2. The flock is the property of its Owner; it exists for his advantage. It is net to be supposed that we are to receive countless blessings and render no return in obedience. The supreme end of the Church is the glory of God, though this is attained in conjunction with its own highest welfare. 3. The sheep are foolish, weak, helpless creatures. 'Jhe Shepherd is far greater than they. Be deserves to be looked up to with trust, and followed obediently. In our ignorance, folly, and weakness we should trust and obey our good Shepherd, who is wiser and stronger than we, and whose will is supreme over our lives.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-10.-The human shepherds of the floclc. It is a comparison as old, yes, older than literature, this of the people to a flock of sheep, and of their rulers, leaders, and spiritual instructors to the shepherds whose vocation it is to protect, care for, and feed them. Both in the Old and New 1'estament Scriptures we meet with passages in which unfaithful, careless, selfish, and grasping religious teachers and leadera are denounced as hirelings who have nothing of the true shepherd's heart-no watchfulness, com- miseration, and self-sacrifice. In the time of Ezekiel there were those who, called to be pastors and reputed to be :pastors, were nevertheless destitute of the pastoral character and habitL CB. XXXIV. 1-31.) TUE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. 21i