The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-03-02
THE DIVINE SHEPHERD.
DR.. Talmage Tell How He Watches
Over His Flock.
God's People Are Often Kept From Wan
dering by the Shepherds Crook
They Are Charmed With the
Music of Heaven.

mage from the well-known text:
Psalms 23: 1: 1.-THE Lord is nv Shep-
herd"
What with post and rail fences, and
our pride in Southdown, Astrakhan,
and Flemish variety of sheep, there is
no use now of the old-time shepherd.
Such a one had abundance of oppor-
tunity of becoming poet, being out-of-
doors 12 hours the day, and often-times
waking up in the night on the hills.
1t the stars, or the torrents or the sun,
or the flowers had anything to say, he
was very apt to hear it. The Ettrick
shepherd of Scotland, who afterwards
took his seat in the brilliant circle of
Wilson and Lockhart, got his wonder
ful poetic inspiration in the ten years
In which he was watching the hocks of
Mr.. Laidlow. There is often a sweet
poetry in the rugged prose of the
Scotch shepherd. One of these Scotch
shepherds lost his only son, and he
knelt down in prayer, and was over
heard to say: 80 Lord, it has seemed
good in thy providence to take from me
the staff of my right hand at the time
when to us sand-blind mortals seemed
to be most in need of it; and how l
shall climb up the hill of sorrow and
auld age without it, thou mayst ken,
but dinna."
David, the shepherd boy, is watching
his fathers sheep. They are pasturing
on the very hills where afterward a
Lamb was born of which you have
heard much, ''the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world"
David, the shepherd boy, was beauti-
full, brave, musical and poetic. l think
he often forgot the sheep in his rever-
les. There in the solitude he struck
the harpstring that is thrilling through
all ages. David, the boy, was gather
ing the material for David, the poet,
and David, the man. Like other boys,
David was fond of using his knife
among the saplings, and he had no.
ticed the exuding of the juice of the
tree; and when he became a man, he
said: 1.-THE trees of the Lord are full
OF sap" David, the boy, like other
boys, had been fond of hunting the
birds nests, and he had driven the old
stork off the nest to find how many
eggs were under her; and when he be-
came man, he said: "As for the
stork, the fir trees are her house." In
boyhood he had heard the terrific
thunderstorm that frightened red deer
into premature sickness; and when he
became man, he said: "The voice of
the Lord maketh the kinds to calve."
David, the boy, had lain upon his
back looking up at the stars and ex-
amining the sky, and to his 'boyish
imagination the sky seemed like a
piece of divine embroidery, the divine
fingers working in the threads of light
and the beads of stars; and he became
a man and wrote: "When l consider
Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers"
When he became an old man, thinking
of the goodness of God, he seemed to
hear the bleating of his fathers sheep
across many years, and to think of the
time when he tended them on the
Bethlehem hills, and he cries out in the
text: "The Lord is my shepherd"
If God will help me, will talk to
you of the shepherds plaid, the shep-
herds crook, the shepherds dogs, the
shepherds pasture grounds, and the
shepherds focks.
And first, the shepherds plaid. 1t
would be preposterous for man going
out to rough and besoiling work to put
on splendid apparel. The potter does
not work in velvet; the serving maid
does not put on satin while toiling at
her duties; the shepherd does not wear
a splendid robe in which to go out
amidst the storms, and the rocks, and
the nettles; he puts on the rough ap-
parel appropriate to his exposed work.
The Lord our Shepherd, coming out to
hunt the lost sheep, puts on no regal
apparel, but the plain garment of our
humanity. There was nothing preten-
tious about it. know the old painters
represent halo around the baby Jesus,
but do not suppose that there was any
more halo about that child than about
the head of any other babe that was
born that Christmas eve in Judea. Be-
coming man, He wore a seamless gar
ment. The scissors and needle had done
nothing to make it graceful. take it
to have been sack with three holes in
it; one for the neck and two for the
arms. Although the gamblers quar-
relied over it, that is no evidence of it's
value. l have seen two rag pickers
quarrel over the refuse of an ash barrel
No; in the wardrobe of Heaven He
left the sandals Of light, the girdles of
beauty, the robes of power, and put on
the besoiled and tattered raiment of our
humanity. Sometimes He did not even
wear the seamless robe. What is that
hanging about the waist of Christ? Is
it badge of authority? Is it a royal
coat of armsP No; it is towel. The
disciples feet are filthy from the walk
on the long way and are not fit to be
put upon the sofas on which they are to
recline at the meal, and so Jesus wash
es their feet, and gathers them up in
the towel to dry them. The work Of
saving this world was rough work, rug
ged work, hard work; and Jesus put on
the raiment, the plain raiment, of four
flesh. The storms were to beat Him,
the crowds were to jostle Him, the dust
was to sprinkle Him, the mobs were to
pursue Him. Oh, Shepherd of Israel!
leave at home Thy bright array. For
Thee, what streams to ford, what
nights all unsheltered! He puts upon
Him the plain raiment of our human
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