The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-06-23
THE OTHER SHEEP.

.
/ shepherd."-St. John Y. IL.
Our text is revelation of the spiri,
OF Jesus and a declaration of the kind
of spirit He desires to find In us; for
tc be Christian is 10 be like Jesus
Christ In His holy word lie tells us:
I'VE shall be witnesses unto Me-
thereby teaching us that our mission
IA his disciples. is TO show His in
! hucnce In our lives. The apostles
were recognized as men who had been
with Jesus. and that ought TO be true
CT us by our showing we have His
! spirit. We arc sent nv Him to do His
| work and be His messengers and this
Is true not only of the ministers OF His
Gospel. but OF each and every one of us.
Even as Jesus was always thinking
| ABOUT the other sheep. so mus, VIC
The parable OF the one lost sheep rep
resents His whole life. He came not
cniy TO call the righteous. but to bring
sinners to repentance. He came to
seek and to save the seemingly lost.
Nothing appealed to Him more than
need and helple.sness
Let us listen, then. to His great
word. Tho Master is proclaiming one
of the high purposes of His ministry
He must bring the other sheep. And
nus announcement He prefaccs with
the reason for 1t and follows with tho
| result of II: He must b-inr tho o,be,.
Sheep because all are His. and having
brought them there shall be one fold
and one shepherd. This points so
strongly to the fact that Christ loves
MS all. the good and the bad may
call Him Father. and IN the end, ir
we VIII only try to follow Him. He
will make all OF one fold to be cared
for by tho Great Shepherd. There are
so many in this world that seem with
out the fold and vet they are Ills. and
AIS love will bring them near in his
own good time. II they will only trust
in Him.
Jesus Christ cares for the people in
heather lands and for those who live
IN Ignorance and sin AMI poverty, as
well as for those the world sees more
fortunate. and the wonder OF 1t all. as
we'll as the abiding comfort of 1t. is
that Hts heart is large enough to have
patience and love and sympathy for
the great and the small, the ricl and
the poor the wicked and the good. tho
clever and the foolish. and all we have
10 90 Is to believe His holy word. have
latin In Him and try His works to
do"
Tho masses" are not masses to
God. He knows them each by him.
sGaf He declares that He is the
Good Shepherd" because He knows
His sheen. and this includes "the 9TH
er sheep"
All this seems so familiar and ma
tural to us that we can scarcely realize
how strange it seemed when Jesus be-
gan to teach and preach 1t. He was
the first missionary. In those days
the people We're narrow and foolish In
their desire to be exclusive. The very
ramc "Pharisce" means one who Ia
separate from others. They held
themselves aloof from the other peo
pie and IL was considered that the
privileged should have no dealings
with the unprivlleged. Their narrow
ives knew nothing of that regard for
tho other sheep which Jesus taught
and felt. and therefore their lives
could not become enriched and broad
cHed through sacrifice for Others.
Ihere was no one to teach this love
until Jesus came. and yet how it was
needed.
The difficulty then. as now, with the
people was to realize that we have
any sheep outside the narrow folds of
our own Immediate circles. The differ
ence between tho reformer, the philan-
thropist. the friend of the people and the
| ordinary respectable but Indifferent
citizen, is largely a difference I'm the
sense of responsibility The Indifferent
citiZen has no other sheep" The
wider relationship. patterned after the
divine life Of our Saviour. compels
action. 1t obliEes us TO do something
FOR others. L. speaks In st. Paul's
words: WOE is me if preach not the
gospel woe is mo If do not somehow
share my privilege with the un-
privileged. Them also must I bring"
Sometimes We wonder why our en-
"eaVors 10 h"lp people meet with such
scaht success one reason is that we
do not undertake the difficult enter
prise In His way. We do not speak in
the voice OF a friend He attached
great Importance to the voice--tfe
said they shall hear My voice and
Know ii-and they did hear it. THAT,
lie pointed out, was one of the marks
OF the difference between the Good
Shepherd and the other shepherds. The
sheep Know His voice and respond be-
cause Ii is the voice of a friend.
nc essential thing In ministry to
others Is the fact OF friendship There