II. THE FLOCK. As the Shepherd is powerful and wise, and full of love, so are the flock weak and foolish, and ready to go astray. The sheep is a weak, defenceless creature, having neither strength to resist the wolf, nor speed to escape from him. It is not like the ant, provident, and able to care for its own sustenance. If once astray, it is rarely known to return of its own accord.

III. THE SHEPHERD'S CARE OF HIS FLOCK. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. The word translated feed refers to all a shepherd's care for his flock, including all necessary and beneficial attention to them (Ezekiel 34:15, 16).

IV. THE TENDERNESS OF HIS CARE.

(G. Innes.)

1. It is the office of a good shepherd to know his flock. "I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine." He has a tender feeling, a compassionate concern for the meanest and most sickly of His flock.

2. The Good Shepherd defends His flock from every threatening danger. David exposed his own life to defend his flock. Those holy and humble shepherds to whom our blessed Saviour's birth was first notified, kept watch over their flocks by night. Will the Redeemer fall short in His office? No! "Behold, He who keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."

3. The Good Shepherd. gathers His flock, whether they have wandered from the fold, or have been driven away by an enemy, or scattered by storms (Ezekiel 34:12). The Shepherd of Israel will magnify His office in this respect. Christ shall gather the Jews, the people of His ancient Church, into His sacred fold.

4. The Good Shepherd heals His flock, whether languishing under deep disease or smarting wounds. It was charged upon the shepherds of Israel as a high crime that they had not healed the sick, nor bound up that which was broken, nor brought again that which was driven away, nor sought that which was lost. But this could not be objected against our compassionate Redeemer.

5. The Good Shepherd provides green pastures and pure water for His flock.

II. WHAT KIND OF A SHEPHERD IS CHRIST?

I. He is a great Shepherd (Hebrews 13:10).

2. He is the chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4). Other shepherds are mere men, of like passions with ourselves.

3. He is the good Shepherd (John 10:14).

4. He is a Shepherd who has no equal This is obvious in numberless instances. Other shepherds lay down their commission at death. But the Shepherd of Israel by dying conquered death; and carries on His work by His Holy Spirit, with all that power and success which attended His personal ministry on earth.

III. THE FLOCK WHICH CHRIST DOTH TEND.

1. It is a little flock (Luke 12:32). Though small and despised in the eyes of a vain world; though poor in spirit, humble and meek in their deportment among men, they are greatly beloved by their God. They are not only little in their own eyes, and in the eyes of a vain world, but little in point of number, compared to a thoughtless multitude.

2. They are in some degree acquainted with their own hearts.

3. They are a peculiar flock, as they are all purchased with blood.

4. They are a chosen flock.

5. They know their Redeemer's voice, and are charmed with it.

6. They follow the blessed Shepherd (John 10:27).

(J. Johnston.)

II. SOME OF THE CHARACTERS THAT BELONG TO HIM AS A SHEPHERD.

1. He is the Shepherd of souls (1 Peter 2:25).

2. He is that great Shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20). Great in respect of the dignity of His person, and great in His accomplishments for His office.

3. He is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). He is the very best Shepherd —

(1)As being most wise and discerning. He is acquainted with the state of His whole flock, as their different circumstances require.

(2)As being most faithful and constant.

(3)In respect of His love for His flock (John 10:11).

III. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN HIS FEEDING HIS FLOCK.

1. As being the Shepherd of His people's souls, the food wherewith He feeds is spiritual. Even our common supplies for the body are from Him.

2. Of this spiritual food He makes use of great variety.

(1)He feeds His flock with His word and ordinances.

(2)By the influences of His Spirit.

(3)With Himself, with His own flesh and blood, as received by faith.

(4)By the various dispensations of His providence towards them.

(5)When necessary, by afflictions.

(6)After Christ has fed His flock for a time here, He will eternally feed them with higher entertainments in heaven.

3. The food wherewith Christ feeds His flock is precious, even the privileges and promises of the Gospel. How costly, how precious, are such things as these!

4. Christ feeds His people with pleasant food.

5. The provision Christ affords His flock is plentiful (Song of Solomon 5:1).

6. The food with which Christ feeds His flock nourishes the soul to eternal life (John 6:50).

IV. IN WHAT RESPECT MAY CHRIST BE SAID TO FEED HIS FLOCK LIKE A SHEPHERD?

1. As He feeds them with judgment and discretion, with due regard to their age and growth.

2. Aa He doth this with the greatest care and compassion, as those weak creatures He hath paid the greatest price for, and stands in the nearest relation to.

3. As He feeds them effectually, so as to make them to thrive.

4. As He will go on to feed them, till they are nourished up to a fitness for the glory He designs to bring them to.

(D. Wilcox.)

I. SKILL.

II. TENDERNESS AND AFFECTION.

III. WATCHFULNESS.

IV. POWER.

(C. Evanson, M. A.)

1. Out of five great types we begin with Abel, the shepherd slain. Abel was a type of the Saviour, in that, being a shepherd, he sanctified his work to the glory of God, and offered sacrifice of blood upon the altar of the Lord, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. Farther down the page of sacred history we find another shepherd. He is a more instructive type of the Saviour, perhaps, than the first, but in Abel we discover a truth which is absent in all others. Abel is the only one of the typical shepherds who dies at the foot of the altar, he is the only sacrificing shepherd; and herein you see Jesus Christ in the very earliest ages set forth to mankind as the slaughtered Victim.

2. Now we turn to Jacob, the toiling shepherd. Here is a type of the Good Shepherd, not as dying, but as keeping sheep with a view to get unto Himself a flock. Jacob's labour was of the most arduous character. It is sweet to dwell upon the spiritual parallel of Laban having required all the sheep at Jacob's hand. If they were torn of beasts he must make it good; if any of them died, he must stand as surety for the whole. And did not the Saviour stand just so while He was here below? Was not His toil for His Church just the toil of one who felt that He was under suretyship obligations to bring every one of them safe to the hand of Him who had committed them to His charge? When Jacob had received a reward for all his toil out of the flock which he himself tended, he then conducted both his family and his flock away from Laban. Jacob coming back from Laban to the Promised Land is a true picture of Jesus Christ coming up from the world, followed by His Church, to enter into that better Canaan which has been given to us by a covenant of salt for ever.

3. Joseph is a type of Jesus reigning in the Egypt of this world for the good of His own people, while they are here below. Jesus Christ is King over Egypt's realm. Observe the likeness between Joseph and Jesus in this respect. Joseph was of very singular advantage to the Egyptians. They must have starved in the years of famine, if his prescient eye had not foreseen the famine, and stored up the plenty of the seven previous years. And Jesus Christ is of great service even to this wicked world. It is by Him that it is preserved.

4. Moses, when he kept sheep, kept them in the wilderness, far away from all other flocks; and when he became a shepherd over God's people Israel, his business was not to preserve them in Egypt, but to conduct them out of it. Here, then, is a representation of Jesus Christ as the Shepherd of a separated people. Jesus, like Moses, might have been a king. As Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, so Jesus Christ said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan," to all the pomp and glory of this present world, and preferred to take part with His despised people, who were crushed down by the reigning powers in the Egypt of His days. Now, Moses began his mission by going to Pharaoh, and saying, "Thus saith the Lord, Let My people go, that they may serve Me." Jesus Christ begins as the Shepherd of the separate ones by demanding that they should be let go from the bondage of their natural estate. Our main point is the great exodus of Moses. Every heir of heaven is brought right out of Egypt, led through the Red Sea of Jesus Christ's blood, baptized into Jesus, and brought out into the separated position in the wilderness. It is easy to see how Moses was a shepherd to the people while in the wilderness.

5. David. This shepherd represents Jesus Christ, not at all as the others, but as King in the midst of His Church. David, like Jesus Christ, begins his life with trials.

II. NEW TESTAMENT DESCRIPTIONS.

III. IMPRESSIVE APPLICATIONS.

1. One of comfort and satisfaction to you who are poor, needy, weary, troubled lambs or sheep of the flock. "He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." The lambs have not the value of mature sheep, yet they are the most thought of under the great Shepherd. They might fetch the least price in the market, but they have the greatest portion of His heart. The weaklings and the sickly of the flock are the special objects of the Saviour's care.

2. A second application containing comfort and warning too. Sinner! our Lord Jesus Christ now represents Himself as being a Shepherd who is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Such is Jesus now, looking after stray sheep. Where are you?

3. So we shall conclude with these words, which may be for both saint and sinner. Let it never be forgotten that Jesus Christ is pre-eminently to be preached as the suffering One. (Zechariah 13:7). You shall know about the toiling Shepherd by-and-by; the Shepherd reigning in Egypt, the Joseph you shall know soon; the Shepherd of the separated flock, you shall follow ere long; the Shepherd reigning in Jerusalem, the David you shall rejoice to serve; but now you have to do with the Shepherd bleeding and dying.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. THE GRACIOUSNESS AND BENIGNITY OF HIS NATURE. It was goodness, alike unmerited and unsolicited, that originally moved Him to interpose in our behalf. On what penitent did He ever look with coldness and aversion?

II. The idea of PROVISION. As the shepherd leads about his flock from one spot of pasturage to another, so does the Redeemer of His people conduct them to places where nourishment and sustenance may be obtained.

III. The ideas of WATCHFULNESS AND PROTECTION. They are exposed to a variety of perils; but He is vigilant to observe, and omnipotent to defend.

IV. KIND ATTENTION TO THE FEEBLE, AND TENDER SOLICITUDE FOR THE YOUNG. "He shalt gather the lambs with His arm," etc.

V. An idea of THE FINAL BLESSEDNESS RESERVED FOR THE FLOCK. From the tender care exercised over them here, we may infer somewhat of the dignity to which they shall be advanced hereafter. There are many of the ordinary phenomena of nature that fail to engage our wonder, merely because they are not uncommon. What, for example, if it did not come under our daily observation, could more surprise and astonish us than the progressive development of our own faculties? Who could believe that, under the feeble exterior of infancy, there slumbered intellectual energies, which, when a series of years had gone by, would expand to constitute the profound scholar, the enlightened statesman, and the accomplished orator? But multiplied experience has taught us what education and circumstances can do, and we cease to wonder that from the infant mind such fruits are capable of being reared. But surely, when we thus behold the admirable progress of which our nature is susceptible within the narrow compass of threescore years and ten — when we remember that the vast intellect of Newton was ledged in an infant's body — it may serve to remove our doubts as to the higher perfection of which our nature is capable in a future state of being. The goodness of the Great Shepherd in conducting His people to their final state, is most beautifully represented in the concluding verses of the 7th chapter of Revelation — a passage at once so tender and sublime, that it is said our great Scottish poet, from his very boyhood, could never read it without tears.

(J. L. Adamson.)

I. As to the ages and years of Christians, we read of Paul the aged, and of Mnason, an old disciple (Acts 21:16); and of others the kindness of whose youth God particularly remembers. Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:3); Obadiah (1 Kings 18:12); Samuel (1 Samuel 2:18); Timothy (2 Timothy 3:15).

2. In respect of stature, strength, and growth in grace, Christ's flock is made up of lambs as well as sheep. Grace is not perfected as soon as implanted, nor does it thrive in all alike. In some, the good seed brought forth an hundredfold, in others sixty, in others but thirty (Matthew 13.). God has ordered it thus for wise purposes; that the weak may be assisted by the strong, and the strong have opportunity of showing their compassion and tenderness to the weak; that the strong may by this means be kept humble, as seeing in the case of others what they themselves once were; and that the weak may not be discouraged, but reach after the attainments of the strong.

II. THE INSTANCES HERE MENTIONED OF CHRIST'S COMPASSIONATE REGARD TO THE WEAK.

1. The lambs, when wandering. He will gather with His arm. "Gathering" supposes our proneness to wander.(1) This proceeds from the remains of corruption in us, and in His whole flock, which are not yet perfectly renewed.(2) The suddenness and surprise of a temptation may some. times occasion their going astray.(3) As making way for both these, Christians too often let down their watch; upon which they are betrayed by corruption, and Satan gets an advantage over them. Christ will gather such with His arm. Which implies —(a) That He looks after them, even when they are going astray from Him, and He is concerned for them still.(b) That He will not let them wander too far, not beyond the reach of His arm, with which they are both encircled and restrained.(c) That He will employ His power, when the case necessarily requires it, in order to their recovery.(d) That He will gather them with gentleness and care.(e) That He will gather them with His arm, with it stretched out kindly to receive them, and to give them a gracious welcome to Him again.

2. He will carry them in His bosom. This implies great weakness in some that belong to Christ's flock, and great compassion and grace on the part of Him, their Shepherd. "The lambs," or young converts of Christ's flock, may be in many respects weak: weak as to knowledge, faith, and love. Such weaklings as these Christ "has in His flock;" and yet He does not cast them off, but "carries them m His bosom," which notes —(1) That He observes with compassion the very weakest in His flock, and has His heart, as well as His arms open, to cherish them.(2) That He will take them into a place of safety.(3) In a word, Christ's carrying the weak of His flock "in His bosom," notes His acceptance of them as sincere, notwithstanding the weaknesses they lament over. These shall not keep them from His heart.

3. Our Lord and Shepherd Jesus Christ "will gently lead those that are with young." These words may set forth the condition and state of such sheep and followers of Him as are sorely burdened. And there are many things to burden Christ's sheep, as their difficult services, the load of their unmortified sins, and the bitter fruits of them, in their various sufferings of body and mind. As pressed with these, some of Christ's flock may be said to be as feeble as sheep that are with young, or give suck: but such "He will gently lead." Which implies —(1) That He will go before them in the way they are to take.(2) He will lead them gently on, and not hurry and try them by any means beyond their strength.(3) He will bear with all their weakness and imperfections, groans and complaints, and never take occasion from thence to be severe with them, or forsake and leave them.

III. CHRIST WILL MAKE GOOD HIS CHARACTER OF A SHEPHERD TO HIS SHEEP THAT ARE WEAK, EITHER THROUGH THEIR SMALL ATTAINMENTS IN GRACE, OR THE GREATNESS OF THEIR BURDENS.

1. This is here expressly asserted, "He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young."

2. To this His compassionate nature inclines Him (Hebrews 4:15). Such a nature cannot but be peculiarly concerned for the weaklings of His flock, whose groans are continually going to heaven.

3. This He has in His commission. (Isaiah 61:1.)

4. This has all along been His dealing with His flock; and He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Application — Will Christ gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom? What an inducement is this to come into His flock! Be humbled, that you should be such weaklings as you are, so apt to wander, and so unable to return; but yet remember the excellent properties of Christ as the Shepherd of His flock.

(D. Wilcox.)

I. THE STRENGTH OF THE DIVINE LOVE. "He shall gather with His arm." The power to overtake and elevate such an one as Saul of Tarsus is no power less than "the arm of the Lord revealed." "He shall carry in His bosom." Even greater power is involved in this than in first gathering in the arm. The power of endurance. Such power was that of the Divine love in Christ towards Peter.

II. THE GENTLENESS OF THE DIVINE LOVE. So with the Divine love that said to Mary, "Why weepest thou?" or to Thomas, "Reach hither thy hand."

III. THE PROTECTIVENESS OF THE DIVINE LOVE. That may be the chief thought in these words. He promises more than the intervention of His arm between soul and dangers: He promises the intervention of His entire Being.

IV. THE ADAPTATIONS OF THE DIVINE LOVE.

(U. R. Thomas, B. A.)

1. Men carry in their bosoms their gems, their jewels, and so doth Christ carry the lambs of the flock, regarding them as His peculiar treasure. He puts an estimate upon them according to His own relationship to them. He knows, too, what the child cost Him, for to redeem a little child from going down into the pit He must needs bear the penalty due to justice, and suffer even unto death. Re recollects, moreover, what that child will come to if He do not save it by carrying it in His bosom. A soul is a precious thing to Christ, for He believes in its immortality. And He knows, too, what may come of that little child if He sayeth it, for the possibilities of blessing within one little saved child who shall estimate but the Lord who knoweth all things? Jesus knows that a boy may be the spiritual father of hundreds ere he dies. There may be in the congregation a Chrysostom or an Augustine. Right among us may sit a little Whitefield, or a young Luther.

II. We have AN EXAMPLE FOR THE CHURCH. There are two great things which a Church ought always to have, namely, an arm to gather with and a bosom to carry in.

III. A practical word or two upon THE MODEL TEACHER. He who gathers the lambs with His arm and carries them in His bosom is the model of a Sunday-school teacher. In what points?

1. There should be about the teacher attractiveness, in order that he may gather.

2. After you have attracted, uplift. He carries the lambs in His bosom, and therefore He must lift them up. Everything about a teacher should tend to raise the children.

3. When He lifted up the lamb, He laid it on His heart. If you are to bless the little ones, they must lie on your heart. You must make them feel the life of your religion.

4. Next, bear them forward. The lamb is put into the shepherd's bosom, not that he may stand still with it all the day long, but because the sheep are going this way and the lambs must go that way too, and therefore he carries it. You must be always going forward yourself if the child is to go forward with you.

5. Guard the children. Christ placed the lambs in His bosom to protect them.

6. The next word is, cheer.

7. Delight in them. That tenth verse has a great charm for me. "The Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." Well, what did He have before Him but the sheep that He went forth to find, and the lambs which He gathered and carried in His bosom? They were His work, but they were also His reward.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. They are truly sheep. They are not sheep in maturity, but they are sheep to a certainty. The sheep of God are harmless. They can bear, but they cannot revenge. The sheep goes further than the non-inflicting of evil, it bears evil without complaint. The extraordinary patience of the sheep is seen in God's people, when they joyously endure a weight of affliction, and pass through the valley of death with composure. Sheep, again, are cleanly creatures; cleanly in their feeding — carrion never tempts them; cleanly in their habits. Furthermore, the sheep is guileless. You see the lion creeping through the thicket full of cunning; but sheep have none. Again, sheep are tractable. When a man tames a lion so that he may sport with it, he gets the name of lion-tamer; nobody is renowned for taming a sheep, for it has a tractable disposition, and so all the elect of God have an obedient and yielding spirit. Do not forget that the lambs are truly Christ's sheep. They are as dearly bought with His blood; they are as surely objects of His care; they are as manifestly illustrations of His power; they shall as certainly be proofs of His faithfulness as the strongest of the flock.

2. Why are they lambs, and in what are they distinguished?(1) Some of them are lambs for age, though not all; for there are some young Christians who are full grown, and there are others very aged, who remain to be lambs still.(2) The distinguishing mark lies rather in spiritual deficiencies — they are but children in knowledge. They are immature also in experience.(3) So are they lambs in tenderness of feeling. They are too susceptible, and therefore feel the unkindness of the world acutely.(4) They are timid and trembling, and dare not courageously proclaim themselves at all times on the Lord's side.(5) Perhaps, too, they are subject to melancholy, to doubts and fears, and distresses of mind.

II. Let us come to EXPRESS OUR FEARS CONCERNING THESE LAMBS OF THE FLOCK. We are afraid for them, because of the howling wolves there are about. We are equally alarmed because of their association with the goats. Then we are jealous over the lambs because of the old lion. We are even more concerned when we think of the bear. A flattering world hugs tightly. When we put all these dangers together, we add to them the fact that lambs are subject to the same diseases which are incident to all sheep. They, too, get the foot-rot of weariness in the ways of God. They begin to be slothful in the cause of God. They suffer from coldness of heart, have a tendency to wander, and catch the stiff neck of pride.

III. Let us REJOICE IN THE GOOD SHEPHERD. "He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom."

1. Who is He of whom such gracious words are spoken? "Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand," etc. But let us read on (vers. 12-18).

2. Why doth He carry lambs in His bosom? Because He hath a tender heart, and any weakness at once melts Him. But more, it is His office to consider the weak. For this it is that He was made a faithful high priest — that He might have compassion on the ignorant. He was a lamb Himself once. He purchased them with blood. Moreover, He is responsible for that lamb. They are all a part of His glory.

3. What does He say He will do? "Carry them." Sometimes He carries them by not permitting them to endure much trouble. At other times, by having some tender, loving person to take care of them. He carries them instrumentally. At other times, such lambs are carried by having an unusual degree of love given them, and consequently a large amount of joy, so that they bear up and stand fast. Though their knowledge may not be deep, they have great sweetness in what they do know.

4. How does He carry them? He carries them in His bosom — not on His back — that is bow He carries stray sheep.(1) Here is put forth boundless affection. Could He put them in His bosom if He did not love them much? Where does the Father place the Son? He is in the bosom of the Father. Where did Abraham carry Lazarus? In his bosom. Where did Naomi bear her young grandson Obed? He was in her bosom. Where did the man in the parable put his little ewe lamb? In his bosom.(2) Then there is tender nearness. How near to a man is that which is in his bosom.(3) Then it is a hallowed familiarity. Lambs when put into the bosom, having no intellect, cannot therefore learn anything; but the lambs of Christ's flock, whenever they ride in Christ's bosom, talk with Him; they tell Him all their secrets, and He tells them His.(4) Then there is perfect safety. The dear ones in His bosom — what can hurt them? They must hurt the Shepherd first. How can they get the lamb out of the Shepherd's arm? Must they not cut off the Shepherd's arm before they can hurt the lamb?

IV. LET US HEAR THE SHEPHERD'S VOICE. If you be the lambs, hear the Shepherd's voice, which says, "Follow Me." You that are not lambs, hear His words, "Come unto Me." Those of us who are His sheep, let us hear the Shepherd's voice, saying, "Feed My lambs."

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. In a certain sense we may affirm that all His people are lambs. In so far as they exhibit the Christian spirit, they are lamb-like.

2. Still, this is not the precise meaning of the text. The word "lamb" frequently signifies the young; and our Lord Jesus Christ graciously receives many young persons into His bosom. The ancient teachers of the Jewish law invited no children to gather around them. I suppose there was not a Rabbi in all Jerusalem who would have desired a child to listen to him, and if it had been said of any one of the Sanhedrin, "that man teaches so as to be understood by a child," he would have thought himself insulted. But not so our Master; He always had children among His auditory. Some in our day mistrust youthful piety, but our Saviour lends no countenance to such suspicions. Some cautiously whisper, "Let the pious youth be tried awhile before we believe in his religion; let him be tempted; let him bear the frosts of the world; perhaps the blossoms will drop away and disappoint us." Such was not my Master's way.

3. But, again, by lambs we may quite as properly understand young converts.

4. We shall not strain the text if we say that the lambs in the flock are those who are naturally of a weak, timid, trembling disposition.

5. The lambs are those who know but little of the things of God.

II. HOW DOES JESUS SHOW THIS SPECIAL CARE FOR THE WEAK ONES? He does this, according to the text, in two ways —

1. By gathering them. The shepherd's kitchen fire is, for the time, the lambs' own nursery. When the flock is on the march, it will happen, unless the shepherd is very watchful, that the lambs will lag behind. So it is in the progress of the great Christian Church; persecuted often, always more or less molested by the outside world, there are some who flag, they cannot keep up the pace; the spiritual warfare is too severe for them. At other times the lambs do worse than this. They are of a skittish nature, and, feeling the natural vigour of new-born life, they are not content to keep within bounds, as the older sheep do, but they betake themselves to wandering, so that at the close of the day the lambs cost the shepherd much trouble. So are there many immature Christians whose minds are hung loosely, and are unstable as water.

2. After He gathers them, He carries them in His bosom. That is —(1) The safest place, for the wolf cannot get them there.(2) The tenderest place, where we should put only a poor creature that had a broken bone, and could not bear to be roughly touched.(3) The easiest place.(4) The most honourable place. We would not put into our bosom that which we despised.

3. Our Lord shows His care for His lambs in His teachings, which are very simple, mostly in parables, full of winning illustrations, but always plain. He is pleased to reveal His teachings gradually. His experimental teachings are all by degrees, too.

4. In the solemn curses with which He guarded the little ones (Matthew 18:6, 10).

5. How many of the promises are made on purpose for the weak.

6. The Lord Jesus Christ's tenderness to His people is further shown in this, that what He requires of them is easy.

7. He shows His gentleness, moreover, in that He accepts the least service that these little ones may offer.

III. WHEREFORE THIS CARE OF CHRIST TOWARDS THE LAMBS OF THE FLOCK? Because they need it, and He loves them, and therefore shall they receive according to their necessities. But why is He so particularly anxious to succour them? Surely, if He lost a lamb or two, it would be no loss among so many, and if one of the feeble minds should perish, it would be no great consequence when a multitude that no man can number shall be saved. The answer is plain.

1. The weak are as much redeemed by the blood of Christ as the strong.

2. In the new-born child of God there are peculiar beauties which are not so apparent in others.

3. Jesus has such care for the weak ones, because they will become strong one day.

4. Our Lord Jesus Christ's suretyship engagements require that He should preserve the weakest as well as the strongest.

5. Besides His suretyship engagements, there are His promises.

6. Compassion argues that if any should be watched it should be these.

IV. A PRACTICAL CONCLUSION.

1. Let us gather the lambs, for Christ..

2. Learn to carry in our bosoms those who are gathered.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

(J. Stalker, D. D.)

II. THE GENTLE CONDUCT THAT THEY MEET WITH. "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom."

1. Think who this is (ver. 12). Observe how He is set before us in the tenth verse: Jehovah, Elohim, "will come with strong hand: He shall feed His flock like a shepherd," etc. What! the great Eternal — "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity" — is this the Being that "gathers the lambs with His arm and carries them in His bosom"?

2. The posture contains in it much for our prayerful meditation; carrying these lambs, these feeble ones, these ignorant ones, these weak ones, "in His bosom"! What doth it imply?(1) His boundless affection for them. He has given costly proof of that affection.(2) See how He takes notice of their least graces. I love that instance in 1 Kings 14., in the case of Abijah: it unfolds the tenderness of Him that carries His lambs in His bosom: "And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good tiring toward the Lord God of Israel." There is His cherishing His "lamb."(3) It implies their tender nearness to Him. The lamb seems to be so near its shepherd, as if nothing could be nearer. And what stands so near to the Lord Jesus Christ as His own people? "In all their affliction He is afflicted."(4) It would seem almost to imply more than this; for as the Lord Jesus is spoken of as lying in the bosom of His Father, as if there He learned anew as man all the heart of the Father, so who can say what there is in that posture of the weak lambs lying in the bosom of the Shepherd? He tells us the secrets of His heart. In this opening of the heart to the Lord Jesus in trouble, and His opening His heart to us in giving us answers of peace, doth consist some of the highest blessed-nesses to be known on this side heaven.(5) But the posture does evidently bring with it deep conviction of safety. If the lamb is in the bosom of the Shepherd, he that destroyeth the lamb must destroy the Shepherd. There is all encouragement in this verse, to one that feels himself the weakest of all God's children. But there is not in this truth that which encourages a weak believer to remain in his weakness. For what purpose does the good Shepherd cherish? It is to sanctify.

(J. H. Evans, M. A.)

1. I need not say how heavy is the burden of sin, when the Spirit of God first unfolds it to us.

2. And even when there is so much perception of Christ as to leave the spirit without any acknowledged hope but in Christ, and yet with so much of self-righteousness still cleaving as to think there must be something of a preparation necessary in order to recommend the soul to God and His Christ — what a burden! The toil of ploughing the rock — of counting the sands — of measuring the mighty waters — of working in the fire, the fire burning our work as soon and as long as we do!

3. But it applies, too, to the established believer, who frequently in his pilgrimage acknowledges himself and feels himself a burdened man.

4. The constant conflict — "putting off the old man," "putting on the new man"; self-crucifixion, mortification of self, self-denial.

5. There is the burden of a burdened conscience; when a man sees so much in his sin as not to see enough in Christ to raise him above it.

6. The heavy weight of afflictions, accompanied as they often are with great and sore temptations.

7. Their very bodies are a burden to them.

8. The constant service of the Lord has a burden in it. "The burden and heat of the day."

9. There is a burden that we are but little prone to look into as we ought to do, and that is — the burdens of others. For we are to bear their burdens.

II. THE LORD'S CONDUCT TOWARD THEM. Infinite power is required to control the movements of these burdened ones; so many thousands as He has. But the great truth that it unfolds is His infinite tenderness. He does not drive — He leads. He does not merely lead, but "gently leads." Who can unfold thee wondrous tenderness, patience, forbearance, compassion, and love with which He has led each one of us! How doth He wait on His burdened ones! How doth He wait for them! How doth He encourage them! Sometimes He encourages His burdened ones directly. By His Word. How oftentimes do they find their hearts cheered, led onward by a word of promise! He waiteth on them. He waiteth for them. And He suffereth no one to harm them.

III. WHITHER DOES HE LEAD THEM?

1. The first object that our Lord has in His leading of His burdened ones, is to lead them out of their own pasture. His great object is to lead them out of the creature and out of themselves. "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

2. Whither, then, does He lead them? Into deeper discoveries of Divine truth. How little know we of a truth till we have had experience of that truth!

3. Then cometh more close communion with God.

4. And now, it may be, He leads them into deeper afflictions than they have ever known. Oh! what a blessedness to have such a Shepherd for such poor burdened souls! Remember, His great end in leading is holiness.

(J. H. Evans, M. A.)

     1215   God, feminine descriptions
     1220   God, as shepherd
     2015   Christ, compassion
     2315   Christ, as Lamb
     4663   lamb
     5013   heart, divine
     5566   suffering, encouragements in
     7021   church, OT anticipations
     7130   flock, God's
     7141   people of God, OT
     7785   shepherd, occupation
     7786   shepherd, king and leader
     8129   guidance, examples
     8136   knowing God, effects
     8264   gentleness
     8413   edification
     8491   watchfulness, divine

'Have Ye Not? Hast Thou Not?'
'Have ye not known, have ye not heard? hath it not been told yon from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?... Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard?'--ISAIAH xl. 21 and 28. The recurrence of the same form of interrogation in these two verses is remarkable. In the first case the plural is used, in the second the singular, and we may reasonably conclude that as Israel is addressed in the latter, the nations outside the sphere illumined by Revelation are appealed …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Unfailing Stabs and Fainting Men
'...For that He is strong in power; not one faileth.... He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.'-- ISAIAH xl. 26 and 29. These two verses set forth two widely different operations of the divine power as exercised in two sadly different fields, the starry heavens and this weary world. They are interlocked, as it were, by the recurrence in the latter of the emphatic words of the former. The one verse says, 'He is strong in power'; the other, 'He giveth …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

O Thou that Bringest Good Tidings
'O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain: O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!'--ISAIAH xl. 9. There is something very grand in these august and mysterious voices which call one to another in the opening verses of this chapter. First, the purged ear of the prophet hears the divine command to him and to his brethren--Comfort Jerusalem with the message of the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Shepherd and the Fold
... Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation.' EXODUS XV. 13. What a grand triumphal ode! The picture of Moses and the children of Israel singing, and Miriam and the women answering: a gush of national pride and of worship! We belong to a better time, but still we can feel its grandeur. The deliverance has made the singer look forward to the end, and his confidence in the issue is confirmed. I. The guiding God: or the picture of the leading. The original is 'lead gently.' Cf. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Secret of Immortal Youth
'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.'--ISAIAH xl. 30, 31. I remember a sunset at sea, where the bosom of each wavelet that fronted the west was aglow with fiery gold, and the back of each turned eastward was cold green; so that, looking on the one hand all was glory, and on the other …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Salvation Published from the Mountains
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! I t would be improper to propose an alteration, though a slight one, in the reading of a text, without bearing my testimony to the great value of our English version, which I believe, in point of simplicity, strength, and fidelity, is not likely to be excelled by a new translation …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Consolation
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received at the LORD 's hand double for all her sins. T he particulars of the great "mystery of godliness," as enumerated by the Apostle Paul, constitute the grand and inexhaustible theme of the Gospel ministry, "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Harbinger
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD , make straight in the desert a high-way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. T he general style of the prophecies is poetical. The inimitable simplicity which characterizes every …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Withering Work of the Spirit
THE passage in Isaiah which I have just read in your hearing may be used as a very eloquent description of our mortality, and if a sermon should be preached from it upon the frailty of human nature, the brevity of life, and the certainty of death, no one could dispute the appropriateness of the text. Yet I venture to question whether such a discourse would strike the central teaching of the prophet. Something more than the decay of our material flesh is intended here; the carnal mind, the flesh in …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

This Sermon was Originally Printed
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God."--Isaiah 40:1. WHAT A SWEET TITLE: "My people!" What a cheering revelation: "Your God!" How much of meaning is couched in those two words, "My people!" Here is speciality. The whole world is God's; the heaven, even the heaven of heavens are the Lord's and he reigneth among the children of men. But he saith of a certain number, "My people." Of those whom he hath chosen, whom he hath purchased to himself, he saith what he saith not of others. While …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

8Th Day. Reviving Grace.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."--ISAIAH xl. 31. Reviving Grace. "Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" My soul! art thou conscious of thy declining state? Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly? Hast thou less conscious nearness to the mercy-seat,--diminished communion with thy Saviour? Is prayer less a privilege than it has …
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

"And the Redeemer Shall Come unto Zion, and unto them that Turn,"
Isaiah lix. 20.--"And the Redeemer shall come unto Zion, and unto them that turn," &c. Doctrines, as things, have their seasons and times. Every thing is beautiful in its season. So there is no word of truth, but it hath a season and time in which it is beautiful. And indeed that is a great part of wisdom, to bring forth everything in its season, to discern when and where, and to whom it is pertinent and edifying, to speak such and such truths. But there is one doctrine that is never out of season, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Hillis -- God the Unwearied Guide
Newell Dwight Hillis was born at Magnolia, Iowa, in 1858. He first became known as a preacher of the first rank during his pastorate over the large Presbyterian church in Evanston, Illinois. This reputation led to his being called to the Central Church, Chicago, in which he succeeded Dr. David Swing, and where from the first he attracted audiences completely filling one of the largest auditoriums in Chicago. In 1899 he was called to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, to succeed Dr. Lyman Abbott in the pulpit …
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10

Of Loving Jesus Above all Things
Blessed is he who understandeth what it is to love Jesus, and to despise himself for Jesus' sake. He must give up all that he loveth for his Beloved, for Jesus will be loved alone above all things. The love of created things is deceiving and unstable, but the love of Jesus is faithful and lasting. He who cleaveth to created things will fall with their slipperiness; but he who embraceth Jesus will stand upright for ever. Love Him and hold Him for thy friend, for He will not forsake thee when all …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Prayer and Devotion
"Once as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly had been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God. As near as I can judge, this continued about an hour; and kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud.. I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to love …
Edward M. Bounds—The Essentials of Prayer

The God of all Comfort
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." Among all the names that reveal God, this, the "God of all comfort," seems to me one of the loveliest and the most absolutely comforting. The words all comfort admit of no limitation and no deductions; and one would suppose that, …
Hannah Whitall Smith—The God of All Comfort

Appendix xi. On the Prophecy, Is. Xl. 3
ACCORDING to the Synoptic Gospels, the public appearance and preaching of John was the fulfilment of the prediction with which the second part of the prophecies of Isaiah opens, called by the Rabbis, the book of consolations.' After a brief general preface (Is. xl. 1, 2), the words occur which are quoted by St. Matthew and St. Mark (Is. xl. 3), and more fully by St. Luke (Is. xl. 3-5). A more appropriate beginning of the book of consolations' could scarcely be conceived. The quotation of Is. xl. …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Justification.
Among all the doctrines of our holy Christian faith, the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, stands most prominent. Luther calls it: "The doctrine of a standing or a falling church," i.e., as a church holds fast and appropriates this doctrine she remains pure and firm, and as she departs from it, she becomes corrupt and falls. This doctrine was the turning point of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. It was the experience of its necessity and efficacy that made Luther what he was, and …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

The Humble Worship of Heaven.
1 Father, I long, I faint to see The place of thine abode, I'd leave thy earthly courts and flee Up to thy seat, my God! 2 Here I behold thy distant face, And 'tis a pleasing sight; But to abide in thine embrace Is infinite delight. 3 I'd part with all the joys of sense To gaze upon thy throne; Pleasure springs fresh for ever thence, Unspeakable, unknown. 4 [There all the heavenly hosts are seen, In shining ranks they move, And drink immortal vigour in, With wonder and with love. 5 Then at thy feet …
Isaac Watts—Hymns and Spiritual Songs

At Rest
Gerhard Ter Steegen Is. xl. 11 O God, a world of empty show, Dark wilds of restless, fruitless quest Lie round me wheresoe'er I go: Within, with Thee, is rest. And sated with the weary sum Of all men think, and hear, and see, O more than mother's heart, I come, A tired child to Thee. Sweet childhood of eternal life! Whilst troubled days and years go by, In stillness hushed from stir and strife, Within Thine Arms I lie. Thine Arms, to whom I turn and cling With thirsting soul that longs for Thee; …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

His Schools and Schoolmasters.
(LUKE 1.) "Oh to have watched thee through the vineyards wander, Pluck the ripe ears, and into evening roam!-- Followed, and known that in the twilight yonder Legions of angels shone about thy home!" F. W. H. MYERS. Home-Life--Preparing for his Life-Work--The Vow of Separation--A Child of the Desert Zacharias and Elisabeth had probably almost ceased to pray for a child, or to urge the matter. It seemed useless to pray further. There had been no heaven-sent sign to assure them that there was any …
F. B. Meyer—John the Baptist

Impiety of Attributing a visible Form to God. --The Setting up of Idols a Defection from the True God.
1. God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. He expressly forbids any attempt to represent him by a bodily shape. 2. Reasons for this prohibition from Moses, Isaiah, and Paul. The complaint of a heathen. It should put the worshipers of idols to shame. 3. Consideration of an objection taken from various passages in Moses. The Cherubim and Seraphim show that images are not fit to represent divine mysteries. The Cherubim belonged to the tutelage of the Law. 4. …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion