p. 7 | Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 31, 1912

Editorial

By Editor

Wandering Sheep

IN the beautiful parable of the lost sheep, as recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, we have the shepherd represented as leaving the ninety and nine in the fold, and going forth in the darkness and among the mountain fastnesses to search for the lost and straying one. This beautifully and forcibly represents the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for his straying children. Repeatedly he is represented as the good shepherd. Says the psalmist, “The Lord is my shepherd. . . . He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” The Lord himself, in the tenth chapter of John, declares, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”

As the human shepherd seeks to protect his flock from danger, leading them out by day to find pasturage and at nightfall gathering them securely into the fold, so the divine Shepherd seeks to feed and nourish and protect the members of his flock. By counsel, admonition, and instruction through his Word and the influence of his Holy Spirit, he seeks to keep his sheep, and to protect and safeguard them from the assaults of the wolf that would snatch them without his protecting care.

But sometimes the sheep are deaf to the voice of instruction, indifferent to the loving care exercised in their behalf, and breaking through the barriers, wander off into forbidden pastures. The Shepherd in infinite love seeks in vain for their restoration. His pleading voice finds no response in their hearts. They reject the repeated invitation to return, and still he calls. He does not cease his entreaty.

There are many wandering sheep to-day, many who have left the heavenly fold and wandered away into byways and forbidden paths. Some there are who know this gospel message, and have been connected with this movement in which we as a people are engaged. In their vision the gold of truth has become dim. Worldly influences have been allowed to creep into the life. The love of money has supplanted the love of God. Worldly pleasure, position, and society have appealed to them with hypnotic power. Some even who have proclaimed the blessed word are among this number. Some boys and girls and young men and women who have left the parental roof, where they were taught to love God and to revere his holy day, have been entrapped by the pitfalls of sin, and to-day are wandering out in the darkness on the bleak mountainside, separated from God and from the fold of his sheep.

Dear wandering one, God invites you to return to him. He asks you to come back to the Father’s house where there is bread and to spare. He will give you a hearty welcome. As to Peter, who followed the Lord afar off and who in the judgment-hall denied his loving Master, he will speak to you words of forgiving tenderness. As unto David, who returned to God after his great failure, he will restore to you the joy of his salvation.

You who have known this message in the past, who have loved it, who have rejoiced in its triumphs, it is for you to share in its ultimate victory. Break now the bands which bind you. Wrest yourself loose from the influences which would hold you back. No longer parley with sin. Do not longer do despite to the spirit of love, but resolve that by God’s grace and through his mighty power you will renounce sin, and enroll yourself once more under the banner of Prince Emmanuel. In response to this resolve on your part you will find God your mighty helper, your loving father, your all-powerful friend. To-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Let the wandering sheep of Israel return to the fold of the heavenly Shepherd.