The Unfailing Test

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 10, 1907

The Unfailing Test

ONE of the occupations in Australia is sheep-raising. There are large ranches upon which many sheep and lambs find food, and the shepherds guard their own. One day a man was arrested for stealing a sheep. The man claimed that the sheep was his own, that it had been missing from his flock for some days, but as soon as he saw the animal, he knew it.

The other man claimed the sheep, and said he had owned it since it was a lamb, and that it had never been away from the flock.

The judge was puzzled how to decide the matter. At last he sent for the sheep. He first took the man in whose possession the sheep was found to the courtyard, and told him to call the sheep.

The animal made no response, only to raise its head and look frightened as if in a strange place and among strangers.

Bidding the officers to take the man back to the court room, he told them to bring down the defendant. The accused man did not wait until he entered the yard, but at the gate, where the sheep could not see him, he began a peculiar call. At once the sheep bounded toward the gate, and by his actions showed that a familiar voice was calling.

“His own knows him,” said the judge.

—Selected.