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ARE YOU SHEPHERDS?

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 30, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 18.

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ARE YOU SHEPHERDS?

By W. F. Lane

W. F. LANE (Montrose, Pa.)
ARE you a shepherd? and are you caring for the sheep? Every one that leads a soul to Christ becomes a shepherd in whose care God has committed His sheep. After the Lord places His sheep in your hands by conversion through your labors, why are they neglected? Satan then works harder to draw them away, and how often he is allowed to do it without any opposition from the shepherds.
“Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” Why let them starve after conversion? If through your efforts fifty souls are converted, you are under great responsibility to look after their spiritual condition. Christ said, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?”
“That is the true spirit. When you have been the means of the conversion of souls, how can you see them leaving the fold without a single effort on your part to keep them in the truth? It is not the Spirit of Christ that makes you comfortable under those circumstances; for in His prayer for the disciples He said, “While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” John 17:12, R. V.
If Christ was so faithful and anxious that none should be lost, why are we satisfied when we see many departing from the faith? We are responsible for those sheep that God has placed in our care, if we do not do all in our power to keep them. Do not say, This does not mean me; for it means every one who has ever led a sinner to Christ; and if you have not, where are your fruits? “By their fruits ye shall know them.” “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire,” includes those trees that bring forth evil fruit, and also those that bring forth no fruit at all. Remember the drones are all killed before the honey is sampled.
How can we expect God to give us the care of more sheep if we do not take care of those He has already given us? How can we ask for more conversions until we have hunted up the lost ones?
“My brethren, if any among you do err from the truth, and one convert him: let him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.” James 5:19, 20, R. V.