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SEEKING THE LOST ONE

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 19, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 20.

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SEEKING THE LOST ONE.

JESUS CHRIST came to seek and to save the lost. This was His mission. No sacrifice, no suffering, no self-denial could deter Him or turn Him aside from this one work.
“Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Luke 15:8-10.
“Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Luke 15:8-10.
HE looked down from His glorious throne with the Father at earth’s multitudes and ages. He saw them all; and while the multitudes multiplied by the ages were as “the small dust of the balance” to Him in His greatness and majesty, He could not there endure the loss of one unit of the multitude. He gave Himself to save the lost. He loved all by loving each; and when He gave Himself for all, He gave Himself for each. Each one of earth’s teeming millions was remembered in the sacrifice.
IT matters not that the true shepherd has ninety-nine sheep safe in the fold; he can not rest while one is straying, subject to beasts of prey, a victim of pitiless cold and tempest. He leaves the ninety and nine and goes out into the storm and the night to find the wanderer. It mattered not to the Lord of glory that the angels and inhabitants of unfallen worlds were yet loyal, safe in the great Shepherd’s fold of righteousness. Glad as His heart is because of this, He can not forget that this little earth with its inhabitants is out on the cold, barren, empty wastes of unbelief and destruction. His flock must be complete; and so He left the ninety and nine, and sought with bruised and wounded feet, with broken and emptied life, with loving and yearning heart, to bring back the lost one, that His flock might be complete. He “gave Himself for us.” “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” He bears it all, that He may win back the one world, that His creation may be complete, that every wanderer may be brought home.
IT matters not to the Hebrew woman that she has nine coins left in her head-dress, her garland, her marriage portion perhaps. If she has lost one, she can not rest. Her garland would not be complete. She would be the jeer and butt of her neighbors; she would be considered lacking in careful womanliness; she would be an unworthy wife to her husband; she would be judged by her imperfect roll of coins. It is not that another might not be earned; many doubtless might be; but she must have the lost one. And so she lights a candle, sweeps the house, and seeks diligently till she finds the money.
Her regard for the coin is shown not only in the sacrifice and anxiety of the search, but in the rejoicing over the finding; for “when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.” She has kept good her portion; her enemy can not triumph over her.
HOW FAINTLY this parable illustrates the love of Jesus Christ and the heavenly host for the lost world! How it should illustrate the love of the church for every lost one named among her children! All the lamps of heaven are lighted to pierce the gloom of Satan’s pall of sin. The resources of infinity are centered upon this little lost earth. God’s honor is at stake. His power and wisdom are resting upon its salvation. His love encompasses it. “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited; I am the Lord; and there is none else.” God’s character of power and truth are at stake in the terrible calamity of sin. He not only created the earth to be inhabited, but He wrote in the very beginning in the Lamb’s Book of Life the names of the very characters that should inhabit it. Not one will be wanting. He will gather all the precious jewels from the dirt and the dark corners of this sin-cursed earth. He will sweep away by the storms and trials of life the dust and chaff and refuse in which the good coins are hidden. He will let the light of His Word, the penetrating power of His Spirit, the zeal of tried and true servants assisted by mighty, shining angels, penetrate every nook and corner of earth’s darkness, thatHe may gather out “the gems for His crown.”