Luke 15:4, commentary and pictures

Jesus met the complaint that He welcomed outcasts by telling of a keeper with a hundred sheep who leaves the ninety-nine in the wild to hunt for the one gone missing until it is found, then carries it home rejoicing with a joy shared in heaven over one sinner restored.
The keeper is Christ Himself, who does not wait for the wanderer to return but goes in person with grieving, sleepless persistence through darkness, peril and rejection at the cost of heaven's glory and His own blood.
The stray is utterly helpless to find its way back, picturing every sinner of every rank and color, every backslider and child in peril, and also the one fallen world, small among sinless worlds yet sought at infinite sacrifice.
The loss of even one is enough to send Him out, for each soul is so precious that He would have died for that one alone, worth more than a world of property and to be taxed to the utmost to recover.
When found He lays no blame or punishment on the bruised and trembling one but lays it on His shoulders and bears it back in love, and His followers must do the same work with tender, winning compassion rather than harshness or neglect, finding their own joy and strength in the search.

Parable Setting and Story

The saying was given to Pharisees and scribes who murmured because publicans and sinners drew near to hear and were received and eaten with, to answer the charge of welcoming sinners and to lay rebuke on the leaders of Israel for neglecting those in need instead of helping them. It exposes the fault of staying with those who deem themselves safe and praise themselves for supposed piety while holding aloof from others, and it requires going with compassion and tenderness to those who need help rather than passing them by. The lost sheep bleating outside the fold and not knowing the way back is those despised publicans and sinners, and the seeking is the special work of the Lord as the great Shepherd in goodness and mercy.

The story is of a man having a hundred sheep who, if he loses one, leaves the ninety and nine in the wilderness and goes after that which is lost until he finds it. When found he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and calls friends and neighbors to rejoice with him, picturing joy in heaven over one sinner that repents more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance. The search is diligent and active, for the separated sheep is in greater danger and calls for special persistent effort rather than waiting for it to return on its own. Its recovery is to be welcomed with joy rather than blame, gossip, jealousy, resentment, exacting demands or self-righteous dignity.

The illustration was drawn not from Scripture but from the hearers' own experience of shepherd life. That life belonged to the wide tablelands east of Jordan with abundant pasturage, where sheep wandered through gorges and over wooded hills and had to be searched for and brought back by the shepherd's care. The audience included shepherds and men with money invested in flocks and herds, so all could appreciate the case of a man with a hundred sheep. The familiar scene of shepherd and sheep illustrated immortal truth in a way that made truth a living reality whenever such scenes were afterward seen in nature and daily life. Though simple and varied with tact to suit prejudiced minds and win attention through the imagination, it holds wonderful depth, places earthly life subordinate to eternal interest while fitting men for everyday duties, links heaven and earth, and breaks the spell of absorption in earthly things.

The saying belongs with Luke 15:1-10 as a picture of seeking love going after the straying lost one until found. It was spoken immediately before the parable of the lost piece of silver. It was repeated, and its lesson is carried still farther by the lost coin and the prodigal son, showing pitying love that does not abandon the straying in misery but is kind and tender toward those exposed to the tempter's snares. Its full force was not appreciated at the time but became clear after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, when the ingathering of the Gentiles and the envious anger of the Jews revealed its meaning that the lost being found and the dead made alive calls for making merry and being glad.

The wilderness where the ninety and nine are left and the lost is sought is a dreary place of darkness, confusion, bewilderment and lost spiritual condition. It is full of brush, briars, pitfalls, thickets, quagmires, dangerous crevices in the rocks, storm, cold and roughness of way. The straying one left the pleasant pasture and fold and is bewildered, miserable, dissatisfied and frightened, rushing this way and that in desperation farther and farther from the gates of heaven and from care and protection. Such a sheep cannot get out or find the way back without a friendly hand to lift it, part the briars, or take it from the mire. The faithful Shepherd is not content with the ninety and nine safely housed but turns His energies to the one, feels the burden of its misery and danger, goes without hesitation into the desert, risks life on steep heights and at the edge of the precipice, and uses every resource until after painstaking effort it is found even when ready to die.

The words until he find it mean a personal, immediate and persistent search that does not wait for the sheep to come back on its own. As soon as one goes astray there is grief and anxiety, counting and recounting the flock, and when loss is sure there is no sleep and no careless looking at the safely housed flock on the plea that ninety and nine remain and the trouble is too great. The shepherd goes himself with greater anxiety and more earnest search the darker and more tempestuous the night and the more perilous the way, making every effort with determined, self-sacrificing care even at risk to his own life. He continues through dark night and storm, over mountains and valleys, through frost, sleet, hardship and danger, conscientiously, determinedly and perseveringly until the lost one is found. The lost are thus to be sought until they are found, in earnest persistent labor for recovery, for many more could be recovered by such care.

Shepherd's Seeking Love

The shepherd is Christ, the divine Shepherd and Good Shepherd, and His receiving of sinners comes not from indifference to wickedness but from compassion. He greets those drawn to Him as children of God, estranged indeed from the Father's house but not forgotten by the Father's heart, finding in Him escape from the pit of sin. Their very misery and sin make them only more the objects of His compassion, and the farther they have wandered the more earnest is His longing and the greater His sacrifice for their rescue, in contrast to scorn and condemnation. He will not despise one little lost sheep but leaves the ninety and nine to go out into the desert and search until He finds it, and when found He lays it on His shoulders and holds it to His breast of infinite love with rejoicing that reaches the heavenly courts in the song of finding the sheep which was lost. Every straying soul is thus precious and must be sought and saved, for God in the midst of His people is mighty to save and rests in His love and joys over the rescued with singing, and the sheep's return depends on the Shepherd's loving care as the pure, sinless Redeemer tenderly bears the sinful and unclean back to safety without reproach. Therefore no one who is rescued enters the fold without the Shepherd's search, and no one should act with pride, self-righteousness, or a critical spirit.

As soon as one goes astray the Shepherd is filled with grief and anxiety, counts and recounts the flock, and when sure one is lost He does not sleep. He does not look carelessly at the safely housed flock and refuse to search because He still has ninety and nine and the trouble is too great, nor does He abandon the lost because the rest are safe, nor wait for the straying sheep to come back on its own. He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold and goes Himself in search of the straying one, with greater anxiety and more earnest search the darker and more tempestuous the night and the more perilous the way, making every effort with eager, hungering, thirsting perseverance through darkness, danger, and long search until He finds it. He is not a slothful and selfish keeper content with the ninety and nine safely housed, but turns His energies to find the one lost sheep, using every resource, relieved at its first faint cry, risking His life climbing the steepest heights and going to the edge of the precipice, continuing after painstaking effort until it is found even when ready to die. Those who say they have the ninety and nine and will not be solicitous for the one lost are not numbered among the faithful shepherds.

The search is made at great cost to Himself, leaving heaven's purity, happiness and glory and the shelter of the fold and the gates of gold to go to the desert to find His one lost sheep far off on the mountains wild and bare. Sympathy for a world of lost sinners, lost without hope and cut off from heaven, led Him to leave His high and exalted place upon His Father's throne and make the infinite sacrifice necessary to lift man from degradation and bring him back to the fold of God. He crosses deep waters and passes through dark night until far out in the desert He hears its fainting, helpless, dying cry, searching under the most discouraging circumstances and shrinking not from hardships and peril, through thunder-riven mountains and up the rocky steep. He sheds blood-drops all along the mountain track for the one gone astray and His hands are rent and torn and pierced by many thorns before He can bring him back. To do this He took upon Himself human weaknesses, was tempted, ridiculed and beset on every hand, suffered all the woes, griefs and sorrows of humanity without murmur as an example, descended step by step in humiliation until He hung as a criminal upon the cross, encircling the race with infinite love while grasping infinite power, thus connecting earth with heaven amid contempt, rejection and Satan's opposition. When He finds the sheep He sends up a cry to the gate of heaven to rejoice that He has found His sheep, and the angels around the throne sing that the Lord brings back His own, and all suffering, trial and peril endured are forgotten in the joy of bringing the sinner back through genuine repentance and faith.

God makes the first advance toward the sinner, going forth to seek him even when the person has done wickedly and is still in rebellion, with the tender heart of the shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine and goes out into the wilderness to find what was lost. When no one is seeking to save the wandering sheep, God goes in search of him Himself, seeing his danger in great hopelessness and in the miry clay when men feel no burden and make no effort. He seeks those who feel their need as the sick feel need of a physician, taking pains to call His sheep by name and invite them to follow, flashing light from His word to show peril, speaking from heaven in warnings, reproofs and invitations to return, seeking to help the erring by His presence and to lift them when they fall. He speaks to the soul, inspires hope to rely wholly on Christ for salvation, takes the feet out of the miry clay and places them on the Rock, and His own arm brings salvation. He finds the soul bruised and wounded and ready to perish, encircles it in arms of love, and joyfully bears it to the fold of safety, so that the desponding soul can take courage and be certain of pardon and access, and all the glory belongs to God alone and not to any human agent. Salvation thus begins with God seeking the sinner, not with the sinner seeking God or earning favor through repentance, for His love leads to repentance and He gave His life for His people.

When found the Shepherd does not blame, punish, drive with a whip, scold for trouble, heap reproaches, murmur or censure the poor lost sheep for the trouble it caused, nor leave the trembling, bruised, wounded, frightened and distressed sheep to follow or drive it along. He does not devote all His care only to those who already accept salvation, but goes out enduring hardship and facing danger and death because the sheep will perish if not brought back, giving the friendly help needed for rescue. He tenderly carries it in its weakness, lifts it to His shoulder and returns rejoicing, takes it in His arms close to His bosom so His own vitality and the warmth of His own heart give it life and inspire courage. He encircles it in arms of love, holds it close, and bears the sinful and unclean back without reproach, for finding is the theme of rejoicing and the straying is not dwelt upon. The joy of finding overbalances the sorrow of loss and the care, perplexity and peril incurred in searching and restoring to safety.

The parable speaks not of failure but of success and joy in recovery, with no picture of a sorrowful shepherd returning without the sheep, but success in bringing the sheep and lambs back. It guarantees that no straying person in God's care willing to be ransomed is overlooked or left unsuccored or left without help, but Christ rescues everyone willing to be ransomed from corruption and sin. Every one who will submit to be rescued will be brought from the wilds of sin to safety, encircled by mercy and compassion of divine power as by a golden chain passed around every imperiled soul, showing wisdom and power and love without parallel. The ninety and nine that have not strayed do not call for the sympathy and tender, pitying love that the straying one calls for, while the one lost causes greatest anxiety and engrosses sympathies, taxing whole heart and soul and energies until found, followed not with harsh words and whip but with winning invitations to return. He returns carrying the sheep in His arms, rejoicing at every step and calling others to rejoice, and this loss that with proper search may be recovered with great joy calls for earnest, untiring effort, laying right hold in tender, pitying love to give courage, hope and strength in helpless, hopeless condition.

All heaven is interested in the search and in the ransom of man, with the Father, Christ and all heaven sharing interest, and all the host engaged in the work for salvation. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels ascend and descend to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, watching the Shepherd's steps with intense interest as He goes forth into the desert in dark night and severe tempest, calling the lost sheep by name at every step until He hears its terrified, faint, dying cry, hunting amid dangerous places and crossing tangled briers. They come not to denounce and destroy and exact homage but as messengers of mercy to cooperate with the Captain of the Lord's host and with human agents who go forth to seek and save, encamping round about those who fear and love God. Heaven's resources are at the command of those who work to bring back the guilty, perishing soul, for heaven is enlisted to help Christ's laborers seek and recover them and reveals the Father's infinite love and desire to receive the lost back.

Lost Sheep's Meaning

A sheep strayed from the fold is the most helpless of all creatures, unable to find its way back and needing to be sought, carried and brought home by the shepherd. So a soul wandered away from God is as helpless as the lost sheep, bewildered, miserable, frightened, perplexed, humbled and sorely tempted, rushing farther from safety into wilderness or mountains and unable to recover itself. Man is helpless, undone and lost unless transformed in character, and without divine love coming to his rescue he could never find the way back to the Father's house. This condition made necessary the coming of the True Shepherd to seek and save the perishing at any cost to Himself, seeking until He finds.

The lost sheep is man, every soul of every nation, kindred and tongue, white or black, bearing the image of God. It is every lost sinner, high or low, rich or poor, including publicans and sinners bleating outside the fold and not knowing how to get back, whom others despised or passed by and whom true shepherds must seek with compassion and tenderness rather than hold aloof in supposed piety. It also exposes those wise in their own conceit and wise in their own eyes who do not realize they are lost. No person high or low, rich or poor, white or black is therefore to be treated with contempt, since Christ came to save all.

The one lost sheep has a wider meaning than the individual sinner, for it is also the one world that has apostatized and been ruined by sin through transgression. The ninety and nine are the sinless worlds on high that went not astray from the fold and that loved Him. Though this fallen world is but an atom in the vast dominions over which God presides, this little fallen world is more precious in His sight than the ninety and nine that did not stray. Christ, the loved Commander in the heavenly courts, stooped from His high estate, left the purity, happiness and glory He had with the Father, laid aside glory and clothed divinity with humanity to come to this earth. On the cross of Calvary He paid the redemption price for that lost world through humiliation, agony, suffering, sacrifice and death, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, because God gave Himself in His Son that He might have the joy of receiving back the sheep that was lost.

The lost sheep pictures a soul who has known and enjoyed the love of Jesus and the guardianship of the compassionate Shepherd but has left the pleasant pasture and fold through the deceiving, deluding power of Satan. Such a one is bewildered, miserable, dissatisfied, frightened, cold and indifferent, rushing in desperation through brush, briars, pitfalls, darkness, confusion and bewilderment farther from the gates of heaven, and can never find the way back without help. This includes backslidden church members, those who gave up the Sabbath, those in contention, hardened criminals and horse-thieves, and particular straying ones such as George Lay, Brother Faulkhead entangled in Freemasonry, Martha, Mrs. Martin and Sister Martin, Frank, Edson, and a woman still responsive to truth. The church bears guilt where such sheep are left unsought and told let them go, and they must not be abandoned but sought with the Great Shepherd's compassion, long-suffering, tenderness and undying care, with heartfelt concern and confession of coldness making a way for return where a stiff, stern, unfeeling attitude keeps them away.

The lost sheep represents a child or young person, a lamb, that has gone astray, for whom the shepherd takes special responsibility, leaving the ninety-nine and using all his energy to seek the one that is lost. Christ feels the tenderest sympathy for children and youth in imminent peril through manifold temptations whom Satan desires to harass and destroy, valuing every son and daughter of Adam as His purchased property by ransom money through self-denial, self-sacrifice, humiliation and crucifixion, and sending His angels to protect and guard them. Parents should seek their straying children with the same earnest care, beginning with their own family and continuing until every child is brought into the fold, using winning invitations to return and not harsh words or force. A soul without prayer is like that straying sheep that has left its shepherd.

Souls are lost to God through their own individual consent, choosing their own course and another master, turning away and following their own course, yet they still belong to Him by creation and redemption and He does not leave them in their misery but seeks to save them in pitying love and kindness toward those exposed to the tempter's attacks. They are degraded by sin, guilty with guilt hindering return, led by apostasy to misread God's character, while Satan has studied to ruin the image of God in man and obliterate His character through sin and intemperance. Christ clothed His divinity with humanity so He could meet humanity without extinguishing it, becoming a servant in lowly ministry to lift up the lowly and save the lost sheep, encircling the lost with love to bring them back to the fold and to sit together with Him in heavenly places in peace and joy. When the blessed light of the Sun of Righteousness shines into the heart, the one found knows he is not his own because he is bought with a price.

Each wanderer from the fold is to take courage because the Good Shepherd is searching personally for each one individually, pledging that not even one straying sheep is overlooked or left unsuccored, and every one who will submit to be ransomed He will rescue from the wilds of sin. Each person is to take this personally by faith, saying I am the lost sheep Jesus came to save, and grasping God's promises in this personal way gives new life and strength to resist the tempter. This faith does not come by feeling, by looking for a great change, or by expecting a wonderful emotion, but by hearing the Word of God with the Spirit impressing the mind. To doubt the possibility of one's salvation is to doubt the saving power of Him who purchased sinners at infinite cost, so faith must take the place of unbelief, looking to His pierced hands and rejoicing in their power to save, opening the door of the heart to be restored and healed as a diligent learner finding rest.

Worth of One Soul

The loss of even one sheep, the least and smallest number that can be counted, is enough to awaken the Shepherd's sympathy and send Him on a painful quest through dangers, thickets, quagmires, dangerous crevices, briars and mire, because the sheep cannot escape without a friendly hand. He does not treat the loss as insignificant or look carelessly at the safely housed flock, but counts and recounts, grieves with anxiety, and keeps seeking through dark night until He hears its bleating afar off and finds it alive. When found He does not blame, heap reproaches, punish or drive it, but parts the briars with firm yet gentle hand, lifts it tenderly to His shoulders, holds it close and bears the sinful and unclean back Himself without reproach, rejoicing that it is alive. This painful search shows God's estimate upon man and His care for each one who is lost and helpless to find the way back unless divine love comes to rescue him.

Every lost soul is so precious to Christ that He would have died for that one alone. God placed His estimate upon man by giving Jesus, heaven's best gift, to a life of humiliation, poverty, self-sacrifice, contempt, rejection and death, to the purchase of man by His blood on Calvary, that the lost sheep, every soul of every nation, kindred and tongue, white or black, bearing the image of God, might be saved. All heaven's sympathy is enlisted for that wandering sheep, with ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels ascending and descending to minister to heirs of salvation as messengers of mercy, cooperating with the Captain of the Lord's host and with human agents. Beholding that seeking love at the cross moves the sinner to repentance and transforms character from glory to glory, and even if only a few accept grace the effort is not in vain because one soul may live forever.

The price of a soul is the life of the only-begotten Son, and therefore no person high or low, rich or poor, white or black is to be treated with contempt. Man is helpless, undone and lost unless transformed in character, a condition that made necessary the coming of the True Shepherd to seek and save the perishing at any cost to Himself, exposing those wise in their own conceit who do not realize they are lost. Satan has studied to ruin the image of God in man and obliterate His character through sin and intemperance, yet Christ clothed divinity with humanity so He could meet humanity without extinguishing it, becoming a servant in lowly ministry to lift up the lowly. Since every rescued person has been borne on Christ's shoulders and no sheep could enter the fold without the Shepherd's search, no one is to act with pride, self-righteousness, exaltation of self, hasty passionate words, or a critical spirit.

One soul is of more value to heaven than a whole world of property, houses, lands and money. It is of great value because God created it and Christ redeemed it, because of the possibilities before it, the spiritual advantages granted it, the capabilities it may possess when vitalized by the Word of God, and the immortality it may gain through obedience to the Life-giver and the hope presented in the gospel. For the conversion of one soul resources are to be taxed to the utmost, even selling earthly possessions if needed, to find it at any peril and any cost. To do less than Christ did and to neglect to work and sacrifice as He worked and sacrificed is unjustified, a betrayal of sacred trust and an insult to God who gave His Son to a shameful death.

One soul truly won to Christ will flash heaven's light all around him, penetrate moral darkness, save other souls, and multiply talents so that two, five and ten accumulate and double. True sorrow over the perishing leads to awake, burdened labor spending strength and resources to win them, following Christ's care for the one even when the others are safe. If a worker fails ninety-nine times in a hundred but succeeds in saving one soul from ruin he has done a noble deed for the Master's cause. That work shares Christ's coming to save those lost and dying, laboring with all patience for those who most need aid without scorning the simplicity of the labor or saying in the heart let them go as not worth saving, working in humility among humble and lowly outcasts as honorably as among the rich, great and intellectual, looking to the blessed result and leaving results with God, accomplishing good that can never be measured in this life.

Joy Over Recovery

Finding is the theme of rejoicing, while the straying is not dwelt upon. When the lost is found the shepherd lifts it to his shoulder and returns rejoicing, calling friends and neighbors on earth and in heaven to rejoice with him, rather than murmuring, censuring, blaming or reproaching the poor sheep for the trouble it caused. The joy of finding overbalances the sorrow of the loss and the care, perplexity and peril incurred in searching and restoring it to safety. All suffering, trial, hardship and peril endured under the most discouraging circumstances are forgotten in the joy of finding, which is realized when through genuine repentance for sin and faith in Christ the sinner is brought back to the fold of God. That restoration, rather than keeping past sinfulness before the erring with suspicion and hindrance, imposes the duty to value every soul purchased by blood, to lay no stumbling block before him, and to help and encourage him in the conflict with darkness. Even the joy of a family at travelers returned is like the shepherd's rejoicing over the recovered sheep.

There is joy in heaven among the angels over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. Those who work to save the lost bring that joy to heaven, for the Father, Christ and all heaven share interest in the recovery. When the sheep is found and carried home rejoicing, there is exceeding joy and gratitude that one soul is saved from death.

Beholding the Shepherd's seeking love at Calvary, where a costly offering was given to save an apostate and ruined race and restore the moral image of God lost through transgression, moves the sinner to repentance. When the sinner looks to the cross and contemplates the love of God he is deeply moved and becomes repentant, and by beholding Christ is changed and transformed in character from glory to glory. To despise such a sinner is to despise the purchase of the blood of Christ and to unite with the adversary of God and man instead of working in harmony with God. So the Pharisees held in contempt the very ones the Lord was anxious to save, like the poor blind man restored to sight by the compassionate Shepherd whom they thought worthy only of sneers and hatred.

Every wanderer from the fold is to take courage because the Good Shepherd is personally searching for each one individually and does not return sorrowful without the sheep. Not even one straying sheep is overlooked or left unhelped, and every one who will submit to be ransomed will be rescued from the wilds of sin. To doubt the possibility of one's salvation is to doubt the saving power of Him who purchased sinners at infinite cost, so faith must take the place of unbelief, looking to His pierced hands and rejoicing in their power to save. Each person is to take this personally by faith, saying I am the lost sheep Jesus came to save, a faith that comes not by feeling or expecting a wonderful emotion or great change but by hearing the Word with the Spirit impressing the mind, giving new life and strength to resist the tempter.

The one who has wandered and is delivered from perishing is to remain under the shepherd's care and in the fold, not to renew wandering. The sheep that is found repays the shepherd's love by faithful submission, accepting the obligations that belong with the privileges of being brought back. His love encircles the lost to bring them back and gives them the privilege of sitting together with Him in heavenly places, and when the blessed light of the Sun of Righteousness shines into the heart the response is rest in peace and joy in the Lord, praising Him not in words only but by consecration of all that one is and has, knowing he is not his own because bought with a price, which is the science and song of all the heavenly universe. Every self-denial and every sacrifice made in following Christ is one more step of that return to the fold, leading to the open doors of the heavenly Canaan, to be entered through the door and not by climbing up some other way.

Church's Work to Seek

The sheep left unsought is not brought back, so the church must go after members who have strayed from Christ instead of waiting for them to return on their own or saying let them go. Those who have wandered, including the weak and erring, those once loving the truth, those driven out, and those cold and indifferent, are to be sought conscientiously, determinedly and perseveringly until found, not left to find the Shepherd alone. Failure in this duty brings guilt upon the church and leaves it spiritually weak, as was seen in neglect toward George Lay until the wrong was seen and acknowledged. When the straying one is found he is to be carried home with joy, illustrating the blessed work of reclaiming sinners and bringing them back to the Great Shepherd's fold.

The search is to be made with compassion, tenderness, pitying love and winning invitations to return, not with harsh words, whips, force, exacting demands, blame, reproach, gossip, jealousy, suspicion, resentment, cold indifference, pride or self-righteous dignity. The lone sheep separated from the flock is in greater danger and calls for special persistent effort, with pride and dignity set aside to help the wanderer return to God and the church and to welcome that return with joy. A stiff, stern, unfeeling attitude keeps wanderers away, while heartfelt concern, confession of coldness and indifference, and a loving reception without reproach make a way for restoration. This is especially the duty toward a straying child or young person, who needs tender pitying care from ministers and teachers rather than compulsion.

Ministers as under-shepherds are to leave the ninety and nine in the churches and go into the wilderness, highways, deserts, large cities, new districts, foreign lands, the Southern field and homes to hunt for the lost sheep outside. Preaching continually to church members does not strengthen them but makes them weak, helpless, consumers and not producers, still needing milk and not meat, while the lesson is to go forth in trust in God and His guidance. The work requires diligent personal house-to-house and fireside labor for those not reached by public meetings, visiting the flock to learn each person's condition and presenting truth suited to each case, including the backslider, with tender compassion and watchful care. Souls in sin are in peril of losing immortal life, and indifference, silence and failure to show them the way of life neglect the saving of the lost. Believers are to educate themselves as self-denying, self-sacrificing workers laboring together with the Shepherd, refusing to yield or become discouraged until the lost property is recovered.

True shepherds forget self, ease, comfort, weariness, cold, hunger and wages, laboring with grief, travail of soul, earnest prayer, patience, perseverance and self-sacrifice until the lost is recovered. Like the shepherd going amid frost and sleet, cold, storm and tempest without finding fault, reprimand or abandonment, they patiently continue the search, place the sheep upon the shoulder, and return with rejoicing. The faithful minister does not study his own ease and convenience but goes into new places to meet people where they are instead of shrinking from opposition, darkness and conflict, having but one object to save the lost and wandering at whatever expense to himself. His commission is from the Majesty of Heaven, his wages do not turn him from duty, and he expects his reward only when the work entrusted to him is done.

The work embraces the erring, fallen, tempted, wounded, degraded, diseased in mind, intemperate and poor, who will not find the way back without help and must be sought with care and brought back rather than met with contempt or neglect. The wayward straying sheep, even when in the enemy's snare and ready to perish, is precious in God's sight and worth effort, to be approached closely in love, conversed with in real deep earnestness, shown a father's tender sympathy, prayed with without letting go, and his case pressed to the throne of grace as Moses pleaded for Israel. The method is that of a physician to heal, not cutting off the sufferer as a diseased limb or expelling from school with humiliation, bearing long with presumptuous, high-headed, hard-hearted and ungrateful souls in tender forbearance, meekness, calmness under injury and kindness for abuse, reproving sin without excusing it. This shepherd work melts hearts from selfishness, helps neighbors see truth and serve God acceptably, aids suffering, changes the condition of the poor and distressed, melts barriers of race and caste, removes obstacles to truth as it is in Jesus, and lets pure religion and undefiled shine as a bright light to the perishing nigh and afar off.

Spiritual labor and bearing burdens for others strengthen the church, awaken spiritual faculties, develop intellectual and moral powers, and bring joy in harmony with God under the Holy Spirit. One soul is of great value because God created it and Christ redeemed it, because of its possibilities, spiritual advantages, capabilities when vitalized by the Word, and the immortality it may gain through obedience and the hope of the gospel, being worth more than a whole world of property, houses, lands and money. For the conversion of one soul resources are to be taxed to the utmost, even selling possessions if needed, to find it at any peril and cost, and one soul won will flash heaven's light, penetrate moral darkness, save other souls and multiply two, five and ten talents. To do less than Christ did and neglect this work is betrayal of sacred trust and insult to God, while refusal leaves souls to perish, provokes God's anger, invites spiritual feebleness and decay, gives no excuse, and will be questioned in judgment. True sorrow over the perishing leads to awake, burdened labor so they do not lose an eternity of bliss they might gain.

Human agents must cooperate with God, Christ, angels and divine power, since Christ has linked them to His eternal throne by offering His own life, with heaven enlisted and angels working alongside persevering personal effort. The ninety and nine that have not strayed do not call for the sympathy and tender pitying love that the straying one engrosses, and the faithful shepherd gives whole heart, soul and energies to seek until he finds, returning carrying the sheep rejoicing at every step and calling others to rejoice, with no picture of sorrowful failure but a divine guarantee encircling every imperiled soul as with a golden chain. The means include opening the Scriptures with clear definite instruction, personal labor coming close to the unconverted, truth whose working power restores wanderers, books containing present truth, united fellowship, shoulder-to-shoulder prayer, and bearing and nurturing new believers until they can walk alone, which is the best missionary work. Through laborers serving God, those spiritually lost are thus found and brought back to the fold.

Ministerial labor belongs chiefly to those who do not know the truth and to perishing souls around, not to constant feeding of the church, and church members must share that same spirit. Leaving the ninety and nine in the fold to hunt up the lost sheep is right work taking much time, watching and hunting with burden, love and sympathy because Christ gave His life for them, laboring in new places with new interest and baptisms. To murmur because constant efforts are not made for the church, speaking as though robbed of labor, grumbling like the Pharisees at those who carry the burden, or expecting all ministerial attention to keep the breath of life in their own souls like sick lambs or sick babies, shows selfishness, spiritual darkness, a cold dead heart, and the spirit of the elder brother toward the prodigal, greatly displeasing to God. Converted souls who love Christ will instead love those for whom He died, use strength and talents to help the minister carry the burden, wear the yoke of Christ, strive to make ministerial labors a perfect success, war against the powers of darkness, and rejoice that the lost are being found, and only by going to work for those convicted, longing for converting power and hungering for truth will the church live, advance and have souls added.