SERMON LXXVI. BLESSEDNESS TO BE FOUND IN The Purification of St. Mary the Virgin. (St. Lu. ii. 29.) SERMON LXXVII. THE OUTER AND THE INNER St. Matthias' Day. (Acts i. 20,-quoting Ps. cix. 8.)... ... St. Philip and St. James's Day. (St. John xiv. 5, 6.) .. ............ The Third Sunday after Trinity. THE GOOD SHEPHERD IN PURSUIT. ST. LUKE Xv. 4. 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? WITH such words, the SAVIOUR of the World answered the murmurs of the Pharisees and Scribes when they beheld Him 'receiving sinners, and eating with them.' The image which He employed is one of perpetual recurrence in Holy Scripture. In type and prophecy, in psalm and parable, CHRIST is for ever set before us as a Shepherd. That we, also, are as sheep in His sight; nay, that we have erred and strayed from His ways, like lost sheep; we admit in our daily confession. It is manifest therefore that the present parable admits of a strict application to ourselves. Whoever the ninety and nine' may may be interpreted and unravelled? The Good Shepherd goes after that which is lost, until he find it.' Have we no personal knowledge then of this process? Have we had no private experience of One in pursuit? Has no voice ever come to us from a distance, calling us by name? has no Shepherd's staff ever motioned us to return? no hand ever extricated us, lovingly and skilfully, from the briars wherein we seemed hopelessly entangled ?. It may be that, to some, we shall seem speaking a strange and purely fanciful language; and that if we would explain what we mean by the Good Shepherd in pursuit, we must speak more plainly. In what follows, we will endeavour to do so. And since, of ne cessity, we must be brief, we shall have to depend on the hearer to extend our remarks; as well as to adapt and apply them to his own particular case. What is to be thought, then, of Illness; which by bringing us very low in body, humbles us also in spirit; confines us to our bed; and through the long hours of darkness gives us time for recollection and repentance? If in time of health, we say daily, 'We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep,'-are we not right in saying, when we are ill, The Good |