returned of its own accord. God has to send forth His Spirit to seek, to strive and persuade. "No man can come unto Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him."

But the responsibility of man to yield to these strivings of God's Spirit, and his freedom either to continue in sin or to come home to God, are very imperfectly represented by anything in the case of the sheep. So especially is the choice by which we turn away from all other masters and acknowledge God as our own God-the most important moment of religion on man's side.

There are also other points at which the relation of the sheep to the shepherd does not express very well the relation of the soul to God. But of nearly all analogies the same is true-they illustrate only a limited number of points, while at other points they break down. And our wisdom is to bring into the light those aspects of the truth which an image fairly illustrates, letting the others fall into the background. The image of the shepherd and the sheep illustrates so

many points so well that there is no need of forcing it to do work for which it was not intended.

3. A GOLDEN PROMISE.

The first inference drawn from the great statement "The Lord is my shepherd," is, "I shall not want." This is merely negative; yet how priceless it is! In the strength of such a promise a pilgrim might almost travel the whole way.

Many people are haunted all their days with the fear of want; and, although they have no real trouble today, they are continually borrowing it from tomorrow, and so allowing their entire existence to be overshadowed. Many even of the young are haunted with the dread that, however well they may live and however honestly they may work, the world may have no room for them and may not even afford them their daily bread. But this is a morbid and unbelieving state of mind, and not in accordance with facts. Society is always in need of upright men and women and honest

workers, and does not grudge them their wages. The fact that we have been brought into existence is a proof that we are needed; and the likelihood is strong that a sufficient share of what is required to sustain existence will be ours, if we are willing to do our part to deserve our place. This is the cheerful philosophy of Jesus Himself: "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?"

Can we say, then, that poverty never can overtake the godly? I once heard the late Mr. Spurgeon, in his own church, read a psalm in which this verse occurs: “I have been young and now am old, yet have I not

seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed. begging bread." After reading the verse, he paused and remarked, "David, being a king, may never have seen this spectacle; but I, being a minister and better acquainted with poor people, have seen it often." That was a very bold statement. Let me quote

I was

to you another of an opposite tenor. once walking through a poorhouse with the manager, a wise and kindly man, and, being pained with what I had seen, I said to him, "Tell me, now, what proportion of the inmates of this house have been well-doing people, and have been brought here by no fault of their own." "Well," he answered, "I know them all well, and I am acquainted with their histories, and, I am sorry to say, there is not a single one of the sort you have indicated."

These are widely discrepant statements, and perhaps both of them might mislead. An enormous quantity of abject poverty.probably a far larger proportion of it than in the present temper of the public mind would be readily believed is due to vice; in our

own society it is especially due to drunkenness. Character and well-doing, on the contrary, usually lift at least to the level of honest poverty, with which the dignity and sunshine of life are not incompatible. Besides, where character and well-doing are, there is the power to rally against misfortune: poverty may crush for a time, but the God-fearing spirit will rise above it, and life will improve as it proceeds. On the other hand, however, modern society is so complex that many have to suffer for the wrong-doing of others; and it would be blind and cruel to doubt that sometimes the deserving may sink into destitution, and that in the almshouse, and even the poorhouse, there are saints of God.

What do these exceptional cases prove? Do they prove that sometimes God's promise fails? If we look to Jesus, we shall understand the mystery. Though He spoke so cheerfully of God's good providence, yet He had to say Himself, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where