sheep, and
wrests them from the jaws of harm. The sheep know this, and they fear no
evils; they know that their master is with them. Yea, though they walk in
the shadow of perils and dwell in the midst of the valley of death, they
faint not, neither do they fear, for they know that the shepherd is near.

The case of the sheep in the valley of perils is not unlike our own in the
midst of the evils of the world; and the peace and safety which we enjoy
should be similar also to theirs. We are assured, first of all, by an
unflinching faith in God and our Redeemer that, if we trust our Master and
obey Him, we shall be led aright throughout our lives, even to the kingdom
of Heaven. We shall be led in the paths of justice and love, and crowned
at length with the crown of glory, if we but follow the voice of our
Shepherd-King, and avoid the walks of disaster and ruin. And to hear His
voice and to know it we have but to listen to the teachings of His Church,
which will hush to silence our troubled hearts, and direct our wayward
feet into the paths of heavenly peace.

But, like the shepherd's flock, we have to avoid in our journey through
life, as perils to our safety and spiritual welfare, not only the false
shepherds and teachers and doctrines that surround us on all sides; but we
must also, to pass to our reward, actually encounter inevitable evils and
fight many necessary battles. Many of the paths of life through which we
must of necessity pass are hard and difficult, and full of deadly perils.
We must remember that sin has ruined the primeval beauty of our earthly
habitation and made our life here below a labor and a toil to the end.

We not only come into the world with sin on our souls, and are thereby
exiles from the city of God, but even when our sin is forgiven us the
remains of the malady continue as wounds in our nature as long as we live
on earth. The deadly guilt is wiped away, but the effects of the evil
remain. And it is chiefly these wounds of our nature, in ourselves and in
others, that render life's journey, even when pursued in accordance with
the law of God, at times truly difficult and perilous. Fidelity to God and
to His law is not always a safeguard against the wickedness of the world
and of men; at times, in fact, it is just the contrary. Indeed, is it not
a truth that many, perhaps the majority, of those who endeavor sincerely
to please and to serve God must often suffer severely for their very
goodne