for dwelling on a theory, right or
wrong, till it fills the mind. Yet I cannot say that all this was
without prayer. I did wait upon God, and thought my answers were from
Him; but I see now that I went to the Lord with an idol in my heart, and
that He answered me according to it (Ezek. 14:3).

One day I saw a picture in a friend's house which attracted me during
the time I was waiting for him. It was nothing artistic, nor was it over
well drawn, but still it engaged my attention in a way for which I could
not account. When my friend came down we talked about other things; but
even after I left the house this picture haunted me. At night I lay
awake thinking about it--so much so, that I rose early the next morning,
and went to a bookseller's shop, where I bought a large sheet of
tracing-paper and pencil, and sent them out by the postman, with a note
to my friend, begging him to give me a tracing of the picture in
question.

I had to wait for more than a fortnight before it arrived, and then how
great was my joy! I remember spreading a white cloth on my table, and
opening out the tracing-paper upon it; and there was the veritable
picture of the Good Shepherd! His countenance was loving and kind. With
one hand He was pushing aside the branch of a tree, though a great thorn
went right through it; and with the other He was extricating a sheep
which was entangled in the thorns. The poor thing was looking up in
helplessness, all spotted over with marks of its own blood, for it was
wounded in struggling to escape. Another thing which struck me in this
picture was that the tree was growing on the edge of a precipice, and
had it not been for it (the tree), with all the cruel wounds it
inflicted, the sheep would have gone over and perished.

After considering this picture for a long time, I painted it in a larger
size on the wall of my church, just opposite the entrance door, so that
every one who came in might see it. I cannot describe the interest with
which I employed myself about this work; and when it was done, finding
that it wanted a good bold foreground, I selected a short text-"He came
to seek and to save that which was lost."

God was speaking to me all this time about the Good Shepherd who gave
His life for me; but I did not hear Him, or suspect that I was lost, or
caught in any thorns, or hanging over a precipice; therefore, I did not
apply the subject to myself. Certainly, I remember that my thoughts
dwelt very mu