f sympathy. "_The diseased
have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick._"
Selfishness always tends to benumbment. Humaneness is fostered by
sacrifice. Our sympathetic chords are kept refined by chivalrous deeds.
Drop the deeds and all our refinements begin to coarsen, and we make no
response to our brother's cries of need and pain.

And because there is no sympathy there is no quest. "_My sheep wandered
... and none did seek after them._" How can we seek them if we have never
missed them, if we have no sense that they are lost? Our Lord came in
travail of soul to "seek that which was lost." And I must share His
travail if I would share in the search.

JANUARY The Nineteenth

_THE LOST SHEEP_

EZEKIEL xxxiv. 11-19.

And now, again, I am bidden to contemplate the gracious ministries of the
Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd searches the "far country" for His lost sheep. "_I will
bring them ... out of all places where they have been scattered._" He goes
into the hard wilderness of cold indifference, and wasteful pride, and
desolating sin, searching "high and low" for His foolish sheep. And no
place is unvisited by the Great Seeker! Every perilous ravine, where a
sheep can be lost, knows the footprints of the Shepherd. And He knows my
far-country, and He is seeking me!

And the Good Shepherd brings His wandering sheep back home. "_I will bring
them ... to their own land._" We return from the land of pride to the home
of lowliness, from hard indifference to gracious sympathy, from the
barrenness of sin to the beauty of holiness. We come back to God's
beautiful "lily-land" of eternal light and peace.

And what nutriment the Good Shepherd provides for the home-coming sheep!
"_I will feed them in a good pasture._" Our wasted powers shall be renewed
and strengthened by the fattening diet of grace. Love shall be both host
and meat! "He will satisfy thy mouth with good things."

JANUARY The Twentieth

_THE PASSING OF THE BEAST_

EZEKIEL xxxiv. 23-31.

When the Good Shepherd has charge of His flock "_the wild beasts will
cease out of the land_." All beastly passions shall be destroyed. The fair
gardens of our souls shall no longer be ravaged by sleek pride, or fierce
appetite, or ravenous lust. "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder,
the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet."

And the forces of nature shall be in friendly co-operation. "_I will cause