e same way he
called about a dozen of the sheep around him. The stranger said, "How
do you know one from the other? They all look perfectly alike."
"Well," said he, "you see that sheep toes in a little; that other one
has a squint; one has a little piece of wool off; another has a black
spot; and another has a piece out of its ear." The man knew all his
sheep by their failings, for he had not a perfect one in the whole
flock. I suppose our Shepherd knows us in the same way.

An Eastern shepherd was once telling a gentleman that his sheep knew
his voice, and that no stranger could deceive them. The gentleman
thought he would like to put the statement to the test. So he put on
the shepherd's frock and turban, and took his staff and went to the
flock. He disguised his voice, and tried to speak as much like the
shepherd as he could; but he could not get a single sheep in the
flock to follow him. He asked the shepherd if his sheep never
followed a stranger. He was obliged to admit that if a sheep got
sickly it would follow any one. So it is with a good many professed
Christians; when they get sickly and weak in the faith, they will
follow any teacher that comes along; but when the soul is in health,
a man will not be carried away by errors and heresies. He will know
whether the "voice" speaks the truth or not. He can soon tell that,
if he is really in communion with God. When God sends a true
messenger his words will find a ready response in the Christian
heart.

Christ is a tender Shepherd. You may some time think He has not been
a very tender Shepherd to you; you are passing under the rod. It is
written, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom He receiveth." (Heb. xii. 6.) That you are passing under the rod
is no proof that Christ does not love you. A friend of mine lost all
his children. No man could ever have loved his family more; but the
scarlet fever took one by one away; and so the whole four or five,
one after another, died. The poor stricken parents went over to great
Britain, and wandered from one place to another, there and on the
continent. At length they found their way to Syria. One day they saw
an Eastern shepherd come down to a stream, and call his flock to
cross. The sheep came down to the brink, and looked at the water; but
they seemed to shrink from it, and he could not get them to respond
to his call. He then took a little lamb, put it under one arm; he
took another lamb and