e great Apostle,
who bound themselves together by an oath that they would neither eat
nor drink till they had killed him. It was their justification in
their own eyes, that he was a "pestilent fellow," a "stirrer of
seditions," and an abomination amid sacred institutions which God had
given.

And, lastly, what supported him in this great trial? that special mercy
which converted him, which he, and he only, saw--the Face of Jesus
Christ. That all-pitying, all-holy eye, which turned in love upon St.
Peter when he denied Him, and thereby roused him to repentance, looked
on St. Paul also, while he persecuted Him, and wrought in him a sudden
conversion. "Last of all," he says, "He was seen of me also, as of one
born out of due time." One sight of that Divine Countenance, so
tender, so loving, so majestic, so calm, was enough, first to convert
him, then to support him on his way amid the bitter hatred and fury
which he was to excite in those who hitherto had loved him.

And if such be the effect of a momentary vision of the glorious
Presence of Christ, what think you, my brethren, will be their bliss,
to whom it shall be given, this life ended, to see that Face eternally?

[1] Gal. i. 8, 9.

[2] Acts xxi. 13. 1 Cor. ix. 22.

[3] 1 Tim. i. 13.

SERMON XVI.

The Shepherd of our Souls.

"_I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the
sheep._"--John x. 11.

Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been
foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them,"
says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one
Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My
Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of
Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." And in
like manner St. Peter speaks of our returning "to the Shepherd and
Bishop of our souls[1]."

"The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." In those countries
of the East where our Lord appeared, the office of a shepherd is not
only a lowly and simple office, and an office of trust, as it is with
us, but, moreover, an office of great hardship and of peril. Our
flocks are exposed to no enemies, such as our Lord describes. The
Shepherd here has no need to prove his fidelity to the sheep by
encounters with fierce beasts of prey. The hireling shepherd is not
tried. But where our Lord dwelt in the days of His