flesh it was
otherwise. There it was true that the good Shepherd giveth His life
for the sheep--"but he that is an hireling, and whose own the sheep are
not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the
wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth,
because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep."

Our Lord found the sheep scattered; or, as He had said shortly before,
"All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers;" and in
consequence the sheep had no guide. Such were the priests and rulers
of the Jews when Christ came; so that "when He saw the multitudes He
was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were
scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd[2]." Such, in like
manner, were the rulers and prophets of Israel in the days of Ahab,
when Micaiah, the Lord's Prophet, "saw all Israel scattered on the
hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd, and the Lord said, These have
no Master, let them return every man to his house in peace[3]." Such,
too, were the shepherds in the time of Ezekiel, of whom the Prophet
says, "Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves!
should not the shepherd feed the flocks? . . . They were scattered,
because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of
the field, when they were scattered[4]:" and in the time of the Prophet
Zechariah, who says, "Woe to the idle shepherd that leaveth the
flock[5]!"

So was it all over the world when Christ came in His infinite mercy "to
gather in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." And
though for a moment, when in the conflict with the enemy the good
Shepherd had to lay down His life for the sheep, they were left without
a guide (according to the prophecy already quoted, "Smite the Shepherd
and the sheep shall be scattered"), yet He soon rose from death to live
for ever, according to that other prophecy which said, "He that
scattered Israel will gather him, as a shepherd doth his flock[6]."
And as He says Himself in the parable before us, "He calleth His own
sheep by name and leadeth them out, and goeth before them, and the
sheep follow Him, for they know His voice," so, on His resurrection,
while Mary wept, He did call her by her name[7], and she turned herself
and knew Him by the ear whom she had not known by the eye. So, too, He
said, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me[8]?" And He added, "Follow
Me." And so again He and His A