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النشر الإلكتروني

LECTURE XXIV.

ST. MATTHEW ix. 36.

But when he, (that is, Jesus) saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having nò shepherd.

THE Country, in which our Saviour lived, when he was upon earth, was called Judea, the land of the Jews. The Jews had been a people chosen by God himself. He taught them his laws, gave them the ten commandments, kept them as a people not like any other, and sent Jesus Christ to them first. You will find, hereafter, if you continue to attend to me, how they crucified the Saviour, and how God punished

them most dreadfully for doing so. He sent a people called the Romans, who destroyed their city, and carried many of them away as prisoners, and killed thousands of them. Since this time they have been scattered over all the earth, are found in this country and in every other, are strangers, wherever they are, and have no country of their own. They have suffered all this, because they crucified the Lord of Glory. But I shall tell you more of this at another time.

After our blessed Saviour had preached the Gospel for some time, had given the people most excellent advice, and had healed a great many sick folks, raising one dead person to life, multitudes followed him. They had never heard such words as he spoke: they had never seen such wonderful works of mercy as he did. They followed him from all parts of the country, far from their homes and their relations. He had but little of this world's

goods. He had nothing to give them but the words of eternal life. When he looked around upon them, and knew from what a distance they had come, he was moved, we are told, with compassion on them, because they fainted, were worn out with fatigue, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. He pitied their weariness of body, but he pitied still more their ignorance of mind. They were faint and weary: it was true: but they knew little of God, and of their duty to him, of sin, its danger, and its ruin, of salvation, only to be obtained through his name, the name of Jesus. He therefore felt for their situation in this respect, he felt for them because they were capable of being made the children of God, and the heirs of eternal life, and yet had been doing the works of the devil, from not knowing better, and were therefore liable every day of their lives, to be delivered over by the hand of death, into a place of torment, kept in store for the

devil and his angels. These poor, numerous, lost, and miserable sinners, were sheep without a shepherd, wandering about where they listed, and where they were in danger of falling every moment into some pitfall, or place of danger. They had no shepherd to keep them together, to lead them into green pastures, and by the waters of comfort, to watch over them, to tend them, to lead them in the way in which they should go, the way of safety, the road to shelter and to food, the shelter of heaven, the food of heavenly happiness. He therefore says to his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous: there are many souls weary of the burden of their sins, and deserving to be taught the way to Heaven, but the labourers are few. I alone am teaching them; I am travelling from place to place, and these cannot follow me wherever I go. They cannot altogether leave their homes. They will get no instruction, they will walk in sin, and go down to the grave in ignorance, and fall into the pit of everlasting destruction.

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest -him, who has the souls of men in his hands, and alone can teach them-pray him that he would send forth labourers into his harvest-men, who will till, and enrich, and cultivate their hearts as you would do your lands, and make them bring forth fruit, the fruit of holy and religious living, to their comfort in this world, and their' salvation in the next. Our Saviour then chose twelve men, and sent them forth to teach and to preach, to gather the scattered sheep, and bring them into the fold of the Saviour.

You

How many good things you may learn, my friends, from what I have been telling you. Can you forbear from looking upon yourselves in the same light as your Saviour did on the multitude around him? have indeed been like sheep without a shepherd: you have been wandering about, perhaps some in the ways of sin, all of you with little or no knowledge of your Sa

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