then the Lord will take me up."* In the time when earthly friends look coldly upon us because we have faithfully adhered to our views of duty, then it is that God comes to us and asks us, "Art thou willing to come yet nearer to Me ?"

The Lord Jesus soon heard that this poor man was expelled from religious fellowship for his honest advocacy of His cause; He finds him out and asks' him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God? answered and said, 'Who is He, Lord, that I might

believe on Him?" "

He

With all his honesty and boldknew but little. He did not

ness, the poor man know that Jesus was the Son of God; but he believed in Him as He was, he believed that He who had opened his blind eyes could and would direct him aright, lead him to the person to whom his highest fealty was due. And this is true faith, though in its simplest actings, the giving up ourselves to Christ's direction. It needs not so much that we should understand this doctrine or that doctrine, that we should embrace this view or that view. Those who enforce certain opinions on us are standing, may be, on a different plot of ground from that on which our feet are planted; we cannot see with their eyes. Only let us believe in Christ, not in something about Him, and He will teach us what He wants us to know. "And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.' And he said, 'Lord, I believe.' And he worshipped Him. And Jesus said, 'For judgment I am come

Ps. xxvii. 10.

into this world,'"-My coming is a test-" that they which see not might see ""-that the ignorant may be enlightened-"and that they which see might be made blind" "-that from him that hath knowledge and advantages for discerning the truth, and yet refuses to open his eyes, may be taken even that degree of enlightenment which he hath. Natural incapacity, or that equivalent torpor of the mental faculties which results from want of education, —these are mercifully allowed for; but the selfsufficiency which induces men to reject the truth which does not come just in the garb in which they expect it, leaves them guilty. "And some of the Pharisees which were with Him heard these words, and said unto Him, 'Are we blind also?' Jesus said unto them, 'If ye were blind, ye should have no sin but now ye say, 'We see;' therefore your sin remaineth.'”

SECTION X.

THE SHEEPFOLD AND THE SHEPHERD.

JOHN X. I-10.

VERILY, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth

not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."

Our Lord seems to have continued His discourse to the Pharisees who were present, with especial reference to the manner in which they usurped the religious guidance of the people. He first sets

before them the general truth, that to exercise such guidance with success, there must be a rightful authority. This He shows by a kind of short parable or illustration. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." He does not come in by the proper entrance; for, in fact, he cannot get in that way, because the door-keeper would not admit him, and hence his designs are at least suspicious. He has no rightful business within the enclosure. "But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.* And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him"-he needs not to drive them before him, they follow him of their own accord-" for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which He spake unto them." They did not perceive the application-they did not take in His meaning. He proceeds therefore to explain Himself more fully. He does not indeed tell them in so many words what He meant by the sheepfold

*These images are less clear to us than they would be to Eastern hearers. A team of horses, a herd of cows, a pack of hounds, would more fully convey to our minds the familiar acquaintance between man and beast which in the East was common between shepherd and sheep.

-He leaves that for them to infer from other things; but, as the point of greatest importance was to ascertain what was the true and lawful entrance into the sheepfold, He takes up this point first.

He had said, "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold is a thief and a robber." He that does enter by the door is thereby marked out as the shepherd. What then is the door? the true and authorized way of going in? "Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers." This of course does not apply to such as came before Christ, bearing His commission, as did John the Baptist, or the prophets of old; but, as He defines the thief and robber in the opening of the parable, they who came not by Him, but climbing up some other way, and this with special reference probably to those who in that generation were seeking to bear rule over the consciences of the people. But He adds, "The sheep did not hear them." On those really taught of God, their teaching made no impression. "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy"—he means harm to the sheep, his purpose is to sacrifice them to his own advantage "I am come that they might have life”—and that, not bare existence, but real, true life—" and that they might have it more abundantly."*

'Tis life of which our nerves are scant,

More life and fuller that we want.

TENNYSON-Two Voices.

Let us now review the first verses of this parable or illustration, and note the characters which the Lord has here laid down as guides to the Church in the choice of its ministry.

He who would take on himself the religious leadership of his brethren, must enter on it with Christ's authority-commissioned, empowered by Him; he must have the consciousness that Christ has given him those gifts, spiritual, moral, and mental, which fit him to guide and feed others, and that he has free access to those sources of spiritual food which will be needed. He must enter in at the door, that he may have the right to go in and out, and find pasture.

Again, to him the porter must open. They who are entrusted with the keys of the Church, who are its appointed guardians, must recognise his commission, and admit him. That in the imperfect state of the Church the porters have sometimes admitted the unworthy, and excluded the worthy, does not destroy the ideal of the parable, in which it is supposed that to all who come by the door, and to none others, the porter will open.

But, if porters are careless or unfaithful, there is a way of checking their mistakes; for to him, and him alone who comes by Christ, with His authority, and in the power of His Spirit, the earnest soul responds. None else do any good, or really lead true Christian people forward in the Divine life. "A stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him for they know not the voice of strangers.' They who do not meet the wants of the soul gain