shepherd went out to seek the strayed sheep, implied no dereliction of
the shepherd's duty,--no injury to the body of the flock. In this
transaction neither kindness nor unkindness was manifested towards those
that remained on the pasture;--it had no bearing upon them at all. Nor
is it necessary, at this stage, to determine who are represented by the
ninety and nine. Be they the unfallen spirits, or the righteous in the
abstract, or those who, in ignorance of God's law, count themselves
righteous, the parable is constructed for the purpose of teaching us
that the mission of Christ has for its special object, not the good, but
the evil. As the specific effort of the shepherd, which is recorded in
this story, had respect not to the flock that remained on the pasture,
but to the one sheep that had gone away, the specific effort of the Son
of God, in his incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection, has
respect, not to the worthy, but the unworthy.

Thus the Pharisees were entirely at fault in regard to the first
principle of the Gospel. They assumed that, because the publicans and
sinners had gone astray, Jesus, if he were the true Messiah, would not
have any dealings with them; without either conceding or expressly
denying their assumption of superior righteousness--that being precisely
the point on which he determined that then and there he would give no
judgment--he intimates that the strayed sheep is the peculiar object of
his care, and that because it is the strayed sheep, and he is the Good
Shepherd;--he intimates, taking the Pharisees at their own word, that
the sinners are the objects whom a Saviour should follow, and seek, and
find, precisely because they are sinners. It concerns us more to know
who are represented by the strayed sheep, than to know who are
represented by the sheep that did not stray, for to the former class,
and not to the latter, we most certainly belong.

4. How does the shepherd act when he overtakes the wanderer? He does not
punish it--he does not even upbraid it for straying; his anxiety and
effort are concentrated on one point--to get it home again. Would that
guilty suspicious hearts could see through this glass the loving heart
of Jesus, as he has himself presented it to their view! He takes no
pleasure in the death of them that die. His ministry in general, and
this lesson in particular, proclaim that Christ's errand into the world
is to win the rebellious back by love. You may suppose