ection from
the gladness that first glows in the Head, as a separate sun glances on
the crest of every wavelet, when the breeze is gentle and the sky is
bright.

(2.) The intimation that there is greater joy in heaven over the return
of a single wanderer than over ninety and nine who never strayed,
presents indeed a difficulty; but here, as in many other similar cases,
the difficulty lies more in the way of the scientific expositor, whose
task is to express the meaning in the form of logical definitions than
in the way of the simple reader of the Bible, who desires to sit at the
feet of Jesus, and learn the one thing needful from his lips. In this,
as in many other portions of Scripture, a hungry labourer may live upon
the bread, while it may baffle a philosopher to analyze its
constituents, and expound its nutritive qualities. A devout reader may
get the meaning of the parable in power upon his heart, while the
logical interpreter expends much profitless labour in the dissection of
a dead letter.

Who are the just persons who need no repentance? The suggestion[79] that
they are the members of the Old Testament Church, who really possessed
the righteousness of the Law, although they had not attained the
righteousness of the Gospel, creates a greater difficulty than that
which it proposes to remove. There is not any such essential difference
between the righteousness of Abraham, who looked unto Jesus coming, and
the righteousness of Paul, who looked unto Jesus come.

[79] Made or adopted by Dr. Trench.

The true solution I apprehend to be that in the mind of the Lord this
declaration had a double reference. It expressed an absolute and
universal truth, known to himself and to his enlightened disciples; and
also, at the same time, took the Pharisees on their own terms,
condemning them out of their own mouth. The parable was spoken expressly
to the Pharisees, and spoken specifically in answer to their objection,
"This man receiveth sinners." They meant to intimate that it became the
Messiah to shun the evil and associate only with the good. From their
own view-point he exposes their mistake; even granting their assumption
that themselves were the righteous, their sentence was erroneous.
According to the principles of human nature, and the ordinary practice
of men, they might have perceived that the chief care of the shepherd
must be bestowed on the sheep that has gone astray, and his greatest joy
be experienced when