for myself first, last and all the time."
As we walk the streets we ought to be impressed with the fact that men
on every side of us are lost in the proportion of one to four. As we
sit in a car we ought to be impressed with the fact that one in four
have rejected Christ and are hopeless. In every city it is literally
true that there are thousands of unchurched people without God and
without hope in the world. Of them the text would be true. "But when
he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion."
II
When Jesus saw these multitudes he saw them fainting or literally
"growing tired," and this is the picture of lost people to-day. I am
persuaded that they are tired of many things which follow in the wake
of sin.
1. They must be weary of the hollowness of the world, for it cannot
satisfy. I one day talked with a woman in Massachusetts whose
opportunity to mingle with the so-called best people of the world had
been unexcelled. She had been a chosen and welcomed guest in the homes
of royalty and knew intimately every President of the United States
since she had grown to womanhood. After her conversion I asked her if
the life of the world had satisfied; her answer was, "It is hollowness
and sham almost from beginning to end."
2. The unchurched people must be weary of an accusing conscience.
There is no unrest like it. The man who sees the folly of his conduct
and whose conscience will not let him sleep, the man who realizes the
blighting power of sin and yet seems powerless to heed the call of
conscience, is in a pitiful condition.
"And I know of the future judgment,
How dreadful so'er it may be,
That to sit alone with my conscience
Would be judgment enough for me."
3. They must be tired of the world's sorrow, for it is on every side.
We are born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward and I cannot but
think that in all parts of our cities to-day the people away from
Christ are saying, "Oh, that I knew where peace might be found."
4. I know they are tired of the slavery of Satan. A man formerly
prominent in social and political circles, the cashier of a bank, when
he found that he was a defaulter took his own life and left a letter
for his wife in which he said, "Oh, if some one had only spoken to me
when I so much needed help all this might have been different."
III
In the Old Testament and New, God's people are represented by the
figure of sheep. Especially it seems to
|