gains; when the soul is stained with impurity,
torn with passion, and has every mark that distinguishes Christ's people
obscured? Is it surprising we should begin then ourselves to doubt
whether we belong to the true fold or whether there is any true fold?
Shameful are the places where Christ has found us, among prayerless
days, unrestrained indulgences, with hardened heart and cynical
thoughts, far from any purpose of good; and still again and again His
presence has met us, His voice recalled us, His nearness awakened once
more in us the consciousness that with Him we have after all a deeper
sympathy than with any besides.

The whole experience of Christ as our Shepherd gives Him an increasing
knowledge of us. The shepherd is the first to see the lamb at its birth,
and not one day goes by but he visits it. So needful and merciful a work
is it that it has no Sabbath, but as on the day of rest the shepherd
feeds his own children so he cares for the lambs of his flock, sees that
no harm is befalling them, remembers their dependence on him, observes
their growth, removes what hinders it, hangs over the pale of the fold,
watching with a pleased and fond observance their ways, their beauty,
their comfort. And thus he becomes intimately acquainted with his sheep.
So Christ becomes increasingly acquainted with us. We have thought much
of Him; we have again and again pondered His life, His death, His words.
We have endeavoured to understand what He requires of us, and day by day
He has somehow been in our thoughts. Not less but far more constantly
have we been in His thoughts, not a day has passed without His
recurrence to this subject. He has looked upon and considered us, has
marked the working of our minds, the forming of our purposes. He knows
our habits by watching against them; our propensities by turning us from
them. We are not left alone with our awful secret of sin: there is
another who comprehends our danger, and is bent upon securing us against
it.

Slowly but surely does Christ thus win the confidence of the soul; doing
for it a thousand kind offices that are not recognised, patiently
waiting for the recognition and love which He knows must at last be
given; quietly making Himself indispensable to the soul ere ever it
discerns what it is that is bringing to it so new a buoyancy and hope.
Slowly but surely grows in every Christian a reciprocal knowledge of
Christ. More and more clearly does His Person stand out as