COMMENTS-This discourse, though not, strictly speaking, a parable, inasmuch as it is not in the form of a continuous narrative, is yet of the nature of a parable. The images of it are derived from a vocation with which our Saviour's hearers were perfectly familiar. For the Jews were the descendants of a race of shepherds, and, even in our Saviour's time, were still familiar with, and in various ways interested in, the shepherd's work.

These words were particularly appropriate as addressed to the Pharisees. For they were among the spiritual rulers of the people, whom God's word regarded and continually addressed__as shepherds. See Ezekiel xxxiv. But they were not good shepherds of the people; they were more like thieves and robbers. Ezekiel xxxiv. 4, describes their character in this respect. In the present instance, the conduct of the Pharisees towards the blind man whom our Saviour had healed, first trying to seduce him into falsehood, and then casting him out of their synagogue, showed what kind of shepherds they were, and gave special emphasis to our Saviour's words.

The image here employed is also very appropriate and beautiful in itself, comparing, as it does, the relation between God and His people to that between a shepherd and his sheep. God, in His word, very frequently represents His care for His people under the image of a shepherd's care for his flock. See Is. xl. 11; Jeremiah xxxi. 10; Ps. xxxii. 1; lxxx. 1. What a shepherd does for his sheep admirably represents what God does for His people; tenderly watching over them; leading them forth to pasture; gathering them into the fold; protecting them from harm; helping the weak; seeking and bring ing back the lost, etc. Moreover, there is that in the nature of the sheep, which renders it, more than any other image, a suitable representation of the helpless dependence of man, in his relation to God, and of what his docility and devotion to his keeper and guide ought to be. For the sheep is, above all other animals, dependent, for its well-being, on the care of men. "It is so created as of necessity to require a shepherd, and can never do well except under his protection and care." Luther says:

"This simple creature has this special note among all animals, that it quickly hears the voice of the shepherd, follows no one else, depends entirely on him, and seeks help from him alone, cannot help itself, but is shut up to another's aid." These qualities make it a specially suitable image to represent the Christian. Our Saviour uses it more than once in speaking of His true followers. See Matt. xxv. 32

The discourse naturally divides itself into different parts. The first five verses treat of the difference between the true and the false shepherd generally. Our Saviour then (vers. 7-9) declares Himself to be the Door. After this (ver. 11) He says that He is the Good Shepherd. One line of representation is not adhered to throughout. There are shifting scenes in the representation. Christ is all, and all is Christ. Thus, in the same discourse, He is represented both as the door of the Sheep-fold, and the Shepherd.

1, 2. The fundamental difference between the true and the false shepherd lies in the way of their entering the sheep-fold. The real shepherd enters by the door; the other climbs up some other way, on which account he is not called a shepherd at all, but a thief and a robber.

A sheep-fold, in Palestine, was an enclosure under the open sky, surrounded by a rude fence of timber or of stone. This will explain the expression of climbing up.

These words referred directly to the Pharisees, to whom they were spoken. They are here charged with being thieves and robbers. The shepherds of that day, the spiritual rulers of the people, had not entered by the true door. That is, while their external appointment to their office was authorized and valid, the internal spirit in which they entered upon it destroyed all its reality and truth. They had not come as the true ministers of the expected Messiah, to prepare His way; but had come among the people with vain imaginations of a false God and a false Messiah; had come in pride and in their own name, instead of through Christ the true door. The words, however, apply, also, to all who in any sense are shepherds of the people, under Christ. Any pastor (the meaning of which word is shepherd), or

be here included, is not the direct meaning, but is to be subordinately understood.

8. Came before me. It is a question into which we shall not enter here, whether this expression is to be understood in respect of time, or whether it is not rather to be explained in another way. That Christ is speaking of those who came before Him in point of time, is at least the sense which lies upon the surface; and for purposes of Sundayschool instruction, it appears best to adhere to this. Taking this sense, the words must be modified. They do not, of course, include the Prophets and holy men, who, as shepherds of the people, came before Christ and prepared His way. For they entered the fold through Christ, the door. But our Saviour referred particularly to the scribes and traditional guides of the people, whom He so often denounced. "They were emphatically at that time the thieves and robbers, 'devouring widows' houses, spoiling the Church, making it, especially at these festivals, a house of merchandise' and 'a den of thieves.' They were moreover robbers in attaching disciples unto themselves, and not unto God."

The sheep did not hear them. By sheep, here and throughout the entire discourse, we are not to understand the people in general, who in fact were to a large extent led astray by their religious guides, but rather those who in their sincerity, guilelessness and spirit of obedience, were true sheep of the true shepherd. Such were never wanting in Israel, and these did not hear the false shepherds.

9. Our Saviour here extends and enlarges the figure of the door, so that it more nearly approaches what He says in Ch. xiv. 6. In ver. 7, He declares Himself to be the door by which the shepherds enter to the sheep; here, more generally, He declares Himself to be the door by which shepherds and sheep alike must go in and out. Whether one be a shepherd or a sheep, he can enter only by Christ. Yea, all are sheep; and it is through Him alone that they can enter into the fold, for protection and safety, or go forth to feed on the pasturage of salvation. "Lord Jesus, Thou art the Door, both of Grace

Lavender.

How prone we are to hide and ho ird
Each little token love has stored,

To tell of happy hours;
We lay aside with tender care
A tattered book, a curl of hair,

A bunch of faded flowers.

When Death has led with pulseless hand
Our darlings to the silent land,
Awhile we sit bereft.

But time goes on; anon we rise,
Our dead being buried from our eyes,
We gather what is left.

The books they loved, the songs they sang,
The little flute whose music rang

So cheerily of old;

The pictures we have watched them paint,
The last plucked flower, with odor faint,
That fell from fingers cold.

We smooth, and fold with reverent care
The robes they, living used to wear;
And painful pulses stir,

As o'er the relics of our dead,
With bitter rain of tears, we spread

Pale purple lavender.

And when we come in after years,
With only tender April tears

On cheeks once white with care,
To look at treasures put away
Despairing on that far-off day,
A subtle scent is there.

Dew-wet and fresh we gathered them,
These fragrant flowers-now every stem
Is bare of all its bloom.

Tear-wet and sweet we strewed them here,
To lend our relics sacred, dear,

Their beautiful perfume.

That scent abides on book and lute,
On curl, and flower, and with its mute
But eloquent appeal,

It wins from us a deeper sob
For our lost dead-a sharper throb
Than we are wont to feel.

It whispers of the long-ago,
Its love, its loss, its aching woe,
And buried sorrows stir;

And tears like those we shed of old
Roll down our cheeks as we behold
Our faded lavender.

-All the Year Round.

COMMENTS. Of the several announcements which our Saviour made to His disciples of His sufferings and death, this is the first. Prior to this, there had been indeed some obscure intimations of the Passion, but this is the first direct mention that is made of it. The circumstance is significant and important, that this, the first disclosure of our Saviour's Passion, was made immediately after the great confession of St. Peter. There was a secret reason for this, in the nature of things. For it was not fit that our Saviour should speak of His Passion before He had called forth faith in His Godhead. Without faith in His Divinity, the contemplation of His Passion would have been unprofitable, nay, injurious. Therefore, it would seem a large portion of His intercourse with His disciples was first devoted to the calling forth, by degrees, of faith in Him as the Son of God. And when this had reached some degree of strength and assurance, as was indicated by the confession of Peter, then, but not before, had the time come when our Saviour might safely lay before them the doctrine of the Passion. This is evidently the interior significance of the expression with which this account is introduced: "From that time forth (i. e., from the time of Peter's confession) began Jesus to shew unto His disciples, &c."

21. This announcement is in more general terms than some which were made afterwards. Here, Jesus simply says that He "should suffer many things;" in Luke xviii. 32, 33, the mockery, the spitting and the scourging are specified. Here, it is merely stated that He should be "killed;" elsewhere, Matt. xx. 19, the particular mode of His death, namely by crucifixion, is likewise foretold.

Unto Jerusalem. Our Saviour had Himself said: "It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem," Luke xiii. 33. As the lamb of sacrifice was offered in the Holy City, so it behooved the Lamb of God to be slain

there.

Raised again the third day. With the prophecy of His sufferings our Saviour immediately connects that of His resurrection. The two are inseparable. His humiliation and His glorification go together. His humiliation has the very

principle of its being, in the fact of its giving birth to His glorification; and, on the other hand, His glorification could never have been brought to pass except through foregoing humiliation. St. Mark says that Jesus uttered this saying about His resurrection, openly ; that is, without reserve, or any charge of secrecy, such as he had laid on His disciples just before, in relation to the doctrine of His Godhead. This prophecy of the resurrection seems, consequently, to have been well known. The Chief Priests and the Pharisees were aware of it, as it appears from Matt. xxvii. 62, 63. In the gloomy picture of the Passion this annunciation of the resurrection was to the disciples a beam of light and hope. This did not save them, however, from being thrown on the verge of despair by their Master's death, almost as if no promise of the resurrection had been given. Their faith was imperfect; and this prophecy of the resurrection had been left with them as a "dark saying." whose meaning they did not properly grasp; and, moreover, the stupendous character of the miracle of the resurrection was such that no previous announcement could lead them to look for it beforehand in any real way. Nevertheless, it is probable that this promise of the resurrection was not without influence to keep alive hope in the hearts of the disciples; even in the darkest hours that followed, they were not without gleams of light, and the flame of their faith never utterly went out.

22. It is thoroughly in accordance with the character of St. Peter, that he should stand forth as the spokesman of the disciples on both these momentous occasions; also, that immediately after having made so bold a confession of faith, he should fall into the sin of throwing a stumbling-block in his Master's way by making objection to His sufferings. His sufferings. "There are four instances of St. Peter's falling; each of them after full assurance of faith." Christian experience abounds in similar

transitions.

Peter's words, on this occasion, were words of earnest, affectionate, impetuos remonstrance. He could not endure the thought of evil befalling his beloved Lord. Be it far from Thee, Lord; literally, The Lord be propitious