AWAY among the hills of Borrowdale, in Cumberland, where shepherds feed their flocks, a little lamb went missing from the flock. The shepherd went forth to seek the missing lamb, and, at last, he saw it down a deep ravine, solitary and alone. Led on by tempting tufts of grass, it had wandered from rock to rock, gradually getting further down the rocky mountain side. Now it was at the bottom, and it could not climb up again. How like the wandering sinner was that straying lamb. How soon it would have died down there, solitary and alone. But the shepherd cared for the helpless thing, and taking a rope he firmly bound it round his waist, and made it all secure; then he twisted the other end around a post at the top of the rock, and two men gently lowered him down into the deep ravine. There he found the little lamb, and tenderly placed it in his bosom. Then the shepherd and the lamb were both drawn up together safely to the top.
How sweetly this illustrates the path of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came down from His glory-home above, to seek and save the lost. Like that wandering one, "All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isa. 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)). We had turned our backs on God and heaven, and gone out seeking pleasure on a dangerous path. Pleasure after pleasure leads the sinner on, as the tufts of grass led on the silly lamb, until the end of the path is reached. And what an end it is! See that sinner on his dying bed, all solitary and alone; pleasures all behind him, companions all forsaken him, nothing but death and hell before. But Jesus loved the sinner, and in spite of all his wanderings, He loves the sinner still. He saw the sinner down in the fearful depth, and He went down to where he was. The Borrowdale shepherd only risked his life to save his lamb, but Jesus, the Good Shepherd, "laid down His life for the sheep" (John 10:2727My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)). Who would refuse to trust such a Shepherd, or to coldly spurn His love? Had the Borrowdale shepherd's lamb run away from his outstretched arms and perished, who but itself would have been to blame. But it did not; it allowed him to lay it in his bosom. Will you allow Jesus to do this with you? How soft and tender is His bosom! How safe and secure are the little ones who can say "Jesus is mine!" They are saved from death and hell; safely kept, and carried to heaven. He carries the lambs in His bosom.