“We have heard the plea for trying to keep
The lambs in the narrow way,
And well we may: but what of the sheep—
Shall they be allowed to stray?
“‘Twas a sheep, not a lamb, that wandered away,
In the parable Jesus told;
A grown-up sheep that had gone far astray
From the “ninety and nine” less bold.
“Out in the wilderness, out in the cold,
‘Twas a sheep the Good Shepherd sought,
And back to the flock, with love untold,
‘Twas a sheep the Good Shepherd brought.
“And why for the sheep should we earnestly long,
And as earnestly hope and pray?
Because there is danger, if they go wrong,
They will lead the young lambs away.
“For the lambs will follow the sheep, you know,
Wherever the sheep may stray;
If the sheep go wrong, it will not be long
‘Till the lambs are as wrong as they.
“And so with the sheep we earnestly plead,
For the sake of the lambs today.
If the lambs are lost, what a terrible cost
Some sheep will have to pay.”