April 16

APRIL 16.—“Ye were as sheep going astray.”—1 Peter 2:25.

THE words seem to be, if not a quotation from, yet an allusion to the language of Isaiah—“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” If there be truth in this supposition, two things are asserted by the prophet which are not repeated by the Apostle. The one is, the universality of the charge—All we like sheep have gone astray. There is no difference between Jew and Greek. The Scripture has proved all under sin. The other is, the diversification of the depravity—We have turned every one to his own way. Though all are guilty, each has some particular iniquity to which he is attached, by his constitutional complexion or his outward circumstances. And here it is that many are deluded. They flatter themselves by comparison, and are satisfied because they are free from some crimes chargeable upon others; not considering that they also are wanderers, only in another road. A straight line is always the same; but there are millions of crooked ones. There was only one ark by which any could be saved; but there were numberless abysses in which they could be drowned. Nothing, says a good writer, is more lamentable, than to hear people who are all wrong disputing among themselves which is right. Yet this is common. But the lover of pleasure and the lover of gold; the profligate and the pharisaical; the open offender and the close hypocrite; the superstitious Papist and the formal Protestant, are all in the same condition with regard to their safety. Let us remember that the Scripture is our only rule of judgment, and that it matters not what we think of ourselves, or others think of us—if we are destitute of faith in Christ and true holiness. “He that believeth not the Son hath not life:” and “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”

The words are a metaphor; a metaphor often used by the sacred writers, and therefore just and pertinent. Indeed nothing can be more significant of the danger and misery of a sinner than a strayed sheep. The welfare of the sheep depends on the care of the shepherd. If they wander beyond his protecting arm, they are liable to be destroyed by beasts of prey; or if they leave his pasturage they are likely to perish for want of food: for though they can go astray of themselves they cannot defend themselves, nor provide for themselves, or of themselves find their way back. They are therefore lost unless sought after. The metaphors of the Scripture, however, though strong in their allusion, are often only partial. But they are more forcible by being limited; for by stretching a comparison to reach every thing, we weaken it as well as render it ridiculous. Sheep in going astray are not guilty, but they would be criminal and deserving all they suffered, if they were possessed of reason, and after having been under the superintendence of the kindest shepherd, and allowed to want no good thing, they should knowingly abandon him, and wilfully incur every kind of peril and wretchedness. And is not this the emblem of our conduct? Did not God make man upright? Did not the inspiration of the Almighty give him understanding? Was he not placed in a condition of safety, peace, and happiness? Was he not fenced in by divine commands? Ap-