1. The threat of judgment (vers. 1-3).

2. The description of the good Shepherd (vers. 4-14).

3. The sketch of the foolish shepherd (vers. 15-17).

The expression, "Open thy doors [gates], O Lebanon," is, of course, quite dramatic in style. "The prophet, instead of announcing to Lebanon its future destruction, commands it as the servant of God to open its gates; the meaning therefore is, 'Thou Lebanon wilt be stormed and devastated by the foe'" (Hengstenberg). Lebanon, here, may be regarded as a symbol of the kingdom of Judah, its cedars as denoting the chief men of the kingdom. We shall take the words to illustrate three subjects in relation to mankind - a variety of distinction, a common calamity, and a natural alarm.

I. A VARIETY OF DISTINCTION. The "cedar" here, the "fir tree," or cypress, and the "oaks," are employed to set forth some of the distinctions that prevailed amongst the Hebrew people. How, whilst all men have a common origin, a common nature, and common moral obligations and responsibilities, yet in every generation there prevails a large variety of striking distinctions. There are not only the cedars and fir trees, but even briars and thistles. There is almost as great a distinction between the highest type of man and the lowest as there is between the lowest and the highest type of brute. In the great forest of every generation there are a few tall cedars and oaks rising in majesty above all the other trees, down to mere brushwood and even fungi. There are intellectual giants and intellectual dwarfs, moral monarchs and spiritual serfs. This variety of distinction in the human family serves at least two important purposes.

1. To check pride in the highest and despondency in the lowest. The cedar has no cause for boasting over the fir tree or over the humblest plant: it owes its existence to the same God, and is sustained by the same common elements. And what have the greatest men - the Shakespeares, the Schillers, the Miltons, the Goethes - to be proud of? What have they that they have not received? And why should the weakest man despond? He is what God made him, and his responsibilities are limited by his capacities.

2. To strengthen the ties of human brotherhood. Were all men of equal capacity, it is manifest that there would be no scope for that mutual ministry of interdependence which tends to unite society together. There are the givers and the receivers; the delight of the former is in his gifts, the hope of the latter is in the helps he receives. The strong rejoices in bearing the infirmities of the weak, and the weak rejoices in gratitude and hope on account of the succour received. Between the least and the greatest, therefore, in human society there is ample scope afforded for the fall play of the faculties, the sympathies, and the services of all.

II. A COMMON CALAMITY. "Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen," An expression which implies that the same fate awaits the fir tree. There is one event that awaits men of every type and class and grade, the tallest cedar and the most stunted shrub, and that is, death. "All flesh is grass;" "Wine men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others."

1. This common calamity levels all distinctions. The cedar and the fir tree - if not cut down by the woodman, scathed by the lightning, or uprooted by the tempest - must sooner or later rot, and their dust mingle with the earth; so with men of all distinctions, the prince and the pauper, the cedar and the bramble in the human forest, must bow to the stroke. "Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish forever."

2. This common calamity should dematerialize all souls. Since we are only here on this earth for a few short years at most, why should we live to the flesh, and thus materialize our souls? Here we are only pilgrims, and we should be in quest of "the city that hath foundations, Whose Builder and Maker is God." To see the pinions of the noble eagle, made to pierce the clouds and bask high up in sunlight, buried in a foul pool of mud, is a lamentable sight; but ten thousand times more terrible is the sight of a human soul immersed in matter.

III. A NATURAL ALARM. "Howl, fir tree." It is the howl, not of rage, not el sympathy, but of alarm. The principle of alarm here implied is that when the higher falls the lower may well take the alarm. If the cedar gives way, let the cypress look out. This principle may apply to:

1. Communities. Amongst the kingdoms of the earth there are the "cedar" and the "fir tree." Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, - these were cedars; they have "fallen." Let the smaller ones take the alarm. England is a "cedar," but it must fall; it has, I fear, even now the marks of decay on it; its multiplying branches of ambition are exhausting its roots. Its tall, when it comes, will be a just warning to all the smaller states of the world. The same may be said of markets. There are the "cedars" in the commercial world, great houses regulating almost the merchandise of the world. Some have recently fallen, others are falling: let the "fir trees" take the alarm and be cautious.

2. Individuals. When men who are physical "cedars," strong and stalwart, whose build is almost like the gnarled oak, fall, let weaker men take the alarm. When men who are moral "cedars," majestic in character and mighty in beneficent influences - great preachers, authors, philanthropists - fall, let the less useful take the alarm, still more the useless. "Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen." This was the text of the funeral sermon which the famous Mr. Jay, of Bath, preached on the equally famous Rowland Hill; and commenting on it he spoke eloquently concerning the impressions made by the death of a man of mark. - D.T.

I. SENSE OF A GREAT LOSS. The death of a good man is always a loss. But there are differences. Some stand higher than others in society. Not only "firs," but "cedars." Great men leaders in Church and state. Hence more deeply missed and mourned. There is not only loss of their work, counsel, prayers, but of their personal influence. There are times when the feeling is intensified. Some great work to do, some difficult enterprise to be carried out; or a national crisis, demanding the service of the wisest and the best.

II. COMPLAINT OF GRIEVOUS WRONG. Death is the lot of all. When it comes in the order of nature, may grieve, but cannot justly complain. But often death comes not of necessity, but through violence and crime. The "axe," which belongs of right to justice, is seized and foully used by tyrants and assassins. So with many of the prophets and apostles. So often in the history of nations - William the Silent, President Lincoln. So in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, when so many great and good men were cruelly murdered.

III. PRESAGE OF DIRE CALAMITY. Dark cloud. The stroke falls. Forecasts the storm. Greater disasters. If the first, the noblest, the usefullest are struck down, who shall escape?

"Freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell."

LESSONS.

1. Call to activity. Close ranks.

2. Challenge to the living to look to themselves. We must all fall, but how and with what results? Robert Hall said of Robinson that "he fell like a noble tree." We should live so as to be missed. Better be mourned for, as friends and well doers gone before, than die unhonoured and unblest. - F.

I. BAD MEN IN HIGH OFFICE. The men referred to here are called "shepherds," which is a designation of men in power, men who politically and ecclesiastically presided over the people - the leaders. Communities of men everywhere and in all times have had "shepherds," men who guided and ruled them. These "shepherds" have sometimes reached their position irrespectively of the will of the people, sometimes with the will of the people, sometimes against the will of the people. In this country we have a number of "shepherds," politically from the mayor to the queen, ecclesiastically from the assistant curate to the archbishop. The "shepherds" referred to in the text had unfortunately what, alas! the leaders of the people in all ages have too frequently had - an ambitious character. Hence they are here called, "young lions," "a voice of the roaring of young lions;" or, as Keil has it, a "loud roaring of the young lions." They were hungry, ravenous, and rapacious, fattening upon the people of their charge. Elsewhere they are represented as "ravening wolves." How often have men in high office, both in state and Church, been of this character! Such as they care nothing for the people, only so far as they can make use of them, feed and fatten on them. Observe:

1. That a man in high office who has a bad character is of all men the most contemptible. A bad character in a pauper makes him contemptible; but a bad character in a king makes him ten times the more contemptible. When God commands us to honour our parents, and to honour the king, it implies that the parents and the king are honourworthy; if they are corrupt in character, they should be die, honoured and denounced.

2. That it is the duty of all peoples to promote those alone to high office who have a high moral character. Alas! they have not done so; hence they have often had unworthy magistrates, judges, kings, bishops.

II. BAD MEN IN HIGH OFFICE GREATLY DISTRESSED. "There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled." "The glory of these shepherds being spoiled," says Wardlaw, "signifies the brining down of all their honour and power, and the wealth and luxury which, by the abuse of their power they had acquired, all becoming a prey to the sacking and pillaging besiegers. The pride of Jordan lay in it,'s evergreens and brushwood with which its banks were enriched and adorned; and these being the covert and habitation of the young lions, the two parts of the figure are appropriate. As the lions howl and roar in dismay and fury when dislodged from their refuges and dwelling places, whether by the swelling flood sweeping over their lairs, or from the cutting down or the burning of their habitations, so should the priests and rulers of Jerusalem be alarmed and struck with desperation and rage, when they found their city, within whose walls they had counted themselves secure from the very possibility of hostile entrance, laid open to the outrage of an exasperated enemy, and all its resources given up to plunder and destruction - country as well as city thrown into confusion and desolation!" Such rulers may well be distressed. Let them howl:

1. Because all the keen-sighted and honest men over whom they preside despise them. Though the hordes of miserable sycophants worship them on account of the glitter and pageantry of their elevated position, the Carlyles, the Thackerays, and the unsophisticated millions regard them with ineffable disdain.

2. Because the righteous Governor of the world has denounced them. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess" (Matthew 23:14, etc.). - D.T.

I. HERE IS A DUTY ENJOINED TOWARDS OPPRESSED PEOPLES. "Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock [sheep] of the slaughter." These shepherds, these rulers of the Hebrew people, "slaughtered" the people. Without figure, oppressed peoples are "slaughtered" - slaughtered, though they continue to exist, by unrighteous exactions. Their rights are "slaughtered," their energies are "slaughtered," their liberties are "slaughtered," their independency is "slaughtered," their means of subsistence and advancement are "slaughtered." People "slaughtered" in these respects abound in every state and place in Europe. Alas! millions of them groan out a miserable existence in this highly favoured land of ours. What is our duty to these oppressed ones? "Feed the flock." "Feed" them:

1. With the knowledge of their rights as men. Their rights as citizens to make their own laws, their rights as religionists to worship their own God in their own way, to form their own convictions and to work them out according to the dictates of their own conscience.

2. With the knowledge of tins true methods to obtain these rights. Not by violence and spoliation, but by moral means, by skilful industry, by temperate habits, by economic management, by moral suasion, by skilful, honest, and persevering industry.

3. With the knowledge of worthy motives by which to obtain these rights. Teach them that they should struggle for their rights, not for their own selfish aggrandizement, nor for the crushing of others, but in order fully to develop and honour the nature with which Heaven has endowed them. Let the oppressed peoples of Europe be thus fed by a Christly ethical education, and despotism will soon be swept from the face of the earth.

II. HERE IS A SKETCH OF THE AUTHORS OF OPPRESSION.

1. They are cruel. "Whose possessors slay them." Not only destitute are they of all practical sympathy for the rights and comforts of the people, but they treat them with a heartless inhumanity, they kill them.

2. They are impious. In all their cruelties they "hold themselves not guilty." The greatest despots of the world have ever been ready to justify themselves to their own consciences. Rulers have been found in all ages, and are still found, who, in originating and conducting the most cruel wars, a hold themselves not guilty." In war, the most fiendish of all the fiendish enterprises of wicked humanity, they have no qualms of conscience.

3. They are avaricious. "And they that sell them, say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich." A miserable greed was their inspiration; they hungered, not only for power, but for wealth; and so base were they in heart that they hypocritically thanked God for the riches which they had won by their cruelty and injustice. "Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich." There are men who say this now, men who say, "Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich," not thinking how the riches have come. The history of fortune making is too often the history of crime.

CONCLUSION. Let it be ours to "feed," by wholesome knowledge, those who are "slaughtered" by oppression - political slaves and priest-ridden dupes. - D.T.

I. GOD'S JUDGMENT ON OPPRESSORS. Power great thing. Test of character. Few able to use it rightly. Even the "wise man" (Ecclesiastes 7:7) may have his head turned, and act as if "mad." The "shepherds" false to their awful trust. Hence the people became the prey of oppressors. Merciless, avaricious, godless, neither fearing God nor regarding man. Such oppressors are found in various forms. Landlords and other "possessors" have need to take warning. The people were not made for the land, but the land for the people. Property has its duties as well as its rights. "Unto whom much is given, of them shall much be required." "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

II. GOD'S MERCY FOR THE OPPRESSED. The Bible is on the side of the weak, and not the strong; of the wronged, and not the wrong doer. Prophet after prophet has spoken on behalf of the poor and the needy, and carried their cause to the throne of the Most High. God acts by means. "Feed:"

1. With the gospel of love.

2. With the law of righteousness. Binding on all.

3. With the hope of immortality.

"We were weary and we
Fearful, and we in our march
Fain to drop down and to die;
Still thou turnedst and still
Beckonedst the trembler and still
Gavest the weary thy hand. If, in the paths of the world,
Stones might have wounded thy feet,
Toil or dejection have tried
Thy spirit, of that we saw
Nothing; to us thou wast still
Cheerful and helpful and firm.
Therefore to thee it was given
Many to save with thyself.
And at the end of thy day,
O faithful Shepherd, to come,
Bringing thy sheep in thy hand."

(Matthew Arnold.) F.

I. A TERRIBLE DOOM. "For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them." What is the doom? The abandonment of God.

1. This abandonment came after great kindness. For long centuries he had manifested the greatest kind, ness to the Hebrew people. From their rescue from Egypt down to this hour he had been merciful to them. He warned them, he threatened them, he besought them, he chastised them. Many a time they had provoked him, but still he bore with them. But now he delivers them up. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man."

2. This abandonment involved inexpressible ruin. They were given up to the heathen cruelty of one another and to the violence of foreigners. What more terrible fate can befall people than this? If God abandons us, what are we? This will be the doom of the finally impenitent, "Depart from me."

II. AN INVALUABLE PRIVILEGE. "I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock." "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." In Christ, the great God acted thus in a most manifest and impressive way. He came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. "When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion towards them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd." "I am the good Shepherd," said Christ.

CONCLUSION. Thank God, we are not abandoned yet. God is with us as a Shepherd. He is seeking the lost and feeding those who are in his fold. "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." - D.T.

I. GOD'S IDEA OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD. His character and service. Faithful and disinterested. Not a hireling. He is for the sheep, not the sheep for him. If his recompense left to the free will of the people, should be adequate and fair. "The workman is worthy of his hire." But the wage should be given in more than material form. "Themselves. Their trust, sympathy, prayers, and hearty cooperation in all good. I seek not yours, but you," said Paul.

II. MAN'S TREATMENT OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD.

1. Grossly unjust. Remuneration mean and paltry. Not measured by the work done, but doled out by selfish and stupid hands.

2. Basely insulting. Instead of just appreciation, mockery. Put on the level of a slave. Such remuneration worthy of scorn. Away with it.

3. Darkly menacing. Take it or leave it. Nothing to us. Starve if you will. Murder is in their hearts.

4. Reveals the baseness of the heart. Indicates great social degeneracy. Foreshadows the rejection of the Saviour (Matthew 27:9, 10). Let us endeavour to be true to God's idea.

"The Christian pastor, bow'd to earth
With thankless toil, and vile esteem'd,
Still travailing in second birth
Of souls that will not be redeem'd'
Yet steadfast set to do his part,
And fearing most his own vain heart."

(Kebla) F.

I. THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. "Beauty" may indicate the covenant of peace. God's grace restraining, preserving, governing. "Broken. Sign of judgment and woe. Ichabod!" But as whole, emblem of the fatherly love and care of God, and the fairness and beneficence of his vile.

II. BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. National covenant. Union of Judah and Israel. One people under the rule of Jehovah. Fulfilled in part in the restoration; more perfectly, and in a spiritual sense, under the gospel of Christ. His kingdom is one. In him all the kindreds of the earth shall be blessed (Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:14-22). - F.

I. THIS MUTUAL MORAL ANTAGONISM IS MANIFESTLY ABNORMAL. It is not conceivable that the all-wise and all-loving Maker of the universe would create beings whom he would loathe and who would abhor him. Such an idea is opposed at once to our intuitions and our conclusions. The Bible assures us, in language most explicit and in utterances most frequent, that mutual love, similar to that which exists between the most affectionate parents and their children, was that which existed in the pristine state of humanity. God loved man, and man loved God.

II. THIS MUTUAL MORAL ANTAGONISM IMPLIES WRONG ON MAN'S PART. For Infinite Purity and Righteousness to loathe the corrupt and the wrong is not only right, but a necessity of the Divine character. He abhorreth sin; it is the "abominable thing" which he hates. This is his glory. But for man to abhor him, this is the great sin, the fontal sin, the source of all other sins. To abhor the infinitely Loving and Lovable is, indeed, a moral enormity. They "hated me without a cause."

III. THIS MUTUAL MORAL ANTAGONISM EXPLAINS THE SIN AND WRETCHEDNESS OF THE WORLD. Why does the world abound with falsehoods, dishonesties, and oppressions, unchastities, cruelties, and impieties? Because human souls are not in supreme sympathy with the supremely Good, because they are at enmity with God, and not "subject to the Law of God." And why all the miseries of humanity? Because God loathes sin.

IV. THIS MUTUAL MORAL ANTAGONISM ARGUES THE NECESSITY FOR A RECONCILIATION. The great want of the world is the reconciliation of man to the character and the friendship of God. Such a reconciliation requires no change on God's part. His loathing is the loathing of love - love loathing the wrong and the self - made miserable. The change must be on man's part. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." Christ is the Atonement, the Reconciliation. - D.T.

I. THE CAUSE. "My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me." A mutual moral antagonism (as we have seen) between man and God. "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" The sinners' character becomes so repugnant to the Almighty that his patience is exhausted, and their rejection is the result. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man;" "Ephraim is joined to his idols: let him alone." There is a limit to the Divine forbearance. "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" "Depart from me, I never knew you;" "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;... I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh."

II. THE RESULT. The results here are threefold.

1. The cessation of Divine mercy. "I will not feed you." You are no longer my sheep; no longer will I minister to your needs.

2. Abandonment to self-ruin. "That that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off." "The wages of sin is death;" "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Let the elements of moral destruction do their work.

3. Deliverance to mutual tormentors. "And let the rest eat every one the flesh of another." All these results were realized in a material sense in the rejection of the Jewish nation. Josephus tells us that in the destruction of Jerusalem pestilence, famine, and intestine discord ran riot amongst the God-rejected people. These material evils are but faint emblems of the spiritual evils that must be realized by every God-rejected soul.

III. THE SIGN. "And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people." The Divine Shepherd is represented as having two staves, or crooks; ordinary shepherds have only one. Expositors, in their interpretation of these staves, differ here as in many places elsewhere in this book. Some say they indicate the double care that the Divine Shepherd takes of his people; some; the different methods of treatment pursued by the Almighty Shepherd towards his people; some, that they refer to the house of Judah and to the house of Israel, indicating that neither was to be left out in the mission of the work of the good Shepherd; and some that the one called "Beauty" - which means grace - represents the merciful dispensation under which the Hebrew people had been placed; and the other staff, called "Bands," the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. One thing seems clear, that the cutting of the staff called "Beauty" asunder was a symbol of their rejection from all future grace and mercy. It may be stated, as a general truth, that all Heaven-rejected souls have signs of their miserable condition. The sign of Samson was loss of strength; "he wist not that the Lord was departed from him," until his strength was put to the test and he failed. What are the general signs?

1. Practical ignorance of God.

2. Utter subjection to the senses.

3. Complete devotion to selfish aims.

4. Insensibility of conscience.

CONCLUSION. Let us not trifle with the patience of God, lest he cast us off forever; but rather let us earnestly and perseveringly cultivate a stronger and more vital sympathy with him, and a closer identification with his loving heart and benevolent aims. - D.T.

I. HE LEAVES THE SECULAR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO THE FREE CHOICE OF THOSE TO WHOM HIS SERVICES HAVE BEEN RENDERED. "And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear." He does not exact anything, nor does he even suggest any amount. He leaves the matter entirely to themselves, give or not give, give this amount or that. This is as it should be. Ministers, whilst they have a Divine claim to a secular remuneration of their services, are neither authorized nor are they disposed, if they are true teachers, to enforce their claims upon the reluctant. "We have not used this power," says Paul (see 1 Corinthians 9:9-17). It may be asked - Why should the temporal support of the spiritual teacher be left entirely to the choice of the people?

1. Because contributions that are entirely free are the only proofs to the minister that his services are really valued. What proof is there in the amounts raised by tithes or rates, or, as in some Nonconformist Churches, by diaconate guarantees, that the service of the existing minister has been really valued?

2. Because the contributions that are entirely free arc the only contributions that are of any moral worth. Those who give from custom or law, or in any way reluctantly, without a "willing mind," have no claim to moral credit; their contributions, however large, are counted worthless in the empire of virtue.

II. HIS SPIRITUAL SERVICES ARE SOMETIMES SHAMEFULLY UNDERRATED, "So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver." Thirty shekels. An amount in our money of about £3 3s. 9d. This was the price they put on his services, just the price paid for a bond-servant (Exodus 21:32).

1. Do not determine the real worth of a spiritual teacher by the amount of his stipend. This is often done: all fools do this. Yet who does not know ministers who get for their labours £100 a year who are of far higher character, and render nobler services than many who get their £500, and even £1000? The fact is, the minister who wants a large income, as a rule, must get a large congregation; and he who would get a large congregation must pander to popular prejudices and tastes.

2. Deplore the backwardness of the world in appreciating the highest services. The highest service one man can render another is the impartation of those Divine ideas that will most quicken, invigorate, and ennoble his mind. But such services are, alas! the least valued. Men will pay their scullery maid or their groom a larger sum every year than they pay their minister. "Thirty shekels," £3, for a minister; £100 for a horse! Curates are starving, whilst cooks, dressmakers, and tailors are getting fat.

III. HIS INDEPENDENT SOUL REPUDIATES INADEQUATE SECULAR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. "And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." He felt the insult of being offered such a miserable sum. "Cast it unto the potter" - perhaps a proverbial expression, meaning, "Throw it to the temple potter." "The most suitable person to whom to cast the despicable sum, plying the trade, as he did, in the polluted valley (2 Kings 23:10) of Hinnom, because it furnished him with the most suitable clay." A true teacher would rather starve than accept such a miserable acknowledgment for his services. Your money perish with you!

CONCLUSION. Oh for ministers of this lofty type! - ministers who feel as Paul did when he said, "I seek not yours, but you" (2 Corinthians 12:14). - D.T.

I. CHARACTER. Vain. Selfish. Hypocritical Greedy of gain and popularity. Worthless for real good. Permitted, but not approved.

II. OFFENCE.

1. Coldness. No "pity." His heart is not in his work.

2. Neglect. Takes no pains to seek out the poor and needy. Does not "visit."

3. Unfaithfulness, No warnings. False teaching. Making gain of godliness. God's ideal of the shepherd lost. God's benign purposes in the ministry of grace frustrated. Souls perish, and their blood calleth from the ground,

"The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread:
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace, and nothing fed:
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."

(Milton, 'Lyeidas.') (Cf. Ruskin's exposition in 'Sesame and Lilies.')

III. Doom. "Woe."

1. Hardened in evil. Degradation. Judicial blindness.

2. Cursed with uselessness.

3. Destined to destruction.

"Alas, my brother! round thy tomb
In sorrow kneeling and in fear
We read the pastor's doom,
Who speaks and will not hear."

(Keble.) F.

I. FRAUDULENT SHEPHERDS OF THE PEOPLE DESCRIBED. We learn here:

1. That their existence is a Divine permission. "I will raise." In biblical phraseology, the Almighty is frequently represented as doing that which he only permits. Thus he is said to have "hardened Pharaoh's heart." He here practically respects that freedom of action with which he has endowed the human soul. Here, in this scene of probation, he allows it ample scope. Whilst he does not originate aught that is bad in the worst of men, he permits the worst of men to work out the bad that is in them, and to rise sometimes even to the highest positions in human society. In doing this, three purposes are answered.

(1) He inflicts punishment here upon the guilty by the agency of wicked men. The Herods, the Neros, the Alexanders, the Bonners, and the most corrupt occupants of the papal chair become his instruments in the punishment of a guilty generation. For this purpose, it is intimated, these "foolish shepherds" were now raised up.

(2) He reveals to the universe the enormity of human depravity. When bad men are allowed to reach the highest offices in Church and state, and give free scope and unrestrained development to all that is bad within them, an opportunity is afforded to all moral intelligences of receiving such an impression of the enormity of moral evil as otherwise would be impossible.

(3) He furnishes the most powerful assurance of future retribution for mankind. To allow wickedness such liberty as this, liberty to rise to the highest positions, and to gratify its vilest propensities forever, would be to condemn him in the eyes of the universe as an unrighteous Ruler.

2. That under the profession of blessing their race, they are its greatest curse. There are three features of wickedness in the character here described.

(1) Negligence. "Which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still;" or, as Keil translates it, "That which is perishing will he not observe, that which is scattered will he not seek, and that which is broken will he not heal; that which is standing will he not care for." The groans of the people affect them no more than the roar of the breaking billows affects the granite cliffs.

(2) Selfishness. "He shall eat the flesh of the fat." These fraudulent guides and guards of the people feed and fatten on their miseries.

(3) Cruelty. "And tear their claws [hoofs] in pieces." If the people yield not to their exactions, contribute not to their aggrandizement, they will pounce upon them like hungry hounds, despoil them of their property, rob them of their liberty, and persecute them even unto death. "This," says Dr. Wardlaw, "was not a just character of Herod only, there were many such negligent, selfish, cruel pretenders; false Christs and false prophets abounded, abounded then and abound now."

II. FRAUDULENT SHEPHERDS OF THE PEOPLE DENOUNCED. "Woe to the idol shepherd!" Here is the doom of those "idol shepherds" - idol because vain and worthless. "The woe pronounced," says an able expositor, "is striking and impressive." 'The sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye.' The sword is the sword, doubtless, of the invading foe. The faithless shepherd shall be among its surest victims. The 'arm,' which ought, as the emblem of power, to have been employed in defending the flock, shall be smitten and 'dried up:' he shall lose all power, not only for their protection, but, on account of his neglect of them, for his own. His 'right eye,' which, as the emblem of knowledge and vigilance and foresight, should have guided the flock, and been ever on the watchful look out after every member of it, shall be 'utterly darkened.' Visited by a righteous God with judicial blindness, he shall grope in the noonday as in the night, deceiving and being deceived, and shall utterly perish in his own delusions."

CONCLUSION. Beware of "wolves in sheep's clothing." "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world." - D.T.