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The Shepherd!
From Spurgeon's sermon, "Full Redemption"
I think I see the great Shepherd now, and
there are all his
sheep. They have been wandering. They have got into a dark
glen in the mountains and a snow-storm is coming on, and he
goes to seek them.
There they are!
The grim spirit of the tempest, the Prince of the power
of the air meets him, and says, "Back, shepherd!
What are you doing here?"
"I have come to reclaim my own."
"They are not yours now," says the evil spirit, "they have
strayed into my grounds and they are mine, not yours."
"No, fiend," says the Shepherd, "they are mine; they have my
blood-mark on them; they were given to me by my Divine
Father, and I am bound by solemn obligations to keep every
one of them safely."
"You shall not have them," says the fiend.
"I must, I will," says the Shepherd.
They fought and the good Shepherd overcame.
He dashed down the enemy and trod him underfoot, and
crushed him--crushed the serpent.
Then the serpent with wily craft replied, "They are yours--
yours, I confess, and I will give you some of them--
the fattest of them."
"No," says he, "No, fiend, I have bought them all,
and I will have them all."
And there they come, a goodly company;
but the wily serpent keeps back a few.
"They are not all here," says the Shepherd, "and I will have all."
"But," says the fiend, "there are some of them that are
speckled sheep, and some that are black and diseased;
do you want them? Let me have a few at least."
"No," says the Shepherd, "No; I must have the black ones,
the speckled ones, the diseased ones: let them all come.
Fiend, stand back, let them come I tell you, or my right arm
shall fell you to the ground again."
And now they all come but one, and Satan says,
"No, but this is such a little one; this one is so weak.
You would not have such a shrivelled, scabby one
as this in your bright flock, you fair Shepherd of God."
"Yes," says he, "All that my Father gave me I will have."
And now I think I see him in the last tremendous day when
the sheep pass again under the hand of him that knows them.
He cries, "Of all you have given me, I have lost none. None of
them perished. The lion has not devoured them, nor has the
cold destroyed them. I have brought them all safely home."
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