THE CALLING OF THE SHEEP
‘He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.’
The Good Shepherd, meeting us in the Sacrament of Baptism, carried us in His arms, and placed us in His fold in the night of infancy, ere the day of consciousness had dawned. After the morning of consciousness had dawned He must call each with a personal calling, He must call each ‘by name.’ To this call, moreover, each must respond with a personal response as he comes to the Lord, as one of His flock, to live a life of obedience to His leadings. Conversion is the first experience in the development of the regenerate life, and it is a necessary experience. ‘Except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.’
I. In the true development of Christian life this surrender should take place in early days. Christian children grow up like the child Samuel of old in the Temple of the Lord. At first it may be truly said them as of him, ‘They do not yet know the Lord’; but very early in the morning of life Jesus comes to them, as He came to the boy in the Temple, with the personal call, ‘Samuel, Samuel,’—a call which marks a crisis in religious experience, since obedience to it leads to a personal knowledge of union with Christ. ‘I know My sheep, and am known of Mine.’ Henceforth, unless he ceases to follow the Good Shepherd, the baptized child lives his life in the joy and peace of Christ’s pastorate, and his gratitude takes voice as he sings aloud, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.’ Blessed indeed is he who, in early days of life, through the power of the call of Jesus, turns to the Lord in true conversion, and is led out by Him into the experiences of a true Christian life.
II. What is conversion?—It is a turning to God in response to His love manifested in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is an action of man as he responds to God’s attractive and enabling grace. And this turning to God in Christ is necessary for our dwelling in His kingdom. ‘Except ye turn, ye cannot enter the kingdom.’ Now, to turn is an action done in obedience to the command of the will; underneath it lies the surrender of the will to God. This surrender of the will is not the necessary result of receiving the grace of regeneration. It is not so as a matter of fact. Many who had been baptized in infancy have not made this surrender. Many have never responded to His call, have never taken Him to be their Shepherd, and have never given themselves to Him to live in obedience to His teaching, in patient submission to His discipline, in dependence on His care. And all who live lives of obedience, submission, and dependence do so because they have yielded themselves unto God by a willing acceptance of Jesus as Saviour and King.
III. See how clearly this truth of the necessity of conversion is taught us in the Catechism of the English Church.—In it the Church seeks to guide her scholars into the realisation of their position as Christians, to lead them to hearty thanksgiving to God for His goodness in calling them individually into a state of salvation, and to seek from Him the grace of perseverance by earnest and continual prayer. In other words, she seeks to guide them into the way of peace—that is, into the peace of acceptance and hope.
—Canon Body.
Illustration
‘The expression “his own sheep,” must not be pressed too far. It simply means that a real shepherd, according to Eastern custom, knowing his own flock individually by name, calls them at once by their names, and proves his relation to them by so doing. If not his own, he could not do so.’