THE FIRST DAYS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE
‘To Him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear His voice.’
The personal ministry of the Jewish shepherd to his sheep began each day at the early morning. All through the night the sheep dwelt in the sheepfold under the porter’s care; but when the morning dawned the shepherd came to the sheepfold where his flock dwelt mingled with other flocks. At his approach the porter opened the wicker-gate, and the shepherd passed into the fold. He gathered his sheep to him, calling each by name. Each responds to his call, for they all know his voice.
I. What a true picture of the first days of life is given us in the position of the sheep in the fold, dwelling under the porter’s care ere the morning dawned. Christian life, speaking generally, does not begin when His children hear the Good Shepherd’s voice calling them by name and bringing them to know Him with the knowledge of experience. It is the custom of the Church over which Jesus rules and which He guides by His Spirit to receive us to Holy Baptism in infancy. How close the embrace: ‘Baptized into Jesus Christ’ so as to become one with Him! How great the blessing to be made in Him ‘the child of God.’ Truly the love of Christ passeth knowledge. In the unconsciousness of infancy, ere I could embrace Him or love Him with a responsive love, He loved me and took me into His arms and numbered me with His sheep in His fold. Yet how true is it that our earliest days in the Church are like the hours of the sheep in the fold ere morning light appeared. All through the night the sheep slumbered and slept, lying down in safety in a good fold, watched over in faithful performance of duty by the porter to whose care the shepherd had given them. So the unconsciousness of infancy is as the night preceding the dawn. Yet how favoured is the position of the Christian child as it dwells in the fold! From the very first it grows up under the sheltered conditions of the life of the Church.
II. The stage of spiritual infancy is one that is soon passed through.—Soon the sun of advancing years makes its power felt, and the time comes when the future course of the life will depend on our answer to the call of the Good Shepherd when He calls each by name. We cannot always live in the sheepfold in a night of inaction under the porter’s care. We must go forth from the home, the school, the conditions of life in childhood, into the world, to meet its duties, its sorrows, its joys, its temptations. How did we go forth? How have we lived since we went forth? Did we go forth surrendered to Jesus as to our Great Teacher and King when we were no longer ‘under tutors and governors’? Have we lived, are we living, following in His footsteps, submissive to His discipline, trusting in His care as we abide with Him? God grant it may be so! Happy are we if we are numbered with those who ‘entering in by Him into the fold, go in and out and find pasture.’
—Canon Body.
Illustration
‘An Eastern sheepfold is an open yard, surrounded, not by movable hurdles, but by a high stone wall. The wall is sometimes three feet wide at the base, gradually narrowing towards the top. No mortar is used in its construction, but the stones are loosely piled together, and along the top is placed a row of branches of thorn bushes to keep off the wild beasts. When the tribes of Israel who desired to settle on the east side of Jordan came to Moses and asked leave to take possession of the land of Gilead, “They came near unto him and said, we will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones.” That the folds were permanent buildings is also suggested by the Hebrew word “Gederoth” (sheepfolds), which is derived from Gedar, a wall. Sometimes the yard leads to a cave where the sheep are driven at night, but, more frequently, at one end of the yard there is a low building with arched entrances where the flocks find shelter in bad weather. In some instances a wall divides the fold into two portions, and this facilitates the separation of the flocks when more than one occupies the same fold. The language of the tenth chapter of John suggests that more than one flock was sheltered by night in the same fold, and that the shepherds entrusted their flocks to the care of an under-shepherd, who guarded the fold through the night, and opened the door in the morning to admit the shepherds. Then came the separation of the various flocks. The owners claimed their sheep, some calling them by name, and counting them as they came forth one by one. The counting of sheep is termed in Scripture, “passing them under the rod.” ’