MATT. ix. 36. “But when He saw the multitudes, He was
moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were
scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”
IN the course of our Lord’s wandering life, teaching and
healing, there had naturally gathered around Him a large
number of persons who followed Him from place to place,
and we have here cast into a symbol the impression pro-
duced upon Him by their outward condition.
I. He teaches us how to think of men.
1. The outward was nothing except as a symbol and
manifestation of the inward. Gauds and shows were
nothing; sheer away He cut them all, and went down to
the man. So the one question worth asking and worth
answering is—How am I affected to Him?
2. The condition of humanity apart from Christ is
shepherdless. There is no ruler and no teacher but Christ.
The dim figures of religious reformers are gliding ghost-
like to their doom: but Christ does not pass away.
3. Christ is the true centre of unity.
4. Dejected weariness, disgust, and disillusion are the
lot of those who reject Christ. That is why wild revolu-
tionists in youth are obstinate conservatives in old age.
II. He teaches us how the sight of men should touch us
Pity, not aversion; pity, not anger; pity, not curiosity;
pity, not indifference. How many of us walk the streets of
our towns and never know one touch of that emotion when
we look at these people in England here, torn, anarchic, and
wearied, and shepherdless, within sound of our psalm sing-
ing in our chapels. The great science of comparative
mythology has a side of danger. Remember the thing is
alive affecting and destroying our brethren: we have to
kill it first and dissect it afterwards.
III. How we should act. The darkness and sorrow of
the heathen is a right motive, but very perilous; the deeper
reason is, the love of Christ constraineth me. There
should be (1) personal work; (2) prayer; (3) help.
Alexander Maclaren, D.D.