THE STRAY SHEEP.

Cy HO is the good Shepherd ?” asked our teacher, as she
took her seat in front of her class of little boys and
girls one Sunday afternoon. It was many years ago,
and I was only a little child then, but I can remember

that pleasant afternoon and the sweet, earnest face and tender

voice of our teacher almost as well as if only a year had passed.

“The Lord,” answered one of the children.

“ Yes, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who came to seek
and to save that which was lost.” Then she showed us the
picture of a shepherd carrying a sheep in his arms, and said,
“Of what parable does this remind you?”

‘Of the parable of the lost sheep,” two or three eager voices
replied.

“Yes; and now can you find this parable?”

There was a quick turning of leaves by the children. Mary
Foster—dear Mary ! she was taken to the heavenly fold many
years ago—found the parable first, and read it aloud:

“ How think ye? Ifa man have an hundred sheep, and one
of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine,
and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone
astray ?

“And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he
rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which
went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father
which is in heaven, that. one of these little ones should perish.”

“T want to talk to you about the good Shepherd to-day,”
said our teacher as Mary stopped reading, “and it was that you
might the more surely remember what I am going to say that I
brought with me this sweet and beautiful picture. Its image in
your memories will help you to recall my words.”

All the children in the class grew very still, and looked

earnestly into her face. We loved to hear her talk.
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