Then the good shepherd does not wait for that sheep to come back. He
goes and seeks it far and wide, up hill and down dale, till he finds
it; and having found it, he does not beat it, rate it--not even drive
it home before him. It is tired and miserable. If it has been
foolish, it has punished itself enough for its folly; and all he
feels for it is pity and love. It wants rest, and he gives it rest
at his own expense. He lays it on his shoulders, and takes it home,
calling on all heaven and earth to rejoice with him. Ah, my friends,
if that is not the picture of a God whom you can love, of a God whom
you can trust, what God would you have?

Some, again, go wrong from ignorance and bad training, bad society,
bad education, bad example; and in other countries--though, thank
God, not in this--from bad laws and bad government. How many
thousands and hundreds of thousands are ruined, as it seems to us,
thereby! The child born in a London alley, reared up among London
thieves, taught to swear, lie, steal, never entering a school or
church, never hearing the name of God save in oaths--There is the
lost piece of money. It is a valuable thing; the King's likeness is
stamped on it: but it is useless, because it is lost, lying in the
dust and darkness, hidden in a corner, unable to help itself, and of
no use to any one. And so there is many a person, man and woman, who
is worth something, who has God's likeness on them, who, if they were
brought home to God, might be of good use in the world; but they are
lost, from ignorance and bad training. They lie in a corner in
darkness, not knowing their own value in God's eyes; not knowing that
they bear his image, though it be all crusted over with the dust and
dirt of barbarism and bad habits. Then Christ will go after them,
and seek diligently till he finds them, and cleanses them, and makes
them bright, and of good use again in his Church and his kingdom.