hither. Christ's mercy to a world does not come like water in a well
that has to be pumped up, by our petitions, by our search, but like
water in some fountain, rising sparkling into the sunlight by its own
inward impulse. He is His own motive; and came to a forgetful and
careless world, like a shepherd who goes after his flock in the
wilderness, not because they bleat for him, while they crop the
herbage which tempts them ever further from the fold and remember him
and it no more, but because he cannot have them lost. Men are not
conscious of needing Christ till He comes. The supply creates the
demand. He is like the 'dew which tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth
for the sons of men.'

But not only does Christ seek us all, inasmuch as the whole conception
and execution of His great work are independent of man's desires, but
He seeks us each in a thousand ways. He longs to have each of us for
His disciples. He seeks each of us for His disciples, by the motion of
His Spirit on our spirits, by stirring conviction in our consciences,
by pricking us often with a sense of our own evil, by all our
restlessness and dissatisfaction, by the disappointments and the
losses, as by the brightnesses and the goodness of earthly
providences, and often through such agencies as my lips and the lips
of other men. The Master Himself, who seeks all mankind, has sought
and is seeking you at this moment. Oh! yield to His search. The
shepherd goes out on the mountain side, for all the storm and the
snow, and wades knee-deep through the drifts until he finds the sheep.
And your Shepherd, who is also your Brother, has come looking for you,
and at this moment is putting out His hand and laying hold of some of
you through my poor words, and saying to you, as He said to Philip,
'Follow Me!'