The Song of our Syrian Guest | Page 4

a quiet pool. Then, right there on the open hills, he leads his
sheep 'beside the still waters_.' I know of nothing more fit to picture the
Shepherd's care of souls that trust him than that scene up there on the
mountainside."
While our thoughts were carried away to these scenes of thirsty flocks
drinking, I chanced to notice that the tea-ball was again quietly at work.
As we sat thinking on that picture up in the mountain, a good hand
offered our guest a fresh cup. He received it with a low bow, sipped it
in quiet, then with a grateful smile began speaking again:
"'He restoreth my soul.' You know," he said, turning to me, "that soul
means the life or one's self in the Hebrew writings."
Then addressing us all he went on: "There are perilous places for the
sheep on all sides, and they seem never to learn to avoid them. The
shepherd must ever be on the watch. And there are private fields and
sometimes gardens and vineyards here and there in the shepherd
country; if the sheep stray into them and be caught there it is forfeited
to the owner of the land. So, 'he restoreth my soul' means, 'The
shepherd brings me back and rescues me from fatal and forbidden
places.'"
"'Restores me when wandering,' is the way it is put in one of our
hymns," I interposed.
"Ah, sir, that is it exactly," he answered, "'restores me when
wandering!'

"'_He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.'
Often have I roamed through the shepherd country in my youth and
seen how hard it is to choose the right path for the sheep; one leads to a
precipice, another to a place where the sheep cannot find the way back;
and the shepherd was always going ahead, 'leading' them in the right
paths, proud of his good name as a shepherd.
"Some paths that are right paths still lead through places that have
deadly perils. '_Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death_,' is the way the psalm touches this fact in shepherd life. This
way of naming the valley is very true to our country. I remember one
near my home called 'the valley of robbers,' and another, 'the ravine of
the raven.' You see 'the valley of the shadow of death' is a name drawn
from my country's old custom.
"'For thou art with me.' Ah, how could more be put into few words!
With the sheep, it matters not what the surroundings are, nor how great
the perils and hardships; if only the shepherd is with them, they are
content. There is no finer picture of the way of peace for the troubled in
all the world.
"To show how much the presence of the shepherd counts for the
welfare of the sheep I can think of nothing better than the strange thing
I now tell you. It is quite beyond the usual, daily care on which the
flock depends so fondly. But I have seen it more than once.
"Sometimes, in spite of all the care of the shepherd and his dogs, a wolf
will get into the very midst of the flock. The sheep are wild with fright.
They run and leap and make it impossible to get at the foe in their
midst, who at that very moment may be fastening his teeth in the throat
of a helpless member of the flock. But the shepherd is with them. He
knows what to do even at such a time. He leaps to a rock or hillock that
he may be seen and heard. Then he lifts his voice in a long call,
something like a wolf's cry: 'Ooh! ooh!'
"On hearing this, the sheep remember the shepherd; they heed his voice;
and, strange to tell, the poor, timid creatures, which were helpless with
terror before, instantly rush with all their strength into a solid mass. The
pressure is irresistible; the wolf is overcome; frequently he is crushed
to death, while the shepherd stands there on a rock crying, 'Ooh! ooh!'
'_I will fear no evil: for art with me_.'"
He paused, looking questioningly at one and another.

"Yes," I said at last, "'in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us.'" He bowed his satisfaction in silence.
"'_Thy rod and thy staff_'--this also is true to life; the double expression
covers the whole round of protecting care. For the shepherds carry a
crook for guiding the sheep and a weapon suitable for defending them,
the rod and the staff; one for aiding them in places of need along
peaceful ways, the other for defense in perils of robbers and wild beasts.
This saying describes with the