INTRODUCTION. 29 



There is an anecdote, quite in point here, which was relat- 

 ed to me, by the same clergyman alluded to above, while 

 preparing this volume for the press. 



We were reading together, in our social devotions, the 23d 

 Psalm. After the 2d verse, ' He leadeth me beside the still 

 waters,' he remarked, ' how much the beauty of the passage 

 is lost to readers in this country, from not knowing the cus- 

 toms of the East. Here, you know, we always drive sheep. 

 But it was not so there. 



* A year or two since, I heard in Boston, that some person 

 had imported a large flock of Saxony sheep, and that they 

 had just arrived in the city. One morning I happened to 

 look out of my window at the moment they were passing by. 

 And I was delighted at the illustration of Scripture, which 

 the scene afforded. 



' There were probably an hundred or an hundred and fifty 

 in the flock. The shepherd, who had come over to this 

 country to take care of them, went before the flock. He 

 held his right hand behind him, with the palm, turned 

 towards the slieep. A large buck followed close behind,, 

 almost touching with his forehead the palm of the shepherd's 

 hand. The rest of the flock were arranged in very regular 

 order, behind tfee leader, somewhat in the form of a wedge. 



' The -shepherd's dog followed behind the whole, urging o 

 the few straggling sheep, who were disposed to linger. 



' Whenever the shepherd turned a corner, the leader of the 

 flock obeyed the turn of his hand, and thus the whole num- 

 ber were led, without the least difficulty, through any part of 

 the city.' 



* Now how many passages in the Bible, which speak of the 

 Cfood Shepherd's leading the lost and wandering of the flock, 

 back again to the fold, and keeping them in green pastures, 

 &c. are scarcely enjoyed, at all, from not understanding this. 



' It is also customary in Eastern countries for the shep- 

 herd to give a name to every sheep of the flock. They comes 

 at the call of their name, and are easily distinguished and 

 known by those who are accustomed to the shepherd's 

 crook. 



' In this light, how tender and beautiful does the passage 

 appear, in the 10th chapter of John. 



' He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadtth them out. 

 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before 

 them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.' 

 3* 



