THERE are many amongst us truly and conscientiously seeking the Lord whose souls are ill at ease, and whose hearts are far from peace. They are feeling after Him, if haply they may find Him; but they are like blind men groping for the wall, for they have not found Him, and they have no firm resting-place for their faith. They have been reading many passages about seeking the Lord, and have endeavoured to seek Him, but they are sorely discouraged. Let us, therefore, change the subject, and instead of considering how they are to seek the Lord, let us see how the Lord seeks them. Let us look at the Divine side of the transaction, and instead of being absorbed by the subject of the sinner seeking the Saviour, let us look at the boundless grace of God which is shown by the Saviour seeking the sinner. It is the great subject of this chapter, which contains three illustrations of the one subject, and thus forms an illustrated comment on His words, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” {13} According to those words He came for the lost, and came not only to save them when they should succeed in finding Him, but to seek them in order that He may save. He does not save without seeking, nor does He seek without saving. Let us glean some lessons, from the combination of the three illustrations, as to the loss of the sinner, and the seeking of the Saviour. THE LOSS. In all three cases the recovered one is said to have been lost. The sheep was lost. The coin was lost. The son was lost. If we study the illustrations in detail we shall see that there are three ways described in the chapter in which this loss is brought about. It is brought about, in the case of the lost sheep, through simple ignorance and the folly of pursuing each passing object of attraction. The wandering sheep has no particular intention of going wrong. It does not set off with a deliberate wish to run away; it is simply led on step by step by any attraction that lies beside its path. And is not this the case with thousands of those who have wandered from the Shepherd’s care? In the second parable the loss is occasioned by the neglect of others. The piece of money is lost through carelessness, without any fault of its own. The person who had the charge of it took no heed to be sure that it was safe. How many are there in exactly that position? They have been lost, humanly speaking, through want of care.