Clear the way!
The following account of the origin of the well-known hymn, the "Ninety and Nine," may have a tendency to stimulate others to go and do likewise. It is taken from "Sabbath Reading," published by the late Mr. Dougal of this city, who has recently passed away into his everlasting rest.
A humble lady in Melrose, Scotland, was led to see the beauty of the character of Christ in the parable of the Good Shepherd. She possessed genius, and sometimes expressed her best thoughts and feelings in verse. The vision of Christ leaving the glories of Heaven and becoming a seeker of men who had gone astray, like an Eastern shepherd seeking a wandering sheep in perilous places, touched her heart with poetic fervor, and she wrote the hymn beginning:
"There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold."
One of the stanzas most vividly and tenderly expressed her clear view of Divine sympathy and compassion:
"But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed;
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through
Ere He found His sheep that was lost.