And if so be that he find it, verily, I say unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety and nine which have not gone astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones shall perish.'"
"In the book of the Bible called the Psalms," continued mamma, "the twenty-third is often called the Shepherd Psalm."
"Oh, we know that psalm," said Margaret.
"Suppose," said mamma, "that one of the sheep in our picture could talk and think like you. Would he not wish to say something about his shepherd, very much like this psalm? The sheep would tell you how the shepherd led him to the green pastures, and let him rest by the brooks that flow gently through the meadows, and kept him safe in the valleys where no wild beasts were hiding to kill him, and put out his long staff to guide him and to help him up the steep paths of the hills. Now let us say the psalm together."
"'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me:
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [{290}] Thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the House of the Lord for ever.'"
"Mamma," said Harold, "sheep don't eat at tables, or have cups."
"No," said mamma, smiling, "that shows us that, after all, this psalm is about a man, and not about a sheep. It means that when troubles and dangers are all about us God still gives all that we need. Sometime that will mean a great deal more to you than it does now."
"I don't understand," said Margaret, "about anointing the head with oil, and dwelling in the house of the Lord."
"In the Bible land," said mamma, "when a man wished to honor a guest whom he had invited to a feast, he poured out a little sweet-smelling oil upon his head. The psalm means that God makes his people, even when they are in the midst of danger, feel as happy as though they were honored guests at a feast. To dwell in the house of the Lord forever means that we are to feel always perfectly secure, as though we were living in God's own house, where nothing could ever harm us."
Harold thought a moment, and then he said, "I think that I know what all the stories about sheep in the Bible mean. They mean that people are like sheep, and they can't take care of themselves, but that God loves them very much, and that he will always take care of them."