University of Virginia Library

The Lost Sheep

Suggested by an Engraving

Beneath the wild thorn stretched upon the ground,
Lo, Christ the wanderer from his fold has found;
Pierced by the thorns it torn and bleeding lies,
And fills the desert with its piteous cries.
Neglected by its shepherd, it had strayed,
And left the murmuring brook, and sunny glade;
To wander, parched and hungry, o'er the plain,
No more its happy pastures to regain.
And he, who should have searched, with anxious fear,
On every hill and valley, far and near;
And, when he found, upon his shoulder laid,
And with his friends a great rejoicing made;
Cared not to leave his ease the lost to find,
To give it food, its bleeding wounds to bind;
He heeded not its fate, nor piteous cry,
But left it suffering, there alone to die.
But Christ, who careth for the lost and poor,
His Father's mansions left to seek and cure;
He from its foot plucked out the festering thorn,
Smoothed its soft fleece, by cruel branches torn;
And bore it, in his arms, beside the brink
Of cooling stream, and gave it there to drink;
There washed the crimson from its bleeding side,
And with the tender grass its wants supplied;
Then, calling it by name, he homeward led,
And as his own the lost and wandering fed.