Return
to Home Page
Return
to Poems Index
There were
Ninety and Nine
-
There were ninety
and nine that safely lay,
In the shelter
of the fold;
But one was out
on the hills away,
Far from the gate
of gold.
Away on the mountains
wild and bare,
Away from the
tender shepherd's care.
-
"Lord, thou has
there Thy ninety and nine,
Are they not enough
for Thee?"
But the shepherd
made answer, "This of Mine
Has wandered away
from me;
And although the
road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert
to find me sheep."
-
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.
Out in the desert
He heard its cry,
Sick and helpless
and ready to die.
-
"Lord, whence
are those blood-drops all the way,
That mark out
the mountains' track?"
"They were shed
for the one who has gone astray
Ere the shepherd
could bring him back."
"Lord, whence
are Thy hands so rent and torn?"
"They are pierced
tonight by many a thorn."
-
And all through
the mountains, thunder-riven,
And up from the
rocky steep,
There arose a
cry to the gate of heaven.
"Rejoice! I have
found my sheep."
And the angels
echoed around the Throne
"Rejoice, for
the Lord brings back his own."
-
Elizabeth C. Clephans