"Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep."— Hos 12:12

Jacob, while expostulating with Laban, thus describes

his own toil, "This twenty years have I been with thee.

That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee:

I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it,

whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was;

in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by

night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes." Even

more toilsome than this was the life of our Savior here

below. He watched over all His sheep till He gave in as

His last account, "Of all those whom Thou hast given

me I have lost none." His hair was wet with dew, and

His locks with the drops of the night. Sleep departed

from His eyes, for all night He was in prayer wrestling

for His people. One night Peter must be pleaded for;

anon, another claims His tearful intercession. No

shepherd sitting beneath the cold skies, looking up to

the stars, could ever utter such complaints because of

the hardness of his toil as Jesus Christ might have

brought, if He had chosen to do so, because of the

sternness of His service in order to procure His

spouse—

"Cold mountains and the midnight air,

Witnessed the fervor of His prayer;

The desert His temptations knew,

His conflict and His victory too."

It is sweet to dwell upon the spiritual parallel of Laban

having required all the sheep at Jacob hand. If they

were torn of beasts, Jacob must make it good; if any

of them died, he must stand as surety for the whole.

Was not the toil of Jesus for His Church the toil of one

who was under suretyship obligations to bring every

believing one safe to the hand of Him who had

committed them to His charge? Look upon toiling

Jacob, and you see a representation of Him of whom

we read, "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd."