The Way of the Seven Fold Secret by Lilias Trotter

- 36-
written,-A man's foes shall be they of his own household.''
Whoever he be, this stranger, ''.flee from him." *
Next, this chapter speaks of another danger to the
sheep under the figure of a thief. 1" Satan is like the
thief, for he comes silently and secretly, without warning,
to rob us of God's grace and joy and strength, and
to seek to destroy His life in our souls.
Then we see another danger under the figure of the
hireling. The hireling is a picture of the world, that is
only a friend while all is prosperous, t and leaves us
carelessly to be a prey when distress comes. Foolish is
the sheep that trusts this hireling.
Lastly there is the danger of the wolf.** The wolf
stands for outward trouble that comes with violence, as
persecution that is set on by the powers of hell to scatter
Christ's followers. If it finds them close to the Good
Shepherd they have nothing to fear in this, not even
death itself, for as David said in the 23rd. Psalm, "The
Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.§ Ye..i though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no
evil, for Thou art with me." But if they are trusting to
the hireling, that is the world, to protect them, they are
in an evil case.
And now we turn from all these enemies, that is to
say the stranger and the thief and the hireling and the
• Matt. IO. 36.
t "The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
(John IO. rn.)
::: "The hireling leaveth the sheep and :lleeth". (John IO. 12).
•• "The wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep"
(John IO. 12)
§ Ps. 23. r, 4.