Shepherds

“ The old shepherds, the outspread hay, the birds that pursue one another from branch to branch, and the brooks that run singing over light pebbles, and the handsome lads, with complexions made purple by the sun, like grapes on very old vines,—the handsome lads with robust limbs and powerful chests,—all these things make me dream pleasant dreams. ”

“ See those good shepherds on the mountain side.
How watchfully they guard their flocks through the long drear night!
It is to keep away the robber and the wolf from their sheep that they are thus wakeful.
They are men of good-will; their hearts are brave and pure. They are true and single-hearted men. ”

“ The shepherds out on the hilltops are telling strange stories while they watch their sheep. The air is filled with sweet music, and there is a wonderful star coming up in the east, traveling westward always, and the shepherds say that they are waiting for it to stop and shine over a humble stable in their little town. ”

“ I pray you, when we were amid our flock, and that of other shepherds some were running after their sheep, strayed beyond their bounds; some delighting their eyes with seeing them nibble upon the short and sweet grass; some medicining their sick ewes; some setting a bell for an ensign of a sheepish squadron; some with more leisure inventing new games of exercising their bodies, and sporting their wits ”

“ Those shepherds who, in summer, drive their flocks to the mountain pastures, and, while watching them night and day, have seen them frightened by bears and storms, and scattered like wind-driven chaff, will, in some measure, be able to appreciate the self-reliance and strength and noble individuality of Nature's sheep. ”

“ He came from a long line of shepherds, and shepherding was perhaps almost instinctive in him; from his earliest boyhood the tremulous bleating of the sheep and half-muffled clink of the copper bells and the sharp bark of the sheep-dog had a strange attraction for him. He was always ready when a boy was wanted to take charge of a flock during a temporary absence of the shepherd, and eventually, when only about fifteen, he was engaged as under-shepherd, and for the rest of his life shepherding was his trade. ”

“ Which, chill with cold, to thee for succour creep. They of my study are the budding springs: Longer I cannot them in silence keep. They will be gadding! sore against my mind. But, courteous Shepherd, if they run astray, Conduct them, that they may the pathway find: And teach them how the Mean observe they may! Thou shalt them ken by their discording notes! Their weeds are plain, such as poor shepherds wear; Unshapen, torn, and ragged are their coats: Yet forth they wandering are, devoid of fear. They which have tasted of the Muses' spring, I hope, will smile upon the tunes they sing. ”

“ You will feel that He whom all shepherds are bound to acknowledge, if they would have the sheep hear them, must be Himself, in the highest sense, the Shepherd. And the test that He is this Shepherd, explains the perpetual worth and significance of the other symbol. 'He gives His life for the sheep.' The false shepherds wish to find out a way for themselves, which is not the way that the sheep take. They do not like the thought of stooping—beings of another and higher race as they are—to the conditions of these silly creatures. He identifies Himself with them. They have to die. ”

“ Some shepherds again, like David, have a source of comfort, not the harp, but their flutes, and the sheep seem to delight to listen to those pensive melodies, when the shepherds play, while the shepherd-dogs with their accredited faithfulness, always follow the flocks. ”

“ Do you think sects would last now for an hour, if there was not in the heart of each of them a witness for a fellowship, which combinations and shibboleths did not create, and which, thanks be to God, they cannot destroy? The true Shepherd makes His voice to be heard, through all the noise and clatter of earthly shepherds; the sheep hear that voice, and know that it is calling them to follow Him into a common fold where all may rest and dwell together. ”

“ The shepherds stopped and listened, for having spent their lives among the flocks, they knew the helplessness of the sheep, and although rugged, fierce-looking men, their hearts were tender toward the weak and appealing. ”

“ The Shepherds discovered him, and threw sticks at him, and pelted him with stones, while some of them, moved with compassion towards one about to die even though no one should hurt him, threw in some food to prolong his life. ”

“ Either come fight or flee.'
'With all my heart, thou proud fellow,
For it never shall be said
That a shepherds hook of thy sturdy look
Will one jot be dismaid.'
So they fell to it, full hardy and sore,
Striving for victory ”

“ The good Shepherd, the Shepherd of shepherds, justifies the belief. He shows that they had done what they did by inspiration from Him. He shows that, in this instance also,—in this instance especially,—they were receiving of His fulness, and grace for grace. The Word takes flesh and blood, because the children are partakers of flesh and blood. The Shepherd dies, because the sheep die. ”

“ From the aesthetic point of view the grand old shepherds interested me most, dignified, patriarchal men, with a reserve of strength of character evident in their rugged features, and the patience and hardihood that takes little heed of exposure to every variety of weather. ”

“ His business was to shepherd the sheep, to lead them to good pasture, to protect them from all harm and danger. The shepherd's task was lonely as well as lowly. His days and nights were passed in solitude. Occasionally a group of shepherds would come together, but for the most part they were alone with their flocks. God chose these people, whose minds were clear, whose lives were pure, to be the first messengers of the glad tidings of great joy.
MEMORY VERSE, Luke 2: 8
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night." ”

“ Being now, as one might say, a sheep of some age and experience and standing in the community, I have agreeable recollections of many shepherds. Most of them have long since retired upon pension, while the flock is still wistfully baaing over the bars toward the west. ”

“ The lord’s shepherd has a preeminence of tending his sheep on every part of the common; and wherever he herds the lord’s sheep, the several other shepherds are to give way to him, and give up their hoofing-place, so long as he pleases to depasture the lord’s sheep thereon. ”

“ They are rescued from the thieves, and restored to the shepherds: and sometimes they murmur, and become wearied of Him that calls them back, and have no true knowledge of him that would murder them; nevertheless also, when, after a struggle, those have come who are sheep, they recognize the Shepherd’s voice, and are glad they have come, and are ashamed of their wandering. ”

“ The shepherds, who should have been the watchmen of the flock, to discover the approaches of the beasts of prey, to keep them off, and protect the sheep, were treacherous and careless, minded not their business, nor made any conscience of the trust reposed in them, and so the sheep became an easy prey to the wild beasts. ”

“ The shepherds, accordingly, represent the corporeal intellect which longs after the influence of the active intellect, and desires to be like it, as much as possible, to cleave to it, and to come up to its standing, which is the ultimate end of its purpose. ”

“ The plain is still mainly under pasture, fertile and well watered, and there I saw shepherds still tending their flocks. These shepherds have great influence over their sheep. Many of them have no dogs. Their flocks are docile and domestic, and not as the black-faced breed of sheep in Scotland, scouring the hills like cavalry. The shepherd's word spoken at any time is sufficient to make them understand and obey him. ”

“ The Rijks owns four other pictures: Portrait of a Young Man, Shepherds with their Flocks, Cattle, and View of Dordrecht.
Description of Shepherds with their Flocks.—Shepherds with their Flocks represents an Autumn morning in a meadow, where four grazing cows and a shepherd on a mule occupy the foreground; on the left, a man on an ass and a man on foot wearing a red vest; on the right, two large trees; in the middle distance, some trees, a river, and a tower; and in the background, mountains. ”

“ The shepherds are assisted by a breed of noble dogs, one or two of which I saw. They are not, however, generally taken down to the low grounds, as they are frequently fierce and vicious in the half-savage state in which it is of importance to keep them, in respect to their avocations amid the bears and wolves. ”

“ Tame wethers, with bells round their necks, lead the way, these are generally great pets of the Shepherds, who feed them with pieces of bread, and from their general use, and attachment, they allow them to live, to a very advanced age. ”

“ The shepherds, intent upon worldly good, wound instead of healing, and rob the sheep unjustly of their wool. Nay, they drive them among the brambles, so that they may have the wool which the thorns tear off. ”

“ The shepherds, with their dogs to assist them when necessary, allow the herd to scatter over a space varying in its size, but always allowing sufficient area so that the animals can move on at their ease and at the same time be able to feed. ”

“ Of every Shepherd: for I understood
This Night a number are about the Wood:
Then let us chuse some place, where out of sight
We freely may enjoy our stoln delight.
Alex. Then boldly here, where we shall ne're be found,
No Shepherds way lies here, 'tis hallow'd ground:
No Maid seeks here her strayed Cow, or Sheep,
Fairies, and Fawns, and Satyrs do it keep:
Then carelesly rest here, and clip and kiss,
And let no fear make us our pleasures miss.
Clo. Then lye by me, the sooner we begin,
The longer ere the day descry our sin. ”

“ Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery? ”

“ Men were just like sheep, and nothing was easier than for women to set up as shepherds and pen them in a fold. ”

“ While shepherds watched their flocks by night, from "Verse in English from Eighteenth-Century Ireland" (1998) by Andrew Carpenter Christmas, from Our American Holidays - Christmas (1949)
This work was published before January 1, 1928, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ Such were the shepherds of Judea! In appearance, rough and savage as the gaunt dogs sitting with them around the blaze; in fact, simple-minded, tender-hearted; effects due, in part, to the primitive life they led, but chiefly to their constant care of things lovable and helpless. ”

“ "Yea, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter." ”

“ THE COVENTRY NATIVITY PLAY OF THE COMPANY OF SHEARMEN AND TAILORS CHARACTERS Isaiah (as Prologue) Gabriel Joseph Mary The Three Kings The Three Shepherds The Two Prophets King Herod A Herald An Angel Two Soldiers Three Women THE COVENTRY NATIVITY PLAY
PROLOGUE
Isaiah. The sovereign that seeth every secret
He save you all and make you perfect and strong:
And give his grace with his mercy thereto meet,
For now in great misery mankind is bound. ”

“ As the dawn broke over Smoky Land, the sheep fed farther and farther out from the camp,—a long, white column like a moving snow field against the deep dusk of the forest. The light grew, the last stars faded, the gloom of the underbrush evolved into distinct browns and greens; most of the beasts of prey returned to their lairs. Unlike Hugh they had no love for these daylight hours. Dawn meant the end of their reign.
For the night has always been the time of triumph to the hunting creatures. It is the hour of glory when fang and talon and strength and stealth come into their own. ”

“ It was their time of triumph: stealth and strength, fang and claw, the stalk in the shadows, the leap, the blow, the feasting in the moonlight. The she-wolf came creeping from her lair, her cubs behind her, and all of their eyes were just so many twin circles of green light in the darkness. ”

“ All through the day's roaming the shepherd keeps one thing in mind. He must lead his flock to a drinking-place. The refreshment of good water makes the coveted hour of all the day; the spot where it is found amid the rough, waterless hills and plains is the crowning token of the shepherd's unfailing thoughtfulness. When at last the sheep are led 'beside the still waters,' how good it is, after the dust and heat of the sheep-walks! ”

“ Fills the hushed day with other wings than birds'.
Now where on foam-crest waves the seagulls rock,
To their cliff-haven go the seagulls thence.
So too the shepherd gathers in his flock,
Because birds journey to their dens,
Tired sheep to their still fold.
A dark first bat swoops low and dips
About the shepherd who now sings
A song of timeless evenings;
For dusk is round him with wide wings,
Dusk murmurs on his moving lips.
There is not mortal man who knows
From whence the shepherd's song arose:
It came a thousand years ago. ”

“ His own dear shepherd-maid,
The herd-boy leads along his flock of sheep
To the sequestered shade;
190Where shepherd youths and maids in secret bowers,
In song and feast unite
In joyful band, to pass the sultry hours
Of their siesta light.
The sturdy hunter, bathed in moisture well,
Beneath an oak-tree’s boughs,
Beside his faithful dog, his sentinel,
Now yields him to repose.
All, all is calm, is silent. ”

“ I reckon that when a shepherd goes into cow-land, it’s like taking a ship into fresh water to knock off the barnacles.
He’s a queer old coot. Imagine a man of his cognomen, add the smell of sheep, dress him up around the neck like a preacher, tuck his pants into the top of a pair of heavy boots, and you’ve got a portrait of Old Testament. He rides a little calico bronc, with one cropped ear and a rat-tail, and calls it Ebenezer. ”