The Ninety And Nine

The Ninety And Nine

The loss of a brother gave the world a song.

IN 1868 in Scotland, Elizabeth Clephane wrote a poem called “The Lost Sheep.” Also called “The Ninety and Nine,” it depicts the Good Shepherd leaving his flock of sheep to find the one that was lost.

Sixteen years before, Elizabeth’s brother George had left the family and gone to Canada. There he collapsed on a country road in a drunken stupor and died the next day. Elizabeth had often thought about the story of the Good Shepherd, fantasizing that Christ the Shepherd had found her brother, the lost sheep, before his death. When asked to contribute a poem for a Christian magazine, she wrote this poem out of her grief and hope for her brother’s salvation.

In 1874 D. L. Moody, the American evangelist, and Ira Sankey, his song leader, went on an evangelistic tour of Scotland. On May 20 the two men were on their way to Edinburgh for two days of meetings. Sankey picked up a newspaper called the Christian Age to read on the train. In it, his eyes were drawn to Elizabeth Clephane’s poem, “The Lost Sheep.” Its words moved him deeply, and he thought it would make an excellent evangelistic hymn. He enthusiastically read it to Moody but then realized that Moody was busy reading a letter and had not listened to him. Nevertheless, Sankey ripped the poem out of the newspaper and began mulling over tunes in his head.

The next day, May 21, 1874, the theme for their meeting at the Free Church Assembly Hall was “The Good Shepherd.” Moody and several other ministers spoke. The audience was deeply moved by the truths of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. After the messages Moody, as chairman of the meeting, turned to Sankey and said, “Have you a solo appropriate for this subject, to close the service with?“

Sankey was startled to be put on the spot and quickly tried to think of something. “At this moment I seemed to hear a voice saying: Sing the hymn you found on the train!” Sankey thought this was crazy because it was a poem without music, not a hymn! He had not yet had time to compose a tune. Moody and the audience waited, and again the thought came, Sing that hymn!

Sankey recalls, “Placing the little newspaper slip on the organ in front of me, I lifted my heart in prayer, asking God to help me so to sing that the people might hear and understand. Laying my hands upon the organ I struck the key of A flat and began to sing:

“There were ninety and nine that safely lay

In the shelter of the fold;

But one was out on the hills away,

Far off from the gates of gold—

Away on the mountains wild and bare,

Away from the tender Shepherd’s care,

Away from the tender Shepherd’s care.”

After the first verse, Sankey was afraid the other verses would sound different from the first. But he prayed, and the Lord gave him the same tune for the other verses, note for note. His voice was triumphant as he sang the final verse:

“But 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 round the throne:

‘Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!’

‘Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!

The rapt audience was overcome with emotion, as was Moody. He said, “Sankey, where did you get that hymn? I never heard the like of it in my life!’

Sankey replied, “Mr. Moody, that’s the hymn I read to you yesterday on the train, which you did not hear.”

Reflection

The Lord seeks his lost sheep and rejoices when they are found. This story spoke powerfully to Elizabeth Clephane, Ira Sankey, D. L. Moody, and those present at the meeting on May 21, 1874. What does it mean to you? Are you a lost sheep or are you safe in the fold?

Heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

Luke 15:7