Parable of the Lost Sheep

The parable of the Lost Sheep, taught by Jesus Christ , is one of the

most beloved stories in the Bible, a favorite for Sunday school classes

because of its simplicity and poignancy.

Jesus was speaking to a group of tax collectors, sinners , Pharisees,

and teachers of the law. He asked them to imagine having a hundred

sheep and one of them strayed from the fold. A shepherd would leave

his ninety-nine sheep and search for the lost one until he found it.

Then, with joy in his heart, he would put it on his shoulders, take it

home, and tell his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him, because

he had found his lost sheep.

Jesus concluded by telling them there will be more rejoicing in

heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous

people who do not need to repent.

But the lesson didn't end there. Jesus went on to tell another

parable of a woman who lost a coin. She searched her home until she

found it (Luke 15:8-10 ). He followed this story with yet another

parable, that of the lost or prodigal son, the stunning message that

every repentant sinner is forgiven and welcomed home by God.

Scripture References

Luke 15:4-7 ; Matthew 18:10-14 .

What Does the Parable of the Lost Sheep Mean?

The meaning is simple yet profound: lost humans need a loving,

personal Savior. Jesus taught this lesson three times in succession

to drive home his meaning. God deeply loves and cares personally for

us as individuals. We are valuable to him and he will seek far and wide

to bring us back home to him. When the one who was lost returns, the

Good Shepherd receives him back with joy, and he does not rejoice

alone.
Points of Interest From the Story

The parable of the Lost Sheep may have been inspired by Ezekiel

34:11-16:

"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search and

find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock.

I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they

were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. I will bring them back

home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations.

I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers and in

all the places where people live. Yes, I will give them good

pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in

pleasant places and feed in the lush pastures of the hills. I myself

will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says

the Sovereign Lord. I will search for my lost ones who strayed away,

and I will bring them safely home again. I will bandage the injured

and strengthen the weak..." (NLT)

Sheep have an instinctive tendency to wander. If the shepherd did

not go out and seek this lost creature, it would not have found its

way back on its own.

Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd in John 10:11-18 , who not

only searches for lost sheep (sinners) but who lays down his life for

them.

The ninety-nine in the story represent self-righteous people—the

Pharisees. These people keep all the rules and laws but bring no joy

to heaven. God cares about lost sinners who will admit they are lost

and turn back to him. The Good Shepherd seeks after people who

recognize they are lost and in need of a Savior. The Pharisees never

recognize that they are lost.

In the first two parables, the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin, the owner
actively searches and finds what is missing. In the third story, the

Prodigal Son, the father lets his son have his own way, but waits

longingly for him to come home, then forgives him and celebrates. The

common theme is repentance .

Fable: The Pig and the Sheep

One day a shepherd discovered a fat Pig in the meadow where his

Sheep were pastured. He very quickly captured the porker, which

squealed at the top of its voice the moment the Shepherd laid his

hands on it. You would have thought, to hear the loud squealing,

that the Pig was being cruelly hurt. But in spite of its squeals and

struggles to escape, the Shepherd tucked his prize under his arm and

started off to the butcher’s in the marketplace.

The Sheep in the pasture were much astonished and amused at the

Pig’s behavior and followed the Shepherd and his charge to the

pasture gate.

“What makes you squeal like that?” asked one of the Sheep. “The

Shepherd often catches and carries off one of us. But we should feel

very much ashamed to make such a terrible fuss about it like you

do.”

“That is all very well,” replied the Pig, with a squeal and a frantic

kick. “When he catches you he is only after your wool. But he wants

my bacon! gree-ee-ee!”

Moral: It is easy to be brave when there is no danger. Don’t

compare two different situations without understanding them.

Tale: The Pregnant Virgin

called Gbeyor. He had a daughter called Gbeofia, meaning queen of

beauty. Gbeyor had given this name to his daughter because she was

the most beautiful girl in the whole village. When she had reached

the age of 21, Gbeofia called her father and told him that she

wanted to marry. Gbeyor was aghast! He shouted at his daughter:

“Hai, my only daughter! My queen of queens! What are you trying to

tell me? I will not allow you to marry any man in this village. My

daughter, you are so beautiful and precious to me, therefore I would

like you to marry a man who is very rich and handsome.”

Before long word got around in the village that Gbeofia wanted to

marry, and the conditions that her father had imposed. In spite of

this, some of the men in the village still thought they might have a

chance. Therefore some of them would call on the chief’s place every

Saturday evening, carrying special drinks and some expensive cloth

as presents requesting Gbeofia’s hand in marriage. Gbeyor could see

that they were only farmers and that they were not good enough to

marry his precious daughter.

One evening Mr Spider made his way to the chief’s door, carrying a

bottle of local gin. The chief laid eyes on Mr Spider and asked him

harshly: “Hey Mr Spider, what do you want in my palace?” Mr Spider

answered in a very polite manner. “Please chief, I an here to marry

your beautiful daughter.” The chief got very angry and shouted:

“You fool! Come on, clear off! You think you can come along here

with a bottle of local gin, and marry my daughter? My daughter, who

is the queen of queens1 Get out of my face!” Mr spider left without

speaking any further, just as some more of the village men were

arriving, carrying their presents. When Mr Spider got home he went to

could play so that he could marry the chief’s daughter after all. Mr

Spider realized after some time that the girl liked eating pawpaw. He

remembered he had seen her in the area near his house several times,

to pick the fruit of the pawpaw trees that grew there. “Yes, he

thought, pawpaw is probably one of her favourite foods!” This gave

Mr Spider the idea for the trick he decided to play on them.

Mr Spider started hanging around the pawpaw tree, so that he could

waylay the girl on her next visit there. He didn’t have to wait very

long, but to Mr Spider’s dismay, she was accompanied by her mother

when she turned up. At first Mr Spider was a little worried, because

he had not reckoned on the mother being there. But he was a

resourceful fellow after all, and before long he had thought of a trick.

He went up to the mother and said: “Hello, mother dear, can I pluck

some pawpaw for you? These pawpaw trees are so difficult to climb for

you ladies. Allow me to get up there and get the best fruit for you

people!” The women had no objections to Mr Spider’s proposal, so he

climbed the pawpaw tree and started picking the fruit. Very quickly

he’d picked a bag full of the fruit, and the mother called up to him:

“Hello, my son, this is quite enough for us!” But Mr Spider hadn’t

finished yet, and he told her: “Ooh mother, this is not enough for

you, so I want to pick just a few more!” The women didn’t want to

argue, so they just said, “OK, that’s very good of you, carry on

picking as many as you like!”

Mr Spider climbed a bit further up the tree, pretending to look for

the best fruit. Within the twinkle of an eye Mr Spider intentionally

fell down and started wailing: “Adish! Adish! Today my life finish! My

leg – Oh my leg, Oh my leg!” As he lay there wailing the women

became very frightened, and didn’t know what to do to help Mr

you?” the mother asked. The crafty Mr Spider, pretending to be in a

great amount of pain said: “Take me to your house! Please take me

to your house!” Between them mother and daughter carried Mr Spider

to their house. When they reached there, the mother asked Mr Spider

if there was anything she could do for him. Mr Spider asked her to

give him a bath. The mother consented, and proceeded to give Mr

Spider a bath. After having his bath, he asked the woman to find him

some mats so that he could lie down and have a rest. She quickly

found a mat for Mr Spider, and he lay down on it.

Mr Spider rested for a short while, then when he heard somebody move

around in the next room, he started moaning again. Gbeofia’s mother

was in the room nextdoor, and heard the moaning. She came into Mr

Spider’s room, and asked him if there was anything he needed. “EhEh,

Mother, answered Mr Spider, I am so uncomfortable, all my limbs are

aching and this heat seems to be making it worse. Maybe if you help

me remove all my clothing I might be more comfortable!” So mother

helped Mr Spider get undressed, and he stretched out on the mat

again, completely naked. She went back to take care of her business

in the next room, and for a short while all was quiet. But not for long.

Mr Spider started moaning again, and the woman came over to his

side once more. She was getting eather worried about Mr Spider’s

condition, and asked him what else she might do to alleviate the

pain he was in. “EhEh, Mother, there is just one thing that will make

me better,” said Mr Spider. The woman asked him to tell her what this

might be. Mr Spider coughed, then he said: “I want you to ask your

daughter to come her and lie on top of me!” This rather took the

good woman by surprise. “That’s impossible!” she exclaimed. But Mr

Spider was very tricky, and he knew exactly what to say to get his
way. “I’m afraid if she doesn’t come and lie with me, I will surely die

all at once!” said he to the woman. She was genuinely afraid that Mr

Spider might indeed die from his injuries, so she went to find her

daughter. She explained the situation to her, and although her

daughter was not at all sure that she wanted to do this, eventually

she let herself be persuaded by her mother. She came into Mr Spider’s

room and lay on top of him on the mat.

Two hours later Mr Spider burst into laughter. “Hahahaha! I am very

very lucky! I won this situation and I am now free. Wot! I really took

these women for a ride.”

Naturalistic Fiction: To Build a Fire

“To Build a Fire” is an adventure story of a man’s futile attempt to

travel across ten miles of Yukon wilderness in temperatures dropping

to seventy-five degrees below zero. At ten o’clock in the morning,

the unnamed protagonist plans to arrive by lunchtime at a camp

where others are waiting. Unfortunately, unanticipated

complications make this relatively short journey impossible. By nine

o’clock that morning, there is no sun in the sky, and three feet of

snow has fallen in this desolate Yukon area. Despite the gloomy,

bitter, numbing cold, the man is not worried, even though he has

reason to worry. At first he underestimates the cold. He knows that

his face and fingers are numb, but he fails to realize the seriousness

of his circumstances until later in the story. As the story unfolds,

the man gets progressively more worried about the situation. At first,

he is simply aware of the cold; then be becomes slightly worried;

finally, he becomes frantic.

seems to sense that something awful might occur because of the

tremendously low temperatures. The dog is frightened, and its

behavior should show the man that he has underestimated the

danger.

At ten o’clock, the man believes that he is making good time in his

journey by traveling four miles an hour. He decides to stop and rest.

His face is numb, and his cheeks are frostbitten. He begins to wish

that he had foreseen the danger of frostbite and had gotten a facial

strap for protection. He tells himself that frostbitten cheeks are

never serious, merely painful, as a way to soothe himself

psychologically and force himself not to worry about the cold. He

knows the area and realizes the danger of springs hidden beneath

the snow, covered only by a thin sheet of ice. At this point, the

character is very concerned about these springs but underestimates

the danger. Getting wet would only delay him, for he would then have

to build a fire to dry off his feet and clothes. Every time he comes on

a suspected trap, he forces the dog to go ahead to see if it is safe.

He begins to feel increasingly nervous about the cold.

By twelve o’clock, he is still far away from his camp and anticipates

getting there by six o’clock, in time for dinner. He is pleased with his

progress, but, in reality, he is simply reassuring himself that there is

no need to worry. He decides to stop and eat lunch, a lunch he had

planned to eat with his friends at the camp. His fingers are so numb

that he cannot hold his biscuit. He reflects back to the time when he

had laughed at an old man who had told him how dangerous cold

weather could be. He now realizes that perhaps he had reason to

worry and that he had forgotten to build a fire for warmth. He

carefully builds a fire, thaws his face, and takes “his comfortable time
over a smoke.” Then he decides that he should begin walking again.

The fire has restored his confidence, but the dog wants to stay by

the warmth and safety of the fire.

The man’s face soon becomes frozen again as he resumes his journey.

Lulled into a false sense of security by the fire, he has become less

and less aware of his surroundings and steps into a hidden spring,

which wets him to his waist. His immediate reaction is anger because

he will be delayed by building another fire. He carefully builds a fire,

well aware of the importance of drying himself. He remembers the old

man’s advice at Sulphur Creek that circulation cannot be restored

by running in this temperature because the feet would simply freeze

faster. His fire is a success and he is safe. He now feels superior,

because although he has had an accident and he is alone, he has

saved himself from possible death. He decides that any man can travel

alone as long as he keeps his head.

Although confident because of his swift action of building a fire to

dry off, he is surprised at how fast his nose and cheeks are freezing.

He can barely control his hands; his fingers are lifeless and

frostbitten. Suddenly, his fire exists no more; he has built it under a

large tree that is weighed down with snow, and when he pulls down

some twigs to feed the flame, the snow in the tree is dislodged and

falls on the man and his fire. He thinks again about the old man at

Sulphur Creek and realizes that a partner at this time would be

helpful. He begins to rebuild the fire, aware that he will lose toes,

and possibly his feet, to frostbite. Because his fingers are nearly

useless, he has difficulty collecting twigs. He is so sure that this fire

will succeed that he collects large branches for when the fire is

strong. His belief that the fire will succeed is the only thing that

keeps him alive. He finishes the foundation of his fire and needs the
birch bark in his pocket to start it, but cannot clutch the wood. He

panics, drops his matches, and is unable to pick them up. He

succeeds in picking them up, finally, and by using his teeth, he rips

one match out of the pack. By holding it in his teeth and striking it

against his legs twenty times, he lights it but drops it again when

the smoke gets into his nostrils. He then strikes the entire pack of

matches against his leg and tries to light the wood but only burns

his flesh. He drops the matches, and the small pieces of rotten wood

burn. He knows that this is his last chance for life and that he

cannot allow the matches to go out.

Because he cannot operate his hands, in his attempt to keep the

fire burning, he spreads it out too much and it goes out. Now he can

only think of killing the dog to put his hands in the carcass to

relieve their numbness. The dog senses danger, however, and quickly

moves away. The man goes wild and catches the dog but soon

realizes that he cannot kill it because he cannot use his hands. He

knows that death is near and begins running, just as the old man

had warned him not to do. The man hopes that he has a chance to

run to camp but knows that he really has no chance, for he lacks the

strength. He curses the dog, for it is warm and alive. The dog runs on

but the man crumples after running a few yards. He decides to

accept death peacefully and admits to himself that the old man at

Sulphur Creek had been right. The dog stays with him, but when it

smells the scent of death, it runs off in the direction of the camp,

where reliable food and fire providers can be found.

Summary

(MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN LITERATURE)

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London was not one to gloss over unpleasantness, and in “To Build a
Fire” he described just how harsh the world can be to someone who

disregards its laws. As the story opens, life seems benign enough. It is

a still, clear day, and the unnamed protagonist has plenty of time to

make the one-day walk to the camp where his friends wait. He is in

fine fettle, alert and careful of his footing on the frozen riverbed. He

has his dog for company. The only troubles are that it is fearfully

cold—75 degrees below zero—and he is “without imagination.”

From this seemingly slight situation, London crafts a tale of a

universe where any step can be fatal, looking backward to the

metaphysical despair of Stephen Crane and forward to the stoic code

of Ernest Hemingway.

In Crane’s short story “The Open Boat” (1897), a number of survivors

of a sunken ship ride on a lifeboat in heavy seas. The fact that they

may drown in sight of the shore underlines to them the indifference

of the cosmos to human undertakings. In London’s tale, the

omnipresent cold, though ready to sweep away human life, is simply

part of the universe’s thermodynamics. When the protagonist has

gotten into a desperate plight, having fallen through the ice and

wet his legs, the author emphasizes the larger picture: “The cold of

space smote the unprotected tip of the planet, and he, being on

that tip, received the full force of the blow.” The largeness of the

forces involved reduce his plight to insignificance.

In the works of Hemingway, such as A Farewell to Arms (1929) and

The Sun Also Rises (1926), the author prescribes that the

acknowledged indifference of the larger forces of reality be met by a

stoic code of honor on the part of his characters. Though London’s

protagonist, foolhardy in attempting the trip alone, lacks the

judgment of Hemingway’s ideal heroes, he does display admirable

coolness in trying to build a fire to thaw out his legs, taking each
difficulty in stride. When he finds, for example, that he can no longer

work his numb fingers, he picks up wood with his two palms. Also, after

an initial panic when he loses his fire, he resigns himself to death and

musters whatever dignity he can, sitting down for the last time

quietly.

The story is a short one (fifteen pages), and the compression works to

magnify some of London’s strengths while helping to diminish some of

his weaknesses. His writing was often marred by obtrusive passages,

especially when discussing such charged topics as women or Anglo-

Saxon superiority. In this piece, where the concentration is so

tightly focused, his prose is always spare and telling. Each stroke of

his pen underlines the tenuousness of life in the North or grimly

describes the doomed man’s survival strategies.

London had another weakness—for all his experience in the Yukon,

he often overstretched his imagination and presented scenes that

rang false. This was particularly true in his rendering of Indian life, a

favorite subject of his and yet one he had never penetrated with

any clarity, preferring clichés to anthropological understanding. The

limited matter of this story, a man walking with his dog, meant that

London never strayed from what he knew, and the tale has a raw

authenticity.

Finally, one of London’s strengths was the ability to draw a

landscape vividly. This skill was often downplayed, perhaps because

long descriptions would have slowed the pace of his eventful

narratives. In this piece, however, such descriptions come to the fore

and serve as pointers to the theme of the piece: The seeming

quiescence of the landscape he describes is undermined with pitfalls

for the inexperienced.

As in The Call of the Wild , London draws attention to the importance

contrasts the dog’s intelligent intuitions to the man’s wrongheaded

reasoning. The dog “knew that it was no time for travelling. Its

instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man’s

judgment.” The dog’s instinctive reactions, developed over

generations in the Arctic, far outmatched the brainpower of man, a

recent visitor. As in other places, London finds a novel way to plump

for primitivism.

Science Fiction: Summary of

The Invisible

Man:

In this article,

we’ll be

talking about

H.G. Wells’

novel ‘The

Invisible Man.’

We’ll go

through a brief

biography of

the author, a

summary of the

book and the

list of

characters in

the story.

Find out the

summary of
The Invisible

Man in this

article!

About the

Author

Herbert George

Wells, also

known as H.G.

Wells, was a

renowned

British author

who is quite

famous for his

work in the

science fiction

genre like The

Time Machine

and The War of

the Worlds .

Even The

Invisible Man

is a novel

about how

science can

lead to

trouble if it

gets isolated

and

unrestricted
by morality.

Wells, who is

aptly called

the father of

science fiction,

was born on

September 21,

1866, and

died on

August 13,

1946.

Plot Summary

of The

Invisible Man

In the story of

The Invisible

Man , a

mysterious man

goes to a

village called

Iping, which is

in the middle

of a snowstorm.

He then stays

in an inn that

is owned and

run by the

husband and

wife George
and Janny

Hall. They ask

him to not be

worried about

the storm, so

he goes to his

room with his

luggage. This

man’s name is

Griffin, a

scientist, who

usually spends

his time in his

room

experimenting

with different

chemicals and

formulas.

He is an

introverted

guy, which

becomes a

huge problem

as he lives in a

town where

the there is a

lot of gossip.

Griffin goes

outside at
night; however,

be keeps

himself

completely

bandaged up

and wears a

fake nose. The

villagers think

that he is very

peculiar,

especially

because there

are suddenly

weird break-

ins and a lot

of robberies

start

happening in

the village.

But things

become worse

when the

owner Janny

Hall asks him

to pay up his

overture rent

or leave. So,

he gets

depressed and
frustrated,

taking off all

his bandages

and clothes

and manages

to disappear

into the night

with his

invisibility

tricks .

Griffin then

forces Thomas

Marvel, a

tramp, or

migrant worker

by profession,

to become his

assistant. But

Marvel betrays

him and takes

him to the

police, so

Griffin runs

away again.

The Invisible

Man beats

them up and

wreaks some

major havoc
while leaving.

While he is on

the run again,

Griffin happens

to meet Dr

Kemp, his old

acquaintance

from medical

school. Griffin

then tells his

friend Kemp

about his

experiments

with

invisibility. He

also tells him

how he has

made plans to

terrorize

England by

using his

discovery of

invisibility.

Here’s the gist

of what he

tells him: he

was poor and

was desperate

to study
invisibility, so

he steals

money from his

father, who

later commits

suicide (it’s

not revealed

why he does

that). Finally,

Griffin gets a

grip of the

idea of

invisibility and

proceeds to do

these things:

(1) set his

landlord’s

building on

fire; (2) wander

around

London; (3)

rob a

department

store; and (4)

wear a

ridiculous

outfit hired

from a

theatrical
costume shop

and go to

Iping for work.

But soon Kemp

realizes that

Griffin has

gone berserk,

and hands him

over to the

police.

But Griffin

still breaks

through the

police line and

starts chasing

Kemp into the

town. But

unfortunately,

the locals get

hold of Griffin

and kill him. At

the end of the

story, it is

revealed that

Marvel has

saved all the

notes written

by Griffin in his

room at the
inn, but

luckily, he

can’t make

heads or tails

out of them.

Summary of

The Invisible

Man: Main

Characters

Griffin

He is the

Invisible Man.

Primarily an

albino college

student

, he changes

his area of

study from

medicine to

physics and

then becomes

interested in

refractive

indexes of

tissue. While

studying, he

stumbles

across

formulae that
would make

body tissues

invisible.

Finally, he

successfully

tries the

formula on

himself and

thinks about

all the things

he could do if

he were

invisible.

Sadly, the

positives are

far outweighed

by the

disadvantages,

so Griffin

starts opting

for crime as a

means of

survival.

Mr Marvel

This is the

first character

that Griffin

makes his

assistant and
uses as a

partner in

crime. Mr

Marvel is a

short, fat loner

who is the

area tramp.

Griffin thinks

that he stupid

and so trusts

him by

believing that

he will not be

believed even

if he tries to

tell anyone

about his

predicament.

Dr Kemp

Griffin’s former

associate from

his college

days. As

students,

Griffin was

aware that

even Kemp was

keen about

strange and
idiosyncratic

aspects of

science. Griffin

actually goes

to Kemp’s

house in his

final attempt

to find an

accomplice

and start

leading a more

normal life.

Kemp; however,

does not have

a sense of

loyalty to his

former student

and is not

willing to be a

part of

Griffin’s grand

schemes. He is

also quite

cunning and

lands up

betraying the

invisible man

by pretending

to support
Griffin’s

experiments.

Summary of

The Invisible

Man: Minor

Characters

The Halls

Proprietors of

the Coach &

Horses. Mrs

Hall is

primarily in

charge. She is

someone who

will leave

Griffin alone as

long as she

gets her

money on time.

But her

husband is

more

apprehensive

but avoids

interfering

until Griffin’s

erratic

behavior

starts
becoming

obvious.

Teddy Henfrey

Teddy is a

clock

repairman who

visits the inn

for a cup of

tea. Mrs Hall

finds a way to

take

advantage of

him and get

some

information

about her

strange guest.

Since the

stranger does

not talk,

Teddy

convinces

himself that

the man has a

“suspicious”

nature. He

also starts

spreading

rumors that
the man is

wanted by the

police and

merely does

this to

conceal his

own identity.

Fearenside

A cartman

whose job is

to deliver

luggage from

the required

stations. He is

the one who

notices

darkness

through a torn

pant leg where

he should

ideally be

seeing some

pink flesh. So,

he spreads

stories that

Griffin is either

a black man or

a piebald.

Cuss
A general

practitioner

who wants to

interview

Griffin as he

realizes that

he actually

saw emptiness

where there

should be flesh

and bone. He

begins telling

despicable

stories to his

friends in town

when Griffin

scares him by

using his

invisible hand

for pinching

his nose.

Mr And Mrs

Bunting

Bunting is the

vicar and Cuss

is the one who

tells the story

of Griffin to

Bunting. Then,
Bunting and

his wife hear

some noises in

their house

after going to

bed next

evening. They

also hear

someone

sneezes and

their money

disappears

right before

their eyes.

Other

Characters

Who Appear

Briefly

Huxter;

Wadgers

The

Blacksmith

Jaffers

The village

constable

The mariner;

Colonel Adye

Chief of

Burdock Police
This was our

article on

summary of

The Invisible

Man.