Abraham Lincoln was a cowherd in his youth, which gave him plenty of time to spend reading books whilst on the job and he even gave his own parable of the Shepherd in one of his speeches, the point he recounted was his story is to explore Lincoln’s views on the institution of slavery, and in particular how his attitude towards slavery and slaveholders had changed over time. But Lincoln’s story also tells us something about his employment of rhetoric, and especially his use of parable.
The Lord Jesus Christ also gave a parable of the ‘Lost sheep’ and a parable of the Good Shepherd on two different occasions, the good Shepheard being God Almighty looking after the people of the earth, also we have this in the hymn the ‘Lord is my Shepheard’, another example being of the Shepheard that goes off to find a lost sheep missing from the herd, this is the action of the divine personality who brings those who have ears to hear and eyes to see into his/her flock, or we might say they gather the seekers of God to them, for want of a better description.
William Blake also made his own version of the parable of the lost sheep as a Sahaja version where the good shepherd carries not a sheep but a new born soul on his way to the kingdom of heaven rather than a sheep on his shoulders.
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