The duty of kings to be God's shepherds.
"By me kings reign," says God, "and princes decree justice" (Proverbs 8:15). Though the expression, "the Divine right of kings, has been greatly abused, it is yet a truth which all must acknowledge, that monarchs are placed in their responsible position by God, and must answer to him for the use which they make of that position. The whole world is, in a certain sense, God's flock, and the various chief rulers who hold authority over different portions of the human race are rightly viewed as shepherds entrusted by God with the care of this or that division of the flock which is primarily and really his. Thus—
I. EACH KING IS REQUIRED TO ACT AS A SHEPHERD TOWARDS THE NATION OVER WHICH HE IS SET. A true shepherd seeks the good of his flock, not his own good. He is watchful, vigilant, wisely provident. He seeks to benefit his flock, not to pleasure them. Oftentimes he must check their desires, restrain their wanderings, keep them back from alluring pastures, confine them to high regions, where the herbage is short, scant, and far from succulent. He must be specially careful of the weak and sickly, and of such as have suffered any hurt. He must spare no trouble or pains to secure, so far as he can, the well-being of every sheep and lamb committed to his charge. And further—
II. EACH KING IS SPECIALLY REQUIRED TO ACT AS A SHEPHERD TOWARDS THE PORTION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST WHICH IS WITHIN HIS KINGDOM. Within the universal fleck, which is coextensive with mankind, our Lord has a special flock, enclosed within a special fold, which he calls in a special sense his own (John 10:1-16). This flock is not, however, confined to one place—it is "dispersed throughout the whole world." Kings are required to look to its interests in some special way. They are to be "its nursing fathers," as queens are to be "its nursing mothers" (Isaiah 49:23). Cyrus, from the time of his conquest of Babylon, while in a general way the shepherd of all the nations under his rule, was especially the shepherd of Israel. And the case is the same with all those monarchs within whose dominions any portion of the Church of Christ has its abode. England's monarchs bear, among their other titles, the proud one of Fidei Defensor—" Defender of the Faith" The faith which they have to defend is the faith of Christ, and in this defence is necessarily included the special protection of Christ's faithful ones, or of the Christian community within their realm.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON