These pigs are being driven to market.
Rowland Hill, a Christian who was an earnest preacher, told that he once met a drove of pigs on one of the narrow streets of a large town, and, to his surprise, they were not driven, like these we see today, but quietly followed their leader.
That singular fact excited his curiosity, and he pursued them, until they all quietly entered the place where they were to be butchered. He asked the man how he succeeded in getting the poor, stupid, stubborn pigs so willingly to follow him, and he told him the secret.
He had a bag of beans under his arm, and kept dropping them as he went along, and so they followed after him, picking up the beans, though not knowing where their journey would end.
“Ah! my, dear friends,” said Rowland Hill, “the devil has his bag of beans, and he knows how to suit his temptations to everyone, He drops them by the way, and the unsaved are led captive, and, if grace does not prevent, he will lead them into their doom, and keep them there forever.”
How very different this is from the “Good Shepherd” and His Sheep. He goes before the sheep, and they follow Him, for they know His voice. He knows them every one, and they are not, like the poor pigs, being lured to their death; but He gives His sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shalt any man pluck them out of His loving hand (John 10).
ML 11/15/1936