Transcript from original newspaper article: -

“FEED MY LAMBS.”

A little boy who had become, as he hoped, a Christian, was urging his father to permit him to make a profession of religion, and be admitted to the church. His father objected, telling him that he was too young, and should wait till he was sure his hope was well grounded, till he had become stead fast enough to commence the Christian warfare.

The boy turned sadly away, thinking it was hard that he, as it were, a new-born babe, should be left alone to gain strength before he could ask help; that he who so much needed support, should now be denied it, and that all he could have to sustain him was a promise, that if perchance he should survive, and become strong of himself, he would be received into the fold. Shortly after, his father sent him to drive the sheep into the barn, as there was snow on the ground, and the prospect of a storm.

The boy went out, and found one little lamb so cold and weak that it was not able to walk, so he took it up tenderly in his arms and carried it. After having carefully driven all the sheep into the barn and shut the door, he laid the lamb on the snow and went towards the house. His father met him, and presently seeing what his boy had done, began to reprove him, telling him that the lamb needed shelter more than all the rest, and asking why he had left him there. He turned to his father, and said pleasantly; “I was thinking, father, that when the little lamb grew to be a large sheep, and was well and strong, I would let it into the barn.” – New York Observer.