HAVE a friend who is a great fisherman. When he angles, his rivals will often leave their rods on the bank to watch him hooking the fish. "How do you do it? Tell us your secret," said some professional anglers to him on one occasion, as he drew the prizes out of the river as quickly as his rod would lift them—they having had poor sport indeed.
Being a silent man, he went on with his fishing without uttering a word.
“Have you really any secret?" I said to him one day, for not being a fisherman in brooks and streams, I knew he would not object to be open with me.
Having told me the simplest of means which he used, he said—
"I catch them as they come."
This was to my mind eminently satisfactory, for it demonstrated, that the secret lay solely in the skill of the fisherman; in a quick eye, and a ready hand sensitive to the movements under water. Say what you will about fishing, catching fish is after all the test of good angling.
Now, if any one would catch fish, it is obviously of no use for him to fish in a pond in which no fish are. Simple statement as this seems, there are not wanting fishers of men, who catch no fish because they fish where none are to be caught. They do not even take pains to find out in what kind of water they are fishing They are like some of whom we heard the other day, quite a company, who came from a large city to spend their holiday angling in two great ponds. Most patiently these men watched their lines for hours, but not one of them caught a single fish the livelong day. They did not know it, but a few weeks before the ponds had been emptied, and all the fish in them had been removed. Like them are these fishers of men, who preach the gospel where there are no sinners to hear it.
No doubt, if the fishers of men were really in earnest, it would be impossible for them to continue in profitless waste of time. They would be on their knees to find out where to go; and direction where to go to serve Christ is a deep need. But routine is a tremendous dead weight round the feet. None of the children of this world, who fishes for his living, would continue on the same ground, year after year, where he caught nothing. He would be simply ruined. But the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the’ children of light. However, let us be sure of this, fishing but catching nothing ruins the fisherman. And the fisher of men, who continues preaching the gospel from year end to year end without catching men, is bankrupt as a fisherman! We will, therefore, leave such preachers this word of the Master, uttered to a servant He had fitted for His work, and who was the means of bringing thousands to Jesus, "Thou shalt catch men." (Luke 5:1010And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. (Luke 5:10))
There are some who fish without hooks. We remember a simple lad who indulged in this pastime on a river's bank; very simple he was—he caught nothing. Still he had the enjoyment of fishing. The occupation pleased this child. He spent hours in the work, which is in itself, people say, so soothing. What were the results to him? He was soothed!
There are many preachers—and in that term we will include men and women—who seek to serve the Lord, whether in the Sunday-school, or in visiting, or in any evangelic work, but who fish without hooks! They follow their occupation without that intense longing for souls, which, when we are filled with the Spirit of God, gives point and energy to our words. Alas, alas, for the routine workers! Without results in bringing souls to God. However, we do not deny them the comfort of feeling soothed.
Why is it So-and-So has so many conversions? Go and watch him. What is the secret? He is sensitive to the needs of men's souls, for he believes in eternity. He is in sympathy with the longings of the human heart, set in motion by the Holy Spirit, for he is filled with the Spirit. He really loves souls, for the dying love of Christ is a reality in his heart. Hence his words have point. This makes his hearers cry, “I am the lost sinner "; “What must I do?"
Oh, fishers of men, love for souls is the gift of God. Let preachers covet earnestly the best gifts, and amongst those, in the preaching of the gospel, we should say that the love of Christ in the heart constraining us to love souls is the best. From how much routine, from how many ills would this deliver God's servants!