"
Night is the best time for fishing, and all night they had toiled in vain.
The empty nets were there; but in Simon's boat was the One who had made the
fish, and He caused them to fill the nets in such numbers that the slender
cords broke, and both the boats were overladen.
"When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from
me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
He felt what it was to be in the presence of the Lord; how unfit he was to
be near Him; but yet he could not bear to let Him go; Jesus said to Peter,
"Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men."
"What does it mean?" May asked, when she had read this verse, "How could
Peter catch men?"
To find the answer to her question, we read in the second chapter of Acts
about the first time Peter preached at Jerusalem, and how he told the
very people who had taken Jesus of Nazareth, and "by wicked hands" had
"crucified and slain" Him, that God had raised Him from the dead, and "made
that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." We read
that while he spoke of Him three thousand people received his word gladly.
Surely at that time there was a fulfilment of the Lord's promise to him.
Peter had indeed become a fisher of men--rescued from the cold waters of
death, caught away from the grasp of Satan, henceforth to belong to Christ
for ever.
But before this time there had been that other scene beside the Galilean
lake, of which we read at the end of the gospel of John.
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