THE SECRET OF SUCCESS.
5th Sunday after Trinity
S. Luke v. 5.
"We have taken nothing; nevertheless at Thy word, I will let down the
net."
INTRODUCTION.—S. Peter and the other Apostles had been fishing all
night, and had met with no success at all, then Jesus entered into the
boat of Simon, and bade him launch out and let down his net. S. Peter
did not hesitate. He had met with no success when fishing in the
night, nevertheless now, at the word of Christ, he fishes again, and
this time the net encloses a great multitude, so that the net breaks. No doubt our Lord desired to show those who were to become fishers of men that there were two ways of doing a thing, and that one way would be successful and the other would not.
If they were going to become fishers of men, they must try to catch
them by carrying Christ, i.e. a Christlike spirit, with them, and the
spirit of Christ is love and gentleness. If they were to be successful
in winning souls, they must have a loving zeal, and that would gain
more than hard work without love.
SUBJECT.—We are all of us, in our several callings, fishers of souls. Of course, especially are the clergy fishers, but not they only, every man who loves God must seek to win souls for God, every man who is in the net of the Church must seek to draw others into the same net. If the fisher is to be successful, he must fish in the spirit of Christ, that is, actuated by love, and must deal gently with the souls he desires to gain.
I. I say, we are all fishers. Those of us who are parents desire to
draw to Christ the souls of our children, those who are masters, the
souls of their servants. The husband seeks to win the wife, and the
believing wife the husband. "What knowest thou, O wife," says S. Paul, "whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?"
The servant seeks to win the fellow-servant, the labourer in the field
has the welfare of his fellow-labourer at heart, and seeks to draw him
to God. It was Cain who said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" And the
same isolating, selfish spirit is in those who take no interest in
those they associate with, and do not seek their good.
I was much struck last spring with something a gentleman said to me, who had been a good deal in America; he was much surprised and struck with the interest felt in England by the rich for the poor, by the master and mistress for their servants, by the landowner for his tenants, and he said to me, "This seems to me the most marvellous thing I have seen in England. With us a master cares not one snap of the fingers what becomes of the man he employs, he no more thinks of what becomes of him than he does of a dollar that passes through his hands. He sees that he does his work, and if the man dies, the master gets another in his place to-morrow, and asks nothing about the man who has disappeared."
Well! I thank God we are not come to that yet, however advanced we may
be in our independent ways; and it is not right and Christian that we
should.
II. Now we come to the way in which we are to try to draw other souls
to Christ, the souls of our children, of our servants, of our
companions, of our fellow-workers. The first principle of success is
gentleness.
In the 4th chapter of the 2nd book of Kings we have this story. There
was a Shunammite woman who had an only son. She was a good
kind-hearted woman, who had shown much hospitality to the prophet
Elijah. One day the little boy ran out
into the harvest field, when the sun was hot, and he had a sunstroke, and was very ill. "He said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then he died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out." Then she ordered one of the servants to saddle an ass, and drive her to the prophet; and when she found him, she told him the piteous story, and how the poor little fellow whom she loved so dearly, and who was such a darling of his father, and such a pet of the old Elisha when he paid them his visits, was lying white and dead upstairs on the bed.