The Making of Men-catchers

Conversion is most fully displayed when it leads converts to seek the conversion of others: we most truly follow Christ when we become fishers of men.

The great question is not so much what we are naturally, as what Jesus makes us by his grace: whoever we may be of ourselves, we can, by following Jesus, be made useful in his kingdom.

Our desire should be to be men-catchers; and the way to attain to that sacred are is to be ourselves thoroughly captured by the great Head of the College of Fishermen. When Jesus draws us we shall draw men.

I. SOMETHING TO BE DONE BY US. “Follow me.”

1. We must be separated to him, that we may pursue his object.

   • We cannot follow him unless we leave others. Matthew 6:24.
   • We must belong to him, that his design may be our design.

2. We must abide with him, that we may catch his spirit.

   • The closer our communion with Christ, the greater our power with souls. Near following means full fellowship.

3. We must obey him, that we may learn his method.

   • Teach what he taught. Matthew 28:20.
   • Teach as he taught. Matthew 11:29; 1 Thessalonians 2:7.
   • Teach such as he taught, namely, the poor, the base, children, etc.

4. We must believe him, that we may believe true doctrine.

   • Christ’s own teaching catches men; let us repeat it.
   • Faith in Jesus on our part is a great force to beget faith.

5. We must copy his life, that we may win his blessing from God; for God blesses those who are like his Son.

II. SOMETHING TO BE DONE BY HIM. “I will make you.”

Our following Jesus secures our education for soul-winning.

1. By our following Jesus he works conviction and conversion in men; he uses our example as a means to this end.

2. By our discipleship the Lord makes us fit to be used.

   • True soul-winners are not self-made, but Christ-made.
   • The making of men-catchers is a high form of creation.

3. By our personal experience in following Jesus he instructs us until we become proficient in the holy are of soul-winning.

4. By inward monitions he guides us what, when, and where to speak.

   • These must be followed up carefully if we would win men.

5. By his Spirit he qualifies us to reach men.

   • The Spirit comes to us by our keeping close to Christ.

6. By his secret working on men’s hearts he speeds us in our work.

   • He makes us true fishers by inclining men to enter the gospel net.

III. A FIGURE INSTRUCTING US. “Fishers of men.”

The man who saves souls is like a fisher upon the sea.

1. A fisher is dependent and trustful.

2. He is diligent and persevering.

3. He is intelligent and watchful.

4. He is laborious and self-denying.

5. He is daring, and is not afraid to venture upon a dangerous sea.

6. He is successful. He is no fisher who never catches anything.

   • See the ordination of successful ministers. They are made, not born: made by God, and not by mere human training.
   • See how we can partake in the Lord’s work, and be specimens of his workmanship: “Follow me, and I will make you.”

Hooks

I love your meetings for prayer, you cannot have too many of them: but we must work while we pray, and pray while we work. I would rather see a man, who has been saved from the gulf below, casting life-lines to others struggling in the maelström of death, than on his knees on that rock thanking God for his own deliverance; because I believe God will accept action for others as the highest possible expression of gratitude that a saved soul can offer.—Thomas Guthrie.

Ministers are fishers. A busy profession, a toilsome calling, no idle man’s occupation, as the vulgar conceive it, nor needless trade, taken up at last to pick a living out of. Let God’s fishermen busy themselves as they must, sometimes in preparing, sometimes in mending, sometimes in casting abroad, sometimes in drawing in the net, that they may “separate the precious from the vile,” etc. (Jeremiah 15:19, Matthew 13:48); and no man shall have just cause to twit them with idleness, or to say they have an easy life.—John Trapp.

The minister is a fisherman. As such he must fit himself for his employment. If some fish will bite only by day, he must fish by day if others will bite only by moonlight, he must fish for them by moonlight—Richard Cecil.

I watched an old man trout-fishing the other day, pulling them out one after another briskly. “You manage it cleverly, old friend,” I said: “I have passed a good many below who don’t seem to be doing anything.” The old man lifted himself up, and stuck his rod in the ground. “Well, you see, Sir, there be three rules for trout-fishing, and ‘tis no good trying if you don’t mind them. The first is, Keep yourself out of sight; and the second is, Keep yourself farther out of sight; and the third is, Keep yourself farther still out of sight. Then you’ll do it.” “Good for catching men, too,” thought I.—Mark Guy Pearse.

Lord, speak to me, that I may speak

In living echoes of your tone:

As you have sought, so let me seek

Your erring children, lost and lone.

O lead me, Lord, that I may lead The wandering and the wayward feet; O feed me, Lord, that I may feed

Your hungering ones with manna sweet.

O strengthen me, that while I stand Firm on the Rock, and strong in you, I may stretch out a loving hand

To wrestlers with the troubled sea.

O teach me, Lord, that I may teach The precious things you do impart;

And wing my words, that they may reach

The hidden depths of many a heart.

F. R. Havergal.

The best training for a soul-saving minister is precisely that which he would follow if his sole object were to develop the character of Christ in himself. The better the man, the more powerful will his preaching become. As he grows like Jesus, he will preach like Jesus. Given like purity of motive, tenderness of heart, and clearness of faith, and you will have like force of utterance. The direct road to success in saving souls is to become like the Savior. The imitation of Christ is the true are of sacred rhetoric.—C. H. S.

Mr. Jesse relates that certain fish give preference to bait that has been perfumed. When the prince of evil goes forth in quest of victims, there does not need much allurement added to the common temptations of life to make them effective. Fishers of men, however, do well to employ all the skill they can to suit the minds and tastes of those whom they seek to gain.—G. McMichael.