The Draw-Net

IT is such a pleasant sight to see the draw-net brought to shore, that I am sure all of you, who have been at the seaside when the fishermen have been hauling it in, have run down close to the water's edge, and have watched the treasure out of the ocean brought to land. But as some of our young readers have not been to the seaside, we must explain that a draw-net is very long and some ten to fifteen feet broad. When fishing with it, a man on shore holds one end of it fast by a rope, as the boat, in which the net is, is quickly rowed round in a half circle to the shore again; then the other end is landed, and thus the net encloses a large space of water. The top of the net is kept floating upon the water—the bottom of it almost touches the ground beneath—so that the net is like a wall, shutting in all the fishes that it has encircled. The men wait a little before they begin to haul it in, which they do at both ends at once. Slowly it comes in—very slowly at first—for the work requires gentle handling to begin with, lest the fish should be frightened, and, the net being also heavy, the water holds it back. Bit by bit, yard by yard, the brown net is dragged through the blue sea, and over the white fringe of breakers. Now a shining white object is seen—now another, looking like pieces of bright silver sticking into the net. As about half the net is got in, the men work more quickly, and more and more of the silver-like looking fishes sparkle in the brown meshes. When almost all is on land, and a space of water only about the size of a large room remains encompassed by the dark line of the floating top of the net, then there is a splashing and a bustling evident, for the fishes do not know which way to swim, and they dash about in vain to escape, and now, with strong, hearty pulls, and as quickly as possible, the rest of the net is brought to shore, and all the fish are leaping about and gasping on land.
See, they are of all sorts, for no one could tell what the result of that cast would be; every kind is gathered together. Some are good; some are worthless. And the Lord Jesus, whose eyes often beheld this casting of the net into the sea, shows us that it is but a picture of the preaching of the word of God, which, like a net, encircles all who hear it. And you, dear young friends, are in that net. Had you been heathen children, it would not have been so. The floating top of the wall of net and its weighted bottom made all the difference to the fish, some being inside, others outside the waters encompassed. So some people are just outside the sound of the gospel; others are within. Those who are within are of every kind; some are good, some bad.
Now, when the net is drawn to shore, the fishermen look over what they have caught. There are, as we have said, all sorts captured. And as it was in the days when Jesus was here, so it is now—the fishermen just cast the bad away. The good they keep.
Are you among the good, or among the bad? Do you love God and the Lord Jesus Christ, or do you not? Those who believe on the Name of the Lord, are the good; those who do not are the bad. Each of us is of one sort or of the other sort. Every reader of this page is encompassed by the gospel—the careless, the prayerless, the rejecter of Christ, as well as the repentant and the seeking soul, and those who love the Lord.
When the fishing time is over, the sorting out time comes. Now is the fishing time. At present the gospel net is still in the sea, but it is being drawn to shore, and really it seems as if it were being quickly drawn in by willing, loving hands, and as if the Lord must soon, very soon, be here. The work of gathering together of every kind in the gospel net cannot last much longer, and then the sorting out time will begin. And thus does the Lord speak of that coming time, "So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 13:49-50.) Consider very earnestly whether you are the good or the bad.
Salvation
SINCE the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour, the salvation He has wrought must be worthy of Himself, hence its completeness, its absolute perfectness.
He is the only Saviour; For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12.) The word of this salvation was sent first to the Jews (Acts 13:26); they turned from the message, and the apostle then said, "The Lord commanded us, saying, I have set Thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that Thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth" (v. 47). We read also the gospel "is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16); but as the Jews have shut themselves up in unbelief, this solemn word has gone out to them," Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it." (Acts 28:28.)
Now when Paul and his companions brought the gospel of God to heathen Europe, then under the unchallenged power of Satan, the damsel who was possessed with the spirit of divination followed them, crying out, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, which spew unto us the way of salvation." (Acts 16:17.) The demon acknowledged God to be the Most High, and owned that He had salvation for men! And His salvation is for time and for eternity, and from Satan, from the craft of demons, from sin, and from wrath—and for God, for peace, and heaven. Were we heathens, and did we hear for the first time such words of grace, oh! how would our hearts leap for joy! And shall our gratitude be less because our mercies are so manifold? Well indeed may those who have often heard, but only heard, the gospel inquire, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. 2:3.)
Saved means saved. Not half or part saved, but wholly and absolutely saved. When the ship in which Paul was, had been caught in the tempest, "all hope that we should be saved was then taken away," St. Luke says (Acts 27:20); and when at length the crew and passengers were "escaped all safe to land" (ver. 44), they had salvation from the storm and the wreck. So we who believe are saved from our peril and from our ruin.
“By grace ye are saved" (Eph. 2:5, 8), says the Scriptures. And again, "Who hath saved us" (2 Tim. 1: 9), and again, "according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:5), and again, "unto us who are saved" (1 Cor. 1:18); which words show plainly that the believer is saved now, this moment. And, indeed, we must start with this great truth, before we go on to consider the passages which treat of salvation as that which is to be had by the believer in the future.
When God sent the angel to bid Cornelius send for the apostle Peter who should tell him words, whereby he and all his house should be saved (Acts 11:14.), it was God's salvation that Cornelius received; life, salvation and the gift of the Holy Ghost were therefore his. So when we read, " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved," and" Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Rom. 10:9, 13.) Saved means saved. A true believer is as safe now as if he were already in heaven, for his salvation is God's, and his Saviour is the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Spirit, speaking through the apostle Paul, says of the unbelieving and rebellious Jews, "They please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved" (1 Thess. 2:15, 16), and when he speaks of such as hear, but "received not the love of the truth that they might be saved" (2 Thess. 2:10), the terrible end of the disobedient is brought before us. For lost means lost.
Scenes From the History of the Early Christians
A.D. 81—91
"As unknown, and well known.”
IT has been well said that “to believe, to suffer, not to write, was the characteristic of the primitive Christians; "thus our records of their faith and their sufferings are very scanty. The terrible tale of the first Roman persecution under Nero is told, not by one who wished to record the fiery trial through which his brethren had passed, but by a heathen historian. The little companies of the disciples of Christ, scattered here and there in the Roman empire, must indeed have been, as the Lord said of those whom He sent forth," like sheep in the midst of wolves." The faith which they professed was not that of any nation; it did not rank among the many forms of devotion which the Romans counted as religions to be tolerated; therefore the only safety of its followers lay in silence and obscurity. But the faith which is a living principle must make itself felt. The religion of the Christians became aggressive by reason of the very power of life which caused it to differ from the lifeless religions of heathenism. It became dangerously obtrusive by its very obscurity in the midst of the varied forms of worship, which differing in their ceremonies were alike in being attended with much outward show.
As far as we know, during the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, there was a time of rest for the Christians; but thirty years after the first Roman persecution they suffered for a year, under Domitian. The emperor did not spare even his own nephew, but put him to death for his faith, and banished other members of his family among whom the contagion was believed to have spread. It was at this time that the Apostle John, the only one of the twelve then surviving, was banished to the island of Patmos, that bare and rugged island off the coast of Greece, where he saw those visions of judgment and of glory which he wrote in the book of Revelation.
The persecution under Domitian, however, did not last long. Before his own assassination, the emperor had put an end to it, and had ordered those who had been exiled on account of their faith to return to their homes. During the two years' reign of Nerva, his successor, all their property was restored to them; and it was enacted that all slaves who had betrayed their Christian masters should be put to death. Still, although it is possible that the laws against the Christians made by former emperors were repealed by Nerva, Christianity remained a religion unrecognized by the state, and, therefore, though there might be a respite for a time, its followers could look for no protection, and were constantly in danger of their lives if any tumult against them was raised.
St. John lived until the beginning of the reign of Trajan, dying at Ephesus, then a populous city of great trade, in the year 99. Tradition says that the aged apostle, when he returned from Patmos, as long as his strength allowed him to travel, went from place to place, visiting the little companies of Christians; that, when too feeble to walk to the place of meeting, he was carried thither, and that his constant exhortation was, "Little children, love one another.”
Before we pass from the first century, we may notice among the few Christian writings of this early time the "Epistle of Clement” and the "Letter to Diognetus." The former seems to have been written in consequence of the dissensions among the Corinthians, and the writer refers to the state of things among them forty years before, when St. Paul wrote his two epistles to them, but only to complain that they were now in a far worse condition than when the apostle wrote.
In another part of the letter he writes to his fellow Christians about the foundations of their common faith, and it is interesting to know that his words were much read, not only at the time, and by those to whom they were first addressed, but by the early Christians generally. "Let us look steadfastly, beloved, to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world. We are not justified by ourselves, by our wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart, but by faith, through which from the beginning Almighty God has justified all men.”
The "Epistle to Diognetus" was written by an unknown hand to one who had desired to be informed concerning the doctrine and way of life of the Christians, probably about the close of the first century.
Diognetus had asked, concerning this "new sort of men," questions such as these: "What god do they put their trust in?" "How do they worship?" "How is it that they look down upon the world, and despise death, and neither make account of those that are legally recognized as gods by the Greeks, nor observe the Jewish superstition?" "What does the affection mean which they cherish one for another?" "Why is it that this new sort of men or mode of living has entered into the course of the world now, and not before?”
The writer replies: The Christians are not separated from other men by earthly abode, by language, or by custom. Nowhere do they dwell in cities by themselves. They do not use a different speech, or affect a life of singularity. They dwell in the cities of the Greeks and of the barbarians, each as his lot has been cast; and while they conform to the usages of the country in respect to dress, food, and other things pertaining to the outward life, yet they show a peculiarity of conduct wondrous to all. They inhabit their native country but as strangers. They take their share of all burdens as citizens, and yet endure all kinds of wrong as though they were foreigners. Every strange soil is their fatherland, and everyone's fatherland a strange soil to them. They are in the flesh, but they live not after the flesh. They tarry on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the laws, and they conquer the laws by their lives. They love all, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown, and yet are condemned; they are killed, and made alive. They are poor and make many rich. They are blasphemed, and justified. They are reviled and they bless.”
Of their religion he says, "It was not delivered to them as any earthly invention, nor have they been entrusted with the stewardship of any human mysteries. But the almighty and all-creating and invisible God Himself, from heaven inaugurated amongst men the truth, and the holy and inconceivable Word, and fixed it firmly in their hearts, not sending to men, as one might fancy He would do, some subordinate, either an angel or a prince, but the Framer and Architect of all things Himself. If so, it must have been, as one of the sons of men would argue, to tyrannize, to affright, to strike down with dread. Not so, but in gentleness, in meekness; as one who saves He sent Him, as persuading, not as compelling, for there is no compulsion with God. He sent Him as loving, not as judging. He Himself gave away His own Son as a ransom for us; the holy for the lawless, the harmless for the evil, the just for the unjust. O sweet exchange! O work past finding out! O benefits beyond expectation! that the lawlessness of many should be hidden in one righteous Person, and that the righteousness of one should justify many lawless.”