October 18

I seek not your's, but you. — 2 COR. xii. 14.

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. — MATT. iv. 19.

WHENEVER Christ says, "Follow me," he has in view the highest good of men. The call in this verse is more than a call to personal discipleship. It meant in the case of Andrew and Simon their work for others as well as their own personal surrender to him. To follow him would inspire them with a new love for men; to follow him would make them know something of the divine yearning to save men. Theirs would be an intense desire to "catch men" for the kingdom of God. One of the rewards of following Christ is the enlargement or exaltation of our aim in life. We need not minutely or elaborately define the figure which our Lord here uses. The simple truth is that the following of him is the condition of our highest usefulness. Discipleship makes a man a positive blessing to the world; it fills his soul with a grand evangelistic purpose. The final commission interprets the first call to Simon and Andrew. They were made disciples in order that they might go into the world to "make disciples."

If we would be "fishers of men" we must "follow him" in his methods; and thus both to obtain and to become a blessing men must heed the same gracious call, still made by the same Lord, — "Follow me."

Geo. H. Chamber

A glorious band the chosen few

On whom the Spirit came.

Twelve valiant spirits, their hope they knew,

And mocked the cross and flame.

They climbed the dizzy steep to heaven

Through peril, toil, and pain:

O God! to us may grace be given

To follow in their train!

HEBER.