that our Lord shall call us, we shall be ready, like the disciples, at His first word to leave all and follow Him.

Prayer.

O Lord our God, all that is to come is mercifully hidden from us. We know not what a day may bring forth, but we know that thou art a God of mercy and of power, and that while we and all men are but the instruments by which thou dost work out thine Almighty will, thou wilt have mercy upon us, and wilt make all things work together for the good of them that love thee and keep thy commandments. Grant that we may so love thee that we may be always ready and willing for thy work whatever it may be, for Christ's sake. Amen.

XXXVII.

You have heard that the Lord Jesus called Simon Peter and Andrew his brother, and John and James, the two sons of Zebedee, to leave their fishing-boats, and to follow him. But before they went, He shewed them, by a miracle, that He had power to keep his promise to them, and to make them prosper in whatever work He gave them to do. It seems to have been at this time,

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LUKE. V. 1 -3. That, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And Jesus entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship."

The Saviour was come to preach the gospel to the poor, to comfort the broken-hearted, to bring the glad tidings of peace with God to all men, and they crowded about him, so that it was only from a boat pushed out a little from the land that He could teach them. How true had come the words of that old prophet, who had said that a bright light would shine on the shores of the Sea of Galilee! The people who lived there had long been in the darkness of ignorance, but the words of Jesus came from the boat like the rays of the morning sun, and the good news of salvation was to the people who had sat in darkness as though they had seen a great light.*

Verses 4-9. 66 Now when Jesus had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ships, that they should come and help them. And they

came and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink, with the weight of the fish. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken."

They might well be astonished, for they had just before, with their nets, swept through that part of the lake, and had found not a single fish! How was it, that in a moment the water was so crowded with fishes, that their nets were not strong enough to hold them? Jesus willed, and his creatures obeyed. We do *Matt. iv. 15, 16.

not hear of any command given, of any call to the fishes from the far-off deep places of the sea. From afar they felt the power of his will, and they came in shoals to the place. Does not this teach us how entirely Jesus is God? The power of God is so great, so wonderful, that it is past our understanding; but the more we watch it, and think of it, the better it will be for us. And we can, in some degree, understand the mighty things God does, by considering the simple things He has made us able to do ourselves. While our bodies are healthy, they obey our will in the same manner as the whole creation obeys the will of God. You wish to rise and to bring something from a distance. You do not need to say to your legs and feet, 'Move on and carry me;' nor to your arms and hands, ‘Take and bring to me those things I want.' You have no need to speak. Your limbs feel the power of your will, of your wish; and feet and legs, hands and arms obey. God has given to you this power over your own body. He may take it from you in a moment: but while you have it, your limbs obey your smallest thoughts and wish. Their obedience is complete. And even so is the complete obedience of every thing, whether great or small, in this whole world, to the will of God.

The far-off shoals of fish felt the will, the wish of Christ, and they crowded to the place where He stood in the boat, among the men who had toiled the whole night and had not found one single fish.

Simon Peter felt how great was this power. It could only be the power of God. Filled with awful fear, he fell at the feet of Jesus; and, knowing his own unworthiness, he cried aloud, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

Jesus knew that Peter thus spoke from the humility of his heart, and he answered and said unto him,

Verse 10. "Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men."

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We shall, by-and-by, see how well this promise was kept, and that as the fish had come in shoals to Peter's net, so people of all countries, and of all languages, crowded to hear him preach the gospel.*

Prayer.

Depart not from me, for I am a sinful one, O God. We need thy power, thy continual help. O let thy mighty will be accomplished in us, even the salvation of our souls. Grant us faith never to be discouraged; and though we have toiled long, and have seemed to reap no fruit, and sin is still strong within us, yet give us strength at thy word to persevere unto the end; for we know that "to all who are found faithful unto death, thou wilt give the crown of life," through the redeeming love of thy Son. Amen.

XXXVIII.

MATTHEW IV. 23, 24. "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of diseases among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic,+ and those that had the palsy; and he healed them."

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What a list of miseries! While we read them, let us, moment, send back our thoughts to the garden of Eden, to the Paradise in which man at first dwelt, where neither sickness nor sorrow could touch him.

See what sin hath done! But see too the goodness and the faithfulness of God! He had promised from the beginning,

See Acts ii. iv.

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that Satan should not get the better, but that the seed of the woman should prevail over him.* And now that the set time was come, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, and therefore the seed of the woman, went about healing diseases which Satan rejoiced to think he had brought upon men. In this way did Christ show his power over him. He was beginning to bruise his head.

Verse 25. "And there followed him great multitudes of people, from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.” Thousands of people flocked to him; and Jesus, full of pity and of love, when He had healed the sick people they had brought to him, turned his whole thoughts to that worst sickness-sin! which is indeed the sickness of the soul. That disease of which, if it is not cured, the soul must die.

Jesus had said to them, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He had preached to them the gospel of his kingdom. Now He was about to shew them how greatly they needed repentance, how different his kingdom was from what they supposed.

That He might be more easily heard by so great crowds of people,

MATTHEW V. 1. "He went up into a mountain, and there sat down."

We shall better understand many of the words He spoke, and his whole discourse will be better remembered by us, if we picture to ourselves Jesus sitting on the mountain-side, his disciples close to him, and the crowds of people all round him on the hill.

From that high place they looked down upon all the country round; and we shall see that our Lord, in speaking to the peo

* Genesis iii. 15.