John 21:6

THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE SHIP

‘Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.’

John 21:6

‘Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.’ There is a right and a left in all our endeavours; and some people have an unfortunate way of doing everything in a left-handed sort of fashion; and so, too often, with the best intentions, they defeat their own object, and destroy their usefulness in the Lord’s cause.’

Let three requisites be mentioned for prosecuting the sacred duty of service for God—humility, tact, and love. A few words must suffice on each of these gifts.

I. Humility.—We have all, no doubt, at one time or another, encountered the busy, bustling, doctrinaire reformer, who impresses all with whom he comes in contact with his own sense of his immeasurable superiority to those he is striving to reclaim, who lets you know how far he is stooping in order to reach the outcast, and how very self-sacrificing and heroic it is of him to undertake and persevere in so disagreeable a task. It is not thus that we should go to those between whom and ourselves whatever disparity there may be is due to God’s strong grace. We must approach them feeling how unworthy we are of the hallowed privilege of being in any degree helpful to their imperilled souls; conscious of the debt we owe to Him Who has drawn us to Himself.

II. Tact. How often in God’s work have we to deplore in the human agent a lack of prudential wisdom. ‘The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.’ Forethought, consideration of others’ prejudices and difficulties, the happy gift of putting people at their ease, of not spoiling a wholesome message by its setting or its cutting, of not causing another whom we wish to benefit to feel gauche and awkward, these are very real helps in Christian work with individuals.

III. Love. Here is the all-powerful requisite. A loving spirit is what we chiefly need in dealing with souls. This transfigures the routine of Church work; and whatever methods are not fully compatible with this spirit must be rejected. Souls are not to be coerced into acceptance of the truth, dragooned into discipleship. The bruised reed has to be strengthened, not broken; the smoking flax not extinguished, but fanned to a flame. Love will know how to do this. She needs no hard and fast lines to indicate the right path. All this will come naturally to her.

Bishop Alfred Pearson.

Illustration

‘Amongst Mohammedans, it is required of every man who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, that he should consider himself pledged to do something directly to spread his faith. The visit to the Kaaba binds him to missionary effort. We may well ask, Ought the pilgrimage to Calvary to be less potent?’