EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
John 21:1. After these things (see John 5:1, etc.).—I.e. after the events recorded in chap. 20. The Sea of Tiberias.—See John 6:1. Showed Himself.—Rather manifested (ἐφανέρωσεν) Himself. Again.—Pointing back to John 20:14; John 20:19; John 20:26. In each case it was a manifestation of Himself to His disciples. This word is quite Johannine, and is one of the marks of genuineness of this chapter (see John 2:11, etc.).
John 21:2. There were together, etc.—The names are those of the disciples who specially belonged to the region of the lake, most of whom had been engaged in the fishing industry. Nathanael.—The connection of his name with Cana explains more clearly John 1:45-46. They had obeyed the injunction of the Lord, and were now waiting His appearance in Galilee (Matthew 28:7; Mark 16:7: comp. 1 Corinthians 15:4-6).
John 21:3-4. Simon Peter saith, etc.—Peter was still the most energetic and leading spirit in the apostolic band. Though he had fallen so far, yet the Lord had not disowned Him, but had spoken to him as to the other ten, had granted to him the effusion of the Spirit as to his brethren. That night.—They no doubt fished with a light burning in their boat. Night was considered the best time for fishing. But when the morning, etc.—During those hours of unsuccessful toil the disciples must have been reminded of a similar incident at the beginning of their discipleship. The disciples knew not, etc.—No doubt “their eyes were holden” (Luke 5:5; Luke 24:16). In His glorified resurrection body our Lord seems to have manifested Himself in such fashion as He willed, so that He might be known when He pleased (Mark 16:12).
John 21:5. Children (παιδία, boys, lads).—The usual term in Syria now for addressing workmen, etc: walad (boy). The word used in John 13:33, τεκνία, indicates relationship. The disciples probably thought that He who addressed them was some passing stranger. Meat (προσφάγιον).—Something (in this case fish) to be eaten with bread.
John 21:6. Cast the net on the right side, etc.—The disciples seem to think that here is one who knows about fishing, and sees from the shore, by some indication, where they would most likely get a good haul. The whole incident was doubtless intended to have a symbolic meaning, and would lead the disciples afterward to remember that, if they were to be successful in their apostolic labours, they must take their directions from the Lord Himself. To draw it.—I.e. to haul it into the boat.
John 21:7. Therefore that disciple, etc.—The superior spiritual insight of the beloved disciple leads him at once to divine who it is who stands on the shore; whilst his impulsive fellow-disciple at once acts in characteristic fashion. None but an eye-witness could have described this scene. Girt his fisher’s coat (ἐπωνδύτης).—A kind of smock or blouse worn above the χιτών, or under-tunic. Peter had his tonic or shirt on; but to have only this on was regarded as practically being naked. He “girded on to him” the blouse in order that it might not impede him in swimming. He had no patience to await the slow progress of the boat shoreward with the overflowing net behind it.
John 21:8. Two hundred cubits.—About one hundred yards.
John 21:9. A fire of coals (ἀνθρακιά).—See John 18:18. Fish … and bread.—“If this draught is to the disciples the symbol and pledge of the success of their preaching, the repast is undoubtedly the emblem of the spiritual, and even temporal, assistance on which they may reckon from their glorified Lord so long as the work shall last. Grotius, Olshausen, and others … have thought that, in contrast with the sea, which represents the field of labour, the land and the repast represent heaven, from which Jesus gives aid, and to which He receives the faithful after their labour” (Godet).
John 21:10. Bring of the fish.—Probably to add to the meal already prepared, it would seem miraculously.
John 21:11. Peter went up therefore.—Now with glad alacrity he is the first to obey the Lord’s command. Great fishes.—This is probably mentioned because in so large a take there would ordinarily be a great number of worthless fishes (Matthew 13:48). Various attempts have been made to fix a symbolical meaning on the number an hundred and fifty and three. Probably no such meaning was intended to be attached to it. The supposition that there is here a reference to the 153,600 proselytes mentioned in 2 Chronicles 2:17 is too far-fetched to be received seriously. Augustine’s interpretation is elaborate, but is, perhaps, also too fanciful: 10 is the number of the law and 7 that of the Spirit, which being added equals 17, and all the numbers from 1 to 17 when added equal 153, and thus the number practically represents all the elect. There may be some such meaning latent in this number, if the whole incident is to be viewed symbolically. And all exegetes have remarked on the difference between this miracle and that recorded in Luke 5:1-11. There evidently the draught of fishes is intended to represent the visible Church, containing both real and nominal Christians (comp. Matthew 13:47-49); here it is the Church invisible—the glorious Church of the redeemed (Ephesians 5:27). Net not broken.—Contrast Luke 5:6. Christ’s grace shall avail to bring all His people safely home.
John 21:12. Dine.—Breakfast (ἀριστήσατε), take the morning, or forenoon, meal. See Matthew 22:4, where the noun is used. None of the disciples, etc.—They knew in whose presence they stood; awe and reverence made them keep silence. It was their Lord but now the manner of their intercourse with Him was different, preparing them for the moment when, though seeing Him not, they should believe and rejoice in the sense of His near and glorious presence (John 20:29; 1 Peter 1:8).
John 21:13. Jesus then cometh, etc.—Whilst they still held back, Jesus Himself encouraged them to approach and to eat. This narrative does not state whether the Saviour Himself participated in the meal. There is no reason to suppose that He did not (Luke 24:43).
John 21:14. The third time, etc.—I.e. the third time He appeared to His disciples in a body. The two former appearances are narrated in John 20:19-22; John 20:26-29.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 21:1-14
On the lake-shore: fruitless toil.—The poor disciples. An anxious and uncertain time, this, for them! What, exactly, were they? What were they to do? It was worst of all for poor Simon Peter. He might well ask himself what was he? He was “Peter,” “Cephas”—firm, true, rock—once. But ah! yon hall of the high priest’s house! Was he a disciple now, or a discarded traitor? Restlessly, Peter said—as the lake seemed to wear its old smile for him, as it glittered in the setting sun—“Let us go a fishing.” And all seven set off.
I. The night of fruitless toil.—A long cold night of weary, fruitless toil. They “caught nothing.” Courage, brother! courage, sister! when it falls to you to toil long and meet with no success! The Lord’s eyes were all night on that unsuccessful boat’s crew, and His heart was with them. And a blithe morning for them all broke on that seemingly luckless night.
II. The morning of joy.—Pulling shoreward, as the day was breaking, they saw a figure in dim haze standing on the beach. A voice of cheery hail reached the boat. It might be freely but truly translated, for it was in common fisher phrase, Well, lads! or, Well, comrades! any success? any fish? He who so spoke knows to-day our homely tongue, and our little troubles and disappointments, and all the homely things of our daily lives. When the weary fishermen cried back in answer “Nothing,” it was in a deeper tone, and with more of pointed meaning in it, that the voice came again from the beach telling them what to do. And the faith that prompted that one more cast of the net after all the failures was rewarded by a “haul” which needed all hands and all strength. Simon, thinking only of the work in hand, pulling his very hardest, is startled by a whisper in his ear from John. The tones of that voice had just reached, half touched, the memory of the loved disciple. He knew that voice so well! But it was the “draught of fishes,” the miracle, that made him sure. Yes, “It is the Lord.” Never man in the desert thirsted for the water-spring as the heart of Simon had longed, since “that night in which He was betrayed,” to see his Lord’s face and tell Him all—all that was in that fisherman’s tossed, troubled, shame-stricken, loving heart. It was that made him so eagerly spring overboard and swim, wade, struggle, shoreward. And did not Jesus know? We may almost say this morning’s interview was mainly made for Simon Peter—that beach, with its morning meal all ready spread, and its cheering fire blazing. The Lord knew then what drenched, benumbed, weary fishers needed. He knows all such things still.
III. Christ’s tender dealing with His erring disciple.—The morning meal was over, and we know of one heart that throbbed with many mingled feelings as the Lord said, “looking on him” once more, “Simon, son of Jonas!” Not the dear old disciple name, the given name, Peter, but the bare name of his early fisher life, by which he was known in the fisher town. “Simon, son of Jonas!” It is so like a modern fisher town form of name! Once the Lord called him by a better, higher name than this. Yes, Simon! but from that you fell—fell thrice—thrice swore you were no disciple of His. Ay! but your kind Lord is about, as once He did when you were sinking, to grasp your hand and lift you up to where you were again; and you will be once more Peter, the firm, steady servant of your Lord. And because Le had known what it was to fall, and to be forgiven and restored, Peter, the apostle of the young Christian Church, did the work of Christ, to his dying day, all the more earnestly and the more tenderly.—Rev. Thomas Hardy.
John 21:6-8. Ventures of faith.—At the word and following the direction of Christ, the nets were let down into the waters. We are, perhaps, to suppose that the disciples thought, e.g., that the Stranger saw what they did not perceive indications of, i.e. the presence of a shoal of fishes. But beyond that they were constrained by a power which they felt, but could not determine, to do as He commanded. Their obedience did not go unrewarded. The large, apparently unprecedented, “take” filled them first with wonder, and then with adoration, as they recognised in the stranger their Lord. With regard to this, as to all the other signs done by Christ, it is sufficient to notice now that they are really all included—even that of the Resurrection itself—in the Incarnation. Let that great truth be accepted (although it is certainly strengthened and confirmed by the Resurrection), then the wonderful life and signs wrought by Christ become luminous. They are then rightly seen as parts of a great whole. Without them that life would be incomplete and inexplicable. Look now at the spiritual lessons of this sign in regard to—
I. The ventures of faith.—
1. This miracle was to Peter and the other disciples an acted parable—a symbolic representation of what would follow when they, resting implicitly in faith on the Saviour, should afterward go forth on their great work of winning souls for Him—of becoming fishers of men, as our Lord had shown them at the beginning of their discipleship.
2. Guided by the Spirit, they were to follow the directions in which He prompted—casting the gospel net in places apparently the most unlikely, where before, it may be, they had toiled long in vain, assured that He would follow their action by His blessing. And we read in the succeeding history how they prospered in so doing. After the descent of the Spirit at once they began to speak to the mixed multitude of men from every nation under heaven (Acts 2). Undeterred by the fact that those men spoke in various tongues, in strong faith they cast their net, “and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). Again, in a vision of the night the apostle Paul sees a man of Macedonia beckoning him to cross the Ægean Sea, and cast the net in Grecian waters. Once more it might have seemed a hopeless task. That Greeks, proud of their culture and literature, would receive a new and self-denying religion from men belonging to the despised Jewish people would in those times have seemed a wonder even more strange than that of the miraculous draught of fishes. But the apostle obeyed—the net was cast, and it has enclosed Europe and all the civilised nations.
3. And so ought the Christian Church to act now. It has been the habit of many to speak slightingly of the Jewish missions of the Church, e.g. it has been an annual joke with some journals to calculate how much it cost in money for each Jewish convert. That is a sarcasm that will not bear repetition now, when everywhere Jewish converts are entering the Church, and the whole mind of Judaism seems turning Christward. The original founders of Jewish missions cast the gospel net in faith, although from past experience failure seemed to threaten. But now, after long waiting, the nets are beginning to be filled.
4. One of the grandest instances of modern pioneer mission work—the casting of the gospel net in one of the most unpromising regions of earth—is what might be called the forlorn-hope mission to Thibet, under the leadership of a fragile woman,[9] who has proved one of the most intrepid pioneer missionaries of modern times. What more indeed need be said! Time would fail to tell of Moffat, Livingstone, Williams, Patteson, French, J. G. Paton, Heber, Henry Martyn, etc. In faith they cast the nets at the prompting of Christ’s Spirit, and lo! over all the world to-day the harvest of the sea of the nations is being gathered in.
5. In every epoch in the Church’s history the ventures of faith have had their reward. On the venture of faith followed the Reformation. On the missionary ventures of faith in our modern world, if they are sustained as they should be, there will assuredly follow the rescue of multitudes from the depths of alienation and degradation. There are many signs of the coming blessing. If the Church were entirely faithful the limits would widen, the multitudes increase.
[9] Miss Annie Taylor, Pioneer Mission to Thibet, February 1893.
II. Individual ventures of faith.—
1. See how this applies to the individual. The ventures made by the rash speculator and the gambler do not come under this category. These might rather be called ventures of unbelief. They are made in the name of “chance” or “luck,” gods unknown to the Christian.
2. To the Christian the whole of life is a venture of faith, not only for the future world, but for the present. At the direction of Christ, Christian men should go forth into the world to whatever duty they are called, fearing nothing, believing that if they persevere in the path of duty then daily bread and every needed blessing will be supplied; for “the river of God is full of water” (Psalms 65:9). Not that we are to neglect the use of means. It is true God can work without means; and the means without His help will be useless. But with His help they will be the channels through which blessing will come, as the disciples’ fisher-nets enclosed the miraculous draught of fishes.
3. And if this be so in regard to things material, much more is it so in regard to things spiritual. Men must cast their nets, the net of faith, deep in the divine promises, if they would taste to the full the spiritual blessedness of the gospel. How many a life is empty of the joy and fruits of faith because this has not been done! How many can show only few and limited “catches,” simply because they have not boldly ventured out to the deeps of divine promise, undeterred by the sneers and scoffs of men of the world, and cast their nets in faith of blessing!
4. And above all, when special work has been given to any—the training or teaching of children, e.g., or the care of souls in the pastorate—then they must especially cast their nets in faith in the deeps of divine promise, relying on the Omnipotent for the blessing which will come in the end. They may toil long, but if they toil in faith they shall not labour in vain.
5. And this thought should influence men also in their individual support of the missionary effort of the Church—its really great and important work. What would be thought of a man whose whole interests centred in himself, who cared neither for kith nor kin, not to speak of country and humanity at large—whose life was so selfish that he never did aught to mitigate another’s sorrow or cheer another’s life? There are such men. And alas! there are many so-called Christians who might come under the same description. Give them enough of religion for themselves, and the rest of humanity, as far as they are concerned, may go down to darkness and death. Strange Christians these! The apostles and the early apostolic Church were of another stamp, else the world had been darker to-day than it is. From this incident therefore comes the exhortation, “Cast your net,” etc.
John 21:7. “It is the Lord.”—In all that the beloved disciple wrote there is a profound depth. A spiritual aspiration breathes through it, and leads us to realise that even the history has a spiritual meaning. In this incident by the sea of Galilee we see a picture of inward experiences in the souls of believers; and in this passing incident in the communion of the risen One with His disciples we see a type of His continual coming into the hearts of His people. On the last as on the first page of this Gospel, there is a joyful message full of life and spiritual power. There is but One who can fill men’s hearts with joy and bring blessing where He comes, whether as the infant laid in a manger or as the risen One to His disciples.
I. Where He is not there are want and pain.—
1. To the noblest and best company the Head is wanting when He is not there.
2. To the firmest will the rule of conduct is lacking.
3. To the hardest labour the blessing is absent.
II. Where He comes counsel and comfort come.—
1. He inquires about our necessities.
2. He gives wise and gracious counsel.
3. He brings a blessing with Him.
III. Where He is present His disciples’ hearts burn within them.—
1. The disciples were weary and dispirited whilst He was absent.
2. Now they have become like other men; their hearts burn, etc. (Luke 24:32).
3. John, contemplative and thoughtful, recognises the Lord.
4. Peter, ardent and impulsive, cannot wait till the boat is brought to land. Love impels them.
IV. Where He comes He gives heavenly food.—
1. He gathers His own together lovingly.
2. He satisfies their hearts with heavenly peace.
3. He thus prepares them to look forward to eternal joy.—From Karl Gerok.
John 21:7. “That disciple whom Jesus loved.”—Friendship, founded on the principles of worldly morality, recognised by virtuous heathens, such as that which subsisted between Atticus and Cicero, which the last of these illustrious men has rendered immortal, is fitted to survive through all the vicissitudes of life; but it belongs only to a union founded on religion, to continue through an endless duration. The former of these stood the shock of conflicting opinions and of a revolution that shook the world; the latter is destined to survive when the heavens are no more, and to spring fresh from the ashes of the universe. The former possessed all the stability which is possible to sublunary things; the latter partakes of the eternity of God. Friendship founded on worldly principles is natural, and though composed of the best elements of nature, is not exempt from its mutability and frailty; the latter is spiritual, and therefore unchanging and imperishable. The friendship which is founded on kindred tastes and congenial habits, apart from piety, is permitted by the benignity of Providence to embellish a world which, with all its magnificence and beauty, will shortly pass away; that which has religion for its basis will ere long be transplanted, in order to adorn the paradise of God.
I.–
1. There was something in the taste and disposition of our Lord, considered as a man, more in unison with those of John than with any of the other apostles.
2. The distinguishing features of our Lord’s character, viewed as a perfect human being, were, unquestionably, humility and love; nor is it less certain, or less obvious, that these were the qualities most conspicuous in the character of the beloved disciple.
3. In the short Epistles inscribed with his name, the topic on which he chiefly insists is love, which, in its sublime form, constitutes the moral essence of the Deity, as well as the very sum and substance of true religion. His heart was in perfect unison with his subject.
II. Indications of the preference with which John was honoured.—
1. On perusing the Evangelists, it appears that he was invariably selected by our Lord as one of the three who were present in the most retired scenes of His life—on the mount of Transfiguration, in the house of Jairus, and in the garden of Gethsemane (see also 13, 14, etc.).
2. After the Resurrection and Ascension, he continued to receive from his Saviour similar proofs of his preference. Preserved amidst a violent and bloody persecution, he was permitted (such is the universal tradition of the Church) to survive the rest of the apostles, to witness, in the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of its inhabitants, the fulfilments of his own predictions, and finally to close a life extended to an extreme old age in peace and in the bosom of his friends.
3. To him it was given to convey to the Churches of Asia, among whom he dwelt, repeated messages from his ascended Lord, to behold His glory, and to catch the last accents of inspiration.
4. The place which he occupies in the order and succession of inspired men must at the same time ensure to him a high distinction; for while Moses leads the way, John brings up the rear of that illustrious company.—Robert Hall.
HOMILETIC NOTES
John 21:1-8. The life of the messengers of the gospel.—I. Their work.—
1. It is a work common to all (John 21:2).
2. Some come before others in it, according to their special gifts (John 21:3).
3. Sometimes they labour long in vain (John 21:3).
4. There sometimes come on them seasons of gloom, so that they do not always recognise the Lord with the same clearness (John 21:4).
5. But they endure patiently.
II. The blessing of the Lord.—
1. It is overflowing (John 21:6).
2. The disciples thereby realised the presence of their Lord (John 21:7).
3. Grateful love impelled them anew toward Him (John 21:8).
4. But this gladness did not come in similar fashion to all (John 21:8).
III. Their reward.—They were refreshed (John 21:9-10; John 21:13).
2. The blessing was a perpetual one (John 21:11—“brake not”).
3. They attained the blessed certainty of their fellowship with the Lord (John 21:12).
John 21:6. “The river of God is full of water.”—A pious citizen who had many children, and but straitened means, when dying spoke comfortingly to his children. He told them not to distress themselves about his death and his modest means. He would leave behind him a treasure; and when he was dead they would find written, behind the chamber door, the place where it was to be got at. When their father died, therefore, they examined the door carefully, but found written there only these words of Psalms 65, “The river of God is full of water.” Well, those children lived in dependence on God; they were pious and diligent. Thus they experienced in after-years the truth of those words, and the richness of their father’s treasure. For God never permitted them to want the means of subsistence.—From J. J. Weigel.
John 21:9. The fire of coals, etc.—Let us see whether [a] great truth may not have been figuratively taught by the facts of which we are endeavouring to find an explanation. There was already a fire kindled, when the apostles dragged to shore the net which specially represented the Christian Church, the Church, that is, as it was to subsist in its expanded form, subsequently to the coming of Christ, and on the fire which was thus burning there were fish already laid; yea, and the first direction to the, apostles was, that they should bring of the fish which had just been caught, and add them to those which were already on the coals. Now, since by the fish of all kinds which the net enclosed, we are undoubtedly to understand the members of the Church under the gospel dispensation, ought we not to understand by the fish already on the coals the members of the Church under the Jewish dispensation? This is nothing but preserving or keeping up the metaphor. If the fish just caught represented the converts that would be made by the preaching of the gospel, the fish which had been caught before, and not by those who now draw the net to land, may—we should rather say, must—represent those of whom the Church had been composed during the ministrations of the law. So that the visible Church before Christ was figured by the fish already on the coals, the visible Church after Christ by the fish just enclosed in the net; and when the newly caught fish were placed on the same fire with those which had been previously secured, was it not shown that the visible Church before and after the coming of Christ was virtually but one and the same? that its members, at whatever time they lived, had to be brought to the same altar, and to be purified by the same flame? I know not why we should not think that that strange fire, mysteriously kindled on the lonely shore, was typical of the propitiatory work of the Redeemer, through whom alone the men of any age can be presented as a sacrifice acceptable unto God. We have all to be laid upon an altar; we have all, as it were, to be subjected to the action of fire; but there is no altar but the one Mediator, and no fire but that of His one great oblation, which will answer for those who seek to consecrate themselves a whole burnt-offering to their Creator in heaven. And what could be a more lively parable of this fact, than that, just before His departure from earth, when standing on the margin of the sea, the separating line, so to speak, between time and eternity, Christ caused an altar to rise, mysterious as Himself, for no human hands reared it, and crowned it with burning coals, which had not been kindled by any earthly flame; and then brought about that there should be placed on this sacred and significant fire representatives of the one visible Church, as it had subsisted before His incarnation, and as it was to subsist till He should come the second time to judgment?—Henry Melvill.
ILLUSTRATIONS
John 21:6. Casting the net at Christ’s command.—We look back over the eighteen centuries during which the Church has been toiling as in the night; and as we spread out the nets, the gains seem small and insignificant. We turn over the reports of the missionary societies, representing the lifework of hundreds, and the prayer and devotion of thousands of Christians; and we note with dismay the scanty returns of converts, here a hundred, there a score, in many places none. We reckon the result of our own work for Christ, and again dismay seizes us as we gather the handful of fruit; one here and another there made better, made happier; a few lives changed: but what are these as a return? Coming still closer home, and looking within our own hearts, a sober survey brings to many of us a feeling of despair. We began so hopefully, too hopefully perhaps, forgetting the power of habit and the slow growth of the kingdom. A few weeks only had passed, and our hopeful resolves lay around us in ruins; and here we are like Sisyphus with our stone once more at the bottom of the hill and the steep slope before us. Our nets are drawn in at our feet, and of progress, of character, of sanctification, we have “taken nothing.” Once more the Master takes His stand beside His disciples at their work. Once more He bids us again let down our nets, carry on the old work as before. And once more, strong in our faith in Him and in His victory over evil and death, we say “Nevertheless.” Humbly recognising past failure and feeling the full weight of the disappointment, not ignoring the pressure of difficulty and the sting of pain, yet trusting in His grace, we set against the stream of worldliness and indifference the whole force of our will consecrated to Him, and say, “Nevertheless at Thy bidding we will let down our nets.”—From, “The British Weekly,” January 11th, 1894.
John 21:6. The true missionary spirit.—Many wise people say to-day, “What need is there for missionaries troubling themselves about the conversion of the heathen; let them first go to the heathen at home!” Those who thus judge ought speedily to request a missionary for themselves.… They seek to prescribe to Christ the manner in which He must carry on the extension of His kingdom. They will make void the command, “Go and teach all nations,” etc., until there is not a sinful unsaved man more in their own country. Have you the determination of the order of Christ’s kingdom, or has He? There were still millions of Jews who did not believe on Christ, and yet He gave the command to Peter to go to Cæsarea and to baptise the heathen centurion Cornelius. Why, the testimony of those heathen who had become converted through the work of the first missionaries, and the pious life and death of many of them, did more in the primitive Church to extend the gospel than had those who preached to them still remained. And if we were more zealous in regard to our mission work among the heathen, the blessing to the many slumbering members of the old Churches would be more abundant. We have only in faith and zeal to seek to save souls. The blessing rests with the Lord.—Dr. F. Ahlfeld.
John 21:6. Labour for Christ not in vain.—What befell them at sea. The long night of fruitless toil perhaps may have reminded some of them of the other similar experience; but, more probably, they were too busy and weary to think of anything but their empty nets. Whether they remembered that first miraculous draught of fishes or no, we must keep it constantly in view if we would understand this incident, and must remember that our Lord Himself gave it a symbolical meaning. The whole of the events in this lesson point to that symbolism as a chief part of the intention; and, while it is easy to be over-ingenious in translating the facts into parables, it is unwise to shut our eyes to the broad features which receive their full meaning only when so translated. As the day was breaking over the Eastern girdling hills, and the cold air at sunrise telling of a change in the dark world, Jesus stood on the shore. The place is significant—the disciples tossing on the water, the Lord standing on the firm beach, with the light playing round Him. Can we fail to see in that the picture of the condition of His servants in contrast with the rest and stable glory where He dwells? And may we not see in His attitude the same inspiring truth which upheld Stephen dying, when he saw the Son of man in the opened heaven, standing as ready to help? The disciples did not recognise Him. Throughout the forty days His will determined when He should be known. The Unknown speaks as a superior, using the address “Children,” and His question in the original implies the expectation of a “No.” Then you have not anything to eat? He knew the state of things before asking, but He wished the acknowledgment. Is not that ever His procedure with His servants, drawing them to confess their failure, and so preparing them for the blessing, which He cannot send except to the consciously weak and powerless? An honest and humble “No” is generally followed by correction of methods or fields, and that by full nets. If we said it more readily to Him who is ever interested in our work, we should not have to say it so often to ourselves. The prompt obedience to the Stranger’s directions was probably due to the disciples’ belief that He had seen from the shore some sign of a shoal which they in the twilight had not noticed. None of them had any thought of His being anything more than a passing traveller, stopping to look on. The swift result is, alas! not always the experience of even the humblest and most docile of Christ’s servants; but we may be sure that, though in regard to immediate issues the parable of this incident may fail, it does not fail in regard to their certainty. Jesus did not promise them that they should find at once, nor does He promise us; but He does promise that, sooner or later, our labour will not be “in vain,” if it be “in the Lord.” And that may content us. The beautiful episode of Peter and John is full of meaning. Love has quick eyes, and is first to discern the Christ. Its prerogative is to trace His working where others do not see Him; and for love it is enough to know that it “is the Lord,” and to sit quietly blessed in contemplation. But there is another kind of faithful devotion, not so quick to discern, but eager to act. John could sit still, satisfied to gaze, but Peter flung his upper garment about him, and was over the side and splashing in the water before he knew what he was doing. He was only a hundred yards off, and would have been by Jesus almost as soon if he had sat still; but that was not his way, and “there are diversities of operations.” Besides, penitence and the blended shame and joy of restoration made him flounder thus quickly to his Lord. He had said, “Depart from Me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” on that first similar occasion; but the sense of sin which drives to Jesus is deeper and wholesomer than that which drives from Him. The safest place for the forgiven penitent is close to the Lord.—Dr. A. Maclaren.