Editorial September 21, 1907 Issue

"FISHERS OF MEN"

Annie M. Knott

It is very significant, with respect to the moral and religious outlook at the present time, that many of the churches are admitting their failure to meet the needs of a large class, and are taking steps to remedy past neglect. The question as to the best method of doing this does not, however, seem to be very well defined, and although a number of orthodox churches are employing practically the same means, the more thoughtful in these churches are questioning the rightness or the efficiency of any that are unspiritual. On the other hand, many religious workers are taking the position that numbers of men do not care for religion, and that in order to reach them for their moral betterment they must be entertained and interested by material means. Such a belief fails to recognize what the Founder of Christianity would do under like circumstances. Jesus certainly intimated the need of method and of skill on the part of his followers, when he said, "I will make you fishers of men;" but the question is, What method?

We learn from the sacred record that Jesus' first students were fishermen, and the great Teacher, as was his custom, seized the symbols at hand in the familiar things of their vocation, when he called them to higher service. The disciples were then to see how he wrought in bringing men out of the depths of materiality, where, unlike the fishes taken from the waters, these were to find life, not death, in the new element into which they were lifted. They saw him casting the net of parable and argument into the depths, and by this means multitudes were drawn close to the thought of the Master. Again, they saw him as a skiful angler throwing out the line, and saying to some hopeless sufferer, "Wilt thou be made whole?" But whether he aimed to reach the many or the one, his purpose was always the same; it was to lift men, gently yet surely, out of that which seemed to be life, out of the delusions and disappointments of materiality, into the real life,—the life of Spirit and spiritual reality. As to the lure, the bait employed, if one may use this figure, it was always the same. The Master-fisher of men offered healing to the sick, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, joy to the sorrowing, and ever behind the outward sign was the line of love to draw the healed one to the source of all true healing,—the divine Life and Love. It is true that the disciples as "fishers of men" made some mistakes, had some failures, but as they learned to look away from the material to the spiritual they realized the possibility of attaining to that promised by Christ Jesus when he said, "Every one that is perfect shall be as his master."

To-day the Christian world is crying out for primitive Christianity, and yet many are wilfully closing their eyes to the Christ-healing demonstrated and taught in Christian Science, which makes the life and works of Christ Jesus no mere matter of history but a present fact. Surely those who would follow the Master must adopt his methods! When he called the sons of Zebedee to be fishers of men he taught them how to heal the sick and reform sinners by spiritual means, not material. If any doubt that this can be done to-day, let them down the doubt and grasp the idea of man as a spiritual being, and with this as the basis of their activities they will be amazed at the response which comes wherever there is human need. At the appeal of this vital truth indifference vanishes, for, as Mrs. Eddy so insistently declares, "man is not material; he is spiritual" (Science and Health, p. 468); and in response to the irresistible attraction of truth, humanity rises from submergence in materiality to claim man's own,—even health and holiness. The Christly method of reaching and holding men is proving in Christian Science its efficiency, and its adaptation to all human need.

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