Article February 26, 1938 Issue

"Fishers of men"

NORAH M. COSTERTON

IN Matthew's Gospel it is related that as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee he watched two fishermen casting their nets into the sea. With his spiritual insight he discerned their readiness to respond to his call to follow him in his ministry. These men had already learned from the great Teacher the good news of the kingdom, and now they were to accompany him, as he preached the glad tidings to a weary, sick, and sin-laden world. Joyously they must have left their nets as the gracious call fell on their ears, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

What did that loving invitation mean to them? Fishers of men! Were they, then, to leave their only means of livelihood and forsake the work that supplied the daily bread for themselves and their families? And yet any misgiving must have been instantly dispelled, for we read that "straightway" Simon and Andrew left their nets to follow the Master. From henceforth they were to be no longer toilers of the deep, but "fishers of men." The fishes Simon and Andrew caught daily had no doubt satisfied their material needs, but when their thought had become so spiritual that they were ready to respond to the higher spiritual demand, the Christly call came to them.

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, received a summons to leave all, in order to follow in the footsteps of the Master. She, too, was obedient to Truth's call, and through her readiness to obey the divine direction the Christian Science movement, with its healing and redemptive mission, came into being.

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