Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/245



But here is a doubt as to who are the true fishermen of Christ. For there are many of whom it is thought that they are Christ's, but they put down their nets for a haul in the sea at night, and they do it for a year, for two years, for ten and even more years, without catching anything, because they fish at night and because their nets are torn; indeed, the nets are a patchwork of rotten strings, mixed up with reasonings of different people, unsteady. (And there are those who weave their nets out of such materials).

And many might say, "We have been fishing night after night, and yet we cannot be sure that we have caught a single soul to repentance." Many of them catch a whole community for their own advantage, feeding their bellies on the produce of other people's estates, shearing wool and getting the cream of the milk, and abandoning the weakest cattle to rapacious animals. Woe to them and their fishing.

Peter's net, however, is his faith in Christ, established on his words, by which man can be drawn out of the deep sea of this world and its wickedness. Just as in a real physical sea there are fish dwelling in dark hollow depths, so in this In the original, "milking the milk."