The fishing simile so commonly used in the winning of men over to one’s side is a peculiarly attractive, a matchless simile.  And all of this handling of men has often been for personal ends, often for wholly selfish ends, often for strong national ends.  Almost never has it been for the benefit of the man being won, save at times very remotely.

But Jesus would have us become skilled diplomats in winning men for their own sakes.  Getting them to climb the hills for the sake of the air and view they will get, and enjoy.  We are to win strong men full of life and vigor and manly force up into touch with their Friend, Himself.

There is too a most attractive winsome phrase on the Master’s lips at the close of that fishing story in Luke’s fifth chapter,[13] “From henceforth thou shall catch men” is the reading.  But the revised margin gives this added bit of color:  “Thou shalt take men alive.”  They should get, not dead fish, but living men.  Men full of vigor and life—­thou shalt have power to sway these and induce them up to the highlands of a new life.

Three Essentials.

There are three simple essentials here for the man who would be following his Master fully.  The first is that a man shall surrender himself wholly to Jesus as a Master.  That so Jesus may have the full control of all.  Maybe some one thinks, “There is that strong word surrender again.  Cannot I help a man be better without going so far as that word seems to imply?”

Will you kindly notice that the Spirit of Jesus fills the surrendered man?  And it is only as that Spirit does fill and sway that there can be any such passion for men as Jesus had, and, too, the fine tact that He always used.  This is the first simple indispensable essential.

The second is this:  a bit of quiet time alone with Jesus daily over His Word.  The door should be shut.  Outside things shut outside.  And one’s self shut in alone with the Master.  This is not a good thing—­merely.  I am not recommending it to you.  I am saying very much more.  It is an essential thing with every one who would follow the Master simply and fully.  It is time spent in coaling up, taking out the dead ashes, and readjusting the drafts, so the fires will be kept burning steadily and clearly.  This is the second great essential.

The third essential is this:  a purpose, deep-seated, rock-rooted, underlying every other purpose, taking precedence of every other, of trying to win others, one by one, bit by bit, over to knowing Jesus personally.  I say “trying.”  I like that word.  There may be some blunders, some bad steps, some untactful work.  But these will not turn one aside from this purpose but simply make him more determined to become skilled in this finest art.

I mean something like this.  Here is a young woman moving in a social circle, just as bright and winsome as God meant every young woman to be.  And as she moves about, she is thinking—­no, it is thinking itself out, underneath in her subtle sub-consciousness,—­“How can I drop the word here, and touch there, and leave the light impress here, that shall count with these lives for my Master?”