John 21:6 And he said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore… Christ commanded the disciples to cast the old net in a new way. Thus He ever does in redeeming souls. I. HE EMPLOYS OLD INSTRUMENTALITIES. There are many of them, but they are all old. 1. The same old natural facts. He employs the phenomena of nature to quicken, educate and elevate souls. We have nothing more of nature than the men of remotest generations. 2. The same old gospel principles. Biblical truths are His redemptive forces, but the youngest of them is eighteen hundred years old. 3. The same old mental faculties. In regenerating men Christ does not create a new intellect, memory, imagination. He brings out the new moral creature with the old mental idiosyncrasies. II. HE EMPLOYS OLD INSTRUMENTALITIES IN A NEW WAY. He directs men — 1. To a new method of studying natural facts. Thoughtfully, inductively, devoutly — regarding them all as mirrors of the Divine. 2. To a new method of dealing with gospel truths. Not desultorily, speculatively, controversially, but inductively, systematically and practically. 3. To a new method of employing mental faculties. Turning the mental powers away from time to eternity, from the creature to the Creator. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. |
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