experience in catching fish--in such things Christ found likeness of
what He would make them to become--fishers of men. From their old
business He would teach them lessons about the new,--of His power, the
abundance of His store, and the great things they were to do for Him and
their fellow-men. Before they leave it, He makes Himself a kind of
partner with them. Having used Simon's boat for a pulpit for teaching,
He tells him to launch out into the deep and to let down his net. It
encloses a multitude of fishes. Andrew and James with their brothers
whom they had called to Jesus, the first company to follow Him from the
Jordan, are the first to do so in a new and fuller sense from the shores
of Gennesaret, where they first learned of Him.

There is something touching in the special reference to the call of the
sons of Salome, whose relation to Mary first interested us in them. It
is said of Jesus, "He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother
and He called them. And they immediately left their father in the ship
with the hired servants. They forsook all and followed Him."

[Illustration: THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES _Old Engraving_ Page 94]

What reminders do we here have of the past! James and John, true
brothers in childhood, united in business in early life, now hand in
hand commence life anew. Having become the help, and much more the
companions of their father they must leave him to the companionship of
hired servants. But in this hour of sundering family ties, the loving
father and loving sons rejoice in Jesus as their Master whom they all
willingly obey.

He chose twelve whom He called Apostles. Such was the glorious company,
composed of young men, the most honored in all earthly history, to be