But Simon did not stop there; he added—what has been a comfort to hundreds and thousands of people since then—"Nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net." Do you think they caught nothing this time? Ah, if you do, you have not thought what it is to be in the boat with Jesus! When He commands, He makes it possible for us to obey. You will find that out, children, the more you love and trust Him. So they let down the net; and now they enclosed such an immense number of fishes that their net began to break, and they were obliged to beckon to their partners, who were in the other ship, to come and help them. And they filled both of the ships so full that they began to sink. Then Simon Peter fell down at the feet of Jesus, and told Him that he felt himself to be too sinful to be near Him. But Jesus never turns away because we are sinful; He comforted Simon Peter with the loving words we so often read in the Bible; He said, "Fear not!" Then Jesus told Simon that he should be a fisher of men; that meant, that he should draw people into the Kingdom of Heaven. And when Simon Peter and his partners, James and John, had brought their ships to land, they left everything, and followed Jesus. And they became, very soon, His three chief disciples; and were privileged to be with Him on the mountain when He was transfigured, and heard God speak from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, hear Him." VIII. THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE LOST SHEEP [LUKE 15.4] IN this story we have a peep of what happens on earth, and another peep of what happens in Heaven. Think of that, children! For Jesus says that when anyone is sorry and comes back to God to be forgiven, the angels in Heaven rejoice! Jesus tells us of a shepherd in that Eastern land who had a hundred sheep—and everybody who heard Him tell this beautiful parable of the Good Shepherd, would instantly recognize it as true of what happened all around them—of the shepherd, who on counting his sheep at night, might find one of them missing. He tells us how that loving shepherd would leave the ninety and nine of his flock in the wilderness, and go to seek the lost one. Over the mountains wild and bare, the shepherd sought the wandering one. The thorns pierced his tired feet, and his loving hands, as he looked here and there until he found it, perhaps caught in a thicket of thorns, or fallen into a pit from which it could not extricate itself! He would disentangle the thorns from the imprisoned sheep, he stooped low, regardless of his own life, to reach it from the miry pit. [Illustration] And then, when the shepherd had reached it at last, and had grasped it in his loving hands, he laid it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he got home he called together his friends and neighbours, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost!" And our Lord Jesus adds these words; and it is here we get a peep into Heaven: