One day a sportsman was fishing in a Scottish Highland stream. You could see he was a sportsman by his long boots, his large basket (which was empty), and his hat covered all around with the most brilliant artificial flies. You could see he was a fisherman too by the long rod with which he kept whipping the stream. In spite of his boots, his basket, his hat, his rod, and his flies, somehow or other the fish would not bite.
Now this was all the more provoking since just opposite to him was a little ragged, barefooted boy with no particular fisherman 's clothing on him at all (at any rate, his feet and legs and head and neck were all bare), and he was using a common hazel rod. He had no hatful of flies, nor had he a large basket slung over his shoulder. But there beside him on the grass lay a row of shining fish, all of which had been caught with that little hazel rod, under the sportsman's very eyes, while the latter spent his skill in vain. The boy was leaning against a little angle of rock, behind which he was partly hidden as if ashamed to be seen, but the fisherman stood boldly on the river's brink as he, at any rate, had nothing to be ashamed of, except that he had caught no fish. Now he was ashamed of this so much ashamed, indeed, that he pocketed enough of his pride to enable him to ask the boy how it was that all the fish were on his side of the river. The reply was brief and to the point: "If you want to catch fish, you must hide yourself.”
What a word this is to all fishers of men! Whether it be the great evangelist of world-wide fame, or the young believer teaching in a class, or speaking of Christ at some bedside, it is all the same, "If you want to catch fish, you must hide yourself.”
All your eloquence, your skill, your attractive manner, your diligence, will not catch one fish. It must be Christ. And although men (unlike fish) may be attracted by the fishers, they are both alike in this, that the sight of the man hinders their taking the bait. /t is Christ alone that can captivate the heart and win the soul, and God will own and bless the labors of the one who seeks to spread the name and fame of Jesus, and not his own.
Besides, it is by the power of God that souls are saved, and not by our skill. We need more faith in God and less in ourselves. Y.C.