The gospel net has been cast into the sea of the nations and has enclosed of all kinds. After this general gathering, which has filled the net, the agents of the Lord, having to do with the good, gather them together, separating them from the bad. Remark here that this is not the primitive gathering together of the church, but a similitude of the kingdom. It is the character which the kingdom assumes, when the gospel has assembled together a mass of good and bad. At the end, when the net has been drawn, so that all kinds are enclosed in it, the good are set apart, because they are precious; the others are left. The good are gathered into vessels. The saints are gathered, not by the angels but by the work of those who have labored in the name of the Lord.
The execution of the judgment is another matter. The laborers have nothing to do with that. At the end of the age, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Here, nothing is said about the just. Gathering them into vessels was not the angels’ work, but that of the fishermen. The public result had been given, whether during the period of the kingdom of heaven or afterward in the parable of the tares. It is not repeated here. The work to be done with regard to the righteous when the net is full is added here. The destiny of the wicked is repeated, to distinguish the work done with respect to them, from that wrought by means of the fishermen who gather the good into various vessels. Still, it is presented under another aspect.
Present Testimony, Vol. 7