picking up one by one the fishes that are fit for
food, and putting them on one side into baskets, and casting the rest
away. The men are skilful, experienced, and cool; they have no interest
in forming an erroneous judgment, and they are not liable to fall into
mistakes. The separation between good and bad is made without partiality
and without hypocrisy; it is deliberate, accurate, inevitable. At the
close, not one good fish has been cast away, and not a bad one has been
admitted into the vessels.

It is of great importance to note that when the Lord undertakes to
explain this parable, he determines for us the spiritual meaning of the
last act only of the fishermen's labours, and passes in silence all the
rest. I do not conclude from this fact that the earlier features of the
scene possessed no spiritual significance, or that their meaning cannot
be ascertained. But it is undeniable that when Christ himself gives the
meaning of his own parable, the part that he leaves unexplained cannot
be as surely and clearly understood as the part which he has explained:
and further, the portion of a parable on which he maintained silence
while he explained another part, is not for us in the same position as
another parable of which he has not given an exposition at all. Some of
them are so transparent that he did not count it needful to give the
interpretation; in other cases, such as the sower, he gave the
signification of the whole; in a third class of cases, to which this
parable belongs, he explains one feature of the picture, and maintains
silence regarding the rest. Now it is precisely the portions left
without explanation in parables partially explained, that must in the
nature of the case be to us most uncertain. It may be assumed regarding
them that their spiritual meaning is either self-evident, and therefore
required not a comment, or of subordinate importance, and therefore did
not obtain one. In this case it is certain, from the diversity of
opinion that prevails regarding them, that these portions are not easily
understood: there remains only the other alternative, that they are not
essential.

Our view of the grand lesson which the Master taught from the closing
act of the fishermen, is very little affected by the opinion which we
may form regarding the preparatory portions. Those who differ widely
regarding the significance of trees and animals that occupy the
background of a picture, may notwithstanding agree en