led, willing
or unwilling, from this life into eternity; for both good and bad are
brought to the shore; then and there the separation takes place which
all acknowledge to be final. But are the members of the visible Church
alone drawn out of this life into the other world? Do the ministers of
the Gospel occupy themselves in dragging their brethren away from the
world? Here, too, the interpretation is inconsistent with the facts of
the case and the representations of the parable.

These difficulties in which the common interpretation is involved, go
far to prove that it must be erroneous; a true principle of exposition
would surely not lead its adherents into such straits. The real key, if
it were found, might be expected to open the lock without wrenching its
parts asunder.

Although for my own part I would be content to take the plain and
undoubted doctrine which the closing scene of the parable contains, and
leave the earlier stages of it as the Lord left them, without attaching
to them any definite and distinct significance, I am prepared at the
same time to suggest a totally different interpretation of the net
drawing the fishes to land, for the consideration of those who love to
search the Scriptures. I shall state the principle of interpretation
which commends itself to my judgment, and leave everyone to judge for
himself whether it will consistently and profitably explain all the
facts.

The net is not the visible Church in the world, and the fishes good and
bad within it do not represent the true and false members of the Church.
The sea is the world. The net, almost or altogether invisible at first
to those whom it surrounds, is that unseen bond which, by an invisible
ministry, is stretched over the living, drawing them gradually,
secretly, surely, towards the boundary of this life, and over it into
another. As each portion, or generation of the human race, are drawn
from their element in this world, ministering spirits, on the lip of
eternity that lies nearest time, receive them and separate the good from
the evil.

I shall enumerate here some of the reasons which commend this
interpretation, and notice some of the objections which may be urged
against it.

Among the reasons which commend it,--

1. It assumes, according to the facts of the case and the express terms
of the scripture, that the same persons who draw the net also separate
the worthy from the worthless of its contents on shore.

2. In ow