THE FAMILY ALTAR

August 23.

"Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord!" Luke 5:8.

When great prosperity attends his labors, the self-righteous

worldling concludes that he must be a favorite of God, and in his

blind pride he abuses God's good gifts, and so brings himself the

more under God's wrath and punishment. But the Bible teaches

us not to judge of God's goodness and mercy to men by the material

blessings He may send on them in this life. Thus we are told,

that the rich man in hell received his good things in his lifetime,

but pious Lazarus evil things. (Luke 16, 25.) Great material

blessings humble the true Christian. We see this in St. Peter.

When he let down his net at the command of Christ and caught

such a great multitude of fish, he was so astonished that he fell

down at the Savior's feet and stammered : "Depart from me ; • for

I am a sinful man, 0 Lord." He deeply felt his unworthiness at

this great, unexpected blessing of the Lord. So God's goodness

should always lead us to repentance and humble gratitude. When

we view the rich harvest fields around us; when we meditate on

all the good things God gives us in this life, we must confess with

Luther in the First Article: "God does all this purely out of

fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthi-

ness in me; for all which it is my duty to thank and praise, to

serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true." Because Peter

received God's material blessing in such humble repentant faith,

the Lord adds a great spiritual blessing, and says to him: "Fear

not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men." We can all secure

great and abiding spiritual blessings for ourselves if we use our

earthly means to catch souls for Christ. By thus supporting the

Lord's Gospel-work we prove our gratitude to Him in the most

acceptable way. 

We plough the fields, and scatter

The good seed on the land,

But it is fed and watered

By God's almighty hand;

He sends the snow in winter,

The warmth to swell the grain,

The breezes and the sunshine,

And soft, refreshing rain.

All good gifts around us

Are sent from heaven above.

Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord,

For all His love.