The Children For Christ by Andrew Murray

Peter was a fisherman. After the first miraculous draught of fish, the
Lord had said, `Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Peter’s
work on earth was made the symbol of his heavenly calling. After the
second miraculous draught of fish, in the days preceding the ascension,
our Lord no longer calls Peter a fisherman, but a shepherd. There is a
deep meaning in the change. One great point of difference between the
fisherman and the shepherd is, that while the former catches what he
has neither reared nor fed, and only seeks what is full-grown, casting
away all the little fish out of his net back into the sea, the shepherd
directs his special attention to the young and the feeble; on his care for
the lambs all his hope depends.
The type of the fisherman gave no place for the Master to give special
charge concerning the children of His Church. The shepherd’s calling at
once suggested the words, Feed My lambs, and sets forth the deep
importance and the blessed reward of giving a first place to the little
ones of the flock. Peter, and Christ’s ministers, were not only to feed the
sheep — the prosperity of the Church would specially depend upon
their feeding the lambs. What was said to them is very specially
applicable to parents as under-shepherds, who each have their little
flock of lambs to keep and rear for the Master. Christ’s commission to
His Church through Peter shows the place the little ones have in His
heart, and teaches us to think of the weakness, the value, the need, and
the hope of our children.
Feed My lambs, Jesus says, and reminds us of the feebleness of our
children and their religious life. I was once leaving a sheep-farm in
company with its master towards evening. There were threatening
clouds; just as we had left he hurried back to call his son, and cry out,
`Take great care of the lambs! there is a storm coming.’ The Lord was
219