Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-05-18


churches In such an Atlantic ocean
of opportunity there is room for all the
nets and all the boats and all the fish
ermen and for millions more.
There sho,-ld be no rivalry between
churches Each one does a work pc
culiar to itself There should be no
rivalry between ministers God never
repeats himself, and he never makes
two ministers alike, and each one has
work which no other man in the uni
verse can accomplish. If fishermen are
wise they will not allow their nets to
entange; or if they do accidentally get
ntertwisted the work of extricatiOn
should be kindly and gently conducted.
What Il glad spectacle for men and an
gels when. on our recent dedication
day, ministers of all denominations
stood on this platform and wished for
each other widest prosperity and use
fitness But there are cities in this
country where there is now going on an
awful ripping and rending and tearing
| of fishing nets Indeed, all over Chris
tendon at this time there is a great war
going on between fishermen, ministers
against ministers
YOU CANNOT FISH AND FIGHT.
Now / have noticed man cannot
! fish and fight at the same time. He
! either neglects his net or his musket
| 1t is amazing how much time some of
! the fishermen have to look after other
| fishermen. 1t is more than can do to
take care of my own net. You see the
wind is just right and it is such a good
time for fishing and the fish are coming
in so rapidly that | have to keep my
| eye and hand busy There are about
two hundred million souls wanting to
get into the kingdom of God, and it
will require all the nets and all the
boats and all the fishermen of Christen-
dom to safely land them.
At East Hampton, Long Island, where
summer, out on the bluffs some morn
ing we see the flags up and that is the
signal for launching out into the deep.
For Il mile the water is tinged with that
| peculiar color that indicates whole
| schools of piscatorial revelry, and the
beach swarms with men with their
coats off and their sea caps on, and
| those of us who do not go out on the
wave stand ON the beach ready to re-
joice when the boats come back, and
in our excitement we rush into the
water with our shoes on to help get the
boats up the beach, and we all lay
hold the lines and pull till we are red
in the face, and as the living things of
the deep come tumbling in on the
sand cry out, Captain, how many
And he answers. about fifty thou
sand" And we shout to the late
corners, ''Hurrah, fifty thousand" We
must have an enthusiasm something
like that if we are ever to take the hu-
man race for Goo and heaven. Aye,
we ought to have that enthusiasm of
the beach multiplied a hundred fold,
and by 50 much an immortal soul is
worth more than bIuefsh.
Oh, brethren of ministry Let us spend
our time in fishing instead of fighting.
But if | angrily jerk my net across your
net, and you jerk your net angrily
across mine. we will soon have two
broken nets and no fish. The French
revolution nearly destroyed the French
fisheries, and ecclesiastical war is the
worst thing possible while hauling souls
into the kingdom, had hoped that
tile millennium WIS about to dawn,
but the lion is yet too fond of lamb.
Ny friends, | notice in the text that
James the son of Zebedee and John
his brother were busy, not nending
somebody eIse's nets, but mending
their own nets, ana | rather think that
we who are engaged in Christian work
in this latter part Ct the Nineteenth
century will require all our spare time
to mend our own nets. God help us in
the important duty.
In this work of PREPARATION we need
to put into the nets more threads of
common sense. When we can present
religion as Il great practically we will
catch hundred souls where now we
catch one. Present religion as an in
tellectuality and we will fail Out in
the fisheries there are set across the
waters what are called gill nets, and
the fish put their heads through the
meshes and then cannot withdraw
them because they are caught by the
gills. But gill nets cannot be of any
service in religious work Men are |
never caught for the truth by their |
heads; it is by the heart or not at all. |
No argument ever saved a man and no |
keen analysis ever brought a man into |
the kingdom of God Heart work, |
not head work. Away with your gill |
nets! Sympathy, helpfulness, cOnsola- |
ton, love, are the names of some of |
the threads that we need to weave in |
our Gospel nets when we are mending |
them
THE WORLDS HEART BURSTING WITH |
TROUBLE.
Do you know that the worlds heart |
is bursting with trouble, and if you |
could make that world believe that the |
religion Of Jesus Christ is a soothing |
olnnipotence the whole world would |
surrender tOmOrrow--yea, would sur /
render this hour? The day before |
James A Garfield was inaugurated as |
president | was in the cars going from |
Richmond to Washington A gentle |
man seated next to me in the cars knew |
me, and we were soon in familiar con-
versatiOn. 1t was just after a bereave-
ment, and | was speaking to him from |
an overburdened heart about the sor-
row | was suffering. Looking at his |
cheerful face l said: II guess you have
escaped all trouble, l should judge
from your countenance that you have
come through free from all misfortune"
Then he looked at me with a look |
shall never forget and whispered in my
ear: Sir, you know nothing about
trouble. My wife has been in an in
sane asylum for fifteen years" And
then he turned and looked out of the
window and into the night with a
silence I was too overpowered to break.
That was another illustration of the
fact that no one escapes trouble. Why,
that man seated next to you in church
has on his soul a weight compared with
which a mountain is feather That
woman seated next to you in church
has a grief the recital of which would
make your body, mind and soul shud
der
When you are mending your net for
A. Of @OJ |