Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-05-18

OF the pew lOOhcu dO LO 90
say: ''How dare you? This is my pew
and / pay the rent for it,! Weil' L
crouched in the other corner and made
myself as small as possible and felt as
though had been stealing something.
So there are people who have sharp
edge to their religion, and they act as
though they thought most people had
been elected to be damned and they
were glad of it. Oh, let us brighten up
our manner and appear In utmost
gentlemanliness or ladyhood.
THREADS OF FAITH.
Again, in mending our nets we need,
also, to put in the the threads OF faltn
and tear out all the tangled meshes OF
unbelief. Our work is successful &C
cording to our faith. The man who
believes in only half a Bible, or the
Bible in spots, the man who thinks he
cannot persuade others, the man who
halts, doubling about this and doubling
about that, will be failure in Christian
work. Snow me the man who rather
thinks that the garden OF Eden may
have been an allegory, and is not quite
certain but that there may be another
chance after death, and does not know
whether or not the Bible is inspired,
and | tell you that man for soul-savlng
is poor stick. Faith in God and in
Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and
the absolute necessity Of a regener-
ated heart, in order to see God in
peace, is one thread you must have in
your nended net, or you will never be
successful fisher for men. Why, how
can you doubt? The hundreds OF mill
ions of men and women now standing
on earth, and the hundreds OF millions
in heaven, attest the power of this Cos
pei TO save With more than the GER
tainty of a mathematical demonstration,
let us start out to redeem all nations.
The rottencst thread that you are to
tear out of your net is unbelief, and the
most important thread that you are TO
put in it is faith. Faith in God, trium-
phant faith, everlasting faith. If you
cannot trust the infinite, the holy, the
omnipotent Jehovah, who can you
trust?
Oh, this important work of mending
our nets. If we could get our nets right
we would accomplish more in soul-sav-
ing in the next year than we have in the
last twenty years. But where shall we
get them mended? Just where old Ze6-
edee and his two boys mended their
nets-where you are. james, why
don't you put your oar in Lake Galilee
or hoist your sail and land at Capernaum
or Liberals, or Gadara, and, seated on
the bank, mend your net? John, why
don't you go ashore and mend your net?"
No, they sat on the guards of the boat,
or at the PROV of the boat, or in the
stern of the boat, and they took up the
thread and the needle, and the
ropes and the wooden blocks.
and went to work; sewing, sew
ing; tying, tying; weaving, weaving;
pounding, pounding; until the net
mended, they push it off in the sea, and
drop paddle, and hoist sail, and the cut
water went through amid the shoals OF
fish, some of the descendants of which,
we had for breakfast one morning while
we were encamped on the beach of beau
tiful Galilee. James and John had no
time to go ashore. They were not fish
ing for fun, as you and do in the sum-
mer time. 1t was their livelihood and
that of their families. They mended
their nets where they were, in the ship
oh" says some one, 81 mean to get my
net mended, and | will go down to the
public library, aud | will see what the
scientist has to say about evolution and
about the survival of the lit
test and will read up
what the theologians say about
advanced thought | will leave the
achn Il
stay there until my net is mended." Do
that. my brother, and you will have no
net left. Instead of theirhelping you
mend your net, they will steal the pieces
that remain. Better stay in the Gospel
boat, where you will have all the means
for mending your net. What are they,
do You ask? | answer, all you need you
have where you are, namely, Bible
and a place to pray. The more you
study evolution, and adopt what is call
ed advanced thought, the bigger fool
you will be. Stay in the ship and mend
your net. That is where James, the son
of Zebedee, and John. his brother,
STAYED. That is where all who get their
nets mended stay
notice that all who leave the Gospel
boat and go ashore TO mend their nets
stay there. Or if they try again to fish,
they do not catch anything. Get out OF
the Gospel boat and go up into the
world to get your net mended. and you
will live to see the day when you feel
like the man who, having forSaken
Christianity sighed: 81 would give a
thousand pounds to feel as | did in
1920" The time will come when you
would be willing to give thousand
pounds to feel as you did in 1891. These
men who have given up their old re-
ligion cannot help you bit. 1t Is my
opinion that the most Of those ministers
who gave up their old religion are in
search of nOtorety. They do not sue
coed i'm attracting much attention. They
are tired of obscurity. They must do
something to attract attention, so they
sit down on the beach, and go TO tearing
to pieces the fishing nets instead OF
mending them. The staid old denomi-
nation to which they belong does not
pay them enough attention, so they
must attract attention by striking their
grandmother. They do not get enough
attention by standing in the pulpits, so
they go to work and break the church
windows.
These dear brethren of all denomina-
tions, afflicted with theological hdgets,
had better go to mending nets instead
of breaking them. Before they break
nm the old religion and and try to foiSt