Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-05-23

my eye and hand busy. There are
about 200, 600, 900 souls waiting to get
into the kingdom OF God, and 1t will re-
quire all the nets and all the boats, and
all the fishermen of Christendem to safe
" land them.
o, brethren OF ministry! Let us
spend our time In fishing instead OF
fighting. But II angrily jerk my net
across your net, and you jerk your net
angrily across mine, we will soon have
two broken neIs and no fish. The
French revolution nearly destroyed the
French fisheries, and ecclesiastical war
is the worst thing possible while haul
ing souls into the kingdom. | had
hoped that the millennium was about
to dawn but the lion is yet too fond OF
lamb. My friends, notice that In the
text that James, the son OF Zebedee,
and John, his brother, were busy not
mending somebody else's nets but mend
ing their own nets and rather think
that we who are engaged in Christian
work in this latter part OF the nine
teenth century will require all our
spare time to mend our own nets. Col
help us in the important duty.
When you are mending your net for
this wide, deep sea Of humanity, take
out that wire thread OF criticism and
tho horsehair thread OF harshness and
put in a soft silken threat OF Christian
sympathy. Yea, when you are mending
your nets tear out those old threads OF
gruffness and weave in a few threads OF
politeness and geniality. In the house
OF God let all the Christian faces beam
with look that means welcome. Say
good morning" to the stranger as he
enters your pew and at the close shake
hands with him and say "How did you
like the music?"
know man in New York who is
more sunh:ny and genial when he has
dyspepsia than when he is not suffering
from that depressing trouble. have
found out his secret. When he starts
out in the morning with such depres-
sion he asks for special grace to keep
from swapping up anybody that day and
puts forth additional determination to
be kindly and genial, and by the help of
God he accomplishes it. Many OF our
nets need to be mended in these re-
spects, the black threads and the rough
threads taken out and the bright threads
and the golden threads OF Christian ge-
niality. woven in. In addition TO this we
ought to mend our nets with more
threads OF patience. 1t is no rare thing
for fisherman to spend one whole day
before he can take st. Lawrence pike
or an Ohio salmon, or Long Island
pickeral, OF Cayuga black bass, or a
Delaware catfish, and he does that day
after day without particular discour-
agement. But what lack OF patience
il we do not Immediately succeed in soul
catching. We are apt to give itup and
say II will never try again"
Into all our nets we need to weave all
along the edge and all through the CEN
ter, great long stout threads OF Christ
ian patience. How patient God has
been with us! Can we not be patient
with our fellows? / had presented me
from Scotland few d ys ago an orna-
mented inkstand. the wooded parts OF
which were made from piece OF tree
cut down by Mr.. Gladstone, at Hawar-
den, and sent by him to Scotland by re-
quest. The incident reminded me OF
the fact that women, who had long
been on Mr.. Gladstone's estate, had a
hayward boy, and in her despair she
asked Mr.. Gladstone to take the boy in
hand. While prime minister OF Eng
land, with all the mighty affairs of the
kingdom in his hand, he took that boy
in his study and cousel.ed him, and then
knelt down and prayed with him, and
the boy was saved. If we all
had the hearts OF sympathy like
that, what would Ce to us impossible?
The rottenest 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. II you cannot trust
the infinite, the holy, the omnipotent
Jehovah, whom can you trust? II We
could get our nets right we could ac-
complish more in soul saving in the
next year than we have in the last
twenty years. But where shall we get
them mended? Just where old Zebedee
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 atCapernaum, or I'll
berias, or Gadara, and, seated on the
bank, mend your net? John, why don't
you go ashore and mend your metz" 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, sew
ing, sewing; tying, tying: weaving,
weaving; pounding, pounding; until,
the net mended, they push it of in
the sea and drop paddle and hoist sail,
and the cutwster went through amid
the shoals OF fish, some Of the descend
ants OF which we had for breakfast one
morning while We were camped on the
beach OF beautiiLS 5alilee. James and
John had no time to 60 ashore. They
were not fishing for fun.
notice that all who leave the Gospel
boat and 60 ashore to mend their nets
stay there. Or II they try again to fish,
they do not catch anything. Get out OF
the Gospel boat and go up into the
world 70 get your net mended, and you