Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-05-29


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 man, and no keen analysis ever
brought a man into the kingdom OF God.
Heart work not head work Away with
your gill netsi Sympathy, helDfulness, con-
ISOLATION, love, are the names of some Of the
threads that we need to weave in our Gospel
nets when we Tnending them.
Again, in men1ing our nets we need also
to put in the threads of faith and tear out all
the tangled meshes of unbelief. Our work is
successful according to our faith. the man
who believes in only half a Bible, Or the
Bible in spots; the man who thinks he cam
not persuade others; the man who halts,
doubling about this and about that, will be
failure in Christian work. Show 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 saving is poor
stick. Faith in God and in Jesus Christ, and
the Holy Ghost, and the absolute ecesSitv of
regenerated heart in order to see God in
peace is one thread you must have IN vour
mended net or you will never be a successful
fisher for men. Why. how can you doubt?
The hundreds OF millions of men and wo-
men now standing in the church on earth,
and the hundreds of millions in heaven attest
than certaint? Of mathematical demon
stration, let us start out to redeem all nations
The rOttenest thread you are to tear out OF
your net is unbelief, and the most imDOrtant
thread you are to put in it is faith. Faith in
God. triumphant 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-savlng In the
next year than we have IN the last twenty
years. But where shall we get them
mende1? Just where the old Zebedee and
his two boys mended their nets-where you
are. "James, why don't you put your
in Lake Gali!ee, or hoist your sail and lan1
at Capernaum or Liberals or Gardara. and
seated on the bank mend your net? John,
VIM 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, and they took uo
the thread and the neadle, aud the ropes aud
the wooden blocks and went to work: sew
ing, sowing; tying, tying; weaving, weaving;
pounding pounding, until, the net mende1,
they push it off into the sea and drop paddle
and hoist SAIL and the cutwater went
through amid the shoals OF fish, some of the
descendants of which we had for breakfast
morning while we were encamped on the
beach of beautiful Galilea. James and John
had no time to go ashore. They were not
fishing for fun, as you and do in summer
time. It 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, and will see what the scientists say
about evolution and about the survival Of
the fittest,' and [ will read I'D what the
theOlOgians say about advanced thought
will leave the ship awhile, and will go ashore
and stay there until my net is mended." Do
that, my brother, and you will have no net
oft Inst Of fhnir ho1y
your net, they will steal the pieces that re-
main. Better stay in the Gospel boat, where
you 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 place to pray. The more you
study evolution, and adopt what is called
advanced thought, the bigger fool you will
be- Stay in the ship and mind your net.
That is where James the son of Zebedee and
John his brother staid. That is where all
who get their nets mended stay.
These dear brethren of all demo limitations,
afflicted with theological fidgets had better
go to mending nets instead Of br eaking them
Before they break up the old eligion and
try to fOiSt on rs q new religion let them go
through some great sacrifice for God that
will prove them worthy for suca work,
sak1ng the advice of Talleyraal to a man
who wanted to upset the religion Of Jesus
Christ and start new one, when he said:
go and be cruclfied and then raise yourself
from the grave the third dayw Those who
| propose to mend their nets by secular skep-
teal books are lust like man who has Just
one week for fishing, and six Of the days he
| spends in reading Isaak Walton's ''Complete
| Angler" and Wheatley's Rod and Line"
| and Scotts Fishing in Northern Waters"
| aud Puilman's "Vade Mecum Of Fly Fishing
| for Trout" and then on Saturday morning.
his last day out, goes to the river to ply his
| art but that day the fish will not bite. and
late on Saturday night he goes home with
| empty basket and a disappointed heart.
| Meanwhile a man who never saw a big
| library in all his life has that week caught
with an old fishing tackle, enough to supply
| his own table and the table Of all his neigh
bors and enough to salt down in barrels for
| the long winter that will soon come in. Alas
| Alas! If, when the Saturday night Of our
| life drops on US it shall be found that we
| have spent our time in the libraries of
worldly philosophy, trying to mend our nets,
| and we have only few souls to report as
| brought to God through our instrumental
ty, while some humble Gospel fisherman, his
shall come home laden with the results, his
trophies the souls within fifteen miles of his
log ca Din meeting house.
In the time of great disturbance in Naples
| in 1919 Massaniello, a bare footed fishing
| boy, dropped his fishing rod, and by strange
| magnetism took command OF that city OF SIX
| hundred thousand souls. He took off his fish
| ing Jacket and put on a robe Of gold in the
| presence of bowling mobs. He put his hand
| on his lip as a signal, and they were rent.
| He waved his hand away from him, and they
| retired to their homes. Armies passed in re
/ view before him. He became the nations
| idol. The rapid rise and complete supremacy
| of that Young fisherman, MaSSaniellO, has nc
| moro IIol in q II history But something equal