The Red Cloud chief., 1891-05-29
MENDING THEIR NETS.
Dr.. Talmage Discourses on the
Fishing For Souls.
The Meshes of Nets Often So Laree That
Many Souls Escape-COnnicts Of Work.
ers the Cause OF Much Trouble
What u Needed

Many Souls Escape-COnnicts Of Work.
es the Cause Of Much Trouble
What Il Needed
In @ late sermon at BROOKLYN Rev. r.
Dewitt Talmage paid his attention to
the theological disputes which are agi-
tating the churches, and gave some
practical advice to both parties. His
text was Matthew, iv. 81: James, the
son of Zebedee, and John. his brother,
in a ship with Zebedee, their father,
mending their nets" He said:
81 go a fishing" cried Simon Peter to
his comrades, and the most of the
apostles had hands hard from fishing
tackle. The fisheries of the world
have always attracted attention. And
IL the time should ever come when the
immensely Of the worlds population
could not be fed by the vegetables and
meats of the land, the sea has an
amount of animal life that would feed
all the populations of the earth and fat
ten them with a food that by its phos-
phorns would make a generation brainy
and intellectual beyond anything that
the world has ever imagined My text
takes us among the Galilean fishermen.
One day, Walter Scott, while hunting
in an old drawer, found among some
old fishing tackle, the manuscript of
his immortal book "Waverly," which
be had put away as of no worth, and
who knows but that to-day we may
find some unknown wealth OF thought
while looking at the fishing tackle In
the text. IL you are fishing with n
hook and line and the fish will not bite,
il is a good time to put the anglers APP
- paratu. into better condition.
Perhaps TIC large fish vow hauled 10
waseo barge thaa something snapped
or II you were fishing with n net, there
was a mighty floundering of the scales
or an exposed nail on the side of the
eoat which broke fome Of The threads
mi let part Of tie captive, of the deep
ESCAPE into their natural clement Now
the Bible again, and again repres sc nts
L u Cnrktian worken as fishers of men. and
we are all sweeping through the sea of
humanity some kind of a net Indeed.
there. have been enough nnts out and
enough fishermen busy TO have landed
the whole human race in the kingdom
IS IF God long before tfds What is the
matter? The Gospel is ali right, and it
has been, Q good time for catching
souls for thousands of years. Why,
then, the failures? The trouble is with
the nets, and most Of them need TO be
tnended j propose to show you " hat is
. the matter with most Of the nets and
how 10 mend them. In the text old
Zebedee and his two boys, James and
John, were doing a good thing when
they sat In their boat mending their
nets
TIL trouble with many of orr nets is
that the meshes arc too large. IL a fish
can get his piils and half his body
through the network, he tears and
rends and works his way ont and leaves
The place through which he squirmcd a
tsngle of broken threads. The Bible
aNvcaves faith and works tight together,
49, the. law and the Gospel, righteousness
sand forgiveness. Some of our nets
-have meshes 30 wide that the sinner
49," huats In md out and is not at any mo-
ment caught for the heavenly landing.
We let men after they are once in the
gospel net escape into the world and
go into indulyences and sw i'm all around
GaliIee from north side to south side
and from east side to west side, expect
ing that they viii come back again.
VIZ ought " aslsc n easy for them "a
get into the kingdom of God and, rs far
as we can, make it impossible for them
TO get out The poor advice 1owaday.
TO many is: 60 and do Just a you
did before you were captured for God
and HEAVEN! The net was not iutcnd.
ed to I've any restraint or any hindrance.
What YOU did before You were a Chris.
tan, do now. TO 20 all stvies ol
amusement, read oil the styles OF
books eneaRezfn all the styles of be-
havior az before you were converted
And 80 through these meshes of per
mission and laxty> they wriegie out,
through this opening ard tfint opcning,
tearing the net asthcy 90. and soon al
the souls kassA we expected to land in
$:' ;s.s s { !; tn, the s sss,s. i r r '~''. =
the rsleisnsqsss an 1aumesnias
and keeping the body under and abou,
walking the narrow way and entering
the strnight gate and about carrying
the cross? l. there to be no way OF
telling whether n man is a Christian ex.
FePt ey- his taking the communion chal
lee on sacrasnental dat? Nav a man he
as reckless about his thoughts. abou,
= his words, about his temper. about his
Il afnnseneHts. ahout his dealings after
his conversion as before conversioni
Ore half the gospel nets with which we
have been scooping the sea have HAD
l. .sueh wide mesbcs that they hnve beer
ell tafntopcccs Try the rushing out in
- In wuriduf those whom a tighter
net would have kept in. The only Use
Of a net is 10 keep the fsh from going
back "a where they were before and
taking them where they could not have
been taken by any other means. Alas,
that the words of Christ are SO little
needed when he said: "Whosoever doth
not bear his cross and come after Me
cannot be My disciple" The church is
fast becoming as had rs the world, and
. when Il gets as bad as the world it vii,
I've worse than the world by so much as
Il viii add hypocrisy of a most appall.
" ing kind 70 Its other defects
Furthermore, many of our nets are
torn to pieces By being entangled with
!. other nets. II is a sad sight 10 see FISH.
erman fighting about sea room and
pulling in opposite directions, each to
get his net, both nets damaged by the
struggle and losing ali the fish In a
city like this II more than 500, oee there
are ut least 500, aaa not IN Sabbath
sssnook or ehurvhce And In this land
where there are more than "a. 600, 0oC
people there are n; least SO. 600. 600 not
IN the Sabbath schools and churches
And in this world Of more than /. AGO.
600, 600 there are al least 500. 900, 600 not
m schools and churches In such an
Atl1ntie ocean of opportunity there Is
roomfer all the meta and boats and Ill
Che fshefmen and for -nsilbcns raofe.
There should be no rivalry between the
churches. Each one does a work pecu-
A-E =