Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-05-18
BROOKLYN PULPIT.
THB SERMON DELIVERED BY Tbs REV. DR..
TALMAGE
Al the Tabernacle Ysstsrday-Hs Speaks on
Nets, Fishing Nets, and APPLIES the
Smile to Religion and
Christianity.
-! Tslsaram b FL R.qislsr.

Special Telegram 20 ne Register.
BROOKLYN, y. Y, May Eff proof
Of DR.. Talmage's immense popularity
had been needed, it would be amply
furnished by the promptitude with
which the people have availed them
selves of the increased accommodation
afforded by the new Tabernacle. The
vast edifce is as denSely crowded at
every service as the older and smaller
Tabernacle was. Dr. Talmage tn 5
morning paid his attention 70 the theo-
logical disputes which are agitatlng the
churches, and as usual gave sound prac-
teal advice TO both parties. His text
was Matthew 4:21: james, the son OF
Zebedee, aud John his brother, in
ship with Zebedee their father, mend
ing their nets"
Il 90 a-fShing," cried Simon Peter to
his comrades, and the most OF the ApOs-
ties had hands hard from fishing tackle.
The fisheries Of the world have always
attracted attention. In the third CEN
fury the Queen of Egypt had for pin
money four hundred and seventy thOu-
sand dollars received from the fisheries
of Lake MOeris. And if 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 fatten them with food
that by its phosphorus would make
generation brainy and intellectual De-
yOnd 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
"Waverley," which he had put away
there as of no worth, and who knows
but that to-day we may find some I'M
known wealth of thought while looking
at the fishing tackle in the text.
1t is not good day for fishing and
three men are in the boat repairing the
broken fishing nets. If you are fishing
with a hook and line and the fish will
not bite, it is a good time TO put the
anglers apparatus into better cOndi-
ton. Perhaps the last fish you hauled
in was so large that something snapped.
Or il you were fishing with net, there
was mighty laundering of the scales
or an exposed nail on the side OF the
boat which broke some Of the threads
and let part or all of the captiveS Of the
deep escape into their natural element
Aud hardly anything is more provoking
than 20 nearly land a score or hun
dred of trophies from the deep and when
YOU are i'm the full glee of hauling in the
spotted treasures, through some imper-
lection of the net they splash back into
the wave. That is too much OF trial
OF patience for most fishermen 10 en-
dure and many man ordinarily correct
of speech in such circumstances
comes 20 an intensity OF
utterance unjuStifable. There
fore no good fisherman considers the
time wasted that is spent In mending
his net Now the Bible again and again
represents Christian workers as fishers
of men. and we are all sweeping through
the sea of humanity some kind Of q net.
Indeed. there have been enough nets
out and enough fishermen busy 70 have
landed the whole human race in the
kingdom of God long before this. What
is the matter? The Gospel is all right,
and 10 has been a 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
mended l propose to show you what
rs the matter with most of the nets and
how TO mend them. In the text old
Zebedee and his TWO boys James and
John were doing a good thing when
they sat ia the boat mending their nets.
GOOD SMILE.
The trouble with many OF our nets is
that the meSheS are too large. II fish
can get his gillS and half his body
through the network, he tears and rendS
and works his way out and leaves the
place through which he Squirmed a
taugle of broken threads The Bible
weaveS faith and works tight together,
the law and the Gospel, righteousness
and forgiveness. Some of our nets have
nesheS so wide that the sinner floats in
and out and is not at any moment
caught for the heavenly landing. In
our desire to make everything so easy
we relax, we loosen, we widen. We let
men after they are once in the Gospel
net escape into the world and go into
indulgenceS and swim all around Galilee
from the north side TO the south side and
from the east side 20 the west side, ex-
Meeting that they will come back again.
we ought TO make it easy for them to
get into the kingdom Of God and, as far
as we can, make it impossible for them
10 get out. The poor advice nOw-a-
DAYS 10 maay is: $50 aud do just as you
did before you were captured for God and
heaven. The net was not intended TO
be any restraint or any hindrance.
What YOU did before you were Chris
tian. do now. Go 20 all styles of amuSe-
ment. read all the styles of books, en-
gage i'm all the styles Of behavior as be-
fore YOU were converted. - And so
through these meSheS of permission and
laxity they wriggle out, through this
opening and that opening tearing the
net as they 90, and soon all the souls
that we expected 20 land in heaven, be
fore We know it are back in the deep
sea OF the world Oh, when we go a
gOspel-fshing let us make ii as easy as
possible FOR souls to get in and as hard
As possible 20 get out.
Furthermore, many OF our nets are
torn 20 pieces by being entangled with
other nets. 1t is a sad sight 20 see fish
ermen fighting about sea-room and pull
ing in opposite directions, each TO get
his net, both nets damaged by tho
struggle and losing an tho fish. In
city like this OF more than eight hun