The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-05-22
MENDING THEIR NETS.
Dr. Talmage Discourses on the
Fishing For Souls.
Else sIesEes of Nets Often So Large That
Many Souls Escape-COnaIcss OF Work
srs the Cause OF Much Trouble
What is Needed.

etating the churches, and gave some
practical advice to both parties His
text was Matthew, ~. 81: Games, the
son of Zebedee, and John. his brother,
in . ship with Zebedee, their father,
amending their nets-'' He said:
81 go 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
if the time should ever come when the
immensity 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 food that by its phos-
phorus would make 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 'sWaverly," which
he 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. If you are fishing with a
hook and line and the fish will not bite,
1t is a good time to put the anglers ap-
psratus into better condition.
that the meshes are too large. If a 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
7tangle of broken threads The Bible
-weaves faith and works tight together,
the law and the Gospel, righteousness
and forgiveness. Some of our nets
have meshes so wide that the sinner
floats in and 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 indulgences and swim all around
Galilee from north side to south side
and from east side to west side expect
ing 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
to get out. The poor advice nowadays
to many is: 60 and do just as you
did before you We're captured for God
and Heaven The net was not intend
ed to be any restraint or any hindrance.
What you did before you were Chris
-tian, do now. Go to all styles of
amusement, read all the styles OF
books, engage in all the styles of be-
havior as before you were converted. -
And so through these meshes of per
mission and laxity they wriggIe out,
tearing the net as they go, and soon all
the souls that we expected to land in
Heaven, before we know it are back in
the deep sea of the world.
Is the Bible language an unmeaning
-verbiage when it talks about self-denial
and keeping the body under and about
walking the narrow way and entering
the straight gate and about carrying
the cross? Is there to be no way OF
telling whether a man is a Christian ex.
scept by his taking the communion cha1
ice on saeramental day? May man be
as reckless about his thoughts, about
his words, about his temper, about his
=amusements, about his dealings after
his conversion as before conversion;
One half the gospel nets with which we
have been scoOping the sea have had
such wide meshes that they have been
all torn to pieces by the rushing out in
to the world of those whom a tighter
net would have kept in. The only use
of a net is to keep the fish from going
back to 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
mot bear his cross and come after Me
cannot be My disciple" The church is
fast becoming as bad as the world, and
when 1T gets as bad as the world it viii
be worse than the world by so much as
1T viii add hypocrisy of a most appall
ing kind to its other defects
Furthermore, many of our nets arr
torn to pieces by being entangled will
other nets. 1t is a sad sight to see fish
-erman fighting about sea room and
pulling in opposite directions, each K
get his net, both nets damaged by the
struggle and losing all the fish In {
city like this OF more than 500, 900 there
are at least 500, 900 not in Sabbath
schools or churches And in this LAND
where there are more than "a. 900, OOI
people there are at least SO, 600, 600 no
in the Sabbath schools and churches
And in this world OF more than 1. 400,
900, 900 there are at least 500, 600, coo no
in schools and churches. In such al
Atlantic ocean of opportunity there i
room for all the nets and boats and al
the fishermen and for millions more
There should be no rivalry between the
churches Each one does 4 work pecu