Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-18

scientists say about evolution and about
the survival of the fttest,' and will read
up what the theologians say about advanced
| thought will leave the ship awhile, and
| will go ashore and stay there till my net is
| mended." Do that, my brother, ana you VIII
| you mend your net they will steal the pieces
| that remain. Better stay in the Gospel boat,
| where you will have all the means for mend
ing your net. What are they, do you Ask 4
| answer all you need you have where you are;
| namely, a Bible and q place to pray. Inc
more You study evolution, and adopt what
you will be- Stay in the ship and mind your
net. This is where James, the son of Zebe-
| dee, and John, his brother, stayed. That is
"nere ai wm4 @ get sheir meos th 5oat
and go ashore to mend their nets stay there.
Or If they try again to fish they do not catch
anything. Get out of the gospel boat and go
up into the world to get your net mended,
and you will live to see the day when you
will feel like the man who, having forsaken
Christianity, sighed II would give G4OOO to
when you would be willing to give $1,000 to
feel as you did in 1891. These men who have
given up their old religion cannot help youa
bit. 1t is my opinion that the most of those
, ministers who gave up the old religion are
in search of notoriety. They do not succeed
in attracting much attention: They are
tlrea OF obseurlty; They must 40 @ some1Mhg en- ing
beach, and go to tearing to pieces the hsh1ng
nets, instead of mending them. The staid
old denomination to which they belong does
not pay them enough attention, so they at
tract attention by striking their grand
mother. They do not get enough attention
by standing in the pulpits, SO they go 10
work and break the church windows.
Afflicted With Theological Ffdgets.
These dear brethren of all denominations,
afflicted with theological fidgets, had better
go to mending nets instead of breaking
Pafn hay L nm "a n
and try TO foist on us new religion, letthem
go through some great sacrifice for God that
will prove them worthy of such a work, TAX
ing the advice of Talleyrand to O man who
wanted to upset the religion of Jesus Christ
and start a new one, when he said: "Go and
be crucified and then raise yourself from the
grave the third day!" Those who propose to
mend their nets by secular and skeptical
books are like man who has just one week
for fishing and six of those days he spends
gler,'' and "Wheatley's Rod and Line and
''Scott's Fishing in Northern Waters" and
'Pullman's Wade Mecum of Fly Fishing for
Trout" and then on Saturday morning, his
but that day the fish will not bite, and late \
on Saturday night he goes home with empty |
basket and a disappointed heart: Mean
while q man who never saw q big library in
all his life has that week caught with an old
fishing tackle enough to supply his own
ia BILE and the table Of all his neighbors, and |
winter that will soon come in. Alas! alas! |
if when the Saturday night of our life drops |
on us 1t shall be found that we have spent |
our time in the libraries of worldly philos- |
ophy, trying to mend our nets, and we have
only few souls to report as brought to God 1
through our instrumentality, while some |
humble gospel fisherman, his library made /
UP of Bible and an almanac, shall come /
home laden with the results, his trophies 4
the souls within Is miles of his log cabin
meeting house.
But do not spend your time fishing with
hook and line. Why did not James the son
of Zebedee sit on the wharf at Cana, his feet
hanging over the lake, and with q long pole
and worm on the hook dipped into the
wave wait for some mullet to swim up and be
caught? Why did not Zebedee spend his |
afternoon trying to catch one eel? No, that
work was too slow. These men were not
mending hook and line, they were mend
ing their nets. So let the church of God not
be content with having here one soul and
the next month another soul brought into
the kingdom. Sweep all the seas with nets,
SCOOP nets, seine nets, drag nets, all-encom- |
passing nets, and take the treasures in by
hundreds and thousands and Millions and l.
nations be born in day, and the hemi- |
spheres quake with the tread of ransoming
God.