The Fort Worth gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-189?, 1891-05-21

twisted. the work of extrication should be
kindly and gently conducted. What glad
spectacle for men and angels when on our
recent dedication day ministers of all de-
nominations stood on this platform and
wished for each other widest prosperity
and usefulness. But there are cities in this
country where there are is now going on an
awful ripping and rending and tearing Of
fishing nets. Indeed, all over Christendom
at this time there is great war going on
between fishermen, ministers against min
listers.
Now I have noticed man cannot fish
and fight at the same time. He either neg
lects
HIS NET OR HIS MUsKET.
It is amazing how much time some Of the
fishermen have to look after other fish
ermen. 1t is more than l can do to take
care of my own net. You see the wind is
Just right and it is such good time for
fishing and the fish are coming in so rap
idly that have to keep my eye and hand
busy. There are about two hundred mill
ion souls wanting to get into the kingdom
of God and it will require all the nets and
all the boats and all the fishermen in Chris
tendon TO safely land them. At East Hamp-
ton. L. l., where l summer. out on the
bluffs some morning we see the flags up:
and that is the signal for launching out into
the deep. For mile the water is tinged
with that peculiar color that indicates
whole schools of piScatorial revelry and the
beech SwarmS with men with their coat of
and their sea cap on and those OF US VINO
do not go out on the wave stand on the
beach ready to rejoice when the boats come
back and in our excitement we rush into
the water with our shoes on to help get the
boats up the beach and we ali lay hold the
lines and pull till we are red in the face
and as the living things of the deep come
tumbling in on the sand, l cry out: Cap
tain. how many2" And he answers: "About
fifty thousand.'' And we shout to the
late corners, ''Hurrah, fifty thousand.' We
must have an enthusiasm something like
that if we are ever to take the human race
for God and heaven. Aye, we ought to
have that enthusiasm of the beach multi
piled hundred fold and by so much as an i'm
mortal soul is worth more than a blue-tish.
o, brethren of ministry! Let US spend our
time in fishing instead of fighting. But if
1 anerily jerk my. net across
your net, and you jerk your net
angrily across mine, we will soon have two
broken nets and no fish. The French revo-
luton nearly destroyed the French fish
cries, and ecclesiastical war is the worst
thing possible while hauling souls into the
kingdom. | had hoped that the millennium
was about TO dawn but the lion is yet two
fond of lamb. My friends, l notice in the
ltAI lIllJ .IdUltS inc SOH Vi LcDtutt anu
John his brother were busy not mending
somebody else's nets, but mending theirown
nets, and ] rather think that we who are
engaged in Christian work in this latter
part of the Nineteenth century Will require
all our spare time to mend cur own nets
God help Us in the important duty
IN THIS WORK OF PREPARATION
we need to put into the nets more threads
of common sense When we can present
Pp1Oinn DroDf nfgptIt3lltv will
catch hundred souls where now we catch
one. Present religion as an intellectually
and we will fail. Out in the fisheries there
are set across the waters what are called
gill nets and fish put their heads through
the meshes and then they cannot withdraw
them because they are 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 alySiS ever brought man
into the kingdom of God. Heart work, not
head work. Away with your gill nets
sympathy, helpfulness, consolation, love,
are the names of some of the threads that
We need to weave in our gospel nets when
we are mending them.
Do you know that the worlds heart is
bursting with trouble and if you could
make that world believe that the religion
of Jesus Christ is a soothing omnipotence,
the whole world would surrender to-mor-
row, yea, would surrender this hour. The
day before James a. Garfield was inaug-
urated as president ] was in the cars going
from Richmond to Washington. A gentle
man seated next to me in the cars knew me
and we were soon in familiar conversation.
1t was Just after a bereavement and [ was
speaking to him from an over-burdened
heart about the. sorrow l was suffering.
Looking at his cheerful free [ said: Il
guess you have escaped all trouble. l |
should Judge from your countenance that
YOU have come through free from all mis-
fortune Then he looked at me with
look | shall never forget and whispered in
my ear:
SIR, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT TROUBLE.
My wife has been in an insane asylum
for fifteen years. And then he turned |
md looked out of the window and into |
he night with silence that [ was too |
,verpowered to break. That was another |
Illustration of the fact that no one escapes |
.rouble. Why, that man seated next to YOU |
II church has on his soul a weight com |
Jared with which mountain is a feather. |
That woman seated next to you in church |
las a grief the recital of which would |
make your body, mind and soul shudder.
When you are mending your net for this |
vide, deep sea of humanity, take out that |
wire thread of criticism and that horse
Idlf tlrtdu VI HdrSiucSS, anu put III q
oft Sillsen thread of Christian sympathy |
Yea, when YOU are mending your nets
ear out those old threads of gruffness and |
weave in few threads of politeness and |
In the house of God let all the
Christian faces beam with look that |
means welcome. Say good morning. to |
he stranger as he enters your pew. and at |
he close shake hands with him and say
How did you like the music2" Why,
'ou would be to that man panel of the
Ioor of heaven; you would be to him note
# the doXology that seraphs sing when a
lew soul enters. That man is a thousand |
niles from home and he has just heard by
that his child is sick with scarlet
ever and his boy at college has got into
isgrace and he has had business troubles
nd is SO homesick he can hardly keep from
rying. Just one word of brothery kind
less from you would lift him into small
eaven. | have i'll other days entered
Jew in church and the woman at the other
nd of the pew looked at me as much as TO
ay '.How dare you! This is my pew and |
'ay the rent for it.'' Well, l crouched in
he other corner and made myself as small
S possible and felt as though had been |
tealing something. So there are people
Fho have sharp edge to their religion and
hey act as though they thought most peo-
lie had been elected to be damned and they |
we're glad of it. Oh, let us brighten up our
hammer and appear in utmost gentlemanli-
esS or ladyhood.
The object in tly-fshing is to throw the
y far out, and then let it drop gently down
nd keep it gently rising and falling with
he waters and not plunge it like a man,of-
vars anchor; and abruptness aud harsh
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