Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-05-28

one word OF brotherly kindness from you
would lift him into a small heaven
/ have in other days entered a pew in
church, and the woman ut the other end
Of the pew looked at me rs much as 10 say;
How dare youf This Is my pew, and
pay the rent fDr itf' Well, | crouehed in
the other corner and made myself as small
as possible, and felt as though had been
stealing something. So there are people
who have a sharp edge 70 their religion,
and they act as though they thought most
people had been elected 10 be damned and
they were glad Of il. oh, let US brighten
mp our manner and appear In utmost gen
tlemanliness or ladyhood.
BE GENIAL
The object in Fly fishing is to throw the
fly far out, and then let it drop gently down
and keep it gently rising and falling with
the waters, and not plunge it like man
of-war's anchor; and abruptness and harsh
ness Of manner must be avoided in our at
tempt at usefulness. / know a man in
New York who is more sunshiny and gen
ial when he has dyspepsia than when he is
not suffering from that depressing trouble.
l have found out his secret When he
starts out in the morning with such de-
preston he asks for special grace to keep
from swapping up anybody that day, and
puts forth additional determination to be
kindly and genial, and by the help of God
he accomplishes it. Many of our nets
need to be mended in these respects, the
black threads and the rough threads taken
out, and the bright threads and the golden
threads of Christian geniality woven in.
In addition to this we need to mend our
nets with more threads of patience. 1t is
no rare thing for a fisherman to spend one
whole day before he can take a st. Law
renee pike or an Ohio salmon or Long
Island pickerel or a Cayuga black bass or
a Delaware catfish, and he does that day
after day without particular discourage
ment. But what lack of patience if we
do not Immediately succeed in soul catch
ing. We are apt to give it up and say, 81
will never try again" Into all our nets we
need to weave all along the edge and all
through the center great, long, stout
threads of Christian patience How patient
God has been with us Can we not be pa
tient with our fellows? / had presented
me from Scotland few days ago an orna-
mented inkstand, the wooded parts of
which were made from piece of a tree cut
down by Mr.. Gladstone, at Hawarden, and
sent by him to Scotland by request
The incident reminded me of the fact that
a woman who had long been on Mr. Glad
stones estate had wayward boy, and in
her despair she asked Mr.. Gladstone to take
the boy in hand While prime minister of
England, with all the mighty affairs of the
kingdom in his hand, he took that boy in
his study and counseled him, and then
knelt down and prayed with him, and the
boy was saved. If we all had hearts of
sympathy like that, what would be to us
impossible2 SIS it not delightful that can
sing so well?" said Jenny Lind, in a burst
of Joy that she could help others. "Is it
not delightful that l can sing so wellP"
And might we not all say in thankfulness
to God, "Is it not delightful that we can
sympathize with Others, and encourage
others, and help others, and save others"
Again, in mending our nets we need also
to put in the threads of faith and tear out
all the tangled meshes of unbelief Our
work is successful according to our faith.
The man who believes in only half Bible,
or the Bible in spots; the man who thinks
he cannot persuade others; the man who
halts, doubling about this and about that,
will be failure in Christian work. Show
me the man who rather thinks that the
garden of Eden may have been an allegory,
and is not quite certain but that there may
be another chance after death, and does
not know whether or not the Bible is in
spired, and l tell you that man for soul
saving is poor stick. Faith in God and
in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and
the absolute necessity of regenerated
heart in order to see God in peace, is one
thread you must have in your mended net
or you will never be successful fisher for
men. Why, how can you doubt?
The hundreds of millions of men and
women now standing in the church on
earth. and the hundreds of millions in
heaven, attest the power of this Gospel to |
save. With more than the certainty of |
mathematical demonstration, let US start |
out to redeem all nations. The rotten |
est thread that you are to tear out of your
net is unbelief, and the most important |
thread that you are to put in it is faith. |
Faith in God, triumphant faith, everlast- |
ing faith. If you cannot trust the infinite, |
the holy, the omnipotent Jehovah, who can
you trust?
IT IS AN IMPORTANT WORK.
Oh, this important work of mending our
nets! If we could get our nets right we
would accomplish more in soul saving in |
the next year than we have in the last |
twenty years. But where shall we get |
them mended? just where old Zebedee |
and his two boys mended their nets-where
you are. James, why don't you put your
oar in Lake Galilee, or hoist your sail and |
land at Capernaum or Tiberias or Gadara, |
and seated on the bank mend your net?
John, why don't you go ashore and mend
your net?" No, they sat on the guards of |
the boat, or at the PROV of the boat, or in |
the stern of the boat, and they took up the |
thread and the needle, and the ropes and |
the wooden blocks, and went to work;
sewing, sewing; tying, tying; weaving, |
weaving; pounding, pounding; until, the
net mended, they push it off into the sea |
and drop paddle and hoist sail, and the
cutwater went through amid the shoals of |
fish, some of the descendants of which we |
had for breakfast one morning while we !
Galilee. James and John had no time to
go ashore. They were not fishing for fun,
as you and I do in summer time It was |
their livelihood and that of their families.
They mended their nets where they were,
in the ship.
"Oh,' says some one, IT mean to get my
net mended, and will go down to the pub
lie library, and will see what the scien-
lists say about evolution and about the
survival of the fittest,' 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, and
you will have no net left. Instead of their