The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-06-03


omnipotent Jehovah, who can you trust?
Oh, this important WORK Of msnding our
nets! If we could get our nets right We
would accomolish mare in soul-savinZ in the
aext year than we have In the last twenty
year5. But where shall we get them
mendei? Just wners the old Zebedee and
his two boys men1ed their nets-where you
are. 'James why don't you put your oa:
in Lake Galilee or hoist your sail and Ian
at Capernaum or Tioerias or Gardara. AMI
seated on the bank msni your net? John,
way don't you go ashore and mend your
oct? No, they sat on the guards Of the boat.
or at t q PROV of the boat, aud they took no
the thread and the nesdle, and the ropes and
the wooden blocks, aud went to work: sew
Ing, sewing; tying, tying: weaving weaving:
pounding pounding, until, the net mended,
they push it of into the sea and drop paddle
and hoist sail, aud the cutwater went
through amid the shoals Of fish, some of the
descendants Of which we had for breakfast
one morning while we were encamped on the
beach OF beautiful Galiles. James and Johu
fishing for fun, as you and 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, II mean to get my
net mended, and will 90 down to the public
library, and will seq what the scientists say
about evolution 60 about the survival OF
Che fittest,' AMI T will read up what tns
theologians say about advanced thought ]
will leave the ship awhile, and will go ashore
and stay there until my net Is mended." Do
that, my brother, and you will have no net
left Instead of their helping you mend
your net, they will steal the pieces that re-
main. Better stay in the Gospel boat where
you have all the means for mending your
net. What ara they, do you ask9 I answer
all you need you have where you are, namely,
a Bible and place to pray. The more you
study evolution, and adopt what is called
advanced thought, the bigger fool you will
be. Stay in the ship and mind your net.
That is where James the son Of Zebedee and
John his brother staid. That is where all
who get their nets mended stay.
These dear brethren of all demo limitations,
afflicted with theological fidgets, had better
80 to mending nets instead Of br eaking them.
Before they break up the old eligion aud
try to foist on US new religion let them 60
through some great sacrifice for God that
will prove then worthy for suci a WORK,
taking the advice Of -Talleyrand to a man
who wanted to upset the religion Of Jesus
Christ and start nav ona, when he said:
go and be crucifisd and then raise yourself
from the grave the third dayp Those who
tical books are just like man who has just
one week for fishing, and six of the days he
spenis in reading Isaak Waltons "Compiete
Angler" and Wheatley's "Rod and Line"
and Scott's Fishing in Northern Waters"
and Pullman's "Vade Mecun of Fly Fishing
for Trout" and then on Saturday morning,
his last day out, goes to the river to ply his
art but that day the fish will not bite, and
late on Saturday night he goes home with
empty basket and disappointed heart.
Meanwhile a man who never saw big
library in all his life, has that week caught
with an old fishing tackle enough I'd supply
his own table and the table Of all his neigh
bors, and enough to salt down in barrels for
the long winter that will soon come in. Alas!
Alas! IF, when the Saturday night of our
life drops on US it shall bs found that we
have spent our time in the libraries "
worldly philosophy, trying to mend our nets,
and we have only few souls to report as
brought to God through our instrumental
ty, while some humble Gospel fisherman, his
liorary made up OF Bible and an almanac,
shall come home laden with the results, his
trophies the souls within fftaen miles Of his
log cabin meeting house.
In the time Of great disturbance in Naples
in 1919 Massaniello a bare footsd fishing
bo7, dropped his fishing rod, and by strange
magnetism took command Of that city OF six
hundred thousand souls. He took of his fish
ing Jacket and put on a robe OF gold IN the
presence Of bowling mobs. He put his hand
on his lip as signal, and they were rent.
He waved his hand away from him, and they
retired to their homes. Armies passed IN re-
view before him. He became the nations
idol. The rapid rise and complete supremacy
Of that young fisherman, Massaniello, has no
parallel in all history. But something equal
to that and bettsr than that is an everyday
occurrence in heaven.
God takes some of those, who in this world
were fishers Of men, and who tohed very
huu1bly, but because Of the way they mended
their nets and employed their nets after tney
were mended, and suddenly hoists them and
robes them and scepters them and crowns
them and makes them rulers over cities, ana
He marches armies of saved ones before them
in review, Massanisllos unhonored on earth,
hut radiated in heaven. The fisher boy or
Naples soon lost his powar. but those people
of God wlo kept their nets mended and
rightly swung them shall never lose their e1-
allied place, but shall reign forever and ever
and ever. Keep that reward in sight. -,
But do not spend your time hsnln3 Wltn
hook and line Why did not James, the son
of absdee, sit on the wharf at Cana, his feet
hanging over the lake and with q long pole
and worm on the hook dipped into ths
wave. wait for some mullet to swim up and
be- caught? Why did not zsbedee spend his
afternoon trying to catch one eel? No; that
Wort was too slow. These men were not
msnding hook and line; they were mend.
ing their nets. So let the church OF God not
be contsnt with having here one soul
and next month another soul brought into
the kingdom. Sweep all the seas with nets
SCOOP nets, seine nets, drag nets, all encom-
nassing nets-aud take the treasures In
by hundreds and thousan Is and millions, and
nations be born in a day, and tn, hsmispheras
nuake WITH the tread Of ransomiug lIoa.
Do Won know wlat will bs the two most
tremendous hours in our heavenly existence?
Among the quadrillions OF ages which shall
roll on. what two occasions will bs to us the
greatest: Ill - .. go
one of the two greatest. The second great.
est I think, will be the day when we snali
have put in parallel lines before US what
Christ did for US and what we did for Christ
the one so great, the other so little. That
will be the only embarrassment In heaven:
NV Lori and my God! What will We do and
what will we say when on one side ara placed
the Savioul's great sacrifices tor US ana our
small sacrifices for Him-dis exile, bis
humiliation, His agonies on one hand, ana
orr moor weak, insufficient sacrifices on the
other? To make thu contrast less over
wheluing, let US quickly mend our nets anu
like the Galilean fishermen may we be divine.
" helped to cast them on the right side OF
the ship.
uERMANTS mercnanI manle com.
prehends 1854 vessels, with q regis