Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-18

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 l 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 / 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, i. 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 off
and their sea cap on and those of us who
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 all 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 many" 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 Il hundred fold and by so much as an i'm
mortal soul is worth more than blue-tish.
o, brethren of ministry, Let us spend our
time in fishing instead of fighting. But if
ansrily jerk my net across
your net, and you jerk your net
angriy 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 Vet two
fond of lamb. My friends, l notice in the
text that James the son OF Zebedee and
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 our 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
religion as "a great practically we will
catch hundred souls where now We catch
one. Present religion as an intellectually
and we viii 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
ana no keen analysis ever brought a 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 q soothing omnipotence,
the whole world would surrender to-mor-
row, yea, would surrender this hour The
day before James A. Garfield was inaug-
ulated as president was in the cars going
man seated next to me i'll the cars knew me
and we were soon in familiar conversation.
1t was just after bereavement and / was
speaking TO him from an Over-burdened
heart about the sorrow ! was suffering.
Looking ut his cheerful free | said: Il
guess you have escaped all trouble [
should Judge from your couutenance 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
and looked out Of the window and into
the night with silence that l was too
to break. That was another
illustration of the fact that no one escapes
trouble. Why, that man seated next to you
in church has on his soul weight COM
pared with which a mountain IS a feather.
That woman seated next to you in church
has grief the recital of which would
make your body, mind and soul shudder.
When you are mending your net for this
wide, deep sea of humanity, take out that
wire thread of criticism and that horse
hair thread of harshness, and put in
soft silsen thread of Christian sympathy
Yea, when you are mendiug your nets
tear out those old threads of gruffness and
weave in a few threads of politeness and
geniality. In the house of God let all the
Christian faces beam with look that
means welcome. Say good morning TO
the stranger as he enters your pew, and at
the close shake hands with him and say
How did you like the music2r Why,
you would be to that man panel of the
door of heaven; you would be TO him note
Of the doXology that seraphs sing when a
new soul enters. That man is thousand
miles from home and he has just heard by
that his child is sick with scarlet
fever and his boy at college has got into
disgrace and he has had business troubles
and is so homesick he can hardly keep from
frying. Just one word of brotherly kind
heaven. l have in other days entered
pew in church and the woman at the other
end of the pew looked at me as much as to
say s'How dare youa This is my pew and
pay the rent for it.'' Well, crouched in
he other corner and made myself as small
IS possible and felt as though had been
stealing something. So there are people |
who have sharp edge to their religion and
hey act as though they thought most peo-
PIE had been elected to be damned and they
we're glad of it. On, let us brighten up our
manner and appear in utmost gentlemanli-
ness or ladyhood.
The object in fly-fshing is to throw the |
BY far out, and then let it drop gently down |
md keep it gently rising and falling with
he waters and not plunge it like n man Of
wars anchor; and abruptness and harsh |
ness of manner must be avoided in our at
Tempt at usefulness. l know a man in New |
York who is more sunshiny and genial |
when he has dyspepsia than when he is not |
suffering from that depressing trouble. I |
Sc l.