Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-05-22

cory, and Is not quite certsIn but that there
may be another chance after DEATH aud
does not know whether or not tho Bible is
inspired, and l tell you that man
faith '0H n GoS ana in J. pSSr c ,sE
and the Holy Ghost, aud the absolute
necessity OF regenerated heart, in order TO
see God In peace IL one thread You must
have In your mended net, or you Will never
be a successful fisher for men. Why, how
can you doubt? The hundreds OF millions
OF men and women now standing III the
church OH earth, and the hundreds OF
millions in heaven, attest the power OF this
Gospel TO save. With more than the GER
tainty of "a mathematical demonsti alton, let
us start out to redeem all nations. The
rottenest thread that you are to tear out of
gourmet ~ unbelef. and the most important
thread that you are TO put in IL Is faith.
Faith in God, triumphant faith, everlasting
faith. II you cannot trust the infinite, the
holy, the Omnipotent Jehovah, who can
YOU trust?
oh, this important work of mendng our
nets II We could get our nets right we
would accomplish more in soul-saving in
the next year than we have In the last TWEEN
ty years. But where shall we get them
mendedp just where old Zebedee and his
two boys mended their nets--where you are.
james! why don't you put your oar In
Capcrnaum or Tiberias, or Gadara, and,
seated OH the bank, mend your metz John,
why don't you 80 ashore and mend your
net!' No, they sat OF the guards OF the
boat, or ut 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, sew,
ing sewing, trying, trying, weaving
weaving, pounding. pounding, until the
net mended: they push 1t off in the sea and
and drop paddle and hoist SAL, and the cut
water went through amid the shoals OF
fish. some OF the descendants of which we
had for breaE fast one morning while we
were encamped OH the beach of beautiful
Galilee. james and John had no time TO 20
ashore. Trey were NOT fishing for fun, rs
you and u do In summer time. 1t was
their livelihood and that of their
families. They mended their nets where
they were, in the ship.
notice that ali who leave the Gospel
boat and so ashore to mend their nets stay
there. Or IL they try again TO fish, they do
not catch any thing. Get out OF the Gospel
boat and 20 up into the world TO get your
net mended, and you Will live to see the
day when you feel like the man who, hav-
ing forsaken Christianity, sighed: IL
would give Il thousand pounds To feel as
did in 1920" The time will come when
you would be willing TO give thousand
pounds 10 feel As YOU did in 1891.
Those, dear brethren, OF all denOmina-
tons, afflicted with theological fidgets, had
better 10 TO mending nets instead
OF breaking them. Before they break
up the old religion and try To
foist Oh US new religion, let them go
through some great sacrifice for God that
will prove them worthy for such work,
taking the advice OF Talleyrand 10 man
who wanted 10 upset the religion OF Jesus
Christ aud start new one, when he SAID:
go and be cruclfied and then raise your
self from the grave the third day
In the time OF great disturbance in
Naples in 1919, Mas>aniello, Il burefOoted
fishing-bOy, dropped his tishing'rod, aud by
strange magnetism took command OF that
city OF six hundred thousand souls. lie
took off his tishing-jacket and put on robc
OF gold in the presence OF howling mobS.
lie put his hand on his lip II Il signal and
they were silent. lie waived his hand away
from HIM and they retired 10 their homes.
AImie9 passed Ia review before him.
He became the nations Idol. he
rapid rise and complete supremacy OF that
young fisherman MaSsanleilo, has no para-
lei III ell hi-IOay. But something equal 10
that aud better ths1 that is an everyday
occurrence In heaven. But do not slsend
your time fishing with hook aud line. Why
did not James the son Of Zebedee sit OH tie
wharf Mt Cana, his feet hanging over the
lake and with . long pole and worm on
the hook dipp<d into the wave wait for
some mullet TO swim up and be caught.
Why did not Zebejee spend
his afternoon trying to catch
one eely No. that work was too slow.
These men were not mending a hook and
line, they were mend/lg their nets. So let
the church Of God no. be content with hav-
ing 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-encompa,sIng nets. aud take
the treasures IN by hundreds aud thousands
and millions and natious be born in q day.
and the hemlspheres quake with tue tread
OF ransoming God. DO you know what
will he the two most tremendous hours In
our heavenly eXistenceI Among the
quadrilIiOns OF ages which shall roll
on, what two occasions will be to
us the greatestY The day OF our arrival
there will be to us one of the two greatest
Tie second greatest, l think, will be the
day when We shall have put IN parallel
lines before liz 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 My Lord and
my Godl What will we do and what will
we say when, on one side we are placed
the Savior's great sacrifices for u.s. aud our
small sacrifices for him; his exile his hui
initiation, his agonies on one hand, and our
poor. weak, insufficient sacrifices on tho
other. To make the contrast less over
whelmng let us quickly mend our nets,
and. like the Gailean fishermen, may we
be dlvinely helped to cast them OH the right