Connecticut western news., 1891-05-20


 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 inspired, and 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 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 doubt9
 The hundreds of millions of men and women now standing in the church on earth and the hundreds ,uI ss'l'e -sp. heaven attest the power. upanc n,o,. I to save. With more .'I eqa puv,, .1e of a mathematical t1ma2H, if HR Al, ,Issjls n- let us start out to redeem all nations The rottenest thread that you are to tear out of your net is unbelieY, and the most important thread that you are 10 put in it is faith. Faith in God, tri- umphant faith, everlasting faith. If you cannot trust the infinite, the holy, the omnipotent Jehovah. who can you trust2
 Oh, this important work of mending our netsl 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 mended9 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 Ga. dara, and, seated on the bank, mend your net9 John, why don't you go ashore and mend your net9
 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, pound ing; until, the net mended, they push it off in 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 were encamped on the beach of beauti- full Galilee. James and John had no time to go ashore. They were not fish ;or, for f,,r oo x,o,, onl 1o ;o e,,v, o, 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 I will go down to the public library, and 1 will see what the scientists say about evolution and about the survival of the fittest, and I will read up what the theologians say about advanced thought I 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 help ing you mend your net they will steal the pieces that remain. Better stay in the Gospel boat, where you have all the means for mending your net. What are they, do you ask9 Ianswer all you need you have where you are, namely, Bible and a 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.
 DON'T GO ASHORE
 notice that all who leave the Gospel boat and go ashore to mend their nets stay there. Or if they try again to fish, they do not catch anything. Get out of the Gospel boat and go up into the world to get your net mended, and you will live to see the day when you will feel like the man who, having forsaken Christianity, sighed, "T would give a thousand pounds to feel as I did in 1920" The time will come when you would be- willing to give a thousand pounds to feel as you did in 1891. These men who have given up their old religion cannot help you bit.
 It is my opinion that the most of those ministers who gave up the ola ~" ligion are in search of notoriety. The, do not succeed in attracting much at tention. They are tired of obscurity They must do something to attract at tention, so they sit down, on the beact and go to tearing to pieces the fishing nets instead of mending them. Tht staid old denomination to which they belong does not pay them enough at tention SO they attract attention by striking their grandmother. They ds not get enou.y,l attention by standing in the pulpits, so they go to work ant break the church windows.
 These dear brethren of all denomina tions, atf1 cted with theological fidgets had better go to mending nets instead of breaking them Before they breal up the old religion and try to foist ol us new religion, let them go througt some great sacrifice for God that vii prove them worthy for such a work taking the advice of Talleyrand to , man who wanted to upset the religion of Jesus Christ and start new one when he said. Go and be cruciflet and then raise yourself from the gray the third dayw Those who propose t. mend their nets by secular and skepti cal books are like man who has jus ona waek for fiShino and six of th
 days he spends in reading Izaak Wal tons Complete Angler" and Wheat
 ley's Rod and Line" and Scott
 Fishing in Northern Waters, an'
 Pullman's Wade Mecum of Fly Fish
 ing for Trout" and then on Saturda,
 morning, his last day out, goes to tn
 river to ply his art, but that day tn