Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-05-18

one WOr0 OF DfObnerly kluuues5 lIOul lOu
would lift him into a small beaver.
/ 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;
"How dare youi This is my pew, and /
pay the rent for itI'' Well, crouched 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 to their religion,
and they act as though they thought most
people had been elected to be damned and
they were glad of it. Oh, let us brighten
up 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 a 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
| 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
kindly and genial, and by the help of God
be 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 n 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
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, ~
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 usl 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 a 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
impossiblep "Is it not delightful that can
sing so well2" said Jenny Lind, in burst
of joy that she could help others. SIS it
not delightful that l can sing so well2"
And might we not all say in thankfulness
to God, "ls it not delightful that we can
sympathize with others, and encourage
others, and help others, and save othersi"
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 | tell you that man for soul
saving is a 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
/ M ha nf ft,
save. With more than the certainty of u
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 1t is faith.
Faith in God, triumphant faith, everlast-
ing faith. II you cannot trust the infinite,
the holy, the omnipotent Jehovah, who can
you trusti
IT IS AN IMPORTANT WORK,
Oh, this important work of mending our
netsl II 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 mendedP 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 metz
John, why don't you go ashore and mend
your nett" 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 il OF 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
were encamped on the beach of beautiful
Galilee. James and John had no time to
20 ashore. They were not fishing for fun,
as you and do in summer time. IL was
their livelihood and that Of their families.
They mended their nets where they were,
in the ship.
"Oh," says some one, 81 mean to get my
net mended, aud | will go down to the pub
lie library, aud will see what the scien.
lists say about evolution and about the
survival of the tlttest, and / will read up
what the theOlogians say about advanced
thought | will laaye the ship awhile,
and | will 20 ashore and stay there till 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
lthe pieces that remain. Better stay IN the
Gospel boat, where you have all the means
for mending your net What are they, do
You ask answer all you need you have
where you Are, namely, = Bible and n place