Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-05-29
REV. Or. TAlMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: MEND THE NETS"

O~th Hts W Otaffs W. AHtD tctth ZfDfffef
their father, mendiRg their nets."-Mat-
thew iv., 81.
II go fishing" cried Simon Peter to his
comrades, and 9 most Of the apostles had
hands hard from fishing tackle. The fish,
cries OF the world have always attracted
attention. In the Third century tho queen
OF Egypt had for pin money four hundred
and seventy thousand dollars. received from
the fisheries OF Lake Moeris And IL the
time should ever come when the immensity
Of the wor DIS population could not be fed
by the vegetables aud meats OF the land. the
sea has an amount OF animal life that would
feed all the populations OF the earth, and
fatten them with food that by its phos-
Phorus would make generation brainy aud
intellectual beyond anything that the world
has ever imagined. My text takes us among
the Galilesn fishermen. One day, Walter
Scott while hunting IN an old drawer
found among some old fishing tackle the
manuscript Of his immortal book "Waver-
lev, which he had put away there as of no
worth, and who knows but that to-day we
may find some unknown wealth Of thought
while looking at the fishing tackle in the
text
1t is not good day for fishing and three
men are in the boat repairing the broken
fishing nets. II you are hshing with a hook
and line and the rish will not bite it is a good
time to put the anglers apparatus into better
condition. Perhaps the last fish YOU hauled
IN was 40 large that something snapped. Or
II you were fishing with a net there was
mighty foundering OF the scales, or an ex-
posed nail on the side Of the boat which broke
some OF the threads and let part or all OF the
captives OF the deep escape into their natural
element. And hardly anything Is more pro-
voking than to nearly land a scoro or hun
dred OF trophies from the deep and when you
are in the full glee OF hauling in the spotted
treasures through some imperfection Of the
net they splash back into the wavA
This is too much of a trial Of patience for
most fishermen to endure, and many n man
ordinarily correct OF speech in such crcIim.
stances comes to an intensity OF utterance
unIustlhabie. Therefore no good fisherman
considers the time wasted that Is spent ia
mending his net. Now the Bible again and
again represents Christian workers as fish.
ers OF men, aud we are all sweeping through
the sea OF humanity some kind OF a net. In
deed, there have been enough nets out and
enough fishermen busy to have landed the
whole human race in the kingdom OF God
long before this. What is tho matterl 'rhe
Gospel is all right, and it has been a good
time for catching souls for thousands OF
years. Why, then, the failures' The Crou-
be is with the nets, and most of them need
to he mended. propose TO show you what
| is the matter with most of the nets aud how
TO mend them. In the text o!d Isbeise and
his two boys, James and John. were doing a
good thing when they sat in the boat mend.
ing their nets.
The trouble with many Of our nets is that
the meshes are too large. II fish can get
his gills and half his boly through the net
! work, he tears and rends and works his way
out and leaves the place through which he
| squrmed Il tangle Of broken threads. The
Bible weaves faith AMI works right together
the law and the Gospel, Righteousness ant
| forgiveness. Some OF our nets have mesheS
so wide that the sinner floats in and ont and
Isnot at any moment caught for the heavenly
| landing. In our desire to make everything
| SO easy, we relax. We loosen, We widen. We
| let men after they are once IN the Gospel net
e>cape into the world and 60 into indugenceS
aud swim all aruun Gsliiee, from nnrUn i 10
| to south side and from, en- It sldo 10 west side
expecting that they will come bac& again
| We ought to make it easy for them to get
INTO the kingdom Of God an !, as far rs we
can, make it impossible for them 10 get out.
The poor advice nowadays 10 many Is:
| Ito and do Just as you did before YOU were
| captured for God an heaven The net was
not intended TO be any restraint or any
hlndrance. What YOU did before YOU were
Christian, do now. Go to all STYLES OF
amusement, read all the styles OF books en-
| gage IN all the styles OF behavior As before
| you were converted And SO through these
meshes OF permission aud laxity they wriggie
out through this op,ning and that opening
tearing the net as they go, aud soon all the
souls that We expected TO land in heaven be-
| lore we know it are back in the deep sea of
! the world. Oh, when we go a-Gospel fishing
let us make it as easy as possible for souls to
get IN, aud as hari as possible to get out
There should be no rivalry between
| churches. Each one does a work peculiar to
itself. There shou d be no rivalry batween
ministers. God never repeats Himself. and
| He never makes two ministers alike, and each
one has a work that no other man in the
universe can accomplish. II fishermen ars
wise, they will not allow their nets TO en-
tangie, or il they accidentally get inter-
twisted, the work OF extrication should be
kindly and gently conductei What glad
spectsc for men and angels when on our
| recent dedication day ministers OF all de
nominations stood on Aiis platform aud
wished for each other widest prosperity and
usetulness, but there are cities in this couu-
try where there is now going on an awful
| Tipping and rending and tearing OF fishing
nets. Indeed, all over Christendom at this
time there is great war going on betwee'
fishermen, ministers against ministers.
Now have noticed a man cannot fish anc
| fight at the same time He either neglecta
his net or h s musset 1t is amazing how
much time some Of the fishermen have TO
look after other fishermen. It is more than
can do to take care Of my own net. You
see the wind is Just right, and it Is such a
good time for fishing, and the fish are COM
ing in 80 rapidly that have to keep nv eve
and hand busy. There are about two hun.
dred million souls wanting to get into the
kngdom OF God, and it will require all the
nets and all the boats and all the fishermen
OF Christendom to safely land them.
Oh, brethren OF ministryl Let us spend
our time in fishing instead OF fighting But
II angrily jerk my net across your net aud
| you jerk your net angrily across nine, we
| will soon have two broken nets aud no fish.
The French revolution nearly DESTROYED this
French fisheries, and ecclesiastical war Is
the worst thing possible while hauling souls
into the kingdom. had hoped that ths
millennium was about to dawn, but the lion
is yet too fond Of the lamb. NV friends. |
notice in the text that James the son Of
| Zebedee, and John. his brother were busy
not mending somebody else's nets but mend
ing their own nets. and rather think that
We who are engaged in Christian work in
this latter pat OF the niuetsenth century
will require all our spare time to mend our
own nets God help us In the important
| duty
III tniS WorKot reparatlon 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 will fail. Out
in the fisheries there are set across the
waters what are called gill nets, aud the Ash
put their heads through the meshes and then
cannot withdraw them because they are
caught by the gills. But gill nets cannot be
oil any service in religious work. Men are
never caught for the truth by their heads; 1t
Is by the heart or not at all No argument
ever saved a man. and no keen analysts ever
brought a man into the kingdom OF God.
Heart work, not head work. Away with
your gill netsi Sympathy, helpfulness, con-
ISOLATION, love arc the names of some OF the
threads that we need to weave in our Gospel
nets when we are mending them.
Again in m ,niing our NETS we nssi also
1 ~ L.. F.IaL III