Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-06-05

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never caught for the truth by their heads: 1t
Is by the heart OF not at all No argument
ever saved a man. and no keen ANALYSIS ever
brought man into the kingdom of God.
Heart work, not head WORK. Away with
your gill nets, Sympathy helpfulness, con-
ISOLATION, love, are the names of some OF the
threads that we need to weave in our Gospel
nets when we are mending them.
Again, In men1ing our nets we need also
to put in the threads of faith AMI 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 can
not persuade others: the man who halts
doubling about this and about that will be a
failure IN Christian work. Show me the
man VINO rather thinks that the garden OF
Eden may have been an allegorv 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 a poor
stick. Faith in God and in Jesus Christ and
the Holy Ghost, and the absolute necasstv of
are2enerated 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 wo-
men now standing III the church on earth
and the hundreds of millions in heaven attest
the power of the Gospel to save. With more
than certainty Of a mathematical demon
stration. let us start out to redeem all nations
The rottenest thread YOU are to tear out of
your net is unbelief, and the most important
thread you are to put in it is faith Faith in
God. triumphant faith, everlas ting faith If
you cannot trust the infinite, the holy the
omnipOtent Jehovah, who can you trust?
Oh this important work of mending our
nets! If we could get our nets right we
would accomplish more in soul-saving in TIE
next year than we have IN the last twenty
InoY1 lint 1Iav.4 hill
mended? Just where the old Zebedee and
his two boys mended their nets-where you
are. flames, why don't you put your oar
in Lake Galilee or hoist your sail and lan1
at Capernaum or Tiberas or Gardara. and
seated on the bank mend your net? John,
WIN don't you go ashore AMI mend your
net? No, they sat on the guards Of the boat,
or at the prov Of the DO at, and they took I'D
the thread and the nsadle aud the ropes and
the wooden blocks, and went to work: sew
ing, sowing; tying, tying: weaving, weaving;
pounding, pounding, UNTIL the net mendel,
they push it off 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 Galilea. James and John
had no time to go ashore. They ware not
fishing for fun, you and do in summer
time. It 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, and will go down to the public
library, and will see what the scientists say
about evolution and about 'the survival Of
the fttest,' and [ will read I'D what the
theologi ans say about advanced thought
will leave the ship awhile nd-wilI go ashore
and stay there until 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 the pieces that re-
main. 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.
a Bible and 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 Zebadee and
John his brother Staid. That is where all
who get their nets men1ed stay.
These dear brethren of all demo limitations
afflicted with theological fidgets, had better
go to mending nets instead of br eaking them.
Before they break up the old elgiOn and
try to foist on us q new religion let them go
through some great sacrifice for God that
will prove them worthy for such a work,
taking the advice Of Talleyraa1 to a man
who wanted to upset the religion of Jesus
Christ and start a new one, when he said:
go and be crucitied and then raise yourself
from the grave the third dayp Those VINO
propose to mend their nets by secular skep-
tical books are lust like man who has just
one week for fishing, and six Of the days he
spends in reading Isaak Walton's ''Complete
Angler" and Wheatleys Rod and Line"
and SCOTS "Fishing in Northern Waters, ;"
and Pullman's ''Vade Mecun of Fly Fishing
for Trout, and then on Saturday morning.
his last day out, goes to the river to ply his
art but that day the fish will not bite, and
late on Saturday night he goes home with
empty basket and a disappointed heart.
Meanwhile man who never saw a big
library in all his life, has that week caught
with an old fishing tackle enough to supply
his own table and the table Of all his neigh
bors, and enough to salt down in barrels for
the long winter that will soon come in. Alas!
Alas! If, when the Saturday night Of our
life drops on us it shall be found that we
have spent our time III the libraries of
worldly philosophy, trying to mend our nets,
and we have only few souls to report as
brought to God through our instrumental
ty while some humble Gospel fisherman, his
library made up of a Bible and an almanac,
shall come home laden with the results, his
trophies the souls within fifteen miles or his
log cabin meeting house.
In the time of great disturbance in Naples
in 1919 MassaniellO, bare footed fishing
bow dropped his fishing rod, and by strange
magnetism took command OF that city OF six
hundred thousand souls. He took off his fish
ing Jacket and put on a robe OF gold In the
presence Of bowling mobs. He put his hand
He waved his hand away from him, and they
retired to their homes. Armies passed In re-
view before him. He became the nations
idol The rapid rise and complete supremacy
of that young fisherman Massanlello, has no
parallel in all history. But something equal
to that and better than that is an everyday
occurrence i'll heaven.
I'D +oly of