The Forrest City times., 1891-05-22

faith. If you cannot trust the infinite, the you trust?
 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 twen- ty years. But where shall we get them mendedg Just where old Zebedee and his two boys mended their nets-where you are. 'James! why don't you put your oar in Lake Gaiilee, or hoist your sail and land at Capernaum or Tiberias, or Gadara, and, seated on the bank, mend your net? John, why don't you go ashore and mend your net!' No. they sat on the guards of tho boat, or at the prow of the boat, or in tue 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 tb. net mended: they push it off in the sea and and drop paddle and hoist sail, snd the cut water went through amid the shoals of nsh. 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 so ashore. They were not fishing for fun, as you and l do in summer time. It was their livelihood and that of their families. They mended their nets where they were, in the ship.
 1 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 feel like the man who, hav- ing forsaken Christianity, sighed: II would give thousand pounds to feel as ] did in 1920" The time will come whs,. you would be willing to give thousand pounds 10 feel as you did in 1891.
 Those, dear brethren, of all denomina- tions, afflicted with theological fidgets, had better go to mcnding nets instead of breaking them. Before they break up the old religion and try to folst on 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 to upset the religion of Jesus Christ and start new one, when he sald Go and be crucified and then raise your self from the grave tue third day! !'
 In the time of great disturbance in Naples i'll l649. Massaniello a bare-footed tishing-boy, dropped his iishing-rod, and by strange magnetism took command of that city of six hundred thousand souls. He took off his fishtng g-jacket and put on robe of gold in the presence of bowling mobs. He put his hand on his lip as signal and they were silent. He waived his hand away from him and they retired To their homes. Armies passed Tn review before him. He became the nations idol. The rapid rise and complete supremacy of that young fisherman Massaniello has no paral- Tel Tn all histoay. But something equal 10 that and better than that is an everyday occurrence in heaven. But do not spend your time fishing with hook and line. Why did not James the son of Zebedee sit on tue wharf at Cana, his feet hanging over the lake and with long pole and q worm on the hook dipped into the wave wait for some mullet to swim up and be caught. Why did not Iebedee spend his afternoon trying to catch one eels No, that work was too slow. These men were not mending hook and liue. they were mending their nets. So let the church of God not be content with hay ing here one soul and next month another soul brought into the kingdom, Sweep all the seas with nets, scoop nets seine n.ts, drag nets, all-encompassing nets. and take the treasures Ill by hundreds and thousands and millions and nations be born in a day. and the hemtspheres quake with the tread Of T ransoming God. Do you know what will be the two most tremendous hours in our heavenly existenceY Among the quadriliiens of ages which shall roll on. what two occasions will be to us the greatestf The day Of our arrival there will be to us one of the two greatest The second greatest. l think, will be the day when we shall have put in parallel lines before us 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 God What will we do and what will we say when. on one side we are placed the Savior's great sacrifices for us and our small sacrifices for him; his exile, his hu- initiation. his agontes on one hand, and our poor, weak, insufficient sacrifices on the other. To make the contrast less over- whelm,ng let us quickly mend our nets. and. like tue Galilean fishermen, may we be divinely helped to cast them on the right side of tho ship.