The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-05-20
shall never FORGET and whispered in INV

trouble. My wife has been in an insane
asylum for fifteen years" And then he
turned and looked out of the window
and into the night with silence l was
too overpowered to break. That was
another illustration of the fact that nc
one escapes trouble. Why, that man
seated next to you in church has on his
soul weight compared with which
mountain is feather. That woman
seated next to you in church has grief
the recital Of which would make your
body, mind and soul shudder.
When you are mending yobr net for
this wide, deep sea, Of humanity, take
out that wire thread of criticism and
that horse-hair thread of harshness and
put in soft silken thread Of Christian
sympathy. Yea, when you are mending
your nets tear out those old threads OF
gruffness and weave in a few threads OF
politeness and geniality. In the house
Of God let all the Christian faces beam
with look that means welcome. Say
good morning to the stranger as he
enters your pew, and at close shake
hands with him and say, "How did you
like the music?" Why, you would be to
that man panel Of the door of heaven;
you would be to him note Of the dox-
ology that seraphs sing when new soul
enters. The man is thousand miles
from home and he has just heard by tele-
graph that his child is sick with scarlet
fever and his boy at college has got
into disgrace and he has had business
troubles and is SO homesick he can
hardly keep from crying, just one word
of brotherly kindness from you would
lift him into small heaven. 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 you? This is my pew and I pay
rent for itr' 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 aud they were
were glad of it. No, let US brighten up
our manner and appear in utmost gen.
tlemanliness or ladyhood.
The object in fy-fshing is to throw
the fly far out and then let it drop
gently down and keep 1t gently rising
and falling with the waters and not
plunge IL like a man-of-war's anchor;
and abruptness and harshness of man
ner must be avoided in our attempt at
usefulness. know a man in New York
whofs more sunshiny and genial 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 puts forth additional determi-
nation to be kindly and genial, and by
the help Of God, he 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 fisherman to
spend one whole day before he can take
a St Lawrence pike. or an Ohio salmon,
or Long Island pickerel, or q Cayuga
black bass, or Delaware catfish, and
he does that day after day without par
ticular discouragement. But what a
lack Of patience II we do not immedi-
ately succeed in soul catching We are
apt to give 1t up and say: 81 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 pa
tient God has been with usl Can we
not be patient with our fellows?
had presented me from Scotland a
few days ago an ornamented ink
stand, the wooden parts OF which were
made from piece Of tree cut down
by Mr.. Gladstone, at Hawarden, and
sent by him to Scotland by request.
The incident reminded me of the fact
that woman, who had long been on
Mr.. Gladstone's estate, had waywsrd
boy, and in her despair she asked Mr..
Gladstone to take the boy in hand.
While prime minister of England with
al the mighty affairs OF the kingdom in
his hand, he took that boy in his study
and counseled him and then lSnelt down
and prayed with him, and Che boy was
saved. II we all had hearts Of sympa-
thy like that, what would be TO us i'm
possible? 'Is IL not delightful that |
eau sing so well2" said Jenny Lind, in
a burst Of joy that she could help
others SIS II not delightful that can
sing so well?" And might we not all
say In thankfulness TO God: "Is Is not
delightful that we can sympathize with
others, and encourage others, and help
others, and save othersp"
Again, in mending our nets we need,
also, TO put In the threads Of faith and
tear out all the tangled meshes Of unbe-
lief. 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 doubling about that will |
be failure In Christian work. Show
me the man who rather thinks that the
Garden Of Eden may have been an allie.
CORY. 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-savipg is poor stick. Faith
in God, and In Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Ghost, and the absolute necessity of q
regenerated heart, in order TO see God
in peace, is one thread you must have In
unur mendad net or .ra,, .uill ......- L. |