The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-05-29
FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 20. 1891.

in Lake Galllee, or hoist your sail and
land at Capernaum or Tiberias or Ga
dara, and, seated ON the bank, mend
your natl Johu, WHY do"'t you go
ashore and mend your retl
No; they sat on the guards of the
boat, or at the prov OF the boat, or in
the stem 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, pound
ing; until, the net mended, they push it
off in 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 beauti-
full Galilee. James and John had no
time to go ashore. They were not fish
ing for fun, as you and do in summer
time. 1t was their livelihood and that
of their families. They mended their
nets where they were, in the ship "Oh, I"
says some one, II 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 fittest, and | will
read up what the theologians say about
snI \ nil lxn
ship awhile and will go ashore and
stay there till my net is mended.
Do that, my brother, and you will
have no net left. Instead of their help
ing you mend your net they will steal
the pieces that remain. Better stay in
the Gospel boat, where you have all the
means for mending your net, What
are they, do you aska Ianswer 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 Zebedee and John his
brother staid. That is where all who
get their nets mended stay.
DON'T GO ASHORE.
! 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 will
feel like the man who, having forsaken
Christianity, sighed, 81 would give a
thousand pounds to feel as did in
1920" The time will come when you
would be willing to give thousand
pounds to feel as you did in 1891.
These men who have given up their old
religion cannot help you bit.
1t is my opinion that the most of
those ministers who gave up the old re-
ffgion are in search of notoriety. They
do not succeed in attracting much at
tention. They are tired of obscurity
They must do something to attract at
tention, SO they sit down on the beach
and go to tearing to pieces the fishing
nets instead of mending them. The
staid old denomination to which they
belong does not pay them enough at
tention, SO they attract attention by
striking their grandmother, They dc
not get enough attention by standing
in the pulpits, SO they go to work ant
break the church windows
These dear brethren of all denomina
tions, afflicted with theological fidgets
had better go to mending nets instead
of breaking them. Before they breaf
up the Gid religion and try to foist OF
us new religion, let them go through
some great sacrifice for God that vii
prove them worthy for such work
taking the advice of Talleyrand to I
man who wanted to upset the religion
of Jesus Christ and start new one
when he said, go and be crucifie(
and then raise yourself from the gray,
the third day!". Those who propose t.
mend their nets by secular and skepti
cal books are like man who has jus
one week for fishing, and six of tn
days he spends in reading Izaak Wal
toms Complete Angler" and Wheat
ley's Rod and Line" and Scott
''Fishing in Northern Waters" AM
Pullman's wade Mecum of Fly Fish
ing for Trout, and then on Saturda,
morning, his last day out, goes to tn
river to ply his art, but that day tn
fish will not bite, and late on Saturda
night he goes home with empty baske
and a disappointed heart.
Meanwhile a man who never saw
big library in all his life has that wee
caught with an old fishing tackle enoug
to supply his own table and the tabl
of all his neighbors, and enough to sal
down in barrels for the long winter tina
will soon come in. Alas! alas!
when the Saturday night of our Lii
drops ON us it shall be found that W
, have spent our time in the libraries {
worldly philosophy, trying to mend GU
nets, and we have only few souls t
report as brought to God through OF
instrumentality, while some humid
Gospel fisherman, his library made u
of Bible and an almanac, shall CON
home laden with the results, his trophie
the souls within fifteen miles of his 10
, cabin meeting house.
A FISHERMAN IN COMMAND.
In the time of great disturbance
Naples in 1649 Massaniello, ban
footed fishing boy, dropped his fishin
rod and by strange magnetism too
command of that city of six hundre
thousand souls. He took off his fist
ing jacket and put on robe of gold
the presence of bowling mobs He pl
: his hand on his lip as signal and the
!, were silent. He waved his hand ava
from him and they retired to the
homes. Armies passed in review befol
,, him. He became the nations lido
The rapid rise and the complete 81
, premacy of that young fisherman, Ma
sanieilo, has no parallel in all history.
But something equal to that and be
: I tar fhar, tIaf 20 ,Iax m,