The Forrest City times., 1891-05-22
AMONG THE FISHERMEN.
DR. TALMACE DRAWS A PARA
 LEI FROM THE TEXT.
The Nets of Modern Religions too Loose to Hold All the Catch - Harmony Among the Ministers of God of All
 Denominations . Necessity.


 hands hard from fishing tackle. The iisher- ies of the world have always attracted at tentlon. In the third century the Queen of Egypt had for pin money four hundred and seventy thousand dollars received from the fisheries of Lake Moeries. And if the time should ever come when the immensity Of the worlds population could not be fed by the vegetables and 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 phosphorus would make generation brainy and intellectual beyond anything that Inc world has ever imagined. My text takes us among the Galilean fishermen. One half the Gospel nets with which we have been scooping the sea have had such wide meshes that they have been all torn to pieces by the rushing out into the world of those whom tighter net would have kept In. The only use of net is to keep the fish from going back to where they were before and taking them where they could not have been taken by any other means. Alas, that the words of Christ are so little needed when he said: ''Whosoeyer doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple" The church is fast becoming as bad as the world and when 1t gets IS bad as the world it will be worse than the world by so much as 1t will add hypocrisy of most appalling kind to its other defects.
 Furthermore, many of our nets are torn to pieces by being entangled with other nets. It Is sad sight to see fishermen lighting about sea-room and pulling in op- posite directions, each 10 get his net, both nets damaged by the struggle and losing all the hsh. In q city like th,s of more than eight hundred thousand, three are at least five hundred thousand not in Sabbath schools or churches. And In this land. where there are more than sixty-four million peo- pie, there are at least thirty million not in the sabbath schools and churches, And in this world of more than fourteen hundred million people, there are. at least eight hundred million not in schools and churches. In such an Atlantic ocean ofop- portunity there Is room for all the nets and all the boats and all the fishermen. and for millions more. There should be no rivalry between churches. Each one does work peculiar 10 itself. There should be no rivalry between minis ters. God never repeats himself. and he never makes two ministers alike and each one has work which no other man in the universe can accomplish. If fishermen are wise, they will not allow their nets to en- tangle; or If they do accidentally get inter.twisted the work of extracation should be kindly and gently conducted. What a glad spectacle for men and angels when on our recent dedication day minis ters of all denominations stood on this plat form and wished for each other widest prosperity and usefulness. But there are cities ln this country where there is now going on an awful ripping and rendng and tearing of fishing nets. Indeed, all over Christendom at this time there is Il great war going on between fishermen, ministers against ministers.
 Now have noticed man cannot fish and fight at the same tune. He either neglects his net or hts musket It IS amazing how much time some of Inc fishermen have to t-~1 1tl. fs4x, l. can do to take care of my own net. You see the wind is just right and 1t IS such good time for fishing and the fish are com ing In so rapidly that have 60 keep my eyes and hand busy. There are about two hundred million souls wanting to get into the kingdom of God and 1t will re- qure all the nets and all the boats and all fishermen lof Christenden to safely land them. At East Hampton, Long Island. where summer. out on the bluffs some morning we see the flags up and that Is the signal for launching out into tue deep. For mile the water IS tinged with that pe- culitr color that indicates whole schools of piseatorial revelry and the beach swarms with men with their coats of and their sea- cap on and those of us who do not go out on the wave stand on the beach ready to rejoice when the boats come back and in our excitement we rush Into the water WlNu our sHots oi lo HtlH ket tue DOAls up the beach and we all lay hold the lines and pull till we are red in the face and as the living things of the deep come tumbling in on the sand, l cry out: Captain, how many" And he answers: About fifty thousand.' And we shout to the late com CTS, "Ilurrah, fifty thousandr' We must have an enthusiasm something like that if we are ever to take the human race for God and heaven. Aye we ought to have that enthusiasm of the beach multiply a hun dred fold and by so much as an immortal soul IS worth more than blue-hsh. 0. brethren of ministry! Let us spend our time fishing instead of fighting.
 When you are mending your 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 d soft silken thread of Christian sympathy. 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 the close shake hands with hm and say How did you like the music,' Why, you would be to that man a panel of the door of heaven; you would be to hlm a note of the doxology that scraphs si~, when new soul enters. That man Is thousand miles from home and he has just heard by telegraph that hts child Is sick with scarlet fever and hi. boy at college has got into disgrace and he has had business troubles and . so homesiek he can hardly keep from cry ing. Just one word of brothcrly kindness from you would lift him into a small heaven. have In other days entered pew in church and the woman at other end Of the pew looked at me as much as 10 say How dare yous This is my pew and pay the reutV We'll, I crouched in the other corner and made myself as small as possi- ble, and felt ss though had been stealing something. So there arc people who have "a q ha .leyt ta gh.fr raif t.A as though they thought most people hA been elected to he damned and they were glad of it. Oh, let us brighten up our manner and appear in utmost gentlemauli- ness or ladyhood
 The object of fly-tishing is to throw the fy far out and then let 1t drop gently down and keep 1t gently rising and falling with the waters aud not plunge 1t like a man -of- wars anchor; and ahruptness and harsh- ness of manner must be avoided in our at- tempt al usefulness. l know q man in New York who is more sunshiny and genial when he has dyspepsia than when he is not suffering from that depressing trouble. have found out hts secret. When he starts out in the morning With such depression he asks for special grace to keep from snap ping up any body that day. anu puts forth additional determination 10 be kindly and genial, and by the help of God, he accom- plishes 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 genialty woven m.
 Again, in meudlng our nets we need to put in the threads of faith and tear out all the tangled m.shes Of unbelief. Our work Is successful according to our faith. The man who believes in only half Bible, or cannot persuade others, the man who halts, ltOulflug abollt this and dotlhtiuw ahout