Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-05-18

felt as though I had been stealing Some
thing. So there are people who have
a sharp edge to their religion, and they
act as though they thought most. PEG
pie had been elected to be damned and
they were glad oft Oh, let us brighten
up our manner and appear in utmost
gentlemanliness or !adyhoOd.
AVOID ABRUPTNEss.
The object in fly fishing is to throw
the fly far out, and then let it drop
gently down and keep it gently rising
and falling with the waters, and not
plunge it like Il tnan-ofwar's anchor;
and abruptness and harsbness of man
ner must be avoided in our attempt at
usefulness. | know a 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 his secret
When he starts out in the morning with
such depression lie asks for special
grace to keep from swapping up any
body that day. and puts forth add-
tiOnaI determination to be kindly and
genial and by the help of God he ac
composites it, Many Of our nets need
to be mended in these respects, the
black threads aud the rough threads
taken out, and the bright threads and
the golden threads Of Christian genial
ity woven in.
In addition to this, we need to mend
our nets with more threads Of patience.
It is no rare thing for fisherman to
spend one whole day before he can
take a St Lawrence pike Or an Ohio
salmon or Il Long Island pickerel or a
Cayuga black bass, or Delaware cat
fish, and he does that day after day
without particular Encouragement.
But what lack Of patience if we do
not Immediately succeed in soul catch
ing We are apt to give it up and say,
II 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 pa
tience. How patient God has been
with US! Can we not be patient with
our fellows. I had presented me from
Scotland . law days ago an ornament
ed inkstand, the wooded parts of which
were made from a piece of a tree cut
down by Mr.. Gladstone, at Hawarden,
and sent by him to Scotland by re-
quest.
The incident reminded me of the fact
that woman who had long been on
Mr. Gladstones estate had q way
ward boy, and in her despair she asked
Mr. Gladstone to take the boy in hand
While prime minister of England, with
all the mighty affairs of the kingdom
in his hand, he took that boy in his
study and counseled him, and then
knelt down and prayed with him, and
the boy was saved. If we all had
hearts of sympathy like that, what
would be to us impossible? rs it not
delightful that I can sing SO well!'' said
Jenny Lind in a burst of joy that she
could help others. rs it not delight
&ll that I can singso well?" And might
we not all say in thankfulness to God,
us it not delightful that we can sym
pathize with others and encourage
others and help others and save othersI'
THE THREAD OF FAITH.
Again, in mending our nets we need
also to put in the threads of faith and
tear out all the tangled meshes of I'M
belief Our work is successful accord
ing to our faith The man who be-
lieves 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 doubt
ing about that will be Il failure in
Christian work Show me the man
who rather thinks that the garden of
Eden may have been an allegory, 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 l 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 necessity of
regenerated heart in order to see God
in peace, is one thread you must have
in your menlol net or you will never
be a successiG' fisher for men Why.
how can you doubt
The hundreds of millions of men and
women now standing in the church on
earth and the hundreds of millions in
heaven attest the power of this Gospel
to save With more than the certainty
of a mathematical demonstration let
us start out to redeem all nations The
rottenest thread that you are to tear
out of your net is unbelief. and the
most important thread that you are to
put in it is faith. Faith in God, tri-
umphant faith. everlasting 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 the next year than we
have in the last twenty years But
where shall we get them mended? Just
where old Iebedee and his two boys
mended their nets-where you are
James, why don't you put your oar
in Lake Galilee, or hoist your sail and
land at Capernaum or Liberals or Ga
dara, 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 the
boat, or at the prov Of the boat, or in |
the stern 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 |