Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-05-23

worldly philosophy, trying 10 mend our
nets, and we have only Il few souls to
report us brought to God through our
instrumentality, while some humble
Gospel fisherman, his library made up
of Bible and an almanac, shall come
home laden with the results, his trophies
the souls within fifteen mikes of his log
cabin meeting house.
A FISHERMAN IN COMMAND.
In the time OF great disturbance in
Naples in 1919 Massaniello, Il bare
footed fishing boy, dropped his fishing
rod and by strange magnetism took
command of that city of six hundred
thousand souls lie took off LIS fish
ing jacket and put on q robe of gold in
the presence of bowling mobs. lie put
his hand on his lip;,s Il signal and they
were silent. lie waved his hard Gway
from him and they retired to their
homes. Armies passed in review before
him. He bceMh3 the nations iatl.
The rapid rise and the complete SUI
prcmacy of that young fisherman, Mas
sanicllo, has no parallel in al history.
But something equal to that and bet
ter than that is an everyday occurrence
in heaven. God takes some of those
who in this world were fishers of men,
and who toiled very hu.nbly, but be-
cause of the way they ne1ded their
nets and employed their nets after they
were lncnded, and suddenly hoists them
and robes them and sceptcrs themrnnd
crowns them, and makes them rulers
over many cities, and lie marches
armies of saved ones before them in re-
view, Massanicllos unhonored on earth
but radated in heaven The fisher
boy of Naples soon lost his power. but
those people of GOD who have kept
their nets mended and rightly swung
tacm shall never lose their exalted
place, but shall reign forever and ever
and ever. Keep that reward in sight.
But do not spend your time fishing
with hook and line. Why did not
James the son of Zcbedce sit on the
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 zebedee
spend his afternoon trying to catch one
eel2 No, that work was too slow.
These mcn were not intending Il hook
and line; they were mcnding their nets.
So let the church OF God not be con-
tent with having here one soul and
next month another soul brought into
the kingdom. Sweep all the seas with
nets, scoop nets-seine nets. drag nots,
al-encompassing nets-and take the
treasures in by hundreds and thousands
and millions, and nations be born III
day. and TIE hcinisphcres quake with
the tread Of u ransoming God. Do you
know what will be the two most ire
mendous hours in our heavenly exis-
tence' Among the quadrillions of ages
which shall roll on what two occasions
will lie to us the greatest2
The day Of our arrival there will be
to Us one of the two greatest The
second greatest, l think, viii be the
day when wo 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 viii be
the only embarrassment in heaven.
My Lord and my Godi What will we
do and what will we say when, on one
side AFRO placed the Saviour's great sac
ritices for us, and our small sacrifices
for him; lis exile, his humiliation, his
agonies on one hand, and our poor,
weak, insufficient sacrifices on the
other? To make the contrast less
overwhelming, let US quickly mend our
nets and like the G;llilean fishermen,
may we be divinely helped to castthem
on the right side OF the Ship.