Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-05-21

!! we had for breakfast one morning while
we were encamped on the beach of beau
/, tiful Galilee. James and John had no
time to go ashore. They were not fish.
ing for fun as you and I do in summer
time 1t was their livelihood and that
of their families. They mended their
nets where they were, in the ship.
"Oh,' says some one, Il mean to get
my net mended, and | will go down to
the public library, and l will see what
the scientists say about evolution and
about the survival of the tiittest,' and |
will read up what the theoogians say
about advanced thought l will leave
the ship awhile, and l 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 helping 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 ask? l answer all you need you have
where you are, namely, a Bible and a
place to pray. The more you study
evolution, and adopt what is called ad-
vanced thought, the bigger fool you will
be. Stay in the ship and mind your net.
That is where James the son of Zedcdee
and John his brother staid. That is
where all who get their HNtS mCnded stay.
/ notice that all who havc 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 mcnded, and you will live
to see the day when you will feel like the
man who, having forsaken Christianity,
sighed. 81 would give thousand pounds
to feel as l did in 1920" The time will
come when you will be willing to give a
thousand pounds to feel as you did in
1891. These men who have given up
their old religion cannot help You a bit.
1t is my opinion that the most Of these
ministers who gave up the old religion
are in search of notOricty. They do not
succeed in attracting much attention.
They are tired of Obscurity. They must
do something to attract attention, 50
they sit down on the beach and so to
tearing to pieces the fishing nets instead
of mending them The staid old denOmi-
nations to which they belong do not
pay them enough attention, so they at
tract attention by striking their grand
mother. They do not get enough at
tcntion by standing in the pulpts, So
they go to work and break the church
windows.
These dear brethren of all denOmina-
tonS, afflicted with theological tidgctS,
had better go to mendng nets instead Of
breaking them. Before they break up
the old religion and try to fost on us u
new religion let them go through some
great sacrifice for God that will prove
them worthy for such work, taking the
advice of Talleyrand to man who
RI q
Christ and start a new one, when he said,
500 and be crucfied and then raise
yourself from the grave the third day"
Those who propose to mend their nets by
secular skeptical books are just like
man who has just one week for fishing,
and six of the days he spends in reading
Isaak Walton'S complete Angler and
WhcatleyS Rod and Line" and SCOTS
''FiShing in Northern Waters" and Pull
mans "Nade Mecum of Fly Fishing for
Trout" and then on Saturday morning,
his last day out, goes to the river to ply
his art, bnt that day the fish will not
bite, and late on Saturday might he goes
home with empty basket aMd a disap-
pointed heart.
Meanwhile man who never saw a big
library i'm all his life has that week
caught with an old fishing tackle enough
to supply his own table and the table of
all his neighbors, and enough to salt
down in barrels for the long winter that
will SOON come ill.,
In the time of great disturbance in
Naples i'm 1649 MassanicllO, bare
footed fishing boy, dropped his FISHING
rod, and by strange magnetism took
command of that city Of 100000 souls.
He took off his fishing jacket and put
on a robe of gold in the presence of
howling mObs. He put his hand OH his
lip as a signal, and they were silent. He
waved his hand away from him, and
they retired to their homes. Armies
passed in review before him. He be-
came the nations idol. The rapid rise
and complete supremacy of that young
fisherman, Massaniello, has no parallel
in history. BUT something equal to that
and better than that is an everyday 0c-
currence in heaven.
God takes some of those, who in this
world were fishers of men, and who
toiled very humbly, but because OF the
way they mended their nets and en-
ployed their nets after they were
mended, and Suddenly hOistS them and
roles them and makes them rulers over
many cities, and he marches armies OF
SAY ed ones before them in review, Mas
SanielIOS unhonored on earth, but r3dl-
atcd in Heaven. The fisher boy Of Ma
piles soon lost his power, but those peo-
pie of God who kept their nets mended
and rightly swung them shall never lose
their exalted place, but shall reign for
ever and ever and ever. Keep that re
ward in sight.
But do not spend your time fishing
with hook and line. Why did notJames
the son of Zebedee sit on the wharf at
Cana, his feet hanging over the lake and
with long pole and 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 try