Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-10-07
DEEP SEA FISHING.
DIR. TALMAOE breaches FROM
ST. LUKE'S GOSPEL.
Launch Out Into the Deep and DO Not
Hug tho shore-The Text Used as
nm Incentive for Bible study-A Ser
mon for Ministers to Read.


return from Europe, DIR. Talmage has
faced audiences unusually large and
enthusiastic, who are attracted to the
Tabernacle no less by the potent elo-
quence of the preacher than through a
desire to hear from his own lips the
message of thanks entrusted to him by
the Gar to the contributors of The
Christian Herald famine cargo, which
he and Mr.. Klopsch conveyed to Russia
in the steamer Leo. 1t is understood
that DIR. Talmage has in preparation a
full account of the mission to Russia,
as well as his own preaching tour to
Germany, England, Scotland, and
Ireland. The text this morning was
taken from Luke 5:4: Launch out
into the deep"
Christ, starting on the campaign of
the worlds conquest, was selecting his
staff officers. There were plenty of
students with high foreheads, and
white hands, and intellectual faces,
and refined tastes, in Rome and in
Jerusalem. Christ might have called
into the apostleship twelve book
worms, or twelve rhetoricians, or
twelve artists. Instead, he takes n
group of men who had never
made speech, never taken a
lesson in bellies lettres, never
been sick enough to make
them look delicate-their hands
broad, clumsy, and hard-knuckled. He
chose fishermen, among other reasons,
think, because they were physically
hardy. Rowing makes strong arms
and stout chests. Much climbing of
ratlines makes ones head steady. A
Galilee temptist wrestled men into
gymnasts. The opening work of the
church was rough work. Christ did
not want twelve invalids hanging
about him, complaining all the time
how badly they felt He leaves the deli
cate students atJerusalem andRome for
their mothers and aunts to take care
of, and goes down TO the sea-shore, and
out of the toughest material makes an
apostleship. The ministry need more
corporeal vigor than any other class
Fine minds and good intentions are
important, but there must be physical
force to back them. The intellectual
mill-wheel may be well built and the
grist good, but there must be enough
blood in the mill-race to turn the one
and grind the other.
He chose fishermen, also, because
they were used to hard knocks. The
man who cannot stand assault is not
fit for the ministry. 1t always has
been and always will be rough work;
and the man who, at every censure or
caricature, sits down to cry, had better
be at some other work. 1t is no place for
ecclesiastical doll-babies- A man who
cannot preach because he has forgotten
his manuscript or lost his spectacles,
ought not to preach at all. Heaven
deliver the church from a ministry
that preach in kid gloves, and from
sermons in black morocco covers!
These fishermen were rough and ready.
They had been in the severest of all
colleges. When they were knocked
over by the main boom of the ship,
they entered the Sophomore" when
washed off by great wave, they en-
tered the JUNIOR" when floating for
two days, without food or drink, on a
plank, they came to the "Senior;" and,
when, at last, their ship dashed on the
beach in a midnight hurricane, they
graduated with the first honor.
My text finds. Jesus on shipboard
with one of these bronzed men-Simon
by name. This fisherman had been
sweeping his net in shoal water. "Push
out" says Christ; "what is the use of
hugging the shore in this boat? Here
is lake twelve miles long and six
wide, and it is all populated-just wait
ing for the sweep of your net Launch
out into the deep" The advice
that my Lord gave to Simon is
as appropriate for us all in a spiritual
sense. The fact is that most of us are
just padding alo. G the shore. We are
afraid to venture out into the great
deeps of God and Christian experience.
We think that the boat will be upset,
or that we cannot "clew down the
mizzen top-sail," and our cowardice
makes us poor fishermen. / think
hear the voice of Christ commanding
us, as he did Simon, on that day when
bright Galilee set in among the green
hills of Palestine, like water flashing
in an emerald cup: Launch out into
the deep"
This divine counsel comes, first, TO
all those who are padding in the
margin of bible research. Ny father
read the bible through three times
after he was so years of age, and with
out spectacles, not for the mere pur-
pose of saying he had been through it
so often, but for his eternal profit.
John Colby, the brother-in-law of
Daniel Webster, learned to read after
he was 81 years of age, in order that
he might become acquainted with
the scriptures. There is no book
in the world that demands so much of
our attention as the bible. Yet nine
tenths of Christian men get no more
than ankle deep. They think it is
good sign not TO venture too far. They
never ask how or why; and IL they see
some Christian becoming inquisitive
about the deep things of God, they say:
"Be careful; you had better not go out
so far from Rhoren NV answer is.