Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-10-14
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: Launch Out Into the Deep"

~~S'S~'~
Luke ", 4.
Christ, starting on the campaign of the
world's 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. In
stead He takes a group of men who had
never made a speech: never taken lesson
In belleslettres: never been sick enough to
make them look delicate-ther hands broad,
clumsy and hard kruct ed He chose fisher
men, among other reasons, l think, because
they were physically hardy. Rowing makes
strong arms and stout chests. Much climb
ing of ratlines makes ones head steady A
Galilee TEMPEST wrestled men into gymuasts.
! 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
delicate students at Jerusalem and Rome
for their mothers and aunts to take care Of
and goes down to the seashore and out OF
the toughest material makes an apostleship.
The ministry need more corporal 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 ne enough blood in
the mill race to turn the one and to grind
the other
He chose fishermen also b cause they were
used to hard knocks. Tle Llan 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 eccesi-
astical doll babies. A man who cannot
preach because he has forgotten his manu-
script or lost his spectacles ought not to
preach at all. Heaven deliver the church
from ministry that preach in kid gloves
oY,1 from in Loot
These fishermen were rough and ready.
They had been in the sternesG 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 plank they came
to the Senior, and when at last their ship
dashed on the beach in a mid light hurricane
they graduated with the first honor.
MY text finds Jesus came ABOARD with one
of these bronZed men, Simon by name. This
fisherman had been sweeping: his net in shoal
water. 'Push our" says Christ; "what is
the use of hugging the shore in this boat?
Here is lake twelve miles long and six wide
aud it is all populated just waiting for the
sweep of your net. Launca out into the
Deep"
The advice that my Lord gave to Simon
rs as appropriate for all in a spiritual
sense. The fact is that most of us are just
padding along the shore. We are afraid to
Christian experience. We think theS the
boat will be upset. or that we cannot 'tclew
down the mizzen topsail, " and our cowardice
makes 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 emerald cup, Launch
out into the Deep
+ This divine counsel comes first to ALL those
who are padding in the margin OF Bible re-
w fof how ri OI1~rfO
three times after he was eighty years Of age
and without spectacles-not for the mere
purpose Of saying he had been through it SO
often, but for his eternal profit. John Wolby,
the brother-in-law OF Daniel Webster,
learned to read after be was eighty-four
years of age in order that ne might become
acquainted with the Scriptures. There is
no book in the world that demands SO much
of our attention the Bible. Yet nIne-
tenths of Christian men get no more than
ankle deep. They think it Is a good sign not
to venture too far. Taey never ask how or
why, and if they see soma Christian b9com-
ing inquisitive about the deep things OF God
they say. 'Se careful; you had better not
go out SO far from shore"
! NY answer is: The farther you go from
shore the better if you have toe right kind
of ship. II you have worldly philosophy for
the hulk, and pride for sail. and self con-
ceit for the helm, the first sQIall will destroy
YOU But if you take the Bible for your
)
after you have gone ten thousand furIOngs
Christ will still command, Launch out into
the deep" Ask some such question as NV no
is Gody' and go on for ten years asking 1t.
Ask it at the gate OF every parable; amid
the excitement of every miracle; by the sol-
tariness of every patriarchal thrashing floor;
amid the white faces Of Sannacnerlb's slam
turned up into the moonlight; amid the Hy-
ing chariots of the Golden City.
l. Ask who Jesus is, and keep on asking 1T
of every Bible lily, of every raven, OF every
star, OF every crazed brain cured, OF every
blind man come to sunlight. of every coin
in fish's mouth, OF every loaf that got to
be five loaves, of every wrathful sea
pacihed, of every puiseleSs arm stretched
forth in graduation; ask it OF dis mother,
of Augustus of Herod, Of the Syro-
tphunician woman, of the damsel that woke
up from the death sleep, OF Joseph, who had
Him buried Of the angel posted as sentinel
at His tomb, of the dumb earth that shook
and groaned ard ti1lln,1ered when He died
A missionary in France offered Bible in
an humble dwelling. The man took it tore
out dozen pages and with them began to
Light his pipe. Some years after the mission
airy happened in the same house The f. nily
had just lost their son in the Crimean war,
and his Bible had been sent back home. The
missionary took it up and saw that it was
the very same Bible that he had left in the
house and from which the leaves had been
torn. The dying soldier had written on one
OF the leaves of the Bible, Rejected aud
SSoHed at, but finally believed in and saved"
The Bible may be used to light the pipe of
wlttlclsm by some, but for US it is a staff iu
life. pillow In death and our joy for etcr-
nitv.
Walk all up and down this Bible domain
Try every path. Plunge in at the prophe-
cles and come out at the epistles Go with
the patrlarchS until you meet the evanga-
lists Rummage and ransack, as children