The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-10-14
LAUNCH OUT.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Christ's
Earthly Work.
why He Chose the Disciples He Did and
How He Urged Them to Launch
Out-Searching the Scriptures
For Light.


Y. 4: Launch out into the deep" He
said:
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 re-
fined 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 a group of men who
had never made a speech, never taken a
lesson in bellies lettres, never been sick
enough to make them look delicate
their hands broad, clumsy and hard
lnuckled 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 tempest
wrestled men into gymnasts. The
opening work of the church was rough
work. Christ did not want twelve in
validS hanging about Him, complaining
all the time how badly they felt. He
leaves the delicate students at Jerusa-
lem and Rome for their mothers and
aEiIlts to take care of, and goes down to
the seashore and out of the toughest
material makes an apostleship. The
ministry needs 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 be enough blood in the mill
race to turn the one and to 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 viii be rough work; and the
man who HFevery censure or caricature
sits down to cry had better find some
other work. 1t is no place for ecclesi-
astical doll babies. A man who cannot
preach because he has forgotten his
n -nuscript or lost his spectacles ought
not to preach at all Heaven deliver
the church from ministry that preach
in kid gloves and from sermons in black
morocco cover. 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 a great wave they
entered 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 sweep
ing 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 waiting for the
sweep of your net Launch out into
the deep"
The advice that my Lord gave to ST.
mon is as appropriate for US all in
spiritual sense. The fact is that most
Of us are Just padding along the shore.
We are afraid to venture out into the
great deep of God and Christian expert
.ence. We think that the boat will be
upset, or that we cannot ''clew the miz-
zen topsair' and our cowardice makes
us poor fishermen. l think l hear the
voice of Christ commanding US as He
did Simon on that day when bright Gal
lice sat among the green hills Of Pales-
tine like water flashing in an emerald
cap: Launch out into the deep
This divine counsel comes, first, to
all those who are padding in the mar
gin of Bible research. My father read
the Bible through 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 Colby,
the brother-in-law o. Daniel Webster,
learned 70 read after he was eighty-four
years oiagc in order that ne might be
come acquainted with the Scriptures.
There is no book in the world which
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 a good sign not to VEN
ture 600 far. They never ask how or
why. and il they see some Christian be-
coming inquisitiye about the deep things
of God they say: BE careful; You had
better not go ont 50 far from shore. y
Ny answer is: The further YOU go
from shore the better, if you have the
right kind of ship. If you have mere
worldly philosophy for the hulk,
and pride for a sail, and self
conceit for the helm, the
first squall will destroy you. But If
you take the Bible for your craft the
farther you go the better; and if you
have gone 100000 furlongs Christ will
still command: Launch out into the
deep" Ask some such question as
''who is God?" and go on for ten years
asking it. Ask it at the gate of every
parabl amidst the excitement of every
miracle; by the solitariness of every
patriarchal threshing floor; amidst the
white faces of Sennacheribs slain
turned up into the moonlight; amidst
the chariots of the Golden City. Ask
who Jesus is, and keep on asking it 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 a fsh's mouth, of every
loaf that got to be five loaves, of every
wrathful sea pacifed, of every pulse
less arm stretched forth in graduation;
ask it of His mother, of Augustus, of
Herod, of the Syrophenician 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, and Numbered