The Portland daily press., 1892-10-08
CIIRESSEE'S STAFF OFFICERS.
Rev. Dr.. T'aIluage Explains Why
Fishermen We're Chosen.
fhe Ninistry Needs More Corporeal Vigor
Than my ether CASA sermon APP
propri&te to All Who are En-
gagged in Christian Work.

Dr.. Talnage preached last Sunday in
the Brooklyn tabernacle from the text,
Launch out into the deep''-Lul1e =, 4.
Following is the sermon:
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 fine
tastes in Rome and in Jerusalem. Christ
might have called into the apostleship
twelve book-worlns, or twelve rhetori-
clans, or twelve artists. Instead, He
takes a group of men who had never
made a speech, never taken a lesson in
belles-lettres, never been sick enough to
make them look delicate-their hands
broad, clumsy and hard-lznuc kled He
chose fishermen, among other reasons, L
believe, because they were physically
hardy. Rowing makes strong arms and
stout chests. Much climbing of rat
lines makes ones head steady. A CALI
lee tempest wrestled men into gym
nasts. 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 stu
dents at Jerusalem and Rome for their
mothers and aunts to take care OF, and
goes down to the sea shore and out OF
the toughest material makes an apostle
ship The ministry need more cor
poreal vigor than any other class. Fine
minds and good intentions are impor-
tant, but there must be physical force
to back them. The intellectual mill
wheel may be we'll 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 will be rough work; and
the man who, at every censure or carl
cature, sits down to cry, had better be
at some other work. 1t is no place for
ecclesiastical doll-ba bies A man who
cannot preach because he has forgot
ten his manuscript or lost his specta-
cles, ought not to preach at all. Heaven
deliver the church from ministry that
preach in kid gloves, and from sermons
in black morocco covers! These fisher
men were rough and ready They had
been in the severest of all colleges.
When they We're knocked over by the
main boom of the ship they entered the
''Sophomore;' when washed off by
great wave they entered the Junior
when floating for two days without
food or drink, on a plank, they came to
the Senior" a. I'd, 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
Simon is as appropriate for us all in a
spiritual sense. The fact is that most
of us are just padding along the shore.
We are afraid to venture out into the
great deeps of God and Christian ex-
perience. We think that the boat will
be upset, or that we cannot ''clew down
the mizzen topsail, and our cowardice
makes us poor fishermen. I think I
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
Nose who are padding in the margin
# Bible research. My father read the
Bible through three times after he was
30 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 of Daniel Webster,
learned to read after he was 81 years of
age, in order that he might become &C
ouainted 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 a good sign not to venture too far.
They never ask how or why; and if they
see some Christian becoming inquisi-
tive about the deep things of God, they
say: ''Be careful; you had better not
20 out so far from shore" My answer
is: The farther you go from shore the
better, II you have the right kind OF
ship. If you have mere@worldly philos-
ophy for the hulk, and pride for q sail,
and self-conceit for the helm, the first
squall will destroy you. But if you
take the Bible for your craft, the far
tier you go the better; and after you
have gone ten thousand 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
at the gate of every parable; amidst
tie excitement of every miracle; by the
sojitarines, of every patriarchal thresh-
ia:r floor; amidst the white faces of
s:,4.naeherib's slain turned up into the
moonlight; amidst the flying chariots |
q. liz. Golden City. Ask what Jesns is,