Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-10-03
DEEP SEA FISHING.
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS WHY CHRIST
CHOSE FISHERMEN.

BROOKLYN, Oct. 2.-Since his return
from Europe DR.. Talmage has faced
audiences unusually large and enthu-
siastic. who are attracted to the Taber-
nacle no less by the potent eloquence of
the preacher than through a desire to
hear from his own lips the message of
thanks intrusted to him by the czar 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. Talmagt has
in preparation full account of the mis-
sion to Russia, as well as his own preach
ing tour to Germany, England, Scotland
and Ireland. The text this morning
was taken from Luke V, 4. Launch
out into the deep"
Christ, starting on the campaign OF
the worlds conquest, was selecting his
staff officers. There were plenty of stu
dents with high foreheads, and white
hands, and intellectual faces, and refined
tastes in Rome and in Jerusalem. Christ
might have called into the apostleSnip
twelve bookworms, or twelve rhetori-
clans, or twelve artists. Instead he takes
q group of men who had never made Il
speech; never taken 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 tempest
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 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 be
enough blood in the mill race to turn
the one and to grind the other.
He chose fis& ermen also because they
We're 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 col
leges.
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 plank they came to
the Senior, and when at last their ship
dashed on the beach in midnight hur-
ricane they graduated with the first
honor.
JESUS ON SHIPBOARD.
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 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 N'clew down
the mizzen topsail,' 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
Galilee set in among the green hills of
Palestine, like water flashing in an
emerald cup. Launch out into the
deep"
This divine council comes first to all
those who are padding in the margin Of
Bible research. My father read the
Bible through three times after he was
eighty years of age and without specta-
cles-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 eighty-four
years of age in order that he might be
come acquainted with the Scriptures
There is no book in the world that de
mands 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
if they see some Christian becoming in
quisitive about the deep things of God
they say, BE careful: you had better
not 90 out So far from Shore
anSvx-a7. ic. The farther Won oro