The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-02-17

al OF tnem with the angie. An
other mode was by a casting net or
that which was flung from the shore.
Another by a drag net or that whicn
was thrown from a boat and drawn
through the sea as the fishing smack
sailed on. How wonderful all this Is
inwrought into the Bible imagery, and
1t leads me to ask I'D which mode are
you and fishing. for the church Is the
boat and the Gospel is the net and the
sea is the world and the fish are the
souls, and God addresses us as did
| Simon and Andrew, sayingss Follow
me and / will make you fishers of
men," But when is the best time to
fish for souls? In the night Peter.
why did you say to Christ: 1--WE have
toiled all the night and have
taken nothing?" Why did you not
fish in the daytime? He replies: "You
ought to know that the night is the
best time for fishing" At Tobyhanna
| sylvania, / saw a friend, with high
boots and fishing tackle, starting out
at nine o'clock at night, and 1 said:
Where are you going?" He answered.:
Going to fish" What. in the night?"
He answered.: "Yes. in the night" So
the vast majority of souls captured for
God are taken in times of revival in the
night meetings. They might as well
come at twelve o'clock at noon, but
| some of them will not Ask the evan
gelists of olden times. ask Finney, ask
Nettleton, ask Osborn ask Daniel Ba-
ker, and then ask all, tie modern evan
gelists which is the best time TIC
gather souls, and they will answer:
1.-THE night, by all odds, the night"
Not only the natural night, but the
night of trouble. Suppose go around
in this audience and ask the Christians
when they were converted to God. One
would answer, at was at the ~time I
lost my child by membraneous Group,
and it was the night of the bereave-
ment," or the answer would be, "It
was just after was swindled out Of
my property, and it was the night of
bankruptcy" or it would be, ut was
during that time when / was aCwn
with that awful sickness, and it was
the night of physical suffering" or it
would be, at was that time when
Islander took after me and / was ma
ligned and abused, and it was
the night of persecution" All,
my hearers, that is the time for
you to go after souls, when a night
of trouble is on them. Miss not that OPP
portunity to save a soul, for it is the
best of all opportunities Go up along
the Mohawk or the Juniata or the
Delaware or the Tombigbee or the st.
Lawrence, right after a rain, and you
will find the fishermen all up and down
the banks Why? Because a good
time to angle is right after the rain,
and that is good time to catch souls,
right after a shower of misfortune,
right after floods of disaster. And as
pool overshadowed with trees is
grand place for making a fine haul of
fish, so when the soul is under the long
dark shadows of anxiety and distress,
it is good time to make spiritual
haul. People in the bright sunshine of
prosperity are not SO easily taken.
But be sure before you start out to
the Gospel fisheries to get the right
kind of bait. But, how" you say,
Jam to get it?" My answer is: "Dig
for it." "Where shall dig for it?"
"In the rich Bible grounds" We boys
brought up in the country had to dig
for bait before we started for the banks
of the Raritan. We put the sharp edge
of the spade against the ground, and
then put our foot on the spade, and
with one tremendous plunge of
our strength of body and will,
we drove it in up to the handle,
and then turned over the sod.
We had never read Walton's Complete
Angler" or Charles Cotton's 'Tnstruc-
tions How to Angle for Grayling in
Clear Stream" We knew nothing
about the modern red hackle, or the
fly of orange-colored mohair, but we
got the right kind of bait. No use
trying to angle for fish or angle for
souls unless you have the right kind
of bait, and there is plenty of it in the
promises, the parallels, the miracles,
the crucifixion. the Heaven of the
grand old Gospel. Yes, not only must
you dig for bait, but use only fresh
bait. You can not do anything down
at the pond with old angle worms
New views of truth. New views of
God. New views of the soul. There
are all the good books to help
you dig. But make up your mind as to
whether you will take the hint of
Habakkuk and Isaiah and Job and use
hook and line, or take the hint of Mat
thew and Luke and Christ and fish
with n net. / think many lose their
time by wanting to fish with net and
they never get place to swing the
net; in other words, they want to do
Gospel work on a big scale or they will
not do it at all. / see predetermined
Christian men going around with a
Bagster's Bible under their arm, hoping
to do the work of an evangelist and use
the net, while they might be better
content with hook and line and take
one soul at time. They are bad fail
ures as evangelists: they would be
mighty successes IS private Christians.
If you catch only one soul for God that
will be enough to fill your eternity
with celebration. All hail, the fisher
men with hook and line! 1 have seen
a man in toughest corduroy outfit
come back from the woods loaded down
with string of tiny treasures hung over
his shoulder and his game bag filed,
and dog with his teeth carrying a
basket filled with the surplus Of an
afternoons angling, and it was all the
result of hook and line; and in the
Eternal World there will be many a
man and many woman that was
never heard of outside of q village Sun
day-school or prayer meeting buried
in church basement who will come be-
fore the throne of God with multi
tude of souls ransomed through his or
her instrumentality, and yet the work