The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-02-22

sit was during that time when was down
with that awful sickness, and it was tho night
of physical suffering" or it would be, 'If
was that time when slauder took after me
and was maligned and abus sed, ana IL was
the night Of persecution" All. my hearers
that is the time for you TO go after SOUS
when a night OF trouble is on them. miss
not that opportunity to save soul, for it ia
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
win find the fisherman all up aud down the
lakess Whyl Because good time to angle
is right after the rain, and that is good
time to catch souls, right after shower OF
misfortune, right after foods OF disaster.
And as pool overshadowed with trees is a
grand place for making a fine haul OF fish,
80 when the soul is under the long dark
shadows Of anxiety and distress 1t ls gooo
time to make a spiritual haul. People IN
the bright sunshine Of prosperity are not 30
easily taken.
But be sure before you start out to the
gospel fisheries to get the right kind o. oait.
Bus say 2. I'm % sS fss ~, shall
dig for it?' ain the rica Bible grounds"
We boys brought up in the country bad to
dig for bait before we started for the banks
of the Raritan. We put this sharp edge OF
the spade against the ground and ehen put
our foot on the spade, and with one tremen,
dous plunge OF our strength OF body ana
will we drove It'll up to the handle and theo
turned over the sod.
We had never read Wdtons "Complete
Aneler.r ~ or Charles Cotton's '.Instructions
How TO Angle for Grayling In q Clear
Stream We knew nothing about the mod;
ern red hackls or tho 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 yon have the rignt Klna OF oahs az
parables, the miracles, the cruciaxion, the
heaven Of the grand old gospel
uos oniv On fresh bait. You cannot do any.
thine down at the pond with old angle
worms. New views Of truth. New views
of God. New views OF 6he soul. There ara
all the good books to help you dig. But
make up your mind as to whetner you wig
take the hint of Habukkuk and Isaiah ana
Lob and use hook and line, or take the hint
of Matthew and Luke and Christ and fish
with q net.
think many lose their tins by wanting
to fish with net, aud they never get place
to swing the net. In other words, they want
TO do gospel work on big scale or they will
not do it at all. see feeble minded Chris
tian men going around with Bagstera
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 nne
and take one soul at time. They are bad
failures as evangelists. They would pe
mighty successes as private Christians. Ii
Won catch only one soul for God, that will be
enough to fill your eternity with celebration.
Ali hail the fisherman with hook and Incl
I have seen q man In toughest corduroy
putfit come back from the woods loaded
down with q string of funny treasures hung
over his shoulder and his gamebay filled.
and dog Win nj teeth carrying the basket
filed 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 q man aud many woman that
was never heard OF outside OF village Sun.
day-school or prayer msattny buriei In
church basement who will come before tns
throne OF Col with q multitude OF souls
ransomed through his or her fnstru.
mentality, and yet tbs work all done
through personal interview, one bY one,
one by one.
You do not know who that one soul may
be. Staupits helped one soul into the light,
but It was Martin Luther. Thomas Bilney
brought salvation to one soul, but 1t was
Hugh Latimer. An edge tool maker was
the means OF saving one soul but it was
John Summeraeld. Our blessed Lord healed
one blind eye at time. one paralyzet arm
at time, one dropsicsl patient at tune
and raised from the dead one girl at q time,
one young man at tims. Admire the net
that takes in q great many at once, but DO
not despiss the hook and Line.
God help u, amid tha gospel fisheries,
whether we employ hook or net, Tor the DAY
cometh when wa shall see how much de-
pended on our fidelity. Christ Himself de.
clared: 1.-THE kingdom Of heaven is like unto
q net that was cast into the sea and gathered
Of every kin J, which, when it was full, they
drew to shore and sat down and gathered
TIA GOOD in the vessels, but cast the bad
away. So shall it be at the end OF the
worid-the angels shall come forth and
separate the wicked from the just"
Yea the fshermen think 1t bsst to keep
the useful and worthless Of the haul In the
same net until it Is drawn upon the beach,
and then the division takes place, and II 1t Is
on Long Island coast the mossbankers are
thrown out and the blueish an shad pre-.
served, or If it is on the shors OF Gal1lee the
fish classified as siluroids are hurled back
into the water or thrown MP on the bank a,
uuclean, while tbs psrch AMI the carp and
the barbel are put into pals to be carried
home for use.
SO in the church on earth the saints and
the hypocritas the generous and the mean.
the cnaste and the uuclean, are kept IN the
same membership, bu5 at death the division
will be made, and the good will be gathered
to heaven, and the bad, however many holy
communions they may have celebrated, and
however many rhetorical prayers they may
have offered, and however many years their
names may nave been on the church rolls,
will be cast away. God forbid
that any OF US should be among
the least away" But may we. do our
work, whether small or great, as thoroughly
as did that renowned fisherman, George w.
Bethune, who spent his summer rest angling
in the waters around the Thousand Isles and
beating at their own craft those who Piled
1t all the year, aud who the rest OF his time
ploriously preached Christ in pulpit only
fifteen minutes from where now stand, and
ordering for his own obsequies: "Put on me
my pulpit gown and banus with my own
pocket Bible In my right hand. Bury me
with my mother, my father and my grand.
mother. Sing also my own hymn:
'Jesus, Thou prince Of life!
Thy chosen cannot die;
Like Thee they con Quer In the strifah
To reign with Thee on high"
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