Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-02-24
stand upon il fron Enyeti even to Eney.

| nets: their fish shall be accor ling to their
kinds as the fish OF the great sea, exceeding
many" the exclamation OF which is tnar
Eagedi and Euegiairn stood on ths baukS
Of the Dead sea, in the waters OF wllca
no fish can live, out thu propaet says ruas
the time will come wien tnese wIt4CS viii
be regenerated and they wlll be great places
for fish. Amos reproves iiolatries by say
IN. The day shall cous upon you when
he will take you away with hooks AMI your
posterity with fstho1ks-" Soiomon, IN
Ecclesiastes, declares that those captured or
temptation are as fishes taken II an evil
net. Indeed Solomon knew all about the
inny tribe and wro1e treatise on lcltay-
| ology which has been lost
Furthermore, in order that you may IN
| dersrand the ichthyology OF the Bible, you
must know that there were five ways o.
| fishing. One was by fence OF reeds and
cane, within which the fish were caught.
| But the Herodic government forbade that on
| Lake GaliIea less pleasure BOATS be wreczei
| by the stakes driven. Another mole was by
| spe2ring, the waters OF Gaiilee so clear gooj
aim could De taken for the transdxing. Az,
other was by hook and line, as where Isaiah
| says, The fishers also shall mourn, and
| they that cast angle into the brooks shall
lament" And Job says, ''Canst thou draw
out leviathan with hook~ And Habak.
kuk says, They take up all OF them with
| the angle"
, Another mo lie was bya casting net OF
that which was flung from the shore; a
other, by a dragnet or that which
thrown from boat aud drawn through the
sea as the fishing smack sailed on. How
wonderful all this is inwrought into the
Bible imagery and it leads me to ask in which
mode are you and 1 fishing, for, the church
is the boat, and the gospel is the net, and
the sea is the world. AMI The fish are the
souls and God addresses US as He did Simon
and Andrew, saying, "FolIow Ne, and I
will make you fishers of men," But whenis
the best time to fish for souls? In the night.
Peter, why did you say to Christ, ave
have toiled all the night and have taken
nothlngE Why did YOU not fish in the day
time? He replies. 'You ought to know that
the night is the best time for fishing"
At Tobyhanna Mills among the noun.
ta!ns of Pennsylvania, saw friend with
high boots and fishing tackle starting out
at O'clock at night and said "Where ara
you going" He answered, "Going to fish,"
what, in the nightF' Heanswered. Eyes,
in the night" So the vast majority Of souls
captured for God are taken in times of re.
vAval in the night meetings. They might
just as we'll come at IL o'clock at noon, but
most Of them will not. Ask the evan gelists
Of oldeu Imes, ask Finney, ask Nettleton.
ask Osborn, ask D aniel Baker. and then ask
all the modern evangelists which is the bsst
time to gather souls. and they will answer.
"The night: by all ODDS, the night Not
only the natural night, but the night of
trouble.
Suppose I go around in this audience aud
ask these Christians when they we're convert
ed to God. One would answer, 81 was at the
time lost my child by membrauous Group,
and it was the night of bereavement" or
the answer would be, ''It was Just after [
was swindled out of my property. and it T'as
the night of bankruptcy" or it would be,
lit was during that Tina when I was down
with that awful sickness, and it was the night
of physical suffering" or it would be, 1T
was that time when SANDER took after me,
and was maligned and abused, and it was
the night Of persecution" All, nv hearers,
that is the time for you to go after souls,
when night of trouble is on them. Miss
not that opportunity to save 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 fisherman all up and down the
lakes? Whyl Because good time to angle
is right after the pAin, and that is good
time to catch souls, right after shower of
misfortune, right after floods of disaster.
And as a pool overshadowed with trees is
grand place for making 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 80
easily taken.
But be sure before you start out to the
gospel fisheries to get the right kind of bait.
"But how" you say, ''am to get it,? Ny
dig for it?' sin the ricn 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 tremen-
dous plunge of our strength of body and
will we drove it in up 20 the handle and then
turned over the sod.
We had never read Walton's complete
Angler" or Charles Cotton's instructions
How to Angle for Gravling in Clear
Stream" We knew nothing about the mod
ern 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 yon have the right kind Of bait
and there is plenty Of it in the promises, the
parallels, the miracles, the crucidxion, the
heaven OF the grand old gospel.
Yes, not only must you dig for bait, but
use only fresh bait. You cannot do any.
thing 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 Habukkuk and Isaiah and
Job and use hook and line, or take the hint
of Matthew and Luke and Christ and fish
with q net.
7 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 big scale or they will
not do it at all. I see feeble minded Chris
tian 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
and take one soul at a time. They are bad
failures as evangelists. They would be
mighty successes as private Christians. Il
you catch only one soul for God, that will be