Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1893-02-09

astes, declares that those captured of
temptation are as fishes taken in an evil
net. Indeed Solomon kEe.y all about
the fnny tribe and wrote treatise OF
ichthyology which has been lost.
THE ANCIENT FISHERMEN.
Furthermore, in order that you may
understand the ichthyology of the Bible,
you must know that there We're FIVE
ways of fishing. One was by fence of
ree3i and canes, within which the fish
were caught. But the Herodic govern
ment forbade that on Lake Galilee, lest
pleasure boats be wrecked by the stakes
driven. Another mode wes by spearing,
the waters of Galilee so clear good ain
could be taken for the transfAing. An
other was by hook ard 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 a
hook:" And Haba];kuk says. They take
up all of them with the angle
Another mode was by a casting net OF
that which was flung from the shore;
another, by dragnet or that which
was thrown from Loaf and drawn
through the sea rs the fishing smack
sailed on. How wonderful ali this is in
wrought into the Bible imagery, and it
leads me to ask in which mode are You
and fishing, for The church is the boat,
and the gospel is the net, and the sea IL
the world and the fish are the souls, and
God addresses us as he did Simon and
Andrew, saying, 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,
eve have toiled ali 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 Mills, among the
mountains of Pennsylvania. I saw
friend with high boots and fishing tackle
starting out at 9 o'clock at night, and
said, where are you going He
;:.swered, :'Going to fish, "What, II
the nlgnt- He answered. eyes, IN the
night" So the vast majority of souls
captured for God are taken in times of
revival in the night meetings. They
might just as well come at 12 o'clock at
-asap lo1t paas4AA them will not. ASK
az . - ,,-A:-.cs-
Finney, ask NettlepvH, psA- oeeysh, ask
Daniel Baker, and then ask all the
modern evangeists which. is ss1o pest
time to -aatbuso sous, 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
and ask these Christians when they Were
converted to God One would answer.
1T was at the time lost my child by
membranous Group, and it was the
night Of bereavement, or the answer
would be, cit was just after ! was swim
died out of my property, and it was The
night Of bankruptcy" or it would be. 1t
was during that time when | was down
with that awful sickness. and it was the
night of physical suffering or it would
be- 1T was that time when slander took
after me, and was malgned and abused.
and it was the night of persecution.
Ah, my hearers, that is<he time for you
to go after souls, when a night of trou
bic is on them. Miss not that opportu-
nity to save soul. for i. is the best of all
opportunities.
Go up along the Mohawk, or the
Juniata, or the Delaware, or the Tombig-
bee, or the st. Lawrence right after a
rain, and you will find the fishermen all
up and down the banks. Why: Be-
cause a good time to angle is right after
the rain, and that is a good time 10 catch
souls, right after ashower of misfortune,
right after foods Of disaster. And az a
pool overshadowed with trees is a grand
place for making fine haul of FISH, SO
when the soul is under the long dark
shadows Of anxiety and distress it is a
good time to make "a spiritual haul.
People in the bright sunshine of pros
perity are not so easily taken.
THE 2EsT FISHERS OF MEN.
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 answer is, Dig for it. Where
shall l dig for it, "In the rich Bible
grounds" We boys brought up in the
country had to dig for bait before we
started fer 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
viii we drove it in up to the handle and
then turned over the sod.
We had never read Walton's Com
plete Angler" or Charles Cotton's In
s.ructions How to Angle For Crawling
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 an
gle for fish or angle for souls unless you
have the right kind Of bait, and there is
plenty of it in the promises, the para
bles, the miracles, the crucifxion, the
heaven of the grand old gospel.
Yes, not only must you dig for bait,
but use only fresh bait. You cannot do
anything down at the pond with old
angleworms. 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
rs to whether you Will take the hint of
Habukkuk and Isaiah and Job and use |
hook and line, or take the hint of Mat.
thew and Luke and Christ and fish with
net. ]
. I think many lose their time by want
ing 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 viii not do It at all. / see
feeble minded 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 a tine. They
are bad failures as evangelists. They
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