Milford chronicle., 1893-02-10


great places for fish
Amos reproves idolatries by saying, "Ths
day shall come upon you when he viii take
you away with hooks and your posterity
with fishhooksn Solomon, in Ecelesiastes
declares that those captured Of temptation
are as fishes taken in an evil net. Indeed
Solomon knew all about the fnny tribe and
wrote treatise on iohthyology which has
been lost.
HOW ST. PETER FIsHED.
Furthermore, in order that you may un-
derstand the iehthyology of the Bible you
must know that there were five ways Of
fishing. One was by a fence of reeds and
canes, within which the fish were caught.
But the Herodic government forbade that
on Lake Galilee, lest pleasure boats be
wrecked by the stakes driven. Another
mode was by spearing-the waters of Cali
lee so clear, good aim could be taken for
the transiixing. Another was by hook ard
line, as where Isaiah says, 1.-THE fishers also
shall mourn, and they that cast angle
into the brook shall lamentn And JOB says,
| "Canst thou draw out leviathan with
hooki" And Habakkuk says, They take
up all Of them with the angle"
Another mode was by casting net or
that which was flung from the shore; an
other, by a dragnet or that which was
tBAuMn rum q AleAA AAAttMAA AA4H
sea as the fishing smack sailed on. How
I wonderful all this is inwrought into the
Bible imagery, and it leads me to ask in
which mode are you and I fishing, for the
church is the boat, and the gospel is the net,
and the sea is the world, and the fish are
J the souls, and God addresses us as he did
Simon and Andrew, saying, Follow me,
/ and will make you fishes of men" But
when is the best time to fish for souls? I'M
/ the night. Peter, why did you say to Christ,
I'VE have toiled all the night and have
/ taken nothing2" Why did you not fish in
the daytime2 He replies, "You ought to
know that the night is the best time for
| fishing"
At Tobyhanna Mills, among the noun
tains of Pennsylvania, I saw a friend with
| high boots and fishing tackle starting out
at 9 O'Clock at night, and I said, Where are
you going9" He answered, ''Going to fish.
/ "What, in the nightRn 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 just as well come at IL o'clock at
noon, but most of them will not. Ask the
eyangelists of olden times, ask Finney, ask
Nettleton, ask Osborn, ask Daniel Baker, |
and then ask all the modern evangelists
which is the best time to 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 / 90 around IN this audience and |
ask these Christians when they were con !
verted to God. One would answer, 1T was /
at the time lost my child by membranous /
Group, and it was the night of bereave- /
ment,' or the answer would be, 1T was |
just after was swindled out Of my prop |
a1. 3 j 8 J. -.
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 maligned 4
and abused, and it was the night Of perse /
cution." All, my hearers, that is the time /
for you to go after souls, when a night OF \
trouble is on them, Miss not that oppor- /
tunity 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 rain, and you
will find the fishermen all up and down the |
banks. Why2 Because good time to
angle is right after the rain and that is a |
good time to catch souls, right after
shower Of misfortune, right after foods of
disaster And as a pool overshedowed /
with trees is a grand place for making allne
haul Of fish, so when the soul Sc ,sl4aon-s5
long dark shadows os anxiety and distress
it is a good tinle to make a spiritual haul
People in the bright sunshine Of prosperity
are not so easily taken.
RICHES or TIE BIBLE.
But be sure before you start out to the
gospel fisheries to get the right kind Of |
bait. but how" you say, "am 1 to get
it?" My answer is, Dig for it" "Whe:e
shall / dig for itgn "In the rich Bible
grounds" We boys brought up in the
country hal 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 pat oar 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 Instructions
How to Angle For Grayling In Clear
Stream" We knew nothing about the
modern rtd Lackle on 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 il the
promises, the parallels, the miracles, the
Cruciixion, 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 an (
gleworms. New views of truth. New
views of God. New views Of the soul.
There are all tie good hooks to help you
dig
But make up your mind es to whether
you will take the hint OF HabuEkuk and
Isaiah and job and use hook and line, or
take the hint Of Matthew and Luke and
Christ and fish with a net. ] think many
lose their time by wanting to fish with a
net, and they never get a place to swing the
net. In other words, they want to do gos-
pei work on q big scale, or they will not do
It at all.
l see feeble minded Christian men going I
around with a Bagster's Bible under their ,
arm, hoping TO do the work of an evan
gelist and use the net, while they might be ,
better content with hook and line and take
one soul at q time. They are bad failures
rs evangelists; they would be mighty sue I
cesses as private Christians. If you catch
only one soul for God, that will be enough I
to fill your eternity with celebration. All /
hail the fisherman with hook and linel
1 have seen a man in ro CHEST corduroy Z
outfit como back from the woods loaded s
down with n string of finDy treasures hung !
ovcr his shoulder, and his gamebag filled, Z
and dog with his teeth carrying basket /
filed with the surplus Of an afternoons I
angling, end it was all tho result Ct q hook /
and line. And in the eternal world there {
viii be manya a man and many woman I
that was never heard Of outside Of village j
Sunday school or q prayer meeting buried a
IN u church basement who will come be- !
fore the throne Of God with a multitude Of
souls ransomed through his or her instru-
and yet the work all done
through personal interview, cne by one, I
one by one. L
You do not know who that one soul may y
be, Staupitz helped ono soul into the light, I
but it was Martin Luther. Thomas Bilney (
brought salvation to one soul, but it was
Hugh Latimer. An edge tool maker was I
The means Of saving one soul, but il was
John 5ummerield Our blessed Lord healed Z
onc blind eye at a time, ono paialyzed aEl
A. q fifnft onn dqouuiral Dptient At z time.