Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-02-11

some of them will not. Ask the evan
gelists Of olden times, rs Fiuney, asl
Nettleton, ask Osborn, ask Dan
iel Baker and then ask al
the modern evangelists which is tn,
best time to gather souls, and they vii
answer: 1.-THE night, by all odds, tn,
night" Not only the natural night
but the night of trouble. All, IN.
hearers, that Is the time for you to e.
after souls, when night of trouble i
on them.
But be sure before you start out t.
the gospel fisheries to get the righ
kind OF bait. ''But, how" you say
IAN to get it?" My answer is: dig
for it." "Where shall / dig for it?
I'm the rich Bible grounds" we boy.
brought up in the country had 10 dig
for bait before we started for the bank:
of the Raritan. We put the sharp edge
OF the spade against the ground, anG
then put our foot on the spade, and
with one tremendous plunge of oul
strength of body and will, we drove il
in up to the handle, and then turned
over the sod. We knew nothing about
the modern redhacile, or the fly oil
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 cruci6x-
ion, the heaven of the grand old gos-
pei. Yes, not only must you dig for
bait, but use only fresh bait You can
not do anything down Mt 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 Ha-
baiilIuk and Isaiah and Job and use
hook and line, or take the hint of Mat
thew and Luke and Christ and fish with
a net. think many lose their time by
wanting to fish with n 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. ] see feeble-minded Christian
men going around with q 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 n time. They are bad failures
as evangelists; they would be mighty
successes as private Christians.
If you catch only one soul
for God that will be enough to fill your
eternity with celebration. All hail.
the fishermen with hook and line! l
nave seen man in toughest corduroy
outfit come back from the woods loaded
down with string of tinny treasures
hung over his shoulder and his game
bag filed, and "a dog with his teeth car
rying basket filled with the surplus
of an afternoons angling, and it was
all the result of a hook and line; and in
the Eternal World there will be many
Il man and many woman that was
never heard of outside of village Sun
Day school or prayer meeting
barred in church basement,
who will come before the throne of
God with multitude of souls ransomed
his or her instrumentality,
and yet the work all done through per-
sonal interview one by one, one by one
God help us amid the gospel fisheries,
we employ hook or net, for
the day eometh when we shall see how
much depended on our fidelity. Christ
himself declared: THE kingdom of
Heaven was like unto net that was
cast into the sea and gathered of every
kind, which, when it was full, they
lrew to slDrre and sat down and gath
cred the good into vessels, but
,ast the bad away: so shall it
be at the end of the world, the angels
shall come forth and separate the wick
I'd from the just" Yes, the fishermen
think it best to keep the useful and
Of the haul in the same net |
until it is drawn upon the beach, and |
hen the division takes place, and if it
S on Long Island coast, the mossbunk-
,rs are thrown out and the blue fish aud
had preserved, or if it Is on the shore
If Gaiilee, the fish classified as siluroids |
ire hurled back into the water or
hrown up the bank as unclean, while
he perch and the carp and the barbel
ire put in pals to be carried home for
rse. So in the church on earth, the
aints and the hypocritcs, the generous
ma the mean, the chaste and the un-
lean are kept in the same membership,
nut ut death the division will be made
md the good will be gathered into
ieaven and the bad, however many
loly communions they may have
and however many rhetor-
cal prayers they may have of
cred, and however many years
heir names may have been on the
hurch rolls, will be cast away. God
orbid that any of us should be among
he least away" But may we do our
work. whether small or great Us thor