The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-02-16

ana IldL&lS a SOOQiLiue 10 ChUcn
souls, right after u shower of misfor-
tune, right after floods Of disaster.
And as pool o~vershad0Wed with
trees is a grand place for making a
fine haul of fish, so when the soul is
under the long dark shadows Of anx-
iety and distress, it is a good time to
make a spiritual haul. People in the
bright sunshine of prosperity are not
so easily taken.
But be sure before you start out to
kind Of bait. aButy how you say,
'am I to get itY' Ny answer is, dig
for it," Where shall I dig for ft?'
I'm the rich 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, II then put our foot on the
spade, and with one tremendous
plunge Of u 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 Ang-
ler," or Charles Cotton's Instructions
How to Angle for Grayling in a Clear
Stream" We knew nothing about the
modern redhacEle, 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 you
have the right kind of bait, and there
is plenty Of it in the promises, the.
parallels, the miracles, the crlcifxon,
he 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 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.
les, whether we employ hook or net,
for the day cometh when we shall see
how much depended on our fidelity.
Christ himself declared, 'The kingdom
of heaven is like unto a net that was
cast into the sea and gathered Of
every kind, which, when it was full,
they drew ashore and sat down and
gathered the good in the vessels, but
the bad they cast away; so shall it be
at the end Of the world, the angels
shall come forth and separate the
wicked from the just" Yes, the fisher
men think it best to keep the useful
and worthless Of the haul in the net
until it is drawn upon the beach, and
then the division takes place, and if it
is on Long Island coast, the moss
bunkerS are thrown out and the blue
fish and shad preserved, or if it is ON
the shore of Galilee, the fish classified
as siluroids are hurled back into the
water or thrown up the bank as un-
clean, while the perch and the carp
and the barbel are put in pals to be
carried home for use. So in the church
ON cal 18th, the saints and the hypocrites,
the generous and the mean, the chaste
and the unclean are kept in the same
membership, but at death the division
will be made and the good will be
gathered into 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 have 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 fish
erman George w. Bethune, who
spent his .summe rest angling in~the
waters around the Thousand Isles
and beating at their own craft those
who Piled it all the year, and who the
rest of the time gloriously preached
Christ in a pulpit only fifteen minutes
from where I now stand, and ordering
for his own .obsequies, Put on me my
pulpit gown and bands, with my own
pocket Bible in my right hand. Bury
me with my mother, my father and
nay grandmother. Sing also nay own
hymn:
Jesus thou Prince of life
Thy chosen cannot die;
Like thee, they conquer in the strife,
To reign with thee on high"