Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-02-06

captured for God are taken in times Of
revival in the night meetings. They
/ right just as well come at 10 o'clock a.
noon, but most of them will not Ash
the evangelists of olden times, ash
! Finney, ask Nettleton, ask Osborn, ash
| Daniel Baker. and then ask all the
modern evangelists which is the best
time to gather souls, and they will
answer. 1.-THE niTht; 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, sit was just after was swim
died out Of my property, and it was the
night of bankruptcy" or it would be, ''It
was during that time when was down
with that awful sickness, and it was the
night Of physical suffering or it would
be, ut was that time when SANDER tool.
after me, and l was maligned and abused.
and it was the night of persecution. -
All, my hearers, that is the time for YOU
to go after souls, when night of trou-
BILE is on them. Miss not that opportu-
nifty to save soul, for it 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 u
rain, and you will find the fishermen all
up and down the banks. Why? Be
cause q good time to angle is right after
the rain, and that is good time to catch
souls, right after shower of misfortune,
right after foods of disaster And as q
pool overshadowed with trees is q grand
place for making a 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 BEST 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?'' My answer is, dig for it. ''Where
shall I dig for it?'' In 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 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 to the handle and
then turned over the sod
We had never read Walton's Com
plete Angler" or Charles Cotton's I'm
S. ructions How to Angle For Gray1ing
In Clear Stream" We knew nothing
about the modern red hacl1le or the fly
of orange colored Inohair 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
as 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
a net.
think many lose their time by want
ing to fish with net, and they never get
a place to swing the net. In other wordG
they want to do gospel work on n big
scale or they will not 60 it at ell. 1 see
feeble minded Christian men going
around with a Ba@sters 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 q 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. III hail the
fisherman with hook and line!
| have seen q man III toughest cordu-
roy outfit come back from the woods
loaded down with q string of finny treas
ures hung over his shoulder and his
gamebag filed, and dog with his teeth
carrying the basket filed with the sur
plus of an afternoons angling and it
was all the result of hook and line, and
in the eternal world there will be many
q man and many woman that was
never heard of outside of q village Sun
day school or prayer meeting buried in
a church basement who will come be-
fore the throne Of God with multitude
of souls ransomed through his or her in
and yet the work all done |
through personal interview, one by one.
one by one.
You do not know who that one soul |
may be. Staupitz helped one soul into
the light, but it was Martin Luther. !
Thomas Bilney brought salvation to one
soul, but it was Hugh Latimer. An
edge tool maker was the means of saving |
0ne soul, but it was John Summerfeld.
Our blessed Lord healed one blind eye
at time, one paralyzed arm at time
one drOpSical patient at q time and