The Penn's Grove record., 1901-02-01
ng LOOKING at hi. cheerful face /

+ IlDl liz Aut uNu anu NQlkGO OIL OF EnG
window and into the night with a silence
was too overpowered to break. That
was another illustration of the fact That
no one escapes trouble.
WHY. that man seated next to Won in
church has on his soul a weight compared
with which a mountain is a feather That
vomau seated next to Won in church bas
a grief the recital of which would make
vaur body, mind and soul shudder.
When YOU are mending your net for this
wide. deep sea OF humanity. take out that
wire thread Of criticism and that horsehai1
thread Of harshuess and put in a soft
silken thread of Christian sympathy. Yea,
when you are mending your nets tear out
those old threads of g~ruffness and weave
in a few threads of politeness and eenial.
itv. In the house of God let all Christian
faces beam with a look that means wei.
come. Say Good morning to the stran-
ger as he enters your pew, and at the
close shake hands with him and say, "How
did YOU like the music?" Why. you would
be to that man a panel of the door of
heaven: Won would be to him a note of
the doxology that seraphs sing when a
new soul enters heaven. ] have in other
DAYS entered a pew in church and the
woman at the other end of the pew looked
at me as much as to say, "How dare you?
This Is my lew and ] pay the rent for
it," Well, ] crouched in the other corner
] and MADE mNSttI as small as possible and
felt as though l had been stealing some
thing.
So there are people who have a sharp
edge to their religion, and they act as
though they thought most people had been
elected to he damned and they were glad
OF it. Oh. let us brighten up our manner
and appear in gentlemanliness or lady
hood.
The object in fly fishing is to throw the
do - IL -
down and keep it gently rising and falling
with the waters, and not plunge it like a
man ofwar's anchor, and ~abruptness and
ha--huess of manner must be avoided in
our attempt at usefulness.
know a man in New York who is
more suushiny and genial when he has
dyspepsia than. when he is not suffering
from that depressing trouble. | have
found out his secret. When he starts ont
in the morning with such depression he
asks for special grace to keep from snap
ming un ANYBODY that day. and puts forth
| additional determination to be kindly and
genial. and by the help of God he accom-
] piishes 1t.
MANY of our nets need to be mended in
these respects, the back threads and the
rough threads taken out. and the bright
threads and the golden threads of Chris
tian genjality woven in.
In addition to this we need to mend our
nets with more threads of patience. 1t is
no rare thing for a fisherman to spend one
whole day before he can take a st. Law
renee pike. or an Ohio salmon, or a Long
Island piekerel. or a Cayuga black bass,
or n Delaware catfish and he does that day
after day without any particular discour-
agement. But what a lack of patience if
we DO not Immediately succeed in soul
catching. We are apt to give it up and
say, q will never try again.
Into all our nets we need to weave all
along the edge and all through the centre
great. long stout threads of Christian pa
thence. How patient God has been with
us! Can we not be patient with our fell
lows?
Again, in mending our nets we need also
to put in the threads of faith and tear out
all the tangled meshes of unbelief. Our
work Is successful according to our faith.
The man who believes in only half a Bible, |
or the Bible in spots; the man who thinks
he cannot persuade others; the man who
halts, doubling about this and doubling
about that. will be a failure in Christian
work. Show me the man who rather
thinks that the Garden of Eden may have
been an allegory, and is not quite certain
but that there may be anQbheE &nance az
ter death. and Goes<n6t Know whether or
not the Bihle~.s inspired, and | tell you
that NAN for soul saving is a poor stick.
Faith in God and Jesus Christ and the
Holy Ghost and the absolute necessity of
a regenerated heart in order to see God
in peace is one thread you must have in
your mending net or you will never be a
successful fisher for men. Why, how can
YOU doubt? The rottenest thread TO tear
out OF your net is unoelief, and the most
important thread that you are to put in it
is faith. Faith in God, triumphant faith,
everlasting faith.
Nh tk+H ,r,Y.rEatN rrHrE AF T1anhtnn nIgt ]
nets, Ii We could get our nets right, we
would accomplish more in soul saving in
the next year than we have in the last
twenty years. But where shall we get
them mended? Just where old Zebede,
and his two boys mended their nets
where you are. James and John had ne
time to 20 ashore. They were not fishing
1t was their livelihood and that of thei'
families. They mended their nets where
they were-in the ship. "Oh," says SOM
one. Il mean to get my net mended, and |
will go down to the public library, and /
will see what the scientists say about eyo-
luton and about the survival of the fit
test and | will read up what the theolo
gians say about advanced thought l
will leave the ship awhile, and L will go
ashore and stay there till my net is mend
cd Do that, my brother, and you will
have no net left. Instead of their helping
you mend your net they will steal the
pieces that remain. Better stay in the
gospel boat, where you have all the means
for mending your net.
Stay in the ship and mend your net.
That is where James, the son of Zebedee,
and John, his brother, staid. That liz
where all who get their nets mended stay.
| notice that all who leave the gospel
boat and go ashore to mend their nets
stay there, or, if they try again to fish,
they do not catch anything. Get out Of
the gospel boat and go up into the world
to get your net mended, and you will live
to see the day when you will feel like the
man who, having forsaken Christianity,
sighed, Il would give a thousand pounds
to feel as | did in 1920"
The time will come when you would be
willing to give a thousand pounds to feel
as you did in 1901. These men who nave
given up their religion cannot help You a
bit.
These dear brethren of all denomina-
tons. afflicted with theological fidgets,
had better 90 to mending nets instead OF
breaking them. Before they break up the
old religions let them go through some
gteaS sacrifice for God that viii prove
them worthy of such a work, taking the
of Ialleyrand to a man who wanted
to upset the religion of Jesus ChrIst and
start a new one, when he said, 60 and
'N ~ NtAlN Ahd Nh1 A"t'N
the grave the third day!"
Those who propose to mend their nets
by secular and ~skeptical books are IKE a
man who has Just one week Tor hshlng
SIX of the days he spends in reading
LEAK Walton's Complete Angler and
Wheatley's Rod and Line" and Seotts
Fishing in Northern Waters" and Put
mans Wade Mecum of Fly Fishing for
Trout and then on Saturday morning,
his last day out, goes to the river to ply
his art: but that day the fish will not bite,
late on Saturday night he goes to his
home with empty basket
Alas! alas If, when the Saturday night
of our life drops on us. it shall be found
that we have spent our time in the libra
ries of worldly philosophy trying to mend
our nets, and we have only a few souls to
report as brought to God through our in.
Strumeutahty. while some humble gospel
fisherman, his library made up of a Bible
and an almanac, shall come home laden
with the results, his trophies all the souls
within fifteen miles of his log cabin meet
ing house.