The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-03-02


y prpat practicality we Will catch hum
dred souls where we now catch one. IRE
sent religion as an intellectually, and we
viii fail. Out in the fisheries there are
se. across the waters what are called gu
nets. and the fish put their heads through
the meshes and they cannot wlthdra"
them, because they are caught by the
si!ls. Bat gil nets cannot be of any serv-
lee in religious work Men are never
caught for The truth BY their heads; it is
hv the heart or not AZ all. NO argument
ever saved a man, and no keen analysis
ever brought a man into the kingdom OF
God. Heart work, not head work. Away
with your gill nets. Sympathy, he.nful..
ness. consolation. love, are the names OF
some of the threads that we need to
weave in our gospel nets when we are
mending them.
% vou know that the worlds heart is
bursting with trouble, and Ii You could
make that world believe that the religion
OF Jesus Christ is soothing omnipoteace
the whole world would surrender to NOR
row-yea, would surrender this hour. The
day before James \. Carrie Il was l.augu
rated as President ! was Ill tic cars gong
from Richmond to Washington. gentle
man seated near to me III the cars knew
NE. and we were soon III familiar CONVEX
eaton 1t was Just after bereavement,
and | was speaking to hum from an over
burdeued Heart about the sorrow | was
suffering. Looking at his cheerful face
said: Il guess you have escaped all trou-
be. / should judge from your countc-
nance that you have come through free
from all misfortune" Then he looked at
me with look | shall never forget and
whispered in my ear: Sir, You know moth
IN. about trouble. Ny wife has been IN
an insane asylum for fifteen years" And
then he turned and looked out OF the
window and into the night with a silence
| was too overpowered to break. mat
was another illustration OF the TACT that
10 one escapes trouble.
WHY. that man seated next to you IN
church has on his soul a weight compared
with which a mountain IS feather. mat
woman seated next to you IN church mas
| a grief the recital Of which would make
your body, mind and soul shudder.
When YOU are mcnding your net tor TINS
wide. deep sea Of humanity, take out that
wire thread Of criticism and that horSfha!r
thread OF harshress and put IN soft
silken thread Of Christian sympathy. Yea,
when you are I22ndlng your nets tear out
those old threads OF gruf1ess and weave
! in a few threads OF polIteness and genial
| ity. In the house Of God let ali Christian
| faces beam with lock that means well
come. Say Good morning to Ee stran'
ger as he enters your pew, and at the
| close shake hands with him and say, How
| did you like the music HnT, you would
| be to that man a panel OF the door Of
| heaven; Yea would be TO him note OF
| the dox0iogy that seraphs sing when a
| new soul enters heaven. l 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!
til" Well, | crouched in the other corner
and made myself as small as possible and
| felt as though | had been stealing some.
| thing.
So there are people who have sharp
| edge to their religion, and they act as
| though they thought most people had been
elected to be damned and they were glad
Of it. Oh, let rs brighten up cur manner
and appear in gent!emanllness or lady
hood.
The object in fly fishing is to throw the
| hy far ont, and then let it drop gently
down and keep it gently rising and falling
with the waters, and not plunge II like a
man-of-war's anchor, and abruptness and
| harshness of manner must be avoided IN
our attempt at usefulness
| | know a man in New York who Is
more sunshny and genial when he has
dyspepsia than when ne is not suffering
| from that depressing trouble. l have
| found out his secret. When he starts out
in the morning with such depression ne
asks for special grace 10 keep from snap
| additional determination to be kindly and
genial, and by the help Of God he accom-
| plshes it.
| Many of our nets need to be mended IN
these respects, the black threads and the
rough threads taken out. and the bright
| threads and the golden threads OF Chris
tan geniality woven in.
| In addition to this we need to mend our
nets with more threads Of patience. 1T Is
no rare thing for fisherman to spend one
whole day Lefore he can take st. Law
renee pike; or an OHIO salmon, or Long
Island pickerel or a Cayuga black bass,
or Delaware catfish and he does that day
after day without any particular dlscour..
agement. But what lack OF patience II
we do not Immediately succeed in soul
catching. We are apt to give 1t up and
say, Il will never try again
These dear brethren of all denomina-
tons, afflicted with theological tidgets.
had better 60 to mending nets instead OF
breaking them. Before they break up the
old religions let them go through some
great sacrifice for God that will prove
them worthy of such a work, taking the
advice of I'alleyrsnd to a man who wanted
to upset the religion of jesus Christ and
start a new one, when he said, Go and
be crucifed and then raise yourself from
the grave the third dayi"
| Those who propose to mend their nets
by secular and skeptical books are like a
man who has just one week for fishing
and six of the days he spends in reading
Izaak Walton's Complete Angler" and
| Wheatley's Rod and Line" and SCOTS
Fishing in Northern Waters" and Put
MANS "Vade 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.
and late on Saturday night he goes to his
home with empty basket!
Alas, alas If, when the Saturday night
Of our lie 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 few souls to
report as brought to God through our in.
strumentality, while some humble gospel
fisherman. his library made up Of 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.
In the time Of the great disturbance in
| Naples in 1919, Massanielo. barefooted
fishing boy, dropped his fishing rod, and
| by strange magnetism took command OF
that city of 100000 sous. He took off